PAGE 152.

"He had to choose between General Menou, an old and brave officer, but entirely new in command, and General Reynier, whose talents, sufficiently proved in the army of the Rhine, where he had been chief of the staff of the army, inspired more confidence. This choice of Bonaparte's was dictated by passion; he preferred the secret pride, the vain satisfaction of seeing what he called his party, predominant, to the safety of the army, and even to the consideration of his own glory."

PAGE 171.

"Whatever were the motives which induced Bonaparte to undertake this expedition, grand views were mingled with that adventurous spirit which always seduced him from ordinary paths, and beyond the limits of reason. Neither the situation in which he left the interior of France, nor the state of the marine, allowed him to hope for those succours without which the colony and its founder must necessarily perish; as in the times of the Crusades, they must sooner or later have been destroyed by the climate, or by the semi-barbarous people, whom force could not subdue, and whom no tie, religious or political, could attach to the victor. But to strike a fatal blow at the commerce of England, by attracting that of the East into Egypt; to open once more the route of the treasures of the ancient world; to indemnify France for the loss of her western colonies by new and numerous establishments on the coasts of Africa; to restore to the cradle of science and the arts its ancient splendour; to explore a country so rich in grand reminiscences; to secure a place amongst the most illustrious conquerors-what brighter views than these ever seduced the favourites of fortune?"

VOL. VII. PAGE 197.

"The sortie of Admiral Gantheaume's squadron was a project as daring, as the enterprise of conducting it to Alexandria was rash. It was incurring the hazard of surrendering the better part of what was left of the French navy to the English; but this relief might save the colony of Egypt, and hasten the conclusion of a maritime peace. If the squadron should escape the English Channel fleet, it was likely, on entering the Mediterranean, to meet that of Keith; and if it should avoid Keith's, it was not probable that the squadrons of Warren and Bickerton, which were cruising either at the mouth of the straits, or in the canal of Malta and the Libyan sea, would fail to cut off its route, before it could land on the coast of Egypt. It required, then, as much good fortune as talent to accomplish this glorious mission; the French admiral was deficient in neither; the whole of his dispersed squadron met, completely reunited, at Cape Gata on the 10th of February, eighteen days after their coming out from Brest, the English remaining perfectly ignorant of the transaction. Admiral Harvey, who commanded the Channel fleet, was informed of the sortie of the Brest squadron by the frigate which had engaged La Bravoure; but unable to believe that Gantheaume had ventured to hazard entering the Mediterranean to steer among three hostile fleets (nearly thirty ships of the line, and fifty frigates and smaller vessels) he had no doubt that the squadron which had thus escaped his vigilance, during the late gales, had sailed for the West Indies. He imagined that it was intended either to regain Saint-Domingo, or to attack Jamaica: and as this expedition, which had sailed from Brest, might combine with the movements and attempts which had been remarked in other French ports of the Ocean, and a complete security had caused the English to neglect to reinforce their garrisons in the

Leeward Islands, Admiral Harvey immediately detached Sir Robert Calder in that direction, in pursuit of the French fleet, with seven sail of the line and two frigates, victualled for four months, ordering him to crowd all sail to come up with the enemy."

PAGE 101.

"Certain of being preceded by three times his own force, and pursued by Warren's squadron, it became Admiral Gantheaume's duty to relinquish his enterprise; for, had he persisted in following his first instructions, he must inevitably have fallen in with the united fleets of Keith and Bickerton on the coast of Egypt; and he could neither hope to effect a landing in their presence, nor to retreat after disastrous engagement, and to escape Admiral Warren. He therefore considered only how to disengage his squadron from such imminent danger; and changing his route, he made for the coasts of Provence, and succeeded in entering Toulon with the different prizes which he had taken."

PAGE 107.

"Admiral Gantheaume soon received orders to sail again from Toulon if he should find the port of Alexandria blockaded by the superior forces of Keith and Bickerton, as there was no room to doubt, he was to land the troops to the west of that city, between Tripoli and Cape Ruzai, with the stores of water and biscuit, and to despatch them towards Egypt across the Desert of Barca. This desperate attempt exposed 5000 Frenchmen to perish by famine: for if the English army had effected its landing and united with that of the Grand Vizier, this isolated body, wandering in the desert, would have been cut off from Cairo and Alexandria, and could neither have joined the army of the East, nor re-embarked to return to Europe."

General Kleber had never commanded in chief; he had served in the army of the Sambre and Meuse as a general of division, under the orders of Jourdan. Having fallen into disgrace with the Directory, he was living in obscurity at Chaillot, when Napoleon arrived from Radstadt in November 1797, after having conquered Italy, dictated peace at Vienna, and taken possession of the fortress of Mentz. Kleber followed the fortunes of Napoleon, and went to Egypt with him. He there behaved. with equal talent and bravery; he gained the esteem of the Commander-in-chief, who regarded him, next to Desaix, as the best officer in his army he was also one of the most distinguished for subordination, which surprised the officers of his staff, who were accustomed to hear him censure and criticise the operations of the army of the Sambre and Meuse. He expressed the highest admiration of the fine manœuvre of the battle of Mount Tabor, in which the Commander-in-chief saved Kleber's honour and his life. Some weeks afterwards he was marching at the head of his division to storm Acre; Napoleon sent him orders to join him, not choosing to risk so valuable a life on an occasion in which his brigadier-general could supply his place. When the Comman

der-in-chief determined to hasten back to Europe, to the aid of the Republic, he at first thought of leaving the command to Desaix; he afterwards intended to take Desaix and Kleber with him to France; but at length he resolved to take the former with him, and to invest the latter with the command. To raise a general of division to the rank of a generalin-chief, would be a singular way of shewing a jealousy of him. It is vexatious to read such an assertion in a valuable work; for, after all, what should engender jealousy in a man who had been victorious in so many battles? and in what respect did he ever evince such a feeling?

The army of Egypt might have maintained, nay, might have perpetuated itself in that country, without receiving any assistance from France; provisions, clothing, all that is necessary for an army, abounded in Egypt. There were military stores and ammunition enough for several campaigns; besides, Champy and Conté had established powder-mills; the army had sufficient establishments to organize a force of 80,000 men; it could obtain as many recruits as might be wanted, especially amongst the young Copts, the Greeks, Syrians, and negroes of Darfur and Sennaar.