couraging to the allies, than fuch a motion as this? It would at any time fetter and weaken, instead of strengthen the hands of Government, and put it out of the power of minifters, be they who they may, to make either peace or war. He proceeded to examine the grounds on which this motion was fupported by the Noble Earl's argument. With regard to fuch of our allies as had made peace with France, the most prominent were the Grand Duke of Tufcany and the King of Pruffia, though the Noble Earl had in the hurry of speaking forgot to notice the first. With regard to the conduct of the King of Pruffia, he was far from faying that his concluding a peace with France was not an effential difadvantage to the confederacy; but he begged their Lordships to recollect that in the last debate on the subject of negotiation with France, it was unrefervedly ftated as a matter to be expected, and no affiftance from Pruffia was given credit for. The defertion of the King of Pruffa from the common caufe could not therefore at the prefent time be urged as an unexpected defalcation of the ftrength of the allies. As to the exhaufted ftate of the finances of Auftria, it was admitted that pecuniary affiftance was wanted there; but that Auftria had military force, if pecuniary aid could be obtained to give it life. On that ground exprefsly and avowedly Parliament were about to grant effectual aid to that power without any additional burdens on this country, and for which we were to have great and powerful military affistance, by which we were to hope for fuccefs by land, and to continue our fuperiority at fea. As to the refcript of the Emperor, even if it were iffued in the name of the King of Hungary and Bohemia, who would say that it would procure to Europe a fafe and honourable peace? To obtain this, the better way was to be prepared for a vigorous profecution of the war. Coffeehoufe politicians, men little read in the law of nations, and the hiftory of political conduct in great ftates, might ridicule the diftinction between the declaration of the Emperor to the Diet, and the declaration of that Monarch as King of Hungary and Bohemia, which every intelligent perfon, capable of entertaining an opinion on fuch important topics, knew perfectly well; the hiftory of almoft all the wars of Europe explained it: To confound the two characters, however it might fuit the converfation of fuch politicians as he had alluded to, would not fuit their Lordships comprehenfive understandings and better information; indeed a moment's reflection on the conftitution of the Germanic body, would ferve to explain what was from fheer ignorance deemed a my ftery, not certainly by the Noble Earl, but by thofe who echoed fuch an abfurd argument without doors. The grounds of the 3. quarrel ! quarrel between the Empire and the French, and those of the other fovereign ftates, were very different. The Empire was the head of the body of the feveral ftates, the conftituent members, each of whom might have their particular caufe of quarrel, when the Empire generally found it its intereft to incline to peace. Peace might, therefore, properly be made on the part of the Empire, and the other powers might continue in the war. Whether the refolutions come to by the Diet of Ratisbon were wife, politic, or prudent, was not for him to decide upon; but the main ground of difcuffion at the Diet appeared to be, whether they fhould or should not negotiate with the French republic. Should they agree to make the Rhine the boundary of the French republic, the electors of Mentz and Treves would be deprived of their dominions, and the Empire difgraced; and would the Electoral College quietly acquiefce in lofing two of its members? To conclude a peace on fuch gounds would totally ruin the Empire; to make the Rhine to the fea the boundary of the Empire, and give up that whole territory, the leaft portion of which had for two centuries paft coft us fo much blood and treasure. If we except the defection of the King of Pruffia, the fituation of France is much more alarming. Before, therefore, we know whether the negotiation between the Empire and the French would be followed up with a treaty, or if it fhould, what that treaty would be, it appeared to him to be premature to fay any thing upon the fubject. Sure he was, that if the French retained their prefeat poffeflions, the other powers of Europe would not be fafe. With refpect to the refources of the allies, he did not think it would be proper for him to go much into that fubject then; but he thought he ought to call on the House to reflect alfo on the ftate of the . refources of the enemy, refpecting which the Noble Earl had not faid one fyllable, although they formed a ftriking feature in the character of the times; and particularly the circumftances which had lately happened in the internal condition of France. He laid no ftrefs for the prefent on the acceffion of Ruffia to the confederacy; he only wiflied to call their Lordfhips attention to the condition of France, fince his argument rendered a comparison abfolutely neceffary. The diftrefs of France was greater at prefent than the most fanguine calculàtion of any man had ever predicted. Affignats, for inftance, which when he last mentioned their value, two or three months ago, were at the difcount of feventy per cent. that was, one hundred pounds of their paper was worth thirty pounds; at this time they were at ninety-five per cent. dif count, count, which was only five pounds value for one hundred pounds paper currency, as for every five pounds they borrowed, they were obliged to iffue one hundred pounds in affignats; and this was a diftrefs which unfortunately, from the nature of its caufe, muft every hour increafe, in proportion to the wants of government, becaufe, as it became neceffary to make fresh iffues of affignats, their value proportionably decreased. Such an effect had this circumftance produced, a circumstance ftated and lamented in almost every fpeech in the Convention on fubjects of finance, that their expenditure, which three months ago was twenty-feven millions per quarter, was now twenty-feven millions a month, which was equal to the whole of our annual expenditure. All this was not matter of conjecture, but a thing admitted in the Convention itself, as he had juft mentioned, not only in their fpeeches upon the fubject, but in the decrees of tlicir Committees at that mo ment. With regard to negotiation, he had no fcruple to repeat, that there must be fome regular and acknowledged government in France before we fhould treat with the French. He had to return his thanks to the Noble Lord for having given him an opportunity of anfwering what he certainly fhould not have touched on himself; but the Noble Lord had been fo kind