No. XLVI. Extract from a Dispatch from the Earl of Lauderdale to Mr. Secretary Fox, dated Paris, Sept. 4th, 1806.-Received Sept. 7th. Sir, Paris, Sept. 4th, 1806. In my last dispatch 1 informed you that in consequence of the solicitations of the plenipotentiaries of France, urged in the manner I there. stated to you, I had consented to a renewal of the conference this day at three o'clock. About half past two I received from M. Talleyrand a note, a copy of which (marked A.) as well as of my answer, (marked B.) I now in elose. On going to M. Talleyrand's office, I found him just returned from St. Cloud. He begau by informing me, that till yesterday they had received no certain information from Petersburgh; but that the courier who arrived last night, had brought intelligence that the emperor had positively refused to ratify the treaty. He stated that he had the emperor's orders to say, that this change of circumstances would cer tainly induce him to make peace with England on more favourable terins than he would otherwise have at present consented to; and fur. ther to declare, that as he would find it necessary to give to his plenipotiaries new instructions, so he thought it proper to communicate this to me, that I might write to my court, to receive also such further instructions as they might think proper to give. In answer to a question which I asked, whether there was any reason to expect the arrival of any minister to renew the negotiation on the part of Russia, he said that Second Inclosure (B.) Copy of a Note from the Earl of Lauderdale to M. Tulleyrand, dated Sept. 4th, 1806. (Translation.) Paris, 4th Sept. 1806.-Half-past two P. M. Lord Lauderdale has this instant received the note, dated the 4th of September, by which his excellency the minister for foreign affairs, pro. poses to lord Lauderdale a confer ence at his excellency's office this day, at half past two o'clock. This invitation was not delivered at lord Lauderdale's hotel, till half past two, the time specified for the conference: but lord Lauderdale will have great pleasure in waiting upon his excellency in a quarter of an hour at farthest. No. XLVII. No. XLVII. Is an extract from a dispatch from the earl of Lauderdale to Mr. secretary Fox, dated Paris, September 7th, 1806.Received September 11th, proposing to delay the renewal of the conferences. No. XLVIII. Extract from a Dispatch from Mr. Secretary Windham, to the Earl of Lauderdale, dated Downing-street, September 10, 1806. pectation that she can conclude peace with either of them, until the negotiation with the other shall be brought to the same conclusion. In reverting to this resolution, his majesty does not however desire to carry the operation of this principle at all farther than before. He has no objection to its being under. stood, as was expressed to lord Yarmouth in Mr. Fox's letter of the 26th of June, that the two courts shall treat separately in form, but Downing-street, Sept. 10, 1806. in substance in concert with each My Lord, Your lordship's dispatch of Sept. 4th has not failed to engage his majesty's most serious attention. The language held by M. Talleyrand appears directed to the object of engaging his majesty in a separate ne. gotiation, to the exclusion of Russia; but the interests both of this country and of Europe have always been considered here as essentially connected with the maintenance of the strictest union of councils and measures between his majesty and the emperor of Russia. It was with deep regret that his majesty saw the apparent violation of this principle in the separate treaty signed by M. d'Oubril; and he cannot but consider the steady and upright conduct of the emperor of Russia on that trying occasion, as imposing on his majesty a fresh obligation not to separate his interests from those of so honourable and faithful an ally. Your lordship must therefore, in the first place, represent to the French government, that the refusal to ratify M. d'Oubril's treaty, has replaced the two courts in their former state of close and intimate alliance; and that any attempt on the part of France to separate them, must henceforth be considered as hopeless. She can now form no ex other. In this mode of treating, the separate interests of Great Britain and France may, as befere, be separately discussed between them. But his majesty is determined, as is expressed in the same dispatch, that he will not come to any final agreement without the consent of Russia, and that any arrangement of the points depending between him and France, is to be considered as provisional, and subject to the case of a like arrangement to be made by his ally. With respect to the separate interests of Great Britain, his majesty adheres to the basis originally pro posed to him by France, and on which your lordship has so often had occasion to insist, that of the uti possidetis for the two powers and their allies in all parts of the world, with the single exception of the restitution of Hanover, as hav ing been originally attacked on grounds which cannot be defended. This is the offer of France as originally made to his majesty; it is the demand on which his majesty still thought fit to insist, when ap parently abandoned by Russia; and his majesty has no desire of increasing it under circumstances, which, according to the avowal of France herself, entitle his majesty to ex3 D 4 pect pect more favourable conditions than France has lately been inclined to accede to. The uti possidetis thus described, must however now of necessity include the kingdom of Sicily. Every endeavour was made in the onset of the negotiation to obtain the restitution of Naples to his Sicilian majesty; and the grounds on which it was thought fit finally to desist from that claim on the part of his majesty are detailed in the correspondence of this office with lord Yarmouth and your lordship. But the case of Sicily was always deemed to be widely different from that of Naples. Our actual occupation of that island brings it fully within the benefit of the uti possidetis. And recent events have shewn how very distant are the hopes of conquest in that quarter, which were so much relied upon in one of the notes presented to your lordship by the French plenipotentiaries. Lord Yarmouth had been uniformly instructed to insist on this demand as a sine quà non condition of all arrangements for peace. On the refusal of France to accede to this claim, his lordship had actually, in pursuance of those instructions, demanded his passports, and it was not in the smallest degree departed from or relaxed until a desire was expressed to him by M. d'Oubril, that this government would listen to proposals for an equivalent to be given for Sicily. In compliance with the supposed wishes of his ally, and on that ground alone, his majesty consented to entertain the consideration of such an equivalent, but none has ever been suggested that appeared at all likely to meet the just expectations which his Sicilian majesty would have been en titled to form on that head. And his majesty has now the satisfaction of learning, that the sentiments of his ally have in fact never been different from his own on this point; and that the preservation of Sicily is considered in