Corsica was in danger.

We had taken that island for ourselves, annexed it formally to the crown of Great Britain, and given it a constitution as free as our own.

This was done with the consent of the majority of the inhabitants; and no transaction between two countries was ever more fairly or legitimately conducted: yet our conduct was unwise;--the island is large enough to form an independent state, and such we should have made it, under our protection, as long as protection might be needed; the Corsicans would then have felt as a nation; but when one party had given up the country to England, the natural consequence was that the other looked to France.

The question proposed to the people was, to which would they belong?
Our language and our religion were against us; our unaccommodating manners, it is to be feared, still more so.

The French were better politicians.