oo ANNUAL REGISTER, 
course calculated in every respect, — 
on the subject of Malta, to militate 
against the spirit and letter of the 
treaty of Amiens, That notwith- 
standing the manifest injustice of 
the English government, his dispo- 
sition towards peace was such as to 
induce him not to reject an inter- 
mediate mode of terminating the 
difficulties respecting Malta; and 
that he would consent to the Is- 
Jand bemg place in the hands of 
one of the three powers who had 
guaranteed its independence, cither 
Austria, Russia, or Prussia; pro- 
vided that some other arrangements 
respecting its guaranty of secon- 
dary importance were established. 
On this proposition (dated the 
4th of May) the obvious intention 
of which was to give Malta to the 
emperor of Russia; the Enelish 
government, without a moment’s de- 
lay, puta decided negative. ‘The 
dispatch however, announcing this 
refusal, contained vet another ulti- 
matum, which, if not aeceded to by 
the French government, lord Whit- 
worth was instructed to quit Paris 
mm thirty-six hours. This new pro- 
ject ditiered only from the last, in 
its placing the island of Malta 
in the hands of Great Britain for 
an indefinite term, upon the footing 
wi the present state of Lampedosa ; ; 
and which, as soon as the latter 
could be occupied as a naval sta- 
tion, should be restored to the in- 
inhabitants, and acknowledged an 
medependent state. And, ina secret 
article, which provided that his 
majesty should not be required to 
surrender Malta by the French go- 
vernment until after the expiration 
ef ten years. Those articles which 
related to the acknowledgment of 
the kingof Etruria, and the Italian 
1805. 
and Ligurian republics; the eva- 
cuation of Switzerland; and to tie 
assigning a suitable territorial pro- 
vision to the king of Sardinia in 
Italy, wert made to dépend upon 
each other. All were to be o.nit- 
ted, or all inserted. 
On the 4th of May this, last last 
project, was communicated by the 
English ambassador to M. Talley= 
rand. In the personal conference 
which took place upon this subject, 
lord Whitworth expressed it as 
a reason why his government 
refused to accede to the placing the 
island of Malta in the hands ef one 
of the guaranteeing powers, ‘ that 
the emperor of Russia had refused 
to take charge of Malta.” ‘This 
latter argument, which certainly 
does not display a flattering spe- 
cinen of diplomatic ingenuity, af- 
forded but too favourable an oppor- 
tunity for animadversion to the 
French government, which on the 
12th in a note to lord Whitworth, 
(totally waiving the subject of the 
last proposition of the English 
government) confines itselfto Lord 
Whitworth’s cause of rejection of 
the project of the 4th of May; the 
ground of which the French minis- 
ter asserts to be totally untounded ; 
as even should the court of St. 
Petersburgh persist in its refusal 
of accepting Malta, the intentions 
of the emperor of Germany and 
the king of Prussia, named” in 
the French project, were yet 
to be ascertained: but ‘Mz 'Tal- 
leyrand takes still stonger ground, 
and asserts most positi in 
his note, that the assertion. of, 
Lord Whitworth is in absolute con-. 
tradiction to the assurances which 
the first consul had received from 
Russia, since his majesty’s Inessage 
had 
