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Article MONTHLY CHRONICLE. ← Page 3 of 20 →
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Monthly Chronicle.
it in one article , was more likely to attain this desirable object . The French Minister again repeated , that their first wish was , that the Treaty we were now making should be clear , distinct , solid , and lasting , and such a one 3 s could not , at any future period , be broken through without a manifest violation of good . faith . And I again repeated , that nothing could be so consonant to my orders , or the intentions of my Royal Master . ' One ofthe French Plenipotentiaries was disposed to dwell on his objections , which were , that these Treaties were signed when France was a Monarchy , and
that any retrospect to those times implied a sort of censure on their present form of Government ; but this was arguing on such a weak ground , and so incapable of being seriously maintained , that I , to avoid superfluous contradiction , was very willing to let it pass unnoticed . After a good deal of very conciliatory , and even amicable discussion , in which , however , neither party gave much way to the other , it was proposed by them that we should return home , to meet again as soon as convenient after an attentive and deliberate perusal of the Treaties , in order to state respectively our ideas on this subject . 1 observed , that although 1 was perfectly
prepared to do it at the moment , and felt almost bold enough to affirm , that no ' measure could be devised ivhich would so completely meet our intentions as an unreserved renewal of the Treaties they hesitated about , yet I was very willing to acquiesce in their proposal , with this simple observation , that if any delay arose from it , such delay was imputable to them and not to me . My words were , " Je lie me rends pas responsable des'longuers dans lesqu'elles cette discussion pourrait nous entrainer . " The French Minister ' s answer was , " Si des longuers servent a determiner des objets qui pourraient donner lieu a dez querreiles a I ' avenir , ce sera du terns bien employe . " It was not my wish to contest this assertion , and out conference ended with it . '
No . 19 . Contains also extracts of a dispatch from Lord Malmesbury to Lord Grenville , d ^ tedLisle , July 17 , 1797 , to the following effect : ' Yesterday at the moment I was preparing to attend the conference , in which we were to enter into fuller discussions on the litigated subject of the renewal of ' the treaties mentioned in the second article of the Projet , I received from the French Legation the enclosed paper ( A ) : in about an hour 1 returned the enclosed answer ( B ) , to which I received the enclosed reply ( C ) ; and lam this moment come from the conference which has taken place in consequence of it .
' I began by saying , that I had solicited this interview from the same motive which would actuate every part of my conduct ; that I wished to make my reports not only correct but conciliatory , as far as depended on me , and I now was come in order , if possible , to obtain from them such comments and explanations on ihe note they sent to me yesterday , as would enable me , when I transmitted to my Court , to secure the Negociation from being interrupted , perhaps abruptly terminated , by the perusal of it . If I understood it right , it meant that ihe Directory requires as a sine qua non preliminary , that every thing the King has conquered from all and each of his enemies should be restored , and that till this restoration
was consented to , the Negociation was not even to begin . I said , if I was correct in this statement , and the plain sense of the declaration would bear no other interpretation , I must add , that it would not only most certainly prevent the Treaty from beginning , but it would leave no room for treating at all , since it deprived his Majesty of every means of negociation ; for I could not suppose that it was in their thoughts to intimate that the principle ofthe Treaty , as far as it related to his Majesty , was to be one of all cession and no compensation , and yet that was precisely the position in which his Majesty was placed by their note .
'One ofthe French Plenipotentiaries , who had let me proceed rather reluctantly , here stopt me , and said , that he and his colleagues were exceedingly happy that I had expressed a wish to see them before ! dispatched my Messenger ; that they wished to assure me that they had thought it dealing fairly and honourablv , to state what they had received from the Diretcory in the very words in which it came to them : that they should be sorry if the declaration they had been directed to make me should be of a nature to interrupt , much less to break off , the Negociation : that it was the sincere wish of the Directory that the Negocia-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Monthly Chronicle.
it in one article , was more likely to attain this desirable object . The French Minister again repeated , that their first wish was , that the Treaty we were now making should be clear , distinct , solid , and lasting , and such a one 3 s could not , at any future period , be broken through without a manifest violation of good . faith . And I again repeated , that nothing could be so consonant to my orders , or the intentions of my Royal Master . ' One ofthe French Plenipotentiaries was disposed to dwell on his objections , which were , that these Treaties were signed when France was a Monarchy , and
that any retrospect to those times implied a sort of censure on their present form of Government ; but this was arguing on such a weak ground , and so incapable of being seriously maintained , that I , to avoid superfluous contradiction , was very willing to let it pass unnoticed . After a good deal of very conciliatory , and even amicable discussion , in which , however , neither party gave much way to the other , it was proposed by them that we should return home , to meet again as soon as convenient after an attentive and deliberate perusal of the Treaties , in order to state respectively our ideas on this subject . 1 observed , that although 1 was perfectly
prepared to do it at the moment , and felt almost bold enough to affirm , that no ' measure could be devised ivhich would so completely meet our intentions as an unreserved renewal of the Treaties they hesitated about , yet I was very willing to acquiesce in their proposal , with this simple observation , that if any delay arose from it , such delay was imputable to them and not to me . My words were , " Je lie me rends pas responsable des'longuers dans lesqu'elles cette discussion pourrait nous entrainer . " The French Minister ' s answer was , " Si des longuers servent a determiner des objets qui pourraient donner lieu a dez querreiles a I ' avenir , ce sera du terns bien employe . " It was not my wish to contest this assertion , and out conference ended with it . '
No . 19 . Contains also extracts of a dispatch from Lord Malmesbury to Lord Grenville , d ^ tedLisle , July 17 , 1797 , to the following effect : ' Yesterday at the moment I was preparing to attend the conference , in which we were to enter into fuller discussions on the litigated subject of the renewal of ' the treaties mentioned in the second article of the Projet , I received from the French Legation the enclosed paper ( A ) : in about an hour 1 returned the enclosed answer ( B ) , to which I received the enclosed reply ( C ) ; and lam this moment come from the conference which has taken place in consequence of it .
' I began by saying , that I had solicited this interview from the same motive which would actuate every part of my conduct ; that I wished to make my reports not only correct but conciliatory , as far as depended on me , and I now was come in order , if possible , to obtain from them such comments and explanations on ihe note they sent to me yesterday , as would enable me , when I transmitted to my Court , to secure the Negociation from being interrupted , perhaps abruptly terminated , by the perusal of it . If I understood it right , it meant that ihe Directory requires as a sine qua non preliminary , that every thing the King has conquered from all and each of his enemies should be restored , and that till this restoration
was consented to , the Negociation was not even to begin . I said , if I was correct in this statement , and the plain sense of the declaration would bear no other interpretation , I must add , that it would not only most certainly prevent the Treaty from beginning , but it would leave no room for treating at all , since it deprived his Majesty of every means of negociation ; for I could not suppose that it was in their thoughts to intimate that the principle ofthe Treaty , as far as it related to his Majesty , was to be one of all cession and no compensation , and yet that was precisely the position in which his Majesty was placed by their note .
'One ofthe French Plenipotentiaries , who had let me proceed rather reluctantly , here stopt me , and said , that he and his colleagues were exceedingly happy that I had expressed a wish to see them before ! dispatched my Messenger ; that they wished to assure me that they had thought it dealing fairly and honourablv , to state what they had received from the Diretcory in the very words in which it came to them : that they should be sorry if the declaration they had been directed to make me should be of a nature to interrupt , much less to break off , the Negociation : that it was the sincere wish of the Directory that the Negocia-