viii PREFACE.
that his memory was loaded with infamy in consequence only of his exposing the iniquities and denouncing the temporal power of the church of Rome, he may surely be excused for raising his voice in favour of him. In another age, and in any other nation, he would have been worshipped with divine honours, and adored as the saviour of his country:—such has not been the fate of Machiavelli!!!
To do justice to the manes of this great man was not the only motive of the translator. When upwards of three years since he announced a new translation of "The Prince," from a repeated perusal of that work it occurred to him that he had discovered a key to the cabinet of Buonaparte. Pursuing this idea, and attentively examining the line of conduct he had pursued from the commencement of his career, they afforded indisputable evidence of the truths he expected to establish, viz. that Machiavelli furnished the model of his (Buonaparte's) general system of policy: and even of his conduct in private life, the proofs are many and striking; his attachment to
