99 ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1805. 
CHAP. XVIIT: 
Recapitulation of the relative circumstances of England and France. prevt- 
ously to, and immediately after, the Treaty of ”“Amiens.—Course of the 
Aggressions of France, under the heads of Commerce, the Press, Malta, 
Switzerland.—Report of Sebastiani.—General Insolence and Injustice. 
—King’s Message.—Declaration of War. 
ITE subject which we propose 
& totreat of in this portion of 
the work, is of itself so complicated, 
involves so much of the history of 
Europe, and requires such accurate 
minuteness of detail, that were we 
to give it that scope which properly 
belongs to it, the whole volume 
wouid not be more than commen- 
surate with its interest and impor- 
tance. 
Confined as we and_ every 
periodical writer must be, to cer- 
tain limits, we necessarily claim 
from the indulgence of our readers, 
their acquiescence in the cursory 
mode, with which we are obliged to 
treat objects of apparently the 
greatest concern: and we beg to 
assure them that in tracing the 
causes of that great feature in the 
events of the present year, namely, 
the renewal of the war, to its source, 
that however brief we may be, no- 
thing of consequence shall be omit- 
ted ; ; and that while we endeavour to 
account for the causes of this aweful 
and momentous event with impar- 
tiality, we shall not lose sight of 
perspicuity and lucid arrangement. 
In order that the whole of the 
circumstances whic form that sys- 
tem of aggression on the. part of 
France, which either insidiously 
proceeding by lowering our na- 
tional credit and consequence on. 
the continent of Europe, or by 
avowed menace and the most un- 
disguised hostility, had made the 
peace in the opinion of the world 
as hollow and precarious, as its 
most determined opposers had pre- 
dicted, should be laid before our 
readers, we will here recapitulate 
some of the leading events which 
preceded the definitive treaty, and 
a short review of the state of the 
powers of France and England,’ as 
they remained at its conclusion. 
On the 10th of October, 1801, 
general Lauriston, arrived in Lon- 
don, amid the acclamations of the 
multitude, with the ratification of 
the preliminary articles of peace 
between the then belligerent powers. 
In our volume for that year we have 
recounted the mode of reception, 
which the rapture of the public at 
the welcome tidings, induced it in 
a manner sufficiently novel, to be- 
stow upon the messenger: and in 
our succeeding one, we had the less 
grateful task of detailing the in- 
solent and indecent impediments 
which 
