'diftant parts? The quantity of increafed confumption, without taking into the account the quantities damaged and loft, was immenfe, and he would be bold to fay, that if government, instead of interfering with the regular merchants, and putting an end to all the active competition of men more expert in trade than themfelves, had followed the example of the government of France, with respect to the ships at Breft, and had unloaded the transports that were fent to Quiberon Bay, they would have done more towards allevating the late scarcity, than by all the corn which their. agents imported. He could not leave that miferable expedition to Quiberon Bay, without again expreffing his indignation. The Houfe would do him the juftice to recollect how much beyond his ufual pertinacity he had urged them to avoid the indiferetion and cruelty of employing the emigrants on any fuch expedition. He had faid that they could not be employed fo as to ftand on the fame terms with our own troops; that their condition would be defperate in regard to France; that therefore it was neither politic with refpect to ourselves, nor kind and confiderate with regard to them; that if we employed them on any fuch expedition, we identified their caufe with ours, and made it impoffible for us to retract with honour whatever might be the events of the war. What was the answer to his reafoning? That in fact their caufe and ours was the fame, and that the crown of George III. was not fafe upon his head if they were not reinstated in their country. Thus the die was caft; they were thus invited to join the fatal standard; they embarked in our caufe, which they were thus told was the fame as their own, and they were fent on that fatal expedition which every feeling heart muft deplore. Though he could not entertain the idea which fome coarfe and vulgar minds had taken up, that certain Ministers in the Cabinet, reflecting on the indifcretion they had committed in thus charging themfelves with fo many of thefe emigrants, had fent them on this forlorn enterprife as a happy riddance; yet he must repeat, that if the juftice and indignation of the country did not fix a cenfure upon the authors of that expedition, the disgrace of it would eternally reft upon the character of the nation. When he first moved for entering into a negociation with France, it was faid, What! would you negociate with men about to stain their hands with the blood of their Sovereign? Yet now, if the prefent Speech meant to fay any thing honestly, it meant, that with thefe very men Minifters would have no objection to negociate at a certain critis. The nature of this murder, then, was such as to be washed away after a two or three years purification. And even with Tallien, who, among

others, dipped his hands in Royal blood, they would have no objection to treat; though whatever was the conduct of that perfon on other occafions, the boldness with which he came forward to destroy the tyranny of Roberspierre did him great honour. It had always been his opinion, that if we could not get men of pure morals, and men of perfonal esteem to treat with, we must take the men we could find, taking care that our treaty fhould be founded on fuch principles of moderation and juftice as should not be likely to vary with times or parties, and which fhould be the intereft of both countries to maintain. Inftead of this, we had acted upon a fet of unprincipled delicacies, by which this country had been reduced to fuch a state of diftrefs, as for the laft fix months to make almost every common man dependant upon charity for fubfiftence. Was not fuch a state more likely to undermine the loyalty and obedience they were defirous to cherish than all the fascination of French principles? Was it not likely, that under fuch a preffure undifciplined minds might be led to cherish the idea, that that government could not be perfectly found, nor practically happy, which inflicted on fo large a proportion of its people fo much mifery! It must be a matter of great confolation to hear from His Majefty's Speech, that instead of any sich refractory fentiment, a very general spirit of order and submission to the laws had been manifefted by his people; and their pleasure ought to be increased when they recollected the dreadful and dark confpiracies which raged in the country a twelvemonth ago. These confpiracies had been quashed in a moft extraordinary way; they had been quafhed by the full, clear, and honourable acquittal of all the confpirators: and now this order and fubmiffion to the laws was a matter of exultation to His Majefty, when the Habeas Corpus act was in full force! Another moft extraordinary argument had been adduced for the war by an honourable gentleman oppofite to him (Mr. Jenkinfon); the war, he faid, was quite neceffary, in order to enable men of rank to inveigh with becoming fpirit against French principles, and the diabolical doctrines of Jacobinifm. He was very ready to allow, that the philippics against the French principles, in which gentlemen in that House, and elsewhere, fo liberally indulged themselves, did require fome means to give them currency; but that they wanted a war to give them force, that nothing lefs than an army of 200,000 men, and a navy of 110,000 men, could make these philippics go down, he did not know till now. He remembered it was an accufation against Roland, that in order to corrupt the public mind, in propagating his opinions, he had fquandered much of the public

money. Roland, in his defence, faid, he had certainly not squandered much of the public money; he had only spent 30,000 livres Tournois, and that in affignats, in printing; whereas it has coft our Ministers one hundred millions fterling to circulate and fupport their harangues against the French. A more extraordinary means of publishing their invectives could not have been thought of. One would have thought, that having their civil lift, their patronage, their places, their penfions, and their newfpapers, by which to fpread and give currency to their abuse against the French, it was ftrange that they fhould hit upon a war as the only means to recommend their invectives to the taste of the country. If he could not entirely agree with the honourable gentleman as to the war being begun only in aid of the intemperate language and violent epithets which were thrown out upon the French, yet nothing was fo certain, as that the inflamed paffions which gave rife to that language, gave rife alfo to the war; and that the good fenfe and manly feelings which would have avoided the one, would alfo have directed us to the rational courfe which would have prevented the other. The honourable gentleman fpoke of the rights. of man, among the reprobated French principles. That all men. had equal rights, he would not top to argue; it was a truth which the honourable gentleman himself must feel. It was not the fallacy of the principles that had made the French Revolution" difgufting by its atrocities; it was the mifapplication and mifufe that had produced fo much turpitude and ruin. Of those principies he was ready to defend the greater part; the abufe of principles had indeed caused the mischief in France; but the principles themselves remained fill pure and unalterable. Mr. Fox concluded with faying, that for thefe reafons he could not confent to vote for the addrefs which had been moved; he held in his hand an amendment, expreffing in fhort terms the facts he had enumerated, and drawing from them the practical use that ought to be made of them. He then read the amendment, of which the following is a copy:

