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Does not the method taken by his excellency the earl of Lauderdale, the new plenipotentiary on the part of his Britannic majesty, appear to announce that a multitude of notes will not be sufficient even to bring the governments to an understand ing? And is not a risk evidently incurred, by adopting such a method, the abuse of which has been so manifest in our recollection, of being still further from a good understand. ing than we have hitherto been? If, on the contrary, it is only wished to form documents which may hereafter be presented to the parliament of Great Britain, his majesty the emperor and king has no similar inducement, it is peace that he desires; a peace equally honourable for France, for Great Britain, and for their allies, which the mutual and assiduous labour of the respective plenipotentiaries shall have rendered acceptable to both govern.

ments.

Nevertheless, that his love of justice, and the sincerity of his pacific sentiments may be manifest to every one, and that it may be truly known to whom all hindrance to the progress of the negotiation ought to be attributed, his majesty the emperor of the French has deigned to permit the undersigned to discuss here the vain question relative to the basis of this negotiation, which was already advanced and on the point of being terminated.

In the letter written to his excellency Mr. Fox, on the 1st of April, by his excellency the French minister for foreign affairs, that minister declared that his majesty the emperor of the French entirely adopted the principle set forth in the dispatch of his excellency Mr. Fox, of VOL. XLVIII.

the 26th March, and offered as the basis of the negotiation :-"That the proposed peace ought to be honourable for the two courts, and for their respective allies."

In his letter of the 2nd June to his excellency Mr. Fox, his excellency the minister for foreign affairs went still further; he proposed, in the name of his majesty the emperor of the French, king of Italy, to establish as a basis two fundamental principles, the first of them taken from Mr. Fox's letter of the 26th March, namely; "That the object of the two powers should be a peace honourable to themselves, and to their respective allies, at the same time that this peace should be of a nature to insure, as far as should lie in their power, the future tranquil lity of Europe."

The second principle was, "An acknowledgment in favour of both powers of the right of interference, and of guarantee with regard to continental affairs, and with regard to maritime affairs."

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Such was the basis adopted by the British government, and agreed upon with it. It could never have entered into the mind of his majesty the emperor of the French, king of Italy, to take the "uti possidetis" as the basis of the negotiation. such had been his intention, he would have kept Moravia, a part of Hungary, Styria, Carniola, Croatia, the whole of Austria, as well as its capital-Trieste, and Fiume, and the surrounding coast would still be in his power, as well as Genoa and Venice, Hanover, Osuaburgh, and all the mouths of the great rivers of the north of Germany would be subject to his dominion; and, doubt less, his majesty the emperor of the French, king of Italy, might then, 3 C

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without difficulty, have left his Britannic majesty in possession of the Cape, Surinam, Tobago, St. Lucia, Pondicherry, &c.

As to Sicily, in this very supposition his majesty the emperor and king would not have left it to his enemies; but his majesty would only have thought that the conquest of this island should have preceded the opening of the negotiations; and while Prussia and Russia have either guaranteed or recognized the changes which have taken place in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, is it to be supposed that England could have prevented the conquest of Sicily, which is separated from the continent only by a channel of less than two thousand toises?

And even supposing that the Cape, Surinam, and other Dutch posses sions could have been finally detach ed from the kingdom of Holland, is it not certain that its existence as a nation would become from that very cause impossible; and that its incorporation with the French empire would have been the necessary consequence of a refusal given by England, to restore to it its colonies; what, in fact, could be the means of maintaining a nation which would have nothing but debts, and from which the total deprivation of all commerce would take away the possibility of paying them? What ever their excellencies the plenipotentiaries of his Britannic majesty may alledge, it is impossible that they should not be convinced, that it is a very different thing, for Great Britain, to see the Texel and the mouths of the Rhine and of the Meuse in the power of the French revenue officers, or to see them in the power of the Dutch. Thus, therefore, Holland, without the re.

stitution of its colonies, would ne. cessarily become a province of the French empire; for on accepting the crown of Holland, prince Louis for. mally declared his intention of renouncing it, if the Dutch colonies were not restored at the general peace.

It Hanover become a province of France; let Trieste, Fiume, and their territory likewise become provinces of the kingdom of Italy, and let Great Britain keep as a compensation, the Cape, Surinam, Malta, and Pondicherry, &c. France will consent to it, and the great principle uti possidetis will be applied in its full extent, both as to the present and as to the future.

