260 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1794. 



tion, he quoted a leller from 

 Sieyes to Neckar, in which he ad- 

 dressed him in these remarkable 

 words : " I shall ever regret that 

 France has provoked war, and set 

 all Europe agaiast her." 



Lord Lauderdale said, that it had 

 been reiteratedly and confidently 

 asserfedjthai the mass of the French 

 nationwas inclined to the restoration 

 of monarchy; but that he had been 

 in France, and from all he had seen 

 and heard, uoiild aver that assertion 

 to be false. AVere the coalition, 

 therefore, to succeed in replacing 

 a King on the French throne, die 

 expence of maintaining him against 

 the will of the majority, v^ould form 

 a weighty object of calculation. 



Th-' danger of interfering with 

 the prerogative of the crown in 

 the question of peace or war, was, 

 by Lord Hawke^bury, rcp-esented 

 as very great ; particularly at thig 

 critical period. Were tlic French 

 to imagine that the legislative de- 

 partment was at variance with the 

 executive, their backw ardness to 

 peace would increase. Cur allies 

 too must necessarily bedispirittd on 

 suspectin,T a branch of our legisla- 

 ture to be inimical to a confederacy, 

 of w hich this country was the soul. 

 The surest means of re-establishing 

 tranquillity in Europe was n change 

 of government in Fiance. 'l\\enty- 

 t!ve millions were too unmerous 

 a people to be governed by repub- 

 • li'-an maxims. 'Ihe English, a less 

 populous nation, had unsnccess- 

 fuiiy attempted tliis form of go- 

 vernment in the last century. The 

 ineans of persevering in this im- 

 portant contebt, were far from 

 wanting. Money was continually 

 flowing in from our conquests in 

 the West Indies. Ihj'ough the ac- 



quisition of the French islands, (r.e 

 commerce of this country, and of 

 course the nation 1 revenue, were 

 incessantly increasing. 



In answer to Lord Hawkesbury's 

 ideas on a republic, the Marquis 

 of I.ansdowne observed, that no 

 resemblance existed between the 

 situation of England before the Re- 

 storation, and that of France at the 

 present day. The division of pro- 

 pel ly was much more equal now 

 among the French, than it was 

 then amonjr the English; and this 

 e(iualization was the very ground- 

 work of a republic. Nothing, he 

 cont'uned, could more strongly 

 prove a defect of political know- 

 ledge, than to presume thai: so en- 

 thusiaitic a people as the French, 

 in the united deftnce of their coun- 

 try and its opinions, could be re- 

 duced to suV)jection by the remains 

 and the recruits of those veteran 

 armies of Austrians and Prussians 

 that had not been able to stand 

 before them. 



Lord Grenville, in opposition to 

 the r(S;)luii:)n?, contended that it 

 were absurd to depend on any 

 treaty with a government sc shift- 

 ing and unstable as that of the 

 French republic ; numbers of those 

 who bore the sway last year, were 

 now no moie. Ministers were per- 

 petually challenged to dfclaie and 

 to abide by an uniform object of 

 war. He would produce the most 

 justifiable of any, a safe and ho- 

 nourable peace : he would go fur- 

 ther, and acknowledge that the re- 

 establislmimt of monarchy was the 

 .sole security to be relied on for 

 its continuance ; by monaichy 

 however, lie did not mean despo- 

 tism. He largely insisted on the 

 desperate methods of raising money 



la 



