Note 122 — PART the SECOND. (continued 3)

M. de B. it seems can never sufficiently elevate the courage and perseverance of his countrymen; on all occasions he praises their disinterestedness, and endeavours to depreciate the merits of the British sailors, by balancing their sufferings with the rewards which an equitable government distributed to them. I have already said something on this subject in a note to our author’s Introduction (placed at the head of this work) and shall only add, that I should be apt to suspect M. de B. to envy the British circumnavigators those very rewards which he seems so much to despise, if I could combine such base sentiments with his otherwise generous way of thinking. F.