Let the new minister plenipotentiary of his Britannic majesty, point out in the history of the world, a negotiation terminated upon the principle of the uti possidetis between two great nations: let him examine whether this principle does not belong rather to an armistice than to a treaty of peace? It is impossible not to say, that, in proposing to France the uti possidetis, particularly under the present circumstance, a strange idea must have been formed of the character of the emperor Napoleon, and it must have been believed that he was reduced to a singular state of humiliation and distress.

But, in demanding the uti possidetis, his excellency, the earl of Lau. derdale, plenipotentiary from his Britannic majesty, without regard to the principle which he advances, wishes to change entirely the destiny of a continental state, which gave 25,000 men to England, and fur. nished her with a part of the means which she afforded in the seven years' war, and even in the war of

the French revolution, to the armies of the north. Thus, therefore, it is wished to maintain the principle of the uti possidetis, in order to deprive France of all her commerce, and of all her establishments, and to ruin her allies; but it is wished to violate the principle of the uti possidetis, in order to oblige France to renounce her engagements, to break her trea. ties; in a word, to dissolve her whole continental system; is not this to propose a peace a thousand times more disastrous than the longest war, and conditions calculated to excite the indignation of every Frenchman? What! shall France have conquered all the powers subsidized by England, during three coalitions, to see imposed upon her conditions as unjust as they are dishonourable, notwithstanding the moderation and generosity which she has shewn ?

His excellency Mr. Fox himself proposed, "that the peace should be honourable to both courts, and to their respective allies."

His majesty, the emperor of the French, king of Italy, could not consider the peace as honourable, if, by one of its conditions, he was to lose a single subject, and of how. ever little importance the colony of Tobago may be, it suffices, that it made part of the French empire at the time his majesty took the reins of the government, to prevent his ever signing a treaty in which the alienation of that colony, or of any other which belongs to him in the same manner shall be comprized. No reasonable Englishman can have flattered himself with the contrary; and his majesty, in the position in which he stands, would, by consenting to it, lose the esteem of every

brave and generous person even among his enemies.

The undersigned is directed to declare, that his majesty the emperor and king.considers as a disgrace the very idea of a negotiation, founded on the uti possidetis. It is the more contrary to his principles, inasmuch as his majesty has restored his conquests, and that he should be now reigning over a population the double of that which he in fact governs, if, at the conclusion of the treaties of peace which he made at the expiration of the several coali tions, he had taken the uti possidetis for his only principle.

The undersigned is also directed to declare, that the only conditions of negotiation which his majesty the emperor and king is willing to adopt, are those proposed in part by his excellency Mr. Fox, contained in the letter which was addressed to him on the 2d of June by the minister for foreigs affairs, and repeated in the twelfth paragraph of the present note.

His majesty the emperor of the French, king of Italy, requires nothing of Great Britain which can be contrary to the interests of her allies. He is entitled to expect that nothing will be exacted of him, which can be contrary to the interests of his own allies.

The undersigned is directed to add, that he refers to what had been prepared by the mutual efforts of his excellency the earl of Yarmouth, and the undersigned.

If peace shall not be re-established,it is not Francewho can be accused of having changed, but England; although peace between France and Russia, and other events unfavour able to Great Britain have taken 3 C 2

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place since the negotiation was entered upon and nearly brought to a conclusion, in concert with his excellency the earl of Yarmouth.

The undersigned avails himself of this opportunity to assure their excellencies the earls of Lauderdale and Yarmouth of his high consideration.

(Signed)

Fifth Inclosure (E.) Copy of a Note from the Earls of Lauderdale and Yarmouth, to General Clarke, dated August 9, 1806.

(Translation.)

rival has brought the negotiation to an unequivocal issue, and has put an end to those misunderstandings, without doubt real, which have taken place, and which never could have occurred if the same method had been adopted at the commencement of the negotiation.

