By this formidable front, that invasion which had been so long in preparation, and so loudly threatened, was, for the present, averted. The directory, having laid aside the project against England, thought it necessary to substitute another in its place, which might seem no less conspicuous, and balance the disappointment of the public, when it found its expectations from that project frustrated. They concerted with Buonaparte, whom they had destined for the command of what they called the army of England, but who had never entered warmly, if he at all approved, their design of invading this country, a project which (to make use of the lan guage of the French) was to strike all Europe with astonishment. The preparations, for an invasion of England, were apparently continued for a considerable time after the design was laid aside, that, under the veil of those preparations, their real design might be the better concealed and accomplished. While certain bodies of troops, and stores, were drawn towards the coasts of Normandy and Brittany, others were collected at Toulon: from whence the armament, destined for the secret expedition, set sail, under the orders of Buonaparte, on the twentieth of May. It consisted of thirteen ships of the line, of which one carried a hundred and twenty guns, three eighty, and nine seventyfour, seven frigates of forty guns, besides smaller vessels,making alto. gether forty and four sail. The transports amounted to nearly two hundred, carrying about twenty thousand men, regular troops, with a proportionable number of horses and artillery, and immense quanti ties of provisions and military stores. This fleet carried also a number of artists of all denominations, with astronomers, geometers, chymists, mineralogists, botanists, physicians, men versant in ancient and modern languages, and, in a word, whatever might conduce to the improvement of the colony in view, and the advancement of knowledge. A variety of conjectures were formed with regard to the destination of this formidable armament: the largest that had ever been equipped in France for any distant expedition. Malta and Egypt were generally pointed out as its principal objects; which they proved accordingly. The riches of the former were deemed a sufficient temp. tation for France to seize them, in its present need of resources, exclusive of the abundant supply of It has been said that Buonaparte refused to take the command of the army of Eng land, unless he should be at full liberty to use all that moral artillery which he had exercised with so much success in other quarters; not only to make war, but also at his own discretion to make peace and that it was his wish to settle the affairs of Great Britain, as well as those of all the rest of Europe, at Rastadt, on the basis of the treaty, and particularly the famous fourteenth article of the treaty of Campo-Formio. The directory was actuated by jealousy and envy. The degree of respect he had shewn to property, to religion, and to sovereign princes, though less than what would have been satisfactory to the friends of monarchy, was greater than what accorded with a spirit of jacobinical union, fraternization, and destruction. But what was of the greatest im portance of all, had the power of peace, as well as war, been lodged in the hands of Buonaparte, they would have been deprived of those personal advantages to which, it now plainly appeared they looked in all their negociations with foreign powers. [K 3] excellent excellent mariners to be drawn as much through treachery as cow. from that island, were the French to retain it. The latter appeared an acquisition of the highest importance to the commercial interest of France, which it would enable to intercept and ruin the trade of England in India, one of the principal sources of its opulence and naval gradeur. The French fleet arrived off the island of Malta the ninth of June. A pretext was wanting for permission to enter the harbour; but it was demanded for the procuring of water. Such a request, so soon after leaving Toulou, excited the suspicion of the grand master. Unwilling, however, to appear inimical, he consented, on condition that only two ships should enter at a time. This being construed into a refusal, the French prepared to attack the place; which they did on the next morning, at every point that was found accessible. The defence of the Maltese was so spiritless and feeble, that the French effected the landing of as many troops as were necessary to invest the city of Valetta on every side; and a capitulation took place on the eleventh, by which the knights surrendered the island to France. It had, at this time, a garrison of seven thousand men; the shores were defended by ten fortresses of uncommon strength, and the city itself was reputed almost impregnable. Two centuries before, it had been besieged by the celebrated Solyman, the Turkish emperor, at the head of two hundred thousand men, who was obliged to withdraw, after a prodigiousslaugh ter of his army. These particulars induced all Europe to believe that it fell into the hands of the French ardice. The advantages resulting to the invaders, fiom the reduction of Malta, were certainly great. They found here, two ships of war, four gallies, and one frigate, with twelve hundred cannon, and im mense magazines of military