staked themselves, their wives, and their chil- | system which has become the admiration of the dren." Every one of these sources of slavery world. From all these blessings we must for has been stated, and almost precisely in the same ever have been shut out, had there been any truth terms, to be at this hour a source of slavery in in those principles which some gentlemen have Africa. And these circumstances, sir, with a not hesitated to lay down as applicable to the solitary instance or two of human sacrifices, fur- case of Africa. Had those principles been true, nish the alleged proofs that Africa labors under we ourselves had languished to this hour in that a natural incapacity for civilization; that it is miserable state of ignorance, brutality, and degenthusiasm and fanaticism to think that she can radation, in which history proves our ancestry to ever enjoy the knowledge and the morals of Eu- have been immersed. Had other nations adoptrope; that Providence never intended her to rise ed these principles in their conduct toward us; above a state of barbarism; that Providence has had other nations applied to Great Britain the irrevocably doomed her to be only a nursery for reasoning which some of the senators of this slaves for us free and civilized Europeans. Al- very island now apply to Africa; ages might low of this principle, as applied to Africa, and I have passed without our emerging from barbashould be glad to know why it might not also rism; and we who are enjoying the blessings of have been applied to ancient and uncivilized British civilization, of British laws, and British Britain. Why might not some Roman senator, liberty, might, at this hour, have been little sureasoning on the principles of some honorable perior, either in morals, in knowledge, or refinegentlemen, and pointing to British barbarians, ment, to the rude inhabitants of the coast of have predicted with equal boldness, "there is a Guinea. people that will never rise to civilization-there is a people destined never to be free-a people without the understanding necessary for the attainment of useful arts; depressed by the hand of Nature below the level of the human species; and created to form a supply of slaves for the rest of the world." Might not this have been said, according to the principles which we now hear stated, in all respects as fairly and as truly of Britain herself, at that period of her history, as it can now be said by us of the inhabitants of Africa?

present condition, yet engaged in keep. ing others barbarians.

extend the

If, then, we feel that this perpetual confinement in the fetters of brutal ignorance would Her duty to have been the greatest calamity which to Af could have befallen us; if we view with rica. gratitude and exultation the contrast between the peculiar blessings we enjoy, and the wretchedness of the ancient inhabitants of Britain; if we shudder to think of the misery which would still have overwhelmed us had Great Britain continued to the present times to be a mart for slaves to the more civilized nations of the world, through some cruel policy of theirs, God forbid that we should any longer subject Africa to the same dreadful scourge, and preclude the light of knowledge, which has reached every other quarter of the globe, from having access to her coasts.

pects in the disduty.

We, sir, have long since emerged from barContrast of her barism. We have almost forgotten that we were once barbarians. We are now raised to a situation which exhibits a striking contrast to every I trust we shall no longer continue this comcircumstance by which a Roman might have merce, to the destruction of every im- Peroration: ancharacterized us, and by which we now charac-provement on that wide continent; imating prosterize Africa. There is, indeed, one thing want- and shall not consider ourselves as charge of this ing to complete the contrast, and to clear us al- conferring too great a boon, in restortogether from the imputation of acting even to ing its inhabitants to the rank of human beings. this hour as barbarians; for we continue to this I trust we shall not think ourselves too liberal, hour a barbarous traffic in slaves; we continue if, by abolishing the slave trade, we give them it even yet, in spite of all our great and undenia- the same common chance of civilization with ble pretensions to civilization. We were once other parts of the world, and that we shall now as obscure among the nations of the earth, as allow to Africa the opportunity, the hope, the savage in our manners, as debased in our mor- prospect of attaining to the same blessings which als, as degraded in our understandings, as these we ourselves, through the favorable dispensations unhappy Africans are at present. But in the of Divine Providence, have been permitted, at a lapse of a long series of years, by a progression much more early period, to enjoy. If we listen slow, and for a time almost imperceptible, we to the voice of reason and duty, and pursue this have become rich in a variety of acquirements, night the line of conduct which they prescribe, favored above measure in the gifts of Providence, some of us may live to see a reverse of that picunrivaled in commerce, pre-eminent in arts, ture from which we now turn our eyes with foremost in the pursuits of philosophy and sci- shame and regret. We may live to behold the ence, and established in all the blessings of civil natives of Africa engaged in the calm occupasociety. We are in the possession of peace, of tions of industry, in the pursuits of a just and lehappiness, and of liberty. We are under the gitimate commerce. We may behold the beams guidance of a mild and beneficent religion; and of science and philosophy breaking in upon their we are protected by impartial laws, and the land, which at some happy period in still later purest administration of justice. We are living times may blaze with full luster; and joining under a system of government which our own their influence to that of pure religion, may illuhappy experience leads us to pronounce the best minate and invigorate the most distant extremand wisest which has ever yet been framed; a ities of that immense continent. Then may we

So great was the impression made by this speech, that nearly all the spectators present

-Nos que ubi primus equis oriens afflavit an. [ supposed the vote would be carried almost by

SPEECH

OF MR. PITT ON THE RUPTURE OF NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRANCE, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, NOVEMBER 10, 1797.

