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diff --git a/24980-h/24980-h.htm b/24980-h/24980-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7c4db5c --- /dev/null +++ b/24980-h/24980-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,28978 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of William Pitt and the Great War, by J. Holland Rose. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + a:link { text-decoration: none; color: #0000C8; } + a:visited { text-decoration: none; color: #0000C8; } + a:hover { text-decoration: underline; } + a:active { text-decoration: underline; } + + body { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; } + + h1,h2 { text-align: center; clear: both; } + + h1 { line-height: 2em; margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 2em; } + + h2 { margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 2em; } + + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 3em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + img { border: 1px solid black; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 0;} + img.plain { border: none; } + + p { line-height: 1.4em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + font-weight: normal; + text-align: justify; + } + + table { margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } + + + .big { font-size: 140%; } + + .blockquot { margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; } + div.blockquot p {line-height: 1.2em; } + + .caption { margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 2em; font-variant: small-caps; } + + .center { text-align: center; } + + .figcenter { margin: auto; text-align: center; } + + .footnotes { border: dashed 1px; margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 3em; } + .footnote { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 90%; } + .footnote .label { position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right; } + .fnanchor { font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; letter-spacing: 0ex; } + + span.greek { border-bottom: 1px dashed #999; } + + div.index { font-size: 90%; } + ul.IX { list-style-type: none; font-size: inherit; } + .IX li { margin-top: 0; } + + .ins { text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 1px dashed #0000C8; } + + .invisible { visibility: hidden; } + + :lang(el) { font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; } + :lang(fr) { font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; } + :lang(la) { font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; } + + .letter { text-align: right; margin-right: 10%; } + + .nowrap { white-space: nowrap; } + + .pagenum { position: absolute; right: 3%; font-size: small; + font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-align: right; + text-indent: 0em; + } + + .poem { margin-left: 30%; text-align: left; } + .poem span.i2 { display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } + .poem span.i4 { display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } + .poem span.i8 { display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } + .poem span.i10 { display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } + .poem span.i14 { display: block; margin-left: 14em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } + + .ppnote { background-color: #EEE; color: #000; padding: 10px; + font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 90%; border: thin solid #999; + margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 6em; margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; + } + + .quote { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: left; } + + .right { text-align: right; } + + .small { font-size: 60%; } + + .smcap { font-variant: small-caps; } + + .spaced { letter-spacing: 0.2em; } + .nospace { letter-spacing: 0em; } + + .title { margin-top: 3em; text-align: center; font-weight: bold; } + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's William Pitt and the Great War, by John Holland Rose + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: William Pitt and the Great War + +Author: John Holland Rose + +Release Date: April 3, 2008 [EBook #24980] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM PITT AND THE GREAT WAR *** + + + + +Produced by Paul Murray, Wolfgang Menges and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="ppnote"> +<p style="font-weight: bold">Transcriber's Notes:</p> +<p>The corrections listed in the "ERRATA" paragraph have been made.</p> +<p>Further changes in the text are marked with a <span class="ins" title="like this">dashed blue line</span>; the original text is displayed when the mouse cursor hovers over it.</p> +<p>Greek words are marked with a <span class="greek" title="like this">dashed gray line</span>; a transcription is displayed.</p> +</div> + + +<div> +<a name="image01" id="image01"></a> +</div> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/image01.jpg" width="300" height="400" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">William Pitt, in later life. (From a painting by Hoppner in the National Portrait Gallery)</span> +</div> + + +<h1><span class="big">WILLIAM PITT</span><br /> + +<span class="small">AND</span><br /> + +THE GREAT WAR</h1> + +<p class="center">BY</p> + +<p class="center big">J. HOLLAND ROSE, <span class="smcap">Litt.D.</span></p> + +<p class="quote" style="margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 6em">England and France have held in their hands the fate of the +world, especially that of European civilization. How much harm we have done one another: how much good we might have done!—<i>Napoleon to Colonel Wilks, 20th April 1816</i>.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 106px"> +<img class="plain" src="images/image02.png" width="106" height="129" alt="Emblem" title="Emblem" /> +</div> + + +<p class="center" style="margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 1em"> +LONDON<br /> +G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.<br /> +1911</p> + +<p class="center small" style="margin-top;3em; margin-bottom: 6em">CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.<br /> +TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.</p> + + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> +<p class="title">PREFACE</p> + +<p>In the former volume, entitled "William Pitt and +National Revival," I sought to trace the career of +Pitt the Younger up to the year 1791. Until then he +was occupied almost entirely with attempts to repair the +evils arising out of the old order of things. Retrenchment +and Reform were his first watchwords; and though +in the year 1785 he failed in his efforts to renovate the +life of Parliament and to improve the fiscal relations with +Ireland, yet his domestic policy in the main achieved a +surprising success. Scarcely less eminent, though far +less known, were his services in the sphere of diplomacy. +In the year 1783, when he became First Lord of the +Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, nearly half +of the British Empire was torn away, and the remainder +seemed to be at the mercy of the allied Houses of +Bourbon. France, enjoying the alliance of Spain and +Austria and the diplomatic wooings of Catharine II and +Frederick the Great, gave the law to Europe.</p> + +<p>By the year 1790 all had changed. In 1787 Pitt supported +Frederick William II of Prussia in overthrowing +French supremacy in the Dutch Netherlands; and a +year later he framed with those two States an alliance +which not only dictated terms to Austria at the Congress +of Reichenbach but also compelled her to forego her far-reaching +schemes on the lower Danube, and to restore +the <span lang="la">status quo</span> in Central Europe and in her Belgian +provinces. British policy triumphed over that of Spain +in the Nootka Sound dispute of the year 1790, thereby<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span> +securing for the Empire the coast of what is now British +Columbia; it also saved Sweden from a position of acute +danger; and Pitt cherished the hope of forming a league +of the smaller States, including the Dutch Republic, +Denmark, Sweden, Poland, and, if possible, Turkey, +which, with support from Great Britain and Prussia, +would withstand the almost revolutionary schemes of +the Russian and Austrian Courts.</p> + +<p>These larger aims were unattainable. The duplicity +of the Court of Berlin, the triumphs of the Russian arms +on the Danube, and changes in the general diplomatic +situation, enabled Catharine II to foil the efforts of Pitt +in 1791. She worked her will on the Turks and not long +after on the Poles; Sweden came to an understanding +with her; and Prussia, slighting the British alliance, drew +near to the new Hapsburg Sovereign, Leopold II. In +fact, the events of the French Revolution in the year +1791 served to focus attention more and more upon Paris; +and monarchs who had thought of little but the conquest +or partition of weaker States now talked of a crusade to +restore order at Paris, with Gustavus III of Sweden as +the new Cœur de Lion. This occidentation of diplomacy +became pronounced at the time of the attempted escape +of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to the eastern +frontier at Midsummer 1791. Their capture at Varennes +and their ignominious return to Paris are in several respects +the central event of the French Revolution. The +incident aroused both democrats and royalists to a fury +which foredoomed to failure all attempts at compromise +between the old order and the new. The fierceness of +the strife in France incited monarchists in all lands to +importunate demands for the extirpation of "the French +plague"; and hence were set in motion forces which Pitt +vainly strove to curb. War soon broke out in Central +Europe. His endeavours to localize it were fruitless; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span> +thenceforth his chief task was to bring to an honourable +close a conflict which he had not sought. It is therefore +fitting that this study of the latter, less felicitous, but +equally glorious part of his career should begin with a +survey of the situation in Great Britain and on the Continent +at the time of the incident at Varennes which +opened a new chapter in the history of Europe.</p> + +<p>In the present volume I have sought to narrate faithfully +and as fully as is possible the story of the dispute +with France, the chief episodes of the war, and the varied +influences which it exerted upon political developments +in these islands, including the early Radical movement, +the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and other events which +brought about the Union of the British and Irish Parliaments, +the break up of the great national party at Westminster +in 1801, and the collapse of the strength of Pitt +early in the course of the struggle with the concentrated +might of Napoleon.</p> + +<p>That mighty drama dwarfs the actors. Even the +French Emperor could not sustain the rôle which he +aspired to play, and, failing to discern the signs of the +times, was whirled aside by the forces which he claimed +to control. Is it surprising that Pitt, more slightly endowed +by nature, and beset by the many limitations +which hampered the advisers of George III, should have +sunk beneath burdens such as no other English statesman +has been called upon to bear? The success or failure +of such a career is, however, to be measured by the final +success or failure of his policy; and in this respect, as I +have shown, the victor in the Great War was not +Napoleon but Pitt.</p> + +<p>To that high enterprise he consecrated all the powers +of his being. His public life is everything; his private +life, unfortunately, counts for little. The materials for +reconstructing it are meagre. I have been able here and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span> +there to throw new light on his friendships, difficulties, +trials, and, in particular, on the love episode of the year +1797. But in the main the story of the life of Pitt must +soar high above the club and the <span lang="fr">salon</span> to</p> + +<p class="poem"> +... the toppling heights of Duty scaled. +</p> + +<p>Again I must express my hearty thanks to those who +have generously placed at my disposal new materials of +great value, especially to His Grace the Duke of Portland, +the Earl of Harrowby, Earl Stanhope, E. G. Pretyman, +Esq., M.P., and A. M. Broadley, Esq.; also to the +Rev. William Hunt, D.Litt., and Colonel E. M. Lloyd, +late R.E., for valuable advice tendered during the correction +of the proofs, and to Mr. Hubert Hall of H.M. Public +Record Office for assistance during my researches there. +I am also indebted to Lord Auckland and to Messrs. +Longmans for permission to reproduce the miniature of +the Hon. Miss Eden which appeared in Lord Ashbourne's +"Pitt, Some Chapters of his Life and Times," and to +Mr. and Mrs. Doulton for permission to my daughter +to make the sketch of Bowling Green House, the last +residence of Pitt, which is reproduced near the end of +this volume. In the preface to the former volume I expressed +my acknowledgements to recent works bearing +on this subject; and I need only add that numerous new +letters of George III, Pitt, Grenville, Burke, Canning, +etc., which could only be referred to here, will be published +in a work entitled "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies," +including also essays and notes.</p> + +<p class="letter">J. H. R.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">March 1911.</span></p> + + + +<hr /> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p> +<p class="title">CONTENTS</p> + + +<table border="0" width="60%" cellspacing="2" style="margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 15%" summary="Contents"> +<thead class="smcap" style="font-size: smaller"> + <tr> + <td align="right">chapter</td> + <td> </td><td align="right">page</td> + </tr> +</thead> +<tbody class="smcap spaced"> +<tr><td align="right">I.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">Royalists and Radicals</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">1</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">II.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">Before the Storm</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">29</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">III.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">Peace or War?</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">57</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">IV.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">The Rupture with France</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">85</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">V.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">The Flemish Campaign (1793)</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">118</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VI.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">Toulon</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">143</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VII.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">The British Jacobins</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">164</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VIII.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">Pitt and the Allies (1794–5)</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">195</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">IX.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">The West Indies</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">219</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">X.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">Spain and Hayti</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">230</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XI.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">The Cape of Good Hope: Corsica: Quiberon</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">250</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XII.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">Pitt as War Minister (1793–8)</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">265</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XIII.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">Dearth and Discontent</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">282</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XIV.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">The Years of Strain (1796–7)</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">299</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XV.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">National Revival</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">321</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XVI.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">The Irish Rebellion</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">339</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XVII.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">The Second Coalition</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">365</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XVIII.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">The Union</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">389</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XIX.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">The Union (continued)</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">411</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XX.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">Resignation</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">431</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXI.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">Pitt and his Friends (1794–1805)</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">454</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXII.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">Addington or Pitt?</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">483</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXIII.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">Pitt and Napoleon</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">505</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXIV.</td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">The Last Struggle</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">534</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"> </td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#EPILOGUE">Epilogue</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">559</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"> </td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#STATISTICS">Statistics of the years 1792–1801</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">571</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"> </td><td class="nowrap"><a href="#INDEX">Index</a></td><td class="nospace" align="right">573</td></tr> +</tbody> +</table> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span></p> +<p class="title">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 20%"> +<p><a href="#image01"><span class="smcap">William Pitt, in later life.</span> (From a painting by Hoppner in the National Portrait Gallery)</a></p> +<p><a href="#image03"><span class="smcap">Seat of war in Flanders.</span></a></p> +<p><a href="#image04"><span class="smcap">The Siege of Toulon.</span> (By Emmanuel Toulougeon, Paris)</a></p> +<p><a href="#image05"><span class="smcap">The House of Commons in 1793.</span> (From a painting in the National Portrait Gallery by K. A. Hickel)</a></p> +<p><a href="#image06"><span class="smcap">The Hon. Eleanor Eden.</span> (From a miniature)</a></p> +<p><a href="#image07"><span class="smcap">Henry Dundas, First Viscount Melville.</span> (From a painting by Sir T. Lawrence)</a></p> +<p><a href="#image08"><span class="smcap">Bowling Green House, Putney Heath.</span> (From a pencil sketch by Elsie H. Rose)</a></p> +</div> + + +<p class="title">ERRATA</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 20%"> +<p>Page <a href="#Page_180">180</a>,<span lang="la">ad fin.</span>, <i>for</i> "Hamilton, Rowan" <i>read</i> "Hamilton Rowan."</p> +<p><span class="invisible">Page </span><a href="#Page_311">311</a>, line 1, <i>for</i> "formerly" <i>read</i> "brother of."</p> +<p><span class="invisible">Page </span><a href="#Page_311">311</a>, line 2, <i>for</i> "Lord Hood" <i>read</i> "Sir Alexander Hood."</p> +<p><span class="invisible">Page </span><a href="#Page_551">551</a>, line 11 from end, <i>for</i> "6th" <i>read</i> "4th."</p> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span></p> +<p class="title">ABBREVIATIONS OF THE TITLES OF THE CHIEF WORKS REFERRED TO IN THIS VOLUME</p> + +<table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="1" summary="Abbreviations"> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Ann. Reg.</span></td><td>"Annual Register."</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Ashbourne</span></td><td>"Pitt: some Chapters of his Life and Times," by the Rt. Hon. Lord Ashbourne. 1898.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Auckland Journals</span></td><td>"The Journal and Corresp. of William, Lord Auckland." 4 vols. 1861.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Beaufort P.</span></td><td>MSS. of the Duke of Beaufort," etc. (Hist. MSS. Comm.). 1891.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">B.M. Add. MSS.</span></td><td>Additional Manuscripts of the British Museum.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Buckingham P.</span></td><td>"Mems. of the Court and Cabinets of George III," by the Duke of Buckingham. 2 vols. 1853.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Campbell</span></td><td>"Lives of the Lord Chancellors," by Lord Campbell. 8 vols. 1845–69.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Castlereagh Corresp.</span></td><td>"Mems. and Corresp. of Viscount Castlereagh." 8 vols. 1848–53.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Chevening MSS.</span></td><td>Manuscripts of Earl Stanhope, preserved at Chevening.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Cunningham</span></td><td>"Growth of Eng. Industry and Commerce (Modern Times)," by Dr. W. Cunningham. 1892.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Dropmore P.</span></td><td>"The Manuscripts of J. B. Fortescue, Esq., preserved at Dropmore" (Hist. MSS. Comm.). 7 vols. 1892–1910.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Fortescue</span></td><td>"The History of the British Army," by the Hon. J. W. Fortescue. vol. iv.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Häusser</span></td><td>"Deutsche Geschichte (1786–1804)," by L. Häusser. 4 vols. 1861–3.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Holland</span></td><td>"Memoirs of the Whig Party," by Lord Holland. 2 vols. 1852.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Jesse</span></td><td>"Mems. of the Life and Reign of George III," by J. H. Jesse. 3 vols. 1867.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Lecky</span></td><td>"Hist. of England in the Eighteenth Century," by W. E. H. Lecky. 8 vols. Fifth edit. 1891–1904.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Malmesbury Diaries</span></td><td>"Diaries and Corresp. of the First Earl of Malmesbury." 4 vols. 1844.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span><span class="smcap">Parl. Hist.</span></td><td>"History of the Parliamentary Debates" (after 1804 continued in Hansard).</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Pellew</span></td><td>"Life and Corresp. of the first Viscount Sidmouth," by Rev. C. Pellew. 3 vols. 1847.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Pitt MSS.</span></td><td>Pitt MSS., preserved at H.M. Public Record Office.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Porritt</span></td><td>"The Unreformed House of Commons," by E. Porritt, 2 vols. 1909.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Pretyman MSS.</span></td><td>MSS. of E. G. Pretyman, Esq., M.P., preserved at Orwell Park.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Rose G., "Diaries"</span></td><td>"Diaries and Corresp. of Rt. Hon. G. Rose." 2 vols. 1860.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Rose, "Napoleon"</span></td><td>"Life of Napoleon," by J. H. Rose. 2 vols. 1909.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Rose, "Third Coalition"</span></td><td>"Select Despatches ... relating to the Formation of the Third Coalition (1804–5)," ed. by J. H. Rose (Royal Historical Soc., 1904).</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Rutland P.</span></td><td>"MSS. of the Duke of Rutland" (Hist. MSS. Comm.). 3 vols. 1894.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Ruville</span></td><td>"William Pitt, Earl of Chatham," by A. von Ruville (Eng. transl.). 3 vols. 1907.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Sorel</span></td><td>"L'Europe et la Révolution française," par A. Sorel. Pts. II, III. 1889, 1897.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Stanhope</span></td><td>"Life of ... William Pitt," by Earl Stanhope. 4 vols. 3rd edition. 1867.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Sybel</span></td><td>"Geschichte der Revolutionzeit (1789–1800)," von H. von Sybel. Eng. translation. 4 vols. 1867–9.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Vivenot</span></td><td>"Quellen zur Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserpolitik Œsterreichs ..." von A. von Vivenot. 1873.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Wraxall</span></td><td>"Memoirs of Sir N. W. Wraxall" (1772–84), edited by H. B. Wheatley. 5 vols. 1884.