ment. Mr. Wilberforce agreed with the last speaker, but for very different reasons. As far as he could understand the object of the third Resolution, it went merely to say racters, but even thwarted and discounte- sooner than submit to France. In saying nanced by them. This circumstance this, he did not mean to induce ministers to shewed, that these petitioners had no opi-persevere in the war if peace could be obnion of the sincerity of ministers. If the tained. On the contrary, he was eager for house, therefore, were to adopt the last Re- peace. He only wished, that the question solution, would they not be giving counte- should lie over a little longer to try what nance to such petitions? On this ground might turn out. The parliament had not he felt a difficulty in agreeing to the reso- been met above five weeks, and it might lution. Now, although he did not believe have to sit for some months. He did not that ministers were desirous of peace, he say, that he might not in the course of a was against pushing the matter at this mo- month be of the opinion of his hon. friend. He might do them injustice in the He agreed with him at this moment, as opinion he had formed; of course, he he must do at all times, that peace was could not say he was prepared on this better than war. His hon. friend was bolder night to come to the resolution now pro- than he could bring himself to feel on that posed. He might this day week be per- subject. He was afraid, that instead of suaded that the resolution was proper, but promoting peace, the resolution might he was not in that situation at the present have the effect of protracting the war. If moment. There was another reason which his hon. friend, therefore, would not withoperated strongly with him. The peti- draw his motion, he should now move the tioners told the house of the pressure under previous question, which they laboured from the markets on the continent being shut against them. It well became the house for the welfare of the country, to take care how they aggravated such a feeling. If we were, in consequence of agreeing to the present proposition, to send an ambassador to France, might not Buonaparte say, It is not six weeks since you sent away the Austrian ambassador, whose mediation you rejected. You talk, however, of a pressure on your manufactures. Is it so? Then I will persevere in following out the measures I have adopted, and, taking advantage of this pressure, will force you to accept of any sort of a peace I chuse to grant you.' Was this the language it was natural for Buonaparte to hold; or was it rather to be expected of him that he should say, These good people of England are anxious to be at peace with me, and they are greatly distressed. I have been fighting against them these 14 years for the purpose of destroying them, but, now I find their manufacturers are poor and hardly pressed, they are even starving, and I am now inclined to take compassion on them?' If it were once to be laid down, that on account of a pressure on any branch or one part of the community, the whole nation must give way, he could not look on England in any other light than as a conquered country. It was necessary in such circumstances to submit to deprivations, and he was convinced, there was not a man in the country who, when he knew that peace could not be procured on honourable terms, would not submit to any deprivations whatever, nay, who would not lay down his life of ministers, that having misconducted themselves in transactions past, they were not entitled to confidence in future. He should not endeavour to go through the numerous papers that had been the subject of comment; but he conceived that there might be very fair grounds for doubting of the propriety of accepting the proposed mediations of Russia and Austria. A right hon. gent. had asked, whether we thought that those powers had transferred their affections to France? That might not be the case; yet they might be governed by a less generous sentiment. Russia might be led to consult her own security, at the expence of our interests. Austria might be in similar circumstances. He confessed, he could wish that our last answer had been different; but, under all the circumstances of the case, the offer could not be put upon the footing of former offers, and certainly not a fair mediation between us and France. In general, it might not be necessary to lay a basis in such a case in the first instance; but when we were called upon by a third power under doubtful circumstances, a case was afforded in which, if at any time, we were justified in entrenching ourselves behind certain general principles and particular considerations. He could see no reason for supposing why his right honourable friends should not wish for peace whenever a favourable opportunity offered. He was desirous of speaking thus early, because it gave him pain to find another topic wholly omitted. | Session after session the house had been occupied with discussing the best means of calling forth the internal military defence of the country. How could we talk of making and maintaining peace with France without such measures? Were all those ideas on which these discussions proceeded gone by? He then paid some compliments to the industry and attention to business of his noble friend (lord Castlereagh). He hoped his mind was exercised on that subject, and that the house would shortly hear more from him on that important topic. The country must place its security on its means of defence, and then, after