lance of power would still have existed upon the continent of Europe; some nations, which are now no more, would have securely cultivated and enjoyed the blessings of peace and independence; and the ancient freedom and dignity of the German nation would not now have been laid prostrate at the foot of the first consul of France. The prospect of peace which was held out to Europe by the treaty of Luneville, was pleasingly confirmed by the preliminary articles of peace between Great Britain and France, signed at London in October 1801. This event, for which the public mind was hardly prepared, was every where received with transports of joy. The restoration of peace appeared in itself so desirable, that the terms of this preliminary arrangement were but little canvassed by the people of either country. If the nations on the continent, with whom France had been at war, found peace necessary to preserve their very existence, the people of France, as well as of this country, considered it equally essential and necessary to their prosperity and happiness. The French nation, notwithstanding the brilliant successes of their armies in the field; notwithstanding the great extension of their territory, and the military glory which they had acquired, felt, in the midst of their victories, all the distresses which usually attend defeat. The loss of their colonies, the blockade of their ports, arbitrary requisitions, together with the extinction of public and private credit, had completely crushed all commerical enterprise, and reduced to the utmost misery those immense numbers who had formerly derived their subsistence from commerce,

as

and who depended totally upon it. The inhabitants of the manufacturing towns in France had long cried out for peace, and particularly for one with England, without which they could not hope for the revival of their trade. In this country too, the great and increasing weight of taxes, combined with the enormous high price of provisions during the last two years of the war, and which was supposed by the people to be the necessary consequence of it, equally disposed the minds of the inhabitants of the British empire to amity with France. The preliminaries were therefore received with enthusiastic joy in both countries. It was universally expected that the definitive treaty would have followed in a few weeks; it was supposed, that in the negotiation previous to the preliminaries every topic had been sufficiently discussed, and that the execution of the definitive treaty would be a matter of form; an authentic and solemn ratification of peace between the two greatest powers of the world, to which no delay could belong, save that induced by diplomatic ceremony. The city of Amiens, being nearly equidistant from London and Paris, and midway between these citics, was fixed upon as the place for holding the congress, which was finally to settle all matters in dispute between Great Britain on the one part, and France, in conjunction with her allies, on the other. The British government, sincere in its wish for peace, appeared to give credit to the consular court for similar dispositions: it selected, for its representative at the congress, one of the most distinguished characters of which the empire had to boast. A man of ex

F 4

alted

On the 1st of November 1901, the marquis of Cornwallis left London, attended by a train suitable to his own dignity, and to that of the nation he represented. He was accompanied by his son, lord Brome; his son-in-law, Mr. Singleton; and was attended by coloncis Nightingale and Littlehales; Mr. Moore, who acted as his secretary; three of his majesty's messengers, and a large train of servants. He had previously sent over to Calais his horses and his equipage, which were far superior in splendour and appointments to any thing which had been seen in France since the revolution. So anxious was his lordship to execute this important mission, that although the weather was tremely tempestuous, he resolved to embark, on the morning of the 3d of November, for Calais. One of the vessels which carried the baggage was stranded and lost near Boulogne, and the inhabitants of the town of Calais watched, with the most anxious solicitude, the vessel in which his lordship was embarked. Much was apprehended for its safety; but towards night the storm somewhat abated, and he landed under a general salute of artillery from all the forts. The next morning he was visited by the whole of the constituted authorities of that district, and in the course of the day set out for Paris, where

CX

the 7th. On the 8th he was introduced to monsieur Talleyrand, the minister for foreign aflairs, and partook of a splendid dinner, at which were all the most distinguished personages in Paris. The next morning he was privately introduced to Bonaparté, who conversed with him for a considerable time. This was the day fixed for the public rejoicings in Paris, on account of the peace. The presence of the British minister added considerably to the general joy on the occasion. By a private order of the police, his carriage was the only one which was permitted on that day to pass through the crowded streets. This privilege was most cheerfully acquiesced in by the Parisian mob, who felt, at least, as much disposition as the government, to pay every possible compliment to his lordship as ambassador of Great Britain, and the bearer of the welcome tidings of peace In the evening, lord Cornwallis was invited to the palace of the Thuilleries, to see the illumination and fireworks. After this day his lordship gave and received some grand dinners, at which generals Moreau, Massena, Berthier, and several of the first characters in France, were pr sent, but he never dined with the first consul. It appeared, from this circumstance, that although Bonaparté was in the habit of asking distinguished characters, of every country, to his table, as a private individual, yet to ambassadors he stood upon all the strictness of the etiquette of crowned heads, and preserved the greatest degree of state and ceremony.

