The National Register.
London, England, 1808-02-01 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

No. Vl.—Note from Mr. Secretary CANNING to the Prince DA.
STARHEMBERC, dated Jan. 8, 1808. , .
The Undersigned, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State
for Foreign Atlairs, has laid before the King his Master, the
Note delivered to him on the '..td of this month by the Prince de
Starhemberg, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipoten
tiary of his Majesty the Emperor of Austria. In stating him-
self to be charged to propose to the British Government the
mediate sending of Plenipotentiaries to Paris, the Prince de
Starhemberg has omitted to explain from whom he has received
that Commission, whether from his Imperial Master or from
the GoVernment of France.
If the Prince de Starhemberg has, in this instance, acted
under the specific and immediate orders of his Court, and if the
proposal to His Majesty to send Plonipotentiaries to Paris is to
be considered as originating at Vienna, the Undersigned is com-
manded to express His Majesty's concern that so little reference.
should appear to have been had, in framing the proposal now
offered for His Majesty's consideration, to the correspondence
which has already taken place between the Courts of Londoti
and Vienna, upon the subject of a negociation t'or Peace.
After so long an interval hm• been suffered to elapse since the
acceptance by his Majesty, in April last, of the offer of his Im-
perial Majesty's mediation, his Alajesty could_ hardly have ex.
pected that the same offer should now hr repeated (if indeed the
Prince de Starhemberg's Note is to be construed as a repeti-
tion of it) without any notiticatiou of the acceptance of those
conditions which were at that time stated by his Majesty, to be
indispensable preliminaries to the opening of a negociation.
And while the Note of the Undersigned of the 2:ld of November
last is cited by the Prince de Starhemberg as the foundation of
the present proposal, his Majesty obserses with surprise, that
this proposal nevertheless extends only to the Powers combined •
with France in the war against Great Britain, and not to the
Allies of Great Britain in the war with France.
lf, on the other hand, the Court of Vienna is no Otherwise
concerned in the step which toe l'rince de Starhembert:
taken, than as haying generally authorised that Minister to re;-
ceive and to convey to the British t;oyermnent w hateyer
munications the Government of France might think fit to intrbst
to him, the Undersigned is commanded, in that case. to remark to
the Prince de Starhemberg, that although the char.eter which
the Prince de Starhemberg holds from the Court of V 'Nina, and
the formalities by which he is accredited to his Majesty, entitle
him to immediate and implicit confidence in every exercise of hih
diplomatic functions, in the name and on the behalf of his Imperial
Master; yet that when he professes to speak in the name of
anther Power, the statement of some precise authority, and the
production of some specific and authenticated document, could
attire justify the Court to which he addresses himself, in fonti-
ing a public and important measure upon such a communica-
tion.

From the tenonr of the Prince de •tarlieniberg's Note it ap-
pears, that the Note of the Undersigned of the 2311 of Novem-
ber, has been communicated to the government of France. The
government of France k therefore in possession of a %Ovum noili
authentic pledge of the pacific dispositions of his Majesty. It
follows that a pledge equally solemn and authentic of the reci-
procal disposition of trance is reasonably to he expected by
his Majesty, before his Majesty can be called upon to make any
further advance.
The proposal to his Majesty to send Negotiators to Paris, tin-
get:mop:wird it is with any ostensible and unequivocal return
on the part of France for the Declarations already made in his
Majesty's name, is so far from being a proof of ans such recipro;•
cal disposition, that it can he construed no otherwise by his Ma"-
jesty than as implying au unjustifiable doubt of the sincerity of
nis Nlnjest's prufrssions. ;for is the want of ~uch formal au-
thority aunt of such reciprocal a,surance, the out y, or the most
material defect in the Prince de Starliemberg's counnunica.-

Ilia Majesty is called upon to send Plenipment larks to Parr
to ne;oriate for peace, without the slightiet intimation being
given to his Majesty on the basis on which it i' proposed that
such negociation should be founded. If it soul I ever have been
matter of doubt whether the previous settlement of a b-t,is of
negociation were necessary to the hope of its succe-sful
nation, the experience of the last negociation ttita France
would have placed that Questich beyond controversy. T;te ex-
perience of the last negociation has further demotic/toted the
disadvantage and inconveniency of a ne..;ociation co: ducted at
Paris.
His Majesty is willing to treat with France ; but he will
t.-eut only on it fuuting of perlevt equ4lity. lie is ready to treat

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