188 FISHES AND FISHING. 



blessed with courage to endure, by a merciful Provi 

 dence, whereby I was saved also from suffocation. 



Bonaparte had not the full command then, as he 

 had afterwards, and therefore the whole odium of 

 this most atrocious act, a disgrace to any civilized 

 nation, should not justly be attributed solely to him ; 

 that he felt great animosity toward the English na 

 tion there can be no doubt ; and this was not to us, 

 who resided in France, a matter of any surprise. 

 Although the peace of Amiens had placed the two 

 nations ostensibly upon friendly terms, the press 

 was continually lavishing abuse and insults upon the 

 Chief Consul, and this he considered as the general 

 feeling of the English people. To a man like him, 

 it must have been, and was, very annoying ; our press 

 had no more right to interfere, or make observations 

 relating to him, or his government, than one person 

 has to do so, respecting another's domestic arrange 

 ments. The residents in France saw one paper after 

 another interdicted, till at last they all became so ; 

 and it was the general opinion at that time, there, 

 that his rude conduct to Lord Whitworth was chiefly 

 induced by the virulence of the English press : if 

 such were the fact, the authors of all the insults on 

 that man, are morally the cause of the deaths of those 

 who perished in the war, from that time till the bat 

 tle of Waterloo ; and after all, for what ? Merely to 



