ill faith arise? It was because the British ministry (leaving to the
Directory, however, to propose a better mode) proposed a _congress_ for
the purpose of a general pacification, and this they said "would render
negotiation endless." From hence they immediately inferred a fraudulent
intention in the offer. Unquestionably their mode of giving the law
would bring matters to a more speedy conclusion. As to any other method
more agreeable to them than a congress, an alternative expressly
proposed to them, they did not condescend to signify their pleasure.
This refusal of treating conjointly with the powers allied against this
republic furnishes matter for a great deal of serious reflection. They
have hitherto constantly declined any other than a treaty with a single
power. By thus dissociating every state from every other, like deer
separated from the herd, each power is treated with on the merit of his
being a deserter from the common cause. In that light, the Regicide
power, finding each of them insulated and unprotected, with great
facility gives the law to them all. By this system, for the present an
incurable distrust is sown amongst confederates, and in future all
alliance is rendered impracticable. It is thus they have treated with
Prussia, with Spain, with Sardinia, with Bavaria, with the
Ecclesiastical State, with Saxony; and here we see them refuse to treat
with Great Britain in any other mode. They must be worse than blind who
do not see with what undeviating regularity of system, in this case and
in all cases, they pursue their scheme for the utter destruction of
every independent power,--especially the smaller, who cannot find any
refuge whatever but in some common cause.
Renewing their taunts and reflections, they tell Mr. Wickham, "that
_their_ policy has no guides but openness and good faith, and that their
conduct shall be conformable to these principles." They say concerning
their government, that, "yielding to the ardent desire by which it is
animated to procure peace for the French Republic and for all nations,
it will not _fear to declare itself openly_. Charged by the Constitution
with the execution of the _laws_, it cannot _make_ or _listen_ to any
proposal that would be contrary to them. The constitutional act does not
permit it to consent to any alienation of that which, according to the
existing laws, constitutes the territory of the Republic."
"With respect to the countries _occupied by the French armies, and which
have not been united to France_, they, as well as other interests,
political and commercial, may become the subject of a negotiation, which
will present to the Directory the means of proving how much it desires
to attain speedily to a happy pacification." That "the Directory is
ready to receive, in this respect, any overtures that shall be just,
reasonable, and compatible _with the dignity of the Republic_."
On the head of what is _not_ to be the subject of negotiation, the
Directory is clear and open. As to what may be a matter of treaty, all
this open dealing is gone. She retires into her shell. There she expects
overtures from _you_: and you are to guess what she shall judge just,
reasonable, and, above all, _compatible with her dignity_.
In the records of pride there does not exist so insulting a declaration.
It is insolent in words, in manner; but in substance it is not only
insulting, but alarming. It is a specimen of what may be expected from
the masters we are preparing for our humbled country. Their openness and
candor consist in a direct avowal of their despotism and ambition. We
know that their declared resolution had been to surrender no object
belonging to France previous to the war. They had resolved that the
Republic was entire, and must remain so. As to what she has conquered
from the Allies and united to the same indivisible body, it is of the
same nature. That is, the Allies are to give up whatever conquests they
have made or may make upon France; but all which she has violently
ravished from her neighbors, and thought fit to appropriate, are not to
become so much as objects of negotiation.
In this unity and indivisibility of possession are sunk ten immense and
wealthy provinces, full of strong, flourishing, and opulent cities, (the
Austrian Netherlands,) the part of Europe the most necessary to preserve
any communication between this kingdom and its natural allies, next to
Holland the most interesting to this country, and without which Holland
must virtually belong to France. Savoy and Nice, the keys of Italy, and
the citadel in her hands to bridle Switzerland, are in that
consolidation. The important territory of Liege is torn out of the heart
of the Empire. All these are integrant parts of the Republic, not to be
subject to any discussion, or to be purchased by any equivalent. Why?
Because there is a law which prevents it. What law? The law of nations?
The acknowledged public law of Europe? Treaties and conventions of
parties? No,--not a pretence of the kind. It is a declaration not made
in consequence of any prescription on her side,--not on any cession or
dereliction, actual or tacit, of other powers. It is a declaration,
_pendente lite_, in the middle of a war, one principal object of which
was originally the defence, and has since been the recovery, of these
very countries.
This strange law is not made for a trivial object, not for a single port
or for a single fortress, but for a great kingdom,--for the religion,
the morals, the laws, the liberties, the lives and fortunes of millions
of human creatures, who, without their consent or that of their lawful
government, are, by an arbitrary act of this regicide and homicide
government which they call a law, incorporated into their tyranny.
In other words, their will is the law, not only at home, but as to the
concerns of every nation. Who has made that law but the Regicide
Republic itself, whose laws, like those of the Medes and Persians, they
cannot alter or abrogate, or even so much as take into consideration?
