Godoy, prime minister and
controller of Spanish destinies. This done, Great Britain, according
to the time-honored, well-worn device of France, royal or radical,
should be invaded and brought to her knees. The plan was as old as
Philippe le Bel, and had appeared thereafter once and again at
intervals either as a _bona fide_ policy or a device to stir the
French heart and secure money from the public purse for the public
defense. For this purpose of the Directory the ruined maritime power
of the republic must be restored, new ships built and old ones
refitted; in the meantime, as did Richelieu or Mazarin, rebellion
against the British government must be roused and supported among
malcontents everywhere within the borders of Great Britain, especially
in Ireland. Such was the stupid plan of the Directory: two well-worn
expedients, both discredited as often as tried. To the territorial
readjustment of Europe, Prussia, though momentarily checked, was
already pivotal; but the first efforts of French diplomacy at Berlin
resulted in a flat refusal to go farther than the peace already made,
or entertain the chimerical proposals now made. Turning then to
Austria, the Directory concluded the armistice of February first,
1796, but at Vienna the offer of Munich and two thirds of Bavaria, of
an outlet to the Adriatic and of an alliance against Russia for the
restoration of Poland--of course without Galicia, which Austria should
retain--was treated only as significant of what French temerity dared
propose, and when heard was scornfully disdained. The program for
Italy was retained substantially as laid down in 1793: the
destruction of the papal power, the overthrow of all existing
governments, the plunder of their rich treasures, the annihilation of
feudal and ecclesiastical institutions, and the regeneration of its
peoples on democratic lines. Neither the revolutionary elements of the
peninsula nor the jealous princes could be brought to terms by the
active and ubiquitous French agents, even in Genoa, though there was
just sufficient dallying everywhere between Venice and Naples to keep
alive hope and exasperate the unsuccessful negotiators. The European
world was worried and harassed by uncertainties, by dark plots, by
mutual distrust. It was unready for war, but war was the only solvent
of intolerable troubles. England, Austria, Russia, and France under
the Directory must fight or perish.

It must not be forgotten that this was t