on any grounds short of entire and complete security against the greatest danger which has ever yet threatened the world; that from perseverance in our efforts under such circumstances we have the fairest reason to expect the full attainment of that object; but that at all events, even if we are disappointed in our more sanguine hopes, we are more likely to gain than to lose by the continuation of the contest; that every month to which it is continued, even if it should not in its effects lead to the final destruction of the Jacobin system, must tend so far to weaken and exhaust it 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: Rédacteur 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'.]
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