ollowing
sentences have been penned by Malmesbury, and written to Lord
Grenville?--"Mais enfin, outre les regrets sinceres de Meot et des
danseuses de l'Opera, j'eus la consolation de voir en quittant Paris,
que des Francais et une multitude de nouveaux convertis a la religion
catholique m'accompagnaient de leurs voeux, de leurs prieres, et
presque de leurs larmes.... L'evenement de Fructidor porta la
desolation dans le coeur de tous les bons ennemis de la France. Pour
ma part, j'en fut consterne: _je ne l'avais point prevu_." It is
obviously the clumsy fabrication of a Fructidorian, designed for
Parisian consumption: it was translated by a Whig pamphleteer under
the title "The Voice of Truth!"--a fit sample of that partisan
malevolence which distorted a great part of our political literature
in that age.]

[Footnote 89: Bonaparte's letters of September 28th and October 7th to
Talleyrand.]

[Footnote 90: See too Marsh's "Politicks of Great Britain and France,"
ch. xiii.; "Correspondence of W.A. Miles on the French Revolution,"
letters of January 7th and January 18th, 1793; also Sybel's "Europe
during the French Revolution," vol. ii.]

[Footnote 91: Pallain, "Le Ministere de Talleyrand sous le
Directoire," p. 42.]

[Footnote 92: Bourrienne, "Memoirs," vol. i., ch. xii. See too the
despatch of Sandoz-Rollin to Berlin of February 28th, 1798, in
Bailleu's "Preussen und Frankreich," vol. i., No. 150.]

[Footnote 93: The italics are my own. I wish to call attention to the
statement in view of the much-debated question whether in 1804-5
Napoleon intended to invade our land, _unless he gained maritime
supremacy_. See Desbriere's "Projets de Debarquement aux Iles
Britanniques," vol. i., _ad fin_.]

[Footnote 94: Letter of October 10th, 1797; see too those of August
16th and September 13th.]

[Footnote 95: The plan of menacing diverse parts of our coasts was kept
up by Bonaparte as late as April 13th, 1798. In his letter of this
date he still speaks of the invasion of England and Scotland, and
promises to return from Egypt in three or four months, so as to
proceed with the invasion of the United Kingdom. Boulay de la Meurthe,
in his work, "Le Directoire et l'Expedition d'Egypte," ch. i., seems
to take this promise seriously. In any case the Directors' hopes for
the invasion of Ireland were dashed by the premature rising of the
Irish malcontents in May, 1798. For Poussielgue's mission to Malta,
see Lavalette's "Mems.,"