160] ANNUAL REGISTER, 
Mr. Grey said, that the funda- 
mental evil, from whence all our 
misfortunes flowed, was, that peace - 
never had been the real object of 
those who carried on the war. They 
went upon a system of extermina- 
tion, which so irritated our enemies 
that there was danger of our never 
having peace. Having taken a re- 
view of lord Malmesbury’s letter 
to lord Grenville, he contended 
that M. de la Croix’s proposition 
of offering an equivalent to the 
emperor, for the Netherlands, in 
the secularization of the three ec- 
clesiastical electorates, and several 
bishopricks in Germany and Italy, 
might be considered. as an offer of 
terms of peace, or contre projet, and 
ought to have been attended to. 
However we might wishfortheresto- 
ration of the Netherlands to the em- 
peror, they were not to be regained 
by force. Heconsidered the propo- 
sition, in the late negociation, of re- 
tainingthemostimportantpossessions 
of our former ally, Holland, asamost 
pro Aligatetraitinthelatenegociation. 
The offer of restoring Martinico and 
Pondicherry only, (for St Lucia and 
Tobago were to be kept as an equi- 
valent for our supposed claimson St. 
Domingo) for alithe conquests made 
by France on the « emperor, was a 
most extravagant proposition. 
Ona division of the house, Mr. 
Fox’s amendment was rejected by 
21 against 37. Fhe original address 
was, of course, carried by an equal 
majority. 
The general solicitude for peace, 
which prevailed at this time, being, 
* The extracts quoted were these : 
© In the Note (No, 2.) transmitted to Mr. 
passage : 
79. 
in a few weeks after, converted, by 
the stoppage of bank-payment in 
specie (already hinted at, and by 
and by to be particularly noticed), 
into a painful anxiety and many 
despondent forebodings of na- 
tional bankruptcy and individual 
ruin. 
The earl of Oxford was not 
deterred, by this defeat of the 
opposition, on the question of 
peace, and the means and condi- ~ 
tions of obtaining it, from making. — 
a second attempt for the same end, 
trusting that a material change must 
have been produced in the mind 
of parliament by the general alarm, 
still waxing greater and greater, in 
all parts of the country. His lord- 
ship, on the twenty- -third of March, 
called the attention of the house of 
lords to a motion, of which he had 
given notice some time before, on 
this subject. Peace, he said, was 
demanded by the voice of the coun- 
try ; and he was persuaded, that 
it might be obtained if sought with 
a sincere and honest intention. The 
government and people of France, 
he was convinced, were not Jess 
disposed than onrselyes, to, enter 
into an amicable negociation. He 
then read some extracts from, the 
adaek 
cutive pre, which: i“ upon 
their lordships table ; 3, upon which 
he grounded his. opinion,. that,the 
French directory . are. “inclined. to 
make peace.* His conclusion. from 
th ewhole was, ‘that the directory 
was 
Wickham, by M. Barthelem there is this 
‘* Thedirectory ardently desire toprocure, for the Frenths republic, a just and chibi 
abie peace. The step taken by Mr. Wickham would have afforded to the directorya 
teai satisfaction, if the declaration itself, which that minster TUES, 
of his not haying 
a5 any 
