It would have been a great advantage to obtain the concurrence in our views of so powerful a State as England, and to strive with her for the same objects; but for this it was necessary, not only to make sure of her present inclinations, but to weigh well the possibilities of the future after the death of George III.

and the fall of the Pitt Ministry.

We had to make England understand that the wish to fight Napoleon was not in itself sufficient to establish an indissoluble bond between her Government and that of St.Petersburg...." In "F.O.," Russia, No.

55, is a despatch of our ambassador at St.
Petersburg, Admiral Warren, of June 30, 1804, in which he reports Czartoryski's concern at rumours of negotiations between England and France: "The prince [Czartoryski] remarked that he could not suppose, after what had passed between the two Courts, and the manner in which the Emperor [Alexander] had explained himself to England, and after the measures which Russia had since proposed, that Great Britain would make a peace at once by herself." Of these earlier negotiations I have found no trace; but obviously the first proposals for an alliance must have come from Russia.
Sweden was the first to propose a monarchical league against Napoleon.

(See my article in the "Revue Napoleonienne" for June, 1902.) * * * * *.