to acquiefce in the motion; and though he had, in the conclufion of his fpeech, repeated his intention, yet the whole of the intermediate part of what he had faid, went to combat and oppofe the principles of the very measure which he declared himself ready to fupport. The right honourable gentleman had begun with acknowledging what no man but himfelf could well think of denying, "That the position of "his honourable friend who feconded the motion, that peace was preferable to war, and commerce more defirable than "conqueft, was fubftantially reasonable and true;" and yet he had, with the most elaborate eloquence, endeavoured to prove the direct reverfe of each of thofe propofitions. He had laboured alfo with great and unneceffary pains to vindicate this country from the imputation of a too great readinefs to engage in fchemes of ambition and conqueft, and to neglect her commercial concerns, and thofe benefits that might be derived from peace; but there was no occafion for any fuch vindication, becaufe the treaty went only to carry into effect the principles of that pacific difpofition which the right honourable gentleman had attributed to the general politics of this country, and not to impede and difturb them. The right honourable gentleman had, in the opening of another part of his argument, taken great pains to clear himfelf of the imputation of being governed by vulgar and illiberal prejudices. Such a vindication of himfelf was, furely unneceffary; for, as to illiberal prejudices, no perfon could charge them on a man of his experience and understanding, and there was no ground whatsoever for acculing him of vulgar prejudices, as his opinions were fo far from being vulgar, that he believed he was the only perfon in the whole kingdom who entertained them. Migh the take the liberty to afk the right honourable gentleman, whether, when ufing the word jealoufy, he was defirous of recommending to this country fuch a fpecies of political jealoufy as fhould be either mad or blind, such a species as fhould induce her either madly to throw away that which was to make her happy, or blindly to grafp at that which must end in her ruin? Was the neceffity of a perpetual animofity with France fo evident and fo preffing, that for it we were to facrifice every commercial advantage we might expect from a friendly intercourfe with that country, or was a pacific connection between the two kingdoms fo highly offenfive, that even an extension of commerce could not counterpoife it? For his part, he could by no means join in opinion with the right honourable gentleman, that the fituation of Great Britain and France was fuch as precluded the poffibility of an intercourfe; but he was fure if fuch intercourfe was not abfolutely impracticable, the treaty now depending was the most likely of any measure to to effect it, as it was fuch a one as would make it the interest of each nation to cherish and preferve the connection, and would fo effentially implicate and unite the views of convenience of a large part of each kingdom, as would enfure as much as poffible the permanence of the fyftem about to be eftablished. The right honourable gentleman had triumphantly foretold the overthrow and interruption of this project, fhould it ever be brought into execution, and had attributed such an event to the overweening ambition of France. He would not take upon himself to answer for the duration of any arrangement whatfoever that could be overturned by the caprices, the errors, or the paffions of mankind. He would not fay that nations, as well as individuals, might not, as they frequently had done, become fubject to the weakneffes inherent in human nature: thofe imperfections might probably, at one time or other, mingle in the refolutions and difcuffions of the Legi@ature or Councils of either kingdom, and undo what, he flattered himself, was now nearly perfected by the good fenfe and wildom of both. How foon fuch an event might take place he could not poffibly foresee; but if war was the greateft of evils, and commerce the greatest felicity which it was poffible for a country to enjoy, all which, though contrary to the right honourable gentleman's opinion, he believed, was the general fenfe of the nation, then it became the duty of thofe to whom public management were entrusted, to endeavour as much as poilible to render the one permanent, and to remove the profpect of danger to the other. This was the object of the prefent treaty; for fo great were the advantages likely to arife from it, that they would not only ftrongly operate on the minds of every fucceeding Adminiftration to avoid a war as loag as it could be avoided with honour and prudence, but would alfo ftrengthen the refources of the country towards carrying on a war whenever it fhould become indifpenfably neceffary to engage This was the true method of making peace a bieffing; that while it was the parent of immediate wealth and happiness, it should alfo be the nurfe of future ftrength and fecurity. The quarrels between France and Britain had too long continued to harass not only thofe two great and refpectable nations themfelves, but had frequently embroiled the peace of Europe; nay, it had difturbed the tranquillity of the most remote parts of, the world. They had, by their paft conduct, acted as if they were intended by nature for the deftruction of each other; but he hoped the time was now come when they fhould juftify the order of the univerfe, and fhew that they were better calculated for the more amicable purposes of friendly intercourfe and mutual benevolence. There were many parts of the right honourable gentleman's in one. fpeech, fpeech, to which, for the prefent, he fhould give no answer, as the only proper and regular method for the right honourable gentleman to obtain the information he required, would be by moving for an addrefs to His Majefty to lay fuch information before the Houfe; and as to other parts of the right honourable gentleman's inquiries, he could refer him to a much better authority than that which he had called for the authority of his own fenfes. The treaty itself was the best fource of information on thefe queftions. The right honourable gentleman would there fee how far the connection to be formed between the two countries was to be confidered as political, how far as barely commercial; but, for his own part, he confeffed that he could not conceive a commercial inte course between any two nations that must not necessarily have a powerful effect on their political conduct towards each other. The right honourable gentleman, when Secretary of State, had himfelf recognized, and acknowledged the neceffity of renewing and itrengthening our commercial intercourse with France; nay, he had actually, by an express article of the definitive treaty, bound down the country to make a commercial treaty with France in the courfe of two