Page:France and the Levant peace conference 1920.djvu/24

12 V.

The propaganda of Revolutionary France extended as far as Turkey; and in 1793 the representatives of Austria, Russia and Prussia complained that a "Tree of Liberty" had been planted in the court-yard of the French Embassy in Pera, and that throughout the Levant French cockades were being displayed. They demanded, though in vain, that the obnoxious tree should be cut down and that the Republican fêtes and demonstrations should be forbidden. When the tide of invasion had been rolled back from her frontiers, Republican France reverted to the old aggressive policy of the Monarchy. Her Consuls and commercial agents never lost sight of the Egyptian plan; and in February 1798 one of them sent in a detailed report. In the same month Talleyrand, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, presented a memorandum to the Directory setting forth the advantages of an attack on Egypt. The document had probably been prepared with the aid of Bonaparte, who, at any rate, stood ready to carry out its policy.

The plan appealed to the Directory, which hoped to inflict a staggering blow on Great Britain by attacking her possessions and commerce in the East and founding a colonial Empire on the ruins. The expedition was approved in March, and in April the Government signed its instructions to Bonaparte.

An excuse for the enterprize was found in the oppression of French merchants at the ports by the Mamelukes who ruled the country subject to the nominal sovereignty of