Among the unhappy gentlemen
in whose persons royalty is insulted and degraded
at the seat of plebeian pride and upstart insolence,
there is a minister from Denmark at Paris.
in whose persons royalty is insulted and degraded
at the seat of plebeian pride and upstart insolence,
there is a minister from Denmark at Paris.
Edmund Burke
?
260 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
come totally indifferent to good and evil, to one institution or another. This species of indifference is but too generally distinguishable in those who have.
been much employed in foreign courts, but in the
present case the evil must be aggravated without
measure: for they go from their country, not with
the pride of the old character, but in a state of the
lowest degradation; and what must happen in their
place of residence can have no effect in raising them
to the level of true dignity or of chaste self-estimation, either as men or as representatives of crowned heads.
Our early proceeding, which has produced these returns of affront, appeared to me totally new, without being adapted to the new circumstances of affairs.
I have called to my mind the speeches and messages
in former times. I find nothing like these. You
will look in the journals to find whether my memory
fails me. Before this time, never was a ground of
peace laid, (as it were, in a Parliamentary record,)
until it had been as good as concluded. This was
a wise homage paid to the discretion of the crown.
It was known how much a negotiation must suffer
by having anything in the train towards it prematurely disclosed. But when those Parliamentary declarations were made, not so much as a step had
been taken towards a negotiation in any mode whatever. The measure was an unpleasant and unsea sonable discovery.
I conceive that another circumstance in that transaction has. been as little authorized by any example, and that it is as little prudent in itself: I mean the
formal recognition of the French Republic. Without entering, for the present, into a question on the
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 261
good faith manifested in that measure, or on its
general policy, I doubt, upon mere temporary considerations of prudence, whether it was perfectly
advisable. It is not within the rules of dexterous
conduct to make ail acknowledgment of a contested title in your enemy before you are morally
certain that your recognition will secure his friendship. Otherwise it is a measure worse than thrown
away. It adds infinitely to the strength, and consequently to the demands, of the adverse party. He
has gained a fundamental point without an equivalent. It has happened as might have been foreseen.
No notice whatever was taken of this recognition.
In fact, the Directory never gave themselves any
concern about it; and they received our acknowledgment with perfect scorn. With them it is not
for the states of Europe to judge of their title: the
very reverse. In their eye the title of every other
power depends wholly on their pleasure.
Preliminary declarations of this sort, thrown out
at random, and sown, as it were, broadcast, were
never to be found in the mode of our proceeding
with France and Spain, whilst the great monarchies
of France and Spain existed. I do not say that a
diplomatic measure ought to be, like a parliamentary or a judicial proceeding, according to strict precedent: I hope I am far from that pedantry. But this I know: that a great state ought to have some regard
to its ancient maxims, especially where they indicate
its dignity, where they concur with the rules of prudence, and, above all, where the circumstances of
the time require that a spirit of innovation should
be resisted which leads to the humiliation of sovereign powers. It would be ridiculous to assert that
? ? ? ? 262 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
those powers have suffered nothing in their estima
tion. I admit that the greater interests of state will
for a moment supersede all other considerations; but
if there was a rule, that a sovereign never should
let down his dignity without a sure payment to his
interest, the dignity' of kings would be held high
enough. At present, however, fashion governs in
more serious things than furniture and dress. It
looks as if sovereigns abroad were emulous in bidding against their estimation. It seems as if the preeminence of regicide was acknowledged,- and
that kings tacitly ranked themselves below their
sacrilegious murderers, as natural magistrates and
judges over them. It appears as if dignity were
the prerogative of crime, and a temporizing humilia
tion the proper part for venerable authority. If the
vilest of mankind are resolved to be the most wicked,
they lose all the baseness of their origin, and take
their place above kings. This example in foreign
princes I trust will not spread. It is the concern
of mankind, that the destruction of order should not
be a claim to rank, that crimes should not be the
only title to preeminence and honor.
At this second stage of humiliation, (I mean the insulting declaration in consequence of the message to both Houses of Parliament,) it might not have been
amiss to pause, and not to squander away the fund
of our submissions, until we knew what final purposes
of public interest they might answer. The policy of
subjecting ourselves to further insults is not to me
quite apparent. It was resolved, however, to hazard
a third trial. Citizen Barthdlemy had been established, on the part of the new republic, at Basle,
where, with his proconsulate of Switzerland and the
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 263
adjacent parts of Germany, he was appointed as a sort
of factor to deal in the degradation of the crowned
heads of Europe. At Basle it was thought proper, in
order to keep others, I suppose, in countenance, that
Great Britain should appear at this market, and bid
with the rest for the mercy of the People-King.
On the 6th of March, 1796, Mr. Wickham, in consequence of authority, was desired to sound France
on her disposition towards a general pacification,to know whether she would consent to send ministers
to a congress at such a place as might be hereafter
agreed upon, - whether there would be a disposition
to communicate the general grounds of a pacification,
such as France (the diplomatic name of the Regicide
power) would be willing to propose, as a foundation
for a negotiation for peace with his Majesty and his
allies, or to suggest any other way of arriving at the
same end of a general pacification: but he had no
authority to enter into any negotiation or discussion
with Citizen Barth6lemy upon these subjects.
On the part of Great Britain this measure was a
voluntary act, wholly uncalled for on the part of Regicide. Suits of this sort are at least strong indications of a desire for accommodation. Any other body of men but the Directory would be somewhat soothed
with such advances. They could not, however, begin their answer, which was given without much
delay, and communicated on the 28th of the same
month, without a preamble of insult and reproach.
" They doubt the sincerity of the pacific intentions
of this court. " She did not begin, say they, yet to
"know her real interests. " "' She did not seek peace
with good faith. " This, or something to this effect,
has been the constant preliminary observation (now
? ? ? ? 264 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
grown into a sort of office form) on all our overtures
to this power: a perpetual charge on the British government of fraud, evasion, and habitual perfidy.
It might be asked, From whence did these opinions
of our insincerity and ill faith arise? It was because
the British ministry (leaving to the Directory, however, to propose a better mode) proposed a congress for
the purpose of a general pacification, and this they
said " would render negotiation endless. " From
hence they immediately inferred a fraudulent intention in the offer. Unquestionably their mode of giving the law would bring matters to a more speedy conclusion. As to any other method more agreeable
to them than a congress, an alternative expressly proposed to them, they did not condescend to signify
their pleasure.
This refusal of treating conjointly with the powers
allied against this republic furnishes matter for a
great deal of serious reflection. They have hitherto
constantly declined any other than a treaty with a
single power. By thus dissociating every state from
every other, like deer separated from the herd, each
power is treated with on the merit of his being a
deserter from the common cause. In that light, the
Regicide power, finding each of them insulated and
unprotected, with great facility gives the law to them
all. By this system, for the present an incurable distrust is sown amongst confederates, and in future all
alliance is rendered impracticable. It is thus they
have treated with Prussia, with Spain, with Sardinia,
with Bavaria, with the Ecclesiastical State, with Saxony; and here we see them refuse to treat with Great
Britain in any other mode. They must be worse than
blind who do not see with what undeviating regu
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 265
larity of system, in this case and in all cases, they
pursue their scheme for the utter destruction of
every independent power, -especially the smaller,
who cannot find any refuge whatever but in some
common cause.
Renewing their taunts and reflections, they tell
Mr. Wickham, " that their policy has no guides but
openness and good faith, and that their conduct shall
be conformable to these principles. " They say concerning their government, that, "yielding to the ardent desire by which it is animated to procure peace for the French Republic and for all nations, it will not
fear to declare itself openly. Charged by the Constitution with the execution of the laws, it cannot make or
listen to any proposal that would be contrary to them.
The constitutional act does not permit it to consent to
any alienation of that which, according to the existing
laws, constitutes the territory of the Republic. "
" With respect to the countries occupied by the
French armies, and which have not been united to
France, they, as well as other interests, political and
commercial, may become the subject of a negotiation,
which will present to the Directory the means of proving how much it desires to attain speedily to a happy
pacification. " That "the Directory is ready to receive, in this respect, any overtures that shall be just,
reasonable, and compatible with the dignity of the Republic. "
On the head of what is not to be the subject of
negotiation, the Directory is clear and open. As to
what may be a matter of treaty, all this open dealing is gone. She retires into her shell. There she
expects overtures from you: and you are to guess
what she shall judge just, reasonable, and, above all,
compatible with her dignity.
