The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1808-03-01 00:00:00

:71111 .nt the use. rut lurt but Jlh jog . rot nil. hey led. the no rota nit! re• ion. use, SOO. 00,i1 the Irtit- I ill n, art opt. e „„t, an d they produced a proportionate effect en Aistiltajesty'sthentiovervitnent. 'OM nation obtained e peace, which we ever since had masers to hail as the cement of the two countries, nearly alienated by rice amoral persecution, and yet more unniiiural par ! If our distresses then justiticll a peace which sacrificed the greater part of our territory—what shell be said st the present moment atiy say we should make do overtutoser concessions for peace now?— Surely riot. But, Sir, if in this applieotioll we fail, wheeler the cause of the people, or that of the Ministry, be triumphant, it may be the happy means of solving this proposition.; Whether we may expect to obtain any thine, like a fair and equal praxes with T.'s:inter--whether we are ever to r emain, through a false principle of dig silty a nd consequence ? at war with that coun try ? or are there any tenns, whiCh mieht be offered in the present sitnation of &dairy, we may accept ? This sedation will, at least, be attended with some gratification. It may teach as to contract our wishes to the reale of our eepec tatious, if it afford us even no hope of pacification. Let the decision of this House be what it may— let rue here avow myself the determined enemy of perpetual war, and en this feeling, I trust I have the best and most upright part of the country with me. !tun, and ever have been, atriend to a peace, if it con be concluded on any thing like fair and equal terms. Eternal war rimst be our final rain. • At all times, and under all Sovereieus, our only 'seemly has been maintained to consist in peace.— such a peace must be founded on just and honour able terms; and hence, under the present circum stances of ourselves and enemies, peace is indis putably preferable to war. And peace, I have no &else may be oleuitied on fair terms. His Ma jesty s Speech, umong many ether objectionable prepoenions, asserts the present is merely a a4taiitive war. But can it be said we have been engaged in the present war merely in our defence? Have we waited to be assailed ? or hare we not been the first to effect a breach ? We have not then been couipelled to resist, but we compelled France to her'defenee. It is high time to desist from the fan's , hope of blinding the world to our views, as we have already stone the people to their true intemets. Does there yet remain a hope of better days ? Have our delays tended to establish the greater security of any Nam that may here after be concluded ? What end has our procrastina tion elected ? Has our continued hostilities dimi nished our enemy's resources ? What new point of attack has been discovered? What new means have we procured for supporting our increased and hourly increasing establishment ? What method shall we pursue to subeidize afresh the last of our allies ? Oh, perverse and blind infatuation ! How shoetine is it to see a nation rushing headlong to destruction by the isrtiiees of its Governors ! What means, hoverer najnstifiable, have not been used to persuade the public that no peace can ever be made with Frsuce, while it 'continues subject to its present Ruler? As if fidelity or pacitiudion were the ateribittes solely of a Royal race of ehoriginal Monarchs, hereditarily derived from a long line of sure-.,r , . This is a fatal error to the lianas the people have been led to believe there is no point of contact, no possibility of being. • netted in the same bond Of Lesion as we have been id years that are past ; and it is our common interest we should once again endeavour to cou nest,. if no e sible. more fuel than ever.. This pre judice has derived strength from the unsuccessful efforts of two distinct and successive Adininistra tions to efPct peace. Our oegociations have hi theite, it might aepear, been ill-timed. They have-usually tallowed upon the heels of the suc cesses of the enemy. After the terrible defeats of Evlan and Friedland, the hopes of Russia were dittepoiroted, and the territories of Prussia alto gether conquered and subjected to the power of France. The allies were convinced of the impo licy of the part they had hitherto sustained, and !evolved to wake way for a general peace, by enter ing into an armistice, which. was quickly followed bytht it ee i z s i c era o l n, Le tn ac i speech e l A!ie pronounced which,ace while frren the Throne, on the commencement of the present session, and denominated the disastrous Peace of Tilsit,' the Ministers must them selves know was not dictated by . despair, but by a just sense of the relation in which the cations of the Continent, at that crisis, stood to each other. They well kilow this peace was the preservation of the allied army, and the. means te.