vent occasions of misunderstanding with foreign powers that we rely on his majesty's known disposition to adhere, with the most scrupulous fidelity, to his enengagements; but that we entertain, at the same time, a perfect confidence, that his majesty will not fail to employ that vigilance and attention which the present situation of Europe demands; and, above all, that his majesty will be uniformly determined, and prepared to defend, against every encroachment, the great sources of the wealth, commerce, and naval power of the empire: that we are fully persuaded that his majesty's faithful subjects will, at all times, be ready to support the honor of his majesty's crown, and the rights, laws, and liberties of their country, with the same zeal, energy, and fortitude, which they have invariably manifested during the war now happily brought to a conclusion." Mr. Wellesley Pole seconded the motion, and corroborated and illustrated the arguments of the noble lord who preceded him. Mr. Thomas Grenville said, that the noble lord seemed to rest the whole of his defence on the merits of the definitive treaty; yet, at the conclusion of his speech, he had entered into a justification of it, and owned that the people were worn out with the war, and clamoured for peace. In this he was not prepared to acquiesce; for the people were alive to their liberty and independence even to the latest period of the war, and continued to think it necessary up to the very signing of the preliminaries: he could not, therefore, hear it said that their patience was worn out by the contest. Another mode of exaggeration which had been employed by the noble lord was such as he could not pass over. That noble person had asked, whether no peace was to be accepted and whether no terms could be endured by his opponents. He had pushed this unfair mode of arguing still farther; for he had asked, whether the war should have been continued for Maita, for Louisiana, or for the Italian republic, as consolidated by Buonaparté with that of France? Mr. Grenville said, he was not one of those who would have objected to any terms. About two years since he was deputed by the then administration to negotiate a peace; and he certainly should not have accepted of the mission, if he had not been inclined to negociate on honourable and safe terms. [VOL. XXXVI.] He thought it, however, unfair to put the question of peace or war on the ground of each individual sacrifice made by this country; and particularly, as in the affair of the Italian republic, where an enormous addition was to be superadded to the sacrifices already made. He would much rather argue the question on this broad and general ground-" Will you suffer the enemy to do you that mischief in time of peace, which they could not effect in time of war ?" We had given up the Netherlands; we had lost sight of Holland; and yet the argument was now so managed as if the evil was cured, instead of being increased by the mass of cessions. He was not for going to war again for any one of these, or for the whole of them; but he must desire, that, considered as a whole, they should not be kept entirely out of the question. He could not, for instance, but notice the accession of weight and influence which France had received by the ceding of Louisiana. This was a matter settled in a secret convention, and kept wholly out of view when the limits of French Guiana were debated, on a view of the preliminaries. Did ministers conceal, or were they aware at that time of this convention? This was a subject on which an explanation was due to the House. They had been told, it was true, that there was in this part no naval station; but he must ask, whether this cession did not command the two Floridas; and whether, in the case of a new war, the cession of the one was not, in point of fact, a cession of the whole? This question he had pressed before; but unfortunately he had pressed it without effect. On the Island of Elba he should not offer one syllable, because that question had already been debated. The ministers had exulted in the non-renewal of treaties, considering their renewal as a matter which was fraught with danger, doubt and insecurity. They had rejoiced in this as if they had been sent on a voyage of discovery, though, at the same time, they abandoned the beaten track of all their predecessors. These treaties, however, he must observe, had often replaced the security and refixed the boundaries of disturbed Europe. There were difficulties, no doubt, in this instance, arising from the new limits of the Rhine and the cession of the Netherlands. But these difficulties could not be admitted to supersede the advantages arising from the renewal and recognition of former treaties. He would [3 D] had been loosely passed over in the definitive treaty. By a separate convention, it was, in fact, determined that that House should not have one stiver of compensa tion which was not to be drawn from this country. On the relinquishment of the honour usually paid to our flag by Hol land, the hon. gentleman severely animHe then observed, on the admit that our late enemy was not easily to be bound or debarred by treaties of this description from the objects of his ambition; but he was not prepared to accede to the statement of a right hon. gentleman last night, that these treaties were only worth so much waste paper. It was said by some personis, that we should sanction the ambitious projects and attain-adverted. ments of France, by entering specifically article by which the payment of the debt into those treaties. It was to be recol- due for the maintenance of prisoners was lected, however, that Buonaparté, pend-regulated. The House were told, that the ing the congress of Amiens, had set out