governed by his own difcretion only, with a view to bringing the negotiation with which he is charged to a speedy and fuccessful end.

With regard to the rupture of the last negotiation, the circumfances and the motives of it are known to all Europe; and it is not at the moment of entering into a new pacific discussion that the British government conceives it can be of any use to recall them to recollection.

Lord Malmesbury will fet out from London on the 30th of this month to proceed to Calais; from whence he will arrange his departure according to the notification he may receive of the day on which the French minifters may reach Lifle.

GRENVILLE.

Official Note. The Minifter for Foreign Affairs to Lord Grenville.

THE underfigned minifter for foreign affairs loft no time in laying before the Executive Directory the official note addressed to him by Lord Grenville, dated the 21ft June (O. S.), 8th of the prefent month Meffidor.

In anfwer to this note, he has the honour to declare to Lord Grenville, that the plenipotentiaries charged by the Directory with the negotiation are already affembled at Lifle, and that the conferences may be fet on foot as foon as the plenipotentiary of his Britannic Majefty fhall have arrived there. Provision has been made that there fhall never be a want of packet-boats for the couriers which he shall think proper to fend to London.

The underfigned at the fame time apprifes Lord Grenville, that a copy of this note will be delivered to Lord Malmesbury on his arrival at Calais, in order that there may be nothing to hinder his immediate departure for Lifle.

(Signed)

Paris, 11 Meffidor, 5th Year. (June 29, 1797.)

No. 10.

CH. DELACROIX.

Extract of a Difpatch from Lord Malmesbury to Lord Grenville, dated Lifle, July 6th, Thursday, 8 P. M. 1797.

My Lord,

HAVING had this morning my firft conference with the French plenipotentiaries, and having mutually exchanged our full powers, I think it my duty to dispatch a meffenger, in order

that

that his Majefty may have the earlieft information of this cir cumftance. My difpatch, however, must be confined to this alone, as nothing whatever has yet passed relative to the negotiation itself.

No. II.

Copy of the full Powers of the French Plenipotentiaries.

Extract from the Regifters of the Deliberations of the Executive

Directory.

Paris, the 30th Prairial, 5th year of the French

Republic, one and indivifible.

THE Executive Directory, after having heard the report of the minifter for foreign affairs, decrees as follows:

The citizens Letourneur, heretofore member of the Executive Directory, Pleville le Pelley, and Maret, are authorized to negotiate with the minifter plenipotentiary of his Britannic Majesty, the treaty of peace to be concluded between the French republic and Great Britain. The Directory gives them the neceffary full powers for agreeing upon and figning the articles of the treaty to be made. They fhall conform them felves to the inftructions which have been, or fhall be given to them by the Executive Directory, to whom they fhall render an account of the progress and the iffue of the negotiations.

They are equally authorized, and under the fame conditions, to ftipulate for the allies of the republic, his Catholic Majefty and the Batavian republic.

The citizen Colchen, appointed fecretary-general to the French legation, is authorized to affift at the conferences, to afford the information which shall be required of him, and to take a note of what fhall be agreed upon and fettled.

The prefent decree thall not be printed for the prefent.

(A true copy.)

The Prefident of the Executive Directory,

Extracts of a Difpatch from Lord Malmesbury to Lord Grenville, dated Lifle, July 11, 1797.

P

I HAD the honour in my laft, by Brooks, of the 6th inftant, to inform your Lordship of my arrival here, of the manner in

which. I had been received, and of my having, in the ufual form, exchanged my full powers with the French plenipotentiaries. On Friday the 7th at noon we held our fecond conference.

I opened this fecond conference with the French plenipotentiaries, by faying, that I myself had no obfervations to make on their full powers, which appeared to be conformable to those usually given by the Directory to their plenipotentiaries, and of courfe must be confidered as fufficient for the purpofes expreffed in them; that I, however, had tranfmitted them by a messenger to my court, and reserved to myself the right of communicating any objections or remarks which I might receive by the return of my meffenger, relative to them.

M. le Tourneur, to whom, as prefident of the commiffion, I addreffed myself, replied, that they had taken precisely the fame teps as myself; that they confidered the full powers I had given in, as in due form, and fufficient; but that they alfo referved to themfelves the fame right, in regard to inftructions they might receive from the Directory on this subject, as I had claimed in regard to my court.

To this, of courfe, I affented.

On Saturday the 8th inftant I gave in the projet precifely as I had received it from your Lordship; a copy of which (A), as it is tranflated into French, I think it my duty to inclofe.

One of the French plenipotentiaries propofed that fome time should be given them to take the proposals I had made into confideration, and begged of me merely for the fake of accuracy, and to help their memory, that I would be good enough either to let M. Colchen put down on paper, or myself fend them a note containing the words with which I wifhed the articles left in blank to be filled up. I readily acquiefced in the latter mode, and immediately on my return fent them the inclofed note (B).

On Sunday evening I received the inclofed note (C) from the French plenipotentiaries, and in confequence of it went to the propofed conference yesterday.

