Great Britain and Ireland, would make a total of 7,000,000l. The ways and means by which he meant to meet the expenditure were the land and malt tax, and a fresh issue of exchequer bills to make up the deficiency, as the sum required would all together amount to 8,500,000l. He then proceeded to state the bargain which had been concluded with the committee of the holders of outstanding exchequer bills which he proposed to fund. Having described the contract, he moved the asual resolution. Very little objection was made to the bargain, and the resolution was agreed to.

Considerable opposition of sentiment prevailed upon the measure of opening the distilleries; the act for prohibiting their working being on the point of expiring. Mr. Burton, a respectable country gentleman, moved for leave to bring in a bill to continue the prohibition for a time to be limited his motives were grounded on the fact of 600,000 quarters of barley being used annually in the process of making spirits; that quantity of corn, he said, would be thrown into its proper channel, and constitute the food of man. He said, that if spirits must be distilled, why not make use of molasses, which he contented would not hurt the revenue; for the prohibition would encourage the importation of spirits, by the duties on which the revenue would be improved? He added, that he was countenanced in his

arguments by the universal petitions from all parts of the country, not from the lower order, or the factors, but from discreet soberminded people, who were fully aware that the revenue must be kept up one way or other. He adduced many arguments of the same nature, but was opposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who asserted that the quantity of barley used in the distillery of spirits did not amount to a tenth part of the average produce of that crop; that the distillers fed vast numbers of hogs with their grains, which in that shape, perhaps, contributed in a considerable degree to the sood of man; that the prohibition would encourage private distilleries, from whence much more evil, with respect to morals, was to be apprehended than from the ordinary course; and, above all, that the defalcation of the revenue, in consequence of the prohibition, amounted to 400,000l.! After an animated debate, the question was put, when the motion was lost by a majority of 62.

On a motion of the Secretary at War, it was voted the total number of the militia, until the signing of the definitive treaty, should be 36,000. On the 28th of December, both houses of parliament adjourned for a week, and which mode, de die in diem, was continued till the 19th of January 1802, without any business of importance being agi tated.

IN N our preceding volume we have brought down our history of Eu rope to the period of the signature of the preliminary articles of peace between Great Britain and France, on the 1st of October 1801. It will of course be here necessary, for the sake of connection, to continue it for the remaining months of that year, before we commence our labours on that which is immediately the object of our present volume.. A war, the most general and destructive which the civilized world had ever been engaged in, which had raged unremittingly for ten years, and which in its progress threatened to overturn every esta blished principle of government and of society, was now, by 'the treaty of Luneville and the preliminaries signed in London, apparently ended. The temple of Janus was shut, and it was the ardent wish of all nations that it should long continue

Mankind was weary of a contest which gave few solid advantages, to those who were most successful, and was completely ruinous to the vanquished. All classes of society, in every country, began now to in

dulge the fond hope that a permanent peace would follow the dreadful convulsions and calamities ever attendant on war. The treaty of Luneville, while it secured to France an enormous accession of territory and strength, appeared, at the same time, to have left Austria the means of supporting the rank of a primary power of Europe. By one of the express articles of that treaty, it was stipulated, "that the Batavian, Cisalpine, Helvetic, and Ligurian republics should be free and independent," and the right of the people of those countries to choose or change their governments, at pleasure, was solemnly guarantied by the two contracting parties. By another article of that treaty, it was agreed, that the emperor's brother, the grand duke of Tuscany, should be fully indemnified in Germany for the loss of his Italian dominions. Under the circumstances which obliged the emperor to sign this treaty, it was perhaps as favourable as Austria had reason to expect; and, if the spirit of that treaty, or its express covenants, had been adhered to by the French government, some sort of ba

lance

Jance of power would still have existed upon the continent of Europe; some nations, which are now no more, would have securely cultivated and enjoyed the blessings of peace and independence; and the ancient freedom and dignity of the German nation would not now have been laid prostrate at the foot of the first consul of France. The prospect of peace which was held out to Europe by the treaty of Luneville, was pleasingly confirmed by the preliminary articles of peace between Great Britain and France, signed at London in October 1801. This event, for which the public mind was hardly prepared, was every where received with transports of joy. The restoration of peace appeared in itself so desirable, that the terms of this preliminary arrangement were but little canvassed by the people of either country. If the nations on the continent, with whom France had been at war, found peace necessary to preserve their very existence, the people of France, as well as of this country, considered it equally essential and necessary to their prosperity and happiness. The French nation, notwithstanding the brilliant successes of their armies in the field; notwithstanding the great extension of their territory, and the military glory which they had acquired, felt, in the midst of their victories, all the distresses which usually attend defeat. The loss of their colonies, the blockade of their ports, arbitrary requisitions, together with the extinction of public and private credit, had completely crushed all commerical enterprise, and reduced to the utmost misery those immense numbers who had formerly derived their subsistence from commerce,

In

and who depended totally upon it. The inhabitants of the manufacturing towns in France had long cried out for peace, and particularly for one with England, without which they could not hope for the revival of their trade. this country too, the great and increasing weight of taxes, combined with the enormous high price of provisions during the last two years of the war, and which was supposed by the people to be the necessary consequence of it, equally disposed the minds of the inhabitants of the British empire to amity with France. The preliminaries were therefore received with enthusiastic joy in both countries. It was universally expected that the definitive treaty would have followed in a few weeks; as it was supposed, that in the negotiation previous to the preliminaries every topic had been sufficiently discussed, and that the execution of the definitive treaty would be a matter of form; an authentic and solemn ratification of peace between the two greatest powers of the world, to which no delay could belong, save that induced by diplomatic ceremony. The city of Amiens, being nearly equidistant from London and Paris, and midway between these cities, was fixed upon as the place for holding the congress, which was finally to settle all matters in dispute between Great Britain on the one part, and France, in conjunction with her allies, on the other. The British government, sincere in its wish for peace, appeared to give credit to the consular court for similar dispositions: it selected, for its representative at the congress, one of the most distinguished characters of which the empire had to boast. A man of ex

F4

alted

dignity the highest stations a British subject can hold, and who added to his other qualifications, that frankness and sincerity which are the true and becoming characteristics of an Englishman and a soldier. No choice could be more pleasing or more flattering to the French government.

