180 
negotiation, a denial of the offers 
which had been held out to them as 
inducements to treat, and an indica. 
tion of the little reliance to be placed 
in the language or sincerity of the 
French negotiators. The instruc: 
tions therefore to lord Yarmouth 
were distinct and peremptory. He 
was directed to insist generally on 
the recurrence to the original over- 
tures. and to make the* readmission 
of Sicily as the sine qué non of the 
production of his full powers, which, 
‘to avoid all pretence of cavil’” 
were conveyed to him without de- 
Jay. In the mean while the conduct 
and language of M. D’Oubril, who 
had arrived at Paris, and who on 
the 10th of July opened his negoti- 
ations in form with the French com- 
missioner general Clarke, fully jus- 
tified the expectations of M. Talley- 
rand. It was soon manifest that no 
scruple about Sicily would prevent 
that minister from accepting such 
terms as Bonaparte might choose to 
grant, and nothing but the immedi- 
ate and unqualified concurrence of 
England deter him from signing a 
separate peace. With the view of 
postponing so fatal a step, and of se- 
curing M. D’Oubril’s co-operation 
on the other points in discussion, the 
English cabinet seems seems for ove 
moment to have been willingt ‘* to 
ascertain whether any practicable 
shape could be given to the proposal 
of an exchange for Sicily.” This 
guarded relaxation was evidently the 
result of an extreme compliance 
with the wishes of M. D’Oubril not 
‘a variation of opinion on the import- 
ance of the object, much less an 
acknowledgment of the right of 
* Papers, No. 15. 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1806. 
+ Papers, Ne. 18. 
|| Papers, General Clarke, No. 25, 
France to recede from the original 
basis, within the scope of which it 
is carefully stated to be brought, in 
Mr. Fox’s dispatch of the 18th of 
July. But the fears and the impa. 
tience of M. D’Oubril did not allow 
him to wait till the sentiments of the 
British cabinet were known, Such 
was the success of the French nego-. 
tiators that they intimidated him into 
a belief that the delay of forty-eight 
hours in the signature of a separate 
treaty would expose Germany and 
Europe to dismemberment and de. 
struction, and that an immediate 
acquiescence with the demands of 
Bonaparte was the only method of 
averting those evils. He accordingly 
signed a treaty on the 20th of July, 
andt without communicating to lord 
Yarmouth some of the most material — 
arlicles to which he had consented, 
hastened, according to his own ex. 
pression, to lay his work and his 
head at the feet of his imperial 
master. The French very naturally 
regarded the signature of this treaty 
in|| the light of an important vietory, 
and by the same arts as they had 
practised on M. D’Oubrilso far suc- 
ceeded in terrifying lord Yarmouth 
with the consequences of a rupture 
or of delay, that they prevailed upon 
him to produce his full powers, be- 
fore the basis originally offered had 
been again recognized, before the 
extension of its application to Sicily 
had been in any shape renewed, and 
before the impression produeed on 
the British cabinet by the precipi- 
tate eonduct of M. D’Oubril had 
been ascertained. General Clarke 
was immediately appointed to treat 
with lord Yarmouth on the part of 
t Papers, No. 96. _ 
France, 
