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."[109] Carnot, ibid., II. 147. "Barras, addressing me like a madman, said, 'Yes, it is to you we owe that infamous treaty of Leoben!'"[110] Andre Lebon, "L'Angleterre et l'Emigration Fran?aise," p.235.
(Letter of Wickam, June 27, 1797, words of Barthélemy to M.
d'Aubigny.)
[111] 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 triumvirate could have prevented us. Had the moderate party triumphed all would have been well, not for us only but for France, for Europe and for all the world."[112] Carnot, II., 152. "Do you suppose, replied Reubell, that I want the Cape and Trinquemale restored for Holland? The first point is to take them, and to do that Holland must furnish the money and the vessels. After that I will make them see that these colonies belong to us."[113] Lord Malmesbury, " Diary," III., 526. (Letter from Paris, Fructidor 17, year V.) - ibid., 483. (Conversation of Mr. Ellis with Mr. Pain.)[114] Ibid. III., 519, 544. (The words of Maret and Colchen.) - "Reubell," says Carnot, "seems to be perfectly convinced that probity and civism are two absolutely incompatible things."[115] Mallet-Dupan, II., 49. Words of Siéyès, March 27, 1797. Ibid, I., 258, 407; II., 4, 49, 350, 361, 386. This is so true that this prevision actuates the concessions of the English ambassador. (Lord Malmesbury, "Diary," III., 519. Letter to Canning. August 29, 1797.)"I am the more anxious for peace because, in addition to all the commonplace reasons, I am convinced that peace will paralyze this country most completely, that all the violent means they have employed for war will return upon them like an humour driven in and overset entirely their weak and baseless constitution. This consequence of peace is so much more to be pressed, as the very best conditions we could offer in the treaty."[116] Mathieu Dumas, III., 256. - Miot de Melito, I., 163, 191.
(Conversations with Bonaparte June and September, 1797.)[117] Mallet-Dupan, "Mercure Britannique," No. for November 10, 1798.
How support gigantic and exacting crimes on its own soil? How can it flatter itself that it will extract from an impoverished people, without manufactures, trade or credit, nearly a billion of direct and indirect subsidies? How renew that immense fund of confiscations on which the French republic has lived for the past eight years? By conquering every year a new nation and devastating its treasuries, its character, its monts-de-piété, its owners of property. The Republic, for ten years past, would have laid down its arms had it been reduced to its own capital.
[118] Mallet-Dupan, " Mercure Britannique," Nos. for November 25, and December 25, 1798, and passim.
[119] Ibid., No. for January 25, 1799. "The French Republic is eating Europe leaf by leaf like the head of an artichoke." It revolutionizes nations that it may despoil them, and it despoils them that it may subsist."[120] Letter of Mallet-Dupan to a deputy on a declaration of war against Venice and on the Revolution effected at Genoa. (The "Quotidienne," Nos. 410, 413, 414, 421.) - Ibid., "Essai Historique sur la destruction de le Signe et de le Liberté Historique." (Nos. I, 2, and 3 of the " Mercure Britannique.") - Carnot, II., 153. (Words of Carnot in relation to the Swiss proceedings of the Directory.) "It is the fable of the Wolf and the Lamb."[121] Overhauling of the Constitution or the purging of the authorities in Holland by Delacroix, January 22, 1798, in Cisalpine by Berthier, February, 1798, by Trouve, August, 1798, by Brune, September, 1798, in Switzerland by Rapinat, June, 1798, etc.
[122] Mallet-Dupan, ("Mercure Britannique." numbers for November 26.
December 25, 1798, March 10 and July 10, 1799). Details and documents relating to popular insurrections in Belgium, Switzerland, Suabia, Modena, the Roman States. Piedmont and Upper Italy. - Letter of an officer in the French army dated at Turin and printed at Paris.
"Wherever the civil commissioners pass the people rise in insurrection, and, although I have come near being a victim of these insurrections four times, I cannot blame the poor creatures; even the straw of their beds is taken. Most of Piedmont, as I wrote, has risen against the French robbers, as they call us. Will you be surprised when I tell you that, since the pretended revolution of this country, three or four months ago, we have devoured ten millions of coin, fifteen millions of paper money, with the diamonds, furniture, etc., of the Crown? The people judge us according to our actions and regard us with horror and execrations."[123] Mallet-Dupan, Ibid., number for January, 1799. (List according to articles, with details, figures and dates.) - Ibid., No. for May 25, 1799: details of the sack of Rome according to the "Journal" of M.
Duppa, an eye witness. - Ibid., Nos. for February 10 and 25, 1799: