ampled in hiftory; and how had they used it? Were we to look for their juftification towards Holland and Ferrol? at their conduct in the treaty of El-Arish? or at their treatment of our allies, and the neutral powers?

Parcere fübjectis, et debellare fuperbos, was the maxim of the Romans; our

minifters had inverted it :

Parcere fuperbis, debellare fubje&tos, had been theirs. Ruffia, in the firft inftance, had been permitted to infult us with impunity: but when a weaker power advanced a pretenfion, an ambaffador had been fent to negotiate at the cannon's mouth; and yet the negotiation terminated without any adjuftment of the point in queftion. Minifters afferted that the Northern confederacy was established on the bafis of the neutral treaty of 1780. This, however, did not appear to be the fact, from count Bernftorf's official note to our ambaffador: and they themselves did not think fo, otherwise they could not, without betraying the greatelt pufillanimity, avoid declaring war against the king of Pruffia, who was a party in that treaty, and had acceded to the negotiation entered into by the Northern powers against

us.

Earl Spencer ftrenuously contended, that an inquiry, during the prefent war, would infallibly cripple our exertions and impede our fuccefs; not that he meant to imply any doubt but that, whenever an inquiry fhould be made, it would redound to the honour of the minifters, as well as of the troops and officers employed. But this was not a period for investigation, but action. As to the new conteft, it was not poffible to avoid it; and we retained ftrength and

ability enough to conduct it to a happy iffue.

The earl of Carnarvon faid, that the prefent difcuffion had unfolded fentiments which ought not to be paffed over in filence, tenets the most unconftitutional and dangerous at all times, but in this critical of hope. When the fpeech from juncture deftructive even the throne announces the desertion of friends and allies, and their fudden change into enemies, was it our duty to hear it with ignorant aftonishment, to exhaust ourselves in terms of rash indignation, and prepare for blind vengeance?

At this moment he did not confider that the house was called upon to pledge their confidence to minifters, or precipitately to declare them to be unworthy of it; but furely it was not a juft statement of parliamentary duty to represent these things as not affording ground for inquiry; and, above all, to reprefent inquiry under these circumftances as dangerous.

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Were we to be informed, that under the adminiftration of the fame men, the nation might fall from the highest situation in which we ftood last year, to the lowest ftate of defpondefcy under which we now met; and yet owed nothing but aftonishment and regret to our country, and an unlimited confidence in the minifters? their defire we were to plunge into a war with our old friends and allies, without even examining the caufe, or its juftice? We had lately feen our nation in amity with them all, fuccessfully purfuing one common object against one common enemy, with the profpect of an honourable peace almoft at our command; and now,

we

are just informed, we were placed at the eve of an alarming

war

war with all the world, without one ally, without the moft diftant hope of peace, and with only the affurances of government on which to deliver up the remaining refources of an exhaufted country! He meant not to impute blame to minifters, but to promote inquiry: poffibly all our furrounding calamities might have been inevitable; and this inquiry might lead us to expect, from the wisdom of adminiftration, a termination of our evils and furely this converted a ftrict examination into a peremptory duty. A series of difaftrous events was little calculated to infpire confidence in the abilities of minifters; and if we were precluded from all fources of information, the view of our public fituation, and this fudden reverse of our profperous eftate, must neceffarily excite miftruft and diffatisfaction.

:

It had been rumoured that the claims of the Ruffians, Swedes, and Danes, as neutral nations, were fo unreasonable, fo obviously grounded in the hoftile defign to deftroy the naval importance of this country, that it required no investigation to prove it. His lordfhip acknowledged he had great doubts upon this head. The little regular information laid before the houfe, public rumours, newspapers, and private converfation, were all the materials which could be obtained; and these inclined him to think, that our quarrel was not fo indubitably juft as to preclude the neceffity of inquiry before we plunged into a war. If it were true, that we had by treaty, for certain commercial advantages, relinquifhed to one nation the right of fearching the fhips of fuch contracting nations during our warfare with France, and thereby authorised such nations to fupply

France without France without our interruption with warlike ammunition, this exception by treaty deftroyed our right to fearch the fhips of that na tion, or of any nation included in a treaty of the fame kind; and the refufal of Ruffia to permit her fhips to be fearched for contraband goods in times of war was justified by it.

Lord Grenville expreffed his aftonishment that it fhould be af ferted the house was not fully apprifed of the grounds of the quar rel, though it was fo unequivocally known that an embargo had been laid upon our veffels in Ruffia in direct violation of her treaty with

us.

The house, however, was not called upon for its opinion, but fupport. In 1780, Sweden and Denmark had infifted on princi ples contrary, in fome respects, to the law of nations, and in others to the exprefs letter of our treaties. Thefe pretenfions had never been acknowledged by England, as was falfely affirmed; on the contrary, we returned an anfwer, that the different ftates engaged in the treaty of 1780 were bound by their prior treaties with us to a different line of conduct; nor could they have the power of altering them without the confent of England. With regard to a convention made with a fovereign ftate, agreeing to depart from the right of nations in certain fpecified particulars in its favour for a limited time, this was an exception to the general rule, and tended to prove thofe rights rather than deny their exiftence. His lordship reprobated the idea of free fhips from neutral states supplying military ftores to our enemy. He contended that, for ages paft, the belligerent powers were intitled to feize them; and this doctrine was eftablished immemorially by the practice

practice, and admitted by the law of nations; and if this country did not maintain her own honour, fhe would defervedly fall into difgrace in the eyes of all the world, the attention of which was fixed on the deliberations of the imperial parlia

ment.

