dations than force and violence, and needed no fuch fupport to triumph over its enemies. The bishop was eagerly oppofed by lord Hawkesbury, who recurred to thofe various arguments in favour of the minifterial meafures, which had been fo repeatedly urged. The marquis of Lanfdowne was equally vehement against them. He dwelt principally on the lofs of Holland, as an effential diminution of strength to the coalition, and an unanswerable motive for immediate peace. The revolutionary governments that had arifen, in confequence of the furprifing events produced by the prefent conteft, instead of preventing a pacification, ought, he afferted, to incline us to it, for the moft obvious of all reafons, left we fhould be affected by the ftorms that had wrought fuch unexpected alterations among our neighbours. We had treated with our revolted fubjects in America; why fhould we refufe to negotiate with the French, who were neither our fubjects, nor the firft to provoke us to a contest? there was no neceffity to deftroy the French government, in order to fecrure the continuance of the English; the fuperiority of which was too well established in the minds of the people here, to need fo harsh and unjustifiable a method of confirming it. Peace was therefore preferable to the continuance of a war that only tended to perpetuate a fpirit of enmity, which was certainly both impolitic in itself, and injurious to both nations; as a pacification muft of neceffity take place at laft, unlefs we both were refolved on mutual extermination, and as the calamities we brought on each other became daily more difficult to be remedied. To perfift in a conteft, in which we had been fo unfuccefsful, was not fortitude but obflinacy. It was thus we had loft America, and might now plunge ourselves into difficulties and misfortunes of a much more tremendous nature. It had been afked, whether the atrocities, of which the French had been guilty, ought to remain unpunished? But what right had we to affume the talk of avengers? This fhould The earl of Hardwick, lord be left to the difcretion of hea- Hawke, and earl Spencer, fupporven. But, were we to fucceed ted the minifterial motion; lord in re-establishing Lewis XVII. on Mulgrave feconded them, obfervthe defpotic throne of his ancef- ing, that though defeated, the cotors, would he make this country alition was too formidable a body any compenfation for the blood to be confidered without terror, it had fhed, and the treafures it even by the victors, and while had expended, in his caufe? acting firmly together, had every Would his fubjects permit it? thing to hope. We were mafters Would our allies confent to it? of the Weft Indies, that immenfe The French were accused of athe- repofitory of trade and riches, ifm: this, doubtlefs, was an enor- and our fleets were univerfally mity, as well as a fully, of a victorious; but if we offered to moft deplorable nature. But was treat of peace with the French, it curable by war and deftruction? they would claim a furrender of Chriftianity flood on better foun- all the advantages we had obtained in that quarter of the globe, and would quickly take occasion to turn them against us. The debate continued with great warmth, and a multiplicity of arguments was brought forward by the refpective contendants, of much the fame defcription as the many fo often reiterated. It clofed at length with a majority of eighty-eight in favour of miniftry, against a minority of no more than fifteen. Oppofition, though difcomfited, fill returned to the charge: Mr. Gray moved, in the lower houfe, on the 6th of February, that it was incumbent on government to remove every impediment that flood in the way of peace between Great Britain and France; and that without acknowledging fome competent power to treat with in that country, the war muft neceffarily laft till one of the two nations was fubdued or exterminated by the other: he propofed, therefore, that the houfe fhould, for the purpose of avoiding fo dreadful an extremity, formally declare itself of opinion, that the government now eftablished in France was competent to negotiate and conclude a peace with the government of this country. He made a copious and animated fpeech on this occafion, and was vigorously feconded by the principal peakers in the oppofition; and no lels warmly oppofed by the adherents to miniftry. The previous queftion being moved, by Mr. Dundas, was carried in the affirmative, by one hundred and ninety, againft fixty-nine. In the houfe of lords, the duke of Bedford moved, on the 12th of February, that the government of France was no obftruction to a treaty; but that if, through the 9 ambitious motive of aggrandizing the republic, or in order to propagate their principles, the French fhould refufe equitable conditions, the houfe would give a vigorous fupport to the war. He was feconded, and oppofed, in the ufual ftyle of arguing upon this fubject; and the previous queftion being moved, by lord Hawkesbury, was carried by a majority of fixty-three: a proteft, however, was figned, againft the minifterial meatures, by the duke of Bedford, and the earls of Guildford and Lauderdale. These reiterated, defeats of all the endeavours to induce minifters to turn their thoughts to peace, induced Mr. Fox to make a motion, on the 24th