he would say, that the amount of banknotes in circulation in the years 1797 and 1798 did not exceed the average of those issued in 1790, 1791, and 1792. Secondly, that the highest number issued in the present year did not surpass the amount of those issued in the former periods by more than one-fifth. The interest of the national debt payable at the Bank was more than doubled within the period alluded to, and the exports and imports were increased more than onethird. This augmentation, therefore, was absolutely necessary for the circulation of the country. He was of opinion, that the issue of the Bank paper could not have effected the price of provisions; and he did not think the issue of other paper had done so. my hon. friend of passing over, in un grateful silence, the splendid achievements of the navy. This accusation I cannot help regarding as unfounded; for my hon. friend gave full credit to the courage, the skill, and the discipline of the navy. In that tribute I cordially join with him. On the conduct, spirit, and discipline of the army I am likewise ready to bestow a due tribute of praise, although their exertions have not been crowned with the same success. But I am also prepared to say, that whatever may have been our naval successes during the war, they cannot counterbalance the disasters we have sustained. It may continue to be called a war of unexampled success; but facts will show it to be a war marked by a supereminent series of Mr. Grey said:-It is under consider- disasters. What! after ten campaigns, able embarrassment that I rise to reply to which are boasted to have been so sucthe long and able speech of the chancellor cessful, is the country reduced to its of the exchequer. The right hon. gen- present situation, which, with Swift, I tleman has urged his usual objections must liken to a sick man dying with the against an inquiry; it can only, he says, most laudable symptoms? If, in spite of be productive of inconvenience: it must its flourishing revenue, its extended com obstruct the course of public business. merce, its unexampled successes, the naThe right hon. gentleman has stated two tion is plunged in greater difficulties and cases, when a particular conjuncture of distress than almost at any other period, circumstances called for and justified an what, Sir, can I do but exclaim, " At tu inquiry into the state of the nation. I victrix provincia ploras!" And here I also recollect one when an inquiry was must ask, whether the statement which moved for, and when the right hon. gen- the right hon. gentleman has given of the tleman took a prominent part in support- conduct and events of the war, any thing ing the motion. I allude, Sir, to the that argues fairness and candour? He conclusion of the American war. At asserts that our separate success during that period the right hon. gentleman the war is unexampled. Will all his colpressed for an inquiry on the general leagues join in this assertion. Will the ground of its necessity. In so doing he right hon. gentleman (Mr. Windham) strictly adhered to parliamentary usage, assert, that the advantages gained by the uninfluenced, no doubt, by any improper war are equal to the dangers to which the motives. But before I proceed let me country is now exposed? If he does, ask, if our present situation is not one of according to what rule does he measure difficulty and danger, much more alarming our success, by what criterion does he than that which took place at the end of attempt to ascertain it? the American war? Yet at that period a adopted by my hon. friend I think the committee, such as is now moved for, best, and therefore I adopt it. Accord was deemed necessary; and at the presenting to him, the fairest way of estimating will it be refused? Most likely; for the right hon. gentleman has thought proper to repeat the assertion, that the war has been a war of unexampled success. Yet never was there an assertion made more revolting to the feelings, or more insulting to the understanding of the people. In justification of that tone and triumph, the right hon. gentleman enumerates his conquests-the capture of St. Lucie, of Martinique, of Tobago, and the dethroning of the perfidious Tippoo. He next accuses The mode our success is to compare it with the object of the war. If we have failed of attaining our object, how can we pretend to be successful; or what is in reality a successful war? In order to form some just notion of it, I would go back to the history of the five last wars in which this country has been engaged. The two first were carried on nearly on the same grounds as the present. The first was engaged in by king William, to reduce the power and humble the pretensions of France. Under his wise and able administration that war was followed by a peace that very nearly attained the object of the contest. King William's right was acknowledged, the provinces called the Re-union were restored, and, upon the whole, the issue of the war might be regarded as successful. The next war was undertaken to prevent the union of the crowns of France and Spain. This object was also accomplished. The pretender was compelled to quit France: we were I reinstated in our colonial possessions, &c. This, then, may also be styled a successful war. In the war of 1740, if England gained nothing, at least she lost