y a number
of young foundlings or orphans, whom it causes to be brought up in
foreign countries at its expense, so as to learn the language as natives
of the nation, where, when grown up, they are chiefly to be employed.
Joubert had been educated under the inspection of our consuls at Smyrna,
and, when he assumes the dress of a Turk, from his accent and manners
even the Mussulmans mistake him for one of their own creed and of their
country. He was introduced to Bonaparte in 1797, and accompanied him to
Egypt, where his services were of the greatest utility to the army. He
is now a kind of undersecretary in the office of our secret diplomacy,
and a member of the Legion of Honour. Should ever Joseph Bonaparte be an
Emperor or Sultan of the East, Joubert will certainly be his Grand
Vizier. There is another Joubert (with whom you must not confound him),
who was; also a kind of Dragoman at Constantinople some years ago, and
who is still somewhere on a secret mission in the East Indies.

Joubert's arrival at Constantinople excited both curiosity among the
people and suspicion among the Ministry. There is no example in the
Ottoman history of a chief of a Christian nation having written to the
Sultan by a private messenger, or of His Highness having condescended to
receive the letter from the bearer, or to converse with him. The Grand
Vizier demanded a copy of Bonaparte's letter, before an audience could be
granted. This was refused by Joubert; and as Brune threatened to quit
the capital of Turkey if any longer delay were experienced, the letter
was delivered in a garden near Constantinople, where the Sultan met
Bonaparte's agent, as if by chance, who, it seems, lost all courage and
presence of mind, and did not utter four words, to which no answer was
given.

This impertinent intrigue, and this novel diplomacy, therefore, totally
miscarried, to the great shame and greater disappointment of the schemers
and contrivers. I must, however, do Talleyrand the justice to say that
he never approved of it, and even foretold the issue to his intimate
friends. It was entirely the whim and invention of Bonaparte himself,
upon a suggestion of Brune, who was far from being so well acquainted
with the spirit and policy of the Divan as he had been with the genius
and plots of Jacobinism. Not rebuked, however, Joubert was ordered away
a second time with a second letter, and, after an absence of four months,
returned again as he went,