This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1847 Excerpt: ... ON THE EXPEDITION TO EGYPT. It suddenly became known in England that a considerable force was preparing at Brest, Toulon, Genoa, and Civita Vecchia--that the Spanish squadron at Cadiz was being actively equipped--and that numerous camps were being formed on the banks of the Scheldt, and on the coasts of the Pas de Calais, of Normandy and Brittany. Napoleon, who had been named general-in-chief of the " Army of England," surveyed the whole shores of the ocean, pausing at each post. He had collected about him all who still lived of those naval officers who had distinguished themselves during the American war, such as Buhor, Marigny, &c, but they did not justify their reputation. The communication that France had held with the "United Irishmen" could not be long kept a secret; so that the court of St. James at first thought that these preparations were directed against England and Ireland, and that France was anxious to profit by the peace that had just been concluded on the Continent, and terminate a long struggle by a hand-to-hand engagement. The English cabinet imagined that the armaments being raised in Italy, were merely as a blind, and that the fleet off Toulon would pass the Straits of Gibraltar, and effect a junction with the Spanish fleet at Cadiz; that from thence the fleets would proceed together to Brest, and there take on board a large force for the invasion of both England and Ireland. During this uncertainty, England hastily equipped a new squadron, and as soon as it was ascertained that Napoleon had set out from Toulon, Admiral Rogers was despatched with ten ships to reinforce the fleet before Cadiz, under the command of Admiral Lord St. Vincent, who, by this addition, was now in possession of from twenty-eight to thirty ships of the line: anoth...