The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1803-06-04 00:00:00

.- ~~ situation et the tonntry et the time thee Ministers I came Mtn ces...et, and in fiblidi UAW their frede cessers left it. Wile.: tar, ame into power, they found themselves esigseed ei ant i e iporteet contest with the Northern Poste:re-which was terminated in a rn inner beneficial and hanotienble to this country. ; Bat if he asked by whom the &et was provided which honighe the contest to so glorious a conclu sion ? The answer must be, that it was proposed, . equipped, and in every way appointed by their :predecessors in. office. 'The expedition to Egypt • wilich constituted one of the most briiliant and impntrant triumphs recorded ia the aanale of the British history, was entirely planned ansf formed by the late Ministers ; and all these things might and ought surely to be remembered before Gen tlemen would think themselves justifiable in at tacking and accusing them of having deserted the country at a moment of crisis and of danger. One Hon. Gentleman heed asserted that there was no Parliamentary ground for the proposed resolutions. lu reply to this he now only refers to the first part • his Majesty's Declaration, which stated a series of aggressions, insults, and violcnces on the part of, France, continued since the period of the 1 relimi n>aries being signed. As to the dates of all the De claretions made by his Majesty's Nlinisters, he could not undertake to recall them all precisely to his re colleetion, but he reeoliecled that on the 14th of May, when the Treaty of Peace concluded at Amiens was debated in that House, the Mini sters gave every reason. to ate:eke the belief that it would be permanent, though before that period the Spanish Langue, which now was made a part of the quarrel, had been dissolved ; and had the House been then apprised, of th it . circumstance, it most have hesitated to concur in the Address carried up to his Majesty on that occasion. Eren the laeport of Sebestiani, so much dwelt upon, was notoriously known for a considera ble time, as well as the views of the First Consul upon Egypt, though it did not appear from the do cuments that any notice had been taken of it from the month of November, when it was published, to the following month of Mara. For these reasons, conceiving that the Ministers had negleeted their duty, and deceived the public, ha should give his . vote in support of the resolutions. Lord TEMPLE exeressed himself ready to ac . cept the challenge diet had been given, to compare the dates of the expression: made use of to delude the country into a confidence in die permanency of peace, with the dates of the documents lying upon tine ta!de. As to the first resolution, he said not see how any thing could be ;tlledged against it, :is it ac- : curately followed the kangeage made use of in his Majesty's deeleration ; nor could he conceive that any argument could be drawe from the -charac ter of Bonaparte, as every thing relating to his having deserted his religion, professed himself a Niehornetan, gloried in having demolished the al tars of Chrisuar.ity, committed murders, plunders, and devastations, seized upon the sovereign power, aimed at subjugation of all nations, sacrificed even his own soldiers, aad several other similar traits of hem, had Leen no less known before the Treaty of Amiens, than they were at present. Referring -to dates, he said, that on the 2lst of September, the Yinisters declared they saw no mason to expeCt the resumption of hostilities, though, with the excep tion of Sehastieni's Report, every thing enumerated in his Majesty's declaration had taken place, and eves known previously to that time. The treaty which stipulated the annexation of Parma and Pia cenza to France, was published on the 23d of the preceding October. On the subje!l of the military spies sent here, in the ostensible eh:trader of Com mercial Agents, representations were made to the First Consul on the lath of November. All the violences on our commerce that we heard of, had been committed previously to the 23d of Novem ber, when the Ministers did not scruple to repeat their consident assurances of the permanence of peace. One flagrant breach of treaty cn the law of nations, had been committed on an English vessel, on the eeth of October, under the pretext of a confiscation, on account of a British captain hav ing in the cabin of his ship, bond pe, for his own private use, a few articles of British menu faettne. The invasion of Holland took place pre viously on the. 15th of Oaober, and Mr. Liston's ciispatCh from the Hague, on the 29th of the same month, stated, not that the French troops had been withdrawn, on some very pressing and spi rited remonstrances on the part of the Batavian Co yernment, but that they had received orders to pro- ceed no farther. And another dispatch, sent imme diately afterwards, informed our Government that they were direCted to remain at Breda and the other places where they were, or, in other words, keeping possession of the keys and frontier towns of Holland. All the discussions relating to Malta had also been 1 is a great measure at an end long before the 23d of November, when Ministers thought proper to make that delusive representalion of their seeing no chance of war, though Mr. Moore WAS aslually then at Constance sounding the dispositions of the Swiss Cantoes, the means they might possess of resisting the progress of the French, and proposed to otfer them the assistance of England, which assistance mast have been produaive of a war, . tad there