Without the least ceremony or compliment, they have sent out of the
world whole sets of laws and lawgivers. They have swept away the very
constitutions under which the legislatures acted and the laws were made.
Even the fundamental sacred rights of man they have not scrupled to
profane. They have set this holy code at nought with ignominy and scorn.
Thus they treat all their domestic laws and constitutions, and even what
they had considered as a law of Nature. But whatever they have put their
seal on, for the purposes of their ambition, and the ruin of their
neighbors, this alone is invulnerable, impassible, immortal. Assuming to
be masters of everything human and divine, here, and here alone, it
seems, they are limited, "cooped and cabined in," and this omnipotent
legislature finds itself wholly without the power of exercising its
favorite attribute, the love of peace. In other words, they are powerful
to usurp, impotent to restore; and equally by their power and their
impotence they aggrandize themselves, and weaken and impoverish you and
all other nations.
Nothing can be more proper or more manly than the state publication,
called a _Note_, on this proceeding, dated Downing Street, the 10th of
April, 1796. Only that it is better expressed, it perfectly agrees with
the opinion I have taken the liberty of submitting to your
consideration. I place it below at full length,[25] as my justification
in thinking that this astonishing paper from the Directory is not only a
direct negative to all treaty, but is a rejection of every principle
upon which treaties could be made. To admit it for a moment were to
erect this power, usurped at home, into a legislature to govern mankind.
It is an authority that on a thousand occasions they have asserted in
claim, and, whenever they are able, exerted in practice. The
dereliction, of this whole scheme of policy became, therefore, an
indispensable previous condition to all renewal of treaty. The remark of
the British Cabinet on this arrogant and tyrannical claim is natural and
unavoidable. Our ministry state, that, "_while these dispositions shall
be persisted in, nothing is left for the king but to prosecute a war
that is just and necessary_."
It was of course that we should wait until the enemy showed some sort of
disposition on his part to fulfil this condition. It was hoped, indeed,
that our suppliant strains might be suffered to steal into the august
ear in a more propitious season. That season, however, invoked by so
many vows, conjurations, and prayers, did not come. Every declaration of
hostility renovated, and every act pursued with double animosity,--the
overrunning of Lombardy,--the subjugation of Piedmont,--the possession
of its impregnable fortresses,--the seizing on all the neutral states of
Italy,--our expulsion from Leghorn,--instances forever renewed for our
expulsion from Genoa,--Spain rendered subject to them and hostile to
us,--Portugal bent under the yoke,--half the Empire overrun and
ravaged,--were the only signs which this mild Republic thought proper to
manifest of her pacific sentiments. Every demonstration of an implacable
rancor and an untamable pride were the only encouragements we received
to the renewal of our supplications.
Here, therefore, they and we were fixed. Nothing was left to the British
ministry but "to prosecute a war just and necessary,"--a war equally
just as at the time of our engaging in it,--a war become ten times more
necessary by everything which happened afterwards. This resolution was
soon, however, forgot. It felt the heat of the season and melted away.
New hopes were entertained from supplication. No expectations, indeed,
were then formed from renewing a direct application to the French
Regicides through the agent-general for the humiliation of sovereigns.
At length a step was taken in degradation which even went lower than all
the rest. Deficient in merits of our own, a mediator was to be
sought,--and we looked for that mediator at Berlin! The King of
Prussia's merits in abandoning the general cause might have obtained for
him some sort of influence in favor of those whom he had deserted; but I
have never heard that his Prussian Majesty had lately discovered so
marked an affection for the Court of St. James's, or for the Court of
Vienna, as to excite much hope of his interposing a very powerful
mediation to deliver them from the distresses into which he had brought
them.
If humiliation is the element in which we live, if it is become not only
our occasional policy, but our habit, no great objection can be made to
the modes in which it may be diversified,--though I confess I cannot be
charmed with the idea of our exposing our lazar sores at the door of
every proud servitor of the French Republic, where the court dogs will
not deign to lick them. We had, if I am not mistaken, a minister at that
court, who might try its temper, and recede and advance as he found
backwardness or encouragement. But to send a gentleman there on no other
errand than this, and with no assurance whatever that he should not
find, what he did find, a repulse, seems to me to go far beyond all the
demands of a humiliation merely politic. I hope it did not arise from a
predilection for that mode of conduct.
The cup of bitterness was not, however, drained to the dregs. Basle and
Berlin were not sufficient. After so many and so diversified repulses,
we were resolved to make another experiment, and to try another
mediator. Among the unhappy gentlemen in whose persons royalty is
insulted and degraded at the seat of plebeian pride and upstart
insolence, there is a minister from Denmark at Paris. Without any
previous encouragement to that, any more than the other steps, we sent
through, this turnpike to demand a passport for a person who on our part
was to solicit peace in the metropolis, at the footstool of Regicide
itself. It was not to be expected that any one of those degraded beings
could have influence enough to settle any part of the terms in favor of
the candidates for further degradation; besides, such intervention would
be a direct breach in their system, which did not permit one sovereign
power to utter a word in the concerns of his equal.--Another repulse. We
were desired to apply directly in our persons. We submitted, and made
the application.
