e, I think--that Napoleon himself dictated the
final draft of the report to Sebastiani; and when the latter showed
some hesitation, the First Consul muttered, as the most irritating
passages were read out: "Parbleu, nous verrons si ceci--si cela--ne
decidera pas John Bull a guerroyer." Joseph was much distressed about
it, and exclaimed: "Ah, mon pauvre traite d'Amiens! Il ne tient plus
qu'a un fil."]

[Footnote 243: So Adams's "Hist, of the U.S.," vol. ii., pp. 12-21.]

[Footnote 244: Miot de Melito, "Mems.," vol. i, ch. xv., quotes the
words of Joseph Bonaparte to him: "Let him [Napoleon] once more drench
Europe with blood in a war that he could have avoided, and which, but
for the outrageous mission on which he sent his Sebastiani, would
never have occurred."

Talleyrand laboured hard to persuade Lord Whitworth that Sebastiani's
mission was "solely commercial": Napoleon, in his long conversation
with our ambassador, "did not affect to attribute it to commercial
motives only," but represented it as necessitated by our infraction of
the Treaty of Amiens. This excuse is as insincere as the former. The
instructions to Sebastiani were drawn up on September 5th, 1802, when
the British Ministry was about to fulfil the terms of the treaty
relative to Malta and was vainly pressing Russia and Prussia for the
guarantee of its independence]

[Footnote 245: Despatch of February 21st.]

[Footnote 246: "View of the State of the Republic," read to the Corps
Legislatif on February 21st, 1803.]

[Footnote 247: Papers presented to Parliament May 18th, 1803. See too
Pitt's speech, May 23rd, 1803.]

[Footnote 248: See Russell's proclamation of July 22nd to the men of
Antrim that "he doubted not but the French were then fighting in
Scotland." ("Ann. Reg.," 1803, p. 246.) This document is ignored by
Plowden ("Hist. of Ireland, 1801-1810").]

[Footnote249: Despatch of March 14th, 1803. Compare it with the very
mild version in Napoleon's "Corresp.," No. 6636.]

[Footnote 250: Lord Hawkesbury to General Andreossy, March 10th.]

[Footnote 251: Lord Hawkesbury to Lord Whitworth, April 4th, 1803.]

[Footnote 252: Despatches of April 11th and 18th, 1803.]

[Footnote 253: Whitworth to Hawkesbury, April 23rd.]

[Footnote 254: Czartoryski ("Mems.," vol. i., ch. xiii.) calls him "an
excellent admiral but an indifferent diplomatist--a perfect
representative of the nullity and incapacity of the Addington Ministry
which had appointed him.