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refponding defire prevailed on the part of his enemies. He directed an overture to be made in his name, by his minifter in Switzerland, for the purpose of afcertaining the difpofitions of the French government with refpect to peace. The anfwer which he received in return was at once haughty and evafive; it affected to question the fincerity of thofe difpofitions of which his majefty's conduct afforded fo unequivocal a proof; it raifed groundJefs objections to the mode of negotiation propofed by his majefty (that of a general congrefs, by which peace has fo often been reftored to Europe); but it ftudioufly paffed over in filence his majefty's defire to learn what other mode would be preferred by France. It at the fame time afferted a principle which was flated as an indifpenfable preliminary to all negotiation a principle under which the terms of peace must have been regulated, not by the ufual confiderations of justice, policy, and reciprocal convenience; but by an implicit fubmiffion, on the part of all the powers, to a claim founded on the internal laws and feparate conftitution of France, as having ful authority to fuperfede the treaties entered into by independent ftates, to govern their interefts, to Control their engagements, and to difpofe of their dominions.

A pretenfion in itself fo extravagant could in no inftance have been admitted, or even liftened to for a moment. Its application to the prefent cafe led to nothing lefs than that France fhould, as a preliminary to all difcuffion, retain nearly all her conquefts, and thofe particularly in which his majefty was moft concerned, both from the ties of intereft, and the facred obligations of treaties: that the fhould

in like manner recover back a that had been conquered from her in every part of the world; and that fhe fhould be left at liberty to bring forward fuch further demands on all other points of negotiation, as fuch unqualified fubmiffion on the part of thofe with whom the treated could not fail to produce.

On fuch grounds as thefe it was fufficiently evident that no negotiation could be established: neither did the anfwer of his majesty's enemies afford any opening for continuing the difcuffion, fince the mode of negotiation offered by his majefty had been peremptorily rejected by them, and no other had been ftated in which they were willing to concur.

His majesty was however not difcouraged even by this refult from fill pursuing fuch measures as appeared to him moft conducive to the end of peace; and the withes of his ally the emperor correfponding with thofe which his majesty had manifefted, fentiments of a fimilar tendency were expreffed on the part of his imperial majetty at the time of opening the campaign; but the continuance of the fame fpirit and principles, on the part of the enemy, rendered this fresh overture equally unfuccessful.

While the government of France thus perfifted in obstructing every meafure that could even open the way to negotiation, no endeavour was omitted to mislead the public opinion throughout all Europe with respect to the real cause of the prolongation of the war, and to caft a doubt on those difpofitious which could alone have dictated the fteps taken by his majefty and his auguft ally.

In order to deprive his enemies of all poffibility of fubterfuge or evafion, and in the hope that a just

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fenfe of the continued calamities of war, and of the increafing diftrelles of France herself, might at length have led to more just and pacific difpofitions, his majesty renewed in another form, and through the intervention of friendly powers, a propofal for opening negotiations for peace. The manner in which this intervention was received indicated the moft hoftile difpofitions towards Great Britain, and at the fame time afforded to all Europe a ftriking inftance of that injurious and offenfive conduct which is obferved on the part of the French government towards all other countries. The repeated overtures made in his majesty's name were never thelefs of fuch a nature, that it was at last found impoffible to perfift in the abfolute rejection of them, without the direct and undifguifed avowal of a determination to refufe to Europe all hope of the restoration of tranquillity. A channel was therefore at length indicated, through which the government of France profeffed itself willing to carry on a negotiation; and a readinefs was expreffed (though in terms far remote from any fpirit of conciliation) to receive a minifter authorised by his majefty to pro ceed to Paris for that purpofe,

Many circumstances, might have been urged as affording powerful motives against adopting this fug geftion, until the government of France had given fome indication of a spirit better calculated to promote the fuccefs of fuch a miffion, and to meet these advances on the part, of Great Britain, The king's defire for the restoration of general peace on juft and honourable terms, his concern for the interests of his subjects, and his determination to leave to his enemies no pretext for imputing to him the confequences

of their own ambition, induced him to overlook every fuch con, fideration, and to take a step which thefe reafons alone could justify.

The repeated endeavours of the French government to defeat this miffion in its outfet, and to break off the intercourfe thus opened, even before the first steps towards negotiation could be taken; the indecent and injurious language employed with a view to irritate; the captious and frivolous objec tions raifed for the purpose of ob ftructing the progrefs of the dif cuffion; all thefe have fufficiently appeared from the official papers which paffed on both fides, and which are known to all Europe.

