ably applied to every other antecedent treaty or convention, namely, that they were negociated with reference to the actual state of possession of the different parties, and of the treaties or public engagements by which they were bound at the time of its conclusion; and that if that state of possession, and of engagements, was so materially altered by the act of either of the parties as to affect the nature of the compact itself, the other party has a right, according to the law of nations, to interfere for the purpose of obtain ing satisfaction or compensation for any essential difference which such acts may have subsequently made in their relative situation; that if there ever was a case to which this principle might be applied with peculiar propriety, it was that of the late treaty of peace; for the negotiation was conducted on a basis not merely proposed by his Majesty, but spe cially agreed to in an official note by the French government, viz. that his Majesty should keep a compensation out of his conquests for the important acquisitions of territory made by France upon the Continent. This is a sufficient proof that the compact was understood to have been concluded with trouled, than to be the publisher of such occasional articles, in that case all influence was at an end. I told him, that if he had remarked any abusive article in any paper of such a description, it was natural and fair to conclude that it did not depend upon government to prevent it. He persisted in his opnion, that his Majesty's ministers might keep certain papers in order, as I did in assuring him, that until the First Consul could so far master his feelings as to be as indifferent to the scurrility of the English prints, as the English government was to that which daily appeared in the French, this state of irrita tion was irremediable. I told him however, that I would report the substance of this communication to your lordship, although I could assure him that your lordship could add nothing to the explanation which had been given, and in such detail by Mr. Merry from your lordship. M. Talleyrand, with great solemnity, required of me to inform him, and this by the express order of the First Consul, what were his Majesty's intentions with regard to the evacuation of Malta. He again on this occasion made great professions of his sincere desire to set aside every thing which could interrupt the good under-reference to the then existing state of things ; standing between the two governments; ad- for the measure of his Majesty's compensading, that it was absolutely necessary that tion was to be calculated with reference to the French government should know what it the acquisitions of France at that tune; and was meant to do, when that clause in the if the interference of the French governTreaty of Amiens, which stipulates the ces- ment in the general affairs of Europe, since sion of Malta, should be fully accomplished. that period; if their interposition with reHe said that another Grand Master would spect to Switzerland and Holland, whose innow very soon be elected; that ail the dependence was guaranteed by them at the powers of Europe invited so to do, with the time of the conclusion of the treaty of peace; exception of Russia, whose difficulties it was if the annexations which have been made to easy to remove, and without whom the gua- France in various quarters, but particularly ranty would be equally complete, were ready those in Italy, have extended the territory to come forward and that consequently the and increased the power of the French goterm would very soon arrive, when Great vernment, his Majesty would be warranted, Britain could have no pretext for keeping consistently with the spirit of the treaty of longer possession, I informed him that I peace, in claiming equivalents for these acwould report his conversation to your lord-quisitions, as a counterpoise to the augmenship, and would have the honour of communicating to him your lordship's answer as soon as I could receive it. I have the honour to be, &c. WHITWORTH. Right Hon. Lord Hawkesbury, &c. Downing-street, February 9, 1803. No. 36.-My Lord, in answer to your excellency's dispatch of January 27, relative to the inquiry made of you, by the French government, on the subject of Malta, I can have no difficulty in assuring you, that his Majesty has entertained a most sincere desire that the Treaty of Amiens might be executed in a full and complete manner; but it has not been possible for him to consider this treaty as having been founded on principles different from those which have been invari tation of the power of France. His Majesty, however, anxious to prevent all ground of misunderstanding, and desirous of consolidating the general peace of Europe, as far as might be in his power, was willing to have waived the pretensions he might have a righ to advance of this nature; and as the other articles of the definitive treaty have been in a course of execution on his part, so he would have been ready to have carried into effect the true intent and spirit of the 