Sree VA Pe. 
the first consul could so far gain up- 
on himself as to sacrifice a false 
punétilio to the certainty of a war, 
of which no one could foresee the 
consequence, nothing could possibly 
prevent my departure to-morrow 
night. He heped, he said, this was 
notso near; that he would commu- 
nicate my letter, and what [I had 
said, to the first consi] immediately, 
and that, in all probability, I should 
hear from him this evening. If 
thought it, howeyer, right to ap- 
prise him, that it was quite impos- 
sible I could be induced to disobey 
his majesty’s orders, and protract 
a negotiation on terms so. disad- 
vantageous -to ourselves, unless he 
should furnish me with such a justi- 
fication as would leave me no room 
to hesitate ; and that I did not see 
that any thing short of a full ac- 
quiescence in his Majesty’s demands 
could have that efie¢ét. He repeated, 
that he wou!d report the conversa- 
tion to the first consul, and that I 
should shortly hear from him. 
In this state the business now 
rests; [ am expecting either a pro- 
position, or my passports, and am 
consequently taking every measure 
for setting out to-morrow night. 
- Inclosure referred to in No. 65. 
Sir Paris, May 2, 1803. 
When I had the honour, on Tues. 
day last, of communicating to you, 
officially, the last propositions which 
I was instruéted by my court to 
submit to the French government, 
for the sake of removing the present 
difficulties, 1 had the honour to an- 
nounce to you, that, in case the first 
consul should not consent to these 
propositions, I should find myself 
under the necessity of leaving Paris 
_ in eight days. We are nearly ar- 
bf rived at the end of this period, with- 
725 
out my haying received any answer 
to this communication. It remains 
for me only, therefore, to obey the_ 
orders of the king my master to re- 
turn to him; and, for this purpose, 
1 entreat you, sir, to have the good- 
ness to furnish ime with the necessary 
passports. 
[ seize this opportunity of re- 
newing to your exceliency the as- 
suraices of my high consideration. 
(Signed) Whitworth. 
His Excellency M. de Talleyrand. 
No. 66. 
Extract of « Dispatch from Lord 
Whitworth to Lord Hawkesbury, 
dated Paris, May 4, 1803. 
Soon after I had dispatched the 
messenger, the night before last, with 
my dispatches of the 3d, I received 
@ communication from M. de Tal- 
leyrand, of which I inclose a copy, 
the purport of which was so com- 
pletely short of every thing which 
could be satisfa¢tory, that I did 
not think myself authorized to en- 
ter ito any discussion upon it; 
and, as early.as I could on the fol- 
Jowing morning, I returned the an- 
swer, of which the inclosed is a 
copy. 
After this I concluded, of course, 
that there was an end to the nego- 
tiation. I had, for some days past, 
been preparing for my departure 5 
every measure was taken for setting 
out at four o’clock this morning, 
and we were expeéting only the pass- 
ports which I had demanded, for 
the purpose of ordering the post 
horses. The day and the evening 
passed without the passports having 
been sent; and whilst we were de- 
liberating on the motives of such a 
delay, about twelve o’clock at night, 
a gentleman who was with me re- 
ceived a communicatton, which con- 
3A3 vinced 
