es seems not to have had an insinuation
to oppose." Has Mr Mitford ever read the speech of Demosthenes on the
Embassy? Or can he have forgotten, what was never forgotten by anyone
else who ever read it, the story which Demosthenes relates with such
terrible energy of language concerning the drunken brutality of his
rival? True or false, here is something more than an insinuation; and
nothing can vindicate the historian, who has overlooked it, from the
charge of negligence or of partiality. But Aeschines denied the story.
And did not Demosthenes also deny the story respecting his childish
nickname, which Mr Mitford has nevertheless told without any
qualification? But the judges, or some part of them, showed, by their
clamour, their disbelief of the relation of Demosthenes. And did not
the judges, who tried the cause between Demosthenes and his guardians,
indicate, in a much clearer manner, their approbation of the
prosecution? But Demosthenes was a demagogue, and is to be slandered.
Aeschines was an aristocrat, and is to be panegyrised. Is this a
history, or a party-pamphlet?

These passages, all selected from a single page of Mr Mitford's work,
may give some notion to those readers, who have not the means of
comparing his statements with the original authorities, of his extreme
partiality and carelessness. Indeed, whenever this historian mentions
Demosthenes, he violates all the laws of candour and even of decency;
he weighs no authorities; he makes no allowances; he forgets the best
authenticated facts in the history of the times, and the most generally
recognised principles of human nature. The opposition of the great
orator to the policy of Philip he represents as neither more nor less
than deliberate villany. I hold almost the same opinion with Mr Mitford
respecting the character and the views of that great and accomplished
prince. But am I, therefore, to pronounce Demosthenes profligate and
insincere? Surely not. Do we not perpetually see men of the greatest
talents and the purest intentions misled by national or factious
prejudices? The most respectable people in England were, little more
than forty years ago, in the habit of uttering the bitterest abuse
against Washington and Franklin. It is certainly to be regretted that
men should err so grossly in their estimate of character. But no person
who knows anything of human nature will impute such errors to depravity.

Mr Mitford is not more consistent with himself