counter-revolution? When do you intend to march to Paris ? If such was at one time our success in France, that the convention were put in imminent fear of the combined armies penetrating to Paris, it was not very extraordinary that his honourable friend at London should allow himself to entertain a degreė of hope of the possibility of that event. By a mode of arguing, not unusual with gentlemen on the other side, whose practice it frequently was, first to state positions in order that they afterwards might combat them, ministers had been charged with looking to the conquest of France. They had never held out any such object; they had only professed their hope of making such an impression upon the interior of that country as might lead to a secure and stable peace; and of being able, by the assistance of those well-disposed persons who were enemies to the present system, to establish a government honourable to them and safe to ourselves. If a change had taken place in the government of France, which rendered it more expedient for us to treat in the present than at a former period, he would ask, if nothing had been gained? We were now in a situation less remote from that in which we might be able to treat with security. It had been urged, that we ought to have let France alone. What was the consequence of neutrality but to produce aggression? But now that war had been two years carried on, the detestable system of their government had subsided into a state of less flagrant atrocity. It had been said that all France, to a man, was united for a republic. What was meant by the phrase of a republic? Was it merely a name at the top of a sheet of paper? Was their desire of a republic to be gathered from their submission to the tyranny of Robespierre? Was their unanimity to be inferred from the numerous proscriptions and massacres of federalists and royalists?

Mr. Pitt proceeded to recapitulate the general grounds on which he had opposed the original resolution, and the motives from which he had been induced to bring forward the amend

*Mr. Jenkinson.

ment, which he had read, and should conclude with moving. Peace! Peace was not obstructed by any form of government; but by a consideration of the internal circumstances of France. He remarked that there had been great misconstructions and misconceptions with respect to what he had stated on former occasions to be his sentiments, as to the re-establishment of monarchy, which he by no means wished to be considered as a sine qua non to the attainment of peace, and therefore he had not contented himself with barely negativing the resolution, but had been induced in the amendment to substitute that language which, in his mind, it became parliament to hold, as best adapted to the subject.

There was one other consideration to which he should advert, namely, the remark that the attempt to treat, though not likely to be successful, would yet be attended with advantage, both in France and this country. In France it would shew that we were disposed to treat. If it were wise to treat, this certainly would be an advantage; but such a conduct, instead of forwarding peace, would only be productive of danger, it would lead to a proposition of terms from France, elated by its recent acquisitions, which it would be impossible for this country to accept. And he trusted that his honourable friend*, who had, he conceived, gone too far in his propositions with respect to peace on a former occasion, would be convinced, upon his own principles, that as the difficulty increased, any proposition to treat in the present moment would have the effect to encourage the enemy, and to bury the remains of opposition in France. In this country it would have the effect to sink the spirit of the people, and to tell them that it was right to look for peace, though it was impossible to look for security; it would be to insinuate a doubt of their zeal, energy, and courage, and to add to the depression already produced by a succession of misfortunes and a series of misrepresentations. The honourable gentleman had said, that if his proposition to treat should not in the event be successful, he would then support the war. Upon

*Mr. Wilberforce.

what ground could he support a war, which he had in the first instance conceived and declared to be neither necessary nor just? But till the period should arrive at which it would be possible to treat, with a rational prospect of security, and a degree of, at least, probable advantage, he, and those who thought with him, must continue to support a war, of the justice and necessity of which they were firmly persuaded, and which they could not, in the present moment, abandon without a sacrifice of their opinion, their consistency, and their honour.

DEBATE on Mr. Fox's motion, "for the House to resolve itself into a Committee of the whole House to inquire into the State of the Nation."

MR. PITT rose the instant Mr. Fox sat down.

He said he would not follow the right honourable gentleman at length, through all the various points which he had selected for discussion, in a very long and certainly one of the most eloquent speeches ever delivered in that house. He would not argue them then, because, with one single exception, they had been repeatedly investigated and decided upon in that house in the course of the present and of the last session: He would not argue them then, because he was convinced that all the topics had been brought forward upon this occasion for the sole purpose of introducing the great and real object which the right honourable gentleman had in view, viz. the present situation of the kingdom of Ireland, which he had rested on as a separate and substantive ground of inquiry.

Leaving, therefore, for the present, all the various other points. of the right honourable gentleman's speech, which had certainly been discussed with great ability, and which he should allude to cursorily by-and-by, he would confine himself to that part of it which related to Ireland; and he hoped to convince the house, and he would begin with stating, that in his judgment, that very statement which was urged as a ground for going into a committee, was, upon every principle of policy, the strongest reason to induce the house to negative the motion. It was with much reluctance that he felt himself bound to say any thing upon the subject. Independent of the delicacy which he must feel in discussing in the English house of commons points so intimately connected with the internal state of Ireland, and consequently more properly cognizable in the parliament of that kingdom, which had an independent legislature of its own, it could not but be obvious to every gentleman, that he must feel extremely cautious in making declarations upon this subject. He did not mean to deny that there was much reason to regret some occurrences which had happened in Ireland; but he would boldly, positively, and unequivocally assert, that if this affair should be fully investigated, it would appear to the house and to the kingdom that none of the embarrassments which might happen in that country, could in any degree be attributed to his Majesty's servants here. He would not then enter into the question, Whether any blame attached to the respectable person at the head of the government. He had only thought it necessary to make an assertion in justice to himself and his colleagues, which he would defy at any future period to be disapproved. More than this he would not say at present, except to observe, that if it was true that the sister kingdom was in a situation of irritation, ferment, and uneasiness, it certainly was the strongest reason possible why that moment should not be chosen for the proposed inquiry. The great question was, what advantage would arise from the investigation proposed by the right honourable gentleman? He begged leave to ask the right honourable gentleman, what good to either kingdom could possibly arise from a dis

cussion of the subject at the present moment?-In what manner did he propose to conduct the inquiry, if the house should agree to its expediency?

The right honourable gentleman had told the house that he had a motion to submit to a committee of inquiry, if it should be granted, which would not require the production of any paper to support it: but he wished to consider, nay he would put it to the candour of the right honourable gentleman himself, whether such an inquiry as this could be made to any effect whatever, without the production of a variety of papers, letters, dispatches, &c. which it would be impossible at this period to make public. If the right honourable gentleman felt, as every friend to this country must feel, a degree of uneasiness at even a momentary interruption of the harmony and good understanding, which ought, and he hoped always would, subsist between the two countries, surely he could not think his present motion a likely way to remove the embarrassments which were supposed to exist, and to restore the harmony which was stated to have been interrupted.

The right honourable gentleman had used the state of Ireland as he did almost every other occurrence-he had converted it into an argument to induce the house to change the opinions they had repeatedly and solemnly given upon the subject of the war, and to prove the necessity of an immediate peace. Here again his own statement made against the object he had in view. For if it was true that those embarrassments and that irritation existed in Ireland; if the probable consequence of that state of affairs was, as had been stated, that we should not receive that cordial co-operation from Ireland, was it likely that these circumstances would have the effect of procuring us a better peace; or would an advantageous peace be more likely to be obtained, from having their temporary differences rendered so public as they necessarily must be, if this inquiry was gone into? Thus the arguments of the right honourable gentleman answered themselves; but at the same time he by no means meant to