The Paget Papers.
Letter from the Hon. Arthur Paget (Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Austria) to Lord St Helens.
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 74 -76.
From the Hon. A. Paget to Lord Hawkesbury.
Vienna, 19 April 1803.
My
Lord,-I mentioned in my last that the French Ambassador had informed His
Imperial Majesty's Minister that his Government might perhaps find it necessary
to call upon the Court of Vienna as one of the Guarantees of the order of
Malta to interfere in the affairs pending between England & France, but
that this intimation was to be considered as private & unofficial. I
have since learnt from the Vice Chancellor that Mr. Champagny has desired
to be informed of the Sense which this Court attaches to the Act of Accession
to the 10th Art. of the Treaty of Amiens,* & that to this application
He had replied that it was the Emperor's Intention to observe a strict
Neutrality, that whenever any distinet proposition might be made to His I.
My arising out of the accession He had given that He should be ready to answer
to it. The act in question it was observed was in itself imperfect inasmuch
as the acceptance of it had not been ratified by Gt Britain, & it was
further remarked that the accession of other Great Powers to the first Article
was still wanting.
Such
is the statement which has been made to me by Ct Cobentzl of what has passed
between himself & the French Ambassador.
The
Declaration that "it was the Emperor's intention to observe a strict neutrality"
seemed to me so wholly superfluous and unasked for by anything which had
been stated to have been said by the French Ambassador, that I could not
avoid observing to Ct Cobentzl that it had probably been made in answer to
some other distinct & important overture which I had got to learn. From
the explanation however he gave, as well as from the information I have received
from other quarters, I am led to believe that what I have above related is
the substance of what has hitherto been treated between them, that the result
is not less ambiguous & inconclusive, & that the declaration in question
was in fact a spontaneous & unguarded effusion of the Vice Chancellor's
private sentiments.
Tho'
I have always been in the habit of seeing Ct Cobentzl very constantly, the
importance of the moment has naturally led me of late to visit him more
frequently than usual, and it is lest your Lordship should suppose that the
above expression (of which I have already said so much) might have been thrown
out in reply to any observations I might at an time have made I think it
my duty to state explicitly that I have been particularly cautious in never
having allowed an expression to escape me which could by any means be construed
into a wish of what is vulgarly denominated "drawing this Country into a
War." Independent of higher considerations of duty, I have been silent upon
principle. I wish not to tire yr Lp's patience by going into any length of
reasoning upon this Subject. I will merely lay down one opinion, which is
"that no overtures will be favourably listened to by this Government until
they feel themselves exposed to some pressing danger, and that whenever that
moment arrives, the overtures will come from hence."
I
hear from a variety of quarters that the Archduke Charles† has lately
held a very firm & honorable language in speaking of the important events
of the moment, & I have no objection, as a testimony in favor of that
officer, to acquaint yr Lp that General Meerfeldt is one of the Channels
thro' which the information has reached me.
The
Emperor has at length been induced to give His Ratification to the Plan of
Indemnities, that is, to those points which were concluded at the epoch of
the Convention signed at Paris last Decr;‡ the rest will remain a matter
for future deliberation. . . .
In
addition to the contents of Mr. Stratton's dispatches, I feel it incumbent
upon me to inform yr Lp that it has come to me from very good authority that
the French Ambassador at the Porte is very assiduously seconded in all his
negociations by the Prussian Minister, in testimony of which the K. of Prussia
has received the thanks of the French Government.-I have, &c.
(Signed) Arthur Paget.
* Signed in Vienna August 1802. Cf. pp. 55, 57, 58, 60.
† By his reformation of the army from 1802 to 1804, when he was war
Minister, the Archduke prepared the way for a vigorous defence, but he steadily
opposed offensive war or the provocation of war.
‡ Count Cobentzl, after a violent altercation with Talleyrand, yielded
to the threats of the French Minister in signing the Convention.
