HISTORY OF* EUROPE, [181 
A 
: 
Car’ AW. sl. 
The Sentiments of the French towards the English.—Motion in the House of 
Peers by the Earl of Stanhope, for Non-interference in the Internal Affairs 
of France.—Unanimously rejefted.—Motion of a like Tendency in the 
House of Commons.—Negatived.—Motion in the House of Peers for fa- 
cilitating the Opening of a Negstiation with F rance.— Negatived.—Motion 
for a vigorous Prosecution of the War.—Carried.—Sundry Motions for 
Preparing a Way for Peace with France.—Negatived.— Motion in the 
House of Commins for an Inquiry into the State of the Nation.—Nega- 
tived.— Another to the same Intent in the House of Peers.— Negatived.— 
Motion in the House of Commons, tending to a General Pacification, by 
Mr. Wilberforce.—Negatived.—A Motion of a similar Tendency in the 
House of Lords. —Negatived. 
IHE French, in the midst of 
theirsuccesses, against all their 
other enemies, were deeply ex- 
asperated at the unconquerable re- 
sistance of the English, and at the 
resolute perseverance with which 
these ancient rivals seemed deter- 
mined to oppose them every where. 
The principal speakers in the gon- 
vention were not wanting in their 
endeavours to depreciate the British 
charatter, as degenerated and fallen 
from that height to which it had 
risen in’ former periods: but the 
people of sense and knowledge, 
with which France abounds, were 
strongly impressed with the con- 
wiction, that the English were the 
most formidable of their enemies, 
and that more danger was to be ap- 
prehended from them than from all 
the other powers of the coalition. 
It was from this conviction that the 
ruling men in France were so earnest 
in stirring up the people to exert 
themselves, in order to overcome 
theirotherfoeswithall possiblespeed, 
that they might be able ultimately 
to encounter England, deprived of 
all foreign assistance, and reduced to 
depend solely on itself. . Until they 
could compass this point, they were 
persuaded that the utmost, effec of 
their successes,however great, would 
only be to produce a temporary and 
precarious state of security : which, 
while England animated the coa- 
lition with its spirit, and supported 
it with its treasures, would always 
be liable to be shaken and destroyed 
through the undiminished efforts 
which the English would never cease 
to make, and the unabated courage 
their example would infuse inta 
their allies. 
Such were the general ideas of 
the French at this critical period. 
They were no less those of the Eng- 
lish themselves. But the heavy 
burdens, necessary to be borne by the 
public for the prosecution of this 
expensive contest, excited the more 
discontent, that the object of it did 
not appear clearly ascertained, and 
[N3] scemed 