as to relieve him from the delicacy which he should certainly have confidered as a fufficient bar to allufion, to have impofed filence upon him. The Noble Earl had mentioned Sir Frederick Eden's miflion to France, to negotiate for an exchange of prifoners. It was true that an attempt had been made to treat with the prefent government, and what had been the refult? it had not only proved that the French had not a government capable of maintaining the accustomed relations of amity and peace, but that they were incapable of carrying on war like a civilized nation. Even with rebels and pirates had an exchange of prifoners, on principles of mutual convenience, been agreed to and carried into execution; and yet the French, with all their boafted pretenfions to philofophy and philanthropy, had refused to agree to an exchange of prifoners, even when famine was at their door, when fuch numbers of our brave feamen were languishing in prifon, deftitute of provifion, the abfolute means. of exiftence, and when the number of mouths to be fed added to the general calamity. In fhort, we could not treat with the French until they had a government that was not at war with other governments; a government that taught its fubjects to respect the rights of other nations; and we faw, by changes of the very laft week in France, that if peace were VOL. III. 3 P made made now with the prefent rulers, we fhould not have any fecurity for its continuance for four and twenty hours. He thought, on a review of all the circumftances of the war, and the fituation of all public affairs, that the beft policy of this country was to continue the war with vigour, and therefore the motion before the House should have his direct negatiye. The Earl of Guildford faid, he found himself obliged to rife in order to prevent a falfe impreffion of his Noble Friend's argument from going forth, in confequence of the mifreprefentations of it by the Noble Secretary of State; but he affured their Lordships he would not detain them long, but would confine what he had to fay to as few words as poffible. His Noble Friend had not contended that the Emperor of Germany could not act in one way for the general good of the Empire, and in a very different way for the promotion of his own individual and feparate intereft; they all well knew, that every man ftanding in the Emperor's predicament, as head of the Empire and as King of Bohemia, could act one way for the Empire, and another way for himself; but the manner and the object for which his Noble Friend had ufed the argument, had been, that if the Emperor, as head of the Empire, did negotiate with the French republic, he thereby acknowledged it capable of holding the accustomed relations of amity and peace, and that having fo done, it would be in the highest degree abfurd for him, as King of Bohemia, to contend that the French republic was incapable of holding the accustomed relations of amity and peace. The King of Great Britain might certainly be at war with France, and the Elector of Hanover at peace; but his Majefty, he was perfuaded, had too much regard for the interefts of England, ever to act in that inconfiftent manner. His Lordship owned he was more alarmed at what had fallen from the Noble Secretary than at any thing he had before heard, and he would much rather that his Noble Friend fhould not have made his motion, but that the question re lative to peace had been fuffered to ftand on the ground on which it was left at the end of the last debate on the subject, than put into the fituation in which the Noble Secretary of State had now placed it, becaufe, from what had been faid by that Noble Lord, it was clear that the defpair of his Majefty's ministers carried them fo far beyond all hope, that unless the Parliament interpofed its authority, and compelled them to negotiate, they were determined to risk the exiftence of the country, in order to preferve the existence of their own adminiftration. The Noble Secretary of State's prophecies had all turned out to be falfe. From time to time they had predicted the speedy conqueft of France, and all that while the had conquered province after province, and kingdom after kingdom. He wished his Majefty had better advifers, or that he had none: For if left to the affections which animate his breaft, he would foon terminate a fyftem which brought with it fuch devastation and horror. He lamented that a British Cabinet fhould now be the only obftacle to the general tranquillity of Europe, and he advifed their Lordships to step forward and put a stop to proceedings which might end in the ruin of the country; for by fuch conduct as minifters obferved, it appeared as if they were determined to proceed until the destruction of this country, or of France, is effected, and that nothing fhort of it would fatisfy them. Lord Mulgrave faid, he rofe on the fame principle as his Noble Friend who had juft fat down had done, viz. to prevent a falfe impreffion going abroad in confequence of the mifreprefentation of the arguments of his Noble Friend the Secretary of State. His Noble Friend near him (Lord Grenville) had not argued the diftinction between the Emperor as head of the Empire, and as King of Bohemia, in the manner ftated by the Noble Earl, but had clearly faid that it might be proper for him, under the fanction of the declared withes for immediate peace on the part of the Diet of Ratisbon, to attempt to negotiate a peace with the republic of France, at even a greater rifk and hazard than he thought it adviseable to negotiate at on his own account in his individual fovereign capacity of King of Bohemia. There furely was nothing irreconcileable or inconfiftent in the Emperor's acting in that manner, and agreeable to the diftinction that he had just ftated. Another mifreprefentation of his Noble Friend the Secretary of State's argument, as given by the Noble Earl, had been his declaration that it was now clear that nothing but the authority of Parliament could drive minifters from that mad career which their defpair prompted, to rifk even the exiftence of the country, rather than rifk the exiftence of their own adminiftration. Nothing that his Noble Friend the Secretary of State had faid, would warrant that conclufion fo haftily drawn and infifted on with fo must warmth by his Noble Friend the Earl, The inference fairly warranted both by the language and conduct of ministers, on the fubject of all motions of a tendency with the prefent, had uniformly been, that fuch motions, instead of accelerating peace on honourable and fecure terms, which they wished as ardently as any fet of men whatever, only produced embarraffment to the Executive Government, and threw additional difficulties in the way of their attaining that defireable 3P 2 |