he could not recur to it without pride and fatisfaction to himself; he asked whether a negociation might not have been entered upon at that moment with a greater probability of fecuring a beneficial peace to England than now. He had fometime in every feffion fince that period, renewed, in one way or another, the fame motion; and he defired to know whether our perverfe continuance in the proud denial of its being the proper moment to negociate, had bettered our condition; or, opened to us the profpect of a more honourable termination of the war? On the contrary, had we not from year to year entangled ourselves deeper, and rendered the practicability of peace upon fafe and honourable terms more hopeless? But there was one point of view in which our prefent fituation had been viewed by an honourable gentleman, very much connected with Ministers, and who, he hoped, fpoke on the prefent occafion uthoritatively. The honourable gentleman (Mr. Jenkinson) had id, that he was now willing to admit that all profpect of restorg the emigrants to their eftates, and the Bourbon family to the trone of France was hopeless; that it was a matter of prudence to dculate the value of an object, together with the chance of procing it, and not to purfue any object, however defirable, beyond t rational hope of obtaining it. If the difafters of the war had piluced this conviction in the minds of His Majefty's Ministers, he ho thought that wifdom was the firft of human acquifitions, anthat prudence in the Governors of a ftate was not merely a movaluable, but a moft neceflary virtue, would be willing to allow at our fituation was improved. It was improved, because our inifters were brought at length to a conviction of their error; beca they had returned to their fenfes. But, good God, what a feries calamity and difafter was required to produce this reftoration Cheir reafon? What a state of degradation must that House and thountry be come to, that it should be held out as a matter of exuion, and as a proof of our fituation being improved, that Mini had been at length corrected, not by the indignation and energy he people, but by the confequences of their own imbecility and. What a contraft did this exhibit between the prefent and ancient ftate of England, when the power of control which bed to the vigorous understanding, and the manly spirit of Englifn was extinct, and the people were fupinely content to wait until inate fury fhould, by its natural courfe, correct itself. Oh, mifer England, to what a state are you fallen, when fuch is the wre confolation in which you indulge! The expedition to Qn was orfe of the grand fources of producing this conviction finifters. He knew not by whom that ex¡ cdition

was planned; he knew not in whofe defperate bofom the idea of the horrid expedition was engendered, but it was a scene over which the heart of every manly Briton fhed tears of blood; and which had done more mischief to the British character, had funk it lower in the eyes of obfervant Europe, and would ftain it more in the eftimation of pofterity, than all the reft of the operations of this war, frantic, bafe, and inhuman as many of its projects had been. Good God, to think that fo many brave and honourable men, among whom there were gentlemen of the pureft feelings, and of the most honourable principles, should be led to maffacre in the way in which they were; that one of the most gallant among them fhould be denied the flender confolation which he requested in his expiring moments of having his letter made public, was fuch a act of favage barbarity as would leave an eternal stain upon Eng land, if Parliament and the people did not teftify their indignatic by fixing a strong mark of cenfure upon its authors! Yet eve this leffon, even the dreadful iffue of this abominable fcheme cd not produce the effect upon the minds of His Majesty's Miniths which might have been expected; another expedition was framd, in which the emigrants were to be employed in a defeent upon he coaft of France. The fecond expedition was concerted, perips, with fomewhat lefs indifcretion, and somewhat lefs barbarity, han the first; but it seemed to have its origin in the fame prinoles, and to owe its birth to the fame parent. It was owing onlyo its utter failure that it had not been equally difaftrous; for, if e expedition to L'Ifle Dieu had been carried into effect in tl fame manner as the firft, the unfortunate perfons must have beerqually abandoned. And yet, though not attended with the fam tal effects as the first, the expedition had been attended with nortune. Our fleet had been expofed to great rifque on a danges coaft; and even now we muft either land the ftores upon L'Ilieu, for the maintenance of the unhappy perfons ftill there, abandon them to the certain, though lingering, death of famir or to the more merciful doom of the guillotine. It was It was impele to animadvert upon the conduct of Minifters in thefe expedis without being aftonished at the infanity with which they werenned. It muft now be a matter of fecret congratulation to themfs every one of their projects had failed, their fuccefs woul've made it which they impoffible for them to have maintained the argun had held that day. What did they do? They an officer to fummon Belle Ifle in the name of Louis XVIII. rightful King of France, and thus they made their officer decl! falfehood, a direct falfchood, as great a falfchood as if he waitor enough to

