Star. — London, England, 1805-02-15 00:00:00

FRANCE. LEGISLATIVE BODY. VITT'S° OF 15 ►LUIIOSE, Its. 4. A letter was read from his Excellency the Secre tary of State, announcing that the Counfellqrs of State &CUR, B►GOIIIII, and DkUOLIS, were charged by the Emperor to make a communication to thelAgif lative Body. A moment afterwards the Connfellors• of State wer.: introduced, and N. 41GUll addreffed the Af fembly in the following words : is His Majay, (ince he has been on the throne, bas thought that this new fituation, and the circem fiances which have placed him in it, might authorize him to eunceive hopes of Peace. 44 The enemy, undeceived with efpet to the vain hopes which he had founded on the chances of an eleetive power, finds himfelf in a fituation which ought to difpofe him to Mien to more moderate coun cils. The Emperor has done what General Boma r awes, before the battle of the Drave, what the Firll Conful did before he was forced to combat at Marengo. He has written to his Britannic Majefty, the letter which I am about to read to you. (For ...kith foe ►he Star of yejltrdoy.) " This letter, Gentlemen, was fuitible to the dik. city of a power which relies on its firength, yet will not abufe it, the charaaer of the Emperor 130 C per mitting the fufpieion of weaknefs. " To this letter the Briti(h Minifiry retnrhea at an fwer not fishable to overtures frank and fo pacific, but an anfwer the terms'of which at leak if when compared with thofe employed in the year A , in other circumßances, 'do not offend spina decorum, and permit us to hope for More ecimmunications of more utility. (For 'AA fee Me e _effigy.) On there documents M. Sieve makes the follow.! iag remarks : This letter is well as the anfsver ' rays he, would have remained among the fecrets of Government, as all other preliminary ails, the ()Vice of which Is to lead to effectual negociations,, had not the Speech of the King of England to his Parliament made it a matter of publicity. This fpeech, which announces pacific communications on the part of France, is dif tinguiffied by arperiiy, mutation, and reproaches. In this fpeech a fort of contemptuous pity is attempt ed to be exprelfed in confecinence of the neceffity of unexPeeedly attacking a generous nation, with which the relations of peace were fully preferred, by feizing her rails, navigating on the faith of treaties. Even after this ea, it affects to be ationinsed that the Spa nn nation did not humble itfelf in explanations to a power which had conducted itfelf as a brigand, and to whole meafures of haility it bad anfwered by a declaration of war. In the fame fpeech connexions and confidential communications with the Powers of the Continent are announced. An attempt is made to hold out the idea of a coalition, which has no ex idence, and which it is impoffible to realize. France is too great to humble herfelf by entering into any dircuffion of injuries. She owes to an ally, cruelly outraed, not vain pity only, but the molt conftant and f aithful rapport.—France has no enemy on the Continent—She has with no Continental Power any , ferret dircuffion relative to the war betwixt France and England. Aultria, Pruffia, Germany ate all defirous of peace with France. Within a very thort _period the Emperor has received the moll pofitive affurances of their pacific difpofition. The Emperor ALE:aeon might have prevented hoffilities, if England had chofen to accept his mediations. Even now he might terminate war, if his blinitlers at Paris and London bad followed the intentions he then difcovered. The intervention of Rutfia, which might have been very ufeful in preventing the renewal of hoftilities, is not equally fo when hottilities are actually commenced. England has nothing to fear from that power, and cannot feel any neceffity for jealoufy in watching her motions. All Europe fees this. The events of the year nine demonarated it. The Britilh Government proved it. If England now has confidential commu nications with Rutfia, it cannot be with any view of Skewing pacific difpotitions. The only object can be to give rife to a belief of a coalition. But here the has no chance of timers, and her hopes are illufory. At Peterftwrgh, as well as at Vienna and Berlin, the attack of the Spanifh frigates, in the bofom of peace, is regarded as an attack on the Law of Nations, as an injurycommitted on every Sovereign. There Courts are convinced that by this attack three hundred in nocent victims periflud. In the fame light they con fider the capture of a Spanish regiment under the fame circumflances. As alfo the feizure of eighty 'wads in the Mediterranean, belonging to all nations, ass moft unprincipled violation „ that liberty of the kas which is common to all kingdoms and all People. 