The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1803-06-02 00:00:00

PM 7. ' 7. ..c,i _ ~ ....~:. 44 -11110 it night indeed be dittenh to Amore* ter such A diechtenee, esren nn dse suppeeitian of stab a priell bei or reall7 ;attended ; tent t'..at it vras nret only dif ficult, ion unpreasible to accouu foe h at sill, on' the stiepoeitiein of its not being intended. lie asked whether, on the latter sitpposition, date rnotive could be assigned, either for the mission having Men sent, or the report having been made and published, or for the avowals cono.meel in the e ra:re/Nations of the HraConsul, and of M.Talleyrand. He thought, however, that the difficulty of sectioning - for the disclosure was removed, by referring to the new and peculiar policy which had marked the cambia of Drawee on many extraordinary occasions, from the very beginning of the Revolution, that where any measure was in contemplation more fl 'grant and atrocious than Another, and more likely to shock the general feelioes of Eifrape, and perhaps to excite vigorous and united resistance, instead of carefully concealing it till the moment of execution, it hal, on the contrary,been studiously announced befort i and; that the objet of this policy had been greduatly to familiariee men's minds to that which at first they could scarcely even believe, and that their schemes, sellich, in the first instance, were received with hor ror, and would have been opposed with indigna tion, came afterwards to be contemplated with neg lel and indifference.; and that which at first no man thought it possible seriously to attempt, was, by de grees, considered as named a nd probable, and, in the end, as that which it was hopeless and, impossible to resist. He therefore pit it to the House, whether, after having observed this praCtice, it was possible for us to be so credulous and childish aseo ad on the belief, that 'Bonaparte would abandon the pro. jecks he had formed, only because he had himself told us he would::persist in them ? And whether we thought, that if, for whatever reason, he had been led prematurely to disclose this projr.l, even while Malta, the great senility against its execution, was still in our possession, he would renounce the at tempt, when that security had been surrendered by us, and put, in foci, into his possession ? If thca the design against Egypt was apparent, he desired the Hou l e to consider, whether, upon every princi ple of justice and self-dcfent.e, admitted by all the systems of the Law of Nations, and adopted by . the practice of all countries, we have not the clear right to take, from this moment, such measures of prevention and eceunty as are sufficient to guard ag iinst the danger to hich we should be in conse tittence exposed—whether it was not admitted, on almost all hands, that our possession of Malta was essential, or at least in the highest degree material, for the defencc of Egypt—whether the import ance of Egypt to this couetry was not in itself suffi ciently evident, from its connection with the safety of our Indian possessions—and whether it might not at this day he considered as a point of our na oonal policy, already decided and attested by the glorious efforts which had been made, and the he roic blood which had been shed in the last war for recovering it from France, and which had, in a manner consecrated it in the hearts and affeetions of Englishmen ? lie therefore wished the House to consider what was to be our future condua, it, after all the warn ings given us, we were now to surrender Malta out of our hands, and the attack upon Egypt were to follow in six or in twe:ye months afterwards. Were we prepared for the iidicalous but disastrous alternat.va to which we should be [educed, of ei ther sunmitting without a struggle to national ca lamity and disgrace; because, foreseeing our danger, nad voluntarily and wantonly sacrificed the best Int aiis a averting it ; or, when it was perhaps too late to enter upon a difficult and almost hopeless contest, having, by our own aff, given up theatrms by which we could be enabled to conduct it to a successful issue ? If the question were closed here, Mr. Pitt ob served, that for the reasons he had given, he was prepared to maintain, that on these grounds alone the war was both just and necessary, and such as ought to call forth the utmost exertions of Parlia- - ment and the Nation in its support. hut so far was this from being the case, that there was not any one of the leading trans.