The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1803-05-24 00:00:00

rbit 'U r P ~•~.. • • V I I IM V 1 ,i. .l .~ 1 p . t• ~,. ~ "- r /1 MI6 -1 - 1 holies. the hinge= tone endnontser of dve nese! , Cozad to Lord \A him. rile the nresratatire ui is the presence of the Annhaseadors al the Courts d Europe, and contoreted that, and caw other ostijnits cainselnint acrdgliceance, with the mild and lligilified outdo& of the Ittitish Go beramesr, which prewrifed its eet to the last. though it junly and notch toesenroashe the hresour and efignity of the crowns and the vital inteneas of the emp ire ; for their Lord Ships must be that i t check should be Imposed on the doi▪ difitiihigsytitesu of nonce, there must be an end eifibeikesstitntioas the laws framed by the wisdom wr our ancestors, and still maintained as the support of the Coo:du:Won of this country ; in short, to our civil and religious establishments, to the rights of property, so the subordinauou of ranks, to the pow* bftheir Lordships to sit in discussion there, and to dentjthing that was dear to the feelings of all Englishlnetn. Yet, after every provocation, his Majesty hail expressed his determinaticn to put an end to the calamities cf war as soon at it should be prnencable ; and, upon all these groundn he had great pleasure in seteading the motion. Lord STahNHOPE saki, he concurred in most of the positions laid down by the Noble Secretary of State, and the Royal Duke who followed him. He acknowledged that all the representations they had made, or at lust most of them, would he' a suffi tient ground for war ; but if he presumed to differ with them in opinion, it was because. he did not un dernand all the trnnsaCtions in the same light that they did. The Secretary of State had given thein to understend that the main olsjen of the negotia tion, the disputes, and the determination of our Go vernment to go to war for the possession of the Island of Malta. That was certainly a considera tion of high importance, but greatly subordinate to the pretension of any foreign power to dilate the Liles of this country, the conduet of the debates in Parliament, the freedom of discussion, or any thing . that could malitale with the liberties and independence of this United Kingdom.— He would himself chearfully sacrifice his fortune and life, and die in the greatest tortures that human cruelty or ingenuity ever devised, than suffer the tights of man to be trampled on or even invadtd iu this free country. This, however, he was not con vinced to be the air or language of the trench Go vernment towards us, es he meant afterwards to ex ;• plain according to hiscompsehension, but he wished previously to say a few words on the subjea of the prriposed cession of the important island of Malta , —He was- him'sif one of the most strenuous advocates for the Treaty of Amiens ; but for What reason Because hlinisters had already ratified it, and the good faith of the nation was pkelged to its maintenance. He supported it, because he saw no help for it, and felt that peaces even on these terms, . might be advantageous to the nation ; but had he been in the situation of the Ministers,. he never would have consented to the signing of the Prelimi naries which endangered our Eastern possessions by the cession of that island. The manner, however, in -which the negotiation betrayed, in-his judgment, the want of capacity in the Ministers, and he should de liver his opinion on it with the samea temeir and gravity which he would maintain, if sitting judicially to decide on the question of an impeachment in Westminster Hall. His Lordship then went into the merits of the conversation between Lord Whit- worth and the Members of the French Government, the disponehessof 'his Lordship, and instrunions of Lord Ilawitesbury, &c. &c. His inference from all these was, that the Ministers did not think it pm ** to conform to the terms of a treaty they should inwhave entered into, and that the First Consul was determined to insist on our adherence to it. There . pas upon this occasion something ridiculous and _ate laughable in the foolish condult of his Majesty's confidential servants. [This observation produced in the House a considerable burst of laughter.] His Lordship, however, still contended that their con dull was very absurd and ridiculous. Lord Whit worth demanded that Malta should remain in the hands of the English ten years, for the security of our East India possessions. Were we then to re tain that security only till the expiration of that pe rid, and afterwards abandon it, leaving the French to a& in pursuance of those views which they were not even so reserved as to conceal ? Were we to hare only ten years lease of our Eastern empire ? Such was the demand of