Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

BRITISH AND FOREIGN

HISTORY

For the Year 1796.

1796.

A

[ocr errors]

BRITISH AND FOREIGN

HISTORY

For the Year 1796.

CHAPTER I.

Great Britain. Short Retrofpect of political Tranfactions from the Commencement of the War. Humiliating Propofals of the French Republic to appeafe the Refentment of the British Cabinet. Offer on the Part of the Republic to relinquish her Colonies to Great Britain, as the Price of Neutrality. State of Affairs at the Conclufion of 1795. Meetings of the Correfponding Society. Outrages offered to the King in his Way to and from the Houfe of Lords. Examination of Witnees at the Bar of the Houfe. Proclamation for apprehending the Offenders. Proclamation against Seditious Meetings. Lord Grenville's Motion in the Lords for a Bill for the Prefervation of his Majefty's Perfon and Government. Debate on that Motion. Bill read a fecond Time. Mr. Pitt's Motion in the House of Commons for a Bill to prevent Seditious Meetings and Affemblies. Warm Debate on that Bill. Mr. Fox's Motion for a Call of the Houfe. Mr. Dundas's Declaration that the two Bills had been in Contemplation before the Outrage against the King. Debates in the Lords on the Commitment of Lord Grenville's Bill. Amendments propofed by the Duke of Leeds and Earl of Lauderdale. Lord Grenville's Bill paffed in the House of Lords, Public Meetings in Oppofition to the two Bills. Lord Grenville's Bill read a first Time in the Houfe of Commons. Mr. Sheridan's Motion for an Inquiry concerning Seditious Meetings. Further Debates in the Commons on Lord Grenville's Bill Debates on Mr. Pitt's Bill-in the Houfe of Commons-in the Houfe of Lords. Reflections on thefe Bills. Never yet acted upon by Miniftry.

To maintain an even temper

and an unperverted mind a midft the agitations of faction; to mark with keennefs, and record with precision, the errors of all parties, without imbibing the fpirit or violence of any; fuch is the duty, and ought to be the character, of thofe who undertake to digeft a narrative of recent events. But it is

a

duty which the paffions and infirmities of our nature render difficult of accomplishment; a duty against which prejudice too commonly revolts, and which interest sometimes will even prompt men to betray. The difficulties which the annalift of his own times has to encounter, do not all, however, originate with himself, nor are they

A 2

always

always within the limits of his controul. If he writes as a man, it must not be forgotten that he also writes to men. If he has paf. fions and failings, it must not be fuppofed that his readers are exempt from their fhare. That candour which they expect from him, they are not always prepared to concede in their turn; nor, while they are ready to detect his errors, are they always confcious of the prejudices which exift within their own bofoms. With thefe difadvantages, while it is the indifpenfable duty of the writer to adhere inflexibly to fact, by that criterion let him alfo be judged. Facts, if mifreprefented, will not efcape detection; and reflections or obfervations which do not flow naturally from the events as they are recorded, and which are not fupported by their evidence, can never make a permanent impreffion.

We have ever protested against the pernicious doctrine, that the faithful hiftorian is bound in duty to fpeak in terms of lenity of political vices, or of flagrant mifconduct. General panegyric is not impartiality; and the writer who adopts the maxim that where blame is incurred it is not to be noticed, is not merely ufelefs-he is vicious. If he wrongfully accufes, he is then deferving of cenfure. If his inferences are unfupported by his documents, if his allegations fhould prove to be founded only on the uncertain bafis of conjecture, he is worthy of contempt. But if his information is corroborated by authentic teftimony, if his predictions are confirmed by fubfequent experience, he evinces then that he has not been inattentive to his duty; and however his remarks may outrage our prejudices, he is ftill deferving of fome credit and the

leaft that can be accorded is a patient hearing.