4 0 This torrefpondence, thefe confidential unman dons, are mere chimeras' mere vain pretexts for elu ding negociations for peoce. This is always the per idious tyftem, which is anxious to fosi the feeds of war on the Continent, to perpetuate the monopoly of a tingle people, and to controul the commerce of all nations. It is the fame fpirit which for the purpofe of violating the Peace of Amiens, created imaginary armaments in our ports, and alarmed the Engh(h na tion by deftrultive proje&s. o If the voice of humanity can be heard, thofe will indeed be culpable who expofe their country to the dangers which the (late which they accufe as the author's of them has at all times laboured to avert. The enlightened politicians of all countries, the Eng in nation itfelf, too late perhaps, convinced of its error, 'have cenihred the unjunifiable policy of the Government, when in the year eight the opportunity of concluding an honourable peace was rejefted.— Perhaps the prefent greatnefs of France is to be af eribed to this very reftsfal. The future will dirclole the effeils of fnch obtlinate blindnefs to every liberal idea of policy. We have nothing to fear, and per haps after the expiration of ten years, our fituation will be more favourable for treating than at the pre. fens moment. In war, as in the revolution of poli tical events, there are opportunities prefented, which once refuted,• will never recur, and which leave their rejeetion a boons of regret for ages. If fuch be the detliny of England, it remains only fcr French bra very to exert its energy, and to triumph over this eternal foe of the liberty of the fcas and the repofe of mankind." TRIBUNATE, MI. 4. TITIR AORM it Alt Ir SITTIIIO. Ater the procefe-verbal of the laft fitting was read and agreed to, the Counfellors of State, RIONAV vt. (de St. Jean d'Angely ). TRIIL HARD, and Beam Gee, were introduced. M. REONAULT (de St Jean d'Angely ), thus addretTed the Tribunate : "Gentlemen, the Government of England, in publilhin& imperfealy the commencement of a nego. elation with France, has violated the law of nations, and impofed on his Majelly the Emperor an obliga tion to mike known to France and to Europe, the citeumftances of the cafe with all accuracy. • "Europe and France will obferve to what frefh facrifices of Pelf love ' of every fentiment of vain glory a noble heart, full of pride, and jealous of its renown, has fubmitted, in order to (pare the effufion of hu man blood. of the blood of his people more endear ed to hislove. They will perceive that the firft war rior of h;s age has endeavoured to reftore as Coon as poflible to peace and to repofe, the exiaing genera tions' whole tranquillity and happinefs from hence forth, the &oral of his wifhes, will conftitute the foie glory which he wifhes to add to the glory already acquired of his military triumphs. Thefe fetaiments, Gentlemen, explain at once she thringhts and the anions of his Majefty. " And mould it be allied hoW a min, gifted with a charaaer mare vigorous, who has proved himfeif more enterprifing and more daring than the molt daring and entTeprifing perfons recorded in hifiory how a man, th 'the vigour of impaffionate youth, could, in defining peace, triumph at once over his remembrances and hishopes—how the General of five hundred thoufand brave men could keep in fubjec tints the moft noble, as well as the molt abfolute of all the paffions, that of renown—how he could renounce the glory which he could Rill acquire in this career of arms, in which he has encountered only viaories ; it mutt be anfwered=this man has need of the repofe and of the happinefs of the world. " If one Lets how a young Monarch, incelTantly planed by towardly comics. attacked by vile defa mers, menaced by affidlins, •ffiences his perfonal re fenements, and refolves to prefent the olive branch to • the Cabinet that hires his defamers, and pays wages to his affitiains, the anftver is, this Monarch is above the paffions of common men. If one recolleas how Great Britain, braving public morality, and the law of nations, has pro ft itute4l her Attballadors, degraded her moil diftinguifhed foldiero b the vileft hat - ions, by the