I took an opportunity of return ing the compliment M. Le Tour neur had made me; and I muft in juftice repeat, my Lord, what I have already faid, that his conduct and that of his colleagues has, in every point which has depended on them, been perfectly fair and honourable, and in no inftance contrary to the principles they announced, and the profeffions they made. It is there fore impoffible for me not to regret them, and not to confider the change of negotiators at least as a very unpleasant, if not very unfortunate incident. (Signed)

MALMESBURY.

(No. 42.)-Copy of a Dispatch from Lord Malmefoury to Lord Grenville, dated Lifle, 17th Sept. 1797.

My Lord,

I fhall endeavour in this dispatch to give your lordship as circum ftantial an account as my memory will allow me to do, of what has paffed in the two conferences I have held with the new French plenipotentiaries.

In that of Friday the 14th, after communicating to me the arrêt of the directory appointing them to fucceed Meffis. Le Tourneur and Maret, and empowering them to continue the negotiation with me, one of them began by making the ftrongest affurances of the fincere defire entertained by the directory for peace. He obferved, that if this defire had manifested itself so ftrongly at a moment when the two great authorities of the country were at variance, it must naturally become stronger and be exerted with more effect when all fpi. rit of divifion was fuppreffed, and when the government was ftrengthened by the perfect concord which now reigns between all its branches:

that the first and moft material point to be afcertained in every negotiation, was the extent of the full powers with which the negotiators are vefted; that I fhould find theirs to be very ample; and that, as it was neceffary to the fuccets of our difcuffions that mine fhould be equally fo, they had it in command to prefent a note, the object of which was to inquire whether I was authorized to treat on the principle of a general restitution of every peffethon remaining in his majefty's hands, not only belonging to them, but to their allies; that 1 was not unacquainted with their laws and with their treaties; that a great country could not on any occafion act in contradiction to them; and that, aware as I must be of this, I could not but expect the queftion contained in the note, neither could I confider the requi fition of an explicit answer, previous to entering upon the negotiation, as arifing from any other mo tive than that of the most perfect wifh, on the part of the directory, to bring it to a fuccefsful, and, above all, to a speedy conclufion.

I replied, that if, after what I heard, I could allow myself to hope for fuch an event as he seemed to think probable, or give any credit to the pacific difpofitions he announced on the part of the French government, fuch hope must arise folely from the confidence I might place in his affurances; fince the measure it self now adopted by the directory was certainly calculated to make a directly contrary impreffion on my mind; that I could not conceal from him, that, far from expecting fuch a question, its being now put furprifed me beyond meafure, and ftill more fo, when from his comment upon it I was to infer, that he wifhed me to confider it as tending

to

to promote a speedy pacification; that the question expreffed in the note he had delivered (for he had given it to me, and I had read it over as he ended his fpeech) was word for word the fame as that put to me by his predeceffors fo long ago as the 14th July; that on the 15th I had, from my own authority, given an answer, and that this anfwer I confirmed fully and diftinctly by order of my court on the 24th July; that these notes had to the prefent hour remained unnoticed, and a delay of two months had occurred; that the reasons affigned for this delay were, as I was repeatedly told, a decided refolution on the part of the French government to liften to the reasonable propofals made by his majefty; but that being bound by their engage ments with the court of Madrid and the Batavian republic, and wishing to treat their allies with due confideration, they were defirous of confulting with them previous to any pofitive declaration, and obtaining from them a volun tary releafe from thofe engage. ments fufficient to enable the French plenipotentiaries here to admit the bafis his majesty had eftablished, and to ground on it all future difcuffions which might arife in the courfe of the negotiation; that if he had read over the papers left, undoubtedly, in his poffeffion by his predeceffors, he would find what I ftated to be strictly true; and that of course it could not be diffictilt to account for my furprise, when, after being told that he and his colleague were to take up the negotiation precifely where they found it, it now became evident that it was to be flung back to the very point from which we started, and flung back in a way which feemed to threaten a conclufion

very different from that he foretold.

I fhall not attempt to follow the French minifter through the very elaborate and certainly able speech he made in reply, with a view to convince me that the inquiry into the extent of my full powers was the ftrongest proof the directory could furnish of their pacific inten tion, and the fhorteft road they could take to accomplish the defired end. It was in order to give activity to the negotiation (activer was his word), and to prevent its ftagnating, that this demand was made fo fpecifically; and he intimated to me, that it was impoffible for the directory to proceed till a full and fatisfactory answer had been given to it. I interrupted him here, by faying, their manner of acting appeared to me calculated to decide the negotiation at once, not to give it activity, fince it must be known, I could not have powers of the defcription he alluded to; and even fuppofing I had, the admitting it would be in fact neither more or lefs than a complete avowal of the principle itfeif, which once agreed on, nothing would be left to negotiate about. The other French plenipotentiary interpofed here, by faying, "that would not be the cafe; many articles would ftill remain to be propofed, and many points for important difcuffion." I faid, every word I heard feemed to prefent fresh difficulties. Without replying to me, the firstmentioned minister went on by endeavouring to prove, that the avowal of having powers to a certain extent, did not imply the neceffity of exercising them; that it was the avowal alone for which they con tended, in order to determine at once the form the negotiation was to take; that the note, and the (S4)

