olution of the Maltese question. The First Consul also admitted to
Cornwallis that the King of Naples, despite his ancient claims of
suzerainty over Malta, could not be considered a satisfactory
guarantor, as between two Great Powers; and he then proposed that the
tangle should be cut by blowing up the fortifications of Valetta.

The mere suggestion of such an act affords eloquent proof of the
difficulties besetting the whole question. To destroy works of vast
extent, which were the bulwark of Christendom against the Barbary
pirates, would practically have involved the handing over of Valetta
to those pests of the Mediterranean; and from Malta as a new base of
operations they could have spread devastation along the coasts of
Sicily and Italy. This was the objection which Cornwallis at once
offered to an other-wise specious proposal: he had recently received
papers from Major-General Pigot at Malta, in which the same solution
of the question was examined in detail. The British officer pointed
out that the complete dismantling of the fortifications would expose
the island, and therefore the coasts of Italy, to the rovers; yet he
suggested a partial demolition, which seems to prove that the British
officers in command at Malta did not contemplate the retention of the
island and the infraction of the peace.

Our Government, however, disapproved of the destruction of the
fortifications of Valetta as wounding the susceptibilities of the
Czar, and as in no wise rendering impossible the seizure of the island
and the reconstruction of those works by some future invader. In fact,
as the British Ministry now aimed above all at maintaining good
relations with the Czar, Bonaparte's proposal could only be regarded
as an ingenious device for sundering the Anglo-Russian understanding.
The French Minister at St. Petersburg was doing his utmost to prevent
the _rapprochement_ of the Czar to the Court of St James, and was
striving to revive the moribund league of the Armed Neutrals. That
last offer had "been rejected in the most peremptory manner and in
terms almost bordering upon derision." Still there was reason to
believe that the former Anglo-Russian disputes about Malta might be so
far renewed as to bring Bonaparte and Alexander to an understanding.
The sentimental Liberalism of the young Czar predisposed him towards a
French alliance, and his whole disposition inclined him towards the
brilliant opportunism of Paris rather than the f