of the British Ministry; but, as
had been previously explained at Amiens, the Addington Cabinet decided
that it could not venture to curtail the liberty of the Press, least
of all at the dictation of the very man who was answering the pop-guns
of our unofficial journals by double-shotted retorts in the official
"Moniteur." Of these last His Majesty did not deign to make any
formal complaint; but he suggested that their insertion in the organ
of the French Government should have prevented Napoleon from
preferring the present protests.

This wordy war proceeded with unabated vigour on both sides of the
Channel, the British journals complaining of the Napoleonic
dictatorship in Continental affairs, while the "Moniteur" bristled
with articles whose short, sharp sentences could come only from the
First Consul. The official Press hitherto had been characterized by
dull decorum, and great was the surprise of the older Courts when the
French official journals compared the policy of the Court of St. James
with the methods of the Barbary rovers and the designs of the Miltonic
Satan.[229] Nevertheless, our Ministry prosecuted and convicted
Peltier for libel, an act which, at the time, produced an excellent
impression at Paris.[230]

But more serious matters were now at hand. Newspaper articles and
commercial restrictions were not the cause of war, however much they
irritated the two peoples.

The general position of Anglo-French affairs in the autumn of 1802 is
well described in the official instructions given to Lord Whitworth
when he was about to proceed as ambassador to Paris. For this
difficult duty he had several good qualifications. During his embassy
at St. Petersburg he had shown a combination of tact and firmness
which imposed respect, and doubtless his composure under the violent
outbreaks of the Czar Paul furnished a recommendation for the equally
trying post at Paris, which he filled with a _sang froid_ that has
become historic. Possibly a more genial personality might have
smoothed over some difficulties at the Tuileries: but the Addington
Ministry, having tried geniality in the person of Cornwallis,
naturally selected a man who was remarkable for his powers of quiet
yet firm resistance.

His first instructions of September 10th, 1802, are such as might be
drawn up between any two Powers entering on a long term of peace. But
the series of untoward events noticed above overclouded the political
horizon; and