Many circumstances rendered the first consul at this time really desirous for some short suspension of hostilities with England. Preliminaries were agreed to on the 1st of October, and in the month of November the Marquis Cornwallis went over to France as ambassador plenipotentiary. He was received with great joy by many of the Parisians, who were equally desirous of peace, as were many of the English nation. From Paris, his lordship repaired to Amiens, the place appointed for holding the conferences; and, after much angry discussion, on the 2nd of March, 1802, a definitive treaty of peace was signed. By this treaty, England agreed to restore all the acquisitions made during the war, except the island of Trinidad, and the Dutch possessions in Ceylon: the Cape of Good Hope was to be given back to the Dutch as a free port: the Porte was to be preserved in its integrity; France was to recognise the republic of the seven islands; apart of Portuguese Guiana was given up to France by a new adjustment of boundaries; and the Prince of Orange was to receive compensation for the loss of property and power. “Thus,” it has been remarked, “ended the first act of the revolutionary war, though most persons thought the whole concluded, fancying that the chief ruler of France would find his real interest in the preservation of peace; and relying on his repeated declaration of regret, that the two first nations of the world should waste their resources and the blood of their people in enmity. Some persons, however, took a different view of the subject, seeing neither indemnity for the past, nor security for the future in the restitution of all our colonial conquest, and in the recognition of that gigantic plan of continental sovereignty which had been conceived by the first founders of the French republic, and pursued with unremitting diligence by its successive rulers.”
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.
PARLIAMENTARY MEASURES.
Early in this session Mr. Canning moved the house on the subject of the slave-trade. He made two motions: the first being a preliminary relating to the cultivation of the land in the island of Trinidad, lately ceded to England, which, some contended, should be performed by negro slaves; and the second a distinct motion on this subject. In his second speech he remarked, “In considering the acquisition of Trinidad, it seems as if Providence had determined to submit to the trial our boast of speculative benevolence and intended humanity, by placing in our power a colony where, if we pursue our old course, it must be purely for its own sake, without the old inducements or the usual apologies. This is a day of tests; I trust we shall abide the trial.” During this session an important act was passed for consolidating the existing militia laws, and for augmenting that force: it was agreed that the militia should remain permanently 60,000 strong, and that 40,000 should be called out in the first instance, and the remainder when the king deemed necessary. In announcing his budget, on the 5th of April, Mr. Addington stated the intention of government to abolish the income-tax, and fund the £56,000,000 with the payments of which it was charged. This announcement gave great satisfaction, and the resolutions upon the budget were agreed to without a division. Provision was made during this session for their royal highnesses the Dukes of Sussex and Cambridge, and the Prince of Wales’s embarrassments were taken into consideration; the magnificent sum of £60,000 annually was granted him for three years and a half, commencing from the 5th of January, 1803, and ending the 5th of July, 1806. Sums of money were voted to Dr. Jenner for the promulgation of his valuable discovery of vaccine inoculation; to Mr. Greathead for his invention of the life-boat; and to Dr. Carmichael Smith for a discovery of nitrous fumigation, for preventing the progress of infectious disorders. Parliament was prorogued on the 28th of June by the king in person, who congratulated the country on the peace and prosperity it was enjoying; and on the next day it was dissolved by proclamation.