stsof this country separately would 
e far less consulted by such a plan 
than by the continued occupation of 
nae yet the sense which the Rus- 
jan minister at Paris appears to en- 
tertain of the advantage which might 
Fesulé from it to Austriaand to Rus- 
‘sia from the recovery of Dalmatia, 
it were well combined with fu- 
re arrangements of defence, might 
induce his majesty to accede to pro- 
posals of this description; on the 
bona fide consent on the part of his 
Sicilian majesty. 
- There appears, however, so little 
“probability of inducing France so to 
Bexiend her offer, that any further 
“ Wiscussion of it might scarcely liave 
“been worth pursuing, had not M. 
_-dOubril so strongly ‘empireitiell his 
wish, that this court might rather 
as to temporize than abruptly to 
_ break offa negotiation now brought 
to. a state which affords so little pro- 
__Inise of success. It is only in cow- 
_ pliance with that desire that his ma- 
i jesty has been pleased to direct your 
lordship to continue the conferences 
vith M. Talleyrand, so as to ascer- 
_ shape can be given to the proposal 
_ of an exchange for Sicily. If this 
_ cannot be done, your lordship’s at- 
tention will then, of course, be di- 
rected to the object of recalling the 
_ French government to the basis on 
which the negotiation was originally 
been made to him for the conclu- 
sion of a separate peace, and the 
inducements which, he thinks, 
Shp lead his majesty to judge such 
ae arrangement useful to the general 
4 STATE PAPERS 
731 
interests of Europe. His majesty 
has undoubtedly been at all times 
ready to make great sacrifices for 
those interests; but very little ex- 
pectation is entertained here, that 
Russia could, in such course, obtain 
any effectual security for them, at 
a time when so much new danger is 
to be apprehended, and_in so many 
quarters, from the projects of 
France with respect to Germany, 
Switzerland, Sweden, the Porte, 
Spain, aud Portugal. 
In the present circumstances of 
Europe, the last hope of averting 
these dangers is to be found in the 
union of the only two powers on 
whom France has yet made no ime 
pression, Great Britain aud Russia. 
And although the mutual good 
dispositions and confidence of those 
two powers should in fact re. 
main, (as his majesty trusts they 
would) unimpaired by the differ- 
ence of the situation in which a 
separate peace would place them, 
yet itis obvious that the enemy 
would build the most extensive 
hopes on that foundation, and would 
be more encouraged by that, than 
by any other circumstance that 
could be stated, to proceed in the 
execution of the plans already an.- 
nounced to your lordship and to M. 
d’Oubril. 
His majesty, therefore, directs 
that you should express to that mi- 
nister how material it is in every 
case, that the two courts should 
continue to combine their measures 
both of peace and war, and that no 
expectation should be held out to 
the enemy of success in a endea- 
vour to conclude a separate peace 
with either of the allies; a line to 
which, as your lordship will have 
informed M. d’Oubril, his majesty 
has, on his part, strictly adhered. 
No. XXI. 
