ing upon these precedents, Mr. Ryder faid, that as far as confidence went refpecting the prefent object, that House had already voted their confidence when they gave the vote of fupply, and addressed His Majefty, affuring him of their fupport. Mr. John Thomas Stanley faid, he had earnestly wished for Mr. J. T. an opportunity of speaking, ever fince the gentlemen oppo- Stanley. fite to him, who had spoken first and second in the debate, had fat down A kind of challenge had been thrown out to this fide of the Houfe by them, to produce arguments in oppofition to theirs: this he thought could be done; but first he would fay, that he oppofed the motion originally made, and would vote for the previous queftion; not because he denied the truth of any of the propofitions, fome of which, on the contrary, were incontrovertible, but because this was not the time for them to be brought forward; and he would as readily vote against a refolution brought forward at a wrong feason, as against one that he difapproved of in it felf. He would now fay, in oppofition to what had been advanced that his vote in favour of the addrefs, a preceding evening, and the support he intended to give to the measures of the Administration on this occafion, were neither of them founded on grounds of implicit confidence. He difdained the werd, and fo much did he diflike the idea of giving implicit confidence to any man in a Houfe of Commons, that had no arguments fuggefted themselves to his mind, in addition to the confidence which he owned might affist in determining his vote, he would have waved it all, and have given a decided vote against measures that tended to involve the country in a war. He had not the privilege with many others of calling the right honourable gentleman on the bench below him, a right honourable friend; he was not in fuch habits of intimacy with any gentleman filling the high ftations of office, as to be by them biaffed in his opinion, or governed by partiality. The confidence he gave, was not the confidence to which private friendship laid a claim; it was founded on what he knew of the Minifter, from the public measures of the Minifter; and as thefe were approved of, furely every individual had a right, without betraying the truft repofed in him by the country, of giving a degree of confidence and credit to the Minifter who afked for it, and who declared, in the most manly manner, he held himself refponfible for the use he might make of it. He owned it had required all the ftrength of his mind to relift the fpecious eloquence and plaufible arguments, which had which had fallen with fuch force of language from a right honourable gentleman, during the laft debate on this fubject; he had been fhaken by it, but fortunately not overcome; for the more he had thought on the fubject, the more convinced he was, that every argument was not on the other fide; that many ftrong ones might be adduced on this fide, not only in fupport of an armament being neceffary to enforce the prefent pending negociation, but even in fupport of a war, fhould a war be found ultimately neceffary; and he warned the House against that eloquence he felt fo ftrongly the effect of, and which the Minifter could not now counteract, from the neceflity he was under of preferving filence, and which he told the Houfe he could not depart from, without departing from what he deemed his duty. Did His Majefty's Minifters afk for a power to declare war? No. An armament fitted out to give weight to a negociation, had artfully been reprefented as a direct attack on Ruffia, and equivalent to a declaration of war. Mr. Stanley could not confider the one as the fame with the other; and by no means thought the obligation the Minifter was under of giving information to the Houfe, the fame in one instance as in the other. It was very probable there might yet be no war: negociation might fucceed, and the effect of the armament we had authorifed the Minifter to make, might yet be found in a fhort time most advantageous, and the very cause of that eftablished, permanent peace, fo much expatiated on by gentlemen oppofite, and certainly fo defirable in every refpect for this country. But fhould a war enfue in confequence of thefe armaments; fhould the obftinacy of the Emprefs force the Minister to an opinion that a war was neceffary, are we fo much to dread it? Are there no reasons why Ruffia fhould not remain unmolefted, and miftrefs of her own will, in what concerns materially the interests of the great republic of Europe? Are there no reafons why we fhould not force him to listen to us, and to infift on his paying fome attention to our negociations? Yes there are, and powerful reasons; powerful enough to make us fufpend all cenfure of a Minifter, who may, by his meafures, involve us in a war, and yet cannot tell all the reafons for his conduct, however ferious the confequences may be of every step he takes. He has told us it is neceffary to fhew a refolution of preferving the peace of Europe; that without a vigorous ftep taken to enforce negociation, it will be rejected. He afks for the exercife, in this delicate pofture of affairs, of a difcretionary power which the conftitution allows to the executive Government; and those who think fome difcretionary power fhould be given to the executive executive Government, under fuch circumftances, are not acting unconftitutionally or wrong, in my opinion, in fo doing. Let gentlemen but confider the character of the bovereign, who refufes to accept our unenforced proffers of mediation, from the day fhe was feated on the throne of the Ruffias; did fhe not difcover an infatiable thirst of power, and an unlimited defire of extending her territories, immenfe as they were, to ftill more diftant boundaries? Was it not evident her ambition aimed at no lefs than the title of Emprefs of the Eaft, and that the wished to be faluted as fuch on the ancient throne of the Eaftern Emperors, while her ambition, unfatisfied with this object, ftill would lead her to be the directrefs of every cabinet and every council in the western divifion of the ancient world? To fhew why we should entertain fuch an opinion of her ambitious views, let us only trace back her conduct from the prefent period to the commencement of her reign: let us recollect her attempts to unite the powers of the Baltic in a league against us; let us recollect her more late attempts to govern the two Courts of Sweden and of Denmark; let us recollect her intrigues in the kingdom of Poland; her fuccefs in placing a Monarch on the throne of that kingdom, and her invafions of the late King of Pruffia's dominions. We fhall have next to obferve her conduct in obtaining poffeffion of the Crimea, and previous to that, her ftrong defire fhewn of acquiring a