Created 27th October 2003
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Source: Paget, Right Hon. Sir Augustus B. Paget, G.C.B. The Paget Papers, Diplomatic and other Correspondence of the Right Hon Sir A. Paget. G.C.B., 1794-1807, 2 Vols. Longmans, Green and Co. New York 1896. Vol 2. Pages 58-60.
From Lord St. Helens to the Hon. A. Paget.
St. Petersburg, 1st August 1802.
My Dear Sir, —I received the Night before last, from M. de Sauran, your
very interesting packet of the 20th July, and had the satisfaction to observe
that (pour le coup) its 3 Seals had been religiously respected.
I contemplate not only with admiration but with some degree of envy the very
able and successful manner in which you have conducted your Negotiation relative
to Malta, and particularly that part of it which depended upon Citizen
Champagny.* For tho' his running restive just at the last and after you had
coaxed him on so cleverly almost to the end of the race was, to be sure,
somewhat provoking, I am at a loss to conceive by what species of rhetorick
you persuaded him to proceed so far, since, according to the strict line
of his duty, he certainly ought not to have taken a single official step
in the business, without a more direct warranty than that of Talleyrand's
Correspondence with our friend Merry. With regard to the Austrian Ministers,
nothing can be more truly handsome or praise-worthy than the attention that
they have shown upon this occasion to the wishes of H.M.'s Government, which
indeed have been so completely fulfilled by the Instrument that you have
sent home that, in as far as they are concerned, the business may be considered
as finally adjusted, and in the most satisfactory manner possible.
I am sorry to inform you, however, that nothing can be more completely the
reverse of all this than the conduct of the Court of St. Petersburgh ; which,
after keeping us in suspense during almost six weeks from the arrival of
our last explanations, has at length thought fit to declare in the most
peremptory terms,† that the Emperor will neither accede to, nor garanty,
nor, in a word, take any part or concern whatsoever in our late arrangement
with respect to Malta. And the only ostensible reason assigned for this strange
determination, is H.I.M.'s being bound in honor, and by his regard for
consistency, to adhere to his former resolution on this subject, notwithstanding
our having entirely removed the sole, or at least most material plea on which
that resolution had been founded, by H.M.'s unqualified offer to adhere
implicitly to the Scheme that had been proposed from hence for the Election
of the new Grand Master of Malta. As the French Minister here Genl d'Hedouville,
who has not yet received a single line of Instructions on this business from
the Chief Consul, was by no means disposed to act on it, like Citizen Champagny,
without a positive authorization ; and as my own Instructions, as well as
the nature of the affair, rendered it indispensably necessary that he should
join with me both in the applying to the Government for their accession and
garanty, and in the communicating to them the above mentioned concerted
explanations ; my office in those subjects, tho' long since prepared, has
not yet been given in, and consequently the Communication which I have now
received, and which is merely verbal, ought not perhaps in strictness to
be considered as definitive. How- ever, I am but too well assured that the
said joint Official Invitation, should it ever be presented (which I much
doubt) will produce no change in the dispositions of this Court, and accordingly
my report of what has passed, which I am just going to send to Lord Hawkesbury
loy Messenger, is conceived in such terms as must necessarily convince him
of the hopelessness of any further applications here, and of the consequent
expediency of his concerting such new arrangements with France, as this change
in the state of things may be found to require. . .
I am well assured (strange
as it may seem) that the Emperor, whose resolution in this affair was taken
in direct opposition to the advice of his wisest Counsellors ‡ was
influenced by a single and most unworthy consideration namely the prospect
of saving to his treasury a sum of about 40,000 £ Stg which it costs
him annually to maintain the branch of the Order established here, and which
he hopes to retrench one day or other by detaching himself gradually from
all connection with the Establishment at large. This however I mention
to you only in confidence, as an insinuation of this sort would be the more
felt by the Russian Ministers, as they cannot but be conscious that this
proneness to over-economy is a prime feature in their Master's Character
and the leading spring of almost all his actions.
* French Ambassador in Vienna.
† On this very day, August 1.
‡ This was immediately before a change of Counsellors.
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