 The Russian government replied by an uncompromising refusal to listen to the proposal of restitution.War began to be talked of, and Whitworth sent in a memorandum in which he dwelt upon the strength of the czarina's determination and the great display of vigour that would be necessary to overcome it.In the spring of 1791 he wrote of a French adventurer, named St. Ginier, who had appeared at St. Petersburg with a plan for invading Bengal by way of Kashmir, and in July he communicated to Grenville a circumstantial account of a plot to burn the English fleet at Portsmouth by means of Irish and other incendiaries in Russian pay.