¹ Cobban, Alfred ‘The British secret service in France 1764–1792’, English Historical Review, LXIX (1954), 226–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘The beginning of the Channel Islands correspondence 1789–1792’, ibid. LXXVII (1962), 38–9. Both are reprinted in Aspects of the French Revolution (London, 1968).

² Mitchell, Harvey, The underground war against revolutionary France. William Wickham's missions 1794–1800 (Oxford, 1965)Google Scholar. Fryer, W. R., Republic or restoration in France? 1794–1797 (Manchester, 1965)Google Scholar. For a critical appraisal of the last two works, see Cobbs's, Richard ‘Our Man in Berne’ included in A second identity (London, 1969)Google Scholar, and DrMackesy, Piers, War without victory: the downfall of Pitt 1799–1802 (Oxford, 1984)Google Scholar. Wells, Roger, The British experience (Gloucester, 1983), pp. 28–43Google Scholar.

³ Bickham Sweet-Escott to Elizabeth Sparrow dated 8.4.81 ‘…of one thing I am quite certain, that George Taylor, as I told you, said to me when I joined S.O.E that S.O.E. was hoping to do to Europe what Pitt did to France before 1807’.

⁴ Hinsley, F. H., British intelligence in the Second World War (3 vols., New York, 1979–1984)Google Scholar; Stafford, David A., Britain and the European resistance 1940–1945 (Oxford, 1980)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Howarth, Patrick, Undercover (London, 1980)Google Scholar; SirDodds-Parker, Douglas, Setting Europe ablaze (London, 1983)Google Scholar; Sweet-Escott, Bickham, Baker Street irregular (London 1965)Google Scholar.

⁵ For the lengthy debates before the Alien Act was passed, see Woodfall, William, An impartial report of the debates that occur in the two houses of parliament, XXXIV (1793), 208–37, 240–1, 243–302Google Scholar. ‘Curious letters’ from ‘Notary’ to various officials of alien office, 19 April 1799 – 13 June 1806; this correspondence was returned to C. W. Flint on the death of Notary's last alien office correspondent, Public Record Office (P.R.O.), F.O. 95/615. ‘Secret Service Papers’, Holland House collection. These list payments to agents, including decoders and cypher clerks, who were either active or could be reactivated in 1806. British Library (B.L.), Add. MSS, 51462–4.

⁶ The whole system of the treatment of mail is described by Ellis, Kenneth, The post office in the eighteenth century (London, 1958)Google Scholar.

⁷ Ibid. pp. 63, 69.

⁸ Besides use in correspondence, this term is used in the treasury accounts for payments to Henry Dundas, P.R.O. T.2 8 Nov. 1799 and 4 Feb 1800.

⁹ Woodfall, , Parliamentary reports, XXXIII (1792), 7–9, 43–5, 53–5, 109–24Google Scholar.

¹⁰ Ibid. p. 8 and C. J. Fox's opposition speech, p. 124. ‘Reeves accounts for the Police Offices 1796’, P.R.O., H.O. 42/39 fo. 39.

¹¹ 27 March 1831, William Wickham to his son Henry explaining some aspects of his career, Hampshire Record Office (H.R.O.) 38M49/1/56/24.

¹² Woodfall, , Parliamentary reports, XXXIII (1792), 53Google Scholar; P.R.O. H.O. 42/39 fo. 39. Locations of the police offices are explained in marginal notes to P.R.O., MP 1/193.

¹³ Hugh Cleghorn to William Huskisson 1 Feb. 1795. Huskisson was then under secretary at the war department, but continued to pay for alien office activities until at least 1797, P.R.O., W.O. 1/361 fo. 37.

¹⁴ Wickham to H.W., H.R.O. 38M49/1/56/24.

¹⁵ Ellis, , The post office, pp. 65–6Google Scholar.

¹⁶ Wickham to H.W., H.R.O. 38M49/1/56/24.

¹⁷ On SirNepean, Evan, see Dictionary of National Biography, XIV (London, 1960), 222Google Scholar.