the English cabinet ; and what was the reely of Bonaparte's Minister ? It was this ; in a conversation with Lord Whitworth, he observed that the First Consul was desirous of bringing the differences to an amicable accommo dinion, and that England should be allowed to keep that island, not for the limited term of ten years, but in perectnity, provided France should have an equivalent or adequate consideration. \Vas there any thing more preposterous and laughable than rdteset this prof oral to let us retain at in perpetu ity, and afterwards going to war, because we were refused the limited period of ten years ? Ile could not see on what grounds Ministers could justify so extraordinary proceedings. In reipea to Frauce, would be idle to decide a thing 'of so much ira penance to the terests of England, merely from the charaeleror dispentionnfanyintlividualwhomaybeat the head of its Government; for though Bonaparte might be dead, or give way to some successor, long hcrore the expiration of the ten years during which we proposed, fur our teen safety, to retain Malta, vet it errs possible enough that the views of the trench Government may be the same ' and that whatever indivinually should succeed to the su preme aethswity, in what wa, nailed the Republic, would be is ardent as hi predecessor to deArtoy our rn empire. Every one knew that howaparte %ens an extraordinary, daehing, enterprising man, one who oeuld not hesitate to undertake any thing grand, however dangerous: a person that nobody coolie tell to day what he may. do to-morrow • nod, aided his Lordship emphntically, .1 like ,Min the better for it !"—[This singular expression watt received with an universal peal of laughter.] His Lordship proceeded to argue that this reserve of his was a reason why m much press should no; he Lid upon his charnher orhostile mind to warns chi; noun t r e, thnt'gh burthened with a debt of eau ninliseis, loaded %kith taxes to an enormous amount, And perhAsa likely to experience a renceitien of the nacome duty, and 4 severe dearth Of enochione, was Slat 41,1 v, it necesstaryn'to set him and all his power at detintice. Pint, however great sr stay be, oar etratigth or resourceeneeopn with any o nveesary, it di,d not thllow that we should aloft keep , o urselves at peace if. that was pranicable. In Iwo opinion it was completely so. Were hennade a me-, diauur between the two countries, he theenlo he . ••• .. .. •• • ~~ ~-~ 1 _ r I . • • r • • Arne- - 4 0 :10 . cnuld tete:4 Ming the* ea reccommodanicale . He WIJU say to each of them u What is it yilt . Wish , far bhtle afeeed the same obipa, the at. c wield,' t Alice& ; best if they , had e i pie • i n s ie e es'efte ariongement would be easy: by lettink them divide. and each party take what h e waieted. England wished fir Malta. and the French wen - will to let them retain it ou their allowing • them an. etpricalrut. Franc; had complained of the speeches made in Parliament, and the liberties to eta wit% the Supreme Mawistrete of the Repuhlic, by the English press. ne treedom of the press saes an advantage which this country must ever retein, while it had any regard to the principle:: of Ilserty. But. it could not be denied, that al roc ii nis libels bad been publishedagsincr.ali t h e leading persons in the French Government, many of which lie had himself read, and could net b. expell ed to pass without remonstrance and complaint. Some of them were in the French language, for the purpose of gaining circulation in that country, and ex citing disturbances, as producing hatreij t against the Government. Upon this subject he understood the haw to be clear, and he was happy in speaking in the presence of some cf the most eminent Lawyers in the kingdom. He held it to be this, that by the Law and Constitution of this country every man was et liberty to write or publish any remarks or anirnee versions on the condoet of our Administration, and it was but fair to allow the same latitude of remark with reaped to foreign Governments; hut as the law gave a remedy for any thing that may be li bellous against ourselves, so should the same proteetion be afforded to the cheraders of fo reigners, and mom partictilerly to those who were at the time in amity with tea 1 his was all that justice and the law of nations required, and all that we could grant ; but never should a foreign power he allowed to dktate the laws by which we were to be governed. The First Consul was accused of demanding the sending' away of Emi grant Dimes, some Bishops, and a few others who were obnoxious to his Government. He was not surprised at this rettaisition, though honour and hospitality were said to forbid an acquiescence itt it. Indeed he did not exped that our Government would send away the bishops . (looking steadfastly at the Reverend Bench, eebicri eras productive of much mirth in the House) bht it could not be concealed that the application WAS not unreasonable. 