[ hops, subsequent to the Treaty of Amiens, to which his Majesty's de claration referred, which was not, in his opinion, as far as justice was concerned, a clear and evident cause of war, and such a s would have been acted upon, if there were sufficient means of co-operation oa the Continent, in almost every period of the history of this Country. He here referred to the aaaexation of Piedmont, as the first .nt fry which the French Government had proceeded, subsequent to the Treaty, to pursue the same system of aggran dizement which had appeared in all their previous condua, and which it was vainly hoped they had relinquished. He rcterred also to the traasadien respelling the German Indemnities, where the French Government, with an arrogance, he be lieved, unprecedented in the history of Eiirope, had presumed to didate to all Germany the detailed mode of arranging those indemnities, on which Lae Diet of the Empire was expressly convened to de. liberate, pursuant to the Treaty of I.sneville, and had publicly announced their scaeme as settled and bedded, tittore it was even communicated to those to whom it ought, in the drat instance, to have iaani proposed. He next pas3ed to the violence offered to Switzer land, on which he thought it the less neccssary to dw . ell, because he believed the condua of France towards that Unfortunate and devoted Country had excited one universal serainient of detestation. lie wished here to declare (as this had been a subjed so often adverted to on forniet occasions, when he hard bey u :I•laitmidably absent; that he considered th. in t-a :en'e.te of his Majesty's Ministe:s orithis slibje.ll, a; not only evidently warrantcd by :the circum- a , stances, but such as was their duty to employ to the. extent to which he understood it to have beeti, carried, in order to give time for learning whether - a confederacy could be formed in Yurcpe, sufficieat for s..ving that Country from the yoke. o'f . Frar:cel but that when upon trial all hopes of such '. a conleZeracy - vanished, he thought them equally right in not pushing the contest, on the part of this Country, to extremities. He then adverted to the continuance of the French Armies in i llolland, which appeared, from the rapers on the tables, to have been dirativ inconsistent with ,the principles on which the Treaty of Amiens had been negotiated, and with the esigagemeras which weret:known to subsist between }ranee and Holland. ,Alter dwelling on these points, he stated , howe v er , that h e thought it less material to discuss whether they were each in itielf sufficient causes of war on the part of thistretnitly, ~~: hecittlte a allaitted that whatever .1 7 * T •ht 1e At justice the c:sse, our conduit upon them at the tame STS necessarily regniaed, not by that eiVIV4. &Wine only, but be the question of policy,which was uravivd*hly dependent urn the state of the Continent ; but that whatever a might be right to ttecitix upon them at the time they occurred, it was imposible to contend that they were not now ma terial, as symptoms of that deliberative system of ambition and encroachment which had been thus uniformly pursued towards others, and which was now diteited to a quartet when it immediately affe&ed nur separate interests, and was in direr vi olation of the Treaty with this Country itself:- 1 - 1 e here drew a stmr, ,,, piClure of the cemt i nued and rapid succ ession of tas of violence and oppres sion which, duriog this petind, had desolated so many of the Countries of Europe ; and utter com paring the irresistible trance and overwhelining pro gress of French ambition to those dreadfnl convul sions of Nature hy which Provinces and Kingdoms were consumed and buried in rains, he asked whe ther we could contemplate those scenes of havock and destruftion withont retleCting how soon that torrert id liquid lire might direCt its ravages against ourselves. Having here closed his review of what had passed or, the Continent, he next o:iserveil, that the period of which he had been speaking u'is marked not only by the hostile nets which he had steeliest, with resped to other Powers in Europe, but by others immediately affeetieg the separate riyies and inte rests of this Coentry. lie referred, he said, erin eipally to two penes which appeared in the Cor tesenndence. The first point was the demand which had been made by the French Government respeCt ing, restraints on tite Liberty of the Press, and the expulsion of the french Emigrants now remaining in the Country. On this it •sets unnecessary to en large, became! the insolence of the propositien was sufficientle felt, and because it had been at the time resisted by his Majesty's Ministers, on grounds which