1 
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STATE PAPERS, 
_ dated St. Petersburgh, April 23, 
* 1802. 
I hope very soon to be enabled to 
re-dispatch your lordship’s last mes- 
Senger with the answer of this go- 
vernment to the communications 
which Ehave made to them, in obe- 
dience to his majesty’s commands, 
respecting the 10th article of the 
treaty of Amiens. In the mean 
time, I niust not conceal from your 
lordship that there is great rea- 
son to fear that his imperial majesty 
will decline taking part in the pro- 
posed joint guarantee of the posses- 
sions and new constitution of the or- 
der of Malta, 
No. 4. 
Extract of a Dispatch from Lord St. 
Helens to Lord Hawkesbury, 
dated St. Petersburgh, May 7, 
1802. 
Ihave reason to hope that the 
first impressions that had been pro- 
duced here by certain parts of the 
arrangement relative to Malta have 
been removed, and that his imperial 
majesty may even be ultimately in- 
duced to guarantee the whole of that 
arrangement, provided that the steps 
which have been taken towards the 
election of a new grand master, ac- 
cording to the mode suggested by 
this court, be considered as fulfilling 
what is required on that head by the 
Jatter part of the paragraph of the 
10th article of the treaty of Amiens, 
and consequently that no new elec- 
tion for that office is to take place 
in the manner pointed out by the 
former part of the same stipulation. 
No. 5. 
Dispatch from Lord Hawkesbury to 
Mr. Merry, dated June 5, 180%. 
Sir, 
J informed you, in my dispatch 
‘ definitive 
653 
No. 10, that M, Otto had made an 
official communication to me that 
general Vial was appointed by the 
first consul, minister plenipotentiary 
to the order of St. John of Jeru- 
salem. Sir Alexander Ball has been 
in consequence invested with the 
same character by his majesty. He 
will proceed immediately to Malta, 
and he will receive instructions to 
concert with general Vial the best 
means of carrying into complete ef- 
fect the stipulations contained in the 
10th article of the definitive treaty. 
By the paragraph marked No, 1 in 
that article, it is stipulated, 
“The knights. of the order, 
whose langues shall continue to sub- 
sist after the exchange of the rati‘- 
cations of the present treaty, are 
invited to return to Malta as soon 
as that exchange shall have taken 
place: they shall there form a ge- 
neral chapter, and shall proceed to 
the election of a grand master, to 
be chosen from amongst the natives 
of those nations which preserve 
langues, if no such electien shall 
have been already made since the 
exchange of the ratifications of the 
preliminary articles of peace.” 
‘The object of this paragraph was, 
that, in the event of an election hay- 
ing taken place subsequent to the 
exchange of the ratifications of the 
preliminary articles of peace, and 
antecedent to the conclusion of the 
treaty, that election 
should be considered as valid; and 
though no mention is made in the 
article of the proclamation of the 
emperor of Russia, soon after his 
accession to the throne, by which 
the knights of the order were invited 
to assemble, and to proceed to the 
election of a grand master, the sti- 
pulation in question evidently: refer- 
red to the contingency of an elec- 
tion 