Russian troops, being not merely under on his mysterious journey to Lyons. We pay, but subject to our control, ought to afterwards knew, and of course lent an be considered in the same light as the naimplied sanction to, the object of this tive troops of this country. But was this journey; for, though not expressly de- really the fact? It certainly was not. scribed, our recognition, when the matter The Russian troops, who were fed, clothed, was fully known, was not the less given to and arrayed at our expense, were so far the establishment of the Italian republic. from being destined to the service of this A difference, he was aware, had been laid country, that they were to be employed down between all treaties considered as to act offensively against us. The French commercial and political. He was con- government had succeeded in detaching vinced that we could not renew a treaty the emperor of Russia from our friendwhich had expired, or enforce one which ship; and this was the boon which they was not agreeable; and such, no doubt, was presented to gratify their capricious ally. the case with the commercial treaty made On the subject of the article respecting with France in 1787. This, however, Portugal, the noble lord had said, there did not imply or sanction the exclusion of was no deviation from the preliminaries of any treaty whatsoever. With respect to peace, by which the integrity of her ter India, it was contended, that all firmauns ritories is secured. Yes--this integrity of the native powers, as well as our own had been a ground of stipulation; but of treaties, were cancelled by the war, and what description was the integrity which that we stood on the distinct claim of our was secured? Was it integrity of pos sovereignty. But we pronounced on our sessions as they existed antecedent to the own right, without considering what was war? No, said the noble lord; but Por the opinion of France, with respect to tugal had obtained an integrity of pos claims which in the late treaty she had session, which, when the matter came to not recognised. A right hon. gentleman be investigated, turned out to be a mere (Mr. Dundas) condemning, for the first definition of limits He would not enter time, the treaty of peace in 1783, had into any geographical statements; but he said, that he was equally happy to get could not avoid making one remark with rid of the poison of that treaty, and of regard to these limits. The noble lord its antidote, administered in 1787. This talked of a distance of 50 miles, estaopinion was evidently changed, when the blished by the new limits, which had been same right hon. gentleman gave his assent fixed from the river of the Amazons. to the treaty of Lisle in 1796. Mr. How such a distance could exist, he was Grenville then proceeded to remark on quite at a loss, to conceive, when he reour exclusion from cutting of logwood in flected that the Arawari flowed into that the Bay of Honduras, the access to which very river. While he was on this subject he was assured by former treaties with Spain, wished to say a few words on the obligations which now were all extinguished, and of this country to procure for Portugal, not the advantages of which would be but ill an integrity of the kind now described, but repaid by a return to the Musquito shore, integrity of a substantial nature. He was now a shore without settlements, On all not disposed to question the policy of the these occasions he was for a limited right, late administration, in preferring the exsettled by a convention, rather than for a pedition to Egypt to the defence of Porgeneral and perhaps an unadmitted claim. tugal. But what was the inference to be He next proceeded to notice the situation drawn from this arrangement? It was, of the House of Orange, whose claims that if we did not grant an old and faithful ally assistance, in a moment of difficulty and danger, we were bound by every consideration of public faith, to take care that her interests should not suffer from our preferring other objects to that of affording her protection against an enemy who had attacked her independence. This was the conduct which good faith clearly dictated; and he was amazed to hear the language of the noble lord in justification of the vague provision which the definitive treaty had made to secure this object. What was the natural effect of even a dereliction of the interests of our ally? It was, to estrange Portugal from our interests, and to create a spirit of hostility to a power by whom her interests had been so grossly neglected. On the article relative to the Cape, he had only one observation to make; and that was, that, by the arrangement which had been agreed upon, the Dutch might make it a free port; and thus we might lose all the advantages of the arrangement previously established by the treaty. He next touched on Malta, the regulations respecting which he censured in very severe terms. In the preliminaries, Malta was made independent; but it now appeared that this declaration of independence had been made while ministers were ignorant of the arrangements by which this independence was fixed. The order was to be restored; but how was the restoration of an order to be effected, all of whose funds were lost, gone, and dispersed? From an average of ten years previous to 1798, it appeared that 130,000l. constituted the whole annual revenue. To the three French langues 58,000l. formerly belonged, the whole of which was confis cated. The whole of the revenues of the Spanish langue consisted of 27,000l. and this sum was also confiscated; or if the appropriation had not already taken place, it was likely to be so at no very remote period. After estimating other losses in Germany, Poland, and Bavaria, the total