her treaty obligations, France might be forced to reconquer Egypt. This,
an attempt by Napoleon to apply pressure on the recalcitrant English,
was a bad mistake, for it allowed London to portray the First Consul as a
sabre-rattler. By early r8o3 it was abundantly clear to any dispassionate
observer that Britain intended to go to war again. In the speech from the
throne in March r8o3 George III declared the nation to be on a war
footing and falsely claimed that French invasion forces were fitting out in
French and Dutch ports; even Whitworth was forced to concede that this
was nonsense.
On 13 March, at a diplomatic reception at the Tuileries, Napoleon
finally lost patience. He began to rant and rave at Whitworth about
George III's speech from the throne and said it was now quite clear that
England wanted another decade of war. He then turned to the
ambassadors of Russia and Spain and said at the top of his voice:
'England wants war, but if they're the first to draw the sword, I'll be the
last to sheathe it. They don't respect treaties.' He then stormed angrily
from the room. He was playing the British game for them. In March
Grenville told his henchman the Marquess of Buckingham (the same who
had dubbed Bonaparte 'His Most Corsican Majesty') that Napoleon
would have to go to war to avoid an unacceptable loss of face. The cynical
Grenville then instructed Whitworth that when the next round of
negotiations with Talleyrand and Joseph opened on 3 April, he should try
to bribe them to see that London's wishes were fulfilled.
Two days after his explosion with Whitworth Napoleon addressed the
Council of State and explained that Britain was determined to humiliate
France: if they backed down over the continued occupation of Malta, the
next thing would be a demand from the British for the port of Dunkirk,
and after that always some fresh demand. The Council gave him their
support. As a sop to England Napoleon proposed that once they
evacuated Malta, they be allowed a Mediterranean base on Crete or
Corfu. Under instructions from London, Whitworth then raised the
stakes and replied that Malta must be handed over to England for ten
years, and France must pull out of Switzerland and Holland. He freely
conceded to Talleyrand that this was an ultimatum but cynically refused
to put his outrageous demands on paper. Even Talleyrand, who thought
that a renewed war with England was a bad mistake, described the
proposal as the first verbal ultimatum in the history of modern
diplomacy.
When Napoleon predictably rejected this demand, Whitworth asked
for his passport. Still trying to head off a conflict he did not want at this
time, Napoleon made a final offer: England could stay in Malta for three
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