The Statesman.
London, England, 1815-04-29 00:00:00

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lents as this man, who had ',reified us all out of our
senses, would, perhaps, be as obnoxious, and one of
these might, perhaps, be selected to succeed Bona-
parte. There was Marshal Ney, whom the Declara-
tion of Louis XVIII. very improvidently called the
second object of hate to Bonaparte. Supposing Bo-
naparte to fall, and his dynasty to become extinct,
did it follow that the French would choose the Bour-
bons? Of ill the houses in Europe they had the least
chance-Of again-succeeding to.the Throne of France ;
and if all the intelligent part of mankind were poll-
ed, there would he more votes against the policy of
their succeeding than in favour of it.—Utlo,sto! from
the illinisters).—Those who say no, would, perhips,
vote the other way ; and they were so used to majo-
rities, that they could not suppoie themselves in the
minority : but there were many who cheered Minis:
turs in the House, who maititained a very diffeteut
opinion out of its walls ; and there was nothing so'
ditlerent as the language of Members on the steps of
the lobbies, and their language when on the Ministe.
rial benches : but he would not be shaken in his as-
sertion. The restorati of the Bourbons would slot'
be the necessary consequence of eves, successful war :
we might fight France again into that bloody repub-
lic,
which we declared incapable of being treated
with then, and whom we proscribed, as we have done •
Bonaparte, as one with whom no negociation could
be entered into. That farce was acted formerly, till
at length we entered into two negociations wish the •
Republic, both of which failed of success. Ile en-
treated the House to pause before they plunged into
a war of mere'speculation, in order to afford time
to decide whether it was not better to wait for the
chance of peace. True, we had a right to consider
ourselves in a state of war by the Treaty of Paris,
.hut there was a difference between having and exer-
cising a right : and there was nobody mail enough to
say, that because we hat:a right we should exercise it
by way of establishing it. By the, preamble of the
Treaty of Paris we learnt that the restoration of the
Beu.bons enabled us to give better terms to France
than if she were still governed by Bonaparte : but I
we had never been told what terms would have been
imposed on Bonaparte which had not on Louis. Ile
had been told, indeed, that larger terms had been
before rejected by Bonaparte ; that he once proposed
to us pence with terms of larger territory, and cir-
cumstances of more glory to France than Louis re-
ceived
; and this proposal being accepted by Lord
Castlereagh on behalf of the British nation, Bona-
parte changed his mind, and would not abide by them.
There was still another material document signed at
Vienna, but which, not having been ratified, was not
yet laid before the House : he alluded to the Treaty 1
of Congress. lie maintained that the right of going
to war with France rested solely on the Declaration
contained in the Treaty of Paris, that better terms
were given heg when accepting of the Bourbon fa.
mily, than if she had continued under the dominion
of Bonaparte. The Allies had only to say, there-
fore, let France place herself in that state of restrict.
ed limits as to territory which we thought necessary
to our safety, while France was under her present
Chief, and we will stiffer the peace to continue. No'
such proposal was' made by them. On the contrary
it had been acknowledged, that Ministers had re.,,
eeisetl an overture from the French Government,
though no answer had been returned, and it was ;
merely communicated to our Allies. Whether the
Allies had taken it into consideration, or whether
they had thrown it aside into one of their waste-pa-
per trunks, he knew not ; but certain it was, the
overture had received no answer from Ministers. He
would ask whether, fifteen months ago, when this
man was in much greater power (for now he looked
upon him as inferior in power), there was any body
who would not have jumped at a Treaty which would
have given France her present limits? Would it not
hare been universally said, that any Minister was
insane who would not have advised the accept-
ance of such a peace? Since this mass was at the
head of the Government, had there been any act of
aggression by France ? Was she fitting out any ar-
mament that threatened the security of this country ?
Ilad she made any irruption into the territory of her
neighbours ? You would have made peace with Bona-
parte when his power was greater than now, when •
he was much more formidable; and would you stow
refuse to remain at pence with him, when his acts at
least had been better ? Of motives he would not
speak ; it would best become every man to look
into his own ; a good act might have a good motive,
or it might have a mixed motive; but when he j
sn w a bad act, he %eas sure it could have but one.;
The principle, then, on which the justice of going
to war rested being so extremely narrow, he would
beg leave to seggest the consideration, whether the '
blessings of peace were not deserving of being main-
tained, before thin fatal blow was struck, and it was
too late to recede. Ile believed that whatever might •
have been the fetilirtz when Bonaparte first landed at
Carnes, the fervour for war had very much abated.—
When Bonaparte first landed, he was talked of by
the courtiers about the Bourbon Family as a monster
and a villain, who would not fail to be hanged; but
in the whole of his march to Paris, and for the pur-
pose of his restoration, not one drop of blood had
been shed; and now, when he appeared firmly seated
were we to open the flood-gates of blood and slough-';
ter, and say that no peace was to be held with him ?
Where were the financial means, he would ask, for
carrying on this colossal warfare? Was Russia, or
Austria, or Prussia, in such a financial situation that
any one of them could rely on its own resources?—
The fact was, they were all of them in a state ap-
proeching to complete exhaustion, and must be retie-
rated by supplies from this country. What, then,
was the situation of our own finances? On this,
point it was sufficient to state, that no matt, however
sanguine his views, could say that the Contest could '
be a long one without their total ruin. Then it!
should be well considered what was the probability
of the Allies continuing united for any length of'
time. In the new Treaty of Vienna, there was a refer-
ence to the Treaty of Chaumont, in which he under-
stood it was stipulated, that the Allies should main-
tain a defensive league for 20 years. This might
be'very twbper ; but let the House look back to the
last 20 years, and see the political changes which
has, taken place; that those Powers we now acted
with had not long since been partners to the hostile
eicrusion Of our commerce from the Continent; and
that all the Powers in the progress of the contest
would each bare his own particular interest to serve.