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A. D. 1802.

YEAR OF GEORGE III. 42 & 43.

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PARLIAMENT 6 & 1.

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Articles of the Treaty of Amiens. - Buonaparte declared President of the Cisalpine Republic. Annexations of France. - Parliament. - Mr. Abbott elected Speaker. - Civil List Debts provided for. - Claim of the Prince of Wales on the Revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall: Debates on the Subject. The Budget. Debates on the Conditions of Peace. - New Militia Bill. Parliament dissolved. -Proceedings of the French at St. Domingo. Fate of Toussaint. Guadaloupe reduced, and the Slave Trade re-established. Tunis awed by a French Fleet. Concordant between France and the Pope. -Decree of Amnesty to Emigrants. Buonaparte declared Consul for Life, with Liberty to nominate a Successor. Disturbances in Switzerland. Interference of the French.-Legion of Honour instituted in France. New Constitution. Piedmont annexed to France. German Indemnities settled. Osnaburg united to Hanover. The Property of the Knights of Malta in Spain annexed to the Royal Domains. Insurrections of the Blacks in the West Indies. Indications of a Renewal of Hostilities. Despard's Conspiracy against the Government.

Meeting of the new Parliament. King's Speech.

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THE definitive treaty of peace between the French republic, the King of Spain, and the Batavian republic, on the one part, and the King of Great Britain and Ireland, on the other, was signed at Amiens on the 27th of March. By its conditions, Great Britain restored to the three powers all its conquests during the war, with the exception of the Islands of Trinidad and Ceylon, which were respectively ceded to it in full property by Spain and Batavia. All the territories of the Queen of Portugal were secured to her as before the war, except that a new limit was drawn between French and Portuguese Guiana. The territories of the Sublime

Porte were maintained in their integrity. The republic of the Seven Islands was recognized. Malta and its dependent islands were restored to the order of St. John of Jerusalem, under the following conditions: the knights to be invited to return to Malta and there elect a grand master; no individual belonging to England or France to be admitted into the order; a Maltese langue to be established, for admission into which proofs of nobility shall not be requisite; half of the civil and judicial employments depending on the government, to be filled by inhabitants of the islands; the British troops to evacuate Malta within three months or sooner from the exchange of the ratifications, when it is to be given up to the order, provided the 2000 Sicilian troops be arrived to garrison it, which the King of Naples is to be invited to send, and which troops are to continue for a year, or longer, if the Maltese be not competent at that period to garrison it themselves; the independence and neutrality of Malta to be proclaimed, and the former to be guaranteed by Great Britain, France, Austria, Spain, Russia, and Prussia, the four latter powers being invited to accede to the stipulations; the ports to be open to the vessels of all nations, excepting those of the Barbary powers. The French agreed to evacuate Naples and the Roman States; and the British, Porto Ferrajo and all the ports and islands possessed by them in the Mediterranean and the Adriatic. The Newfoundland fisheries were placed on the same footing as previously to the war. The loss of property of the branch of the house of Nassau formerly established in the United Provinces was to be compensated by an equivalent. Such were the leading and peculiar articles of the peace of Amiens.

Before the signature of this treaty, the French government had put in execution their second project, which related to the Cisalpine republic. Early in January, Buonaparte went to Lyons, where he was received in great state, and held a consulta with the Cisalpine deputies. A report was drawn up by a com

mittee of these persons, the tenor of which was to prove the necessity of committing the sole management of their affairs to the first consul. Accordingly he was requested to accept the office of president of the republic, with which he did not hesitate to comply; and the articles of a constitution for the state were read over and approved. One of the observations contained in the report of the committee was that "the Cisalpine republic cannot yet be entirely evacuated by French troops, many political reasons not permitting it." The result of the whole proceeding was that this independent republic became an appendage to France, or rather, to the power of Buonaparte. Further annexations to France which were made known before the definitive treaty, were those of Louisiana, and of the isle of Elba and the duchy of Parma, all of which were stipulated in a private treaty with the court of Spain.

