people connected with tillage; if you go out of tillage, what will you do with that population? Will you, with the opposers of this measure, consign that people to famine and to tumult, or, with the supporters of the measure, hand them over to plenty and to peace? Again, in addition to these reflections, will you consider, that the question before you is not merely a ineans of subsistence, but a measure of empire; England clothes Ireland, Ireland feeds England; and both live with one another, and by one another; the two nations are bound together by law; but there is something stronger than law; they are grappled together by the iron fangs of necessity, and not only legally united, but physically identified; and this is the very soul of your connection. In the relationship of these two countries, mutual want is public concord; that intercourse which makes them physically dependant on one another, makes them physically independent of their enemies, and thus forms the strength of your empire as well as its abundance.

Sir, I am for this resolution; I am for it, because it is decisive, not ambiguous; because 80s. is a preference which the farmer will understand; do not send him to your averages; for, while you perplex the farmer with your calculations, the plan is at a stand. Sir, I am for the measure, because it gives strength to your funds, credit to your landed interest, identification to the people of the respective countries, and physical independence on the foreigner. I am for it, because it is an increase of your ways and means; because it promises plenty, where, alone, it can be relied on; namely, in your homemarket, and, with that plenty, cheapness, but that cheapness which is steady and pays your farmer, while it feeds your manufacturer, instead of that extravagant fluctuation which alternately ruins both; and I am for this measure, because it secures us against the policy suggested by its opponents, and reducible to three monstrous propositions; an abandonment of tillage; a relinquishment of your power to supply your own consumption; and a dependance on foreign markets for bread.

The committee divided. For bringing up the report 235, against it 38; majority 197.

Founded on these resolutions, a bill was brought in, which after much opposition was carried and passed into a law, by which the protecting duty against foreign importation of wheat was fixed at 80s. a quarter; and proportionable duties on other species of grain.

BUONAPARTE.-WAR WITH FRANCE.

LORD JOHN CAVENDISH MOVES AN AMENDMENT TO THE ADDRESS IN ANSWER TO THE MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCE REGENT.

May 25. 1815.

AFTER the campaign of 1814, and the battle of Paris on the 30th of March, that city was taken possession of by the British and the allied troops. Buonaparte retired to Fontainbleau, and on the 11th of April signed his act of abdication, in which he declared that, as the allied powers decided that he was the only obstacle to the restoration of peace in Europe, he renounced for himself and his heirs, the thrones of France and of Italy. A treaty was at the same time concluded between him and the allied powers, by which the island of Elba was chosen for the place of his residence, with an annual revenue of two millions of francs, to be paid him by France; the flag and territory of Elba to be respected as a separate principality, and a body of four hundred officers and soldiers allowed to be selected by him, and retained as his guard. The observation of the island was entrusted to the care of the British, and being negligently watched, Napoleon was enabled to communicate with his partizans in France and Italy; and on the 25th of February, 1815, he left the island with a thousand men, and landed on the 1st of March, at Cannes, in the south of France. He passed without opposition through Grenoble to Lyons, the armies of Louis XVIII. deserting to him, and on the 20th of March, he arrived at Paris, having in twenty days effected a march of two hundred and forty French leagues. The King of France retired to Ghent. Buonaparte organized his armies; and, by the 1st of June, had on foot an effective force of 550,000 men. In the meantime, the allies (Great Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Austria) issued a declaration on the 13th of March, proscribing Buonaparte; and on the 25th concluded a treaty, whereby each of them engaged to keep on foot an army of 150,000 men, and not to lay down their arms until Buonaparte would be disabled from renewing his attempts to obtain the chief power in France.

On the 28th of April, Mr. Whitbread.moved an address to His Royal Highness, to adopt measures to prevent a war with France. The motion was negatived by a large majority. In the meantime, Buonaparte made overtures of a friendly nature to the British court, which were rejected; and on the 22d of May, Lord Castlereagh announced to the House a message from the Prince Regent, as follows:

"GEORGE, P. R.

The Prince Regent, acting in the name and on the behalf of His Majesty, thinks it right to inform the House of Commons, that in consequence of the events which have occurred in France,

in direct contravention of the treaties concluded at Paris in the course of last year, His Royal Highness has judged it necessary to enter into engagements with His Majesty's allies, for the purpose of forming such a concert as present circumstances indispens ably require, and as may prevent the revival of a system, which experience has proved to be incompatible with the peace and independence of the nations of Europe.

"The Prince Regent has directed copies of the treaties which have been concluded to be laid before the House of Commons, and he confidently relies on the support of the House in all measures which it may be necessary for him to adopt, in conjunction with His Majesty's allies, against the common enemy, at this important crisis."

On the 25th, the message was taken into consideration; and Lord Castlereagh moved, "That an humble address be presented to His Royal Highness, to return His Royal Highness the thanks of this House for His most gracious message, by which. His Royal Highness has been pleased to inform us that, in consequence of the events which have occurred in France, in direct contravention of the treaties concluded at Paris in the course of last year, His Royal Highness had judged it necessary to enter into engagements with His Majesty's allies, for the purpose of forming such concert as present circumstances indispensably require, and as may prevent the revival of a system which experience has proved to be incompatible with the peace and independence of the other nations of Europe. To make our acknowledgments to His Royal Highness for having directed copies of the treaties which have been concluded, to be laid before us, and to assure His Royal Highness that he may confidently rely on the ardent support of this House in all measures which it may be necessary for His Royal Highness to adopt, in conjunction with His Majesty's allies, against the common enemy, at this important crisis."

