rd.
The union of Piedmont with France had changed the state of Europe. This
union, it is true, was effected previously to the treaty of Amiens; but
it was not so with the states of Parma and Piacenza, Bonaparte having by
his sole authority constituted himself the heir of the Grand Duke,
recently deceased. It may therefore be easily imagined how great was
England's uneasiness at the internal prosperity of France and the
insatiable ambition of her ruler; but it is no less certain that, with
respect to Malta, England acted with decidedly bad faith; and
this bad faith appeared in its worst light from the following
circumstance:--It had been stipulated that England should withdraw
her troops from Malta three months after the signing of the treaty, yet
more than a year had elapsed, and the troops were still there. The
order of Malta was to be restored as it formerly was; that is to say, it
was to be a sovereign and independent order, under the protection of the
Holy See. The three Cabinets of Vienna, Berlin, and St. Petersburg were
to guarantee the execution of the treaty of Amiens. The English
Ambassador, to excuse the evasions of his Government, pretended that the
Russian Cabinet concurred with England in the delayed fulfilment of the
conditions of the treaty; but at the very moment he was making that
excuse a courier arrived from the Cabinet of St. Petersburg bearing
despatches completely, at variance with the assertion of Lord Whitworth.
His lordship left Paris on the night of the 12th May 1803, and the
English Government, unsolicited, sent passports to the French embassy in
London. The news of this sudden rupture made the English console fall
four per cent., but did not immediately produce such a retrograde effect
on the French funds, which were then quoted at fifty-five francs;--a
very high point, when it is recollected that they were at seven or eight
francs on the eve of the 18th Brumaire.

In this state of things France proposed to the English Government to
admit of the mediation of Russia; but as England had declared war in
order to repair the error she committed in concluding peace, the
proposition was of course rejected. Thus the public gave the First
Consul credit for great moderation and a sincere wish for peace. Thus
arose between England and France a contest resembling those furious wars
which marked the reigns of King John and Charles VII. Our beaux esprits
drew splendid comparisons between the existing state