matt Blameful intffiridt;... • i if we con fi der how the employs the treafines of bekcovartierce, acquired in contempt of the law of nations, and of all laws, to pay the fabricators of infernal machines, to orga nize confpiracies, the traces of which are Rill in the midft of us, and which have excited cries of indig nation that re-echo throughont Europe. ff we tract not to ourfelves filch a piaure, and alit how the Chief of this knit nation, minted by France and Europe as the avenger of fo many outrages, Rifles in his heart the malice and hatred which would pre vail in an ordinary foul, we mutt attfwer, the man to whom the great nation has given its crown, of pires from that moment only to the title of Father of the French. " Napoleon had fcarcely afcended the throne— he had fcarcely gone out of this metropolis, where all that is molt auguß in religion had confeerated what is molt foie= in the willies of the people, when his heart, am full of emotion at the public acclama• tion, infpired .him with the thought of writing to George the Third the letter which I am charged to communicate to you. " The Emperor had very recently taken to France the facred oath which the ALMIGHTY had accepted, to live for the happinefs and the glory of the French people ; and in order to enter upon the accomplifii ment of that holy engagement, he colleted, fet down, and addreffed to the King of England, the ezpreifion of all the generous, moderate, and if I may fo (peak, the religious fentiments that can be conceived and profeffed by a noble foul; and indeed, that immortal difpatch will not rank among the lets glorious monuments of the reign of his Maiefty ; nor will it be the teat certain of his titles to the gratitude and love of France; neither will it be the lean fecure pledge of the efteem of thofe wife philanthropifls, who, in whatever light they may be reprefented by obfeure and perverfe men, by whom they are calum niated without being underftooel, Rill form fo nume rous a clafs in the bofom of enlightened Europe. But on this occafion, may not the humanity of the Mo narch have deceived his willies ? Could his reafon have long continued to cherilh the hopes fuggeßed by his benevolence ? Had he forgotten how, and upon what perfidious grounds the moft facred com pels had been violated? Had he forgotten that when Me leopards were tearing the Treaty of Amiens, no fiend of aggreffion had provoked their rage ? Had he fdrgotten how, on the Bth of Much, it was Rated to the Parliament of England, that our ports and arfenals, though then in a Rate of pacific filence and ina&i sit y, were filled with armed veffels, and holding out, in the Rate of their equipment, a moft menacing appearance ?—No, Tribunes, filch recollections are not to be effaced; but fince the era that gave them birth what happy changes have taken place in the at titude of France, attacked, as the has been, by im• prudent and unjuft enemies ! 66 Is it neceffary, Tribunes, that I folicit your at tention to our Paternal fituatisn, and to remind you of the thong pledge it holds out to you of fccurity, Rreagth, and well grounded ezpeaation ? Were you not the firß to interpret and ezprefs the national with ratified by the Mirages of five millions of citizens, and which fince the accomplifliment of that wili,fince the eftablifhenent of the Napoleon dynafty, Pas for ever fixed the deftinies of the French Empire ? Was ever an empire more firmly founded ? Never in any nation has the confpring will and energies of the Government and of the people, created a mats of ftrength and power more impofing and more formi dable ? Never has any Rate advanced with more ra pid 'irides towards profperity and greatnefs ! For thefe two years pat, it is true, war with England has been declared, and no important occurrence has marked its progrefs—no decifive blow has been truck that can fuinifh any conjeture of its termination.