ENGLAND. • 241 



missioners they sent thither for that purpose. What the Nether- 

 lands, however, had been in the former attempt to treat, the Cape of 

 Good Hope and Ceylon proved in the present ; and, after a stay of 

 nearly three months, lord Malmesbury, not being able to declare 

 himself empowered to consent to the surrender of all the conquests 

 made from France or her allies, was abruptly ordered to depart, and, 

 on the 20th of September, returned as before, not having effected the 

 object of his mission. 



In the following month the definitive treaty between the French 

 republic and the emperor was concluded and ratified ; and the Freqch, 

 having little other employment for their armies, began to talk loudly 

 of an immediate invasion of England. The directory assembled a 

 large army along the coasts opposite to Great Britain, which they 

 called the army of England : and a variety of idle reports were pro- 

 pagated relative to preparations said to be making in the ports of 

 France ; among others, that rafts of an enormous size and peculiar 

 construction were building for the conveyance of troops. The British, 

 minister did not suffer these ridiculous exaggerations, nor even the 

 evident absurdity and rashness of any attempt at an invasion of 

 England, in the face of a fleet so decidedly superior to that of every 

 enemy united, to produce an improper security, but took such mea- 

 sures of precaution as were most proper for the general defence of 

 the kingdom, and to guard the different parts of the country from the 

 mischievous consequences of a sudden attack. But the threats of the 

 enemy were not even attempted to be carried into execution ; and the 

 directory soon after turned their views towards another quarter of the 

 globe, by fitting out, at Toulon, a formidable expedition, which, about 

 the latter end of May, sailed for Egypt, under the command of Bona- 

 parte, probably with a view to prepare the way, by the conquest of 

 that country, for an attack on the British settlements in India. 



In the course of the preparations made for the invasion of England, 

 a number of transports had been fitted out at Flushing, and some 

 other of the ports of Holland, which were to come round by the ca- 

 nals to Dunkirk and Ostend, in order to avoid the British cruizers. 

 An expedition was therefore fitted out in May 1798, under the com- 

 mand of captain Home Popham, and major-general Coote, which 

 landed a body of troops at Ostend, who blew up and entirely destroy- 

 ed the sluice-gates and works of the canal at that place, and burnt 

 several vessels that were intended for transports. Unfortunately, 

 when the troops were ready to reimbark, the wind had changed, and 

 the sea ran so high, that it was found to be impossible ; and the enemy 

 in the mean time collected round them in such force, that general 

 Coote, and those who had landed with him, amounting to nearly a 

 thousand men, were obliged to surrender themselves prisoners. 



Towards the latter end of this year, intelligence was received of 

 the most brilliant victory ever gained at sea, even by the British na~ 

 vy, which has obtained such unequalled glory, on so many occasions, 

 in the course of the present war. On the first of August, admiral 

 sir Horatio Nelson, who had been detached by earl St. Vincent in 

 pursuit of the French fleet, which, as was mentioned above, sailed 

 from Toulon in May, having received a reinforcement of ten sail of 

 the line, arrived off the mouth of the Nile, where he found the ene- 

 my, and immediately made dispositions for an attack. The French, 

 fleet was at anchor in the bay of Aboukir. The admiral's ship car- 

 ried a hundred and twenty guns, and above a thousand men : three 



Vox.. I, ■ I i 