¹⁸ B.L. Add. MSS, Dropmore collection II, which was not catalogued at time of reading and can still only be read by special arrangement with Mr R. A. H. Smith, who has informed me that the cataloguing of this addition to the Dropmore collection will not be completed until sometime in the 1990s.

¹⁹ Nepean, Evan to Wickham, William, 10 05 1794, ‘Miscellaneous private letters’Google Scholar, H.R.O. 38M49/6/6/1.

²⁰ Ehrman, John, The younger Pitt, vol. II: the reluctant transition (Constable 1983), pp. 393–9Google Scholar, where the background to the L.C.S. arrests is discussed in depth. Woodfall, , Parliamentary reports, XXXVIII, pp. 237–8 and 240Google Scholar.

²¹ Wickham to H. W. 27 March 1831, H.R.O. 38M49/1/56/24.

²² Duke of Portland to Wickham written at Pepplewick, 8 Sept. 1794, H.R.O. 38M49/1/40/1.

²³ Little is known of Lullins but he is likely to have been related to Mrs Wickham née Eleanor Bertrand from Geneva. Wickha m was criticized for employing too man y of his wife's relations in the alien office.

²⁴ Lullins MS, ‘Life of Wickham’, in which he described the superintendence of aliens as, ‘a branch of Police which both in its permissive and coercive attribution, had, up to that time, been greatly overlooked or neglected’, H.R.O. 38M49/1/56/40.

²⁵ Craik, George and MacFarlane, Charles, Pictorial history of England (London, 1844), IV, 44–8Google Scholar gives a detailed description of the whole Despard conspiracy, trial and executions. ‘Curious letters’, P.R.O., F.O. 95/615 shows the lengths to which the superintendents of aliens went in order to convict Despard. There is a strong suggestion that the alien office informer, ‘Notary’, was an agent provocateur and that the whole conspiracy was fabricated to procure public executions in London as a deterrent to treasonably disposed persons. The government's interest can be seen in the abstract of past application of high treason law, composed to answer the question: ‘What has been the Practice of Government in offering Rewards for the discovery ofTreason?’ This was presented to the duke of Portland on 2 Nov. 1795, Nottingham University Library, P.W.F. 10, 511.

²⁶ P.R.O., H.O. 42/39 fo. 30.

²⁷ P.R.O., H.O. 42/39 fo. 32.

²⁸ Craik, & Macfarlane, , History of England, p. 44Google Scholar.

²⁹ Ehrmann, , The younger Pitt, II, 313, 372Google Scholar; P.R.O., F.O. 74/4. Décembre-Alonnier, , Dictionnaire de la Révolution Française (2 vols., Paris, 1975), 1, 415Google Scholar; ii, 280, 682–4, Wickham to Mallet du Pan, 20 Dec. 1794: ‘I have this moment learnt that a proposal similar to the one contained in the Memoire has been made by the same Persons to the Spanish Minister at Lucerne’, H.R.O. 38M49/1/79/19/4.

³⁰ Wickham's copy of Lord Grenville's ‘Instructions for Mr Wickham during his Mission in Switzerland. 15 Oct 1794’. The original appears to have been destroyed by Wickham after he had copied it. In his letter of 27 March 1831 he was concerned that the copy ‘which you will find among my papers’ should remain concealed there ‘as they would commit two distinguished Legislators in the French chamber whose sleep is disturbed sometimes by the fear of my betraying them’. This has to be an error of old age as the two legislators of 1831 who had been employed in the British secret service were Royer Collard and André de la Lozere. They had such a well known record of support for the Bourbon restoration, that there can have been little or no secret. in 1831, H.R.O. 38M49/1/26/1.

³¹ Bodleian Library (Bod. L.) Talbot MSS, Letters and Papers of James Talbot, Baron Talbot of Malahide 1765–1852, b. 19, fos. 24–8.

³² Ibid. fos. 45–6.

³³ Mallet du Pan to Wickham, 16 Nov. 1794, addressed to Lord Robert Fitzgerald ‘pour remettre à M. Wickham’, H.R.O. 38M49/1/79/1.

