ments should be laid on the table, this pledge, and the qualifications by which it was accompanied, would, he was persuaded, prove very satisfactory to the House. It was no small gratification to him to have brought the different Powers of Europe, not only to an agreement to the principle of the abolition, but to an early and absolute accomplishment of it. He heartily wished that he could announce that this curse of humanity had ceased to exist, but final sentence had been passed upon it. It had been thought a favourable circumstance when Denmark had declared that she would put an end to the trade in ten years. When he said that two of the greatest Powers engaged in the trade had agreed to abolish it in eight years, he must add, that he did not despair of ultimately reducing that period. As to France, though he had not hitherto been able to persuade the French Government to do so, he did not despair of ultimately inducing them to reduce the period of five years; for in all his intercourse with the ministers of his Most Christian Majesty, he found them animated with what he believed was a most sincere desire to terminate the trade at a period as early as could be reconciled to the general feelings of the country. He had also attempted to obtain an abolition of the trade north of the line. The discussion on this subject, not having been closed at the Congress, had been adjourned to commissioners, who were to meet at London and Paris; and as a proof of the sincerity of the Congress, the Powers assembled there had declared, that while they were prepared to make allowances for particular countries, they should reserve to themselves the right of judging as to the periods assigned by them for the abolition in their respective instances, and of abstaining from receiving the colonial produce of such countries as might seem inclined to extend the trade beyond a reasonable period, endeavouring at the same time to obtain it from countries which had shewn themselves more favourable to the cause of humanity. He would say a few words on the efforts he had made to obtain certain local abolitions of the trade. Spain had engaged to abolish the trade altogether beyond ten degrees north of the Line, and to abandon all the trade not carried on in Spanish vessels; and Portugal (respecting which country the hon. gentleman had been greatly misinformed) had agreed to abolish the trade altogether north of the Line. If §

France and Spain could be prevailed on to adopt the equator as the limit of the trade, half the coast of Africa would be relieved from its horrible inflictions. He trusted, therefore, that as much had been done in this interesting and important subject as, under all the circumstances of the times, could reasonably be expected. He had the command of the Prince Regent to submit to the House all the details on this subject, and they would then form their judgment upon it.

He had now to call the attention of the House to the general scope of the hon. gentleman's argument, as applicable to the proceedings of Congress, touching the continental arrangements. And here he must intreat the House not to do such injustice to the Government of this country and to the other confederated Powers, as to conclude that should his observations, from any defect in himself, or from any impossibility of recollecting all that was necessary to say on a subject so extensive, be deemed an insufficient reply to the hon. gentleman, that the conduct of those Powers was therefore insusceptible of explanation and defence. The House were aware that the object of the Congress was to carry into effect the Treaty of Paris, The fair question, therefore, was, taking that Treaty as the foundation of their proceedings, whether the allied Governments had fairly and honourably executed the task which they had prescribed to them. selves. He was prepared to meet the hon. gentleman on this ground-he was prepared to sustain the character of the transactions which had taken place, against the foul calumnies with which the hon. gentleman, doubtless, in misapprehension, had impugned the Government of this country, and the other Governments of Europe, in a manner that was calculated to be highly prejudicial to the general interest. In considering the recent transactions, the House would not expect to find that in such an assembly of sove reigns and ministers, no clashing of interests had occurred, no differences of opinion had existed. Such an entire unanimity would have been contrary to the feelings of human nature, and of that independence which the destruction of the tyrant mind had happily permitted in the different states of Europe. The ques tion which the House would have to decide was, whether a system had been created under which all countries might live in that peace which it was the great

to the sovereign of our own country. Another of the distinct understandings by the Treaty of Paris was, that Austria was to be bounded by the Po and the Tessine.

Reverting to the subject of Genoa, he contended that no one could suppose that a general officer commanding a corps could be entrusted with the power of creating and destroying states. He could do no more than provide provisionally, not permanently. No one doubted that lord W. Bentinck knew perfectly well what it was his duty to do; but, besides this, he had received a special prohibition on the particular subject in question. The noble lord here read an extract of a letter which he had written to lord William Bentinck from Dijon, on the 30th of March, 1814, instructing him to give every aid to the restoration of the King of Sardinia, but cautioning him studiously to abstain from such measures as might commit Great Britain or her Allies, with respect to the ultimate destination of the north of Italy-a subject which must be discussed in the negociations that would follow the conclusion of peace. He then proceeded to examine lord W. Bentinck's Proclamation, to shew that the change in the Government was provisional, not permanent, and that it was established by him, not on the authority of the Allies, but because he thought it conformable to the general sentiment. With respect to the statement of the hon. gentleman, as to the conduct of the Genoese, he distinctly denied that they had in any way aided the British not a Genoese had raised his hand on the part of the British army on their approach, however disinclined they felt toward the domination of France. Certainly they had a claim on our good will, but they had none on our good faith, for their surrender was as complete a conquest on every principle of the law of nations, as had ever occurred in the history of any country. The noble lord then read a letter from lord W. Bentinck, dated 27th April, and his answer dated May 6th, both tending to confirm his argument with respect to the expectations held out, and the measures which had been adopted towards the Genoese. That the Genoese themselves did not consider this country as pledged to any establishment of their ancient form of Government, he could shew from a letter put into his hands, when he was at Paris, by a person who acted in some measure as a Plenipotentiary for that people. In this letter,

