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Article MONTHLY CHRONICLE. ← Page 14 of 20 →
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Monthly Chronicle.
treme impropriety . And it was with this view , and with a most anxious desire not to exclude all hope ofthe restoration of peace , that I determined on suggest ? ing the idea of our meeting once more before I left Lisle . ' This meeting took place to-day at noon ; I opened it by observing , that the several notes they had received from me since the preceding evening had been too expressive ofthe surprise I felt at the measure the Directory had thought proper to adopt , to make it necessary for me to enlarge upon it in this conference ; and indeed my sole motive for suggesting that it might be for our mutual satisfaction
that it should be held , was , because this measure appeared ' to me to be in such direct contradiction to the very strong assurances I had so constantly and repeatedly heard from them ., and to the pacific intentions with which they . declared they were sent , that it was my earnest wish ( before I considered theirconduct as forcing me to a . step which must so materially affect the . success of the Negociation ) , to be perfectly certain that I understood clearly and distinctly the precise meaning of their official notes . ' On their admitting that nothing could be more reasonable than that I should ,
on so important a point , require explanation , or more satisfactory to them than to give it me ( as far as lay in their power ) , I proceeded by saying , that it appeared to me that I was called upon to produce immediately my full powers , or rather my instructions ( for however different these were in themselves , in their demand they seemed constantly blended ) , and that if either I refused to consent lo this , or if , on consenting to it , it was found that I was not authorized to treat en the principle they laid down , I was then in the space of twenty-four hours to leave Lilleand return to Courtand that I was required to obtain full
autho-, my ; rity to adtuitthis principle , if it was wished the Negociation should proceed . ' This , I said , appeared to me to be the evident sense of the notes , and I begged to know whether I had mistaken it or not . One of the French Plenipotentiaries saidj " you have understood it exactly ; I hope you equally understand the intention of the French Government , which is . to accelerate peace by removing every obstacle which stands in its way . "
' I replied , that having now no doubt left on my mind as to their exact meaning , and being quite sure , notwithstanding the observation they had made , " que j ' avais faili la veritable intention de leur Note , " it would , I feared , be avery unprofitable employment of our time to argue either on the nature of the prineiple they announced as sine qua non , to even a preliminary discussion , or on the extreme difficulty of reconciling the peremptory demand with which they opened their mission , to the pacific professions that accompanied it ; that if they were determined to persist in this demandit was much better to avoid all useless
al-, tercation ; and nothing in that case remained for me to do , but to ask for my passports , and to signify to them my intention of leaving France at an early hour -the next morning . They said , they had their hands tied by an arrete of the Directory , and were , bound to observe the conduct they had followed by the most ¦ positive orders ; and although w . e remained together some time longer , not a hint dropped from them expressive of a wish that , instead of going myself for new . in-: structions , I should either write for them by a Messenger , or obtain them by with endeavoured
. sending to England one of the Gentlemen who are me . I , by every indirect means , to suggest to them the necessity of adopting some such modification , . if they meant that their wishes for peace , in the expression of which they were this morning more eager than ever , should meet with the slightest def gree of credit : I again brought to their recollection that I was authorized to receive any proposal , any Contre Projet they tendered to me ; but that they must be aware that it was not possible for me to alter the orders I had received , or lo asdwelt and
sume an authority with which I was not invested . I particularly reipeatedly on my being competent to take , any thing they said for reference ; but this availed nothing , except drawing from one of them a remark , that the full : powers which authorized a Minister to hear proposals , were widely different from those which would enable him to accede to them ; and that it was suchfull powers that the Directory required me to solicit . ' . An . easy answer presented itself to this mode of reasoning , but I saw no adr vantage to be derived from prolonging a conversation , which , after the positive
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Monthly Chronicle.
treme impropriety . And it was with this view , and with a most anxious desire not to exclude all hope ofthe restoration of peace , that I determined on suggest ? ing the idea of our meeting once more before I left Lisle . ' This meeting took place to-day at noon ; I opened it by observing , that the several notes they had received from me since the preceding evening had been too expressive ofthe surprise I felt at the measure the Directory had thought proper to adopt , to make it necessary for me to enlarge upon it in this conference ; and indeed my sole motive for suggesting that it might be for our mutual satisfaction
that it should be held , was , because this measure appeared ' to me to be in such direct contradiction to the very strong assurances I had so constantly and repeatedly heard from them ., and to the pacific intentions with which they . declared they were sent , that it was my earnest wish ( before I considered theirconduct as forcing me to a . step which must so materially affect the . success of the Negociation ) , to be perfectly certain that I understood clearly and distinctly the precise meaning of their official notes . ' On their admitting that nothing could be more reasonable than that I should ,
on so important a point , require explanation , or more satisfactory to them than to give it me ( as far as lay in their power ) , I proceeded by saying , that it appeared to me that I was called upon to produce immediately my full powers , or rather my instructions ( for however different these were in themselves , in their demand they seemed constantly blended ) , and that if either I refused to consent lo this , or if , on consenting to it , it was found that I was not authorized to treat en the principle they laid down , I was then in the space of twenty-four hours to leave Lilleand return to Courtand that I was required to obtain full
autho-, my ; rity to adtuitthis principle , if it was wished the Negociation should proceed . ' This , I said , appeared to me to be the evident sense of the notes , and I begged to know whether I had mistaken it or not . One of the French Plenipotentiaries saidj " you have understood it exactly ; I hope you equally understand the intention of the French Government , which is . to accelerate peace by removing every obstacle which stands in its way . "
' I replied , that having now no doubt left on my mind as to their exact meaning , and being quite sure , notwithstanding the observation they had made , " que j ' avais faili la veritable intention de leur Note , " it would , I feared , be avery unprofitable employment of our time to argue either on the nature of the prineiple they announced as sine qua non , to even a preliminary discussion , or on the extreme difficulty of reconciling the peremptory demand with which they opened their mission , to the pacific professions that accompanied it ; that if they were determined to persist in this demandit was much better to avoid all useless
al-, tercation ; and nothing in that case remained for me to do , but to ask for my passports , and to signify to them my intention of leaving France at an early hour -the next morning . They said , they had their hands tied by an arrete of the Directory , and were , bound to observe the conduct they had followed by the most ¦ positive orders ; and although w . e remained together some time longer , not a hint dropped from them expressive of a wish that , instead of going myself for new . in-: structions , I should either write for them by a Messenger , or obtain them by with endeavoured
. sending to England one of the Gentlemen who are me . I , by every indirect means , to suggest to them the necessity of adopting some such modification , . if they meant that their wishes for peace , in the expression of which they were this morning more eager than ever , should meet with the slightest def gree of credit : I again brought to their recollection that I was authorized to receive any proposal , any Contre Projet they tendered to me ; but that they must be aware that it was not possible for me to alter the orders I had received , or lo asdwelt and
sume an authority with which I was not invested . I particularly reipeatedly on my being competent to take , any thing they said for reference ; but this availed nothing , except drawing from one of them a remark , that the full : powers which authorized a Minister to hear proposals , were widely different from those which would enable him to accede to them ; and that it was suchfull powers that the Directory required me to solicit . ' . An . easy answer presented itself to this mode of reasoning , but I saw no adr vantage to be derived from prolonging a conversation , which , after the positive