h the philosophy of the days of the Revolution; and later accounts
are copies of these earlier ones. From the time when my attention was
first fixed on this hero, I have been struck with the inconsistencies
contained in all reports of his character which ascribe to him cruelty
and hypocrisy; and, after a long and careful comparison of such views
with his words and deeds, with the evidence obtainable from Saint
Domingo, and with the temper of his times in France, I have arrived at
the conclusion that his character was, in sober truth, such as I have
endeavoured to represent it in the foregoing work.

I do not mean to say that I am the first who has formed an opinion that
Toussaint was an honest, a religious, and a mild and merciful man. In
an article in the _Quarterly Review_ (Number seventeen) on the "Past and
Present State of Hayti," so interesting an account is given of the great
negro, as to cause some wonder that no one has till now been moved by it
to present the facts of his life in the form of an historical novel. In
that article it is justly observed that the _onus_ rests with those who
accuse Toussaint of hypocrisy to prove their allegation by facts. I
would say the same of the other charge, of cruelty. Meanwhile, I
disbelieve both charges, for these reasons among others:--

The wars of Saint Domingo were conducted in a most barbarous spirit
before the time of Toussaint's acquisition of power, and after his
abduction. During the interval, the whole weight of his influence was
given to curb the ferocity of both parties. He pardoned his personal
enemies (as in the instance of the mulattoes in the church), and he
punished in his followers, as the most unpardonable offence they could
commit, any infringement of his rule of "No Retaliation."

When it is considered that the cruelties perpetrated in the rising of
1791, and renewed after the fall of Toussaint, were invented by the
whites, and copied by the negroes (who were wont to imitate their
masters in all they did), it is no small evidence of L'Ouverture's
magnanimity that he conceived, illustrated, and enforced, in such times,
such a principle as that of No Retaliation.

All the accounts of him agree that, from his earliest childhood, he was
distinguished by a tenderness of nature which would not let him hurt a
fly. He attached to himself the cattle and horses which were under his
charge when a boy, to a degree which made him famous in a region where
c