After difcuffing this point much at length, he came to the amendment, expreffing great diffatisfaction at the idea of an inquiry, which would not only be ufelefs, but detrimental.

Any one would fuppofe (continued his lordship) that the war had been attended with nothing but misfortune and difhonour; the naval victories, unparalleled for brilliancy of exploit and heroic action, feemed quite forgotten. Great blame had been caft on the expedition to Holland; but though it had not been completely fuccefsful, was it little to obtain the whole of the Dutch fleet, and cripple the marine of the most potent maritime power at war againft us? If we took a view of the comparative fituation of this kingdom and thofe ftates which had been compelled to fubmit to the French republic, we fhould find caufe of exultation: was it no privilege that their lordships were enabled to affemble quietly in that houfe? that the country was ftill able to meet, alone and un-allied, their combined enemies, without the flighteft reafon to despair? Confidence might furely well be placed on the force of our fleets, and the gallantry of our feamen. Refpecting Cadiz and Ferrol, in carrying on fuch a conteft as the prefent, expeditions might be justifiably prepared to attack the ports where the fhips of Spain were fitting out to co-operate with the French fleets, and act jointly against our own fquadrons;

1501.

and though the plan might not have fucceeded to the full extent of our wifhes, minifters did not deferve cenfure for fo laudable an undertaking. Lord Grenville concluded with faying, it would be a bad return to his majefty, for his gracious fpeech, to annex an amendment to the addrefs, implying the conditions on which alone they would fupport it.

The earl of Carnarvon rofe again to obferve, he never had afferted that any thing poffeffed by right, which in its own nature was alienable and transferable, might not be granted by treaty to whom and in fuch manner as the poffeffor chofe ; but he had affirmed, and would maintain, that a right arifing from a state of war was in its nature unalienable, and resembled not a right of transferable poffettion; nor could it be relinquished or difpofed of by treaty, for the fole benefit of one neutral nation, to the prejudice of another neutral state; it was due to neither, or to both; and we had confequently a right to fearch all neutral vefiels, or none.

Lord Moira began an able fpecch with exonerating minifters for not allowing him to land his troops in the expedition he was called to command in the year 1794; the reafon was, it had been found that the royalifts had retired from the coafts of France to the interior of the country, and therefore could not have co-operated with the British forces, had they landed. Having exculpated adminiftration where he knew them not to be cenfurable, he could go no further, but thould vote for the amendment. The people of England wished to fee that they were in earneft. Juftice was due to the extraordinary merits of our fleets, officers and failors; gallantry and enterprise

B

enterprife were not more the characteristic of our naval officers than of our military, to which he belonged they were as ready to rifk their lives in the fervice of their country as any defcription of men; but they had been placed in an invidious fituation by the conduct of minifters, who were highly culpable for not having properly applied the large military force that was on foot. This alone was a neceffary subject for inquiry, befides other important events in the whole management of the war. He did not, any more than the noble earl, diftinctly collect from the fpeech from the throne what was the cause of the approaching hoftilities with Ruffia and the northern powers; furely this was a fubject of too great concern to be left to vague rumour, or oblique hints. The neceffity of inquiry was apparent refpecting all the paft, on a variety of grounds: how came it, that the war againft France commenced with this country in a confederacy with all the powers combined on our fide, and that we now were in the ftrange fituation of having that very confederacy combined with France against us? But the noble fecretary had confidered it a glorious privilege that we were able to affemble quietly in that houfe! Heavens! was it a glorious event that were not crushed entirely? not totally annihilated?-and was this all the mighty refult of "brilliant exploits" and "unparalleled valour?" Had the enemy made their threatened invasion, he, for his own part, did not believe there exifted a lord in that houfe who would have been difmayed, nor a foldier out of it who would not have concurred in chaftifing the invaders for their temerity.

we

The earl of Mufgrave defended minifters from the charge of not affording the military proper opportunities of diftinguishing themfelves, and directing well the large forces on foot: he afked lord Rawdon if the fuccefs in the WeftIndies had escaped his notice, and whether the glorious achievements in the eaft, the capture of Seringapatam, and the deftruction of our moft invidious and powerful enemy in that quarter of the globe, had dropped from his memory? concluding with fupporting the addrefs as it was originally moved.

The Earl of Fife declared it his opinion that minifters had abused the confidence they had received; the continent of Europe had been nearly ruined by their advice, and they would infallibly deftroy the Britifh empire, if they perfevered in their fyftem. He deplored the fcarcity to which we were reduced, and thought it lefs to be ascribed to the difpenfations of Providence than to the confequence of the war. He spoke upon this fubject, to discharge, his confcience, and thus openly avow his fentiments of the men whom he had, in common with other peers, fo long and fo improvidently fupported.

Lord Eldon, after prefacing his fpeech with fome obfervations on the awful and momentous fituation of the country, took a review of the queftion now agitated by the northern powers against us, and proved from the law of nations that the right of fearching neutral vesfels originated in the rights of nature; it was, in fact, interwoven with felf-defence; for, if a power profeffing to be neutral conveyed the means of annoyance to an open enemy, that neutral nation, by furnifhing the means of our destruction, became our active enemy.

He