Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/88

74 It was a curious instance of the uncertainty of political affairs that this pre-eminently Tory Government should have had for its first—and, indeed, its only important—business, the negotiation of peace with France. Fox and his following of Ultra-Liberals had all along clamoured against the war, and had lost no opportunity of pressing for its termination; Grenville and the Whigs had divided their party in order to support Pitt in his warlike policy; and now a Ministry which was too Conservative for either Grenville or Pitt, had to bring the struggle to a close, not by the subjugation of France, not by a suppression of French principles, but by a recognition of, and by many concessions to, that very revolutionary Government against which all the monarchical powers of Europe had vainly directed their attacks. When the Treaty of Amiens was made with the first consul, it was not because he was thought to be what he afterwards proved, the worst enemy of republicanism. He was the bitter foe of England, but all parties in this country believed him to be the representative of the principles which the war had been intended to destroy. Pitt must have found some consolation for the loss of place and power in the fact that he had not to be the instrument through which the humiliation of treating with Napoleon had to be effected. Yet every one knew that the war could not be continued. France had defeated the combined power of Europe, leagued in the endeavour to check the Revolution and restore the Bourbons. She had placed at the head of her Government the commander who had been the instrument not only of her defence, but of her revenge. Grenville and a few of his friends remained on this point more Pittite than Pitt, more Tory than Addington, and would fain have continued the war rather than acknowledge the republic. But continuance was impossible, for we were left without allies and with resources that demanded rest. The national debt had been increased by £276,000,000, and there was no object which a prolongation of the contest could secure. These preliminaries were agreed to on the 1st of October, 1801, and the Peace of Amiens finally concluded on the 27th of March, 1802.