The Sun.
London, England, 1807-01-03 00:00:00

Britain .was at war. with France, she preserved her
equality.. Her naval .superiority would be as great
as the French military superiority ;' but Peace, under
the present circumstances, would not diminish the
military strength of: France,. white it would enable
her to increase{ her naval strength.
.The Country Was
g,:ticrally impressed with the opinion, that if a
Peace could be made with. Franee,it. would have
no duration.., - This was of great- weight. Ano-
titer inducement to -us to' carry on the contest,
was the flourishing state of the Finances. The pre-
sent system. of Finances if justice 2wewe done to ,it,
was suer asno Country had ever before arrived at,
and if any one had some yearS ago predieted thew:-
istence of that system;
.it would-have been thought
an impossibility. •This was to be; ascribed to two
causes. The first, for WhiCh the Country was indebted
tci hiS. late illustrious Friend, was the. Sinking 'Fund,.
the greatest financial, meagure ever proposed, acted
upon, or persevered in.: The next, founded on this,
was the praaiee of raisin the SupplieS within the.
year, a prailice restored and improved by a -Noble
Vis Count opposite to him '(Lord Sidmouth)., He here
entered into -a Variety of calculations and compara-
tive numerical statements, to • prove the rapid, in-
crease.ot the Sinking Fund, and the produce of the
War Taxes, the former of which bow amounted to
eight millions'. and an half Ein ually; the, latter to
eighteen millions, and contended that if the systein
was steadily persevered in; and attended With dtie
etAionly, 'the COuntry in •a: few years would find:
that the Sinking Fund weilld2 be equal to the loan
required, and this during, War time ;' so that in War.
the National Debt would be stationary, in Peace it
would be rapidly liqUidating:, 'This. was far from 6e-
ing an 'argument to continue War for: a :month,
a week, a day; nay, an hour longer than*, What- was
indispensably necessary; but when we were forced:
to remain at war, the flourishing state' of ova' re-
' sources afforded a pleasing stibjea of. cOntern--
. platiori. In the sano2 ,point of view, our oorn-,
coerce, the •foundation of our revenue, was not less
prosperous, nor insPired -less confidence. In I 7§,-
which Was:: then cohsicte'red as a most flourish-
ing year, the excess of our exports over the average:
of font preceding years; was six millions and a half;'
in 1805, ti ef.cess.of our exports over the exports
of 1798, was fifty-three millions 1: These v.'ere real
groUndS of confidence and hope. Reverting- to the.
Negotiation,' he observed, 'that the Noble Lord had
not slated theterMS on which the 'British' Govern-

meta wvtzld have consented to make Peace With
France. Of this; he did not:complain; as he was
well aware .of the inconvenieneeS attendant upon a'
disclosure of such. a nature; which -woUld teach the
.enemy what were the objects desired by. us,' and
which- would enable them at- the commencement
of a new Negotiation,' althoUgh.- circumstances
might have completelY chang,ed, to state our Ida.:
maium as the ground=work Of such a Negotiation. •
The Case of the country had, 'he thought, been com-
pletely proeci. It -had been completely prOVed, that
the enemy attenlpted to detach ts from our Allies,:
but that We had resisted the attempt, It had been
completely proved that the enemy -had not futtilled
that which they had staled their readiness to
country was'in the right. 'We had Made very
treat efforts to prOcutv -Peacc.:—more," perhaps, than
we ought. Peae-was not to be obtained ; and it
was thet.:_fijre incUrnbent onus to give His Majesty'
the most Unequiroc•ral assurances of suppo:-t. A! he
lamented was, that the case stated in His 111:-..j,?.,1:::t
DeciarAtion ?was .not.rnade out. It was-not necessary.
lo‘nitike it olit tint why state it_? It was an injury
to our ott,ll',cause; hilt' this Was 'a -minor. considera-

Con ;• in all the 'stibstantial- points we were jn4frded.
After what -.had-passed we had no option but to go
On- with vigbur vi'd energy; mid he was convinced
that this was the generalleeling from one cc of the
island tOthe other._
• Lord SIDMOUTH declared, that it was with
great pain he found his Noble 'Friend wonldinot
Jaw the MotiOn to pass' without expressing a degree
of dissent,. which, hoWever it might :be qualitied,
was eerrainlY considerable. His Noble Friend as-
serted, thatan attempt had beem made by his IVlttjes-
ty,'s Ministers to maketheir cause better than it was;
that his Majesty's-DeclaratiOn contained an affirtria-
tion-that- was not borne out, for that itif.-document
on the table did not establish the fay that the
gotiation commended in .consequence of au Offer
from France to treat on the basis of the
He readily allowed, that in'the doctiments
specific statement to this eifea: existed; Mitt it
was. ,amply established by a consideration of the
whole of them. In the letter of the Ist of April,
from_ -Tallerand, to Mr. ~1
distin6ilystated, that France desired nothing of the
'possessions of England. It was impossible that
-be, could mean the autient possessions of the Bri7
• tish CroWn ; he must, therefore,. have meant the.
recent :acquisitions. Within 'five- or six, weeks
afterwards, Lord Yarmouth returned from France
with a coMmunication 'from' M. Talleyrand. This
coinamniCation had since been written down, The
French Minister expressed a ,sincere desirefor• the
restoration of Peace. . ":We demand," said he,', not
this subjeCt, or that subjeel, but " we demand no-.
_thing.," Previously to the 20th July, the, day on
which M.D'Oubril signed the Treaty between Rua-.
.sit - and France, there did not 'exist the, slightest con-.
tradietion of the, assertion nide by Lord Yarmouth,'
that he had
.been. authorised 'by the French GOvern-
ment to propose a; N-cgotiation on_ the basis of ('he
uti po.4ldetis. The only attempt at a qualifica-
tion of this basis was, in consequence of an al-
teration Of 'circumstances: M. Talleyrand assert-
.ed, that in, consequence of the alteration of cir-
cumstances; as France could not keep Naples with-
out -repining Sicily, she wolild retain Sicily; but
this was stated in a way that. sheaved it was
deemed a -deviatibn
.from the original basis. This
was all before the 20th 'of July. After the 20th of
,July the language of the French Governinent imme-
diately elianged. , On the July, Gen. Clarke,
in a conference. with Lord :Yarmouth, made claims
which were utterly inconsistent with the uti posside-
tis and in the answer of the. French Government on
the alb -of August,•to Len' Lauderdale's. Note of
the Ttb," general Clarke distin[tly stated that the
litsis of the uti prissidetis never entered into their-
.minds. They would not even give up Tobago. On
the 2.9 th, General Clarke declared, in conversation-
with Lord Lauderdale, ,that the Emperor would.ne-
ver abandon territories, the integrity of which he had
s.vorw to maintain; but even then, when, pressed
face to face.by Lord Yarmouth, 311th:reminded:by'
him of.the former basis of the uti possicletis., General