MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE AND REIGN

OF

GEORGE THE FOURTH.

CHAP. XI.

1800-1803.

THE UNION. RETIREMENT OF MR. PITT. ADDINGTON

MINISTRY.

WALES.

WAR.

DEBTS AND CLAIMS OF THE PRINCE OF

PEACE OF AMIENS. RENEWAL OF THE THREATENED INVASION. THE PRINCE'S DE

MAND OF PROMOTION IN THE ARMY.

THE incidents and companionships of youth no longer give relief or éclat to the personal history of the prince of Wales. Arrived at the thirty-eighth year of his age, he lived in a state of privacy and inaction, whilst the most important public events were passing around him. The government of France, it has been stated*, was changed by surprise and violence in 1799. A change less striking, but more permanent, was effected in the deliberative branch of English

government, in 1800, by that questionable power called the omnipotence of parliament.

There are subjects which should be treated fully, as well as freely, or not treated at all. On this account the Irish rebellion of 1798 has been passed over untouched. It will suffice to say, that in the course of that year the people in some parts of Ireland sought refuge from the dominion of free quarters, martial law, and the trial by torture, in open and armed rebellion; that the civil administration of lord Camden was superseded by the milder military government of lord Cornwallis; and that Mr. Pitt closed the scene by merging the Irish legislature in that of Great Britain.

The union was discussed in the parliament of Ireland with eloquence and integrity on both sides, but decided by corruption. Enormous sums offered and received as direct bribes were excusably infamous, compared with the corrupt barter of the judicial office to unprincipled and incompetent lawyers, who long continued to afflict that country. Another mischief was the traffic in titles, and the growth of a doubtful genus, belonging neither to the nobility, the gentry, nor the people a sort of excrescence on the Irish peerage.

The legislative union was an obvious conception, but no common act of statesmanship. It is to be judged, not so much by what it has produced as by what it has prevented. The gratitude of his countrymen to the memory of Mr. Pitt should be measured by the value which they set upon the connection with Ireland. He who now supposes that there was any escape between union and ulti

mate, perhaps speedy, separation, is uninformed or

insincere.

In the British parliament, the union was opposed by the friends of the prince of Wales; and an opinion prevailed that he was himself adverse to it. But that impression, true or false, would naturally be encouraged. He was under obligations to the parliament of which the existence was at stake. A severe observer of the ethical realities of life may, it is true, couple obligation and ingratitude as cause and effect-especially in a prince; but the prince of Wales valued his Irish popularity, and on the question of the union appeared at least neutral.

The French republic, after the revolution of the 18th Brumaire, existed only in chains at the feet of a successful soldier. Bonaparte was not long invested with the dictatorship, when he made overtures for peace in a well-known letter addressed directly to George III. His letter has the frankness, simplicity, brevity, and elevation of the republican, with the courtesies of the royal style; and, affecting to discard the artifices of diplomacy, it is a master-piece of diplomatic skill.* George III.

"Appelé par les vœux de la nation Française à occuper la première magistrature de la république, je crois convenable en entrant en charge, d'en faire directement part à Votre Majesté.

"La guerre qui, depuis huit ans, ravage les quatre parties du monde, doit-elle être éternelle? N'est-il aucun moyen de s'entendre?

"Comment les deux nations les plus éclairées de l'Europe, puissantes et fortes plus que ne l'exigent leur sûreté et leur indépendance, peuvent-elles sacrifier à des idées de vaine grandeur le bien du commerce, la prospérité, le bonheur des fa

did not deign to answer this unanointed epistle; but lord Grenville addressed to the French minister, Talleyrand, a reply unworthy of his talents and character. The English minister's diffuse state paper supercilious without dignity, and disingenuous without adroitness set forth in substance that the king was ever desirous of peace, and then ready to negotiate provided only that Bonaparte would acknowledge himself unfit to be treated with, abdicate his power, and restore the power and persons of the Bourbons in France!

The letter of Bonaparte was regarded by some as an eager attempt to take his place among sovereigns. Were that his motive, he would have felt the rebuff too sensibly to repeat his overture, as he did through Talleyrand, without the least sign of mortification. It is still less probable that he was

milles? Comment ne sentent-elles pas que la paix est le premier des besoins comme la première des gloires?

"Ces sentimens ne peuvent pas être étrangers au cœur de Votre Majesté, qui gouverne une nation libre et dans le seul but de la rendre heureuse.

"Votre Majesté ne verra dans cette ouverture que mon désir sincère de contribuer efficacement, pour la seconde fois, à la pacification générale, par une démarche prompte, toute de confiance, et dégagée de ces formes qui, nécessaires peut-être pour déguiser la dépendance des états faibles, ne décèlent dans les états forts que le desir mutuel de se tromper.

"La France, l'Angleterre, par l'abus de leurs forces, peuvent long-temps encore pour le malheur de tous les peuples, en retarder l'épuisement; mais, j'ose le dire, le sort de toutes les nations civilisées est attaché à la fin d'une guerre qui embrase le monde entier.

"De Votre Majesté, etc. etc.

"BONAPARTE."

sincerely desirous of peace. The republic, during his absence in Egypt, had suffered less in its resources than military reputation. To restore the latter must have been the object nearest to his heart, as a matter of policy and feeling. His overture, therefore, was but a clever manœuvre, by which he threw upon England all the odium of continued war. "Those people," said he to Talleyrand," could not have done better for our interests; they would have greatly embarrassed us by moderation."*

The English ministers are blameable, not for doubting the sincerity of Bonaparte, but for playing his game. They might have embarrassed him by peace, or thrown upon him his share of the responsibility of prolonging the calamities of war. Success, that great redresser of human folly, would scarcely have excused the rashness with which they dis dained negotiation, and the confidence with which they anticipated victory. What must have been the effect of failure?

That fantastic or insane personage, the emperor Paul, upon whose Christian zeal and imperial virtues George III. pronounced a self-debasing eulogy from the throne, suddenly became the admirer of Bonaparte, abandoned the confederacy, proved himself the especial enemy of England, outraged the persons, and plundered the goods of British subjects within his reach. The court of Vienna, intoxicated with the successes of the preceding year, and with

* Ces gens là ne pouvaient rien faire de mieux pour nos intérêts; ils nous eussent fort embarrassés en montrant de la modération.Mém. de St. Hélène.