To this address, Lord George Cavendish moved, by way of amendment, to insert after the words, "Royal Highness," the following words, "To express to His Royal Highness, our firm determination to concur in all such measures as may be necessary to enable His Royal Highness to maintain the honour of His Majesty's crown, to provide for the safety and independence of his dominions, and to preserve an intimate concert with the powers of Europe, for the protection of their just rights against all unjust aggression.

"To assure His Royal Highness, that it is at all times our anxious desire to be able to approve and support any treaties into which His Royal Highness may have entered; but that, uninformed as we are, both as to the principles and extent of the stipulations determined upon and signed at the congress at Vienna, we humbly submit to His Royal Highness, that we should not be justified in declaring our approbation of any engagement by which those stipulations are recognized and maintained.

"Further, to represent to His Royal Highness, that to commence a war against France for the avowed object of excluding

an individual from the government of that country, appears to us, under the present circumstances, to be unwise; and, that we cannot, consistently with our duty, approve an engagement, by which His Royal Highness stipulates not to lay down his arms until that purpose be accomplished. A war so undertaken, leaving us no alternative for the re-establishment of peace, but the certain destruction of the government so proscribed, or the disgrace after such an attempt, of submitting to treat with and acknowledge it." Mr. John Smith seconded the amendment.

Mr. GRATTAN spoke as follows:- Sir, I sincerely sympathize with the honourable gentleman who spoke last, in his anxiety on this important question; and my solicitude is increased by a knowledge, that I differ in opinion from my oldest political friends. I have further to contend against the additional weight given to the arguments of the noble lord who moved the amendment, by the purity of his mind, the soundness of his judgment, and the elevation of his rank. I agree with my honourable friends, in thinking that we ought not to impose a government upon France. I agree with them in deprecating the evil of war; but I deprecate still more the double evil of a peace without securities, and a war without allies. Sir, I wish it was a question between peace and war; but unfortunately for the country, very painfully to us, and most injuriously to all ranks of men, peace is not in our option; and the real question is, whether we shall go to war when our allies are assembled, or fight the battle when those allies shall be dissipated?

Sir, the French government is war; it is a stratocracy, elective, aggressive, and predatory; her armies live to fight, and fight to live; their constitution is essentially war, and the object of that war, the conquest of Europe. What such a person as Buonaparte at the head of such a constitution will do, you may judge by what he has done; and, first, he took possession of the greater part of Europe; he made his son King of Rome; he made his son-in-law Viceroy of Italy; he made his brother King of Holland; he made his brother-inlaw King of Naples; he imprisoned the King of Spain; he banished the Regent of Portugal, and formed his plan to take possession of the Crown of England; England had checked his designs; her trident had stirred up his empire from its foundation; he complained of her tyranny at sea; but it was her power at sea which arrested his tyranny at land; the navy of England saved Europe. Knowing this, he knew the conquest of England became necessary for the accomplishment of the conquest of Europe, and the destruction of her marine necessary for the conquest of England. Accordingly, besides raising an army of 60,000 men for the invasion of England,

he applied himself to the destruction of her commerce, the foundation of her naval power. In pursuit of this object, and on his plan of a western empire, he conceived, and in part executed the design of consigning to plunder and destruction the vast regions of Russia; he quits the genial clime of the temperate zone; he bursts through the narrow limits of an immense empire; he abandons comfort and security, and he hurries to the pole, to hazard them all, and with them the companions of his victories, and the fame and fruits of his crimes and his talents, on a speculation of leaving in Europe, throughout the whole of its extent, no one free or independent nation to oppose this huge conception of mischief and despotism, the great potentate of the north, from his gloomy recesses advances to defend, against the voracity of ambition, the sterility of his empire. Ambition is omnivorous, it feasts on famine and sheds tons of blood, that it may starve in ice, in order to commit a robbery on desolation. The power of the north, I say, joins another prince, whom Buonaparte had deprived of almost the whole of his authority, the King of Prussia; and then another potentate, whom Buonaparte had deprived of a principal part of his dominions, the Emperor of Austria. These three powers, physical causes, final justice, the influence of your victories in Spain and Portugal, and the spirit given to Europe by the achievements and renown of your great commander *, together with the precipitation of his own ambition, combine to accomplish his destruction. Buonaparte is conquered; he who said, "I will be like the Most High;" he who smote the nations with a continual stroke; this short-lived son of the morning, Lucifer, falls, and the earth is at rest; the phantom of royalty passes on to nothing, and the three kings to the gates of Paris; there they stand the late victims of his ambition, and now the disposers of his destiny, and the masters of his empire; without provocation he had gone to their countries with fire and sword; with the greatest provocation they come to his country with life and liberty; they do an act unparalleled in the annals of history, such as nor envy, nor time, nor malice, nor prejudice, nor ingratitude can efface; they give to his subjects liberty, and to himself life and royalty. This is greater than conquest! The present race must confess their virtues, and ages to come must crown their monuments, and place them above heroes and kings in glory everlasting.

When Buonaparte states the conditions of the treaty of Fontainbleau are not performed, he forgets one of

* The Duke of Wellington.