1797. FRENCH COMMISSIONERS AT LISLE. 67 Malmesbury to the French Government, it was necessary that those proposals should receive an official reply. In a few days, the answer of the Directory arrived. It resembled in character, though it differed in terms from the reply which had put an end to the former negotiation. In October, the French Government had declared themselves precluded from entertaining a treaty on the basis of mutual concession, because their municipal law did not admit of the cession of any territory which had been annexed to the Republic. In July they pretended that they could not be party to the surrender of Trinidad and the Cape, because they were bound by their separate treaties with Spain and Holland to maintain the respective territories of those allies. The impudence and hypocrisy of this pretext were so transparent, that Malmesbury and Grenville at once agreed that it was futile to carry the negotiation any further. The French Government had undertaken to treat with Great Britain on behalf of their allies, Spain and Holland, as well as on their own; and now they set up, as a bar to the treaty, their separate and secret engagements with those powers. The notoriety of the fact, that Spain and Holland had been coerced into the war, and that they would be thankful to be relieved from it on any terms, gave a cruel zest to the mockery which put forth the pretensions of these helpless dependencies of France as obstacles to the treaty, The Secretary of State would at once have terminated a negotiation so unpromising, but the first minister was unwilling to withdraw while a hope remained. Some expressions which fell from the French Commissioners, in conversation with Lord Malmesbury, seemed to mitigate the rigour of their formal instructions; and, accordingly, Malmesbury was directed to answer the French note, and to require the statement of a counter proposal on the part of France. The Commissioners admitted that 68 PITT'S ENDEAVOURS TO MAKE PEACE. CH. XXXVII. this demand was reasonable; but the British minister expected in vain any proposition from Paris. At length, after several weeks had been passed in communications between the plenipotentiaries, which did not advance the negotiation a single step, the contest between the rival parties at Paris was terminated by the act of violence known by the name of the revolution of the eighteenth Fructidor. The war party having obtained the mastery by the simple expedient of turning the peace party out of the executive and out of the legislature, their first measure was to put an end to the conference at Lisle. The Commissioners, who had shown a disposition to promote the ostensible object of their mission, were recalled, and two persons of very different character were accredited in their places. These men informed Lord Malmesbury, that their instructions were to demand the restitution of all conquests made by England from the Republic and its allies during the war; and to require a positive and immediate answer to this preliminary. The British plenipotentiary replied by referring to his former communications, which laid down the principle of compensation as the basis on which alone he was empowered to treat. The French envoys thereupon announced the pleasure of the Directory, that his lordship should return to his Court within twentyfour hours, in order to obtain fresh powers. Malmesbury, of course, immediately left France; while the Commissioners, either from wanton insolence, or under a flimsy pretence of moderation, remained at Lisle, affecting to await the return of the British embassy.* * It appears that Barras made an overture through an agent whom Pitt considered credible, to bargain a peace on the terms proposed by the British Government, with the addition of Ceylon, in consideration of a payment of two millions sterling to himself and his friends in the Directory. Pitt obtained the consent of the King and the members of the Cabinet, to entertain this proposal, abating the demand to four hundred and fifty thousand pounds. Whether this or any other sum was actually offered, 1797. AMERICAN DIFFERENCES WITH FRANCE. 69 Shortly after the rupture of the negotiation at Lisle, the preliminaries of Leoben were Proposals to carried into effect, by the treaty of Campo Austria. Formio. The terms imposed on Austria appeared, on the whole, moderate. In exchange for the Low Countries, of which she was not unwilling to be rid, and for Lombardy, which she could not hold, Austria was to acquire Dalmatia, the city of Venice, does not appear; for the matter dropped. EARL STANHOPE'S Life of Pitt, vol. iii. p. 61, and Appendix vii. When he came to reflect upon it, Pitt could hardly have failed to see that nothing but disgrace and ridicule could result from such a scandalous traffic. It is difficult also to see how he could have obtained the money. The secret service fund was wholly inadequate to meet such a demand; and it would have been impossible to lay an estimate before Parliament. The very fact, however, that Pitt did not immediately reject such an overture, is a proof that, so far from pursuing the war policy, which vulgar opinion has attributed to him, he was for peace almost at any price. A few