HISTORY. OF EUROPE.» 
too ata time when he had quite 
deserted us. Other breaches of 
good faith, in the court of Vienna, 
were particularised by Mr. Fox, 
which ought, he said, to render us 
extremely circumspe¢t in our pecu- 
niary negotiations with that minis- 
try. Should it conclude a peace 
with France, as not a little to be 
apprehended, what an immense sum 
would have been lavished to no 
effet: he dwelt with great indigna- 
tion on the uncertainty to which we 
submitted in the emperor’s condutt, 
and demanded, with great firmness, 
that the committee of the house, 
“now sitting upon that important 
subject, would express their sense 
of itinexplicitterms. Afterseve. 
tal reasonings, by other members, 
the ministerial resolutions in favour 
of the loan, were carried by 77 
to 43. 
The second and third readings of 
the bill relating to this loan, were 
attended with very animated con- 
tests. The two-fold character of 
the emperor, as head of the empire, 
and as the sovereign of other domi- 
nions, occasioned a variety of dis- 
cussions ; some insisting that he 
could not well separate these charac- 
ters in practice, and others alleging, 
that neither of them interfered with 
the other, and that were he to con- 
clude a peace with France in his 
Imperial capacity, he might still 
continue the war'as king of Hungary 
and Bohemia, and sovereign of other 
states, from which he derived far 
ter importance and power than 
rom the Imperial dignity. A re- 
petition took place, as usual, of the 
many other arguments already em. 
ployed by both sides on this subje¢t, 
which terminated, at length, by the 
passing of the bill, 
[201 
, In the house of lords, the bill was 
strongly opposed by the dukes. of 
Norfolk and Grafton, as introduced 
too abruptly, and without a suffi. 
cient expianation on the part of mi- 
nisters: it was a measure involving 
the dearest interests of the nation, 
and tending to deprive it not only 
of its property, buc of the very 
right of disposing of it; which, by 
the present arrangement, was in 
reality lodged in the hands of mi. 
nisters, 
Their condu& was zealously vin. 
dicated by lord Grenville, who se. 
verely censured the  reasonings 
drawn from the defection of Prussia, 
against confiding in the emperor; 
as if eyery sovereign could be sup- 
posed void of honour and honesty. 
He denied the disapprobation of the 
war by the people at large, ‘and as- 
serted, that the public had never 
been more thoroughly convinced of 
its propriety. 
The bill was strenuously opposed 
by the earl of Lauderdale. He ad- 
duced a variety of reasons why it. 
ought never to have been produced 
to the house in its a¢tual form, 
which divested us of all security 
from the emperor, and left jt at his 
option to act independently of every 
motive that could bind him to do 
us justice, His zeal for the com~ 
mon cause was very precarious, and, 
since the disasters of the last cam. 
paign, he had proved a useless ally, 
Ministers hoasted of what had been 
done in the West Indies, and of 
what was projected against France: 
but fifteen hundred thousands pounds, 
issued for the relief of the people in 
our islands, proved how little these 
assertions ought to be credited, and 
our disappointments on the coast of 
France, shewed how ill-founded 
' our 
