LORD WHITWORTH'S DESPATCH. 275 nent, treaties of commerce, in short, anything that could have given satisfaction, and have testified his friendship.. Nothing, however, had been able to conquer the enmity 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 English 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the protection so openly given to his bitterest enemies [alluding to Georges and persons of that description] must be withdrawn.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 state 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 negotiation was pending; "vous n'avez pas le droit d'en parler à cette heure.' I then alleged as a cause of mistrust and 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 confidence, but, on the contrary, must create distrust. 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 proceed from any disinclination to do what was just and right. With regard to the pensions which were granted to French or Swiss individuals, I observed that they were given as a reward for past services during the war, and most certainly not for present ones, and still less for such as had been insinuated, of a nature repugnant to the feelings of every individual in England, and to the universally acknowledged loyalty and honour of the British Government. That as for any participation of indemnities, or other accessions which His Majesty might have obtained, I could take upon myself to assure him, that His Majesty's ambi LORD WHITWORTH'S DESPATCH. 277 tion led him rather to preserve than to acquire. And that with regard to the most propitious moment for renewing hostilities, His Majesty, whose sincere desire it was to continue the blessings of peace to his subjects, would always consider such a measure as the greatest calamity; but that if His Majesty was so desirous of peace, it must not be imputed to the difficulty of obtaining allies; and the less so, as those means which it might be necessary to afford such allies, for perhaps inadequate services, would all be concentrated in England, and give a proportionate increase of energy to our own exertions. "At this part of the conversation he rose from his chair, and told me that he should give orders to General Andréossy to enter on the discussion of this business with your Lordship; but he wished that I should at the same time be made acquainted with his motives and convinced of his sincerity rather from himself than from his Ministers. He then, after a conversation of two hours, during the greatest part of which he talked incessantly, conversed for a few moments on indifferent subjects in apparent goodhumour, and retired. "Such was nearly, as I can recollect, the purport of this conference. "It must, however, be observed, that he did not, as M. Talleyrand had done, affect to attribute Colonel Sebastiani's mission to commercial motives only, but as one rendered necessary, in a military point of view, by the infraction by us of the Treaty of Amiens. "I have the honour to be, &c., " WHITWORTH. "P.S.-This conversation took place on Friday last, and this morning I saw M. de Talleyrand. He had been with the First Consul 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 discussion, where that could be done without violating the laws of the country, and to fulfil strictly the engagement which they had contracted, in as much as that could be reconciled with safety of the State. As this applied to Malta and Egypt, he gave me to understand that a project was in contemplation, by which the integrity of the Turkish Empire would be so effectually secured as to do away with every cause of doubt or uneasiness, either with regard to Egypt or any part of the Turkish dominions. He could not then, he said, explain himself farther. Under these circumstances no one can expect that we should relinquish that assurance which we have in hand, till something equally satisfactory is proposed and adopted. "WHITWORTH. * The translators have referred, for the exact text of the two despatches, given above, to the official publication entitled, Papers relative to the Dissension with France, presented by His Majesty's Command to Parliament in 1803,' and printed by R. G. Clarke, Cannon Row, Westminster. CHAPTER XV. Commencement of hostilities-Severe treatment of the English in France -The First Consul's anger with England is shared by the great Bodies of the State-Disloyal conduct of the English Government towards France French troops enter the Kingdom of Naples and occupy Hanover-A stricter etiquette is established by the First Consul-A theatrical representation at the Palace of St. Cloud is followed by the delivery of an Ode composed by M. de Fontanes-Adoption of the first chapters of the Civil Code-Remarkable share taken by the First Consul in the debates on this work-His journey to Belgium-Servility shown towards him by the authorities, Civil, Military, and Clerical-Disgust felt by the Parisians at such excessive flattery-The First Consul's onward progress towards supreme power-He causes propositions to be made to Louis XVIII., who declines his offers-Dissensions between Napoleon and his brothers-Disagreement between France and RussiaFirst preparations for an invasion of England-M. de Fontanes, President of the Legislative Body-Re-imposition of taxes on food, under the name of droits-réunis. HOSTILITIES followed quickly on the rupture. The English began them. Scarcely had the ambassadors of the two nations crossed the Channel before an order-in-council was issued authorising the pursuit of all French vessels and laying an embargo on those then Îying in English harbours. English frigates immediately seized on some merchant vessels in the Bay of Andierne. * The First Consul replied by a violent measure, and one against all the usages of war. An act of the Government ordered the arrest and imprisonment of all Englishmen over eighteen, and under sixty years of age, then in France; all subjects of the king of England between those ages being considered as forming part of the English militia. This measure was carried out with the utmost rigour, The orders-in-council of which I am now speaking are dated May 16, 1803 (26th Floréal, year XI.). I would call attention to the fact that, in the month of Pluviôse of this year, the names of the Consuls cease to appear in the titles of the public acts of the Government. From this time they were drawn up in the name of the Government of the Republic. Until then they had been intituled The Consuls of the Republic, which formula disappeared in all acts of high administration or of general interest. Nominations to places continued to bear the name of the First Consul. The motives for this change are sufficiently apparent. |