days after Lord Malmesbury had left Lisle, three envoys arrived from America to settle difficulties which had arisen between the Government of the United States and the French Directory; for the Trans-Atlantic Republic had not less reason than the old European monarchies to complain of the overbearing insolence of the French democraey. It was in vain that the American minister attempted to open a regular negotiation; but after a time, these propositions were conveyed to them through a secret channel, as necessary preliminaries to a formal treaty. One of these propositions, which, we are told, was 'urged with scandalous pertinacity, was the gift of a large sum of money to the members of the Directory.' The Government at Washington took a much more sensible and becoming view of a proposal of this nature than the Cabinet of St. James's. In no event,' they said, 'is a treaty to be purchased with money, by loan or otherwise. There can be no safety in a treaty so obtained. A douceur to the men now in power might, by their successors, be urged as a reason for annulling the treaty, or as a precedent for further and repeated demands.'-TRESCOTT'S Diplomatic History of the Administrations of Washington and Adams, pp. 187-190. Boston, 1857. 70 Ionian Islands ceded to France. SECRET TERMS WITH AUSTRIA. CH. XXXVII. the command of the Adriatic, and an important military line from the Adige to the Po; and as France was not yet ready or willing to absorb the rich Italian provinces, which had been wrested from the Emperor, these territories were, for the present, consolidated under titular independence, with the title of the Cisalpine Republic. The Ionian Islands were appropriated by France. By secret articles, the Emperor engaged to use his influence with the Germanic body to obtain their confirmation of the boundary of the Rhine, including the fortress of Mentz, which the Emperor ceded to France. It was not, however, without as much resistance as they ventured to offer, that the Austrian Government consented to terms, which circumscribed its dominions on so many points. They pressed hard for a Congress of the States, hoping to obtain better terms from the support of the Germanic body; but Bonaparte peremptorily insisted on having the essential articles determined between the principals, reserving for the consideration of a Congress those points only in which the members of the Germanic Empire had a common interest. French invec British. The conferences at Lisle were followed by a succession of invectives, official and unoffitives against the cial, by the French Directory against the British nation and its Government. The series was terminated on the 5th of November, by a proclamation, circulated through the whole of France, announcing a project of invasion and conquest of the British Isles. These rodomontades were intended to flatter the vanity of the army, to stimulate among the people the military spirit, which had begun to flag, and, above all, to appease and divert the ambition of Bonaparte, whose towering abilities and reputation were more terrible to the rulers at Paris than the enmity and power of Great Britain. The conqueror of Italy himself had the sagacity to see 1797. BONAPARTE'S ANIMOSITY TO BRITAIN. 71 'that the Republic had more to fear from England than from all the other powers of Europe. It was true, that she had no great army; that her statesmen seemed incapable of forming any great military plan; and that her generals were incompetent to the petty services with which they were charged. But England maintained her supremacy upon the sea; and until her hardy and skilful seamen, with such leaders as St. Vincent, Nelson, and Duncan, could be matched, the conquest of England was hopeless, and the permanent aggrandisement of France impossible. Bonaparte was as loud as Barras and Reveillere Lepaux in his denunciation of the British Government; but, as a matter of business, he came to the conclusion, that the military resources of the Republic were not yet adequate to such an enterprise as the invasion and conquest of the British Isles. The project of getting possession of the Channel, by the junction of the Spanish and Dutch Projects for infleets, having been frustrated by the vic- vading England. tory of St. Vincent, the invasion of England was, for the present, abandoned; but the minor plan of a descent upon Ireland, which had long been preparing, under the direction of Hoche, was still entertained. The Spanish fleet, at Cadiz, being closely blockaded, the Dutch ships in the Texel were destined to effect a junction with the French fleet at Brest, and to land fifteen thousand troops on the Irish coast. Admiral Duncan had been watching the Texel during the spring and the summer. When the Dutch had nearly completed their preparations for sea, four of Duncan's ships deserted to join the mutiny at the Nore; and, at this critical period, the British Admiral had only two ships of the line under his command; but happily the mutineers returned to their duty before advantage could be taken of their misconduct. Storms and contrary winds detained the Dutch fleet in port throughout the summer; and Duncan's squadron had, by that time, received reinforcements, which |