</td></tr> +</table> + +<hr style="margin-top: 6em; margin-bottom: 3em" /> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p><p class="title spaced">WILLIAM PITT AND THE GREAT WAR</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + + +<p class="title spaced">ROYALISTS AND RADICALS<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> +<div class="quote"> +<p><span lang="fr" style="font-style: normal">Détruire l'anarchie française, c'est se préparer une gloire immortelle.</span>—<span class="smcap">Catharine II</span>, 1791.</p> +<p>The pretended Rights of Man, which have made this havoc, cannot be the +rights of the people. For to be a people and to have these rights are incompatible. +The one supposes the presence, the other the absence, of a +state of civil society.—<span class="smcap">Burke</span>, <i>Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs</i>.</p> + +<p>A constitution is the property of a nation and not of those who exercise +the Government.—<span class="smcap">T. Paine</span>, <i>Rights of Man</i>, part ii.</p> +</div> + + +<p>In the midst of a maze of events there may sometimes be +found one which serves as a clue, revealing hidden paths, +connecting ways which seem far apart, and leading to a clear +issue. Such was the attempted flight of Louis XVI and Marie +Antoinette to the eastern frontier of France at midsummer 1791, +which may be termed the central event of the French Revolution, +at least in its first phases. The aim of joining the armed +bands of <span lang="fr">émigrés</span> and the forces held in readiness by Austria was +so obvious as to dispel the myth of "a patriot King" misled for +a time by evil counsellors. True, the moderates, from sheer alarm, +still sought to save the monarchy, and for a time with surprising +success. But bolder men, possessed both of insight and humour, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>perceived the futility of all such efforts to hold down on the throne +the father of his people lest he should again run away. In this +perception the young Republican party found its genesis and its +inspiration. In truth, the attempted flight of the King was a +death-blow to the moderate party, into which the lamented +leader, Mirabeau, had sought to infuse some of his masterful +energy. Thenceforth, the future belonged either to the Jacobins +or to the out and out royalists.</p> + +<p>These last saw the horizon brighten in the East. Louis XVI +being under constraint in Paris, their leaders were the French +Princes, the Comte de Provence (afterwards Louis XVIII) and +the Comte d'Artois (Charles X). Around them at Coblentz +there clustered angry swarms of French nobles, gentlemen, and +orthodox priests, whose zeal was reckoned by the earliness of +the date at which they had "emigrated." For many months the +agents of these <span lang="fr">émigrés</span> had vainly urged the Chanceries of the +Continent to a royalist crusade against the French rebels; and +it seemed appropriate that Gustavus III of Sweden should be +their only convert. Now of a sudden their demands appeared, +instinct with statecraft; and courtiers everywhere exclaimed +that "the French pest" must be stamped out. In that thought +lay in germ a quarter of a century of war.</p> + +<p>Already the Prussian and Austrian Governments had vaguely +discussed the need of a joint intervention in France. In fact this +subject formed one of the pretexts for the missions of the Prussian +envoy, Bischoffswerder, to the Emperor Leopold in February +and June 1791.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> As was shown at the close of the former +volume, "William Pitt and National Revival," neither Court took +the matter seriously, the Eastern Question being then their chief +concern. But the flight to Varennes, which Leopold had helped to +arrange, imposed on him the duty of avenging the ensuing insults +to his sister. He prepared to do so with a degree of caution +highly characteristic of him. He refused to move until he knew +the disposition of the Powers, especially of England. From Padua, +where the news of the capture of Louis at Varennes reached him, +he wrote an autograph letter to George III, dated 6th July, urging +him to join in a general demand for the liberation of the King +and Queen of France. He also invited the monarchs of Europe +to launch a Declaration, that they regarded the cause of Louis +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>as their own, and in the last resort to put down a usurpation of +power which it behoved all Governments to repress.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>The reply of George, dated St. James's, 23rd July, bears +the imprint of the cool and cautious personality of Pitt and +Grenville, who in this matter may be counted as one. The King +avowed his sympathy with the French Royal Family and his +interest in the present proposals, but declared that his attitude +must depend on his relations to other Powers. He therefore +cherished the hope that the Emperor would consult the welfare +of the whole of Europe by aiding in the work of pacification +between Austria and Turkey now proceeding at Sistova. So +soon as those negotiations were completed, he would instruct his +Ministers to consider the best means of cementing a union +between the Allies and the Emperor.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>Leopold must have gnashed his teeth on reading this reply, +which beat him at his own game of <span lang="fr">finesse</span>. He had used the +difficulties of England as a means of escaping from the pledges +plighted at the Conference of Reichenbach in July 1790. Pitt +and Grenville retorted by ironically refusing all help until he fulfilled +those pledges. As we have seen, they succeeded; and the +pacification in the East, as also in Belgium, was the result.</p> + +<p>Equally chilling was the conduct of Pitt towards the <span lang="fr">émigrés</span>. +The French Princes at Coblentz had sent over the former French +Minister, Calonne, "to solicit from His Majesty an assurance of +his neutrality in the event ... of an attempt being made by +the Emperor and other Powers in support of the royal party in +France." Pitt and Grenville refused to receive Calonne, and +sent to the Comte d'Artois a letter expressing sympathy with +the situation of the King and Queen of France, but declining +to give any promise as to the line of conduct which the British +Government might pursue.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>No less vague were the terms in which George III replied to +a letter of the King of Sweden. Gustavus had for some little +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>time been at Aix-la-Chapelle in the hope of leading a royalist +crusade into France as a sequel to the expected escape of +Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. As readers of Carlyle will +remember, the Swedish noble, Count Fersen, chivalrously helped +their flight towards Metz; and deep was the chagrin of Gustavus +and his squire on hearing the news from Varennes. They longed +to strike at once. But how could they strike while Leopold, +Catharine, and Frederick William declared that everything must +depend on the action of England? The following significant +sentence in Fersen's diary shows the feeling prevalent at Brussels, +as elsewhere, respecting England: "We must know if that +Power regards the continuation of anarchy in France as more +advantageous than order."<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Fersen had imbibed this notion at +Brussels from Count Mercy d'Argenteau, the Austrian Minister, +whose letters often harp on this string. Thus on 7th March +1791 he writes: "The worst obstacles for the King of France will +always come from England, which wishes to prolong the horrors +in France and ruin her." A little later he avers that the only +way to save the French monarchy is by a civil war, "and +England (unless won over) will support the popular party."<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>In order to win Pitt over to the cause of neutrality from which +he never intended to swerve, Gustavus and Fersen persuaded an +Englishman named Crawford to proceed to London with letters +for George III and Pitt, dated 22nd July.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> To the King he described +the danger to all Governments which must ensue if the +French revolted with impunity. He therefore begged to know +speedily whether His Majesty would accord full liberty "to the +Princes of Germany and to those, who, owing to the long <span class="ins" title="disance">distance</span>, +can only arrive by sea."<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> Evidently, then, Gustavus feared +lest England might stop the fleet in which he intended to convey +Swedish and Russian troops to the coast of Normandy for a +dash at Paris. The answer of George soothed these fears, and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>that of Pitt, dated August 1791, was a model of courtly complaisance.</p> + +<p>Compared with the shrewd balancings of the Emperor Leopold +and the cold neutrality of Pitt, the policy of Frederick William II +of Prussia seemed for a time to be instinct with generosity. +Despite the fears of his counsellors that a <span lang="fr">rapprochement</span> to +Austria would involve Prussia in the ruin which the friendship +of the Hapsburgs had brought on France, the King turned +eagerly towards Vienna; and on 25th July Kaunitz and +Bischoffswerder signed a preliminary treaty of alliance mutually +guaranteeing their territories, and agreeing to further the aims of +the Emperor respecting France. Frederick William was on fire +for the royalist crusade. He even assured Baron Rolle, the agent +of the French princes, that something would be done in that +season.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> Pitt and Grenville disapproved the action of Prussia +in signing this compact, impairing as it did the validity of the +Anglo-Prussian alliance of the year 1788; but Frederick William +peevishly asserted his right to make what treaties he thought +good, and remarked that he was now quits with England for the +bad turns she had played him.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> On their side, the British Ministers, +by way of marking their disapproval of the warlike +counsels of Berlin and Vienna, decided not to send an envoy to +Pilnitz, the summer abode of the Elector of Saxony, where a conference +was arranged between Leopold and Frederick William.</p> + +<p>As is well known, the Comte d'Artois and Calonne now +cherished lofty hopes of decisive action by all the monarchs +against the French rebels. But Leopold, with his usual caution, +repelled alike the solicitations of Artois and the warlike counsels +of Frederick William, the result of their deliberations being the +famous Declaration of Pilnitz (27th August). In it they expressed +the hope that all the sovereigns of Europe</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>will not refuse to employ, in conjunction with their said Majesties, +the most efficient means in proportion to their resources, to place the +King of France in a position to establish with the most absolute freedom, +the foundations of a monarchical form of government, which shall +at once be in harmony with the rights of sovereigns and promote the +welfare of the French nation. In that case [<span lang="fr">alors et dans ce cas</span>] their +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>said Majesties, the Emperor and the King of Prussia, are resolved to +act promptly and in common accord with the forces necessary to attain +the desired common end.</p> +</div> + + +<p>Obviously, the gist of the whole Declaration lay in the words +<span lang="fr">alors et dans ce cas</span>. If they be emphasized, they destroy the +force of the document; for a union of all the monarchs was an +impossibility, it being well known that England would not, and +Sardinia, and Naples (probably also Spain) could not, take up +arms. In fact, on that very evening Leopold wrote to Kaunitz +that he had not in the least committed himself.—"<span lang="fr">Alors et dans +ce cas</span> is with me the law and the prophets. If England fails us, +the case is non-existent." Further, when the Comte d'Artois, +two days later, urged the Emperor to give effect to the Declaration +by ordering his troops to march westwards, he sent a sharp +retort, asserted that he would not go beyond the Declaration, +and forbade the French Princes to do so.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>To the good sense and insight of Grenville and Pitt, the +Pilnitz Declaration was one of the <span lang="fr">comédies augustes</span> of history, +as Mallet du Pan termed it. Grenville saw that Leopold would +stay his hand until England chose to act, meanwhile alleging +her neutrality as an excuse for doing nothing.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> Thus, the resolve +of Catharine to give nothing but fair words being already surmised, +the <span lang="fr">émigrés</span> found to their annoyance that Pitt's passivity +clogged their efforts—the chief reason why they shrilly upbraided +him for his insular egotism. Certainly his attitude was far from +romantic; but surely, after the sharp lesson which he had received +from the House of Commons in the spring of 1791 during the +dispute with Russia, caution was needful; and he probably discerned +a truth hidden from the <span lang="fr">émigrés</span>, that an invasion of France +for the rescue of the King and Queen would seal their doom and +increase the welter in that unhappy land.</p> + +<p>Pitt and Grenville spent the middle of September at Weymouth +in attendance on George III; and we can imagine their +satisfaction at the prospect of universal peace and prosperity. +Pitt consoled himself for the not very creditable end to the +Russian negotiation by reflecting that our revenue was steadily +rising. "We are already £178,000 gainers in this quarter," he +wrote to George Rose on 10th August.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> In fact, the cyclonic +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>disturbances of the past few years now gave place to a lull. +The Russo-Turkish War had virtually ended; Catharine and +Gustavus were on friendly terms; the ferment in the Hapsburg +dominions had died down, except in Brabant; the Poles were +working their new constitution well; and, but for Jacobin propaganda +in Italy and the Rhineland, the outlook was serene.</p> + +<p>At this time, too, there seemed a chance of a reconciliation +between Louis XVI and his people. On 14th September he +accepted the new democratic constitution, a step which filled +France with rejoicing and furnished the desired excuse for Leopold +to remain passive. Kaunitz, who had consistently opposed +intervention in France, now asserted that Louis had voluntarily +accepted the constitution. The action of Louis and Marie +Antoinette was in reality forced. Amidst the Queen's expressions +of contempt for the French Princes at Coblentz, the suppressed +fire of her fury against her captors flashes forth in this +sentence written to Mercy d'Argenteau (28th August)—"The +only question for us is to lull them to sleep and inspire them +with confidence so as to trick them the better afterwards."—And +again (12th September)—"My God! Must I, with this blood +in my veins, pass my days among such beings as these, and in +such an age as this?" Leopold must have known her real feelings; +but he chose to abide by the official language of Louis, and to +advise the Powers to accept the new situation.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> + +<p>This peaceful turn of affairs sorely troubled the French +Princes and Burke. In August and September 1791 his son +Richard was at Coblentz, and informed his father of the consternation +of the <span lang="fr">émigrés</span> on hearing that the Emperor declined +to draw the sword. Burke himself was equally agitated, and on +or about 24th September had a long interview with Pitt and +Grenville, at the house of the latter. We gather from Burke's +"Letters on the Conduct of our Domestic Parties," that it was +the first time he had met Pitt in private; and the meeting must +have been somewhat awkward. After dining, with Grenville as +host, the three men conferred together till eleven o'clock, discussing +the whole situation "very calmly" (says Burke); but +we can fancy the tumult of feelings in the breast of the old man +when he found both Ministers firm as adamant against intervention +in France. "They are certainly right as to their general +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>inclinations," he wrote to his son, "perfectly so, I have not a +shadow of doubt; but at the same time they are cold and dead +as to any attempt whatsoever to give them effect." The heat of +the Irish royalist failed to kindle a spark of feeling in the two +cousins. He found that their "deadness" proceeded from a +rooted distrust of the Emperor Leopold, and from a conviction +that Britain had nothing to fear from Jacobinical propaganda. +Above all they believed that the present was not the time for +action, especially as the imminence of bankruptcy in France +would discredit the new Legislative Assembly, and render an +invasion easier in the near future.</p> + +<p>Are we to infer from this that Pitt and his cousin looked +forward to a time when the monarchs could invade France with +safety? Such an inference would be rash. It is more probable +that they here found an excuse for postponing their decision +and a means of calming an insistent visitor. Certainly they impressed +Burke with a belief in their sincere but secret sympathy +with the royalist cause. The three men also agreed in suspecting +Leopold, though Burke tried to prove that his treachery was not +premeditated, but sprang from "some complexional inconstancy." +Pitt and Grenville, knowing the doggedness with which the +Emperor pushed towards his goal, amidst many a shift and turn, +evidently were not convinced.</p> + +<p>At this time they had special reasons for distrusting Leopold +and his advisers. The Austrian Government had received a +letter, dated Dresden, 27th August (the day of the Declaration +of Pilnitz), stating that England promised to remain neutral +only on condition that the Emperor would not withdraw any +troops from his Belgic lands, as they were needed to uphold the +arrangements of which she was a guarantee. This extraordinary +statement grew out of a remark of Grenville to the Austrian +Ambassador in London, that, in view of the unrest in the +Netherlands, it might be well not to leave them without troops.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> +The mis-statement was not only accepted at Vienna, but was +forwarded to various Courts, the final version being that England +might attack Austria if she withdrew her troops from Flanders, +and that therefore Leopold could not draw the sword against +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>France until his army on the Turkish borders arrived in Swabia. +Some were found who believed this odd <span lang="la">farrago</span>; but those who +watched the calculating balance of Hapsburg policy saw in it +one more excuse for a masterly inactivity.</p> + +<p>Still less were our Ministers inclined to unite with Catharine in +the universal royalist league then under discussion at St. Petersburg. +The Czarina having charged her ambassador, Vorontzoff, +to find out the sentiments of Pitt and Grenville on this subject, +he replied that England would persevere in the strict neutrality +which she had all along observed, "and that, with respect to the +measures of active intervention which other Powers might have +in contemplation, it was His Majesty's determination not to +take any part either in supporting or in opposing them." Now +Russia, like Austria and Spain, had decided not to act unless +England joined the concert;<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> and this waiting on the action of +a Power which had already declared its resolve to do nothing +enables us to test the sincerity of the continental monarchs. +As for the Czarina, her royalist fervour expended itself in deposing +the busts of democrats, in ordering the French Minister to +remain away from Court, and in condemning any Russian who +had dealings with him to be publicly flogged. Moreover, while +thus drilling her own subjects, the quondam friend of Diderot +kept her eyes fixed upon Warsaw. The shrewdest diplomatist +of the age had already divined her aims, which he thus trenchantly +summed up: "The Empress only waits to see Austria +and Prussia committed in France, to overturn everything in +Poland."<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> Kaunitz lived on to see his cynical prophecy fulfilled +to the letter.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>The reader will have noticed with some surprise the statement +of Burke that Pitt and Grenville had not the slightest fear of the +spread of French principles in England. As we know, Burke +vehemently maintained the contrary, averring that the French +plague, unless crushed at Paris, would infect the world. In his +survey of the European States he admitted that we were less +liable to infection than Germany, Holland, and Italy, owing to +the excellence of our constitution; but he feared that our nearness +to France, and our zeal for liberty, would expose us to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>some danger. Why he should have cherished these fears is hard +to say; for to him the French Revolution was "a wild attempt +to methodize anarchy," "a foul, impious, monstrous thing, wholly +out of the course of moral nature."<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> Surely if British and +French principles were so utterly different, we were in no more +danger of infection from the Jacobins than of catching swine +fever.</p> + +<p>This was virtually the view of Pitt and Grenville; for there were +no premonitory symptoms of infection, but much the reverse. +Londoners showed the utmost joy at the first news of the +escape of the King and Queen from Paris, and were equally +depressed by the news from Varennes. As we shall presently +see, it was with shouts of "Long live the King," "Church and +State," "Down with the Dissenters," "No Olivers," "Down with +the Rump," "No false Rights of Man," that the rabble of +Birmingham wrecked and burnt the houses of Dr. Priestley and +other prominent Nonconformists of that town. Only by slow +degrees did this loyal enthusiasm give place to opinions which +in course of time came to be called Radical. It may be well to +trace briefly the fluctuations of public opinion, to which the +career of Pitt stands in vital relation.</p> + +<p>The growth of discontent in Great Britain may be ascribed to +definite evils in the body politic, and it seems to have arisen +only secondarily from French propaganda. The first question +which kindled the fire of resentment was that of the civic and +political disabilities still imposed on Nonconformists by the +Corporation and Test Acts of the reign of Charles II. Pitt's +decision in the session of 1787 to uphold those Acts ensured the +rejection of Beaufoy's motion for their repeal of 176 votes to 98; +but undeterred by his defeat, Beaufoy brought the matter before +the House on 8th May 1789, and, despite the opposition of Pitt, +secured 102 votes against 122. The Prime Minister's chief argument +was that if Dissenters were admitted to civic rights they +might use their power to overthrow the Church Establishment.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> +Clearly the opinion of the House was drifting away from him on +that question; and it is a proof of his growing indifference to +questions of Reform that now, four days after the assembly of the +States-General of France at Versailles, he should have held to +views so repugnant to the spirit of the age.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> +<p>Thenceforth that question could not be debated solely on its +own merits. The attacks made by the French National Assembly +on the Church of France, particularly the confiscation of +its tithes and landed property, soon aroused heated feelings in +this country, though on a subject of a wholly different kind. +The result was that, while Dissenters peacefully agitated for +permission to act as citizens, they were represented as endeavouring +to despoil the Church, after the fashion of Talleyrand +and Mirabeau. A work by a Manchester merchant, Thomas +Walker, reveals the influence of this question on the political +activities of the time. The Nonconformists of that town and +county hoped to gain a majority in next session or in the following +Parliament, while the High Churchmen, to the cry of +"The Church in Danger," declared the two Acts of Charles II to +be the bulwarks of the constitution.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> This cry was everywhere +taken up, with the result that in the Parliament elected in 1790 +the Tories gained ground. Consequently, even the able advocacy +of Fox on behalf of religious liberty failed to save Beaufoy's +motion from a crushing defeat. Pitt spoke against the proposal +and carried the House with him by 294 votes to 105. This vote +illustrates the baleful influence exerted by the French Revolution +on the cause of Reform in these islands.</p> + +<p>A second example soon occurred. Only three days later +Flood brought forward a motion for Parliamentary Reform +which the wildest of alarmists could not call revolutionary. He +proposed to add to the House of Commons one hundred members, +elected by the resident householders of the counties, those +areas being far less corrupt than the towns; and he suggested +that, if the total number of members were deemed excessive, +fifty seats in the smallest boroughs might be declared vacant. +This proposal differed but little from that of Pitt in the session +of 1785, which aimed at disfranchising thirty-six decayed boroughs +and apportioning their seventy-two members to the larger +counties, as also to London and Westminster. In a speech +which might have been made by Pitt in pre-Revolution times +Flood declared that the events in France showed the need of a +timely repair of outworn institutions.