HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. [305 



Minister Plenipotentiary to the Diet of Augsburgh and Ratisbon 

 in 1714; Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of Prussia in 1716; 

 Envoy to the Hague in 1717; Ambassador Extraordinary to the 

 Congress of Cambray in 1724. His Lordship's estates devolved to 

 his brother, Francis Whitworth, of Leyborne, whod. in 1743, leaving 

 issue, Sir Charles Whitworth, Knt. M. P. m. Miss Shelley, and d. in 

 1772, having had issue, 1st, Charles, the first Viscount; 2d, Sir 

 Francis, Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army,d. Jan. 16,1805; 3d, Rich- 

 ard, Captain R, N., lost at sea; 4th, Diana, m. 1st, Sir Bellingham 

 Graham, Bart, of Norton Conyers, co. York, and 2dly, in Jan. 

 1800, Francis Gerard, second and present Viscount Lake. 5th, 

 Catherine, m. Feb. 23, 1774, Henry, fourth Lord Aylmer ; 6th 

 Mary, m. Thomas Lloyd, Esq. ; 7th, Anne, m. Sir Henry Russell, 

 Chief Justice of Bengal. 



The extraordinary circumstances attending Lord Whitworth's 

 celebrated mission to Paris in 1802, deserve recapitulation. At 

 this time, Buonaparte finding himself firmly established in power, 

 took every opportunity of provoking a rupture of the ill-ad- 

 vised peace of Amiens, which had given him leisure to recruit 

 his armies, and to renew with increased vigour his long-che- 

 rished designs upon Great Britain. Buonaparte had been re- 

 elected First Consul for ten years, and soon afterwards attained 

 the Chief Consulate for life. Finding himself thus elevated, he 

 took occasion to question the right of this country to discuss with 

 freedom the actions of his public life, and intimated a desire that 

 a kind of censorship should be established for inspecting all writ- 

 ings of this description prior to their appearance in print. The noble 

 and manly reply of the British Government upon this occasion, 

 ought to be written in letters of gold- " His Majesty cannot, and 

 never will, in consequence of any representation, or any menace 

 from a foreign power, make any concession which can be in the 

 smallest degree dangerous to the liberty of the press, as secured 

 by the Constitution of this country, which admits of no previous 

 restraints upon publications of any description/' In the mean 

 time Lord Whitworth repaired to Paris, and General Andreossi 

 was replaced by M. Otto at the Court of St James's. One de- 

 mand succeeded another in a tone of arrogant superiority and in- 

 sulting irony. France complained that one of the principal articles 

 of the Treaty, which stipulated for the evacuation of Egypt, had 

 not been complied with. This delay arose from a misunderstanding 

 on the part of General Stuart, who held the command there, but 



