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 meaning, and which if need be, I am prepared to argue. But if it were true, I confess I am at a loss to know where the shame lies, or where the necessity of contradicting it. If indeed the nature and essence of truth were capable of being altered by subsequent events, there might be some call fur caution in uttering it, and there might be some room for qualification afterwards. But if this be not the case, I really do not comprehend what is meant by desiring us, who said what we thought of Bonaparte's past actions at the time when we were called upon to examine them, and who still think precisely what we said of them to take any shame to ourselves for our language. I at least still think as I then thought, and I do not see what ground the events of the last campaign can furnish for changing my opinion. If, for instance, in Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt, (for that was one of the points more particularly brought forward in these discussions,) there was treachery and fraud; if in his conduct towards its inhabitants there was unprovoked cruelty; if in his assumption of the turban there was impious hypocrisy, I called these qualities by their name; I call them so still; and I say that this hypocrisy, this cruelty, and this fraud have left indelible stains on his character, which all the laurels of Marengo cannot cover, nor all its blood wash away. I know Sir, there is a cautious, cowardly, bastard morality, which assumes the tone and garb of wisdom, and which prescribes to you to live with an enemy, as if he were one day to become your friend. I distrust this doctrine for one reason, because I fear the same mind which could pride itself on adopting it, would be