been any favourable opportunity of commencing it, which :nest have been at the time -The illegal detention and im prisonment of Captain D'Auvergne in the French metropolis, had also happened previously. It was also well known and sysowed, that the French . were determined net to indemnify the Stadthoider in the manner they were engaged to Jo by the Treaty of Amiens. With all this before their eyes, aed within their knowledge, the Ministers again de d:ned, as late as the !..:ad of February, that they had reason to considerthe country as in a state of pro found peace, and yet it was before the sith of the same month that Lord Whitworth received the instructions of his Government to remonstrate with Boneparte or his Minister on• the publication of Sebestiani's Report. No setisfaCtion was given on this account, and it was r.ot till the Pt!) of March last, that the Ministers fix the first time infinniesi the Parliament that we were to prepare ourselves for war. At yips therefore we certainly were; but he contended, that the Ministers did their best to preserve us from the situation; and never adopted that past . which became this country as a great on. Even with r egar d to t h e 3rd posrertttl nati privileged spies or commercial :teems, he was pre pared to assent that they had grossly neglected their d ut . ; for though they were prevented repairing to t h e places of their destination, no measures were immediately tD.kcn for sending them away, and - ;Vr- ' .72 -6 a taNe - they actually remained in London the done' e e' of the Anieter Atuireoefil. 'Thongh the he/Asian of Holland was a manifest violationof the Peace of Amiens, and took place as fat back as the I etb of Nov. the Ministers never presented any written re monstrance against it whatever. 'I he invasion of Swit zerland, which began on the 13th of Jnly, and was not only a just ground of interference, but a justifia ble cutlee of war, was not attended to at first in an open manner. The Swiss were in arms to oppose the French on the teth of Sept. Mr. Merry, cur resident at the time in Paris, com.nitinicatesi this on the 3d of Onober ; and about the same time the swiss Envoy at Paris, after having all the doors of the different European Ministers in that capital shut against him, at length came to Mr. Merry,-and informed hire, that the Swiss had no hopes left, butin the generous interference and assistance of England. On the 10th of October another remonstrence was made to the French Government, and what was the answer of Bonaparte ? It was this insolent one, that England had nothing whatever to do with the Powers of the contiuent,and hadnothing to look for but to the. provi sions oftheTreatynfAmiens; and on the arrival of Mr. Moore, on the '2lst of October, the first intelligence he received was, that the Diet of Schwitx had sur rendered, which put an end to any further pro ceedings that might have been intended. The whole of this transadion exhibited the most striking proofs of the miscondud of the Ministers, who never in terfered with any vigour and effect, and remained inactive till the season of the year rendered it impossible for any Austrian, or even Russian troops to ad in that difficult country. Nothinls. , therefore could he more preposterous than their pro ceeetinge, in letting the time pass away when any etre:dual measures were practicable, and when every 'thing was lost, sounded it in the ears of all Europe as a ground of quarrel. On the 25th of April came on the final decision relative to the execution of the article of the Treaty of J'emiens, by the sur render of Malta, when it was said, that Russia had offered to guarantee its independence; and Talley. rand unequivocally said, on the 10th of March, that if the island was not forthwith surrendered, France would consider it as a declaration of war. Then followed a number of what were called ultimatums, one of which proposed that we should be allowed to hold Malta for ten years; and the last of all con tained a proposition that Lampedosa should, in lieu of Malta, be ceded to us, the effc of which would be, that after all our exertions we should be left in the possession of a receptacle, not for reern:a but for ma gads. The demand made by France, that we should alter our laws, and change the basis of the Constitu tion, was certainly. one of the most insolent and atrocious. that could well be conceived ; but even there, instead of saying to our Ambassador, "Tell that man, that Bonaparte, or that Talleyrand, that the demand was such as British spirit could not for a single moment listen to;" our Ministers, with their usual weakness, replied only, that it was such a thin" as they were unable to effect. The last of all, if not a more impudent was a more -scandalous demand than any he had yet men tioned, in requiring us to expel the unfortunate Princes of the illustrious House of Bourbon and their adherents, who came amongst us as being the ceuntry in which they were most likely to obtain the sacred rights of hospitality, because they pre. sunned to weir at a foreign court these badges of nobility and distinEtioa, to which they were entitled by their birth and quality ; and what in that case was the despicable answer of the Ministers ? Not an expression of manly indignation, or an assention of these orders so long sanctioned in this country : No ; nothing of that kind ; but a paltry reply, that they acknowledged it was improper for them to wear these badges ; but if they chose to continue the use of them, they were sorry for it, but were un able to prevent it. To wind up the whole came