³⁴ The British application of this classic French policy is illustrated by Talbot, James to Grenville, Lord 18 11 1797: ‘The effect would be the same whether the violent part of this plan were accomplished by the Jacobins or the Compagnies de Jesu, either of which description of Persons might possibly be brought to undertake it from motives directly opposite’Google Scholar, Bod. L., Talbot MSS c. 14, fos. 40–1. Talbot, to Wickham, 26 01 1799 ‘Darletti’(code name for the Comte de Précy): ‘in perhaps an excess of prudence in regard to the interior of France…violently opposed giving any underhand encouragement to the Jacobins…I have not discovered the inconvenience of fomenting a division among the persons in whom the spirit of the revolution exists’, H.R.O. 38M49/1/49/3Google Scholar.

³⁵ Mallet du Pan to Wickham, H.R.O. 38M49/1/79/1.

³⁶ Mallet du Pan to Wickham, 27 June 1795, H.R.O. 38M49/1/79/6.

³⁷ 2309 1795, Wickham, to Pan, Mallet du: ‘The correspondence between London and Paris is now perfectly open’Google Scholar, H.R.O. 38M49/1/79/11.

³⁸ Mallet du Pan to Wickham, H.R.O. 38M49/1/79/1.

³⁹ ‘Lemaitre (Pierre-Jacques) agent des Bourbons’, Décembre-Alonnier, , Dictionnaire, II, 280Google Scholar. Jacques Godechot states that Lemaitre had been released on Tallien's intercession following a previous arrest in 1792: The counter-revolution: doctrine and action 1789–1804 (London, 1972), p. 184Google Scholar.

⁴⁰ General Dumouriez described his intentions in his Mémoires, quoted by de la Croix, R. G. M. E., de Castries, due, in Le testament de la monarchie (3 vols., Paris, 1961), IIIGoogle Scholar: Les émigrés 1789–1814, p. 93: ‘J'attaquais les Autrichiens, je les faisais reculer en Allemagne, pour pouvoir ensuite, à la tête d'une armée inombrable et invincible, entrer en France la Constitution à la main, exterminer la République et ses adhérents, rétablir une loi et un roi dans m a patrie et directer ensuite la paix au reste de l'Europe’. Neerwinden was fought on 18 March 1793 and on 3 April Dumouriez ordered his troops to march on Paris. These orders were not obeyed and Dumouriez fled to the Austrians. Miranda's treason is described by Parra-Perez, Caracciolo in Miranda et la Révolution Française (Paris, 1925)Google Scholar and by Robertson, William Spence, The life of Miranda (University of North Carolina Press, 1929) ch. 6Google Scholar. See also Archives Nationales (AN.) F⁷6285 dos. Miranda.

⁴¹ List of ‘commandants’ by provinces and individual sums required, Bod. L. Talbot MSS b. 22, fO. 14.

⁴² Despatch 21 Dec. 1798 to Dandré. Unsigned, Bod. L. Talbot MSS b.25 fO. 5; d'Hauterive, Ernest, Napoléon et sa police (Paris, 1943), p. 23Google Scholar and d'Hauterive, , La contre-police royaliste en 1800 (Paris, 1931) p. 30Google Scholar; Desmarest, Pierre Marie, Quinze ans de haute police sous le Consulat er l' Empire (Paris, 1900), pp. xli–xliiiGoogle Scholar where a note on françois states that he had held a senior position in the royal police before 1789. This ‘étude sur Desmarest et les haute polic' by albert Savine uses Desmarest's own account contained in A. N. F⁷ 3007. François’ first names are given there as Jean André but every other record that I have found describes him as Jean Marie François.

⁴³ Esther (d'Escars) to Crepin (Gaillard alias Bayard), 30 Jan. 1795 H.R.O. 38M49/1/64/1.

⁴⁴ D'Escars (Esther) to Wickham, 11 June 1800; H.R.O. 38M49/1/127/84. The Comte François de Pérusse d'Escars had royal blood, Bourbon from his father, Stuart (Fitzjames) from his mother, and was the man who returned to Paris secretly in 1792 to receive Louis XVI's last orders for his brother and in 1793 visited Marie Antoinette in her cell in the Conciergerie. Later he was described as having been directed by Louis, XVIII ‘de présider à Londres, le bureau des émigrés’, de Pérusse, François Joseph, Mémoires du duc des Cars (2 vols., Paris, 1890), II, 301–2Google Scholar.

