text:  And in the state of men's passions during that memorable war _so that it were against the French a successful_ commander-in-chief could do no wrong! Yet here probably the matter would have rested; but when nine years afterwards _Stanier Clarke_ so little appreciated the duty of a biographer as to relate a transaction susceptible of no excuse in terms unjustified by the facts and sought to render his hero _immaculate_ at the _expense of others_ the excellent officer whose feelings and character had been so cruelly sacrificed felt himself compelled at last to publish his "Vindication " judicious in every thing but _the title_