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last night pronounced to be so dangerous! He thought the rescript authentic. Ministers might think it was not authentic. He wished to know, whether it was authentic or not. If it was, we were going to embark with an ally who, according to the language of the minister, and the determination of the House last night, was going to annul the whole plan of our future operations, and for which we were now to vote away millions of the public money, by weakening the confederacy and strengthening the enemy. If there was a doubt as to the authenticity of this rescript, (and he confessed, from what he heard the minister say last night, he feared there was a doubt,) it was a very alarming thing, and ought to be explained immediately: for the emperor had given us no intelligence upon the subject. He certainly had had time enough, for the subject of this loan had been under his consideration for some months. If the emperor pursued the principle of this rescript, and endeavoured to make peace, it might still be said that peace might not be had immediately. He thought so too: but then, if France was, as ministers stated it to be, at its last gasp, that wish for peace could not be long delayed. Under these impressions, he hoped that the House, accustomed even as they had been to the insincerity and falsehood of ministers, throughout the whole progress of this war, would see the necessity of an inquiry into the conduct of these our faithful allies. If peace should be soon concluded between the French and the emperor, he wished the House to reflect that we should have given the whole of four millions six hundred thousand pounds absolutely for nothing. There had been something said upon the distinction between the character of the emperor as such, and that of King of Hungary and Bohemia; that, as emperor, he might agree to a peace with France, but as king and archduke, he might pursue the war with vigour. This was perfectly ridiculous, for whenever peace was agreed upon, one of the leading articles of the treaty must be, that he should not suffer troops destined against France to pass through any of his dominions, and therefore he would forbid such troops from going through Bohemia against France. But he was afraid that all the hopes of the majority who supported this war, were now in the insincerity of the emperor, as to this rescript. Exclusive of the infamy of such a principle, he advised the House to be cautious in trusting to such a security, for he knew of no real security in the conduct of any man, if that conduct was not founded on the principles of fair dealing. What security had we that what the emperor was doing in London was sincere, and that what he was doing in Vienna was not all duplicity? He should like to know with

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what face of sincerity the emperor could come to the diet with his rescript in favour of peace, and at the same moment open a loan with this country for carrying on the war. truth was, the diet were unacquainted with his determination to accept our loan when he published this rescript, and by the step which we were about to take, we were to become parties to the delusion; and whatever were the real intentions of the emperor, this was a duplicity of a nature so detestable, that we ought to be ashamed of being parties to it. Mr. Fox concluded with saying, that he wished to discuss this subject on a future occasion, but he thought it his duty to take the sense of the committee upon it, even in the present

stage.

The committee divided on the resolution: Yeas 77: Noes 43.

June 3•

The said resolution being reported to the House,

Mr. Fox said, he wished the House to consider very seriously the step they were now taking, and how totally destitute they were of any defence of their conduct to their constituents. He alluded to a fact, which he had stated when this subject was last discussed. The fact he had stated was not strictly correct; but the difference made considerably in favour of the conclusion he had drawn, as to the fidelity of the emperor, in the fulfilment of his pecuniary engagements. He had said, that certain religious houses in France had lent the emperor large sums of money, to be repaid at the bank of Vienna, and that the emperor had first issued an order that the interest should not be paid to any but to those who could prove their emigration, and afterwards had issued another order that no interest should be paid at all. In consequence of this statement, he had received a letter from a friend, in which he had informed him, "that the religious houses were situated not in France, but in the Austrian Netherlands. The bonds for the money lent belonged to English convents of nuns in the emperor's own dominions; and it was to his own subjects that the emperor had been guilty of a breach of faith." Such was the purport of the letter. The fact, therefore, was, that this was an aggravated circumstance in the conduct of the perfidious emperor, and an additional proof of the solvency, as it was called, of this bankrupt bank of Vienna. With respect to the political principle of the measure, the country was to give money for assistance, which was not stipulated, and which

