missioners had been appointed to negotiate, a dark, underhand game was played, which contradicted the public profession of the British cabinet. Thus when a commissioner was sent to Switzerland, and that Mr. WICKHAM opened a correspondence with the French, they discovered that it was only for the purpose of negociating a loan. Again, when my lord MALMESBURY was sent to Paris, they discovered that while we were thus making professions of peace at Paris, we were negotiating a hostile treaty with Russia; and last of all, our negotiation at Lisle was accompanied by that counter-revolutionary insurrection in the interior of France, which produced the convulsion of the 4th of September, and in which they affect to say, they discovered the insidious hand of the English minister. My lords,I do not presume to speak from any personal knowledge on this subject; but, he must be wilfully blind who does not see that the French charge our ministers with the fact, and that our declaration is studiously shy of disproving the charge. Yet you cannot avoid obseving that up to the 4th of September, the negotiation continued; but, on the bursting of that volcano, the conferences broke up. What then would an honest adviser of His Majesty say? but, that ministers who had thus conducted themselves, and who had thus exasperated the enemy, were less likely than other men to procure peace for the country. They would advise him at least to try the expedient, they would deprive the enemy of the advantage which they now possess, of asserting with a colour of probability, that the war is continued only because the ministers of His Britannic Majesty are insidious and insincere.

"If I am asked upon what line and basis a peace ought to be concluded, I can only say, that provided it is concluded in the spirit of peace, I would not be very anxious to specify the conditions. I do not think that

mere

mere colonies, either East Indian or West Indian, a sufficient argument for the continuance of war, not even Trincomale itself. As to our West India settlements, the events that have recently happened, have materially changed our policy with regard to them. When we enjoyed all their consumption, it was very different; but now that it is, in a great measure, transferred to America, and when the enlightened spirit of humanity has done so much towards the emancipation of the negro slaves, and that the French Revolution has introduced the principles of insubordination into those islands, I would not contend for a single day about any object in the West Indies; the value of those colonies is very much lessened, indeed,to England. As to the Cape of Good Hope, about which so many lofty expectations were formed, on that also our ideas are corrected; the whole is found to be a dream. I have reason to know, that the men who were the most ardent in their expectations about the Cape, are now convinced that it would be not only useless but inconvenient to keep it. The whole, then, is reduced to Trincomale; and though I own that Trincomale is of enormous value to the defence of our East Indian Empire, and that it is a thing which we ought to negotiate for, and to get, if we can; yet it surely is not worth the continuance of a war. We gained our empire in the East without Trincomale; we have taken Trincomale before now, and given it up: and I am not for incurring another campaign that will cost us thirty millions, for the sake of this settlement. This is my opinion, and I throw it forth without hesitation. Let us come to our senses; our system ought to be purely defensive; a defensive war is not a great evil to this country, compared with that which we have been doomed to endure. But let us above all regain the opi

nion of Europe; we have lost it by our intemperance, our pride, and our rapacity. Let us proclaim freedom to neutral nations; we shall be forced to do it, and that with an ill grace; the present is the moment favorable to conciliation. If thus we recognize the commercial freedom of the world, we shall be the first to profit from the grand and generous system. Our means for a defensive system are, indeed, large; these our nautical skill, and our nautical capital, if I may be allowed the phrase, would maintain to us the true sovereignty of the seas, for it would secure to us the empire of its commerce. To this I would suggest the important duty of a thorough examination of our expences through all their details, and of our abuses through all their gradations; there are other things which must also enter into this plan, and which will naturally suggest themselves to every mind. We have not merely Europe to conciliate, we have also to conciliate at home: we must satisfy the minds of the people. I need not tell you, my lords, that parts of this empire are convulsed to the heart; you will naturally feel that I turn my eye to the state of Ireland, from which all public information is barred; but you must not shut your minds against it, it presses too forcibly upon you for resistance. I have seen letters from a noble person worthy the highest consideration, which give this emphatical description of the present state of Ireland. Ireland is quiet indeed; but it is the quiet which reigns on board of a tender under the management of a press gang.' I have seen also a letter in an evening print, the Courier, which loudly calls upon your lordships' attention. It gives such a description of the horrors that reign in Ireland, as, if true, ought instantly to call for redress. I am convinced that if this subject is not immediately taken up, that we shall have

but

but one alternative, a federal union, or a separation. My lords, the case is imminent. I speak as no party man on the subject; secure to me my property and my quiet. The people who are to be governed have a right to both; and I see no means of restoring the people to the security of property, and the satisfaction of repose, but by making peace with that mighty people, who, to the enthusiasm of liberty, have all the resources of a nation yet before them. They are not exhausted as we are; they have not run through all the classes of taxation; the combat is unequal, and I dread the event. Peace is necessary to our deliverance, by that we may lessen our expences, not, as it is vainly held out in the speech; for so long as the war lasts the enemy is the arbiter of your expence-but by a well constructed and a solid peace, you may pave the way for the amelioration of your internal state. You may satisfy the people, that their representation is substantial, and efficacious to its purpose, not by giving to them the bubble of universal suffrage, a thing which no man that uses the term

much less to recon

has ever been able justly to define, cile with common sense and practice, but to satisfy them by gradual reforms growing out of the constitution itself. I say gradual reforms, for God forbid that any other but gradual reform should ever be countenanced in England. My lords, I have done. I had some intentions of putting some words into the shape of an amendment, but I knew it was useless. I see no good that can be obtained in that way. I have now, for forty years, seen the fate of them in the two Houses of Parliament. I look to another quarter for our remedy. We have a Prince of experience on the throne, --he has friends who are capable of giving him sound and serious advice. It is, perhaps, come to the critical minute when acting on their

GG 4

their counsel, he may yet rescue us from the fate that impends over our heads.-May God grant that we shall still owe to his paternal care the national safety."

No farther attempt at negotiation was made during Mr. PITT's continuance in office; but before we come to report the defence of the peace concluded by his successor, it may be proper to notice some other important events which took place in the mean time.

CHAP.