store some degree of order and tranquillity to the unhappy people of France.

They wished also to oppose that revolutionary principle which the directory endeavoured to spread with too much success over Europe. These views, however, ill accorded with the schemes of the latter; but, had they broken off the negotiation upon the terms we of fered, immediately had they thrown off the mask, and revealed their determination of prolonging the miseries of their own country on jacobin principles, and by jacobin means; they wou have put the councils on their guard; they would have made all France and Europe the judges of their conduct; and they would have anticipated the event which they were preparing. Again, had they brought forward another project of their own, they must have disappointed the object which they had in view, that of breaking off the negotiation with out specifying any terms, and throw ing the whole odium of the failure upon us. At the moment they were practising every evasion, creating every delay, refusing to deliver in a counter project, they held a language directly opposite in their messages to the council. In these, they threw the charge of procrastination upon us, wishing to gain time till their plot was ready to be executed; and whilst their plenipotentiaries were daily apologising to us, for the extraordinary delays which took place, they unhappily succeeded in their designs, and the frail fabric of the constitution of 1795 was overturned. It was clear to every one who had watched the progress of events, that it was at Paris, not at Lisle, that the result of the conferences would be determined; it depended on the disputes

which agitated the councils and the government; and if the directory succeeded, the event might easily be foreseen.

This formed the only excuse for our ministers having submitted so long to the evasions of the enemy; and their hopes of attaining peace at last favoured the deception which the directory wished to pass upon the people of France, by so long keeping up the appearance of negotiation, and cherishing the expectations of success.

When the revolution of September arrived, and they had accomplished their project at Paris, they immediately changed their system; and avowed their object. Every thing which had been done was retracted; their views were evidently not confined to their own country, or to the rupture of the negotiation; they went further, they declared it was our constitution, our laws, our religion, and our liberties, with which they were at war; it was our public glory and our private happiness which they laboured to subvert, and to establish in their stead French liberty, French principles, and French anarchy, with all its train of horrors! With such avowals, his lordship said, he was at a loss to conceive what palliations could possibly be offered for the conduct of the enemy: he well knew and lamented that every measure of the French government, in its relation to this country, found more able and ingenious apologists here than in France; and even what seemed too flagrant for defence was justified by more plausible arguments, and placed in more favourable lights, than the talents of the friends of the directory on the other side the water could produɔe.

This was no moment for humiB 4 liations

liation; it was not the period when the dignity and honour of the nation ought to be sacrificed; nor was it the season to despair: the resources of the country were great and powerful; public and private happiness were at stake; every man in that assembly in particular must know that his property and his existence depended on the issue of the contest which we had to maintain but with the interest of the first class of men in the state, the happiness of the lowest was consulted; the sufferings, the persecutions, the horrors to which the first orders in France were doomed, though they began with the noblesse, were spread over all, and felt even by the humblest peasantry of the 'kingdom; nay, had been the source of more calamity to them, than to the unhappy nobility whom we every day saw groaning under their distresses: and this was the sentiment with which the people of this Country at large were inspired; they were convinced that a vigorous effort was essential to secure an honourable peace, that there was no safety without resistance, no hope but in courage and magnanimity. His lordship concluded this speech, of uncommon length, with strenuously recommending perseverance in the conduct we had hitherto pursued, and entreating the house to carry the declaration of these resolutions to the foot of the throne, with solemn pledges to defend, at every hazard, his majesty's person and government, with the liberties and happiness of England.

The earl of Darnley said, he approved of the moderation, as well as dignity, with which the late negotiation on our part had been carried on, and censured the conduct of the French on account of its duplicity; there was nothing in the relative si

tuation of the countries at present to justify our despondency. He could not see how it was possible for the enemy to prosecute hostilities offensively, when he considered the deplorable state of their navy, and the triumphant condition of ours: the resources of our country were adequate to the contest, and he expected the most perfect unanimity amongst their lordships.

The address was carried nem.

diss.

On the 10th of November the same subject was taken into consideration by the house of commons.

