these minifters, fhall continue to prevail in the councils of Great Britain.

It is painful for us to remind his majefty of the fituation of his dominions at the beginning of the war, and of the high degree of profperity to which the fkill and industry of his fubjects had, under the fafeguard of a free constitution, raifed the British empire, fince it can only fill his mind with the melancholy recollection of profperity abufed, and of opportunities of fecuring permanent advantages wantonly rejected. Nor fhall we prefume to wound his majefty's benevolence, by dwelling on the fortunate confequences which might have arisen from the mediation of Great Britain, between the powers then at war, which might have enfured the permanence of our profperity, while it preferved all Europe from the calamities which it has fince endured. A mediation which this kingdom was fo well fitted to carry on with vigour and dignity, by its power, its character, and the nature of its government, happily removed at an equal distance from the contending extremes of licentioufnefs and tyranny.

From this neutral and impartial fyftem of policy his majefty's minifters were induced to depart by certain measures of the French government, of which they complained as injurious and hoftile to this country. With what juftice thofe complaints were made, we are not now called upon to determine, fince it cannot be pretended, that the measures of France were of fuch a nature as to preclude the poffibility of adjustment by negotiation; and it is impoffible to deny, that the power which fhuts up the channel of accommodation, must be the real aggreffor in war.

To reject negotiation is to deter mine on hoftilities; and whatever may have been the nature of the points in question between us and France, we cannot but pronounce the refufal of fuch an authorized communication with that country as might have amicably terminated the difpute, to be the true and immediate caufe of the rupture which followed.

Nor can we forbear to remark, that the pretences under which his majefty's minifters then haughtily refufed fuch authorized conmunication, have been fufficiently expofed by their own conduct, in fince fubmitting to a fimilar intercourfe with the fame government.

The mifguided policy, which thus rendered the war inevitable, appears to have actuated the minifters in their determination to continue it at all hazards. At the fame time we cannot but obferve, that the obftinacy with which they have adhered to their defperate fyftem, is not more remarkable than their verfatility in the pretexts upon which they have juftified it. At one period the ftrength, at another the weaknefs of the enemy have been urged as motives for continuing the war: the fucceffes, as well as the defeats of the allies, have contributed only to prolong the conteft; and hope and defpair have equally ferved to involve us ftill deeper in the horrors of war, and to entail upon us an endless train of calamities.

After the original profeffed objects had been obtained by the expulfion of the French armies from the territories of Holland and the Auftrian Netherlands, we find his majefty's minifters, influenced either by arrogance or by infatuated ambition and the vain hope

of

of conquefts, which, if realized, could never compenfate to the nation for the blood and treafure by which they must be obtained, rejecting, unheard, the overtures made by the executive council of France, at a period when the circumftances were fo eminently favourable to his majesty and his allies, that there is every reafon to fuppofe that a negotiation, commenced at fuch a juncture, must have terminated in an honourable and advantageous peace: to the profpects arifing from fuch an opportunity, they preferred a blind and obftinate perfeverance in a war which could fcarce have any remaining object but the unjustifiable purpofe of impofing upon France a government difapproved of by the inhabitants of that country; and fuch was the infatuation of thefe minifters, that, far from being able to frame a wife and comprehenfive fyftem of policy, they even rejected the few advantages that belonged to their own unfortunate fcheme. The general existence of a defign to interpofe in the internal government of France was too manifeft, not to roufe into active hoftility the national zeal of that people; but their particular projects were too equivocal to attract the confidence, or procure the co-operation of thofe Frenchmen who were difaffected to the government of their country. The nature of thefe plans was too clear not to provoke formidable enemies, but their extent was too ambiguous to conciliate ufeful friends.

