ar, in which he might perhaps be considered the
aggressor, and by which he should lose more than he could gain,
since sooner or later Egypt would belong to France, either by the
falling to pieces of the Turkish Empire, or by some arrangement
with the Porte.... Finally," he asked, "why should not the mistress
of the seas and the mistress of the land come to an arrangement and
govern the world?"

A subtler diplomatist than Whitworth would probably have taken the
hint for a Franco-British partition of the world: but the Englishman,
unable at that moment to utter a word amidst the torrent of argument
and invective, used the first opportunity merely to assure Napoleon of
the alarm caused in England by Sebastiani's utterance concerning
Egypt. This touched the First Consul at the wrong point, and he
insisted that on the evacuation of Malta the question of peace or war
must depend. In vain did the English ambassador refer to the extension
of French power on the Continent. Napoleon cut him short: "I suppose
you mean Piedmont and Switzerland: ce sont des----: vous n'avez pas le
droit d'en parler a cette heure." Seeing that he was losing his
temper, Lord Whitworth then diverted the conversation.[245]

This long tirade shows clearly what were the aims of the First Consul.
He desired peace until his eastern plans were fully matured. And what
ruler would not desire to maintain a peace so fruitful in
conquests--that perpetuated French influence in Italy, Switzerland,
and Holland, that enabled France to prepare for the dissolution of the
Turkish Empire and to intrigue with the Mahrattas? Those were the
conditions on which England could enjoy peace: she must recognize the
arbitrament of France in the affairs of all neighbouring States, she
must make no claim for compensation in the Mediterranean, and she must
endure to be officially informed that she alone could not maintain a
struggle against France.[246]

But George III. was not minded to sink to the level of a Charles II.
Whatever were the failings of our "farmer king," he was keenly alive
to national honour and interests. These had been deeply wounded, even
in the United Kingdom itself. Napoleon had been active in sending
"commercial commissioners" into our land. Many of them were proved to
be soldiers: and the secret instructions sent by Talleyrand to one of
them at Dublin, which chanced to fall into the hands of our
Government, showed that they wer