re on England. On
April 28th, 1802, our envoy at Paris, Mr. Merry, reported as follows:

"Either the Russian Government itself, or Count Markoff alone
personally, is so completely out of humour with us for not having
acted in strict concert with them, or him, or in conformity to
their ideas in negotiating the definitive treaty [of Amiens], that
I find he takes pains to turn it into ridicule, and particularly to
represent the arrangement we have made for Malta as impracticable
and consequently as completely null."

The despatches of our ambassador at St. Petersburg, Lord St. Helens,
and of his successor, Admiral Warren, are of the same tenor. They
report the Czar's annoyance with England over the Maltese affair, and
his refusal to listen even to the joint Anglo-French request,
of November 18th, 1802, for his guarantee of the Amiens
arrangements.[233] A week later Alexander announced that he would
guarantee the independence of Malta, provided that the complete
sovereignty of the Knights of St. John was recognized--that is,
without any participation of the native Maltese in the affairs of that
Order--and that the island should be garrisoned by Neapolitan troops,
paid by France and England, until the Knights should be able to
maintain their independence. This reopening of the question discussed,
_ad nauseam_, at Amiens proved that the Maltese Question would long
continue to perplex the world. The matter was still further
complicated by the abolition of the Priories, Commanderies, and
property of the Order of St. John by the French Government in the
spring of 1802--an example which was imitated by the Court of Madrid
in the following autumn; and as the property of the Knights in the
French part of Italy had also lapsed, it was difficult to see how the
scattered and impoverished Knights could form a stable government,
especially if the native Maltese were not to be admitted to a share in
public affairs. This action of France, Spain, and Russia fully
warranted the British Government in not admitting into the fortress
the 2,000 Neapolitan troops that arrived in the autumn of 1802. Our
evacuation of Malta was conditioned by several stipulations, five of
which had not been fulfilled.[234] But the difficulties arising out of
the reconstruction of this moribund Order were as nothing when
compared with those resulting from the reopening of a far vaster and
more complex question--the "eternal" Eas