The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-05-25 00:00:00


I

w _

• •
as a kind of ;fieence let for abese and invedier of snaking arlr impressions injurious to him. 11 the
every. kind, but it is not the less true, that every French had seized any ships, as stated, merely be-
aggrandisement eta rivni- or a neighbour, is not an cause they had English merchandire on board, the
at of aggtessioa, whoa it is not'a violation of any great injury was to their own commerce, by affixing
treaty we shave entered into. It might with equal upon them an inhospitable character. This coun-
propriety be alledged, that every thing done by the, try itself had' furnished similar grounds of complaint
French Govenutient, for the greater strength, and in the Negotiation Act, drawn up by Cromwell, and
internal or external improvement of that country, continued after the restoration of the Regal Family,
ought to be regarded as an ad of hostility towards which excluded foreign vessels froM any share in
us. It may, perhaps, be asked, why persons, who the trade of England. If the perions sent over as
in general are supposed to incline to the dernocrati- commercial agents were in fact not military offi-
cal Side ofeveryquestion, shoplel.be favorable to the cers, it was the duty of Ministers to se.e! them
ancieut aristocracy of Switzerlund, and yet should away immediately, and then demand an expla-
advise this country not 'to 'go to 'war for that nation. If they have not done so, it is to be
object i My answer would be sufficient were I only attributed to their own neglect. Ac to the pub-
to say, that by such a war this country of itself lication in a Hamburgh paper, if the French
would effectnothing, and were Austria' even to join 'Minister Reinard availed himself of his political si-
it, the independence of Switzerland Would be no tuition to compel the insertion of it, that was an aa
more than a hypocritical pretence; while the war of. aggression against that Republic, not us. Tal.
would be in truth carried on only for Austrian and leyrandexpressed hie astonishment at it, and would
British purposes. And however chelUerical it may no doubt have dis Claimed it, if our Ambassador had
be conceived to introduce this subjed now that we not been ordered so hastily away.". He then pro-
'endeavour to justify our quarrel, it does not appear ceedeci to argue:that the neetrii conversation at Court
that it was either mentioned or even alluded to by hetn-eenßenaparteand LordWhitworth, onlishewed
the British Cabinet. The next subject of observa- lwwliulestress should he laid on such representat ions.
tion arises from the intolerable and cruel injustice • It passed certainly in the presence,of a greatnumber
of !french Government towards llollancl;- though of witnesses, but it was equally certain that several
Holland may be considered as in a great measure a of these persons related it very differently. AU
conquered country over-run by the French arms ; rliE, however, pa”ed before. the recess topic pl:ees
but nothing could be more unjustifiable than to and the Minister never thought it worthinentioning
make it a depot of troopoin time of peace,, and this till he had first opened the budget, .atacl.spoke nn
the more scandalous,. as the objed seemed to be that such a manner of the priaspect of.a.permanent peace
they should be paid by .14(111,ind. I shall'not argue as was eakUlated to delude the nation into an errq-
the question whether Holland is, as has been repre- neous opinionof the state of public credit. Thisbe
sentvd, an outpost of England, but cannot be per- considered ai a proof that the conversation was not
suaded that the objed of these armaments was a me- at that time.cpnsifierOd, by ginisters'w be a cause
ditated attack. This country would indisputably,( of war. It had been argued;that though one oit-
have stood upon a better ground if that circumstance curnstauce, may not furnis suiCient.Canse of war,
had been made a subje.t of .remonstrance; and I the accumulation of many rirtY, as it was said to be
have reason to think, that had we made a temperate ih'ela'sitidautd weight that broke the horsesback; but,
representation without any menace of war, it would*if the.stilniiier foresaw ;bat his back was. :9 soon to
have beerr attended with 'a favourahle effect, and aft . 'be krakeb,, he should not Jiave made a finaiiCial
•
offer to evacuate the country. As *to the rash .1 4presentaiii* so flatteringas tp pro 341,-a.deAwsive
of - • the French Government Si. 1 "acct. He next - ttended, - -

