MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
A.D. 1802
Parliament met in the autumn of 1801; but the chief business done before the Christmas recess was to debate on the preliminaries of the peace of Amiens; some defending—and among them Pitt himself—what the Addington administration were doing, and others condemning their line of policy. Conspicuous among those who condemned their measures was Windham, who said that the preliminaries were disgraceful, and that war was to be preferred to a peace bought on such conditions. This debate continued after the Christmas recess, up to the 13th of May, when the last struggle took place on the subject. In the upper house the opponents of the treaty were headed by Lord Grenville, who made the cession of Malta the principal point of his attack. It was absurd, he said, to place that island under the guarantee of six powers, who could not be expected to agree on any one point relating to it; and it was still more absurd to restore it to the Knights of St. John, whose funds had been confiscated, and whose existence thereby might be said to be ended. In adverting to other parts of the treaty he observed, that our rights in India had not been recognised, and that the Cape of Good Hope, a most important station to the maintenance of British sovereignty, was given up. Lord Grenville concluded his strictures with proposing an address to the throne, recommending every practicable economy, but such as would still leave the country in a state of proper defence for the suppression of any danger; acknowledging that the national faith was pledged to the observance of the treaty, but pointing out the danger to which this country was exposed on account of the great sacrifices she had made without any adequate compensation on the part of France; and finally praying his majesty to endeavour to arrange speedily, by amicable adjustment, those various points which were left unsettled by the definitive treaty of Amiens. His lordship was ably supported by some who entertained Pitt’s general views and others of his own party; but a counter address, moved by Lord Pelham, was carried without a division. A counterpart to Lord Grenville’s motion was made in the lower house on the same day, by Windham, who, in a speech of three hours, bitterly condemned the treaty. In the course of his speech he remarked:—“It is impossible to have seen, without the utmost anxiety and alarm, the unexampled circumstances that have attended the final conclusion of the present peace; the extensive and important sacrifices which, without any corresponding-concession, this treaty had added to those already made by the preliminary articles; the unlooked-for and immense accession of territory, influence, and power which it has tacitly confirmed to France; the numerous subjects of clashing interests and unavoidable dispute which it has left entirely unadjusted; and, above all, those continued and systematic projects of aggrandizement of which, in the very moment of peace, we have seen such undeniable and convincing evidence.” Mr. Windham was supported by Lord Folkstone, Sheridan, Grey, and Whitbread; but a counter address, moved by Lord Hawkesbury, similar to that which had been moved in the upper house by Lord Pelham, was carried by a majority of two hundred and seventy-six against twenty. But these long discussions forbade the hope that peace would be durable.