236 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



could liave made him subservient 

 to his darhng passion for ruining 

 the commerce of England, or 

 have obtained what he called a 

 maritime peace by the revocation 

 of the English orders in council. 

 Lewis, after many conferences 

 with Napoleon at Paris, during a 

 residence there for six weeks, re- 

 ported to his ministers by orders 

 from the emperor, that there 

 could no longer be any indepen- 

 dence or national existence for 

 Holland, if there should be any 

 continuation of a maritime war 

 with Great Britain. But the an- 

 nexation of Holland, which would 

 be so great an extension of sea- 

 coast to France must naturally be 

 an object of alarm to the Bri- 

 tish government : it was therefore 

 possible that the cabinet of Lon- 

 don, rather than sufter so fatal a 

 stroke, might be induced to make 

 peace with France, or to change 

 the measures it had adopted re- 

 specting commerce and the navi- 

 gation of neutral states. He 

 therefore directed them to send 

 some discreet person, acquainted 

 with the nature of commerce, to 

 England, to represent to the mi- 

 nistry how advantageous the in- 

 dependence of Holland must be 

 to Great Britain. On this mission 

 Mynheer Peter Caesar Labouchere 

 was sent, on the 2nd of February. 

 Having arrived in London on the 

 16th, he had several conferences 

 with the marquis Wellesley. — 

 The whole communication was 

 merely verbal. The marquis ex- 

 pressed his sorrow at the aggres- 

 sions to which Holland was a 

 prey ; " but," said the marquis, 

 '< we must not sacrifice our own 



national interests and honour. 

 The commercial war was pro- 

 voked by the French emperor 

 himself. The orders in council 

 were not the cause, but the con- 

 sequence of the decrees of Berlin 

 and Milan. The decrees of France 

 were still in force. It could not 

 be expected that we should relax 

 in our efforts in self-defence.'' 



In another conference with 

 Mynheer Labouchere, lord Wel- 

 lesley observed, that it would not 

 be convenient for England to 

 admit in principle that the British 

 measures of reprisals should be 

 discontinued as soon as the cause 

 that provoked them should be 

 removed. " In fact," said Labou- 

 chere, " this minister thinks very 

 highly of the orders in council, 

 as tending to weaken the means 

 and force of France. No hopes of 

 a change or relaxation in this sys- 

 tem but in a change of ministry. 

 Attempts on the part of hostile 

 nations to bring back the Eng- 

 lish government to other ideas, 

 would probably have the contrary 

 effect.*" 



It is not improbable that Buo- 

 naparte, on this last point, was of 

 the same opinion. But it formed 

 a part of his policy to affect an 

 earnest desire of peace. In his 

 message to the Conservative Se- 

 nate, dated Thuilieries, December 

 10, 1810, in which he states his 

 reasons for annexing Holland and 

 other countries beyond it toFrance, 

 he mentions this fruitless mission 

 of the Dutchman to London ; and 

 also says, that lie had been disap- 

 pointed in his hope to establish a 

 cartel for the exchange of prisoners 

 between France and England. The 



Cointe rendu par M, Labouchere, Londres, 18 Fevrier, 1810. 