</p> + +<p>This was as a red rag to Windham, a prominent recruit from +the Whigs, who now used all the artifices of rhetoric to terrify his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>hearers. He besought them in turn not to repair their house in +the hurricane season, not to imitate the valetudinarian of the +"Spectator," who read medical books until he discovered he had +every symptom of the gout except the pain. These fallacious +similes captivated the squires; and Pitt himself complimented +the orator on his ingenious arguments. For himself, he declared +his desire of Reform to be as zealous as ever; but he +"could see no utility in any gentleman's bringing forward such +a motion as the present at that moment," and feared that the +cause might thereby suffer disgrace and lose ground. Fox, on +the other hand, ridiculed all thought of panic on account of +the French Revolution, but he admitted that the majority both +in Parliament and the nation did not want Reform. Grenville, +Wilberforce, and Burke opposed the motion, while even Duncombe +declined to vote for it at present. It was accordingly +adjourned <span lang="la">sine die</span>.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<p>Disappointment at the course of these debates served to band +Nonconformists and reformers in a close alliance. Hitherto they +had alike supported Pitt and the royal prerogative, especially at +the time of the Regency struggle. In May 1789, when Pitt +opposed the Nonconformist claims, Dr. Priestley wrote that +Fox would regain his popularity with Dissenters, while Pitt +would lose ground.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> Now, when the doors of the franchise and +of civic privilege were fast barred, resentment and indignation +began to arouse the groups of the unprivileged left outside. +The news that Frenchmen had framed a Departmental System, +in which all privileges had vanished, and all men were citizens, +with equal rights in the making of laws and local regulations, +worked potently in England, furthering the growth of an institution +little known in this country, the political club. As the +Jacobins had adapted the English idea of a club to political +uses, so now the early Radicals re-adapted it to English needs. +"The Manchester Constitutional Society"<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> was founded by +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>Walker and others in October 1790, in order to oppose a +"Church and King Club," which High Churchmen had started +in March, after the news of the triumph of their principles in +Parliament. The Manchester reformers struck the key-note of +the coming age by asserting in their programme that in every +community the authority of the governors must be derived +from the consent of the governed, and that the welfare of the +people was the true aim of Government. They further declared +that honours and rewards were due only for services rendered +to the State; that all officials, without exception, were responsible +to the people; that "actions only, not opinions, are the +proper objects of civil jurisdictions"; that no law is fairly made +except by a majority of the people; and that the people of +Great Britain were not fully and fairly represented in Parliament.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> + +<p>The Church and King Club, on the contrary, reprobated all +change in "one of the most beautiful systems of government +that the combined efforts of human wisdom has [<span lang="la">sic</span>] ever yet +been able to accomplish." The issue between the two parties +was thus sharply outlined. The Tories of Manchester gloried +in a state of things which shut out about half of their fellow-citizens +from civic rights and their whole community from any +direct share in the making of laws. In their eyes the Church +and the monarchy were in danger if Nonconformists became +citizens, and if a score of Cornish villages yielded up their legislative +powers to Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, and other hives +of industry.</p> + +<p>Scotland also began to awake. The torpor of that keen and +intellectual people, under a system of misrepresentation which +assigned to them forty-five members and forty-four to Cornwall, +is incomprehensible, unless we may ascribe it to the waning of +all enthusiasm after the "forty-five" and to the supremacy of +material interests so characteristic of the age. In any case, this +political apathy was now to end; and here, too, as in the case +of England, Government applied the spur.</p> + +<p>On 10th May 1791 Sir Gilbert Elliot (afterwards Earl of +Minto) brought forward a motion in Parliament for the repeal +of the Test Act, so far as it concerned Scotland. He voiced a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>petition of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and +declared that the Presbyterians felt the grievance of being excluded +from civic offices unless they perverted. On wider grounds +also he appealed against this petty form of persecution, which +might make men hypocrites but never sincere converts. Henry +Dundas and his nephew, Robert Dundas (Lord Advocate for +Scotland), opposed the motion, mainly because it would infringe +the terms of the Act of Union; but Henry added the +curious argument that, if Scottish Presbyterians were relieved +from the Test Act, then the English Dissenters would have +been "unjustly, harshly, and cruelly used." Pitt avowed himself +"not a violent friend, but a firm and steady friend" of the Test +Act, as being essential to the security of the Church and therefore +of the civil establishment of the country. Accordingly, +Elliot's motion was defeated by 149 votes to 62.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> It is curious +that, a month earlier, the House had agreed to a Bill granting +slightly wider toleration to "Catholic Dissenters."<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> + +<p>While Pitt was thus strengthening the old buttresses of Church +and State, the son of a Quaker had subjected the whole fabric +to a battery of violent rhetoric. It is scarcely too much to call +Thomas Paine the Rousseau of English democracy. For, if his +arguments lacked the novelty of those of the Genevese thinker (and +even they were far from original), they equalled them in effectiveness, +and excelled them in practicability. "The Rights of Man" +(Part I) may be termed an insular version of the "Contrat Social," +with this difference, that the English writer pointed the way to +changes which were far from visionary, while the Genevese seer +outlined a polity fit only for a Swiss canton peopled by philosophers. +Paine had had the advantage of close contact with +men and affairs in both hemispheres. Not even Cobbett, his +literary successor, passed through more varied experiences. Born +in 1737 at Thetford in Norfolk, Paine divided his early life between +stay-making, excise work, the vending of tobacco, and a +seafaring life. His keen eyes, lofty brow, prominent nose, proclaimed +him a thinker and fighter, and therefore, in that age, a +rebel. What more natural than that he, a foe to authority and +hater of oppression, should go to America to help on the cause +of Washington? There at last he discovered his true vocation. +His broadsides struck home. "Rebellious staymaker, unkempt," +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>says Carlyle, "who feels that he, a single needleman, did by his +'Common Sense' pamphlet, free America; that he can, and will +free all this world; perhaps even the other." Tom Paine, indeed, +had the rare gift of voicing tersely and stridently the dumb desires +of the masses. Further, a sojourn in France before and +during the early part of the Revolution enabled him to frame a +crushing retort to Burke's "Reflections." The result was Part I +of the "Rights of Man," which he flung off at the "Angel" in +Islington in February 1791.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> + +<p>The general aims of the pamphlet are now as little open to +question as the famous Declaration which he sought to vindicate. +Paine trenchantly attacked Burke's claim that no people, +not even our own, had an inherent right to choose its own ruler, +and that the Revolution Settlement of 1688 was binding for +ever. Paine, on the contrary, asserted that "every age and +generation must be as free to act for itself <em>in all cases</em> as the +ages and generations that preceded it. The vanity and presumption +of governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous +and insolent of all tyrannies." Further, on the general question +at issue, Paine remarked: "That men should take up arms, and +spend their lives and fortunes, <em>not</em> to maintain their rights, but +to maintain they have <em>not</em> rights, is an entirely new species of +discovery and suited to the paradoxical genius of Mr. Burke." +In reply to the noble passage: "The age of chivalry is gone ...," +Paine shrewdly says: "In the rhapsody of his imagination he +has discovered a world of windmills, and his sorrows are that +there are no Quixotes to attack them."</p> + +<p>After thus exposing the weak points of the royalist case, Paine +proceeded to defend the mob, firstly, because the aristocratic +plots against the French Revolution were really formidable (a +very disputable thesis), and secondly, because the mob in all old +countries is the outcome of their unfair and brutal system of +government. "It is by distortedly exalting some men," he says, +"that others are distortedly debased, till the whole is out of +nature. A vast mass of mankind are degradedly thrown into +the background of the human picture, to bring forward with +greater glare the puppet show of State and aristocracy." Here +was obviously the Junius of democracy, for whom the only +effective answer was the gag and gyve. Indeed, Burke in his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>"Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs" suggested that the +proper refutation was by means of "criminal justice."<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<p>Pitt's opinions at this time on French and English democracy +tend towards a moderate and reforming royalism—witness +his comment on Burke's "Reflections," that the writer would +have done well to extol the English constitution rather than to +attack the French.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> In this remark we may detect his preference +for construction over destruction, for the allaying, rather than the +exciting, of passion. Nevertheless the one-sidedness of the English +constitution made for unrest. So soon as one bold voice +clearly contrasted those defects with the inspiring precepts of +the French Rights of Man, there was an end to political apathy. +A proof of this was furnished by the number of replies called +forth by Burke's "Reflections." They numbered thirty-eight.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> +Apart from that of Paine, the "Vindiciae Gallicae" of Sir +James Mackintosh made the most impression, especially the +last chapter, wherein he declared that the conspiracy of the +monarchs to crush the liberties of France would recoil on their +own heads.</p> + +<p>Fear of the alleged royalist league quickened the sympathy of +Britons with the French reformers; while the sympathy of friends +of order with Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette after the Varennes +incident deepened their apprehension of all change. Thus were +called into play all the feelings which most deeply move mankind—love +of our richly storied past and its embodiment, the English +constitution; while on the other hand no small part of our people +harboured resentment against the narrow franchise and class +legislation at home, and felt a growing fear that the nascent +freedom of Frenchmen might expire under the heel of the +military Powers of Central Europe. Accordingly clubs and +societies grew apace, and many of them helped on the <span class="ins" title="circulalation">circulation</span> +of cheap editions of Paine's pamphlet.</p> + +<p>The result of this clash of opinion was seen in the added +keenness of party strife and in the disturbances of 14th July +1791. The occasion of these last was the celebration by a subscription +dinner of the second anniversary of the fall of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>Bastille. Both at Manchester and Birmingham the announcement +of this insular and inoffensive function aroused strong feelings +either of envy or of opposition. The Tories of Manchester +resolved that, if the local Constitutional Club chose to dine on +that day it should be at their peril. The populace was urged to +pull down the hotel on their heads, "as the brains of every man +who dined there would be much improved by being mingled +with bricks and mortar." Thomas Walker's control of the local +constables sufficed to thwart this pleasantry.</p> + +<p>But on that day the forces of reaction broke loose at Birmingham. +In the Midland capital political feeling ran as high as at +Manchester. The best known of the reformers was Dr. Priestley, +a Unitarian minister, whose researches in physical science had +gained him a world-wide reputation and a fellowship in the +Royal Society. He and many other reformers proposed to feast +in public in honour of the French national festival. Unfortunately, +the annoyance of the loyalists at this proposal was +inflamed by a recent sermon of Priestley on the death of +Dr. Price and by the circulation of a seditious handbill. Dr. Keir, +a Churchman who was to preside at the dinner, did not prove +to the satisfaction of all that this was a trick of the enemy. +Public opinion was also excited by the discovery of the words +"This barn to let" chalked on some of the churches of the +town; and charges were bandied to and fro that this was +the work of the Dissenters, or of the most virulent of their +opponents.</p> + +<p>What is certain is that these <span lang="fr">hors d'œuvres</span> endangered the +rest of the <span lang="fr">menu</span>. The dinner-committee, however, struggled +manfully with their difficulties. They had a Churchman in the +chair, and Priestley was not present. The loyalty of the diners +also received due scenic warrant in the work of a local artist. +The dining-hall of the hotel was "decorated with three emblematical +pieces of sculpture, mixed with painting in a new style +of composition. The central was a finely executed medallion of +His Majesty, surrounded with a Glory, on each side of which +was an alabaster obelisk, one exhibiting Gallic Liberty breaking +the bonds of Despotism, and the other representing British +Liberty in its present enjoyment." The terms in which the +fourteen toasts were proposed breathed of the same flamboyant +loyalty, the only one open to criticism being the following: "The +Prince of Wales! May he have the wisdom to prefer the glory<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +of being the chief of an entire [<span lang="la">sic</span>] free people to that of being +only the splendid fountain of corruption."<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p> + +<p>The dinner passed with only occasional rounds of hissing +from the loyalists outside. But, as the evening wore on and the +speeches inside still continued, the crowd became restive. Stone-throwing +began and was not discouraged by the two magistrates, +the Rev. Dr. Spencer and John Carles, who had now arrived. +In fact, the clergyman with an oath praised a lad who said that +Priestley ought to be ducked; Carles also promised the rabble +drink; and when a local humourist asked for permission to +knock the dust out of Priestley's wig, the champions of order +burst out laughing. A witness at the trial averred that he saw +an attorney, John Brook, go among the mob and point towards +Priestley's chapel. However that may be, the rabble moved off +thither and speedily wrecked it. His residence at Fair Hill was +next demolished, his library and scientific instruments being +burnt or smashed. This was but the prelude to organized attacks +on the houses of the leading Nonconformists, whether they had +been at the dinner or not. The resulting riots soon involved in +ruin a large part of the town. Prominent Churchmen who +sought to end these disgraceful scenes suffered both in person +and property. A word of remonstrance sufficed to turn into +new channels the tide of hatred and greed; for, as happened in +the Gordon riots of 1780, rascality speedily rushed in to seize +the spoils.</p> + +<p>The usually dull archives of the Home Office yield proof of +the terror that reigned in the Midland capital. A Mr. Garbett +wrote to Dundas on 17th July that the wrecking still went on, +that the Nonconformists were in the utmost dread and misery, +and all people looked for help from outside to stay the pillage. +As for himself, though he was not a "marked man," his hand +trembled at the scenes he had witnessed. There can be little +doubt that the magistrates from the first acted with culpable +weakness, as Whitbread proved in the House of Commons, for +they did not enrol special constables until the rioters had got the +upper hand. Dundas, as Home Secretary, seems to have done +his duty. The news of the riot of the 14th reached him at 10 a.m. +on the 15th (Friday); and he at once sent post haste to Nottingham, +ordering the immediate despatch of the 15th Dragoons. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>By dint of a forced march of fifty-six miles the horsemen +reached Birmingham on the evening of that same day (Sunday); +but two days more elapsed before drunken blackmailers ceased +to molest Hagley, Halesowen, and other villages. Few persons +lost their lives, except about a dozen of the pillagers who lay +helpless with drink in the cellars of houses which their more +zealous comrades had given over to the flames.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> + +<p>The verdict of Grenville was as follows: "I do not admire +riots in favour of Government much more than riots against it." +That of his less cautious brother, the Marquis of Buckingham, is +as follows: "I am not sorry for this <em>excess, excessive as it has +been</em>." That of Pitt is not recorded. He did not speak during +the debate on this subject on 21st May 1792; but the rejection +of Whitbread's motion for an inquiry by 189 votes to 46 implies +unanimity on the Ministerial side.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> + +<p>In the winter of 1791–2 various incidents occurred which +further excited public opinion. On 17th February 1792 appeared +the second part of Paine's "Rights of Man." He started +from the assumption that the birth of a democratic State in +America would herald the advent of Revolutions not only in +France, but in all lands; and that British and Hessians would +live to bless the day when they were defeated by the soldiers +of Washington. He then proceeded to arraign all Governments +of the old type, and asserted that constitutions ought to be the +natural outcome of the collective activities of the whole people. +There was nothing mysterious about Government, if Courts had +not hidden away the patent fact that it dealt primarily with the +making and administering of laws. We are apt to be impressed +by these remarks until we contrast them with the majestic +period wherein Burke depicts human society as a venerable and +mysterious whole bequeathed by the wisdom of our forefathers. +An admirer of Burke cannot but quote the passage in full: +"Our political system is placed in a just correspondence and +symmetry with the order of the world, and with the mode of +existence decreed to a permanent body composed of transitory +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>parts; wherein by the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, +moulding together the great mysterious incorporation of the +human race, the whole, at one time, is never old, or middle-aged, +or young, but in a condition of unchangeable constancy, +moves on through the varied tenour of perpetual decay, fall, renovation +and progression. Thus, by preserving the method of +nature in the conduct of the State, in what we improve we are +never wholly new; in what we retain we are never wholly +obsolete."<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> + +<p>This is a majestic conception. But, after all, the practical +question at issue is—how much of the old shall we retain and +how much must be discarded? Unfortunately for himself and his +cause, Burke was now urging his countrymen to support two +military Powers in their effort to compel the French people to +revert to institutions which were alike obsolete and detested. Is +it surprising that Paine, utterly lacking all sense of reverence for +the past, should brand this conduct as treasonable to the imperious +needs of the present? Viewing monarchy as represented +by Versailles or Carlton House, and aristocracy by the intrigues +of Coblentz and the orgies of Brooks's Club, he gave short shrift +to both forms of Government. Monarchy he pronounced more +or less despotic; and under aristocracy (he says) the interests of +the whole body necessarily suffer; democracy alone secures the +rule of the general will; and this can be thoroughly secured only +in a democratic republic. He then attacks the English constitution +as unjust and extravagant, claiming that the formation +of a close alliance between England, France, and America +would enable the expenses of government (Army, Navy, and +Civil List inclusive) to be reduced to a million and a half a year.</p> + +<p>With regard to the means of raising revenue, Paine sketched +a plan of progressive taxation on incomes, ranging from 3d. in +the pound on incomes less than £500 to punitive proportions +after £10,000 was reached; while in his Spartan arithmetic +great wealth appeared so dire a misfortune that he rid the +possessors of the whole of incomes of £23,000 and upwards. As +for Pitt's financial reforms, he laughed them to scorn. He also +accused him of throwing over the fair promises that marked his +early career, of advertising for enemies abroad, while at home +he toadied to the Court. "The defect lies in the system.... +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>Prop it as you please, it continually sinks into Court government, +and ever will." Finally he urged a limitation of armaments, +and prophesied that wars would cease when nations had their +freely elected Conventions. The cynic will remember with satisfaction +that, two months later, began the war between France +and Austria, which developed into the most tremendous series +of wars recorded in history.</p> + +<p>The republican and levelling doctrines frankly advocated in +Paine's second pamphlet made a greater sensation than the first +part had done; and Fox, who approved the former production, +sternly reprobated the latter. It is possible that Government +sought to stop its publication; for Chapman, the publisher, to +whom Paine first applied, offered him £1,000 for the manuscript, +and yet very soon afterwards declared it to be too dangerous for +him to print.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> Certainly the work soon quickened the tone of +political thought. Already the London Society for promoting +Constitutional Information, which had died of inanition in 1784, +had come to life again before the close of the year 1791. And +at the end of that year a determined man, Thomas Hardy, +a poor shoemaker of Westminster, set to work to interest his +comrades in politics. He assembled four men at an ale-house, +and they agreed to take action. At their second meeting, on +25th January 1792, they mustered eight strong, and resolved to +start "The London Corresponding Society for the Reform of +Parliamentary Representation." Its finances were scarcely on a +par with its title: they consisted of eightpence, the first weekly +subscription. But the idea proved infectious; and amidst the +heat engendered by Paine's second pamphlet, the number of +members rose to forty-one.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> The first manifesto of the Society, +dated 2nd April, claimed political liberty as the birthright of +man, declared the British nation to be misrepresented by its Parliament, +and, while repudiating all disorderly methods, demanded +a thorough reform of that body.</p> + +<p>So far as I have been able to discover, this was the first +political club started by English working-men at that time. But +now the men of Sheffield also organized themselves. Their +"Association" began in an assembly of five or six mechanics, +who discussed "the enormous high price of provisions" and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>"the waste and lavish [<span lang="la">sic</span>] of the public property by placemen, +pensioners, luxury and debauchery,—sources of the grievous +burthens under which the nation groans." The practical +character of their lamentations attracted many working men, +with the result that they resolved to reprint and circulate 1,600 +copies of Paine's "Rights of Man" (Part I), at sixpence a copy. +On 15th January 1792 they wrote up to the "London Society +for Constitutional Information" to plan co-operation with them.