10th article, the execution of which, according to its terms, had been rendered impracticable by circumstances which it was not in his Majesty's power to controul. A communication to your lordship would accordingly have been prepared conformably to this disposi tion, if the attention of his Majesty's go- has furnished me. I recapitulated them all the principle on which the treaty of Amiens was founded; and the right which naturally arose from that principle, of interference on our part for the purpose of obtaining satisfac-i tion or compensation, for any essential differ rences which may have arisen in the relative situation of the two countries. I instanced the cases, beginning with Italy and concluding with Switzerland, in which the territory or influence of France had been extended subse quent to the treaty of Amiens. I representedto him that this principle of compensation had been fully and formally admitted by the French government, in the course of the negotiation at Amiens. I then told him that notwith standing the indisputable right which his Ma jesty might have derived of claiming some counterpoise for such acquisitions, instructions would have been given me, by which I should have been empowered to declare his Majesty's readiness to carry into effect the full intent of the 10th article of the treaty, if the attention of his Majesty's government had not been roused by the official publication of Colonel Sebastiani's report to the First Consul. It was useless to recapitulate the particulars of this very extraordinary report; but I appealed to him whether it was not of a nature, exclusive of the personal allusions it contained, to excite the utmost jealousy in the minds of his Majes ty's ministers, and to demand on their part every measure of precaution. I concluded with the distinct declaration, that it was im possible for his Majesty to enter into any fur ther discussion relative to Malta, unless he received satisfactory explanations on the subject of the First Consul's views. M. de Talleyrand in his reply, did not attempt to dispute the drift of my argument. He admitted, with an affected tone of candour, that the jealously we felt on the score of Egypt, with a view to our possessions in India, was natural. But he could not admit that any thing had appeared in the conduct of the French government in jus tification of the alarm we expressed. After repeating what he had said to me in a former conversation, on the subject of Sebastiani's mission, which he asserted to be strictly com mercial, he expatiated at great length on the sincere desire of the First Consul to maintain No. 37.-Extract of a dispatch from Lord inviolable the peace which had been so lately Whitworth to Lord Hawkesbury, dated Paris, concluded; adding, that the situation of the February 17, 1803.—I have the honour to ac- French finances was such, that were not this quaint your lordship that I saw M, de Talley- desire of peace in the First Consul an effect of rand on Tuesday last, for the purpose of car- system, it would be most imperiously dictated rying into effect your lordship's instructions of to him by the total impossibility in which this the 9th ins ant. I began by telling him that I country found itself of carrying on that ex had nothing new to comm. nicate to him; but tensive state of warfare, which even a partial merely to confirm officially that which I had rupture would naturally lead to. He exalready from myself premised. I did not pressed great surprize, therefore, that any sus however pass over with the same indiffe-picion should attach, when the means of disrence, the arguments with which your lordship turbing the public tranquillity were, as must be His Excellency, Lord Whitworth, K. B. &c. well known in England, so completely want-he considered as much more mischievous, since ing; and desired to know what was the na- it was meant to excite this country against him ture and degree of satisfaction which his Ma- and his government. He complained of the jesty would require. On this I told him, that protection given to Georges and others of his I could not pretend to say by what means those deseription, who instead of being sent to Canaapprehensions, which the conduct of this go- da, as had been repeatedly promised, were pervernment had raised in England, were to be mitted to remain in England, handsomely penallayed; but I could assure him, that in the sioned, and constantly committing all sorts of discussion of them, we should be animated crimes on the coasts of France, as well as in solely by a sincere desire to be convinced of the interior. In conformation of this, he told the truth of his assertions, since on that de- me, that two men had within these few days pended the peace and happiness of Europe. I been apprehended in Normandy, and were took this opportunity of assuring him, that now on their way to Paris, who were hialthough, according to his statement of the red assassins, and emploved by the bishop of situation of France, we might possess in a Arras, by the baron de Rolle, by Georges, and greater degree