Sir John Sinclair, though he professed entire acquiescence as to its general tenor, moved an amendment to the address of thanks, because certain phrases appeared to him exceptionable, indicating an intention that there should be no end to the war. He expressed astonishment at the mean manner in which the negotiation had been conducted. When it was first proposed, he intended to have moved the house that no negotiation should have been set on foot till the French minister had given a contre project. He now regretted not having done so, but he was deterred by the fear that it might have been an impedinient. Ministers, by neglecting this in the onset, had brought much disgrace upon the country. He appealed to the papers whether the charge was unfounded, for by those it would appear that the most unwarrantable insinuations and foul calumnies upon our executive government had been patiently born by our ministers. He was sorry see the country so lowered. Whilst he lamented our management, he was obliged, he said, to censure no less the language of the declaration and address, as being at once full of rashness, and ineffectual to any

to

good

good purpose; they not only professed to keep up perpetual hostilities, but made charges which were not justified by the papers.

The house was told that the preliminaries proposed by the French government were frivolous and offensive; but on looking into them, they would find that the first of those was, the abandonment by our king of the title of king of France; the second, the restitution of the ships taken at Toulon; and the third, the relinquishment of our mortgage on the Low Countries: but for his part he could not see any thing in the papers that shewed an express demand of those points on the part of France. The declaration stated, that it was not their wish to make peace; whereas it appeared on the face of the papers that the French plenipotentiaries took much pains to prove the reverse, and this the house would find acknowledged by lord Malmesbury in his first and second letters. Another charge was, that it was their intention to overthrow the govern, ment of England: sir John declared, that if he believed this to be the disposition of France, he would vote for the address as it stood; but it was his opinion that such an intention might be transiently expressed, only under the irritation of supposed wrong. France might probably be inveterate against us, believing that we were inveterate against her; the directory might profess a design to overturn our government, because we had endeavoured to overturn theirs, but at the same time, showed they had no objection to peace, if we would leave them alone. To prevent the perpetuation of these sentiments between the two nations, Le moved an amendment, expressing the resolution of the house to apport his majesty in the war, to

expunge the words denoting an inveterate animosity, and to declare, that whenever France was disposed to treat on reasonable terms, we would not refuse to negotiate.

Lord Temple sincerely lamented. that the negotiation had ever been attempted, and as sincerely rejoiced when it had been broken off; for he saw infinitely more danger (he said) in the conclusion of a peace with the present rulers of France than in the continuation of war: indeed the disposition of those men was so manifested in all their conduct for the last four years, that any one might have foreseen the event of the overture. It was a matter of utter indifference to England what form of government might take place on the other side of the water, provided it was such as promised permanency. His only wish was that peace should be lasting, and for this reason he entertained hopes of pacification when the moderate party was gaining ground: but the moment it gave way, an end was put to all accommodation. The same animosity which actuated them in the beginning of the contest was visible at Lisle, and had been avowed by the directory since the negotiation had been broken off; they had declared that delenda est Carthago must be the determination of the contest. Of the extent and inveteracy of their designs, there could be no stronger proof than their decreeing an army to march to the coast opposite to our shores, and dignifying it with the name of the Army of England; not. to mention their scoffing at the rights of nations, and disclaiming all right to be bound by the most solemn treaties. What confidence could be placed in men who had broken them already? who had transferred nations who relied upon them to

the

the dominion of other powers; offered assistance to the rebellious of every country; deceived their own people with the name of liberty; sent off the legal constitutional representatives of the nation into banishment, without proof of their guilt, or even trial, and imprisoned a printer for invectives against their war minister?

The chancellor of the exchequer rose: he expressed disappointment that the concurrence of the house upon such a subject as was now submitted to their consideration, should not be unanimous, and much surprise at the proposed amendment of the honourable baronet. The continuance of the war was to be ascribed alone to the implacable animosity, to the insatiable ambition, to the unwarrantable pretensions of the present frantic government of France. Was it the business of a British parliament to content itself with mere lamentation of the miseries of war, forgetting that it was the duty of the representatives of a great nation to state the source of those miseries. Our calamities proceeded from the rancorous spirit of the enemy; and to them, not to us, the guilt and responsibility of future extremities were to be imputed. Ministers had exerted every endeavour to procure peace; and from the commencement of the negotiation to its final rupture, the whole of the intermediate delay was owing to the evasive conduct of France. Mr. Pitt reprobated with much sarcasm what he called the tenderness of the honourable baronet, who close rather to disguise the truth, than risk the tremendous evil of offending such an enemy, by using language which might displease them; compromising the character of the country, leaving it doubtful to Eu

rope to whom the rupture of the negotiation was to be ascribed, and fearing to pursue that manly conduct which truth and dignity required, lest we should cherish a spirit of endless animosity.