peace, repose upon its strength. He alluded to the shortness of the interval between the peace of Amiens and the renewal of hostilities, which he admitted to proceed from faults on both sides. Could we doubt that in peace France would increase greatly her marine, when there would be no interruption to her receiving naval stores? It should never be forgotten that this great country ought not to be contented with not being conquered: it must not be suffered even to be endangered. We might yet have to contend upon British ground: and there was no way of procuring a certain peace, but by maintaining a strong and secure internal defensive force: He wished to restore the blessings of peace; and he conjured the house and the country to submit to measures of a trying and difficult nature, in order to insure that blessing. It was a subject near to his heart. When he considered the turn of the debate, he might be led to suppose that the great military power of France, instead of having conquered the continent, had been itself defeated. He did not fear our safety, if we adopted efficient measures. Defensive war was comparatively easy; and a great, rich, brave, loyal, and free country, like this, never could be conquered, unless by its own neglect. Let us prepare for peace with safety. He would not hamper himself with declarations; but he was a friend to peace, and would earnestly desire it, whenever it could be obtained with safety, and maintained with security. Lord Milton expressed his surprise that his hon. colleague should have resorted to so strange an argument against the proposition of the hon. mover as that he had just alluded to; as if it was the business of gentlemen on that side of the house to propose measures for the defence of the country, or to shew that it was in a proper state of defence, He completely agreed with the hon. mover in the two first resolutions, satisfied as he was that ministers deserved censure for their conduct in slighting the Russian and Austrian mediation. He could not, however, go the length of the third resolution, not being satisfied that there was yet ground to address his majesty to remove his ministers as being disinclined to peace, which he was of opinion must necessarily accompany the third resolution of his hon. friend. The Hon. J. W. Ward expressed considerable regret that he should be under the necessity of differing from many of those valuable friends, with whom he was in the constant habit of acting and voting; yet, feeling so forcibly as he did, that some attempts ought to be made to obtain peace at this period, he could not do otherwise than support the whole motion of his hon. friend. The first and second resolutions he must support, because, in his opinion, ministers had shewn the most extraordinary disregard to the real welfare and interests of this country, in so rashly rejecting the two opportunities they had of entering upon negociation through the several channels of Russian and Austrian mediation; but the third resolution was what struck his mind as by far the most important, though disavowed by so many of his hon. friends, because in that the feelings and fortunes of almost every one in the kingdom, who possessed either, were most intimately and deeply concerned. He believed there were many persons in this country who had, from the arguments that were daily and hourly advanced respecting the ruler of France and his views, imbibed the false and ridiculous idea that they would be safer in war than they could be in peace; but nothing could be more mistaken than that notion. These people seemed to form their opinions, that our safety was peculiarly owing to the number of our ships; but this was not the case. France, Spain, and Holland combined, might be able to build more ships than we could; but what gave us the proud supe, riority we had so long been able to boast, was the invincible spirit, the native hardiness, and the excellent training of our men to the science of navigation and the practice of gynnery, which, aided by their native courage and bravery, rendered them an overmatch on the ocean for any seamen in the world. The French revolution had shewn that an army might be raised and brought to a state of discipline in one campaign; but a navy required great time and practice to bring it to perfection; and for that reason he should never fear the number of ships that any enemy could bring against us. What particularly struck his mind with considerable weight on the present motion, so far as it regarded peace, was the immense change that had taken place in the situation of France. That country had, 15 years ago, begun the war with a confederacy of all Europe against her, headed by England; and the war she was now prosecuting, was a confederacy of all Europe, joined with her, against England, who now stood alone in the contest. The cause of coalitions, which this country had made such mighty and repeated efforts to form, was now extinct; and those who had deluded themselves with dreams of victory at Austerlitz, at Jena, and at Eylau, had now no point of contact, and could no more expect to unite other powers against the French, than if they lived in another planet. When our ancestors attempted to check the power of France, they did it by the superior prowess of their men, aided by great alliances; but at this moment we could boast but of one ally in all Europe. He ridiculed the idea of our entering on a commercial opposition, in which we had every thing to lose and nothing to gain. We depended almost