ABSTRACT
The Choice’, dubiously attributed to Ellis, warns of a comparison between Bonaparte and the Prophet Mohammed. In the summer of 1797 Pitt sent Malmesbury to Lisle to negotiate for peace, offering terms generous enough to have caused an outcry in Britain, had they been made public. Malmesbury’s efforts were prolonged by intransigence from the Directory. Any genuine chance of settlement was lost in the coup d’etat of 4 September, which ousted the Directory’s moderates. The ‘negotiation at Lisle exposed the unreasonable pretensions and preposterous conduct of the French in a light which reconciled the country to the continuance of war’ wrote Lord Holland. 1
