Taken up again under the administration of Citizen Bruix, it had the same fate after about four months of waiting. A reception so little favorable on the part of the first magistrates of France, whose duty it is to encourage discoveries tending to spread liberty and to establish harmony among nations, proves to me that it was considered with a false idea of the physical as well as the moral effects of this machine.
Let us see first what would be for France the immediate effects of the Nautilus. The loss of the first English ship destroyed by extraordinary means would throw the English Government into utter embarrassment. It would realize that its whole navy could be destroyed by the same means, and by the same means it would be possible to blockade the Thames and to cut off the whole commerce of London. Under such circumstances what would the consternation be in England? How would Pitt then be able to support the allied powers? The result would be that deprived of Pitt’s guineas, the coalition would vanish and France thus delivered from its numerous enemies would be able to work without obstacle for the strengthening of its liberty and for peace.
After having thus shown the happy effects that would follow immediately a success by the Nautilus, I pass to the objections, quite as commonplace as they are lacking in philosophy, that have been raised against this machine. I will show below how the Nautilus can further real liberty and establish harmony among peoples.
The first objection is that if France should make use of the Nautilus against England, England would be equally able to make use of it against France. But it does not seem to me any way likely that the English would make use of it against France because before they could become acquainted with the mechanism, France would be able to blockade the Thames and cut off commerce from London and thus reduce the cabinet of St. James to terms of the most complete submission.
It is the naval force of England that is the source of all the incalculable horrors that are committed daily. It is the English navy which supports the English Government, and it is that Government which by its intrigues has been the cause of two-thirds of the crimes that have marked the course of the revolution.
If by means of the Nautilus one could succeed in destroying the English navy, it would be possible with a fleet of Nautilus to blockade the Thames to the end that England would become a republic. Soon Ireland would throw off the yoke and the English monarchy would be wiped out. A rich and industrious nation would then increase the number of republics of Europe and this would be a long step toward liberty and universal peace.