text:  It will scarcely be believed in a day like ours which has seen and survived the French Revolution that the chief theme of the period and especial terror of the opposition was the conquest of Corsica by the French! Ministers seem to have been deterred from a war with the French monarchy solely by the dislocated state of the cabinet; while the opposition declared that the possession of Corsica by the French would be "the death-blow to our influence in the Mediterranean