of the provinces left did not much exceed 23,000l. a year; and this was the sum allotted for the support of the order to be restored! What, on the other hand, was the amount of the expense annually incurred on an average of ten years? It was not less than 130,000. The island was declared to be independent under the protection of a third power. But, was the king of Naples, by whom this protection was to be afforded, himself independent? Was he not, on the contrary, totally dependent on the power of France? To remedy this defect, however, and to secure this independence, the House was called upon to consider the powerful guarantees which had been established. On a former occasion, the noble lord had stated, that the accession of some of these powers to this arrangement had not been received. But, admitting that they would accede, what was the consequence? France was the guaranteeing power nearest in situation to the island whose independence was to be secured. From the new constitution given to the order, and the establishment of a new langue, tumults and broils might arise in the island. France, as an amicable guaranteeing power, might immediately interfere; a squadron might sail from Toulon, and take possession of the island before the design was suspected; and it was not easy to say what new changes would be introduced before these troubles were quelled. The hon. gentleman concluded by saying, that the original address had his cordial approba tion. Mr. Dundas took that opportunity of noticing some misrepresentations of what he had said last night. A right hon. gentleman alleged, that he had applied his observations to the convention of 1787, as containing evil provisions, which we ought not to renew. He had done no such thing. His argument was this, that the merit of the convention of 1787 depended solely upon this, that it applied an antidote to the poison of the treaty of 1783; the meaning of which was, that the convention of 1787 had the merit of counteracting the treaty of 1783; but he had not said, that either the one or the other of them was the foundation of the prosperity of India. The right hon. gentleman had put it to him, how he reconciled his conduct in assenting to the negotiation at Lisle, by which the provisions of the convention of 1787 were stipulated to be assented to on our part? His answer was this; that since the year 1797, the condition of this country in India was changed most materially, and that which might have been offered in 1797, and was then offered, would have been improper on our part in 1802. In 1797, we had not what we now possessed, namely, the undoubted sovereignty of India; and therefore, whatever opinion he had in 1797, he was perfectly warranted in changing that opinion in the present instance; for, in the one case we were | was to abandon the Cape. He felt this warranted in demanding more than in the sentiment still more strongly on account other. In both instances he had been of the connexion that was now established desirous that this country should have the between France and Batavia. He consibest possible terms of security for its dered the Cape as almost invaluable to us, tranquillity in India. Did the right hon. as a place of safe reception to us between gentleman mean to make it matter of re- Asia and Europe; but, although this was proach to him, that he had changed his his opinion, yet he did not hold it to be opinion as to our situation in India, upon any part of his duty to join those who a change of circumstances there? Did took so much pains to render the peace he mean to say, that, although he could an object of disapprobation with the discover a material change of circum- people: he saw no good that was likely to stances in our situation, yet there was to arise out of that conduct; neither did he be no change in his opinion as to the con- think it was proper to cavil too much at duct which we were to pursue? Did he that part of the exercise of the prerogamean to urge it as a fault in him, that tive of the crown, although it was done, he had, upon an attentive perusal of do- of course, under the advice of ministers. cuments, from 1763 down to the present | With regard to Malta, be considered it period, become of opinion that our sove- also as a place of great value, on account reignty in India was now entire; and, as he of the communication it had between the was of opinion that we were better off in Mediterranean and the Levant. It was this respect by not renewing any treaty one of the finest ports in the world. It than if we had, that he should endeavour to was, in a commercial view, most important impress that opinion on the House? He for us to retain; but it was not in a com- & believed that the noble person who had mercial view that he felt the full importbeen alluded to (lord Grenville) stated an ance of this place. He felt its value much opinion, much as he had done on the more on account of the effect it would ground of our sovereignty in India, and have, on surrounding nations, to see the that he had changed the opinion he had flag of Great Britain hoisted as an asfirst entertained on this subject. But he surance to all who passed it, of the prowould now say a few words on the question tection of the British arms, should she now before the House. When he heard chance to stand in need of it; and when of the manner in which the Cape of Good he came to add to this the desire of the Hope was to be disposed of, he heard it Maltese to continue under our protection, with regret and sorrow. He had always he was the more induced to express his considered that place as a great acquisition regret that this place had been given up. to this country. He was of that opinion He had therefore no difficulty in saying, before we had it; he was confirmed in that, under all the circumstances, he that opinion by experience since it was in could not have assented to the giving up our possession. He looked upon it as a of either of these places had he been in good depôt, and a place for the reception administration.