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Article MONTHLY CHRONICLE. ← Page 8 of 20 →
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Monthly Chronicle.
to insinuate that due attention had not been paid to so very important a subject as that oh which we were treating , yet I could not but greatly lament , that day after day should be allowed to pass away without our proceeding at all in the great business for which we were met . One of tho French Ministers said , that it was impossible ( could lament this delay more than they did ; that they had already declared to me that it was occasioned by a wish not to create but to remove difficulties ; and they could assure me positively , that the French Government had no other object in view ; and that I should findwhen once we began fairly to
ncgo-, ciate , we should proceed very rapidly . ' I replied it wasindeed'very material to mane good the time we had lost . The French Minister answered , you would not call it time lost if you knew how it was employed . On my expressing , by my manner , a wish to be informed , he went on , by saying , we will not scruple to tell you , though we feel we ought not yet to do it officially , that we are consulting with our allies ; that we have communicated to them all that has passed here ; we have stated that , unless they mean to continue the war , they must release us from our engagements , and enable us , to a certain
degrse , to meet your proposals . ' The conference to-day is this moment over . One of the French Plenipotentiaries informed me , that he had received this morning a letter from the President ofthe Directory , assuring him that in four or five days they would receive their final instructions ; and he added of himself , that he trusted these would be such as would enable us to continue our work without any further interruption . I said , 1 hoped these instructions would be in substance a Counter-Projet , as I did not see how any thing short of one could enable us to proceed so rapidly as he described . He
agreed with me entirely , and assured me that both he and his colleagues had repeatedly stated the necessity of a Counter-Projet being sent them ; and he observed , that he really thought the French Government might have foreseen every thing which had passed , and been ' prepared with one ; and that this would have saved a great deal of valuable time . As I could not myself have said more , I readily gave a full assent to what I heard . ' No . 30 . Contains a dispatch from Lord Grenville to Lord Malmesbury , directing
him to admit of no mention of the claims of Neutral Powers in treating with the enemy ; and to ask an explanation of a passage in a message from the Directory to the Councils , which seems to accuse the English Government of throwing delays in the way of the Negociation . No . 31 . Is the passage above complained of . No . 32 . Is a copy of a dispatch from Lord Malmesbury to Lord Grenville , dated Lisle , August 22 , 1797 , to the following effect :
' , In my conference of this morning , I took an opportunity of remarking to the French Plenipotentiaries on the very unfair and extraordinary assertion which had appeared in the message of the 9 th instant from the Directory to the Council of Five Hundred , viz . ' que les puissances coalisees ont mis autant de lenteur dans les negociations , qu ' elles avoientmontrede l ' artleur pour les terminer . ' I observed to them that I had orders from my Court to ask a precise explanation , whether this accusation of delay was meant to apply to the manner in which his Majesty had conducted the Negociation at Lisle , and if it was so meant , to declare that
no accusation was ever more destitute of foundation , nor a wider deviation from the real fact . I said I was perfectly ready to abide by their determination on this point , convinced that it was impossible for them not to atkncwledge that the delay ( if there had been any blameable delay ) rested with the French Government and not with his Majesty . The French Plenipotentiaries admitted this to be most strictly true ; that the phrase I had quoted was an ill-judged one , and malredigee ; but that it could not in any point of view whatever be construed as applying to England ; and they were ready to saythat when it was writtenthe
Di-, , rectory alluded solely to the Court of Vienna ; that they could assure me they had been very faithful in their reports , and that when they said this it was saving in other words , that I had carried on the Negociation with as much expedition as possible , and that if it had proceeded slowly for this last month , the slowness arose on their side and not on mine .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Monthly Chronicle.
to insinuate that due attention had not been paid to so very important a subject as that oh which we were treating , yet I could not but greatly lament , that day after day should be allowed to pass away without our proceeding at all in the great business for which we were met . One of tho French Ministers said , that it was impossible ( could lament this delay more than they did ; that they had already declared to me that it was occasioned by a wish not to create but to remove difficulties ; and they could assure me positively , that the French Government had no other object in view ; and that I should findwhen once we began fairly to
ncgo-, ciate , we should proceed very rapidly . ' I replied it wasindeed'very material to mane good the time we had lost . The French Minister answered , you would not call it time lost if you knew how it was employed . On my expressing , by my manner , a wish to be informed , he went on , by saying , we will not scruple to tell you , though we feel we ought not yet to do it officially , that we are consulting with our allies ; that we have communicated to them all that has passed here ; we have stated that , unless they mean to continue the war , they must release us from our engagements , and enable us , to a certain
degrse , to meet your proposals . ' The conference to-day is this moment over . One of the French Plenipotentiaries informed me , that he had received this morning a letter from the President ofthe Directory , assuring him that in four or five days they would receive their final instructions ; and he added of himself , that he trusted these would be such as would enable us to continue our work without any further interruption . I said , 1 hoped these instructions would be in substance a Counter-Projet , as I did not see how any thing short of one could enable us to proceed so rapidly as he described . He
agreed with me entirely , and assured me that both he and his colleagues had repeatedly stated the necessity of a Counter-Projet being sent them ; and he observed , that he really thought the French Government might have foreseen every thing which had passed , and been ' prepared with one ; and that this would have saved a great deal of valuable time . As I could not myself have said more , I readily gave a full assent to what I heard . ' No . 30 . Contains a dispatch from Lord Grenville to Lord Malmesbury , directing
him to admit of no mention of the claims of Neutral Powers in treating with the enemy ; and to ask an explanation of a passage in a message from the Directory to the Councils , which seems to accuse the English Government of throwing delays in the way of the Negociation . No . 31 . Is the passage above complained of . No . 32 . Is a copy of a dispatch from Lord Malmesbury to Lord Grenville , dated Lisle , August 22 , 1797 , to the following effect :
' , In my conference of this morning , I took an opportunity of remarking to the French Plenipotentiaries on the very unfair and extraordinary assertion which had appeared in the message of the 9 th instant from the Directory to the Council of Five Hundred , viz . ' que les puissances coalisees ont mis autant de lenteur dans les negociations , qu ' elles avoientmontrede l ' artleur pour les terminer . ' I observed to them that I had orders from my Court to ask a precise explanation , whether this accusation of delay was meant to apply to the manner in which his Majesty had conducted the Negociation at Lisle , and if it was so meant , to declare that
no accusation was ever more destitute of foundation , nor a wider deviation from the real fact . I said I was perfectly ready to abide by their determination on this point , convinced that it was impossible for them not to atkncwledge that the delay ( if there had been any blameable delay ) rested with the French Government and not with his Majesty . The French Plenipotentiaries admitted this to be most strictly true ; that the phrase I had quoted was an ill-judged one , and malredigee ; but that it could not in any point of view whatever be construed as applying to England ; and they were ready to saythat when it was writtenthe
Di-, , rectory alluded solely to the Court of Vienna ; that they could assure me they had been very faithful in their reports , and that when they said this it was saving in other words , that I had carried on the Negociation with as much expedition as possible , and that if it had proceeded slowly for this last month , the slowness arose on their side and not on mine .