• restoring to Piosdia the territories she hail fort's:. Ara in the field. The peace of Tilsit, it is at lite con fessed, was the happiness, the security, and wel fare of Russia. It was an unexpected, and, therefore, welcome deliverance. Nor has even the conduct of Bonaparte escaped censure on this head. Perhaps it is the only instance in which his Generals have differed with him in the execution of his mighty plans. He liss been roundly taxed with imprudence in .;offering Russia to escar, at the moment he held the balance of her fate in his hand, and could have swept the Russian Empire front the face of the earth. While the hopes of pie eiler and aggrandisement have effected this turn of thinking in the Generals of the French Emperor; I cannot doubt a moment of this conduct being a proof of theeineoinmon reach of under standing, and sound political wisdom, of that extra onlinary character. The conduct of the Itusaian Eareeror has not only been misrepresented in as sighing a false cause for the conclusion of the rri..„!!l', but he is also foully calumniated in assert-. lug, that the mediation so frankly and honourably proposed to this country, flowed from a wish that we should ratify the deed of his despair, by enter in; into a treaty also with the Conqne or. But this carries with it its own refutation. The mediation' was f proposed before the conclusion of the Peace o . to Lord Gs L. Gower, in the sincerity of ' heart for which the Russian Emperor has ever been remarkable, until it became the po lwe of the present Ministry to revile and calum niate their long, faithful, acid approved friend on the Continent. On Lord Gower's arrival in Rnseis, after waiting for some time, till the army came into cantonmeuts, and the Court became sta tionary, he informed General Budberg of the anx ious wish of his Government to enter into a speedy negociation with Fiume, in concert with the other belligerent powers; and in a further communi cation with him, mid, his Court had never entered into war but with a view to obtain a permanent peace. Can *stub be mall/ the seatiments of this Noble Lord ? His he not discovered hi the desigr• of England something neyond the mere hope of procuriti{ a peter! ? Have there not been intro duefivt tato their plane of pacilicatioii many mijeets extremely chimerical, if not absolutely uuju-n -fiable ? Does not the Noble Lard re;:ollect, that in 18 . 05, he, as au Ambassador, was sent to that Court to effect an union of the two enspires, for the purpose, not of obtaining a just and fair peace, but to crush totally the power of France, and effect the complete ruin of the head of the French Einpire, and this can be proved from the very words siT the Treaty ? Are not these objects very distinct (ruin the purl motive of just pacifi cation ? I ant couviuced of the tedious detail of events and facts, statements and opinions, I have been necessitated to enter upon ; but. I trust, the patien-...e and attention of the Howse will be ex tended to me, not in proportion to my merits, but to, the importance of the subject discussed.— The objects of this league were avowed, and are well known to embrace the Itestoration of Iloilo- ter—the independence of I Tolland—the reinstate ment of the King of Sardinia in the territories and appendages of Piedmont—the expulaion of the French out of Naples, and even the evacuation of the Island of Elba, and effecting a total change in the order of things in Europe ; professing, at the saute time,. there could be no passible safety to Lay nation, or security to any treaty, until the power of Bonaparte was totally .extinguished and annihilated. The idea of obtaining pest e those terms was indeed futile and romantic, and proved miserably abortive. After the Late disafeeditt ineut of the Emperor of Russia, in oar hag to co-operate with him in carrying on our own contest. was it wonderful he should have finally deserter! the mid schemes we had in flated him with Co his own destruction? Ilad we not a proof of his firm friendship, before the fatal battle of Friedland, when he declared he would contend for the independence of the Allied Nations to the last extremity ? And it was not so very wonderful that be should have mentioned the dieeeiatuie:a h. , .o severely