At the end of October a French squadron under Brueys appeared at Gravosa, and the Admiral offered the Republic the “good offices” of France, which were politely declined on the ground that Ragusa was under Turkish suzerainty. In August 1798 the French military authorities demanded the loan of some ships for the expedition to Egypt, and the request was granted. This caused General Brady, in command of the Austrians at Cattaro, to reprimand the Senate severely for its breach of neutrality, and he had to be appeased by a loan of 12,000 florins for his war chest. A short time afterwards a French agent named Briche came to Ragusa to raise a loan of 1,000,000 francs for France, and by means of threats induced the Senate to pay 400,000 down and issue two bills for 100,000 each. Austrian spies discovered this transaction, and informed their Government that the young men of Ragusa were imbued with French ideas. But the Senate cleverly protested against this forced contribution both in Vienna and in Constantinople, and suggested that the most adequate protection against similar extortions would be the presence of a few British frigates in the Adriatic. Caracciolo, their agent at Naples, opened negotiations with the British Minister for the purpose. At the same time their agent in Paris tried to obtain the remission of the bills, but without success, and the 200,000 francs had to be paid to Dubois, the French Commissary in the Adriatic. Another misfortune befell the Republic, which had a large sum of money invested in the Bank of Vienna. As the Emperor was again going to war the Bank made a call on the shareholders of 30 per cent. of their capital. Ragusa tried to shirk this payment, but in vain, and somehow the sum was procured. To meet these liabilities new taxes had to be raised, which fell chiefly on the peasants, hitherto almost exempt; the price of salt was increased, and every one was forced to buy a large amount of that commodity. This caused serious discontent, especially among the peasants of Canali, who had never been too loyal to the Republic; they now refused to pay the taxes, and rose in revolt. Eight Senators, who owned land in that district, went to try to induce them to hear reason, and this mission having failed, the Pasha of Trebinje was asked to place a corps of observation along the frontier to prevent the rebels from crossing over into Turkish territory, while General Brady was asked to send an Austrian detachment to help to quell the revolt, expressly requesting that they should be Germans, and not ex-Venetian soldiers. Brady, however, had too few troops to dispose of, and no authority to enter Ragusan territory. At the same time a deputation of Canalesi called on him and explained their grievances and the persecutions inflicted by the Ragusans, which they attributed to the fact “that they (the Canalesi) had refused to follow the nobles in their Jacobin ideas.” This was