1^0 



AN N U A L REGISTER, 1794. 



France, ^id an acknowlcdg'.ncnt 

 of the Frciicii republic. The 

 question beuvccn the two parties 

 was now become of the :iK)i,t seri- 

 ous magtiitude. It involved uni- 

 versally all the inhabitants of Great 

 B'.itain. I'he animobitics it excited 

 were far greater and more dan<;er- 

 ous than those which had been pro- 

 duced by the American war. 

 Theie, when at their height, were 

 chiefly caused by difference of opi- 

 nion concerning the duration of 

 parliament, and the manner of 

 cepresentaiion. But the present 

 question embraced objects of much 

 greater impi^rtance. It w.is not a 

 part, but the whole of the British 

 constitution, a reform af which was 

 required. This was well under- 

 Stood to be the ultimate view of 

 tfte democratic party ; nor was tin's 

 party averse to acknowledge the 

 rtalky of this imputation. The 

 violence whioh agitatid those who 

 .ijiprovcUj as well as liiose who op- 

 .posed ttie measures of government, 

 foreboded the most unfortunate 

 consequences. 'As they both ap- 

 peared equally resolute to main- 

 tain at all events the system they 

 )iad-respectivL-ly-cspoused, meny)f 

 prudence ;\ny „ moderation, who* 

 faught MQ more than a r«drcss of , 

 real^anoP visible grievances, soon 

 discovered that the number of in- 

 dividuals of their own way of think- 

 ing, was too inconsiderable to grove 

 of any^veight agair.st the raulti- 

 tudi.-: on- cittier tide that were de- 

 termined to listen to no tcrrr;S of 

 accommodalioh, and t'd carry 

 their point," or M>ish in the 

 attempt. .^jA conviction of this 

 nature comp-.lled them at »ohce 

 to make their option between these 

 jneconcileable opponent?, and to 

 range themselves on that side for 

 J\'hich they felt a preponderance of 



inclination. The con5equer\ce was,- 

 that, guided by the maxim to choose 

 the least of the two evils, they 

 lliought it their interest to submit 

 to inconvenicBces, of which the 

 coiistiiutiun cKuId not in the pre- 

 s.tu fermentation he forcibly di- 

 vested without hazardinrr its exist- 

 ence. &uch a determination ex- 

 posed them to the most virulent 

 taunts and invectives of those who 

 were resolved to persist to the last 

 in requiring those extensive re- 

 forms, without which, they al- 

 leged, thete could be no real free- 

 dom. 



Such was the itate of the public 

 mind when the parliament met on 

 the 2lst of January 1794. The 

 royal speech, as it had been ex- 

 pected, recommended a vigorous 

 prosecutiou of the war, on the 

 prosperous issue of which depended 

 the preservation of the constitution, 

 laws, and religious establishment 

 of the kingdom, and the security 

 of all civil society. The efforts of 

 France to resist her numerous ene- 

 njies, were, it was said, founded 

 solely on a violent usurpation of 

 every branch of the nation into 

 thehandsof its present rulers, which 

 rendered them absolute masters of 

 people's lives» of which they dis- 

 posed in the most arbitrary manner. 

 But as the system they had adopted 

 openly violated every restraint of 

 justice, humanity, and religion, it 

 had necessarily produced internal 

 discontent and oonfueion ; and the 

 vast efforts proceeding from that 

 system tended rapidly to exhaust 

 the'nztural andrcal strength of the 

 country. The concluding part of 

 the speech stated the ground and 

 origin of the war to have been an. 

 attack on Great Britain and its 

 allies ; founded on principles tend- 

 ing to destroy all property, to sub- 

 vert 



