culties, was referred to the investigation of a more leisure period; but the court of Copenhagen was to restrict itself, and was to send armed vessels for that purpose only, into the Mediterranean, where they appeared to be in some measure necessary on account of the depredations of the Barbary corsairs, who at that time infested the commerce of Denmark, and treated her consuls with disrespect. Such were the outlines of the convention. An entire change was also effected in the court of St. Petersburgh. The Emperor had actually laid an embargo on all the English ships and property within his dominions, under the pretext that the capture of the Freya was a manifest violation of the law of nations; but no sooner did he learn the signature of the convention of Copenhagen, than he withdrew the orders for sequestration, and restored whatever had been seized.

No blame is imputable to Lord Whitworth because an amicable treaty did not immediately follow this temporary convention. It is well known, that a few months after the English plenipotentiary quitted Copenhagen, a convention was concluded for a new armed neutrality, in which Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark joined, under the sanction of His Imperial Majesty. One of those powers seized on Hamburgh, another on Hanover, and a third wished to avenge the loss of the grand-mastership of Malta by a declaration in behalf of France. These proceedings gave birth to a new expedition of eighteen sail of the line up the Baltic; and every subject in dispute was finally terminated by the battle of Copenhagen, the secession of the Swedes, the sudden death of Paul, and the armistice agreed to between the Prince of Denmark and Lord Nelson, on the 9th April, 1801.

On his return to England, Lord Whitworth found some relaxation necessary after the hurry of two long journies, and the labour and fatigue incident to a tedious and intricate negociation. He also contrived to twine the roses of Venus around the caduceus of Mercury, by an union peculiarly auspicious in every point of view. This marriage took place, April 7th, 1801, with Arabella Diana, widow of John

Frederick, third Duke of Dorset, and eldest daughter and coheir of Sir Charles Cope, second baronet of Brewern, county of Oxford, by Catharine, youngest daughter of Sir Cecil Bishop, fifth Baronet of Parham, Sussex (and afterwards second wife of the first Earl of Liverpool).

In the mean time new and unforeseen occurrences had taken place. By a sudden change at home, Mr. Pitt had been divested of the management of public affairs, while Mr. Addington exchanged the Speaker's chair for a less easy seat on the Treasury bench. France loudly threatened us with all the terrors of an invasion; and our fleets, on the other hand, scoured the narrow seas, intercepted her shipping, and blockaded her harbours. Notwithstanding these marked appearances of a violent and lasting animosity, a negociation, which had been for some time depending, was accelerated at this critical period with all the subtilty of diplomatic refinement. The inhabitants of both Great Britain and France had become heartily tired of a war long since devoid of any fixed or national object. After so many splendid acquisitions on the continent, Buonaparte evidently panted for a peace, which, by restoring the islands of the West Indian Archipelago to the French republic might confer reputation and - stability on his administration; while in England the new ministry were anxious to strengthen the patronage of the Crown by means of the gratitude of the people. For some time past an active intercourse had taken place between the two governments; flags of truce and defiance were actually displayed at the same time, and in the same strait; so that while Boulogne and Dunkirk were bombarded and blockaded by hostile squadrons, the ports of Dover and Calais were frequently visited by the packet-boats and the messengers of the courts of St. James's and the Thuilleries. At length Lord Hawkesbury, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, after a long but secret negociation with M. Otto, during which the humiliating intervention of a third person was not recurred to, as on a former occasion, suddenly announced the signature of preliminaries of peace between England on

the one part, and France, Spain, and Holland, on the other. After the lapse of nearly six months, during which the public expectation was greatly excited by alternate hopes and fears, the long-expected treaty was signed, ratified, and promulgated according to the established forms.