</p> + +<p>At first the ideas of the Sheffield Association were somewhat +parochial. But the need of common action all over the Kingdom +was taking shape in several minds, and when Scotland awoke +to political activity (as will appear in <a href="#CHAPTER_VII">Chapter VII</a>) the idea +of a General Convention took firm root and led to remarkable +developments. For the present, the chief work of these clubs +was the circulation of Paine's volumes (even in Welsh, Gaelic, +and Erse) at the price of sixpence or even less. They also distributed +"The Catechism of the French Constitution" (of 1791), +drawn up by Christie, a Scot domiciled at Paris, which set forth +the beauties of that child of many hopes. Less objectionable +was a pamphlet—"The Rights of Men and the Duties of Men." +For the most part, however, their literature was acridly republican +in tone and of a levelling tendency. Thus, for the first time +since the brief attempt of the Cromwellian Levellers, the rich +and the poor began to group themselves in hostile camps, at the +strident tones of Paine's cry for a graduated Income Tax. Is it +surprising that the sight of the free institutions of France and of +the forced economy of the Court of the Tuileries should lead our +workers to question the utility of the State-paid debaucheries of +Carlton House, and of the whole system of patronage and pensions? +Burke and Pitt had pruned away a few of the worst excrescences; +but now they saw with dismay the whole of the body +politic subjected to remorseless criticism by those whose duty +was to toil and not to think or question.</p> + +<p>This was a new departure in eighteenth-century England. +Hitherto working men had taken only a fleeting and fitful interest +in politics. How should they do so in days when newspapers +were very dear, and their contents had only the remotest bearing +on the life of the masses? The London mob had bawled and +rioted for "Wilkes and Liberty," but mainly from personal +motives and love of horse-play. Now, however, all was changed; +and artisans were willing to sacrifice their time and their pence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +to learn and teach a political catechism, and spread the writings +of Paine. Consequently the new Radical Clubs differed widely +from the short-lived County Associations of 1780 which charged +a substantial fee for membership. Moreover, these Associations +expired in the years 1783–4, owing to the disgust at Fox's +Coalition with Lord North. We are therefore justified in declaring +that English democracy entered on a new lease of life, +and did not, as has been asserted,<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> merely continue the movement +of 1780. The earlier efforts had been wholly insular in +character; they aimed at staying the tide of corruption; their +methods were in the main academic, and certainly never affected +the great mass of the people. Now reformers were moved by +a wider enthusiasm for the rights of humanity, and sought not +merely to abolish pocket boroughs and sinecures, but to level +up the poor and level down the wealthy. It was this aspect of +Paine's teaching that excited men to a frenzy of reprobation or +of hope.</p> + +<p>A certain continuity of tradition and method is observable in +a club, called The Friends of the People, which was founded at +Freemasons' Tavern in April 1792, with a subscription of five +guineas a year. The members included Cartwright, Erskine, +Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Philip Francis, Charles Grey, Lambton, +the Earl of Lauderdale, Mackintosh, Sheridan, Whitbread, and +some sixty others; but Fox refused to join. Their profession +of faith was more moderate than that of Hardy's Club; it +emphasized the need of avoiding innovation and of restoring +the constitution to its original purity.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> This was in the spirit +of the Associations of 1780; but the new club was far less +characteristic of the times than the clubs of working men described +above.</p> + +<p>The appearance of Paine's "Rights of Man" (Part II), the +founding of these societies, and the outbreak of war between +France and Austria in April 1792 made a deep impression on +Pitt. He opposed a notice of a motion of Reform for the following<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +session, brought forward by Grey on 30th April. While +affirming his continued interest in that subject, Pitt deprecated +its introduction at that time as involving the risk of anarchy.</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>My object [he continued] always has been, and is now more particularly +so, to give permanence to that which we actually enjoy rather than +remove subsisting grievances.... I once thought, and still think, upon +the point of the representation of the Commons, that, if some mode +could be adopted by which the people could have any additional +security for a continuance of the blessings which they now enjoy, it +would be an improvement in the constitution of this country. That was +the extent of my object. Further I never wished to go; and if this can be +obtained without the risk of losing what we have, I should think it wise +to make the experiment. When I say this, it is not because I believe +there is any existing grievance in this country that is felt at this hour.</p> +</div> + + +<p>At the end of the American War (he continued) when bankruptcy +seemed imminent, he believed Reform to be necessary in +order to restore public confidence and remedy certain notorious +grievances. Even then very many moderate men opposed his +efforts as involving danger to the State. How much more would +they deprecate sweeping proposals which rightly aroused general +apprehension? He then censured the action of certain members +of the House in joining an Association (the "Friends of the +People") which was supported by those who aimed at the overthrowing +of hereditary monarchy, titles of nobility, and all ideas +of subordination. He would oppose all proposals for Reform +rather than run the risk of changes so sweeping.—"All, all may +be lost by an indiscreet attempt upon the subject." Clearly, Pitt +was about to join the ranks of the alarmists. But members +generally were of his opinion. In vain did Fox, Erskine, Grey, +and Sheridan deprecate the attempt to confuse moderate Reform +with reckless innovation. Burke illogically but effectively +dragged in the French spectre, and Windham declared that +the public mind here, as in other lands, was in such a state that +the slightest scratch might produce a mortal wound.</p> + +<p>The gulf between Pitt and the reformers now became impassable. +His speech of 10th May against any relaxation of the +penal laws against Unitarians is a curious blend of bigotry +and panic. Eleven days later a stringent proclamation was issued +against all who wrote, printed, and dispersed "divers wicked and +seditious writings." It ordered all magistrates to search out the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +authors and abettors of them, and to take steps for preventing +disorder. It also inculcated "a due submission to the laws, and +a just confidence in the integrity and wisdom of Parliament." +Anything less calculated to beget such a confidence than this +proclamation, threatening alike to reformers and levellers, can +scarcely be conceived. On 25th May Grey opposed it in an +acrid speech; he inveighed against Pitt as an apostate, who +never kept his word, and always intended to delude Parliament +and people. The sting of the speech lay, not in these reckless +charges, but in the citing of Pitt's opinions as expressed in a +resolution passed at the Thatched House Tavern in May 1782, +which declared that without Parliamentary Reform neither the +liberty of the nation nor the permanence of a virtuous administration +was secure. Pitt's reply, however, convinced all those +whose minds were open to conviction. He proved to demonstration +that he had never approved of universal suffrage; yet +that was now the goal aimed at by Paine and the Societies +founded on the basis of the Rights of Man. The speech of +Dundas also showed that the writings of Paine, and the founding +of clubs with those ends in view, had led to the present +action of the Cabinet.</p> + +<p>Undoubtedly those clubs had behaved in a provocative manner. +Apart from their correspondence with the Jacobins Club +(which will be described later), they advocated aims which then +seemed utterly subversive of order. Thus, early in May 1792, +the Sheffield Society declared their object to be "a radical Reform +of the country, as soon as prudence and discretion would permit, +and established on that system which is consistent with +the Rights of Man." Further, the hope is expressed that not +only the neighbouring towns and villages, most of which were +forming similar societies, but also the whole country would be +"united in the same cause, which cannot fail of being the case +wherever the most excellent works of Thomas Paine find reception."<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> + +<p>Now, this banding together of societies and clubs pointed the +way to the forming of a National Convention which would truly +represent the whole nation. In judging the action of Pitt and +his colleagues at this crisis, we must remember that they had +before them the alarming example of the Jacobins Club of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>Paris, which had gained enormous power by its network of +affiliated clubs. This body again was modelled on the various +societies of the Illuminati in Germany, whose organizer, Weishaupt, +summed up his contention in the words: "All their union +shall be carried on by the correspondence and visits of the +brethren. If we can gain but that point, we shall have succeeded +in all we want."<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> This is why the name Corresponding Society +stank in the nostrils of all rulers. It implied a parasitic organization +which, if allowed to grow, would strangle the established +Government. Signs were not wanting that this was the aim of +the new Radical Clubs. Thus the delegates of the United Constitutional +Societies who met at Norwich drew up on 24th +March 1792 resolutions expressing satisfaction at the rapid +growth of those bodies, already numbering some hundreds, +"which by delegates preserve a mutual intercourse." ... "To +Mr. Thomas Paine our thanks are specially due for his first and +second parts of the 'Rights of Man'; and we sincerely wish that +he may live to see his labours crowned with success in the +general diffusion of liberty and happiness among mankind." ... +"We ... earnestly entreat our brethren to increase in their +Associations in order to form one grand and extensive Union of +all the friends of liberty."<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> It is not surprising that this plan of +a National Convention of levellers produced something like a +panic among the well-to-do; and it is futile to assert that men +who avowed their belief in the subversive teaching of Part II of +Paine's book were concerned merely with the Reform of Parliament. +They put that object in their public manifestoes; but, +like many of the Chartists of a later date, their ultimate aim was +the redistribution of wealth; and this it was which brought on +them the unflinching opposition of Pitt.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless even these considerations do not justify him in +opposing the reformers root and branch. The greatest statesman +is he who distinguishes between the real grievances of a suffering +people and the visionary or dangerous schemes which they beget +in ill-balanced brains. To oppose moderate reformers as well as +extremists is both unjust and unwise. It confounds together +the would-be healers and the enemies of the existing order. +Furthermore, an indiscriminate attack tends to close the ranks +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>in a solid phalanx, and it should be the aim of a tactician first +to seek to loosen those ranks.</p> + +<p>Finally, we cannot forget that Pitt had had it in his power to +redress the most obvious of the grievances which kept large +masses of his countrymen outside the pale of political rights and +civic privilege. Those grievances were made known to him +temperately in the years 1787, 1789, and 1790; but he refused +to amend them, and gradually drifted to the side of the alarmists +and reactionaries. Who is the wiser guide at such a time? He +who sets to work betimes to cure certain ills which are producing +irritation in the body politic? Or he who looks on the +irritation as a sign that nothing should be done? The lessons of +history and the experience of everyday life plead for timely cure +and warn against a nervous postponement. Doubtless Pitt +would have found it difficult to persuade some of his followers +to apply the knife in the session of 1791 or 1792. But in the +Parliament elected in 1790 his position was better assured, his +temper more imperious, than in that of 1785, which needed much +tactful management. The fact, then, must be faced that he declined +to run the risk of the curative operation, even at a time when +there were no serious symptoms in the patient and little or no +risk for the surgeon.</p> + +<p>The reason which he assigned for his refusal claims careful +notice. It was that his earlier proposals (those of 1782–5) had +aimed at national security; while those of the present would +tend to insecurity. Possibly in the month of April 1792 this +argument had some validity; though up to that time all the +violence had been on the Tory side. But the plea does not +excuse Pitt for not taking action in the year 1790. That was +the period when the earlier apathy of the nation to Reform +was giving way to interest, and interest had not yet grown into +excitement. Still less had loyalty waned under the repressive +measures whereby he now proposed to give it vigour.</p> + +<p>Thus, Pitt missed a great opportunity, perhaps the greatest of +his career. What it means is clear to us, who know that the +cause of Reform passed under a cloud for the space of thirty-eight +years. It is of course unfair to censure him and his friends +for lacking a prophetic vision of the long woes that were to +come. Most of the blame lavished upon him arises from forgetfulness +of the fact that he was not a seer mounted on some +political Pisgah, but a pioneer struggling through an unexplored<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +jungle. Nevertheless, as the duty of a pioneer is not merely to +hew a path, but also to note the lie of the land and the signs of +the weather, we must admit that Pitt did not possess the highest +instincts of his craft. He cannot be ranked with Julius Caesar, +Charlemagne, Alfred the Great, Edward I, or Burleigh, still less +with those giants of his own age, Napoleon and Stein; for these +men boldly grappled with the elements of unrest or disloyalty, +and by wise legislation wrought them into the fabric of the State. +Probably the lack of response to his reforming efforts in the year +1785 ingrained in him the conviction that Britons would always +be loyal if their burdens were lessened and their comforts increased; +and now in 1792 he looked on the remissions of taxation +(described in the <a href="#CHAPTER_II">following chapter</a>) as a panacea against discontent. +Under normal conditions that would have been the case. +It was not so now, because new ideas were in the air, and these +forbade a bovine acceptance of abundant fodder. In truth, Pitt +had not that gift without which the highest abilities and the most +strenuous endeavours will at novel crises be at fault—a sympathetic +insight into the needs and aspirations of the people. His +analytical powers enabled him to detect the follies of the royalist +crusaders; but he lacked those higher powers of synthesis which +alone could discern the nascent strength of Democracy.</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">BEFORE THE STORM</p> + +<p class="quote">I find it to be a very general notion, at least in the Assembly, that if France +can preserve a neutrality with England, she will be able to cope with all the +rest of Europe united.—<span class="smcap">Gower to Grenville</span>, <i>22nd April 1792</i>.</p> + + +<p>Indirect evidence as to the intentions of a statesman is +often more convincing than his official assertions. The world +always suspects the latter; and many politicians have found it +expedient to adopt the ironical device practised frequently with +success by Bismarck on his Austrian colleagues at Frankfurt, +that of telling the truth. Fortunately the English party game +has nearly always been kept up with sportsmanlike fair play; +and Pitt himself was so scrupulously truthful that we are rarely +in doubt as to his opinions, save when he veiled them by ministerial +reserve. Nevertheless, on the all-important subject of his +attitude towards Revolutionary France, it is satisfactory to have +indirect proofs of his desire to maintain a strict, if not friendly, +neutrality. This proof lies in his handling of the nation's armaments +and finances.</p> + +<p>The debate on the Army Estimates on 15th February 1792 is +of interest in more respects than one. The news of the definitive +signature of peace between Russia and Turkey by the Treaty +of Jassy, put an end to the last fears of a resumption of war in +the East; and, as the prospects were equally pacific in the +West, the Ministry carried out slight reductions in the land +forces. These were fixed in the year 1785 at seventy-three +regiments of 410 men each, divided into eight companies, with +two companies <span lang="fr">en second</span>. In 1789 the number of companies per +regiment was fixed at ten, without any companies <span lang="fr">en second</span>. +Now the Secretary at War, Sir Charles Yonge, proposed further +reductions, which, with those of 1789, would lessen each regiment +by seventy privates, and save the country the sum of +£51,000. No diminution was proposed in the number of officers;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +and this gave Fox a handle for an attack. He said that the +natural plan would be to reduce the number of regiments to +sixty-four. Instead of that, the number of seventy regiments was +retained, and new corps were now proposed for the East Indies, +one for the West Indies, and one for Canada, chiefly to be used +for pioneer work and clearance of woods. General Burgoyne +and Fox protested against the keeping up of skeleton regiments, +the latter adding the caustic comment that the plan was "the +least in point of saving and the greatest in point of patronage."<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> + +<p>The practices prevalent in that age give colour to the charge. +On the other hand, professional men have defended a system +which kept up the <span lang="fr">cadres</span> of regiments in time of peace, as providing +a body of trained officers and privates, which in time of +war could be filled out by recruits. Of course it is far inferior +to the plan of a reserve of trained men; but that plan had not +yet been hammered out by Scharnhorst, under the stress of the +Napoleonic domination in Prussia. As to the reduction of seven +men per company, now proposed, it may have been due partly +to political reasons. Several reports in the Home Office and +War Office archives prove that discontent was rife among the +troops, especially in the northern districts, on account of insufficient +pay and the progress of Radical propaganda among +them. The reduction may have afforded the means of sifting +out the ringleaders.</p> + +<p>Retrenchment, if not Reform, was the order of the day. Pitt +discerned the important fact that a recovery in the finance and +trade of the country must be encouraged through a series of +years to produce a marked effect. For then the application of +capital to industry, and the increase in production and revenue +can proceed at the rate of compound interest. Already his hopes, +for which he was indebted to the "Wealth of Nations,"<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> had +been largely realized. The Report of the Select Committee of +the House of Commons presented in May 1791 showed the +following growth in the ordinary revenue (exclusive of the Land +and Malt Taxes):</p> + +<table border="0" cellspacing="5" summary="Growth in revenue"> +<tr><td>1786</td><td class="right">£11,867,055</td></tr> +<tr><td>1787</td><td class="right">12,923,134</td></tr> +<tr><td>1788</td><td class="right">13,007,642</td></tr> +<tr><td>1789</td><td class="right">13,433,068</td></tr> +<tr><td>1790</td><td class="right">14,072,978</td></tr> +</table> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p><p>During those five years the sum of £4,750,000 had been +allotted to the Sinking Fund for the payment of the National +Debt; and a further sum of £674,592, accruing from the interest +of stock and expired annuities, had gone towards the same object—a +crushing retort to the taunts of Fox and Sheridan, that the +Sinking Fund was a mere pretence. On the whole the sum of +£5,424,592 had been paid off from the National Debt in five +years. It is therefore not surprising that three per cent. Consols, +which were down at fifty-four when Pitt took office at the +end of 1783, touched ninety in the year 1791. The hopes and +fears of the year 1792 find expression in the fact that in March +they stood at ninety-seven, and in December dropped to seventy-four.</p> + +<p>For the present Pitt entertained the highest hopes. In his +Budget Speech of 17th February he declared the revenue to be +in so flourishing a state that he could grant relief to the taxpayers. +In the year 1791 the permanent taxes had yielded +£14,132,000; and those on land and malt brought the total up +to £16,690,000; but he proposed to take £16,212,000 as the +probable revenue for the following year. The expenditure would +be lessened by £104,000 on the navy (2,000 seamen being discharged), +and about £50,000 on the army; £36,000 would also +be saved by the non-renewal of the subsidy for Hessian troops. +There were, however, additions, due to the establishment of the +Government of Upper Canada, and the portions allotted to the +Duke of York (on the occasion of his marriage with a Prussian +princess) and the Duke of Clarence. The expenditure would, +therefore, stand at £15,811,000; but, taking the average of four +years, he reckoned the probable surplus at no more than +£401,000. On the other hand, he anticipated no new expenses +except for the fortification of posts in the West Indies and the +completion of forts for the further protection of the home dockyards. +On the whole, then, he reckoned that he had £600,000 to +spare; and of this amount he proposed to allocate £400,000 to +the reduction of the National Debt and the repeal of the extra +duty on malt, an impost much disliked by farmers. He also +announced a remission of permanent taxes to the extent of +£200,000, namely, on female servants, carts, and waggons, and +that of three shillings on each house having less than seven +windows. These were burdens that had undoubtedly affected +the poor. Further, he hoped to add the sum of £200,000 every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +year to the Sinking Fund, and he pointed out that, at this rate +of payment, that fund would amount to £4,000,000 per annum +in the space of fifteen years, after which time the interest might +be applied to the relief of the nation's burdens.</p> + +<p>Then, rising high above the level of facts and figures, he ventured +on this remarkable prophecy:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>I am not, indeed, presumptuous enough to suppose that, when I +name fifteen years, I am not naming a period in which events may arise +which human foresight cannot reach, and which may baffle all our conjectures. +We must not count with certainty on a continuance of our +present prosperity during such an interval; but unquestionably there +never was a time in the history of this country, when, from the situation +of Europe, we might more reasonably expect fifteen years of peace than +at the present moment.</p> +</div> + + +<p>Imagination pictures what might possibly have been the outcome +of events if Great Britain and France had continued to +exert on one another the peaceful and mutually beneficent +influence which Pitt had sought to bring about. In that case, we +can imagine the reformed French monarchy, or a Republic of the +type longed for by Mme. Roland, permeating the thought and +action of neighbouring States, until the cause of Parliamentary +Reform in England, and the cognate efforts for civic and religious +liberty on the Continent achieved a lasting triumph. That +Pitt cherished these hopes is seen not only in his eloquent words, +but in the efforts which he put forth to open up the world to +commerce. The year 1792 ought to be remembered, not only for +the outbreak of war and the horrors of the September massacres +at Paris, but also for the attempt to inaugurate friendly relations +with China. Pitt set great store by the embassy which he at this +time sent out to Pekin under the lead of Lord Macartney. In +happier times this enterprise might have served to link East and +West in friendly intercourse; and Europe, weary of barren strifes, +would have known no other rivalries than those of peace.</p> + +<p>Alas: this is but a mirage. As it fades away, we discern an +arid waste. War broke out between France and Austria within +two months of this sanguine utterance. It soon embroiled France +and England in mortal strife. All hope of retrenchment and +Reform was crushed. The National Debt rose by leaps and +bounds, and the Sinking Fund proved to be a snare. Taxation +became an ever-grinding evil, until the poor, whose lot Pitt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +hoped to lighten, looked on him as the harshest of taskmasters, +the puppet of kings, and the paymaster of the Continental +Coalition. The spring of the year 1807 found England burdened +beyond endurance, the Third Coalition stricken to death by the +blows of Napoleon, while Pitt had fourteen months previously +succumbed to heart-breaking toils and woes.