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and that country, or any restoration of territories acquired under that treaty to France, as quite impracticable. He treated as equally impracticable any attempt at reftoring the ancient form of government in the Seven United Provinces. He talked with an air of triumph of the establishment of a national convention at the Hague; and, with an affectation of feeling, that by it the caufe of freedom had extended itself over fuch a large number of people. He, however, was ready to confefs, that, from the great loffes the Dutch republic had Tuftained in its colonies, and particularly from the weak manner in which they had defended them, it could not be expected that his majefty would confent to a full and complete reftitution of them, and that it was reasonable that fome fhould be facrificed; and he asked me if I could inform him, how far our views extended on this point? I faid I had reafon to believe that what his majesty would require would be poffeffions and fettlements which would not add either to the power or wealth of our Indian dominions, but only tend to fecure to us their fafe and unmolefted poffeffion. You mean by this, faid M. Delacroix, the Cape and Trincomale. I faid they certainly came under that defcription, and I faw little profpect of their being restored to the Dutch. M. Delacroix launched forth on this into a moft laboured differtation on the value of the Cape of Good Hope, which he did not confider at all as a port de relâche, but as a poffeffion which, in our hands, would become one of the moft fertile and moft productive colonies in the eaft; and, according to his eftimation of it, he did not fcruple to affert that it would ultimately be an ac1796.

quifition of infinitely greater importance to England than that of the Netherlands to France; and, if acquiefced in, fhould be reckon ed as a full and ample compenfation for them. He added, if you are mafters of the Cape and Trin comale, we shall hold all our settlements in India, and the islands of France and Bourbon, entirely at the tenure of your will and pleafure: they will be ours only as long as you choose. we should retain them. You will be fole mafters in India, and we shall be entirely dependent upon you. I repeated to him, that it was as means of defence, not of offence, that these poffeffions would be infifted on; and that if the matter was fairly and difpaffionately difcuffed, he would find that they afforded us a great additional fecurity, but no additional power of attack, even if we were difpofed to disturb the peace of that part of the world. If thefe, and perhaps fome few other not very material fettlements belonging to the Dutch, were to be infifted upon, and if he would be pleafed to enumerate all we should till have to restore to them, while they had nothing to restore to England, it was impoffible not to con fider the terms on which his majefty propofed peace to Holland, as generous and liberal.

M. Delacroix was not at all dif pofed to agree with me on this point; and faid, Holland, stripped of thefe poffeffions, would be ruined.

He then held out, but as if the idea had juft croffed his mind, the poffibility of indemnifying the Dutch for their loffes in India, by giving them a tract of territory towards the Meufe, (I could not find out whether he meant Aix la Chapelle, Liege, or the countries of Juliers and Berg) and hinted, that (K)

if

if this was not to be done, an additional fugar ifland might, perhaps, be ceded to the Dutch republic. I told him all this might become a fubject of future difcuffion, and I conceived, that if we could agree upon the more effential points, the treaty would not break off on these secondary confiderations. Our converfation had now been extremely long, and M. Delacroix ended by faying, that, although he had taken upon himself to enter with me thusfar upon the subject, yet I must not confider any thing he faid as binding, or as pledging the republic, till fuch time as he had laid the papers I had given him before the directory; and in order to do this with more accuracy, he again afked me, whether in his report, he was to state the difuniting Belgium from France as a fine qua non from which his maefty would not depart. I replied, it moft certainly was a fine qud non from which his majefty would not depart: and that any propofal which would leave the Netherlands annexed to France, would be attended with much greater benefit to that power, and lofs to the allies, than the prefent relative fituation of the belligerent powers could entitle the French government to expect.

M. Delacroix repeated his concern at the peremptory way in which I made this affertion, and afked whether it would admit of no modification? I replied, if France could, in a contre-projet, point out a practicable and adequate one, fill keeping in view that the Netherlands must not be French, or likely again to fall into the hands of France, fuch a propofal might certainly be taken into confideration.

M. Delacroix by no means encouraged me to explain myfelf

more fully; he repeatedly said, that this difficulty relative to the Netherlands was one which could not be overcome.

