Thirdly, they tell you what they conceive to be the perfidious policy
which dictates your delusive offer: that is, the design of cheating not
only them, but the people of England, against whose interest and
inclination this war is supposed to be carried on.
If we proceed in this business, under this preliminary declaration, it
seems to me that we admit, (now for the third time,) by something a
great deal stronger than words, the truth of the charges of every kind
which they make upon the British ministry, and the grounds of those foul
imputations. The language used by us, which in other circumstances would
not be exceptionable, in this case tends very strongly to confirm and
realize the suspicion of our enemy: I mean the declaration, that, if we
do not obtain such terms of peace as suits our opinion of what our
interests require, _then_, and in _that_ case, we shall continue the war
with vigor. This offer, so reasoned, plainly implies, that, without it,
our leaders themselves entertain great doubts of the opinion and good
affections of the British people; otherwise there does not appear any
cause why we should proceed, under the scandalous construction of our
enemy, upon the former offer made by Mr. Wickham, and on the new offer
made directly at Paris. It is not, therefore, from a sense of dignity,
but from the danger of radicating that false sentiment in the breasts of
the enemy, that I think, under the auspices of this declaration, we
cannot, with the least hope of a good event, or, indeed, with any
regard to the common safety, proceed in the train of this negotiation.
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