Virginia Argus

INVASION.

The Courier de Londres, of Tuesday, under the head of Paris, contains the two following letters, which, it says, have excited a great sensation in the military circles:--

General Moreau to Lieutenant General Duroc.

Paris, September 8.

General,

I have received the letter which you have done me the honor to write to me in the name of the First Consul, offering me a command in the expedition against England. I thought that my opinion of that enterprise was sufficiently known to have saved me from the unpleasantness of rejecting such a proposition. I shall, however, answer with the frankness of a soldier, who can explain himself the more easily, without reserve, upon the present occasion, as he has given some proofs of courage, and done his country so important services; and besides, general, I consider your letter as being rather intended to sound my intentions, than as transmitting to me orders. I have never been the advocate of maritime expeditions, particularly since I have seen the remnant of our marine and choice of our armies, swallowed up in them with astonishing rapidity. I think, that in forming enterprises, the issue of which is very uncertain, and the result of which may give a mortal blow to the government which conceives them, and to the nation which seconds them, one ought to be forced to them, by circumstances so imperious, that the safety and honor of the state would be compromised, if one should make a retrograde step that should discover weakness or irresolution.

But I do not see that the present circumstances oblige us to risk, against a thousand unfavorable chances, the greater part of our land forces; and that regenerating marine, which is beginning to be created as it were by magic, by an enthusiastic and industrious people. I have asked myself, when I saw the considerable armaments that were making for the re-occupation or acquisition of our colonies, whether the peace were so solid that we should hope to be able to preserve what we had recovered or acquired, and if the restoration of our commerce were so necessary or so certain that we ought to employ in it so much treasure and so many soldiers.--Let the First Consul permit a soldier, who feels a lively attachment to his old companions in arms, to express here some regret for the unfortunate events in the too bold combinations which have destroyed so great a number of them.--This regret will explain to him my present opinion of the expedition that is preparing, and my refusal to take in part the direction of it. We had the best army in Europe, the best means of recruiting our forces weakened by eleven years war. In its place we have now corps almost entirely composed of conscripts, among whom we no longer observe the veteran soldiers; but like those ruins which attest the grandeur and magnificence of those edifices which time has overthrown.

At present, if we may judge from the immense preparations that are making, from the concentration of our forces, upon points near the coast, recollecting the declarations made by government, and the reports which it accredits, the business in hand is nothing less than a desperate enterprise, the improbable success of which would be the ruin of England, but whose almost certain result will weaken us as a continental power and be our total destruction as a maritime nation. I may be permitted to ask, upon seeing interests of such great magnitude, hazarded or compromised, whether we were in a situation so critical with respect to England that we were obliged to swear its destruction, and to prepare our own ruin. We were powerful and respected upon the continent; we directed (with too much impetuosity perhaps) all its political transactions: we were safe from the power of the English navy, and for a long time, no doubt, above the intrigues of the ministers of England: and it is in this situation, truly strong, energetic and imposing, that we attempt an enterprise which could only be excused by a despair that left us no choice of measures. I am far from disapproving of the enthusiasm excited in the nation against a nation eternally its rival, and almost always its enemy, from blaming the efforts and the sacrifices which it inspires; but I think that the action of government ought to confine itself to the development of these dispositions for the purpose of preparing, through it, the restoration of our marine; to go farther, to devote to such great perils, our armies, still in the labor of their re-organization; thus, general, be assured, is to expose us to be assailed by those continental powers who are jealous of us and have their eyes upon us.-This is to replace us in the disastrous circumstances from which we were only extricated by the miracle that brought back Bonaparte from Egypt, and made him triumphant on the 18th Brumaire.-May I be now permitted, general, to make an observation which a wise and regular government is worthy to hear and to appreciate; but which I should not have hazarded in the time of disorder and anarchy, when the laws of nations were scarcely more respected among us than the liberty of individuals, We are told every day that we are restored to civilization, that we are replaced in the first rank of social order, and yet an expedition is announced worthy in its principles of those unsettled colonies who contend with their neighbors for enjoyment which they do not find at home, or of those savage hordes who see, in the end of war, nothing but the booty which they may acquire, and in its result the total annihilation of the adverse horde.
Such, however, are the strange ideas that have been propagated among the soldiers to excite them to obtain, from their cupidity, a devotion expected in vain from real courage. I do not pretend here to discuss the rights of conquest, nor to examine whether they can be extended in proportion to the perils which have been run to obtain them; but is it politic to announce beforehand every thing that is meant to be derived from it? Is it fit to present it to the eyes of those who are to undertake it, only as a vast scene of pillage and assassination? It is no doubt, contrary to the intention of the first consul that such means should be employed to corrupt the minds of our brave warriors, & to substitute the love of gain for the honor of glory; but it is to you, general, I confide the honorable task of illustrating to him these intrigues, and telling him how much they afflict military men, who are faithful to the laws of honor. They all see, as I do, with inquietude, that every day is suffered to depress that spirit which in the early period of our military glory, the love of the country, I might almost say the enthusiasm of liberty, and surely that spirit will not revive, in which nothing is demanded of them but a blind temerity, in which nothing is prescribed to them but the abuse of victory. I speak with liberty, with confidence; and I do not think it a proof of courage. It would be shewing a want of esteem for the head of a government to see any danger in telling him what is just and true.

I have the honor to be, &c.

Lieutenant general Duroc to general Moreau.

One o'clock in the morning:

My Comrade,

I have laid before the first consul the letter which you have done me the honor to write to me, the 8th instant. It is with pain that I send it back to you by his orders. The gen. first consul charges me to inform you that he does not recognize in it the language of a Frenchman, nor the character of a distinguished soldier. He has sent it back to you for the purpose, that by destroying this evidence of an error which he wishes to forget, you may be sure that it will never be made use of to tarnish your glory, nor to impeach your intentions. The gen. first consul orders me to acquaint you, that he wishes to have some conversation with you in private, the 25th inst.

I am, with respect, your Comrade.

DUROC.