lis]. ANNUAL REGISTER, 1797. 
cause they were ‘so consistent with 
the spirit of the constitutiun, so 
blended with our system of juris- 
prudence, so congenial to the prac- 
tice of former times, and so con- 
formidable to the letter of former 
acts, that it was impossible to make 
any discrimination. They had been 
passed in a moment of turbulence 
and alarm, and had been found ad- 
mirably calculated to meet the 
emergency of the time. With 
regard to the assertion, that endea- 
vours for procuring peace had been 
made only of late; an endeavour 
depended on a variety of circum- 
stances, such as the relative state 
of parties, the number of allies 
with whom we might be ‘engaged 
to, act, the atterition we paid to 
their interests, and the concert we 
wished to preserve with them: and 
this truth, he said, was abundantly 
sufficient to humble the triumph of 
the honourable gentleman, who 
had asserted, that we were at last 
come to the period which he had at 
first pointed out, and were only now 
adopting those measures, which, 
had we listened to him, might have 
been adopted long ago, Might not 
a period of four years have produced 
many events to justify a material 
change of policy, and to render 
mieasures wise and expedient now, 
which would not have been so, at 
another time ? As to the question 
of our resources, they furnished a 
subject of well yrourided confidence. 
They had nothing in them hollow 
or delusive; they were the result 
of an accumulated capital, increas- 
ing wealth, high .and_ established 
credit; the fruits of. fair’ exertion, 
laudable ingenuity, and successful 
industry. ‘hey had been produced 
under a system of order and justice, 
whilst we had been contending 
fortitude and perseverance, 
against a country in every respect 
the reverse of the picture: whilst 
the violence of France had been 
over-running so /great a portion of 
Kurope, and carrying desolation in 
its progress, we had been enabled, by 
our naval exertions, to counterba- 
lance their successes, by acquisitions 
in different parts of the globe, and 
to preface the way for the restora- 
tion of peace to our allies, on terms, 
which even their strength might 
have been insufficient to procure. 
If, indeed, we cast our eyes over 
the geographical situation of the 
seat of the war, we should certainly 
be forced to admit, that the emperor 
had not regained, by: his victories, 
all that he had lost ; but’ did’ we 
count for nothing the destruction of 
those armies, by whom all previous 
successes cf the enemy. had been 
atchieved ? Did. we count for no- 
thing the glorious testimony which 
had been exhibited .to “mankind, 
that disciplined valour finally must 
triumph over those principles which 
the war was undertaken to oppose, 
and which owed all’ their extraor- 
dinary successes, to the violence in 
which they originated, and the ex- 
cesses with which they were accom- 
panied? A memorable warning 
had been afforded, by those foreign 
powers, who, in opposition to their 
true interests, had courted the al- 
liance of that enemy, and expected 
to find security in disgraceful tran- 
quillity : recent events had served 
also to exculpate those who had 
been calumniated, as desirous to 
embrace their principles and receive 
their laws; and in Germany they 
had left behind them nothing but 
the memory of wrongs, and the 
feelings of resentment. Germany 
had furnished a striking instance of 
He 
trusted, 
