"In this singular parallel, Napoleon appears to have been in France at once the Cromwell and the Wm. III. of England. But as every comparison with Cromwell is in some degree odious, I must add that, if these two celebrated men coincided in one single circumstance of their lives, it was scarcely possible for two beings to differ more in every other point.
"Cromwell appeared on the theatre of the world at the age of maturity. He attained supreme rank only by dint of address, duplicity, and hypocrisy.
"Napoleon distinguished himself at the very dawn of manhood, and his first steps were attended by the purest glory.
"Cromwell attained supreme power, opposed and hated by all parties, and by affixing an everlasting stain on the English revolution.
"Napoleon, on the contrary, ascended the throne by obliterating the stains of the French revolution, and through the concurrence of all parties, who in turn sought to gain him as their chief.
"All the glory of Cromwell was bought by English blood; his triumphs were all so many causes of national mourning; but Napoleon’s victories were gained over the foreign foe, and they filled the French nation with transport.
"Finally, the death of Cromwell was a source of joy to all England: the event was regarded as a public deliverance. The same cannot exactly be said of Napoleon’s fall.
"In England the revolution was the rising of the whole nation against the King. The King had violated the laws, and usurped absolute power; and the nation wished to resume her rights.
"In France, the revolution was the rising of one portion of the nation against another; that of the third estate against the nobility; it was the re-action of the Gauls against the Franks. The King was attacked not so much in his character of monarch as in his quality of chief of the feudal system. He was not reproached with having violated the laws; but the nation wished to emancipate and re-constitute itself.
"In England, if Charles I. had yielded voluntarily, if he had possessed the moderate and undecided character of Louis XVI. he would have survived.