ere fully matured. And what
ruler would not desire to maintain a peace so fruitful in
conquests--that perpetuated French influence in Italy, Switzerland,
and Holland, that enabled France to prepare for the dissolution of the
Turkish Empire and to intrigue with the Mahrattas? Those were the
conditions on which England could enjoy peace: she must recognize the
arbitrament of France in the affairs of all neighbouring States, she
must make no claim for compensation in the Mediterranean, and she must
endure to be officially informed that she alone could not maintain a
struggle against France.[246]

But George III. was not minded to sink to the level of a Charles II.
Whatever were the failings of our "farmer king," he was keenly alive
to national honour and interests. These had been deeply wounded, even
in the United Kingdom itself. Napoleon had been active in sending
"commercial commissioners" into our land. Many of them were proved to
be soldiers: and the secret instructions sent by Talleyrand to one of
them at Dublin, which chanced to fall into the hands of our
Government, showed that they were charged to make plans of the
harbours, and of the soundings and moorings.[247]

Then again, the French were almost certainly helping Irish
conspirators. One of these, Emmett, already suspected of complicity in
the Despard conspiracy which aimed at the King's life, had, after its
failure, sought shelter in France. At the close of 1802 he returned to
his native land and began to store arms in a house near Rathfarnham.
It is doubtful whether the authorities were aware of his plans, or, as
is more probable, let the plot come to a head. The outbreak did not
take place till the following July (after the renewal of war), when
Emmett and some of his accomplices, along with Russell, who stirred up
sedition in Ulster, paid for their folly with their lives. They
disavowed any connection with France, but they must have based their
hope of success on a promised French invasion of our coasts.[248]

The dealings of the French commercial commissioners and the beginnings
of the Emmett plot increased the tension caused by Napoleon's
masterful foreign policy; and the result was seen in the King's
message to Parliament on March 8th, 1803. In view of the military
preparations and of the wanton defiance of the First Consul's recent
message to the Corps Legislatif, Ministers asked for the embodiment of
the militia and the addition of 10,000 seamen to t