STATE PAPERS. 
ftance and effeét the bafis laid down 
in the project I had given, I fhould 
be well difpofed to liften to them. 
One of the French minifters, af- 
ter fome hefitation and a fort of fi- 
lent reference to one of his col- 
leagues, faid he thought, as matiers 
now ftood, it would be much bet- 
ter to wait their anfwer from Pa- 
ris:—T hat it was a very important 
period, a crifis in the negotiation, 
the refuli of which probably would 
be conclufive as to its fate, and that 
it feemed to be of more confe- 
quence to make this refult as con- 
ormabie to what he hoped I was 
convinced were as much their wifh- 
es as mine, than to wafte our time 
in difcuffions which were ufelefs, 
nit to fay more, till this was afcer- 
tained. 
I confined myfelf in my reply to 
faying, I had no objection whatever 
to giving to the French Plenipo- 
tentiaries a paper, ftating the ftrong 
motives on which his Majefty re- 
jected the propofition made in their 
note of the 15th; and that asJ, on 
my part, had confidered it a duty 
to make my reports as conciliatory 
as was confiftent with truth and 
correctnefs, fo I heard with great 
pleafure the affurances he gave me 
of their intending to obferve the 
fame line of condué. 
That as we feemed perfectly a- 
greed as to the propriety of their 
producing a contre-projet, 1 had no- 
thing to fay on that point, except 
to exprefs my moft fincere with 
that it would foon appear, and 
when it did appear, be fuch a one 
as would lead to a fpeedy and {a- 
tisfactory conclufion of the nego- 
Giation. 
Right Hon. Lord Grenville, 
203 
(No. 26.) 
Nate from Lord Malmefbury to the French 
Plenipotentiaries. 
THE Minifter Plenipotentiary of 
his Britannic Majefty has tran{mit- 
ted io his court the note which was 
delivered to him the 5th of this 
month, by the Minifters Plenipo- 
tentiary of the French Republic: 
and having received the orders of 
the King his mafter on this fubject, 
he haftens to rejeat to them, in 
writing, conformably to the defire 
which they have expreffed to him, 
the following reflections, which he 
had already {tated to them verbally, 
in confequence of his moft pofitive 
infiructions. 
He obferves, in the firft place, 
that to require “ as an indifpenfa- 
ble preliminary of negotiation for 
peace with England, the confent of 
his Britannic Majefty to the formal 
reftitution of all the poffeffions 
which he occupies, as well thofe 
of the French Republic as further 
and formally thofe of Spain and 
the Batavian Republic,” is to with 
to eftablifh a previous condition, 
whien excludes all reciprocity, re- 
fufes to the King all compenfation, 
and leaves no object of ulterior ne- 
gotiation. 
That the French Republic, for- 
mally authorifed by its allies to ne~ 
gotiate the articles of peace in their 
name, cannot fairly fet up its par- 
tial treaties with them, in oppofi- 
tion to reafonable propofals of 
peace, fince it is univerfally under- 
ftood that the contracting parties 
always preferve the power to mo- 
dify, by mutual confent, the condi- 
tions by which they may be engag- 
ed to cach other, whenever their 
common interefls may require it: 
—confe- 
