STATE; PAPERS. 
tention of invading Portugal. The 
army destined for that purpose is 
already assembling at Bayonne. 
This is for the determination of Great 
Britain.” 
But I confess the point of all 
others the most decisive in induc- 
ing me to produce my full powers, 
was the language held respecting 
Prussia. 
_ £* Prussia demands from us a de- 
claration respecting Hanover; we 
cannot consent wantonly to. lose 
the only ally Frauce has had since 
the Revolution ; the declaration 
_ once made * Nous n’en powvons nous 
retracter. Would you -have us 
break entirely with Prussia when 
we cannot even say that Great 
Britain will negotiate with us? 
you here only with orders to 
_ delay our measures till the season of 
_ the year makes exertion impossible, 
or can you treat? Ifso, is not the 
_ assurance we give you that Hano- 
ver, Malta, and the Cape, shall not 
be contested, sufficient to induce you 
todoso? Must we lay before the 
_ British government our exact terms, 
before they will even avow negoti- 
_ ation with so great a power as that 
of France? or shall we execute our 
other projects, as we did those in 
_ Holland and Naples ?” 
Undoubtedly, sir, conversations 
_ of this sort, confirmed even as they 
_ were by the events passing under 
my eyes, could never have induc- 
ed me to commit his majesty’s con- 
- fidential servants upon any point 
upon which I had not received their 
_ instructions, and which left no time 
to receive them; but I did not 
_ think myself at liberty to shift from 
_ myself the responsibility thus thrown 
741 
upon me, at the tisk of seeing Por. 
tugal and Switzerland share the same 
fate which Germany has just expe- 
rienced, and Hanover confirmed to 
Prussia, until such time as_ his ma- 
jesty’s arms should recover the pos- 
session of it. 
The mode of procecding of this 
government left me no alternative. 
Hither to avew negotiation, or shut 
up every Opening to it was my only 
option. 
I felt that I pledged his majesty 
to nothing except the fact of negoti- 
ation, already privately known to 
every court in Europe. 
I carefully forbore giving any 
written paper, or admitting even the 
possibility of any other basis than 
that of wtz possidetis. 
I have. ascertained the real extent 
of the pretensions of France ; and I 
did consider myself to have pree 
vented a great evil at a small ex- 
pence, by having given time to your- 
self and his majesty’s other confi- 
dential servants, to provide, by the 
further instructions you might judge 
proper, for the interests of the 
powers—thus, for the moment at 
least, saved from the grasp of 
France. 
I persuade myself that the mo- 
tives here detailed, upon which J 
acted at the moment, will place ina 
stronger light the difficulties of my 
position, and will, on further con- 
sideration, obtain his majesty’s gra- 
cious approbation of the conduct 
which I thought myself obliged to 
hold in consequence. 
His majesty’s ministers would 
have relieved me from much painful 
responsibility if they had command~ 
ed me to proceed no further, and 
3B3 wait 
* We cannot retract. 