which was expressive of their wishes, nothing more was claimed from this country than the interposition of our good offices with the Allies, for the restoration of the ancient Government. He should have thought that he would have been failing in candour, had he not then been explicit in the expression of his understanding on that subject. He was then, in fact, as explicit to that person as he had been to the hon. member this night. He told him that lord W. Bentinck not only had received no instructions to restore the ancient Government, but that he had received positive instructions to establish merely a provisional government, He stated farther, that if any doubt remained on the minds of the people of Genoa on this subject, that doubt ought forthwith to be cleared up by undeceiving them. It was not his duty to undeceive the Genoese, by issuing a Proclamation derogatory to the reputation of any public officer: he had left it to lord W. Bentinck, and to their own minister, to undeceive them. But the Genoese had never been deceived on this subject, from the very first moment of our appearing before the place, up to the present; they had always understood what was established to be merely a provisional government. They might have considered the Proclamation in the light of a sort of claim on the good offices of this country, to endeavour to assist them in the object of having their ancient Government restored; but they never were deceived with respect to the ultimate possibility of their annexation to the possessions of the king of Sardinia. The House would find that this did not rest merely on his assertion; for in a note left with him on the 18th of May by the same person, and which was a sort of written reply to some of the arguments he (lord Castlereagh) had used to him in their preceding conversation, they would find the annexation of Genoa to Piedmont with a view to the military security of Italy, and some other points, discussed in such a manner as to leave no doubt of what the understanding of the Genoese on this subject actually was. While, however, it was considered necessary for the security of Europe that Genoa should be annexed to the states of the king of Sardinia, it would be unjust to the Allies if he did not also state that all those conditional securities were taken for the interests of the people of Genoa. He begged leave to repel the charge made against the Allies of having

departed from their declarations, and having been actuated by the same love of conquest and aggrandisement which they themselves had so loudly condemned. The odious sense of conquest, on the principle of which the Allies were said to have acted in this and other cases, they positively disclaimed. In no part of their conduct had they departed from the principles professed by them; but they would have been most unfit, indeed, for the situations which they assumed, by entering into the general obligation to restore the peace of Europe, had they so stultified themselves in the eyes of the world and of Europe as to disqualify themselves from changing the face of Europe, the ancient governments of which had been broken down and destroyed, in such a manner as might thereafter be found best calculated for the preservation of its future peace and tranquillity. The light in which their conduct on this occasion had been viewed by the hon. gentleman, carried such absurdity on the face of it, that it could never have been taken up by any man possessed of any thing like the information of that hon. gentleman, without his having a taste for running down the different sovereigns of Europe, which in the times that we lived in, to say the least of it, was indecent as well as dangerous. The Allies had made war, not for the sake of subjugating any power, but for the sake of preserving the whole of Europe from subjugation; they had succeeded in their object; and they had endeavoured to give to the different powers of the European commonwealth a protection from that danger by which they had already been destroyed. When he stated the principle upon which the allies had acted, he had no hesitation in saying at the same time, that he was sorry that even the prejudices of the Genoese people could not on this occasion be attended to; for the prejudices of a people were entitled to attention when greater objects did not stand in the way; and by doing violence to their feelings, even when the general safety rendered such violence necessary, he was aware that they might give rise to these attacks of the hon. gentleman against the sovereigns of Europe. There were grave and solid reasons why they could not grant to Genoa what was demanded of them in behalf of that people, arising out of the very situation of Genoa, consistently with the security of Europe, and the objects to which they were pledged, arising out of

the treaty of Paris. That very state of Genoa had in a great degree contributed to the former weakness and overthrow of Europe; for it had first contributed to the overthrow of Sardinia, and thus been the means of enabling the French to achieve their conquests. An insurrection in Genoa had led to a difference between the Genoese and the people of Piedmont; and this gave the French a pretence to interfere, in their usual way, in the affairs of these two states. The allies were bound to act in the manner they conceived best for the general interests, and to see if they could not find some mode of re-uniting Piedmont and Genoa, which would secure the common interest and strengthen that part of Italy against attack. Genoa, it was proper to remark, was the most important military position in the north of Italy; and the general security essentially depended upon having the possession of that port. The question was, whether the measure adopted, or that of allowing it to be held by a commercial republic, was the most likely to provide for the general security? Whether the allied princes decided right or wrong on this point, this much he would say, that there never was a decision which could be less open to the imputation of having been given from improper motives than the one in question. As far as the separate interests of this country were concerned, had our view been to seek a national benefit without any reference to the general objects for which the different powers were confe. derated, there could be little doubt but that these interests would have been best promoted by the establishment of an insulated republic there. The Genoese were willing to enter into any terms of alliance with us, and to give us every facility for availing ourselves of that important posi tion in our different operations: but then, bad we followed this policy, it would have been said on the continent, that we had broken loose from the general object, with the view of prosecuting our own separate interests. There never was a question in which it was less possible to impute bad motives to the continental powers than in this. The king of Sardinia had not the power, if they had not been so inclined, to impose on them, as the value of his services to them, any conditions derogatory either to their honour or their interests. He had been expelled from his states on the continent, and was incapable of giving any assistance; and if the allies had not