It is now nearly eighteen years fince we first engaged in the fervice of the public. When we look back upon our paft labours, we find them to comprise fame of the most eventful periods of modern hiftory; and with pride we can reflect, that we have never fanctioned with our approbation any meafure that proved afterwards injurious to our country. We have feen the British nation and the British power depreffed and enfeebled by the calamitous American war; we have feen the energies and industry of the people rife fuperior to this temporary embarraffment. We have feen them again plunged into a conteft more fruitlefs, more inexcufable, more hopeless than the former. We have feen the expences of the ruinous American conteft diminish almoft to a cypher in comparifon with the prodigality of modern times. We have feen new taxes levied in the course of one year, greatly exceeding the whole charge created by the first fix years of the American war; we have feen impofitions laid upon the people of this country, in a fingle day, nearly equal to the whole charge of lord Chatham's glorious war, which endured for seven years, and in which the British arms were triumphant in every quarter of the globe; nay, we have feen the charges incurred by an expenditure of only four years exceed the total charge of the whole national debt antecedent to 1782.

We call our countrymen and our readers to witnefs, that, at the risk of fome unpopularity, we were the firft to raise our voices against the prefent war. We proved, from unquestionable documents, that it might have been avoided with honour and with fafety by the British

miniftry.

miniftry. We deprecated its calamities, and we predicted them with an accuracy, which, had our fentiments not been before the public long antecedent to the events, might have drawn upon them the fufpicion of forgery or delufion. We are now beyond the period of prophecy we fhall cease to waru, and only continue to record.

Yet to that crifis, which was the fatal origin of all our prefent calamities, it is neceffary once more to recur, fince by that it is that pofterity muft form their verdict on the conduct of the prefent rulers of this country. At that crifis the profperity of Britain was unexampled; her commerce was extended over the whole face of the ocean; the trade of the univerfe was in her grafp. Her manufactures pervaded every country; and if there was a complaint, it was for a lack of hands to conduct them with suffcient difpatch. By following the fuggeftions of that excellent patriot, and incomparable financier, the late Dr. Price, the minifter (though, of three plans prefented, he adopted the worst) had, according to his own calculations, liquidated nearly twenty millions of the national debt. In this ftate of things, what fatal infanity, what inexplicable infatuation could engage a miniftry to involve the nation again in the ruinous vortex of continental warfare? The motives are yet unexplained; and perhaps it is not for the credit of the authors of the measure, that they should be laid before the public.

Was it, as fome with equal igno

rance and effrontery pretended, to preferve us from domeftic contests? It is the first time, we believe, that peace and profperity were ever confidered as favourable to rebellion, and war, taxes, and mifery, as the fovereign antidotes for faction. The whole nation had rifen as one man on the alarm of innovation, and had folemnly affociated to protect the conftitution, even with its abufes, rather than fubject a particle of it to experiment or change. Was it to anticipate the hoftile defigns of the enemy? Even prejudice muft confefs that it was the intereft of France, and particularly of the Girondifts, who were then predominant, to preferve the friendfhip of Great Britain; and whoever perufes with attention the correfpondence of M. Chauvelin with the British fecretary of ftate, must perceive that the French republic threw itself at the feet and at the mercy of the British cabinet, but that the fupplicating envoy was fpurned away, with a degree of infolence and rafinefs which involuntarily reminds us of the fantaftical glaffan in the oriental able. Was it to obtain an accellion of colonial poffeffions? We have hinted it before, and we now affert it for a fact, that M. Chauvelin was authorifed, and M. Maret exprefsly difpatched, to offer to the British cabinet their choice of the French poffeffions in the Eaft or Weft Indies, as the price of neutrality; and a certain fecretary of fate replied, "That we had already colories enough, and that we did not want to be burthened with any more."

What

* The propofition was firft made when MM. Talleyrand and Chauvelin were difpatched by the unfortunate Louis, with a letter in his own hand-writing, to entreat that the king of England would act the part of an umpire and mediator, and compofe the differences which then fubflated between the French nation and the heads of the Germanic empire. Had this propofal been acceded to, monarchy would yet have, in all probability,

AS

« AnteriorContinuar »