'These fellow:, the Bishop and others (a :h014: of kicker I) were certainly guilty of spreading seditious publica tions through the maritime provinces of France, which must give annoyance to the Government, and tend to excite the public odium upon the Govern ment; and they had the means of doing so with fa cility by the close neighbourhood of the islands el Jersey and Gtierusey to the coast of France. The possession of those islands, therefore, which was of no use to England, must be highly desirable to the French Government, and that was probably the equivalent for which it would be contented to leave us in perpetual possession of the island of Malta. 'This, he thought, would be a fair exchange, agreea ble to both parties, and highly advantageous to the interests of this country. In one of the last conver sations of Lord Vl hitworth with Talleyrand, the lat ter expressed the determination of the Consul to ad just the differences in an amicable manner. It could not be denied that those were at least fair words; and as good words were cheap, and cost nothing, de served a corresponding language on our part ; but instead .of that, we had ordered our Ambassa dor to leave Paris. Great force was Lid on the territorial acquisitions and aggrandisement of France since the Treaty of Amiens, hut he was ready to maintain and prove that France, instead of increasing held diminished in its power since the conclusion of that treaty. All that France had since occupied could not, by men of sense and discern ment, be considered as an accession to its power.— It had lost infinitely in the war for liberty, without obtaining that objed, and was now as far from ob taining it as ever. The annexation of Piedmont, the command of the Italian Republic, the controul over Switzerland, and the influence it exercised over the Batavien Republic,. were not in ft& obtained since the Treaty of Amiens, as Bonaparte had the possession of these countries since the decisive bat tles of Marengo and Hohenlinden. It was also a great sufferer in the loss of Saint Domingo, contain. mg 500,000 negroes, which, if incorporated with ' the French army and the natives of colour, might easily be embarked, and conquer Jansaica, aed all our other West India islands. His Lordship said, he knew that there was a strong philanthropic party in France, who wished to conciliate the blacks from metiles of feeling and humanity. There was also awelier set which was desirous of pursuing the same line from motives of mere policy. But the French Cabinet was so misguided and unwise as to adept e diahrent systeni. The consequence was, that St. Domingo, more valuable than all the other islands, was irrecoverably lost, together with Lnui siana, and there was an end of the French power in the West India colonies. In the East Indies they were equally powerless, and measures may be adopted to make our Eastern possessions equally safe, whether France should have Egypt or not, and which would in fad render that a matter of in difference to the interests of this country ; but he was sorry to observe that these measures had Maier to been neglected. If there was any ground for the report that the islands of Sicily and Cuba were to be ceded to England, France was fully justified in requiring an equivalent. We had also made great acquisitions in .the East, and though France Abstained, on account of its not conciliating the natives of St. Deming° from seiz ing, as it might have done, the West India islands, Louisiana, Florida, and even the Spanish posses givens of Mexico and Peru ; yet he did not consider it as uureasonehle that she should expect in Europe some equivalent for our acquisitions since the Treaty of Amiens, and the diminution of her own real power in different quarters of the world. The power syhich a French army, assisted by the addi tion a Negro troops, would be able to obtain ovdr our West India colonies, was asset ted at the bar of that !louse, on the question of the Slave-trade, by one of the ablest officers that ever had been in the service of this countrya--he meant Admiral Affieck; and e he made no doubt, would be coefirmed by the opinion of some other Admirals then iii the House, and particularly by a itn)al. Admirallthe . nude of I:.lsrue4 who was sitting at no g reat distance from him. He - did not know by whose advice k was that this decisive eyetem - of war had been adopted'. by the Cabinet t . 'certaln he was, that Mr. Adding- . ton, wham he - cofiiideriel as one of the mostlb-' neen e llionane, :Lad utitight men_ that ewe Slitelais- • - • : • . • • w testa the afttirs of this .