were stated with great force and ability in one of the papers on the table, and which he was persuaded every lklember of the Hence had read with the highest approbation. The second point related to the Commercial Agents—the indignity and outrage which attended their mission, was one of which rt was difficult to speak with composure. The French Government had made a formal pronosition to send persons of this desesiption, who had never been leund necessary even when a Commercial Treaty subsisted, at a time when ant Orly there was no such Treaty, but when, as appears horn the papers on the table, the commercial intercourse of his Majesty's subjeels with France was suffering every degree of violence and oprressinn. This proposition had naturally and wisely been refused. The French Government then proceeded clandes tinely to send these Agents in the train of their Amhasador ; and not content with this breach of the law of nations, they afterwards addressed to them instruCtions, under the official charaCter in which they had received admittance; and the objen of these instructions was, to dire& them to take mea sures, in time of peace, for ascertaining the sound ings of re rts, and for obtaining military information of distriCts, ails for which they would hare been hanged as spies in time of war. Under such circum stances, he could not but lament to find that his Majesty's Ministers had contended themselves with merely applying to the French Government to with draw those persons, and had not once advised his Majesty, by :,is own authority, to order them to de part the kingdomwithin twenty-four hours, reserving it to himself afterwards to require from prance the reparation due for so gross an insult. lie did not thin!: it necessary to dwell separately on another head of complaint, the violence commit ted against the vessels and property of his Majesty's subjeCts in the French ports, and the w ithheiding, to this hour, all satisfaction for those injuries. These proceedings, he said, would have been suffi cient ground of complaint in ordinary times, but they could scarcely give additional force to the out regeons transaCtions which he had just enernerated, and which appeared to him as if they had designedly calculated to incinde, under two distill& heads, the grossest insults that could be offered to the indepen dence of any country. The first pretension of which he had spoken, that of restraining the liberty of the press, was nothing short of claiming the right to didate to us in a point of municipal law ; and to re , quire that we should sacrifice to the calm ice of the - First Consul, a known and important privilege of our Constitution, and model, at his pleasure, the judicial proceedings and 'eternal regulations of the country. The second ptetension, that respeeting his commercial agents, manif sted, as leelbeen already stated, an avowed deatraination to introduce, in de fiance of cur formal refusal, amine tied emissaries into our arsenals and ports, in order to prepare, in time of peace, the most effatual means for our an noyance and destrualon in time of war. This was nothing less than to insist on our surrendering, be forehand, tle't right and the means of petioles'. de fence ; and if the lot met slain, had struck at the li belee, this stra;l: as direCtly at the actual safety of the country. it was tine, he believed and hoped, that the commercial agents had at length been with drawn, tile'', the i l presentation of his Majesty's Mi nisters ; but, as he had already stated and lamented, it did not :appeal-That any disavowal hat been ob tained of the principle on which they had been sent. The claim respeCrlng the restraint upon the press, 1 and the cepuision of the emigrants, had also been 1 suspeeded fer a time, in consequence of the unan swerable representations in the dispa.ch before re fernsf to—But the first part of this claim had since been expressly tevived in the course of the hue ne gotiation: At all events, be contended that the eireumstance of the .First Consul having even sus pended it as he did, only ;Prorded a striking lesson of the benefit to he derived from a tinn and season able riisisteiiec—bratehat the taa of such pretensions having at any time been urged (whether they were persisted in us withchrawn) must be remembered as the strongest prtx)f.of the tumor of the views which he really entertained, and which he would unques tionably accomplish whenever he found it in his power. He maintained, therefore, that all these in dignities and imults, as wca,as the encroachments and violence% of whin h he had been before