[590 territory which it lost, which was of little should have a compensation, without provalue in itself, deeply affected the interests viding in what it should consist, or when, of Great Britain, as it left for ever im- or where, or by whom, it was meant to be printed in the minds of the Portuguese made. As to its adherents, they were people, that the guarantee and protection not even alluded to, but seemed to be of England were not to be relied on. The considered as unworthy of notice, while treaty alluded to also put it out of the we saw France stipulating for the security power of Portugal any longer to carry the of every Jacobin, in all the nations of commercial treaty into effect. He would Europe, and claiming and obtaining from not for the present speak of the value of this country a traitor (Napper Tandy), that treaty to this country, but observe who appeared in hostile and rebellious that it was such, in the opinion of Portu- arms in Ireland. All these were consegal, that, for its maintenance, that coun- quences of the improper construction of try at one period of the war put its very those who were to conduct the negotiaexistence to the hazard. If such was the tions at Amiens. France introduced the care we took of them in Europe, still less plenipotentiaries of its two allies into the did we protect their possessions in the congress, while those of Portugal and Indies. By the treaty of Amiens, the Naples were excluded; probably because boundaries of France in Guiana were cir- they were interested in the result, but cumscribed to the course of the river more probably because they were the friends Ariwari; but this gave the French an en- and allies of England. By these means it tire command of the Amazon river at its happened, that while lord Cornwallis Source, the command below of the whole was putting his signature to the peace, Portuguese trade, and the command containing the condition of an indemnity equally, in time of war, of our Indian na- to the house of Nassau, the French and vigation. The next object of attention, Lutch ministers were, without his knowin regard to British faith, was, the condi-ledge and consent, drawing up an agreetion of a family, with its adherents, to which we were bound by every tie of friendship and alliance, who were now wandering in foreign parts as exiles, and uncertain of being ever enabled to return to their native country: he alluded to the house of Orange. The interests of that illustrious family were entirely neglected in the preliminaries; and he believed, however desirous they might be of peace, the preliminaries would never have been approved of, if ministers had not declared that the honour and good faith of this Country required that a compensation should be made to the prince of Orange. His lordship then enumerated the various kinds of property which the house of Orange heretofore possessed in Holland. He denied that the house of Orange had been elevated by the republic of the United Provinces, which, on the other hand, was itself erected by that House, whose princes held great possessions, not indeed in full sovereignty, nor much short of it, long before the republic started into existence. The dignities of the house of Orange, it was true, had not been formerly recognized by the old government of France; but that was no reason why we should now consent to sink their title into the branch of the house of Nassau, estabblished in the republic of the United Provinces, and only stipulate that it ment at the other end of the table, stipulating that the compensation should not be made at the expense of what was now called the Batavian republic-an act of perfidy and duplicity which he must reprobate in the strongest language. Speaking of the stipulation for each country paying the debts of the prisoners taken on either side, he animadverted on the provisions which included he foreign troops taken while in the pay of each nation. Even in this article so much a matter of form all the advantage was on the side of France. A number of Russian troops had been taken at a time, when they were at our disposal, which in cosequence of different political arrangements were aftewards clothed armed and regmented at Brussels, for the purpose o being employed to attack this country. He thought nothing could be more humiliating in us than to be obliged to defray expenses incurred for such a purpose. The Cape of Good Hope according to the preliminaries, was to have been declared a free port, and now reverted in full sovereignty to the Batavian republic. This, in time of war, would make it completely a French port, supposing even that the condition of its being open to the ships of war of the other contracting parties should be complied with. We know the French system in this kind of neutrality to be, that ships of war, of an not be dispensed with; and partly to the equal number from each country, should support of religious establishments, be admitted at the same time. Suppos- the expense of hospitals, and to furnishing then, that number to be two each; for ing a granary for the consumption of the two English men of war, the French, island, which could not produce grain in Spanish, and Batavian allies, would have any proportion to the number of the inhasix, which would oblige us, at the ex- bitants. So that by applying it now to pense of 25 or 30 ships of the line, either the maintenance of a new democratic to keep up a great fleet in those seas, or langue and the defence of the works, this