- ~. sirens of rintiaraining 'added,•thot *belt hi w vote 'on to important tide. hi favor of war, alter the opinion which Hie Royal Highness followed, and said, that as he was _ pat , hided to by the Noble Lord who spole'last,lez would b n t e k n ulg thoughtrbyh e t their Lordships littlead te in offering add to what hsouteree-n already stated bt the Noble Secretary of State, and has Noble Relation (the Duke of . Cumberlan d Though it had not been hi.: intention to advert t o the state of the West India islands, he had no difficulty if atlirrning,that Fraiece lost all is advantages in that quarter by its own cruchy, perfidy, and want of policy. It was true that it Lid lost the important, island of St. Domingo by its atrocious treachery, and breach of faith, to a man with whom, whatever may be his colour, it had made terms, and after wards perfidiously arrested in violation of its agree ment. This WAS the main cause of their losing that most valuable island, for which they had only to blame the misconduct of their own Government, and that spirit of encroachment and aggression which seemed uniformly to actuate it. The same cause, however, could not be assigned for what had only been lately known, the loss of Lkuisiena and the Floridan It was his Majesty's message which maimed this forbearance on the part of an ar rogant and domineering power, and to which the 'United States of America were indebted for the blessings they enjoyed. He could see no ground whatever far this country not obtaining pos session by force of arms for the numerous insults and aggressions of which it had so much reason to complain. It now stood upon a different ground to what it did during the American war, or at the conclusion of The peace of Amiens. England, dur ing the last war, had many difficulties to struggle with, which subsisted no longer. It laboured for two years under a scarcity and dearth of provisions, to the great distress of the poorer orders, and also felt the accumulation of its tares. Many of these difficulties were now removed by the wisdom of Parliament, and the bounty of Providence. France had presumed to boast that England was not able singly to coatend with it. It was not the chara6ter of Englishmen to make any boasts, but they would !hew our enemies what they had felt before, that England was of itself able to fight its own battles, under any circumstances, and even to defy the uni verse in arms. It stood on the highest pinnacle at this moment, and so far front suhmitting to the die titian of others, was in a situation to prescribe to France, and those who v..ere ia.mality its depen dents, and to which it pretetided to he an ally."— " I would," observed his Royal Highness. " say decisively to the French, You shall not have St. Do mingoe—you shall not have Louisiana or the Flori das,—and you shall not ever have Malta, or regain possession of Egypt, unless you listen to reason and the di&ates of moderation. ' To its subservient pow. er, the 13atavian Republic, I would say, You shall not have the Cape of Good Hope, though it has been ceded to you, in pursuance of the Treaty of Amiens, nor shall you retain any possessions what ever in the Eastern world. To Spain its vassal and complaisant ally, my language would be, You shall have nothing, but what the generosity of England may be pleased to allow you."—Such was the situ ation in which the country stood at present, when he made no doubt that nothing but a sentiment of re sentment and indignation pervaded the whole coun try, though ih the course of the last war England had not only to combat with the foreign foe, but with the plots and conspiracies of domestic enemies. He confessed that when the preliminaries of peace .were agreed to, he felt a considerable degree of re gret for the consent of our Government to the ces sion of Malta. He considered, however, that for the reasons be before alluded to, as well as others, there might have been sufficient ground for this country's attempting to obtain peace, even on the disadvantageous conditions of the Treaty of Amiens. It was that consideration which induced. him to give his ascent to the Treats., and he retain ed in his own breast his dislike of the Preliminaries. He therefore would affirm that he seldom expe rienced more satisladion than when he heard, for he happened to be present at the time the Mes sage from his Majesty was brought down by the Se cretary of State. The article of the treaty v hich respeetcel Malta. and its Governm:•nt, could not, from the manoeuvres of the First Consul, be cat ried into executhin. That was fortunately retained, and lie trusted that, after the avowals that had been made by the French Governai,:rt, En land would never resign the possession of