time

time prescribed in it, were in confequence of the most positive crders from the directory; and that if I drew from it a conclufion different from the affurances they had made me in the name of the directory, I did not make the true inference. I replied, that, although the prefcribing the day on which the queftion was put to me as the term within which I was to give my anfwer to it, was both a very unusual and abrupt mode of proceeding, yet as a day was much more than fufficient for the purpose, I fhould forbear making any particular remark on this circumftance: that as to the inference to be drawn from the pofitive manner in which they appeared to maintain the question put to me, I really could not make it different from that I had already expreffed that the reverting, after an interval of two months, to a queftion already anfwered, and which queftion involved the fate of the negotiation, certainly could not be confidered as wearing a very conciliatory appearance: that in regard to my answer, it could not be different from that I had given be fore: that my full powers, which were in their hands, were as extenfive as any could be, and it did not depend on me to give them more or lefs latitude; but that in fact their queftion went not to the extent of my full powers, but to require of me to declare the nature of my inftructions; and on his point they certainly would forgive me if I did not fpeak out till fuch time as the circumstances of the negotiation called upon me to do it.

The French minifter ftrove to prove to me, what he had before attempted, that the claiming a right of inquiry into the nature of the difcretionary authority confided in a minitter, by no means implied

an intention of requiring of him to act up to its utmost limits. I ob ferved, if no fuch intention exifted, why inftitute the inquiry? and if it did exift, why not fay fo at once?

He faid, What we now ask is lit. tle more than a matter of form; when you have given us your anfwer, we fhall follow it up by an other step, which we are ordered to take. I faid my anfwer was given two months ago; that although I was ready to give it them again, and in writing, as one to their note, yet as it could not be different, I did not fee why they fhould not proceed immediately to the other step, by which I was told the question was to be followed up. It would be premature, faid the French minifter; but in drawing up your anfwer, do not forget the force of the arguments I have used, or in your report to your court, the affurances we have given of the earneft wifh of the directory to ter minate the war.

I replied, that I still must maintain, that, from the manner in which they thought proper to define full powers, I could fee no dif tinction between acknowledging the power and admitting the principle; and that the question itself could not be put with any other intention. (Your lordship will obferve, from the fubfequent notes which paffed between us, that I was perfectly grounded in this affertion.) That in my reports, they might be fully affured I fhould act up to that conciliatory spirit, which from the earlieft period of the negotiation had always decided my conduct; and that, inaufpicious as appearances were, I certainly would be careful not to make them look boftile. At the ward hoftile, both the French plenipotentiaries were most warm in their proteftations,

that

that nothing could be lefs fo; that the idea of the negotiation breaking off was as far from their thoughts as from their wishes. I faid, that although I heard this with pleasure, yet I could not avoid adverting to facts, and that when, instead of an answer, and the favourable anfwer which I had every reason to expect, I received only the repetition of a demand which had been already fatisfied two months ago; I certainly could not think this a good omen. If it did not bode an immediate rupture of the treaty, it affuredly did not announce a near and fuccefsful termination of it. The above-mentioned minister perfifted I was miftaken; that the bufinefs would end fpeedily; that speed was their wish, and fpeed with peace for its ob. ject.

On breaking up our conference, I faid, that I took it for granted we fhould meet again at the ufual hour, on Sunday. He said, that perhaps it might not be neceffary, but that they certainly would let me know in time; and this conveyed to me the firft idea of what has fincé taken place.

I inclofe your lordship the note A, I received in this conference from the French plenipotentiaries, and the answer B, which I made to it yesterday morning at 10 A. M.

At 6 P. M. the note C was tranf mitted to me; to which at 8 P. M. I returned the anfwer D, by Mr. Rofs, whom I fent in order that he might bring me the paffports I afked for; but at a quarter before 10 P. M. M. Derché, fecretary of the French Jegation, delivered to me the paper marked E; and this morning at 9 A. M. I replied by the note F, which immediately produced that marked G.

The notes fent me by the French

plenipotentiaries speak for them felves: and it is unneceffary to enter into any reflections on them. I am willing to hope that the answers I have made were fuch as became the fituation in which I ftand, the importance of the cause entrusted to me, and the steady but temperate conduct which the fpirit of my inftructions enjoin me to hold.

It was my wifh to give every opening to the French plenipotentiaries to recall the violent ftep they had taken; and, if poffible, to convince them of its extreme impropriety. And it was with this view, and with a most anxious defire not to exclude ail hope of the restoration of peace, that I determined on fuggefting the idea of our meeting once more before I left Lifle.

This meeting took place to day at noon: I opened it by obferving, that the feveral notes. they had received from me fince the preceding evening, had been too expreffive of the furprife I felt at the measure the directory had thought proper to adopt, to make it neceffary for me to enlarge upon it in, this conference; and indeed my fole motive for fuggesting that it might be for our mutual fatisfaction that it should be held, was, because this meafure appeared to me to be in fuch direct contradiction to the very strong affurances I had fo conftantly and repeatedly heard from them, and to the pacific intentions with which they declared they were fent, that it was my earnest with (before I confidered their conduct as forcing me to a ftep which must fo materially affect the fuccefs of the nego. tiation) to be perfectly certain that I understood clearly and diftinctly the precife meaning of their official notes. On their admitting that nothing could be more reasonable than that I should, on fo important a point,