the means of supporting the ex- by Dutheil, as would be fully proved in a pence of a war, since those means arose from court of juftice, and made known to the Sources which even a state of warfare did not world. He acknowledged, that the irritation dry up, vet such was his Majesty's sincere de- he felt against England increased daily, besire of maintaining peace, that nothing but cause every wind (I make use as much as I can absolute and unavoidable necessity would ever of his own ideas and expressions) which blew induce him to deprive his subjects of the bless- from England brought nothing but enmity and ings which they begin to enjoy. hatred against him. He now went back to Paris, February 21, 1803. Egypt, and told me, that if he had felt the No. 38. My lord, my last dispatch, in smallest inclination to take possession of it by which I gave your lordship an account of my force, he might have done it a month ago, by conference with M. de Talleyrand, was scarce- sending twenty-five thousand men to Aboukir, ly gone, when I received a note from him, in- who would have possessed themselves of the forming me that the First Consul wished to whole country in defiance of the four thousand converse with me, and desired I would come British in Alexandria. That instead of that to him at the Thuilleries at nine o'clock. He garrison being a means of protecting Egypt, it received me in his cabinet, with tolerable cor- was only furnishing him with a pretence for indiality, and, after talking on different subjects vading it, This he should not do, whatever for a few minutes, he desired me to sit down, might be his desire to have it as a colony, beas he himself did on the other side of the ta- cause he did not think it worth the risk of a ble, and began. He told me, that he felt it war, in which he might, perhaps, be considered necessary after what had passed between me as the aggressor, and by which he should lose and M. de Talleyrand that he should in the more than he could gain, since sooner or later most clear and authentic manner, make known Egypt would belong to France, either by the fallhis sentiments to me in order to their being ing to pieces of the Turkish Empire, or by some communicated to his Majesty; and he con- arrangement with the Porte. As a proof of his ceived this would be more effectually done by desire to maintain peace, he wished to know himself than through any medium whatever. what he had to gain by going to war with He said, it was a matter of infinite disappoint- England. A descent was the only means of - ment to him, that the treaty of Amiens, instead offence he had, and that he was determined to of being followed by conciliation and friend- attempt, by putting himself at the head of the ship, the natural effects of peace, had been pro- expedition. But how could it be supposed, ductive only of continual and increasing jea- that after having gained the height on which lousy and mistrust; and that this mistrust was he stood, he would risk his life and reputation now avowed in such a manner as muft bring in such a hazardous attempt, unless forced to the point to an issue. He now enumerated it by necessity, when the chances were that he the several provocations which he pretended to and the greatest part of the expedition would have received from England. He placed in go to the bottom of the sea. He talked much the first line our not evacuating Malta and on this subject, but never affected to diminish Alexandria as we were bound to do by treaty. the danger, He acknowledged that there In this he said that no consideration on earth were one hundred chances to one against him; should make him acquiesce; and of the two but still he was determined to attempt it, if he had rather see us in possession of the Faux-war should be the consequence of the bourg St. Antoine than Malta. He then adverted to the abuse thrown out against him in the English public prints; but this he said, he did not so much regard as that which appeared in the French papers published in London, This present discussion; and that such was the disposition of the troops, that army after army would be found for the enterprize. He then expatiated much on the natural force of the two countries. France with an army of four hundred and eighty thousand men, for to this amount, it is, he said, to be immediately completed, all ready for the most desperate enterprizes; and England with a fleet that made her mistress of the seas, and which he did not think he should be able to equal in less than ten years. Two such countries by a proper understanding might gov. ern the world, but by their strifes might overturn it. He said, that if he had not felt the enmity of the British government on every occasion since the Treaty of Amiens, there would have been nothing that he would not have done to prove his desire to conciliate; participation in indemnities as well as in influence on the Continent; treaties of commerce; in short, any thing that could have given satisfaction, and have testified his friendship. Nothing, however, had been able to