On many occasions we have been very wrong indeed.

We were very wrong indeed when we took part in preventing Europe from putting a term to the impious piracies of Frederick the Great.

We were very wrong indeed when we allowed the triumph over Napoleon to be soiled with the mire and blood of Blucher's sullen savages.

We were very wrong indeed when we allowed the peaceful King of Denmark to be robbed in broad daylight by a brigand named Bismarck; and when we allowed the Prussian swashbucklers to enslave and silence the French provinces which they could neither govern nor persuade.

We were very wrong indeed when we flung to such hungry adventurers a position so important as Heligoland.