French Republic. Sovereignty of the People.Liberty.-Equality.

BONAPARTE, First Consul of the Republic, to His Majesty the King of Great Britain and Ireland.

CALLED by the wishes of the French nation to occupy the First Magistracy of the Republic, I have thought proper, on commencing the discharge of the duties of this office, to communicate the event directly to Your Majesty.

Must the war, which has for eight years ravaged the four quarters of the world, be eternal? Is there no room for accommodation?

How can the two most enlightened nations in Europe, stronger and more powerful than is necessary for their safety and independence, sacrifice commercial advantages, internal prosperity, and domestic happiness, to ideas of vain grandeur? Whence is it that they do not feel peace to be the first of wants, as well as the first of glories?

These sentiments cannot be new to the heart of your Majesty, who rules over a free nation, with no other view than to render it happy.

Your Majesty will see in this overture only my sincere desire to contribute effectually, for the second

time, to a general pacification, by a prompt step taken in confidence, and freed from those forms, which, however necessary to disguise the dependence of feeble States, only serve to discover in those which are powerful, a mutual wish to deceive.

France and England may, by the abuse of their strength, long defer the period of its utter exhaustion, unhappily for all nations. But I will venture to say, that the fate of all civilized nations is concerned in the termination of a war, the flames of which are raging throughout the whole world.

I have the honour, &c.

BONAPARTE.

LORD GRENVILLE's answer to the Minister of Exterior

Relations at Paris.

Downing-street, Jan. 4, 1800.

SIR,

I HAVE received and laid before the King the two letters which you have transmitted to me, and his Majesty, seeing no reason to depart from those forms which have long been established in Europe, for transacting business with foreign states, has commanded me to return, in his name, the official answer which I

send you herewith inclosed. I have the honour to be,

with high consideration,

Sir, your most obedient, humble servant,

To the Minister for Foreign

Affairs, &c. at Paris.

GRENVILLE.

NOTE to the Minister of Exterior Relations at Paris.

Downing-street, Jan. 4, 1800.

THE KING has given frequent proofs of his sincere desire for the reestablishment of secure and permanent tranquillity in Europe. He neither is, nor has been, engaged in any contest for a vain and false glory.-He has had no other view than that of maintaining, against all aggression, the rights and happiness of his subjects. For these he has contended against an unprovoked attack; and for the same objects he is still obliged to contend; nor can he hope that this necessity could be removed by entering, at the present moment, into negotiation with those whom a fresh revolution has so recently placed in the exercise of power in France; since no real advantage can arise from such negotiation to the great and desirable object of general peace, until it shall distinctly appear that those causes have ceased to operate, which originally produced the war, and by which it has since been protracted, and, in more than one instance, renewed. The same system, to the

pre

valence of which France justly ascribes all her present miseries, is that which has also involved the rest of Europe in a long and destructive warfare, of a nature long since unknown to the practice of civilized nations. For the extension of this system, and for the extermination of all established governments, the resources of France have, from year to year, and in the midst of the most unparalleled distress, been lavished and exhausted. To this indiscriminate spirit of destruction, the Netherlands, the United Provinces, the Swiss Cantons, (his Majesty's ancient friends and allies,) have successively been sacrificed. Germany has been ravaged; Italy, though now rescued from its invaders, has been made the scene of unbounded rapine and anarchy. His Majesty has himself been compelled to maintain an arduous and burthensome contest for the independence and existence of his kingdoms. Nor have these calamities been confined to Europe alone; they have been extended to the most distant quarters of the world, and even to countries so remote both in situation and interest from the present contest, that the very existence of such a war was perhaps unknown to those who found themselves suddenly involved in all its horrors. While such a system continues to prevail, and while the blood and treasure of a numerous and powerful nation can be lavished in its support, experience has shewn that no

defence, but that of open and steady hostility, can be availing. The most solemn treaties have only prepared the way for fresh aggression; and it is to a determined resistance alone that is now due whatever remains in Europe of stability for property, for personal liberty, for social order, or for the free exercise of religion.— For the security, therefore, of these essential objects, his Majesty cannot place his reliance on the mere renewal of general professions of pacific dispositions. Such professions have been repeatedly held out by all those who have successively directed the resources of France to the destruction of Europe; and whom the present rulers have declared to have been all, from the beginning, and uniformly, incapable of maintaining the relations of amity and peace. Greatly, indeed, will his Majesty rejoice, whenever it shall appear that the dangers to which his own dominions and those of his Allies have been so long exposed have really ceased; whenever he shall be satisfied that the necessity of resistance is at an end; that, after the experience of so many years of crimes and miseries, better principles have ultimately prevailed in France; and that all the gigantic projects of ambition, and all the restless schemes of destruction, which have endangered the very existence of civil society, have at length been finally relin