714 
cumstances to the French govern- 
ment, and state, at the same time, 
the impossibility of bringing the 
present discussions to an amicable 
conclusion, unless some satisfaction 
shall be given to his majesty for the 
indignity which has thus been of- 
Fered to him, in the face of all Eu- 
rope, by the French minister at 
Hamburgh, 
| have the honour to be, &e. 
(Signed) Hawkesbury. 
His Excellency Lord Whitworth, 
K. B. Se. &c. SC. 
No. 56. 
Dispatch from Lord Hawkesbury to 
Lord Whitworth, dated April 13, 
1805. 
My lord, 
Your excellency’s dispatches have 
been received, and laid before the 
king. 
Ilis majesty has observed, with 
great satisfaction, the admission by 
the French government of the jus-. 
tice of his claim to some compensa- 
tion, in consequence of the increas- 
-ed power and influence of France, 
since the period of the conclusion of 
the definitive treaty. 
Although, under the circum- 
stances of your conversation with 
M. Talleyrand, and particularly 
after the note verbale which he 
gave to you, it might have been 
expedient that you should have de- 
ferred presenting the project con- 
tained in my dispatch, No. 7, in the 
form. of a project, it is desirable 
that you should communicate, with- 
out delay, in some mode or other, 
the contents of that project, for the 
purpose of ascertaining, distinctly, 
whether the conditions are such as 
to induce the French government to 
give way upon the question of Mal- 
ta. ‘These conditions appear to his 
ANNUAL REGISTER, “803. 
majesty so well calculated to save 
the honour of the French govern- 
ment on the subject of Malta—if 
the question of Malta is principally 
considered by them as a question of 
honour—and, at the same time, 
hold out to them such important ad- 
vantages, that the success of the pro- 
position is, at least, worth trying, 
particularly as the result of it might 
be productive of the most easy means 
of adjusting the most material of our 
present diilerences. 
With respect to the assertion so 
often advanced and repeated by M. 
Talleyrand in your last conversa- 
tions of the non-execution of the 
treaty of Amiens relative to Malta, 
I have only to observe again, that 
the execution of that article is be- 
come impracticable from causes 
which it has not been in the power 
of his majesty to control. That 
the greatest part of the funds as- 
signed to the support of the order, 
and indispensibly necessary for the 
independence of the order and de- 
fence of the island, have been se- 
questrated since the conclusion of 
the definitive treaty, in direct re- 
pugnance to the spirit and letter of 
that treaty; and that two. of the 
principal powers who were invited 
to accede as guarantees to the ar- 
rangement, have refused their ac- 
cession, except on the conditions 
that the part of the arrangement 
which was deemed so material rela- 
tive to the Maltese inhabitants 
should be entirely cancelled, The 
conduct of the French government, 
since the conclusion of the definitive 
treaty, gives his majesty a right, 
which is now, at length, admitted 
by themselves, to demand some 
compensation for the past, and se- 
curity for the future. Such com- 
pensation could never be considered 
as 
