JB/116/648/001

Click Here To Edit

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

Character of Buonaparte. Extracted from Mr Pitts speech, delivered in the
House of Commons, Febry 3d 1801 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 Mr Windham's
speech, delivered in the House of Commons, on the 4th of Novr 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 Mr Pitt's speech of the 3 Feby 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 small 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 said 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. —

Identifier: | JB/116/648/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 116.
Date_1	1803-07-18	Marginal Summary Numbering	not numbered
Box	116	Main Headings	panopticon versus new south wales
Folio number	648	Info in main headings field	picture of the treasury
Image	001	Titles
Category	collectanea	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering
Penner	john herbert koe	Watermarks	1800
Marginals	john herbert koe	Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1800
Notes public		ID Number	38181
Box Contents