of March, that a committee of the whole houfe fhould take into confideration the state of the kingdom. The cafe was fo important, the dangers threatening it fo obvious, that fuch an inquiry ought not to be delayed. He had, in confequence of our defeat at Saratoga, during the American war, made a fimilar motion, and it had been acceded to; though our fitua tion at that time was far from being fo perilous as at prefent. An idea pervaded the mafs of the people, that the commons could not fairly be reputed the reprefentatives of the nation, from their undeviating compliance with every measure propofed by miniftry, notwithstanding the ill fuccefs with which they had conducted the war. The obftinacy they conftantly difplayed, in refifting every motion for peace, required the ftricteft inveftigation; what could be the motives for fo extraordinary a confidence in men who were continually unfortunate? While minifters were able to fet themfelves, in this unprecedented manner, manner, above all inquiry, they were in fact above refponfibility; and those who complained that the conftitution was on the decline, and that a fyftem of defpotifm had taken place in this country, could not be refuted. Men that dreaded quiries into their conduct, afforded the cleareft prefumption that it would not bear examination; and the high hand with which they kept it at a distance fhewed, at the fame time, that the spirit of that conftitution was departed from those whofe duty it was to call minifters to account for the misfortunes that befel the state, in order to ascertain whether they were owing to irrefiftible caufes, or to the perverfity of minifters themselves. The most evident neceffity now dictated fuch an inquiry the war had lafted only two years, and, in that fhort period, the enemy had made a progress unknown to former æras; they had overcome all refiftance, and acquired fuch an extent of territory, as placed them in the most alarming state of fuperiority to the confederation formed against them. Could we with fafety and prudence proceed in this war? Did our refources warrant its profecution, even allowing it to be just and neceflary? but was it in truth either of thefe? Had minifters acted an upright and spirited part in undertaking and conducting it? these were questions to be refolved previously to engaging more deeply in fo ferious a bufinefs. Our loffes had been immenfe; but the utmost induftry was used to conceal or diminish them. Mr. Fox then enan elaborate investigation ers that had perifhed 1, or been taken by He adverted to the state of population throughout the kingdom, which he thought on the decreafe. He calculated the expences of the war at feventy millions, and the permanent taxes it had occafioned at three millions. He afferted the trade of the country to be diminished, the exports being much less than in the year before the war, and infurance as high as in the American war, while contending with our colonies, Spain, France, and Holland, united. We had allies, he said, but could we truft them? one of them, Pruffia, by the treaty of 1788, was bound to furnish thirteen thousand men, and had received twelve hundred thousand pounds to double that number: had he effectually done it? Had we the leaft reason to prefume that Auftria would treat us more honourably, after receiving the four or the fix millions it had demanded? the like demands would enfue, year after year, until we were entirely exhaufted. The Sardinian fubfidy was perfectly useless; that power had done nothing, and Spain was already fo reduced, that it must also be fubfidifed, or have recourse to an immediate peace for its prefervation. Our conduct to neutral nations had been highly dif graceful. We had firft provoked them by the tyrannical haughtiness of our behaviour, and, after injuring their commerce, had found it neceffary to indemnify them. Our councils had been fo equivocal, that neither friends nor foes could form a precife idea of our real intentions: the very emigrants and royalifts miftrufted us, and looked upon the coalition as a fcheme for difmembering France much more than for reftoring it to the Bourbon Family. The naval part of the war, confider thofe g our fuperiority at fea, had, he faid, been very injudicioufly maraged, and our loffes greater than during the American conteft, though we were now confederated with very powers at that time our enemies. The fituation of Ireland, he oblerved, required no lefs the ftricteft inquiry: the extreme irritation of the great mafs of that people ought to warn minifters rot to render themfelves refponfible for the very poffible event of its dilmemberment from the British empire, by the refufal of an inquiry into the difcontents of its inhabitants. While rulers of fuch a defcription as the prefent prefided over our affairs, he was thoroughly convinced thefe would never profper; but before he would enter on the propriety of their removal, he would move for an inquiry into the ftate of the nation. Mr. Pitt, in reply to this fpeech, allowed the subjects propofed for inquiry to be of the higheft importance; but this was not a feafon to difcufs them. So extenfive an investigation demanded more time than the remainder of the feffion could allow; befides, that every fubject alluded to had already undergone an ample