HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



23S 



approvers of the ministry, ajnong 

 the worst enemies to their country. 

 But if what they had said was strict- 

 ly attended to, and fairly repeated, 

 it would be found that they had 

 spoken truths highly disagreeable 

 perhaps to ministers, but no less 

 necessary to be known to the pub- 

 lic. Ought it not, for instance, to 

 bfi told, that in Birmingham, a ma- 

 nufactariug town of the first repu- 

 tation in Great Britain, business 

 had so decreased, that since the 

 breaking out of the war no less 

 than four thousand individuals had 

 been added to the poor's rate ? In 

 the country towns traders were 

 daily breaking ; and incessant com- 

 plaints v.ere made of the heavy 

 burdens laid upon them. These 

 Avere occurrences not to be denied 

 or explained away by specious 

 reasonings. The nation in gene- 

 ral, not cnly those who were averse 

 to the Avar, but even those who ap- 

 proved of it, were equally loud in 

 censuring the inequality of treat- 

 ment experienced by multitudes in 

 the repartition of taxes, at the time 

 when they ought to be apportioned 

 with the most rigid equity to every 

 person's real capacity to pay them ; 

 andnot promiscuously imposed with- 

 out sufficiently attending on whom 

 they fell. Another grievance too, 

 of a scandalous nature, and of long 

 standing, demanded seriously to be 

 redressed. This was the prodigious 

 number of sinecures, and of places 

 of little other efficiency than to 

 produce emoluments and perqui- 

 sites to persons in the service or fa- 

 vour of ministers. Another griev- 

 ance exi^ted, greatly otieusive to a 

 very considerable part ot the na- 

 tion, and deeply rctlecled on its 

 Iionour imd generosity : — The vast 

 body of the dissenters, notwritstand- 

 inj[ tlieir linu and noted att.i.li- 



ment to the British constitution 

 and to the family on the throne, 

 had of late been distinguished by 

 some acts of the legislature, as at 

 dangerouscombinatiun of disaffect- 

 ed subjects, watching for opportti- 

 nities to bring forward innovations 

 inimical to the interests of theking- 

 dom : but what were those innova- 

 tions ? To enjoy the same rights in 

 civil matters as the other subjects of 

 Great Britain. Various arguments 

 were urged against tiieir demands ; 

 but the real cause of their meeting 

 with a retusal, wastheir attachment 

 to the principles of the opposition. 

 They had certainly an uncontro- 

 vertible claim to every right en- 

 joyed by their fellow-subjects, and 

 it was a shameful grievance to with- 

 hold them. The duty of ministry 

 in these critical times, was to con- 

 ciliate all partiesandall peisuasions. 

 The debate closed, by 103 

 against the motion, and only 13 in 

 its finour. 



Tlie great and unexpected suc- 

 cess which had attended the arms 

 of the French republic in the dose 

 of the year ITQ^J, bad so materia'ly 

 reversed the relative situation be- 

 tween them and the coalition, that 

 all those lofty ideas and expecta- 

 lions it had indulged previously to 

 the beginning of the last campaign, 

 were totally obliterated. Defence, 

 much more than conquest, was be- 

 come the objects of the most judi- 

 cious of their enemies, who clearly 

 p.'rceived, that to effect a reductioQ 

 of .o large a country as Prance, in- 

 habited by a people so mmierous, 

 so determined to resist them, and 

 animated by motives that had pro- 

 duced such wonderful exertions, 

 was a task to be accomplished only 

 by enemies impelled by motives 

 equally cogent and enthusiastic. — 

 liut tlit situation of ilie subjects of 



the 



