164] 
from the means of attaining peace, 
and called upon the house to de- 
clare, that they would not negociate 
for any that they were likely to 
obtain. k 
The earl of Spencer ridiculed 
the idea, that ministers were not 
sincere in their professed wishes for 
peace. A reference to the papers 
would shew that the proposals were 
not given as an ultimatum. ‘The 
adoption of the motion, instead of , 
accelerating peace, would retard it : 
as it would prove to France, and to 
‘Europe, that we were willing to 
make peace on any terms, 
-° The earl of Guildford replied, 
that lord Malmesbury, though he 
desired M. de la Croix to suggest 
2 contre-projet, had expressly made 
* the surrender of Belgium a sine qua 
mon. Wow if he understood diplo- 
matic language, a sine qua non was 
an ultimatum. 
The duke of Bedford also ob- 
served, that when ministry, through 
their ambassador, called for a contre 
projet, they had, at the same time, 
expressly declared, that the surren- 
der of Belgium was a sine gua non. 
*But what demonstrated the insin- 
cerity of ministers was, their not 
investing their ambassador with in- 
telligible powers. He was inces- 
santly dispatching couriers for iny 
structions. When called on to pre- 
sent his terms, he had none to of- 
fer; and, at length, made a sine qua 
non of a matter which they had 
previously declared they would not 
concede as a principle, The duke 
believed, in his couscience, that the 
present ministers could not negoci- 
ate a peace on so good terms as 
other persons of more capacity, and 
- more sincerity and truth, would be 
able to obtain. 4 
The earl of Carlisle lamented the 
— 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1797. 
degeneracy of the times, which 
were now so changed, as to make an 
address of gratitude and loyalty a 
matter of charge and suspicion. 
When he was young, no time was 
lost in approaching the throne with 
thanks. He professed, upon his 
honour, -to believe that ministers 
were sincere in their wishes for 
peace: nor could he conceive a rea~ 
son for them to be otherwise. 
The marquis of Lansdowne re- 
minded his lordship, that he had 
himself been sent on an embassy of 
peace to America, and doubts were 
entertained to this day of the sin- 
cerity of their mission. 
Lord Grenville did not know in 
what diplomatic dictionary the noble 
lords had found that a sine gua non 
was synonimous with an ultimatum. 
A. sine qua non meant only a con- 
dition not on any account to be 
given up or departed from, An 
ultimatum, the last and best terms of 
any kind that would be offered. 
A noble duke had insinuated now, 
as he had often done before, not on- 
ly the insincerity but the incapacity 
of ministers, for their situations. 
He thanked God, however, that 
a very different opinion was enter- 
tained of his majesty’s confidential 
servants, by that house, with the 
exception of four or five lords, as 
well as by more than three-fourths 
of ‘the other house. The virtues, 
as well as, talents, of the present 
ministers, he said, were known and 
acknowledged by the whole British. 
nation ;_ nor could the people of 
England be easily induced to think 
that the most proper persons to, 
make peace were persons agreeable 
to the enemy- 
‘The werquis of Lansdowne re- 
phed to this, that the mea, proper to. 
make peace, were not. so much the 
men 