INTRODUCTION.

FRANCE having declared war against Austria, April 20th, 1792, and against England, February 1st, 1793, all the leading powers of Europe united with the latter, and the contest soon became general. At the end of four years, the French had triumphed over their adversaries throughout the Continent; all the allies of England were driven from the field, and the Spaniards and Dutch were forced to turn their arms against her. The English, on the other hand, were every where victorious on the ocean, and had taken all her colonies from France, some valuable islands in the West Indies from Spain, and the Cape of Good Hope and the island of Ceylon from Holland, now the Batavian Republic.

But the internal condition of England made Mr. Pitt desirous of peace, and while his adversaries had nothing to restore, he had large possessions of theirs which he was willing to surrender as the price of a general pacification. Accordingly, on the fourth of July, 1797, he opened negotiations with the French at Lisle, through Lord Malmesbury, who had been sent the preceding year to Paris on the same mission, though without success. There were two parties at this time in the French government-the one mod. erate, the other violent and extreme. Hence, in conducting the negotiation, there was a continual fluctuation and studied delay on the part of the French, until the violent party prevailed in the revolutionary movement of September 4th, 1797, when they broke off the negotiation, twelve days after, in a rude and insulting manner. Mignet`gives a solution of their conduct in his History of the French Revolution: "The Directory, at this time without money, without the support of a party at home, with no other aid than that of the army, and no other means of influence than a continuation of its victories, was not in a condition to consent to a general peace. War was necessary to its existence. An immense body of troops could not be disbanded without danger." The nation was therefore to be dazzled, and the army employed, by an expedition for the conquest of Egypt, as the high road to the English possessions in India. Jomini admits, in-his History of the Wars of the Revolution, that "Europe was convinced, on this occa sion at least, that the cabinet of St. James had evinced more moderation than a Directory whose proceedings were worthy of the days of Robespierre."

On the 24th of October, 1797, the King of England issued a "Declaration respecting the Negotiation for Peace with France," part of which will here be given, as a specimen of the noble and commanding style of Mr. Pitt in his state papers.

"HIS MAJESTY directed his minister to repair to France furnished with the most ample powers, and instructed to communicate at once an explicit and detailed proposal and plan of peace, reduced into the shape of a regular treaty, just and moderate in its principles, embracing all the interests concerned, and extending to every subject connected with the restoration of public tranquillity.

"To this proceeding, open and liberal beyond example, the conduct of his Majesty's enemies opposes the most striking contrast. From them no counter-project has ever yet been obtained; no statement of the extent or nature of the conditions on which they would conclude any peace with these kingdoms. Their pretensions have always been brought forward either as detached or as preliminary points, distinct from the main object of negotiation, and accompanied in every instance with an express reserve of further and unexplained demands.

"The points which, in pursuance of this system, the plenipotentiaries of the enemy proposed for separate discussion in their first conferences with his Majesty's minister, were at once frivolous and offensive; none of them productive of any solid advantage to France, but all calculated to raise new obstacles in the way of peace. And to these demands was soon after added another, in its form unprecedented, in its substance extravagant, and such as could only originate in the most determined and inveterate hostility. The principle of mutual compensation (before expressly admitted by common consent as the just and equitable basis of negotiation) was now disclaimed; every idea of moderation or reason, every appearance of justice, was disregarded; and a concession was required from his Majesty's plenipotentiary, as a preliminary and indispensable condition of negotiation, which must at once have superseded all the objects, and precluded all the means of treating. France, after incorporating with her own dominions so large a portion of her conquests, and affecting to have deprived herself, by her own internal regulations, of the power of alienating these valuable additions of territory, did not scruple to demand from his Majesty the absolute and unconditional surrender of all that the energy of his people, and the valor of his fleets and armies, have conquered in the present war, either from France or from her allies. She required that the power of Great Britain should be confined within its former limits, at the very moment when her own dominion was extended to a degree almost unparalleled in history. She insisted that in proportion to the increase of danger the means of resistance should be diminished; and that his Majesty

PP

should give up, without compensation, and into the hands of his enemies, the necessary defenses of his possessions, and the future safeguards of his empire. Nor was even this demand brought forward as constituting the terms of peace, but the price of negotiation; as the condition on which alone his Majesty was to be allowed to learn what further unexplained demands were still reserved, and to what greater sacrifices these unprecedented concessions of honor and safety were to lead!