to send convoys with every trading fleet; plunder of the alms-houses would be found and every regiment, outward or homeward wholly inadequate. A Neapolitan force must be escorted by a force equal to cope was spoken of for that purpose; but the with the allies, and to prevent them from king of Naples had no interest in the preattacking our possessions in Hindostan. servation of the island which could induce With regard to Malta, which some con- him to be at that expense. Besides, in sidered as not inferior in consequence to time of war, he could never be in a condithe Cape, we were led from the prelimi- tion to refuse yielding it to the French, in naries to believe that it would be placed order to assist any project of theirs to inunder the protection of some power ca- tercept our East India trade, or to recover pable of preserving it from the ambitious the possession of Egypt. It must, in fuviews of France: this power was probably ture, be obedient to what we may call the meant to be Russia, whose weight and in- king of Italy who might at any time fluence in Europe might probably have march from the new Italian republic, and accomplished that end, and the more in forty-eight hours seize upon the capital easily as it had the means of supplying at of the other sovereign. There could be all times a sufficient force for its defence. no hesitation, therefore, when the alternaThis the court of Russia perhaps would not tive was between the safety of the Neaconsent to, and the definitive treaty placed politan metropolis and the defence of the it completely under the influence of island of Malta It was not probable that France. The knights for the future would his Sicilian najesty would embroil himself be wholly unable to maintain it. Their with the affairs of Malta, while it remained order was partly military and partly reli- within the grasp of the first consul, and gious, and composed entirely of Maltese must dread the hostility of England, which nobles, who would rather undergo any would be formidable to him, though by no hardship than associate with that Demo- means so to France. Under these circratic langue which this treaty proposed, cumstances, he thought it imprudent in but most probably never could succeed this country to give up the possession of in establishing. The revenues for their that important island at the moment that support were heretofore supplied from France, by its late accessions, was so most the other countries of Europe. greatly extending its empire on the MediThese countries had their distinct langues, terranean. The annexing of the new supported by benefices which could only Italian republic to itself would at any be held by the knights, whose profession other time have been thought a sufficient ws honourable in their youth, and pro- cause of war; and now the retention of nised to reward them with considerable Malta would, on our part, be still an inpossessions when advanced to more ma- adequate equivalent. He illustrated this ture years. At present, almost all these by the comments of a writer in the incentives were gone. The revenues Mercure de France, and published under were confiscated in France, on the left bank the immediate inspection of the French of the Rhine, and in Bavaria, which con-government, and which, in explaining tained the richest possessions of the order. how the articles of the definitive treaty Something indeed would remain in Naples, were advantageous to the republic, added, as long as Naples continued any way inde-" that Malta must always be French, as pendent. Something was also left them, long as it shall be Neapolitan." He then the ecclesiastical states; but this, as well as adverted to the immense acquisition made the rest, was held by a very precarious by the French in the ceded province of tenure. The revenues of the island itself, Louisiana, at the the time that it was also partly territorial and partly commercial, in possession of New Orleans and Florida, were appropriated partly to maintain the splendor of the grand master, which could * See the note, p. 575. which gave them an immense influence | exertions our best hopes always depended; on the Northern United States, as well as and this point was settled by formal stipuon the South of America. It gave them lation in the treaty of 1783. Another nearly as much the command of our East point was, the omission with respect to India navigation, as it would have in the the regulation of the gum and the logwood possession of Ceylon; it brought them trade. He then observed upon what had within 300 miles of the city of Mexico; fallen from a noble lord on a former eventhe march would be as easy as from Ches- ing to the effect, that whatever claims ter to London; and he had no scruple to should be demanded by France, would affirm, that on the unfurling of the first be founded on the arguments urged standard for an expedition to Mexico, the by him (lord G.) Nothing, however, whole of the West of America would im- could be a greater misunderstanding. mediately repair to it in arms,—a circum- Never could any man possibly be less the stance which must ever put Spain in a advocate for France than he was; and if state of entire dependence upon the the cause were never pleaded but by him, French republic. His lordship next pro- it would be very feebly urged indeed. ceeded to consider a stipulation in the His opinion upon the effect of the omistreaty, for which, he said, there was no sions with respect to the navigation of