fhare in the trade of the Mediterranean. The Crimea, wrefted from the hands of the Turks, let us fee what was her fubsequent conduct with regard to it. The Kham, who by treaty was to have been left an independent Sovereign of the country, is invited to Ruffia, accepts eftates in the kingdom, and commiffions in the army, of the Emprefs. The Crimea, in the mean time, is invaded by her troops, on the pretence of quelling rebellions; her authority is established; the garrifons every town, and, at an immenfe expence, travels from Peterburgh to the borders of the Black Sea; builds a town, and changes the name of the country, he has so completely annexed to her dominions, to the pompous name of Taurida. In the new capital of this her new kingdom, the future center of fo much power and grandeur, fhe receives as vifitors the Sovereign of Auftria and of Poland; and there this new triumvirate lay the plans of conquefts and aggrandifement, which we are to fee accomplished, not only without interference, but with complacency. These steps alone were fufficient to justify any alarm the Turks might have conceived; but how much more caufe of alarm had they, when an unheard-of, an undreamt-of claim, is made on them of the province of Bafarabia, and the towns of Oczakow and AkerVOL. XXIX. S man, man, on no other pretence, than that formerly this province had been governed by the Khams of her new Taurida. This infulting, arrogant, claim was followed by a refufal to give up a fugitive horpodar, accused by the Turks of treafon against the State. If, in confequence of fuch violations of all faith; if, in confequence of conduct fo alarming, fo infulting, fo hoftile every way to Turkey, the Turks refolve to keep peace no longer, can we blame them, can we fay they are the aggreffors? No, certainly not; the Empress alone can be confidered as fuch; and the Porte, in declaring war, acted only from motives of felf defence, and Ruffia was virtually the aggreffor, In profecuting the war, her arms have been fuccessful; the force of almost the whole Ruffian empire, and of the Emperor, is brought against the Turks. Oczakow is taken; Bender is taken; Ifhmail is taken; the Emperor is as fuccefsful on his fide; and Conftantinople, almoft alone of his former dominions in Europe, remains in the hands of the Grand Seignior. Has Europe to apprehend no danger from fuch aggreffions? I rather think it has; and if the fyftem of preferving a balance of power on the Continent, is confiftent with our true interefts, now is the proper time for interference. I might say, that it were fafeft and wifeft for this country, in its prefent exhausted state of finance, to abandon foreign alliances, and foreign interference altogether; but this would be merely a matter of opinion; and at prefent, gentlemen on both fides seem agreed that the fyftem is neceffary; they only differ about the means; and I too must agree, that at present the fyftem cannot be drops at once: by degrees only can those fyftems be relinquifhed, which have been followed for years and reigns, and on the propriety or impropriety of which, men's opinions are much divided. The Empress refuses to liften to all negociations, unless permitted to preferve Oczakow; and now the queftion rests on the importance of this place. We have been told by gentlemen on the oppofite fide, that Oczakow is a place of little confequence; in the midft of a defert country; and impeding in no way the navigation of any fhip from Cherfon, a place not calculated in the leak to be a check to the attempts of any nation poffeffing the Crimea and the Cuban, to command the commerce and navigation of the Black Sea. To this description of Oczakow, I would anfwer, that its importance is fuch, that the fate of Conftantinople itself abfolutely depends on it; that the fafety of the fouthern provinces of Poland depends on it; that the projects of the Emprefs, with regard to the future profperity and confequence of her new empire of Taurida, depend on it. Oczakow is the the only fortress of confequence, and likely to stop an army between the frontiers of the Emprefs and Conftantinople; this fhe infifts on keeping. She generoutly offers to give up provinces unprotected and defencelefs, and which the may take, whenever the nations of Europe are fo embroiled, as not to have it in their power to prevent her. Ifhmail is difmantled, and could not, in ten years time, be made a place of fufficient defence. The paffages of Mount Hemus, it is true, may be easily guarded; and the armies of the Emprefs would find it no ealy matter to proceed by land to Conftantinople: but where no fortrefs overlooks her new acquifitions on the borders of the Black Sea, where the Turks are bereft of every port to which they may retire, and from whence her motions may be watched, fhe may convey her forces. by fea to any ftation as near Conftantinople as the pleafe; forts are surprised, batteries are filenced, and the Ruffian ftandard may be flying on the towers of the Grand Seignior's palace, before an European Court can have been informed that the Emprefs meditated an attack. But the may difdain to take the capital of the Ottoman empire for a while; fhe may confider it as too easy a prey; and in the mean time, while we are looking with indifference on that part of the world, according to fome fo unconnected with our interefts, the profperity of her new country is rifing faft towards its meridian. Poffeffor of provinces the richeft in the world, fuch as Aftrachan, Georgia, the Crimea, and parts of the Cuban, in which are to be procured every article requifite for the conftruction and fitting out of fleets; poffeffor of the navigation of rivers, down which, ftores and productions of every kind may be brought, either from the interior provinces of her own dominions, or the provinces of Poland and of Moldavia and Wallachia, fhe will be acquiring, every year, a ftrength which, in a few years, will be increafed to a degree that will give thofe countries alone, independent of her northern provinces, a power that will alarm Europe; be capable, when it pleafes, of overrunning every province of the Turks; will make even Poland fearful for the fate of her fouthern provinces, and prove moft fatal to the fafety and confequence of fo near a neighbour to them as Pruffia. An extenfive commerce will be its own. Whenever Turkey is overpowered, and the time must come, if we watch not this growing country, when Turkey will be overpowered, at once the riches of all these provinces furrounding the Black Sea, will be poured into the Mediterranean; navies fufficiently powerful to protect this commerce, and even to aim at conquefts, will break into the Mediterranean at the fame time. Are we to confider, with no jealousy or fears for our commercial S 2. |