HISTORY- OF EUROPE 
part to listen to the propositions 
now rejected by her, or to any 
ether specific proposal of indemnity 
or politi¢al security, but upon the 
arrogant and insulting pretence, 
that her goyernment wags not capa- 
ble of maintaining te accustomed 
relations of peaceand amityamongst 
nations, and that, on this unfounded 
_and merely speculative assumption, 
his ‘majesty was advised to continue 
the wat to a period whea tle dif- 
ficulties in the way of peace have 
‘been so much increased, by the 
defect of most of the powers en- 
gaged in the confederacy, and by 
the conquests and consequent pre- 
tensions of the French republic. 
“That this house, having thus 
humbly submitted to his majesty the 
reflections which his majesty’s gra- 
cious communication immediately 
suggests, feel themselves in duty 
bound, for the information of his 
majesty, and the satisfaction of an 
exhausted people, to proceed with 
unremitting diligence, to investigate 
_ the causes which have produced cur 
_ present calamities, and to offer such 
advice as the critical and alarmin 
circumstancesof the nation may re- 
quire... 
Mr. Dundas, at the same time 
_ that he charged Mr. Fox with 
availing himself of his situation, as 
ork 
ove 
_ the cause of the enemy, yetallowed 
_ that his amendment was unequivo- 
cal, fair, and open. He called 
yn the members to make a de- 
H ion, that they believed the mi- 
_ Nistry to have been insincere'in the 
Tate negociation for peace, Upon 
that issue he, for his own. part, 
would call on the members, as ho- 
nest men, to give their opinion, 
’ whether they thovght that ministers 
had omitted any measittes that 
‘ 
i 
al 
* 
a member of that house, to plead: 
[159 
might have procured peace with 
the country. He agreed that the 
expence of the war was great, but 
considered our success aS eq val to it. 
The’ emperor's ‘and ‘ ottr situation 
were thrown into”a common stock, 
We were Willing ‘to’ relinquish: our 
acquisitions from the Pench, to pro- 
cure for-his~ Impérial majesty the 
restoratiou of the territories he had 
lost.. With respect to the possessions 
of Holland, in our hands, which 
were .particularly connected with 
his share in the administration, and 
of the vast importance of which he 
- had spoken on former occasions, it 
was his wish to keep both the Cape 
and Ceylon, but never his désign 
to take from the Dutch their trade 
to the Cape; which was all that 
they were now capable of holding 
with advantage to themselves ; for 
as to the acttial possession of the 
place, they were too weak to keep 
it. He appealed to the old French 
monarchy, for the ‘truth of the as- 
sertion, that one acre of land in the 
Austrian Netherlands, is equal in 
value to a whole province of France. 
And this he did, that the house 
might see how necessary it was 
for his majesty to démand, as a 
condition of peace, that they should 
‘be restored to France. Facts would 
best shew which party had been 
‘wanting in a real desire to promote 
peace. Didthe French, in any pe- 
riod, come forward to negociate, 
and were refused by us? If this 
‘had been the case, the backward- 
ness of ministers to pacification 
‘must have been admitted; but the 
contrary was the truth: we had re- 
gularly used every means, from the 
note of Mr. Wickham, at Basle, 
’ to the late mission of lo«d Malmes- 
bury, to bring about so desirable an 
event, without success, 
uf Mr 
