776 
pect more favourable conditions 
than France has lately been inclined 
to accede to. The ud: possidetis thus 
described, must however now of ne- 
cessity include the kingdom of 
Sicily. 
Every endeavour was made in the 
onset of the negotiation to obtain 
the restitution of Naples to his Sici- 
lian majesty; and the grounds on 
which it was thought fit finally to 
desist from that claim on the part of 
his majesty are detailedin thecorres- 
hen of this office with lord 
armouth and your lordship. 
But the case of Sicily was al- 
ways deemed to be widely different 
from that of Naples. Our actual 
occupation of that island brings it 
fully within the benefit of the ufé 
possidetis. And recent events have 
shewn how very distant are the hopes 
of conquest in that quarter, which 
were so much relied upon in one of 
the notes presented to your lordship 
by the French plenipotentiaries, 
Lord Yarmouth had been uni- 
formly instructed to insist on this 
demand as a sine quad non condition 
ofall arrangements for peaee. On 
the refusal of France to accede to 
this claim, his lordship had actually, 
in pursuance of those instructions, 
demanded his passports, and it was 
not in the smallest degree departed 
from or relaxed until a desire was 
expressed to him by M. d’Oubril, 
that this government would listen 
to proposals for an equivalent to be 
given for Sicily. In compliance 
with the supposed wishes of his ally, 
and on that ground alone, his ma- 
jesty consented to entertain the 
consideration of such an equivalent, 
but none has ever been suggested 
that appeared at all likely to meet 
the just expectations which his Sici- 
lian majesty would have been en- 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1806. 
titled to form on that head. And 
his majesty has now the satisfaction 
oflearning, that the sentiments of 
his ally have in fact never been dif- 
ferent from his own on this point ; 
and that the preservation of Sicily is 
considered in Russia, as well asin 
England, as ajust condition of any 
peace with France. On both these 
grounds, therefore, both on the 
principle adopted for his own nego- 
tiation, and on the ground of his de- 
termination not to separate himself 
from Russia, his majesty thinks it 
absolutely necessary to maintain 
this point with the same firmness 
which he had originally manifested 
respecting it. 
This includes: all that it is neces. 
sary to say on any point respecting 
the immediate interests of this coun- 
try, or of any possession hitherto 
known to be occupied by his ma- 
jesty’s arms, 
No, XLIX. 
Copy of a Dispatch from the Earl of 
Lauderdale to Earl Spencer, dated 
Paris, September 18th, 1806,— 
Received September 22d. 
Paris, Sept. 18, 1806. 
My Lord, 
I had the honour of receiving the 
dispatch, signed by Mr. secretary 
Windham, dated September 10, late 
in the evening of Friday last. ~ 
Unfortunately I had had a slight 
degree of fever for four days preced- 
ing, and I never was more unfit than 
on Saturday morning to attend to 
business of such a magnitude. 
On considering the instructions 
contained in the dispatch with all 
the attention I could, they appeared 
to me to relate to two distinct sub- 
jects: first, tothe form and manner 
in which his majesty thought proper 
that I should conduct the negotia- 
3 tion : 