</p> + +<p>Before adverting to the complications with France which were +thenceforth to absorb his energies, I must refer to some incidents +of the session and summer of the year 1792.</p> + +<p>One of the most noteworthy enactments was Fox's Libel Bill. +In May 1791 that statesman had proposed to the House of +Commons to subject cases of libel to the award of juries, not of +judges. Pitt warmly approved the measure, maintaining that, +far from protecting libellers, it would have the contrary effect. +The Bill passed the Commons on 31st May; but owing to +dilatory and factious procedure in the Lords, it was held over +until the year 1792. Thanks to the noble plea for liberty urged +by the venerable Earl Camden, it passed on 21st May.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> It is +matter of congratulation that Great Britain gained this new safeguard +for freedom of speech before she encountered the storms +of the revolutionary era.</p> + +<p>There is little else to chronicle except two occurrences which +displayed the power and the foresight of Pitt. They were the +fall of Thurlow and the endeavour of the Prime Minister to form +a working alliance with the Old Whigs. The former of these +events greatly impressed the contemporaries of Pitt, who likened +the ejected Chancellor to Lucifer or to a Titan blasted by Jove's +thunderbolt. In this age we find it difficult to account for the +prestige of Thurlow. His legal learning was far from profound, +his speeches were more ponderous than powerful, and his attacks +were bludgeon blows rather than home thrusts. Of the lighter +graces and social gifts he had scant store. Indeed, his private +life displayed no redeeming feature. Everyone disliked him, but +very many feared him, mainly, perhaps, because of his facility +for intrigue, his power of bullying, and his great influence at +Court. As we have seen, the conciliatory efforts of the monarch +had hitherto averted a rupture between Pitt and Thurlow. But +not even the favour of George III could render the crabbed old +Chancellor endurable. His spitefulness had increased since Pitt's +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>nomination of Pepper Arden to the Mastership of the Rolls; +and he showed his spleen by obstructing Government measures +in the House of Lords. In April 1792 he flouted Pitt's efforts on +behalf of the abolition of the Slave Trade; and on 15th May he +ridiculed his proposal that to every new State loan a Sinking +Fund should necessarily be appended. The Commons had +passed this measure; but in the Lords Thurlow spoke contemptuously +of the proposal; and his influence, if not his arguments, +brought the Government majority down to six.</p> + +<p>Pitt was furious. Despite a letter from Windsor urging the +need of forbearance in the interests of the public service, he +resolved to end this intolerable situation. Respectfully but firmly +he begged the King to decide between him and Thurlow. The +result was a foregone conclusion. Having to choose between an +overbearing Chancellor, and a Prime Minister whose tact, firmness, +and transcendent abilities formed the keystone of the +political fabric, the King instructed Dundas to request Thurlow +to deliver up the Great Seal.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> For the convenience of public +business, his resignation was deferred to the end of the session, +which came at the middle of June. The Great Seal was then +placed in commission until January 1793 when Lord Loughborough, +formerly a follower of the Prince of Wales and Fox, +became Lord Chancellor.</p> + +<p>The dismissal of Thurlow is interesting on general as well as +constitutional grounds. It marks an important step in the evolution +of the Cabinet. Thenceforth the will of the Prime Minister +was held to be paramount whenever any one of his colleagues +openly and sharply differed from him. Thus the authority of +the Prime Minister became more clearly defined. Not even the +favour of the Sovereign could thenceforth uphold a Minister who +openly opposed and scorned the head of the Cabinet. The recognition +of this fact has undoubtedly conduced to the amenity +of parliamentary life; for etiquette has imposed on Ministers the +observance of outward signs of deference to their chief, and +(save a few times in the breezy careers of Canning and Palmerston) +dissensions have been confined to the council chamber.</p> + +<p>As to Thurlow's feelings, they appear in his frank admission +to Sir John Scott, the future Chancellor, Lord Eldon: "I did not +think that the King would have parted with me so easily. As +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>to that other man [Pitt], he has done to me just what I should +have done to him if I could."<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> It is not often that a plotter +shows his hand so clearly; and we must admire Pitt's discernment +no less than his firmness at this crisis. Would that he had +found a more faithful successor. Possibly some suspicion as to +Loughborough's powers of intrigue led Pitt to make cautious +advances to that promising lawyer, Sir John Scott. To his +honour, be it said, Scott at once declared that he must cease to +be Solicitor-General, as he had received much assistance from +Thurlow. In vain did Pitt expostulate with him. At last he +persuaded him to consult Thurlow, who advised him to do +nothing so foolish, seeing that Pitt would be compelled at some +future time to confer the Great Seal upon him. With this parting +gleam of insight and kindliness, the morose figure of Thurlow +vanishes.</p> + +<p>More than once in the session of 1792 rumours were afloat as +to a reconstruction of the Cabinet. Early in that year, when the +debates on the Russian armament somewhat shook Pitt's position, +it was stated that the King desired to get rid of him. +Gillray heard of the story, and visualized it with his usual skill. +He represented the Marquis of Lansdowne ("Malagrida") as +driving at full speed to St. James's Palace, heralded by the dove +of peace, while Fox, Sheridan, etc., hang on behind and cry +out, "Stop; stop; take us in." Pitt and Dundas are seen leaving +the palace. The rumour gains in credibility from a Memorandum +of the Marquis; but it is doubtful whether George ever +thought seriously of giving up Pitt, still less of seeking support +from the discredited and unpopular Lansdowne, whose views on +the French Revolution were utterly opposed to those of the +King. Probably the King put questions to him merely with the +view of gratifying his own curiosity and exciting unreal hopes. +Certainly Pitt scoffed at the idea of resignation. On 3rd March +he referred to the rumour, in a letter to the Earl of Westmorland, +merely to dismiss it as ridiculous.<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p> + +<p>Far more important were the negotiations that began in May–June +1792. Pitt paved the way for a union with the Old Whigs +by consulting the opinions of the Duke of Portland and other +leading Whigs, assembled at Burlington House, respecting the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>proclamation against seditious writings. They suggested a few +alterations in his draft and he adopted them. Fox alone declared +against the whole scheme, and afterwards hotly opposed +it in the House of Commons. This step having shown the +cleavage in the Whig party, Dundas and Loughborough sought +to effect a union of the Portland Whigs with the Government. +The Duke of Portland strongly approved of it. Even Fox welcomed +the proposal, but only on the understanding that the +Whigs joined the Ministry on fair and even terms, sharing +equally in the patronage. The Duke further suggested that Pitt +should give up the Treasury and allow a neutral man like the +Duke of Leeds to take that office. We can picture the upward +tilt of the nose with which Pitt received this proposal.</p> + +<p>Lord Malmesbury, who was present at this discussion of the +Whig leaders on 13th June, himself saw great difficulties in such +a plan, as also from the opposition of the King and the Prince +of Wales. On the next day Loughborough met Pitt at Dundas's +house, and reported him to be favourable to the idea of a coalition. +Pitt further said that the King and the Queen would welcome +it, except in so far as it concerned Fox, whose conduct in +Parliament during the last few months had given great offence. +Pitt further declared that he did not remember a single word in +all the disputes with Fox which could prevent him honourably +and consistently acting with him. He added that it +might be difficult to give him the Foreign Office at once, but he +could certainly have it in a few months' time. On 16th June +Malmesbury saw Fox at Burlington House, and found him in an +unusually acrid and suspicious mood, from the notion that the +whole affair was a plot of Pitt to break up the Whig party. Beside +which, Fox said that it was idle to expect Pitt to admit the +Whig leaders on an equal footing. Malmesbury, however, maintained +that, if Fox and the Duke were agreed, they would lead +the whole of their party with them, at which remark Fox +became silent and embarrassed.</p> + +<p>Pitt, on the other hand, was very open to Loughborough, and +expressed a wish to form a strong and united Ministry which +could face the difficulties of the time. The chief obstacle to a +coalition, he said, was Fox's support of French principles, +which must preclude his taking the Foreign Office immediately. +The remark is noteworthy as implying Pitt's expectation that +either Fox might tone down his opinions, or the Revolution<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +might abate its violence. Further, when Loughborough reminded +him of the ardour of his advocacy of the Abolitionist cause, he +replied that some concession must be made on that head, as the +King strongly objected to the way in which it was pushed on by +addresses and petitions, a method which he himself disliked. +Further, he freely admitted that the "national Aristocracy" of +the country must have its due weight and power.<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> These confessions +(assuming that Loughborough reported them correctly) +prepare us for the half right turn which now becomes the trend +of Pitt's political career. In order to further the formation of a +truly national party, he was willing, if necessary, to postpone +the cause of the slaves and of Parliamentary Reform until the +advent of calmer times.</p> + +<p>At this stage of the discussions, then, Pitt was willing to +meet the Whigs half way. But the chief difficulty lay, not +with Fox and his friends, but with the King. When Pitt mentioned +the proposal to him, there came the characteristic reply: +"Anything complimentary to them, but no power."<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> How was +it possible to harmonize this resolve with that of Fox, that the +Whigs must have an equality of power? Grenville was a further +obstacle. How could that stiff and ambitious man give up the +Foreign Office to Fox, whose principles he detested? We hear +little of Grenville in these days, probably because of his marriage +to Lady Ann Pitt, daughter of Lord Camelford. But +certainly he would not have tolerated a half Whig Cabinet.</p> + +<p>It is therefore strange that the proposals were ever renewed. +Renewed, however, they were, in the second week of July. Loughborough +having spread the impression that Pitt desired their renewal, +Leeds was again pushed to the front, it being suggested +that he might be First Lord of the Treasury. Finally, on 14th +August, the King granted him a private interview at Windsor, +but stated that nothing had been said on the subject for a long +time, and that it had never been seriously considered, it being +impossible for Pitt to give up the Treasury and act as <span lang="fr">Commis</span> to +the Whig leaders. This statement should have lessened the +Duke's astonishment at hearing from Pitt on 22nd August that +there had been no thought of any change in the Government.<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> +This assertion seems to belie Pitt's reputation for truthfulness. +But it is noteworthy that Grenville scarcely refers to the discussions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +on this subject, deeply though it concerned him. Further, +Rose, who was in close touch with Ministers, wrote to Auckland +on 13th July that he had heard only through the newspapers +of the "negotiations for a sort of Coalition," and that he knew +there had been none; that Dundas had conferred with Loughborough, +but there had been no negotiation.<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a></p> + +<p>Now the proneness of these two men to scheming and intrigue +is well known; and it seems probable that they so skilfully +pulled the wires at Burlington House as to quicken the appetites +of the Whig leaders. Dundas may have acted with a view to +breaking up the Whig party, and Loughborough in order to +bring about a general shuffle of the cards favourable to himself. +Malmesbury and others, whose desires or interests lay in a union +of the Portland Whigs with Pitt, furthered the scheme, and gave +full credence to Loughborough's reports. But we may doubt +whether Pitt took the affair seriously after the crushing declaration +of the King: "Anything complimentary to them, but no +power." The last blow to the scheme was dealt by Pitt in an +interview with Loughborough, so we may infer from the following +letter from George III to the former:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">Weymouth, <i>August 20, 1792</i>.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></p> + +<p>I cannot but think Mr. Pitt has judged right in seeing Lord Loughborough, +as that will convince him, however [whoever?] were parties to +the proposal brought by the Duke of Leeds, that the scheme can never +succeed: that the Duke of Portland was equally concerned with the +former appeared clearly from his letters....</p> +</div> + + +<p>The King, then, looked on the whole affair as a Whig plot; +and Pitt, whatever his feelings were at first, finally frowned upon +the proposal. Doubtless, in an official sense, there was justification +for his remark to the Duke of Leeds, that the coalition had +never been in contemplation; for the matter seems never to have +come before the Cabinet. But as a statement between man and +man it leaves something to be desired on the score of accuracy. +Annoyance at the very exalted position marked out for the +Duke, whose capacity Pitt rated decidedly low, may have led him +to belittle the whole affair; for signs of constraint and annoyance +are obvious in his other answers to his late colleague. +There, then, we must leave this question, involved in something +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>of mystery.<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> We shall not be far wrong in concluding that Pitt +wished for the formation of a national Ministry, and that the +plan failed, partly from the resolve of Fox never to play second +to Pitt; and still more from the personal way in which the King +regarded the suggestion.</p> + +<p>The King meanwhile had marked his sense of the value of +Pitt's services by pressing on him the honourable position of +Warden of the Cinque Ports, with a stipend of £3,000 a year, +intimating at the same time that he would not hear of his +declining it (6th August).<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> It is a proof of the spotless purity of +Pitt's reputation that not a single libel or gibe appeared in the +Press on his acceptance of this almost honorary post.<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a></p> + +<p>One brilliant recruit to the Whig ranks was now won over to +the national cause, of which Pitt was seen to be the incarnation. +Already at Eton and Oxford George Canning had shown the +versatility of his genius and the precocious maturity of his +eloquence. When his Oxford friend, Jenkinson (the future Earl +of Liverpool) made a sensational <span lang="fr">début</span> in the House on the Tory +side, Sheridan remarked that the Whigs would soon provide an +antidote in the person of young Canning. Great, then, was their +annoyance when the prodigy showed signs of breaking away +from the society of the Crewes and Sheridan, in order to ally +himself with Pitt. So little is known respecting the youth of +Canning that the motives which prompted his breach with +Sheridan are involved in uncertainty. It is clear, however, from +his own confession that, after some discussion with Orde, he +himself made the first offer of allegiance to Pitt in a letter of 26th +July 1792. He then informed the Prime Minister that, though on +terms of friendship with eminent members of the Opposition, he +was "in no way bound to them by any personal or political +obligation," and was therefore entirely free to choose his own +party; that he was ambitious of being connected with Pitt, but +lacked the means to win an election, and yet refused to be +brought in by any individual—a reference, seemingly, to an offer +made to him by the Duke of Portland. In reply, Pitt proposed +an interview at Downing Street on Wednesday, 15th August.<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> +<p>At noon on that day the two men first met. We can picture +them as they faced one another in the formal surroundings of +the Prime Minister's study. Pitt, at this time thirty-three years +of age, had lost some of the slimness of youth, but his figure +was bony, angular, and somewhat awkward. His face was as +yet scarcely marked by the slight Bacchic blotches which told +of carouses with Dundas at Wimbledon. Months and years of +triumph (apart from the Russian defeat) had stiffened his confidence +and pride; but the fateful shadow of the French Revolution +must have struck a chill to his being, especially then, on the +arrival of news of the pitiable surrender of Louis XVI and +Marie Antoinette, and the shooting down of the Swiss Guards +at the Tuileries. No royalist could look on the future without +inward shuddering; and both these men were ardent royalists. +We know from Canning's confession that it was the starting of +the club, the Friends of the People, in April 1792, which disgusted +him with the forward section of the Whigs; and their +subsequent action completed the breach. Pitt's endeavour to +form a national Administration must have gained a new significance +from the terrible news from Paris. We may be sure, +then, that the youth of twenty-two years gazed with eager +interest on the stately form before him as at the embodiment of +political wisdom, purity, and patriotism.</p> + +<p>They shook hands. Then for a time they ambled coyly +around the subject at issue, and talked of "France and Jenkinson, +and other equally important concerns." Indeed Pitt seems to +have been as nervous and awkward as the novice. At length he +plunged into business. "It is your wish, I believe, Mr. Canning +(and I am sure it is mine), to come in, etc." On Canning bowing +assent, Pitt remarked that it was not easy to find an inexpensive +seat, and commented on his expressed desire not to tie himself +to any borough-owner. Whereupon the young aspirant, with +more pride than tact, threw in the remark that he would not +like to be personally beholden to such an one, for instance, as +Lord Lonsdale (who first brought Pitt into Parliament). The +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>Prime Minister seemed not to notice the <span lang="fr">gaucherie</span>, and stated +that the Treasury had only six seats at its disposal, but could +arrange matters with "proprietors of burgage-tenures." Thereupon +Canning broke in more deftly. In that case, he said, it +must be made clear that he bound himself to follow, not the +borough-owner, but the Prime Minister. Here he more than +recovered lost ground, if indeed he had lost any. Pitt expressed +his sense of the compliment, and said that this could be managed, +unless the young member came to differ absolutely from +his patron. Canning then frankly confessed his inability to +follow Pitt in maintaining the Test Act. Equally frank and +cordial was the reply, that he (Pitt) did not claim exact agreement, +especially on "speculative subjects," but only "a general +good disposition towards Government," which might be strengthened +by frequent contact.</p> + +<p>Such was the course of this memorable interview. It sealed +for ever the allegiance of the youth to his self-chosen leader. He +had prepared Sheridan, and through him Fox and Bouverie, for +this change of front. The openness, the charm, the self-effacing +patriotism of the Minister thenceforth drew him as by an irresistible +magnet. The brilliance and joviality of Fox and Sheridan +counted as nothing against the national impulse which the +master now set in motion and the pupil was destined to carry +to further lengths. There was a natural sympathy between +these men both in aim and temperament. It is a sign of the +greatness of Pitt that from the outset he laid the spell of his +genius irrevocably upon Canning.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Deferring to the <a href="#CHAPTER_III">next chapter</a> a study of the democratic +movement in Great Britain, we now turn our attention to the +relations of Pitt to France, a topic which thenceforth dominates +his life story and the destinies of mankind.</p> + +<p>In the month of January 1792, there arrived in London an +envoy charged with important proposals from the French Government. +It was Talleyrand, ex-bishop of Autun. Pitt had +become acquainted with him during his residence at Rheims +in the summer of 1783; but the circumstances of the case now +forbade anything more than passing intercourse with that most +charming of talkers and subtlest of diplomatists. Talleyrand, +having been a member of the first, or Constituent, Assembly, was +prevented by the constitution of September 1791 from holding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +any office for two years after that date. Therefore his visit to +London was ostensibly on private affairs. The Duc de Biron +was the envoy, and Talleyrand merely his adviser. He was +instructed to seek "to maintain and strengthen the good understanding +which exists between the two Kingdoms."<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a></p> + +<p>This was only the official pretext for the mission, the secret +aim of which was to win the friendship, if not the alliance, of +England in case of a Franco-Austrian war. In the early days of +January 1792 the constitutional Ministry, holding office, though +not power, at Paris, seemed to be working for a rupture with the +Hapsburgs, partly in order to please the Jacobins, and partly to +escape the ever increasing difficulties of its position. The earlier +causes of dispute do not concern us here. As we have seen, the +Emperor Leopold was far from desirous of war; but the provocative +attitude of the Legislative Assembly at Paris and the +humiliations of his sister, Marie Antoinette, aroused his resentment; +and, early in January, he was heard to say "that if the +French madmen were determined to force him into a war, they +should find that the pacific Leopold knew how to wage it with +the greatest vigour, and would oblige them to pay its expenses +in something more solid than assignats." Our ambassador, +Sir Robert Keith, was, however, convinced that this outburst and +the westward march of troops were but "empty parade."<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></p> + +<p>On the other hand Earl Gower, British ambassador at Paris, +reported that the Ministry, the Assembly, and the Jacobins +Club (with the exception of Robespierre and his clique) desired +war.<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> In truth, there seemed little risk in a struggle with the +exhausted Hapsburg States, provided that they had support +neither from Prussia nor from England. De Ségur therefore set +out for Berlin, and Talleyrand for London, to secure the +friendly neutrality or support of those Governments. The latter +envoy was specially suited for his mission, as he carried on the +traditions of Mirabeau, who in the closing months of his life +urged the need of an Anglo-French <span lang="fr">entente</span>.<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a></p> + +<p>Talleyrand and Biron reached London on 24th January 1792. +Before reaching the capital they read in the English papers +that they had arrived there, and had been very coldly received by +Pitt—a specimen of the arts by which the French <span lang="fr">émigrés</span> in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>London sought to embitter the relations between the two lands. +Talleyrand had the good fortune to occupy a seat in the +Strangers' Gallery at the opening of Parliament close to two +ardent royalists, Cazalès and Lally-Tollendal. What must have +been their feelings on hearing in the King's speech the statement +of his friendly relations to the other Powers and his resolve +to reduce the army and navy?</p> + +<p>Already Pitt had seen Talleyrand. He reminded him in a +friendly way of their meeting at Rheims, remarked on the +unofficial character of the ex-bishop's "mission," but expressed +his willingness to discuss French affairs, about which he even +showed "curiosity." Grenville afterwards spoke to the envoy in +the same courteous but non-committal manner. Talleyrand was, +however, charmed. He wrote to Delessart, the Foreign Minister +at Paris: "Your best ground is England; ... Believe me the +rumours current in France about the disposition of England +towards us are false."