I shall make no comment on this most scandalous public avowal, or rather, boast, of so inhuman and atrocious a proceeding, as the simple Fact sufficiently speaks for itself. ‘We, who boasted that we were more just than the Mamelukes, committed daily, and _almost necessarily_, a number of iniquities: the difficulty of distinguishing our Enemies by their Form and Colour, made us, every day, _kill innocent Peasants_; the Soldiers took Caravans of _poor Merchants_ for enemies, and, before justice could be done them, (_when there was time to do it_) _two or three of them were shot_, a part of their cargo was _pillaged or destroyed_, and their camels exchanged for those of ours, which had been wounded. The Fate of the People, _for whose happiness we no doubt came to Egypt_, was no better. If, at our approach, terror made them leave their houses, they found on their return, nothing but _the Mud of which the Walls were composed_; utensils, ploughs, gates, roofs, everything served as fuel to boil our Soup; their pots were broken, their grain was eaten, their fowls and pigeons roasted, and nothing was left but the carcases of their dogs, _when they defended the Property of their Masters_. If we remained in their Villages, the wretches were _summoned to return_, under pain of being treated as _Rebels_, and, in consequence, _double Taxed_; and when they yielded to these Menaces, came _to pay their Tax_, it sometimes happened, that, from their great number, they were taken for a body of Revolters, their sticks for arms, and they received _some discharges of Musketry before there was time for explaining the Mistake_; the Dead were interred, and we remained friends, till a safe opportunity for revenge occurred. It is true, that when they staid at home, _paid the Tax, and supplied all the Wants of the Army_, they were saved the trouble of a Journey to a Residence in the Desert, _saw their Provisions consumed with regularity_, and _were allowed_ a Part of them, preserved some of their gates, sold their eggs to the Soldiers, AND HAD BUT FEW OF THEIR WIVES AND DAUGHTERS VIOLATED!’ Such was the Treatment which Egypt experienced; a Country which the French were desirous to possess, and to conciliate; very Different is their Design upon Great Britain, which it is their avowed Intention to Ravage, Plunder and Destroy. CHAPTER XXVIII. ATTEMPT AT MEDIATION BY RUSSIA--MARTIAL ENTHUSIASM IN ENGLAND--ENROLMENT OF VOLUNTEERS--PATRIOTIC HANDBILLS AND SONGS. Ineffectual attempts at mediation seem to have been made, but, situated as the two opposing Powers were, this could not be.