"We beg leave humbly to entreat your Majefty to review the events of the three laft years, and to compare the fituation and "circumftances of the belligerent powers at the period when hof"tilities commenced, and, at the prefent moment, to confider "that a great majority of the numerous allies, on whose co-ope"ration your Majefty chiefly relied for fuccefs, have abandoned "the common caufe, and fought for fecurity in peace, while others "have been unfortunately thrown into alliance with the enemy.

"That our foreign poffeffions in the Weft Indies have, in

"many inftances, been over-run, pillaged, and deftroyed, and the fecurity of all of them put in imminent hazard.

That the expeditions to the coaft of France have proved "either difgraceful or abortive; tending, without any rational profpe of public benefit, to tarnish the British name, by a "thameful facrifice of thofe to whom your Majefty's Ministers "had held out the hope of public protection.

"That amidst all thefe adverfe and difgraceful events, there "has been an expenditure of blood and treasure unparalleled in the hiftory of former wars.

"Such being the refult of the measures which have been pur"fued, we cannot honeftly difcharge our duty to your Majefty, "the country, and ourfelves, without fervently imploring your Majefty to reflect upon the evident impracticability of attaining, "in the prefent conteft, what have hitherto been confidered as the "objects of it.

"We therefore humbly entreat your Majefty no longer to act << upon the opinion, that the governing powers of France are in"capable of maintaining the accuftomed relations of peace and

amity. An opinion formerly proved to be unfounded by the "fituation of the States of America, and of thofe nations of

Europe who have throughout maintained a safe and dignified "neutrality; and recently by the conduct and prefent condition "of Pruffia and Spain, and the Princes of the Empire. But "that your Majefty will be gracioufly pleafed to take decided and "immediate meafures for bringing about a peace with France, "whatever may be the prefent or future form of her internal go"vernment, and look for indemnity where alone indemnity is to "be found; in the restoration of induftry, plenty, and tranquillity at home.

"While we thus earneftly implore your Majefty to confider, in your Royal wisdom, how fruitlefs the purfuit of the war is be"come, and how idle and imaginary the fuppofed obftacle to "peace, we declare, that if the exifting powers in France were "to reject a pacific negociation propofed by your Majefty upon "fuitable terms, and to perfevere in hoftilities for their own ag"grandifement, or with a view to the cftablishment of their fyf"tem of government in other countries, we would ftrenuously fupport a vigorous profecution of the war, confident that the "fpirit of the nation, when roused in such a cause, will still be

able to accomplish what is just and neceffory, however exhausted and weakened by the ill-concerted projects of those who have "directed your Majefty's Councils."

Mr. Chancellor PITT.-Sir, at a period perhaps the most eventful in the History of Great Britain and of the World, you never put a queftion more connected with the honour, the intereft, and the fafety of the country, than whether the amendment now proposed shall be substituted for the Addrefs which has been moved by the noble Lord. The Speech of the right honourable gentleman was indeed extraordinary, yet I never could have conceived that it should have terminated in a propofition fo very extraordinary, as that which is stated in the amendment-an amendment which recognizes a fyftem of complete degradation and difappointment on the part of this country, as reafons for making advances to France, for declaring our difpofition to open a negociation, renouncing any other terms of indemnity, than their permiffion to hold out to us. the mockery of returning upon a fecure footing to the enjoyment of industry and tranquillity. It is indeed a propofition, which, according to the facred privileges of Parliament, any man may bring forward with impunity. I cannot retort upon the right honourable gentleman the threat of impeachment, but if he were a Minifter, and to bring forward fuch a propofition, he would deferve impeachment more than any man who ever difgraced the country. I now proceed to contraft the principal features of the addrefs and the amendment. And the firft leading article on which I shall infist is, that with which the address fets out, that on a view of all the circumstances in the fituation of the Belligerent Powers, our profpects are materially improved. In proof of this affertion, I appeal to facts, on which you are all competent to decide, I ask what is the period compared? The period taken up in the amendment is the end of last feffion; the period clearly intended is its commencement, when the Speech was delivered from the Throne. And before I enter into any particular investigation of facts, in order to fhew the improvement, which has taken place in our profpects, it is only neccitary for me to appeal to the House. What were their impreffions then, and what are their feelings now? Are they not, on comparison, those of comfort and fecurity. We cannot forget the exaggerated reprefentations of the danger, which were then made by gentlemen on the other fide. We ftill must remember the serious impreffions of calamity entertained by the most sober minds at the moment, when they heard that a powerful and enterprizing enemy, aided by the feafons, had annexed Holland to their dominions. Could any body then fuppofe that the fluggishness and inactivity, which are defcribed as marking the character of the conquered, fhould fince have transfufed themselves into the operations of the victors? It could not then be forefeen that the great VOL. LXIII.

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