636 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1805. 



take the glorious step he has done 

 ■with respect to England. This sen- 

 iiment is the same which, in other 

 situations, dictated to his majesty 

 the dispatch he wrote before the 

 passage of the Saavc and the Drave. 

 Jt is the same that inspired tliat let- 

 ter to the king of Kngl.ind, some 

 months before the battle of Maren- 

 go. It is the same, that, after the 

 victory, made the con(jueror oifcr 

 peace to Austria. In short, it is 

 the Same sentiment, MJiich, at the 

 peace of LiineviHc, made his majesty 

 resolve to sacrifice immense con- 

 quests, and upwards of 20 millions 

 of inhabitants, who had submitted 

 to the French arms. It is the love 

 of social order, the love of the con- 

 try, the sacred love of humanity, so 

 often professed in vain speeches and 

 so rarely carried into action, and 

 which, always respected by the em- 

 peror, always taken as the guide of 

 liis steps, has been the pledge and 

 consolation of his success. — You 

 •will find, gentlemen, the touching 

 and august expressions in the letter 

 I am about to read to you. [ IJc 

 then read (he letter, and lord Mtd- 

 grave's anss:cr.] Shall I compare, 

 at present, gentlemen, the two mo- 

 numents of what history is already 

 in possession ? Shall 1 remark to 

 J ou, in the French document, eleva- 

 tion, frankness, and force; in the 

 English, cunning, duplicity, and 

 weakness? Here every thing wears 

 a noble air, every thing bears the 

 stamp of dignity and grandeur; 

 warfare is menacing, but generous ; 

 warfare is menacing, bht regulated 

 by the guidance of that rare courage 

 ■which sacrifices the charm of con- 

 quest, the splendor of victory, the 

 illusions even of glory, to the cry 

 i)f humanity, to the tears of a hun- 

 ijrcd thousand national or foreign 



families, who call out for peace (« 

 heaven and their monarchs. There 

 every thing is uncertainty and hesi- 

 tation, suppositions are given as 

 answers to facts; the uncertain and 

 equivocal future is opposed to the 

 present, where no doubt exists; to 

 a frank overture is opposed the pos- 

 sibility of a coalition, which, even 

 did it exist, would neither intimidate 

 the nation nor her emperor ; which 

 whether it continues to act, or is 

 vanquished, would neither increase 

 or retract their pretensions, neither 

 add to or take from the conditions 

 written down in the treaty of 

 Amiens. If, in the communication 

 which she seems to announce, Eng- 

 land speaks a language more worthy 

 of the overture she has received, 

 peace may be restored. But if this 

 only opportunity which seems to be 

 otfered, by the master of all empires, 

 of re-establishing the peace of the 

 universe, is left unimproved by Eng- 

 land, all J]nrope will sec that the 

 cabinet of London only has desired, 

 does desire, and will alone desire 

 the continuance of war. — And if, 

 on the answer by which the king of 

 England, in the 8th year, rejected 

 the noble overtures made by his 

 majesty, judgment be passed ; if, 

 with respect to the conduct of Eng- 

 gland, at that period, the present 

 generation is, as it were, posterity' ; 

 if a portion of tlie great prosperity 

 of France, and of the crisis in which 

 England is now placed, result from 

 that refusal to enter into negotia- 

 tion, 1 am warranted in thinking 

 that a similar cause will produce 

 similar clfects ; that a fresh refusal, 

 no less criminal than the former, 

 will open to us new advantages, 

 and that posterity, which, in this 

 second emergency, ^vill pronounce 

 upon the English government, will 



also 



