a76 ANNUAL: REGISTER, _ 1803. 
faction to the British nation, which 
has dearly paid for the omission; 
the first was, thatof the article 
which provided for a full and com- 
plete indemnification of the illustri- 
ous house of Orange, for their losses 
in Holland. By a secret article of 
the treaty, Holland had shifted off 
this indemnification from herself; 
and France who was to give nothing, 
procured for that purpose some mi- 
serable districts in Germany totally 
disproportioned to the extent of its 
claims; and for which England was 
called upon by government on the 
commencement of hostilities, to 
burthen herself with an annuity of 
60,000/. to supply the deficiency. 
The other, that part of the second 
article, which stipulated for the 
payment of the sums due by France 
‘for the maintenance of prisoners 
of that nation in England during the 
‘war, which amounted to more than 
two millions sterling. On these sub- 
jects however, as there do not appear 
to have been either demand or re- 
monstrance at any moment, from the 
period of the signature of the peace 
of Amiens to that of the renewal 
of hostilities, no discussion did, nor 
gould exist. We are therefore ob- 
jiged unwillingly to state, that the 
grounds for arming, as declared in 
the act of the English government, 
which issued for that purpose, are 
not, from any documents that ap- 
pear, sufficiently established; and 
that some motive, not judged pru- 
dent to be brought forward, influ- 
enced the ministers in their deter- 
mination on that important and 
eventful measure. 
‘That motive can alone be found 
in the news of the detention of the 
Cape having reached (though not 
through the officia ¢hanpel, bat 
from sources equally to be depend- 
ed upon) the ears of government, 
on the 6th of March; the message 
was determined on the 7th, as ap- 
pears by lord Hawkesbury’s dis- 
patch of that date; and on the 8th 
was brought down to parliament, in 
order that the country might be 
placed in a warlike attitude, previ= 
ously to the act of hostility, which 
had been committed at the Cape of 
Good Hope by their authority, be- 
ing made public at Paris; and which 
in the mind and temper Bo- 
naparte was known to possess, 
would probably produce such @ 
ferment, as might occasion con- 
sequences the most to be dreaded, 
in the then unprepared and reduced 
state of the military and marine 
force of Great Britain. 
As the ill-judged precipitation of 
ministers had induced this act of 
infraction of the treaty of Amiens, 
at the Cape; so did they commit 
themselves in the affair of the mes- 
sage, with equal temerity.—Arma- 
ments were now set on foot—the 
militia called out — contracts of 
every nature, incidental to warfare, 
entered upon—and even the mes- 
sage, independently of every other 
cause, was likely, from its convey- 
ing a direct challenge to Bonaparte, 
at the express moment when nego- 
ciation was proffered, to excite in 
him a degree of resentment, which 
would plunge both countries into 
irretrievable hostility. 
A very few days convinced the 
English government of its too great 
precipitation; the official account of 
the detention of the Cape, was ra- 
pidly followed by another of the 
surrender of the colony, under the 
instruction contained in the coun- 
ter-orders, which, from circum- 
stances 
