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neceifary to state particularly the fteps which had been taken by his majefty and his ally, the emperor, at an early period of the contest.

In March, 1796, an offer had been made to treat in that way which had been fanctioned by ufage, and the general experience of nations. The offer was met on the part of the enemy, by advancing a preliminary of fuch a nature that no man could fe riously juftify and fupport it. The aulwer to Mr. Wickham was founded upon what France chofe to call the law by which fhe was bound.What law? A law of their own making, a mere internal regulation! a principle, anoulling all treaties, in open defiance of the rights of Europe, and the received maxims of nations!

It is stated (continued Mr. Pitt) that his majefty the emperor, in fpite of that anfwer, fhewed himfelf ready to co-operate with his Britannic majefty in the fame defirable parfuit. This offer was made immediately after the armistice in the beginning of this eventful year. -How was this offer received? In the fame manner as our own was treated; and the refult was, that the directory gave no credit to his fincerity; but ftated, that if he was ferious, he might send a plenipotentiary to Paris, to treat with them in a manner confiftent with the laws in France.

His majefty has told the world, that notwithitanding thefe difcouraging circumftances, yet, in hopes that the calamities of war might at laft create a difpofition in the enemy which might lead to peace, he again renewed his propofal for opening a negotiation in another form. The next mode which was adopted, was an application through the medium of a neutral minifter:-the minifter of the court of Denmark

made this application in the name of his Britannic majefty, merely to know if they would fend paffports for a plenipotentiary to be fent by his majefty to Paris.-How was this application received?-For fome time no anfwer was made. At last, the Danish minifter was informed, not by a written answer to a written note, but verbally, that if a minifter arrived, they might fend him paffports when he arrived at their frontiers. If there had been the moft remote defire on the part of his majefty and his minifters to retard the negotiation, was not this (faid Mr. Pitt) enough to juftify them in abandoning their attempt? But fo anxious were they to obtain the bleffing of peace, that they refolved to furmount thefe difficulties, and a flag of truce was fent over, charged with a commiflion fimilar to what had been given to the Danish minifter. After a time, the request was granted by the French government, not willingly, but of neceffity.

The firft object of the plenipotentiary was, to do what was conformable to common fenfe and established ufage; to fix fome acknowledged basis, upon which each party might come forward with fome degree of certainty of obtaining the defired object: the bafis proposed was,-"That compensation should be made to France for proportionable reftitutions from his majesty's conquefts on that power, for thofe arrangements to which the fhould be called upon to confent, in order to fatisfy the just pretenfions of allies, and to preferve the political balance in Europe."-Was there any thing to be found (faid Mr. Pitt) of low fordid intereft in this?-We proposed to give up what the valour of England had acquired; not to aggrandife ourselves in any other manner, but to preserve our good faith to

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who had a right to rely upon it. Here an additional proof was given of the inveterate difpofition of the enemy before it could be under ftood that this was meant to be rejected, they make a call on his majefty's plenipotentiary for his ultimatum in twenty-four hours; this, however, from fome unknown prudential reason, was not infifted on;ftill this bafis was not agreed to. His majefty's minifters nevertheless perfevered at laft the French unequivocally acknowledged and received it, and thus afforded the ftrongest proof of the bafis being fair and reasonable. It being ac-cepted, the next queftion was, what fhould be the particular terras? According to the established ufage of negotiation, particular terms are never incntioned by either party at the onfet: yet, notwithstanding, all the advantages that had been given up, and all the conceflions that had been made, what was the demand of the enemy? That the plenipotentiary fhould fpecifically bring forward the terms of the British cabinet. It was needlefs to ftate how great the difficulties in bringing forward terms were in all cafes; and in all times it had been ufual to divide them, and each party had offered them as nearly at the time as poffible. There was in any other mode a material advantage conceded, efpecially when one party was thus called upon to give the value at which he estimated the conquefts he had made; and how much more was this advantage augmented, when no real individual benefit was to be derived to the party making the propofition, and when he had to ftruggle against a rooted animofity on the part of the enemy. Notwithstanding all thefe difcouragements, the plenipotentiary, in conformity to the eftablished batis, delivered in two