the final demand to send home the poor and helpless clergy who had sacrificed every thing to their religious tenets and their duties. He begged the House to mark the pusillanimous answer to this, which was, that measures would be taken to send them or dporter them of his Majesty's European do. minions ! From all these he concluded, that though the Ministers, from the first moment of signing the Treaty of Amiens, saw Bonaparte carrying with him the same views and the same hostile spirit towards us, not only concealed that and his subse quent violences and aggressions from Parliament and the country, but also at the same time misled them with delusive prospects of being in a pro found peace, which promised to be permanent; and that with all these flagrant ads of provocation, they neglected to make written and strong remon strances ; and when they did, had omitted to take measures for properly supporting them. If, after all this, the House should think them proper per verts, and capable of conducting the country through the war t they would of course support that opinion by their votes; but he must supplicate them, at least,'not to sacrifice the country at the shrine of any set of Ministers. . Mr. HOI3HOUSE entered into an elaborate de fence of the Administration, and accused their op. portents of endeavours to calumniate them, which was not deserved on their parts, as they always at tributed no other than hcnourable motives to those gentleinen in opposition. The charges ag ainst them may be reduced to three. Ist, Th a t thy had not afforded constitutional information from time to time r—eel, that they had given delusive prospects of peace:--and 3d, that they had not displayed proper degree of spirit. To the first he answered, that after having made peace with sincerity, it was right that they should be anxieus to preserve it.— ro the second, that his Majesty's speech to Parlia ment, at the Opening of the Session, announced the contrary of certain peace, by stating, that he was de termined to keep a strict eye on the proceedings on the Continent. And to the third, that their spirit waeevinced by their preferring the chance of arms, to any humiliating concessions demanded by the First Consul. Sir WILLIAM YOUNG rose to state his ap. probation of the conduct of Ministers, in their endea vours to support the war which now appeared to be inevitable ; and observed, that he could not pats over in silence many of those articles containeolin the documents laid before the House, most of which appeared to have furnished the grounds of war. It was his opinion, that the Treaty of Amiens had been violated on the part of France, and the ag gressions of that cewttry were clearly proved.— The governing power had there maintained a spa. tem which had „threatened to beat down tish commerce, bat at the moment such attempts were made, Ministers should have made a comma creation antler such circumstances h Was necessary ,to have brought beforeithe Wuse every informaLcil th a t t a z :7 43 e It tliatr .ere Y no m w ig in h v t ( i. .lve ê d j4 in d a g c e on d fttersit,l'ietnlvs,a‘tiv;;l -crummy tdcarry it on with s.piritand rigour. To ascer ' rain how far Ministers had iv,nl regular in their cpn- . dud re.speilink the rupture, it was pioper to nifer to those ads of France which had led to the pre sent posture of our affairs. He begged the House to attend to the persons sent to Egypt, and of the edit which the First Consul had published respefling Bi itish subjects and their property in the Island of Malta; also one lately made, direaiig that all English merchants, residing in Martinique or St., • Domingo, or clerl:s who might be there to transmit business, were to leave those places by the 20th of June 1803, under the penalty of 6,000 livers ; these circumstances, and nrany others, led him to refled upon the ambition of the French, and the desire of the leading power in that country to undermine our commerce. He again gamed Ministers for not giving timely notice, but advised a stria unanimity in carrying on the war. France, he observed, ought to be considered as a great military republic, and the First Consul an aftive enemy, whose power ought not to be treated with indifference ; it was likely to be an arduous contest, but perseverance and English courage could not fail to succeed, as in an instance where an English midshipman, but. 14 years of age, took a French ship with 83 marines on board and her complement of sailors ; for which he was made a Lieutenant. He concluded with a belief, that Ministers had been forced to enter into the war, in consequence of the proceedings on the part of the French Republic. Mr. FONBLANQUE said, he was happy to ex press that he did not think it proper to throw any reproach on the conduct of Ministers ; on the con trary, it was fortunate that they had come forward and were now prepared to make that defence which could not fail to prove satisfactory to the House. With reference to the actual state of Europe, k was the duty of his Majesty's Ministers to interfere, par ticularly with respell to the people of Switzerland, in the nianner they had done; and he would refer to the papers to shew, tha: their conduct had been fair and proper. There never was a period, he said, in which the . cti-operations of the country were required more than on the present occasion. The conduct of France, since the Treaty of Amiens, had. been one continued series of aggression ; bat Mini sters had been the means of preventing their designs. The charges brought against the latter were of a se rious nature • they were not only accused of being wanting in t hat respect which was due to France, but of having occasioned the war, by refusing to !take timely communications. With respect to such communications, itwas his opinion that his Majesty's Ministers ongnt to hare made them at a proper pe riod, but it was necessary to find out when that pe riod was, and whether the aggressions which occa sioned the war took place any considerable time pre vious to his Majesty's Message; if there were no aggressions on the part of ranee, Ministers had availed themselves of what he called a pretence for war ; but hostile aggressions had been committed, consequently they were justifiable in their condu6t. With resped to Switzerland, they were justified, as it is the duty of all great State s t o affOrd pro tedion to the oppressed. It had been said that our commerce had been undermined, and that we arrogate a considerable portion of the trade of Eu rope. He submitted we did so, and it was that principle which had raised this country to its pre sent situation of unrivalled commerce. He pro ceeded to state the nature of the aggressions, as they related to the coadud of France, in the insult offered to his Majesty, by the Report of Colonel Se bastiani, the intention to subvert the liberty of our press, and the other charges formerly exhibited against the governing power of France ; and con cluded with observing, that Ministers were not only unanswerable, as to what they had omitted to do, but also for what they intended to do. Mr. ARCHDALE said, he spoke of Ministers as he found them. They were accused of having con dated the negotiations so as to deceive ; he thought they were by no means responsible for not having introduced a new order of things, with respell to the war ; they were not justified in going to war upon trivial occasions ; but it appeared that France had indicated an intention to injure our commerce, and destroy the freedom of the press ; in which case war was justifiable. On the other hand, when war is dangerous, and on the commencement, it may be proper to observe where it is likely to be carried on, and where our interest is vulnerahle. He called the attention of the House to Ireland, but did not think our interest was vulnerable there, from a va riety of causes. He did not mean to flatter Mi nisters, but in their late tratisadions with Fram-e, the people of Ireland knew, by the condnL' of the First Consul, that they had nothing to expect front him. If be was himself to land in that country, he would find himself resisted not only by the natives, but by many of those Jacobins who had been landed there for the purpose of creating bloodshed and re bellion. He concluded with expressing his wish, that unanimity might prevail among all parties for the ' general good. Mr. CHARLES WYNNF. observed, that the Treaty of Amiens was no longer spoken of as the foundation of a peace which was, some time back, considered as the greatest blessing that the people could enjoy. He called the attention of the House to the public desire which was manifested for peace at the time when meetings were formed for address ing his Majesty to accomplish that objed. An Hon. Member had said there was more fortitude in suffering an injury than in resenting one; but Mi nisters treated all remonstrances with contempt. Ile contended, that while such persons were at the head of the Government, we were not likely to pre serve peace. Mr. COURTNEY agreed with the Hon. Gentle man (Mr. Archdide) who stated that we ought to join hand in hand upon . the, present occasion, but differed from the Hon. gentleman (Mr. Wynne) who spoke so warmly against Ministers. They however were as well as before he expressed his sen-. timents. That Gentleman had taken the opportunity of maintaining silence. He had followed the zivice of Hippocrates, who. asked a headstrong person "What he had been doing ?" " Breaking my head," rejoined he; "then break it again," said the phy sician. Sir W. MILNER approved of the condua of Ministers only in the instance of their having libe rated several-persons out of prison, ainciig• therm was the late Colonel Despard. He observed, if there iris any blame attached to the Ministry for the prxeraings riittive to the war, it wits for er'l haling gone to a greateraeewitt than they heal 4. 1- r/tidy in their preparations toe :n end. Mr. T. T. MF.TCALVF. spoke eptinst the ha page used by an Her rtferaber'(hir W. Miliser), as it appeared levelled against the Right Hon. the tharfceTfoioNher fltcheq ace. 'Mr. C.'eßEGOft spoke in ftvor of Ministers, end observed, that we were placed in an animus come test, which it was the duty of all to eapport with unanimity. prt. GRENVII.I e t said; he had experiertercht degree of surpriseie find the debate of this evening nearly' confined to one side of the question. had waited in exix-dation of hearing, from some of those Hon. Members who supported the resolutipns some of those expressions, which they h i d so free , quently urged before. He had only a few observi , tions to make upon those objections which had ale ready been made; he alluded to those remarks which have so often been used in debates, rich as wines different Members of the House had been told their motives for espousing the part of Government was all interest, party, and violent opinions. (Hear 7 Hear!) Such, however, had not been used this debate. He had only to remark to an arras ment made by an Hon. Gentleman, whom Le thought hehad heard say, e. Are we in the mornett of calamity to give information to the enemya• He thought that