But, above all, the abrupt termi, nation of the negotiation has af forded the moft conclufi e proof, that at no period of it was any real with for peace entertained on the part of the French government.

After repeated evafion and delay, that government had at length confented to establish, as the bafis of the negotiation, a principle pros pofed by his majefty, liberal in its own nature, equitable towards his enemies, and calculated to provide for the interefts of his allies, and of Europe. It had been agreed that compenfation fhould be made to France, by proportionable reftitutions from his majefty's conquefte on that power, for thofe arrangements to which the fhould be called upon to confent in order to fatisfy the juft pretenfions of his allies, and to preferve the political balance of Europe. At the defire of the French government itself, memorials were prefented by his majesty's minifter, which contained the outlines of the terms of peace, grounded on the bafis fo eftablished, and in which his majesty proposed to carry to the utmoft poffible extent (K 4)

the

the application of a principle fo equitable with refpect to France, and fo liberal on his majesty's part. The delivery of thefe papers was accompanied by a declaration exprefsly and repeatedly made, both verbally and in writing, that his majefty's minifter was willing and prepared to enter, with a fpirit of conciliation and fairness, into the difcuffion of the different points there contained, or into that of any other propofal or scheme of peace which the French government might wish to fubftitute in its place.

In reply to this communication, he received a demand, in form the moft offenfive, and in fubftance the moft extravagant, that ever was made in the courfe of any negotiation. It was peremptorily required of him, that in the very outfet of the bafinefs, when no anfwer had been given by the French govern ment to his first propofal, when he had not even learnt, in any regular fhape, the nature or extent of the objections to it, and much less received from that government any other offer or plan' of peace, he fhould in twenty-four hours deliver in a ftatement of the final terms to which his court would in any cafe accede a demand tending evidently to thut the door to all negotiation, to preclude all difcuffion, all explanation, all poffibility of the amicable adjustment of points of difference a demand in its nature prepofterous, in its execution im practicable, fince it is plain that no fuch ultimate refolution refpecting a general plan of peace ever can be rationally formed, much lefs de clared, without knowing what points are principally objected to by the enemy, and what facilities ne may be willing to offer in return for conceffion in thofe refpects.

Having declined compliance with this demand, and explained the reafons which rendered it inad. miffible, but having, at the fame time, exprefsly renewed the declaration of his readiness to enter into the difcuffion of the propofal he had conveyed, or of any other which might be communicated to him, the king's minifter received no other anfwer than an abrupt command to quit Paris in fortyeight hours. If, in addition to fuch an infult, any further proof were neceffary of the difpofitions of those by whom it was offered, fuch proof would be abundantly fupplied from the contents of the note in which this order was 'conveyed. The mode of negotiation on which the French government had itself infifted, is there rejected, and no practicable means left open for treating with effect. The bafis of negotiation, fo recently'eftablished by mutual confent, is there difclaimed; and, in its room, a prin ciple clearly inadmiffible is reafferted as the only ground on which France can confent to treat: the very fame principle which had been brought forward in reply to his majesty's first overtures from Switzerland, which had then been rejected by his majefty, but which now appears never to have been, in fact, abandoned by the government of France, however inconfiftent with that on which they had exprefsly agreed to treat.

It is therefore neceffary that all Europe fhould understand that the rupture of the negotiation at Paris does not arife from the failure of any fincere attempt on the part of France to reconcile by air difcuffion the views and interefts of the contending powers. Such a difcuffion has been repeatedly invited, and even folicited, on the

part

part of his majefty, but has been, in the first inftance, and abfolutely, precluded by the act of the French government.

mination, and to renew, in the face
of all Europe, the folemn decla-
ration, that, whenever his enemies
fhall be difpofed to enter on the
work of a general pacification, in
a fpirit of conciliation and equity,
nothing fhall be wanting on his
part to contribute to the accom-
plishment of that great object, with
a view to which he has already
offered fuch confiderable facrifices
on his part, and which is now re-
tarded only by the exorbitant pre-
tenfions of his enemies.

