626 Reiro 
of an-enemy is:no evidence of ‘courage.~ 
«s When-an officer writes, (/ays be), he 
fhould remember that his military charac- 
ter is involved, and that no*violence of 
party can jultify a wilful perverfion of 
truth. As a man of honor, he fheuld be 
above demeaning -himfelf by unjuftly tra- 
ducing the conduct of his enemies.. The 
Enolith ‘Gazettes, and General Hutchin- 
fon’s orders mig! ht have direG@ed General 
Regnier to a nobler sista of .conduét.”’s 
This is perfectly trae, and itis beneath 
General Regnier to jrripe seach the valer of 
of the Britifh feldic EPs 3 i ; 
the 13th, if che Eneliti 
tation they certainly lof 
tie of the aiff, the rig bie wing of thie Bin: 
glifh fufained the ‘hock of the whole 
French army. The fuceels ‘of that day 
is attributable intirely to the bravery and 
extraorJinary pert everance of our troops 5 
the obftinacy of the confii&, and its de- 
cifive termination in our favor feem to 
have overwhelmed both armies with afto- 
nifhment. The Enghith, furprized at 
their fuccefs, appear not to have made that 
ule of their vitory which they might have 
done ;*from the 21f of March we waited 
until the r4th of Apiil, befere we pre- 
fented curfelves at the gates of Rofeita, 
which were flung open at our approach. 
The capture ot Fort. Julien, garritoned . 
by 260 men, was the only military opera- 
tion which was performed until the sth 
of May, when General Hutchisfon began 
his maich trom El Hamed to Cairo, tra 
verfing, in forty-two days, a fpace of 
ground which the French had ulually 
marched over in four*. On the other hand 
* Sir Robert Wilfon does not deny the fa&, 
but accounts for it—he fays that General 
Regnier muft kave been fenfible ‘** of the 
degrees of difficulty between an army accuf- 
tomed to the climate, retiring on its depét, 
pafiing through a country it-had fo often tra- 
verfed, and one which had juft arrived, fuf- 
fering from climate, totally ignorant of the 
carte du pays, obliged to draw all provifions 
and itores from tne feet over a boccage, fome- 
times for nine days Rae impafl fable, and 
where in {mall boats one hundred fou!s perith- 
an army bea i at tke fame time to op- 
idatle enemy, and whofe 
vehi cate could nut have been a inticipated.”” 
‘chur oe i¢ malt be aes in favour 
gnier's Eepseniee that the dif- 
tance from Bl. Ha: med topCairo does not ex- 
ceed 120 miles, and that the only oppofition 
vhich.General Hutchinfon expcsienced Was 
is a form 
ne 
Be >1 ag } 1 
at hamanieh where he loft only fix men! 
This wes on the 9th; the French whoretired 
pest of Domeftic Literature—Veyages, Travels, 8c. 
ha French fuffered the Englifh to improve 
the advantages of their victory—at their 
leifure indeed—without avy oppofition. 
General Regneir cuts with a two- -edged 
{word ; the military operations both of. 
the Enghifl and the French are feverely 
eriticife, and, as it i eee realon. 
ams ia inc letter from eo! 
isno doubt but the Englifh would 
nad more ferious difficulties to en- 
counter by the concentration of the French 
forces which Menou weakened by fending 
a nfiderable body to, eppole the 
Pur in And it does appear alfo that the 
Engtith perpetually omitted to profit by 
tnole advantages which they eught to 
have improved :, ateaft Sir Robert Whii-: 
fon dees not appear. to have repelled the 
charges againtt the Englifh in any mate- 
terial Mees except as to the courage and 
firmnels of -the troops. 
The charaéter ot the Firft Conful—or 
rather of Gencral Napoleone Bonaparte, 
for the perfons muit not be identified it 
feems—(utfers feverely in Sir R» Wilfon’s 
narrative; The charge which Boniparte: 
brought again Sir sidney Smaich of nav- 
ing embarked French prifoners on board: 
a veficl infected wich the plague &e. &c. 
is diiproved ; and others of a moft horri- 
bie nature are reiorred... Tne boaited af- 
fault or Aiexandria, lays Sir Robert Wil-. 
fon, ‘was a contemptitle as well as cruel, 
action, altogether unworthy. of Bona- 
parie’s fame. Policy may excufe the 
gaiconade of his dilpatches, but not the 
wanton ftorm of a city for the. fake of 
(triking terror, and fixing an impreiiion of 
the French name throughout Egypt. The 
murder of the garrilon was a barbarous 
violence, and the indulgence granted to 
his troops of a three hours fackiag of the 
place ;- an act of unjuftifiable inhuma- 
nity |!’ 
But the moft damning charges are “ae 
detettable and atrocious maflacre of the 
Turks at Jaffa, and the poifoning of the 
fick and wounded, French foldiers on the 
retreat from Acre. To avoid the pofli- 
bility of milreprefentation we fhall give, 
them in the words of SirR.Wilfen: * Bo 
naparte having carried the town of Jafia. 
by affault, many of the garrifon were put 
~ 
from thence before General Hutchinfon,, 
reached Cairo in three days; General Hut-. 
chinfon employed thirty-eight days in travel- 
ling over the fame diftance without ore aid an 
enemy or firing a fhot the what way ! 
: to 
