are now in a position to appreciate the position of France and
Great Britain. Before the signature of the preliminaries of peace at
London on October 1st, 1801, our Government had given up its claims to
the Cape, Malta, Tobago, Martinique, Essequibo, Demerara, Berbice, and
Curacoa, retaining of its conquests only Trinidad and Ceylon.

A belated attempt had, indeed, been made to retain Tobago. The Premier
and the Foreign Secretary, Lord Hawkesbury, were led by the French
political agent in London, M. Otto, to believe that, in the ensuing
negotiations at Amiens, every facility would be given by the French
Government towards its retrocession to us, and that this act would be
regarded as the means of indemnifying Great Britain for the heavy
expense of supporting many thousands of French and Dutch prisoners.
The Cabinet, relying on this promise as binding between honourable
men, thereupon endeavoured to obtain the assent of George III. to the
preliminaries in their ultimate form, and only the prospect of
regaining Tobago by this compromise induced the King to give it. When
it was too late, King and Ministers realized their mistake in relying
on verbal promises and in failing to procure a written statement.[182]

The abandonment by Ministers of their former claim to Malta is equally
strange. Nelson, though he held Malta to be useless as a base for the
British fleet watching Toulon, made the memorable statement: "I
consider Malta as a most important outwork to India." But a despatch
from St. Petersburg, stating that the new Czar had concluded a formal
treaty of alliance with the Order of St. John settled in Russia, may
have convinced Addington and his colleagues that it would be better to
forego all claim to Malta in order to cement the newly won friendship
of Russia. Whatever may have been their motive, British Ministers
consented to cede the island to the Knights of St. John under the
protection of some third Power.

The preliminaries of peace were further remarkable for three strange
omissions. They did not provide for the renewal of previous treaties
of peace between the late combatants. War is held to break all
previous treaties; and by failing to require the renewal of the
treaties of 1713, 1763, and 1783, it was now open to Spain and France
to cement, albeit in a new form, that Family Compact which it had long
been the aim of British diplomacy to dissolve: the failure to renew
those earlier treaties rendered it possi