speaking on the Continent, must enter deeply into our consider ation, in judging of the chara4len and ultim.re views and policy of our enemy. They must etecieieely con fit m us in the resolution to employ, without hesita tion, the most vigorous and determined resistance, when, in addition to these proofs of hissenerai des-'° position, both towaads this country and towas,'s • renter., f entl hint next engte3 In tliat plea orf direct and separite hos.eifity against Gumless, which had already been argued. • Oa all these ground's, he felt consineed that there never wets an occasion on which it more clearly be came the indisieetnable duty of Parli ament to COOCUT Viith his Mniesty in the declaration of the necessity and justice of the war in which ' we are engaged, and to assure him of their firm and feletcheal support. But in giving these assurances, he trusted that other Gentlemen felt impressed with the same sense which he did, of the awful importance of the eateegement into which they were pfepnring, to enter, and that they considered those assurances, not as formal words of ceremony or custom, but as a solemn and I, df•liherate pledge on behalf of themselves and the nation whom they reeresented—knowing and feeling to their full extent the real difficulties and dangers of their f.ift ation; and cf the arcinues struggle which it compelled them to endure, and being prepared to I meet those difficulties and dangers with every exer- • tion and every sattifice which the uneeampled cumstances of the times rendered indispensable for the public safety. I'or his own part, although he consideted the war as a war of necessity, and one which we could not decline without serrendering, both our security and our honour, he should enter upon it with litte hope of ultimate success, if these sentiments were not deeply impressed on the minds of Parliament and the People. The scale of our esertions could not be measured by .those of former times, or confined within the limits even of the great, and till then, unexampled efforts of the last war. He was convinced that some system far more vigorous and effectual than any even then adopted, would be found necessary, both in our finance. and in the preparation kr national defence. On the provisions to be made for these two primary and paramount obefls, it would principally depend whe ther we could eff:thally disconcert the favourite projeias, and disappoint the main hopes of the ene my. It was evident that if they indulged them selves in any expel ration of success in the present contest, it was built chiefly on the supposition that they could either break the spirit, and shake the de termination of the country, by harrassing us with the pet petual apprehension of descent upon our coasts, or that they could impair our resources, and undermine our credit, by the effefts of an expensive and protraited contest. To defeat the. first of these purposes, it was not, in his judgment, sufficient to make those naval and military preparations, which wonid prevent any invasion that might be attempted from being ultimately successful (an event which he trusted he was justified, in common with others, in considering as utterly. impossible), but to make such vigorous and extensive arrangements for national defence, as might diffuse a sense of the must com plete security against even the temporary impression . to be produced by such an attempt, and might en able every individual to lay down his head to rest, in the persuasion and confidence that nothing was omitted which could enable us at once to meet and repel the danger, at any moment, and in any quar ter, in which it might threaten us. In order to disappoint the second objeft—that of wearing out our resources, he trusted the House would, - from the beginning, form its system of inance, not with a view only to the expence which might be necessary in the first year of the contest, but that they would look at once to the possibility of its being protra6ted to as long a period as that which lately was terminated-.that they would con sider fully what, on the probable scale of war, would be the whole extent of the burthen necessary to be imposed on that supposition. He was per suaded, that it could only be by providing, in the outset, means adequate to the whole extent of these pt rposes, that we could in fait prevent the ultimate amount of our expences from being unnecessa rily, and perhaps intolerably augmented, or that we could ensure the best chance either of bring ing the contest to a speedy conclusion, by convincing the enemy of our sufficiency to main tain k, or