English Translation

- 65 - 68 on his friendly explanations. "The split between Russia and France arose above the oriental question. For in Petersburg Bonaparte was attributed the plan to destroy the rotten Ottoman Empire, which was crushed by internal insurrections, in the near future, while Russia could not think of a more comfortable and harmless neighbour precisely because of this disruption."1) The relations with the first consul, which became so cordial under Emperor Paul, became cooler and cooler. For this, Russia is again approaching Prussia and Austria and is letting the French emigrants whom Paul had recently expelled back into the country. This relatively neutral attitude was feasible as long as a period of peace prevailed in Europe. But when, with the break of the peace of Amiens, which was concluded in March 1802, on May 16, 19803, the war of England against France broke out anew, after Russia had rejected the mediation requested by Bonaparte in London, Alexander I was forced to a clear position. England, of course, made every effort to win Russia against Napoleon as a landslide. Admiral Warren, the English ambassador to Petersburg, repeats in August 1803 the alliance offer already made in November 1802. England is ready for aid payments. In Petersburg, the English government has declared its willingness to conclude a mutual aid agreement with the Russians, "the extent of which is to be maintained by the size of the auxiliary forces employed and by the peace process. But his chancellor Vorontsov tells the English ambassador that Rupland will not refuse to act together with England as soon as it is convinced that Europe was really threatening.3) Russian society sympathizes with England against France. The leading Russian 1) Stählin 3, pp.86-87.2) Pokrovskij p.8. 3) H. Schaeder: The Third Coalition and the Holy Alliance, Königsberg l934, p.8.