? ? ? ? 266 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
In the records of pride there does not exist so ill
suiting a declaration. It is insolent in words, in
manner; but in substance it is not only insulting,
but alarming. It is a specimen of what may be expected from the masters we are preparing for our
humbled country. Their openness and candor consist in a direct avowal of their despotism and ambition. We know that their declared resolution had been to surrender no object belonging to France previous to the war. They had resolved that the Republic was entire, and must remain so. As to what she has conquered from the Allies and united to the
same indivisible body, it is of the same nature. That
is, the Allies are to give up whatever conquests they
have made or may make upon France; but all which
she has violently ravished from her neighbors, and
thought fit to appropriate, are not to become so much
as objects of negotiation.
In this unity and indivisibility of possession are
sunk ten immense and wealthy provinces, full of
strong, flourishing, and opulent cities, (the Austrian
Netherlands,) the part of Europe the most necessary
to preserve any communication between this kingdom
and its natural allies, next to Holland the most interesting to this country, and without which Holland
must virtually belong to France. Savoy and Nice,
the keys of Italy, and the citadel in her hands to
bridle Switzerland, are ill that consolidation. The
important territory of Liege is torn out of the heart
of the Empire. All these are integrant parts of the
Republic, not to be subject to any discussion, or to be
purchased by any equivalent. Why? Because there
is a law which prevents it. What law? The law of
nations? The acknowledged public law of Europe?
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 267
Treaties and conventions of parties? No, - not a
pretence of the kind. It is a declaration not made
in consequence of any prescription on her side, - not
on any cession or dereliction, actual or tacit, of other
powers. It is a declaration, pendente lite, in the middle of a war, one principal object of which was originally the defence, and has since been the recovery, of these very countries.
This strange law is not made for a trivial object,
not for a single port or for a single fortress, but for
a great kingdom, --for the religion, the morals, the
laws, the liberties, the lives and fortunes of millions
of human creatures, who, without their consent or
that of their lawful government, are, by an arbitrary
act of this regicide and homicide government which
they call a law, incorporated into their tyranny.
In other words, their will is the law, not only at
home, but as to the concerns of every nation. Who
has made that law but the Regicide Republic itself,
whose laws, like those of the Medes and Persians,
they cannot alter or abrogate, or even so much as
take into consideration? Without the least ceremony
or compliment, they have sent out of the world whole
sets of laws and lawgivers. They have swept away
the very constitutions under which the legislatures
acted and the laws were made. Even the fundamental sacred rights of man they have not scrupled
to profane. They have set this holy code at nought
with ignominy and scorn. Thus they treat all their
domestic laws and constitutions, and even what they
had considered as a law of Nature. But whatever
they have put their seal on, for the purposes of their
ambition, and the ruin of their neighbors, this alone
is invulnerable, impassible, immortal. Assuming to
? ? ? ? 268 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
be masters of everything human and divine, here, and
here alone, it seems, they are limited, " cooped and
cabined in," and this omnipotent legislature finds
itself wholly without the power of exercising its favorite attribute, the love of peace. In other words,
they are powerful to usurp, impotent to restore;
and equally by their power and their impotence
they aggrandize themselves, and weaken and impoverish you and all other nations.
Nothing can be more proper or more manly than
the state publication, called a Note, on this proceeding, dated Downing Street, the 10th of April, 1796.
Only that it is better expressed, it perfectly agrees
with the opinion I have taken the liberty of submitting to your consideration. I place it below at full
length,* as my justification in thinking that this astonishing paper from the Directory is not only a direct negative to all treaty, but is a rejection of every principle upon which treaties could be made. To
admit it for a moment were to erect this power,
usurped at home, into a legislature to govern mankind. It is an authority that on a thousand occa* " This Court has seen, with regret, how far the tone and spirit of that answer, the nature and extent of the demands which it contains, and the manner of announcing them, are remote from any disposition for peace.
" The inadmissible pretension is there avowed of appropriating to
France all that the laws actually existing there may have comprised
under the denomination of French territory. To a demand such as
this is added an express declaration that no proposal contrary to it
will be made or even listened to: and this, under the pretence of
an internal regulation, the provisions of which are wholly foreign to
all other nations.
" While these dispositions shall be persisted in, nothing is left for
the king but to prosecute a war equally just and necessary.
"Whlenever his enemies shall manifest more pacific sentiments,
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 269
sions they have asserted in claim, and, whenever
they are able, exerted in practice. The dereliction
of this whole scheme of policy became, therefore, an
indispensable previous condition to all renewal of
treaty. The remark of the British Cabinet on this
arrogant and tyrannical claim is natural and unavoidable. Our ministry state, that, " while these dispositions shall be persisted in, nothing is left for the king but to prosecute a war that is just and necessary. "
It was of course that we should wait until the enemy showed sonime sort of disposition on his part to
fulfil this condition. It was hoped, indeed, that our
suppliant strains might be suffered to steal into the
august ear in a more propitious season. That season, however, invoked by so many vows, conjurations,
and prayers, did not come. Every declaration of hostility renovated, and every act pursued with double
animosity, - the overrunning of Lombardy, -- the
subjugation of Piedmont, - the possession of its impregnable fortresses, -the seizing on all the neutral
states of Italy, - our expulsion from Leghorn, --
instances forever renewed for our expulsion from
Genoa, - Spain rendered subject to them and hostile
to us, - Portugal bent under the yoke, -- half the
his Majesty will at all times be eager to concur in them, by lending
himself, in concert with his allies, to all such measures as shall be
best calculated to reestablish general tranquillity on conditions just.
honorable, and permanent: either by the establishment of a congress,
which has been so often and so happily the means of restoring peace
to Europe; or by a preliminary discussion of the principles which
may be proposed, on either side, as a foundation of a general pacification; or, lastly, by an impartial examination of any other way
which may be pointed out to him for arriving at the same salutary
end.
",,Downing Street, April ioth, 1796. "
? ? ? ? 270 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
Empire overrun and ravaged, -were the only signs
which this mild Republic thought proper to manifest of her pacific sentiments. Every demonstration
of an implacable rancor and an untamable pride
were the only encouragements we received to the
renewal of our supplications.
Here, therefore, they and we were fixed. Nothing
was left to the British ministry but " to prosecute a
war just and necessary," - a war equally just as at
the time of our engaging in it,- a war become ten
times more necessary by everything which happened
afterwards. This resolution was soon, however, forgot. It felt the heat of the season and melted away.
New hopes were entertained from supplication. No
expectations, indeed, were then formed from renewing a direct application to the French Regicides
through the agent-general for the humiliation of
sovereigns. At length a step was taken in degradation which even went lower than all the rest. Deficient in merits of our own, a mediator was to be sought,- and we looked for that mediator at Berlin!
The King of Prussia's merits in abandoning the general cause might have obtained for him some sort of
influence in favor of those whom he had deserted;
but I have never heard that his Prussian Majesty had
lately discovered so marked an affection for the Court
of St. James's, or for the Court of Vienna, as to excite much hope of his interposing a very powerful
mediation to deliver them from the distresses into
which he had brought them.
If humiliation is the element in which we live, if
it is become not only our occasional policy, but our
habit, no great objection can be made to the modes
in which it may be diversified, - though I confess I
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 271
cannot be charmed with the idea of our exposing our
lazar sores at the door of every proud servitor of the
French Republic, where the court dogs will not deign
to lick them. We had, if I am not mistaken, a minister at that court, who might try its temper, and recede and advance as he found backwardness or
encouragement. But to send a gentleman there on
no other errand than this, and with no assurance
whatever that he should not find, what he did find,
a repulse, seems to me to go far beyond all the demands of a humiliation merely politic. I hope it
did not arise from a predilection for that mode of
conduct.
The cup of bitterness was not, however, drained
to the dregs. Basle and Berlin were not sufficient.
After so many and so diversified repulses, we were
resolved to make another experiment, and to try
another mediator.
Among the unhappy gentlemen
in whose persons royalty is insulted and degraded
at the seat of plebeian pride and upstart insolence,
there is a minister from Denmark at Paris. Without any previous encouragement to that, any more than the other steps, we sent through this turnpike
to demand a passport for a person who on our part
was to solicit peace in the metropolis, at the footstool
of Regicide itself. It was not to be expected that
any one of those degraded beings could have influence enough to settle any part of the terms in favor of the candidates for further degradation; besides,
such intervention would be a direct breach in their
system, which did not permit one sovereign power
to utter a word in the concerns of his equal. -
Another repulse. We were desired to apply directly in our persons. We submitted, and made the application.
? ? ? ? 272 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
It might be thought that here, at length, we had
touched the bottom of humiliation; our lead was
brought up covered with mud. But 1" in the lowest
deep, a lower deep" was to open for us still more
profound abysses of disgrace and shame. However,
in we leaped. We came forward in our own name.
