WHYTE'S THE ECLECTIC COLLECTOR SATURDAY & SUNDAY 25 & 26 July 2020

20 History 27 1796-1798 manuscript plans for the invasion of England and Ireland by France. (4) (i)Hoche’s Instructions to Colonel Tate for a raid on the west coast of Britain, Nov 1796, pp3 foolscap: ‘Secret instructions entrusted to the superior officer’ [Colonel William Tate] no date, ca 25-26 November, 1796, in handwriting of TheobaldWolfe Tone. Translation by Tone of orders originally issued in French by General Lazare Hoche to Tate. Starts: ‘It would perhaps be imprudent to remain long in Cornwall it is better to establish yourself in Devonshire...’ (ii) Secret French plans and decree for a French invasion of Ireland 1 November 1796 (i.e. Bantry Bay expedition) under the command of General Lazare Hoche, probably translated by, and in the hand of, TheobaldWolfe Tone, pp9 foolscap 1796 [Barras] ‘Report of the Citizen Director [Lazare] Carnot, made to the Executive Directory 11th Brumaire 5th year [1 November 1796], marked ‘Secret’; bound with ‘Summary of two plans of attack upon England & Ireland & the means of uniting them’; ends with ‘Decree’ of the Executive Directory for the implementation of said plan under the command of General Lazare Hoche, signed [Paul de] Barras [President of the Directory] and [Joseph Jean] Lagarde [Secretary-general of the Directory]. Starts: ‘From the first moment of the Installation of the Executive Directory, you have thought, Citizen Colleagues, that the sole method of terminating a disastrous war was to arm ourselves with boldness & with energy...’ (iii) Humbert’s instructions for 1798 expedition to Ireland, pp4 foolscap. 1798 Translation into English of General Humbert’s orders for the 1798 expedition to Ireland, in hand of TheobaldWolfe Tone (probably the translator). STARTS: ‘Paris 1st Thermidor 6 An de la République [19 July 1798] Le Ministre de la Marine et des Colonies [Eustache Bruix] au Général de Brigade Humbert. The Executive Directory wishing to assist the U[nited. I[rishmen]. who have taken arms has given orders to send into Ireland troops & military stores & has given the chief comm[an]d to General Hardy...’ The orders go on to entrust General Humbert with a second expedition, what would become the former’s legendary occupation of Mayo and brief campaign, until his defeat at Ballinamuck on 8 September 1798. This translation is almost verbatim the English rendering of Bruix’s orders to Humbert, preserved in the French Marine archives, and which only slightly differ from those issued to Hardy. (iv) A not very decipherable manuscript plan for the invasion of the Isle of Wight, with the landing of 12,000 men. Pp3 octavo. TheobaldWolfe Tone; Appropriated by Adjutant-General Sir George Hewett; Thence by descent; Bonhams, London, 26 June 2019, lot 17; Private collection. (i) Authentic copies of the instructions given by Gen[eral] Hoche to Colonel Tate previous to his landing on the coast of South Wales at the beginning of 1797 (London, Wright, 1798). Condition: Generally very good, small soiling on blank page of Cornot’s report. (i) Tate was to conduct a guerrilla-style raid with a unit of irregular troops known at the Légion noire in remote parts of southwest Britain. Employing the tactics of unconventional warfare, he was to ‘intercept’ communications between ports, take small towns, and levy money from wealthy civilians for their subsistence. If engaged with troops, he was encouraged to make surprise attacks and ambushes by night, spread his men and attack in different points, engage in close combat, cut throats, sow confusion, foment uprisings among the labouring classes, and generally ‘throw terror into the heart of England.’ The nature of this brief, rough draft cannot be in doubt. Stationed at Brest and awaiting the departure of the French fleet to Ireland, Tone wrote in his diary on 25 November, 1796 that he had been ‘hard at