260 
bitter mortification, and the com- 
plete frustration of his ambitious 
projects. 
While the cabinet of Great Bri- 
tain yet hesitated on the answer to 
be made. to M. Talleyrand’s solemn 
. ¢ demand of the fulfilment of that 
part of the treaty of Amiens which 
related to Malta; the report of 5e- 
bastiani’s progress and achievements 
was made public, and had even 
reached London. , The explicit and 
unclouded view which it afforded of 
the machinations and projects of 
the first consul, gave the English 
government an opportunity in per- 
fect unison with the popular feeling, 
to assume some portion of vigour 
and firmness; no time was there- 
tore lost in instructing lord Whit- 
worth at Paris, to demand satisfac- 
tion from the French government 
for the publication of colonel Sebas- 
tiani’s report, which contained * the 
most unjustifiable charges against 
the officer who commanded his ma- 
jesty’s forces in Eeypt, and against 
the British army in that quarter.” 
He was farther instructed to state, 
that the whcle report developed a 
system so injurious to the interests 
of his majesty’s dominions, and so 
entirely repugnant to, and utterly 
Inconsistent with, the spirit and 
letter of the treaty of Amiens, that 
it would be impossible for bis go- 
vernment to enter into any future 
discussion on the subject of Malta, 
until satisfactory explanation should 
be given relative to that publica- 
tion. 
In these instructions* will be 
found, for the first time, the attempt 
on the part of Great Britain to 
establish as a principle, the right of 
) aS 
ANNUAL REGISTER, '1803. 
either power to obtain an equiva-~ 
lent compensation for any advan- 
tages gained by the other, since the 
period of the treaty of peace,which 
affected the nature of that com- 
pact; not only from the justice of 
the thing itself, but 4s being ground- 
ed on the express 2 adinissian pend- 
ing the negociation of the treaty of 
Amiens, contained in a French offi- 
cial note, namely that his majest 
should keep a compensation out of 
his conquests, for the important 
acquisitions of terrjtory made by 
France upon the contineat: and 
that consequently Great. Britain 
would be now warranted in claim- 
ing equivalents for the vast augmen- 
tation of the’ power of France, by 
her acquisitions in Italy, and her 
occupation of Switzerland and 
Tolland. 
It is not easy to conceive for 
what purpose the aforegoing matter 
was introduced; first, because it 
was an acknowledgment in the 
most unqualified manner, of the 
total abandonment of the just 
claims of the country for so long a 
period, by which means alone the 
monstrous encroachments of France 
might have been checked, and the 
future liberty and consequence of 
Great Britain effectually secured ; 
and to which the Jatter was entitled 
not only on general principles of jus- 
tice and policy, but even (as it ap- 
pears)from the spontaneous acknow- 
ledgment of the French government ; 
and secondly, because in the same 
breath the instructions declare, that 
the king of England was willing to 
wajve all claims and _ pretensions, 
which he could advance on these 
accounts, and ‘‘ as the other arti, 
* Dafed 9th Feb. 1805. Vide State Papers No. 36, Official Correspondence. 
cles 