precedent; namely, that which went to the eastern seas remained unaltered. In surrender the claims of British subjects the treaty of 1783, it was stipulated that upon the government of France, for losses we should continue quietly to exercise sustained before the war, or at the com- our rights in that respect; and these were mencement of the revolution. In these held of such high importance, that the periods, property of English subjects in treaty of 1787 was negotiated principally the French funds to a considerable with the view of ascertaining those claims, amount was confiscated; which was done and to avert a war which was just about chiefly by means of that unprincipled to be entered into, in consequence of the manoeuvre, by which the French financiers unfounded pretensions of France in that confiscated two-thirds of the funded debt, respect. He thought that a distinct exin order to enable them to pay the re-planation should take place even now with maining third. He next adverted to the non-renewal of ancient treaties, which he would contend was a principle in the process of negotiation equally novel and injarious; and in illustrating these positions, he again referred to the French official papers that he had already quoted, which said, "the old law is destroyed; a new public law commences:" which principle might be most destructively applied by France in her future projects of aggrandizement; and they might well say to us, that, abiding by the treaty of Amiens, which in effect ordained a new law of nations, we had no right for title to inquire; nor was that the worst, for though these treaties were ineffectual on our part with respect to France, we were bound by the letter of them with regard to other nations, which must certainly lay the seeds of future quarrels and dissentions. Added to these important considerations, there were others which were more of the nature of omissions than of positive stipulations, but which were of equally injurious tendency. He first adverted to the point of the honour of our flag in the British seas not being asserted, and which would, in an inconceivable degree, go to abate the spirit of our seamen, on whose ardour and [VOL. XXXVI.] France upon this point, which might be effected in five days, and before the cession of the cape, Malta, &c. was carried into effect. He then touched upon the recent acquisitions made by France on the continent of North America, and adverted to the unfavourable effects they might have upon the interests of this country in that quarter, particularly with respect to our West India commerce in periods of war. From this topic he passed to the acquisitions of territory made by France on the continent of Europe, and the serious consequences with which they were fraught; and, drawing to a conclusion, he recalled to the recollection of the House some of the leading passages of the last speech of the illustrious king William, which ought ever to be impressed upon their lordships minds, respecting the aggrandizement of France at that period, in consequence of a prince of the house of Bourbon being placed on the throne of Spain, by which the French king would become master of the whole Spanish monarchy; in consequence of which this country could never experience the blessings of real peace, but must continue to be exposed to all the expenses and inconveniences of war. This reasoning, his lordship con[2 Q] tended, applied most emphatically to the state of the two countries at the present period. His lordship concluded by moving, "That the Definitive Treaty of Peace be taken into consideration on the 14th instant." Lord Pelham said, that with regard to the non-renewal of the several treaties existing with foreign countries before the commencement of the war, he was ready to admit that the definitive treaty would have given him more pleasure, if it had contained a stipulation for the revival of those treaties, but his majesty's ministers had made as good conditions as they were able to obtain under the situation and circumstances of the contracting powers; and, inadequate as the terms might in some instances be held to be, he flattered himself, that if it were possible collectively to take the sense of the people upon the peace such as it was, they would rather have it than continue the war. He had been somewhat disappointed, at not having heard from the noble lord one single argument to convince the House of the necessity for taking the definitive treaty into consideration. The noble lord had also forborne to state the motion that he meant to propose. He saw not, for his part, any good that could arise out of a consideration of the treaty, nor what it could end in, unless it was meant to move a censure upon ministers. If, however, it was thought desirable to take the treaty into consideration, the sooner that was done the better, as no good could arise from delay. The noble lord had stated several important topics as variations in the definitive from the preliminary treaty; but he could not admit that they were variations; and where they differed at all, it was in being more fully explained in the definitive treaty than they had stood in the preliminaries. As to the breach of public faith to the queen of Portugal, he did not think that charge at all imputable to this country; as far as it was in the power of ministers, they had stipulated for the integrity of her most faithful majesty's territories and possessions as they were previous to the commencement of the