Saf APE? PAP EARNS. 
riod after the conclusion of a con- 
vention, by which all those pro- 
visions are secured. His majesty 
will consent to acknowledge the 
new Italian states, upon the con- 
dition that stipulations in favour 
of his Sardinian majesty, and of 
Switzerland, form a part of this ar- 
rangement. 
It is his majesty’s pleasure that, 
in the event of the failure of the 
negotiation, you should delay your 
departure from Paris no longer than 
may be indispensibly necessary for 
your personal convenience ; and 
that you should, in no case, remain 
there, after the receipt of this dis- 
patch, more than seven days. 
I have the honour to be, &c. 
Hawkesbury. 
His Excellency Lord Whitworth, K.B. 
Sc. §c. Sc. 
pr No. 61. 
Dispatch from Lord Whitworth to 
Lord Hawkesbury, dated Paris, 
April 23, 1803. 
My Jord, 
As Lheard nothing from M. de 
Talleyrand, I called on hit on 
Thursday, in order to learn the ef- 
feét of the proposal which I had 
made, conformably to your lord- 
ship’s instructions, on the basis of 
@ perpetual possession of the forts 
of Malta, on re-establishing the or- 
der in the civil government of the 
island. He told me, that if I had 
called on him sooner, he should, 
_ two days ago, have communicated 
to me the first consul’s answer, 
which was, that no consideration 
on earth should induce him to con- 
_ Sent to a concession in perpetuity 
of Malta, in any shape whatever ; 
and that the re-establishment of the 
_ order was not so much the point to 
‘be discussed, as that of suffering 
3 
719 
Great Britain to acquire a posses. 
sion in the Mediterranean. {[ told 
him that I did not call sooner be- 
cause [I was given to understand 
that he would have himself pro- 
posed it to me, for the purpose of 
communicating the answer of the 
first consul; and that it did not, in 
any shape, become me to put my- 
self on the footing of a solicitor in 
this transaction. After some ¢con- 
versation, and finding (what I most 
sincerely believe to be the case) 
that the first consul’s determination 
was fixed on the point of a posses- 
sion of Malta in perpetuity; I re- 
peated to him what I had previously 
suggested to Joseph Bonaparte, -the 
modification which I had to propose, 
namely, that, for the sake of peace, 
his majesty would be willing to 
wave his pretensions to a possession 
in perpetuity, and would consent 
to hold Malta for a certain number 
of years to be agreed upon, on the 
condition that no opposition should 
be made, on the part of the French 
government, to any negotiation his 
majesty might set on foot with his 
Sicilian majesty, for the acquisition 
of the island of Lampedosa. We 
discussed this proposal in a conver- 
sation of some length ; and I made 
use of all the arguments which hare 
been furnished me by your lordship, 
or which occurred to me, in its fa. 
vour. I begged him, particularly, 
to recolleSt that we were in actual 
possession of the object, and that, 
therefore, eyery modification tend- 
ing to limit that possession was, in 
fact, a concession on the part of his 
majesty, and a proof of his desire 
to sacrifice, to his love of peace, the 
just claim which he had acquired 
in consequence of the conduét of 
France, and which had récently 
been admitted, of a much more 
considerable 
