Note 52 — LETTER XIX.
Reading edition
When the present worthy and respectable minister from the United States of America Mr. Livingston was presented, Bonaparte said to him, “Vous venez d’une république libre et vertueuse dans un monde de corruption.”—(You come from a free and virtuous republic into a world of corruption.)—Mr. Livingston, who is rather deaf, and does not perfectly understand french, did not immediately hear him. Bonaparte instantly called to M. Talleyrand, and desired him to explain, in english, what he had said.