SiT ATE PA‘PLE R’S. 
meral basis of negotiation has yet 
been brought into.discussion, no- 
thing need be added tp the for- 
mer instructions, by which the 
‘course of any further discussions 
that may take place is still to be 
entirely guided. 
No. XXXVIII. 
Copy of a Dispatch from Mr. Sccre- 
tary Fox to the Earls of Lauder- 
a dale and Yarmouth, dated Down- 
mg-street, August 14, 1800. 
_ Downing- street, August 14, 1806. 
ee My Lords, 
His majesty’s servants have ob- 
served, from the dispatches received 
this day, that some insinuation has 
= thrown out by the-French go- 
_Yernment, of a disposition on the 
part of this country to gain some 
unfair advantage by the employment 
fe of two plenipotentiaries in the pre- 
Sent discussions. That government 
has since taken the obvious mode of 
* counteracting this advantage (if any 
_ such there was)by naming, on their 
a part also, asecond plenipotentiary. 
But, the king’s government is desi- 
_rous, while it adheres steadily to the 
‘substance of those points which are 
thought fit to he insisted on for the 
honour and interest of his majesty’s 
‘crown, to leave no pretence for cavils 
asto the form in which these dis- 
-Cussions are carried on, ‘The ad- 
: vantage which was to be looked to 
rom the personal share which the 
earl of Yarmouth originally had in 
; these transactions, as the bearer of 
the overtures made by France, has 
“now ceased ; and, while his lordship 
GY, has, on the one hand, properly re- 
corded his decisive testimony as to 
ae thereality of these overtures, aud 
 asto the exact terms of peace so 
13 
7 = 
761 
offered, the French government has, 
on the other hand, not only refused 
to adhere to those offers, but has ex- 
pressly declared, that they never 
can even have entered into their 
thoughts. ‘* * Jamais il n’ a pu 
venir dans la pensée de sa majesté 
Pempereur des Francois Roi @ 
Italie de prendre pour base de la né- 
gociation |’ utz possidetis.” 
In this state of things, the kiug’s 
servants are uot aware of any be- 
nefits that would be likely to result 
to his majesty’s service from impos- 
ing on lord Yarmouth any further 
duty in this respect; nor do they 
wish that any such ground for cavil 
as I have before alluded to, however 
unfounded it would be, should be 
left to the enemy. 
They have, therefore, submitted 
it as their humble advice to his ma- 
jesty, that, in ease of thecontinu- 
ance of the negotiations, the French 
minister should be informed, that 
they will henceforth be conducted 
by the earl of Lauderdale alone, the 
earl of Yarmouth having obtained 
his majesty’s gracious permission to 
return to England ; but that, his ma-' 
jesty does not, on his part, make 
any objection to lerd Lauderdale’s 
treating with both the persons who 
have been named by the French go-' 
vernment for that trust:—A proof 
perfectly decisive, in all its parts, 
that no unfair advantage, suchas the 
French government appears to ap- 
prehend, can have been in the king’s 
contemplation. 
Iam, &c. 
C. J: Fox. 
No. XXXIX. 
Copy of « Dispatch from the Earl of 
Lauderdale to, Mr. Secretary Fox, 
dated 
* Tt never could have entered into the thoughts of his ereeey the emperor 
_ @f the French, king of Italy, to take for basis of the negotiation, the ti possidetis. 
