reconciliation than he had been in the preceding year. The correspondence on this subject, now laid before Parliament, is doubtless expected by Ministers to demonstrate that this is the fact; or at least, to vindicate themselves from all imputation of being in any degree chargeable as the cause of the present continuance of the war; and to prove that on the contrary they have shewn every disposition, consistent with the honour and interests of the country, for effecting a peace.

That the establishment of peace is the only just and legitimate reason for the continuance of war, is a truth which needs only to be stated, to demand an implicit assent. To this truth, the whole of the correspondence to which I have referred, bears constant homage. Whatever may be the views of the belligerent powers, they are all anxious to persuade the rest of the world, that they only carry on the war by compulsion, and that they are at all times ready to

enter upon any discussion which may be likely to terminate in a just and equitable pacification. In this respect, the professions and assurances of the British Ministry are at least equal to those of any other power. Nothing can be more explicit than the declarations to this effect, as well in the speech of his Majesty's Commissioners, on the opening of the present session of Parliament, as in the various communications of the British Ministers with foreign states. In the former we are assured, "that if ever there was a just and national

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war, it is that which his Majesty is

now compelled to prosecute; that the "war is in its principle purely defensive; "and that his Majesty looks but to the "attainment of a secure and honourable

A

peace." In a communication from Mr. Canning to Count Starhemberg, the Austrian Ambassador to the Court of London, he is informed, "that the King

has never ceased to consider a secure "and durable peace as the only object of "the war in which his Majesty is en

gaged; and that he has never refused "to listen to any suggestions which ap

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peared likely to conduce to the attain"ment of that object." That these assurances, so frequently repeated and so solemnly made, should have a powerful effect in convincing the world at large, and the subjects of these realms in particular, that Ministers are sincere in their endeavours to obtain the great object which they profess to have in view, is not surprising. Accordingly, the papers laid before Parliament are referred to, by themselves and their friends, not only with complacency, but with triumph, as decisive evidence of their pacific intentions; and we are confidently told, that his Majesty's Ministers have demonstrated, that the negotiations have not failed through any indisposition on their part to a just and honourable pacification. +

*Correspondence with the Austrian Ambassador, 25th April, 1807.

"Neither the duration nor the mode of the con"test can fairly be attributed to his Majesty's Govern

Under these circumstances, I feel myself impelled to enter upon a brief inquiry, how far this opinion of the pacific views of the British Cabinet appears, from the Documents laid before Parliament, to be well founded; and for this purpose it will be necessary to state the proposals which have successively been made to the British Ministry in the course of the last year, and to consider in what manner the discussions to which they gave rise have been conducted, and to what circumstances the

"ment. His Majesty's Ministers have explicitly and "repeatedly avowed their readiness to open a negotia❝tion for peace, and to put a period to the war, WHEN

16 EVER THERE SHALL APPEAR A FAIR PROS66 PECT OF OBTAINING SAFE AND HONOURABLE TERMS."

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From an address of some of the inhabitants of Manchester to their fellow townsmen, on the impropriety of petitioning for peace; and proposing an address to the Sovereign.

total inefficacy of those discussions, in producing the desired result, is justly to be attributed.

From these papers it appears, that in the course of the year 1807, three several propositions were made, under different aspects of the affairs of Europe, for opening negotiations with Great Britain; two of these were made by Austria, and one through the medium of Russia. It might, perhaps, be presumed, that the very making a proposal to negotiate, is, in itself, a sufficient proof of the desire, at least, of a pacification; but on this I shall lay no stress; whether it was advisable to listen to such propositions, or not, must depend on the circumstances under which they were made, and the terms and conditions by which they were accompanied.

On the 18th April, 1807, whilst the contest between Russia and France was