Alexandria Advertiser And Commercial Intelligencer

The late Expedition to Egypt.—Colonel
Wilson's account of this disgraceful war,
gave such offence to the mighty General
who planned it, as to impel him to attack
the freedom of the British press.
The Colonel finding himself charged by
Bonaparte with falsehood and misrepresentation,
comes forward to refute the injustice
to his honor, in the following manly
manner:

"I will not enter into an unnecessary
detail of the numerous facts which I could
adduce—but I appeal to the honor of every
British officer employed in Egypt, whether
those observations are not strictly true
which describe the French as being hateful
to the inhabitants of that country.
which represent them as having merited
that hatred from the ruin and devastation
with which their progress through it had
been marked; and I am ready, if there be
one refuses to sanction this relation, to
resign for ever every pretension to honorable
reputation, and submit without a further
struggle to that odium which should
attach to calumny and a wilful perversion
of truth."

"I feel there is no individual who will
not amply confirm all that I have written
on this subject—and perhaps Europe has
a right to condemn me for not having
made the accusations still stronger, when
I can produce frequent general orders of
the French army for the destruction of
villages and their inhabitants—when I
can prove that above 20,000 of the natives
perished by the word of the French
soldiery—and that every act of violence
was committed, and particularly in Upper
Egypt, which could outrage humanity.
and disgrace the character of civilized nations.
When writing a history of the
campaign, was it possible not to express
indignation against the authors of such calamities?
Would it have been natural
not to have felt the animation of that virtuous
pride, which a reflection on the different
conduct of the British soldiery must
inspire in the breast of every Briton? I
have asserted that a British soldier could
traverse along through any part of Egypt,
or even penetrate into the desert, secure
from injury or insult. I have described
the natives as considering the British their
benefactors and protectors, soliciting opportunities
to manifest their gratitude,
and esteem their uniform as sacred as the
turban of Mahometans; and, I may
venture to predict, that hereafter, the
French traveller will be compelled to
conceal the name of his nation, and owe
his security to the assumption of the British
character."