war; and as to the exception relative to the limits of the French possessions in South America, that article was stipulated between Portugal and the French by a separate treaty, over which Great Britain had no control, not being a contracting party; but ministers had obtained an explicit definition of those limits, which were determined by the fall of the river Arawari into the ocean below the North Cape near the Isle Neuve, and the Island of Penitence. With regard to the House of Orange, undoubtedly it had been stated, when the preliminaries were under consideration, that there were hopes of obtaining for the prince of Orange such a compensation as would be entirely satis factory; but though they had not been able to succeed, they had prevailed so far as to induce the French to make a public acknowledgment that the House of Orange had suffered losses in what was now termed the Batavian republic, and to declare that an adequate compensation should be procured to the prince for his losses. In respect to the Cape, they had procured a full explanation of the sti pulation respecting it, which was to be found in the definitive treaty. He denied that the construction put upon the condition relative to the Russian prisoners was the true construction; he could not admit, that this country was to be at the expense of furnishing and clothing them. With regard to Malta, it had been hoped that the emperor of Russia would have ac cepted the guarantee of the island's independence, which he owned would have been more desirable than the present arrangement respecting the island; but if they could rely on the good faith of France, the danger the noble lord apprehended was not likely to arise. His lordship concluded with moving an amendment, by inserting the 12th instant, instead of the 14th. Lord Thurlow insisted that all subsisting treaties were at an end as soon as a war was commenced with those who were parties to them. It behoved those, therefore, who plunged the country into the war, not to have set the treaties loose by commencing hostilities; but it by no means followed as a matter of course, that ancient treaties were necessarily to be revived and renewed in every treaty of peace; that must depend on the will of the contracting parties. The Lord Chancellor said, that if by the omission of the mention of former treaties they were all to be considered as abrogated, and if the public law of Europe was thus altered, he had no difficulty in saying, that an address should be voted to his majesty, praying that he would dismiss his present ministers from his councils for ever. But he trusted that the fact was far otherwise, and that the con duct of ministers deserved no such censure. He should not at present attempt to answer the noble lord, considering that atime would come when he might do it with more propriety. made upon us by the Dutch, who, on the contrary, deprecated our interference. As little were we called upon to meddle in the dispute with the Austrian government. Having failed, then, in his atLord Auckland said, he had heard with tempt to effect the delivery of Holland the liveliest satisfaction what had fallen and of Belgium, the right hon. gentlefrom the noble mover, with respect to man, with an aptness at tergiversation our rights in India. It certainly had been which defied all parallel, set up another imputed to him on the continent, and plea, and assuming the ore rotundo, with pretty generally believed in this country, a mouth vaunting great things, boasted, that he had declared these rights to de- as his next object, the attainment of pend upon the treaties of 1783 and 1787." indemnity for the past, and security for But he had now affirmed in the most decided and manly manner, these rights to be inherent in us as sovereigns of Bengal. He himself was in possession of information which he should take an early opportunity of laying before the House, and which would clearly prove that the French had not the shadow of a claim to disturb us in the exclusive enjoyment of our possessions and privileges in that quarter of the world. The amendment was agreed to. Debate on Mr. Nicholls's Motion for an Address respecting the Removal of Mr. Pitt.] May 7. Mr. Nicholls said, that he felt it his duty, on public grounds, to draw the attention of the House to the misconduct and delinquency of the late administration, but more particularly the criminality of the late chancellor of the exchequer, whom he individually selected as the main object of his motion, not merely because he had been the most prominent figure in the whole group, but forasmuch as there were many points of heinous delinquency which attached exclusively to that right hon. gentleman. It was impossible to canvass this subject so fully as it deserved without going into a retrospect of the conduct and manage ment of the late war. At the commencement of that unhappy contest, the right hon. gentleman rested his ground for the necessity of embarking in hostilities, on the plea that Great Britain was in honour bound to protect the Austrian Low Countries from the usurpation of France, and to rescue and deliver Holland. Had ministers obtained these objects? The very reverse: Austria had lost her domains of the Low Countries, and Holland was subdued by France. The right hon. gentleman had embarked in this war for the delivery of Holland, with the enthusiasm of a political Quixote. He had volunteered the service; no claim, no demand being the future." How has he succeeded in He, |