On the 1st of November 1801, the marquis of Cornwallis left London, attended by a train suitable to his own dignity, and to that of the nation he represented. He was accompanied by his son, lord Brome; his son-in-law, Mr. Singleton; and was attended by colonels Nightingale and Littlehales; Mr. Moore, who acted as his secretary; three of his majesty's messengers, and a large train of servants. He had previously sent over to Calais his horses and his equipage, which were far superior in splendour and appointments to any thing which had been seen in France since the revolution. So anxious was his lordship to execute this important mission, that although the weather was extremely tempestuous, he resolved to embark, on the morning of the 3d of November, for Calais. One of the vessels which carried the baggage was stranded and lost near Boulogne, and the inhabitants of the town of Calais watched, with the most anxious solicitude, the vessel in which his lordship was embarked. Much was apprehended for its safety; but towards night the storm somewhat abated, and he landed under a general salute of artillery from all the forts. The next morning he was visited by the whole of the constituted authorities of that district, and in the course of the day set out for Paris, where

the 7th.

On the 8th he was introduced to monsieur Talleyrand, the minister for foreign affairs, and partook of a splendid dinner, at which were all the most distinguished personages in Paris. The next morning he was privately introduced to Bonaparté, who conversed with him for a considerable time. This was the day fixed for the public rejoicings in Paris, on account of the peace. The presence of the British minister added considerably to the general joy on the occasion. By a private order of the police, his carriage was the only one which was permitted on that day to pass through the crowded streets. This privilege was most cheerfully acquiesced in by the Parisian mob, who felt, at least, as much disposition as the government, to pay every possible compliment to his lordship as ambassador of Great Britain, and the bearer of the welcome tidings of peace. In the evening, lord Cornwallis was invited to the palace of the Thuilleries, to see the illumi nation and fireworks. After this day his lordship gave and received some grand dinners, at which ge nerals Moreau, Massena, Berthier, and several of the first characters in France, were pr sent, but he never dined with the first consul. It appeared, from this circumstance, that although Bonaparté was in the habit of asking distinguished characters, of every country, to his table, as a private individual, yet to ambassadors he stood upon all the strictness of the etiquette of crowned heads, and preserved the greatest degree of state and ceremony.

His lordship's reception, how. ever, at the French court, was

marked

marked with more distinction than had ever before been paid in France to any ambassador. Besides the guard of honour, which was appointed to wait at his hotel, orders were given to the soldiers at every corps de garde, that when his carriage passed, the guard should turn out and carry arms. This, as a mark of distinction, was one of the highest compliments that could be shown him, and such as never before was paid to any foreign minister in France. Notwithstanding all this compliment and ceremony, his lordship was soon tired of Paris, and at the latter end of November set out for Amiens, where he arrived on the 1st of the next month. Neither Spanish nor Dutch minister were then arrived, and Joseph Bonaparté, the consul's brother, who was the French minister, came down solely in personal compliment to lord Cornwallis. Almost as soon as his lordship had arrived, the administrators of the theatre of Amiens waited on him to know at what hour he would wish the play to begin. His lordship replied, that he very seldom went to plays, and requested they would fix it at whatever hour was most agreeable to the inhabitants of Amiens. They, however, observed his dinner hour, and during his stay in that city, the play began at seven o'clock instead of six, which was, before his lordship's arrival, the time it had always commenced. All the constituted authorities within forty miles of Amiens came to visit and congratulate his lordship; and here, as well as at Paris, he received every compliment and mark of distinction that was possible to give. The negotiation, however, was for a considerable

period suspended. The Dutch minister, Schimmelpenninck, did not arrive till the 7th, and the court of Spain seemed very slow in appointing their minister; at length the choice fell upon the chevalier D'Azarra, but he remained a considerable time at Genoa, assigning as an excuse, what was the reality or the pretence of illness. SPAIN was, of all the powers coalesced against England, the least satisfied with the preliminary articles of peace. France was to receive back. all the colonies which had been taken from her, in a highly improved state, and was to cede nothing as an equivalent, save those countries which she would have been obliged equally to have abandoned, even if no equivalent had been spoken of. Holland, who had lost all her colonies, except Batavia, was to receive much the greater part of them back again, and in a state infinitely superior to what they were in when taken; but Spain, who had lost nothing but the islands of Trinadada and Minorca, was called upon to cede the former. Spain, therefore, finding herself almost the only loser in point of territory, was not very anxious to sign this treaty; and as nothing conclusive could be done at Amiens, till the arrival of the Spanish minister, lord Cornwallis had for a considerable time no other employment at Amiens than receiving and exchanging compli mentary visits.

The French government and the first consul were not inactive in the mean time. Two grand projects then occupied the mind of Bonaparté. The first was the recovery of the colonies of St. Domingo and Guadaloupe, which had

formerly