The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-05-27 00:00:00

THE WRRESPONDENC E.

The Correspondence published by the French Go-
vernment, relative to Cat Negotiation, occupies six
supplementary-sheets of the Ifinirtur, printed in very
small letter: It commences as far back as Kona-
parte'r.letter to lth Majesty, and his offer to nego-
tiate, 'Phil later Is given', with Lord Grenville's
aoswer ; the whole proceedings of the negotiation
relative to the naval armistice; and the subsequent
neptiation betn...en t,otd Havrlcesbury and M. Otto,
which tenniirated in the signing of the Preliminaries
of Peace. The nelotiati•iii at Amiens is detailed at
great length, and is carious and important. The de-
tails or that negotiation, as well as of the negotia-
tion-which terminated in the signilg of the Prelimi-
naries, have never befote been
.It appears that the first proposal of Lord Ilawkes-
bury Was to restore to France, and her allies, Pondis
cherry, Chatdernage, the Cape, Minorca; Gorse,
Surinam, and all the other conquests Great Britain
had made, except Malta, Ceylon, the Mysore,
nilad, and Martinique. To this proposal Fiance
objefted, and offered to accede to our arrangements
for the East Indies, andto adopt the ante haute for
Portugal, if Ike wraild cement to the stems ante helium
for the Nfediterrarteati anal Arr.ei ica. To this oar
obiitted. We stated that the ante helium for the.
Nteiliterranean would include the evacuation of
Illkse; and the Sardinia States, the restoration of.
the Duke of Tuscany, and the re-establishment of
Italy in het antient independence. If France would
not 'consent to this, we then demanded Malta, and
offered to grant the status ante helium for Spain, in
cimiidet-ation of the status ante helium for Phrufgal.—
This ofEr was not accepted ; arid, at length, on the
2;klf of July, 1801, Fr-ance proposed the tollowing
conditions : to restore Egypt to the Porte ; to ac-
knowledge the Republic of the Seven Isles ; to re- -
store to Naples and the Pope all the ports in the
Adriatic and Mediteiranean—Minoica to be ceded •
to Spain—Malta to the Order—if we desired to
raze the fortifications, France would consent—Eng-
iand to keep Ceylon—the Cape to be ceded to the
I)utch—the ante helium to be restored in America,
and the intregity of Portugal to be preserved. In
reply to this offer, we relaxed in our terms with re-
speCt to Malta, and expressed our readiness, if the •
arrangements with respeet to the East-Indies were
consented to, to concert the means of rendering
Malta independent both of Great-Britain and France.
We demanded, however, Martinique. France
would licit-accede to this demand, and we abandon-
ed it, on condition of obtaining one of these two con-
ditions Tobago and Trinidad, Demerara, Ess
segultb and I3erbice, to be free ports; or, 9. the pos-
.
sessiori ofSt. Lucie, Tobago, Demerara, Essequibo,
and Bethice. Alluding again to Malta, the British
GoVernmeet say, that the only means of establishing
the independence or the island is to place it under
die guarantee and proteetion of some power able to
Maintaie its indepe-dence--;that His Britannic Ma-
jesty: *wild not persist in keeping a garrison in the
island until the establishment of the government of
the Order of St. John ; but would be ready to eva-
cuate it, provided the Emperor of Russia, or some
oilier potter agrtea upon, should take upon itself,
• effieatiotssly, the defence and security of Malta.—
At.length the Preliminaries of Peace were signed.
Tttey are inserted verbatim in the Correspondence.
'I he proceedings at Amiens are then communi.
eated at great length. The great objet that occu-
pied the time and attention of the Plenipotentiaries
was Malta. Lord Cornwallis first proposed, that
if a French Langue was lts be maintained, there
should be an English one: It was agreed that there
should be no Langue of either nation ; each of the
Plenipotentiaries 'then presented a plan respeCting
Matta. France wished to restore the island to the
Order, under the immediate protection of Naples,
and the guarantee of 'France, England, Russia,
Spain, Austria, and Prussia. The island to be re-
speded in time of war. Lord Cornwallis proposed,
that the island should be guaranteed by Great Bri-
tain, Prussia, France, Austria, Russia, and Spain ;
ahe ports of Malta to be always neutral ; the Bri-
tish forces to evacuate the isle in three months, and
surrender it in its present state to the King of Naples,
who should' furnish the force necessary for the gar-
rison for a given number of wears. A Maltese
Langue to be established. Other regulations of less
• importance, with respect to commerce, were pro-
posed. France acceded to part of the terms..
The Plenipotentiaries then proceed to the discus-
sion of other parts of the Definitive Treaty. Lord
Cormsrallia declare,; that bis Government, will not
consent to the abolition of saltitea at sea, and Jo-
seph Bonaparte desists from „delatanding- the abo-
lition of ihem. Upon the subjeat of the. Sequestr-
ations Lord Curnwallis contends for the'lluliAb cre-
ditor; in France
.being more favoured than the
Fteticii tliqmselVes, Necaust the English* Govern-
Merit It'ad 'neither touched the priiperty, nor the
funds of any French subje.isa .whilst. the French
GO:term:seat "had, on the enntraryoeized what the
Englisl;had.,in prance, and had only-made imagi-
nhfiteirittuii&riants. France then pfesents*a plan
of a,- PeAnisiva Treaty , of Peace. ,Jn a conference
on. February l I, IUO2, I.ord' Cornwallis touches
lifisoniteirkietnAlies to the Prince of ()range; and
iherrench Iledipbtentiary replies, that France. will
;employ lier:good,offixes Rif --the Prince. The Pleti-
7potenti3>ries recur again to the arraugements respeCt-
in :Lend Cornwallis • dehncs the words
'sotertinnaria initrantee, to mean an effedual,. and
not an ideal proteCtien. Fie .proposes a detailed
projer respecting Loiclsiiip, at the same
time, demands the admiision of an ,Ottoman Pleni-
wpoentiary to the Congress, and-declares, that Eng-
tatid.-cannot iiiiri.6wie.dge the' King of Tusetteyi
[....tw7it54i1ir046444J0r.11 terrortugal ; the Pea ids;
iir„PiidxoOot to the.Kipg of
Utt:ia. France, in reply to the projet relative. to
111. •
pftentslo:tultdisaad-cbjealobs dgainst thi
idea of haiing a Neatkilifaii tarrisonsof 2000
trios OK* yVACS.O .54 creases a
.garriVyl
of
1 WO Mary Anti IrauStatte two, one upon the
'farina*. of aleilka patients being•sent rq the island,
the other upon the principle of a Neapolitan garri-
son being furaiihed. Some observations are made

