stronger than assertion being produced to support it; but there would be a want of generosity in naming individuals, and branding them to the latest posterity, with infamy, for obeying a command, when their submission became an act of necessity; therefore to establish further the authority of the relation, this only can be mentioned, -that it was Bon's division which fired, and thus every one is afforded the opportunity of satisfying themselves respecting the truth, by enquiring of officers serving in the different brigades composing this division.-P. 72.

* *

The next circumstance is of a nature which requires, indeed, the most particular details to establish; since the idea can scarce be entertained, that the commander of an army should order his own countrymen (or if not immediately such, those amongst whom he had been naturalized) to be deprived of existence, when in a state which required the kindest consideration. But the annals of France record the frightful crimes of a Robespierre, a Carrier; and historical truth must now recite one equal to any which has blackened its page.

Buonaparté finding that his hospitals at Jaffa were crowded with sick, sent for a physician, whose name should be inscribed in letters of gold, but which from weighty reasons cannot be

here inserted on his arrival he entered into a long conversation with him respecting the danger of contagion, concluding at last, with the remark, that something must be done to remedy the evil, and that the destruction of the sick at present in the hospital, was the only measure which could be adopted! The physician, alarmed at the proposal, bold in the confidence of virtue and the cause of humanity, remonstrated vehemently, representing the cruelty as well as the atrocity of such a murder; but finding that Buonaparté persevered and menaced, he indignantly left the tent, with this memorable observation: "Neither my principles, "nor the character of my profession, will allow me "to become a human butcher: and, General, if "such qualities as you insinuate, are necessary to

:•

form a great man, I thank my God, that I do "not possess them.”

Buonaparté was not to be diverted from his object by moral considerations: he persevered, and found an apothecary, who (dreading the weight of power, but who since has made an atonement to his mind, by unequivocally confessing the fact) consented to become his agent, and to administer poison to the sick! Opium at night was distributed in gratifying food, the wretched unsuspecting victims banqueted, and in a few hours five hundred and eighty soldiers, who had

suffered

suffered so much for their country, perished thus miserably by the order of its Idol!

Is there a Frenchman whose blood does not chill with horror, at the recital of such a fact? Surely the manes of these murdered, unoffending people, must be now hovering round the seat of government, and

*

*

If a doubt should still exist, as to the veracity of this statement, let the members of the Institute at Cairo be asked, what passed in the sitting after the return of Buonaparté from Syria? they will relate, that the same virtuous physician, who refused to become the destroyer of those committed to his protection, accused Buonaparté of high treason in the full assembly, against the honour of France, her children, and humanity; that he entered into the full details of the poisoning of the sick, and the massacre of the garrison, aggravating these crimes, by charging Buonaparté with strangling, previously, at Rosetta, a number of French and Copts who were ill of the plague; thus proving, that this disposal of the sick was a premeditated plan. In vain Buonaparté attempted to justify himself *; the members sat petrified with

terror,

* Buonaparté pleaded, that he ordered the garrison to be destroyed, because he had not provisions to maintain

terror, and almost doubted whether the scene passing before their eyes was not illusion:-There are records, which remain, and which, in due season, will be produced. In the interim, this representation will be sufficient to stimulate inquiry; and, Frenchmen, your honour is, indeed, interested in the examination. * * * Let us hope, that in no country will there be found ANOTHER MAN of such Machiavelian principles, as by sophistry to palliate such transactions. *-P. 74.

them, or strength enough to guard them, and that he destroyed the sick to prevent contagion, and save themselves from falling into the hands of the Turks; but these arguments were refuted directly, and Buonaparté was obliged to rest his defence on the positions of Machiavel. When he afterwards left Egypt, the Savans were so angry at being left behind, that they elected the physician president of the Institute, an act which speaks for itself fully.

No. X.

Answer of SIR ROBERT WILSON to the Remarks made by the French Government on his History of the Egyptian Expedition.

To the Editor of the COURIER DE LONDres.

SIR,

In the official correspondence lately published, there appear some remarks which the French Ambassador was instructed to make on my History of the Expedition to Egypt, and of which I feel called upon to take notice, not in personal controversy with General Andreossy, for, conscious of the superior virtue of my cause, I find myself neither aggrieved nor irritated by the language he has used; but that the public may not attribute my silence to a desire of evading further discussion, and thus the shallow mode of contradiction adopted by the Chief Consul acquire an unmerited consideration.

The