Folio 180: Harcourt to Weymouth. The militia are to be assembled in May, amounting...

Folio 180: Harcourt to Weymouth. The militia are to be assembled in May, amounting to 60,000 men. The grenadier companies are to be formed into a body of royal grenadiers for a month of exercises. The battalions are to be dismissed after a week. He reports weaknesses in the regular troops, and increases in the strengths of the four hussar regiments. The crown is in debt, officers pensions are four years in arrears and little is left in the royal treasury. Begliardi has come too late to prevent the presentation of du Barry at court [see f.172]. In spite of absurd rumours, Goltz is here mainly to agree about Silesian wool. Green is leaving for Nantes with a cover story. The number of French warships is confirmed as 61 [see f.147]. Chamier reports a useful contact with an Irishman, who had been an officer in the Compagnie des Indes. He reports the fortifying of St. Mary's island off Madagascar and a force of 2000 men in the legion of the Isles de France, that La Motte, of the Soubise legion, has been sent to negotiate with Indian princes and that France has 6000 Europeans on the Ile de Bourbon and Mauritius.

Date and place: 1769 Mar 26 Paris.