stores. The possession of the isle itself was of the highest importance, having the best and safest harbour in the streights; commanding the navigation between the European, Asiatic, and African divisions of the Mediterranean, and affording every convenience for the refitting and construction of shipping. This conquest filled the French commander and his army with the brightest hopes: leaving a suficient force to guard it, Buonaparte sailed from hence on the twentieth of June, 1798, aad reached his ultimate destination, the coast of Egypt, on the first day of July. What were the final projects of the French government, or rather of the extraor dinary genius who commanded this extraordinary expedition, remain doubtful at this day. To record, however, the most plausible speculations on this subject may not be quite foreign to the design of describing the relative situation of states and kingdoms, at given periods, and the views to which this naturally gives birth. Buonaparte who, to a mind naturally lofty, and fertile in expedi ents, had added all the advantages of a learned and liberal, as well as a military education, viewed things on a grand scale, and under a vast variety of relations, and was animated by the contemplation of ancient times to a love of glory. He had often expressed in conversation, even for several years before, his opinion, that there could not be a nobler enterprize, or one more conducive to the interests of the human race, than to relieve India from the domination of the English, and to open the richest commerce to the whole world. His plans, there fore, ofexalting France on the ruins of England, were tinctured with ideas somewhat sublime and gene rous, and what might be expected to conciliate the grateful affection as well as the admiration of the world. Ashe could not take India, the great spring of British wealth and naval power in London, he conceived the design of shutting it out from England, by the possession of Egypt: whether By making that country, so singularly and happily situated, only a stepping-stone to the coast of Malabar,t where he might be joined by Tippoo: or whether by making it a permanent settlement; by colonizing it, im proving it, and raising all those productions in which it is so fertile, and which are proper to countries in the same latitude in different parts of the world; by uniting the Indian trade to that emporium, by means of canals, harbours, and forts, on the Red-Sea; and on the whole, gradually, and by a course of harmonized actions, to turn the tide of commerce against England. The first of these projects, to go directly to India, though romantic and full of danger, was generally held to be the most congruous both to the character of Buonaparte, and the French nation. The last, which was the most natural and solid, is that which appears to have been embraced by Buonaparte. But this, however great and comprehensive, it is fair to presume, from measures previously taken by this daring chief, as well as his character, inpatient of repose, and enjoying tranquillity only in action, was not his only object. There were other collateral plans which he had in contemplation, the exccution of which might go hand in hand with his designs on Egypt and India, if these should be favoured by fortune and crowned with suc cess. Corfou, with other islands,, Malta, and Egypt, while they would open, on the one hand, outposts for undermining the power of England in the east, would open also, on the other, various avenues for exciting insurrection and revolt in ancient Greece and other parts of the Turkish empire; republican ideas might be cherished in Hunga ry, and the southern provinces of Austria; and political in dependence with civil freedom restored to Poland. Such, probably, were the animating views, and such the wide and splendid theatre of action, that were originally in the contempla tion, or would certainly have been opened by success to the ardent and aspiring genius of Buonaparte. The project of seizing and colonizing Egypt, had been suggested, by the count Vergennes, to the French government during the mo narchy; and, at one period, it had * Egypt was happily denominated, by Augustus Cæsar, "the key of the land and the sea." For which navigation, a sufficient quantity of shipping might be furnished by the trade between the coasts of Malabar and Arabia. been very seriously thought of. There were some circumstances which not only pointed out the present time as very opportune for carrying it into execution, but which seemed to threaten danger to the French republic if this should be much longer delayed. The power of the Ottomans over the pachas, and other officers, had tow become more nominal than real. Passawan Oglou, of Widdin, was in open rebellion, and not only maintained his independence but threatened to advance to the gates of Constantinople. The Greeks, in the two last wars between Russia and the Porte, had shewn a spirit worthy of liberty, and capable, with a due proportion of foreign aid, to assert it. They would unquestionably, in the present juncture, be ready to join any foreign power that promised and was likely to afford them protection; they might, if neglected by France, become the friends, allies, and, in some measure, the dependents of Russia, of Austria, or of Great Britain. The Turkish