.• • •
• s •
by tle rrcricialertipotonearf rtpotl Mit not acialow.
, leasing the new States' in Italy. FraniidOes not
ipon siieh an acknciilidettent.
A I)efinitivelVati of Peace proposed by..ttlitute'
then inserted at length. A separate and sectet ar-
tide is annexed; that-the French troops .shall'Oa-
cuate Otranto when • the Ettgllsh have evacdased
Malta. Lord Cornwallis ohrets to the alv,ve refer;
and promises another. l'he Court of Londorl oh-
itActi to 'the separate and secret article, which is .
abandoned' After some further delays ..ind discus-
sions, chielly occasioned by the arrangements re-
spe..cling Malta, the Definitive Treaty was signed.—
It is inserted in the Cittespondenee at length.
The condo& of the British Government is then
traced from the conclusion of that Treaty. It is
asserted that, soon after it was concluded, the war
fa9ion began to call out for a renewal of the war,
and that his Majesty's Ministers shewed they only .
waited for a favourable opportunity to raise the Con-
tinental Powers against France again. His Majes-
ty's Message is then inserted in the Correspondence
between Lord Hawkeshury and General Andreossi ;
and immediately afterwards a Note from M. Tal-
leyranal to Lord Whitworth (not given in the Cor:
respondence laid before Parliament), dated the 4th
Germinal, in which hj demands a categorical ex-
planatiorr upon the violation of the French territory
by the landing of eighty brigands between Ostend
and Dunkirk. tie complains also that an English ,
brig had anchored at Ostend, and obliged a French
sloop to land sixteen foreigners. He states also that
several English frigates are cruising before Helvoet-
sluys, the Captains.of which have declared that their
orders are to prevent the sailing of French ships.—
The Note conclules with saying, that a pretended
letter was rumoured to have been sent by Bonaparte
to the King of England, and that it was falsely re-
piirted a ship with arms for Ireland had been wrecked
off Shoreham All these clamours were caleulated
to irritate France, and to oblige her to repel force
by force. " The condtta of Bonaparte for this
fortnight, in which he has been provoked by all pos-,
sible meant, is full of franknesss and loyalty, and.
extremelj moderate."
The refusal to evacuate the t
plaited of:

•
Cape is then com-

In answer to the above note from M. Talleyrand,
Lord Whitworth Jellies all knowledge of any viola-
tion of the French territory—confesses that frigates
are cruising before Helvoetsluys, but that it the
Captains of them have held language, or done ads
that can be considered as
.hostile, their conclua is
opp+ ite to the instru&ions they have received.—
Lord Whitworth concludes with again stating, that '
the British Government arc only responsible for
what appears in The Gamlen Gazette.
The Correspondence concludes with the declara-
tions from Austria and Russia, relative to the gua-
ranteeing of Malta.
The declaration from Russia, which is not given
in the correspondence published. by our Govern-
ment, states, " that it was impossible for his Impe-
rial Majesty to accede as guarantee to stipulations
which not only did not quadrate with the desires he
had already expressed, but which were even con-
trary to what had been, in some measure, agreed
upon anterior to the Treaty of Amiens, between
his Majesty and one of the two contraeling powers,
with respeEt to the Order of St. John." But one
of the principal difficulties being removed by the
appointment of the Grand Master, his Majesty con-
sents to guarantee the Order upon certain conditions.