5224. ANNUAL REGIS T E R, !79i. 



covirts afTorded clnily proofs thst 

 tlve wretchedness of th? comnion. 

 alty could not divert tbem from 

 ,3fnbit'ous project!, ■vvhcn appeal-— 

 Slices were fa.vouraWc to their cx- 

 cctition. This was ''nvariably the 

 case where abspUite princes ruled : 

 but the government of Prance 

 vcn-) in the hands of the people, 

 wiio had tasted sufficiently i^f want 

 and misery, gladly to embrace tiie 

 cppcrtunity of being dt-livercd 

 from such a condition, and anxi.- 

 ously to beware how they %vcre 

 again reduced to it. Treaties with 

 a people thus circumstanced, would 

 probably be more stable than with 

 states, the heads t>f v;-hich were far 

 removed from common sufferings, 

 and where the popular chigscsheldin 

 abject thraldom, had nothing to say 

 in tl>e management of public affairs. 

 The objection to pca.cc was, the 

 q'.iestion, With whom to treat ? 

 But with whom could we treat 

 l>f tter than with those people ? 

 I^ct both parties be sincere, and a 

 pacification would sooa follow. 

 Cavils of the same nature had 

 fcer-n raised against treating with 

 America ; but they were merely 

 proofs of the unwillingness of 

 ministers to make a peace ; in 

 which case Parliament, imitating 

 the laudul^le example of their pre- 

 dcccssors,ought to close th.e present 

 dispu,tc with I'rance, as they had 

 done that of America, by cutting 

 tjie kiiot vtliich ministers refused to 

 untie, and remo-ing at once, by a 

 dcci^jive vote of dib^tpprobation, all 

 ■the obstacles which they had 

 thrown in the way of treating. 

 France could not, in the nature of 

 thmgs, be averse to a measure 

 which t;ended directly to the accom- 

 pliiiimenL of every purpose shr 



had in view, and was contendiii:^ 

 for under a complicatirn of diCi- 

 culties and distresses, which would 

 instantly cease by her joining in 

 issue with us. Indemnity liad been 

 demanded by the advocates for 

 the continuation of the war; by 

 which it might be supposed, they 

 r'q'ijred the cession of some French 

 possessions in the West Indies. 

 P-ut the time was no more when 

 suth an acquisit i'^n could be of 

 use. Principles o* democracy daily 

 gained ground in the French 

 islands, nnd rendered their possession 

 rather precarious and undesirable 

 at the present juncture ; and the 

 difllculty of maintaining our au- 

 thority in any of the Islands that 

 might be ceded to us by France, 

 far outweighed the utility deri- 

 vable from them. Such indem.ni- 

 ficutions .vo'.ihl also lead the mo- 

 nicd people in Great Britain into 

 dangerous attempts to make them 

 profitable, as whatever ihey laid 

 out in tiicir imp-ovement might, 

 through the fluctuation and uncer- 

 tainty of the arrangements that 

 would take place in those distant 

 settlements, independently of their 

 concurrence, and v.'ith little or no 

 reference at all to their interests, 

 be placed out of the expectation 

 of recovery, either as to interest or 

 principal, — to say nothing of the 

 m(>rtincation the French would feci 

 at being obliged to make such con- 

 cessions, and the secret methods 

 they might contrive to render them 

 a source of perplexities. It w,a» 

 therefore beneath the notice of 

 Great Britain to seek for Huch com- 

 jiensation:;. The detriment occa- 

 sioned by a single year's stagnation 

 of the industry and capital of the 

 British nation, was more destrvinjf 