<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> He urged the need of showing a bold +front; for "it is with a fleet that you must speak to England."</p> + +<p>Talleyrand throughout showed the sagacity which earned him +fame in diplomacy. He was not depressed by the King's frigid +reception of him at St. James's on 1st February, or by the +Queen refusing even to notice him. Even the escapades of +Biron did not dash his hopes. That envoy ran up debts and +bargained about horses <span lang="fr">avec un nommé Tattersall, qui tient dans +sa main tous les chevaux d'Angleterre</span>, until he was arrested for +debt and immured in a "sponging house," whence the appeals of +the ex-bishop failed to rescue him. As Biron had come with +an official order to buy horses with a view to the impending war +with Austria, we may infer that his arrest was the work of some +keen-witted <span lang="fr">émigré</span>.</p> + +<p>Even this, however, was better than the fortunes of Ségur, +who found himself openly flouted both by King and courtiers at +Berlin. For Frederick William was still bent on a vigorous +policy. On 7th February his Ministers signed with Prince +Reuss, the Austrian envoy, a secret treaty of defensive alliance, +mainly for the settlement of French affairs, but also with a side +glance at Poland. The Prussian Ministers probably hoped for a +peaceful but profitable settlement, which would leave them free +for a decisive intervention in the Polish troubles now coming to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>a crisis; but Frederick William was in a more warlike mood, +and longed to overthrow the "rebels" in France. Ségur's +mission to Berlin was therefore an utter failure. That of Talleyrand, +on the other hand, achieved its purpose, mainly because +Pitt and Grenville never had any other desire than to remain +strictly neutral. It was therefore superfluous for Talleyrand to +hint delicately at the desirability of the friendship of France for +England, in view of the war with Tippoo Sahib in India, and the +increasing ferment in Ireland.<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a></p> + +<p>On 1st March Grenville again assured him of the earnest +desire of the British Government to see the end of the troubles +in France, and declared that Pitt and he had been deeply +wounded by the oft-repeated insinuations that they had sought +to foment them. All such charges were absurd; for "a commercial +people stands only to gain by the freedom of all those who +surround it." We may reasonably conclude that these were the +words of Pitt; for they recall that noble passage of the "Wealth +of Nations": "A nation that would enrich itself by trade is +certainly most likely to do so when its neighbours are all rich, +industrious, and commercial nations."<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> For the rest, Grenville +defied the calumniators of England to adduce a single proof in +support of their slanders, and requested Talleyrand to remain +some time in England for the purpose of observing public +opinion. He warned him, however, that the Cabinet could not +give an answer to his main proposal.</p> + +<p>More than this Talleyrand could scarcely expect. He had +already divined the important secret that the Cabinet was divided +on this subject, the King, Thurlow, and Camden being hostile +to France, while Pitt, Grenville, and Dundas were friendly. +When Talleyrand ventured to ascribe those sentiments to Pitt +and Grenville, the latter did not deny it, and he at once echoed +the desire expressed by the envoy for the conclusion of an Anglo-French +alliance. That the greater part of the British people +would have welcomed such a compact admits of no doubt. On +the walls were often chalked the words: "No war with the +French." Talleyrand advised the Foreign Minister, Delessart, to +send immediately to London a fully accredited ambassador; +for the talk often was: "We have an ambassador at Paris. Why +have not you one here?" Nevertheless, a despatch of Grenville +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>to Gower, on 9th March, shows that Pitt and he keenly felt the +need of caution. They therefore enjoined complete silence on +Gower. In truth, Grenville's expressions, quoted above, were +merely the outcome of the good will which he and Pitt felt +towards France. But these words from the two powerful Ministers +meant safety for France on her coasts, whatever might betide +her on the Meuse and the Rhine.</p> + +<p>On the day when Grenville spoke these words of peace, two +events occurred which portended war. Leopold II died; and +an irritating despatch, which he and Kaunitz had recently sent +to Paris, was read out to the Legislative Assembly. Thereafter +a rupture was inevitable. Francis II, who now ascended +the throne of his father, was a shy, proud, delicate youth of +twenty-four years, having only a superficial knowledge of public +affairs, scarcely known to the Ministers, and endowed with a +narrow pedantic nature which was to be the bane of his people. +He lacked alike the sagacity, the foresight, and the suppleness +of Leopold. Further, though his inexperience should have inspired +him with a dread of war for his storm-tossed States, yet +that same misfortune subjected him to the advice of the veteran +Chancellor, Kaunitz. That crabbed old man advised the maintenance +of a stiff attitude towards France; and this, in her present +temper, entailed war.</p> + +<p>The last despatch from Vienna to Paris contained strongly +worded advice to the French Government and Assembly to +adopt a less provocative attitude, to withdraw its troops from +the northern frontier, and, above all, to rid itself of the factious +minority which controlled its counsels. If Leopold had hoped +to intimidate France or to strengthen the peace-party at Paris, +he made the greatest mistake of his reign. The war party at +once gained the ascendancy, decreed the arrest of Delessart for +his tame reply to Vienna, and broke up the constitutional +Ministry. Their successors were mainly Girondins. The most +noteworthy are Roland, who took the Home Office; Clavière, +Finance; and Dumouriez, Foreign Affairs. The last was a man +of great energy and resource. A soldier by training, and with a +dash of the adventurer in his nature, he now leapt to the front, +and astonished France by his zeal and activity. He was not +devoid of prudence; for, as appears from Gower's despatch +of 30th March, he persuaded the Assembly to postpone action +until an answer arrived to his last despatch to Vienna. Gower<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +found from conversation with Dumouriez that a rupture must +ensue if a satisfactory reply did not arrive by 15th April.<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> Four +days later, as no answer came, the Council of Ministers decided +on war; and on the next day Louis formally proposed it to the +Assembly, which assented with acclamation.</p> + +<p>Secondary causes helped on the rupture. Frederick William +encouraged the young Emperor to draw the sword, and led him +to expect Alsace and Lorraine as his share of the spoil, the +duchies of Jülich and Berg falling to Prussia. Catharine also +fanned the crusading zeal at Berlin and Vienna in the hope of +having "more elbow-room," obviously in Poland.<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> Further, the +news from Madrid and Stockholm indisposed the French Assembly +to endure any dictation from Vienna. At the end of +February Floridablanca fell from power at Madrid, and his successor, +Aranda, showed a peaceful front. And, on 16th March +Gustavus of Sweden was assassinated by Anckarström, a tool of the +revengeful nobles. This loss was severely felt. The royalist crusade +now had no Tancred, only an uninspiring Duke of Brunswick.</p> + +<p>Though France took the final step of declaring war, it is now +known that Austria had done much to provoke it and nothing +to prevent it. The young Emperor refused to withdraw a word +of the provocative despatch; and in his letter to Thugut at +Brussels, he declared he was weary of the state of things in +France and had decided to act and put an end to it; "that he +should march his troops at once, and the French must be amused +for two months until the troops arrived; then, whether the French +attacked him or not, he should attack them."<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> Keith also wrote +from Vienna to Grenville on 2nd May, that the French declaration +of war had come in the nick of time to furnish the Hapsburgs +with the opportunity of throwing the odium of the war +upon France.<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> Other proofs might be cited; and it seems certain +that, if France had not thrown down the gauntlet, both the +German Powers would have attacked her in the early summer of +1792. Pitt and Grenville, looking on at these conflicting schemes, +formed the perfectly correct surmise that both sides were bent +on war, and that little or nothing could be done to avert it.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>We must now trace the policy of Pitt somewhat closely. The +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>question at issue is, whether he favoured the royalist or the democratic +cause, and was responsible for the ensuing friction between +England and France, which culminated in the long and disastrous +strifes of 1793–1801.</p> + +<p>Dumouriez, as we have seen, threw down the gauntlet to +Austria in the hope of securing the neutrality of Prussia and +the friendship of England. Accordingly he decided to send +Talleyrand on a second mission to London. That skilful diplomat +had recently returned to Paris; and the Foreign Minister +drew up, perhaps in concert with him, a Memoir entitled "Reflections +on a Negotiation with England in case of War," which +provided the text for Talleyrand's discourse to Pitt and Grenville. +The gist of it is that Talleyrand must convince the British +Government of the need of a French attack on the Belgic provinces +of Austria as the sole means of safety. For, while offensive +in appearance, it is in reality defensive. France does not intend +to keep those provinces; and, even if her conquest of them +brings about the collapse of the Stadholder's power in Holland, +England will do well not to intervene in favour of the Orange +<span lang="fr">régime</span>. For what good can the Island Power gain by war with +France? She may take the French colonies; but that will mean +a tiresome struggle with the revolted negroes in the West Indies. +France, meanwhile, with her new-born strength, will conquer +Central Europe and then throw her energy into her fleet. The +better course, then, for England will be to remain neutral, even +if Holland be revolutionized, and the estuary of the Scheldt be +thrown open to all nations. Or, still better, England may help +France to keep in check the King of Prussia and the Prince of +Orange. In that case the two free Powers will march hand in +hand and "become the arbiters of peace or war for the whole +world."</p> + +<p>This remarkable pronouncement claims attention for several +reasons. Firstly, it proves that Dumouriez and Talleyrand believed +their sole chance of safety to lie in the conquest of +Austria's Belgic provinces, where a cognate people would receive +them with open arms. That is to say, they desired war with +Austria, and they did not dread the prospect of war with Prussia, +provided that England remained neutral and friendly. Pitt and +Grenville were well aware of this from Gower's despatches. Our +ambassador had warned them that France recked little of a war +with the whole of Europe, provided that England held aloof.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +Secondly, this fact disposes of the subsequent charge of Fox +against Pitt, that he ought to have sided with France in 1792 +and thereby to have prevented the attack of the German Powers. +For, as we have seen, it was she who took the irrevocable step +of declaring war on Austria; and further, the details given above +prove that all that Frenchmen expected from Pitt was neutrality. +By remaining neutral, while the French overran Belgium, Pitt +was favouring the French plans more than any British statesman +had done since the time of James II. Thirdly, we notice +in the closing sentences of these Reflections signs of that extraordinary +self-confidence which led Girondins and Jacobins to +face without flinching even the prospect of war with England.</p> + +<p>What was Pitt's conduct at this crisis? He knew enough +of the politics of Berlin and Vienna to see that those Courts +would almost certainly make war on France. He adopted therefore +the line of conduct which prudence and love of peace +dictated, a strict neutrality. But he refused to proclaim it to +the world, as it would encourage France to attack Austria. At +the same time Grenville let it be known that Austria must not +be deprived of her Belgic lands, which England had assured to +her, firstly by the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), and quite recently +by the Reichenbach Convention. As Grenville phrased it—"The +Pays Bas form the chain which unites England to the +Continent, and the central knot of our relations to Austria and +Russia. It would be broken if they belonged to France." +Talleyrand and Dumouriez knew this perfectly well, and prudently +declared that France had no intention of keeping those +lands. Would that the Jacobins and Napoleon had shown the +same wise self-restraint! It was their resolve to dominate the +Netherlands which brought them into irreconcilable opposition +to Pitt and his successors down to the year 1814.</p> + +<p>Statesmanlike though the aims of Dumouriez were, they suffered +not a little in their exposition. Talleyrand, the brain of +the policy, was not its mouthpiece. In the French embassy at +Portman Square he figured merely as adviser to the French +ambassador, the <span lang="fr">ci-devant</span> Marquis de Chauvelin, a vain and +showy young man, devoid of the qualities of insight, tact, and +patience in which the ex-bishop of Autun excelled his contemporaries. +Had this sage counsellor remained in London to +the end of the year, things might have gone very differently. +The instructions issued to Chauvelin contain ideas similar to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +those outlined above; but they lay stress on the utility of a +French alliance for England, in order to thwart the aims of a +greedy Coalition and to ensure her own internal tranquillity, +which, it is hinted, France can easily ruffle. Talleyrand is also +charged to offer to cede the small but valuable island, Tobago, +which we lost in 1783, provided that the British Government +guaranteed a French loan of £3,000,000 or £4,000,000, to be +raised in London; and he is to suggest that, if the two Powers +acted together, they could revolutionize Spanish America and +control the world.<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a></p> + +<p>Our curiosity is aroused as to the reception which Pitt and +Grenville gave to these schemes. It is not certain, however, that +Chauvelin and Talleyrand showed their hand completely; for +events told against them from the outset. Chauvelin bore with +him an autograph letter from Louis XVI to George III, couched +in the friendliest terms, and expressing the hope of closer relations +between the two peoples.<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> But before he could present it +to the King at St. James's, it appeared in the Paris papers. +This breach of etiquette created a bad impression; for it seemed +that the letter was merely a bid for an alliance between the two +peoples. It is quite possible that Dumouriez, with his natural +impulsiveness, allowed it to gain currency in order to identify +Louis XVI with French democracy, and that in its turn with +public opinion in England. Further, we now know that Marie +Antoinette, in her resolve to paralyse the policy and the defensive +power of France, wrote at once to Fersen at Brussels +that her consort's letter was very far from speaking his real +sentiments.<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> This news, when passed on to London, must have +made it clear that the two envoys represented the Girondin +Ministry, but not the King of France. Then again tidings soon +arrived of the disgraceful flight of the French troops on the +Belgian frontier, the new levies, at sight of the Austrian horse, +rushing back to Lille in wild disorder and there murdering their +General, Theobald Dillon. George III and Grenville wrote of +this event in terms of disgust and contempt.<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> It is therefore not +surprising that the reception of Chauvelin was far from promising;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +and Talleyrand doubtless felt that the time was not ripe +for discussing an Anglo-French <span lang="fr">entente</span> for the control of the +world.</p> + +<p>In fact, the envoys were received coolly from the outset. The +outbreak of war on the Continent had caused almost a panic in +the City. The Funds dropped sharply, and Pitt ordered an +official denial to sinister reports of a forthcoming raid by the +press-gang. A little later he assured a deputation of merchants +that England would hold strictly aloof from the war. Chauvelin +reported these facts to his Government along with the assurance +that the Cabinet had definitely resolved on neutrality. How he +came to know of that decision is a mystery; and it is scarcely +less odd that a copy of his despatch reporting it should be in +the Pitt Papers.<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> On the whole, then, France had good reason +to be satisfied with Pitt. Austria, on the other hand, disliked +his conduct. Kaunitz, with his usual acerbity, gave out that +England was secretly hostile to the House of Hapsburg; and +Keith, finding his position increasingly awkward, begged for +his recall.</p> + +<p>The first sign of friction between England and France arose +out of the King's proclamation against seditious writings, which +we noticed in the <a href="#CHAPTER_I">last chapter</a>. Chauvelin complained of some +of its phrases, and stated that France waged war for national +safety, not for aggrandizement. Grenville thereupon loftily remarked +that Chauvelin had no right to express an opinion on a +question which concerned solely the King's Government and +Parliament. The British reply irritated by its curt correctness.</p> + +<p>Equally unfortunate were some incidents in the ensuing debates +on this topic. Some members emphasized their loyalty by adverting +tartly to the connections of Thomas Paine and English +reformers with the French Jacobins. On 31st May the Duke of +Richmond charged that writer with being an emissary from +abroad, because he had advised the destruction of the British +navy.<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> There is no such passage in the "Rights of Man"; and +the Duke must have read with the distorting lens of fear or +hatred the suggestion that, if England, France, and the United +States were allied, a very small navy would be needed, costing +not more than half a million a year.<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> But this incident is typical +of the prejudice that was growing against France. Grenville in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>the same debate declared that the Corresponding Societies +avowed their connection with foreign clubs and were engaged in +circulating pamphlets. The conclusion was obvious, that close +relations with France must be avoided. As to the feeling of the +Royal Family, it was manifested in an effusively loyal speech +by the Prince of Wales, his first speech at Westminster. In it he +marked his entire severance from Fox on this question.</p> + +<p>Grenville's complaisance to the French envoys was perhaps +little more than a blind to mask his contempt for them and their +principles. On 19th June he wrote to Auckland respecting the +"ignorance and absurdity of the French mission," but suggested +that the picking a quarrel with France would only help the +English Jacobins to introduce French notions. Even if this +mission were got rid of, some one else might come who might +make even more mischief. These expressions refer to the connections +which Chauvelin and Talleyrand had formed with the +Opposition. As Bland Burges remarked: "Talleyrand is intimate +with Paine, Home Tooke, Lord Lansdowne, and a few more of +that stamp, and is generally scouted by every one else." +George III's words were equally contemptuous and marked his +resolve to have as little as possible to do with France.<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> Pitt did +not state his opinions on this topic; but he probably held those +of Grenville.</p> + +<p>The prejudices of the King and the resolves of the two chief +Ministers proved fatal to an ardent appeal which came from +Paris in the middle of June. As the attitude of the Court of +Berlin became more and more warlike, Dumouriez put forth +one more effort to gain the friendly mediation of England and +thus assure peace with Prussia. Chauvelin, swallowing his annoyance +at Grenville's recent note, pointed out that Austria was +making great efforts to induce Prussia, Holland, and the lesser +German States to join her in the war against liberty. The designs +of the monarchs against Poland were notorious; and it was clear +that a vast conspiracy was being hatched against the free States +of the Continent. Would not England, then, endeavour to stop +the formation of this reactionary league?</p> + +<p>The occasion was, indeed, highly important. It is conceivable +that, if British influence had been powerful at Berlin, a spirited +declaration would have had some effect at that Court. Unfortunately<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +our influence had sunk to zero since the Oczakoff fiasco +of 1791. Moreover, the Prussian Government had by that time +decided to break with France. Her envoys were dismissed from +Berlin in the first week of June, and it is probable that Pitt and +Grenville by 18th June knew of the warlike resolve of the Prussian +Government. In any case, after a delay of twenty days, +they sent once more a reply to Chauvelin's request, affirming the +earnest desire of His Majesty to contribute to the restoration of +peace, but re-asserting his decision in favour of unswerving +neutrality. On 24th July Prussia declared war against France, +and three days later the Duke of Brunswick issued the famous +manifesto to the French people which thrilled the French +people with indignation against the hapless sovereigns at the +Tuileries whom it was designed to protect.<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<p>The outbreak of war on the Rhine and Meuse was an event +of incalculable importance. As we have seen, Pitt discouraged +the bellicose tendencies of the <span lang="fr">émigrés</span> and of the Austrian and +Prussian Courts. But the passions of the time ran too high to +admit of the continuance of peace; and State after State was +soon to be drawn into the devouring vortex of strife. Strange to +say the first to suffer from the outbreak of hostilities was Poland. +That Republic entered on a new lease of life in the spring of +the year 1791. The constitution adopted with enthusiasm on +3rd May substituted an hereditary for an elective monarchy, +and otherwise strengthened the fabric of that almost anarchic +State. Social and civic reforms promised also to call its burghers +and serfs to a life of activity or comfort. But the change at +once aroused keen dislike at St. Petersburg and Berlin. Prussian +statesmen resented any improvement in the condition of their +nominal ally, and declared that, if Russia gained a strong position +on the Euxine, Prussia and Austria must secure indemnities +at the expense of Poland.</p> + +<p>The Czarina soon succeeded in heading them in that direction. +After the signature of the Peace of Jassy with the Turks +early in January 1792, she began openly to encourage the +factious efforts of Polish malcontents. The troubles at Paris +also enabled her to engage the Courts of Vienna and Berlin +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>in a western crusade on which she bestowed her richest blessing, +her own inmost desires meanwhile finding expression +in the following confidential utterance: "I am breaking my head +to make the Cabinets of Vienna and Berlin intervene in the +affairs of France. I wish to see them plunged into some very +complicated question in order to have my own hands free."<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> +Though her old opponent, Kaunitz, fathomed her intentions, +she partly succeeded in persuading the Austrian and Prussian +Ministers that their mission clearly was to stamp out Jacobinism +at Paris, while Providence reserved for her the duty of extirpating +its offshoots at Warsaw. In the Viennese Court, where the +value of a regenerated Poland as a buffer State was duly appreciated, +there were some qualms as to the spoliation of that unoffending +State; but Prussian politicians, in their eagerness for +the Polish districts, Danzig and Thorn, harboured few scruples +as to betraying the cause of their allies at Warsaw.</p> + +<p>Little by little the outlines of a scheme were sketched between +Austria and Prussia for securing indemnities for the expenses +of the war against France; and it was arranged that Prussia +should acquire the coveted lands on the lower Vistula; also +Anspach and Baireuth; Austria was to effect the long-desired +Belgic-Bavarian exchange, besides gaining parts of Alsace; and +it was understood that Russia would annex the Polish Ukraine +and work her will in the rest of Poland. The Polish part of the +scheme was, however, stiffly opposed by Kaunitz; and in the +sequel the old Chancellor ended his long and distinguished career +by way of protest against a change of front which he deemed +unwise and disgraceful.