COOTE’S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 257 
lish-tempered policy. After the extinc- 
tion of the Girondist party in France, 
the war gradually ceased to appear a 
crusade against liberty ; after the nego- 
tiation at Lille, it ceased to appear ag- 
gressive, and was become really national 
before its close. The accession of Bona- 
parte was a moment at which an ho- 
nourable peace might have been obtain- 
ed. The early interests of his popula- 
rity and power, seemed to require a pa- 
cific policy, and would have inspired 
a concessive spirit. The contemptuous 
refusal to negotiate with him, of which 
Lord Grenville was the herald, served 
to inroot a formidable hostility against 
this country, ina soul before disposed 
to value the opinion of Britons. This 
refusal in our ministers, probably arose 
from a culpable ignorance of the perso- 
nal character and disposition of that 
distinguished general. He had been 
erroneously called by Mr. Pitt, “ the 
child and champion of jacobinism,” al- 
though in early life he had betrayed a 
warm anxiety for the escape of Louis; 
although his first step to power was a 
repressive massacre of the jacobins, 
when under the guidance of the sections 
ef Paris, they revolted against the Di- 
rectory ; although his religiosity was 
proclaimed by the obsequies of Pius 
VL.; although his selection for the su- 
preme office, from among the other 
generals of France, arose from the con- 
hough his elevation was itself accom- 
plished by the dismissal of the repre- 
gentative authorities. In short, Bona- 
parte was the real chieftain of the 
ehurch-and-king party of the French, 
or what Mr. Burke calls “ the moral 
king of France;’? and thus he was the 
natural object of anti-jacobin recogni- 
«tion, though of mistrust to the friends 
of liberty. 
This opportunity having been lost, 
the best chance for obtaining equitable 
terms of peace, would have been to in- 
trust official situations to those persons 
of antient and European reputation for 
talent, who possessed the confidence of 
the original adversaries of the war, and 
* who therefore could alone have called 
forth ‘a more diffusive energy in case of 
the renewal of hostilities. They only 
would have negotiated on the highest 
possible ground; but the persons em- 
ployed, had they ventured to be nice, 
must have resigned to their predecessors, 
-viction of Sieyes and the jesuitic party, 
that he would restore the church; and- 
The peace, like the war, suffered from 
the obstinate intolerance of anti-jacobin- 
ism. 
In 1799, the very. meritorious mea- 
sure of an union of the parliaments of 
Great-Britain and Ireland, was accom- 
plished with great practical dexterity 
by Mr. Pitt. By this grand constitu- 
tional innovation, he may be considered 
as having redeemed his early pledge of 
parliamentary reform. He has added 
a hundred members to the British house 
of commons; h¢ has introduced into 
our legislation the useful precedent of 
extinguishing borough-representation by 
purchase. It will soon be perceived 
that these changes are realizing, in some 
degree, the warm expectations, which 
the friends of parliamentary reform al- 
ways indulged. The house of com! 
mons is become a mightier and a more 
independent power. _ To its secret will 
a greater deference is already shown by 
the highest branch of the constitution. 
With the sentiments of the people it 
sympathizes more than heretofore. Soon 
no doubt it will break and cast away 
the rusty chains which superstitious in- 
tolerance formerly, and the viler fetters 
which anti-jacobin intolerance recently 
imposed on the people of Great-Britain. 
This was the last conspicuous act of 
Mr. Pitt’s long administration, which 
had no very marked character, except 
while it was overawed by Mr. Burke. It 
left the country with more positive, with 
less relative power than at its commence- 
ment: with a vast increase of means, 
and a vast increase of debt. There are 
no measures, except perhaps the last, of 
that provident and commanding kind, 
which bind a statesman to posterity, and 
forbid the estimate of his utility, before 
the lapse of centuries. The commercial 
treaties were such as the age would 
have made without the agent ; they 
were framed on doctrines already po- 
pular ; they in nothing anticipated the 
future principles of statistical philosa- 
phy. A spirit of probity, precision, and 
punctuality, worthy of a banker’s clerk, 
characterized Mr. Pitt’s management 
of the revenue, and his financial inter- 
course with the monied interest of Lon- 
don. These are scarce qualities among: 
the nobility and gentry, but of the ut- 
most importance in a chancellor of ex- 
chequer: indeed it is an office which 
ought to devolve on the Sir Francis 
Barings, on the more intelligent mer- 
chants of the time, or on the managers 
