conduct that has been recommended by the Honourable Baronet; this is not the moment to dwell only on Our disappointment, to suppress Our indignation, or to let our courage, Our constancy, and Our determination be buried in the expressions of unmanly fear, or unavailing regret. Between these two extremes, it is, that I trust Our conduct is directed; and in calling upon the House to join in sentiments between those extremes, I do trust, that if We cannot have the unanimous opinion, We shall have the general and ready concurrence both of the House and of the Country.

Sir, Before I trouble the House, which I am not desirous of doing at length, with a few points which I wish to recapitulate, let me first call to your minds the general nature of the amendment which the Honourable Baronet has, under these circumstances, thought fit to propose, and the general nature of the observations by which he introduced it. He began with deploring the calamities of war, on the general topick, that all war is calamitous. Do I object to this sentiment? No; but is it Our business at a moment when We feel that the continuance of that war is owing to the animosity, the implacable animosity of Our enemy, to the inveterate and insatiable ambition of the present frantick Government of France, not of the people of France, as the Honourable Baronet unjustly stated it; is it Our business at that moment to content ourselves with merely lamenting in commonplace terms the calamities of war, and forgetting that it is part of the duty' which, as Representatives of the People, We owe to Our Government and Our Country, to state that the continuance of those evils upon Ourselves, and upon France too, is the fruit only of the conduct of the enemy, that it is to be imputed to them and not to Us.

Sir, The papers which were ordered to be laid on the table have been in every gentleman's hand, and on the materials which they furnish We must be prepared to decide. Can there be a doubt, that all the evils of war, whatever may be their consequences,

are to be imputed solely to his majesty's enemies? Is there any man here, prepared to deny that the delay in every stage of the Negotiation, and its final rupture, are proved to be owing to the evasive conduct, the unwarratable pretensions, the inordinate ambition, and the implacable animosity of the enemy? I will shortly state what are the points, though it is hardly necessary that I should state them, for they speak loudly for themselves, on which I would rest that proposition; but if there is any man who doubts it, is it the Honourable Baronet? is it He who makes this amendment, leaving out every thing that is honourable to the character of His Own Country, and seeming to court some new complaisance on the part of the French Directory? The Honourable Baronet, who, as soon as He has stated the nature of His amendment, makes the first part of His speech a charge against His Majesty's Ministers, for even having commen. ced the Negotiation in the manner and under the circumstances in which They did commence it-who makes His next charge Their having persevered in it, when violations of form and practice were insisted upon in the earliest stage of it?-Does He discover that the French Government, whom We have accused of insincerity, have been sincere from the beginning to the end of the Negotiation? Or, after having accused His Majesty's Ministers for commencing and persevering in it, is the Honourable Baronet so afraid of being misconstrued into an idea of animosity against the people of France, that He must disguise the truth; must do injustice to the character and cause of His Own Country, and leave unexplained the cause of the continuance of this great contest? Let Us be prepared to probe that question to the bottom, to form Our opinion upon it, and to render Our conduct conformable to that opinion. This I conceive, to be a manly conduct, and, especially at such a moment, to be the indispensable duty of the House. But let not the Honourable Baronet imagine there is any ground for his apprehension, that by adopting the language of the address, which ascribes

the continuance of the war to the ambition of the enemy, He will declare a system of endless animosity between the nations of Great Britain and France; I say directly the contrary: He who scruples to declare, that in the present moment the Government of France are acting as much in contradiction to the known wishes of the French nation, as to the just pretensions and anxious wishes of the people of Great Britain-He who scruples to declare them the authors of this calamitydeprives Us of the consolitory hope which We are inclined to cherish, of some future change of circumstances more favourable to Our wishes.