that

declare that Cardinal York was the rightful King of Great Britain. But what must have been the confequence if, upon this fummons, Belle Ifle or Noirmoutier had yielded? We must have landed and taken poffeffion of them in the name of Louis XVIII. and the unfortunate Prince, just landed in the place under our aufpices, would have been identified with our caufe, and we fhould have been pledged to the restoration of this legal monarch in his rights. Could we then have had the bleffing which was this day held up, of abandoning a course, which could no longer be pursued with rational hopes? We should then have been reduced to the melancholy alternative of abandoning the Prince and his followers with infamy, or of profecuting his caufe under the most desperate circumftances. Fortunately for Minifters, however, their project had failed, and they were thus relieved by the want of success from the folly of their act. It was by this fort of reafoning alone that he could refolve the strange paradox of the feconder of the motion, who had faid that the very failure of the war had produced good confequences. If it were applied to our expeditions to the coast of France, it perhaps might hold true, as the confequence was a conviction in the breafts of Minifters that it was impracticable to purfue the reftoration of Louis any more. He faid that it was with pain that he took up the time of the Houfe, with any obfervations upon this kind of reafoning. He was confident that the natural plain sense and understandings of Englishmen, who had always been diftinguished for their love of direct and plain dealing, would foon be disgusted, and reject with indignation and nausea a cause that required fuch refinement of reasoning to fupport it. An honourable gentleman had faid, that the opinions of the French were certainly fpecious in themfelves, and calculated to intoxicate the minds of the lower ranks of men; but that, in their own nature, they would fooner or later generate fuch a tyranny as that which Roberfpierre exhibited, which again, in its own nature, would correct the impreffion which the fpecious opinions had originally made. The war then, with all its difafters, had been so far ufeful, that it had accelerated the conviction which Roberfpierre's tyranny would of itself have more flowly produced. The war was a fort of yeast that fermented this tyranny; and thus, in this idle train of reasoning, was the Houfe prefented with another theory in excufe of the war. If men were to play with fuch theories as matter of amusement, he fhould certainly not contend about them. He fhould then be extremely willing to leave them as a very good theme for fchool-boys, as the honourable feconder of the motion had faid; but it was a dreadful thing when fuch theories were taken up by

ftatesmen, and gravely acted upon as legetimate causes for plunging their country into the horrors of war. Such theories might suit well for a literary or a political difputant, and might be made very amusing either in a club-room or in a pamphlet; but for a man to undertake the office of a statesman, and to bring fuch theories into practice, was fuch an outrage, not merely upon common sense, but upon moral duty, as must shock the heart of every confiderate, and of every feeling mind. What a picture of human wantonnefs did it not exhibit; that in order to afcertain the question whether a certain set of opinions might be brought fo much more speedily into difrepute, it was a good and right thing that a hundred millions of money fhould be fquandered, and hundreds of thousands of our fellow-creatures be put to death! In his mind, war against opinions was in no one inftance, and could not be, either just or pardonable. A war of felf-defence against acts he could understand, he could explain, and he could juftify; but no war against opinions could be fupported by reafon, or by juftice: it was drawing the fword of the inquifition. How could we blame all thofe abominable acts of bloodshed and torture, which had been committed from time to time under the fpecious name of religion, when we ourselves had the prefumption to wage a fimilar war? Who would fay that all the blood that had been fpilt from the fury of religious enthusiasm, might not have been made to flow from the pure but mifguided motive of correcting opinions, when we ourselves thus dared to dip our hands in the blood of our fellow-creatures, on the mere pretext of correcting the errors of opinion? We muft change all the doctrines that we have been taught to cherish about religious perfecution and intolerance; we must begin to venerate the authors of the holy inquifition, and confider them as pious and pure men, who committed their murders for the beneficent purpose of correcting the herefies which they confidered as fo abominable, and restoring the bleffings of what they conceived to be the only true fyftem of Christianity. In the fame manner the prefent war against opinions was to be entitled to our cfteem, and its authors to be venerated for their morality. In this war they also were great conquerors; they had loft towns, cities, nay, kingdoms, they had fquandered a hundred millions of money, they had loft a hundred thoufand men, they had loft their allies, they had loft the caufe of the Emigrants, they had loft the throne to the family of Bourbon, but they had gained a fet of rather better opinions to France. Mr. Fox contended, that at every moment from the commencement of the war to the prefent inftant, our Minifiers might have negociated with the French upon better terms than they could at this time; and

that our relative fituation has been gradually growing worse. The famous dccree of the 19th of November, 1792, was the firft great pretext for going to war.-That decree, he had always faid, we might have got rid of by negociation. But, if that decree was an obftacle to negociation, it was well known that the disgusting tyrant Roberspierre himself not only formally repealed it, but made it the pretext for murdering Briffot and about one hundred perfons more, whom he called its authors. Why not negociate after that decree was repealed? Oh-they were afraid of the fafcination of French prineiples on the minds of the people of this country. But, furely, they cannot fay that these principles continued to be fafcinating and tempting after the reign of Roberfpierre-if ever they had any attraction for the popular mind, they furely must have loft it, and become, on the contrary, the deteftation and horror of every human being, as cxhibited under the implacable tyranny of that despicable mifcreant. Did they make overtures of peace when these principles had loft their temptation? What! it would be faid, would you have treated with Roberfpierre? - Why not with Roberspierre?-Do we not daily treat with tyrants?, He would have treated with Roberfpierre; not because he did not think his government the most difgufting tyranny that ever exifted, but because England had nothing to do with his tyranny. On the 27th of July, Roberfpierre was cut off, and his principles were declared to be infamous. Why did not Ministers then make overtures of peace? There was nothing in their former conduct that could give that Houfe or the nation confidence in their intentions of making peace whenever the favourable opportunity should arrive. On the contrary, they flood convicted of fraud; for when an honourable friend of his made a motion on the 26th of January last, which it was not found convenient directly to oppose, an amendment was moved, declaring that they were ready to enter into a negociation, whenever there should be a government eftablished in France, capable of maintaining the cuftomary relations of amity and peace. Did they offer negociation when it was proved by experience that France had fuch a government? It had been proved, that France did maintain fuch relations of peace and amity, for Pruffia had made peace with her, Spain had made peace with her, many of the States of Germany had made peace, with her, and among others, the Elector of Hanover had made peace. The honourable feconder of the motion had faid, that any one who made an argument on the conduct of the Elector of Hanover, and reafoned on it as an example for England, would deferve to be treated as a school-boy. He muft fubmit to incur the imputation; for he VOL. XLIII.

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