Peltiers Trial p. xxi Edit. 1803

Character of Buonaparte. Extracted from Mr Pitts speech, delivered in the

House of Commons, Febry 3d 1801 1800, on the proposals of Buonaparte for entering

into a Negotiation with England.

. . . Let us determine what reliance we can place on his engagements

with other countries, when we see how he has observed his engagements

to his own

H xxxviii

Character of Buonaparte. Extracted from the Appendix to Mr Windham's

speech, delivered in the House of Commons, on the 4th of Novr 1801, on the

Report of an address to the Throne, approving of the Preliminaries of

Peace with the Republic of France _

. . . A detailed & most masterly exposition of these is to be found

in Mr Pitt's speech of the 3 Feby 1800, in which among other particulars,

an account is given of his proceedings toward the people and govern-

-ments of the several states of Milan, Modena, Genoa, Tuscany, the

Pope, Venice, & Egypt. Of all these things it may be said generally, & as

it should seem without exception, _ such was purposely the profusion of

engagements, & such the uniform and systematic breach of them, _ that

not a single act was done, which was not in violation of some engage-

-ment, & certainly not a single engagement contracted, or profession made,

that was not, in every part of it, grossly and in most cases instantly violated.

The french rulers, have, throughout, evidently acted upon the principle,

that he who could divest himself at once of all moral feeling, and

release himself from all moral controull controul, must for the time

have an immense advantage over those who should remain under the

old constraints, and who might not be sensible immediately of the change

which had taken place, or, when they were, might be long incapable either

of adopting it into their own conduct, or of so unseating their antient feelings

and habits (the habit for instance of relying in some degree on men's

apearances, yielding something to their professions, believing in part what they

should solemnly assert), as to make themselves proof against its effects.

Nobody has entered more fully into their views, or pursued them logically

<gap/>, than the person of whom we are here speaking.

H p. xliii

The detail of this would then, that mere change of time and place made no

change in the character of the person, or of the system pursued. It appears by all,

that good faith passed for small nothing: that deceptions the most gross,

artifices unheard of in diplomatic proceedings, even practiced without

shame or scruple. When a party was once engaged in a negotiation, &

placed in a said situation in which he could no longer help himself,

it was in vain to expect that any regard would be paid to the professions

in which the negotiation began, or to declarations which occurred in the course

of it. Any old engagement was set aside, or any new one foisted in, as suited

the wishes, original or incidental, which France happened to entertain.

Such is the deplorable laxness of mankind, such the abject hommage

H. p. xlvi

which men are willing to pay to crimes attended with success, to wickedness

united with power, that none of the acts committed at any time by the

agents of the French government, seem at all to have hurt their reception

in the world, either collectively or individually. Their oppressions & cruelties excite

no indignation; their low and scandalous frauds no contempt; their treacheries

no distrust. _

12 July 1803

Picture of the Treasury