They parted with cold civility, and negotiations were resumed in the usual manner: but England stood firm in the refusal to give up Malta--at least for ten years to come.

The aggressions of Napoleon had wholly changed the arrangement of territory and power contemplated when the treaty of Amiens was drawn up; what security could there be for the retention of Malta by Naples, or any such minor power, if Buonaparte wished to have it?
To surrender it would in fact be to yield an impregnable harbour and citadel in the heart of the Levant, to a government which had gone on trampling down the independence of state after state in the west.
Meanwhile the English government openly announced, in Parliament, that the position of affairs seemed to be full of alarm--that the French were manning fleets and recruiting their armies, and that it was necessary to have recourse to similar measures; and, accordingly, a considerable addition to the military establishment was agreed to.
Thus stood matters on the 13th of March, when Lord Whitworth made his appearance at the levee of the Chief Consul, in company with all the rest of the diplomatic body.

Napoleon no sooner entered, than, fixing his eye on the English Ambassador, he exclaimed aloud and fiercely, in presence of the circle, "You are then determined on war!" Lord Whitworth denied the charge, but the Consul drowned his voice, and pursued thus:--"We have been at war for fifteen years--you are resolved to have fifteen years more of it--you force me to it." He then turned to the other ministers, and said, in the same violent tone: "The English wish for war; but if they draw the sword first, I will be the last to sheath it again.

They do not respect treaties--henceforth we must cover them with black crape." Then, turning again to Whitworth, "To what purpose," he cried, "are these armaments?
If you arm, I will arm too; if you fight, I can fight also.

You may destroy France, but you cannot intimidate her." "We desire neither to injure nor to alarm her, but to live on terms of good intelligence," said Lord Whitworth.