Russia, as well as in England, as a just condition of any peace with France. On both these grounds, therefore, both on the principle adopted for his own nego. tiation, and on the ground of his determination not to separate himself from Russia, his majesty thinks it absolutely necessary to maintain this point with the same firmness which he had originally manifested respecting it. This includes all that it is necessary to say on any point respecting the immediate interests of this coun try, or of any possession hitherto known to be occupied by his ma jesty's arms. I had the honour of receiving the dispatch, signed by Mr. secretary Windham, dated September 10, late in the evening of Friday last. Unfortunately I had had a slight degree of fever for four days preceding, and I never was more unfit than on Saturday morning to attend to business of such a magnitude. On considering the instructions contained in the dispatch with all the attention I could, they appeared to me to relate to two distinct subjects: first, to the form and manner in which his majesty thought proper that I should conduct the negotia 3 tion: tion: secondly, to the terms which, under the present circumstances of the two countries, it is proper to ask. To this distinction I conceived it to be the more necessary for me to attend, because I thought it regular and proper to address what I had to say on the first point to the minister of foreign affairs, whereas the plenipotentiarics of France, should the government authorize them to proceed, seemed the proper channel of communication on the second. In pursuance of this idea, I immediately wrote a note, a copy of which (marked A.) 1 inclose, addressed to M. Talleyrand, which I sent by Mr. Goddard in the evening, as I was myself confined to bed. On Monday, about five o'clock, M. Talleyrand called, and though I was very ill at the time, I resolved to admit him. He sat upwards of half an hour. The outline of his conversation consisted in his expressing a desire to have a full communication with me, in his assuring me that if the difficulties, in respect of form, could be got over, he did not think the objections to the terms would be material, and that, where peace was seriously in view, as it was with them, it figured as an object of such importance as to give a disposition to accommodate about conditions: In a word, that he had little doubt that he and I would arrange the business. On my part, I stated, that I was afraid he proceeded on the suppo. sition that I might give way in some of the points in question, which I thought it fair to assure him at once was impossible. I stated to him generally the demands I was to make on the part of England, which would no way vary from the terms we had originally understood to have been proposed; and that he must expect I would be as positive in relation to the conditions for Russia, with which he was acquainted, as I should be with respect to any point more peculiarly of British interest. I then thought it right to introduce the subject of my having no from Russia, observing that, at though there might be some irregularity in this mode of proceeding, yet that, under all the circumstances of the present case, it seemed unavoidable, because the principle and feelings of his majesty would never permit him to think of treating, but in such a manner as might insure to the court of Petersburgh an honourable peace, at the moment that peace should be concluded between England and France; and that unless I could be allowed to state the objects of Russia, this could be hardly effected. He assured me that they would wave all objections with regard to form, and that they would be perfectly ready to hear me on the subject of a treaty of peace with Russia; his objection to my proposal being founded, not on the circumstance of my wanting powers from Russia, but on the very unusual proposal of concluding a treaty, which, when signed, was only to take place in a certain event. I mentioned to him that the same thing had been done at Paris in 1782, when Mr. Oswald concluded a treaty of peace with Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adam. During the whole of this conversation, I had gone even out of my way to repeat to him the necessity of his laying his account with my adhering rigidly to the terms I had detailed; detailed; and yet he left me with such expressions us could not fail to create a belief, that he intended to accede to my propositions. At the moment he quitted me I was much better than I had been for some days, and was in such hopes that I was about to get well, that I undertook to write to him next morning, Tuesday the 16th, to say whether I could appoint a meeting in the course of that day. Unfortunately I had a miserably bad night, and finding myself in the morning totally disqualified for exertion, I wrote to him a note of which I now enclose a copy (marked B.) Your lordship will perceive, that in this note I pressed for an answer in writing, in a manner as strong and as inoffensive as I could devise. On the morning of the 17th, I wrote to M. Talleyrand a short note (marked C.) expressing my desire that he would come to me any time after three o'clock, which was hardly dispatched before I received a letter from his excellency, announcing the arrival of a courier at Boulogne, and the melancholy account of Mr. Fox's death. A copy of this, together with my answer, a copy of which (marked D. and E.) I have the honour of inclosing. In the evening I received the inclosure (marked F.) from which your lordship will perceive that I shall at last have a meeting with M. Talleyrand to-morrow at one o'clock. I have the honour to be, &c. Tirst Inclosure (A.) Lauderdale to M. Talleyrand, Paris, Sept. 13, 1806. The undersigned plenipotentiary of his Britannic majesty, lost no time in transmitting to his court the communication which his excellency the minister for foreign affairs made to him on Thursday the 4th instant; and he now hastens to reply to that communication, by informing his excellency of the line of conduct his majesty has thought proper to direct him to pursue under the present circumstances. His Britannic majesty,everanxious to maintain the intimate connection and alliance which subsist between his majesty and the emperor of all the Russias, naturally finds, in the recent conduct of his illustrious ally, and in the proofs which he has lately afforded of the interest which he takes in the welfare of Great Britain and in the general happiness of Europe, additional motives not to separate, in any case, his interests from those of the court of St. Petersburgh. It is not, however, the intention of his majesty to carry this principle further than the earl of Yarmouth was instructed to carry it by Mr. Fox, in his lordship's communication with the French government. There is nothing to prevent the interests of Great Britain and of France from being treated separately: only his majesty does not authorise the undersigned to sign any treaty except provisionally: such treaty not to have its full effect until peace should have been concluded between that faithful ally of Great Britain, and France. It is upon Copy of a Note from the Earl of these conditions alone that the un dersigned |