64 
who would fanStion fo much infamy, . nor 
a fubjeét an the Britith dominions who 
would confent to be the courier‘of fo much 
degradation.” Mr. Pitt concluded, with 
moving an addrefs to his Majefty, which 
was an echo of the meflage. 
Mr. Erskine rofe, under evident figns 
of indifpofition, to move an amendment, 
but after proceeding for about a quarter of 
an hour, ke was obliged to fit dowa from 
faintnefs and debility. 
Mr. Fox, after lamenting the incline 
fition of his honourable and learned friend, 
took the tafk of moving the amendment 
upon himfelf.—He faid he was ready to 
confefs, with Mr. Pitt, that the regret of the 
houfe ought not to be accompanied with 
defpondency ; but what calamities were 
not to be apprehended from the continu- 
ance of a copteit which already had en- 
dured four years ?. We were now, he faid, 
in ae infinitely worfe than tes 
we engaged at firft, aggravatad, teo, by the 
expenditure of 250 millions of movey, and 
an additional anaual burthen-of fix mil- 
lions on the fubjeéts of Great Britain, not - 
to mention the incalculable facrifce of 
many thoufands of valuable lives !—So 
‘great an effufion of buman blood, and fuch 
extended devaftation, had not, during a 
fimilar period, happened fince he time of 
Alexander.—The Minifter, he fai, (was 
in the habit of amufing the houfe with 
elaborate details on the. protperity of the 
country, in contradifiinétion zo the ruined 
fate of the French eee and confol- 
ing himfelf with the refiection, that though 
our facrifices be great, thofe e ‘the enemy 
are fil greater: yet, notwithftanding all 
his boaftings, the demands of ee French 
Republic are greater thanever. Mir. Fox 
obferyed, that Great Britain was fo- far 
from bein g in a progrefiive ftate of ameli- 
oration, that her affairs were daily becem- 
ing more. embarrafled, and the country 
fib} eed to addiuonal calamicies, from 
the profecution ‘of a war, begun without 
neceility, and conducted without talents. 
We were perpetually told of the ruin of 
the French finances; at one time they 
were at the verge of the gulph; and at 
another time in the gulph itlelf, juft as it 
fuited the minifter’s purpole—Yet facts 
continually evinced the abfolute falfchood 
of thefe ftatements. 
In the courfe of his fpeech, Mr. Fox 
remarked that the minifter’sfpeech of three 
hours contained nothing but a memorial of 
opinions, _by which this country has been 
mifled from year Lo year. He thea re- 
ferred to his,. own exertions at the com- 
4pencement of the conte eft, to induce go- 
Public Afairs.—Great Britain. 
peace. 
[ Jan. 
vernment to fend an ambaffador to Paris, 
when, undoubtedly, he would not have me¢ 
with the treatment which Lord Malmf- 
bury is alledged to have lately received. 
“ But when.they fay that this ambaffador 
was difmifled in a way unexampled in the 
hiftory of civilized nations,” faid Mr. Fox, 
“they furely muft have. forgot the ignomi- 
nious manner in which M. Chauvelin was 
fent from this country. Ata fubfequent 
period, when the whole of Belgium was 
regained, when France was not poffeffed 
of one foot of ground in that cauntry, I 
then,” added he, ** renewed my motion for 
This was at the period before the 
powers combined againft the French Re- 
public had gained the fortrefs of Valen- 
ciennes, but it was certain it muft fall; I 
contended that then was the time to at- 
tempt a peace, when the grand alliance 
was unbroken, and the enemy ina ftate of 
defpair.” 
This able ftatefman next proceeded to 
remark on the extravagant terms propofed 
by Lord Malminary ; terms which, he 
faid, the minifter muft have known would 
ane ke acceded to—and from this he infer- 
red a doubt of the fincerity of minifters. 
He ridiculed the wild projeét of the mini- 
fter, of reconquering the Nola for 
Auftria, in the fame happy ftrain of irony, 
in which he formerly expofed his hopeful 
{cheme of the conqueft of France. 
He Soe the Javithing of Britith 
blood and Britifh treafure, merely for the 
purpofe of aggrandizing the ungrateful and 
ambitious houfe of Auftria. He fhowed 
the utter impolicy of Great Britain inter- 
fering in continental difputes; and how 
miferable a compenfation it would be to 
the widows and orphans of thofe who feil 
in this ill-omened conteft,andto the ftary- 
ing poor, aod ruined manufacturers of — 
this country, for the injuries they endur- 
ed, that AuSria fhould be permitted to 
retain the Netherlands. 
Mr. Fox concluded a long and energe- 
tic fpeech, by. moving an.amendment, - 
which embraced the principal points on 
vhich he had previoufly infitted. 
Ie exprelfed the regret of his Majefty’s 
faithful Commons, that the negociation 
with the Republic of France fhould have 
unhappily terminated; adding, that they 
confidéred it their duty to {peak with that 
freedom and earneftacis which became the 
Repretentation of a great people—that they 
regretted that, from the memorial and 
other documents fubmitted to their confide- 
ration, his Majefty’s Minifters appeared not 
to have been fo/xcere in their withes, or un- 
equivocal in their profeilions for peace, as the 
4 houle 
