For this period we have, as may be seen from the following list of
books, very few memoirs, only a limited number of newspapers, and no
books which show us in detail the inside work of the big and little
political events of the day.
The rôle which the Batavian Republic played was so little flattering
that the chief participants in the drama of national decadence preferred
not to chronicle their own adventures between the years 1795 and 1815
and expose their private conduct to the public judgment of their
children and grandchildren.