‘covering them. 
HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
time, have been forced to abandon 
their lofty pretensions. 
In answer to this, the prospect 
of affairs was represented, by gene- 
ral Tarleton, as very disadvantage- 
ous: The numerous army,. with 
which the French had lately obliged 
the king of Spain to come into their 
own terms, would now be employed 
in the invasion of Italy, while our 
efforts against the French posses- 
sions, in the West Indies, would 
probably be frustrated, as they had 
been onthe coast of France, through 
misconduct on ourside, and the dif- 
ficulty of the very attempt itself. 
It was vain to repeat exertions that 
had been so successively foiled. Mi- 
nisters were no longer deserving of 
confidence; their evident incapacity 
required their immediate dismission, 
and the trial of new men, as well as 
of new measures. 
He was followed by Mr. Fox, 
who inveighed, with great anima- 
tion, against the assertions made by 
ministry, as fallacious and delusive. 
Instead of the flattering description 
they had given of the situation of 
this country, the fact was, that one 
hundred millions had been added 
to the national debt, and four mil- 
lions a year to the standing taxes. 
In lieu of reducing the enemy within 
his former bounds, he was master of 
all the Austrian territories on the 
west of the Rhine; nor was there 
any well-grounded hope of our re- 
: fe was pfeparing 
to invade Italy with a great and 
victorious army. The scarcity that 
afflicted the kingdom had been fore- 
told; but ministers disdained to listen 
to the warning, though enforced 
from the most respectable quarter. 
The propriety of persisting in the 
war was argued from the distress 
to which France was reduced by 
[1 
the depreciation of its paper cure 
rency: but was this an argument 
proper to be adduced by men ac. 
quainted with the transactions of the 
American war, and who must be con- 
scidus of the futility of pecuniary 
calculations, when people were de- 
termined to suffer every hardship 
that human nature could bear, and 
to try every expedient that neces- 
sity could suggest, rather than admit 
the idea of submission? It was time 
to abandon so hopeless a cause. as 
that of the royal family of France. 
The opinions of so mighty a nation 
were not to be subdued by force 
of arms. When pressed to listen to 
pacific language, ministers alleged 
the incapacity of the French govern- 
ment to maintain the usual rela- 
tions of harmony between different 
states: but had such objections held 
good in the cause of Spain, Prussia, 
and even the king of Great Britain 
himself, in the quality of elector of 
Hanover? Had not this far-fetched 
and absurd obstacle vanished before 
the reasonableness of putting an end 
to the calamities of war? It was 
ridiculous toinsist upon danger from 
treating with the French, because 
they had subverted their former, aid 
adopted a new constitution: the 
permanence of a treaty depending 
onits equitableness, and correspon- 
dence with the reciprocal interests 
of the contracting parties. It was 
become nugatory to talk of our al- 
lies: we bad, indeed, mercenaries 
in our pay, whom we could only 
retain by excessive bribes, and 
who were, every moment, hesitat- 
ing, whether to accept of them, or 
of the terms profiered by our ene. 
mies,todetach them from this coun- 
try. Adverting to the scarcity so 
heavily complained of, Mr. Fox ob- 
served, that war, and its fatal cone 
comitants, 