nothing and the peace replaced her in statu quo ante bellum. The war conducted under the auspices of the right hon. gentleman's illustrious father was not a war, the successes of which were gaudily emblazoned in figures of rhetoric, or puerilely celebrated with the rattle of high-sounding periods; but a war, the vigorous prosecution of which increased our prosperity, and added to the national glory. These, then, are wars that may justly be called successful; and if we compare them with the present, what will be the result? What was the object of this war? The extinction of Jacobinism. Are the Jacobins exterminated? So far from it, is not the right hon. gentleman humbled to the necessity of treating with that very man whom he denominated "the child and champion of Jacobinism," the wild enthusiastic supporter of its power, and the gaudy puppet of its folly? Has the right hon. gentleman diminished the power or checked the ambition of France? Look at the projet which he himself has proposed to the chief consul, and say whether the object of the war is attained. Holland was to be rescued; she is still a vassal of France. Belgium was to be wrested from France: we now consent to leave her in possession of it. The dignity and honour of the country were to be proudly asserted and maintained; that dignity and that honour are degraded to the dust, and our sufferings and humiliation are such, that it is difficult to conjecture to what we may not be compelled to submit. Behold the fair fruits, the trophies of a war which is unblushingly asserted to be crowned with unexampled success! How minutely have we fulfilled its object; Holland, Belgium, Savoy, are abandoned to the enemy; they establish independent republics in Italy; they [VOL. XXXV.] ` insist on fixing the Rhine as the boundary of France, and the claim is admitted. To state the issue of the war in one word, may it not be said, that by this our unexampled success, we shall surrender every thing that the confederacy formed by king William, and queen Anne, and the exertions of the right hon. gentleman's father, were directed to maintain; and that we shall hereafter have to contend with France strengthened by an accession of power which all these wars had been undertaken to prevent? Who will pretend to say, that if peace were to be looked for to-morrow on any probable terms, it would tend to raise the dignity and exalt the glory of Great Britain? But here I am answered by the gentlemen themselves. What did they say when they attempted to negociate at Lisle? They treated, because the country in general earnestly called for peace; but they treated, sensible of the dangers of peace, and therefore could not be sincere in their attempts, But the right hon. gentleman contends, that he has reduced the power of France. He makes a proud enumeration of his conquests, and magnifies the importance of Martinique, St. Lucie, and Tobago, As to the relative value of these islands, opposite opinions prevailed. Some looked upon Martinique, others upon St. Lucie, as the more important acquisition; but most now concur in representing Martinique as the key of the West India islands. Then, what must be the success of that war, when so much importance was attached to the surrender of that island? Now, if we but feel the effects of this war and the dangers and difficulties that thicken on the country, to what must our situation be ascribed? If in spite of the ablest management, if in spite of the wisest councils, we are reduced to such a situation, can there remain a hope of our being extricated from it? If the right hon. gentleman had proved that all this wisdom, and all this vigour have been exerted, and that whatever of disastrous fortune has befallen the country should be placed to the account of accident, then I confess there is no room for inquiry. But if it does not appear that such a train of calamities have proceeded from accident only, would not the House do well to inquire into their real cause? The right hon. gentleman does not hesitate to say, that the British armies have never been employed but with effect both for the honour and [2 T] effect | tunes that followed the battle of Marengo They are justly imputable to their ill conduct. When, therefore, the proofs of this misconduct stare us in the face, shall no inquiry be made into the causes of all those failures, which become doubly dangerous from the peculiar circumstances of the moment? Here again it may be said that I am falling into despondence. No, Sir, I wish to look our situation in the face, I am anxious to see our affairs entrusted to the guidance of more capable hands; for without more auspicious councils, our situation is desperate. With regard to our alliances, much also has been said; but the loss of our allies is likewise ascriba. ble to the misconduct of ministers. While the confederacy was whole and entire, they might have negociated with effect; it has now melted away in their hands, and they have lost opportunities that may never recur. Another effect of this successful war may even be, that, instead of having a confederacy to act with us, we may soon have a confederacy to act against us. The Emperor Paul is no longer our ally, though, if care had been taken, his secession might have been prevented. Such are the accumulated calamities to which we are