as to give us at least a greater comparative security in any other termination of the war; that on all these grounds this is not the moment at which it is consistent with our interest or our duty to listen to any proposals of negotiation with the present ruler of France; but that we are not therefore pledged to any unalterable determination as to our future conduct; that in this we must be regulated by the course of events; and that it will be the duty of His Majesty’s Ministers from time to time to adapt their measures to any variation of circumstances, to consider how far the effects of the military operations of the allies, or of the internal disposition of France, correspond with our present expectations; and, on a view of the whole, to compare the difficulties or risks which may arise in the prosecution of the contest, with the prospect of ultimate success, or of the degree of advantage which may be derived from its farther continuance, and to be governed by the result of all these considerations in the opinion and advice which they may offer to their Sovereign.

[Footnote 1:  Mr. Erskine.]

[Footnote 2:  Mr. Dundas.]

[Footnote 3:  Sweden and Denmark.]

[Footnote 4:  Vide Decree of December 15, 1792.]

[Footnote 5:  Vide Speeches at the Whig Club.]

[Footnote 6:  Vide Speech of Boulay de la Meurthe, in the Council of Five Hundred, at St. Cloud, 18th Brumaire (9th November), 1799.]

[Footnote 7:  Mr. Canning.]

[Footnote 8:  Redacteur Officiel, June 30, 1797.]

[Footnote 9:  Vide account of this transaction in the Proclamation of the Senate of Venice, April 12, 1798.]

[Footnote 10:  Vide ’Intercepted Letters from Egypt’.]

[Footnote 11:  Vide ’Intercepted Letters from Egypt’.]

GEORGE CANNING

APRIL 30, 1823

NEGOTIATIONS RELATIVE TO SPAIN

I am exceedingly sorry, Mr. Speaker, to stand in the way of any honourable gentleman who wishes to address the House on this important occasion.  But, considering the length of time which the debate has already occupied, considering the late hour to which we have now arrived on the third night of discussion, I fear that my own strength, as well as that of the House, would be exhausted, if I were longer to delay the explanations which it is my duty to offer, of the conduct which His Majesty’s Government have pursued, and of the principles by which they have been guided, through a course of negotiations as full of difficulty as any that have ever occupied the attention of a Ministry, or the consideration of Parliament.