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INTERESTS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 467when they should behold a National Convention in England,formed upon similar principles." 1After this, the frequently contested question, who was theoriginator of the 2war, requires no further investigation.Even if France had not first declared it,she would notwithstanding have been the aggressor for this charge attaches;3to those who desire war without provocation. Thus thenEngland enrolled herself amongst the belligerent powers.It is necessary to cast a glance at her position at that timewith regard to the continent.Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, and some of the German states,and soon after the whole empire, were already, at thisperiod, in a state of war with France. It was easy at thesame time to foresee that other states would take up arms,partly in self-defence, partly, as was the case with Spain,from indignationat the execution of the king. But at thiscritical juncture, the system of standing armies had beencarried on by the principal states of the continent to a degreewhich was no longer consistent with their resources. Thesescarcely sufficed to keep the great mass of stipendiary forcesfrom mutiny. The extraordinary expenses of the war exceeded the resources of the states, and rendered it impossibleto employ the whole force which they had under arms.England, in respect to naval power, might with good reasoncalculate upon vanquishing and possibly annihilating thefleets of France ;and thus pave the way for the conquest ofher colonies. But, however alluring these prospects mightbe, she could not flatter herself with the hope of thus bringing the war to a termination. Those conquests, however wellthey might have succeeded, could only,as Pitt himself expresses 4 it,have a collateral influence. France at that period,besides having been already by her own fault deprived of hermost valuable colony, St. Domingo, did not attach so muchimportance to the rest, as would have been the case in earlier1Pitfs Speeches, in", p. 97-2 A work, expressly on. this subject, appeared from the pen of an Englishman, Herbert Marsh, upon the causes of the war between England andPrance. Leipsig. 1?96.3 "Which Jjarty,whether the Girondists, as is asserted, or the violent Jacobin party, made the declaration of war, is of no importance in the solutionof this question. And can it be supposed that the last were deterred by anyother motive than because the time did not seem opportune ?*Speeches, L c.2 H 2