The passport, such a passport and safe-conduct as
would be granted to thieves who might come in to
betray their accomplices, and no better, was granted
to British supplication. To leave no doubt of its
spirit, as soon as the rumor of this act of condescension could get abroad, it was formally announced
with an explanation from authority, containing an invective against the ministry of Great Britain, their
habitual frauds, their proverbial Punic perfidy. No
such state-paper, as a preliminary to a negotiation
for peace, has ever yet appeared. Very few declarations of war have ever shown so much and so
unqualified animosity. I place it below,* as a dip* Official Note, extracted from the Journal of the Defenders of the
Country. , "EXECUTIVE DIRECTORY. , Different journals have advanced that an English plenipotentiary
had reached Paris, and had presented himself to the Executive Directory, but that, his propositions not having appeared satisfactory, he had received orders instantly to quit France.
"All these assertions are equally false. , The notices given in the English papers of a minister having
been sent to Paris, there to treat of peace, bring to recollection the
overtures of Mr. Wickham to the ambassador of the Republic at
Basle, and the rumors circulated relative to the mission of Mr. Hammond to the Court of Prussia. The insignificance, or rather the subtle duplicity, the PUNIC style of Mr. Wickham's note, is not forgotten.
According to the partisans of the English ministry, it was to Paris
that Mr. Hammond was to come to speak for peace. When his destination became public, and it was known that he went to Prussia,
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 270
lomatic curiosity, and in order to be the better understood in the few remarks I have to make upon
a peace which, indeed, defies all description. " None
but itself can be its parallel. "
I pass by all the insolence and contumely of the
performance, as it comes from them. The present
the same writer repeated that it was to accelerate a peace, and not
withstanding the object, now well known, of this negotiation was to
engage Prussia to break her treaties with the Republic, and to return
into the coalition. The Court' of Berlin, faithful to its engagements,
repulsed these perfidious propositions. But in converting this in --
trigue into a mission for peace, the English ministry joined to the
hope of giving a new enemy to France that ofjustifying the continuance
of the war in the eyes of the English nation, and of throwing all the odium
of it on the French government. Such was also the aim of Mr. Wickham's note. Such is still that of the notices given at this time in the English papers. " This aim will appear evident, if we reflect how difficult it is that
the ambitious government of England should sincerely wish for a
peace that would snatch from it its maritime preponderancy, would reestablish the freedom of the seas, would give a new impulse to the Spanish, Dutch, and French marines, and would carry to the highest degree of
prosperity the industry and commerce of those nations in which it
has always found rivals, and which it has considered as enemies of its
commerce, when they were tired of being its dupes. ' "But there will no longer be any credit given to the pacific intentions of
the English ministry, when it is known that its gold and its intrigues, its
open practices and its insinuations, besiege more than ever the Cabinet of
Vienna, and are one of the principal obstacles to the negotiation which that
Cabinet would of itself be induced to enter on for peace.
A" They will no longer be credited, finally, when the moment of the
rumor of these overtures being circulated is considered. The English
nation supports impatiently the continuance of the war; a reply must be
made to its complaints, its reproaches: the Parliament is about to reopen
its sittings; the mouths of the orators who will declaim against the
war must be shut, the demand of new taxes must be justified; and to
obtain these results, it is necessary to be enabled to advance, that the
French government refuses every reasonable proposition of peace. "
VOL. V. 18
? ? ? ? 274 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
question is not, how we are to be affected with it in
regard to our dignity. That is gone. I shall say
no more about it. Light lie the earth on the ashes
of English pride! I shall only observe upon it politically, and as furnishing a direction for our own conduct in this low business.
The very idea of a negotiation for peace, whatever
the inward sentiments of the parties may be, implies
some confidence in their faith, some degree of belief
in the professions which are made concerning it. A
temporary and occasional credit, at least, is granted.
Otherwise men stumble on the very threshold. I
therefore wish to ask what hope we can have of their
good faith, who, as the very basis of the negotiation,
assume the ill faith and treachery of those they have
to deal with? The terms, as against us, must be
such as imply a full security against a treacherous
conduct, - that is, such terms as this Directory stated in its first declaration, to place us " in an utter
impossibility of executing our wretched projects. "
This is the omen, and the sole omen, under which
we have consented to open our treaty.
The second observation I have to make upon it
(much connected, undoubtedly, with the first) is,
that they have informed you of the result they propose from the kind of peace they mean to grant you,
-- that is to say, the union they propose among nations with the view of rivalling our trade and destroying our naval power; and this they suppose (and with good reason, too) must be the inevitable
effect of their peace. It forms one of their principal
grounds for suspecting our ministers could not be
in good earnest in their proposition. They make no
scruple beforehand to tell you the whole of what
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 275.
they intend; and this is what we call, in the modern style, the acceptance of a proposition for peace! In old language it would be called a most hhughty,
offensive, and insolent rejection of all treaty.
Thirdly, they tell you what they conceive to be the
perfidious policy which dictates your delusive offer:
that is, the design of cheating not only them, but the
people of England, against whose interest and inclination this war is supposed to be carried on.
If we proceed in this business, under this preliminary declaration, it seems to me that we admit,
(now for the third time,) by something a great deal
stronger than words, the truth of the charges of
every kind which they make upon the British ministry, and the grounds of those foul imputations.
The language used by us, which in other circumstances would not be exceptionable, in this case tends very strongly to confirm and realize the suspicion
of our enemy: I mean the declaration, that, if we
do not obtain such terms of peace as suits our
opinion of what our interests require, then, and in
that case, we shall continue the war with vigor. This
offer, so reasoned, plainly implies, that, without it,
our leaders themselves entertain great doubts of the
opinion and good affections of the British people;
otherwise there does not appear any cause why we
should proceed, under the scandalous construction
of our enemy, upon the former offer made by Mr.
Wickham, and on the new offer made directly at
Paris. It is not, therefore, from a sense of dignity,
but from the danger of radicating that false sentiment in the breasts of the enemy, that I think, under the auspices of this declaration, we cannot, with the
least hope of a good event, or, indeed, with any
? ? ? ? 276 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
regard to the common safety, proceed in the train
of this negotiation. I wish ministry would seriously
consider the importance of their seeming to confirm
the enemy in an opinion that his frequent use of
appeals to the people against their government has
not been without its effect. If it puts an end to
this war, it will render another impracticable.
Whoever goes to the Directorial presence under
this passport, with this offensive comment and foul
explanation, goes, in the avowed sense of the court
to which he is sent, as the instrument of a government dissociated from the interests and wishes of the nation, for the purpose of cheating both the people
of France and the people of England. He goes out
the declared emissary of a faithless ministry. He
has perfidy for his credentials. He has national
weakness for his full powers. I yet doubt whether
any one can be found to invest himself with that
character. If there should, it would be pleasant' to
read his instructions on the answer which he is to
give to the Directory, in case they should repeat to
him the substance of the manifesto which he carries
with him in his portfolio.
So much for the first manifesto of the Regicide
Court which went along with the passport. Lest this
declaration should seem the effect of haste, or a mere
sudden effusion of pride and insolence, on full deliberation, about a week after comes out a second. This manifesto is dated the 5th of October, one day
before the speech from the throne, on the vigil of the
festive day of cordial unanimity so happily celebrated by all parties in the British Parliament. In this piece the Regicides, our worthy friends, (I call them
by advance and by courtesy what by law I shall be
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 277
obliged to call them hereafter,) our worthy friends,
I say, renew and enforce the former declaration concerning our faith and sincerity, which they pinned
to our passport. On three other points, which run
through all their declarations, they are more explicit
than ever.
First, they more directly undertake to be the real
representatives of the people of this kingdom: and
on a supposition, in which they agree with our Parliamentary reformers, that the House of Commons is
not that representative, the function being vacant,
they, as our true constitutional organ, inform his
Majesty and the world of the sense of the nation.
