You may perhaps smile at this vast naval scheme of Buona parte; but if you consider that he is the master of all the forests, mines, and productions of France, Italy, and of a great part of Germany, with all the navigable rivers and sea-ports of these countries, and Holland, and remember also the character of the man, you will, perhaps, think it less impracticable. The greatest obstacle he has to encounter and to remove, is want of experienced naval officers, though even in this he has advanced greatly since the present war; during which he has added to his naval forces twenty-nine ships of the line, thirty-four frigates, twenty-one cutters, three thousand praams, gun-boats, pinnaces, &c. with four thousand naval officers, and thirty-seven thousand sailors, according to the same account, signed by Malouet. It is true, that most of our new naval heroes have never ventured far from our coast, and all their naval laurels have been gathered under our land-batteries; but the impulse is given to the national spirit, and our conscripts in the maritime departments prefer, to a man, the navy to the army, which was not formerly the case. It cannot have escaped your observation, that the incorporation of Genoa procured us, in the south of our empire, a naval station and arsenal, as a counterpoise to Antwerp, our new naval station in the north, where twelve ships of the line have been built, or are building, since 1803, and where timber and other materials are collected for eight more. At Genoa, two ships of the line and four frigates have lately been launched, and four ships and two frigates are on the stocks; and the Genoese Republic has added sixteen thousand sea-faring men to our navy. Should Buonaparte terminate successfully the present war, Naples and Venice will increase the number of our sea-ports and resources on the borders of the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas. All his courtiers say that he will conquer Italy in Germany, and determine at Vienna the fate of London. Of all our admirals, however, we have not one to compare with your Nelson, your Hood, your St. Vincent, and your Cornwallis. By the appointment of Murat as grand admiral, Buonaparte seems to indicate, that he is inclined to imitate the example of Louis XVI. in the beginning of his reign, and entrust the chief command of his fleets and squadrons to military men, of approved capacity and courage, officers of his land troops. Last June, when he expected a probable junction of the fleet under Villeneuve with the squadron under Admiral Winter, and the union of both with Gantheaume, at Brest, Murat was to have had the chief command of the united French, Spanish, and Batavian fleets, and to support the landing of our troops in your country; but the arrival of Lord Nelson in the West-Indies, and the victory of Admiral Calder, deranged all our plans, and postponed all our designs, which the continental war has interrupted, to be commenced, God knows when. The best amongst our bad admirals, is certainly Truguet, but he was discharged last year, and exiled twenty leagues from the coast, for having declared too publicly, "that our flotillas would never be serviceable before our fleets were superior to yours, when they would become useless.” An intriguer by long habit, and by character, having neither property nor principles, he joined the Revolution, and was the second in command under Latouche, in the first republican fleet that left our harbours. He directed the expedition against Sardinia, in January, 1793, during which he acquired neither honour nor glory, being repulsed with great loss by the inhabitants. After being imprisoned under Robespierre, the Directory made him a minister of the marine, an ambassador to Spain, and a vice-admiral of France. In this capacity he commanded at Brest, during the first eighteen months of the present war. He has an irreconcileable foe in Talleyrand, with whom he quarrelled when on his embassy in Spain, about some extortions at Madrid, which he declined to share with his principal at Paris. Such was our minister's inveteracy against him in 1798, that a directorial decree placed him on the list of emigrants, because he remained in Spain after having been recalled to France. In 1799, during Talleyrand's disgrace, Truguet returned here, and after in vain challenging his enemy to fight, caned him in the Luxemburgh gardens, a chastisement which our premier bore with a true Christian patience. Truguet is not even a member of the Legion of Honour. Villeneuve is supposed not much inferior in talents, experience, and modesty, to Truguet. He was before the Revolution a lieu tenant of the navy; but his principles did not prevent him from deserting to the colours of the enemies of royalty, who pro moted him first to a captain, and afterwards to an admiral. His ༈ first command as such was over a division of the Toulon fleet, which, in the winter of 1797, entered Brest. In the battle at Aboukir he was the second in command; and after the death of admiral Brueys, he rallied the ships which had escaped, and sailed for Malta, where, two years afterwards, he signed with General Vaubois the capitulation of that island. When hostilities again broke out, he commanded in the West-Indies, and, leaving his station, escaped your cruisers, and was appointed first to the chief command of the Rochefort, and afterwards of the Toulon fleet, on the death of Admiral Latouche. Notwithstanding the gasconade of his report of his negative victory over Admiral Calder, Villeneuve is not a Gascon by birth, but only by