The undersigned, the earl of YarClarke. mouth, finds himself compelled to recur to the manner in which it has been stated to him, that he landed at Calais invested with a public character to treat for peace. He only came to give in person and viva roce the answer to a communication that he had been requested to make to the English government, founded upon the basis of the uti possidetis, in conformity with the following words of his excellency M. Talleyrand: "We ask nothing from you;' accompanied with positive assurances that the restitution of the possessions of his majesty in Germany would meet with no opposition. The same sentiment also recurs in the letter from M. Talleyrand to Mr. Fox of the first of April in these terms: "The emperor covets nothing that England possesses."

Paris, August 9, 1806. The undersigned plenipotentiaries of his Britannic majesty cannot allow themselves to enter into a detailed consideration of the official note, dated the 8th August, which has just been delivered to them on the part of his excellency general Clarke. From the manner in which the different points which form the subject of this note are treated, it would be impossible for them to discuss them with that calmness and that regard to propriety, which the character with which their sovereign has invested them, demands. But the subject of this note is of a nature, so general and so foreign to the object under discussion, that it would be perfectly useless to take it into consideration at the present moment.

The undersigned, the earl of Lauderdale, far from thinking that the manner of discussing in writing the fundamental points of a negotiation can in any shape encrease the difîìculty of coming to an understanding, is on the contrary of opinion that he already perceives evident proofs of its utility, inasmuch as the official note presented by him since his ar

The earl of Yarmouth feels himself under an equal necessity of not passing over in silence the remarks made by his excellency general Clarke, on the subject of the delays of the negotiation, and of the frequent communication by messengers. The answers of his Britannic majesty have ever been frank and prompt; and if the number of messengers has been considerable, it can only be attributed to motives foreign to the wishes of his majesty,

The undersigned the earls of Lau. derdale and Yarmouth, can by no means subscribe to the opinion held out by his excellency general Clarke

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in the said note, that the negotiation ❝ had been begun and nearly brought to a conclusion," in the interval which elapsed between the time when lord Yarmouth officially communicated his full powers, and the arrival of lord Lauderdale; on the contrary, they consider the negotiation as having scarcely commenced. The conversations to which allusion has been made, consisted, on the part of the French plenipotentaries, in making demands which the undersigned, the earl of Yarmouth, has uniformly declared to be inadmissible; and on the part of lord Yarmouth in keeping strictly within the bounds of the uti possidetis, not having any instructions on the part of his government to admit any other conditions of negotiation; conditions suggested by France in the communication made by the earl of Yarmouth, and previously an nounced in M. Talleyrand's letter of the first of April.

The undersigned earls of Lauderdale and Yarmouth think it unnecessary, in this place, to repeat the motives set forth in the official note presented by lord Lauderdale, and which induced his majesty to consider the basis of the uti possidetis proposed by France peculiarly applicable to the respective situation of the two countries. It is to them a subject of deep regret that, by so absolute and decided a departure from that basis on the part of the French government, the hopes and expectations of the two nations must be entirely frustrated.

It only remains for the earls of Lauderdale and Yarmouth to declare, that his majesty, ever ready to listen to just and honourable conditions of peace, relies with confidence upon the means which he de

rives from the loyalty and affection of his subjects. He will never listen to any proposals of negotiation whatsoever, upon terms incompatible with the honour of his crown and the real interests of his subjects. (Signed) Lauderdale.

Yarmouth.

Sixth Inclosure (F.) is a Copy of a Note from the Earls of Lauderdale and Yarmouth to M. Talleyrand, dated August 9, 1806.Demanding their passports.

No. XXXVI.

Extract from a Dispatch from the

Earls of Lauderdale and Yarmouth
to Mr. Secretary Fox, dated Paris,
August 11th, 1806. Received
August 13th

Paris, August 11, 1806. In our last dispatch of the 9th instant, we had the honour of informing you, that on that evening we had applied for passports to return to England, and also for a passport for a courier we intended to have dispatched immediately.

We have only now to mention that, on Sunday at eleven o'clock, we sent the inclosure (marked A.) renewing our demand; and that this morning, having received no an, swer to either application, the inclosure (marked B.) was sent to M. Talleyrand's house, Rue d'Anjou. The courier Basilico, who carried the note, returned soon after to inform us, that he was directed at M. Talleyrand's house to go to the foreign office, where he accordingly went, but was told that no communication would be received there till between twelve and one.

We then begged of Mr. Goddard to go himself to the foreign office, and deliver the letter; he found 3 C 3

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