XXI. BOOK a debenture of 4007. upon the Bank of Vienna, and the EMPEROR might be sued in HIS OWN 1795. COURTS! Mr. Fox denied that it was the interest of the emperor to continue the war, and mentioned. the wretched state of the imperial finances, and the utter inability of the emperor, as was notorious from the attempts already made on the English exchange, to raise this loan without the guarantee of England, by which we made the debt our own; and it was easy to foresee that every shilling advanced would be irrecoverably lost. He therefore objected to this mode of affording assistance, as much worse than that of a subsidy payable at stated periods, and over which we should necessarily retain some control.. -But the address, as moved by Mr. Pitt, in answer to the royal message, passed by a very great majority. In the upper house, lord Grenville took upon him to affirm, that of the real disposition of his, imperial majesty in relation to this contract, no reasonable doubt could exist. His interest was deeply concerned in the fulfilment of his engagements, and the good faith of the house of Austria had never been impeached; so that the risque we ran by this loan amounted to little, and almost nothing. And in answer to the observation of the marquis of Lansdowne, that little depend XXI. 1795. ence could ever be placed on any German al- BOOK liance, and that the exertions of the emperor had been useless and unavailing, his lordship exclaimed with ludicrous solemnity, "Was it nothing that the loss of Holland had been postponed from the year 1793 to the year 1795 ?" Such was the extraordinary nature of the consolations which this ill-fated war afforded! of the na nances. On the 23d of February Mr. Pitt came for- Statement ward with his annual statement of supplies, tional fiways, and means. One hundred thousand seamen and a hundred and fifty thousand landmen, including militia, were voted for the service of the year. The loan proposed was eighteen millions, the largest ever voted by parliament, for which an equal capital in the three-per-cents. and six millions in the four-per-cents. were created, and about one-half per cent. long annuity and sixteen hundred thousand pounds in new taxes of various kinds were proposed, all of which passed with trifling opposition; and the whole expence of the war, which had as yet lasted two years only, was moderately computed, including the unfunded debt, at fifty millions; i. e. as much as the aggregate expenditure of the ten-years' glorious war of queen Anne, in the course of which the Low Countries were conquered for the House of Austria, the empire was saved, and France itself attacked and invaded BOOK on every side. But now how great the contrast! XXI. The Low Countries for ever lost,---Holland in1795. vaded, and neither disposed nor able to resist, an English army, commanded by a prince of the blood, flying before the French, and driven to take refuge on board their ships,-Spain, Italy, and Germany, successfully attacked by the arms of France, and Prussia, after receiving immense sums from England, abandoning the confederacy she herself had first suggested and formed, in violation of her most solemn engagements :and, what was infinitely the worst of all, a parliament not possessing a spark of the old English spirit, sunk into a state of political stupefaction, obstinately and implicitly confiding in a minister whose visionary plans and projects had been every-where defeated, and whose predictions had been uniformly falsified. Various efforts were made, very early in the present session, to induce parliament to come to some general resolution which might render it necessary for the executive government to set on foot a negotiation for peace. On the 26th Motion of of January Mr. Grey moved, "That it is the respecting opinion of this house that the existence of the present government of France ought not to be considered as precluding at this time a negotia tion of peace." This resolution, Mr. Grey shewed," was highly requisite, in order to proye Mr. Grey peace: counteract Pitt. to the French nation that the war was not re- BOOK XXI. garded by the legislature as a war usque ad internecionem, however it might be represented by 1795. individuals; and averred that it was not his intention to propose any thing incompatible with any former vote, address, or resolution, of the house," This motion was so seasonable and popular, and the impression made by the late speech of Mr. Wilberforce such, that Mr. Pitt could not venture to put a direct negative upon it; he therefore evaded the proposition by moving the following insidious amendment:-"That, Insidiously under the present circumstances, this house feels ed by Mr. itself called upon to declare its determination firmly and steadily to support his majesty in the vigorous prosecution of the present just and necessary war, as affording at this time the only reasonable expectation of permanent security and peace to this country; and that, for the attainment of these objects, this house relies with equal confidence on his majesty's intention to employ vigorously the force and resources of the country in support of its essential interests, and on the desire uniformly manifested by his majesty to effect a pacification on just and honorable grounds with any government in France, under whatever form, which shall appear capable of maintaining the accustomed relations of peace and amity with other countries." Mr. Pitt de BOOK clared this amendment to be consonant to the XXI. terms of his majesty's former declarations; and 1795. he contended that every nation at war was justified in refusing to treat for peace with a government that could not give security. He was therefore not ready to treat with the present government of France; and he took upon him to affirm, that, since the commencement of the present war, there existed not in that country a government capable of maintaining with other nations the accustomed relations of peace and amity-not recollecting, doubtless, that France had actually maintained, during the whole period of the war, those relations with Denmark, Sweden, and America. The commerce and agriculture of France were represented by Mr. Pitt as in a most disastrous situation -their financial resources as in a state of rapid decay-justice almost unknown-and, with respect to religion, he asked, would the house willingly treat with a nation of atheists?—The revolutionary system was not essentially varied since the late changes: he would not, however, say that it might not improve, but that time had not arrived: when it did, if they gave to their government that stability and authority which afforded grounds of moral probability that we might treat for peace with security, then we might negotiate; but we ought in prudence to |