— But in our ports we have fleets : in our harbours armed flotillas. " Of the four chances to be got over in making a defcent, fence, after all, we mutt utter that formida ble word, three of them have already decided in our, favour. The (hips are built ; they are colleted to *ether I and ports hare been prepared to feceive . them. The whole advantage of the war haw there fore been in our favour ; fince, without having et• perienced any check in the face of a fuperior enemy, we have employed t*o years in allimbling together immenfe means. The whole advantage of the war has been in our favour, fince, in fpitc of the numer ous lhips that cover the fear with the Zritilh flag, we have been able to prov iuon and to place in a Rate of fecurity our moll important and moll remote colonies. , Martinique, Guadaloupe, Cayenne, the cities of France, &c. are fuinifhed with every thing in abun dance. Their garrifons have been more than tii• pled—all the gores and provifions intended for them, have reached their deßination ; no reinforcement has failed to arrive at its intended place. A great expedition would fail before Martinique and the Ilk of France. And while our colonial territory remains entire and ffieltered from every feat, the dominions of the King of England (Hanover), is entirely in our power. We have loft nothing of our poffeffions, and we occupy an important province of the enemy. 41 What advantage have the Englifh acquired to compenfate for thefe advantages ? what has availed thefe mailers of the feas, the immenfe luperiority of their naval lirength ? The have 101 l fifteen fhips or frigates, that have either run afhore, or have been dallied upon the rocks. They have fquandcred away immenfe treafures in cruises di&sted by fear, inter rupted by the power of the winds, and punithed by RolMs and other mifhaps. At home the Englith have feed the merchant forced from his ceunting houfe, the manufeaurer from his loom, and for want of mufkets, compelled to confume the time defined for their commerce and their work, in handling clumfy and unavailing pikes, haffily forged, by the dread of an invafion. Under the preffure of that fear, ever Prefent to their minds, the Englifb Govern ment has had recourfe to every poffible means of de fence ; they have prepared inundations and bat. teries ; they have barricaded their ports, and forti fied their coatis; they have contrived flying carriages to tratifport their troops, and put into regulation the .carriages and horfes of the three kingdoms ;—they hive porchafed the arming of the Englifh nation at the price of diforganixation, the derangement of its habits, and the coutiteraCtion of its manners. The traveller who; for thefe two years paR, goes from Paris to London, and returns froth London to Paris, is ationiffied to behold in the capital of the French empire profound peace and fccurity ellablithed and maintained, and in the capital of England uncertain ty and terror ; the agitation that prevails at the head quarters of a threatened camp, defended by an inco herent, unorganized mafs, novices in the trade of war, (truck with the conviaion of their own inability to make war again( the veteran troops of War. 4, If we compare the Rate of opinion in force parts of the two countries, we (hall behold in the Eaßern departments of France that were in a Rate of inferreCtion, enlightened Prelates refloring peace to the public mind by re-ctiablifhing tranquillity in their confciences ; vigilant Prefeas founding a new and wholfome adnundtration, arretting, difarming, and punithing the remnant of thofe brigands who were caR upon our coatis, concealed in our cities, or wandering in con foreßs. In thofe countries where not long fince Brian) geld was employed to kindle up civil war, agriculture is meta:bathed, tranquillity is maintained, the taxes are railed without conttraint, paid trith punetuality. New cities are ken to rife ; canals are dug; public roads are completed. The confcripts fummoned to our armies, Huck to them at the fame call which fo lately e::cited them to a facri legions war, but which now only collets them to invoke the bletlings of HEAVkh in favour of the man that governs them. Nor do we fee any extraordi nary meafures, any fufpenfion of the ordinary pro telling laws; no longer are there any diffentions be tween the Morbihan and the Cote d'Or, between La Vendee and the Meurthe. " In the mean time, at the other fide of the ocean, Ireland prefents to us the fpedacle of never-ending confpiracics, inftigated by oppreffion as conftantly renewed ; an army of foldiers reftraining with diffi culty an army of citizens, by the aid of thofe via lent meafures, of which the revolution fcarcely fur• ni(hes an example ; and to concentrate all in one word, we behold in that unfortunate country a war of religion, perfecutions unknown at this moment in the bofome of Europe, that it is indignant to ob ferve, the only (pot upon the earth where the moil facred rights are unacknowledged, and where Go vernment arms itfelf againft the