felt in our neglect of treaty and sti le ... tion. Vet, in the seine letter, the good intentions of the Emperor agaia break out more solidly and effectually to this conary, by the proffer of his mediation for Peace, with a fail con viction that France would accept fair and just terms of acermenoilmion, and was then patth cally iuclined. In Russia there appeared the moat ur.doubted dispositioa to eruct Peace, and there' appeared a moral certainty, that were we anxious to obtain Peace, we might have easily secured it. This was the. golden opportunity we have suffered to pass unimproved. If our disposi tions were pacific, why then did we manifest no thing hut political craft, and unworthy suspicion ? We object against the mediatioa now, because o f the stipulation of the lath Articlemf the Treaty. which limited the mediation, though that objec tionable clwas , as to the time of our acceding to the Emperor of Russia's '; Ur, was not, ailed tone, known here. Mr. Alopens's Note to Secretary Canning is unelogged With any limitation of this nature. No would this article have ever been a se rious cause of objection, on the part of France, to any extension of the time of Russia's mediation. This has bee.. admitted since by the Russian Mi niiter. The 'stair was made by the Emperor, ac companied by a Foutise to make hiniezif and his forces the guarantee of the treaty, at the moment he hail just reason to complain of our neglect and infidelity. How should such an offer hare been met? Surely not by formal suspicion, and petty di plomatic chicane. If we could not have accepted the offer. surely we should hare felt gratitude for the Prince who could recollect us aid oar interests, even in his own misery. The first moineat the sword was in the scabbard, his thoughts sere fixed upon saving England from the evils he had ex penenced. Had gratitude been die played iu our answer to his kind and faithful interf erence?— The answer s 'tis true, contained some sort of an ad mission of the -good disposition of !lassie towards England ; yet in a most extraordinary way pro ceeded to *new our distrust of the Ethperor's iatett tions, by a demand of the Secret Articles of Tilsit. When die terms of treaty had been defined by both to he those of honour and ecikity, what ne cessity was there to send an Ambassador to know those terms?—Lt could only be expected we could treat on general terms ; 'twas then needless to proceed to a specific demand of the particular principles or terms on which we should proceed. - which would remain to be modified by vire timistaaces. While our Ambassador at Russia was demanding the basis of treaty and the secret articles of Tilsit, the Ministry sheltered themselves under the ne cessity of concealing the secret information given to this country by Portugal. because the consent of Portegal was not obtained. Such conduct is As preposterous as their design is obvious. To any = they ere sworn enemies. United and con ted in this unchristian-like and desperate slatae against the welfare of man, they dare not avow their dark designs. Hence. they endeavour to conceal them by specious pretexts, flimsy ex cuses, and diplomatic chicanery. The mediation should then have been accepted as offered. But we went even farther; not content with demanding a basis, secret articles. &c. we proceed to state the necessity of Russia giving satisfactory proofs of her amicable disposition, by entering into a com mercial treaty first with us. How di ;gusting must such mean, shabby artifices hare appeared in the eyes of diplomatic charectere/Our assertion, that we were interested in the secret articles of the Treaty of Tilsit. all turns on an equinorpre, in the dispatch of Getelluilberg. which is perhaps owing to the trans lation. If. thenahme were no secret articles in the Treaty of Tilsit, why should our Ambassador re main one monthat the Court of attune. ridi culonsly persisting in so unjust and foolish a demand ? (Here he insisted at large on the incoosistency of the two letters of Lord Gower to Mr. Canning, both of the same date ; one containing the Pc count of the amicoble and friendly temper of the Emperor, and the next, expreseing INTO'S for the sudden change in his seatiments, on !leering of the Danish Expedition.] We soon improved on the demand, and sought both the secret and avowed articles of the Treate. What folly ! The avowed were knowisby the whole world—the secret could not be known—Whe, them ask it her ? If we really dratted to treat, we should have cle- mended, not the basis of the mediation of ow late Lrm ally, but