228 
therein deeply laden?” On such 
missions, although no commer- 
cial treaty existed between the 
two countries ;, notwithstanding the 
severity with which confiscations 
issued against every British vessel 
and cargo which approached the 
coasts of France; with the tacit 
permission of the British govern- 
ment, were military men and en- 
gineers selected, and dispatched 
from France, to their several places 
of destination; two of the most 
active, Chepy and Fauvelet, actu- 
ally commenced their functions in 
Guernsey and Dublin, and the 
remainder had proceeded to Lon- 
don, to obtain their respective pow- 
ers and instructions from M.Coque- 
bert Montbret, who had been 
already named by M. Otto, the 
French resident in England, to 
lord Hawkesbury, on the 24th 
May, 1802, and who was recog- 
nized by him, as commissary gene- 
ral of the commercial relations of 
the French republic at London: 
when, by, a providential accident, 
the private instructions of M. Tal- 
leyrand to Fauvelet at Dublin, 
(whence we have extracted the de- 
tail above given) fell into the hands 
of government, and at once revealed 
tle views and ohjects of these pre- 
tended commercial agents. The 
minister for foreign affairs, lord 
Hawkesbury, immediately made a 
verbal representation to the French 
ainbassador of this circumstance, 
to whicn he was authorized by his 
court to give a most flimsy and un- 
satisfactory reply. No farther re- 
monstrance, or demand of explana- 
* The facts upon which our observations are founded, respecting the confiseation of 
British vessels, sequestrations, and the conmercial agents, are to be found in the * ad- 
ditioval papers” laid before partiamens 20 May, 1803, but which we had not room 
to insert in the “ state papers,” 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 180% . 
tion, was made on the part of the 
British government. The remain« 
der of the agents in London were 
informed, that if they proceeded to 
their places of destination, they 
should receive orders to quit the 
country; but the whole train of 
those functionaries remained in the 
capital, till the subsequent depar- 
ture of general Andreossi; and 
strange as it may seem, from an 
official memorandum, dated June 
Ist, in the present year, it appears 
that no order to quit his majesty’s 
dominions, was sent to any of the 
persons styling themselves ‘‘ com- 
missaries of commercial relations,” 
except to M. Chepy at Guernsey !! * 
In the progress of our last vo- 
lume we detailed at length the dif- 
ferent steps by which Bonaparte 
achieved the sovereignty of the 
Italian republic, the acquisitions of 
Parma, Piedmont, and Louisiana 3 
the establishment of the first consu- 
late in his own person for life; and 
subsequently the making that office 
hereditary in his family: we have 
also enumerated at large the differ- 
ent instances of his arbitrary inter- 
ference in the aflairs of Europe, as 
well with respect to the German 
indemnities, as to the affairs of 
Switzerland; to all these subjects, 
as connected with those upon which 
we are about to treat, we must re« 
quest permission to refer our read 
ers to the volume itself. Some 
general recapitulation will however 
be occasionally necessary to shew, 
what effect these changes in the 
posture of the European states had 
upon the feelings of the British go- 
ernment, “ 
% 
* 
%, 
a 
# 
E 
} 
4 
4 
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