74] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



time, to a general pacification, by 

 a step, speedy, entirely of con fidence, 

 and disengaged frorti those forms 

 which, necessary, perhaps, to dis- 

 guise the dependence of weak states, 

 prove, in those which are strong, 

 only the mutual desire of deceiving 

 one another. 



" France and England, by the 

 abuse of their strength, may stiU, for 

 a long time, for the misfortune of all 

 nations, retard the period of their 

 being exhausted; but I will ven- 

 ture to say it, the fate of all civi- 

 lized nations depends on the ter- 

 mination of a war, which involves 

 the whole world." 



Without pretending to decide 

 on the humanity or good faith 

 of Buonaparte, we cannot help ob- 

 serving that there is, in this epis- 

 tle, a brevity, a dignity, and plau- 

 sibility, that would not disgrace 

 any throne, or any prince accus- 

 tomed to, and not unworthy of, 

 sovereign power. The answer of 

 lord Grenville, the British minister 

 for foreijni affairs, was verv unlike 

 to that of Buonaparte. Buona- 

 parte's letter was full of good sense, 

 equally free from republican fana- 

 ticism, and courtly adulation. The 

 answer of lord Grenville proves that 

 a man may possess talents, and yet 

 not always sound judgment and 

 discretion. The substance of it was, 

 that Buonaparte was not a person or 

 character to be treated with; that 

 he should acknowledge himself to 

 b3 an usurper; retract his princi- 

 ples; and resign the throne he now 

 filled to a branch of the family of 

 ■Bourbon. It avoided general prin- 

 ciples, and, witli a mixture of passion 

 and diplomatic pedautry, and petu- 

 lance, entered into a dietail of circum- 



stances . But as lordGrenville's letter 

 is given, at full length, among the 

 State Papers in this volume,* as well 

 as the parts of the correspondence on 

 the French overture, and as that cor- 

 respondence became a subject of dis- 

 cussion in the British parliament, of 

 which we shall presently give some 

 account, we shall not, in this place, 

 say any thing more of that piece 

 of diplomacy. 



The chief consul made another 

 attempt at negociation. In a letter 

 addressed by Talleyrand to lord 

 Grenville, the conduct of France 

 was vindicated from the censures 

 of the English ministers for foreign 

 relations; and it was proposed that 

 a suspension of arms should imme- 

 diately take place, and plenipoten- 

 tiaries be sent to Dunkirk, or any 

 other convenient place of meeting. 

 The reply to this second note of the 

 French government was, in sub- 

 stance, the same with that to the 

 first, as win be seen in turning to 

 the State Papers in this volume. — 

 The same dignity of moral and po- 

 litical sentiment, real or affected, 

 that appeared in Buonaparte's com- 

 munications to the British govern- 

 ment, were conspicuous also in a 

 letter which he addressed, nearly at 

 the same time, to the burgomasters 

 of the free and imperial city of 

 Hamburgh. 



The senate of Hamburgh had 

 been, for some time, involved in a 

 contest with the emperor of Russia, 

 by surrendering the Irish rebel, 

 Napper Tandy, and his accom- 

 plices, to the British government. 

 In October, however, it had com- 

 plied with the demand, and thus 

 procured a removal of the embargo, 

 to which Paul had subjected the 



Sec State Papers, p. 204. 



