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Rh given them credit. We all knew that the French were clever, brave, and venturesome. Not every one, however, is prepared to find in a Frenchman the long pertinacity displayed by Dupleix; the quality of not knowing when he was beaten evinced by Suffren; the daring hardihood of her privateersmen; or lastly, the patience, the energy, the perseverance shown under trying circumstances by some of the adventurers whose deeds have been recorded in this book. England, who, grasping gradually the idea of France, now occupies the position to which a Frenchman first aspired, only does honour to herself when she recognises the splendid qualities displayed by her most formidable rival; allows that on the sea as well as on land she met a worthy antagonist; and admits, that if for the favourable result of the contest she owes much to the genius and the comprehensive views of the great statesmen who guided the councils of her country during a large portion of the eighteenth century, she is indebted even to a greater extent to the errors committed by the statesmen of the enemy she was combating.