tempt restoring . in .
Domingo, that is a subjed most interesting to
France, but I cannot consider it as 'any affair
of ours, unless we were touched with cinir-
passion for the uofnrtunate inkibitants.—The
conduit of the person who had the chief corn.-
niand of that expedition towards a man (Touissaint)
with whom he had made terms, whatever might
have been his colour, in afterwards treacherously
arresting him, must ever be a blot upon the fame of
the individual and the French character in general.
But the whole of the transactions in that island are
only a consequence of that system of perpetual
wickedness put sued by all European nations against
the wretched Africans, by the continuance of the
abominable slave trade ; and had we called upon
France to assist us in the extirpation of that vile and •
detestable traffic,- we should have put an end to it
long since. The .occupation of Parma and Placentia
could be now no ground of war for us, as it was
secured to France bl a treats' which existed long be-
fore the TrearYaf.iniens. the.iieit topic relates-to
the general hiriguig. held in the respedive publica-
tions of one of the countries towards the other. I am
nisquestionably one of those who Would not disturb
the freedom of the press in lingland to please any
foreign country, and should, to the utmost of my
power, equally resist well an attempt on the part of
the. Government of England. But any proposals to
that effed made by the Government of Fiance Could
only proceed from the grossest ignorance 0f..0ur.l ew
and constitution ; but being capable of expLurat4o4
could afford no proper. ground of quarrel. TIA
press, ai times, has no doubt deviated into heel*
ousness, Imp is no more than a partial evil sprinting
'from an universal good. In the system of recipro•T
cal abuse, which seems to have been adopted, and
:which' has the appearance of having been mun-
ition:owed by the Republic Governments, there must
necessarily be some subjed of emulation but I
:should recommend to both parties to attend to a
passage in the very best of poems, and put by Homer
nt the mouth of the Goddess of Wisdom. When
two heroes were quarrelling, and prepared for
!bittie, this Goddess told them what may be thus
translated into English—" Gentlemen, put up your
swords, and then abuse each other aslnuch as you
please." This, in my opinion, was a very sage ad-
monition, whether from the lips of the Goddess of
Wisdom or the Goddess of Reason, whom we have
heard such frequent mention of. This reciprocal
abuse is certainly extremely scandalous ; and while
we say to the French you can contra& your press,
though we cannot restrain ours,' we cannot expe&
from them the simplicity to believe that our Mini-
sters have not influence enough to restrain this
abuse, at least in some of the papers: Our Mini-
sters tell us that all the influence they possess over
the newspapers is confined to the preference they
may give some of them in furnishing them with ar-
ticles of intelligence. For the truth or falsehood of
this I cannot answer ; but surely Bonaparte might,
if he pleased, alledge the same excuse. With. re-
sped to the requisition made of sending off the ex-
iled Princes, 1 readily admit that a great country
should not refuse to such persons the rights of hos-
pitality ; and if France was to expel all the Irish
who might in moments of carelessness have been
betrayed into seditious proceedings, and we send
off all the French in the same situation, it might so
happen that some of the most virtuous men in the,
world wouldbe hunted from the face of the earth. I do
not pretend to entertain any great degree of rasped
for the Princes of the House of Bourbon; but.i con-
fess, that there is not oi.e of them for whom I would
draw the sword and involve two nations, on whom
so much depends the repose of the world, in alt the
calamities of war. I know very well, there . are
strong suspicions entertained in Paris, that three
persons now in this country, have been concerned in
plots for assassinating the First Consul, and think
'this would be some fair ground of calling on them
for explanation, not to foreigners, but ourselves.
Other articles of complaint refer principally to par-
ticular expressions. One was in the expose of the
First Consul, in which he said, that Eugland' was
tot able to struggle singly against France. This
rwas, indeed, impertinent, but no very serious
*ult. Nations, on such provocations, should, like
hiclividuals, either magnanimously despise them
altogether, or demand satisfaction, but it is nei-
ther manly nor rational . to. hoard them up in the
memory, and then make them. the fonndation of •
some future quarrel. The •• report of Sebaitiarii in
the aspersion thrown upon General Stuart was
Akghly todeerot,. but rriayjv. the snore easily: over-
looked, as I understand the charatler and talents of
that brave officer must prevent these charges from

.4'.

