iS TATE PAP ERS. 
jefty’s views, and at the fame time 
gave ample room for the examina- 
tion of every difpiited point, for 
mutualarrangement and conceflion, 
and for reciprocal facilities arifing 
out of the progrefs of fair difcuffion. 
To this proceeding, open and 
liberal beyond example, the con- 
duét of his Majefty’s enemies op- 
ofes the moft ftriking contraft. 
Eon them no counter-project has 
ever yet been obtained: no ftate- 
ment of the extent or nature of the 
conditions on which they would 
conclude any peace with thefe king- 
doms. Their pretenfions have al- 
ways been brought forward either 
as detached or as preliminary points, 
diftinét from the main object of ne- 
gotiation, and accompanied, in eve- 
ry inftance, with an exprefs referve 
of farther and unexplained de- 
mands. 
The points which, in purfuance 
of this Eeitesn, the Plenipotentiaries 
of the enemy propofed for feparate 
difcuffion in their firit conferences 
with his Majefty’s minifter, were at 
ence frivolous and offenfive; none 
of them productive of any folid ad- 
vantage to France, but all calculated 
to raife new obftacles in the way of 
eace. And to thefe demands was 
oon after added another, in its form 
unprecedented, in its fubftance ex- 
- travagant, and fuch as could origi- 
nate only in the moft determined 
and inveterate hoftility. The prin- 
ciple of mutual compenfation, be- 
fore exprefsly admitted by common 
confent, as the juft and equitabie 
bafis of negotiation, was now dif- 
claimed; every idea of moderation 
or reafon, every appearance of juf- 
tice, was difregarded; and a con- 
_ceffion was required from his Ma- 
_jefty’s Plenipotentiary, as a preli- 
‘inary and indifpenfable condition 
Vou. XXXIx. 
225 
of negotiation, which muft at once 
have fuperfeded all the objeéts, and 
precluded all the means of treating. 
France, after incorporating with 
her own dominions fo large a por- 
tion of her conquefts, and affecting 
to have deprived herfelf, by her 
own internal regulations, of the 
power of alienating thefe valuable 
additions of territory, did not f{cru- 
ple to demand from his Majefty the 
abfolute and unconditional fur- 
render of all that the energy of his 
people, and the valour of his fleets 
and armies have conqutred in the 
prefent war, either from France, or 
from her allies. She required that 
the power of Great Britain fhould be 
confined within its former limits, at 
the very moment when her own 
dominion was extended toa degree 
almoft unparalleled in hiftory. She 
infifted, that in proportion to the 
increafe of danger, the means of 
refiftance fhould be diminifhed; and. 
that his Majefty fhould give up, 
without compenfation, and inio the 
hands of his enemies, the neceilary ~ 
defences of his poffeflions, and the 
future fafeguards of his empire. 
Nor was even this demand brought 
forward as conftituting the terms of 
peace, but the price of negotiations 
as the condition on which alone his 
Majefty was to be allowed to learn 
what further unexplained demands 
were ftill referved, and to what 
greater facrifices thefe unprece- 
dented conceflions of honour and 
fafetv were to lead. 
Whatever were the impreffions 
which fuch a proceeding created, 
they did not induce the King a- 
bruptly to preclude the means of 
negotiation. In rejecting without 
a moment’s hefitation a demand, 
which could have been made for no 
other reafon than becauie it was in- 
P admitlible. 
