ing some fine things to the French Minister; and
the better to get himself into tune to do this, he began by saying the
finest things of himself.

"Born, sir (said he) in a land of liberty; _having_ early learned its
value; _having_ engaged in a perilous conflict to defend it; _having_,
in a word, devoted the best years of my life to secure its permanent
establishment in my own country; _my_ anxious recollections, my
sympathetic feelings, and _my_ best wishes are irresistibly excited,
whenever, in any country, I see an oppressed people unfurl the banner of
freedom."

Mr. Washington, having expended so many fine phrases upon himself, was
obliged to invent a new one for the French, and he calls them "wonderful
people!" The coalesced powers acknowledged as much.

It is laughable to hear Mr. Washington talk of his _sympathetic
feelings_, who has always been remarked, even among his friends, for
not having any. He has, however, given no proofs of any to me. As to the
pompous encomiums he so liberally pays to himself, on the score of the
American revolution, the reality of them may be questioned; and since
he has forced them so much into notice, it is fair to examine his
pretensions.

A stranger might be led to suppose, from the egotism with which Mr.
Washington speaks, that himself, and himself only, had generated,
conducted, compleated, and established the revolution: In fine, that it
was all his own doing.

In the first place, as to the political part, he had no share in it;
and, therefore, the whole of _that_ is out of the question with respect
to him. There remains, then, only the military part; and it would have
been prudent in Mr. Washington not to have awakened enquiry upon that
subject. Fame then was cheap; he enjoyed it cheaply; and nobody was
disposed to take away the laurels that, whether they were _acquired_ or
not, had been _given_.

Mr. Washington's merit consisted in constancy. But constancy was the
common virtue of the revolution. Who was there that was inconstant? I
know but of one military defection, that of Arnold; and I know of no
political defection, among those who made themselves eminent when the
revolution was formed by the declaration of independence. Even Silas
Deane, though he attempted to defraud, did not betray.(1)

1 This generous judgment by Deane's old adversary has become
questionable under recent investigations.--_Editor._.

But when we speak of military character, someth