94] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



this contradiction staring them in 

 the face, ministers refused to treat 

 with any one whom they deemed 

 treacherous and unjust. " Buona- 

 parte/' said Mr. Whithread, "is 

 full as good as they are. If he has 

 broken treaties, so have they : if he 

 has killed his ten thousands, Suwar- 

 row also has killed his ten thou- 

 sands." Mr. Whitbread having 

 •enumerated many instances of the 

 treachery, perfidy, and injustice of 

 'the kings of France, asked v^'hether 

 it could really be supposed that it 

 was really the wish of the people 

 of England to lavish their blood 

 and treasure, for the purpose of re- 

 storing to the throne of France the 

 family of Bourbon ? Could it be 

 supposed that it was the duty of an 

 Enalishman to restore a banished 

 king to his throne, or a pope to his 

 tiara ? 



Mr. Whitbread, then insisted, 

 that we were now contending for 

 one or the other of these two things: 

 to reinstate a Bourbon on the throne, 

 or to exterminate the rest of those 

 persons in France who held Jacobi- 

 nical principles. If the former 

 •was the case, we were fighting, he 

 thought, for an unattainable ob- 

 ject, and the contest must be end- 

 less : if for the latter, we were 

 fighting for an opinion ; and both 

 were equally absurd. Mr. Whit- 

 bread recommended it to the house, 

 to consider the relative situation of 

 this country with her allies. The 

 ■ allies did not appear to enter at all 

 into each other's views. There 

 seemed to be no regular points of 

 union between them : no commu- 

 nity of interests. 1 his position Mr. 

 W^hitbread illustrated. He was 

 fully persuaded that the present 

 French government were sincerely 



desirous of peace, and that they 

 would negociate if we would let 

 them. 



Mr. Canning was very much dis- 

 pleased at Mr. Whitbread's attempt 

 to justify the enormities of the 

 French, by saying, that we our- 

 selves and our allies had been guilty 

 of others little less flagrant. Asa 

 proof of this position, he had stated, 

 that our conduct was unwarrantable 

 both towards the republic of Genoa 

 and the grand duke of Tuscany. 

 Had the Genoese performed the 

 duties of neutral nations, theirrights 

 would never havs been infringed ; 

 but they had sent to the French 

 clothes, provisions, military stores, 

 andsuppliesof every kind. As to the 

 grand duke of Tuscany, lord Hervey 

 had taken measurcsfor the preserva- 

 tion of British property at Leghorn, 

 and to prevent, as far as was in his 

 power, the government of Tuscany 

 from assisting the French ; but he 

 had done nothing which the general 

 practice of nations did not entitle 

 him to do. The court of Florence 

 had complained ; but small states 

 were always irritable, and sensible 

 that they were liable to insult, apt 

 to think themselves insulted. Great 

 stress had been laid on the decla- 

 ration of his majesty after breaking 

 off the negociation of Lisle ; but 

 because he was willing to negociate, 

 on certain terms then, did it follow 

 that he ought to be so now ? Must a 

 declaration be eternally binding, 

 notwithstanding the greatest change 

 of circumstances ? The new consti- 

 tution, as it was called, of France, 

 was more despotic, and more de- 

 testable than any that had gone be- 

 fore it ; and unless it could be up- 

 held by some supernatural power, 

 like that of the Weird Sisters, in 