<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a></p> + +<p>Early in May everything was ready for the restoration of +anarchy in Poland. Catharine ordered her troops to enter its +borders; and the factious Polish nobles whom she had sheltered +during the winter returned to their land and formed a "Confederation" +at Targowicz on 14th May for the purpose of undoing +the reforms of 1791. Daniel Hailes, our envoy at Warsaw, kept +Grenville fully informed of this affair. On 16th June he reported +Austria's desertion of Poland, the brutal refusal of the Court of +Berlin to accord help to its ally, the heroic efforts of Kosciusko +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>and the Polish levies to resist the Russian armies, and the despair +of the patriots of Warsaw, adding the cynical comment that at +Warsaw patriotism was only a cloak for private interest, and that +the new constitution was generally regarded as the death-blow +to Polish independence.<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> Whether he added these words to +please Grenville, who had always discouraged the Polish cause,<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> +is not easy to say; but the statement cannot be reconciled with +Hailes's earlier enthusiasm for that well-meant effort.</p> + +<p>On all sides the Polish patriots now found indifference or +hostility. The Elector of Saxony (their King-elect) gave them +cold words; and Catharine demanded the restoration of the old +constitution of which she was a guarantor. King Stanislaus, a +prey to deep despondency, saw the defence collapse on all sides, +and at the close of June the Russians drew near to Warsaw. +Many of the Polish reformers fled to Leipzig and there prepared +to appeal to Europe against this forcible suppression of a truly +national constitution.</p> + +<p>Amidst these scenes Hailes was replaced by Colonel Gardiner, +who received from Grenville the following instructions, dated +4th August 1792. He informed him that Hailes had last year +been charged "to confine himself to such assurances of His +Majesty's good wishes as could be given without committing +H.M. to any particular line of conduct with respect to any +troubles that might arise on the subject [of the Polish Revolution]. +The event has unhappily but too well justified their +reserve; and the present situation is such as to leave little hope +that the tranquillity of that unfortunate land can be restored +without its falling again into the most entire dependence on the +power of Russia, even if no further dismemberment of territory +should take place." Grenville then stated that Prussia's conduct +was due to fear of a strong Government in Poland; but the +present alternative (a Russian occupation) would probably be +worse for her. He added these sentences: "No intervention of +the Maritime Powers [England and Holland] could be serviceable +to Poland, at least not without a much greater exertion and +expense than the importance to their separate interests could +possibly justify.... You are to be very careful not to do anything +which could hold out ill-grounded expectations of support +from this country."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> +<p>In these words Grenville passed sentence of death upon +Poland. On this important subject he must have acted with +the consent of Pitt; but the opinion of the latter is unknown. +It would seem that after the weak treatment of the Oczakoff +crisis by Parliament, he gave up all hope of saving either +Turkey or Poland. If that was impracticable in the spring of +1791, how much more so in August 1792, when French affairs +claimed far closer attention? It is worth noticing that several +of the Foxites (not Fox himself, for he was still intent on a +Russian alliance),<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> now revised their opinion about Catharine II +and inveighed against her for trampling on the liberties of +Poland. Did they now discover the folly of their conduct in +previously encouraging her?</p> + +<p>In despair of help from England, some of the patriots of +Warsaw turned towards France. But this added to their misfortunes. +It gave the schemers of Berlin the longed-for excuse +of intervening by force under the pretext that they must stamp +out "the French evil" from States bordering on their own. On +hearing of the advance of three Prussian columns, Catharine +threw her whole weight into Polish affairs.</p> + +<p>So closely did the fortunes of Poland intertwine themselves +with those of France. The outbreak of the Franco-Austrian +war meant ruin for the reformers at Warsaw. Had Austria held +to her former resolve, to prevent the triumph of Russia or +Prussia in Poland, it is possible that Pitt and Grenville would +have decided to support her. As it was, they maintained their +cautious and timid neutrality. The reports of Hailes were +explicit enough to show that another partition was at hand; +but, so far as I can discover, they lifted not a finger to prevent +it. The excess of Pitt's caution at this crisis enables us to +gauge the magnitude of the disaster to the Polish cause involved +by his surrender to the Czarina in the spring and summer of +1791. By a wonderful display of skill and audacity she emerged +triumphant from all her difficulties, and now, while egging on +the German Powers to war with France, planted her heel on the +liberties of Poland. Her conquest was easy and profitable. The +restoration of order at Paris proved to be fraught with unexpected +dangers, and the German sovereigns scarcely set their hands to +the task before they discovered that they were her dupes. If +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>the French war worked disaster at Warsaw, the prospect of a +partition of Poland undoubtedly helped to lessen the pressure +on France during the campaign of Valmy. Hope of further +spoils in 1794–5 distracted the aims of the Allies; and Pitt was +destined to see the efforts of the monarchical league in the West +weaken and die away under the magnetic influence of the eastern +problem. Well would it have been for him if he could have upheld +Poland in 1791. By so doing he would have removed the +cause of bitter dissensions between the Houses of Romanoff, +Hapsburg, and Hohenzollern. As will appear in due course, +Revolutionary France achieved her marvellous triumphs partly +by the prowess of her sons, but still more owing to the intrigues +and feuds which clogged the efforts of the Allies and baffled the +constructive powers of Pitt.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">PEACE OR WAR?</p> + +<p class="quote">It seems absolutely impossible to hesitate as to supporting our Ally +[Holland] in case of necessity, and the explicit declaration of our sentiments +is the most likely way to prevent the case occurring.—<span class="smcap">Pitt to Lord +Stafford</span>, <i>13th November 1792</i>.</p> + + +<p>One of the first requisites for the study of a period whose +outlines are well known, is to bar out the insidious notion +that the course of events was inevitable. Nine persons out of ten +have recourse to that easy but fallacious way of explaining +events. The whole war, they say, or think, was inevitable. It +was fated that the Duke of Brunswick should issue his threatening +manifesto to the Parisians if violence were offered to Louis XVI; +that they should resent the threat, rise in revolt, and dethrone +the King, and thereafter massacre royalists in the prisons. The +innate vigour of the democratic cause further required that the +French should stand their ground at Valmy and win a pitched +battle at Jemappes, that victory leading to an exaltation of soul +in which the French Republicans pushed on their claims in such +a way as to bring England into the field. History, when written +in this way, is a symmetrical mosaic; and the human mind loves +patterns.</p> + +<p>But events are not neatly chiselled; they do not fall into +geometrical groups, however much the memory, for its own ease, +seeks to arrange them thus. Their edges are jagged; and the +slightest jar might have sent them in different ways. To recur +to the events in question: the Duke of Brunswick objected to +issuing the manifesto, and only owing to the weariness or weakness +of old age, yielded to the insistence of the <span lang="fr">émigrés</span> at his +headquarters: the insurrection at Paris came about doubtfully +and fitfully; the issue on 10th August hung mainly on the +personal bearing of the King; the massacres were the work of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +an insignificant minority, which the vast mass regarded with +sheer stupefaction; and even the proclamation of the French +Republic by the National Convention on 21st September was +not without many searchings of heart.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a></p> + +<p>Meanwhile Pitt and Grenville had not the slightest inkling as +to the trend of events. The latter on 13th July 1792 wrote thus +to Earl Gower at Paris: "My speculations are that the first +entrance of the foreign troops [into France] will be followed by +negotiations; but how they are to end, or what possibility there +is to establish any form of government, or any order in France, +is far beyond any conjectures I can form."<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> This uncertainty +is illuminating. It shows that Pitt and Grenville were not farseeing +schemers bent on undermining the liberties of France +and Britain by a war on which they had long resolved, but +fallible mortals, unable to see a handbreadth through the turmoil, +but cherishing the hope that somehow all would soon +become clear. As to British policy during the summer of 1792, +it may be classed as masterly inactivity or nervous passivity, +according to the standpoint of the critic. In one case alone did +Pitt and Grenville take a step displeasing to the French Government, +namely, by recalling Gower from the embassy at Paris; +and this was due to the fall of the French monarchy on 10th +August, and to the danger attending the residence of a noble in +Paris. Only by a display of firmness did Gower and his secretary, +Lindsay, succeed in obtaining passports from the new Foreign +Minister, Lebrun.<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a></p> + +<p>That follower of Dumouriez had as colleagues the former +Girondin Ministers, Clavière, Roland, and Servan. Besides them +were Monge (the physicist) for the Navy, and Danton for Justice, +the latter a far from reassuring choice, as he was known to be +largely responsible for the massacres in the prisons of Paris +early in September. Little is known about the publicist, Lebrun, +on whom now rested the duty of negotiating with England, +Spain, Holland, etc. It is one of the astonishing facts of this +time that unknown men leaped to the front at Paris, directed +affairs to momentous issues, and then sank into obscurity or +perished. The Genevese Clavière started assignats and managed +revolutionary finance; Servan controlled the War Office for some +months with much ability, and then fell; Pétion, Santerre, the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>popular Paris brewer, and an ex-hawker, Hanriot, were successively +rulers of Paris for a brief space.</p> + +<p>But of all the puzzles of this time Lebrun is perhaps the chief. +In his thirtieth year he was Foreign Minister of France, when +she broke with England, Holland, Spain, and the Empire. He +is believed by many (<span lang="la">e.g.</span>, by W. A. Miles, who knew him well) +to be largely responsible for those wars. Yet who was this +Lebrun? Before the Revolution he had to leave France for his +advanced opinions, and took refuge at Liége, where Miles found +him toiling for a scanty pittance at journalistic hack-work. +Suffering much at the hands of the Austrians in 1790, he fled +back to Paris, joined the Girondins, wrote for them, made himself +useful to Dumouriez during his tenure of the Foreign Office, +and, not long after his resignation, stepped into his shoes and +appropriated his policy. In order to finish with him here, we +may note that he voted for the death of Louis XVI, and, as +President of the Executive Council at that time, signed the +order for the execution. He and other Girondins were driven +from power on 2nd June 1793 (when Hanriot's brazen voice +decided the fate of the Girondins) and he was guillotined on +23rd December of that year, for the alleged crime of conspiring to +place Philippe Egalité on the throne. Mme. Roland, who helped +Lebrun to rise to power, limns his portrait in these sharp outlines: +"He passed for a wise man, because he showed no kind +of <span lang="fr">élan</span>; and for a clever man, because he was a fairly good +clerk; but he possessed neither activity, intellect, nor force of +character." The want of <span lang="fr">élan</span> seems to be a term relative merely +to the characteristics of the Girondins, who, whatever they lacked, +had that Gallic quality in rich measure.</p> + +<p>Chauvelin, the French ambassador in London, is another of +these revolutionary rockets. Only in fiction and the drama does +he stand forth at all clearly to the eye. History knows him +not, except that he had been a marquis, then took up with the +Girondins, finally shot up among the Jacobins and made much +noise by his intrigues and despatches. With all his showiness +and vanity he had enough shrewdness to suit his language at +the French embassy in Portman Square to the Jacobin jargon +of the times. After the September massacres the only hope for +an aristocratic envoy was to figure as an irreproachable patriot. +Chauvelin's dealings with the English malcontents therefore became +more and more pronounced; for indeed they served both<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +as a life insurance and as a means of annoying Pitt and Grenville +in return for their refusal to recognize him as the ambassador +of the new Republic. Londoners in general sided with the +Ministry and snubbed the French envoys. Dumont describes +their annoyance, during a visit to Ranelagh, at being received +everywhere with the audible whisper, "Here comes the French +embassy"; whereupon faces were turned away and a wide space +was left around them.<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a></p> + +<p>Such, then, were the men on whom largely rested the future +of Europe. Lebrun mistook fussiness for activity. At a time +when tact and dignity prescribed a diminution of the staff at +Portman Square, he sent two almost untried men, Noël and, a +little later, Benoît, to help Chauvelin to mark time. Talleyrand +also gained permission to return to London as <i>adjoint</i> +to Chauvelin, which, it appears, was the only safe means of +escaping from Paris. Chauvelin speedily quarrelled with him. +But the doings of the French embassy concern us little for the +present, as Pitt and Grenville paid no attention to the offers, +similar to those made in April, which Lebrun charged his envoys +to make for an Anglo-French alliance. It is not surprising, +after the September massacres, that Ministers should +hold sternly aloof from the French envoys; but we may note +that Miles considered their attitude most unwise. He further +remarked that the proud reserve of Grenville was almost offensive.<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> +We made the acquaintance of Miles as British agent +at Paris in 1790 and noted his consequential airs. In 1792 they +were full blown.</p> + +<p>The opinions of George III and Pitt on the events of that +bloody harvest-time in Paris are very little known. The King's +letters from Weymouth to Pitt in August–September are few +and brief. On 16th September, after the arrival of news of +the massacres, he writes to say that his decision respecting the +Prince of Wales's debts is irrevocable. After that there is a long +silence. Pitt's reserve is equally impenetrable. We know, however, +from the letters of Burke that the conduct of Ministers +deeply disappointed him. Writing to Grenville on 19th September +he says that the crisis exceeds in gravity any that is +recorded in history; and he adds these curious words: "I know +it is the opinion of His Majesty's Ministers that the new [French] +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>principles may be encouraged, and even triumph over every interior +and exterior resistance, and may even overturn other States +as they have that of France, without any sort of danger of their +extending in their consequences to this Kingdom."<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> Can we +have a clearer testimony to the calm but rigid resolve with +which Pitt and his colleague clung to neutrality? On the following +day (the day of the Battle of Valmy) Pitt frigidly +declined the request of the Austrian and Neapolitan ambassadors, +that the British Government would exclude from its +territories all those who should be guilty of an attack on the +French royal family. On 21st September Grenville issued a +guarded statement on this subject to the <span lang="fr">corps diplomatique</span>; but +it was far from meeting the desires of the royalists.<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a></p> + +<p>Reticence is a virtue over-developed in an aristocracy—"that +austere domination," as Burke terms it. The virtue is slow in +taking root among democracies. The early Radical clubs of +Great Britain regarded it as their cherished privilege to +state their opinions on foreign affairs with Athenian loquacity; +and the months of October and November 1792, when we +vainly seek to know the inner feelings of Pitt, are enlivened by +resolutions expressing joy at the downfall of tyrants, and fervent +beliefs in the advent of a fraternal millennium, the first fruits of +which were the election of Paine as deputy for Calais to the +National Convention.</p> + +<p>In the dealings of nations, as of individuals, feelings often +count for more than interests. This was the case in the last four +months of the year 1792, when the subjects in dispute bulked +small in comparison with the passions and prejudices which +magnified and distorted them. The psychology of the time +therefore demands no less attention than its diplomacy. Its first +weeks were darkened by news of the September massacres. +Even now the details of that cowardly crime arouse horror: and +surely no part of Carlyle's epic sinks so low as that in which +he seeks to compare that loathsome butchery with the bloodshed +of a battlefield.<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> No such special pleading was attempted +by leaders of thought of that period. On 10th September +Romilly, a friend of human progress, wrote to Dumont: +"How could we ever be so deceived in the character of the +French nation as to think them capable of liberty?... One +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>might as well think of establishing a republic of tigers in some +forest of Africa." To which the collaborator of Mirabeau replied: +"Let us burn all our books; let us cease to think and +dream of the best system of legislation, since men make so diabolical +a use of every truth and every principle."<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> These feelings +were general among Frenchmen. Buzot stated that the loss of +morality, with all its attendant evils, dated from the September +massacres.</p> + +<p>It seems strange that the democratic cause made headway in +England after this fell event. Probably its details were but +dimly known to the poor, who were at this time the victims +of a bad harvest and severe dearth. The months of September +and October were marked by heavy and persistent rains. The +Marquis of Buckingham on 23rd September wrote at Stowe to +his brother, Lord Grenville, that he was living amidst a vortex of +mud, clay, and water such as was never known before—the result +of six weeks of unsettled weather, which must impair the harvest +and increase the difficulty of maintaining order.<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> Certainly the +stars in their courses fought against the <span lang="fr">ancien régime</span>. The +rains which made a receptive seed-bed for the writings of Paine +also hampered the progress of Brunswick towards the Argonne, +crowded his hospitals with invalids, and in part induced that +inglorious retreat. As the storms lasted far into the autumn, +disaffection increased apace.</p> + +<p>The results serve to enliven the dull tones of our Home Office +archives. There one reads of bread riots and meal riots so far +back as May 1792, in which stalls are overturned and despoiled; +also of more persistent agitation in the factory towns of the +North. Liverpool leads off with a dock-strike that is with difficulty +ended. Then the colliers of Wigan stop work and seek to +persuade all their comrades to follow their example. Most +threatening of all is the situation at Manchester and Sheffield. +There, in addition to disorder among the townsfolk, disaffection +gains ground among the troops sent to keep order. This again +is traceable to the dearness of food, for which the scanty pay of +the trooper by no means suffices. Here, then, is the opportunity +for the apostle of discontent judiciously to offer a cheap edition +of the "Rights of Man," on which fare the troop becomes half-mutinous +and sends in a petition for higher pay. This the perplexed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +authorities do not grant, but build barracks, a proceeding +eyed askance by publicans and patriots as the beginning +of military rule.<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a></p> + +<p>The South of England, too, is beset by fears of a novel kind. +After the overthrow of the French monarchy on 10th August +fugitives from France come fast to the coasts of Kent and +Sussex. The flights become thicker day by day up to the end +of that fell month of September. Orthodox priests, always in +disguise, form the bulk of the new arrivals. As many as 700 +of them land at Eastbourne, and strain the hospitality of that +little town. About as many reach Portsmouth and Gosport, to +the perplexity of the authorities. When assured that they are +staunch royalists and not apostles of Revolution, the commander +allots shelter in the barracks at Forton, where for the +present they exist on two pence a day each. Plymouth, which +receives fewer of them, frowns on the newcomers as politically +suspect and economically ruinous. The mayor assures Dundas +that, if more priests arrive, or are sent there, they will be driven +away by the townsfolk for fear of dearth of corn. In Jersey the +food question eclipses all others; for 2,000 priests (so it is said) +land there, until all ideas of hospitality are cast to the winds and +the refugees are threatened with expulsion. Only in the vast obscurantism +of London is there safety for these exiles. A subscription +list is started on their behalf; the King offers the royal +house at Winchester for the overplus at Portsmouth: and by +degrees the scared throngs huddle down into the dire poverty +and uneasy rest that are to be their lot for many a year.<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a></p> + +<p>Strange adventures befell many of the French nobles in their +escape. The Duc de Liancourt, commanding the troops at +Rouen, was fain to flee to the coast, hire a deckless craft, and +conceal himself under faggots. In that manner he put to sea +and finally made the opposite coast at Hastings. There, still +nervous, he made his way to the nearest inn, and, to proclaim his +insularity, called for porter. The beverage was too much for +him, and he retired to his room in a state of unconscious +passivity. On his awaking, the strange surroundings seemed +those of a French lock-up; but as he crept down to make his +escape, the mugs caught his eye; and their brightness convinced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +him that he was in England. Such was his story, told to +the family at Bury, where Fanny Burney was staying. Several +of the wealthier French refugees settled at Richmond, and there +found Horace Walpole as charmer and friend. But the most +distinguished group was that at Juniper Hall, near Dorking +where finally Mme. de Staël and Talleyrand enlivened the dull +days and long drives with unfailing stores of wit. We shall later +on make the acquaintance of the French <span lang="fr">émigrés</span> in a more +active and bellicose mood.</p> + +<p>Such, then, was the mental condition of our folk. Depressed +by rain and dear food, beset by stories of plotters from Paris, or +harrowed by the tales of misery of the French <span lang="fr">émigrés</span>, Britons +came to look on France as a land peopled by demons, who +sought to involve other lands in the ruin to which they had +reduced their own. In this state of nervousness and excitement +little was needed to bring about a furious reaction on behalf of +Church and King.</p> + +<p>The follies of English democrats helped on this reaction. +Whispers went about of strange and threatening orders of arms +at Birmingham. A correspondent at the midland capital informed +Dundas at the end of September that a Dr. Maxwell, of +York, had ordered 20,000 daggers, which were to be 12 inches +in the blade and 5 1/4 inches in the handle. The informant convinced +the manufacturer that he must apprise the Home Secretary +of this order and send him a specimen of the weapon. +Probably it was the same which Burke melodramatically cast +down on the floor of the House of Commons during his speech +of 28th December. The dimensions exactly tally with those +named by the biographer of Lord Eldon, who retained that +dagger, though Bland Burges also put in a claim to have +possessed it. The scepticism which one feels about this prodigious +order of daggers, which others give as 3,000, is somewhat +lessened by finding another letter, of 2nd October 1792, +addressed to Dundas by James Maxwell of York, who stated +that he highly disapproved of the "French" opinions of his +younger brother (specimens of whose letters he enclosed), and +had just given him £500 so as to dissuade him from going to +Manchester to stir up discontent there.