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"Illustrious man!" said Fox of him, in the British House of Commons in 1794, "deriving honor less from the splendor of his situation than from the dignity of his mind; before whom all borrowed greatness sinks into insignificance, and all the potentates of Europe* [1] become little and contemptible."
"Washington is dead!" proclaimed Napoleon, on hearing of the event. "This great man fought against tyranny; he established the liberty of his country. His memory will be always dear to the French people, as it will be to all free men of the two worlds."
"It will be the duty of the historian and the sage in all ages," says Lord Brougham, "to let no occasion pass of commemorating this illustrious man; and, until time shall be no more, will a test of the progress which our race has made in wisdom and virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of Washington." "One thing is certain," says Guizot—"one thing is certain; that which Washington did—the founding of a free government by order and peace, at the close of the revolution—no other policy than his could have accomplished."
And later, better still: "Efface henceforth the name of Machiavel," said Lamartine, within a few weeks past, in his reply to the Italian association—"efface henceforth the name of Machiavel from your titles of glory, and substitute for it the name of Washington; that is the one
- ↑ It was not thought necessary to disfigure the text, by inserting the loyal parenthesis, "(excepting the members of our own royal family)."
