Then again, the French were almost certainly helping Irish conspirators.  One of these, Emmett, already suspected of complicity in the Despard conspiracy which aimed at the King’s life, had, after its failure, sought shelter in France.  At the close of 1802 he returned to his native land and began to store arms in a house near Rathfarnham.  It is doubtful whether the authorities were aware of his plans, or, as is more probable, let the plot come to a head.  The outbreak did not take place till the following July (after the renewal of war), when Emmett and some of his accomplices, along with Russell, who stirred up sedition in Ulster, paid for their folly with their lives.  They disavowed any connection with France, but they must have based their hope of success on a promised French invasion of our coasts.[248]

The dealings of the French commercial commissioners and the beginnings of the Emmett plot increased the tension caused by Napoleon’s masterful foreign policy; and the result was seen in the King’s message to Parliament on March 8th, 1803.  In view of the military preparations and of the wanton defiance of the First Consul’s recent message to the Corps Legislatif, Ministers asked for the embodiment of the militia and the addition of 10,000 seamen to the navy.  After Napoleon’s declaration to our ambassador that France was bringing her forces on active service up to 480,000 men, the above-named increase of the British forces might well seem a reasonable measure of defence.  Yet it so aroused the spleen of the First Consul that, at a public reception of ambassadors on March 13th, he thus accosted Lord Whitworth: 

“‘So you are determined to go to war.’  ‘No, First Consul,’ I replied, ‘we are too sensible of the advantage of peace.’  ’Why, then, these armaments?  Against whom these measures of precaution?  I have not a single ship of the line in the French ports, but if you wish to arm I will arm also:  if you wish to fight, I will fight also.  You may perhaps kill France, but will never intimidate her.’  ‘We wish,’ said I, ’neither the one nor the other.  We wish to live on good terms with her.’  ‘You must respect treaties then,’ replied he; ’woe to those who do not respect treaties.  They shall answer for it to all Europe.’  He was too agitated to make it advisable to prolong the conversation:  I therefore made no answer, and he retired to his apartment, repeating the last phrase."[249]

This curious scene shows Napoleon in one of his weaker petulant moods:  it left on the embarrassed spectators no impression of outraged dignity, but rather of the over-weening self-assertion of an autocrat who could push on hostile preparations, and yet flout the ambassador of the Power that took reasonable precautions in return.  The slight offered to our ambassador, though hotly resented in Britain, had no direct effect on the negotiations, as the First Consul soon took the opportunity of tacitly apologizing for the occurrence; but indirectly the