690 
pose you mean Piedmont and Swit- 
zerland ; ‘* ce sont des bagatelles :”’ 
and it must have been foreseen, 
whilst the negotiation was pending ; 
6 Vous n’avez pas le droit den 
parler a cette heure.” I then al- 
ledged, as a cause of mistrust and of 
jealousy, the impossibility of obtain- 
ing justice, or any kind of redress, 
for any of his majesty’s subjects. — 
He asked me in what respect; and 
I told him, that, since the signing of 
the treaty, not one British claimant 
had been satisfied, although every 
Frenchman of that description had 
been so within one month atter that 
period ; and that since 1 had been 
here, and I could say as much of 
my predecessors, not one satistac- 
tory answer had been obtained, to 
the innumerable: representations 
which we had been under the nects- 
sity of making in favour of British 
subjects and property detained in 
the several ports of France, and 
elsewhere, without even a shadow 
of justice : such an order of things, 
I said, was not made to inspire con- 
fidence, but, on the contrary, must 
create mistrust. ‘This, he said, must 
be attributed to the natural difficul- 
ties attending such suits, when both 
parties. thought themselves right ; 
but he denied that such delays could 
proceed from any disinclination to 
do what was just and right. With 
regard to the pensions which were 
. granted to French or Swiss indivi- 
duals, L observed that they were 
given as a reward for past services 
during the war, and most certainly 
not for present ones, and still less 
for such as had been insinuated, of 
a nature repugnant to the feelings 
of every individual in England, and 
to the universally acknowledged 
loyalty and honour of the British 
government. ‘That as for any par- 
ticipation of indemnities, or other 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
18053. 
accessions which his majesty might 
have obtained, I could take upon 
myself to assure him, that his ma- 
jesty’s ambition led him rather to 
preserve than to acquire. And 
that, with regard to the most propi- 
tious moment for renewing hostili- 
ties, his majesty, whose sincere de- 
sire it was to continue the blessings 
of peace to his subjects, would al- 
ways consider such a measure as the 
greatest calamity ; but that, if his 
majesty was so desirous of peace, it 
must not be imputed to the difficulty 
of obtaining allies; and the less so, 
as those means which it might be 
necessary to afford such allies for, 
perhaps, inadequate services, would 
all be concentrated in England, and 
give a proportionate increase or 
energy to our own exertions, 
At this part of the conversation, 
he rose from his chair, and told me 
that he should give orders to gene- 
ral Andreossy to enter on the dis- 
cussion of this business with your 
Jordship; but he wished that I 
should, at the same time, be made 
acquainted with his motives, and 
convineed of his sincerity, rather 
from himself than from his minis- 
ters. He then, aiter a conversation 
of two hours, during the greatest 
part of which he taiked incessantly, 
conversed for a few moments on in- 
different subjects, in apparent good 
humour, and retired. 
Such was, nearly as I can recol- 
lect, the purport of this conference. 
It must, however, be observed, 
that he did not, as M. Talleyrand 
had done, affect to attribute colonel 
Sebastiani’s mission ¢o commercial 
motives only, but as oné rendered 
necessary, in a military point of 
view, by the infraction by us of the 
treaty of Amiens. 
I have the honour to be, &e. 
Whitworth. 
P. S. This 