years, and the English Ambaffador, at that time (the Duke of Manchefter) had taken active fteps to bring the French Miniftry into fuch a scheme. But if it was the intention of the right honourable gentleman to have propofed fuch a plan as he now feemed to think the only proper one, a plan of a commercial arrangement, that fhould not create an intereft in either nation to maintain and render it permanent, fuch a one as fhould not be confidered by either as equally defirable with a state of hoftility and war, if fuch was his plan, and it was evident that he would not have approved of a different one, he had then acted but prudently in destroying all traces of it, and in taking care not to leave any copy of so very notable a project in his office behind him. The right honourable gentleman had called upon him to give an account of the part that the French Court might take in the different negotiations now carrying on by us with other countries. On that fubject he should not think himfelf bound to give any anfwer whatfoever, much lefs would he undertake to account for and explain the different arrangements which the King of France might think proper to make in the various departments of his establishments and expenditures. With refpect to the ftate of our negotiations with Portugal, that not being a queftion before the House, nor proper to come before it at prefent, except in confequence of an addrefs regularly moved and voted by that Houfe to be prefented to His Majesty, he fhould by no means enter into it; but if any gentleman fhould desire to know know how far our connection with Portugal was likely to be affected by the French treaty, he fhould then think himfelf bound to fatisfy him by one or the other of the following anfwers, either that the connection would not be at all affected, or that we were left at full liberty, by the terms of the prefent treaty, to carry into effect the fpirit of the old fublifting treaties with the Court of Portugal. The fact was, that the latter was the cafe; but he should not hesitate to say, that when the Court of Portugal fhewed herself entitled to receive fuch a benefit at the hands of Great Britain, he should be ready to concur in granting it; but as long as the Court of Portugal continued to withhold from us our proportion of the mutual advantage provided for both nations by the Methuen treaty, as the had done for many years past, so long he fhould think it the duty of Adminiftration to fufpend the execution of that part of the French treaty that left us at liberty to fecure to the kingdom of Portugal a continuance of that favour which fhe had hitherto enjoyed, but to which her prefent conduct feemed but little to entitle her. He felt no inconfiderable pleasure in perceiving, that, notwithstanding the right honourable gentleman had, with fo much zeal and vehemence argued against the addrefs, yet that he was willing to vote for it, and he hoped that he would continue to use the fame conduct through the feffion with which he had begun it; for, if the right honourable gentleman fhould make it his practice to vote always in direct oppofition to his own fpeeches and arguments, there was good ground for expecting a greater degree of unanimity than otherwife could be looked for. There was one object more on which he fhould only fay a few words, and this was the ceflion of the Mufquito thore to the Crown of Spain. Should that measure at any future time be regularly called in queftion by that right honourable gentleman, he should be able to meet him at a great advantage, as he fhould enjoy the power of combating the right honourable gentleman on his own grounds. The right honourable gentleman, when in office, and at a time when claims were made by the Crown of Spain upon those territories at the period of the peace, then entered into agreement that they thould be ceded to that Crown as soon as a certain equivalent fhould be given. That equivalent had been now adjusted, and it was attended with many advantages, that at the time of making the agreement had not been ftipulated, but which the Crown of Spain had been prevailed upon to grant; so that instead of a conceffion on our part, it would be found to be a very beneficial exchange. Mr. Fox answered, that the right honourable gentleman Mr. Fox had, throughout his fpeech, endeavoured to represent his VOL. XXI. D conduct Mr. Sheri dan. conduct in having directed the negotiation of the definitive treaty, which, in one of its articles, bound this country to make a commercial treaty with France in two years, as if the preliminaries which that definitive treaty ratified and confirmed had been preliminaries of his negotiating. The fact notoriously was, that he had greatly difapproved of feveral of thofe preliminaries; but had he equally difapproved of all of them, he fhould have confidered it to have been his duty to have had them ratified by a definitive treaty, because he thought the honour of this country required that the promifes held out to France by the preliminary treaty fhould be fulfilled. With regard to the fixth article of the treaty with Spain, that ftood in a fimilar fituation. He found it negotiating when he came into office, and he was therefore obliged to complete it. As to what the right honourable gentleman had faid of his project of a commercial treaty with France, he fhould, at a fit opportunity, feel no difficulty in meeting him on that ground; and in anfwer to the right honourable gentleman's plaufible argument on the fubject of employing the time of peace by improving our refources, and his affertion that the commercial treaty with France was likely to prove a nursery and a fource of the means of war, he begged him to recollect, that as France was to participate equally in all the advantages refulting from the commercial intercourse, the treaty would prove a nursery and a source of her means of war as well as of ours. Upon this ground, therefore, the acquifitions on either fide were equal. The question was then put, and the addrefs carried unanimously. Mr. Burke afterwards gave notice, that he would renew the subject of the impeachment of Mr. Haftings on Thursday fe'nnight. The Houfe adjourned to this day. Wednesday, 24th January. No material debate occurred. Mr. Sheridan having prefaced his obfervations, by intimating to the Houfe that he had heard, that, on the preceding Tuesday, when the neceffity of attending to fome bufinefs in the country had obliged him to delay his appearance in the execution of his parliamentary duty, notice had been given by a right honourable friend, that the charge relative to the Princeffes of Oude would be brought forward on the enfuing Thursday, remarked, that he rose to say, that having himfelf conceived, that Monday fe'nnight was the intended day, and having informed several members who were yet in the country, that the bufinefs would not be brought on be fore A |