⁴⁵ Bayard to Wickham, 5 Jan. 1796. He was arranging the final stage of his correspondence ‘in a fixed and immovable manner’. He said that he had already established a correspondence for the Vendée at Saumur; at Mons to link the chouans with Paris; from Paris to Lyons and from Nyon to Lyons and Verona, H.R.O. 38M49/1/64/28.

⁴⁶ Fauche-Borel, M. le Comte de Blacas et, Précis hislorique des differents missions dans lequel M. Louis Fauche-Borel a été employé pour la cause de la monarchie suivi des pièces justicatives. (Paris, 1815)Google Scholar; Fauche-Borel, Louis, Notices sur les Généraux Pichegru et Moreau (London, 1807)Google Scholar; Papers of Louis Fauche-Borel in the Archives d' Etat, Neuchâtel (A.E.N.) include correspondence on this subject with Flint, C. W., and, in 1812 with the duke of Kent whose private secretary informed Fauche-Borel that H.R.H. would grant him an audience ‘as he preferred not to write on these matters’. Bessend-Massenet, P., Les Deux France 1799–1804 (Paris, 1949)Google Scholar; SirHall, John, General Pichegru's treason (London, 1915)Google Scholar; Godechot, Counter- Revolution. A.N. F⁷3831 (police reports on suspected generals) and AFIV 1327 (Rapports du Gendarmerie An X–XII); the entry for 24 ventose an X (14 March 1803) names generals and others believed to have a part in the conspiracy. They include Massèna and Augereau.

⁴⁷ Le Clerc to Hammond, 29 Aug. 1801, describing his career, P.R.O., F.O. 27/58.

⁴⁸ Due d'Harcourt to Lord Grenville March 1796, stating that before Wickham had appointed Le Clerc to his Legation ‘M. le Clerc de Noisy had been attached to the duke of York's army with responsibility for espionage, and had been arrested with M. de Rosuel by the Prince's order’. Grenville was warned that ‘the father, M. de Noisy was known as a very strong republican’, H.R.O. 38M49/1/54/10.

⁴⁹ Wickham's instructions to Talbot from Frankfurt, 27 Nov. 1797, Bod. L. Talbot MSS, b. 21 fos. 71–5; C. W. Flint to Grenville from ‘Alien Office’, P.R.O., F.O. 27/56.

⁵⁰ Talbot to Grenville, Bern, 9 Nov. 1797, Bod. L. Talbot MSS, c. 14, fO. 25.

⁵¹ Le Clerc to Hammond, P.R.O., F.O. 27/58; Fauche-Borel, Louis: ‘Le Clerc de Noisy was attached to Bonaparte's police from May 1802’, Fauche-Borel, , Mémories, III, 23Google Scholar.

⁵² A new history of Ireland, ed. by Moody, T. W., Martin, F. X. and Byrne, F. J. (Oxford, 1982)Google Scholar, vol. VIII, chronology 1798; Elliott, Marianne, Partners in revolution: the United Iríshmen and France (New Haven and London, 1982)Google Scholar; Fitzpatrick, W. J., The secret service under Pitt (London, 1892)Google Scholar.

⁵³ Sir James Craufurd to Lord Grenville, 9 April 1799, with an account of the arrests which Craufurd had ‘ordered’, P.R.O., F.O. 33/18.

⁵⁴ Duke of Portland to Wickham, 7 March 1799, postcript, H.R.O. 39M49/1/39/88; same to same, 9 March 1799, H.R.O. 38M49/1/39/91.

⁵⁵ M. Nion ‘Commissaire du gouvernement Française en Angleterre’, no addressee. The reply decreed that ‘no proposal could be entertained by H.M.'s Government because these persons do not come within the description of Prisoners of War’. (All four had been transferred in September from Hamburg to prison in Dublin, P.R.O., H.O. 28/25.)