could meet its continued exigencies, if necessary, without the annual recurrence of grow ing and accumulated embarrassments. He trusted, therefore, that his Majesty's Ministers would, on their part, feel the necessity of bringing both these points under consideration with all praaicable promptitude and dispatch, and that, if possible, not even a fortnight might be suffered to elapse, without enabling Parliament to adopt such measures as would convince both France and the world, that we had from that hour provided the means of supporting the force, and defraying . the expenditure which might be necessary for maintaining our internal se curity, and for the rigorous and effe6lual prosecu tion of the war, to any period to which it could rea sonably be supposed to extend. lie repeated, that he was aware that these measures could not be etidled without material and extensive personal sacrifices, and without great additional hurtheis, which mast to a degree - affeit the case, convenience, and even comfort of many classes ef society —that he lamented these consequences as much as any man, and if be saw any prospen that, by present concession, we could obtain a real.and desirable in terval of peace, security, and repose, he should be as anxious as any man to avoid the necessity of such arduous and painful exertions; but that under the present circumstances, a weak and timid policy could perhaps scarcely even postpone the moment when they would become indispensable for our e's istence, and would infallibly expose us to the certainty, at no distaneperiod, of a similar struggle, with those means given out of our hands which ere now possessed, and with the, chance diminhhed, of fatally conducting it to a successful issue—that we had not an option at this moment between the bles sings of peace and the dangers of war—that from the fatality of the times, and the general state of the world, we must consider our lot as cast by the decrees of Providence, in a time of peril and trou ble—that he trusted the temper and courage of the nation, would conforrtritselt to the duties of that situation—that we should be prepared coUectively and individually to meet it with that resignation and fortitude, and, at the same time, with that active zeal and exertion, which, 'in proportion to the mag nitude of the crisis, might be expectedefrom a.brave 'and. free people; and that we should reflect, even ' in the hour of trial, what abundant reason we have 'to be grateful to Providence, for.the distiacticu we enjoy over most of the countries of Europe, and for ail the advantages and blessings which national wido:n and virtue hive hitherto protected., and w 1 It .1 it now depends on perseverance in the same just cn.l honourable sentiments, still is guard and to rmt,rve. mirJL mrszucEvcr. sv sourly, is ( AV 30, . Thls day ot- materna', Cironti-siocer Farnha ‘rt goes afloat into.Cawsand Bsy, to pay two months advaace to the Spartiatt, of 7a guns, (.lantaim Van ley ; Plantasenet, of 74 gams, pails liaremond Cour/serer, of :4 e ons, Captain Lewis; Malta, of 11 guns, Captain /taller ; when, if the wind is fair, they will sail to join the Channel fleet off Brest. It - is with sincere pleasure we aanotmce the safe arrival of his Majesty's sloop Haznedf, of 18 pins, Captain Neve, front a cruise off Brest, 2S she was reported for several days past to have been cap: tined: she was concerned in cutting out the brig with the Aratad'i boats of the Penrnarks ; her'.s and the Naiad', boats were fired 2r by the French bat teries., but without drat Previous to the Hazards' leaving the fleet, the Minotaur, of 74 guns, ,;rd the .Se:pirr, of 64 guns, were dispatched in cha..e after some strange sail in the oiling, which they scam came up with, and one of which was captured, and nroved to be La Sybelle French frigate, of ati guns, but only four mounted, six wecks from St. Domingo, with a valuable cargo. The French Captain said, the Island was, he imagined, by this time, or pro ba!dy batiire, evacnated. "Fhere were 10 sail of men of war at St. Domingo, with a large convoy, on their passage to Europe, with very v:i.eable and rich cargoes, I r France. The Blacks and Mulattoes were extremely numerous and well ap. pointed, but enfuriated and blood-thirsty in the ex. treme against the Whites. Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson, in the Viacry, of 110 guns, and the Amp/ion, of guns, joined the fleet, on Sunday, the 22d inst. hoisted-his flag on board the AmpLivi, and proceeded to the Straits. '1 he Vidory sailed also fur the same destination on Wed nesday last. Came in a very large Batavlan ship, deeply laden. Went into the Sound, and sailed directly on a cruise, the Sec; di, of IS guns ; also the /..)