Ceovernment, before it entered in to an arduous contest, ought to investigate the cause openly, in the face of the country. And ac cording to the opinion which he entertained upon the subjed, he had a desire to be the means of bringing those observe:ions pubhcly before the na tion and the world at large. The general oleic& of these resolutions was to call. in question the candid of his Majesty's Ministers, and to a pp rec i ate. t h e justice of those resolutions, it was s:ecessary to look at the country at the time when it appeared neces sary for Ministers to resent the conduct of Franie. It is stated that this House has not had the proper means of information, and the inquiries made by all, on this evening, must go to ascertain the f 3& There appeared a disposition on the other side of the House to quiet the rest, and to prevent such in quiry. He was not disposed to ad in opposition himself, but the opinions of persoas in high otaial situations had fallen with great weight. lie would begin to recall to their recollection what teas the opinion of the Chancellor of the Excheqner at the signing of the Treaty of Amiens. He had collected words to prove his assertions on the 14th of June, 180'2. These expressions were made Imhof in the House:—" I am impressed with a convincing belief that the probability of the continuation of this peace is to be expected."—u I know nothing in the dispo sition of the French nation, or on the part of the person who is the Governing Power in that country, that warrants any reason to believe why peace may not be maintained." He had then the honour to be one among the number who supp or t e d t h e go tion for an Address to be presented to his Majesty to take into his consideration the various subjeas that were described in the Treaty of Amiens. Many were then the topics of observations but none was urged with more strength than to settle imrcediafely all the doubtful points, and to confirm that pease upon the propositions on which we depended. If we are to look to the information. for what has been done to that end, we shall find that an Address was presented to his Majesty upon the advanteges which arose from the Peace, and that the warmest expectations were entertained by Ministers of. its proving permanent. Such was the complexion of affairs at the dissolution of the last Par liament; and he could net avoid observing, that he never found in our history a stronger resoluion to convey peace to the people than at that per{ The Right Hon. Member did not know upon what grounds the two resolutions could be supported ; but by one it was urged that his Majesty's Minis ters had not communicated to the House timely'uo tice of their proceedings in the negotiations. The question, in that case, v.-as, whether the imputation was just ? The Right Hon. Gentleman did net know of any other way to do justice to that inquiry, than by referring to his Majesty's Speech, which contained strong indications of war.. With respect to the attempt made to subvert the liberty of the press, that circumstance was not immediately communi cated, nor did it appear necessary it should have been. The Right Honourable Member said,' he would glance at the molestation of our commerce. The first attempt made to injure us in that respect was in December 1801, near the time the shipwas de tained by the Republic of France for having English knives and forks on board ; this was previous to the meeting of Parliament. On the 25th of October the connexion iihmed agains; the interest of this country was discovered—on the ;id of Oaoher Ministers were in possession of the intelligence re lative Lo Switzerland ; and the next point which Lee came the subjed of discussion was Malta. The great question relative to that island was the time of the evacuation, but it did not appear that any date was prefixed to that event.--On the .17th of April Colonel Sehastiani's Report took place.— Those were the material points to be considered, as stated in the Declaration ; bat others that refer to the Continent, such as the German arrangement, were-also tlacobje&of enquiry. The G ertnan arrange ment comprized a very considerable British interest; an interest which the Members of the House could not avoid feeling, and which it was the duty of Mi nisters to protect. The interest of this country was also attached to that of the House of Orange, by the same continental arrangement. The Hon. Member proceeded to the consideration of the point respeding the Cape Good Hope. He maintained that his Majesty's Ministers, by their noiheeecution of the stipuletiott respeding the Cape, had been guilty, of a dire/ breach of the Treaty of Amiens. Having enlarged upon this point, he, pro ceeded to the general heads of argument upon which these resolutions were propoeed to be adopt ed. The object of those resolutions was, he said, to induce an opinion that his Majesty's Ministers had not done all in their power to ascertain, with certainty, the hostile int ent i ons o f F rance , at au earlierperiod, and thatthey had not remonstrated with sufficient energy against the aggressicau on the part of France. He first referred to the conduit of France in seizing our merchants' property and vessels, be cause there happened to be a plate, knife, and fork, of English menufadure ; and he Contended that Ministers had not remonstrated as they ought to have done. The neat subje& he adverted to was the 'conduit of the French Government, relative to the Commercial Consuls. He begged leave to read two lines on his Majesty's Dechuatior, in which his Mae - V -- I .