Ss 
ee 
r RITCHIE’S MEMOIRS OF EUROPE. 265 
fancied they were using against France. 
They have been lending the treasures 
and forces of this country, not to resist 
French aggrandizement, but to subdue 
France to the holy see. ‘They have 
triumphed. 
The conclusion of this interesting 
history contains a criticism on the peace 
of Amiens, very characteristic of the 
author’s patriotism. 
- **B- the conditions of the definitive treaty 
Bonaparte acquired more, than four years of 
successful warfare could have given him. 
Their extreme liberality explains the reason, 
why the diplomatic correspondence has not 
transpired. France could not be abashed by 
giving publicity to the progressive steps of a 
negociation, which terminated so beneficially 
to her; but the exposure of them might not 
have been a matter of equal indifference to. 
the other contracting party. The court of 
Lendon wished to get rid of the war at any 
price, and the first consul, remarking this 
favourable ardour, was too sagacious not to 
turn it to his own advantage. It is not 
enough to disclaim any idea that the peace 
was concluded under an impression of the 
ever-ruling power of France: the supposition 
must be disproved by facts, and by them 
enly. If the vigour and resources of Bri- 
tain were as great, her sitnation as proud 
and pre-eminent a8 ever; if her means of 
continuing the contest were adequate to 
every exertion which might have been re- 
quired, how. happens it that concession is 
the task of Britain alone?—that there appears 
no mutual interchange, no reciprocation on 
the side of the republic? Surely, so vast a 
boon might have procured peace at any time; 
and if no imperious necessity existed oy the 
part of this country, was it not humiliating, 
was it not disgraceful to accept of terms 
which implied it? If the relative attitude of 
the two states precluded further beneficial 
hostility, the x2 possidetis became the rule 
of negsciation, and that alone, or cammen- 
sarate renunciations, can be acknowledged 
as the evidence of equal claims. But an 
expenditure of nearly three hundred milli- 
ons, independent of the losses sustained by 
a restricted commerce, and other evils inci- 
dent to a state of hostility ; a sum which has 
entailed an increase of annual taxes greater 
than the real value of the foreign merchan- 
dise imported into Britain’ during the year, 
and little short of that of her export trade, 
surely demanded a more equable compen- 
sation than the cession of Ceylon and ‘Trini- 
dad. The professed object of the war against 
Tippoo was the expulsion of Frenchmen 
from India for ever: but by the treaty of 
Amiens, Pondicherry and all her former 
settlements in the east are restored, na 
guaranteed to the republic, which thus ac- 
quires the means of reviving dangerous in- 
trigues with the native powers, and forming 
at her ease establishments that will soon ex- 
pand to an extent fatal to the interests of this 
country. As a military and commercial 
station, the Cape of Good Hope was of the 
first importance: yet this settlement is re- 
stored without a struggle. In fine, all the 
colonies of France in the possession of Bri- 
tain are given up, after being improved and 
enriched by the capital and industry of the 
English merchant, and they are given up 
without any requital,—except the grant of 
Pp Pace. 
«« The sanction of terms so deerading, of 
terms which the vanquished only could be 
supposed to receive, was a disagreeable duty 
to the British legislature: it was directly 
hostile to their proceedings during the last 
eight years. When their political opponents, 
o1 so many former occasions, suggested mc- 
deration instead of that contemptuous pride 
which inflated the incapacity of the war- 
ministers ; when they proposed the acknow- 
ledgment of the French, republic, and a 
compromise as to territory by the renunciation 
of some of her colonies, and the retention 
of others; Mr. Pitt exclaimed, that he trusted 
there was not a man to sign such a treaty, 
and not a courier to carry it. Yet, bya 
strange fatality, one of his warmest partisans’ 
was selected to conclude a peace.on less fa- 
vourable conditions, and officially pronounce 
its eulogy. At the same time the ex-minister, 
with ineredible effrontery, openly joined in 
the transaction, but shewed no compunc- 
tion, and felt no abasement from self-con- 
tradiction. In the course of his oration, 
during the solemn discussion of the treaty 
in the house of commons, he laughed; and 
in this playful humour, which incited a 
corresponding sensation among his friends, 
were the dearest interests of the nation de- 
cided. The Britons, who fell on the plains 
of Flanders and the sand-hills of Holland, 
could never have surmised, that their funeral 
rites would be celebrated with merriment. 
Butas if the history of Mr. Pitt ought to be 
recorded in Hudibrastic verse only, the mau, 
whocan boast of haying, by the impolicy of 
his measures, reared a power whose stupen- 
dous strength must soon crush the thrones 
of the European poteitates, is to have a 
statne erected to immortalise his deserts. 
Let it be engraven on its pedestal, that the 
British annals, since the time that a Stuart 
occupied the throne, afford not an instance 
of imbecility in the cabinet and the field, or 
an ignominious result, equal to those in the 
war against the independence of the French 
nation, and the liberties of mankind.” 
This history is written with an ardour 
of eloquence which well adapts it for 
popularity of circulation. It is not 
distinguished by the consultation of nu- 
merous, or foreign, or recondite au- 
thorities; but by the natural choice cf 
those objects for prominence, which 
