rnal war against royalty.

CHAPTER XX.

{GEORGE III. 1793-1794}

Hostile Message of the King to Parliament..... Declaration
of War by the French, &c..... Pitt's Financial
Statement..... The Traitorous Correspondence Bill.....
Preparations for War..... Relief granted to Mercantile
Men..... Renewal of the East India Company's Charier.....
Relief of the Roman Catholics of Scotland, &c...... Trial
of Warren Hastings..... Discussion on a Memorial
presented to the States-General..... Fox's Motion for Peace
..... Mr. Grey's Measure of Parliamentary Reform.....
Prorogation of Parliament..... Affairs of Ireland.....
Prospects of the French Republic, &c.

{A.D. 1793}

HOSTILE MESSAGE OF THE KING TO PARLIAMENT.

The news of the death of the King of France incited our government to
active measures. On the 27th of December a memorial had been presented
by the French ambassador, M. Chauvelin, to Lord Grenville, demanding to
know whether France ought to consider England as a neutral or hostile
power. In reply Lord Grenville acquainted M. Chauvelin that, as all
official communication had been suspended since the unhappy events of
the 10th of August, he could only be treated with under a form neither
regular nor official. On the 4th of January a letter was received by his
lordship from M. le Brun, minister of foreign affairs, together with a
memorial in the name of the executive council, stating that they desired
peace and harmony, and that they had sent credential letters to M.
Chauvelin, to enable him to treat in the usual diplomatic forms. But
peace and harmony were now out of the question. Three days after
the death of the French monarch M. Chauvelin was ordered to quit the
kingdom, and a war with the republic became no longer a matter of
choice. On the 30th of January, Dundas presented a royal message to the
commons, alluding to the execution of Louis XVI.; importing that his
majesty had given directions for copies of a correspondence, &c,
between the late minister of his most Christian majesty and our foreign
secretary, to be laid before them; and stating the necessity that
existed of a further augmentation of forces by sea and land. The house
took this message into consideration on the 2nd of February, on which
occasion there was an animated debate. Pitt commenced it by describing
the execution of the King of France as an event which o