Captain Desbriere in the present volume carries his collection of documents down to the date at which the then General Bonaparte gave up his connection with the flotilla that was being equipped in the French Channel ports, and prepared to take command of the expedition to Egypt.  The volume therefore, in addition to accounts of many projected, but never really attempted, descents on the British Isles, gives a very complete history of Hoche’s expedition to Ireland; of the less important, but curious, descent in Cardigan Bay known as the Fishguard, or Fishgard, expedition; and of the formation of the first ‘Army of England,’ a designation destined to attain greater celebrity in the subsequent war, when France was ruled by the great soldier whom we know as the Emperor Napoleon.  The various documents are connected by Captain Desbriere with an explanatory commentary, and here and there are illustrated with notes.  He has not rested content with the publication of MSS. selected from the French archives.  In preparing his book he visited England and examined our records; and, besides, he has inserted in their proper place passages from Captain Mahan’s works and also from those of English authors.  The reader’s interest in the book is likely to be almost exclusively concentrated on the detailed, and, where Captain Desbriere’s commentary appears, lucid, account of Hoche’s expedition.  Of course, the part devoted to the creation of the ‘Army of England’ is not uninteresting; but it is distinctly less so than the part relating to the proceedings of Hoche.  Several of the many plans submitted by private persons, who here describe them in their own words, are worth examination; and some, it may be mentioned, are amusing in the naivete of their Anglophobia and in their obvious indifference to the elementary principles of naval strategy.  In this indifference they have some distinguished companions.

We are informed by Captain Desbriere that the idea of a hostile descent on England was during a long time much favoured in France.  The national archives and those of the Ministries of War and of Marine are filled with proposals for carrying it out, some dating back to 1710.  Whether emanating from private persons or formulated in obedience to official direction, there are certain features in all the proposals so marked that we are able to classify the various schemes by grouping together those of a similar character.  In one class may be placed all those which aimed at mere annoyance, to be effected by landing small bodies of men, not always soldiers, to do as much damage as possible.  The appearance of these at many different points, it was believed, would so harass the English that they would end the war, or at least so divide their forces that their subjection might be looked for with confidence.  In another class might be placed proposals to seize outlying, out not distant, British territory—­the Channel Islands or the Isle of Wight, for example.  A third