6] 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1813. 



latter person had been much re- 

 viled by the noble lord and others 

 for his attachment to the politics 

 of France, but it now appeared 

 that the war had been produced 

 by causes beyond his control. He 

 could not consider America as be- 

 ing wholly to blame in the pro- 

 duction of the war; and he was 

 justified by a review of the history 

 and progress of the preceding ne- 

 gociations, to ascribe to the conduct 

 of our own government the exist- 

 ing rupture between the two coun- 

 tries. On this point Mr. W. en- 

 tered into various particulars ; and 

 with respect to the American prac- 

 tice of naturalizing British-born 

 subjects, and denationalizing them, 

 he observed that there were two 

 acts upon our statute books by 

 which every foreigner who served 

 two years in any vessel, military 

 or merchant, was entitled to every 

 protection of a natural-born sub- 

 ject of this realm : and he appre- 

 hended, that if an American had 

 served two years in our navy, and 

 the vessel in which he sailed was 

 boarded by an American armed 

 ship, which should claim him, he 

 would be entitled to the protection 

 of this country, and our govern- 

 ment would have a right to refuse 

 to give him up. Mr. W. then 

 strongly reprehended the attempts 

 toattributetheconduct of America 

 on this occasion to French influ- 

 ence, and denied that she had ever 

 declared in favour of France. If 

 truth must be spoken, she had al- 

 ways been in the right in her dis- 

 putes with us until, by the decla- 

 ration of war, she had changed 

 her situation, and he hoped that 

 this advantage which she had gi- 

 ven us would be used on our parts 

 with wisdom and discretion. 



Mr. Canning, in a long and elo- 

 quent speech, in which he was 

 frequently greeted with cheers, un- 

 dertook the defence of the British 

 government in its proceedings pre- 

 vious to the late negociations, and 

 in the negociations themselves. 

 With respect to the English acts 

 relative to foreign sailors, referred 

 to by Mr. W. he said that he had 

 understood them only as granting 

 municipal privileges to such per- 

 sons, and by no means as impair- 

 ing their native allegiance to their 

 own sovereigns ; and therefore that 

 there was no similitude between 

 these enactments, and the preten- 

 sions of America in their naturali- 

 zations. With regard to the right 

 of search, he repeated the argu- 

 ments used in the Regent's decla- 

 ration against first abandoning a 

 right of which we are in lawful 

 possession, and then trusting to 

 negociation for its restoration, or 

 the substitution of an equivalent. 

 But the topic on which he princi- 

 pally employed his eloquence was, 

 an invective against the American 

 government for having taken the 

 time when Great Britain was deep- 

 ly engaged in the glorious strug- 

 gle for the emancipation of Europe 

 from tyranny, to impede her exer- 

 tions, and league itself with the 

 oppressor. Having thus declared 

 his sentiments concerning the ge- 

 neral grounds of the dispute be- 

 tween the two countries, he as- 

 sumed his part of a censurer of the 

 present administration, by remark- 

 ing on their want of vigour and 

 decision in the measures which 

 had followed the declaration of 

 war. 



After Mr. Croker had made 

 some observations in defence of 

 the conduct of the admiralty, and 



