160]J- ANNUAL REGIS TER, 
moving that a committee might be 
appoit ated te inguire into the pre- 
sent calamitous state of the country. 
The earl of Derby denied, as he 
always had done, any necessity, on 
our part, of going into the present 
war. He described the present dis- 
stressful state of the country ; and 
expressed his suspicions that the 
ministry were insincere in their late 
shew of negociation. His lordship 
thought that Pondicherry in the 
East Indies, and Martinico, St. Ln- 
cia, and Tobago, in the West In- 
dies, could never be considered as 
an equivalent for the Milanese and 
the Austrian Netherlands, 
The earl of Liverpool said, that 
what we had offered to the Frenes 
was, in reality, an equivalent to 
what we asked of them to be given 
up, It was reported, that the reve- 
nue they received from their West- 
India islands, generally amounted to 
ten millions annually —Why did 
not the French directory, when 
they were dissatisfied with the pro- 
posals from the British court, bring 
forward some counter-project of 
their own? 
' .Lord Auckland declared, that, 
though he, from the beginning: of 
this business, firmly believed that 
it would not be attended with any 
success, had yet been of opinion 
that it was right that the experi- 
ment should be made, for the satis- 
action of the country. The expe- 
riment had been made, and the re- 
sult was such as he had expected. 
He declared his conviction, that the 
defenders of the French republic 
were in such a state of distress, as 
not to be able to go through ano- 
ther campaign. 
‘The earl Fitzwilliam said, that no 
circumstance had occurred to con- 
vince him, that the former proud 
1797. 
and dangerous principles of the 
French did not now exist in theig 
full force. There could be no safety 
in fraternizing with such a people, 
The duke of Bedford, among 
other shrewd remarks, observed, 
that Jord Malmesbury, in his con- 
versation with M. de Ja Croix, by 
hinting at an equivalent for the Ne- 
therlands, had, ina manner, admit-. - 
ted the plea of the directory, and 
that,‘in contradiction to the treaties 
subsisting bet ween Great Britain and 
her allies. The French miuister, 
at the same time, by conversing 
about an equivalent, proved that he 
virtually admitted that some equi+ 
valent might be ac¢cepted.— Lord 
Malmesbury, he observed, had rez 
quested a conire projet, whilst, at 
the same,time, be persisted in refu- 
sing to enter upon any treaty in 
which the French were toretain pos- 
session of the Netherlands. From 
these circumstances, as well as that 
of |jord Malmesbury being left with~ 
out a discretionary power in any 
matter of i importance, his grace in- 
ferred, that ministers were not sin- 
cere in the proposed negociations for 
peace. He thought that before a re- 
newal of the negociation, ministers 
ought to have satisfied themselves, 
that the French directory had de- 
parted from the principle they avow- 
ed, when they refused to treat with 
Mr. Wickham. In his opinion, mi- 
nisters had not only created suspi- 
cions, as to the sincerity of their in- 
tentions, but eyen afforded just 
grounds for accusation. They had 
acted on a principle of angmenting 
the power of great states at the 
expence of those which were 
weaker; such, he said, was their 
idea of remunerative justice ! By 
consenting to such a principle, Eu- 
rope would sink ‘into a miserable 
P labyrinth 
