ed even before
the Republican government was organized..... that France, whether
monarchical or republican, had a certain limit which French power was
not to overstep, because this was not in proportion to the real strength
of France, nor with the distribution of force among the other European
governments. On this capital point the convention erred; it erred
knowingly, through a long-meditated calculation, which
calculation, however, was false. and France paid dearly for its
consequences."--Mallet-Dupan, II., 288, Aug. 23, 1795. "The monarchists
and many of the deputies in the Convention sacrificed all the conquests
to hasten on and obtain peace. But the fanatical Girondists and Sieyes'
committee persisted in the tension system. They were governed by three
motives: 1, the design of extending their doctrine along with their
territory; 2, the desire of successively federalizing the States of
Europe with the French Republic; and 3, that of prolonging a partial
war which also prolongs extraordinary powers and revolutionary
resources."--Carnot, "Memoires," I., 476. (Report to the Committee of
Public Safety, Messidor 28, year II.) "It seems much wiser to restrict
our plans of aggrandizement to what is purely necessary in order to
obtain the maximum security of our country."--Ibid., II., 132, 134 and
136. (Letters to Bonaparte, Oct. 28, 1796, and Jan. 1, 1797.) "It would
be imprudent to fan the revolutionary flame in Italy too strongly....
They desired to have you work out the Revolution in Piedmont, Milan,
Rome and Naples; I thought it better to treat with these countries, draw
subsidies from them, and make use of their own organization to keep them
under control."]

[Footnote 51109: Carnot, ibid., II. 147. "Barras, addressing me like
a madman, said, 'Yes, it is to you we owe that infamous treaty of
Leoben!'"]

[Footnote 51110: Andre Lebon, "L'Angleterre et l'Emigration Francaise,"
p.235. (Letter of Wickam, June 27, 1797, words of Barthelemy to M.
d'Aubigny.)]

[Footnote 51111: Lord Malmesbury, "Diary," III., 541. (September 9,
1797.) "The violent revolution which has taken place at Paris has upset
all our hopes and defeated all our reasoning. I consider it the most
unlucky event that could have happened." Ibid., (Letter from Canning,
September 29, 1797.) "We were in a hair's breadth of it (peace). Nothing
but that cursed revolution at Paris and the sanguinary, insolent,
implacable and ignorant arrogance of the triumvirat