confidential notes, one figned and the other not, but enclofed in that which was figned; the firft, relating to the terms of peace between this country and France; the other, comprehending the interefts of his majefty's allies. In the first paper, mutual ceffions were propofed and demanded. By a tide of adverfe fortune on the continent, which afterwards indeed was in a confiderable degree reverfed, a great part of the emperor's dominions, and fome German principalities, remained in the poffeffion of the French. On the other hand, by a fimilar run of fuccefs on the part of this country, the valour of his majefty's forces' gave us almost all the colonial poffeflions of the enemy, a fuccefs of which there are but two inftances in the hiftory of this country. In fuch circumftances what was this country to do? The minifters, fenfible of the temporary evils arifing from the war, the occafional ftagnation of commerce, and the embarraffments attending public and private credit, fill felt that these diftreffes did not proceed from the caufe to which they had been fo often attributed: they were fenfible alfo of the truth of what fome gentlemen had been pleased to eflcem a paradox, that accidental embarraffments produced no permanent diftrefs, and perceived that when thefe were removed, the fituation of the country gave us fome well-grounded intimation of the real fource, and that a fpirit had been fhewn which never had been exceeded. Mr. Pitt affured the house, that he did not state these circumftances to give any one an idea that he did not with for peace, but to fhew that we were not fallen into fo deplorable a ftate of wretchedness as to be compelled to make any difho

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pourable compromife. What, on the other hand, faid he, was the fituation of the enemy? at firft they were enabled to employ gigantic means, which from their nature could not be permanent: they found allo the expedient of diffeminating new and deftructive principles. It was unneceflary to recar to the fubjett of French finance: he might, however, fuppofe that the admiffions of the executive directory were true, when officially conveyed in the form of a meffage to one of their councils. We were told by themfelves that the only pay of their troops ere the horrors of nakednefs and famine; that their state-contractors, their judges, and all other public functionaries received no part of their falaries; that the roads were imparfable, and the hofpitals neglected; and nothing in fhort remained in a state of organization but murder and affaffination. Was this a true picture drawn by themfelves, and could this be a time for Europe to pro.trate itself at the foot of France ?

He then proceeded to confider what we had demanded under the above circumftances:—not the return of ancient pofeffions, not for liberty to maintain our independence, to reject the fraternal embrace, and prevent the organization of treafon; thefe did not reft upon the permillion of the enemy, they depended upon the patriotifm of the people of England: we only defired to preferve our good faith inviolate, and were ready to facrifice all our own advantages to obtain what we could not honourably give away without the content of the emperor. Whatever might have been his difpofition to peace, would he have been content to agree to inferior terms when the campaign was not yet clofed, when the enemy was

ftruck with the effects of the glorious fuccefs with which the imperial arms had lately been attended on the Rhine, when the exertions in Italy might have been expected to communicate to the affairs of Auftria, in that quarter, the fame tide of victory by which the frontiers of Germany were diftinguished? By the terms propofed, all the territory between the Rhine and the Mofelle was to be ceded by France, fubje& to future modification. When the French conquefts in Italy were ftated as objects of reftitution, it was not inferred that Savoy and Nice were included, for in no geographical view could they be confidered as component parts of that country. All the propofitions underwent difcullion between the plenipotentiary and the minifter. Only as to the Ne therlands, his majefty could on no account retract any part of his propofitions! but every thing else was fubject to modification. As to the value of the French poffeffions which we offered to give up, it must be confeffed that the fame evils with which France had been afflicted extended to the colonial poffeffions; but after all they were of infinite importance to France: the most valuable part of St. Domingo, the military and commercial advantages of Martinique, the favorable fituation of St. Lucia, the importance of Tobago to this country, when we combined them together, it might be doubted, whether there was not fome degree of boldness on the part of minifters to make fuch overtures; we might fufpect the wisdom of the measure rather than cavil at the infincerity of the offer.

Mr. Pitt requested the further attention of the house on the fubje& of Holland: it had been (he said) our ally, and its protection was one of the causes of our entering into

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the war: yet as circumftances had occurred which had compelled Holland to become our enemy, he muft confider her in the relation to which the flood respecting France; not that he forgot the formerly had been an ally whofe friendship was attended with reciprocal advantages to herself and to this country; and if it were poffible to replace Holland in the fituation in which the formerly had flood, and to restore her legitimate government permanently,, fuch a reftitution would redound to our advantage.

But with refpect to the principle of compenfation to Holland, nothing better could have been adopted than not to give Holland a part of the foreign poffeflions we had taken from her, which he had no right to ask for herself, nor France to demand for her. Thefe poffeffions were to be retained, that they might not become acquifitions to the French government, nor afford them means of carrying into effect the plan they had conceived of undermining our Indian empire, and deftroying our Indian commerce, by wrefting out of our hands the bulwark of the wealth of this country and the fecurity of the eastern nations. At the fame time our offers were liberal when we confented to give up all that we had taken, referving one fubje&t only for confideration which depended on a treaty, and we afked no more than we were bound by juftice and honour to demand. All that he wifhed parliament to pronounce, was, that they would add their teftimony to the fincerity with which his majefty had endeavoured to restore peace to Europe, and their approbation of the fteps employed for its attainment.

