egislative Body--Its false interpretation--Conquest of Hanover--
The Duke of Cambridge caricatured--The King of England and the
Elector of Hanover--First address to the clergy--Use of the word
"Monsieur"--The Republican weeks and months.

One of the circumstances which foretold the brief duration of the peace
of Amiens was, that Mr. Pitt was out of office at the time of its
conclusion. I mentioned this to Bonaparte, and I immediately perceived
by his hasty "What do you say?" that my observation had been heard--but
not liked. It did not, however, require any extraordinary shrewdness to
see the true motive of Mr. Pitt's retirement. That distinguished
statesman conceived that a truce under the name of a peace was
indispensable for England; but, intending to resume the war with France
more fiercely than ever, he for a while retired from office, and left to
others the task of arranging the peace; but his intention was to mark his
return to the ministry by the renewal of the implacable hatred he had
vowed against France. Still, I have always thought that the conclusion
of peace, however necessary to England, was an error of the Cabinet of
London. England alone had never before acknowledged any of the
governments which had risen up in France since the Revolution; and as the
past could not be blotted out, a future war, however successful to
England, could not take from Bonaparte's Government the immense weight it
had acquired by an interval of peace. Besides, by the mere fact of the
conclusion of the treaty England proved to all Europe that the
restoration of the Bourbons was merely a pretext, and she defaced that
page of her history which might have shown that she was actuated by
nobler and more generous sentiments than mere hatred of France. It is
very certain that the condescension of England in treating with the First
Consul had the effect of rallying round him a great many partisans of the
Bourbons, whose hopes entirely depended on the continuance of war between
Great Britain and France. This opened the eyes of the greater number,
namely, those who could not see below the surface, and were not
previously aware that the demonstrations of friendship so liberally made
to the Bourbons by the European Cabinets, and especially by England, were
merely false pretences, assumed for the purpose of disguising, beneath
the semblance of honourable motives, their wish to injure France, and to
oppose her rapidly increasing power.