A

The treaty of Amiens, concluded March 27, 1802, was considered by some politicians rather as a cessation of hostilities than as a definitive pacification; and the event proved that too many objects of importance were left open for future discussion. Lord Cornwallis, notwithstanding this, returned from the congress welcomed by the well-merited applause of his countrymen. He was succeeded first by Mr. Jackson, then by Mr. Merry, and finally by Lord Whitworth; who, having been made a privy-councillor, was sent to Paris towards the latter end of 1802, as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary. On his lordship's arrival at Paris he found himself, like his predecessors, surrounded by difficulties. The war had indeed ceased, but the hostility of the mind was not yet ended. A rivalship in commerce had succeeded to a rivalship in arms, and the custom-houses of the respective nations were in a state of direct hostility. variety of circumstances tended to render this negociation delicate in the extreme; such as the renunciation of Parma; the mission of Sebastiani; the occupation of Holland by a considerable army; the violation of the rights of the Swiss Cantons; and, above all, the aggrandizement of France by means of fresh acquisitions. These, and a variety of other objects of equal importance, seemed to embitter this embassy, and to render it disagreeable to all engaged in it. On the other hand, the First Consul complained of the personalities with which the newspapers in London were filled, particularly one published in French by the emigrant de Peltier; of the countenance given to the ex-bishops and refugees, especially Georges, afterwards executed at Paris; of the book published by Sir Robert Wilson; and of a variety of other real or supposed injuries. But it was the retention of Malta that

appears to have been the chief object of dispute, and the ostensible cause of the war that ensued.

After a number of previous conferences with Talleyrand, the minister for foreign affairs, Buonaparte at length sent for the English ambassador, in the beginning of 1803, and a long and important interview took place; of which an account will be found in the following dispatch, which was immediately addressed by Lord Whitworth to Lord Hawkesbury.

66

66

My Lord,

-Paris, February 21, 1803.

My last dispatch, in which I gave your lordship an account of my conference with M. de Talleyrand, was scarcely gone when I received a note from him, informing me that the First Consul wished to converse with me, and desired I would come to him at the Thuilleries at nine o'clock. He received me in his cabinet with tolerable cordiality, and, after talking on different subjects for a few minutes, he desired me to sit down, as he himself did on the other side of the table, and began. He told me that he felt it necessary, after what had passed between me and M. de Talleyrand, that he should, in the most clear and authentic manner, make known his sentiments to me, in order to their being communicated to His Majesty; and he conceived this would be more effectually done by himself than through any medium whatever. He said, that it was a matter of infinite disappointment to him, that the treaty of Amiens, instead of being followed by conciliation and friendship, the natural effects of peace, had been productive only of continual and increasing jealousy and mistrust; and that this mistrust was now avowed in such a manner as must bring the point to an issue.

"He now enumerated the several provocations which he pretended to have received from England. He placed in the first line our not evacuating Malta and Alexandria, as we were bound to do by treaty. In this, he said, that no consideration on earth should make him acquiesce; and of the two, he had rather see us in possession of the Fauxbourg 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 he considered as much more mischievous, since it was meant to excite this country against him and his government; he complained of the protection given to Georges and others of his description, who, instead of being sent to Canada, as had been repeatedly promised, were permitted to remain in England, handsomely pensioned, and constantly committing all sorts of crimes on the coasts of France, as well as in the interior. In confirmation of this he told me, that two men had within these few days been apprehended in Normandy, and were now on their way to Paris, who were hired assassins, and employed by the Bishop of Arras, by the Baron de Rolle, by Georges, and by Duthell, as would be fully proved in a court of justice, and made known to the world.

"He acknowledged that the irritation he felt against England increased daily, because every wind (I make use as much as I can of his own ideas and expressions,) which blew from England, brought nothing but enmity and hatred against him.

"He now went back to Egypt, and told me that if he had felt the smallest inclination to take possession of it by force, he might have done it a month ago, by sending twenty-five thousand men to Aboukir, who would have possessed themselves of the whole country in defiance of the four thousand British in Alexandria. That instead of that garrison being a means of protecting Egypt, it was only furnishing him with a pretence for invading it. This he should not do, whatever might be his desire to have it as a colony, because he did not think it worth the risk of a war, in which he might, perhaps, be considered as the aggressor, and by which he should lose more than he could gain, since sooner or later Egypt would belong to France, either by the falling to pieces of the Turkish Empire, or by some arrangement with the Porte.' As a proof of his desire to maintain peace, he wished to know what he had to gain by going to war with England. A descent was