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

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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 ieiporteet 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 regard to the
3rd posrertttl nati
privileged spies or commercial :teems, he was pre-
pared to assent that they had grossly neglected their
dut.; for though they were prevented repairing to
the places of their destination, no measures were
immediately tD.kcn for sending them away, and