HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
had been there made public, and 
which were again renewed to him 
by an authentic communication of 
the ambassador from that court, 
made but the day before. And that 
therefore as it was impossible to 
reconcile the last communication 
made by his lordship, with the fresh 
confirmation which had just been 
aequired, from the court of Russia, 
the first consul could not but be- 
lieve, that on farther investigation, 
his Britannic majesty would give 
his ambassador different instruc- 
tions from those, which were last 
communicated by him to the French 
government. 
Lord Whitworth in reply con- 
tented himself with promising ‘to 
transmit this notification to his go- 
vernment, and again demanded the 
necessary passports; with wi 
being furnished, he departed from 
Paris, and arrived in London on the 
night of the 19th of May. His 
majesty’s declaration of war against 
France had issued on the day pre- 
ceding.* 
Thus after a peace of barely one 
year and sixteen days, did Lurope 
again see her quiet disturbed, and her 
tranquillity threatened, by the re- 
newal of acontest between her great- 
est continental, and her greatest ma- 
ritime power; and in which, sooner 
or later, he: otherstates must most 
probably be embarked: a contest, 
in which neither of the belligerent 
countries had any definite object ; 
whose means of mutual annoyance 
were as limited as their rancour 
_ and enmity were boundless; and to 
which, of consequence, no period 
eeuld be affixed, even in idea! 
i‘ 
273 
In the course of our narrative 
of the progress and termination of 
the negociation at Paris, we have 
necessarily limited ourselves to its 
outline, without breaking in upon 
it with remark or comment; the 
documents respecting the negocia 
tion itself, will be found in the ap- 
propriated part of this work to such 
subjects,* whence may be gathered 
every minute particular connected 
with it, that has yet come forward to 
public view. It will probably ap- 
pear difficult, even on a careful pe- 
rusal of them, to account for the rup- 
ture not having earlier taken place, 
when every assigned cause of aggres- 
sion on the part of France, in his 
majesty’s declaration to the period 
of the publication of Sebastiani’s 
report, (which occurred in January) 
fully existed: nor less so, that so 
late as the middle of May following, 
hostilities should then ensue, when 
France seemed disposed to make 
every concession and atrangement 
that could be demanded, short of 
allowing the actual possession of 
Malta to remain with England; a 
point on which the decision of 
Bonaparte had been taken from 
the first moment, and from which 
he never once varied in the slight- 
est degree. Or there will still be 
difficulty in determining upon the 
motives which induced the go- 
vernment of England, if it re- 
solved to keep possession of Malta, 
either in perpetuity, or for a term 
of years, to protract the negociation 
from the 29th of February, (on 
which day the first consul declared 
he would rather see the English in 
possession of the Fauxbourg St. 
* State Papers. Vide Official Correspondence. 
Antoine, 
¢ | 
