Page:An Account of Corsica (1769).djvu/155

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
OF CORSICA
145

In this manner was Corsica totally vanquished by France, of which the Genoese were as proud, as if it had been their own atchievement. They gave in proposals to M. de Maillebois, for keeping the island in perpetual quiet. These proposals are preserved by M. Jaussin [1]; and they are such, as any state should be ashamed of. Amongst many other barbarous schemes, one was, to transport a considerable number of the inhabitants, and make them over to the king of France, to people his distant colonies. Could there be a more harsh, or a more absurd measure, than this? Jaussin is much on the side of Genoa, and through the whole of his two volumes, does not seem to have felt one spark of true liberty, or at all to have entered into the spirit of what the Corsicans were fighting for; yet when he recites this proposal, he cannot help saying: 'Il sembloit par là qu'ils auroient été contens d' etre soverains des seuls rochers de Corfe fans fujets[2]. It would thence appear, that the Genoese would have been satisfied to be sovereigns of the bare rocks of Corsica, without subjects.'

  1. Jaussin, tom. i. p. 468.
  2. lb. p. 481.

H