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