against them in Holland and in Egypt, and I will never flinch from
rendering justice to their exemplary conduct and lofty valour." He takes
trouble to refute the exaggerated reports which were then circulated all
over Europe about the cruelties and vandalism practised by the French: "If
the French since the Revolution have not always fought for liberty, they
have done so invariably for science; and wherever they carried their
victorious arms abuses were abolished, ameliorations of all kinds followed
and the arts of life were improved. Our government, since the accession of
George III, has never raised its arm except in favour of old abuses, to
uphold despotism and unfair privileges or to establish commercial
monopoly."

Sometimes, indeed, speaking of his own country and its government, Major
Frye uses very hard words, which might seem unpatriotic if we did not know,
from many other memoirs and letters, to what a terrible strain orthodox
Toryism, coupled with bigotry and hypocrisy, had put the patience of
liberal Englishmen at that period. He called the British government "the
most dangerous, artful, and determined enemy of all liberty,"--"England,"
he says, "has been always ready to lend a hand to crush liberty, to
perpetuate abuses and to rivet the fetters of monarchical, feudal and
ecclesiastical tyranny." And later on he inveighs against the English
merchants, who "contributed with their gold to uphold the corrupt system of
Pitt and to carry on unjust, unreasonable and liberticide wars."

Whatever may be the final judgement of history on the Tory principles in
politics in the days of the Congress of Vienna, Major Frye's love of
liberty and intellectual progress entitle him to the sympathy of those who
share his generous feelings and do not consider that personal freedom and
individual rights are articles for home use only. Since Frye wrote, the
whole of Europe, excepting perhaps Russia, has reaped the benefits of the