They tell us that " the English people see with regret
his Majesty's government squandering away the funds
which had been granted to him. " This astonishing
assumption of the public voice of England is but a
slight foretaste of the usurpation which, on a peace,
we may be assured they will make of all the powers
in all the parts of our vassal Constitution. " If they
do these things in the green tree, what shall be done
in the dry? "
Next they tell us, as a condition to our treaty, that
" this government must abjure the unjust hatred it
bears to them, and at last open its ears to the voice
of humanity. " Truly, this is, even from them, an
extraordinary demand. Hitherto, it seems, we have
put wax into our ears, to shut them up against the
tender, soothing strains, in the affettuoso of humanity, warbled from the throats of Reubell, Carnot, Tallien, and the whole chorus of confiscators, domiciliary visitors, committee-men of research, jurors and presidents of revolutionary tribunals, regicides, assassins, massacrers, and Septembrisers. It is not difficult
? ? ? ? 278 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
to discern what sort of humanity our government is
to learn from these Siren singers. Our government
also, I admit, with some reason, as a step towards
the proposed fraternity, is required to abjure the
unjust hatred which it bears to this body of honor
and virtue. I thank God I am neither a minister
nor a leader of opposition. I protest I cannot do
what they desire. I could not do it, if I were under
the guillotine, -- or, as they ingeniously and pleasantly express it, "looking out of the little national
window. " Even at that opening I could receive
none of their light. I am fortified against all such
affections by the declaration of the government,
which I must yet consider as lawful, made on the
29th of October, 1793,* and still ringing in my ears.
* "In their place has succeeded a system destructive of all public
order, maintained by proscriptions, exiles, and confiscations without
number, - by arbitrary imprisonments, - by massacres which cannot
be remembered without horror, -and at length by the execrable
murder of a just and beneficent sovereign, and of the illustrious
princess, who with an unshaken firmness has shared all the misfortunes of her royal consort, his protracted sufferings, his cruel captivity, his ignominious death. " -- They [the Allies] have had to encounter acts of aggression without pretext, open violations of all
treaties, unprovoked declarations of war, -in a word, whatever corruption, intrigue, or violence could effect, for the purpose, so openly
avowed, of subverting all the institutions of society, and of extending
over all the nations of Europe that confusion which has produced the
misery of France. This state of things cannot exist in France, without involving all the surrounding powers in one common danger,without giving' them the right, without imposing it upon them as a duty, to stop the progress of an evil which exists only by the successive violation of all law and all property, and which attacks the fundamental principles by which mankind is united in the bonds of civil society. " -- "The king would propose none other than equitable and
moderate conditions: not such as the expenses, the risks, and the
sacrifices of the war might justify, but such as his Majesty thinks
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 279
This Declaration was transmitted not only to all our
commanders by sea and land, but to our ministers
in every court of Europe. It is the most eloquent
and highly finished in the style, the most judicious
in the choice of topics, the most orderly in the
arrangement, and the most rich in the coloring,
without employing the smallest degree of exaggera
tion, of any state-paper that has ever yet appeared.
An ancient writer (Plutarch, I think it is) quotes
some verses on the eloquence of Pericles, who is
called " the only orator that left stings in the minds
of his hearers. " Like his, the eloquence of the
Declaration, not contradicting, but enforcing, sentihimself under the indispensable necessity of requiring, with a view to
these considerations, and still more to that of his own security and of
the future tranquillity of Europe. His Majesty desires nothing more
sincerely than thus to terminate a war which he in vain endeavored
to avoid, and all the calamities of which, as now experienced by
France, are to be attributed only to the ambition, the perfidy, and the
violence of those whose crimes have involved their own country in
misery and disgraced all civilized nations. " --" The king promises
on his part the suspension of hostilities, friendship, and (as far as
the course of events will allow, of which the will of man cannot dispose) security and protection to all those who, by declaring for a monarchical government, shall shake off the yoke of a sanguinary
anarchy: of that anarchy which has broken all the most sacred
bonds of society, dissolved all the relations of civil life, violated every
right, confounded every duty; which uses the name of liberty to exercise the most cruel tyranny, to annihilate all property, to seize on all possessions; which founds its power on the pretended consent of the
people, and itself carries fire and sword through extensive provinces
for having demanded their laws, their religion, and their lawful
sovereign. "
Declaration sent by his Majesty's command to the commanders
of his Majesty's fleets and armies employed against France,
and to his Majesty's ministers employed at foreign courts.
Whitehall, Oct. 29, 1793.
? ? ? ? 280 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
ments of the truest humanity, has left stings that
have penetrated more than skin-deep into my mind:
and never can they be extracted by all the surgery
of murder; never can the throbbings they have created be assuaged by all the emollient cataplasms of robbery and confiscation. I cannot love the Republic.
The third point, which they have more clearly expressed than ever, is of equal importance with the rest, and with them furnishes a complete view of the
Regicide system. For they demand as a condition,
without which our ambassador of obedience cannot
be received with any hope of success, that he shall be
"provided with full powers to negotiate a peace between the French Republic and Great Britain, and
to conclude it definitively between the TWO powers. "
With their spear they draw a circle about us. They
will hear nothing of a joint treaty. We must make
a peace separately from our allies. We must, as
the very first and preliminary step, be guilty of that
perfidy towards our friends and associates with which
they reproach us in our transactions with them, our
enemies. We are called upon scandalously to betray
the fundamental securities to ourselves and to all nations. In my opinion, (it is perhaps but a poor one,) if we are meanly bold enough to send an ambassador
such as this official note of the enemy requires, we
cannot even dispatch our emissary without danger of
being charged with a breach of our alliance. Government now understands the full meaning of the passport.
Strange revolutions have happened in the ways of
thinking and in the feelings of men; but it is a very
extraordinary coalition of parties indeed, and a kind
of unheard-of unanimity in public councils, which can
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 281
impose this new-discovered system of negotiation, as
sound national policy, on the understanding of a
spectator of this wonderful scene, who judges on the
principles of anything he ever before saw, read, or
heard of, and, above all, on the understanding of a
person who has in his eye the transactions of the last
seven years.
I know it is supposed, that, if good terms of capitulation are not granted, after we have thus so repeatedly hung out the white flag, the national spirit will revive with tenfold ardor. This is an experiment
cautiously to be made. Reculer pour mieux sauter,
according to the French byword, cannot be trusted
to as a general rule of conduct. To diet a man into weakness and languor, afterwards to give him the
greater strength, has more of the empiric than the rational physician. It is true that some persons have
been kicked into courage, - and this is no bad hint
to give to those who are too forward and liberal in
bestowing insults and outrages on their passive companions; but such a course does not at first view
appear a well-chosen discipline to form men to a nice
sense of honor or a quick resentment of injuries. A
long habit of humiliation does not seem a very good
preparative to manly and vigorous sentiment. It may
not leave, perhaps, enough of energy in the mind fairly to discern what are good terms or what are not.
Men low and dispirited may regard those terms as not
at all amiss which in another state of mind they would
think intolerable: if they grow peevish in this state
of mind, they may be roused, not against the enemy
whom they have been taught to fear, but against the
ministry,* who are more within their reach, and who
* "Ut lethargicus hic, cum fit pugil, et medicum urget. " - HOR.
? ? ? ? 282 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
have refused conditions that are not unreasonable,
from power that they have been taught to consider
as irresistible.
If all that for some months I have heard have the
least foundation, (I hope it has not,) the ministers
are, perhaps, not quite so much to be blamed as their
condition is to be lamented. I have been given to
understand that these proceedings are not in their origin properly theirs. It is said that there is a secret in the House of Commons. It is said that ministers act,
not according to the votes, but according to the dispositions, of the majority. I hear that the minority
has long since spoken the general sense of the nation;
and that to prevent those who compose it from having
the open and avowed lead in that House, or perhaps
in both Houses, it was necessary to preoccupy their
ground, and to take their propositions out of their
mouths, even with the hazard of being afterwards reproached with a compliance which it was foreseen would be fruitless.
If the general disposition of the people be, as I hear
it is, for an immediate peace with Regicide, without
so much as considering our public and solemn engagements to the party in France whose cause we
had espoused, or the engagements expressed in our
general alliances, not only without an inquiry into
the terms, but with a certain knowledge that none
but the worst terms will be offered, it is all over with
us. It is strange, but it may be true, that, as the
danger from Jacobinism is increased in my eyes
and in yours, the fear of it is lessened in the eyes of
many people who formerly regarded it with horror.
It seems, they act under the impression of terrors of
another sort, which have frightened them out of their
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 283
first apprehensions. But let their fears, or their
hopes, or their desires, be what they will, they should
recollect that they who would make peace without a
previous knowledge of the terms make a surrender.
They are conquered. They do not treat; they receive
the law. Is this the disposition of the people of England? Then the people of England are contented to seek in the kindness of a foreign, systematic enemy,
combined with a dangerous faction at home, a security which they cannot find in their own patriotism and their own courage. They are willing to trust to the
sympathy of regicides the guaranty of the British
monarchy. They are content to rest their religion
on the piety of atheists by establishment. They are
satisfied to seek in the clemency of practised murderers the security of their lives. They are pleased to confide their property to the safeguard of those who
are robbers by inclination, interest, habit, and system.