exposed; and will the House hesitate to inquire into the causes that produce them, or the means by which they may be evaded? Besides, all these misfortunes are dearly purchased interests of the country. What they have added during the period of eight years, a larger capital to our debt than all the wars for a century before have cost the nation. Can, then, such a system go on, without bringing with it our total ruin? My hon. friend has alluded to the sacrifices which have been made of the constitution: they are great indeed-almost as great as those of men and money, which have been given to ministers, without measure. laws, the liberties of the country have been laid at the feet of the right hon. gentleman-and what has been the return? All these calamities cannot be retrieved but by a change of system; and as the motion of my hon. friend may lead to that change it shall have my most cordial support. The Mr. Canning said, that the hon. gentleman had certainly misunderstood what had been stated by his right hon. friend with regard to the usage of the House in granting inquiries. His right hon. friend had not meant that such a measure never was adopted, but only that it was some times refused; and that any motion for | to obtain whatever we pleased, we agreed an inquiry was not to pass of course, but to take somewhat less than what was ought to be supported by powerful argu- strictly our due; because ministers were ments. The House was always to use its unwilling idly to waste the blood of their discretion, and not to be guided by any fellow subjects. Was this conduct to be invariable rule. The hon. gentleman had arraigned at the bar of the British nation, not been correct in point of fact, in stating and by those whose constant theme was that his right hon. friend was guilty of the unfeeling, cruel, quarrelsome, unreinconsistency in refusing to accede to lenting disposition of his majesty's ministhis proposal, since he took a very active ters? He was glad to find, that the hon. share in an inquiry which was instituted mover had taken rather a different view of towards the end of the American war. the war from what he had done on former His right hon. friend was not at that time occasions. He had almost uniformly dea member of that House. This he thought nominated it the most disastrous and diswould be a sufficient answer to the charge; graceful war that this or any other counand it would be found, that if dates were try had ever been engaged in. But toexamined, and facts ascertained, one less night he had compared it with the most satisfactory might be given to all the ac- successful war we had ever carried on, cusations of the hon. gentleman and his and was contented with attempting to friends. The comparison certianly was prove that it been less productive of glory not inapt between himself and dean Swift, and advantage. Whether he had been and he was much about as well affected successful in his attempt, it was for the to his right hon. friend, as that politician House to determine. Mr. Canning adto the great duke of Marlborough. After verted to the negotiation at Lisle, and a war the most successful and glorious vindicated the conduct of ministers in ever waged, Swift complained that the re- that transaction. Notwithstanding the sources of the nation had been misem- expressions they might have made use of ployed, that it had been impoverished since, there was no doubt that they were without reason, and that, notwithstanding then most sincere in their endeavours to all its triumphs, it was on the brink of make peace with the Directory. Was it ruin. It did not then follow, from the to be said that a man could not exert hon. gentleman's reprobation of the poli- himself to the utmost to gain some point, tical measures of his right hon. friend, some particular object, and though he that they were less wise, or productive of failed, from some circumstances which afless glory than those of the hero of terwards occurred, rejoice at his failure? Blenheim. He should not enter minutely This would be to make the happiness into the consequences of the war; but he or misery of life to depend upon a could not in silence pass over one which single accident. For a man to become had been imputed to it. By imprudently desperate from disappointment was conlavishing our treasures, and needlessly trary to reason, morality and religion. exhausting our strength, we were reduced It had been said by gentlemen who so low (it was said), as to be obliged to occasionally attended the House, that put up with insult from other nations: by they thanked God they had nothing to entering into an unjust and unnecessary do with the conduct of the war; that war, we were prevented from declaring one they would not be blamed for the lavish which would be both just and necessary. In expenditure it had occasioned, and that support of a right which was allowed by they were innocent of the blood which all to be essential to our naval greatness, had been shed in it. But, had they got upon which the prosperity of our com- into power as they earnestly desired, they merce depended, without which we could would have been obliged to continue the never be secure, the most vigorous, though war, notwithstanding their utmost efforts conciliatory steps had been taken. When to make peace; and a change of circumour