"To France, to Europe, and to the world, it must be manifest, that the French government (while they persist in their present sentiments) leave his Majesty without an alternative, unless he were prepared to surrender and sacrifice to the undisguised ambition of his enemies the honor of his crown and the safety of his dominions. It must be manifest, that, instead of showing, on their part, any inclination to meet his Majesty's pacific overtures on any moderate terms, they have never brought themselves to state any terms (however exorbitant) on which they were ready to conclude peace. *** The rupture

of the negotiation is not, therefore, to be ascribed to any pretensions (however inadmissible) urged as the price of peace; not to any ultimate difference on terms, however exorbitant; but to the evident and fixed determination of the enemy to prolong the contest, and to pursue, at all hazards, their hostile designs against the prosperity and safety of these kingdoms.

"While this determination continues to prevail, his Majesty's earnest wishes and endeavors to restore peace to his subjects must be fruitless. But his sentiments remain unaltered. He looks with anxious expectation to the moment when the government of France may show a disposition and spirit in any degree corresponding to his own. And he renews, even now, and before all Europe, the solemn declaration, that, in spite of repeated provocations, and at the very moment when his claims have been strengthened and confirmed by that fresh success which, by the blessing of Providence, has recently attended his arms, he is yet ready (if the calamities of war can now be closed) to conclude peace on the same moderate and equitable principles and terms which he has before proposed. The rejection of such terms must now, more than ever, demonstrate the implacable animosity and insatiable ambition of those with whom he has to contend, and to them alone must the future consequences of the prolongation of the war be ascribed. "His Majesty has an anxious, but a sacred, indispensable duty to fulfill: he will discharge it with resolution, constancy, and firmness. Deeply as he must regret the continuance of a war, so destructive in its progress, and so burdensome even in its success, he knows the character of the brave people whose interests and honor are intrusted to him. These it is the first object of his life to maintain; and he is convinced that neither the resources nor the spirit of his kingdoms will be found inadequate to this arduous contest, or unequal to the importance and value of the objects which are at stake. He trusts that the favor of Providence, by which they have always hitherto been supported against all their enemies, will be still extended to them; and that, under this protection, his faithful subjects, by a resolute and vigorous application of the means which they possess, will be enabled to vindicate the independence of their country, and to resist with just indignation the assumed superiority of an enemy, against whom they have fought with the courage, and success, and glory of their ancestors, and who aims at nothing less than to destroy at once whatever has contributed to the prosperity and greatness of the British empire; all the channels of its industry, and all the sources of its power; its security from abroad, its tranquillity at home; and, above all, that Constitution, on which alone depends the undisturbed enjoyment of its religion, laws, and liberties."

This Declaration was laid before the House of Lords, November 8th, 1797, and an Address to the Throne was passed without a single dissenting voice, approving of the course taken, and closing with these words: "We know that great exertions are necessary; we are prepared to make them; and placing our firm reliance on that Divine protection which has always hitherto been extended to us, we will support your Majesty to the utmost, and stand or fall with our religion, laws, and liberties." This address was sent down to the Commons on the tenth, and every one supposed it would be adopted there with equal unanimity. But Sir John Sinclair, a well-meaning but weak man, who was apprehensive that the tone of the Declaration might produce increased hostility among the French people, proposed a substitute, which dwelt in feeble language on "the various calamities to which nations in a state of hostility were necessarily exposed;"" deplored the continuance of a war which had already occasioned such an expense of treasure and of blood," and expressed a hope of "speedily renewing a negotiation so favorable to the interests of humanity." This substitute he proposed, while, with singular inconsistency, he condemned the ministry for the anxiety they had shown to prevent the conference from being broken off, declaring himself "perfectly astonished at the mean and degrading manner in which ministers had carried on the negotiation." He was followed by Earl Temple, a young relative of Mr. Pitt, who, in a maiden speech, took up the latter idea in a way perfectly consistent with his principles (which were those of Mr. Burke), and carried it much further, condemning ministers for negotiating at all, and going back to the origin and conduct of the war in a spirit which (if carried out) would have rendered it eternal.

Mr. Pitt, in his peculiar mode of giving a bold relief to his position at the opening of a speech, seized on the opportunity thus presented, and placed himself at once at the middle point between these two extremes; and after showing the extravagance of each, went on to state the measures by which he had endeavored to obtain peace, in one of the finest specimens of luminous exposition, intermingled with impassioned feeling, to be found in our language.

SPEECH, & c.