cation of the Convention so often mentioned. You judged perfectly right in declaring to M. de Thugut, that the tenor of your positive and repeated Instructions will not admit of your considering as satisfactory on that head, any other step than that of the direct, unqualified, and unconditional Ratification of that Instrument, of which the Court of Vienna has long ago reaped the full benefit, and cannot, therefore, with any sense either of its own honour or His Majesty's dignity, hesitate to recognize, and fulfil the reciprocal engagement which it contains. Sir Morton Eden, K. B. GRENVILLE. No. 15.-Sir Morton Eden to Lord Grenville. (Extract.) Vienna, 24th November, 1798. I HAVE had no occasion to see the Austrian Minister for the last week. I have learnt, however, from good authority, that he means this day to send a messenger to St. Petersburgh, with Instructions to Count Cobentzel, the substance of which is to be, to represent to the Russian Government the totally exhausted state of the Emperor's Finances, as rendering it impossible for His Imperial Majesty to adopt any decisive measures without pecuniary assistance from England, to the amount of about £2,000,000 sterling, which His Imperial Majesty would prefer to receive in the form of a Loau, and to state His Majesty's Government as shutting up every prospect of a termination or diminution of these embarrassments, by its perseverance in the resolution as to the Ratification of the Convention. The Right Hon. Lord Grenville. MORTON EDEN. No. 16.-Sir Morton Eden to Lord Grenville. (Extract.) Vienna, 10th April, 1799. I AVAIL myself of the opportunity of a special Messenger, to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's Dispatches, which arrived yesterday. I immediately called upon the Austrian Minister, and took occasion to advert anew to the subject of the Convention, and used every argument that was calculated to promote confidence, and to evince the conciliatory disposition of His Majesty's Government: but with the same result as that of my other efforts on this unpleasant business. In short my Lord, I could remark nothing in M. Thugut's manner or his words which gave the smallest hopes of a satisfactory termination of the busiYet it is certain that the Finances are in a most distressed state, that the late financial operation, far from bringing money into the Country, is the cause of considerable sums being continually drawn out of it, and that the course of exchange with all parts of the world is constantly sinking. ness. The Right Hon. Lord Grenville. MORTON EDEN. No. 17.-Lord Grenville to Sir Morton Eden. (Extract.) Downing Street, 25th May, 1799. THE Convention of 1797 still remains unratified, and the proposal of His Majesty, consenting to receive that Ratification as a condition and a part of new pecuniary engagements, has already been too often rejected, and is too directly opposite to the invariable determination of His Majesty, so repeatedly notified at Vienna, to be listened to for an instant. I have therefore been directed to acquaint Count Starhemberg, that His Majesty adheres invariably to his resolution of entering into no fresh discussions for the renewal of a concert with the Court of Vienna, until the former engagements entered into by that Court towards His Majesty, shall be fulfilled by the Ratification of the Convention. His Majesty's demand of the Ratification of the Convention has always been treated at Vienna as necessarily subjecting the Emperor, in the present distressed state of his Finances, to an immediate and considerable expense; and Monsieur de Cobentzel has been so far led away by this idea, that in his Projet he has proposed, that in addition to the sum of £2,000,000 asked by his Court for the expenses of the campaign, a further sum of £1,600,000 should be raised by Loan, to enable the Emperor to repay the advances made to him to that amount, and which form the subject matter of the Convention which has been so often mentioned. This, however, proceeds on a total misapprehension of the subject. Monsieur de Cobentzel's Projet recites the Ratification of that Convention as having actually taken place. If that were the case, and the Convention was in fact ratified, no necessity would exist for raising any further Loan for the repayment of the advances: the very object of that Convention being no other than that of transferring from His Majesty to the Court of Vienna a Debt already contracted, and coufirming to the Individuals who advanced that money, the terms and conditions on which it was advanced. Instead, therefore, of raising a large additional sum to repay those advances, all that Austria would be required to do, after ratifying that Convention, would be to provide regularly for the annual payment of interest on that sum, and of the small Sinking Fund by which that debt is gradually to be paid off. So much misconception having evidently prevailed on this subject at Vienna, it would be very desirable that you should, if possible, prevail upon M. de Thugut to give sufficient attention to it, in order that, if the determination of his Court on this subject has, in any degree been influenced by that mistake, this impediment at least may be removed. Sir Morton Eden, K.B. GRENVILLE. (Extract.) No. 18.-Lord Grenville to Lord Minto. Downing Street, - June, 1799. You are apprized of the obstacle which has hitherto been opposed to all intimate concert and union with the Court of Vienna, by the refusal of that Government to ratify the Convention concluded here in 1797, by Count Starhemberg; and you will easily be sensible that every consideration, both of dignity and of policy, must prevent His Majesty's Government from entering into any compromise on this subject. Nothing but the unqualified Ratification of the Convention can supply, on this head, the proof which His Majesty has a right to require, of a disposition, on the part of the Court of Vienna, to fulfil its engagements with His Majesty. The Right Hon. Lord Minto. (Extract.) No. 19.