of nations. They had themselves by anticipation, passed sentence upon their own conduct. During the whole summer, while France had been engaged in the war with Austria and Prussia, his majesty had in no shape departed from the neutrality which he had engaged to observe; nor did he, by the smallest act, give any rea son to suspect his adherence to that system.

But what, he would ask, was the conduct of the French? They had immediately shewed how little sincere they were in their first assurances, by discovering intentions to pursue a system of the most unlimited aggrandizement, if they were not opposed and checked in their career. The first instance of their success in Savoy had been sufficient to unfold the plan of their ambition. They had immediately adopted the course to annex it for ever to their own dominions, and had displayed a resolution to do the same, wherever they should carry their arms. That they might not leave any doubt of their intention, by a formal decree they had stated their plan of overturning every government, and substituting their own; they threatened destruction to all who should not be inclined to adopt their system of freedom: and, by a horrid mockery, offered fraternization, where, if it was refused, they were determined to employ force, and to propagate their principles, where that mode should fail, by the mouths of their cannon. They established, in their instructions, to the commissioners whom they appointed to enforce the decree with respect to the countries entered by their armies, a standing revolutionary order; they instituted a system of organizing disorganization. And what was the reason which they assigned for all this? "The period of freedom," said they, "must soon come; we must then endeavour, by all means in our power, to accomplish it now; for should this freedom be accomplished by other nations, what then will become of us? Shall we then be safe?" They had rendered the Netherlands a province, in substance as well as name, entirely dependent on France. That

system pursued by the Jacobin societies, in concert with their correspondents, had given a more fatal blow to liberty, than any which it had ever suffered from the boldest attempts of the most aspiring monarch.

In the course of his speech Mr. Pitt openly granted that the Dutch had made no formal requisition for the assistance of this country. He read an extract from a letter, written by one of the French executive council, and addressed to all the friends of liberty in the seaports: "The king of England and his parliament mean to make war against us. Will the English repub. licans suffer it? Already these free men shew their discontent, and the repugnance which they have to bear arms against their brothers the French. Well, we will fly to their succour-we will make a descent on the island-we will lodge there fifty thousand caps of liberty-we will plant there the sacred tree, and we will stretch out our arms to our republican brethren-the tyranny of their government will soon be destroyed." From such circumstances as these he concluded, that the conduct and pretensions of the French were such, as were neither consistent with the existence or safety of this country. In the last paper which had been delivered they had given in an ultimatum, stating, that unless you accept such satisfaction as they have thought proper, to give, they will prepare for war. He then moved the address to his ma jesty.

LORD MORNINGTON,

Now Marquis of Wellesly.)

On the War with France.

of

His lordship contended, that the alternative of war and peace did not at present exist. Before we could relinquish the principles on which the war commenced, proof was necessary, either that the opinions which we had conceived of the views of France were erroneousthat the war was become desperate and impracticableor that, from some improvement in the system and prin ciples of the French, the justice and necessity, which prompted us to commence the war no longer co-operat ed. His lordship ascribed to France unlimited views of aggrandizement; ambition connected with principles subversive of all regular government. In support his opinion, he adduced the act of fraternity, the assumption of sovereignty in Savoy and the Netherlands, the opening of the Scheldt, and the apparent designs of hostility against Holland. That such were their motives, his lordship contended, from the pamphlet written by M. Brissot, the conduct of the French residents in America and Constantinople, and the scheme of emancipating and arming the negroes in the West Indies. From all these proofs, his lordship was fully convinced of the original justice and necessity of the war. The original justice of our cause had received additional confirmation from subsequent events.

With respect to the invincibleness of the French, his lordship compared the situation in which we stood at the commencement of the campaign with the present

time; and declared, that the campaign in Flanders, "had been productive of the most considerable acquisitions both of territory and revenue," which this country had ever obtained in one year in that quarter. The prospect abroad was, he thought, equally favourable. His lordship entered into a history of the French revolution from the overthrow of the Brissotine faction, and of the internal state of France. He detailed the atrocities of the French, and represented the existing government as the utmost excess of tyranny. He then entered at great length into their system of finance, which he conceived was in the most ruinous state; and spoke of the abolition of religion, which had certainly been much less beneficial to the treasury than was generally supposed. His lordship proceeded further to explain the regulations of the French respecting agriculture, commerce, and trade; contrasted their si tuation with that of the English, in the minds of whom there was a general conviction that they are all involved in the issue of the present contest, and a firm determination to prosecute it with vigour. From all these his lordship deduced the strongest hopes of a favourable issue to the war.

The next point to be considered was, whether we could secure ourselves from the inroad of the tyrannical system of France by any other means than the continuance of our present exertions. In proportion as this system of tyranny consumed the property of France, it must endeavour to repair its disordered finances by foreign plunder. It must be the immediate interest of a govern. ment, founded upon principles contrary to those of surrounding nations, to propagate the doctrines abroad by which it subsists at home, and to subvert every constitution which can form a disadvantageous contrast to its own absurdities. "Nothing (said he) can secure us against the future violence of the French, but an effectual reduction of their present power. A peace founded on any other principles would not only be illusory, Vol. II.

56

but produce the most fatal consequences to all our most valuable interests. Nor would the French treat with us for peace, without the surrender of every advantage we had gained by the war, and a full recognition of the sovereignty of the people; we must acknowledge the right of France to the duchy of Savoy, and surrender to her the Netherlands and the principality of Liege. National honour, and a sense of our immediate interest, forbad such a measure. After such conces sions, what further indignities might we not expect? Were the French to concede any of these points, which his lordship thought improbable, since it had been declared death to propose an infraction of these prelimi. nary articles, the whole transaction would, on the first favourable occasion, be imputed as a crime to those who had conducted it; the stipulations of a treaty, com. menced in open defiance of the law, would be easily annulled; and we should discover too late our fatal error, in having relaxed our efforts, precisely at the most critical period of the war, for the purpose of negotiating with a government utterly unable to fulfil its engage. ments. His lordship did not however conceive, that the French had any desire to enter into engagements of that kind with us; he thought we had the most reasonable prospect of ultimate success; and that not only the characters, the dispositions, and the interests of those who exercised the powers of government in France, but the very nature of that system they had established, rendered a treaty of peace upon safe and honourable terms impracticable at present, and consequently required a vigorous and unremitting prosecution of the

war.