If this be our deliberate mind, truly we deserve to
lose, what it is impossible we should long retain, the
name of a nation.
come totally indifferent to good and evil, to one institution or another. This species of indifference is but too generally distinguishable in those who have.
been much employed in foreign courts, but in the
present case the evil must be aggravated without
measure: for they go from their country, not with
the pride of the old character, but in a state of the
lowest degradation; and what must happen in their
place of residence can have no effect in raising them
to the level of true dignity or of chaste self-estimation, either as men or as representatives of crowned heads.
Our early proceeding, which has produced these returns of affront, appeared to me totally new, without being adapted to the new circumstances of affairs.
I have called to my mind the speeches and messages
in former times. I find nothing like these. You
will look in the journals to find whether my memory
fails me. Before this time, never was a ground of
peace laid, (as it were, in a Parliamentary record,)
until it had been as good as concluded. This was
a wise homage paid to the discretion of the crown.
It was known how much a negotiation must suffer
by having anything in the train towards it prematurely disclosed. But when those Parliamentary declarations were made, not so much as a step had
been taken towards a negotiation in any mode whatever. The measure was an unpleasant and unsea sonable discovery.
I conceive that another circumstance in that transaction has. been as little authorized by any example, and that it is as little prudent in itself: I mean the
formal recognition of the French Republic. Without entering, for the present, into a question on the
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 261
good faith manifested in that measure, or on its
general policy, I doubt, upon mere temporary considerations of prudence, whether it was perfectly
advisable. It is not within the rules of dexterous
conduct to make ail acknowledgment of a contested title in your enemy before you are morally
certain that your recognition will secure his friendship. Otherwise it is a measure worse than thrown
away. It adds infinitely to the strength, and consequently to the demands, of the adverse party. He
has gained a fundamental point without an equivalent. It has happened as might have been foreseen.
No notice whatever was taken of this recognition.
In fact, the Directory never gave themselves any
concern about it; and they received our acknowledgment with perfect scorn. With them it is not
for the states of Europe to judge of their title: the
very reverse. In their eye the title of every other
power depends wholly on their pleasure.
Preliminary declarations of this sort, thrown out
at random, and sown, as it were, broadcast, were
never to be found in the mode of our proceeding
with France and Spain, whilst the great monarchies
of France and Spain existed. I do not say that a
diplomatic measure ought to be, like a parliamentary or a judicial proceeding, according to strict precedent: I hope I am far from that pedantry. But this I know: that a great state ought to have some regard
to its ancient maxims, especially where they indicate
its dignity, where they concur with the rules of prudence, and, above all, where the circumstances of
the time require that a spirit of innovation should
be resisted which leads to the humiliation of sovereign powers. It would be ridiculous to assert that
? ? ? ? 262 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
those powers have suffered nothing in their estima
tion. I admit that the greater interests of state will
for a moment supersede all other considerations; but
if there was a rule, that a sovereign never should
let down his dignity without a sure payment to his
interest, the dignity' of kings would be held high
enough. At present, however, fashion governs in
more serious things than furniture and dress. It
looks as if sovereigns abroad were emulous in bidding against their estimation. It seems as if the preeminence of regicide was acknowledged,- and
that kings tacitly ranked themselves below their
sacrilegious murderers, as natural magistrates and
judges over them. It appears as if dignity were
the prerogative of crime, and a temporizing humilia
tion the proper part for venerable authority. If the
vilest of mankind are resolved to be the most wicked,
they lose all the baseness of their origin, and take
their place above kings. This example in foreign
princes I trust will not spread. It is the concern
of mankind, that the destruction of order should not
be a claim to rank, that crimes should not be the
only title to preeminence and honor.
At this second stage of humiliation, (I mean the insulting declaration in consequence of the message to both Houses of Parliament,) it might not have been
amiss to pause, and not to squander away the fund
of our submissions, until we knew what final purposes
of public interest they might answer. The policy of
subjecting ourselves to further insults is not to me
quite apparent. It was resolved, however, to hazard
a third trial. Citizen Barthdlemy had been established, on the part of the new republic, at Basle,
where, with his proconsulate of Switzerland and the
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 263
adjacent parts of Germany, he was appointed as a sort
of factor to deal in the degradation of the crowned
heads of Europe. At Basle it was thought proper, in
order to keep others, I suppose, in countenance, that
Great Britain should appear at this market, and bid
with the rest for the mercy of the People-King.
On the 6th of March, 1796, Mr. Wickham, in consequence of authority, was desired to sound France
on her disposition towards a general pacification,to know whether she would consent to send ministers
to a congress at such a place as might be hereafter
agreed upon, - whether there would be a disposition
to communicate the general grounds of a pacification,
such as France (the diplomatic name of the Regicide
power) would be willing to propose, as a foundation
for a negotiation for peace with his Majesty and his
allies, or to suggest any other way of arriving at the
same end of a general pacification: but he had no
authority to enter into any negotiation or discussion
with Citizen Barth6lemy upon these subjects.
On the part of Great Britain this measure was a
voluntary act, wholly uncalled for on the part of Regicide. Suits of this sort are at least strong indications of a desire for accommodation. Any other body of men but the Directory would be somewhat soothed
with such advances. They could not, however, begin their answer, which was given without much
delay, and communicated on the 28th of the same
month, without a preamble of insult and reproach.
" They doubt the sincerity of the pacific intentions
of this court. " She did not begin, say they, yet to
"know her real interests. " "' She did not seek peace
with good faith. " This, or something to this effect,
has been the constant preliminary observation (now
? ? ? ? 264 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
grown into a sort of office form) on all our overtures
to this power: a perpetual charge on the British government of fraud, evasion, and habitual perfidy.
It might be asked, From whence did these opinions
of our insincerity and ill faith arise? It was because
the British ministry (leaving to the Directory, however, to propose a better mode) proposed a congress for
the purpose of a general pacification, and this they
said " would render negotiation endless. " From
hence they immediately inferred a fraudulent intention in the offer. Unquestionably their mode of giving the law would bring matters to a more speedy conclusion. As to any other method more agreeable
to them than a congress, an alternative expressly proposed to them, they did not condescend to signify
their pleasure.
This refusal of treating conjointly with the powers
allied against this republic furnishes matter for a
great deal of serious reflection. They have hitherto
constantly declined any other than a treaty with a
single power. By thus dissociating every state from
every other, like deer separated from the herd, each
power is treated with on the merit of his being a
deserter from the common cause. In that light, the
Regicide power, finding each of them insulated and
unprotected, with great facility gives the law to them
all. By this system, for the present an incurable distrust is sown amongst confederates, and in future all
alliance is rendered impracticable. It is thus they
have treated with Prussia, with Spain, with Sardinia,
with Bavaria, with the Ecclesiastical State, with Saxony; and here we see them refuse to treat with Great
Britain in any other mode. They must be worse than
blind who do not see with what undeviating regu
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 265
larity of system, in this case and in all cases, they
pursue their scheme for the utter destruction of
every independent power, -especially the smaller,
who cannot find any refuge whatever but in some
common cause.
Renewing their taunts and reflections, they tell
Mr. Wickham, " that their policy has no guides but
openness and good faith, and that their conduct shall
be conformable to these principles. " They say concerning their government, that, "yielding to the ardent desire by which it is animated to procure peace for the French Republic and for all nations, it will not
fear to declare itself openly. Charged by the Constitution with the execution of the laws, it cannot make or
listen to any proposal that would be contrary to them.
The constitutional act does not permit it to consent to
any alienation of that which, according to the existing
laws, constitutes the territory of the Republic. "
" With respect to the countries occupied by the
French armies, and which have not been united to
France, they, as well as other interests, political and
commercial, may become the subject of a negotiation,
which will present to the Directory the means of proving how much it desires to attain speedily to a happy
pacification. " That "the Directory is ready to receive, in this respect, any overtures that shall be just,
reasonable, and compatible with the dignity of the Republic. "
On the head of what is not to be the subject of
negotiation, the Directory is clear and open. As to
what may be a matter of treaty, all this open dealing is gone. She retires into her shell. There she
expects overtures from you: and you are to guess
what she shall judge just, reasonable, and, above all,
compatible with her dignity.
? ? ? ? 266 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
In the records of pride there does not exist so ill
suiting a declaration. It is insolent in words, in
manner; but in substance it is not only insulting,
but alarming. It is a specimen of what may be expected from the masters we are preparing for our
humbled country. Their openness and candor consist in a direct avowal of their despotism and ambition. We know that their declared resolution had been to surrender no object belonging to France previous to the war. They had resolved that the Republic was entire, and must remain so. As to what she has conquered from the Allies and united to the
same indivisible body, it is of the same nature. That
is, the Allies are to give up whatever conquests they
have made or may make upon France; but all which
she has violently ravished from her neighbors, and
thought fit to appropriate, are not to become so much
as objects of negotiation.
