naval stores to the dockyard at Toulon were of the
highest value to the French; and Nelson declared the occupation of
Corsica to be imperatively necessary, as it furnished that dockyard with
the decks, sides, and straight timbers for ships.[405] Accordingly,
after the evacuation of Toulon by the Allies in December 1793, Admiral
Hood decided to effect the reduction of the island for the royalist
cause.

Already, while at Toulon, he had received an urgent invitation from
Paoli, the leader of the Royalist, or British, party in Corsica, to help
the islanders in driving out the French. Victor in the long feud against
the Bonapartes, whom he expelled at midsummer, Paoli now resolved to
root out the Jacobins, and his Anglophil leanings induced him to offer
the crown of Corsica to George III. Both the King and his Ministers
received the offer favourably, Pitt and Grenville regarding Corsica as
one of the indemnities to be exacted from France. Sir Gilbert Elliot,
the King's Commissioner in the Mediterranean, was therefore charged to
administer Corsica. Disputes between Admiral Hood and General Dundas, the
commander of the British troops, somewhat hampered the sieges of the
three French garrisons still holding out; but by August 1794 Calvi, the
last hope of the French, succumbed to the vigour of the attack of
General Stuart, effectively helped by Nelson, who there lost the sight
of his right eye.

Subsequent events in Corsica, although of great interest, are not
closely connected with the life of Pitt; and I therefore propose to
describe them and the details of the Quiberon expedition in the volume
entitled "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies." In this chapter only the
incidents which more particularly concern Pitt will be noticed.

The attempt to rule that most clannish and suspicious of Mediterranean
peoples first called forth the administrative powers of Sir Gilbert
Elliot, first Earl of Minto. Acting as Viceroy of Corsica, he sought to
promote contentment by promulgating an excellent constitution and
administrative reforms. But, being hampered from the outset by the
factious behaviour of Paoli, he, with the consent of the Cabinet,
deported him to England in the autumn of 1795. An equally serious
complication was the feud between the British army and navy. These
disputes, originating at Toulon, grew apace in Corsica. Elliot sided
with Hood, and was therefore detested by Dundas, his successor, Sir
Charles Stuart, and their coad