it. Malta was in it self no more than a rock, but it was now eine/illy' valeahle to us as the Rock of Gibraltar. The*. portauce of the two places could n'oe be better ap preciated than from the value attached to them by diet country which must always, -in peactaor war, be the natural enemy of Great Britain. The cele. brated victory obtained by Lord Rodney en the 12th of April, over the French fleet. did not more, nor so much, conduce to the subsequent peace, as the gallant and iiieniora!ile defenze of Gibraltar, by a small force, and a handful of English officers, against an assault of the uuited powers of Trance and Spain, which was deemed of so much conse quence as to attract the Princes of the blood of Bour bon, who experienced uothing but disgrace . and dis comfiture in their attempt upon that roclo Bonaparte had declated that he would as soon see us in josses. sion of the suburbs of Paris as the Islattd of Malta. hs; in his Royal Hig . hness, was the best reason why we,should keep it in perpetuity I fate the same hostile mind Was evinced in that declaration which • the . Conotd bad uniformly manifested' towards us: since the conclusion of the Peace of Amiens, and the most extraordinary transaftions which took phwe Alpo the Continent in the interval tietveeen • the prkliminaries and the completion of that treaty. In the hands. of, England Ntelta could : be nothing more than a strong defensive position. Lithe ae cessione of rrance it could only tend to forward pro jesits of c. s operati.ons. Thisbe thought suffi cient to convince every candid man of tlie eustice of, our. cense. ; His Royal ktginess afterieards.tetuched cursorily on our various causes of complaint, hod more particularly on the mission Sebastiarti to Egypi,..aod 'the tnfamnos and hatelaced . asperwoo , r c.add l i tre it to milder terns. of tlit Chara.lei 9 1. thecosoznandettswisiel the re,that hehidieilleavoureif • tube the inA6 gator ti what might tend blassassihation. The salmi detest lb tondo& , Wen in caber shapes. attr ib ute d members of awirdiish Atinti alcitioui • 4ta ;Wain beisi*4344llo4 , '‘ 41 ..., • art .. , , iosolence lie roust oat the . satisfac it,tspOn thpio. nation to person: tersation With a foreigiMiiiiitif. - Pleat conference, as describe d by I Whitworth, was certainly of'a very curious trature..-He gave urat Noble-Lord littleor noopportoe nity of reply. He said, that if he had. ally design upon Egypt, he might have sent 'theft' the same - afehy 'I4IIICOSTIIt to Domingo ; but; iiiilemonstration of his intentions, he alga added'," that sooner or later Mgypt must fall hod the handfof France, e;her . 10e a .dissolution of the Ottoman empire, the inter grity 6f which he. had guaranteed, or by some arrangement with, the Rote itself,'and 'with Which authority he had already Interfered ; by de Blaring himself the proteant, -ia 'the Turkish do minions, of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic re ligion. He had also admitted in his conversation with war Ambassador, that he could expert to do nothing but by means cf a descent, which be was determined to head in person. He :did not attempt to diminish the danger' of the enterprise; lie acknowledged, • that the chances were a huti dred to one that he and his army would be, sent to the bottom ; but as there would be, - other .. armies ready to follow him in succession, he Would make the attempt, and take the one chance agairst the hundred, that were adverse to him :the Con sul did not conceal,that his feason fornolhavingeoeno menred hostilities was, that he could gain nothing by it, and lose more than he could acquire, if he . sent troops to Egypt, as the other countries of En rope • might consider him is the aggressor. klis • Royal Highness proceeded to distant upon and discuss a variety of topics connected with these cub. jean, which the lateness of the hour prevents us Irma entering into in detail, and concluded with gwiug. . his asseat to the Address. Lord . M ULC AV E—o• My Lords, t return thanks to the Ministers for the moderation and for be trance which they have shewn, in a case so parti cularly calculated to excite indignation. I congra. tulate there upon their dignified coolness, in a caw that must so much interest all their feelings; and for having, under circumstances under which it must be so difficult to rastraia those feelings, stained from urging any thi;:g which those terms of indignation and hich they might call fa rth. but which might give a colour to the vote that slat 1 pass in this House this night, not exactly corre sponding with calm, firm, and dignified demeanor. Participating of that g eneral temper, which I com mend, I shall, in th e course o r the observation; which I shall have the honour of addressing to your