I. 7. la politique, the policy

Page 87.

1. 9. les menaces . . . créèrent une infanterie. Madame de Staël refers to the wave of patriotism which swept through England when Napoleon was preparing to invade the country in 1805. Nearly every able-bodied man joined the volunteers.

1, 28. fracs bleus, blue frock-coats as worn by civilians.

Page 89.

1. 19. l'émancipation des catholiques. After the Reformation, Roman Catholics were subjected to many regulations and restrictions. In 1780 Sir George Savile introduced a bill for the repeal of some of the most severe disqualifications in the case of certain Catholics in England and Scotland, and at the same time the Irish Parliament tried to get rid of the more important disqualifications, and to place Ireland on a footing of religious equality with England. This agitation led to the Irish rebellion of 1798. Then followed the Union of 1800, but when Pitt found that he could not redeem the pledges he had made to the Irish Catholics, he resigned. In the early part of the century many measures were proposed for the removal of these disqualifications, and in 1813 and succeeding years one bill after another for this end was thrown out. Among those who made efforts in the direction of emancipation were Fox, Granville, Castlereagh, and Canning, but it was not till 1829 that the Duke of Wellington, convinced that the security of the empire would be imperilled by inaction, introduced a measure for Catholic emancipation.

1. 26. La prévision humaine ne saurait. The conditional saurait is here used with the force of the present indicative oi pouvoir. Translate it, therefore, by ' cannot.'

1. 28. les républiques renversées par des empires conquérants. Madame de Staël had in her mind the overtlirow of the mediaeval repubUcs of Venice and Genoa, and possibly the fall of the Greek republics in more ancient times.

I. 30. les peuples du Nord s'emparer des États du Midi. A reference to the fall of the Roman Empii-e caused by the successful invasion of the Goths in the middle of the fifth century a.d.

Page 92.

1. 16. quoique ce soit un despote qu'il ait combattu. Madame de Staël refers to Najjoleon.