FOOTNOTES: 

[5] A trifling incident occurred in this journey, which may, perhaps, deserve to be mentioned.  In going down a hill, two or three miles beyond Axminster, both leaders fell, and the night being very cold, for the wind had set in strong from the eastward, a ring, on which he set particular value, dropped from Sir Edward’s finger, as he was getting into the carriage again.  He was vexed at the loss; but the road being very dirty, and the night dark, it was useless then to seek it.  He therefore tore a bush from the hedge, and left it where the carriage had stopped:  and ordering the post-boys to draw up at the next cottage, he knocked up the inmates, and promised them a reward if they found it.  To his great pleasure, the expedient proved successful, and the ring was delivered to him on his return.

[6] The Revolutionaire, 110, wrecked Dec. 24, on the Mingan rock, near Brest; the Neuf Thermidor, 80. Scipion, 80, and Superbe, 74, foundered in a heavy gale on the 28th of January; and the Neptune, 74, wrecked in Audierne Bay.

CHAPTER V.

EXPEDITION AGAINST IRELAND.

France, having at length obtained internal quiet, and a settled Government under the Directory, and secured the alliance of Spain and Holland, prepared for a decisive blow against Great Britain.  The condition of the British empire was at that time peculiarly critical.  Of her allies, some had joined the enemy, and the others had proved unequal to resist him.  In the East, the most powerful of the native princes were preparing to subvert her authority.  At home, Ireland was organized for rebellion; and England herself contained a strong revolutionary party, checked, indeed, by the energy of the Government, and still more by the excellent disposition of the people, but prepared to rise in formidable activity, whenever the successes of the enemy should enable them to declare themselves.

Well acquainted with all her difficulties, the French Government hastened to take advantage of them.  Through the summer and autumn of 1796, a powerful fleet was equipped at Brest, to land an army on the shores of Ireland; after accomplishing which, a squadron of eight sail of the line was to be detached to India, where its support would probably encourage the hostile states to an immediate and general war.  Its prospects were the more promising, as the armies of two of the native princes were officered by Frenchmen.  As for Ireland, that was regarded as a country of which they had only to take possession; and the well-known feeling of a considerable part of the inhabitants warranted the most sanguine hopes of the invader.