It is a melancholy spectacle indeed, to see in any country, and on the ruin of any pretence of liberty, however nominal, shallow, or delusive, a system of tyranny erected, the most galling, the most horrible, the most undisguised in all its parts and attributes that has stained the page of history, or disgraced the annals of the world; but it would be much more unfortunate, if when We see that the same cause carries desolation through France, which extends disquiet and fermentation through Europe; it would be worse indeed, if We attributed to the nation of France that which is to be attributed only to the unwarranted and usurped authority which involves them in misery, and would, if unresisted, involve Europe with them in one common ruin and distruction. Do We state this to be animosity on the part of the people of France? Do We state this in order to raise up an implacable spirit of animosity against that country? Where is one word to that effect in the Declaration to which the Honourable Gentleman has alluded? He complains much of this Declaration, because it tends to perpetuate animosity between two nations which one day or other must be at peace-God grant that day may be soon! but what does that Declaration express upon the subject? Does it express that because the present existing Government of France has acted as it has acted, We forego the wish or renounce the hope that some new situation may lead to happier consequences? On the contrary, His Majesty's lan

guage is distinctly this: "While this determination continues to prevail on the part of His enemies, His Majesty's earnest wishes and endeavours to restore peace to His subjects must be fruitless, but His sentiments remain unaltered, He looks with anxious expectation to the moment when the Government of France may show a temper and spirit in any degree corresponding with His own." I wish to know whether words can be found in the English language which more expressly state the contrary sentiment to that which the Honourable Baronet imputes; they not only disclaim animosity against the people of France in consequence of the conduct of its Rulers, but do not go the length of declaring, that after all this provocation, even with the present rulers, all treaty is impracticable. Whether it is probable, that acting on the principles upon which they have acquired their power, and while that power continues, they will listen to any system of moderation or justice at home or abroad, it is not now necessary to discuss; but for one, I desire to express my cordial concurrence in the sentiment, so pointedly expressed in that passage of the Declaration in which His Majesty, notwithstanding all the provocation He has received, and even after the recent successes, which by the blessing of Providence have attended His arms, declares His readiness to adhere to the same moderate terms and principles which He proposed at the time of our greatest difficulties, and to conclude peace on that ground, if it can now be obtained, even with this very Govern

ment.

I am sensible, that while I am endeavouring to vindicate His Majesty's servants against the charges of the Honourable Baronet, which are sufficiently, however, refuted by the early part of His own speech, I am incurring, in some degree, the censure of the Noble Lord to whom I before alluded. According to His principles and opinions, and of some few others in this country, it is matter of charge against Us that We even harbour in Our minds at this moment, a wish to conclude peace upon the terms which We

think admissible with the present Rulers of France. I am not one of those who can or will join in that sentiment. I have no difficulty in repeating what I stated before, that in their present spirit, after what they have said, and still more, after what they have done, I can entertain little hope of so desirable an event. I have no hesitation in avowing, for it would be idleness and hypocrisy to conceal it, that for the sake of mankind in general, and to gratify those sentiments which can never be eradicated from the human heart, I should see with pleasure and satisfaction the termination of a Government whose conduct, and whose origin is such as We have seen that of the Government of France; but that is not the object-that ought not to be the principle of the war,-whatever wish I may entertain in my own heart, and whatever opinion I may think it fair or manly to avow, I have no difficulty in stating, that violent and odious as is the character of that Government, I verily believe, in the present state of Europe, that if We are not wanting to ourselves, if, by the blessing of Providence, Our perseverance and our resources should enable us to make peace with France upon terms in which We taint not our character, in which We do not abandon the sources of Our Wealth, the means of Our Strength, the defence of what We already possess, if We maintain Our equal pretensions and assert that rank which We are entitled to hold among nations, the moment peace can be obtained on such terms, be the form of government in France what it may, peace is desirable, peace is then anxiously to be sought; but unless it is attained on such terms, there is no extremity of war, there is no extremity of honourable contest, that is not preferable to the name and pretence of peace, which must be in reality a disgraceful capitulation, a base, an abject surrender of every thing that constitutes the pride, the safety, and happiness of England.

These, Sir, are the sentiments of my mind on this leading point, and with these sentiments I shape my conduct between the contending opinions of the no