solely on commerce. France was a country of such extent and resources that she could much better bear the want of it. If it were merely a race of luxury against luxury, of sugar against sugar, and so forth, it might bear some degree of comparison; but France had been, during the whole time since the commencement of the revolution, obliged to submit to one privation after another, and had, on that account, a decided advantage over us in this work of what ministers called retaliation. In the midst of this unequal warfare, however, it was extraordinary and surprising to observe the conduct of his majesty's ministers. When his hon. friends on this side of the house attempted to point out the weakness of their measures, down came the chancellor of the exchequer to the house, and, with all the pride and pomp of office, boasted that he had found a certain remedy for all our misfortunes, and that he would force Buonaparte to relinquish his terrible decrees, by prohibiting the exportation of Bark-a notable expedient, truly, and such an one as must astonish all Europe! It might be the characteristic of themselves, but it certainly was not that of the country, to wish to wage war against the sick, the lame, and the blind, and, instead of boldly and manfully attacking their camps, directing our whole force and artillery against their defenceless hospitals. He was really surprised to see so much reliance placed on such trifles, and thought that they bore the strongest evidence of the necessity of endeavouring to obtain an honourable peace. What could we do to serve ourselves by carrying on the war? We had not, as he had before observed, a single point of contact. Buonaparte took every thing by land, and we took every thing by sea; and so we might go on till this country, which was wholly commercial, should be entirely ruined. There were many other topics on which he could have wished to touch, but the lateness of the hour would not permit him, and he must therefore confine himself to such as were the most important. To those who were really advocates for the continuance of the war, he thought it absolutely necessary to address one plain question. Was the country in such a state as to be able to bear it? Did not the house think that the state of Ireland was such as to merit their most serious attention? Four millions of subjects, forming a considerable majority of the people of that part of the united empire, were anxiously solicitous to be allowed a participation in the dearest and best rights and privileges of the constitutution, from which prejudice had so long excluded them, and to which if they were not speedily restored, they must remain. in a state of the greatest discontent. He entreated the house to consider also the danger to which India was exposed. He mentioned that particularly, because it had escaped the observation of others; but all well knew that Buonaparte had long had an eye towards India, and that he was at the present moment meditating, if not actually putting in practice, the attempt of reaching that country through the continent of Europe; an attempt which the continuance of war must facilitate, by giving France an opportunity of exasperating and stirring up against us the native princes of India. He condemned the system adopted, of the extension of our territories in India, though he meant not to attribute blame to any particular person, but could not do otherwise than consider it as highly impolitic. He was much surprised to hear it urged, that the ruler of France had vowed to wage eternal war with this country. vering over some descriptions of men. There were those who turned with indifference or scorn from the hardships of their own countrymen, while struggling in the cause of the honour and independence of the country, and yet shewed themselves tenderly alive only to the sufferings of America and Denmark. But such men misinterpreted the opinion and the feelings of the country. The country valued wealth, and certainly much of its power and energies depended upon that wealth; but under circumstances like the present, it felt that wealth must be subservient to honour. That sentiment neither Buonaparte, nor the friends of Buonaparte, wherever they moved, nor all the violence of his sanguinary decrees, would ever be able to extinguish. It was not to be extinguished by the partial sufferings of some of our manufacturers ;-no, nor could it be extinguished by the complete stagnation of our whole trade. Those who held a different language of the character of their country, could be only the indisposed few who endeavoured to blow every spark of disaffection and discontent into a flame, and to place in an odious light the conduct of the present administration, chiefly because they felt the damning contrast which it exhibited with their own, Men who, while in opposition, were clamorous; while in government impotent; whose apathy was called moderation, and whose attempts to delude the people were dignified with the name of patriotism. Give him much sooner the inflexible firmness, the persevering fortitude, of the men who now guided the destinies of the nation, than the pusillanimous precaution of those who would seek for comfort and ease at the expence of honour and security. Fresh aggressions called only for fresh resistance, and more determined resolution. Such, at least, he trusted, were the sentiments with which his majesty's ministers were nerved, and that he might venture to say of them, what the poet said of the resolute and just— That very