conquer the hatred of the British government, and therefore it was now come to the point, whether we should have peace or war. To preserve peace the Treaty of Amiens must be fulfilled; the abuse in the public prints, if not totally suppressed, at least kept within bounds, and confined to the Eng. lish papers; and the protection so openly given to his bitterest enemies (alluding to Georges and persons of that description) must be withdrawn. If war, it was necessary only to say so, and to refuse to fulfil the treaty. He now made the tour of Europe to prove to me, that in its present stare, there was no power with which we could coalesce for the purpose of making war against France; consequently it was our interest to gain time, and if we had any point to gain renew the war when circumstances were more favourable. He said, it was not doing him justice to suppose, that he conceived himself above the opinion of his country or of Europe. He would not risk uniting Europe against him by any violent act of aggression; neither was he so powerful in France as to persuade the nation to go to war unless on good grounds. He said, that he had not chastised the Algerines, from his unwillingness to excite the jealousy of other powers, but he hoped that England, Russia, and France would one day feel that it was their interest to destroy such a nest of thieves, and force them to live rather by cultivating their land than by plunder. In the little I said to him, for he gave me in the course of two hours but very few opportunities of saying a word, I confined myself strictly to the tenor of your lordship's instructions. I urged them in the same manner as I had done to M, de Talleyrand, and dwelt as strongly as I could on the sensation which the publication of Sebastiani's report had created in England, where the views of France towards Egypt must always command the utmost vigilance and jealousy. He maintained that what ought to convince us of his desire of peace, was on the one hand the little he had to gain by renewing the war, and on the other the facility with which he might have taken possession of Egypt with the very ships and troops which were now going from the Mediterranean to St. Domingo, and that with the approbation of all Europe, and more particularly of the Turks, who had repeatedly invited him to join with them for the purpose of forcing us to evacuate their territory. I do not pretend to follow the arguments of the First Consul in detail; this would be impossible, from the vast variety of matter, which he took occasion to introduce. His purpose was evidently to convince me that on Malta must depend peace or war, and at the same time to impress upon my mind a strong idea of the means he possessed of annoying us at home and abroad. With regard to the mistrust and jealousy which he said constantly prevailed since the conclusion of the Treaty of Amiens, I observed that after a war of such long duration, so full of rancour, and carried on in a manner of which history has no example, it was but natural that a considerable degree of agitation should prevail; but this, like the swell after a storm, would gradually subside, if not kept up by the policy of either party: that I would not pretend to pronounce which had been the aggressor in the paper war of which he complained, and which was still kept up,though with this difference,that in England it was independent of government, and in France its very act and deed. To this I added, that it must be admitted that we had such motives of mistrust against France as could not be alleged against us, and I was going to instance the accession of territory and influence gained by France since the treaty, when he interrupted me by saying, I suppose you mean Piedmont and Switzerland; ce sont des Bagatelles:" and it must have been foreseen whilst the ne gotiation was pending; "Vous n'avez pas lo droi d'en parler à cette heure." I then al leged as a cause of mistrust and of jealousy, the impossibility of obtaining justice or any kind of redress for any of his Majesty's subjects. He asked me in what respect; and I told him that since the signing of the treaty, not one British claimant had been satisfied, although every Frenchman of that description had been so within one month after that period; and that since I had been here, and I could say as much of my predecessors, not one satisfactory answer had been obtained to the innumerable representations which we had been under the necessity of making in favour of British subjects and property detained in the several ports of France and elsewhere, without even a shadow of justice: such an order of things, I said, was not made to inspire confi dence; but, on the contrary, must create mistrust. This, he said, must be attributed to the natural difficulties attending such suits, when both parties thought themselves right; but he denied that such delays could pro The Right Hon. Lord Hawkesbury, &c. ceed from any disinclination to do what was discussion, where that could be done without just and right. With regard to the pensions violating