879. BONAPARTE (N.), Political Wickedness of.—
I view Bonaparte as a political engine only, and a very wicked one; you, I
believe, as both political and religious, and
obeying, as an instrument, an Unseen Hand.
I still deprecate his becoming sole lord of
the continent of Europe, which he would
have been, had he reached in triumph the
gates of St. Petersburg. The establishment
in our day of another. Roman Empire, spreading
vassalage and depravity over the face of
the globe, is not, I hope, within the purposes
of Heaven.—
To Thomas Leiper. Washington ed. vi, 463.
Ford ed., ix, 519.
(M.
June. 1815)