rather the basis of a, treaty with the enemy. Why not seed our basis to Lord (lower. and plaiuiy 114'011 our iatentioa to refuse any other ? Here there coald be no deceit insicused , but -we continue to dishonour and disgrace General Badbe.re-, by still averting our mere- Right Honourable Gentleman, who seems to have beau deeiLy tainted with the, ',pint of diplomacy, has been migbily anxious to conjure up the terrcru of these secret articles to effect some secret puteose the whole of which seem to have related tp the establis:unent of the French power in Sicily.. Thus Lord Gower's whole instructions were only cateut-triio • prepay.: fresh objections to the entering on any Ivan whatever of treaty or mediation, by insistiug ua • Russia's breaking her treaty with France lira die closure of the secret articles, in order to wheedle us into doing that which our dot! , ewillewlw4l44 us. Independent of the Imam - ism of the principle laid down, the impolicy of pearling for each a con cession, and the short-sightedness of Ministers in sopecting the Russian GoYernment of such ab surdity, are too glaring . not to be condemned by every impartial man in the country. Thus the ri.iug affection awl contideuce of the Ras eian Emperor, for the interests of this country, were in a inieneeit overturned by the - intelligence of our conduct at Coeealeigen, which informatiou is received by our Government here, in two letters, which I doubt if auy mate of common sea-e and C 0031110.1 honesty could pessilely write; but how the Right Hon. Secretary could, on seeing the two letters, write hack to Lord flower—' You may accept the Russian Mediation, under terirei— yrbew lie knew that the.elieiki.ieu of the H.essiao Emperor had been completely revolutionized by the circumstance of our attack on Copenhagen, seems to me, in such a man, to he the effect of a deep-laid scheme to effect some purpose totally out of the reach of common conception. Yet this con fidence is at length reposed in Russia, under terms ; though the same Secretary in framing the Russian Declaration to Is as Russia has ever been in clined to act against England.' What in the world can all thin mean? This assertion, recantation, refusal and admission, nearly at the same moment of time. It must at least he acknowledged to be a very thief( woven web of inconsistency. To its coatrivers, the purposes it was intended to effect are hest known. It is much to be lamented, that at this critical time there was not at the Court of St. Petershurgh some men of capacity and address, win,- might contribute to extricate. the ccutttry from the disgra.e into which she and her Ambassador, and, most of all, her Govern ment, must have fallen. Our Ambassador was by no means a calculated to smooth difficui ties and obstructions, exalt confidence, and pro mote esteem : and tile nature of his commissions were such, that should lie even have been the best qualhkd person in the world to falfil his station, he mint have beer. subject to so many flagrant breach s of • decency and eonsi.tency, at would entail oa him maiming.% and di,grace. Ile is next cousensioned, it aßptiars, to demand the Raesian Mediation, bet Weea this country and Denmark, im mediately after the Emperor of Russiu lied expressed his irritation, when he just then had refused it-be tween En;laild and Frolics. In the early pastor this proffered mediation we should hove either frankly . accepted - It ate rivinlit7 from a tattoo arta had even suffered its our cause, or have rejected it oa the ground of our apprehetnions of the impossibility of Resiia's. impartial mediator. This species of half confidence ouraued, has ueen that and that only which (ailed brave plunged us into thisae fatal errors we Lave new to lament. Here the comedy of errors at length ceases. Our Ambassador returns; Let us next look at the conduct of His Majesty' Government, reapecting a if miler proffer made is April, by the Emperor of Austria, including all the Belligerent Powers. In this filanifesto, Count Stabremberg allows, that it is only by the united efforts of the Belligerent Powers they can ever hope for a permanent Peace. This extended to all. Yet a particular notification waa made tt. Busload; which it appears was unnoticed for a consid;ratile time. No further offer was made till the 30th but November. The reason of the pause was, the offer .of Rasa& to Inc diate, which caused Austria to decline in he: favour. The - reason of the recommencement was, the cessation of Russia's wish to interfere. Peace is the wish. of Bonaparte. He wishes • make our access to peace free and easy. Thus wi have twice received proffers of mediation, to Which he has wscoaditionally acceded. The Secretary in the same sleclaration,atates the disposition of the King is inclined to peace.'