---The original motion of Mr. Grey was at length negatived, and the amendment of Mr. Pitt adopted, by the accustomed majority.

A fimilar motion was brought forward in the house of peers by the duke of Bedford, on the following day, feconded by the duke of Norfolk, which was fuperfeded by an amendment copied from that of Mr. Pitt by lord Grenville, who declared his belief that a majority of the French were favorers of royalty, and that the re-establishment of monarchy prefented the most probable hopes of peace.--The amendment was oppofed in a speech of great energy and eloquence by the celebrated Watfon, bishop of Landaff. This prelate faid, "that he could not, without clearer proof than had yet appeared, admit the original juftice of the war, or, of confequence, the neceffity of it; for no war could be neceffary that was not juft. There had been a time when Great Britain could have mediated with efficacy between France and the Germanic powers, and might have infisted upon each party confining themselves within their ancient bounds, at the fame time renouncing every claim to interfere in their internal affairs. His lordship fhewed the abfurdity of continuing the war in order to stop the progress of democratic opinions; and added, that the governments of Europe would find their truest safety in exercising their power with equity and moderation. The British conftitution admitted of improvement, and admitted it not only with safety but facility. He urged the importance of immediate negotiation, in order to promote union at home. To perfift in the fame courfe, under every alteration of circumstances, was not firmness but obftinacy. It was a mistaken notion of firmness that loft us America. With regard to the atrocities committed by the French, whatever might be their number or magnitude, who made us the avengers of guilt, or invested us with a right to dispense the judgments of Providence? To GOD, not to us, they were accountable, and to him alone did juftice and judg

ment

ment belong. The French, we are told, are atheists, and this is urged as a reason for perfifting in the war against France. Presumptuous idea! Miferable beings as we are, did we imagine that the arm of flesh was wanted to affift and enforce the will of the ALMIGHTY? The abufe of religion had been mistaken in France for religion itself. Hence, in the eagerness of her enthusiasm for the reform of religious abuses, she had renounced religion altogether, and been betrayed by the falfe light of philosophy into infidelity. But he doubted not but the mift in which they were at present bewildered would foon be difperfed, and Christianity appear in a purer form than ever."---The divifion upon the motion of amendment was 88 to 15 peers.

Not difcouraged with the ill fuccefs of his former motion, and defirous to improve whatever impreffion had been made by it, Mr. Grey, on the 6th of February, moved the following well-weighed and judicious refolution :-"That this house, confidering that, in the fupport which it has given to his majefly in the prosecution of the present war, it has at no time had any other object but to restore to thefe kingdoms the bleffings of an equitable peace; that with a view to accomplish this humane and defirable end, every formal difficulty which may stand in the way of a pacific negotiation with the powers with which we are at war ought, in the first instance, to be removed; and that without fome acknowledgment of the exiftence of a competent power in France with which his majesty may negotiate and conclude a treaty of peace on just and reasonable terms for both parties, there can be no termination of the present war but in the deftruction of one of them ;---confidering further, that the existence of fuch a competent power in France has been directly acknowledged by feveral of the powers in Europe, as well as by the United States of America, with all of whom, during the prefent war, France has maintained the accuftomed relations of peace and amity and confidering alfo that the exiftence of fuch a

competent

competent power in France has been, in various inftances, virtually admitted even by the belligerent powers themselves, fome of whom have entered into public refolutions to make overtures for peace,--is of opinion that the government now exifting in France is competent to entertain and conclude a negotiation for peace with Great Britain."-After an animated debate, the previous queftion, moved by Mr. Dundas, was carried by 190 to 60 voices.

In the house of peers, on the 12th of February, the duke of Bedford made a nearly fimilar motion, which was oppofed, and the previous question moved, by lord Hawkesbury---the numbers being 101 to 15; against which the duke of Bedford, and the earls of Lauderdale, Buckinghamshire, and Guildford, entered their protest.

