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Article: The Peace of Amiens signed: March 25th, 1802. (Months Past).(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- History Today
- Article date:
- March 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 History Today Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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EARLY IN 1801 the British war against France under Napoleon as First Consul was not going well and the country was sick of it. When the Younger Pitt's government fell in February, the new premier was Henry Addington, who was bent on peace and an end to entanglements on the Continent. As he wrote to Lord Malmesbury two years later, `his maxim from the moment he took office was first to make peace, and then to preserve it ... if France chose, and as long as France chose; but to resist all clamour and invective at home, till such time as France (and he ever foresaw it must happen) had filled the measure of her folly, and had put herself completely in the wrong.'
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