ty and decision. Napoleon thought very highly of him, and it
was a material part of his own plan of invasion to send him with thirty
thousand chosen troops to Ireland. He afterwards became Governor of
Java, where he acted with an independence which awakened the jealousy of
his master. Discovering this, he wrote to declare that he could hold the
island against any force which France, or even England, could bring
against him; but that to mark his devotedness to his emperor, he was
ready to resign his command, and serve in the French army as a corporal.
He was Governor of Mons during the invasion of France by the Allied
armies; and he boasted to Mr. Pellew, who spent a few days with him
after the peace, that an advancing army made a considerable circuit to
avoid him, and that he held the fortress unmolested until Napoleon had
abdicated; when he wrote to the Allied Sovereigns, asking to whom he
should resign it. An invasion of Ireland, directed by generals such as
Hoche and Daendels, and at a time when the British navy was in a state
of mutiny, was an event justly to be dreaded; but all these mighty
preparations were overturned more easily and quietly than the former.
Everything was ready; and General Hoche had gone to Holland to make the
final arrangements with his brother commanders, when the Legislative
Assembly of France quarrelled with the Directory, and gained a temporary
ascendancy. On the 16th of July, the new government displaced
Vice-Admiral Truguet, the able Minister of Marine, and appointed M.
Pleville le Peley his successor. With the usual madness of party, the
new minister and his employer hastened to overturn all that had been
done by their predecessors. They discharged the sailors, dismantled the
fleet, and even sold some of the frigates and corvettes by public
auction. When the Directory regained their power, September 4th, after
an interval of only six weeks, they found that the preparations which
had cost them so much time and treasure to complete, were utterly
destroyed. In the following month, Admiral Duncan annihilated the Dutch
fleet, and thus the proposed expedition was baffled at every point. Were
a history of England written, with due regard to the operations of
Divine Providence, in deliverances and successes effected not by human
wisdom, or human strength, what cause would it afford for unbounded
gratitude, and for unbounded confidence!

While the enemy were fitting out this armament, Sir Edward w