Parliament having, after several adjournments, assembled on January 19th, the ministers were questioned in each house respecting the sailing of the Brest fleet, when they defended the permission they had given, by the assurance received from the French government that nothing hostile was intended on its part, and by the precautions they had adopted against any possible ill consequence.

The Speaker of the House of Commons having vacated his chair by accepting the office of lord chancellor of Ireland, a new election took place on February 10th, when the choice fell upon the Honourable Charles Abbot, secretary to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland.

A motion was made on February 17th by the chancellor of the exchequer for a select committee to examine into the arrears of the civil list, respecting which a message had been received from the King; on which occasion Mr. Sutton, solicitor-general to the Prince of Wales, called the attention of the house to the arrears due to his Royal Highness from the revenue of the duchy of Cornwall, which he stated to be his undoubted

and inalienable right. After some conversation on the subject, it was agreed that a committee should be appointed to take this claim into consideration. On March 29th the subject of the debt on the civil list being brought before both Houses, an address to his Majesty was moved in each, expressing their readiness to afford the relief desired by the message. Debates ensued, in which amendments were proposed, signifying an intention to enquire into the causes of the debt, and of the great excess of the expenditure above the allowed income, but these were negatived by large majorities. A sum was then voted for making good the deficiencies, amounting to near a million. Two days after, Mr. Sutton introduced his promised motion concerning the claim of the Prince of Wales upon the revenue of the duchy of Cornwall; and after having given a historical statement of the manner in which this duchy had been vested in the Prince of Wales, and the mode in which former Princes had enjoyed it, he moved for a select committee to enquire into the application of the revenues of Cornwall during the minority of his Royal Highness; as also respecting the several sums which have been voted by parliament for the discharge of the Prince's debts. When this question had been first moved, Mr. Sutton had stated that during the minority of the Prince of Wales the arrears of the duchy amounted to 900,000%. and that 221,000l. having at different times been voted by parliament for his Royal Highness, there remained a balance in his favour of 679,000l. To bring him in, therefore, a creditor for such a sum upon the King or the public, was so eligible a mode of liberating him from pecuniary embarrassments, that his friends were naturally zealous in establishing his claim. The chancellor of the exchequer, in reply to some strong assertions of the Prince's right in this case, observed, that were it admitted in its fullest extent, it by no means followed that the expences of his maintenance and education during his minority should not be defrayed out of that fund, but should be entirely borne by the civil list. But his chief objection to the motion was that its object was

first to decide the legal right, which he thought that House was not competent to do, and afterwards to order an account. He should therefore move the order of the day. Mr. Fox, on the other hand, maintained the opinion, that the Prince of Wales had a right to be maintained and educated by his father as heir apparent to the crown, and that the same full account ought to be given of the revenues of Cornwall, as had been done of those of the bishopric of Osnaburg, when the Duke of York came of age. After much discussion of the subject by the law officers of the crown on one side, and the friends of the Prince on the other, the order of the day was carried by 160 to 103, leaving a majority of 57 against entering into the Prince's claims.

The budget for the year was brought forward by the minister on April 5th, when he announced his intention of abolishing the income tax, and funding the sum with which it was charged, amounting to nearly fifty-six millions and a half. The total sum to be funded was nearly ninety-eight millions, the interest of which amounted to 3,211,2021. to be provided for by new taxes. A loan of 25 millions was also a part of the budget. The national debt was stated at 500 millions. The resolutions upon the budget were agreed to without a division.

On May 13th the long expected debate respecting the definitive treaty of peace took place in both Houses. In the House of Lords it was opened by Lord Grenville. He began his objections to the treaty by observing, that in all negotiations for peace the basis had been the status ante bellum, or the uti possidetis, but in the present, these had been blended in such a manner that the first principle was applied to England, who was to give up to France all she had taken, and the latter to France who was to retain all she had acquired. With respect to Malta, he said nothing could be more absurd than placing it under the guaranty of six powers who could never be brought to agree in any one point concerning it; and as to restoring it to the order, that was an additional absurdity, since almost all the funds ne

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