STATE "PAPERS. 
took this opportunity of assuring 
him, that although, according to 
his statement of the situation of 
France, we might possess, in a 
greater degree, the means of sup- 
porting the expence of a war, since 
those means arose from sources 
which even a state of warfare did 
not dry up, yet such was his ma- 
jesty’s sincere desire of maintaining 
peace, that nothing but absolute and 
unavoidable necessity would ever in- 
duce him to deprive his subjects of 
the blessings which they begin to 
enjoy. 
“No. 38. 
Dispatch from Lord Whitworth to 
~ Lord: Hawkesbury, dated Paris, 
~ Feb. 21, 1803." 
~My lord, 
My last dispatch, in which I gave 
your lordship an account of my 
conference with M. de Talleyrand, 
was scarcely gone, when I received 
a’note from him, informing me that 
the first consul wished to converse 
with me, and desired I would come 
to him at the Thuilleries at 9 o’clock. 
He received me in his cabinet with 
tolerable cordiality, and, after talk- 
ing on different subjects for a few 
minutes, he desired me to sit down, 
as he himself did on the other side 
of the table, and began. He told 
me that he felt it necessary, after 
what had passed between me and M, 
de Talleyrand, that he should, in 
the most clear and authentic man- 
ner, make known his sentiments to 
me, in order to their being commu- 
nicated to his majesty; and he con- 
ceived this would be more effectual- 
ly done by himself than through any 
medium whatever. He said that it 
was a matter of infinite disappoint- 
ment to him, that the treaty of 
Amiens, instead of being followed 
by conciliation and friendship, the 
1 
637 
natural effects of peace, had been 
productive only of continual and in- 
creasing jealousy and mistrust ; and 
that this mistrust was now avowed 
in such a manner as must bring the 
point. to an issue. 
He now enumerated the several 
provecations which h pretended to 
have received from England. He 
placed in ‘the first line our not eva- 
cuating Malta and Alexandria, as we 
were bound to do by the treaty. In 
this, he said, that no consideration 
on earth should make him acquiesce ; 
and, of the two, he had rather see 
us in possession of the Fauxbourg 
St. Antoine than Malta. He then 
adverted to the abuse thrown out 
against him in the English public 
prints ; but this, he said, he did not 
so much regard as that which ap- 
peared in the French papers pub- 
lished in. London. This he consi- 
dered as much more mischievous, 
since it was meant to -excite this 
country against him and his govern- 
ment. He complained of the pro- 
tection given to Georges and others 
of his description, who, instead of 
being sent to Canada, as had been 
repeatedly promised, were permit- 
ted to remain in England, hand- 
somely pensioned, and constantly 
committing all sorts of crimes on the 
coasts of France, as well as in the 
interior. In confirmation of this, 
he told me that two men had, with- 
in these few days, been apprehend- 
ed in Normandy, and were now on 
their way to Paris, who were hired 
assassins, and employed by the 
bishop of Arras, by the baron de 
Rolle, by Georges, and by Dutheil, 
as would be fully proved in a court 
of justice, and made known to the 
world. 
He acknowledged that the irrita- 
tion he felt against England increas- 
ed 
