The Sun.
London, England, 1803-05-25 00:00:00

w••••••••milat, 1.11/C:4,
Mail WC COMO. claw 4wlllC fly
wen a disastrous War.. Of all things, now that
the Contest had commenced,. he should deprecates
speedrand insecure compromise with France ;, he
hoped that the contest would he continued until
real peace,anri.tranqUillity could be restored.
Mr. Serjeant BEST said, thatin hivopinion.too
mach tune had been occupied in discussing the: Pa_
pets before the ',House ; for it was admitted on all •
hands, that they contained abundant and' legitimate;
mks of War, andyef the House were .still.discuss4
ing whether they should agree with the .Ad,
&es- to His Majesty upon the Justice of the War.--
If he were' asked, would he go to War for Malta,
he would answer, 44 No ;11- he. would . not go
to War for Malta; or a much more extensive
poseestioni in the. abstraa : but: it was,the man...
per. in which .France demanded, Malta, it .was
the disposjtion, she, had .shewn, it, was the designs.
which she had openly avowed, that in his' opinion
• Stultified .this Country in. going u War; If .the
alltallest apot-,..0f earth was demanded of...tisi in the
manner and under the,circumstances that France had,
dgManded. Malta,_ 1w would refuse It, because lie
would eimaitier it as essentially connefted' With the
safety and the interest "Qf the He
Was ready'. to a;imi r,.,lhat. between the Preliminary
dDefinitive Treaires, Frante 'had repeatedly
us cause for `'Vat ; but ii"` did 'net therefore
folloiii-fhar Ministers were to lame for'not gning•
total., fur it'tYliin means follnWedthat'a•Country.
was 'always to gtito War, whenever it had'a just
cause of so The FrCneh GovernMent pro.:
fessed a desire te 'have the "Treaty of Atni'ens
strictly carried' into "execution, . and they had
contended; that by that Treaty we we're, precluded
front interferrog in any 'manner in- the affairs of the
continent. It :was' impossible to coneeive a' more
absurder ill grounded assertion than that by that'
'Treaty we had shut.ourselites nut from any -right of.
interposing'in-the affairs of the Continent r..beeause
it- so happened'that• ill- that very Treaty.tve did
stipulate TO -the' integrity of different:States upon
the Continent---What right could the French- Go-
vernmenthave..tocall upon us fur a literal execution
of that Treaty, when F.:ranee
_was at that very time,
nut silently, laer, openly and. avossedly.planning
K'qss intigtl,on both of the letter.
.and the .spititot
the Treaty •
. . .-•-
he was,an!dous to state.his
.S!..it.otts xoting for the Address, and againoc the
.Amcnknent which had beep proposed.. If no Amend..
silent kid been proposed, he should- have contented
hinsielf with giving, a silent vote upon the i)Ccasion
in favour of these propositions, Which' were so
Clear in 'themselves, and had been soabry illmtrated,
that a man'Must be hard to be convinced indeed,
*ho wanted iitcther ilhastratinn; and lie Must be a
Vain man who could exoeet to put 'the question in a
clearer point of view than it oow was. 13nt the
amendment which had been proposed,' had rendered
necessary for him to say a few words in answer,
to • the lion. Gentleman who 'had 'proposed the
amendment, and these who had supported•it. Gen.
tlemen had contended that it Was impuisible to vote
• for the'original address, without precluding them:-
selves from entering into any examination of
the conduit of'Ministers. 'l
f 'Ministers. This was a propo.
siti" to which he could by .ho means as-
sent. IF it 'was :only for the purpose of -guard.
jog his OWff 'vote against such a • construction
lie should-have, thought it necessary to have Iron.
bled the: Houser.uron that point ; ,but he was .also
anxioue:totontrovert another proposition which had
beert.ed isnced viz. that those:-who disapproved.of
the conduft of Ministers, were. bound to withhold.
-41seirassent from the, Address. ~He could not cons.
prebend upon. what 'grotoul the_distioatoll which
had been taken on these puinti, was 1144.0.414A1 as
.ect. absurd, .for. it ;ironed to, him that, thele. two
POilltS, viz* tlltjustiGei of War, arld the, can.
duet of.Ministets,. might very fairly and properly
be.aeparated.on.. the,prvent occasion. When they
are engaged inn War.'esvith ,a great and p,,werfel,
.4netuyi.their.4first .was,,t_o,as.sure the 'EXe.
kiv g p+9;ll ,disc t
should receive
-the, support of Alig,railiarnetit and lift ..the
•"gbe pp.
'Betty but at
.tbe,,Aagw. rinse warobig-
if:4,44ge heedlieenitny ~tlilnij!'npr(4Tr in their con_
duki, that this geoeral-,suppOrt protect
44114 at a protr-er time, from exaMitiation ;hid
censurcstkoOld neY:ekatz. :Ile did not:
Mean to thrb w out a'rli'y irisintiations'agaitist the con..
duct of Minis ter;,, and if ;my, observation orhis had-
tli.tt tendency, lie begged before hand, to
avow it. I-le woultlleserve what bebaa to say' Upon
that paint to a future occasion. But- no considera:
tionceuld :iffed.-the substantial-justice of the War
,on ',the, part of. this- Country. In describing his
opinion of the cause of the War, he could not do
better than adopt the langtiage' of an Hon. Member
(Mr.'DALLA.S) upon the acquisition of whose ta-
lents he Congratulated. the House. .It was a War
for thc dearest interests of the British. Empire,
into which we were Compelled •to enter by. the
deep-rooted, avowed, and incurable hostility of
France, , Whether Gentlemen might think that
the stand of Ministers was not made at the
proper point, still. there was net, there could not
be any dikerenee of,opinien upon the justice' of
the cause in which we were engaged. Whatever
imputations might be thrown out against Ministers
upon other points, no man could say 'that'.svitli re.
gardto Malta, they had shewn any unwillingness
to comply with that part of the Treaty nn - the
contrary, they had shewn the greitest intinstry in
negotiating and endeavouring 'ter'Carry theatiptsla.
lions relative to that Wand into deft. If, there.
fore, under-all the circumstances of the case,.-they
kept Malta; the fault was' not to he 'attributed to
them, but to France: The question now under
consideration was, whether, Malta being in .our 'pos.
session, Ministers were blameable in making their
stand there. Upon this point his c‘pinion was cam.
Pletely made up, and he entirely agreed with the
Right Hon., Gentleman (Mr. OR,ENVILLE) that if
Malta had been previously-given up, Great Bricain
Would have been jUstifi:.d, after the designs so
openly avowed by Fianc.e, in
.endeaveruting again
to obtain possession of it. This' being :the case
With regard to Malin, the House was told, by those.
Who supported the Amendment, that they had no right
to anode to former grieVinces,.and that tiewever bad
the conduet of Fiance might have been upon former
.14Ccasions,. 'we had no fight to refer to it now; be-