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the country could not enforce. His imperial majesty did not say that he would not make peace, in his convention with this country; whereas in his rescript to the diet of Ratisbon, he had said, that he would make peace. The House, therefore, were called upon to grant the loan, without any decided assurance, that the emperor would continue the war; and with a direct assertion of his readiness to make peace. With respect to the power of the emperor to repay the money, should be glad to know what arguments could be adduced in proof of his capacity to keep his engagements on that head. It ought to be shewn that the revenues of his imperial majesty were sufficient to repay the money, independantly of the ordinary expenditure of the Imperial dominions. It had been said, that a stipulation had been made, that the payments to this country were to be made before any other payments. Could any person give credit to this; or suppose that his imperial majesty would consent to curtail the necessary expenditure in his own dominions, for the purpose of satisfying the claims of Great Britain? The fact, therefore, was, that a loan was to be granted, without any assurance being made by the emperor, that he would afford effectual aid. He had, it was true, agreed to raise 200,000 men. Where were those men? And how did the country know that they would, if such a number could be raised, co-operate with this country? It appeared, then, that if the emperor did not choose to keep his engagement, Great Britain could not force him; and that if he did keep his engagement, he might still make peace without any inconsistency. By the way, was there any man sure that his co-operation would not cease altogether, as soon as the royal assent should be given to the bill for the loan? Thus, after we had been deceived by Prussia, in an engagement in which we had the power to stop the issuing of our money, and which, upon his failure, we did stop after a great loss, we were again to enter into an engagement which might cost us many millions, in which we had no power to stop. The House was at liberty to decide as it pleased, but if it took upon itself to guarantee this loan, and should afterwards be deceived, he wished it to remember that it could not deny but it had been warned properly.

The House divided on the question that the said resolution be read a second time:

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June 10.

On the motion for the second reading of the bill for guaranteeing the payment of the dividends, on a loan of four millions six hundred pounds to the Emperor of Germany,

Mr. Fox rose for the purpose of moving an amendment. The House, he said, had been told that the French were in great distress, and so he believed they were. The House had also been told that much might be done by standing aloof. His own idea of standing aloof, was to stand aloof at a peace, or at an expence not much above the ordinary peace establishment, and not at an annual expence of thirty millions. France, it had been said, was falling to pieces, and yet she made treaties of peace. Why was, therefore, a treaty with this country to prevent her from continuing to fall to pieces? The present was altogether a new system, of which the ministers were the authors: they had sufficient experience of the conduct of Prussia, and they were now going to try the emperor. He understood that there were to be some new allies; not new allies in point of principle, but in point of performance, and that Russia was to co-operate with this country. He wished to know why the empress was more to be trusted now than the King of Prussia, and how historians were to distinguish between Prussia and the other powers who had participated in the dismemberment of Poland? But did the minister, or did any man, expect cordial co-operation from the Austrians? He had frequently challenged the minister to produce one general officer who would say, that any co-operation could be expected from them. He had had reason to know that there had been times in which the assistance of the Austrians might have been productive of the most important effects, and where the delay of a few hours would have been of material consequence, and yet this delay had been refused, unless it was paid for. It had been said by the minister, that to be sure there were some circumstances in the case which it was difficult to explain, and therefore, very wisely, he had not made any attempt to explain them. Of the Austrians, it would not be deemed too much to say, that they were as much to be trusted as the Prussians, and the Prussians as the Austrians. He concluded by moving, as an amendment to the motion, to leave out the word "now," and at the end of the question to add the words "upon this day two months."

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The question being put, That the word "now" stand part of the question, the House divided:

YEAS

Tellers.
Mr. Rolle

Tellers.

{Mr. J. Gordon }55.—NOEs (Gen. Tarleton

June 15.

Mr. W. Smith

On the order of the day for the third reading of the bill,

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Mr. Fox observed, that this measure had always been in his mind a profligate waste of the money of the people of this country; and what had lately confirmed him in that opinion was the surrender of Luxembourg. It became the House now to consider very seriously, whether, after the emperor had lost one of the most important fortresses in Europe, every nerve which he could employ, could, in any material degree, be serviceable to us against the French in the present contest? Whether, after the taking of that fortress on the 7th of this month, a season which, in other times, we had been used to call the middle, but now hardly the beginning of a campaign, there were any rational hope of successful operations on the part of the emperor against the French? But this was not all: there were reports of the cessation of hostilities, which might be proper to be inquired into; and also a report that there was a new alliance between this country, Austria, and Russia. He knew he might be told, that this subject was not now before the House. He hoped, however, if it existed, it would be laid before them immediately, or not until the next session; not like the subsidy to the King of Sardinia, brought forward at the rising of parliament, and hurried through the House. This was, in his mind, a serious and an alarming thing; there were persons who believed that the consequence of such an alliance would be a war between the two imperial powers and Prussia. Whether such an alliance were right or wrong, he would not presume to determine; he should only say, he was sorry to believe that there were some persons, who called themselves politicians, who were so short-sighted as to think such a connection advantageous, at all events, to this country. But, or his own part, he entertained a very different opinion, for he could not help believing, that such a war as this alliance might produce must involve one half of Europe; and he could not help looking with great anxiety at the condition of so large a part of mankind, if the horrors and calamities of war were to be thus extended, and the prospect of peace to be placed at so great a distance. He knew, he said, that these points were

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