50 THE INFLUENCE OF GRENVILLE ON PITT’S FOREIGN POLICY. 
having thwarted Pitt’s purpose.* From November n Malmesbury’s 
conduct in negotiation, his reports to Grenville, and his letters to Pitt 
and Canning exhibit an entirely different attitude from that previously 
assumed. He now sought merely to put France in the wrong, and to 
cast upon her the blame for an inevitable rupture of the negotiations. 
The diplomatic maneuvers became in fact a contest for the advantage 
of position, for the Directory had been at no time sincere in its accept¬ 
ance of the English actual issue was a victory for 
England, for Malmesbury, presenting Grenville’s principle of “com¬ 
pensator}^ restitutions,” prohibiting any connection between France 
and the Netherlands, asked that the Directory either accept this as the 
basis of a treaty or bring forward a counter-project. The Directory 
refused to do either and sent Malmesbury his passports, greatly to the 
advantage of the English ministers, who now recovered a wavering 
Parliamentar)^ constituency by disclosing the ‘ ‘ honorable and sincere 
offer of peace made to France, and the insulting refusal of that country 
to consider it.” X 
* “Aujourd’hui matin, Malmesbury in’a fait proposer ou de passer chez lui ou de 
me voir dans une tierce maison. J’ai prefere le dernier parti. Son debut tn ’a etonne: 
‘Sachez, m’a-t-il dit, que j’ai bien plus a me plaindre du ministere britannique que 
du Directoire; sachez encore que je le publierai a Londres et que je me plaindrai au 
chancelier Pitt de la mauvaise tournure que le lord Grenville a donnee a la negocia- 
tion ; il a fait retomber sur l’Angleterre tout l’opprobre de la continuation de la 
guerre. ’ ‘ Mais le sieur Pitt voulait-il decidement la paix ? ’ ai-je interrompu. 4 II 
la voulait, j’en suis certain ’, a-t-il replique avec chaleur, ‘tout comme je suis cer¬ 
tain que la negociation sera reprise en moins de trois semaines de temps. ’ ’ ’ Bericht 
von Sandoz-Rollin aus Paris, Dec. 20, 1796. Bailleu, I, 106. 
f According to Barras’s Memoirs , Carnot, previous to Malmesbury’s arrival, had 
expressed the opinion that the Netherlands were not essential to France, but this 
was not agreed to by other members of the Directory (II, 265). Barras shows that 
it was only due to the political situation in France that the English overture was 
accepted, and he believed that that overture had no other purpose ‘ ‘ than to expose 
the Directorate to odium ” (II, 288). He pictures himself and Lar6velliere-Lepeaux 
as demanding Malmesbury’s dismissal, Rewbell desiring delay, Letourneur anxious 
to continue negotiations, and Carnot standing by Barras’s opinion, but hesitatingly ; 
and in the result Barras asserts that France experienced a wave of patriotic enthu¬ 
siasm from Malmesbury’s dismissal. 
f In the debates in Parliament on Malmesbury's negotiation the great effort of 
both Pitt and Grenville is to prove England’s sincerity. Fox denied this, and 
hinted that Malmesbury was himself deceived. “ I know that some weeks ago a 
very confident report was circulated with respect to the probability of peace. It 
would be curious to know how far Lord Malmesbury at that period w r as influenced 
by any such belief.” Pari. Hist., XXXII, 1473. 
Grenville’s resume of the negotiations and defense of the government is in ibid., 
1406 ff". An abstract of the Directory’s version as published in the Redacteur is in 
ibid., XXXIII, 398#. 
