elf--what the Addington
administration were doing, and others condemning their line of policy.
Conspicuous among those who condemned their measures was Windham, who
said that the preliminaries were disgraceful, and that war was to be
preferred to a peace bought on such conditions. This debate continued
after the Christmas recess, up to the 13th of May, when the last
struggle took place on the subject. In the upper house the opponents of
the treaty were headed by Lord Grenville, who made the cession of Malta
the principal point of his attack. It was absurd, he said, to place that
island under the guarantee of six powers, who could not be expected to
agree on any one point relating to it; and it was still more absurd to
restore it to the Knights of St. John, whose funds had been confiscated,
and whose existence thereby might be said to be ended. In adverting to
other parts of the treaty he observed, that our rights in India had
not been recognised, and that the Cape of Good Hope, a most important
station to the maintenance of British sovereignty, was given up. Lord
Grenville concluded his strictures with proposing an address to the
throne, recommending every practicable economy, but such as would still
leave the country in a state of proper defence for the suppression of
any danger; acknowledging that the national faith was pledged to the
observance of the treaty, but pointing out the danger to which this
country was exposed on account of the great sacrifices she had made
without any adequate compensation on the part of France; and finally
praying his majesty to endeavour to arrange speedily, by amicable
adjustment, those various points which were left unsettled by the
definitive treaty of Amiens. His lordship was ably supported by some
who entertained Pitt's general views and others of his own party; but a
counter address, moved by Lord Pelham, was carried without a division.
A counterpart to Lord Grenville's motion was made in the lower house
on the same day, by Windham, who, in a speech of three hours, bitterly
condemned the treaty. In the course of his speech he remarked:--"It
is impossible to have seen, without the utmost anxiety and alarm, the
unexampled circumstances that have attended the final conclusion of the
present peace; the extensive and important sacrifices which, without any
corresponding-concession, this treaty had added to those already made
by the preliminary articles; the unlooked-for and immense access