I

that, la thejudginent
the'persohs best quilified to lam. an opmiett. Malta
was not the key of Egypt, nsr.Egypt the key of the
East Indies, nor*theEist Indies a
.vital literest of
thi4 country, though it paust be acknowledged to. be
'a very int:poi-taut_ one. He. understood k to. be
the opinion of Fail St. Vincent.and Lord Nelson,
that Malta was hot the key of EgYpt, nor the best
position for forwarding Egyptian operations The
French expedition to Egypt Was a-wild and extrava-
gant scheme, which he believed: would .not ulti-
mately, even had they obtained it, have been of ser-
vice to them in an attack on the East In-
dies. We had expelled the French from Egypt
before we were in possession of Malta, and he could
no more value ,the former country for being the
scene of our exploits, than be would the field of
Blenheim in any continental arrangements. If France
aggrandized itself in .Europe, we did the same in the
East Indies and, representing them as different,
would be the same as the excuse of a lady suspe&d
Of:gallantry in the... East Indies, , and, on being
taxedwith it replied, "Never guilty,upoti my honour,
on this side the Cape of Good Hope.' The desire
•ef France to posses Egypt, was no proof of its pre.
"Sent design to do so; and the English. Minister of
the day did not think it necessary to go to war m
I7Bb, when the hwasion of that country was ItpOwe
to have been a very favourite project of M, de. Ver•
Rennes, the Minister of Louis XVI. As to Make,
contendeAthat it was ridiculous to Suppose.that
when France insisted on our evacuation of the island,
is;) deSigned to throw. obstacles in the way which
now tend to prevent it. The article for its
restoration id) the treaty was- or our owe formation,
1.4 d RtisSia had lately agreed to accept the guaran-
tee ppon certain condition, which we did not seem
&posed to admit. It was not faith to the Knights
of the Order, that constituted any part of ohr ob-
jetlions, as if France agreed to let us have it far ten
years, the interest of the rights were to have been dis-
regarded, and whatever importance Ministers might
attach to the possession, it must certainly be very in-
ferior to that of preserving the British faith untainted
in the observance of treaties. Were we to go to war
for every desire the French might manifeit in re-
sped to'Egypt and other countries, we shoo -not
have had a moment of breathing time ever _since .the
peace of Utrecht, nor perhaps at anykimeliefore it.
The conversation of Bonaparte with Lord Whit•
worth seemed to him to have the air of frankness,
for if he said he would not go to war because it was
not his interest to do so, and that he had much to
lose and nothing to gain by it, was the same sort of
declaration which was known to pass daily be-
tween man and man. He also said, that if he
had any design upon Egypt he might have
taken it, but feared in that case to be con-
sidered the aggressor, and that France must finally
have it either by the dissolution of the Turkish em-
pire, or some arrangement' with the Porte. It cer-
tainly was no horrible thing to contemplate the
dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, as there
was scarcely a political conversation which it
was not mentioned for the last 10 years. That
event was !long. known to have been a favorite
projea of late Empress of Russia, and
with a view to which she gave to one of the
teitulson :ihe name of Constantine. If Bona-
parte's wishes were a ground for syar, he might with
~easeerect toofrtztr: 5,0 and sra
part
rtthatot what; had
re-occupybteheen
Cape
°Wood Ifs:Pe, was prOof of a .disposition to violate
the terms
.nf. the Treaty of tkiniens, supposing Bo-
naparte Aq.r 4ain his designs on Egypt, and though
the passion of Malta requisite for the furtherance 'O.-
of the it would be idle to suppose, that, bx. Pub-
s lAL; s Report, he would hare ayaw,::.d.
that intention, ittthe moment he supposed us to be on
the' point of surrendering the island. .fie pitied
Lord Whitworth, for whom he had so great a regard,
for,beingplaced iu so aukward satiation astorequire
an:etplanation, and when asked about it had only to
answer that he did net knew. As to the King of
Sardinia; it was in4onceivable *by' he .y 44? bad not
been even mentioned before,:shoiglie-Itigged into
our Ultimatums in the last act •ot the tragedy, like
the ghost of a deceased.person knocking thelloor
• some time after his death. In respect to our of
to acknowledge, the King of Etruria, and the
Italian Republic, .Bonaparte would Probably -
ui, a Gentlemen, iii that rt4ipect you ~Hy
as yott,iplease. . America 'was .not
by the late Empress of Russia,
not.latow that 'the Americans •
selves a particle the -worse for .
boon for us to acknowledge countries
we had no claims. The faa was, t:

: 1
, i

$1

t •.

•
•
; 1
I
•. •
- •
I (
I
i
) •
I

abollt II had only to
As to the King of •
/The .svist, bad not
441;ged into
`
of trardi, like i‘
4°Cking tbkello9r
r respect to our of--
4. Etruria, and the
ji.robably say to
t you may do just
.not acknowledged
a, and yet he did
ever found them-
n. it. It was no
ountr:es on which
.
was, that the Cpn•
. ,
•
,
•