Autograph letter signed : Milan, to Sir James [Pulteney], 1799 May 14.

Discussing the Germans in Italy: "The Germans ... are not contented to fight, to conquer, & to pursue the external enemies, but they are also intent in laying hold of the internal ones"; noting that the Germans have formed a tribunal of "three individuals who may arbitrarily arrest, & imprison, try, & condemn whatever person or persons have either openly or clandestinely discovered any partiality for the French or embraced their maxims during the last three years"; remarking that a large number of people have been arrested and "thrown into dungeons"; noting, "Two things have principally contributed to save me from a rack upon which so many thousands have wrecked -- my extreme aversion to that baneful levity of character which treating every subject, however so serious, with railery & wantonness, inclines them to break as easily as to make promises, & my unaccountable headstrong, habitual partiality for the English that hindered me from adopting the political measures of a nation directly at war with them, & aiming at nothing less than their total annihilation"; commenting on the atmosphere of Milan under the French and after occupation by the Germans.