⁵⁶ Craufurd to Grenville, 23 Sept. 1799, P.R.O., F.O. 33/18. The prisoners described terrible conditions. Fitzpatrick, , Secret service, pp. 75–80, 342–9Google Scholar.

⁵⁷ Craufurd to Wickham, 8 April 1799, H.R.O. 38M49/1/66/27. Craufurd enjoyed this aspect of his job; he had written to Wickham on 28 Aug. 1798 that he had ‘had Duckett arrested…I am in hopes of getting some more of these Irish rascals and of getting their papers by some means, – which could be more valuable to us than their persons. That is to say I do not mean to go to the length of assassination, but an enlèvement I should have no objection to. Would an act of vigour of this kind be disapproved at home ? I…should of course keep out of the way personally and always have it in my power to disavow anything which might make an éclat’, H.R.O. 38M49/1/66/4. Elliott, refers to Craufurd's, ‘policing’ in Partners in revolution, pp. 260–1Google Scholar and to Duckett's arrest, pp. 218–20.

⁵⁸ Craufurd to Grenvílle, 27 Sept. 1799, P.R.O., F.O. 33/18.

⁵⁹ Grenville to duke of Portland, 22 April 1800, P.R.O., H.O. 52/8.

⁶⁰ Woodfall, , Parliamentary reports, 2nd Series, II (1979–1978), 391Google Scholar.

⁶¹ Appointment by Royal Warrant dated 5 July 1798, P.R.O., H.O. 38.7. William Macintosh, (an amateur agent then also in Swabia) to Talbot, James, 3 07 1798 (i.e. two days before the Warrant): ‘I have great pleasure in announcing to you that in virtue of the last regulation by Act of Parliament concerning Strangers, a Department is formed in the duke of Portland's office – and our friend Flint is named Chief, with 4 Clerks under him–’, Bod. L. Talbot MSS, b. 23 fos. 12–13Google Scholar.

⁶² Wickham to Henry Addington, 27 Jan. 1802, Devon Record Office (D.R.O.) Sidmouth 152M/C OZ 2/1802.

⁶³ Passport dated Gravesend 27 Dec. 1797, P.R.O., Calonne papers, P.C. 1/133/11.

⁶⁴ ‘Etat des Services’, 14 Mai 1798, sent by Moser to the duke of Portland, P.R.O., Calonne papers, P.C. 1/133/13 and Calonne's undated recommendation of Moser, directed to Lord Grenville, P.C. 1/125/29. On 12 Aug. 1798 Moser begs Calonne to get Grenville to reply. He understood the interdependence of the alien office with both the foreign and home offices and in a letter to Wickham of 23 Nov. 1798 Moser commented that he had told Lord Grenville in a preceding packet that ‘several of the objects were relative to your department’, P.R.O., P.C. 1/133/25. On 5 06 1798 Wickham, wrote to Grenville, trying to prevent Moser's employment on the continent ‘because I want the man here –’, B.L. Add. MSS, Dropmore 59011 fO. 155Google Scholar.

⁶⁵ ‘Nous Charles Alexandre de Calonne ancien Ministre d'Etat en France autorisons et chargeons par le présent M. Jean Louis de Moser agent de plusieurs Princes du Saint Empire de se rendre en Allemagne aupres du tel Prince ou du tel Régime qu'il jugera convenable à nos interets à effet d'y traiter en notre nom–’, P.R.O., P.C. 1/133/32.

⁶⁶ Moser to Calonne, Hamburg, 26 July 1798, P.R.O. P.C. 1/133/21.

⁶⁷ P.R.O., H.O. 5/4 fO. 305.

⁶⁸ P.R.O., H.O. 5/4 fO. 375.

⁶⁹ Moser to Calonne, P.R.O., PC. 1/133/21.

