HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. GEORGE III. BOOK XIX. Debates in Parliament, 1793. Correspondence with M. Chauvelin laid before the two Houses. Message from the King accompanying the Papers. Proceedings on the Motion for an Address to the Throne. Speeches of Mr. Pitt, Mr. Whitbread and Mr. Fox. Address carried. Second Message from the King, announcing the French Declaration of War. Address moved by Mr. Pitt. Amendment proposed by Mr. Fox-Opposed by Mr. Burke-Supported by Mr. Sheridan. Amend ment negatived by the House. Debates in the House of Peers. Resolutions moved by Mr. Fox. Address moved by Mr. Grey. Remarkable Motion of Mr. Sheridan. Traitorous Correspond ence Bill. Adjournment of Parliament. State of Affairs on the Continent. General Dumouriez enters Holland. Breda surrenders-also Klundert and Gertruydenburg. Resolute Defence of Williamstadt. Successes of General Clairfait and the Prince of Cobourg. Siege of Maestricht raised. French VOL. IX. B BOOK evacuate Holland. Retreat of the French from the Maese. Battle of Neerwinden. Defection of Dumouriez. Capture of the French Commissioners. Judicious Manifesto of the Prince of Cobourg. His Plan of Policy superseded. Dangerous Situation of France. Elation of the Court of London. Sanguinary Memorial of Lord Aukland. The Doctrines of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance preached before the House of Peers by Bishop Horsley. Heroic Exertions and Death of General Dampierre. Duke of York Commander in Chief of the English and auxiliary Troops on the Continent. Military Transactions in concert with the Prince of Cobourg. Siege and Capture of Valenciennes-also of Condé, Mentz, and Quesnoy. Fatal Separation of the Duke of York from the Austrians. Brilliant Action at Lincelles. Duke of York forms the Siege of Dunkirk. Ineffectual Overture of France for Peace. Treaty with Sardinia. Unparalleled Number of Bankruptcies in London. Commercial Credit restored. Parliamentary Investigation of Lord Aukland's Memorial. Charter of the EastIndia Company prolonged. Motion for a Reform in the Representation by Mr. Grey. Parliament prorogued. Affairs of Ireland. Concessions made to the Catholics-Opposed by the Lord-Chancellor Fitzgibbon. Extraordinary Prosecutions for Sedition in Scotland. Tyrannical Sentence of Transportation passed on Muir, Gerald, Skirving, Margarot, and Palmer. French rise EN MASSE. Duke of York totally defeated at Dunkirk. Barbarous Executions of the Generals Houchard and Custine. Prince of Cobourg compelled to repass the Sambre. Werwick, Menin, and Furnes, captured by the French. Operations on the Rhine. Retreat of the Austrian and Prussian Armies. Siege of Landau raised. Rebellion in La Vendée suppressed. Naval Armament_returns to Portsmouth. Proceedings of the Convention. Bold Machinations of the Jacobines. Revolutionary Tribunal established Fall of the Brissotines. Internal Commotions in France. Toulon surrendered in trust to the English. Siege of Lyons. Barbarities committed by the Jacobines. Toulon evacuated by the English. Trial and Execution of the Queen of Franceand of the Deputies of the Gironde. Savage Proceedings of the Revolutionary Tribunal. Ascendency of Robespierre. Extravagant Conduct of the Convention. New Calendar established. Reign of Terror. Naval Transactions. Tobago taken. Forts in St. Domingo captured. Pondicherry, Mahé, and the French Settlements on the Coast of Coromandel, reduced. Neutral Powers insulted by the Court of London. Gross Inconsistency and Duplicity of the English Ministry. Alarming Order of Council—revoked. UPON the very same day that France declared BOOK war against Great Britain, the British parliament XIX. Debates in ence with order M. Chauve And lin laid before the two houses. was engaged in discussing a message from the 1793. king, stating, "That his majesty had caused to parliament. be laid before them copies of several papers which had passed between M. Chauvelin and Correspond the minister for foreign affairs, and of the of departure transmitted to M. Chauvelin. his majesty moreover declared, that in the present situation of affairs he thought it indispensable to make a further augmentation of his forces by sea and land, for maintaining the rights of his own dominions, for supporting his allies, and for opposing views of aggrandisement and ambition on the part of France, at all times dangerous to the interests of Europe, but peculiarly so when connected with the propagation of prin B 2 XIX. BOOK ciples subversive of the peace and order of all civil society." 1793. On this occasion Mr. Pitt, who had now resumed his seat in parliament, made an eloquent harangue, evidently calculated to prepare the minds of his auditors for war, and to inflame the passions of the house to the highest pitch. Adverting, at the commencement of his speech, to the melancholy catastrophe which had just taken place in France, he represented it in terms of the most high-flown rhetorical exaggeration, "as an event so full of grief and horror, that he wished it were possible to tear it from their memories, and expunge it from the page of history; -but that event was unfortunately passed, and the present age must be for ever contaminated with the guilt and ignominy of having witnessed it. In this dreadful transaction they saw concentrated the effect of those principles, pushed to their utmost extent, which set out with dissolving all the bonds by which society was held together-principles established in opposition to every law human and divine, and which, presumptuously relying on the authority of wild and delusive theories, rejected all the advantages of the wisdom and experience of former ages, and even the sacred instructions of Revelation." After indulging himself long in this sort of de |