argument was in his mind a strong reason for endeavouring to negociate a peace; because, if by so doing we could establish the fact, that he had really made such a vow, or that he had determined not to make peace but such a one as would be dishonourable or disgraceful to this country, he had no doubt but the good sense and spirit of the people would exert itself, and that they would resolve to bear, if not with cheerfulness, at least with patience, all the privations they might suffer in consequence, rather than the national honour should be tarnished. The present war, he said, had been originally entered upon to prevent the fulfilling the conditions of a treaty a matter which in itself he thought highly blameable. It had since been carried on, as had been acknowledged, from mere punctilios of honour respecting Russia; and he must say, it was astonishing to him how his hon. friends, or any of them, could differ in opinion with the hon. mover of the present question. We had, he said, long had houses of commons who had permitted ministers to go on with the war, he hoped they would now have one that would stop them in the career they had shaped out for themselves of eternal war. He could not avoid once more adverting to the state of Ireland, of which ministers had not taken the smallest notice, in that elaborate manifesto they had given in the shape of the king's speech. He could not but reflect with the deepest concern on four millions, the proscribed majority of that country, which it appeared to be the intention of minisiers to persecute, instead of holding forth the gentle hand of conciliation. In short, he was very sorry to say, that from every appearance, and from every information he had been able to collect on the subject, that country was at present in imminent danger. It was the duty of ministers, because it was their true policy, to use every means in their power to conciliate Ireland, which could only be done effectually by peace and toleration,and by rendering Catholic emancipation less urgent. He was, however, afraid that would never be the case with the present ministry, whose avowed inten-ims which were laid down on the opposite tions and charter to their present offices had shewn them determined on persecution. Mr. Blachford, in a maiden speech, lamented the prejudice and perversion of opinion and talent to which a spirit of party and faction seemed capable of deliVOL. X. Si fractus illabatur orbis, Lord Mahon observed, that all the max side had a tendency to support the principle of eternal war. There was not an argument that was advanced this night in opposition to the motion which might not with equal propriety be urged in favour of any other war, at any other time, or under almost any other circumstances. Every 3 K power in Europe that was formerly our ally was now converted into an enemy. From this consideration, together with that of the distressed state of our manufacturers, he thought it his duty to support the motion. The house ought to consider these things in fact of its own free will; but from circumstances which had lately occurred, it appeared to him that they were called on by the imperious voice of the people to the performance of this duty, in order to avert, if possible, a tremendous evil, and prevent incalculable distress from falling on the working part of the community. Mr. John Smith wished to know how long ministers meant the war to continue. If it continued two years longer, was there any prospect of negociating for peace on more honourable and secure terms than at the present moment? He certainly would be sorry to present the subject of peace to that house, were there not one particular circumstance to induce it to be immediately procured, namely, Ireland. passed through the hands of count Star- He Mr. Secretary Canning did not think it proper to intrude himself upon the house at an earlier period, because he conceived it to be the duty of his majesty's ministers on this subject, to leave it to other members of the house to express their sentiments before they should themselves take any part in the debate. He expressed his readiness to enter at any time into negociations for a peace, consistent with the honour and the dignity of the country; but he maintained, that until certain information was received that the French government was prepared to enter into negociations on an equitable basis, it would be imprudent to attempt any. It was obvious, that if any negociation which might be undertaken, should fail, peace would be placed at a still greater distance, and the sufferings of the people, which had been so much exaggerated, instead of being diminished, would be augmented. He could not help making a few observations on the subject of the Austrian offer of mediation. The first offer of mediation on the part of Austria might have been worthy of attention, if the fortune of Bonaparte had not taken a different turn. Aus-tration, and who broke off the last negotria fell under the controul of France; and no security existed in negotiation. The last offer of mediation proved palpably fallacious, and both attempts exploded together. It was the intention of the British government to enter into negociations for peace, but in the official notes which ciation. It was true the hon. gent. had disagreed with them also on that point, he therefore could not deny him the merit of having acted with consistency. Mr. Wm. Smith thought the two first resolutions involved in so much difficulty, that he could not vote for them; but if |