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part of France, or to produce a corresponding inclination on the part of other powers, the negotiation was begun. It was begun because ministers advised his majesty to take advantage of the opening presented by the enemy, in order to put a stop, if possible, to those encroachments which a state of hostility had only increased, and to collect what might be called the relics of the continent, and, by peace, give to various powers an opportunity of recruiting their strength, with a view to future exertions for self-liberation from the oppression under which they groaned.

But it was discovered that, if any peace consistent with the honour of this country could be made, France would soon find it her interest to break it, or at least to indulge in farther aggrandizements, wich must eventually lead to its rupture. His majesty's ministers, therefore, ha ving in the first place so far relied on the good sense of the people of this country, that they would not allow themselves to be buoyed up by false hopes, made an attempt at pacification: but finding that those terms on which alone a peace ought to be concluded, could not be obtained, they preferred war, with all its calamities and burthens, to a peace which, by the abandonment of our allies, must eventually prove more destructive to the country than successive years of active warfare.

This account of the origin, pro. gress, and issue of the negotiation, appears to be candid, clear, and satisfactory. It is in substance, what was said again and again, when it became a subject of discussion in parliament. The failure of the negotiation had, it was too well known, produced a series of most

disastrous events, succeeding each other with unexampled rapidity. Still it might be reasonably permitted us to hope, that although Russia might not be able to re-conquer kingdoms and re-establish thrones, she might yet have the power of prescribing a boundary to that inordinate ambition which had swallowed up every government within its reach.

The other point in his majesty's speech to which Mr. Lamb had alluded as pressing itself on the attention of the house, was the burthens demanded by the present posture of affairs, and the internal state of the country, which enabled it to bear them. On these topics Mr. Lamb expatiated in the usual manner, and concluded with moving, "That an humble address be presented to his majesty," &c. &c.

The motion for an address was seconded by Mr. John Smith, who following the course of his majes ty's speech, illustrated and enforced the different points it contained, as is usual on such occasions. Speak. ing of Prussia, he observed, that "to fill up the cup of her misery, in the answer of the French government to the manifesto of the king of Prussia, who to a generous foe would now be an object of compassion, that unhappy monarch is cruelly and insolently taunted with the degrading submissions and temporizing policy which his un. feeling tyrants had so long exacted from him.' Of Buonaparte's blockade of the British isles he observed, "that the arrogance of this threat of blockade could be equalled only by its absurdity. The consequence of the declaration only had been well described by a person whom it might be hardly

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orous to name in that house,e vassal king of Holland. This vassal King, in his address to his unfortunate subjects, himself told them, that the prohibition of the trade of neutrals would give a death-blow to the alrea dy expiring commerce of Holland.”

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Mr. Canning, after a full declaration of the state of his mind, his feelings on the present occasion, the candour, the principles, and the ends that directed his public conduct, professed, according to his manner, with amplification, his confidence, "that there existed in this country resources amply sufficient to meet and brave all the difficult struggles, and to avert all the impending dangers with which we could possibly be threatened; a perfect and sincere confidence; a confidence founded not on rashness, but on the most mature reflec. tion; a confidence founded on the experience of the past, on the review of the present, and on the anticipation of the future. He trusted that all that might be necessary for him to say in the course of the observations which he should take the liberty of submitting to the house, might be considered with a reference to this declaration. But, with whatever confidence he felt himself justified in looking to the state of our resources, he also felt how incum bent it was on him and on the house, to look seriously to the situation of the country,-to examine, to deliberate, andto determine, whe-, ther all that had passed in the conduct of the state had been without

error, or whether some reflections on what had been done, might not have a favourable influence on what was still to do. Assuredly it was in the power of any man, who had turned his attention more particularly to public affairs, even of

such an humble individual as himself, to throw out suggestions to govern ment without the slightest intention of thwarting it, or without the most remote tendency to hurt the feelings of any of the members of which it was composed." This and not a little more being premised concerning himself, Mr. Canning proceeded to a consideration of the address. Mr. Canning's speeches in parliament, notwithstanding somewhat of an air of self-importance, and excessive verbosity, generally displayed accurate information, as well as good observation and sense. Neither were they altogether destitute of vivacity, by which however, it was evident, sometimes, that he laboured distinguish

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them. They were also, on all subjects, very long and very diffuse. So that, except in a very voluminous work, it would be impossible, consistently with any degree of symmetry among the parts, to give even a brief analysis of them. Of his present speech, it may be ob served in general, that it was a kind of panegyric on the last administration and philippic against the present.