empire, verging fast to a dissolution, was precisely in the situation of the Mogul empire, when the authority of the emperor had ceased, and was assumed by the governors of the different provinces. It was soon, if France should not interfere, to be divided among the three great allied powers, Russia, England, and Austria, lately become a maritime power,by the acquisition of Venice and a large tract of coast on the Adriatic. The commerce with India was about to fall back into its ancient channel. The bulky commodities of that country might still be carried round by the Cape of Good Hope: but the lighter and more precious articles of trade would find their way by Syria, Egypt, and the Mediterranean. A succession of travellers had lately shewn there were different routes from Bombay to Leghorn, and London, much shorter than had been imagined. In 1779, private traders in India had risked a caravan by the way of Egypt to the value of several millions sterling. This caravan was, indeed, plundered by the Arabs, instigated by the Eng lish East-India company and govern ment but still it was a proof of the facilities for commerce, presented by the isthmus of Suez, The channel is natural that is shut only by the intrigues of monopolists and the power of governments. If Egypt and the Red-Sea should not be occupied by France they would be occupied by England, with whom, while the coalition should be held together, and Russia, some commercial arrangements would be made for the mutual advantage of all the contracting parties. On the whole, if the imbecility of the Turkish empire should not be improved to the advantage of France, and freedom, its approaching fall must become the means of strength ening the hands of despotism. Buonaparte, in the midst of his proceedings in Italy, found mean to carry on a correspondence with the Greeks, under the veil of commerce, through the agency of different individuals of that nation, attached to his person and cause, by pecuniary gratifications. Pamphlets, poems, songs, in ancient and modern Greek, with fabricated gazettes, had been in circulation for two years, throughout Macedonia, Epirus, Albania, the Morea, and the isles of the the Archipelago, rouzing the Greeks to an emulation of their ancestors, under the auspices and protection of the great nation. There was an aged Greek, named Dimo, who had taken refuge, for a long series of years, from Turkish insolence and oppression, with his family, in the island of Corsica, where he be came acquainted with Buonaparte. Him the general sent for, and dispatched, with a letter, to the patriarch of the Mainotes, Christians of the Greek church, and descendants of the ancient Lacedemonians, who had maintained, in a very con. siderable degree, the independence of their ancestors; the whole tribe, or nation, being constantly armed, from the first irruption of the Turks in Europe to the present moment, To the letter of Puonaparte, fraught with sentiments of respect and benevolence, to the patriarch, the Mainotes, and all the Greeks, the reverend father sent an answer, pointing out many circumstances in the present state of the Greek nation, and the Turkish government, which invited the co-operation of the French republic, for the eman. cipation of the former, and the chastisement of the latter. "Through the weasness of the Ottomans, he said, and their inability to maintain subordination and peace, the Greeks in Albania and Epirus had been under the necessity, and even allowed by the Porte, to take up arms in defence of their property. Bands, from two to five and six hundred men, had, for a long period of time, occasionally scoured the country, and laid the villages under the heaviest contributions, besides other acts of an insolent and enormous nature. Those maraudings, and the necessity of resisting them, had come to even an unusual height, during the course of the last war with Russia; since which time the Greeks had become so inured to arms and military exertions, that they were able and well-disposed to face a Turkish army, if any foreign power should obtain a footing in Greece: without which, they were sensible that the Turkish force must ultimately prevail over all their efforts. The Turkish empire, the patriarch observed, hastened to the last stage of its fall. The public treasury was not replenished by the wonted supplies of the provinces. A great number of pachas, not less than sixteen, had declared themselves to be independent of the grand seignior and divan of Constantinople. Nor were they satisfied with detaining in their own hands the customa❤ ry contributions; but would not suffer caravans with contributions to the Porte, from other provinces, to pass through their districts. Passawan Oglou having set out from Widdin, in Bulgaria, with only a small army, on his way to Constantinople, had found it increased to the number of forty thousand by the time he arrived at Adrianople; from whence he had sent a message to the grand seignior, in a haughty and imperious tone, charging him with the introduction of various European customs and violations of the law of Mahomed.* In the vicinity of Bursa, there was another pacha, *It does not fall within the design of this sketch of the History of Europe to give a detailed account of the rebellion of a Turkish pacha, It may be a satisfaction to our readers, |