Of the allies of Austria, meanwhile, one had virtually abandoned her.  The Emperor Paul, of Russia, resenting the style in which his army under Suwarrow had been supported, withdrew it altogether from the field of its victories; and that hare-brained autocrat, happening to take up an enthusiastic personal admiration for Buonaparte, was not likely for the present to be brought back into the Antigallican league.  England appeared steadfast to the cause; but it remained to be proved whether the failure of her expedition to Holland under the Duke of York, or the signal success of her naval arms in the Mediterranean under Lord Nelson, had had the greater influence on the feelings of the government of St. James’s.  In the former case Napoleon might expect to find his advances towards a negotiation, in his new character of Chief Consul, received with better disposition than his predecessors of the Directory had extended to the last overtures of the English cabinet tendered by Lord Malmesbury.  He resolved to have the credit of making the experiment at least, ere the campaign with the Austrians should open; and, discarding, as he had on a former occasion,[33] the usual etiquettes of diplomatic intercourse, addressed a letter to King George III., in person, almost immediately after the new consulate was established in the Tuileries, in these terms (Dec. 25, 1799).

“French Republic—­Sovereignty of the People—­
Liberty and Equality.
“Buonaparte, First Consul of the Republic,
to his Majesty the King of Great
Britain and Ireland.

“Called by the wishes of the French nation to occupy the first magistracy of the Republic, I have thought proper, in commencing the discharge of its duties, to communicate the event directly to your Majesty.

“Must the war, which for eight years has ravaged the four quarters of the world, be eternal?  Is there no room for accommodation?  How can the two most enlightened nations of Europe, stronger and more powerful than is necessary for their safety and independence, sacrifice commercial advantages, internal prosperity, and domestic happiness, to vain ideas of grandeur?  Whence comes it that they do not feel peace to be the first of wants as well as of glories?  These sentiments cannot be new to the heart of your Majesty, who rule over a free nation with no other view than to render it happy.  Your Majesty will see in this overture only my sincere desire to contribute effectually, for the second time, to a general pacification—­by a prompt step taken in confidence, and freed from those forms, which, however necessary to disguise the apprehensions of feeble states, only serve to discover in the powerful a mutual wish to deceive.

“France and England, abusing their strength, may long defer the period of its utter exhaustion; but I will venture to say, that the fate of all civilised nations is concerned in the termination of a war, the flames of which are raging throughout the whole world.  I have the honour to be, &c. &c.

     “BUONAPARTE.”