As the great model of his oratory was the late Mr. Pitt, he did not fail to imitate him in what were very prominent features in the public speaking of that minister,amplification and sarcasm. Of the former, which he carried to a dis. gusting length, a sample has just been given. In his speech on the present occasion we have a specimen, and that not an unhappy one, of either his natural turn or acquired talent for the latter. A new parliament (he said) had been assembled, and they were now, for the first time, about to review the transactions of an administration, composed of men of great talents, who entered upon office not ten months ago, with this particular

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particular and distinct declaration, that all those who preceded them had been in the wrong; that they bad clubbed the battalion ;" that every thing required correction and amendment; that nothing was in its place; that our resources were exhausted, our credit destroyed, our faith violated; that we were unable to maintain our own rank among the nations of Europe, and much less to assist others in regaining that which belonged to them. What followed At the end of ten months, these very gentlemen say that the resources of the country remain unimpaired.-Those who but ten months ago, exclaimed that they were in a state of the utmost dilapidation, now tell us-not that they have been retrieved, not that they have been re-established but that they remain unimpaired: that is, that they never have been impaired. It was certainly very satisfactory to every man, that there should be even this stale tribute paid to those who had been formerly loaded with censure. But surely it would be too much to expect that any man who had ever, as he had done, regulated his conduct by, who had followed the footsteps, or who had considered the name of PITT, as connected with the glory and happiness of England, could pass this part of his majesty's speech unnoticed."

Among the various observations made by Mr. Canning on the condact of the late ministry, was what follows. Prussia, unable to resist the power of France, encroached upon us. We had however the option to pass over the just cause of complaint, which we possessed in consequence, and leave untouched the only power in Europe, which appeared capable of being the germ of an alliance

hostile to the ambitious views of France. But the conduct of his majesty's ministers had been the reverse of this policy. By that conduct Prussia had been compelled to act without our advice and assis tance, and to plunge into a war of which, if our advice could not have prevented it, our assistance might at least have ameliorated the termination. The mere abstaining from interference in the quarrel between France and Prussia was a poor ground of congratulation, and he was astonished that such a topic of consolation could have entered the head of any minister. It ought to have been our care, that the difference between France and Prussia should not have been too suddenly blown into a flame, lest it should have been too suddenly extin. guished. He by no means meant to imply doubt of the justness of his majesty's quarrel with Prussia: but, if France, by a nominal__and illusory transfer of Hanover to Prussia, could plant a cause of dissen sion between Prussia and Great Britain, was not this a contrivance of the enemy, which nothing but the simple policy adopted by our government, could be blind to? France found Great Britain and Prussia in amity, with a tendency to coalesce. What was her object? To divide them, and by a pretended transfer to Prussia of the hereditary dominions of the king of Great Britain, to create a war between the two countries.

There were so many topics, Mr. Canning said, on which an amend. ment to the address might be introduced, that he preferred the substitution of a new address altogether, leaving it to the option of the house which to adopt. He therefore proposed by way of amendament, to D4

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omit the whole of the address, and to introduce another. It is so long that it cannot be brought into the present narrative: but as this curious piece, a novelty we believe, and certainly a singularity in the proceedings of parliament, may be considered as a kind of creed, of what opposition believed, or wished to be believed by others, of both themselves and the present administration, we have given it a place in another part of this volume. Mr. Canning, however, apprehending that the tendency of pressing his amendment would be to cause a division of the votes, and being anxious that nothing should be occasi ned, on his part, that might have a tendency to throw a damp on the spirit of the country, declared that it was not his intention to press his amendment to a division. The speaker then put the question, "that the words proposed to be left out stand part of this question," upon which, lord Howick rose. The amendment proposed e said, contained matters which, if founded in fact, ought to be referred to a committee, to ground upon them articles of impeachment. The honourable gentleman had spoken much of his own candour, and readiness to support government, except only in cases wherein an acquiescence in their measures appeared to be a dereliction of duty. How far the honourable gentleman's conduct agreed with the principles he thus professed, he left the house to judge. The present ministers were told they were on a bed of roses." They were told so by a noble lord (Castlereagh), who yet had admitted that the Continent was in a very unsatisfactory situa

