GENERAL HISTORY. 



[121 



powerful nutious of Europe, he 

 trusted their lordships would not 

 think it consistent with policy, 

 honour, or justice, to interrupt the 

 government in its proceedings. 



Lord Grenvillc, after expressing 

 with great force his sense of the 

 cruel injustice of compelling the 

 people of Norway to submit to a 

 power against which that country 

 entertained the strongest national 

 antipathy, as one, which during 

 a long course of years had been her 

 unrelenting, unforgiving, and un- 

 remitting enemy, and from which 

 this country has repeatedly pro- 

 tected her, entered into a parti- 

 cular consideration of the argu- 

 ments of the last speaker. Among 

 other points, he diew an important 

 distinction between the cession of 

 a country already conquered and 

 occupied by an enemy, and that of 

 a territory still free and uninflu- 

 enced. He further affirmed that 

 it was a gross niisre|jresentaiion to 

 compare the cession of Norway to 

 that of a mere province or town ; 

 it was in fact a whole, and in 

 yielding it, Frederic VI. had given 

 up no part of the kingdon) of Den- 

 mark, for he was King of Norway 

 by a distinct and separate title. — 

 After many other observations, in 

 which he supported the arguments 

 advanced by Earl Grey, he stated 

 the case in the following manner. 

 You have signed a peace with Den- 

 mark, and you acknowledge that 

 that country has fulfilled all the 

 conditions of the treaty. The con- 

 sequence is the necessary admis- 

 sion of one of those three things ; 

 that Norway is a part of the king- 

 dom of Denmark ; that it is in- 

 dependent of that kingdom ; or 

 that it is a dominion wow dc jure 

 under the crown of Sweden. If 



Norway be a part of Denmark, you 

 have made peace with her : if an 

 independent state, what has she 

 done to you that you should reduce 

 her bj' famine } if under the Swed- 

 ish dominion, what jiretence have 

 you for interfering between that 

 kingdom and its rebellious sub- 

 jects. 



The Earl of Liverpool, in de- 

 fending the measures of govern- 

 ment, confined himself to the spe- 

 cial circumstances of the case. He 

 began with considering those un- 

 der which the cession of Norway 

 was made, and shewed that Swe- 

 den actually gave up Gluckstadt 

 and Holstein which she had con- 

 quered, whilst Jutland lay open to 

 her arms, as the price of the ces- 

 sion made by the King of Den- 

 mark for the preservation of the 

 remainder of his dominions. He 

 contended, that that sovereign, as 

 an absolute monarch, ceded no 

 rights which he did not himself 

 possess ; and that, if the principle 

 of cession was applicable under 

 any circumstances, there never was 

 a case in which it could be consi- 

 dered less in the light of a griev- 

 ance than the present, when an 

 offer had been made to the people 

 of Norway either to be governed 

 by the existing laws, or to be in- 

 corporated with the constitution of 

 Sweden. But it was said they had 

 not chosen to accept this offer, 

 and wished rather to erect them- 

 selves into an independent king- 

 <iom. But after having during 

 eight years been at war with us 

 as part of the Danish dominions, 

 had they now a right to assume in- 

 dependence for the purpose of pre- 

 venting the allies from receiving a 

 compensation for the conquesls 

 made by them from the stute to 