difcuffion: he would advert, however, to fome material errors; the lofs of men, for inftance, was tenfold greater with the enemy than with us; and the increase of manufactures was prodigious, without the decrease of any particular branch. The numbers wanted for the navy and the army were great, and yet the exports for the last year had exceeded thote of any preceding year of war. With out juftifying the conduct of Pruffia, till he would recommend the strict eft alliance with Auftria, of whofe Vor. XXXVII, finances we fhould readily fupply the deficiency, in confideration of the auxiliary strength we derived from that quarter. He did not deny the rife of infurance; but attributed it to the extraordinary augmentation of our foreign trade; and, in a great measure, to the deftruction of the naval power of the French, which had induced them to convert the remainder of their marine into privateers, by which means they now carried on a predatory war: but methods, he affirmed, would, ere long, be found to refift this new fyftem of depredation. He complained of the propenfity of thofe who difapproved of the war, to leffen our fucceffes, and to magnify our loffes; but whatever changes, he added, might happen in the minifterial department, thefe were not the men in whom thofe who felt for the honour of their country would repofe confidence. He concluded by moving the previous queftion, after ftrongly admonishing the houfe to wave all notice of the affairs of Ireland, as entirely improper at the prefent period, and productive of more perplexity than fervice to either of the two kingdoms. Mr. Sheridan cenfured, with great afperity, Mr. Pitt's anfwer to Mr. Fox, as totally irrelevant of the main fubject. Mr. Canning afferted that the actual fituation of Ireland was a fufficient exculpation for declining all difcuffion on the fub-. jea. They were followed by Mr. Fox, who refumed the subject with great warmth and energy. He was not furprifed, he faid, that minifters fhould object to an inquiry that would endanger their places: but was the nation thus to be farrificed to their convenience? They had in[0] fultingly fultingly hinted, that if they were difmiffed, ftill he ftood no chance of fucceeding them; but whatever miniftry took their places, however fuperior their abilities might be to thofe of their predeceffors in office, never fhould they meet with his cooperation while they adopted the principles now acted upon by thofe in power. His conduct, he obferved with great emotion, had been reprefented as tending to lower the dignity of the British nation; but how could a man prefume to tax him with fo heinous a charge, who had, through his obftinacy, brought it fo near to abfolute ruin? Mr. Fox reminded the houfe, how carneftly he had recommended conciliatory measures with France, before the commencement of the war, and with what difdain they had been rejected by the minifter. Did he how imagine, that as advantageous terms would be obtained from the French as at that period? dared he to hope, after fo many difappointments, for a more aufpicious opportunity than the prefent? The time to negotiate on an equal footing, with the French, was before an appeal had been made to the fword, and not after repeated defeats, which had placed them on the vantage ground, and lowered our own confequence. We then were rich in refources, and our reputation unimpaired: but who could be fo bold as to deny that both had fuffered? Our allies were then ftrong in numbers, and high in their military character; but how much fallen fince how deprefled in fpirit, how much weakened and dif united? how defirous to drop the conteft? It was unfufferable, Mr. Fox faid, that a minifter, who had o groffly mifcalculated the progrefs of events, and fo unhappily ma naged the affairs of this country, fhould accufe another of endeavouring to debafe the national character, who had uniformly forewarned him, that, by perfifting in this fatal conteft, he would expofe this country to the moft alarming dangers. This debate concluded by Mr. Pitt's moving an adjournment, and carrying it, by two hundred and ineteen again fixty-three. On the 50th of March, a motion, fimilar to that of Mr. Fox's, was made, in the honfe of lords, by the earl of Guildford, who fupported it by much the fame arguments, and inculpated, with great acrimony, the meatures of govern ment, as marked with negligence and want of judgement, both in the naval and military, depart ment. He was replied to by lord Grenville, who spoke on the fubject of Ireland, in the fame manner as the minifter. He explicitly affirmed, that, however the forces of the coalition had been unfuccessful on the continent of Europe, the fortune of war had declared for the British flag in every other part of the world. The commerce of France was nearly annihilated, and our fleets ruled uncontroulable in every fea. The blow given to the French at Toulon would long remain irretrieved; and the repeated defeats of their fquadrons had fo thoroughly eftablished our naval fuperiority, that they had abandoned all thoughts of meeting us in battle, and confined themselves to a war of piracy and plunder, whenever chance offered them our commercial fhipping unprotected and defencelefs. The victorious career of the French on the continent, he con |