When the misunderstanding took place, France and England
might have mutually reproached each other, but justice
was apparently on the side of France. It was
evident that England, by refusing to evacuate Malta,
was guilty of a palpable infraction of the treaty
of Amiens, while England could only institute against
France what in the French law language is called a
suit or process of tendency. But it must be confessed
that this tendency on the part of France to augment
her territory was very evident, for the Consular decrees
made conquests more promptly than the sword.
The union of Piedmont with France had changed the state
of Europe. This union, it is true, was effected
previously to the treaty of Amiens; but it was not
so with the states of Parma and Piacenza, Bonaparte
having by his sole authority constituted himself the
heir of the Grand Duke, recently deceased. It
may therefore be easily imagined how great was England’s
uneasiness at the internal prosperity of France and
the insatiable ambition of her ruler; but it is no
less certain that, with respect to Malta, England
acted with decidedly bad faith; and this bad faith
appeared in its worst light from the following circumstance:—
It had been stipulated that England should withdraw
her troops from Malta three months after the signing
of the treaty, yet more than a year had elapsed, and
the troops were still there. The order of Malta
was to be restored as it formerly was; that is to
say, it was to be a sovereign and independent order,
under the protection of the Holy See. The three
Cabinets of Vienna, Berlin, and St.
Petersburg were
to guarantee the execution of the treaty of Amiens.
The English Ambassador, to excuse the evasions of
his Government, pretended that the Russian Cabinet
concurred with England in the delayed fulfilment of
the conditions of the treaty; but at the very moment
he was making that excuse a courier arrived from the
Cabinet of St. Petersburg bearing despatches completely,
at variance with the assertion of Lord Whitworth.
His lordship left Paris on the night of the 12th
May 1803, and the English Government, unsolicited,
sent passports to the French embassy in London.
The news of this sudden rupture made the English
console fall four per cent., but did not immediately
produce such a retrograde effect on the French funds,
which were then quoted at fifty-five francs;—a
very high point, when it is recollected that they
were at seven or eight francs on the eve of the 18th
Brumaire.
In this state of things France proposed to the English
Government to admit of the mediation of Russia; but
as England had declared war in order to repair the
error she committed in concluding peace, the proposition
was of course rejected. Thus the public gave
the First Consul credit for great moderation and a
sincere wish for peace. Thus arose between England
and France a contest resembling those furious wars
which marked the reigns of King John and Charles VII.
Our beaux esprits drew splendid comparisons between
the existing state of things and the ancient rivalry
of Carthage and Rome, and sapiently concluded that,
as Carthage fell, England must do so likewise.
