. 
« 
156] ANNUAL REGISTE'R) 1797. 
tions, What inference can be drawn 
from this conduct, on the part of mi- 
nisters, but that, by thus bringing 
forward a. futile, illusory;and un- 
meaning basis, they expected to 
disgust the French in the ‘first:in- 
staiice, and so get rid of the negoci- 
ation? and if the French, who 
must have felt, themselves mocked 
by this treatment, and have been 
more and more assured of the in- 
sincerity of our ministers, had stop- 
ped all further proceedings, would 
they not have been fully justified ? 
Undoubtedly, ministers expected 
that they would have resented the 
insult, and have broken off the ne- 
gociation at the outset. ‘hey thus 
hoped to have obtained easy cre- 
dit for their pacific intentions, and 
to have thrown upon the enemy 
the odium ofa determined purpose 
of hostility, and an unreasonable 
rejection of the preliminary basis 
of negociation. . Un‘ortunately, 
however, for this project, the basis 
was recognized, The disappoint- 
ment of ministers was evident : lord 
Malmesbury was unprepared how 
to act, and. compelled to send for 
farther instructions, The question 
then became, “since the French 
have so unexpectedly accepted the 
basis we intended to be rejected, 
what can we find that they must be 
indispensibly called upon to refuse?” 
Lord Malmesbury, who had before 
no terms to propose, was now in- 
' structed to bring forward such as 
could not ‘be supposed to undergo 
much discussion ; such as could not 
readily fail to effect. the purpose of 
being, rejected. The three great 
powers of the continent of Eu- 
rope; will all of them he left with 
considerable | acquisitions? © The 
_king of Prussia has gained a third 
part of Poland; Russia has ob- 
tained a considerable extent of ter- 
ritory from that. unfortunate coun- 
try : and in addition to his share of 
the division, itis also proposed, that 
the emperor of Germany shall also 
be putin possession of Maestricht, 
or some other place. France: is to 
be left with only Savoy, Nice, and 
Avignon. Is it fair that all the 
oth-r powers should gain more than 
France ? Is the state of the war 
such as to justify,this proposition ? 
When Great Britain made a propo- 
sition so unreasonable, Frauce took 
a step calculated to give confidence 
to the people in those countries she 
had annexed to the republic, by 
declaring that she could not, on any 
account, give them up, In the con- 
ference which took place between 
the Britishambassador and theFrench 
minister, the former declared, that, 
the king of Great Britain would not 
recede from his demand, with re- 
spect to the Netherlands. Must 
not the French, in ‘consequence of 
this declaration, have been induced 
to assume an equally resolute toné, 
with respect to their intention of 
keeping that territory; whea, from 
the nature of the terms proposed, 
they perceived no likelihood of ob- 
taining peace? As to the French 
minister baving asked lord Malmes- 
_-bury to give in his ultimatum, it 
evidently: meant no more than that 
-he should make a formal declaration 
of what he had said witheregard to. 
Belgium: a demand which could 
not surely be considered as unrea- 
sanable. Whatever the English 
ministry may think on that subject, 
the world at large would consider 
the memorial of lord Malmesbury 
as the sine qua non of the court of 
Great Britain, respecting Belgium, 
If, Mr. Fox proceeded, the house 
shall. be of opinion, that Belgium 
ig 
