DISCUSSION ON A MEMORIAL PRESENTED TO THE STATES-GENERAL.
During this session some violent debates took place on a memorial presented to the States-general, by the British and imperial ministers at the Hague, on the 5th of April. In this memorial their high mightinesses were called upon to prevent any of the French regicides from finding an asylum in their states in Europe, or in any of their colonies. The language which was used was very strong; and Earl Stanhope moved that the British envoy, Lord Auckland, should not only be recalled, but impeached for putting his signature to such a paper. In the commons, also, Sheridan moved an address to his majesty, expressive of the displeasure of the house at the said memorial; and stating that the minister who presented it had departed from the principles on which the house had concurred in the measures for the support of the war. In the course of his speech, Sheridan held up to detestation the conduct of the Empress of Russia, the Emperor of Germany, and the King of Prussia, in the new partition of Poland, which they had just completed. Sheridan said, that no robbery committed by the most desperate of the French, and no crimes that had been perpetrated in France, exceeded in infamy the injustice and tyranny of those sovereigns. Sheridan’s motion was negatived by two hundred and eleven, against thirty-six. In the upper house Lord Grenville made a motion for approving the conduct of Lord Auckland, which was carried without a division.