His lordship's reception, however, at the French court, was

marked

marked with more distinction than had ever before been paid in France to any ambassador. Besides the guard of honour, which was appointed to wait at his hotel, orders were given to the soldiers at every corps de garde, that when his carriage passed, the guard should turn out and carry arms. This, as a mark of distinction, was one of the highest compliments that could be shown him, and such as never before was paid to any foreign minister in France. Notwithstanding all this compliment and ceremony, his lordship was soon tired of Paris, and at the latter end of November set out for Amiens, where he arrived on the 1st of the next month. Neither Spanish nor Dutch minister were then arrived, and Joseph Bonaparté, the consul's brother, who was the French minister, came down solely in personal compliment to lord Cornwallis. Almost as soon as his lordship had arrived, the administrators of the theatre of Amiens waited on him to know at what hour he would wish the play to begin. His lordship replied, that he very seldom went to plays, and requested they would fix it at whatever hour was most agreeable to the inhabitants of Amiens. They, however, observed his dinner hour, and during his stay in that city, the play began at seven o'clock instead of six, which was, before his lordship's arrival, the time it had always coinmenced. All the constituted authorities within forty miles of Amiens came to visit and congratulate his lordship; and here, as well as at Paris, he received every compliment and mark of distinction that was possible to give. The negotiation, however, was for a considerable

period suspended. The Dutch minister, Schimmelpenninck, did not arrive till the 7th, and the court of Spain seemed very slow in appointing their minister; at length the choice fell upon the chevalier D'Azarra, but he remained a considerable time at Genoa, assigning as an excuse, what was the reality or the pretence of illness. SPAIN was, of all the powers coalesced against England, the least satisfied with the preliminary articles of peace. France was to receive back all the colonies which had been taken from her, in a highly improved state, and was to cede nothing as an equivalent, save those countries which she would have been obliged equally to have abandoned, even if no equivalent had been spoken of. Holland, who had lost all her colonies, except Batavia, was to receive much the greater part of them back again, and in a state infinitely superior to what they were in when taken; but Spain, who had lost nothing but the islands of Trinadada and Minorca, was called upon to cede the former. Spain, therefore, finding herself almost the only loser in point of territory, was not very anxious to sign this treaty; and as nothing conclusive could be done at Amiens, till the arrival of the Spanish minister, lord Cornwallis had for a considerable time no other employment at Amiens than receiving and exchanging complimentary visits.

The French government and the first consul were not inactive in the mean time. Two grand projects then occupied the mind of Bonaparté. The first was the recovery of the colonies of St. Domingo and Guadaloupe, which had formerly

formerly been of the first importance to France, but which the revolutionary army of negroes, who had defended them throughout the war, now threatened to wrest from the parent state. The second project was still holder. It was to place the Cisalpine republic, which the treaty of Luneville had declared independent, absolutely in the power and at the discretion of the first consul. In pursuance of the first project, a considerable army and fleet had been for a long time collecting at Brest, L'Orient, and Rochefort, which consisted of twenty-three ships of the line, five of which were Spanish, and 25,000 land troops, and which sailed on the 14th of December.

The British government was, not without reason, jealous of such a force, and somewhat anxious about its final destination; but having received express assurances from France that its only object was to take possession of the colonies, and restore them to regular government, they at length consented to their sailing, without waiting for the conclusion of the definitive treaty!

They however collected a fleet at Bantry Bay, under the command of admiral Mitchell, which was destined as a fleet of observation, to watch their motions in the West Indies. When the crews of these vessels understood that they were about to be sent thither, notwithstanding the war appeared at an end, a spirit of mutiny spread pretty universally through the fleet, but particularly on board the ships Temeraire and Formidable. It was, however, soon subdued by the decided conduct and spirit of the officers; and fourteen of the ringleaders, who had most of them borne an excellent character before the mutiny, were tried by a court martial, condemned, and executed.

The mutiny thus at an end, and completely subdued, a squadron of seven sail of the line proceeded to the West Indies to reinforce the fleets on that station, and prevent the possibility of any attack upon our possessions in that part of the world. Such were the principal events which concluded the year

1801.

CHAP.

IT

T was the opinion of a vast majority of the British nation, that the year 1802 commenced under circumstances highly auspicious. The termination of our arduous struggle for every thing dear to Britons, with an enemy, the torrents of whose success we alone could stem, and from which we had retreated, as far as our own immediate interests were affected, with honour; unimpaired resources; additional territory; the character of our army and navy at the highest point of reputation; our maritime regulations and laws, contended for with the Northern Powers, gioriously established; a confidence in the pacific tone and temper of the first consul of France; a belief that the spirit of rebellion and disaffection in Ireland was completely allayed, shone forth in the dazzling assurances of the minister and those who acted with them: and these assurances were of too flattering a nature not to meet with implicit credit. Nor did it contribute in a trifling degree to the general satisfaction, that it was universally understood that the income tax, a

burden which the bulk of the nation had rather impatiently borne, was now to be withdrawn; that the substituted taxes were to be such as would press solely on the opulent part of the community; and that vast reductions were to take place in our military and marine, establishments.

In another point of view our situation was not less flattering: the atrocities of the French revolutionary government, and the despotism which succeeded them, and to which they inevitably tended,, thoroughly satisfied the English mind upon the subject of democracy. And there was scarcely to be found at the close of the war an individual who would not have borne the pressures he had undergone, multiplied tenfold, rather than subject our happy and tried constitution to the horrors attendant on innovation and revolution. The opening of the distilleries was a convincing and gratifying proof that plenty had once more established herself in her favoured seat; and the ceasing of the provision contracts, and the quantity of foreign grain