nt; but we think
that we do not flatter ourselves when we say that Barere's aversion to
our country was a sentiment as deep and constant as his mind was capable
of entertaining. The value of this compliment is indeed somewhat
diminished by the circumstance that he knew very little about us. His
ignorance of our institutions, manners, and history is the less
excusable, because, according to his own account, he consorted much,
during the peace of Amiens, with Englishmen of note, such as that
eminent nobleman Lord Greaten, and that not less eminent philosopher Mr.
Mackenzie Coefhis. In spite, however, of his connection with these
well-known ornaments of our country, he was so ill-informed about us as
to fancy that our government was always laying plans to torment him. If
he was hooted at Saintes, probably by people whose relations he had
murdered, it was because the cabinet of St. James's had hired the mob.
If nobody would read his bad books, it was because the cabinet of St.
James's had secured the Reviewers. His accounts of Mr. Fox, of Mr. Pitt,
of the Duke of Wellington, of Mr. Canning, swarm with blunders
surpassing even the ordinary blunders committed by Frenchmen who write
about England. Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt, he tells us, were ministers in two
different reigns. Mr. Pitt's sinking fund was instituted in order to
enable England to pay subsidies to the powers allied against the French
republic. The Duke of Wellington's house in Hyde Park was built by the
nation, which twice voted the sum of 200,000L for the purpose. This,
however, is exclusive of the cost of the frescoes, which were also paid
for out of the public purse. Mr. Canning was the first Englishman whose
death Europe had reason to lament; for the death of Lord Ward, a
relation, we presume, of Lord Greaten and Mr. Coefhis, had been an
immense benefit to mankind.

Ignorant, however, as Barere was, he knew enough of us to hate us; and
we persuade ourselves that, had he known us better, he would have hated
us more. The nation which has combined, beyond all example and all hope,
the blessings of liberty with those of order, might well be an object of
aversion to one who had been false alike to the cause of order and to
the cause of liberty. We have had amongst us intemperate zeal for
popular rights; we have had amongst us also the intemperance of loyalty.
But we have never been shocked by such a spectacle as the Barere of
1794, or as the Barere of 1804. Compared wit