So far from this being the proper inference, the very reverse was the case: he who scrupled to declare that the government of France had acted in direct contempt of every principle of justice; he who blinked the discussion of this important point, deprived us of the most consolatory reflection which we could enjoy amidst inevitable calamity and necessary war. It was from the consideration that it was the government, not the people of France, who were to blame, that we now might indulge hopes of 'a more favourable change of circumstances. Was there a word in the address which breathed the spirit of endless animosity? Surely not! on the contrary, his majesty assured the people of this country, he declared to France and to Europe, that he did not forego the hope of pacification, and that he was prepared to renew his endeavours to effect it whenever the enemy should discover a temper more corresponding to his own. Nay more, whilst the declaration disclaimed all enmity against the French nation, it professed to have no objection to treat even with those who exercised at present the functions of government. Even after the distinguished successes which had crowned his majesty's arms, he was willing to conclude a peace with that very government, upon those moderate terms which he proposed in the moment of our greatest difficulty. Mr. Pitt then went over all the grounds of the negotiation, which as they have been detailed in another place, would be tedious, and

unnecessary

unnecessary to relate: he avowed in very strenuous terms the sincerity of ministers, fully proved (he said) by the concessions which they had made, merely to obtain peace: we had offered to France all that we had conquered in the West Indies, the strong Island of Martinique, St. Lucia, Tobago, that part of St. Domingo occupied by our troops; in the East Indies, Pondicherry and Chandernagore, with all their settlements and factories in that quarter. And in return for what were all these sacrifices offered? for peace alone! to an enemy too, whose forces had never separately met the military strength of this country without adding to our national glory and renown-an enemy whose fleets had never encountered ours, but to increase the list of their defeats an enemy whose commerce was extinguished, whose navy was annihilated, whose financial distress, however palliated by their partisans here, was loudly proved in the groans of the people, in the contentions of the councils, and in the acts of violence of the executive government. Of the allies, Spain had felt the war into which she had been compelled to enter, only in the triumphs she had added to this country, and her own disgrace. One island had been taken from her by us, for which, in the circumstances she stood, she could have no claim for compensation: but the island Trinidad was claimed on another ground, as a condition of our guaranteeing the cession of the Spanish part of St. Domingo to France, which, by solemn treaties, could not be given up without the consent of this country. To Holland we offered to restore all the sources of her commerce, every thing valuable to her prosperity; and only required that which would

have enabled France to subjugate the other possessions of Holland,

and to harass our own establish

ments in the East. All that we demanded was, to secure what we already possessed, that which was essential to our ancient establishment and naval power. On reviewing the state of the two countries, let the world judge the value of the concession on one part, and the force of the claim upon the other: compare the mutual means of offence and resistance, the power of the French to take from us, and the ability of this country to retain; and upon that comparison decide whether the projet of his majesty did not manifest proofs of sincerity and moderation?

The chancellor of the exchequer proceeded here to make a statement of the arrogance and the duplicity of the French. Endless delays ensued, he said, to give a colour of attention to the wishes of their nation for peace: time was consumed in sending for instructions to Madrid, and to the Hague; and the consideration of the dif ferent points studiously protracted: after the negotiation had assumed this shape, what was done, what progress was made, when every pretence for delay was removed? They then required that we, whom they had summoned to treat or a definitive treaty, should stop and discuss preliminary points, which though discussed and settled, we did not know but the next moment might be wholly laid aside. They led the conferences to vague and secondary points; insisted that his majesty should resign the title of king of France-a harmless feather at least, which his ancestors had so long worn on their crowns; they demanded restitution of the ships taken at Toulon, or a compensation;