THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. PART III. EXECUTION OF THE TREATY OF CESSION. --EVENTS ARISING FROM THE CESSION. HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. PART THE THIRD. EXECUTION OF THE TREATY OF CESSION. -EVENTS ARISING FROM THE CESSION. THE foresight of the first consul and his anxiety respecting the part which England would adopt under the then existing circumstances were fully justified. The English ministers, when informed of the object of Mr. Monroe's mission, conceived that there was no longer time to undertake the conquest of Louisiana, unless it was attempted with the concurrence of the United States. They made a proposition to that effect to Mr. Rufus King, the American envoy at London, giving him to understand that the province would be retroceded to his government at the peace. A few days after the signature of the treaty, the two American plenipotentiaries at Paris were made acquainted with this overture by Mr. King. It was easy for them to conjecture at what sacrifices the United States would have had to purchase the profferred retrocession, even if England, once in possession, had consented to carry it into effect: they were, therefore, far from regretting that they were no longer in a situation to accept the British proposal. On another account, it was important that the British government should know the result of the negotiation, and it was accordingly communicated to it without delay. The war with France having commenced, the English were interested in preserving a good understanding with the United States. The proposition to take possession of Louisiana being set aside, Mr. King received from Lord Hawkesbury a satisfactory answer respecting the cession. He transmitted it without delay to his government. But, in the uncertainty in which Bonaparte still was on this subject, he adopted the course of having the ratifications exchanged at Washington instead of Paris. He wished above all, by thus gaining time on England, to hasten the transmission of the money that had been stipulated to be paid. The treaties, forwarded to Washington with as much despatch as possible, arrived there on the 14th of July, 1803. The original documents intended for Louisiana were sent with them. M. Pichon, the chargé d'affaires of France, had orders to transmit them to M. Laussat, the prefect of the province, as soon as the ratifications were exchanged. The prohibition respecting the entrepôt at New Orleans was finally taken off, and the intendant had, by a proclamation of the month of May, 1803, annulled the one of the 16th of October preceding, which had excited so much agitation. This difficulty had scarcely ceased, when the Spanish minister at Washington stated, "that he had orders to warn the federal government to suspend the ratification and execution of the treaties of cession of Louisiana, as the French government, in receiving the province, had contracted an engagement with Spain not to retrocede it to any other power: and, besides, one of the conditions, in reference to which the king his master had transferred it to France, was that the latter power should obtain from all the courts of Europe the acknowledgment of the king of Etruria. France not having executed that engagement, the treaty of cession was null." The Marquis de la Casa Yrujo had given publicity to his protest, and this complication of embarrassments, arising from distrusts and contradictory interests, had nearly again thrown the business into the state of confusion from which the treaty of Paris had extricated it. Some pretended to see in the opposition of His Catholic Majesty's minister a concert between Spain and England to prevent the effect of the cession. Others, imputing to France the most disgraceful deception, asserted that Spain was only acting under her influence; and they insisted, especially, that the price agreed on should not be paid till after possession was taken. M. Pichon had orders so to combine his proceedings and communications that the two cessions, namely, from Spain to France and from France to the United States, should be made without leaving such an interval of time as might justify an expedition on the part of the English. He was informed of the suspicions which it was attempted to throw on the good |