ABSTRACT
The Speech from the Throne of October 29, 1795 had hinted at a readiness to negotiate with a French Government prepared for an “order of things, compatible with the tranquillity of other countries, and affording a reasonable prospect of security and permanence in any treaty which might be concluded”. There was great popular war-weariness in France where it may well have been more intense than in Britain. But whereas political conditions in Britain allowed the Opposition and a large part of the “public” to call for instant peace with impunity, the vocal elements in France, most feared by the Directors, were Jacobins, hopefully waiting to exploit for their own purposes any Directorial retreats before the demands of the “coalised tyrants”. English good faith was questioned; negotiation in Congress was decried as “endless”; and all discussion of French annexations was ruled out in advance.