In this unity and indivisibility of possession are
sunk ten immense and wealthy provinces, full of
strong, flourishing, and opulent cities, (the Austrian
Netherlands,) the part of Europe the most necessary
to preserve any communication between this kingdom
and its natural allies, next to Holland the most interesting to this country, and without which Holland
must virtually belong to France. Savoy and Nice,
the keys of Italy, and the citadel in her hands to
bridle Switzerland, are ill that consolidation. The
important territory of Liege is torn out of the heart
of the Empire. All these are integrant parts of the
Republic, not to be subject to any discussion, or to be
purchased by any equivalent. Why? Because there
is a law which prevents it. What law? The law of
nations? The acknowledged public law of Europe?
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 267
Treaties and conventions of parties? No, - not a
pretence of the kind. It is a declaration not made
in consequence of any prescription on her side, - not
on any cession or dereliction, actual or tacit, of other
powers. It is a declaration, pendente lite, in the middle of a war, one principal object of which was originally the defence, and has since been the recovery, of these very countries.
This strange law is not made for a trivial object,
not for a single port or for a single fortress, but for
a great kingdom, --for the religion, the morals, the
laws, the liberties, the lives and fortunes of millions
of human creatures, who, without their consent or
that of their lawful government, are, by an arbitrary
act of this regicide and homicide government which
they call a law, incorporated into their tyranny.
In other words, their will is the law, not only at
home, but as to the concerns of every nation. Who
has made that law but the Regicide Republic itself,
whose laws, like those of the Medes and Persians,
they cannot alter or abrogate, or even so much as
take into consideration? Without the least ceremony
or compliment, they have sent out of the world whole
sets of laws and lawgivers. They have swept away
the very constitutions under which the legislatures
acted and the laws were made. Even the fundamental sacred rights of man they have not scrupled
to profane. They have set this holy code at nought
with ignominy and scorn. Thus they treat all their
domestic laws and constitutions, and even what they
had considered as a law of Nature. But whatever
they have put their seal on, for the purposes of their
ambition, and the ruin of their neighbors, this alone
is invulnerable, impassible, immortal. Assuming to
? ? ? ? 268 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
be masters of everything human and divine, here, and
here alone, it seems, they are limited, " cooped and
cabined in," and this omnipotent legislature finds
itself wholly without the power of exercising its favorite attribute, the love of peace. In other words,
they are powerful to usurp, impotent to restore;
and equally by their power and their impotence
they aggrandize themselves, and weaken and impoverish you and all other nations.
Nothing can be more proper or more manly than
the state publication, called a Note, on this proceeding, dated Downing Street, the 10th of April, 1796.
Only that it is better expressed, it perfectly agrees
with the opinion I have taken the liberty of submitting to your consideration. I place it below at full
length,* as my justification in thinking that this astonishing paper from the Directory is not only a direct negative to all treaty, but is a rejection of every principle upon which treaties could be made. To
admit it for a moment were to erect this power,
usurped at home, into a legislature to govern mankind. It is an authority that on a thousand occa* " This Court has seen, with regret, how far the tone and spirit of that answer, the nature and extent of the demands which it contains, and the manner of announcing them, are remote from any disposition for peace.
" The inadmissible pretension is there avowed of appropriating to
France all that the laws actually existing there may have comprised
under the denomination of French territory. To a demand such as
this is added an express declaration that no proposal contrary to it
will be made or even listened to: and this, under the pretence of
an internal regulation, the provisions of which are wholly foreign to
all other nations.
" While these dispositions shall be persisted in, nothing is left for
the king but to prosecute a war equally just and necessary.
"Whlenever his enemies shall manifest more pacific sentiments,
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 269
sions they have asserted in claim, and, whenever
they are able, exerted in practice. The dereliction
of this whole scheme of policy became, therefore, an
indispensable previous condition to all renewal of
treaty. The remark of the British Cabinet on this
arrogant and tyrannical claim is natural and unavoidable. Our ministry state, that, " while these dispositions shall be persisted in, nothing is left for the king but to prosecute a war that is just and necessary. "
It was of course that we should wait until the enemy showed sonime sort of disposition on his part to
fulfil this condition. It was hoped, indeed, that our
suppliant strains might be suffered to steal into the
august ear in a more propitious season. That season, however, invoked by so many vows, conjurations,
and prayers, did not come. Every declaration of hostility renovated, and every act pursued with double
animosity, - the overrunning of Lombardy, -- the
subjugation of Piedmont, - the possession of its impregnable fortresses, -the seizing on all the neutral
states of Italy, - our expulsion from Leghorn, --
instances forever renewed for our expulsion from
Genoa, - Spain rendered subject to them and hostile
to us, - Portugal bent under the yoke, -- half the
his Majesty will at all times be eager to concur in them, by lending
himself, in concert with his allies, to all such measures as shall be
best calculated to reestablish general tranquillity on conditions just.
honorable, and permanent: either by the establishment of a congress,
which has been so often and so happily the means of restoring peace
to Europe; or by a preliminary discussion of the principles which
may be proposed, on either side, as a foundation of a general pacification; or, lastly, by an impartial examination of any other way
which may be pointed out to him for arriving at the same salutary
end.
",,Downing Street, April ioth, 1796. "
? ? ? ? 270 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
Empire overrun and ravaged, -were the only signs
which this mild Republic thought proper to manifest of her pacific sentiments. Every demonstration
of an implacable rancor and an untamable pride
were the only encouragements we received to the
renewal of our supplications.
Here, therefore, they and we were fixed. Nothing
was left to the British ministry but " to prosecute a
war just and necessary," - a war equally just as at
the time of our engaging in it,- a war become ten
times more necessary by everything which happened
afterwards. This resolution was soon, however, forgot. It felt the heat of the season and melted away.
New hopes were entertained from supplication. No
expectations, indeed, were then formed from renewing a direct application to the French Regicides
through the agent-general for the humiliation of
sovereigns. At length a step was taken in degradation which even went lower than all the rest. Deficient in merits of our own, a mediator was to be sought,- and we looked for that mediator at Berlin!
The King of Prussia's merits in abandoning the general cause might have obtained for him some sort of
influence in favor of those whom he had deserted;
but I have never heard that his Prussian Majesty had
lately discovered so marked an affection for the Court
of St. James's, or for the Court of Vienna, as to excite much hope of his interposing a very powerful
mediation to deliver them from the distresses into
which he had brought them.
If humiliation is the element in which we live, if
it is become not only our occasional policy, but our
habit, no great objection can be made to the modes
in which it may be diversified, - though I confess I
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 271
cannot be charmed with the idea of our exposing our
lazar sores at the door of every proud servitor of the
French Republic, where the court dogs will not deign
to lick them. We had, if I am not mistaken, a minister at that court, who might try its temper, and recede and advance as he found backwardness or
encouragement. But to send a gentleman there on
no other errand than this, and with no assurance
whatever that he should not find, what he did find,
a repulse, seems to me to go far beyond all the demands of a humiliation merely politic. I hope it
did not arise from a predilection for that mode of
conduct.
The cup of bitterness was not, however, drained
to the dregs. Basle and Berlin were not sufficient.
After so many and so diversified repulses, we were
resolved to make another experiment, and to try
another mediator.
Among the unhappy gentlemen
in whose persons royalty is insulted and degraded
at the seat of plebeian pride and upstart insolence,
there is a minister from Denmark at Paris. Without any previous encouragement to that, any more than the other steps, we sent through this turnpike
to demand a passport for a person who on our part
was to solicit peace in the metropolis, at the footstool
of Regicide itself. It was not to be expected that
any one of those degraded beings could have influence enough to settle any part of the terms in favor of the candidates for further degradation; besides,
such intervention would be a direct breach in their
system, which did not permit one sovereign power
to utter a word in the concerns of his equal. -
Another repulse. We were desired to apply directly in our persons. We submitted, and made the application.
? ? ? ? 272 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
It might be thought that here, at length, we had
touched the bottom of humiliation; our lead was
brought up covered with mud. But 1" in the lowest
deep, a lower deep" was to open for us still more
profound abysses of disgrace and shame. However,
in we leaped. We came forward in our own name.