flag had been insulted, when an act stances must have operated a complete of hostility had been committed, and when change in their sentiments. Ministers satisfaction was refused, was there any could not be justly accused of inconsiswant of vigour displayed in insisting upon tency or tergiversation, though they had it? Were not the honour and dignity of ceased to canvass the private character of the nation preserved unimpaired? Gen- Buonaparté, though they no longer styled tlemen were displeased because force was him the child and champion of Jacobinism, not used, because, having it in our power the most enthusiastic supporter of its power, and the gaudiest puppet of its folly. This change, in their language, had not perhaps proceeded from any change in his character, and later transactions had perhaps proved that their former language was not misapplied. Had he not merely to pronounce the words Tuscany and perfidy, to show that the individual feelings of the chief consul remained unaltered, and that those feelings were none of the most laudable? But his power was now established, and it was no longer necessary to discuss his character. Last winter there was every reason to believe that he could not long maintain his power, and it behoved those who held that opinion to show that it was well founded. Now that he had become the organ of the will, and the arbiter of the fate of France, there could be no objection to treat with him; and that ministers were of that opinion, the papers on the table sufficiently evinced. Mr. W. Smith said, that it had long been his opinion that the naval glory of England had been raised higher during this war than at any former period; but of our military operations, he had a very different opinion. It was idle to consider how many islands we had captured, or what new possessions we had acquired: the question was, had we gained the object of the war? What that object was, it would be no easy matter to determine; but whichever of the various objects that had been stated was the true one, we were as far from it as when war was first declared. Had the success, then, been equal to the expenditure? A greater disproportion could not well be conceived. The ability with which the war had been conducted, might be estimated by considering against whom we had to fight. If we alone had been opposed to all the states of Europe, it might be thought well if we defended ourselves against them. But what opinion must be entertained, when we have made not the least impression upon France, although we were leagued against her with the most powerful states of Europe? A number of places we had taken; but we had generally met with no resistance; and without a contest no glory could be acquired. Wherever the enemy had been prepared to receive us, we had been discomfited. We had evacuated Corsica; we had evacuated Toulon; we had evacuated St. Domingo; we had evacuated Guadaloupe; we had evacuated the Helder. It was painful to recall such subjects; but it was indispensably necessary, when the right hon. gentleman had the boldness to assert, that a war attended with such incidents had been successful and glorious. Mr. Secretary Dundas said, that if the hon. gentleman who had dwelt so severely on his conduct, expected a retractation of his former sentiments, he would experience a diappointment; for he assured the House that he would not retract one word, or renounce one declaration. He rejoiced as much as any man, on hearing the high encomiums bestowed that day on the British navy; but he begged that the hon. gentleman would recollect the censure which lord Howe, a name glorious in the annals of this country, had experienced, when he missed the French fleet. The very same gentlemen and their friends had also condemned the conduct of admiral Colpoys, when the enemy escaped his vigilance by a fog; and for this unforeseen circumstance, the blame was not confined to that admiral, but the conduct of administration was arraigned. In reflecting on the successful encroachments of the French, an hon. gentleman had affected to regret that the influence of our allies on the continent had wonderfully diminished. But that increase of power on the part of France was only in a relative point of view: that increase of power could not diminish either our possessions or our prowess. He rejoiced at the fall of the French navy; but this great achievement on our part would not, according to the hon. gentleman's doctrine, be considered as a success. While the power of this country was increased, that of France was proportionally dimiminished; and, however hostile to the present administration, he hoped that the gentlemen opposite did not rejoice at the success, and lament the defeats of France. While those very gentlemen were denying the success of our arms, our enemy maintained that all Europe was jealous of the increase of our maritime power. But, said the gentlemen opposite, if you have been successful by sea, you have been unsuccessful by land. Let them, however, recollect, that every effort of our navy in the capture of the settlements of the enemy had been distinguished by the successful co-operation of our army. But the opposition, still fertile in expedients, said, that neither army nor navy had experienced any resistance on the attack of those settlements. What! was |