This decided victory of the ministers did not, however, deter Mr. Grey from moving, on the 21st of February, an address to his majesty; which, as it contains the entire political creed of the opposition party, we shall recite at large.

After a short introductory speech, in which Mr. Grey declared his wish to be recorded as one of those who had, with every possible exertion, opposed those measures whereby we had been plunged into a war, he moved,

"That an humble address be presented to his majesty, to assure his majesty, that his fatthful commons, animated by a sincere and dutiful attachment to his person and family, and to the excellent constitution of this kingdom, as well as by an ardent zeal for the interest and honour of the nation, will, at all times, be ready to support his majesty in any measures, which a due observance of the faith of treaties, the dignity of his crown, or the security of his do

minions, may compel him to undertake

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That feeling the most earnest solicitude to avert from our countr the calamities of war, by every means consistent with honour and with safety, we expressed to his majesty, at the opening of the present session, our sense of the temper and prudence which had induced his majesty to observe a strict neutrality with respect to the war on the continent, and uniformly to abstain from any interference in the internal affairs of France; and our hope that the steps his majesty had taken would have the happy tendency to render a firm and temperate conduct effectual for preserving the blessings of peace.'

That, with the deepest concern, we now find ourselves obliged to relinquish that hope without any evidence having been produced to satisfy us that his majesty's ministers have made such efforts as it was their duty to make, and as, by his majesty's most gracious speech, we were taught to expect, for the preservation of peace it is no less the resolution than the duty of his majesty's faithful commons to second his efforts in the war thus fatally commenced, so long as it shall continue; but we deem it a duty equally incumbent upon us to solicit his majesty's attention to those reasons or pretexts, by which his servants have laboured to justify a conduct on their part, which we cannot but consider as having contributed, in a great measure, to produce the present rupture.

"Various grounds of hostility against France have been stated, but none that appeared to us to

have constituted such an urgent and imperious case of necessity as left no room for accommodation, and made war unavoidable. The government of France has been accused of having violated the law of nations, and the stipulations of existing treaties, by an attempt to deprive the republic of the United Provinces of the exclusive navigation of the Scheldt. No evidence, however, has been offered to convince us that this exclusive navigation was, either in itself or in the estimation of those who were alone interested in preserving it, of such importance as to justify a determination in our government to break with France on that account. If, in fact, the States General had shewn a disposition to defend their right by force of arms, it might have been an instance of the truest friendship to have suggested to them, for their serious consideration, how far the assertion of this unprofitable claim might, in the present circumstances of Europe, tend to bring into hazard the most essential interests of the republic. But when, on the contrary, it has been acknowledged that no requisition on the subject was made to his majesty on the part of the States General, we are at a loss to comprehend on what grounds of right or propriety we take the lead in asserting a claim, in which we are not principals, and in which the principal party has not, as far as we know, thought it prudent or necessary to call for our iuterposition.

affairs in France, that the French nation gave up all pretensions to determine the question of the future navigation of the Scheldt. Whether the terms of this declaration were perfectly satisfactory or not, they at least left the question open to pacific negotiation; in which the intrinsic value of the object, to any of the parties concerned in it, might have been coolly and impartially weighed against the consequences, to which all of them might be exposed, by attempting to maintain it by force of arms.

"We have been called upon to resist views of conquest and aggrandizement entertained by the government of France, at all times dangerous to the general interests of Europe,' but asserted to be more 'particularly so, when connected with the propagation of principles, which lead to the violation of the most sacred duties, and are utterly subversive of the peace and order of all civil society.'

"We admit, that it is the interest and duty of every member of the commonwealth of Europe to support the established system and distribution of power among the independent sovereignties, which actually subsist, and to prevent the aggrandizement of any state, especially the most powerful, at the expence of any other; and, for the honour of his majesty's councils, we do most earnestly wish, that his ministers had manifested a just sense of the importance of the principle to which they now appeal, in the course of late events, which seemed to us to threaten its entire destruction.

"When Poland was beginning to recover from the long calami

ties of anarchy, combined with op pression; after she had established an hereditary and limited monarchy like our own, and was peaceably employed in settling her internal government, his majesty's ministers, with apparent indifference and unconcern, have seen her become the victim of the most unprovoked and unprincipled invasion; her territory overrun, her free constitution subverted, her national independence annihilated, and the general principles of the security of nations wounded through her side. With all these evils was France soon after threatened, and with the same appearance either of supine indifference, or of secret approbation, his majesty's ministers beheld the armies of other powers (in evident concert with the oppressor of Poland) advancing to the invasion and subjugation of France, and the march of those armies distinguished from the ordinary hostilities of civilised nations by manifestos, which, if their principles and menaces had been carried into practice, must have inevitably produced thereturn of that ferocity and barbarism in war, which a beneficent religion, and elightened manners, and true military honour, have for a long time banished from the Christian world.'

"No effort appears to have been made to check the progress of these invading armies: his majesty's ministers, under a pretended respect for the rights and independence of other sovereigns, thought fit at that time to refuse even the interposition of his majesty's councils and good offices, to save so great and important a portion of Europe from falling under the do

minion of a foreign power. But no sooner, by an ever-memorable reverse of fortune, had France repulsed her invaders, and carried her arms into their territory, than his majesty's ministers, laying aside that collusive indifference which had marked their conduct during the invasion of France, began to express alarms for the general security of Europe, which, as it appears to us, they ought to have seriously felt, and might have expressed, with great justice, on the previous successes of her powerful adversaries.