the laws of the country, and to fulwhich were granted to French or Swiss in- fil strictly the engagements which they had dividuals, I observed that they were given as contracted, in as much as that could be rea reward for past services during the war, conciled with the safety of the state. As and most certainly not for present ones, and this applied to Malta and Egypt, he gave me still less for such as had been insinuated, of a to understand that a project was in contemnature repugnant to the feelings of every in- plation, by which the integrity of the dividual in England, and to the universally Turkish empire would be so effectually seacknowledged loyalty and honour of the Bri-cured as to do away every cause of doubt or tish government. That as for any partici- uneasiness, either with regard to Egypt or pation of indemnities, or other accessions any part of the Turkish dominions. He which his Majesty might have obtained, I could not then, he said, explain himself farcould take upon myself to assure him that ther. Under these circumstances no one his Majesty's ambitition led him rather to can expect that we should relinquish that preserve than to acquire. And that with re- assurance which we have in hand, till somegard to the most propitious moment for re-thing equally satisfactory is proposed. newing hostilities, his Majesty, whose sinWHITWORTH. cere desire it was to continue the blessings of peace to his subjects, would always consider Downing-street, Feb. 28th, 1803. such a measure as the greatest calamity: but No. 39. My Lord, Your excellency's that if his Majesty was so desirous of peace, dispatch, of February 21st, has been reit must not be imputed to the difficulty of ceived, and laid before the King. I have obtaining allies; and the less so, as those great satisfaction in communicating to you means which it might be necessary to afford his Majesty's entire approbation of the able such allies, for perhaps inadequate services, and judicious manner in which you appear to would all be concentrated in England, and have executed the instructions which I gave give a proportionate increase of energy to to you in my dispatch of the 9th instant. our own exertions. At this part of the con- The account you have given of your interversation he rose from his chair, and told view with the First Consul, is in every reme that he should give orders to General spect important. It is unnecessary for me Andréossy to enter on the discussion of this to remark on the tone and temper in which business with your lordship; but he wished the sentiments of the First Consul appear to that I should, at the same time, be made have been expressed, or to offer any ob acquainted with his motives, and convinced servations in addition to those so properly of his sincerity, rather from himself than made by your excellency at the time, upon from his ministers. He then, after a con- several of the topics which were brought versation of two hours, during the greatest forward by the First Consul in the course of part of which he talked insessantly, con- your conversation; I shall therefore content versed for a few moments on indifferent sub- myself with referring your excellency to my jects, in apparent good humour, and retired. dispatch to Mr. Merry of August 25, 1802, Such was nearly, as I can recollect, the pur- in which the subject of the complaints of the port of this conference. It must, however, French government, respecting the freedom be observed, that he did not, as M. Talley of the press, the emigrants, &c. are partirand had done, affect to attribute Colonel cularly discussed. I cannot, however, avoid Sebastiani's mission to commercial motives only, noticing, that nothing approaching to ex- but as one rendered necessary in a militaryplanation or satisfaction is stated to have been point of view, by the infraction by us of the thrown out by the First Consul, in answer to treaty of Amiens. I have the honour to be, the just representations and complaints of his WHITWORTH. Majesty, in consequence of the unwarrantP. S. This conversation took place on Fri-able insinuations and charges contained in dry last, and this morning I saw M. de Tal- Colonel Sebastiani's report against his Maleyrand. He had been with the First Con-jesty's government,-the officer commandsul after I left him, and he assured me that he had been very well satisfied with the frankness with which I had made my observations on what fell from him. I told him, that without entering into any farther detail, what I had said to the First Consul amounted to an assurance, of what I trusted there could be no doubt, of the readiness of his Majesty's ministers to remove all subjects of &c. ing his forces in Egypt, and his army in that quarter: but that, on the other hand, the language of the First Consul has tended to strengthen and confirm the suspicions which that publication was peculiarly calculated to excite. I shall now proceed to give you some farther instructions on the language which it may be proper for you to hoid respecting the charge which has been advanced |