them! Toulon in our hands, Lyons, and the South of France in a state of insurrection, Valen ciennes, Condé, Quesnoi in the hands of the Emperor, Mayence in possession of the Prussians, Brabant, Treves, and the Palatinate restored to their ancient masters; the lines of Weissembourg occupied and Landau blockaded by Prince Ho henloe; the gates of Italy shut against the French, their armies broken and dispirited; the English fleet masters of the sea, and holding all the ports of France in state a of blockade; yet not a battalion sent to support the French Royalists fighting for their altars and their sovereign under the walls of Nantz! No fortified towns obstructed the march of a regular army to that bloody capital which was the tremendous arsenal of death and desolation.

None but the French government seemed to be aware of the magnitude of the Vendean war. They saw the folly of the allies, and they profited by it. While the former were weakening

selves. Can any man not harnessed in the yoke of party prejudice, call this a system by which France was to return within the pale of moral order? Every step was taken to convince her people that her integrity was menaced; there is no wonder, her subsequent rulers profited in their prosperity, by the lesson; which the allies had inculcated during her adversity.

their strength before the frontier towns, the French were afforded leisure to recruit, re-organize, and infuse a spirit of discipline into their armies, which soon displayed itself at the battle of Fleurus. It is now too late to repair those crying errors, but the late administration must blush when they find the French government publicly deriding their ignorance, laughing to scorn their cullibility, and appealing to the honor and reason of the Vendeans, by representing them as abandoned and betrayed by the English*.

Quiberon! I think this expedition has been calumniated. It would be the height of inconsistency in me, after having objected to the mode in which a war of principle was conducted, to defame an expedition, the motive of which, I must approve. But, it is not the motive that is reprehensible; it is the ill-chosen period at which the expedition was sent. Why could not 10,000 men have been expedited in the end of 1793 †. When I compare the conduct of the late minis.

* See the Proclamations of Bonaparte, and General Hedouville in 1799, and the beginning of 1800.

+ Quiberon was, as usual, the worst place at which they could have landed.

ters with that of the Emperor Paul, and his celebrated General, I must acknowledge with shame, but without the insidious adulation of Voltaire,

C'est du Nord aujourd'hui que nous vient la lumière 1.

On the support of the Royalists I insist, the favourable termination of the war, alone depend ed; and on this ground I charge the late minis

See the noble and disinterested Manifesto of the Emperor Paul, in 1799, when he brought down his forces to co-operate in the common cause, and the letter of Marshal Suwarroff to M. Charette the Royalist General. But the Emperor seceded in a fit of passion!-I say the Emperor did not secede in a fit of passion. He acted in perfect consistency with the prin ciples he avowed in his manifesto; in which he solemnly de-clared, that if he discovered any selfish views, or any other besides the restoration of altars and thrones actuating the confederates, he would instantly withdraw his troops. He made this discovery: he found that the Austrians would not restore the King of Sardinia after Piedmont had been recovered; he saw that he had gotten among rogues, and he withdrew, as he said he would. However I may regret the effects which resulted from that secession, I applaud his conduct for giving such a signal illustration to the sovereigns of the continent, that honesty should ever sit on the throne. When the blood-thirsty "savages were yelling against kings, and endeavouring to persuade the world that they "ought to be crushed," the time had arrived when it became the Majesty of Kings to prove that they were worthy to be saved. Paul gave this lesson to Europe, and, as an humble individual, I thank him for it.

ters with a total departure from the principles of the war, and therefore, with the most egregious misconduct in the management of it. But yet, they were vigorous and successful-Yes, they were vigorous in lavishing our estate and substance in an unprecedented degree, upon objects which they knew they could not retain, and which they admitted, when offering to surrender all of them by the projet at Lisle. That they were successful in many of their operations, I admit; but, of what advan tage were those successes, when they had no share whatever in promoting the object for which we went to war. And yet, these are the men who reprobate the terms of a peace which they had made absolutely necessary, and who declare they are the fittest in the nation to conduct another war They may alledge in extenuation, that

1.

* I shall illustrate this by an apologue. Suppose a wolf had broken into my grounds, and those of my neighbours, and threatened destruction to our flocks. I take up my gun, and set off in company with them to kill the monster. On my way, I espy an hare, andthe temptation being too great to be 1 resisted, I immediately level my piece and knock down puss. Much about the same time, one of my friends brings down a pheasant, and another dispatches a brace of partridges. Quite delighted, we take them home, and feast sumptuously. On a sudden, while we are enjoying our cups, we recollect that we have not killed the wolf who by this time has made sad havos

several of those who now fill the stations they formerly occupied, approved of their measures in general; but, this is a poor method of defending their own actions, and one which, they themselves consider as trivial, since they have ex pressed their own consciousness of their errors, by procuring a bill of indemnity to shelter them from examination! I am aware that they did meet with that support which is now their pleas but Mr. R. Ward will furnish them with a satisfactory explanation of its nature, I once supported them," (speaking of the present ministers) says he, because I thought them right But, it was when I was wholly ignorant of their principles, or rather their no principles of action I had no key to their conduct, till they furnished it themselves."

among the sheep. Then we stare at each other and exclaim, Who could have thought it?"-I propose that we start afresh. “No,” says one," my stomach's too full, I can't walk so soon after dinner." Another says, “I should be happy to accompany you, my dear friend, but in jumping over the hedge to take possession of the pheasant, I find I have sprained any ancle." So!: Then I must go alone. This is the history of the late war; and the colloquy after dinner is the history of the peace that followed it. Mr. Addington has shouldered his firelock, and is gone to meet the ravager alone. If he pursues nothing but the wolf, it is an hundred to one but he will overcome the fierce voracious tyrant,