126] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1812. 



the crime of assisting in these 

 escapes, which an eminent judge 

 had considered as nearly approach- 

 ing to that of high treason : imd he 

 said, that by the proposed bill it 

 was only made a transportable fe- 

 lony, the period of transportation 

 to be determined by the enormity 

 of the offence. 



No debate ensued ; and the bill 

 shortly after passed into a law. 



In the month of April, at the 

 time when the French emperor 

 was on the eve of a war with Rus- 

 sia, he thought proper to make 

 overtures for a peace with Eng- 

 land, and a correspondence took 

 place between the two govern- 

 ments on the subject, which soon 

 closed without having produced 

 any effect. No notice of this cir- 

 cumstance was taken in parliament 

 till the letters which passed on the 

 occasion had appeared in some fo- 

 reign papers. On July 17, Lord 

 Holland, ui the House of Lords, 

 requested to know from Lord Li- 

 verpool whether ministers were in 

 possession of any further informa- 

 tion respecting the overture from 

 France than what had been pub- 

 lished in those papers, and whe- 

 ther it was the intention of the exe- 

 cutive government to take the sub- 

 ject into their consideration. He 

 would abstain from delivering any 

 opinion respecting the answer to 

 that overture, further than that he 

 was not disposed to admit the ex- 

 istence of king Joseph at the head 

 of the Spanish government, as a 

 principle of negociation ; yet he 

 should have approved entering into 

 a negociation upon the principle of 

 rendering Spain independent of 

 France. At the same time he 

 could not but protest against the 

 difficulty which appeared to be 



felt in designating the emperor of 

 France as emperor. He also wish- 

 ed to know whether Lord Castle- 

 rea^h had received any answer to 

 his letter. 



Lord Liverpool did not hesitate 

 to admit that the correspondence 

 published was substantially cor- 

 rect; and he had no objection to 

 produce the papers if called for. 

 With respect to the recognition al- 

 luded to, government had acted 

 upon the general principle that 

 such acknowledgments were not 

 to be made gratuitously, but as 

 objects of stipulation for an equi- 

 valent. With respect to the mat- 

 ter of the answer, he was persuaded 

 that there were few in the country 

 who would not agree, that if the 

 acknowledgment of Joseph Buona- 

 parte as king of Spain were made 

 a necessary preliminary by the 

 French government, no negocia- 

 tion could be entered upon by this 

 on such a basis. It had therefore 

 been thought requisite tocall for an 

 explicit declaration on that head in 

 the first instance. No communi- 

 cation in reply had been received, 

 and there the matter rested. 



This conversation seems to have 

 been all that passed in the House 

 of Lords on this topic. 



In the House of Commons, on 

 July 21, Mr. Sheridan rose to 

 speak upon this subject. He be- 

 gan with observing, that his ho- 

 nourable friend, Mr. Whitbread, 

 had hurried to town for the ex- 

 pres^s purpose of declaring that he 

 conceived ministers to be entirely 

 wrong, and that the late overture 

 from the French government was 

 the best opportunity that could 

 possibly have been afforded for en- 

 tering into a negociation for peace. 

 The honourable gentleman then 



proceeded 