—Mere cant ! The country knows by this time the wishes and desires of that Minister too well. He is au enemy • peace, but dare not avow it. A concealment of it real sentiments, and an assumption of others, widely different, to serve his purposes, are nut th' only blesisings he has de/iced from the theory e diplomacy. To Count Stallremberg't offer At Conning writes back • Exhibit some proofs of your being an accredited agent of that country, sines we know you not in your asstim.id capacity/ — How conciliating this conduct ? What a dispositioi to entertain a proposition for peace? Or rathsr say, what a disposition to cavil and contend about trifles the least (venial ? Through whom could he have received this commission, but through the Emperor his master? To . put such an interroga tory was to insult the Austrian Ambassador, as as display our desire of continuing the war. We should have met the question fairly. has cleared all trifling difficulties, by unofficial eNpls. nations or conversations, and proceeded fairly and candidly to discuss then the basis of a just and honourable' treaty. When the propagation was made. we- demanded negociators should be sent, • every thing lay in that ; why then, in God's nam did we nut lead the way ? Oh ! we must not to Pans,.forsooth. Why not fix on some other _place. by mutual content? Here again we wand a basis. 1 confess I see no nece-Li for this demand. Why? 1341 not this same basis rmve the destruction and hone the late negoviation ? Of this opinion was Pitt I...ape-A* the Treaty of Amiens. For con sistency sake, the Right Honourable Fes:re alms:A not have then continued the needless adji mint of n let is, inner lie professes h i.,.elfa of that g. eat master. Oa one thing. he sud 1. sad Ibl V) I believe all Lanced men at lewd will beeenviffilled. • , the inconvenience of any defined bales, vs lliele Vast ever fluctuate through circumstances, mall halts of the !future of all by turns. In sending a Mireiter to treat of peace to France, I can see no objection. My Lord Lauderdale and my Lord Malmodeary both went for that purpose to Trance, and I have never heard they had season to complain of the conduct of the French Court. Here I .citist say, I think the Ministry have exhooasted all their drol- lery of petulance an& indignity on tMs stsfelvet of Cruet Staliremberg's having conetialkett hitheelf Munater without any authority, ea Mite they resolved •to refuse any answer 10111111110sfie •It served their purpose. They felt issevolleallefftaiant to tale of peace, however remote•the proopeee 'ln this, at least, their conduct is etendiesed uniform. tender them no peace or negotiation weemreeteetrie toa Inippy termination. if everthere had thellacr ep- portute es of putting France to tee test, and fbesiseing ever: , thinglike prejudice, it woos ihnltaistficeillibn. In weat situation do you new stand to-Frattee ? Tim first proffer of peace was refused ; the next every thi ng but refeeed. And here let um gale my opinion on the comparative meet of tree Lord Hawkesbury, whose character the Right Hen. . Secretary has taken the liberty of scrupulouoly and fastidiously exeminieg and coielenining. Let Me I tell the Rage' Hone leecreteryetelo not beliitve the Noble Lord would have made nny thing like so bad a hand of the negociation, bad it been confirle4 to 1 him officially; nor do I. think that the . Niffile i Loot would suffer by any 41103100 in Silk; eninro44.oll With him as a Foreign , hlinister. Tee '.abler rhSrcl would certainly make a far better. Olf steta is truly alarming. Engaged iu war with a great 163• 1 Cmcs..sehn_ontp.claLiawl xitn. kihnodscits ether 416: nite resources by the means of oar vain oppaseleo ameassaults ; in vain have we excited Bacon nema ruction against her ; they have all liwelled the VA- • , umpla of her train. We alone. remain. .' Athvi since our enemy cannot subdue es by .;feree, we are resolved it shall he effected by our ewi) *caissons, obstinacy, and madness. In this sitiuttiOn. deserted by our Allies, from France, on i X and insulted, we can expect nothing bode of concession. Nov is there any hreell'ale • negotiation for a peace, which *lone csn , rase' s from destruction. Our elliiistry cry nut, they are determined to wait for au impartial :set ester. Nu- , rope has been searched, but in vain. 