HISTORY 
Dutch ports, nothing had hitherto 
been heard; no expostulation had 
been made respecting them at the 
court of Paris, nor explanation de- 
manded. It was notorious that 
France had it in contemplation to 
advantage herself of the recent ac- 
quisition of Louisana; and the trou- 
bles of St. Domingo had revived, 
with tenfold fury. For colonial pur- 
poses, the equipment of armaments 
mizht certainly be expected, on the 
part of France. A few days after 
the message was presented, one of 
the lords commissioners of the ad- 
miralty, declared in parliament, 
in the course of debate, that there 
did not exist in these ports but a 
few miserable fishing-boats! And 
the subsequent declaration of France 
upon the subject, must be consi- 
dered satisfactory. Nor can the 
reasons be found in the conduct of 
the government of France, since the 
angry negociations had commenced 
on the subject of Malta. It is true 
that no satisfaction had been offered 
by that power for the circumstance 
(certainly one of aggression) of the 
* publication of colonel Sebastiani’s 
report: but then none had been re- 
fused; on the contrary, the nature 
and measure of the satisfaction re- 
quired, had been demanded by M. 
Talleyrand ; but which had not been 
explicitly replied to, On the sub- 
_ ject of Malta, France had certainly 
_ demanded the fulfilment of the 
treaty, respecting its evacuation by 
_ the English, but had by no means 
" rejected the principle, or the terms 
3 of a new arrangement, which lat- 
ter, in fact, had not been as yet 
P specifically proposed. And that 
¥ the English adiiipioceeniOn did not 
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265 
think the conduct of France, in this 
point, afforded ground of hostility, © 
may be deduced from the assertion 
of the prime-minister, on the 25d 
of February, who then, in his place 
in parliament, on the subject of the 
affairs of the prince of Wales, de- 
clared, that the, country was in a 
state of profound peace! The die 
was, however, now cast, of which 
the English government were to 
stand the hazard: 
Some uninteresting chicane, on 
the’ part of the French minister, 
took place at Paris, on the 41h of 
March, when lord Whitworth pres- 
sed for an explanation as to the na- 
ture of the projected arrangement 
for the security of the Turkish em- 
pire.; to which no satisfactory an 
swer was piven*. On the 10th gene- 
ral Andreossi, tae French ambas- 
sador to the court of London, in a 
note to lord Hawkesbury, again 
presses for the execution of the 10th 
article of the treaty of Amiens. He 
makes the distinction of the positive 
and conditional clauses of that arti- 
cle, and insists that the guaranty 
was not essential to the evacyation, 
which was to take place in three 
months, provided the Neapolitaa 
troops were arrived in the island, 
who were to compose its future gar-: 
rison.—T hat these troops, being ac- 
tually now at Malta, no farther pre- 
text for delay existed.—That Aus- 
tria, having ecceeded to become a 
guarantee, aggyRu-sia being equally 
accordant withthe exception of one 
point only, which mi: alt easily be 
modified, the complete cxrecu- 
tion of ie article must now be 
locked for. The reply to this note 
by the English government, was in 
* Vide Official Correspondence, No. 40, 
substance 