Juft as I was taking leave of him, he begged me to explain what was meant by the words in the memoire (A.) in the 4th paragraph, beginning de s'entendre mutuellement fur les moyens d'affurer, and ending at leurs poffefions refpectives. I told him it referred to the deftructive fyftem adopted by France in the Weft Indies, and went to exprefs a wifh that the two powers should agree on fome general and uniform fyftem of internal police in the fettlements there, which would contribute to the fecurity of thofe poffeflions to the respective countries, and at the fame time to the happiness of every description of inhabitants in them.

M. Delacroix, a little hurt at my expreffion relative to the system adopted by France, endeavoured to recriminate upon us; but he ended by faying, that they should certainly be willing to concur in any arrangement relative to the negroes, which did not militate against the principles of their conftitution. Here our conference ended; and as, during the whole courfe of it, I bore in my mind the poffibility, that although this, our first, might be the only favourable opportunity I fhould ever have of speaking on the general principles on which his majefty was difpofed to treat, I endeavoured, by adverting more or lefs to almoft every point in my inftructions, to enable M. Delacroix, (if he reports faithfully) to state to the directory what I said, in fuch a manner as to put it out of their power to misconceive what were his majesty's intentions; to remove all poffibility of cavil on this cafe, and to bring them to a clear and

distinct

diftinct answer, whether they would, agree to open a negotiation on the principle of the flatus ante bellum, or on one differing from it only in form, not in fubftance. I hope, in attempting to do this, I did not, in the first inftance, commit myfelf, or discover more of my inftructions than it became me to do; and that, in the converfation with M. Delacroix, nothing escaped me which might, at fome fubfequent period, hurt the progrefs of the negotiation, I have, I believe, given this conference nearly verbatim to your lordfhip; and I was particularly anxious to do this correctly and minutely, as well that you may judge on the propriety of what I faid myfelf, as that what M. Delacroix faid to me may be accurately known, and remain on record.

It must, however, be remembered (as I obferved in the beginning of this difpatch) that he spoke for himself, as minifter, indeed, but not under the immediate inftructions of the directory; and this confideration will take a little away from the fingularity of fome of the pofitions he advanced.

I confefs, my lord, from the ci vility of his manner, and from his apparent readinefs to difcufs the subject, the impreffion which remained on my mind on leaving him was, that the negotiation would go on, but be liable to fo many difficulties, and fome of them fo nearly infurmountable, that, knowing, as I do, the opinion of the directory, I faw little profpect of its terminating fuccefsfully. But I did not expect the conduct of the directory would immediately be fuch as to evince a manifeft inclination, and even determination, to break off on the first propofals; and I was not a little furprised at receiving, on

on Sunday, at three P. M. the inclofed letter (A.) from M. Delacroix: he fent it by the principal fecretary of his department (M. Giraudet) who communicated to me the original of the arreté of the directory, of which this letter, abating the alteration in the form, is a literal copy. After perufing it, I afked M. Giraudet whether he was informed of its contents; and this led to a fhort converfation on them. I told him that both the demands were fo unexpected, that I could not reply to them off hand: that as to the first, it was quite unusual to fign memorials which were an. nexed to a note actually figned, and that I fcarcely felt myfelf authorifed to depart from what was, I be lieve, an invariable rule. That, as to the fecond demand, made in fo peremptory and unprecedented a way, I could, without much he fitation, fay at once that it could not be complied with. M. Giraudet lamented this much; and faid, that this being the cafe, he feared our principles of negotiation would never coincide. I agreed with him in my expreffions of concern.

We converfed together af terwards for fome time, but nothing paffed at all worthy of remark. I told him I fhould fend my anfwer the next day. On reflecting more attentively on the request that I would fign the two memorials which I had given in, it ftruck me, that the complying with it pledged me to nothing, and that it was merely gratifying them on a point infifted on peevishly, and that the doing it would put them ftill more in the wrong.

As to the ftrange demand of an ultimatum, it was perfectly clear what it became me to fay; and I hope that in the inclofed anfwer (K 2)

B.

B. (which I fent yesterday morn⚫ing at twelve o'clock) to M. Delacroix, I fhall be found to have adhered as clofely as poffible to the fpirit of my inftructions.