The passport, such a passport and safe-conduct as
would be granted to thieves who might come in to
betray their accomplices, and no better, was granted
to British supplication. To leave no doubt of its
spirit, as soon as the rumor of this act of condescension could get abroad, it was formally announced
with an explanation from authority, containing an invective against the ministry of Great Britain, their
habitual frauds, their proverbial Punic perfidy. No
such state-paper, as a preliminary to a negotiation
for peace, has ever yet appeared. Very few declarations of war have ever shown so much and so
unqualified animosity. I place it below,* as a dip* Official Note, extracted from the Journal of the Defenders of the
Country. , "EXECUTIVE DIRECTORY. , Different journals have advanced that an English plenipotentiary
had reached Paris, and had presented himself to the Executive Directory, but that, his propositions not having appeared satisfactory, he had received orders instantly to quit France.
"All these assertions are equally false. , The notices given in the English papers of a minister having
been sent to Paris, there to treat of peace, bring to recollection the
overtures of Mr. Wickham to the ambassador of the Republic at
Basle, and the rumors circulated relative to the mission of Mr. Hammond to the Court of Prussia. The insignificance, or rather the subtle duplicity, the PUNIC style of Mr. Wickham's note, is not forgotten.
According to the partisans of the English ministry, it was to Paris
that Mr. Hammond was to come to speak for peace. When his destination became public, and it was known that he went to Prussia,
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 270
lomatic curiosity, and in order to be the better understood in the few remarks I have to make upon
a peace which, indeed, defies all description. " None
but itself can be its parallel. "
I pass by all the insolence and contumely of the
performance, as it comes from them. The present
the same writer repeated that it was to accelerate a peace, and not
withstanding the object, now well known, of this negotiation was to
engage Prussia to break her treaties with the Republic, and to return
into the coalition. The Court' of Berlin, faithful to its engagements,
repulsed these perfidious propositions. But in converting this in --
trigue into a mission for peace, the English ministry joined to the
hope of giving a new enemy to France that ofjustifying the continuance
of the war in the eyes of the English nation, and of throwing all the odium
of it on the French government. Such was also the aim of Mr. Wickham's note. Such is still that of the notices given at this time in the English papers. " This aim will appear evident, if we reflect how difficult it is that
the ambitious government of England should sincerely wish for a
peace that would snatch from it its maritime preponderancy, would reestablish the freedom of the seas, would give a new impulse to the Spanish, Dutch, and French marines, and would carry to the highest degree of
prosperity the industry and commerce of those nations in which it
has always found rivals, and which it has considered as enemies of its
commerce, when they were tired of being its dupes. ' "But there will no longer be any credit given to the pacific intentions of
the English ministry, when it is known that its gold and its intrigues, its
open practices and its insinuations, besiege more than ever the Cabinet of
Vienna, and are one of the principal obstacles to the negotiation which that
Cabinet would of itself be induced to enter on for peace.
A" They will no longer be credited, finally, when the moment of the
rumor of these overtures being circulated is considered. The English
nation supports impatiently the continuance of the war; a reply must be
made to its complaints, its reproaches: the Parliament is about to reopen
its sittings; the mouths of the orators who will declaim against the
war must be shut, the demand of new taxes must be justified; and to
obtain these results, it is necessary to be enabled to advance, that the
French government refuses every reasonable proposition of peace. "
VOL. V. 18
? ? ? ? 274 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
question is not, how we are to be affected with it in
regard to our dignity. That is gone. I shall say
no more about it. Light lie the earth on the ashes
of English pride! I shall only observe upon it politically, and as furnishing a direction for our own conduct in this low business.
The very idea of a negotiation for peace, whatever
the inward sentiments of the parties may be, implies
some confidence in their faith, some degree of belief
in the professions which are made concerning it. A
temporary and occasional credit, at least, is granted.
Otherwise men stumble on the very threshold. I
therefore wish to ask what hope we can have of their
good faith, who, as the very basis of the negotiation,
assume the ill faith and treachery of those they have
to deal with? The terms, as against us, must be
such as imply a full security against a treacherous
conduct, - that is, such terms as this Directory stated in its first declaration, to place us " in an utter
impossibility of executing our wretched projects. "
This is the omen, and the sole omen, under which
we have consented to open our treaty.
The second observation I have to make upon it
(much connected, undoubtedly, with the first) is,
that they have informed you of the result they propose from the kind of peace they mean to grant you,
-- that is to say, the union they propose among nations with the view of rivalling our trade and destroying our naval power; and this they suppose (and with good reason, too) must be the inevitable
effect of their peace. It forms one of their principal
grounds for suspecting our ministers could not be
in good earnest in their proposition. They make no
scruple beforehand to tell you the whole of what
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 275.
they intend; and this is what we call, in the modern style, the acceptance of a proposition for peace! In old language it would be called a most hhughty,
offensive, and insolent rejection of all treaty.
Thirdly, they tell you what they conceive to be the
perfidious policy which dictates your delusive offer:
that is, the design of cheating not only them, but the
people of England, against whose interest and inclination this war is supposed to be carried on.
If we proceed in this business, under this preliminary declaration, it seems to me that we admit,
(now for the third time,) by something a great deal
stronger than words, the truth of the charges of
every kind which they make upon the British ministry, and the grounds of those foul imputations.
The language used by us, which in other circumstances would not be exceptionable, in this case tends very strongly to confirm and realize the suspicion
of our enemy: I mean the declaration, that, if we
do not obtain such terms of peace as suits our
opinion of what our interests require, then, and in
that case, we shall continue the war with vigor. This
offer, so reasoned, plainly implies, that, without it,
our leaders themselves entertain great doubts of the
opinion and good affections of the British people;
otherwise there does not appear any cause why we
should proceed, under the scandalous construction
of our enemy, upon the former offer made by Mr.
Wickham, and on the new offer made directly at
Paris. It is not, therefore, from a sense of dignity,
but from the danger of radicating that false sentiment in the breasts of the enemy, that I think, under the auspices of this declaration, we cannot, with the
least hope of a good event, or, indeed, with any
? ? ? ? 276 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
regard to the common safety, proceed in the train
of this negotiation. I wish ministry would seriously
consider the importance of their seeming to confirm
the enemy in an opinion that his frequent use of
appeals to the people against their government has
not been without its effect. If it puts an end to
this war, it will render another impracticable.
Whoever goes to the Directorial presence under
this passport, with this offensive comment and foul
explanation, goes, in the avowed sense of the court
to which he is sent, as the instrument of a government dissociated from the interests and wishes of the nation, for the purpose of cheating both the people
of France and the people of England. He goes out
the declared emissary of a faithless ministry. He
has perfidy for his credentials. He has national
weakness for his full powers. I yet doubt whether
any one can be found to invest himself with that
character. If there should, it would be pleasant' to
read his instructions on the answer which he is to
give to the Directory, in case they should repeat to
him the substance of the manifesto which he carries
with him in his portfolio.
So much for the first manifesto of the Regicide
Court which went along with the passport. Lest this
declaration should seem the effect of haste, or a mere
sudden effusion of pride and insolence, on full deliberation, about a week after comes out a second. This manifesto is dated the 5th of October, one day
before the speech from the throne, on the vigil of the
festive day of cordial unanimity so happily celebrated by all parties in the British Parliament. In this piece the Regicides, our worthy friends, (I call them
by advance and by courtesy what by law I shall be
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 277
obliged to call them hereafter,) our worthy friends,
I say, renew and enforce the former declaration concerning our faith and sincerity, which they pinned
to our passport. On three other points, which run
through all their declarations, they are more explicit
than ever.
First, they more directly undertake to be the real
representatives of the people of this kingdom: and
on a supposition, in which they agree with our Parliamentary reformers, that the House of Commons is
not that representative, the function being vacant,
they, as our true constitutional organ, inform his
Majesty and the world of the sense of the nation.
They tell us that " the English people see with regret
his Majesty's government squandering away the funds
which had been granted to him. " This astonishing
assumption of the public voice of England is but a
slight foretaste of the usurpation which, on a peace,
we may be assured they will make of all the powers
in all the parts of our vassal Constitution. " If they
do these things in the green tree, what shall be done
in the dry? "
Next they tell us, as a condition to our treaty, that
" this government must abjure the unjust hatred it
bears to them, and at last open its ears to the voice
of humanity. " Truly, this is, even from them, an
extraordinary demand. Hitherto, it seems, we have
put wax into our ears, to shut them up against the
tender, soothing strains, in the affettuoso of humanity, warbled from the throats of Reubell, Carnot, Tallien, and the whole chorus of confiscators, domiciliary visitors, committee-men of research, jurors and presidents of revolutionary tribunals, regicides, assassins, massacrers, and Septembrisers. It is not difficult
? ? ? ? 278 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
to discern what sort of humanity our government is
to learn from these Siren singers. Our government
also, I admit, with some reason, as a step towards
the proposed fraternity, is required to abjure the
unjust hatred which it bears to this body of honor
and virtue. I thank God I am neither a minister
nor a leader of opposition. I protest I cannot do
what they desire. I could not do it, if I were under
the guillotine, -- or, as they ingeniously and pleasantly express it, "looking out of the little national
window. " Even at that opening I could receive
none of their light. I am fortified against all such
affections by the declaration of the government,
which I must yet consider as lawful, made on the
29th of October, 1793,* and still ringing in my ears.
