of St.
James's. In the former case Napoleon might expect to find his advances
towards a negotiation, in his new character of Chief Consul, received
with better disposition than his predecessors of the Directory had
extended to the last overtures of the English cabinet tendered by Lord
Malmesbury. He resolved to have the credit of making the experiment at
least, ere the campaign with the Austrians should open; and, discarding,
as he had on a former occasion,[33] the usual etiquettes of diplomatic
intercourse, addressed a letter to King George III., in person, almost
immediately after the new consulate was established in the Tuileries, in
these terms (Dec. 25, 1799).

"_French Republic--Sovereignty of the People--
Liberty and Equality._
"_Buonaparte, First Consul of the Republic,
to his Majesty the King of Great
Britain and Ireland._

"Called by the wishes of the French nation to occupy the first
magistracy of the Republic, I have thought proper, in commencing
the discharge of its duties, to communicate the event directly to
your Majesty.

"Must the war, which for eight years has ravaged the four quarters
of the world, be eternal? Is there no room for accommodation? How
can the two most enlightened nations of Europe, stronger and more
powerful than is necessary for their safety and independence,
sacrifice commercial advantages, internal prosperity, and domestic
happiness, to vain ideas of grandeur? Whence comes it that they do
not feel peace to be the first of wants as well as of glories?
These sentiments cannot be new to the heart of your Majesty, who
rule over a free nation with no other view than to render it happy.
Your Majesty will see in this overture only my sincere desire to
contribute effectually, for the second time, to a general
pacification--by a prompt step taken in confidence, and freed from
those forms, which, however necessary to disguise the
apprehensions of feeble states, only serve to discover in the
powerful a mutual wish to deceive.

"France and England, abusing their strength, may long defer the
period of its utter exhaustion; but I will venture to say, that the
fate of all civilised nations is concerned in the termination of a
war, the flames of whi