Lordships, confine myself to the same line which I so much approve in others, and therefoie shall abstain from many points in & — o neoti tiation, upon which it would be impossible to (1414 without being betrayed into terms of contempt and indignation. Exclusive of such topico, there are many other grounds- for the serious and anxious deliberation of the House, and it is. not therefore absolutely necessary for us to eater upon such as must inflame the passions of every Englishman. Before, however, I shall enter into the general guinent, I must notice what has fallen from a Noble Earl who spoke second in debate (l'.arl Stanhope). The question, as that Noble Earl has treated it, is a display of Engliaii feeling and French partialiry (a laugh). Had that Noble Earl exhibited aso r.- triloquist in his own - person, and spoke both en the French and English side of the question, be could not have done it more completely. Jersey and Guernsey, islands long attached to the crown of England ; islands which have, by their loyalty apd affection for their Sovereign, incu r red the hatred cf the First Consul of France in a peculiar degree ; islands whose services we .have - long known, and who form a part of our own population uthe r e islands the Noble Earl would give up for a foreign pcssession. He would enter into a ebnipriirnise far M.:lta ; that is in our possession, and ought to re main in our possession ; and the terms of the com promise he would make, are the cession of the loyal ty, the attachment, and the old and faithful services of the islands of Jersey and Guernsey. So far for the expedient of the Noble Earl. As to the other pat = ts of his speech, I shall nut touch upon them ; I shall not argue against the many contradictions which they contain, but leave them to answer each other. The real question before the House is, not whether we ought to have war, but whether our state be such as leaves no choice, and renders war, in every point of view, unavoidable ; and that is a question which resolves into various considerations. In the first place, then, I will admit, that under all the circumstances of our situation, viewing our long ead severe exertions, the great and prolonged dem:tads upon our resources, I did support in this I - lihnse the Treaty of Amiens, and was one of those who did swallow whatever was unpleasant in that treaty, conceiving the good faith of the nation pledged, in some measure, to the aft, which ltis Majesty had done in the execution of that treaty, with regard to all circumstances under which it was made. But, at the same time, I own I did not swallow that bitter draught, without feeling, in thy own mind, some reserve, and particularly with re spat to the 10th article of the treaty, for the sur render of Malta. When then we come to argue, whether that article should be carried into execution or not, I must beg leave to ask the following ques tions :--First, then, I ask, have there not been, since the signing of that treaty, ads of accession of power, ambition, and agarandisernent, upon the part of France, which cancel that treaty ; secondly, can the loth article of the treaty be now carried into eifeCt, according to its letter and spirit ; and, lastly, supposing such to be the fact, are there not subsequent ads of hostility committed on the part of the First Consul of France, which render it impos sible for us to execute the treaty. 'With regard, my Lords, to the first question, I mean aas of ac cession and' aggrandisement by France, need I remind your Lordships of the accession of Pied mont ? Every body conversant in the History of Europe must know the value of that acquisition.— They must know that Piedmont, under the dominion ef. Its antient Princes, supported by the energy and heopery of its inhabitants, once served as a counter. poise between Austria ....... . . c ountry, nust have bten de- 7 Vaaed, or apillA re ogi or. .Che sArtle kw b aglir, ..pe I. but, his , I f ardibt .• . likcorth; kluifnle . , wok ' allea upon a 6 gilt is 1 h ' dr his Majesty_ t a ti oterThcnt, he could upt tic- ler Court, and fnr which °Teat* no sal tr, witiloin h av h w.. i ti ,Ap n ; tre.Qaiiin ever been obtained. • fie believed that, hhe at presenCentertaineil such questions it was rather a new thing in i ss the Duke of CLARENCE macy . for the supreme magistrate 'of ar.y nati a t as he was so particularly al- demand a conference 'a -ad net-tonal conver . ...... ' ~ I poise between Austria and France. After the bare • reeitel of this fail. I hope nobody will quesdon the y Ate of the aceaseion .of Piedmont. What has been ths next step to au-mashies:tent on the part of France ? The subjugation of 'Switzerland, h in ex- , fres violation clf6e Jast treaty tessoittediby L'alwee I 11 a