586 
filled any other part of his sacred 
engagements: they are to be sought 
for in the ambition of the consul of 
France, and in his implacable hatred 
of Britain, because, in the power 
and valour of Britain alone, he finds 
a check to that ambition, which 
aims at nothing short of the con- 
quest of the world. Ifis majesty, 
ever anxious to procure for his peo- 
ple prosperity and ease, eagerly 
seized the first opportunity that of- 
fered itself for the restoration of 
peace ; but not without remember- 
ing, at the same time, that their 
safety, for which it was his peculiar 
duty to provide, was not to be sa- 
crified to any other consideration.— 
This peace he concluded with the 
most sincere desire that it might be 
durable, and that the conduct of 
France would be such as to autho- 
rize him to execute, with scrupulous 
punctuality, every one of the stipu- 
Jations of the treaty: but scarcely 
was that compact concluded, when 
the first consul, at the very time that 
his majesty was surrendering to 
France and Holland, the great and 
numerous conquests he had made 
from them during the war, began a 
new sort of hostility upon the weak 
and defenceless states on the conti- 
nent of Europe : Piedmont, a coun- 
try equal-to all Scotland, was added 
to France; Holland, which had, at 
the making of the peace, been re- 
cognized as an independent nation, 
became, more than ever, the object 
of French rapacity and despotism ; 
was compelled to furnish ships and 
stores for French expeditions, and 
to feed and clothe French armies ; 
the only use of which was, to keep 
her in a state of slavish subjection, 
and to render her shores an object of 
serious alarm and real danger to 
Great Britain ; Switzerland was in- 
ANNUAL REGISTER, - 1803. 
vaded by a French army, which 
compelled the people of that once 
free and happy country to submit 
to a government framed at Paris ; 
the members of which government 
were chiefly composed of men, who 
had betrayed the liberties of their 
country, and who were nominated 
by the consul himself. Notwith- 
standing, however, all these and 
several other acts of aggression and 
tyranny, some of which were highly 
injurious to Great Britain, and were 
shameful violations of the treaty of 
peace, still his majesty earnestly en- 
deavoured to avoid a recurrence to 
arms; but the consul, emboldened 
by our forbearance, and imputing to 
a dread of his power, that which he 
ought to have imputed solely to our 
desire to live at peace, manifested 
his perfidious intentions, again to 
take possession of Egypt, whence 
we had driven him in’ disgrace ; 
again to open a road to our posses- 
sions in India, there to destroy one 
of the principal sources of our 
wealth and our greatness. _ 
Not contented with thus prepar- 
ing for our destruction from with~- 
out, endeavouring to cut off our in- 
tercourse with the rest of the 
world, shutting, as far as he was 
able, all the ports of other countries 
against us ; gradually destroying our 
navigation, commerce, and trade ; 
hemming us up in our own island, 
and exposing our manufacturers, 
artizans, and labourers to the danger 
of starving for want of employment ; 
not contented with these malignant 
endeavours, and seeming to regard 
us as already within his grasp, he 
audaciously interfered in the ma- 
nagement of our domestic concerns ; 
required us to violate our laws, by 
banishing those subjects of the 
French monarch, who had fled hither 
for 
. 