It might be thought that here, at length, we had touched the bottom of
humiliation; our lead was brought up covered with mud. But "in the
lowest deep, a lower deep" was to open for us still more profound
abysses of disgrace and shame. However, in we leaped. We came forward in
our own name. The passport, such a passport and safe-conduct as would be
granted to thieves who might come in to betray their accomplices, and no
better, was granted to British supplication. To leave no doubt of its
spirit, as soon as the rumor of this act of condescension could get
abroad, it was formally announced with an explanation from authority,
containing an invective against the ministry of Great Britain, their
habitual frauds, their proverbial _Punic_ perfidy. No such state-paper,
as a preliminary to a negotiation for peace, has ever yet appeared. Very
few declarations of war have ever shown so much and so unqualified
animosity. I place it below,[26] as a diplomatic curiosity, and in
order to be the better understood in the few remarks I have to make upon
a peace which, indeed, defies all description. "None but itself can be
its parallel."
I pass by all the insolence and contumely of the performance, as it
comes from them. The present question is not, how we are to be affected
with it in regard to our dignity. That is gone. I shall say no more
about it. Light lie the earth on the ashes of English pride! I shall
only observe upon it _politically_, and as furnishing a direction for
our own conduct in this low business.
The very idea of a negotiation for peace, whatever the inward sentiments
of the parties may be, implies some confidence in their faith, some
degree of belief in the professions which are made concerning it. A
temporary and occasional credit, at least, is granted. Otherwise men
stumble on the very threshold. I therefore wish to ask what hope we can
have of their good faith, who, as the very basis of the negotiation,
assume the ill faith and treachery of those they have to deal with? The
terms, as against us, must be such as imply a full security against a
treacherous conduct,--that is, such terms as this Directory stated in
its first declaration, to place us "in an utter impossibility of
executing our wretched projects." This is the omen, and the sole omen,
under which we have consented to open our treaty.
The second observation I have to make upon it (much connected,
undoubtedly, with the first) is, that they have informed you of the
result they propose from the kind of peace they mean to grant you,
--that is to say, the union they propose among nations with the view of
rivalling our trade and destroying our naval power; and this they
suppose (and with good reason, too) must be the inevitable effect of
their peace. It forms one of their principal grounds for suspecting our
ministers could not be in good earnest in their proposition. They make
no scruple beforehand to tell you the whole of what they intend; and
this is what we call, in the modern style, the acceptance of a
proposition for peace! In old language it would be called a most
haughty, offensive, and insolent rejection of all treaty.
Thirdly, they tell you what they conceive to be the perfidious policy
which dictates your delusive offer: that is, the design of cheating not
only them, but the people of England, against whose interest and
inclination this war is supposed to be carried on.
If we proceed in this business, under this preliminary declaration, it
seems to me that we admit, (now for the third time,) by something a
great deal stronger than words, the truth of the charges of every kind
which they make upon the British ministry, and the grounds of those foul
imputations. The language used by us, which in other circumstances would
not be exceptionable, in this case tends very strongly to confirm and
realize the suspicion of our enemy: I mean the declaration, that, if we
do not obtain such terms of peace as suits our opinion of what our
interests require, _then_, and in _that_ case, we shall continue the war
with vigor. This offer, so reasoned, plainly implies, that, without it,
our leaders themselves entertain great doubts of the opinion and good
affections of the British people; otherwise there does not appear any
cause why we should proceed, under the scandalous construction of our
enemy, upon the former offer made by Mr. Wickham, and on the new offer
made directly at Paris. It is not, therefore, from a sense of dignity,
but from the danger of radicating that false sentiment in the breasts of
the enemy, that I think, under the auspices of this declaration, we
cannot, with the least hope of a good event, or, indeed, with any
regard to the common safety, proceed in the train of this negotiation.
I wish ministry would seriously consider the importance of their seeming
to confirm the enemy in an opinion that his frequent use of appeals to
the people against their government has not been without its effect. If
it puts an end to this war, it will render another impracticable.
Whoever goes to the Directorial presence under this passport, with this
offensive comment and foul explanation, goes, in the avowed sense of the
court to which he is sent, as the instrument of a government dissociated
from the interests and wishes of the nation, for the purpose of cheating
both the people of France and the people of England. He goes out the
declared emissary of a faithless ministry. He has perfidy for his
credentials. He has national weakness for his full powers. I yet doubt
whether any one can be found to invest himself with that character. If
there should, it would be pleasant to read his instructions on the
answer which he is to give to the Directory, in case they should repeat
to him the substance of the manifesto which he carries with him in his
portfolio.
