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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 744: DEBATES ON THE TREATIES.
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

DEBATES ON THE TREATIES.

On the 9th of February Mr. Brougham moved for a copy of the treaty concluded at Paris, and designated by the title of “the Holy Alliance.” By this document, the three potentates by whom it was signed—the sovereigns of Austria, Russia, and Prussia—declared their resolution to take for their guide the precepts of the Christian religion, both in their domestic administration and foreign relations. Mr. Brougham observed, that there was something so singular in the wording of this document as to warrant jealousy of their designs. He could not imagine that it referred to objects merely spiritual, for the partition of Poland had been prefaced by similar language, and the proclamation of the Empress Catherine, which concluded that fatal tragedy, was couched in nearly the same terms. Lord Castlereagh vindicated the motives of the confederated sovereigns, and stated that the prince regent—whose accession to this alliance was prevented by the forms of the British constitution—expressed his satisfaction in its tendency. He opposed the production of the document, because it was contrary to the practice of parliament to call for copies of treaties to which this country was no party.