STATE PAPERS. 
ambassadors at Paris, and at the 
Hague, have seriously to reproach 
themselves, if they have credited in- 
formation so evidently false, and 
if they did not foresee that they 
thereby exposed their government 
to err in the most important delibe- 
rations. 
Was it not conformable to the 
usage practised among nations, first 
to demand explanations, and thus 
to take means for being convinced 
of the falshood of the intelligence 
which the ministers might have re- 
ceived? Must not the least effects 
of the omission of this practice be, 
to bring on the ruin of families, 
and carry confusion, uncertainty, 
and disorder into all the commercial 
affairs of both nations? The first 
consul knows, both from his own 
sentiments, and judging of other 
people by the French, that a great 
nation can never be terrified. He 
believes that good policy and the 
feelings of true dignity, ever inspire 
the sentiment of esteem for a rival 
nation, and never the design of 
menacing her. A great nation may 
be destroyed, but not intimidated. 
The second part of his majesty’s 
message consists of another asser- 
tion, no better founded. ~His Bri- 
tannic majesty makes mention of 
discussions, the success of which is 
doubtful. What are these discus- 
sions? What official notes, what 
protocole prove the opening, the pro- 
gress, the vicissitudes of a debate? 
Can a state of difficulties, which 
leads to an alternative of peace or 
war, spring up unawares, without 
commencement, without progres- 
sion, and lead without distinétion 
to an appeal to arms, before all the 
means of conciliation have been ex- 
_ hausted. 
In this case, the appeal has been 
Vou. XLV. 
705 
publicly made before it could be 
known that there was room for 
misunderstanding. ‘The termination 
of the discussions were announced 
before they had begun. The issue 
of a difficult discussion has been de- 
clared before it arose. What would 
Europe, what would both nations 
think, if they knew that these dis- 
cussions, announced by his Britan- 
nic majesty as so difficult to termi- 
nate, were unknown to the French 
government; and that the first con- 
sul, on reading the message, could 
not comprehend the meaning of 
either of the declarations therein 
contained. 
He has also abstained from any 
ostensible step ; and whatever may 
have been the clamour, the activity, 
the provocations of war, which have 
taken place in England since that 
message, he has given no orders, he 
has made no dispositions, no prepa- 
rations. He places his glory, in an 
affair of this nature, wholly in be- 
ing taken in an unprovided state. 
He will continue in this system of 
honest frankness, until his Britannic 
majesty has reflected fully on the 
part he proposes to take. 
In lord Hawkesbury’s note, an 
opinion is expressed, that the French 
republic has increased in power since 
the peace of Amiens. Thisis a de- 
cided error. Since that epoch, 
France has evacuated a considerable 
territory. The French power has 
received no degree of augmentation. 
if his Britannic majesty is determin- 
ed to make war, he may alledge all 
the pretexts he pleases. He will find 
few less founded. 
As to the cemplaints made re- 
specting the publications which may 
_have appeared in France, they are 
of an order too secondary to be ca- 
pable of influencing such a decision. 
Zz Are 
