the proposal was in its tail. Alexander
suggested that, to secure the boon of peace, England should restore her
maritime conquests in the war, and also Malta if Napoleon insisted on
this last, the island being then garrisoned by Russians. In its blend of
hazy theorizings on general topics with astute egotism in Russian
affairs, the scheme is highly characteristic, peace being assured by
means which would substitute Muscovite for British rule at Malta; while
in the event of war, Great Britain was to pay at the rate of L6,250,000
a year for campaigns that would aggrandise the continental States at
the expense of France.[720]

What must have been the feelings of Pitt when he perused this Byzantine
offer? While prepared to give way on some parts of the January
proposals, he was determined to hold fast to Malta. The island had not
been named by him and Novossiltzoff, its present destiny being assumed
as irrevocably fixed. But now Alexander swung back to the aims of his
father, the domination of the Central Mediterranean from the impregnable
fortress of Valetta. Probably some of the Knights of the Order of St.
John who had sought refuge in Russia gained the ear of Alexander in the
spring of 1805, and produced the startling change in his policy just
described. Whatever the cause, Pitt's answer could be none other than a
firm refusal. In Count Simon Vorontzoff, Russian ambassador at London,
he found a secret sympathizer, who entered heartily into his plans for
the salvation of Europe, foreseeing that only by the retention of Malta
for the Union Jack could the Mediterranean be saved from becoming a
French lake; and that if either Gower or Pitt wavered on this question,
the country would disown them.[721] Official etiquette, of course,
compelled him to proffer Alexander's demand, and to declare that, unless
Pitt gave way about Malta, there was an end of all hope of the alliance.
Here Pitt intervened with the statesmanlike remark: "It will not save
Europe. The Mediterranean, the Levant and Egypt, will be in the power of
France the moment a British squadron ceases to have for base a good port
protected by formidable fortifications.... So, whatever pain it causes
us (and it is indeed great) we must give up the hope of seeing the
alliance ratified, since its express condition is our renunciation of
Malta. We will continue the war alone. It will be maritime."

Thus Malta, the final cause of the Great War, now promised to limit that
w