the month of September, may be augmented by two new ships ; and nine of Venetian construction. We may perhaps be able, when the expedition which the government projects in the Mediterranean is over, to send the 14 ships to Brest, and to retain in the Mediterranean only the nine Venetian ships ; which will give us, in the month of October or November, 50 ships of the line at Brest, and almost an equal number of frigates.

" We may perhaps then be able to transport 40,000 men to any spot of England we wish, by avoiding, however, a naval action, if the enemy should be too strong : in the mean while, 40,000 men threaten to put off in the 400 gun-boats, and about as many fishing-vessels of Boulogne, and the Dutch fleet and 10,000 men threaten a descent upon Scotland. The invasion of England, put in practice in this manner in the months of November and December, would be almost certain. England would waste herself by immense efforts, but these would not secure her from our invasion.

" In fact, the expedition to the East will oblige England to send six additional ships of the line to India, and perhaps twice as many frigates to the entrance of the Red Sea: she would be obliged to have from 22 to 25 ships of the line at the entrance of the Mediterranean, 60 before Brest, and 12 before the Texel, forming a total of 300 100 line-of-battle ships, without reckoning those she now has in America and the Indies, and the ten or twelve 50-gun ships, with 20 frigates, which she would be obliged to have ready to oppose the invasion from Boulogne. We should always remain masters of the Mediterranean, since we should there have the nine Venetian ships of the line.

" There would yet be another way to augment our force in this sea : to oblige Spain to cede three ships of the line and three frigates to the Ligurian republic. This republic cannot be considered otherwise than as a department of France : it possesses more than 10,000 excellent seamen. It is politic in France to encourage the Ligurian republic, and to take care also that it has a few ships of the line. If any difficulties arise about Spain's ceding to us or to the Ligurian republic three ships of the line, I should think it would be proper for us to sell to the Ligurian republic three of the pine ships we took from the Venetians ; and we should require of them to build three others: it would be a good squadron, manned with excellent sailors, which we should thus obtain. With the money received from the Ligurians we ought to build at Toulon three good ships upon our own models ; for ships built after the Venetian plan require as many sailors as a good 74 ; and seamen - there is our weak point. As future events may turn out, it would be extremely advantageous to us that the three republics of Italy, which ought to be equal in force to the King of Naples and

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