1803. | Correfpondence between Great Britain and France: 473 
places his glory In an affair of this nature, 
wholly in being taken in an unprovided ftate. 
He will continue ia this fyftem of honeft 
franknefs, until his Britannic Majefty has 
reflected fully on the part he propofes to 
take. 
In Lerd Hawkefbury’s note, an opinion is 
exprefied, that the French Republic has in- 
creafed in power fince the peace of Amiens. 
This is a decided error. Since that epoch, 
France has evacuated a confiderable territory. 
The French power has received no degree of 
augmentation, If his Britannic Majefty is 
determined to make war, he may alledge all 
the pretexts he pleafes. He will find few 
lefs founded. 
As to the complaints made refpecting the 
publications which may have appeared in 
France, they are of an order too fecundary to 
be capabie of influencing fuch a decifion, 
Aire we then returned to the age of tourne- 
ments? Motives of this nature might have 
authorized, four centuries ago, the combat 
of Thirties ; but they cannof, in this age, 
be areafon for war between the two countries. 
It might fuffice, in this refpe&t, to reply 
to his Excellency, that no reprefentation has 
been made by him on the fubjeft to the Go- 
vernment of the Republic; and that, if it 
was but juftice to grant fatisfaétion, the 
Firft Conful had a right to expeét that, which 
was required by M. Otto, in his note of the 
223 Thermidor laf, upon grounds more fe- 
_¥lous and more juft. 
Is it po lible that the Englifh Miniftry can 
have been ignorant, that-ever fince the con- 
flufion of the treaty of Amiens, the Englifh 
prefs has not ceafed to fpread, through Eu- 
rope, the rage of war, the difcredit of peace, 
and fhamelefs and boundlefs outrages againtt 
every thing which is the object of the love 
and veneration of the French people ? 
A few days after the ratification of peace, 
one of his Britannic Majefly’a Minifters de- 
claxyed, that the peace eftablifhment muft be 
eonfiderable ; and the diftruft excited by this 
declaration, made in Parliament with as much 
bitternefs as impropriety, furnifhed a com- 
mentary for the exaggeration and alarms 
which were circulated in defpicable pamph- 
lets, and in newfpapers as contemptible as 
thofe-libels. Since that time, thefe writers 
have found themfelves invariably fupported. 
in their infolent obfervations by particular 
phrafes taken from the fpeeches of fome 
leading members of parliament. Thefe 
fpeeches, fcarcely to be exceeded by the news- 
writers themfelves, have, for thefe eigh- 
teen months, tended to encourage infult 
againft other Governments to that degree, 
that every European muft be offended, and 
every reafonable Englifhman muft be humi- 
liated by fuch unheard of licentioufnefs. 
What, if we connect with thefe fallies, 
proceedings more offenfive and ferious; the 
indulgence granted to French criminals, pub- 
‘lifhing daily outrages in the French language; 
the ftill more inexcufable toleration extended 
to villains, covered with crimes, and plot- 
ting affaffinations inceflantly, fuch as Georges, 
who ftill continues to refide at London, pro- . 
tected, and having a confiderable eftablifh- 
ment ; in a word, the little juftice which 
has been fhewn to all our reprefentations >— 
How are we to account for the publicity of 
the complaint which his Britannic’ Majelty 
has thought proper to make refpeGting fome 
indefinite wrongs, which he has hitherto 
thought unneceflary to bring before the Firt 
Conful ? 
The Firft Conful has had caufe to be cone 
vinced, that all his reprefentations onall thefe 
points were ufelefs, and that his Britannic. 
Majefty, regardlefs of the neighbouring 
powers, was refolved to authorize every thing 
within his dominions 3 but he did not on that 
account entertain a doubt of the continuance 
of peace, nor alarm Europe with the notifi- 
cation of war. He confined himfelf to this 
principle of conduct, to permit or prevent in 
France, with refpeét to England, whatever 
fhould be permitted or prevented in England 
with regard to France. 
He bas, however, expreffed, and he avain 
expreffes bis wifh, that-means fhould be adopted 
to prevent in future any mention being made of 
what is paffing in France, either in the offivial 
difcuffions, or in the polemical «writings in Eng- 
land, as ia like manner in the French official dif- 
cuffions, and polemical writings, no mention what- 
ewer foould be made of what is paffing in Eag- 
land. 
Lord Hawkefbury mentions an afticle ina 
newfpaper, containing the report of a French 
colonel. In ferious difcuffions an anfwer on 
this point might be difpenfed with 3 but it is 
neither a long nor difficult matter. 
A Coionel in the Englifh army has pub- 
lifhed a. work in England, filled with the 
moft atrocious and difguiting calumnies againit 
the French army and its General. The lies 
it contains have been contradicted by the re- 
ception which Colonel Sebaftiani experienced. 
The publicity of his report was at once a re- 
futation and a reparation, which the French 
army hada right to expeét. On_ his arrival 
in Egypt, this officer, to his great aftonifh- 
ment, found the Englifh army there, al- 
though they fhould have evacuated it, and 
the Turks prodigioufly alarmed at the con- 
tinuance of the Englifh army, and at its re- 
lations with the natives in rebellion and open 
revolt againft the Sublime Porte. 
He mutt have conceived, that the treaties 
which conneét us with the Porte, and by 
which we have guaranteed to it the integrity 
of its pofleffions, compelled us to unite our~ 
felves with that power. Ft was netural to 
think, that England meant to declare war 
from the inftant the refufed to execute the ar- 
ticles of the treaty. For, after all, France 
is not reduced to fuch a ftate of debafement, 
as to fuffer treaties, made with her, to be 
executed or not at pleafure, 
Hence 
tt 
i 
— 
ee 