uncontroulable power, and the facred freedom of confcience. " If, on the other hand, you draw a parallel be tween the finances of the two States, you will find on the oppotfie Chore new expences accumulating upon the expences already immenfe, of a nation to whom a million and a half was yearly necellary in an ordinary war, and who, in the prefent war, Rands in need, for the firß time, of a levy in mats; of a levy that coils it hundreds of millions. It pro vides for that fum, it is true : but by goading the prefent, and by (wallowing up the future, by refolv. ing to fund its debt, inftead of being extinguifhed by the operation of its finking fundgwelled by the ahufe of its only refource, loans.—On our fide, our nume rous armies have been always the camfe of our great en expence ; and their maintenance brings with it but an inconfiderable addition, that is not made to bear upon a foreign country. The budget which will be fhortly laid before you, will apprife you, that our territorial refources have provided for every thing ; and that, inftead of adding to our debt dur ing thefe two years of war, our finking fund has be gun efficacioufly to operate for its exundion. " What France has done, (he may continue to do for 3o years, and has only to ails of HiAV EN that the fun may continue to thine, the rain to fall upon our fields, and the ground fecundize the feed depolited in it. Ten years more of war would make no addi tion to our debt : ten years more of war would add four milliards to the debt of England. Let her not forget, however, that if public credit be a poweiful and formidable weapon, the bow too firongly bent, fnaps in the hand that holds it, and leaves naked and defencelefs the man that employs it. " England, it mutt be owned, has plundered with out rifque during the fir& months of hoftilities, from our nnproteded (hips, forty or fifty millions ()ivies) to the detriment of our commerce. But at Marti nique, Guadaloupe, the Ifle of France, every day fees our privateers carry in Englills prizes; and al ready the balance inclines in our favour is the cal eulation of our finances, as well as in the comp.& of our glory. 1 , I may therefore lay. and f.+t• c-nfidently, the advantage is on our fide. France is ;nvulniJ. !:• in all the points of her immenfe territory ; nothing to apprehend is her advanced pmts .• Wet and Ea(t Indies. England is every where tieiible; and without appearing to reach her, have in reality inflieled wounds upon her, which r perhaps be attended with a progreflive atony %. - lent convolfinns. " Our fleets at Brett, Toulon, and Rochefort, 11, v annexed to them armies, refolved to pals the oce.or with them. Our flotillas are ready to depart v. ior thefe proud fons.of war, who know no impediment-. becaufe they hai't furmottnted all that, before them, had aftonithed the molt intrepid. Let cs continue to keep on our coatis loldiers, inhabi.ing camps inllead of barracks. and become intrepid tailors, as well AS brave warriors. Let the people of England in the mean time, arm, agitate, f a t igue , es ha u ft; a nd dis courage themfclves, lot our rettauccs and our re venues [Office foi our eipenees, and let there be na want but that of Wine extraordinary refources which the richnefs of our country.infure to us. In En - gland, let the interea paid to 1,4 n-holders abforb, and ex ceed all potlible means to pay thofe levies in mars, which exhauft the nation without defendingsit : let this (late of things prolong itfelf, awl let the Englilh Cabinet 'late the advantages that tefult from this &nation, from which it derives equal danger and flame. Shall I (peak to you of there fecret expedi tions with whirrh the credulity of the Engliff: people is every three months abufed, and which terminate only in ridiculous and fruttlefs attempts. Are thy embarking Come troops for the renewal of the garzi fon of Gibraltar, cut off by the petlilence ; or do they with to convey Tome troops to India, or Come rein forcements to Ceylon, where England has had fuch loffes ; or do they prepare Come millions of men to repair the ravages of the yellow fever at Jamaica, to flrengthen the garrifcns of the Englith Colonies, threatened by three or four thoufand men, which Martinique and Guadeloupe can detatch againft them. When thefe ordinary meafures are in prepara tion, the Government Coffers it to be believed, that formidable armaments menaced France. How long and with how much myftery did they announcethofe (hips loaded