1803.]  Corre/pondence between Great Britain and France. 
them in the form of an ultimatum; and that 
at the expiration of the period allowed for 
deliberation, I may be authorized not oaly 
to declare that 1 am to leave Paris, but ac- 
tually fo to do; unlef§ in the intermediate 
time the French Government fhould accede 
to our demands. WdITWORTH. 
Rt, Hon, Lerd Hawkefbury, 
No. 60. 
Downing Street, April 23, 1803. 
~ My Lerd, : 
It is neceffary for me to do little more 
on the prefent occafion than to refer you to 
my difpatch of the 13th of April, in which 
I itated to you the feveral propofitions on 
which alone, in the judgment of his Ma- 
jeity, the differences between this country 
and France could be fatisfactorily adjufted. 
If, on the receipt of this difpatch, it fhali 
not have been in your power to bring the 
negotiation te a conclufion on any of the 
propofitions to which I ‘have above referred, 
it is his Majefty’s pleafure that you fhould 
communicate, officially, to the French Go- 
wvernment, that you have gone, in point of 
conceffion, to the full extent of your in- 
ftru€tions; and that, if an arrangement, 
founded upon one of thefe propofitions, can- 
not be concluded without further delay, you 
have received his Majefty’s commands to re- 
turn to. England. * 
His Majelty can only confent to relinquifh 
the permanent occupation of Malta by his 
forces, on the conditions that the temporary 
poflefion fhall not be lefs than ten years ; 
that the authority, civil and military, fhali, 
during that period, remain folely in his Ma- 
jefty ; and that, at the expiration of that 
period, the ifland fuall be given up to the 
inhabitants, and aot tothe Order ; and pro- 
vided likewife, that his Sicilian Majefty fhall 
be induced to cede to his Majefty the iflamd 
of Lampedofa. it is indifpeufible that, 
as a part of this arrangement, Holland fhould 
be evacuated by the French troops within a 
fhort period A the conclufion of a con- 
vention by which all thofe provifions are 
fecured. His Majefty will confent to ac- 
knowledge the new Italian ftates, upon the 
condition that ftipulations in favour of his 
Sardinian Majeity, and of Switzerland, form 
a part of this arrangement. 
It is his Majefty’s pleafure that, in the 
event of the failure of the negotiation, you 
fhould delay your departure from Faris no 
longer than may be-~indifpenlibly neceffary 
for your perfonal convenience; and that you 
Should in no cafe remain there after the re- 
ceipt of this difpatch, more than feven days, 
HAWKESBURY, 
Fis Excellency Lord Whitworth. 
No. 61. 
My Lord, Paris, April 23, 1803. 
As I heard nothing from M. de Talley- 
rand, I called on him on Thurfday, in order 
t9 learn the effect of the propofal which I 
479° 
/ 
had made, conformably to your Lordfhip’s 
inttruétions, on the bafis of a perpetual pof- 
feffion of the forts of Malta, and re-eftalith- 
ing the Order in the civil government of the 
ifland, He told me, that if I had cailed on. 
him fooner, he fhould two days ago have 
communicated to me the Firft Conful’s an- 
fwer, which was, that no confideration on 
earth fhould induce him to confent to a con- 
ceflion in perpetuity of Malta, in any fhape 
whatever: and that the re-eftablifhment of 
the Order was not fo much the point to be 
difcuffed, as that of fuffering Great Britain 
to acquire a poffeffion in the Mediterranean, 
I told him that I did not call fooner becaufe 
I had *been given to underitand, that he 
would have himfelf propofed it to me, for 
the purpofe of communicating the anfwer 
of the Firft Conful; and that it did not in 
any fhape become me to put myfelf on the 
footing of a folicitor in this tranfaétion.. 
After {ome converfation, and finding (what 
I moft fincerely believe to be the cafe) that 
the Firft Contul’s determination was fixed 
on the point of a poffeflion of Malta in per- 
petuity ; I repeated to him what I had pre- 
vioufly fuggefted to Jofeph Bonaparte, the 
modification which I had tv propofe, name- . 
ly, that, for the fake of peace, his Majefty 
would be willing to wave his pretenfions to 
~a poffeffion in perpetuity, and would coufent 
te hold Malta for a certain number of years, 
to be agreed npon, on the condition that no 
oppofition fhould be made on the part of 
the French Government to any negotiation 
his Majefty might fet on foot with his Sicilian 
Majefty for the acqutlition of the ifland of 
Lampedofa. We difcuffed this propofal in 
a converfation of fome length, and I made 
ufe of all the arguments which have been 
furnifhed me by your Lordfhip, or which 
occurred to me in its favour. I begged him 
particularly to recolleét that we were in a€tual 
poffefion of the objet, and that therefore 
every modification tending to limit that pof. _ 
feffion, was in faét a conceffion on the part 
of his Majetty, and a proof of his defire to 
facrifice to his love of peace the juft claim 
which he had acquired in confequence of the 
conduét of France, and which had recently 
been admitted, of a much more confiderable 
compenfation and counterpoife. M. de 
Talleyrand did not feem difpofed to difpute 
any of my pofitions, and I Jeft him, I con~ 
fefs, fully imprefled with the idea that the 
next day (Friday) I fhould find him pre- 
pared to treat on this ground, and that the 
only difficult point to be arranged would be 
the number of years for which Malta fhould 
be ceded to his Majeity. 
Your Lordthip will conceive my furprife, 
when, on feeing him the next day, he told 
me, that although he had not been able to 
obtain from the Firft Conful all we wifhed, 
fill the propofition he had to make, would, 
he trutted, be fuch as fully to anfwer the 
purpofe, He then faid, that the Firft Conful 
222 would, 
