Selected Speeches on British Foreign Policy 1738-1914 | Page 8

to Dantzic, as specified in what he called his
reason for taking possession of part of Poland with his military forces.
It would certainly militate against the first rules of a sound policy, as

well as the duties incumbent on us for the preservation of tranquillity in
our State, if in such a state of things in a neighbouring great kingdom,
we remained inactive spectators, and should wait for the period when
the faction feel themselves strong enough to appear in public; by which
our own neighbouring provinces would be exposed to several dangers,
by the consequences of the anarchy on our frontiers.
We have, therefore, in conjunction with Her Majesty the Empress of
Russia, and with the assent of His Majesty the Roman Emperor,
acknowledged that the safety of our States did require, to set to the
Republic of Poland such boundaries which are more compatible with
her interior strength and situation; and to facilitate her the means of
procuring without prejudice of her liberty, a well-ordained and active
form of government, of maintaining herself in the undisturbed
enjoyment of the same, and preventing, by these means, the
disturbances which have so often shaken her own tranquillity, and
endangered the safety of her neighbours.
In order to attain this end, and to preserve the Republic of Poland from
the dreadful consequences which must be the result of her internal
division, and to rescue her from her utter ruin, but chiefly to withdraw
her inhabitants from the horrors of the destructive doctrine which they
are but too prone to follow, there is, according to our thorough
persuasion, to which also Her Majesty the Empress of all the Russias
accedes in the most perfect congruity with our intentions and principles,
no other means, except to incorporate her frontier provinces into our
States, and for this purpose immediately to take possession of the same,
and to prevent, in time, all misfortunes which might arise from the
continuance of the reciprocal disturbances.
Wherefore, we have resolved, with the assent of Her Russian Majesty,
to take possession of the above-mentioned districts of Poland, and also
of the cities of Dantzic and Thorn, to the end of incorporating them to
our State.
We herewith publicly announce our firm and unshaken resolution, and
expect that the Polish nation will very soon assemble in the Diet, and
adopt the necessary measures, to the end of settling things in an

amicable manner, and of obtaining the salutary result of securing to the
republic of Poland an undisturbed peace, and preserving her inhabitants
from the terrible consequences of anarchy. At the time we exhort the
states and inhabitants of the districts and towns which we have taken
possession of, as already mentioned, both in a gracious and serious
manner, not to oppose our commanders and troops, ordered for that
purpose, but rather tractably to submit to our government, and
acknowledge us from this day forward, as their lawful King and
Sovereign, to behave like loyal and obedient subjects, and to renounce
all connexion with the Crown of Poland.
Now, after this, Mr. Sheridan said, he wished to know whether any
robbery that had been committed by the most desperate of the French,
or whether any of their acts, were more infamous than this? Of what
consequence was it to any man, whether he was plundered by a man
with a white feather in his hat, or by one with a nightcap on his head? If
there could be any difference, the solemnity with which the thing was
done was an aggravation of the insult. The poorer sort of the French
could plead distress, and could also say that they had endured the
hardships, the toils, and the perils of a winter campaign. But here was
nothing but a naked robbery, without any part taken in the calamity
which gave birth to it. He had alluded to these things merely for the
purpose of giving the Minister an opportunity of disapproving of them:
he hoped he should not hear the principle avowed. Crowned heads, he
thought, were at present led by some fatal infatuation to degrade
themselves and injure mankind. But some, it seems, regard any atrocity
in monarchs as if it had lost its nature by not being committed by low
and vulgar agents. A head with a crown, and a head with a nightcap,
totally altered the moral quality of actions--robbery was no longer
robbery--and death, inflicted by a hand wielding a pike, or swaying a
sceptre, was branded as murder, or regarded as innocent. This was a
fatal principle to mankind, and monstrous in the extreme. He had
lamented early the change of political sentiments in this country which
indisposed Englishmen to the cause of liberty. The worst part of the
revolution in France is, that they have disgraced