One of the French plenipotentiaries informed me on the fubject of the projet I had given them, and the note with which I had ac, companied it, that as these papers contain many points on which their inftructions did not enable them to anfwer, they had, after having given them a very ferious attention, fent them, with fuch obfervations as they had thought it their duty to make on them, to the Directory, and that the moment they received an answer, they would communicate it to me. But that in the mean while, not to delay the progrefs of the negotiation, they wished that several points, which he termed infulated, but which, though not referred to in our projet, were, he said, infeparably connected with the general fubject of peace, might be difcuffed and got rid of now if I had no objection, and that it was with this view they had requested me to meet them. On my not expreffing any disapprobation to this mode

mode of proceeding, one of the French plenipotentiaries began, by faying, that in the preamble of the treaty the title of King of France was used; that this title they contended could no longer be infifted on, the abolition of it was in a manner effential to the full acknowledgment of the French republic, and that as it was merely titular as far as related to his Majefty, but quite otherwife in the fenfe in which it applied to them, he hoped it would not be confidered as an important conceffion.

I informed him, that on all former occafions a separate article had been agreed to, which appeared to me to answer every purpose they required, and which it was my intention, as the treaty advanced, to have proposed, as proper to make part of this. The article (the first of the feparate ones in the treaty of 1783) was then read; but they objected to it, as not fully meeting their views. It was to the title itself, as well as to any right which might be fupposed to arise from it, that they objected. I could fcarce allow myself to treat this mode of reafoning feriously. I endeavoured to make them feel that it was cavilling for a mere word; that it was creating difficulties where none exifted; and that if all the French monarchs in the course of three centuries had allowed this to ftand in the preamble of all the treaties and tranfactions between the two countries, I could not conceive, after its having been used for fo long a period without any claim or pretenfion being fet forth in confequence of it, how it could now affect either the dignity, fecurity, or importance of the republic-that in fact fuch titles have ever been confidered as indefeafable, and as memorials and records of former greatnefs, and not as pretenfions to prefent power-and I quoted the titles of the Kings of Sardinia and Naples, &c. as examples exactly in point. I argued however in vain. They treated it very gravely, and made fo strong a stand upon it, that I could not avoid taking it for reference, which I thought it better to do, than, feeling as I did at the moment, to push the converfation farther.

The fecond infulated point was a very material one indeed, and which, although it has been adverted to as a proposal that might poffibly be brought forward, I confefs came upon me unexpectedly. It was to ask either a reftitution of the fhips taken and destroyed at Toulon, or an equivalent for them. They grounded this claim on the preliminary declaration made by Lord Hood on his taking poffeffion of Toulon; and on the eighth article of the declaration of the committee of the sections to him. They faid, peace they hoped was about to be re-established; that his Majefty, in acknowledging the republic, admitted that a sovereignty exifted in the French government; and of courfe that the fhips, held only as a depofit by England till this legal authority was admitted, ought now to be restored. I replied, that this claim was fo perfectly unlooked for, that it was impoffible for me to have been

I

provided

provided for it in my inftructions, and that I could therefore only convey my own private fentiments on it, which were, that they could not have devised a step more likely to defeat the great end of our miffion. One of the French plenipotentiaries faid, that he fincerely hoped not; that without a reftitution of the fhips an equivalent might be found to effect the purpofe defired, fince their great object was, that fomething fhould appear to prove that this juft demand had not been overlooked by them, and was not left unfatisfied by us. I told him fairly, I did not fee where this equivalent was to be found, or how it could be appreciated; and that confidering the great advantages France had already obtained by the war, and thofe fhe was likely to obtain from the act of condefcenfion I had already intimated his Majefty was difpofed to make in order to reftore peace, I was much, furprifed and deeply concerned at what I heard. I trusted, therefore, that this very admiffible proposal would be withdrawn. They faid it was not in their power; and one of them, from a written paper before him, which he faid were his inftructions, read to me words to the effect I have already ftated.

Their third queftion was as to any mortgage we might have upon the Low Countries, in confequence of money lent to the Emperor by Great Britain. They wished to know if any fuch exifted, fince, as they had taken the Low Countries charged with all their incumbrances, they were to declare that they thould not confider. themselves bound to anfwer any mortgage given for money lent to the Emperor, for the purpose of carrying on war against them.

I told them, that without replying to this question, fuppofing the cafe to exift, the exception they required fhould have been ftated in their treaty with the Emperor, and could not at all be mixed up in ours; that if they had taken the Low Countries as they ftood charged with all their incumbrances, there could be no doubt what these words meant, and that if no exception was stated in the first inftance, none could be made with a retro-active effect.

The French plenipotentiaries, however, were as tenacious on this point as on the other two; and as I found to every argument I used, that they conftantly oppofed their inftructions, I had nothing to do but to defire that they would give me a written paper ftating their three claims, in order that I might immediately tranfmit it to your Lordship; and on this being promised, our conference broke up.

Between four and five P. M. yesterday, I received the enclosed note (D), and I have loft no time fince it is in my poffeffion in preparing to fend away a meffenger, as, independent of the difagreeable fubjects brought forward in this laft conference, and which it is material fhould be communicated without delay, I am VOL. VI. anxious

Ff