&i is, of 3(i guns, Captain Pearson. PORTSMOUTH, MAY 31. Came into harbour a sloop laden with stone, prize to the Planrhe, Captain Mudge. DOWER, MAv 31. The French packet the Charlone, Captain Segni-, arrived here as a flag of truce about three p. m. with three mails, and fourteen passengers, chi , ...fly Ame ricans and Swiss, with Mrs. Austin, and two or three other English ladies : we learn by this vessel that the English are still detained prisoners; those at Paris are to be marched to Fontainbleau, and those at Calais, &c. tip St. Omer's. Mr. Talbot, the English Secretary, is gone back to Paris, and the packets arc still detained ; several of the tnglish have met with considerable vexation ne , ides-being detained. 1 do rot learn that any con siderable captures have been made by the enemy. DEAL, MAY 31. Remain in the Downs, his Majesty's ships, and Ranger, Langley, for Gibraltar, with fleet. of coast ers bound to the westward. The French ship Mary-Ann, of Dunkirk, from Martinique, with sugar, rum, and coffee, bound to Antwerp, Captain Peter Morel, •500 tons, arrived in the Downs yesterday evening, having been cap tured, after an engagement of four hours, by the privateer lugger Polecat, Captain Thompson, and Star, Captain Mowle, of Dover. Phis Duv is published, price Is. bd. halt home., THE RATIONAL BRUTES, or TALKING ANIMALS. By the AUTHOR of the VILLAGE SCHOOL, cfc . 7. If tender sorrow melt thy youth/A heair, Hear what Bcaqs, Birds, and • , ufiring Fish impart; • Nor for thy transient sport, or lasting joy, Tile bliss army thing that lives annoy ; But always recollect this wise decree— " Do, as thou would'st he done to thee." Printed for J. Harris, St. Paul's Church-yard; and rartl.l and I larvey, Graceehurch-street. Oates by Zuctitatt. By Mr. KING, Great Room, in King street, by Ordc•r or the Es7ecutoi, TIM, and Two following Days, at Twelve &Clock. r HE STOCK in TRADE of Mr. WILLIAM JEE, B..llcsdler, of Cie Strand, lately deceased ; COIT !):j4111 , 4 to eNcell.frit LlTection of Books, chiefly in the Engli3O Language, generally in good cond.t ion. May he viewed. By LEIOII, SOTHEBY, and SON, - - At their llouu in YorkAtreet, C.bvent-Carden, Oa MONDAY, June 6, and Sven following Days, (Sundae except d) at Twelve o7Ckscit, TIM ENTIRE and VALUABLE LIBRARY' of the !..te. PETIT WOULFE, Esq. F.B.S. of Br:- m=rd's Inn, Professor of Chemistr:. Author ui several pkio sovllical Papers, &c. &c. Consisting of a very good Collec: Lion of Voyaces, 'navels, History, Chemistry, Aro and Sru•nacs, Relies LOttrei, &e. . • To view. Ml, and Cataloene4 had at the Place of Sale. , . PRINTS, 1300ISS, to o l BOOKS of PRINTS', PORT-F 0 LIDS, MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, FLSI TING NETS, &c By Mr. P1(.31.113D50N, At his 11. use, No. 31, the Cartier of Villier's-street, Strand, THIS Da:, at Twelve o'Clock, A VAT:CABLE COLLECTION of BOOKS, it and souks of PRINTS, consigned from Abroad, unary very fine, from the Proofs of Didut, &c. Among others, equally valuable, are Denott's Voyage en Egypte, 2 tom_ • Voyage.. Pittorewpie de to Syrie, Egypte, &e.; Tableaux de la Revolt,. Lion Eratuois:, torn.; (Euvres de J. J. Rousseau 18 tom. ; I.avarer's Phy , iognontie, tom. ac. A capital Ba ss Viol, by Aluatty, 1699. Prints froth Sir Joshua Reynold., &c. A large I.:6llmtion of Portrait', Topography, Drawings, Sc. elegantly mounted, and many very rare, to illustrate Mr. Pentwat's London, purchased at a great expe,,ace, by a well:known Cut lector now AbLoad, To be viewed, and Catalogwhad of Mr. Richardson, No. nt, Strand; and of Mr. Clark,,Boolr.seller, Bond-street. MEETING U CRibIIeURS'AirIitILIAIALL THIS DAT.. M. H. J. Harmer, of Tnnhridge, Kent, ►raker TO MORROW. John Bateman, late of Whitechal el, Middlesex, hard warrens - Willem Hallantirke t of Savage-gardens, Tower. h in, mer chant MAIM' ED. Yesterday, at Mary•labone Church, the Rev. George Stanley Fatter. B. D. Fellow of Lincoln College, to Miss Scott Waring, daughter of jolts Scott Waring, Esq. of in - Cheshire. DIED. On Monday morning, atDaptftird, Kent, of a eonsump i/I the 47th year of his age, Mr. Geotge Mitchell, attorney at law. being a Holiday; • at the Stook re was no Business dune change. London: Feinted 3. 'Ci tiv , No. 18. Crown-court; Fleet street ; and publishrel by' W Wert, ni Water-street; Black friars, at the Office ; No. 13, Salisbury-square; where Advertisement: are %waived, and all Communications to the Editor !twit be addreased.