-But now for the immeof our troops when we had occasion to diate question before the House. He send them to India: by their being landed could not agree to the address moved by and refreshed there, they went to India his right hon. friend, because it com full of health and vigour, and were fit for menced with an invective against the immediate service. It helped us in the peace. He saw no good likely to arise course of our immense fleets on their way from that course of proceeding. " In 1783, to India. He looked upon the Cape and when a peace was made, after it was adCeylon as our two great bulwarks, and mitted to be necessary on all hands, that at no period of his life had he been of an- peace was afterwards made use of by other opinion on this subject. No con-parties in that and the other House of nexion, however close-no friendship, however cordial-no attachment, however sincere should induce him to withhold his opinion upon this subject. That opinion was, that the Cape of Good Hope should not have been given up by this country; and had he been in administration, nothing should have induced him to be a party in agreeing to a peace, by which this country parliament, as an organ to destroy the administration who made it. He did not like the purpose for which the parties then decried that peace: as little did he like the course which was taken now against this peace. He had stated the points in the present case in which he did not concur; but he desired to be understood as not being a party to any such confederacy. He agreed, on the whole, with the amendment; and had it not been moved, probably he should have moved some amendment himself. The first address, if agreed to, he apprehended might do mischief. He approved of the amendment, because the general tendency of it was only to approve of carrying into effect the definitive treaty, because it was founded on the basis of the preliminary treaty, which had already been approved of by the two Houses of parliament. General Gascoyne seeing many gentlemen desirous to deliver their sentiments, and considering the lateness of the hour (two o'clock), moved, that the House should adjourn till to-morrow. - The question of adjournment being put, Mr. Chancellor Addington said, his * own feeling was in favour of a decision before the House should part. It was the interest of the country also, that no delay should take place. On the other hand, he was extremely desirous that the subject should have a full investigation. If, then, there were so many gentlemen desirous to deliver their sentiments, the propriety of giving them an opportunity to say every thing that could be said upon the subject was such, that he thought every feeling of his own, and the public consideration should give way. a silent vote. Mr. Pitt observed, that if any considerable number of members were desirous of promoting a more minute inquiry, he was ready to accede to the motion of adjournment. But, for himself, he was perfectly satisfied with the tone and spirit of the address, as it was amended, as well as with the arguments so ably and successfully used by his noble friend. In favour, therefore, of the amendment, he should have contented himself with giving When he reviewed what had already fallen in the course of the debate, he saw no prospect of any new arguments which might be supposed capable of making any serious impression on the minds of gentlemen, and of changing their opinions as they existed on either side. His noble friend had made but one speech, and those who disapproved of the peace had delivered three or four. As he saw no probability that any additional arguments of importance would be thrown out in the course of farther investigation, he should press an immediate decision on the amendment. Mr. Grey said, that however he might be disposed to vote against the address, So it was resolved in the affirmative; and at three in the morning, the House adjourned. May 14. The adjourned debate being resumed, and the Speaker having read the Address proposed by Mr. Windham, and the amendment moved by lord Hawkesbury, Sir W. Young observed, that the noble lord who moved the amendment had said, that the peace was to be considered as a whole. Now he and his friends thought it impossible well to consider a whole, without attentively observing the parts which formed that whole, and the quality of the materials of which it was composed. If the address moved by his right hon. friend produced no other effect than the amendment proposed by the noble lord, he should consider that it had not altogether failed; for, although he preferred the original address, still he was glad to see such a document come from the hands of his majesty's ministers; for the amended address seemed to confess what the original address proclaimed; the object of the original address being to call the country to a sense of its danger, to show her the precipice on which she stood, and the means of her salvation. As to the difference between the preliminaries and the definitive treaty, he should first advert to the observations that had been made respecting Malta. It had had been said, that the treaty gave a preponderance to the Maltese langue; that they were to fill at least half the offices of the state, and might be expected to form a sufficient militia, for the protection of that island. Gentlemen who held that language seemed little acquainted with Malta or its inhabitants. He had himself resided there for |