* "In their place has succeeded a system destructive of all public
order, maintained by proscriptions, exiles, and confiscations without
number, - by arbitrary imprisonments, - by massacres which cannot
be remembered without horror, -and at length by the execrable
murder of a just and beneficent sovereign, and of the illustrious
princess, who with an unshaken firmness has shared all the misfortunes of her royal consort, his protracted sufferings, his cruel captivity, his ignominious death. " -- They [the Allies] have had to encounter acts of aggression without pretext, open violations of all
treaties, unprovoked declarations of war, -in a word, whatever corruption, intrigue, or violence could effect, for the purpose, so openly
avowed, of subverting all the institutions of society, and of extending
over all the nations of Europe that confusion which has produced the
misery of France. This state of things cannot exist in France, without involving all the surrounding powers in one common danger,without giving' them the right, without imposing it upon them as a duty, to stop the progress of an evil which exists only by the successive violation of all law and all property, and which attacks the fundamental principles by which mankind is united in the bonds of civil society. " -- "The king would propose none other than equitable and
moderate conditions: not such as the expenses, the risks, and the
sacrifices of the war might justify, but such as his Majesty thinks
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 279
This Declaration was transmitted not only to all our
commanders by sea and land, but to our ministers
in every court of Europe. It is the most eloquent
and highly finished in the style, the most judicious
in the choice of topics, the most orderly in the
arrangement, and the most rich in the coloring,
without employing the smallest degree of exaggera
tion, of any state-paper that has ever yet appeared.
An ancient writer (Plutarch, I think it is) quotes
some verses on the eloquence of Pericles, who is
called " the only orator that left stings in the minds
of his hearers. " Like his, the eloquence of the
Declaration, not contradicting, but enforcing, sentihimself under the indispensable necessity of requiring, with a view to
these considerations, and still more to that of his own security and of
the future tranquillity of Europe. His Majesty desires nothing more
sincerely than thus to terminate a war which he in vain endeavored
to avoid, and all the calamities of which, as now experienced by
France, are to be attributed only to the ambition, the perfidy, and the
violence of those whose crimes have involved their own country in
misery and disgraced all civilized nations. " --" The king promises
on his part the suspension of hostilities, friendship, and (as far as
the course of events will allow, of which the will of man cannot dispose) security and protection to all those who, by declaring for a monarchical government, shall shake off the yoke of a sanguinary
anarchy: of that anarchy which has broken all the most sacred
bonds of society, dissolved all the relations of civil life, violated every
right, confounded every duty; which uses the name of liberty to exercise the most cruel tyranny, to annihilate all property, to seize on all possessions; which founds its power on the pretended consent of the
people, and itself carries fire and sword through extensive provinces
for having demanded their laws, their religion, and their lawful
sovereign. "
Declaration sent by his Majesty's command to the commanders
of his Majesty's fleets and armies employed against France,
and to his Majesty's ministers employed at foreign courts.
Whitehall, Oct. 29, 1793.
? ? ? ? 280 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
ments of the truest humanity, has left stings that
have penetrated more than skin-deep into my mind:
and never can they be extracted by all the surgery
of murder; never can the throbbings they have created be assuaged by all the emollient cataplasms of robbery and confiscation. I cannot love the Republic.
The third point, which they have more clearly expressed than ever, is of equal importance with the rest, and with them furnishes a complete view of the
Regicide system. For they demand as a condition,
without which our ambassador of obedience cannot
be received with any hope of success, that he shall be
"provided with full powers to negotiate a peace between the French Republic and Great Britain, and
to conclude it definitively between the TWO powers. "
With their spear they draw a circle about us. They
will hear nothing of a joint treaty. We must make
a peace separately from our allies. We must, as
the very first and preliminary step, be guilty of that
perfidy towards our friends and associates with which
they reproach us in our transactions with them, our
enemies. We are called upon scandalously to betray
the fundamental securities to ourselves and to all nations. In my opinion, (it is perhaps but a poor one,) if we are meanly bold enough to send an ambassador
such as this official note of the enemy requires, we
cannot even dispatch our emissary without danger of
being charged with a breach of our alliance. Government now understands the full meaning of the passport.
Strange revolutions have happened in the ways of
thinking and in the feelings of men; but it is a very
extraordinary coalition of parties indeed, and a kind
of unheard-of unanimity in public councils, which can
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 281
impose this new-discovered system of negotiation, as
sound national policy, on the understanding of a
spectator of this wonderful scene, who judges on the
principles of anything he ever before saw, read, or
heard of, and, above all, on the understanding of a
person who has in his eye the transactions of the last
seven years.
I know it is supposed, that, if good terms of capitulation are not granted, after we have thus so repeatedly hung out the white flag, the national spirit will revive with tenfold ardor. This is an experiment
cautiously to be made. Reculer pour mieux sauter,
according to the French byword, cannot be trusted
to as a general rule of conduct. To diet a man into weakness and languor, afterwards to give him the
greater strength, has more of the empiric than the rational physician. It is true that some persons have
been kicked into courage, - and this is no bad hint
to give to those who are too forward and liberal in
bestowing insults and outrages on their passive companions; but such a course does not at first view
appear a well-chosen discipline to form men to a nice
sense of honor or a quick resentment of injuries. A
long habit of humiliation does not seem a very good
preparative to manly and vigorous sentiment. It may
not leave, perhaps, enough of energy in the mind fairly to discern what are good terms or what are not.
Men low and dispirited may regard those terms as not
at all amiss which in another state of mind they would
think intolerable: if they grow peevish in this state
of mind, they may be roused, not against the enemy
whom they have been taught to fear, but against the
ministry,* who are more within their reach, and who
* "Ut lethargicus hic, cum fit pugil, et medicum urget. " - HOR.
? ? ? ? 282 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
have refused conditions that are not unreasonable,
from power that they have been taught to consider
as irresistible.
If all that for some months I have heard have the
least foundation, (I hope it has not,) the ministers
are, perhaps, not quite so much to be blamed as their
condition is to be lamented. I have been given to
understand that these proceedings are not in their origin properly theirs. It is said that there is a secret in the House of Commons. It is said that ministers act,
not according to the votes, but according to the dispositions, of the majority. I hear that the minority
has long since spoken the general sense of the nation;
and that to prevent those who compose it from having
the open and avowed lead in that House, or perhaps
in both Houses, it was necessary to preoccupy their
ground, and to take their propositions out of their
mouths, even with the hazard of being afterwards reproached with a compliance which it was foreseen would be fruitless.
If the general disposition of the people be, as I hear
it is, for an immediate peace with Regicide, without
so much as considering our public and solemn engagements to the party in France whose cause we
had espoused, or the engagements expressed in our
general alliances, not only without an inquiry into
the terms, but with a certain knowledge that none
but the worst terms will be offered, it is all over with
us. It is strange, but it may be true, that, as the
danger from Jacobinism is increased in my eyes
and in yours, the fear of it is lessened in the eyes of
many people who formerly regarded it with horror.
It seems, they act under the impression of terrors of
another sort, which have frightened them out of their
? ? ? ? LETTER I. 283
first apprehensions. But let their fears, or their
hopes, or their desires, be what they will, they should
recollect that they who would make peace without a
previous knowledge of the terms make a surrender.
They are conquered. They do not treat; they receive
the law. Is this the disposition of the people of England? Then the people of England are contented to seek in the kindness of a foreign, systematic enemy,
combined with a dangerous faction at home, a security which they cannot find in their own patriotism and their own courage. They are willing to trust to the
sympathy of regicides the guaranty of the British
monarchy. They are content to rest their religion
on the piety of atheists by establishment. They are
satisfied to seek in the clemency of practised murderers the security of their lives. They are pleased to confide their property to the safeguard of those who
are robbers by inclination, interest, habit, and system.
If this be our deliberate mind, truly we deserve to
lose, what it is impossible we should long retain, the
name of a nation.
