154 
ment, we had no. more right to 
complain of it in France, than 
France would have to complain of 
our agorandizement in India, To 
excuse ourselves from possessing 
this spirit, we must say as the lady 
did, who was aecused of frequent 
disregards of virtue :. ‘* Never be- 
fore, upon my honor, on this side 
of the cape of Good Hope.” As to 
Egypt, at the time that Vergennes, 
the minister to Louis the XVIth, 
had an expedition ready for Egypt, 
instead of war, we made a com- 
mercial treaty with France. As to 
Malta, it was known that Russia 
would have guaranteed it upon cer- 
tain conditions; but we rather 
chose to keep it to ourselves, for 
ten years. He did not consider 
the mission of Sebastiani, as a suf- 
ficient cause for war. There had 
been hardly a year of peace, since 
the treaty of Utrecht, in which the 
old French government had not 
some such missionary at work. 
Europe would never know a single 
year of peace, if war was necessary 
on such a ground. He blamed 
ministers, for allowing an accumu- 
lation of insults, without demand- 
ing satisfaction; and for finally 
going to war, on a sordid principle, 
for which it was impossible that we 
could find any allies. He was 
alarmed, when he heard of the un- 
usual exertions that.should be made 
‘this war, and that from an old 
member (Mr. Pitt), who had al- 
ready so much increased the bur- 
dens of the nation. That gentle- 
man seemed to threaten us with an 
increase of two or three hundred 
millions to our debt, and that pure- 
ly for Malta, unconnected with 
any great, general, generous inte- 
rest of Europe. Ile had, in his 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1803. 
life time, heard plenty of philippies, 
such as Demosthenes might have en- 
vied; but whenever he heard mem- 
bers indulging the house with luxuri- 
ous treats of eloquence, full-dressed 
speeches, and high-toned declama- 
tions; he pitied ‘the people, whose 
lot it was to pay dearly for all this, 
It put him in mind of the French 
proverb, ‘Le cout ote le gout ;” 
and certainly, it must be admitted, 
that the fine speeches in the Ame- 
rican war, and in the last, cost the 
country dear enough. After strong- 
ly recommending an alliance with 
Russia, if possible, Mr. Fox con- 
cluded, by saying, that, in his opi- 
nion, the best way to obtain 
unanimity, was to support the 
amended address, which every body 
must approve of, rather than the 
original address, which no one could 
assent to, without some qualifica- 
tion. 
The chancellor of the exchequer, 
lamented that the etiusions ‘of the 
honourable gentleman’s great and 
exalted mind, should have been 
employed for the purpose for which 
they were then applied. He con- 
sidered the war, as one of obvious — 
necessity, and justified the conduct 
of his majesty’s ministers, from the 
imputation of want of sincerity in 
their endeavours to procure peace. 
The honorable gentleman had not 
done justice to ministers, when he 
charged them with not having made 
the proper remonstrances, as it had 
appeared from the papers on the 
table, that they had remonstrated 
upon almost every topic mentioned 
in the declaration. He avowed, 
that it was the intention of this 
country to assist Switzerland, if, by 
any means, it could have been done. 
He then proceeded to take a gene- 
ral 