-Lord Minto to Lord Grenville. GRENVILLE. Vienna, 10th December, 1799. It is with much satisfaction that I can, at length, acquaint your Lordship with the final settlement of the dispute which has subsisted almost 3 years, concerning the unratified Convention. I should have dispatched this messenger some days sooner, if I had not felt the extreme importance, in the present situation of affairs, of removing an obstacle which stood in the way, not only of general harmony and good understanding with this Court, but of those particular measures of consent and co-operation which may have become indispensably necessary for continuing the War, or bringing it to a successful termination. With this view, I have, ever since the departure of the last messenger, applied myself peculiarly and earnestly to that object, in the several Conferences which I have sought for that purpose with Baron Thugut. As nothing had been omitted, either by Lord Henley or myself, to obtain satisfaction before, the success of these last endeavours must, no doubt, be ascribed, in a great measure, to the particular circumstances of the present moment; and if I may claim any merit on the occasion, it is principally that of having used to the utmost the advantage which those circumstances afforded. It was not, however, till last night that I obtained the positive promise of an immediate Ratification. I have, in consequence of this promise, thought myself warranted, by the spirit of your Lordship's Instructions, to give Baron Thugut to understand, that, in consideration of the great exertions made by the Emperor in the War, and the embarrassed state of his Finances, His Majesty would consent to take upon himself the annual charges on the Loan iu question of £1,620,000 during the War; and I ventured to say, that if the war should unexpectedly terminate before the expiration of the third year from the date of the Loan, His Majesty would, nevertheless, bear the charges to the end of the 3 years. I flatter myself that I shall be enabled to transmit, by the earliest opportunity, the formal Ratification of the Convention; but your Lordship may consider the Ratification as positively engaged for, and it only remains for me to hope, that His Majesty will not think that I have made an undue use of any discretion with which he has been pleased to intrust me on this occasion, or that my earnest desire to terminate a dispute so prejudicial to his service, and likely to become fatal, in the present moment, to the general interests of Europe, has rendered me improperly negligent of His Majesty's dignity, or the honour of His Government, which I have not failed to support to the utmost, throughout the whole of this very irksome and vexatious debate. The Right Hon. Lord Grenville. MINTO. (Extract.) No. 20.-Lord Grenville to Lord Minto. Downing Street, 8th February, 1800. It was with great satisfacsion that His Majesty learnt the final compliance of the Austrian Government with His Majesty's just demand for the Ratification of the Convention which has been so long in question. His Majesty's present resolutions are transmitted to your Lordship, without waiting for the actual receipt of the Ratification. But you will of course understand them to apply only to the case, on the supposition of which they are founded; and if this expectation should again be disappointed, the remainder of this Dispatch is not to be acted upon. Subject to this restriction, your Lordship is at liberty to acquaint M. de Thugut that His Majesty consents, as a part of the plan of cooperation and concert to be now established between the two Courts, to take upon himself the annual charges of the Loan of £1,620,000 during the War, or up to the end of the third year from the date of the Loan, if Peace should before that time be concluded by common consent. The assurances given to your Lordship, as to the disposition of the Court of Vienna to prosecute the War with vigour, in conjunction with His Majesty, are highly agreeable to His Majesty, and he is entirely disposed to enter into the concert proposed without retrospect, and with no other disposition than that of contributing by every means in his power to the success of the common cause. The Right Hon. Lord Minto. MY LORD, No. 21.-Lord Grenville to Lord Minto. GRENVILLE. Downing Street, 14th February, 1800. I HAVE just been informed by Count Starhemberg, that he has received the Ratification of the Convention, and that he is ready to exchange it against that of His Majesty. The Right Hon. Lord Minto. I am, &c. No. 22.-Certificate of the Exchange of the Ratifications of the Convention between His Britannic Majesty and the Emperor of Germany-Signed at Westminster, 16th May 1797. Londres, ce 21 Février, 1800. Nous, Comte de Starhemberg, Ministre Plénipotentiaire de Sa Majesté Impériale Royale et Apostolique, certifions, que le 21 Février, l'an 1800, le Lord Grenville, Secrétaire d'Etat de Sa Majesté Britannique, nous délivra une Convention, faite à Londres l'an 1797, en échange de la même Convention, ratifiée par Sa Majesté Impériale Royale et Apostolique, livrée par nous au dit Lord Grenville. En foi de quoi nous avons signé le présent, et y avons apposé le Scellé de nos Armes. (Extract.) (L.S.) LOUIS COMTE DE STARHEMBERG. No. 23.-Lord Minto to Lord Grenville. Vienna, 10th April, 1800. BARON THUGUT states the supply of £2,000,000 during this year, as indispensably necessary for the Emperor's affairs. I do believe, that his difficulties are very great, and the more so as Italy is failing, and will fall far short of former expectations, as a resource either for money or men. He says, that when the sum of £ 1,600,000 was first specified by him, he had reason to expect other great pecuniary supplies; and he alludes to the desolated state of Italy, as increasing, to an alarming degree, not only the expense, but the difficulties attending magazines and supplies. He assures me, the Army has cost the Emperor £9,000,000 sterling a year, and that the aid of £2,000,000 at this period of the war, is a more moderate demand than the circumstances could have led him to expect. This point is relied on so strongly, that it is my duty to state it to your Lordship now, as that on which the conclusion of our Alliance may depend. The Right Hon. Lord Grenville. (Extract.) No. 24.-Lord Minto to Lord Grenville. MINTO. Vienna, 1st May, 1800. THE object of my late Conferences with Baron Thugut, has been to arrive at such an understanding, on the various points in discussion, as might enable me to transmit to your Lordship the Projet of a Treaty, to which the Emperor will now engage to subscribe, as soon as His Majesty shall have signified his assent to it. By this means, if His Majesty should be pleased to approve of the conditions now specified by this Court, the signature of the Treaty need wait only for the answer to this Dispatch. I flatter myself that this object is now attained, and, although the Draft of the Projet will still require some days, that the conditions are brought to sufficient precision to admit of my stating them distinctly in this Dispatch, with an assurance on the part of the Austrian Minister, and in the name of the Emperor, that if His Majesty shall approve of a Treaty on this basis, His Imperial Majesty will immediately authorize the signature on his part. It is stated on the part of the Emperor, that the exertions he has made, and is making, and the present situation of his finances re |