"We will not dissemble our opinion, that the decree of the national convention of France of the 19th of November, 1792, was in a great measure liable to the objections urged against it; but we cannot admit that a war, upon the single ground of such a decree, unaccompanied by any overt acts, by which we or our allies might be directly attacked, would be justified as necessary and unavoidable. Certainly not, unless, upon a regular demand made by his majesty's ministers of explanation and security in behalf of us and our allies, the French had refused to give his majesty such explanation and security. No such demand was made. Explanations, it is true, have been received and rejected. But it well deserves to be remarked and remembered, that these explanations were voluntarily offered on the part of France, not previously demanded on ours, as undoubtedly they would have been, if it had suited the views of his majesty's ministers to have acted frankly and honourably towards France, and not to have reserved their complaints for a future pe

riod, when explanations, however reasonable, might come too late, and hostilities might be unavoidable.

"After a review of all those considerations, we think it necessary to represent to his majesty, that none of the points which were in dispute between his ministers and the government of France, appear to us to have been incapable of being adjusted by negotiation, except that aggravation of French ambition, which has been stated to arise from the political opinions of the French nation. These indeed, we conceive, formed neither any definable object of negotiation, nor any intelligible reason for hostility. They were equally incapable of being adjusted by treaty, or of being either refuted or confirmed by the events of

war.

"We need not state to his majesty's wisdom, that force can never cure delusion; and we know his majesty's goodness too well to suppose, that he could ever entertain the idea of employing force to destroy opinions by the extirpation of

those who hold them.

"The grounds, upon which his majesty's ministers have advised him to refuse the renewal of some avowed public intercourse with the existing government of France, appeared to us neither justified by the reason of the thing itself, nor by the usage of nations, nor by any expediency arising from the present state of circumstances. all negotiations or discussions whatsoever, of which peace is the real object, the appearance of an amicable disposition, and of a readiness to offer and to accept of pacific explanations on both sides, is

In

as necessary and useful to insure success as any arguments founded on strict right. Nor can it be de nied that claims or arguments of any kind, urged in hostile or haughty language, however equitable or valid in themselves, are more likely to provoke than to conciliate the opposite party. Deploring, as we have ever done, the melancholy event which has lately happened in France, it would yet have been some consolation to us to have heard, that the powerful interposition of the British nation on this subject had at least been offered, although is should unfortunately have been rejected. But, instead of receiving such consolation from the conduct of his majesty's ministers, we have seen them, with extreme astonishment, employing, as an incentive to hostilities, an event, which they had made no effort to avert by negotiation. This naction they could only excuse on the principle, that the internal conduct of nations (whatever may be our opinion of its morality) was no proper ground for interposition and remonstrance from foreign states; a principle, from which it must still more clearly follow that such internal conduct could never be an admissible justifiable reason for war.

"We cannot refrain from observing, that such frequent allusions as have been made to an event (confessedly no ground of rupture) seemed to us to have arisen from a sinister intention to derive, from the humanity of Englishmen, popularity for measures which their deliberate judgment would have reprobated, and to influence the most virtuous sensibilities of his majesty's people into a

vengeance.

"His majesty's faithful commons, therefore, though always determined to support his majesty with vigour and cordiality in the exertions necessary for the defence of his kingdoms, yet feel that they are equally bound by their duty to his majesty, and to their fellow subjects, to declare, in the most solemn manner, their disapprobation of the conduct of his majesty's ministers throughout the whole of these transactions-a conduct which, in their opinion, could lead to no other termination but that to which it seems to have been studiously directed, of plunging their country into an unnecessary war. The calamities of such a war must be aggravated in the estimation of every rational mind, by reflecting on the peculiar advantages of that fortunate situation which we have so unwisely abandoned, and which not only exempted us from sharing in the distresses and afflictions of the other nations of Europe, but converted them into sources of benefit, improvement, and prosperity to this country.

"We therefore, humbly implore his majesty's paternal goodness to listen no longer to the councils which have forced us into this unhappy war, but to embrace the earliest occasion which his wisdom may discern, of restoring to his people the blessings of peace."

After a few words from Mr. Pitt and Mr. Drake, the motion was negatived without a division.

On the same day Mr. R. Smith read a petition signed by about 2500 inhabitants of the town of Nottingham, stating, among other

stands with respect to representation in parliament, the country is amused with the name of a representation of the people, when the reality is gone; that the right of election had passed away from the people almost altogether, and that thereby the confidence of the people with respect to parliament was weakened, if not destroyed. The petition therefore prayed the House to consider of the proper mode to effectuate a reform in parliament; and suggested, as one part of a general reform, that the right of election should be in proportion to the number of male adults in the kingdom. After some debate on the question of receiving the petition, the passages we have now recited were considered, by a large majority of the House, to be of such a nature as to justify a refusal to receive it. On a division there appeared for the petition Against it

Majority

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$8 Several petitions respecting controverted elections remaining unheard in the third session of this parliament, it became absolutely necessary that some measures should be taken to enforce the attendance of members on the days fixed for ballots; Mr. T. Grenville, therefore, brought forward, on the following day, certain resolutions to produce that effect, which were severally moved, and after some amendments were proposed and agreed to, received the assent of the House.

The erection of barracks, which had taken place in several parts of the kingdom, though it was not altogether a new measure, was