He never should
have humiliated himself so far as to surrender himself to the British
ministry.
He owed to himself, to his brave fellow soldiers, to the French
nation whose Sovereign he had been, not to take such a step, but rather die
in the field like our Richard III, a glorious death which cast a lustre
around his memory in spite of the darker shades of his character; or if he
could not fall in the field, he should have died like Hannibal, rather than
commit himself into the hands of a government in which generosity is by no
means a distinguishing feature, and which on many occasions has shown a
petty persecuting and vindictive spirit, and thus I have no hesitation in
portraying the characteristics of our Tory party, which, unfortunately for
the cause of liberty, rules with undivided sway over England. He will now
end his days in captivity, for his destination appears to be already fixed,
and St Helena is named as the intended residence; he will, I say, be
exposed to all the taunts and persecutions that petty malice can suggest;
and this with the most uncomfortable reflections: for had he been more
considerate of the spirit of the age, he might have set all the Monarchs,
Ultras and Oligarchs and their ministers at defiance. But he wished to ape
Charlemagne and the Caesars and to establish an universal Empire: a thing
totally impossible in our days and much to be deprecated were it possible.
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