We beg leave farther to reprefent to your majefty, that at fubfequent periods your minifters have fuffered the most favourable opportunities to escape of obtaining an honourable and advantageous

pacification. They did not avail themfelves, as it was their duty to have done, of the unbroken ftrength of the general confederacy which had been formed against France, for the purpofe of giving effect to overtures for negotiation. They faw the feceffion of feveral powerful ftates from that confederacy, they fuffered it to diffolve without an effort for the attainment of a general pacification. They loaded their country with the odium of having engaged in a combination, charged with the moft queftionable and unjuftifiable views, without availing themfelves of that combination, for procuring favourable conditions of peace. That, from this fatal neglect, the progrefs of hoftilities has only ferved to eftablifh the evils which might certainly have been avoided by negotiation, but which are now confirmed by the events of the war. have felt that the unjustifiable and impracticable attempt to establish royalty in France by force, has only proved fatal to its unfortunate fupporters. We have feen with regret the fubjugation of Holland, and the aggrandifement of the French republic; and we have to lament the alteration in the state of Europe, not only from the fucceffes of the French, but from the formidable acquifitions of fome of the allied powers on the fide of Poland, acquifitions, alarming from their magnitude, but ftill more fo from the manner in which they have been made, thus fatally learning that the war has tended alone to eftablish the very evils, for the prevention of which it was avowedly undertaken.

We

That we now therefore approach his majefty, to affure him that his faithful commons heard, with the (F 4) Gincereft

fincereft fatisfaction, his majesty's moft gracious meffage of the 8th of December, wherein his majefty acquaints them, that the crisis which was depending at the commencement of the prefent feffion, had led to fuch an order of things, as would induce his majefty to meet any difpofition to negotiation on the part of the enemy, with an earneft defire to give it the fulleft and fpeedieft effect, and to conclude a general treaty of peace, whenever it could be effected on juft and equitable terms for himfelf and his allies.

That from this gracious communication, they were led to hope for a fpeedy termination to this moft difaftrous conteft; but that, with furprife and forrow, they have now reafon to apprehend that three months were fuffered to elapse be fore any fteps were taken towards a negotiation, or any overtures made by his majefty's fervants.

With equal furprife and concern they have obferved, when a fair and open conduct was fo peculiarly incumbent on his majefty's minifters, confidering the prejudices and fufpicions which their previous conduct must have excited in the mins of the French; that instead of adopting that open and manly manner which became the wifdom, the character, and dignity of the British nation, they had recourfe to a ftyle calculated rather to excite fufpicion, than to infpire confidence in the enemy. Ev ry expreffion which might be conftrued into an acknowledgment of the French republic, or even an allufion to its forms, was ftudioufly avoided; and the minifter, through whom this overture was nade, was in a most unprecedented manner inftructed to declare, that he had

8

no authority to enter into any negotiation or difcuffion relative to the objects of the propofed treaty.

That it is with pain we reflect that the alacrity of his majefty's minifters in apparently breaking off this incipient negotiation, as well as the ftrange and unufual manner in which it was announced to the minifters of the various powers of Europe, affords a very unfavourable comment on their reluctance in entering upon it, and is calculated to make the moft injurious impreffion respect. ing their fincerity on the people of France.

On a review of fo many instan ces of gross and flagrant mifconduct, proceeding from the fame pernicious principles, and directed with incorrigible obftinacy to the fame mifchievous ends, we deem ourselves bound in duty to his majefty, and to our conftituents, to declare that we fee no rational hope of redeeming the affairs of the kingdom, but by the adop tion of a fyftem radically and fundamentally different from that which has produced our prefent calamities.

Unless his majefty's minifters fhall, from a real conviction of paft errors, appear inclined to re gulate their conduct upon fuch a fyftem, we can neither give any credit to the fincerity of their profeflions of a wish for peace, nor repofe any confidence in them for conducting a negotiation to a profperous iffue. Odious as they are

to

an enemy who wife, still to believe them fecretly to cherish thofe unprincipled and chimerical projects which they have been compelled in public to difavow, contemptible in the eyes of all

Europe

Europe, from the difplay of infincerity which has marked their conduct, our only hopes reft on his majesty's royal wisdom and unqueftioned affection for his people, that he will be gracioufly pleafed to adopt maxims of policy more fuited to the circumftances of the times than those by which his majesty's minifters appear to have been governed, and to direct his fervants to take measures, which, by differing effentially, as well in their tendency as in the principle upon which they are founded, from thofe which have hitherto marked their conduct, may give this country fome reasonable hope, at no very diftant period, of the establishment of a peace fuitable to the interests of Great Britain, and likely to preferve the tranquillity of Europe.

This motion was negatived by a majority of 216 to 42.

