162] 
which, when he had perused them, 
would speak for themselves. The 
memorial contained the conditions, 
on the accomplishment of which his 
majesty considered the restoration 
of peace to depend. The note was 
expressive of his majesty’s readiness 
to enter into any explanation re- 
quired by the directory on the 
subject, or to receive any contre. 
projet, resting on the same basis, 
which the directory might be dis- 
posed to give in. That, moreover, 
I did not hesitate declaring to him, 
in conformity to the principles 
which I had laid down, and from 
which I certainly never should de- 
part at any period of the negotia- 
tion, that I was prepared to answer 
any questions, explain and elucidate 
any points, on which it was possible 
to foresee that doubts or muiscon- 
ceptions could arise on the consi- 
deration of these papers. And 
having said thus much, I had only 
to remark, that I believed, in no 
similar negociation which had ever 
taken place, any minister was 
authorised, in the first instance, to 
go so fully into the discussion as I 
how was—That I was sure neither 
the truth of this remark, nor the 
manifest conclusion to be drawn 
from it, would escape M. Dela- 
croix’s observation. 
I then put the two papers into 
his hands. He began by reailing 
the note, on which of course he 
could only express satisfaction. 
After perusing the confidential me- 
morial with all the attention it de- 
served, he, after a short pause, 
said, that it appeared to him to be 
liable to insurmountable objections ; 
that it seemed to him to require 
much more than it conceded, and, 
in the event, not to leave France'i ina 
situation of proportional greatness 
ANNUAL, REGISTER, 1796. 
to the powers of Europe He said, 
the act of their constitution, accord- 
ing to the manner in which it was 
nterpreted by the best publicists, (and 
this phrase is worthy remark) made 
it impossible for the republic to do 
what we required» The Austrian 
Netherlands were annexed to it; 
they could not be disposed of with 
out flinging the nation into all the 
confusion which must follow a con- 
vocation of the primary assemblies 5 
and he said, he was rather sur- 
prised that Great Britain should 
bring this forward as the governing 
condition of the treaty, since he 
thought he had, in some of our 
late conversations, fully explained 
the nature of their constitution to 
me. I replied, that every thing I 
had heard from him on this point 
was perfectly in my recollection, as 
it probably was in his 5 that though 
I had listened to him with that at- 
tention I always afforded to every 
thing he said, yet I had never made 
any sort of reply, and had neither 
admitted nor controverted this opi- 
nion; that although I believe 
I could easily disprove this opie 
nion from the spint of the French 
constitution itself,y et the discussion 
of that constitution was periectly 
foreign to the object of my mission; 
since, even allowing his two posi- 
tions, viz. that the retrocession of 
the Austrian Netherlands was in- 
compatible with their laws, and 
that we ought to have known that 
beforehand, yet that there existed a 
drcit public in Europe paramount to 
any droit public they may think 
. proper to establish within their own 
dominions ; and that if their con- 
stitution was publicly known, the 
treaties existing between his ma- 
jesty and the emperor were at least 
equally public, and in these it was 
clearly 
