754 
without difficulty, have left;his Bri- 
tannic majesty in possession of the 
Cape, Surinam, Tobago, St. Lucia, 
Pondicherry, &c, 
As to Sicily, in this very supposi- 
tion his majesty the emperor and 
king would not have left it to his 
enemies ; bat his majesty would only 
have thought that the conquest of 
this islaud should have preceded the 
opening of the negotiations; and 
while Prussia and Russia have either 
guaranteed or recognized the changes 
which have taken place in the king- 
dom of the Two Sicilies, is it to be 
Supposed that England could have 
Prevented the conquest of Sicily, 
which is separated from the conti- 
nent only by a channel of less than 
two thousand toises ? 
And even supposing that the Cape, 
Surinam, and other Dutch posses- 
sions could have been finally detach- 
ed from the kingdom of Holland, is 
it not certain that its existence as a 
nation would become from that very 
cause impossible ; and that its in- 
corporation with the French em- 
pire would have been the neces- 
Sary consequence of a refusal given 
by England, to restore to it its colo- 
nies ; what, in fact, could be the 
means of maintaining a nation which 
would have nothing but debts, and 
from which the total deprivation of 
all commerce would ta¥e away the 
possibility of paying them? What- 
ever their excellencies the plenipo- 
tentiaries of his Britannic majesty 
may alledge, it is impossible that 
they ghould not be convinced, that 
it is a yery different thing, for Great 
Britain, to see the Texel and the 
mouths of the Rhine and of the 
Meuse in the power of the French 
revenue officers, or to see them in 
the power of the Dutch. ‘Thus, 
therefore, Holland, without the re- 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1806, 
stitution of its colonies, would ne- 
cessarily become a province of the 
French empire ; for on accepting the 
crown of Holland, prince Louis for- 
mally declared his intention of re- 
nouncing it, if the Dutch colonies 
were not restored at the general 
peace. 
Let Hanover become a province 
of France; let Trieste, Fiume, and 
their territory likewise become pro- 
vinces of the kingdom of Italy, and 
let Great Britain keep as a compen- 
sation, the Cape, Surinam, Malta, © 
and Pondicherry, &c. France will 
consent to it, and the great princi- 
ple wtz possidetis will be applied 
in its full extent, both as to the pre- 
sent and as to the future. 
Let the new ninister plenipoten- 
tiary of his Britannic majesty, point 
out in the history of the world, , 
a negotiation terminated upon the 
principle of the uéé possidetis between 
two great nations: let him examine 
whether this principle does not be- 
long rather to an armistice than to 
atreaty of peace ? It is impossible 
not to say, that, in proposing to 
France the wti possidetis, particularly 
under the present circumstance, a 
strange idea must have been formed 
of the character of the emperor 
Napoleon, and it must have been 
believed that he was reduced to a 
singular state of humiliation and 
distress. 
But, in demanding the wuz possi. 
detis, his excellency, the earl of Lau- 
derdale, plenipotentiary from his 
Britannic majesty, without regard 
to the principle which he advances, 
wishes to change entirely the destiny 
of a continental state, which gaye 
25,800 men to England, and fur. 
nished her with a part of the means 
which she afforded in the seyen 
years’ war, and eyen in the war or 
the 
