12 July 1803 Picture of the Treasury Peltiers Trial p. xxi Edit.

1803

Character of Buonaparte. Extracted from M r

Pitts speech, delivered in the House of Commons, Feb ry 3 d

1800, on the proposals of Buonaparte for entering

into a Negotiation with England.

. . . Let us determine what reliance we can place on his engagements with

other countries, when we see how he has observed his engagements to his own

H xxxviii

Character of Buonaparte. Extracted from the Appendix to M r Windham's speech, delivered in the House of Commons, on the 4 th of Nov r 1801, on

the Report of an address to the Throne, approving of the Preliminaries of

Peace with the Republic of France —

. . . A detailed & most masterly exposition of these is to be found

in M r Pitt's speech of the 3 Feb y 1800, in which among other particulars, an

account is given of his proceedings toward the people and governments of

the several states of Milan, Modena, Genoa, Tuscany, the Pope, Venice,

& Egypt. Of all these things it may be said generally, & as

it should seem without exception, — such was purposely the profusion

of engagements, & such the uniform and systematic breach of them,

— that not a single act was done, which was not in violation of

some engagement, & certainly not a single engagement contracted, or

profession made, that was not, in every part of it, grossly and in most

cases instantly violated. The french rulers, have, throughout, evidently

acted upon the principle, that he who could divest himself at once of all

moral feeling, and himself from all moral

controull

controul, must for the time have an immense advantage over those

who should remain under the old constraints, and who might not be sensible

immediately of the change which had taken place, or, when they were, might

be long incapable either of adopting it into their own conduct, or of so

unseating their antient feelings and

habits (the habit for instance of relying in some degree on men's

apearances, yielding something to their professions, believing in

part what they should solemnly assert), as to make themselves proof against

its effects. Nobody has entered more fully into their views, or pursued

them logically

, than the person of whom we are here speaking.

H p. xliii

The detail of this would then, that mere change of time and place made us

change in the character of the person, or of the system pursued. It appears by

all, that good faith passed for nothing: that deceptions

the most gross, artifices unheard of in diplomatic proceedings, even

practiced without shame or scruple. When a party was once engaged in a

negotiation, & placed in a situation in which he

could no longer help himself, it was in vain to expect that any regard

would be paid to the professions in which the negotiation began, or to

declarations which occurred in the course of it. Any old engagement was set

aside, or any new one foisted in, as suited the wishes, original or

incidental, which France happened to entertain.

H. p. xlvi

Such is the deplorable laxness of mankind, such the abject

hommage which men are willing to pay to crimes attended with

success, to wickedness united with power, that none of the acts committed

at any time by the agents of the French government, seem at all to have

hurt their reception in the world, either collectively or individually.

Their oppressions & cruelties excite no indignation; their low and

scandalous frauds no contempt; their treacheries no distrust. —