with (tones, to choak up our ports, and thofe firefhips focourageoufly, and at fuch a dal tance launched againa our flotillas And M fat what other expedition could tempt the Englith. Would they with a landing on our v:eltern coact, to try how our national guards alone, united with our peace garri fons, will receive them on their arrival, and cut off their return. Mailers of the lea for two fears, their fleets have fatigued the ocean and the Mediter ranean, and their toldiers have not dared on any coact ; on all our fhores their veffels have thrown on, them only brigands. In place of there vain phan toms of expeditions. fuppofe, Gentlemen, that the as,ooo men from Breit, the 6000 from Rochefort, the 12,000 from Toulon, and the at,ooo from the Teed, all or even in part rea.th Ireland, Jamaica, or India ; or even fuppofe that thefe 200,000 men the boats of our flotillas can carry and pats over in one night, menace and reach the oppofite coati, on which their impatient courage keeps them for fo long a time ; fuppofe what is (till more ample, that the so frigates, the Go fhips of the line, of all rates, which two years have feen created, armed, and equipped, (hould get out in (mall lquadrons and inundate the fear, and dry up in every quarter the channels of profperity and life, by the aid of which England fupports its montirous exiftence. With only a part of thefe fuppofitions realized, you will fee every where, and reafon will fee alto chances terrible, and without counterbalance, againft England. It i s therefore in the very confeiouthels of the (hength of his people, and of his own power, that the Emperor found an additional motive for !peaking the fan guage of peace. It is with fo many plans of cam paigns, the fuccefs of which is probahle, almoit to certainty, in as much as that which is void of all danger, produces fucceffes fo real ; it is with this valt and rapid glance which embraces the whole extent of his refources, and all the means of drawing them forth, that his Majetly has taken a Rep which would have been fhameful to a nation that had a different Chief—fhameful for a warrior commanding another people. But could not this confidence of the Mire of the war with England be dilhirbcd by any uncer tainty as to the Rate of the Continental relations of France ? If there were any danger of that, what could his Maid - 1y have hoped item a Rep taken un der fuch circumftances ? and the hiltoty of his life evinces that no man knew better how to feize the favourable moment. If a Continental war were impending, Napoleon knew well that there was no other courfe than the terrible and neceffary one of throwing away the fcabbard of his fo uniformly vic torious fword, and to make glitter before the eyes of the world a new lance of Achilles ; far from dela ing the kilt pride of his fortune, to propofitions dic tated by fear, and fuggelled by weaknefs, and which would have promifed but humiliation as their refult. Happily, Gentlemen, in this refped of our exterior relations on the Continent, two years have produced alining and honourable ameliorations. The taking poffeftion of Hanover was neceffary and indifpenfable. The Emperor willed, ordered, exe cuted it. He did it to punith the perfidy of a rupture without declaration; he did it to fecure to hineelf the means of compenfation in a war, in which prudence may dread difadvantages, from which wirelom has preferved us ; he did it to fetter the commercial re lations of the fe dominators of the leas, who carry rot commerce by war. and war by commerce. But this poffefllon which, for the first time, carried and fixed our armies in the extremities of the North, might have alarmed the powers moil attached to Mir caufe by their porn ion, the moil united to nor tortune by their interests, the mod faithful to our alit ince by inclination. Difficulties did in fad wife, but the wifdom, the moderation, the confidence in the faith of the Cabinet of the Thuilleties, and its rematched from every revolutionary and diforganizing idea, dtl= pelted all the clouds, and never have we had wi:h Pruffia relations better eltablithed, a correfpondence more cordial, amity more intimate. Ott the other band. if the changes that have been cffeacd in the French Government were called tnr by experience, pointed out by all men of ferni, &fired by the en• lightened friends of the county, willed by the ro• tire nation, no one could hope to ()relate CA.u) 'be creating of a kingly monarchy; a:11