So much for the _first_ manifesto of the Regicide Court which went along
with the passport. Lest this declaration should seem the effect of
haste, or a mere sudden effusion of pride and insolence, on full
deliberation, about a week after comes out a second. This manifesto is
dated the 5th of October, one day before the speech from the throne, on
the vigil of the festive day of cordial unanimity so happily celebrated
by all parties in the British Parliament. In this piece the Regicides,
our worthy friends, (I call them by advance and by courtesy what by law
I shall be obliged to call them hereafter,) our worthy friends, I say,
renew and enforce the former declaration concerning our faith and
sincerity, which they pinned to our passport. On three other points,
which run through all their declarations, they are more explicit than
ever.
First, they more directly undertake to be the real representatives of
the people of this kingdom: and on a supposition, in which they agree
with our Parliamentary reformers, that the House of Commons is not that
representative, the function being vacant, they, as our true
constitutional organ, inform his Majesty and the world of the sense of
the nation. They tell us that "the English people see with regret his
Majesty's government squandering away the funds which had been granted
to him." This astonishing assumption of the public voice of England is
but a slight foretaste of the usurpation which, on a peace, we may be
assured they will make of all the powers in all the parts of our vassal
Constitution. "If they do these things in the green tree, what shall be
done in the dry?"
Next they tell us, as a condition to our treaty, that "this government
must abjure the unjust hatred it bears to them, and at last open its
ears to the voice of humanity." Truly, this is, even from them, an
extraordinary demand. Hitherto, it seems, we have put wax into our ears,
to shut them up against the tender, soothing strains, in the
_affettuoso_ of humanity, warbled from the throats of Reubell, Carnot,
Tallien, and the whole chorus of confiscators, domiciliary visitors,
committee-men of research, jurors and presidents of revolutionary
tribunals, regicides, assassins, massacrers, and Septembrisers. It is
not difficult to discern what sort of humanity our government is to
learn from these Siren singers. Our government also; I admit, with some
reason, as a step towards the proposed fraternity, is required to abjure
the unjust hatred which it bears to this body of honor and virtue. I
thank God I am neither a minister nor a leader of opposition. I protest
I cannot do what they desire. I could not do it, if I were under the
guillotine,--or, as they ingeniously and pleasantly express it, "looking
out of the little national window." Even at that opening I could receive
none of their light. I am fortified against all such affections by the
declaration of the government, which I must yet consider as lawful, made
on the 29th of October, 1793,[27] and still ringing in my ears. This
Declaration was transmitted not only to all our commanders by sea and
land, but to our ministers in every court of Europe. It is the most
eloquent and highly finished in the style, the most judicious in the
choice of topics, the most orderly in the arrangement, and the most rich
in the coloring, without employing the smallest degree of exaggeration,
of any state-paper that has ever yet appeared. An ancient writer
(Plutarch, I think it is) quotes some verses on the eloquence of
Pericles, who is called "the only orator that left stings in the minds
of his hearers." Like his, the eloquence of the Declaration, not
contradicting, but enforcing, sentiments of the truest humanity, has
left stings that have penetrated more than skin-deep into my mind and
never can they be extracted by all the surgery of murder; never can the
throbbings they have created be assuaged by all the emollient cataplasms
of robbery and confiscation. I _cannot_ love the Republic.
The third point, which they have more clearly expressed than ever, is of
equal importance with the rest, and with them furnishes a complete view
of the Regicide system. For they demand as a condition, without which
our ambassador of obedience cannot be received with any hope of success,
that he shall be "provided with full powers to negotiate a peace between
the French Republic and Great Britain, and to conclude it _definitively_
between the TWO powers." With their spear they draw a circle about us.
They will hear nothing of a joint treaty. We must make a peace
separately from our allies. We must, as the very first and preliminary
step, be guilty of that perfidy towards our friends and associates with
which they reproach us in our transactions with them, our enemies. We
are called upon scandalously to betray the fundamental securities to
ourselves and to all nations. In my opinion, (it is perhaps but a poor
one,) if we are meanly bold enough to send an ambassador such as this
official note of the enemy requires, we cannot even dispatch our
emissary without danger of being charged with a breach of our alliance.
Government now understands the full meaning of the passport.
Strange revolutions have happened in the ways of thinking and in the
feelings of men; but it is a very extraordinary coalition of parties
indeed, and a kind of unheard-of unanimity in public councils, which can
impose this new-discovered system of negotiation, as sound national
policy, on the understanding of a spectator of this wonderful scene, who
judges on the principles of anything he ever before saw, read, or heard
of, and, above all, on the understanding of a person who has in his eye
the transactions of the last seven years.