It arifes exclufively from the determination of that government to reject all means of peace, a determination which appeared but too ftrongly on all the preliminary difeuffions; which was clearly manifested in the demand of an ultimatum made in the very outfet of the negotiation, but which is prov ed beyond all poffibility of doubt by the obftinate adherence to a claim which never can be admit-> ted, a claim that the conftruction which that government affects to put (though even in that refpect unfupported by the fact) on the internal conftitution of its own country, fhall be received by all other nations as paramount to every known principle of public law in Europe, as fuperior to the obligations of treaties, to the ties of common intereft, to the most preffing and urgent confiderations of general fecurity.

On fuch grounds it is that the French government has abruptly terminated a negotiation, which it commenced with reluctance, and conducted with every indication to prevent its final fuccefs. On thefe motives it is that the farther effufion of blood, the continued calamities of war, the interruptions of peaceable and friendly intercourfe among mankind, the prolonged di ftreffes of Europe, and the accuma lated miferies of France itself, are by the government of that country to be justified to the world.

His majefty, who had entered into the negotiation with good faith, who has fuffered no impediment to prevent his profecuting it with earnestness and fincerity, has how only to lament its abrupt ter

Weftminster, Dec. 27, 1796.

Declaration of the Whig Club, met to
affociate for the Repeal of the
Treafon and Sedition Bills.

At a meeting of the general com-
mittee of the Whig Club, held at
the Shakspeare tavern, on Satur-
day Jan. 23, 1796,

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The right honourable Charles James
Fox in the chair,

Refolved, that the following de-
claration be adopted and published,
as.

The Declaration of the Whig Club.

WHEN a fociety of private men feel themselves bound to propofe a great national measure to the people, juftice to their own character, and refpect for the public judg ment, require that they fhould, make known the reafons which have moved them to fuch a proceeding. We confefs that it is and ought to be unufual, becaufe it can be juftified by no ordinary circumstances; but we think that the fituation of the country no longer permits us to confide the fupport of our principles to the individual exertions of our members. The Whig Club, invariably ad

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hering to the principles of the Bri-. tifh conftitution as established at the revolution, cannot be unconcerned spectators of the deftruction of the most important fecurities of public liberty which were provided at that glorious æra. The conftitution can, in our judgment, now only be restored by the exercise of that just authority which the national opinion must ever poffefs over the proceedings of the legif. lature. We therefore deem it our duty, by every means which yet are legal, to appeal to the judgment of the people, and to procure a declaration of their opinion. With this view, we have invited our fellow-fubjects to affociate for obtaining the repeal of two ftatutes paffed in the prefent feffion of parliament.

In one of thefe ftatutes, we fee public affemblies of British subjects, though their proceedings fhould be the most orderly and peaceable, and their object unquestionably legat, fettered by restrictions hitherto unknown to the law and practice of this kingdom. Thofe meetings winch fhall not fubmit to these new and difgraceful conditions, are fubjected to difperfion under pain of death; and thofe which hati be held in compliance with them are made liable to fuch perpetual and vexatious interruption at the difcretion of magiftrates, that there never can be wanting an opportunity for disturbing their deliberations, and defeating their objects,, Such a law we cannot but regard as repugnant to the genius and character of this free nation. The conftitution of Great Britain is eftablished on the consent and affection of the people, and can only reft, with dignity or fafety, on thofe genuine foundations of all focial authority. When purely admini

ftered, it will ever make itfelf refpected by its own beneficence and justice. It has for ages inftructed the world by the example of a government which builds its ftrength only on its juftice, and fecures the obedience of its fubjects by their love of liberty. It can neither require the aid of a system of conftraint and terror, nor even receive it without danger of deftruction. Its ruling principle is the right of the people to manifeft their opinion on their public concerns; a right of which the frequent, unreftrained, and fearless exertion, can alone create and preferve in a people that free fpirit and conscious independence, without which the forms of a free conftitution are worthlefs and unavailing. This right alone guards and protects the fecure enjoyment of every other privilege. The house of commons is our fecurity against the encroachments of the crown. The king's prerogatives, and the privileges of the houfe of peers, are our fecurities againft our own reprefentatives. But no human wisdom can provide any fafeguard against a possible combination of all the branches of the legislature to opprefs or betray the community, but by enabling the great body of the nation freely to pronounce their opinion on the acts and measures of government by petition and remonstrance to the king, or either houfe of parliament, and by fpeech and publi. cation to their fellow-fubjects, unfettered by any previous restraint and fubject only to the animadverfion of the law on thofe overt acts of treafon, tumult, diforder, or fedition, which may be committed by individuals under pre tence of exercising these invaluable rights. This unreftrained communication of opinion is at once

the

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