The result of his expedition was thus summed by one of the most eloquent and best-informed British statesmen.[107] "Was it," said the accomplished orator, "in the power of language to describe the evil? Wars which had raged for twenty-five years throughout Europe; which had spread blood and desolation from Cadiz to Moscow, and from Naples to Copenhagen; which had wasted the means of human enjoyment, and destroyed the instruments of social improvement; which threatened to diffuse among the European nations the dissolute and ferocious habits of a predatory soldiery--at length by one of those vicissitudes which bid defiance to the foresight of man, had been brought to a close, upon the whole happy beyond all reasonable expectation, with no violent shock to national independence, with some tolerable compromise between the opinions of the age and the reverence due to ancient institutions; with no too signal or mortifying triumph over the legitimate interests or avowable feelings of any numerous body of men, and, above all, without those retaliations against nations or parties which beget new convulsions, often as horrible as those which they close, and perpetuate revenge and hatred and blood from age to age. Europe seemed to breathe after her sufferings. In the midst of this fair prospect, and of these consolatory hopes, Napoleon Buonaparte escaped from Elba; three small vessels reached the coast of Provence; their hopes are instantly dispelled; the work of our toil and fortitude is undone; the blood of Europe is spilt in vain-- "Ibi omnis effusus labor!" FOOTNOTES: [85] "Did you not abandon him in the most cowardly manner, when you saw him in that danger into which you had precipitated him? Was it not your duty to form a rampart round him with your bodies? Was it the business of Republicans to defend with their tongues him whom you had not the courage to defend with your swords?"--_Memorial_, pp. 11-14. [86] Merchant of Venice, act iv., scene i. [87] The following letter appeared in the Journal des Débats of the 7th October:--"SIR, I have been for more than a month in the country, eleven leagues from Paris. On my return to the capital, I learn that there has been circulated, in my name, a pamphlet, entitled, 'Memorial addressed to the King,' &c. I declare, that the Memorial has become printed without my consent, and contrary to my intention.--CARNOT." This statement is gravely repeated in the Edinburgh Review, vol. xxiv., p. 187. [88] Journal des Débats, Oct. 11. [89] Fouché, tom. ii., p. 232. [90] Fouché, tom. ii., p. 235. [91] "Nous le ferons sans vous; nous le ferons malgré vous; nous le ferons pour vous."--S.