⁷⁰ B.L., French Tracts, ‘Conspiration Anglaise’, shelfmark 1195 fO. 20. (C. W. Flint's own copy, annotated by him in the margins.) Desmarest, , Quinze ans de haute police, Savine's preface, pp. lii–liiiGoogle Scholar, where he states that Dupérou's chouannerie was based on Babeuf's Jacobin plan. Certainly François Dufour, who was officially implicated (although in a minor role) in Babeuf's conspiracy was later working for the royalists. Savine also quotes Desmarest's statement that it was Fouché's private secretary Terrage who provided Dupérou with secret lists of police spies. Also see d'Hauterive Le contre-police en 1800 and A.N. F⁷6245 and F⁷6250. As the English committee disliked direct contact with the British government they corresponded with Dutheil and d'Artois. This correspondence with alien office reports is found in P.R.O., F.O. 27/56. Payments to Dutheil in Lord Grenville's GH account with Coutts & CO. (GH stood for ‘Subject to George Hammond’)

⁷¹ Aymé to Dandré, undated. An attached note on Aymé states that he was a barrister who remained in government except under the Terror. He was said to believe that almost all the people of France wanted a constitution like Great Britain's but preferred tranquility to the restoration of the monarchy, H.R.O. 38M49/1/121/23.

⁷² Darrah, David, Conspiracy in Paris (New York, 1953)Google Scholar; de Martel, Le Comte, La Machine infernale and L'Etude sur l'affaire de 3 Nivôse (Paris, 1885)Google Scholar; Loredan, Jean, La Machine infernale (Paris, 1924)Google Scholar; Thiers, Louis Adolphe, History of the Consulate and the Empire of France under Napoleon (20 vols., London, 1845–1962)Google Scholar; A.N. F⁷6271, F⁷6332, A^A254.

⁷³ A.N. F⁷3829, Police reports.

⁷⁴ Grenville to Craufurd, 28 April 1799, P.R.O., F.O. 33/18 & B.L. Add. MSS Huskisson 38, 769.

⁷⁵ Remacle, Le Comte, Relations secrète des agents de Louis XVIII à Paris sous le Consulat (Paris, 1899), pp. 436–7Google Scholar; Préfecture de Police, 5^me Arrondissement, A/334 Registres du Temple 4 Vendémaire (25 Sept. 1803).

⁷⁶ Desmarest, , Quinze ans de haute police, pp. xliv–xlviGoogle Scholar; A.N. F⁷3829.

⁷⁷ ‘Bulletin’ from Paris, Bod. L., Talbot MSS, b. 26 fos. 158–9.

⁷⁸ A. E. N. Fauche-Borel papers, ‘22 Juin 1807; Notice pour Mr Fauche-Borrel (sic) en sa qualité de Commissaire nommé par le Gouvernement, pour lui faire un Rapport sur les traitemens promis à plusieurs personnes qui ont été employé dans l'intérieur de la France pour le service de l'Angleterre. Mr Le Clerc de Boisvallon’ (sic). Other payments of annuities and allowances for secret service are listed in B.L., Holland House papers, Add. MSS 51462–4. In spite of finding Le Clerc's papers, Savary was forced to admit that he was unable to unravel fully the organization based on Rouen an d Boulogne. Le Clerc de Boisvalon had been at Boulogne first, then at Tréport from where he went to Abbéville before escaping to England. A list of documents found in Le Clerc de Boisvalon's papers is included in ‘Documents relatifs à la Police Secréte et à différentes conspirations sous le Consulat et l' Empire’, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Acquisitions nouvelles françaises 3572.

⁷⁹ John King to Lord Grenville, 28 May 1801, B.L. Add. MSS 58972, fos. 55–6.

⁸⁰ Marsden, Wm to d'Auvergne, Captain, Admiralty Office, 6 03 1804: ‘Secret, Sir, I have…to (direct) you to order the Commanders of any small Cruizers which you may have under your Orders, to stand in as close to the Coast of France as may be consistent with their safety, in order to favour the escape of Generals Pichegru an d Georges, or other Persons who have lately escaped from Paris’, P.R.O., P.C. 1/3596Google Scholar. That this conspiracy was a very close run thing is illustrated by Desmarest's informed comment that: ‘Without the revelation of one of the conspirators, the fall of Napoleon seemed inevitable’ He was then head of the reorganized and separate secret police: Desmarest, , Quinze ans de haute police, p. 21Google Scholar.

