Documents pour servir à l’histoire du « jacobinisme » en Europe, 1794-1800.

The United Provinces took part in the First Coalition which revolted against the French Republic after 1792. While France engaged in the ideological war against "the Europe of tyrants", the patriots were the first to ask for the invasion of the United Provinces where a pro-French party opposed the Stadtholder William V attached to the family of England. In 1794, England led by Pitt was more than ever determined to continue the war against the French Revolution.

The documents forming the first set (Ms1 and Ms2) lie between September and November 1794, while General Pichegru directs the Army of the North on Holland, at a key moment of the Batavian revolution of the winter of 1794, few time before the French-Batavian troops take advantage of the freezing of the Meuse and the arms of the Rhine to invade the United Provinces.

The Duke of York, second son of King George III, commander-in-chief of the British army, began his campaign in Flanders without an intelligence service. It was French emigre officers who, acting as unofficial advisers, gave information to the English army. There were many of them at the staff of the Duke of York, who quickly became to the eyes of the English valuable informants from whom one could obtain spontaneously and cheaply a lot of information. The collection of information was the responsibility of the Warrant Officer General or his assistant Deputy Warrant Officer General. The first person in charge of espionage was Colonel Harry Calvert, who sent the Duke of York and the London War Office summaries of the reports they received. He left memoirs published late in 1853 in London.

In front of the advance of the French army, the English staff worried about the progress of the "Jacobin ideas" and sought to collect information on the Dutch patriots. If we know the name of a number of their agents, it does not seem that that of Vicomte De Brie, author of the letters and the report on the "Jacobins of Amsterdam" plot, is known. His correspondent, Le Clerc, is however quite well documented.

Former officer of the dragoons, Antoine-François Leclerc de Noisy, had emigrated at the end of 1791, returned to France and emigrated again in July 1792. Then he was campaigning in the army of Princes that he met the English ambassador in Brussels, Lord Elgin, who urged his government to obtain information about France by all means, and took it to his service. Lord Elgin was so satisfied with Leclerc's fidelity and accuracy that he recommended it to Colonel Calvert. He obtained a certificate as captain in the service of his Britannic Majesty, and took care of having correspondents on the frontier and in the French armies.

It was on Le Clerc's instructions that De Brie won The Hague with the mission of setting up an undercover agent in the Amsterdam clubs to unveil the conspiracy. His letters, which inform Le Clerc at the headquarters of the Duke of York, are particularly interesting because they also give the copy of those he sends to Colonel Calvert and the summary of the instructions for Périer, his spy infiltrated in Amsterdam, who told him provides the information to write his report on the "Jacobin Conspiracy". "

Viscount De Brie and Le Clerc knew each other well. The tone of the letters is friendly, De Brie worries about the poor health of his correspondent, frequently asks him for news of his brother and all the "Society", "otherwise I will be bored like a dog. He also tells him of his concerns and his destitution, drawing on the sidelines of the information provided, the portrait of an agent whose ideological motivations are accompanied by pressing financial concerns.

The Ms3 collects the notes of an anonymous French informant on the clubs of patriots of Northern Europe between November 1799 and June 1800. They are intended for Great Britain in the context of the wars waged by the second coalition against the Republic French. They set a situation for clubs: their meeting places, their links, the names of their members and the various agents who frequent them, in the form of lists and for the most active in the form of leaflets giving information on their backgrounds and their roles. . Most are from the very beginning of the Consulate and tell us about the reception of French politics after 18 Brumaire. It reads the concern of European clubs who question the future of the Revolution in France with the arrival of Bonaparte. The figure of Talleyrand is omnipresent here, especially in Hamburg, which was one of the hubs of espionage activity on all sides.