The harsh and haughty language of the king's speech, at the commencement of the feffion, had given general difguft; and Mr. Pitt had been forced to a conceffion, which was probably not within the scope of his original intention. The nation, at this period of the conteft, feemed wearied and difpirited; the high and flattering hopes which Mr. Pitt had taught them to indulge had vanished into air, and they were not yet rouzed to higher exertion by the fenfe of danger and felf-prefervation. Taking advantage of this ftate of the public mind, and of the recent defection of Mr. Wilberforce and his party from the court, Mr. Fox, in a moft able and luminous fpeech, moved, on the 24th of March, "That the house of commons should refolve itself into a committee, to inquire into the state of the nation." This folemn mode of inquiry ought not, he observed, ever to be reforted to but in cafes of peculiar emergency, and fuch he esteemed the prefent. He had himself introduced a fimilar motion, in 1777, after the furrender at Saratoga; but the perils to the country then were trifling and infignificant compared with what they were at prefent. If, when the public mind was evidently changed, the house should continue to repose a blind con

fidence

In

fidence in ministers, to impofe new burdens on the people, not only without requiring them to negotiate, but even without demanding of them any account of the blood and treasure they had fquandered, great advantage must be given to whoever wifhed to diffeminate diffatisfaction. justification of his motion, nothing more, he thought, was neceffary, than to state to the house, that, after a war of two years, we had been uniformly unsuccessful, had relinquifhed the object for which the war was faid to be undertaken, while the enemy had gained more than the wildest imaginations ever afcribed either to their ambition or principles. An inquiry muft, in one view, be favorable even to ministers themselves. If we had, as minifters afferted, entered into the war from neceffity, and had conducted it, as they also afferted, with wisdom and vigor, the refult would be abfolute defpair. But perhaps they did not do their cause justice. Perhaps the cause of failure might inhere in the theoretic principle; and their practical meafures, founded upon that erroneous principle, might be judicious and proper. Perhaps, on the other hand, their theory was found and juft, but their mode of carrying it into execution, their practical measures, might be found unwife and indigefted. In either cafe the public would receive fome fatisfaction; and they would, upon inquiry, either change the principle or cenfure the conduct; and minifters would be relieved from one part at least of the twofold imputation, which, previous to any inquiry, must hang over their heads.

1

Great Britain, Mr. Fox faid, had a right to demand an inquiry into the conduct of the king of Pruffia. Was he an ally? Was he neutral? Was he an enemy? That monarch had alleged that he could do nothing without a fubfidy: we had given him 1,200,000l. and the use he made of it was to attack Poland. The emperor was equally unable to move without the aid of a loan; and England muft, it was manifeft, fuftain the whole weight of the war.

VOL. III.

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Great

Great fubfidies were alfo paid to the Italian princes, though we fcarcely heard of a movement in that country. Spain had loft Navarre, Bifcay, and Catalonia, and must also be fubfidized, or foon make peace with the enemy. All this called for inquiry. What was our conduct to the neutral powers to America-whom we had first fhamefully injured, then fervilely courted? To the court of Denmark, whose wife policy reflected fuch high honor on her first minifter, the count de Bernstorf? To Tufcany? To Switzerland? To Genoa?

Mr. Fox again infifted, in the strongest terms, upon the propriety and neceffity of a specific avowal of the object of the war. Is it merely to repel certain acts of aggreffion, without adverting to any particular form of government in France? Then fay diftinctly what are those aggreffions, and what the reparation you require.-Is it to wrest the Low Countries from the enemy, and to confine France to her antient limits? Avow it to be fo, without disguise.--Is it to restore the antient monarchy, or any form of monarchy in France? Declare in this, and in every cafe, your object, openly and fairly, and you will not fail to fecure many adherents and partizans. But minifters had fo fhuffled and trimmed between different fyftems, they had dealt out their declarations and profeffions in fuch ambiguous language, that they had loft all claim and title to confidence; and, through the puerile hope of embracing the incompatible advantages of thefe different plans, they had forfeited every benefit to be derived from the decided adop tion of any one of them.

What could the great body of the emigrants fuppofe when they faw Valenciennes and Condé taken poffeffion of in the name, not of Louis XVIII. but of the emperor ; and the French Weft-India iflands in that of the king of England? Unquestionably, that we were fighting merely for the fpoils of France.