“The decided opposition which your Lordship has uniformly shown to the war with France, from its unhappy commencement in 1793 to the present time, and the great and patriotic effects which you have repeatedly made to terminate so disastrous a contest, induce me to intrude upon you with a short publication, in reply to such part of Earl Grey’s speech in the House of Lords, on the 18th June last, as relates to the subject of peace.
“Your Lordship will readily believe that it is not
without great regret that I have undertaken thus publicly to controvert the
opinions of one whom I so highly respect as Earl
Grey, and that in this instance I fully participate in the
feelings expressed by your Lordship on the debate; but I know your Lordship
would be the last man to suppose that any motives of this
| 492 | LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. |
“At the time the debate took place, I had collected together a few tracts which I had published at different times, from the year 1793, on the subject of the war, and reprinted them in one octavo volume, which was just ready for publication, when the unexpected avowal of Lord Grey’s sentiments, including the express assent of Lord Grey in favour of the prosecution of an indefinite war, deprived me of the hope of producing the slightest effect upon the public by any arguments which had been before advanced. I therefore thought it incumbent on me to obviate, as far as was in my power, any thing that might appear like new reasons for the continuance of hostilities; and if in this I have not been able to succeed, I am well convinced it is not because of the validity of such reasons, but of the inability of their opposer.”