Mr. Pitt then reverted to the ftudied perverfenefs of the French government. When a courier (he faid)

had been difpatched to Paris, at the inftance of a minister of a neutral power, to get a paffport, it was denied; the request of the Danish minifter was not enough; nothing would fatisfy them but a British minifter; a British minifter was sent; at the commencement of the negotiation, he had occafion frequently to fend dispatches to his court, because it is well known that there are a great number of difficulties attending the opening of every negotiation, and becaufe lord Malmefbury had been fent to Paris before the preliminaries were arranged.

Whilft they were fettling, lord Malmesbury's prefence was barely endured, but no fooner were they fettled, and the minifter delivered in a projet, no fooner was the period for difcuffion arrived, when the prefence of an ambaffador was particularly neceffary, and when the king's minifters announced that he was prepared to enter into the difcuffion, than he was ordered to leave Paris, and the negotiation to be carried on by the means of couriers.

Such was the precife form in which a ftudied infult was offered to his Britannic majesty !

The plain ground on which the queftion refted was this; after an ultimatum had been demanded; after the minifter had been ordered to leave the territories of France; after a retraction by the directory of the original bafis of negotiation, and the fubftitution of a new one in its place, they demanded, not as an ultimatum, but as a preliminary, to retain all thofe territories of which the chance of war had given them a temporary poffeffion, and respecting which, they thought proper, (contrary to the laws of nations) to pafs a conftitutional law, declaring that these should not be alienated from the republic. After expatiat

ing much upon what he called "a perverfe and monftrous claim," he remarked, that the annexation of territory to any state by the government of that ftate during the continuance of the war in which it had been acquired, could never convey a claim, fuperfeding the treaties of other powers, and the known and public obligations of the different nations of Europe. It was impoffible that the feparate act of a feparate government could diffolve the ties fubfifting between other governments, or extend to the abrogation of treaties previously concluded; yet this had been the pretenfion to which the French government laid claim, and the acknowledgment of which they had held out as a preliminary of negotiation to the king of Great Britain and his allies.

There was no principle of the law of nations clearer than this; that when, in the courfe of war, any nation acquired new poffeffions, that fuch nation had only temporary right to them, and that they do not become property till the end of the war; for, fuppofing the conqueror to infift upon retaining them because he had paffed a law that they fhould not be alienated, might not the neighbouring powers, or even the hoftile power, aik who gave him the right to pass it? or what authority had he, as a feparate ftate, by any annexation of territory, to cancel exifting treaties, and deftroy the equilibrium eftablished amongit nations? Were this pretenfion tolerated, it would be a fource of eternal hoftility, and a perpetual bar to negotiation between the contending parties, because the pretenfions of the one would be totally irreconcileable with thofe of the other: this, in the inftance of France, had been as inconfiftent in its operations, as it had been unfounded in its origin:

the poffeffions which they had loft in the war in the Weft Indies they had made dependent parts of the republic. Tobago, which was ftill retained by British arms, and had also been loft in the course of the war, was made a part of indivifible France; nor fhould he be furprized to hear, that Ireland, in contequence of their intention to invade it, was conftitutionally annexed to the republic!

He acknowledged there was a diftinction between the Netherlands and the Weft-India islands; but it happened that this principle of law was leaft applicable to thofe pofterfions upon which it was held out as operating upon the government, and that the Auftrian Netherlands, even by the letter of their own conftitution, ought to be exempted. He recommended it to gentlemen to read the report upon which the decree was founded, in which they would find it had been paffed for the avowed purpofe of obtaining for France an indifputable afcendency in Europe, and of fuppreffing the trade and commerce of rival nations.

Overlooking, however, the principle of the decree, if it were found inapplicable to the poffeffions of the French in the Indies, it was certainly much more fo to the Netherlands; and in holding out the principle as operating upon the latter, and not the former, it was applied to that part of their territory to which it was least applicable. Allowing, however, that it was a principle of their conftitution, was it an evil without remedy? No. M. Delacroix confeffed it might be remedied; but not without the inconvenience of calling the primary affemblies.

And were we then, after all our exertions to obtain peace, after be

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