Yesterday evening, at half paft nine, M. Giraudet brought me the note C. to which I immediately replied by the note D. They require no comment; and as I intend leaving Paris to-morrow, and travelling with all convenient fpeed, I fhall fo foon have it in my power to say the little which remains to fay relative to this fudden, though perhaps not unlooked for, close to. my miffion, that I need not trefpafs any further on your lordship's patience.

I have the honour to be, &c.
MALMESBURY.

(Signed)

P. S. I thought it would be proper for his majefty's minifter at Vienna to receive the earlieft intelligence of the negotiation being broken off: I therefore have difpatched a meffenger to Vienna with a copy of the feveral papers which have paffed between me and M. Delacroix fince our conference, and also a fuccinct account of what paffed on it. The mef fenger left this place to-day at three P. M.

Right Hon. Lord Grenville, &c. &c. &c.

M.

No. 13. Paris, 28th Frimatre, (December 18) 5th year.

SIR, Theexecutive directory has heard the reading of the official note figned by you, and of two confidential memorials without fignatures, which were annexed to it, and which you gave in to me yefterday. I am charged exprefsly by

the directory to declare to you, that it cannot liften to any confidential note without a fignature, and to require of you to give in to me, offcially, within four and twenty hours, your ultimatum, figned by you.

Accept, Sir, the affurance of my high confideration. CH. DELACROIX. (Signed)

No. 32.

Paris, 19th December, 1796. COPY. (B.)

Lord Malmesbury, in answer to the letter which the minifter for foreign affairs had the goodness to tranfmit to him through the hands of the fecretary-general of his department, muft remark, that in figning the official note which he gave in to that minifter by order of his court, he thought he had complied with all the ufual formalities, and had given the neceffary authenticity to the two confidential memorials which were annexed to it. Nevertheless, to remove all difficulties, as far as lies in his power, he willingly adopts the forms which are pointed out by the refolution of the executive directory, and haftens to fend to the minifter for foreign affairs the two memorials figned by his hand.

With refpect to the pofitive demand of an ultimatum, lord Malmefbury obferves, that infifting on that point in fo peremptory a manner, before the two powers fhall have communicated to each other their respective pretenfions, and that the articles of the future treaty fhall have been fubmitted to the difcuffions, which the different interefts which are to be adjusted, neceffarily demand, is to fhut the door against all negotiation. He, therefore, can add nothing to

the

the affurances which he has already given to the minifter for "foreign affairs, as well by word of mouth, as in his official note; and he repeats that he is ready to enter with that minifter into every explanation of which the state and progrefs of the negotiation may admit; and that he will not fail to enter into the -difcuffion of the propofals of his court, on of any counter-project which may be delivered to him on the part of the executive directory, with that candour, and that fpirit of conciliation, which correfpond with the juft and pacific fentiments of his

court.

Lord Malmesbury requests the minifter for foreign affairs to accept the affurances of his high confideration.

No. 33.

The underfigned minifter for foreign affairs is charged by the executive directory, to answer to lord Malmesbury's two notes of the 27th and 29th Frimaire (17th and 19th December, O. S.) that the executive directory will listen to no propofals contrary to the conftitution, to the laws, and to the treaties which bind the republic.

And, as lord Malmesbury announces at every communication, that he is in want of the opinion of his court, from which it results that he acts a part merely paffive in the negotiation, which renders his prefence at Paris ufelefs; the underfigned is further charged to give him notice to depart from Paris in eight and forty hours, with all the perfons who have accompanied and followed him; and to quit, as expeditioufly as poffible, the territory of the republic.

The undersigned declares, more over, in the name of the executive

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Manifefto of the British Government against France.

The negotiation which an anxious defire for the restoration of peace had induced his majefty to open at Paris, having been abruptly terminated by the French government, the king thinks it due to himself and to his people, to ftate, in this public manner, the circumftances which have preceded and attended a tranfaction of fo much. importance to the general interests of Europe.

It is well known that early in the prefent year his majesty, laying afide the confideration of many circumftances of difficulty and difcouragement, determined to take fuch fteps as were beft calculated to open the way for negoitation, if any cor(K 3) refponding

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