722 
quacy of such a proposal, and of 
the impossibility in which I found 
myself to transmit it to your lord- 
ship. I lamented the course which 
the negotiation was taking, and that 
the first consul should have so little 
regard to the dreadful consequences 
which must ensue, as to suffer them 
to be outweighed by a mistaken no- 
tion of dignity. And I added, that 
notwithstanding the acquiescence 
which he might have met with from 
others, the plea of its being in- 
compatible with the dignity of the 
French government to give satis- 
faction or security, when both might 
with justice be demanded, could 
never be admitted by Great Bri- 
tain. 
M. de Talleyrand heard every 
thing I could say with the utmost 
patience, notwithstanding he had 
nothing satisfactory to say, and 
seemed unwilling to break up the 
conference. He constantly brought 
forward the same inadmissible pro- 
posal, requesting that L would at 
least communicate it to your lord- 
ship. This, I told him, 1 could not 
refuse to do, since every thing which 
passed between him and me must, of 
course, make the subject of my re- 
ports to your lordship. I declared, 
however, at the same time, that I 
should not think myself by any 
means authorized to suspend the ex- 
ecution of any instructions J might 
receiye, tending to bring the negoti- 
ation to an issue, in the expectation 
of any change which such a propo- 
sal might produce. All I could do, 
and that I would certainly do, would 
be to communicate the ultimatum, if 
his majesty should think proper to 
furnish me with it, confidentially to 
M. de Talleyrand, before I present- 
ed it officially to him, as minister for 
foreign affairs. Je assured me that 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1803. 
he should consider such a conduct 
as a further proof of my desire to 
conciliate, and that he could not yet 
forbear hoping that the differences 
might be adjusted. I repeated that 
if his hope was founded on the ex- 
pectation of his majesty being in- 
duced to recede from his demand, it 
would be deceiving himself to cherish 
it. 
The remainder of the conversa- 
tion turned on the calamities which 
would follow the failure of our en- 
deavour to avoid arupture. He in- 
sinuated that Tlolland, Naples, and 
other countries connected with 
Great Britain, would be the first 
victims of the war. I asked him 
whether he thought that such a con- 
duct would add to the glory of the 
first consul, or whether the falling 
on the innocent and defenceless 
would not rather tarnish it, and ul- 
timately unite against him, not only 
the honest men in his own country, 
but every government in Europe.— 
That it certainly would excite more 
detestation than terror in England, 
at the same time that it would serve 
to impress upon us still more 
strongly the necessity of omitting 
no means of circumscribing a power 
so perniciously exerted. I could 
not help adding, that although no 
act of hostility had actually taken 
place, yet the inveteracy with which 
our commerce, our industry, and 
our credit had been attacked in 
every part to which French influ- 
ence could be extended, did, in faét, 
almost amount to the same, since it 
went to prove, in addition to the 
general system of the first consul, 
that his object was to pursue, under 
the mask of peace, the same line of 
conduét in which the ‘preceding go- 
vernments had acted. ' 
I -now trust entirely to the a 
0 
