and foothing to the moral fentiments. In contemplating that change, humanity has every thing to rejoice and to glory in; nothing to be afhamed of, nothing to fuffer. So far as it has gone, it probably is the most pure and defecated public good which ever has been conferred on mankind. We have feen anarchy and fervitude at once removed; a throne ftrengthened for the protection of the people, without trenching on their liberties; all foreign cabal banifhed, by changing the Crown from elective to hereditary; and what was a matter of pleafing wonder, we have feen a reigning King, from an heroic love to his country, exerting himself with all the toil, the dexterity, the management, the intrigue, in favour of a family of strangers, with which ambitious men labour for the aggrandifement of their own. Ten millions of men in a way of being freed gradually, and therefore fafely to themfelves and the state, not from civil or political chains, which, bad as they are, only fetter the mind, but from substantial perfonal bondage. Inhabitants of cities, before without privileges, placed in the confideration which belongs to that improved and connecting fituation of focial life. One of the most proud, numerous, and fierce bodies of nobility and gentry ever known in the world, arranged only in the foremost rank of free and generous citizens. Not one man incurred lofs, or fuffered degradation. All, from the King to the day-labourer, were improved in their condition. Every thing was kept in its place and order; but in that place and order every thing was bettered. To add to this happy wonder (this unheard-of conjunction of wisdom and fortune) not one drop of blood was fpilled; no treachery; no outrage; no fyftem of flander more cruel than the fword; no ftudied infults on religion, morals, or manners; no fpoil; no confifcation; no citizen beggared; none imprisoned; none exiled: the whole was effected with a policy, a difcretion, an unanimity and fecrecy, fuch as have never been before known on any occafion; but fuch wonderful conduct was referved for this glorious confpiracy in favour of the true and genuine rights and interefts of men. Happy people, if they know to proceed as they have begun! Happy Prince, worthy to begin with fplendor, or to close with glory, a race of patriots and of Kings: and to leave A name, which every wind to heav'n would bear, To finish all-this great good, as in the inftant it is, contains in it the feeds of all farther improvement; and may be confidered as in a regular progrefs, becaufe founded on fimilar principles, towards the ftable excellence of a British Conftitution. Here was a matter for congratulation and for feftive remembrance through ages. Here moralifts and divines might indeed relax in their temperance to exhilarate their humanity. Such, Mr. Sheridan faid, was the defcription which the right honourable gentleman gave to that revolution; was it to be fuppofed, that he would afterwards fay, that this ought to have been trampled upon and deftroyed, or fhould fuffer fuch an event to happen, and never utter a word upon the subject; he did not think that Monarchs of the present day had fulfilled the promises that fome perfons had made, and which had been expected from them, fo that their names might be handed down to pofterity as a glorious example of integrity and justice! With refpect to the future views of the different powers, they might beft be conjectured by what had already happened. The Emprefs of Ruffia, upon the fincerity of whose motives, and integrity of whofe actions, there could be no doubt, previous to the attack on Poland, among other things in her manifefto, faid by her Minister "From these confiderations, Her Imperial Majefty, my "most gracious mistress, as well to indemnify herself for her "many loffes, as for the future fafety of her Empire and the "Polish dominions, and for the cutting off at once, for ever, "all future disturbances and frequent changes of Government, "has been pleafed now to take under her fway, and to unite "for ever to her Empire, the following tracts of land, with "all their inhabitants." This was the language for which the confederates were to justify perhaps the future taking under their fway, and uniting for ever to their empire, part of the dominions of France.We had heard much of the abominable fyftem of affiliation. adopted by the French; but this was a Ruffian impartial affiliation, and no doubt the confederate powers approved of it.— In like manner will they affiliate all France, if they can. So will they England, when they have it in their power; and he was forry to fay, that if we joined in that infamous confederacy, and the people agreed to it, England would deferve to be fo treated. The Emprefs then proceeded to ftate what she expected for the favour fhe had conferred " "Her Imperial Majefty expects from the gratitude of her new fubjects, that they, being placed by her bounty on an equality with Ruffians, fhall, in return, transfer their love "of their former country to the new one, and live in future "attached to fo great and generous an Empress."— On an equality with Ruffia! This was a glorious equality, liable to be fent to Siberia with other Ruffian flaves. For this mighty favour they were to transfer, as naturally might be expected, the whole love they had for their native country, to Ruffia, their new and happy land-for the fame Minister of this equitable and generous Emprefs proceeded to fay, "I, therefore, now inform every perfon, from the highest "to the loweft, that, within one month, they must take the "oath of allegiance before the witneffes whom I fhall appoint; "and if any of the gentlemen, or other ranks poffeffing real " or immoveable property, regardlefs of their own intereft, "fhould refufe to take the oath prefcribed, three months are "allowed for the fale of their immoveables, and their free departure over the borders; after the expiration of which "term, all their remaining property fhall be confifcated to the "Crown." Really after fuch fpecimens, one would have fuppofed, but for the well-known character of the Council of thefe confederate powers, they were actuated by madnefs, or they would not thus think of infulting the feelings of human nature.But this was not all; mere gratitude was not enough-an oath, it seemed, must be taken, for "The Clergy, both high and low, as paftors of their flocks, are expected to fet the example in taking the oath; "and in the daily fervice in their churches, they must pray "for her Imperial Majefty, for her fucceffor the Great Duke "Paul Petrovitz, and for all the Imperial family, according "to the formula which fhall be given them." Here again there was evidence of a great and good mind, for this pious Emprefs was determined, that perjury fhould be very general in her dominions, and that the example fhould be fet by the Clergy!