That an American paper is to-day publishing the names of some of her
richest citizens, who are finding the money for French Royalist agents,
to buy over the wavering officers of the army of our ally, the army of
the French Republic!
"There is ignorance which is folly," the article went on, "and ignorance
which is sin. The Government have proved themselves guilty of the first;
if they show themselves guilty also of the second, the people of this
country have the right to hurl from their places the fools who have
brought them to the brink of disaster, and to save themselves. In their
name, we demand two things:
"The dispatch of a gunboat with orders to the Channel Squadron to at once
return to their waters.
"The mobilization of our Mediterranean Fleet."
With this text Staunton had written his article, and he had written it
with a pen of fire. Every word burned its way home. With the daring of
those few hours of inspiration, he had turned inference into fact, he had
written as a man who sees face to face the things of which he writes.
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