e war, the security of Great Britain, had been attained. True, the
restoration of the French monarchy would have furnished a better
safeguard for peace; but we had never insisted on it as essential,
though it might have been assured if the Allies had fulfilled their
duties. As to the future, if the First Consul aimed at founding a
military despotism, he probably would not select England as the first
object of his attack; and we had every prospect of enjoying a long
peace. Remembering, perhaps, that he made the same prophecy early in
1792, he uttered this warning: "I am inclined to hope everything that is
good; but I am bound to act as if I feared otherwise." In none of his
speeches did Pitt display less foresight. The preference of Trinidad to
Malta and of Ceylon to the Cape is curious enough; but the prophecy as
to a long period of peace and the probable immunity of England from
Bonaparte's attack argues singular blindness to the colonial trend of
French policy since the year 1798. Despite acrid comments by Fox and
Windham, the speech carried the day and firmly established Addington in
power.

The sequel is well known. In the interval of six months, during which
the aged and gouty Cornwallis sought to reduce the Preliminaries of
London to the Treaty of Amiens (27th March 1802), Bonaparte remodelled
the Batavian, Ligurian, and Cisalpine Republics in a way wholly at
variance with the Treaty of Luneville. Against these breaches of faith
the Addington Cabinet made no protest; and the treaty in its final form
provided a complex and unsatisfactory compromise on the Maltese
question.[628] Canning and Windham strove to elicit from Pitt a public
expression of his disapproval of the treaty; but their efforts were in
vain. On 20th April 1802 Canning, while at his country seat, South Hill,
Bracknell (Berks), wrote thus to Windham:[629]

... Do not suppose that this is because I have the slightest
doubt as to the impression which may be made by pointing out the
gross faults and omissions, the weakness, and baseness, and
shuffling, and stupidity, that mark this Treaty even beyond the
Preliminaries that led to it. But I think people do not want to
be convinced of this; that they will not take it kindly, but
rather otherwise, to have it forced upon their observation;
that, if parted to a division, they will vote for the Treaty
with all its imperfections upon its head.... Now as to Pitt
himself