Page:Selected Speeches on British Foreign Policy, 1738-1914 - ed. Jones - 1914.djvu/230

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
218
Sir Robert Peel

not the necessary information to enable him to give a vote upon it. The present agony and crisis of Holland was not the time for calling upon the House for a ratification of this treaty. Let it be remembered, that this vote was for the postponement of the question, and not for its rejection. The course which he, for one, should pursue, should the House determine to ratify this treaty, would be to vote a negative, and leave the responsibility of the transaction upon those who proposed it; but with a solemn protest, on his part, against the unfairness and injustice of the proceeding.