⁸¹ Duke of Portland to Wickham, 10 March 1804, H.R.O. 38M49/1/39/93.

⁸² A.N. F⁷6245 (Copy of ‘Passeport (en blanc) pour voyager dans l'interieur de la République’).

⁸³ Somerset Record Office (S.R.O.), Drake DD/N.E.5. d'Hauterive, Ernest supports this thesis in his Napoléon et sa police (Paris, 1943)Google Scholar. For the generally accepted view of Mehée de la Touche, see Bertaud, Jean Paul, Bonaparte et le due d' Enghien: la duel des deux France (Paris, 1972)Google Scholar.

⁸⁴ B.L. Add. MSS, Dropraore 59010; Add. MSS Liverpool, 38, 569; S.R.O., Drake DD/N.E.5.

⁸⁵ Wickham's, William ‘secret account’ with Baboin, Romain1799–1801Google Scholar, H.R.O. 38M49/4/18.

⁸⁶ Ransom, , Morland, and Hammersley, were authorized by the duke of Portland in 07 1795 ‘to give letters of Credit on Nantes or other parts of France in favour of such Persons as Monsieur le Comte de Sarrant shall require to the extent of £25,000’Google Scholar, B.L. Add. MSS, Huskisson 38,769, fO. 18.

⁸⁷ Windham, William to Wickham, William, 7 08 1795, on the subject of providing funds in Lyon: ‘I wish to suggest to you, whether a n expedient may not be resorted to, of which I have found the use on other occasion, of employing Hammersley's circular notes. They are so well known, as to be payable in almost any place, without it being known to the persons who issue them, for what place, and still less for which persons they are intended’ H.R.O. 38M49/1/1/58/1Google Scholar. Talbot to Canning, 5 Aug. 1798, explaining that he had arranged a direct correspondence between Paris and London and another via the Île de Marcou off the Normandy coast which was British occupied, using variations of this bank's name as addressee and a false address, nO. 600 Pall Mall. (The correct number was 560), P.R.O., F.O. 74/22.

⁸⁸ Coutts & CO.'s Archives, 440 Strand, London.

⁸⁹ B.L. Add. MSS, Huskisson 38, 769, fO. 16.

⁹⁰ Ibid.

⁹¹ Hansard, T. C., The parliamentary debates from the year 1803 to the present time, V, 15 May – 12 06 1805Google Scholar, H. of C. pebate on ‘Irish secret service money’

⁹² The Treasury accounts for the period give an indication of the immense sums involved but they did not include either the cost of continental troops which came in the Army estimate, or the sums passed through the GH accounts at Coutts. As an instance, Lord Grenville was debited with £135,000 for foreign secret service in April 1800, and the duke of Portland with £21,000 for home secret service between 5 March and 5 May 1800, P.R.O. T.2. 1800.

⁹³ Hutt, Maurice, Chouannerie and counter-revolution (2 vols., Cambridge, 1983)Google Scholar.

⁹⁴ William Wickham to his son Henry, 25 Oct. 1830, H.R.O. 38M49/4/4/9.

⁹⁵ Ibid.

⁹⁶ Unsigned communication, dated Paris, 13 Mai 1801, P.R.O., F.O. 95/2/5.

⁹⁷ Tulard, Jean, ‘Whitworth, Sir Charles’, Dictionnaire Napoléon (Paris, 1987), p. 1750Google Scholar; de Grunwald, Constantin, L' Assassinat de Paul ler Tsar de Russie (Paris, 1960), pp. 174–5, 179–82Google Scholar.

⁹⁸ d'Hauterive, Ernest, Police secrète du Premier Empire (Paris, 1908), p. 12Google Scholar; III Bulletin du 19 Sept. 1807, Bosset family archives, privately owned, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

⁹⁹ Wickham to H.W., H.R.O. 38M49/4/4/9.

¹⁰⁰ Wright, Peter with Greengrass, Paul, Spycatcher: the candid autobiography of a senior intelligence officer (New York, 1987)Google Scholar.