The Turkish empire is daily tottering; the possession of these islands will enable us to support it as long as possible, or to take our portion of it.

The time is not remote when we shall feel that, for the real destruction of England, we must get possession of Egypt." Formerly, the Mediterranean was a Roman lake; it must become a French lake.

(Cf.

"Souvenirs d'un Sexagenaire," by Arnault, vol.IV., p.102, on his dream, in 1798, of making Paris a colossal Rome.)--At this same date, his conception of the State is fixed and wholly Roman.
(Conversations with Miot, June 1797, and letter to Talleyrand, Sep.

19, 1797.) "I do not see but one thing in fifty years well defined, and that is the sovereignty of the people....