658 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



are the ofispring of war. Surh is 

 the objcft of the diplomatic minis- 

 try ; and it must be said, tliat it is 

 to the observance of the duties it 

 imposes, it is to the generally re- 

 spe6table chara«5ter of the men who 

 exercise this sacred ministry in Eu- 

 rope, that it owes the glory and the 

 happiness it enjoys ; but these hap- 

 py effects torment the jealous ambi- 

 tion of the only government which 

 makes itself an interest in the ruin, 

 the shame and the servitude of other 

 governments. They wish that di- 

 plomatic ministers should be the in- 

 stigators of plots, the agents of 

 troubles, the dire6lors and regula- 

 tors of machinations, vile spies, 

 cowardly seducers — they order them 

 to foment seditions, io provoke and 

 to pay for assassination; and they 

 pretend to throw over that infamous 

 ministry the rcspctSt and inviolabi- 

 lity whicli belong to the mediators 

 of kings, and the pacificators of na- 

 tions. — Diplomatic ministers, says 

 lord Ilawkcsbury, ought not to 

 conspire in the country where they 

 reside, against the laws of tliat coun- 

 try ; but they arc not subject to the 

 same rules with respeft to states at 

 which they are not accredited. Ad- 

 mirable restriftions '. i^urope will 

 swarm with conspirators, but the 

 defenders of public right must not 

 complain. There will always be 

 some local distance between the 

 leader and the accomplices. The 

 ministers of lord Hawkesbury will 

 pay for the crimes they cause to he 

 committed ; but they will have that 

 prudent deference for public mo- 

 rality, not to be at once the instiga- 

 tors and the witnesses. — Such max- 

 ims are the completion of audacity 

 and hypocrisy. Never were the 

 opinions of cabinets and the con- 

 «ci«uces of any people made game 



of more shamelessly. His majesty 

 the emperor thinks that it is time to 

 put an end to the disastrous career 

 of principles, subversive of all so- 

 ciety. You are ordered, in conse- 

 quence, to declare to the govern, 

 ment where you reside, that his ma- 

 jesty will not recognize the English 

 diplomatic corps in Europe, so long 

 as the British ministry shall not ab- 

 stain from charging its ministers with 

 any warlike agency, and shall not 

 restridl them to the limits of their 

 functions. The miseries of Europe 

 proceed from its being deemed obliga- 

 tory every where to observe maxims 

 of moderation and liberality, which 

 being just but by reciprocity, are 

 only obligatory with respeft to those 

 who submit to them. Hence govern- 

 ments haveasmuchtosufferfrom their 

 own justice as from the iniquity of a 

 ministry which recognises no law but 

 its ambition and its caprice. The 

 miseries of Europe proceed also 

 from jjublic right being considered 

 under a partial point of view, where- 

 as it has life and strength only froiu 

 its integrity. Maritime right, con- 

 tinental right, the right of nations, 

 arc not parts of public right that 

 can be considered and preserved in 

 an insolated manner.' The nation 

 that pretends to introduce arbitrary 

 rules into one of those parts, loses 

 all its claims to the privilege of the 

 whole. The systematic infractor of 

 the rights of nations, places himself 

 out of that right, and renounces all 

 interest founded upon the maritime 

 right and the continental right. Hi» 

 majesty the emperor, regrets his hav- 

 ing to order measures which are a 

 real interdi6tion pronounced against 

 a state; but all refle6ting men will 

 be at no difficulty to see, that, in 

 this it is only necessary to entertain 

 fadts. The English ministry, by the 



generality 