'The Ifeee- : volciice of our friends ham been treated with ear:- , tempt. The generosity of our enemy outraged by indignity. With unparalleled folly we idea . spurned the proffered blessings of peace, theta twe r preseuted by the venerable hand of set* lity,aud,with a maniac's fury, dashed from our lips f the draught whi cis alone could rescue us from delth. - I have been chmtiased, not seldom, by the Mom Gentlemen opposite, merely for calling neon them i to take the means of entering nem; that negocia- f tem which they have so often in their mouths. but , so little in their intentions. I have called *spots t them to meet the overtures of France o c r poe t to seir . I own .petits, and at !emit to ascertain the , a t of the enemy. It is nothing novel or on a ed that I ask from theta. Toe Noble Lord (Ca meet reagh) their colleague, can best explain to ri tee principle and manner in whMe such a peke- - dure was couduetee in the sea- 11105. In alert- ,/ vious occurrences of ties kiad there was, if tart a I successful issue,Aliesst a digoieed webs ...0,- e sestem of proceeng. My Loid tlrenvil l e he answered the overtime* of France, didit fals g opet manly manner, suited to the dignity otitis rs country, mei correenonding with his owe prouiand it raaited sense of eh:see:ter. In diet Nobles:tines dis- • e l patches there was no seeking for epirammatie of points, no labour exerted to direct a sarrtsme or .; to indulge in ill-tithed repartee. lie manfully met ~* the question at lame, and stated the decision Of his iu Government • its a direct eammiiiiiratiose e'lltei,' ill ray the King's Minister,, •we are as anziaas as the ,o, west sanguine advocates for peace, to accomplish . he that desirable object, and are only restrained, from in the. conviction we feel that the attempt would hu- ed titillate in failure and disappoiternefite To this I to unswer, that even from that failure the advantages , tar will ensue. The country would theta be convinced eta of the urgent necessity which existed to to en on the contest, all privations would be ex: used, *ll le _ murmurs dissipated. The energies of the netien lc: wooed be stimulated into action, and every hand int Red heart united to eef:nd its honour and its re, reenrity. 'Whence Jo I deduce this inference ? I to deduce, it from the unerring experience of aw, we fromthe history of every country similarly situated, leh and under the operation of analogous cadge*. Let ry, us but review that period of the Heitory of Holland, of wheu, in the overbearing oppression ofLouis XIV. 'he for he, too, had his vices and his crimes, a deter- res mination was expressed by that Monarch to destroy to the power and independence of the Low Countries ; ies when nothing could have faired their existence slid os, security but the bold and determined spirit a the the people, called into operation said to life by the of mighty mind of the Prince of Orange ; called Ile into action after every effort was ineffectually, on our their part, code to divert the hostility of the I much ace Monarch, and when they had almost entreated his '— clemency and forbearance. The moment that the ion pcoele of lloiland found him inexorable, the ma- her inent that they saw be was intent upon impose out ing upon them conditions to which they ought ahe not to yield, and that honour and security were la- the compatible with their acquiescence, they . then oge- formed themselves into a mighty band, determined to Nell submit to every- sacrifice, to endure every print- r.— then, to risk every object, rather than the surrene lave der of their independence. Springing from that Oa- pedestal, the fame and glory of the Prince of Orange and took its flight ; springing from that foundation. and arrive the commerene spleudour and tee meets:ale wags greatness of Holland ; such as that country en- :, as joycd until the period when, by me , :aimecinent me, and misfortune, it was subjected to titotr• tram- tgo mels, under which it is now unhappily suffering...— thou Similar would the feeling be which even the failure de- of negotiation, arising ism the determiuitiou of :sits the eiieney, would excite through every part of this self country, through every class of its people. Vv bat e of an effect must it not produce in the breast even of Mr. those wen were most severe sufferers by war, when con- you Ilse the power of raying to them, 4 Here, you 'Lary lite rvine manufacturers, as a foil smut ucauswerable pet- proof t' you. that on cur part every measere ha owe' beta aeopteci to °both, ea von it renews from you' acid affections, eon:it:met with the character and :resit