Description

In 1801 Britain and Bonaparte made an armistice, which became the Treaty of Amiens in March 1802. The brief period of peace which followed saw a major change in British attitudes, so that when war began again in May 1803 there was little or no dissent on the British side from the view that the war had to be fought to a finish - until Bonaparte's power was destroyed. This was partly the result of the deceptive and deceitful methods Bonaparte used in the negotiations. It was also due to the conclusions reached by the many British visitors to France during the interval of peace that Bonaparte was extremely dangerous, to anger at Bonaparte's stealthy political advances in Europe and America, and to the outrage at the detention and imprisonment of British civilian visitors who were in France when the war began again. This is the first detailed examination of all these matters, based on the original materials produced by the participants, politicians and civilian visitors. The attitude of the British government headed by Henry Addington, and in particular the diplomatic methods of the Foreign Secretary Lord Hawkesbury (later the Prime Minister Lord Liverpool) were decisive in countering Bonaparte's methods. Here they receive their due.