sentiment. Gantheaume does not possess either the intriguing character of Truguet, or the valorous one of Villeneuve; before the Revolution, he was a mate of a merchantman; but when most of the officers of the royal navy had emigrated or perished, he was in 1793 made a captain of the republican navy, and in 1796, an admiral. During the battle of Aboukir he was the chief of the staff, under Admiral Brueys, and saved himself by swimming, when l'Orient took fire and blew up. Buonaparte wrote to him on this occasion: "The picture you have sent me of the disaster of l'Orient, and of your own dreadful situation, is horrible; but be assured that, having such a miraculous escape, DESTINY intends you to avenge one day our navy and our friends." This note was written in August, 1798, shortly after Buonaparte had professed himself a Mussulman. When, in the summer of 1799, our general in chief had determined to leave his army of Egypt to its destiny, Gantheaume equipped and commanded the squadron of frigates which brought him to Europe, and was, after his consulate, appointed a counsellor of state, and commander at Brest. In 1800, he escaped with a division of the Brest fleet to Toulon; and, in the summer of 1801, when he was ordered to carry succours to Egypt, your ship Swiftsure fell in with him, and was captured. As he did not, however, succeed in landing in Egypt the troops on board his ships, a temporary disgrace was incurred, and he was deprived of the command, but made a maritime prefect. Last year favour was restored him, with the command of our naval forces at Brest. All officers who have served under Gantheaume agree that, let his fleet be ever so superior, he will never fight if he can avoid it, and that, in orderly times, his capacity would at the utmost make him regarded as a good master of a merchantman, and nothing else. Of the present commander of our flotilla at Boulogne, La Crosse, I will also say some few words. A lieutenant before the Revolution, he became in 1789 one of the most ardent and violent jacobins; and in 1792 was employed by the friend of the blacks, and our minister, Monge, as an emissary in the West-Indies, to preach there to the negroes the rights of man, and insurrection against the whites, their masters. In 1800, Buonaparte advanced him to a captain-general at Guadaloupe, an island which his plots, eight years before, had involved in all the horrors of anarchy; and where, now when he attempted to restore order, his former instruments rose against him, and forced him to escape to one of your islands, I believe Dominico. Of this island, in return for his reception, he took plans, according to which our General La Grange endeavoured to conquer it last spring. La Crosse is a perfect revolutionary fanatic, unprincipled, cruel, unfeeling and intolerant. His presumption is great, but his talents are trifling. LETTER LXXIV. Paris, October, 1805. MY LORD, THE defeat of the Austrians has excited great satisfaction among our courtiers and public functionaries; but the mass of the inhabitants here are too miserable to feel for any thing else but their own sufferings. They know very well that every victory rivets their fetters, that no disasters can make them more heavy, and no triumph lighter. Totally indifferent about external occurrences as well as about internal oppressions, they strive to forget both the past and the present, and to be indifferent as to the future; they would be glad could they cease to feel that they exist. The police officers were now with their gensd'armes bayoneting them into illuminations for Buonaparte's suc cesses; as they dragooned them last year, into rejoicings for his coronation. I never observed before so much apathy; and, in more than one place, I heard the people say, "Oh ! how much better we should be with fewer victories, and more tranquillity; with less splendour and more security; with an honest peace instead of a brilliant war." But in a country groaning under a military government, the opinions of the people are counted for nothing. At Madame Joseph Buonaparte's circle, however, the countenances were not so gloomy. There, a real or affected joy seemed to enliven the usual dullness of these parties; some actors were repeating patriotic verses in honour of the victor; while others were singing airs or vaudevilles, to inspire our warriors with as much hatred towards your nation, as gratitude towards our Emperor. It is certainly neither philosophical nor philanthropical, not to exclude the vilest of all passions, HATRED, on such a haphy occasion. Martin, in the dress of a conscript, sung six long couplets against the tyrants of the seas; of which I was only able to retain the following one : Je deteste le peuple Anglais, Je deteste son ministère; Mon plus doux, mon plus grand desir Est de montrer tout mon courage. But what arrested my attention more than any thing else which occurred in this circle on that evening, was a printed paper mysteriously handed about, and of which, thanks to the civility of a counsellor of state, I at last got a sight. It was a list of those persons, of different countries, whom the Emperor of the French has fixed upon, to replace all the ancient dynasties of Europe within twenty years to come. From the names of these individuals, some of whom are known to me, I could perceive, that Buonaparte had more difficulty to select proper Emperors, Kings and Electors, than he would have had some years ago, to choose directors or consuls. Our inconsistency is, however, evident even here; I did not read a name, that is not found in the |