This was enhanced by the British reply, which declared that His Majesty could not place his reliance on "general professions of pacific dispositions": France had waged aggressive war, levied exactions, and overthrown institutions in neighbouring States; and the British Government could not as yet discern any abandonment of this system: something more was required for a durable peace: "The best and most natural pledge of its reality and permanence would be the restoration of that line of princes which for so many centuries maintained the French nation in prosperity at home and in consideration and respect abroad." This answer has been sharply criticised, and justly so, if its influence on public opinion be alone considered.

But a perusal of the British Foreign Office Records reveals the reason for the use of these stiffly legitimist claims.

Legitimacy alone promised to stop the endless shiftings of the political kaleidoscope, whether by France, Austria, or Russia.

Our ambassador at Vienna was requested to inform the Government of Vienna of the exact wording of the British reply: "As a proof of the zeal and steadiness with which His Majesty adheres to the principles of the Confederacy, and as a testimony of the confidence with which he anticipates a similar answer from His Imperial Majesty, to whom an overture of a similar nature has without doubt been made." But this correct conduct, while admirably adapted to prop up the tottering Coalition, was equally favourable to the consolidation of Bonaparte's power.

It helped to band together the French people to resist the imposition of their exiled royal house by external force.
Even George III.