His Majefty's Speech to both Houses of Parliament, May 19, 1796.

My lords and gentlemen, The public bufinefs being now concluded, I think it proper to close this feffion, and at the fame time to acquaint you with my intention of giving immediate directions for calling a new parliament.

The objects which have engaged your attention during the prefent feilion, have been of peculiar importance; and the measures which you have adopted, have manifefted your continued regard to the fafety and welfare of my pepple.

The happieft effects have been experienced from the provifions which you have made for reprefing fedition and civil tumuit, and for reftraining the progrefs of pain

ciples fubverfive of all established government.

The difficulties arifing to my fubjects from the high price of corn, have formed a principal object of your deliberation; and your afliduity in inveftigating that fubject, has ftrongly proved your anxious defire to omit nothing which could tend to the relief of my people, in a matter of fuch general concern. I have the greatest fatisfaction in obferving that the preffure of thofe difficulties is in a great degree removed.

Gentlemen of the house of commons,

I muft, in a more particular manner, return you my thanks for the liberal fupplies which you have granted to meet the exigencies of the war.- While I regret the extent of thofe demands which the prefent circumftances neceffarily occafion, it is a great confolation to fources by which the country is me to obferve the increasing reenabled to fupport them. These refources are particularly manifefted in the ftate of the different branches of the revenue; in the continued and progreffive state of our navigation and commerce; in the fteps which have been taken for maintaining and improving pub lic credit, and in the additional provifion which has been made for the reduction of the national debt.

My lords and gentlemen,

I fhall ever reflect with heartfelt fatisfaction on the uniform wifdoin, temper, and firmnefs which have appeared in all your proceedings, fince I first met you in this place. Called to deliberate on the public affairs of your country in a period of foreign and domeftic

tran

tranquillity, you had the happinefs of contributing to raise this kingdom to a state of unexampled profperity. You were fuddenly compelled to relinquish the full advantages of this fituation, in order to refift the unprovoked aggreffion of an enemy whofe hoftility was directed against all civil fociety, but more particularly against the happy union of order and liberty eftablished in thefe kingdoms. The nature of the fyftem introduced into France, afforded to that country, in the midst of its calamities, the means of exertion beyond the experience of any former time. Under the preffure of the new and unprecedented difficulties arifing from fucha conteft, you have fhew yourselves worthy of all the blefsings that you inherit. By your counfels and conduct, the conftitution has been preferved inviolate against the defigns of foreign and domeftic enemies; the honour of the British name has been afferted; the rank and ftation which we have hitherto held in Europe has been maintained; and the decided fuperiority of our naval ower has been established in every quarter of the world.

You have omitted no opportunity to prove your just anxiety for the re-establishment of general peace on fecure and honourable. terms; but you have at the fame time rendered it manifeft to the world, that while our enemies fhall perfift in difpofitions incompatible with that object, neither the refources nor the fpirit of Englishmen will be wanting to the fupport of a juft caufe, and to the defence of all their dearest interefts.

that their loyalty and public spirit will enfure the continuance of that union and mutual confidence between me and my parliament, which beft promote the true dignity and glory of my crown, and the genuine happiefs of my people."

His Majesty's Speech to both Houses of Parliament, October 6, 1796.

My lords and gentlemen,

It is a peculiar fatisfaction to me, in the prefent conjuncture of affairs, to recur to your advice, after the recent opportunity which has been given for collecting the fenfe of my people, engaged in a difficult and arduous conteft, for the preservation of all that is most dear to us.

I have omitted no endeavours for fetting on foot negotiations to restore peace to Europe, and to fecure for the future the general tranquillity. The fteps which I have taken for this purpofe have at length opened the way to an immediate and direct negotiation, the iffue of which muft either produce the defirable end of a juft, honourable, and folid peace for us, and for our allies; or must prove, beyond difpute, to what caufe alone the prolongation of the calamities of war must be ascribed.

I fhall immediately send a perfon to Paris, with full powers to treat for this object; and it is my anxious with that this measure may lead to the reftoration of general peace: but you must be fenfible that nothing can fo much contribute to give effect to this defire, as your manifefting that we poffefs both the determination and the refources to oppofe, with increased activity and energy, the farther ef

forts