A _plebiscite_ showed 52,000 votes against, and 16,000 for, the new _regime_; but, as 350,000 had not voted, their silence was taken for consent, and Bonaparte's will became law (September, 1801).
We are now in a position to appreciate the position of France and Great Britain.

Before the signature of the preliminaries of peace at London on October 1st, 1801, our Government had given up its claims to the Cape, Malta, Tobago, Martinique, Essequibo, Demerara, Berbice, and Curacoa, retaining of its conquests only Trinidad and Ceylon.
A belated attempt had, indeed, been made to retain Tobago.

The Premier and the Foreign Secretary, Lord Hawkesbury, were led by the French political agent in London, M.Otto, to believe that, in the ensuing negotiations at Amiens, every facility would be given by the French Government towards its retrocession to us, and that this act would be regarded as the means of indemnifying Great Britain for the heavy expense of supporting many thousands of French and Dutch prisoners.
The Cabinet, relying on this promise as binding between honourable men, thereupon endeavoured to obtain the assent of George III.

to the preliminaries in their ultimate form, and only the prospect of regaining Tobago by this compromise induced the King to give it.

When it was too late, King and Ministers realized their mistake in relying on verbal promises and in failing to procure a written statement.[182] The abandonment by Ministers of their former claim to Malta is equally strange.