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tion. They were told so after the battle of Austerlitz, and even before that of Jena. Was it possible for the present ministers to remove all the distresses that had come upon the country in fifteen years pregnant with calamaties, during the time of the late administration, though perhaps without any blame on the part of administration. All that could be done was, to offer the best advice and aid in their power. The honourable gentleman had spoken in glowing colours of the calamities of Prussia, and of the evils extended to the world in consequence of the destruction of that power. Lord Howick had only to say, that no part of those misfortunes had been caused by his majesty's present ministers. The misfortunes of this case required more of those exaggerations to which, the honourable gentleman was so prone. History recorded many instances of armies destroyed, and empires ruined: but, the ruin of the Prussian empire was sudden and complete beyond all example. A mighty monarch, possessing a vast army, of the highest military reputation, was in one day reduced to the necessity of seeking safety in a precipitate flight, accompanied only by a few followers of his broken fortunes.

With regard to the honourable gentleman's allusions to Hanover as the sole cause of the declaration of war by this country against Prussia, lord H. observed, that, so far from Hanover being the only cause, the shutting of the rivers in the north of Germany against our commerce was the principal alleged ground of hostility, and upon that ground the house voted the address to his majesty, which approved the course

*See Mr.Canning's a mendment in Appendix to Chronicle, as published in the Courier newspaper, 22 Dec, 1806.

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adopted by government on that ocasion. Even supposing that the ports in the north of Germany were not closed against our shipping; was not the detention of Hanover by Prussia upon such grounds as that power alleged, of such a nature as this government could not subscribe to? But combining the detention of Hanover with the shutting up of the ports, would the honourable gentleman, as member of a cabinet, hesitate to advise his majesty to declare war against the power that should be guilty of such aggressions? or would he advise his majesty to conclude peace with a power which, under such circumstances, should insist upon withholding Hanover Then he would ask the honoura ble gentleman what becomes of all the empty, and tedious, and, he must say, triding declamation which the house had heard from him?

In the address which the honourable gentleman had read to the house, lord Howick perceived that there were very many professions of personal attachment to our sove reign, and of anxious wishes for his interests. He wished to know then from the right honourable author or advocate, of all these professions, whether he, as a minister, would conduct a negotiation, and conclude a war which should alienate from that sovereign an hereditary posses. sion, wrested from him originally, on account merely of a war between this country and a foreign enemy, and in which war that reditary possession had no concerns? Of the separate interests of this country and Hanover, he had heard and read much. Into the discussion of this question he did not now mean to enter. But thinking, as he did, that honour is the most Taluable possession of any state, he

had no hesitation in stating that it would be highly injurious to the interests of England, because incon. sistent with its honour, to leave Hanover to France or her allies, under such circumstances as he had already described. When Hanover was taken possession of by Prussia, it was transferred to her by France, with whom she was in the closest alliance. And when this was connected with the original cause of the invasion of that electorate, he would appeal to that house, and to the world, whether it could be reconciled with any sentiment of magna. nimity, honour, or justice, to allow its lawful sovereign to be deprived of Hanover, in consequence of a war between Great Britain and France ?

The honourable gentleman had accused ministers of not sending time. ly assistance to Prussia. But how soon had they reason to suppose, that Prussia was at all disposed to enter into hostilities with France? At the time we declared war against her, she was in close connection with the French government. But, notwithstanding our declaration, she had opportunity enough of communicating to our government any intention she entertained with regard to France. For, although war against Prussia was declared in April, baron Jacobi did not leave this country until the 15th of Au gust. The first circumstance that seemed to warrant any suspicion of hostility between Prussia and France was the recall, in the month of September, of the Prussian ambassador, at Paris, Lacchesini, in consequence of his becoming disagreeable Buonaparte.

But this suspicion quickly vanished: for his succes. sor baron Knoblesdorff, was ap pointed on the express recomendation

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