-Mr. Sheridan then proceeded to take notice of the conduct of the great and good King of Prussia with refpect to Dantzic, as fpecified in what he called his reafon for taking poffeffion of part of Poland with his military forces. "It would certainly militate against the first rules of a found policy, as well as the duties incumbent on us for the pre"fervation of tranquillity in our ftate, if, in fuch a state of "things in a neighbouring great kingdom, we remained in"active spectators, and should wait for the period when the "faction feel themselves ftrong enough to appear in public; by which our own neighbouring provinces would be expofed "to feveral dangers, by the confequences of the anarchy on our frontiers. "We have, therefore, in conjunction with her Majesty "the Empress of Ruffia, and with the affent of His Majesty "the Roman Emperor, acknowledged, that the fafety of our "ftates did require, to set to the Republic of Poland fuch "boundaries which are more compatible with her interior "ftrength and fituation, and to facilitate her the means of 66 procuring without prejudice of her liberty, a well ordained, "and active form of Government, of maintaining herself in "the undisturbed enjoyment of the fame, and preventing by "these means the disturbances which have so often shaken her own tranquillity, and endangered the safety of her neigh"bours. "In order to attain this end, and to preferve the republic of "Poland from the dreadful confequences which must be the "refult of her internal divifion, and to rescue her from her "utter ruin, but chiefly to withdraw her inhabitants from the "horrors of the deftructive doctrine which they are but too prone to follow; there is, according to our thorough per“suasion, to which also her Majefty, the Empress of all the "Ruffias, accedes in the most perfect congruity with our in"tentions and principles, no other means, except to incorporate her frontier provinces into our States, and for this purpose immediately to take poffeffion of the fame, and to "prevent, in time, all misfortunes which might arife from "the continuance of the reciprocal disturbances. "Wherefore, we have refolved, with the affent of her "Ruffian Majefty, to take poffeffion of the above-mentioned "diftricts of Poland, and also of the cities of Dantzic and "Thorn, to the end of incorporating them to our State. "We herewith publicly announce our firm and unshaken "refolution, and expect that the Polish nation will very soon "affemble in the Diet, and adopt the neceffary measures to "the end of fettling things in an amicable manner, and of "obtaining the falutary end of fecuring to the republic of "Poland an undisturbed peace, and preferving her inhabi"tants from the terrible confequences of anarchy. At the "fame time we exhort the States and inhabitants of the di"ftricts and towns which we have taken poffeffion of, as already mentioned, both in a gracious and ferious manner, "not to oppose our commanders and troops, ordered for that "purpose, but rather tractably to fubmit to our Government, " and acknowledge us from this day forward, as their lawful 66 King and Sovereign, to behave like loyal and obedient "fubjects, and to renounce all connection with the Crown of "Poland." Now, after this, Mr. Sheridan faid, he wished to know whether any robbery that had been committed by the most defperate of the French, or whether any of their acts, were more infamous than this? Of what confequence was it to any man whether he was plundered by a man with a white feather in his hat, or by one with a nightcap on his head? He said, that if there could be any difference, the folemnity with which the thing was done was an aggravation of the infult. The poorer fort of the French could plead distress, and could also say that they had endured the hardships, the toils, and the perils of a winter campaign. But here was nothing but a naked robbery, without any part taken in the calamity which gave birth to it. He had alluded to these things merely for the purpose of giving the Minister an opportunity of difapproving of them: he hoped he fhould not hear the principle avowed. Crowned heads, he thought, were at prefent led by fome fatal infatuation to degrade themselves and injure mankind. But fome, it seems, regard any atrocity in monarchs, as if it had loft its nature by not being committed by low and vulgar agents. A head with a crown, and a head with a nightcap, totally altered the moral quality of actions — robbery was no longer robbery -- and death, inflicted by a head wielding a pike or fwaying a scepter, was branded as murder or regarded as innocent. This was a fatal principle to mankind, and monftrous in the extreme. He had lamented early the change of political fentiments in this country which indifpofed Englishmen to the cause of liberty. The worst part of the Revolution in France is, that they have disgraced the cause they pretended to fupport: however, none, he was perfuaded, would deny that it was highly expedient to know the extent of our alliance with powers who had acted fo recently in the manner he had reprefented, and to have the object of our purfuit in this war diftinétly known. The Minifter may perhaps in future come down to the Houfe and fay he is forry, but it has become highly neceffary to interfere with the power of Britain farther, as the crowned ladies and genVOL. XXXV, |