<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> This unbrotherly +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>conduct condemns the elder Maxwell, but his information to +some extent corroborated that which came from Birmingham. +The whole affair may have been merely a device to frighten +Ministers; but report says that Pitt took it seriously and ascribed +to him the singular statement that Ministers soon might +not have a hand to act with or a tongue to speak with.<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a></p> + +<p>Certainly there was a good deal of discontent in the manufacturing +towns, but it is not easy to say whether it resulted +more from dear food or from political reasons. At Stockport a +new club styled "The Friends of universal Peace and the +Rights of Man," issued and circulated a manifesto asserting their +right to inquire into political affairs:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>It is our labour that supports monarchy, aristocracy, and the priesthood.... +We are not the "swinish multitude" that Mr. Burke speaks +of. A majority of the House of Commons is returned by less than +6,000 voters; whereas, if the representation were equal (and we sincerely +hope that it shortly will be), nearly that number will elect every +single member. Not one-twentieth part of the commoners of Great +Britain are electors.... We have a National Debt of more than +£270,000,000, and pay £17,000,000 a year in taxes. More than one +fourth of our incomes goes in taxes.<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>The Radical clubs also showed a desire to pry into foreign +affairs; witness the following letter from Thomas Hardy to +Dr. Adams, Secretary of the London Society for Constitutional +Information:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">No. 9 Piccadilly (London), <i>Sept. 21 1792</i>.<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a></p> + +<p>The London Corresponding Society having taken the resolution of +transmitting to the French National Convention an address ... to +assure that suffering nation that we sympathize with them in their misfortunes; +that we view their exertions with admiration; that we wish to +give them all such contenance [<span lang="la">sic</span>] and support as individuals unsupported +and oppressed themselves can afford; and that, should those in +power here dare (in violation of the nation's pledged faith of neutrality +and in opposition to the well-known sentiments of the people at large) +to join the German band of despots united against Liberty, we disclaim +all concurrence therein, and will to a man exert every justifiable means +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>for counteracting their machinations against the freedom and happiness +of mankind.</p> + +<p>I am ordered by the Committee to acquaint the Society for Constitutional +Information therewith, in order to be favoured with their opinions +thereon, and in hopes that, if they approve the idea and recommend its +adoption to the different societies, the publication of such a respectable +number of <em>real</em> names will greatly check the hostile measures which +might otherwise be put in execution.</p> +</div> + + +<p>On 5th October the Society for Constitutional Information +agreed to the plan, and ordered the drafting of a joint address to +the French Convention. By this time the news of the successful +stand of the French troops against the Allies at Valmy and +the subsequent retreat of the latter greatly encouraged the English +democrats; and a more militant tone appears in their +addresses. Thus in that meeting of 5th October a letter was +read from Joel Barlow containing these sentences: "A great +Revolution in the management of the affairs of nations is doubtless +soon to be expected through all Europe; and in the progress +of mankind towards this attainment it is greatly to be +desired that the convictions to be acquired from rational discussion +should precede and preclude those which must result from +physical exertion."</p> + +<p>Why "precede and preclude"? The two expressions are incompatible. +It seems that some more moderate member must +have added the latter word as a sop to the authorities. In any +case the last words of the sentence were clearly intended as a +threat. On 26th October, John Frost being in the chair, the +same Society framed the following resolution:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>That the Secretary do procure correct copies of the Manifesto published +by the late General Burgoyne while in America, of the first +Manifesto lately published by the Duke of Brunswick in France, of the +last Royal Proclamation against writings and meetings in England, and +of the Emperor's recent proclamation at Brussels on the same subject; +in order that these four pieces may be printed fairly together on one +sheet of paper, and be transmitted by this Society to all the associated +Societies in Great Britain.<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>It was then resolved to publish this resolution in the "Argus," +"Morning Chronicle,"<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> "Star," "Morning Post," "English +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>Chronicle," "World," and "Courier." These papers supported +the democratic cause. In order to counteract their influence Pitt +and his colleagues about this time helped to start two newspapers, +"The Sun" and "The True Briton," the advent of which +was much resented by Mr. Walter of "The Times," after his +support of the Government.<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> Apparently these papers were of a +more popular type, and heralded the advent of a cheap and +sensational royalism. Sheridan wittily advised that the motto of +"The Sun" should be, not merely the beginning, but the whole +of the passage:</p> + + +<p class="poem"><span lang="la" style="font-style: normal"> +<span class="i14" style="font-style: normal">Solem quis dicere falsum<br /></span> +Audeat? Ille etiam caecos instare tumultus<br /> +Saepe monet, fraudemque, et operta tumescere bella.</span><a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> +</p> + + +<p>The combined address from several patriotic (<span lang="la">i.e.</span> reform) +societies, arranged for by Thomas Hardy, was not read at the +bar of the French Convention until 7th November. It set forth +that the five thousand signatories indignantly stepped forth to +rescue their country from the opprobrium thrown upon it by the +base conduct of the Government. In vain did Ministers seek to +overawe the timid and mislead the credulous: for Knowledge +and Reason were making great strides in England, so that +Britons now looked on Frenchmen only as "citizens of the +world, children of the common Father," not as enemies to be +assassinated "at the command of weak or ambitious Kings, or +of corrupt Ministers." Their real enemies were the destructive +aristocracy, "the bane of all the countries of the earth. You +have acted wisely in banishing it from France." They (the +signatories) could not take up arms to help France, because the +Government had pledged the national faith that it would remain +neutral. The Elector of Hanover had joined his troops to those +of traitors and robbers; "but the King of England will do well +to remember that England is not Hanover; should he forget +this, we will not forget it.... We ardently wish a Triple Alliance, +not of crowned heads, but of the people of America, +France, and Great Britain will give liberty to Europe and peace +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>to the world." The address was signed by Margarot and Hardy. +It and other addresses were reported verbatim by our <span lang="fr">chargé +d'affaires</span>, Munro, to the Foreign Office.<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a></p> + +<p>The democratic ferment in England speedily aroused a decided +opposition. Macaulay probably does not much exaggerate when +he says that out of twenty well-to-do persons nineteen were +ardently loyal and firmly anti-Jacobin. The month of November +saw the formation of an "Ante [<span lang="la">sic</span>]-Levelling Society, for +supporting the Civil Power in suppressing Tumults and maintaining +the constitutional Government of this Country in King, +Lords, and Commons." Its programme leaves much to be +desired in the matter of style, but nothing in respect to loyalty.<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> +The club was founded by Reeves and others. Hardy notes +in his memoirs that it soon began to do much harm to the +Corresponding Society.</p> + +<p>Far aloof from this turmoil stands the solitary and inscrutable +figure of Pitt. At this time he was leading, almost with ostentation, +the life of a country gentleman, dividing his time between +Holwood and Walmer Castle. Very few of his letters of this +period survive. Writing from Walmer on 16th October to +Grenville, he makes merely a verbal alteration in an important +despatch on which the latter consulted him. Indeed he left the +conduct of foreign affairs to Grenville far more fully than he had +done to the Duke of Leeds. I have found no draft of a despatch +written wholly by Pitt at the time, or indeed at the crisis that +followed. There is, however, a significant phrase in his letter to +Grenville, that, if the French retained Savoy, this would bring +about a new order of things.<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> For the most part Pitt at this +time gave himself up to rest and recreation at Walmer Castle. +The charm of the sea and of the Downs seems to have laid hold +on him; for General Smith, writing to Lord Auckland from +Walmer, says that Pitt is soon in love with the King's present +and gladly spends there all the time he can spare. Lord and +Lady Chatham were with him and encouraged his passion for +that retired spot. A little later he had a flying visit from one +who was to become a devoted friend, the brilliant and versatile +Earl of Mornington. Coming over from Ramsgate and lunching +at Walmer, he found that Pitt had so far taken up with country +sports as to follow the hounds in chase of "a basketted hare."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> +<p>Apart from the bad harvest and the spectre of want which +crept over the country, Pitt found little to alarm him at this +time. In preparation for the opening of Parliament, he distributed +to each of his friends six printed copies of his speech on +the abatement of the Spanish armament taxes, for the purpose of +circulation in the country.<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a> Clearly he thought that the proposed +economies in the public services would salve the prevailing discontent. +At the close of October the French agent, Noël, reported +to Lebrun that Pitt was not arming, and was still inclined +to hold aloof from French affairs.<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> In fact, so late as 6th +November, Grenville wrote to Auckland that on all grounds +non-intervention in continental affairs is the best policy for +Great Britain.<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<p>But now a time drew near when anger was to expel calculation; +when the impulses of the populace flung aside the +counsels of statesmen, and the friends of universal peace helped +to loose the dogs of war. This new phase in the life of Europe +opened up when the dense columns of Dumouriez drove the +thin lines of Austria from a strong position at Jemappes +(6th November). Mons opened its gates on the following day; +and the other towns of Belgium speedily followed suit, the +French receiving a hearty welcome everywhere. The conquest +of the Belgic Provinces puffed up the French with boundless +pride mingled with contempt for the old Governments; and +these feelings awakened a formidable response in these islands. +The news of the conquest of the Pays Bas by the <span lang="fr">sansculottes</span>, +received with bewilderment and disgust in Piccadilly, aroused +wild hopes among the weavers of Spitalfields. "The activity +and insolence of the French emissaries and their allies in this +country have certainly increased much with Dumouriez's success," +so wrote Grenville to Auckland on 26th November.</p> + +<p>In these days we smile at the notion of foreign agents influencing +public opinion; but it seems certain that Chauvelin +and his staff made persistent efforts to fan the embers of discontent +into a flame.<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> Lord Sheffield declared that even the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>neighbourhood of Sheffield Park, near Lewes, was thoroughly +worked by French emissaries; but it is not unlikely that landlord +nervousness transfigured some wretched refugees, on their +way from the coast, into Jacobinical envoys. Certainly the town +which gave him his title was in a dangerous state. An officer +stationed there describes the joy of the men of Sheffield in celebrating +Dumouriez' victory. They roasted an ox whole, devoured +it, and then formed a procession, 10,000 strong, behind +the French tricolour and a picture which represented Dundas +stabbing Liberty and Burke treading down "the swinish multitude." +He states that they were enrolled in Corresponding +Societies, had bought firearms, and were seeking to corrupt the +soldiery.<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a></p> + +<p>Derby seems to have been equally fervid, if we may judge +by the address which on 20th November went from its branch +of the Society for Constitutional Information to the French +National Convention, couched in these terms. "It was reserved +for the Gallic Republic to break the accursed knot which has +leagued Kings for ages past against the rest of the world. Reason +and Philosophy are making great strides; and precedent and +hereditary notions go fast to decline. By teaching mankind that +they are all equal in rights, you have dedicated a glorious edifice +to Liberty, which must hereafter prove the dungeon of tyrants +and the asylum of the oppressed."<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a></p> + +<p>Still more seditious was the action of the London Corresponding +Society. On 28th November Joel Barlow and John Frost, +deputed by that body, presented an address to the French Convention, +congratulating it on the triumphs of liberty, and assured +Frenchmen that innumerable societies and clubs were springing +up in England. "After the example given by France," they +said, "Revolutions will become easy. Reason is about to make +rapid progress; and it would not be extraordinary if in a much +less space of time than can be imagined, the French should send +addresses of congratulation to a National Convention of England." +They then informed the French deputies that 1,000 pairs +of shoes had come from the Society as a gift to the soldiers of +liberty, and the gift would be repeated weekly for the next six +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>weeks. They also presented an address which ended thus: +"Other nations will soon follow your steps in this career of +improvement, and, rising from their lethargy, will arm themselves +for the purpose of claiming the Rights of Man with that +all-powerful voice which man cannot resist." Next came a +deputation from the English and Irish residents in Paris, which +assured the French deputies that a majority of the British +people desired to copy their example, and that the old Governments +would soon survive merely as a memory. The three +addresses aroused immense enthusiasm, and a decree was passed +for their printing and circulation.<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a></p> + +<p>These ecstatic praises of the Convention sounded oddly, as +that body had just been discussing a petition from several +Parisians who had lately been imprisoned without knowing why +or by whom. And the Belfast address of congratulation on the +progress of religious liberty was followed by the complaints of +two members of the Convention that they had been half drowned +at Chartres for a profession of atheism.<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a> But undoubtedly these +addresses by British Radicals caused exultation on both sides +of the Channel. Frenchmen believed that our people were +about to overthrow the Cabinet;<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a> while the visitors returned +home to trumpet forth the triumphs of Reason and the doom +of Tyranny.</p> + +<p>Certainly the action of the French Convention seemed to assume +the speedy advent of a Jacobinical millennium. To the eye +of faith the headlong flight of the Austrians from Belgium opened +up boundless vistas of conquest, or rather, of fraternization with +liberated serfs. Consequently the month from 16th November +to 15th December witnessed the issue of four defiantly +propagandist decrees. That of 16th November enjoined on +French generals the pursuit of the Austrians on to any territory +where they might find refuge—obviously a threat to the German +and Dutch States near at hand. On the same day the French +deputies decreed freedom of navigation on the estuary of the +River Scheldt within the Dutch territory, which that people had +strictly controlled since the Treaty of Münster (1648). In this +connection it is well to remember that the right of the Dutch to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>exclude foreigners from that estuary had been recognized by +France in five treaties signed with Great Britain since the Peace +of Utrecht. Further, by the Anglo-Dutch alliance of the year +1788, we had covenanted to uphold the rights of the Dutch in +this and other respects. Thus, the French Republic was taking +upon itself to rescind a well-established right of the Dutch +Republic.</p> + +<p>There is, however, another side to this question. The law of +Nature, as distinct from the law of nations, forbade the barring +of a navigable river to the commerce of aliens; and in this particular +case the exclusive privileges retained by the Dutch had +almost strangled the trade of Antwerp. Visitors describe the +desolate aspect of the quays and streets in a city which was +clearly designed to be one of the great marts of the world. Of +this gospel of Nature, as set forth by Rousseau, the French were +the interpreters; but they would have done well to appeal to +Holland and Great Britain to abrogate this odious privilege, +adding also the assurance, formerly given by Dumouriez, that +Belgium would never become French.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately the disinterested character of the crusade for +liberty was now belied by two additional decrees which created +the worst possible impression. On 19th November the French +Convention declared its resolve to "grant fraternity and assistance +to all people who wish to recover their liberty," and further +ordered its generals to give effect to this decree. Eight days later +it rescinded the former resolution, that France would make no +conquests, by ordering the incorporation of Savoy in the French +Republic. The priest Grégoire was equal to the task of proving +that this involved no contradiction of the former principle, because +the Savoyards wished to join France and Nature herself +had proclaimed the desirability of union. By the same patriotic +logic France could rightfully absorb all parts of the Continent +where Jacobins abounded and natural frontiers were lacking.</p> + +<p>These decrees brought about an entirely new situation. The +annexation of Savoy furnished a practical commentary on the +airy proposals announced on 16th and 19th November; but +these alone were sufficient to cause Pitt and Grenville the deepest +concern. On the 27th the latter wrote to Auckland at The +Hague in terms which show his conviction that France meant +to revolutionize the Dutch Republic, and also, if possible, Great +Britain. Respecting the decrees of the 16th and 19th he wrote:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +"The whole is a concerted plan to drive us to extremities, with +a view of producing an impression in the interior of the country."<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id="FNanchor_115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> +That is, he believed the Convention to be set on forcing England +either to declare war, or to give way disgracefully; and in either +case the result would be an increase of seditious feeling in these +islands. This continued to be his view. For on 4th December, +after reading the seditious addresses of the English societies to +the Convention, he wrote again to Auckland that the French +evidently relied on the malcontents both in England and Holland +to paralyse the Governments; and, he added, "This is +above all others a reason for firmness in the present moment, +and for resisting, while the power of resistance is yet in our +hands. For the success of their unfounded claims would not +only give rise to new pretensions, but would give them additional +influence."<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id="FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a> Pitt's views were the same, though he stated them +more firmly and not as an alarmist. On 9th December he +wrote to the Earl of Westmorland, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, +that the gross disregard of treaties shown of late by France, +her encouragement of the spirit of revolt in all lands, and her +public reception of addresses from English societies, "full of +treasonable sentiments," compelled the Government, though very +reluctantly, to add to the armed forces. He added these words: +"I am clear that the circumstances require vigour and decision +both at home and abroad. And the spirit of the country seems +within these last ten days to have taken so favourable a turn that +I think we may look with great confidence to the event."<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id="FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> Thus +Pitt and Grenville equally felt the need of firmness in resisting +the French decrees, partly because of their aggressive and illegal +nature, but also because surrender would inflate the spirits of +British malcontents.</p> + +<p>Current events served to strengthen this opinion. France had +hitherto won all the points of the game by sheer audacity. +Everywhere she had attacked, and everywhere she had found unexpected +weakness. Custine's army had extorted a forced loan +from Frankfurt. Dumouriez was threatening Aix-la-Chapelle on +the east, and the Dutch on the north. The spirit which animated +the French Foreign Office appears in the letter which +Lebrun, its chief, wrote to Dumouriez on 22nd November: "To +the glory of having freed the Belgian Catholics, I hope you will +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>join that of delivering their Batavian brothers from the yoke of +the Stadholder."<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id="FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> There can be no doubt that the general laid +his plans for that purpose, though he also sent pacific overtures +to Auckland at The Hague.<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_119_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a></p> + +<p>To crown the indignation of royalists, there came the tidings +that on 3rd December the French Convention decreed the trial +of Louis XVI for high treason against the nation. The news +aroused furious resentment; but it is noteworthy that Pitt and +Grenville rarely, if ever, referred to this event; and that, before +it was known, they had declared the impossibility of avoiding +a rupture with the French Government if it persisted in +adhering to the November decrees. On this question the final +court of appeal is the despatches and letters of our Ministers. +An examination of them discloses the reasons for their firmness. +On 13th November, when the evacuation of Brussels by the +Austrians was known, Ministers assured the Dutch Government +that they would oppose a French invasion of Holland. +They charged Auckland to declare that His Majesty had +"no hesitation as to the propriety of his assisting the Dutch Republic +as circumstances might require, against any attempt on +the part of any other Power to invade its dominions or to +disturb its Government." This declaration was to be published +in order to discourage the plots of the Dutch "Patriots," and to +warn the French Government and its general of the danger of +a hostile advance. Auckland replied on 16th November: "It is +impossible to convey to Your Lordships an adequate sense of the +impression made by this voluntary declaration of His Majesty's +sentiments and intentions respecting the Republic on the occasion +of the present crisis. The generosity of this measure, which +in a few hours was generally known, and which to-morrow will +be circulated on the Continent in the newspapers of the Republic, +is acknowledged by everyone." The Prince of Orange at once +wrote to thank the King for this proof of his friendship, and +added the suggestion that the anchoring of a British squadron +in the Downs would, more than anything else, tend to "hold in +check our enemies."<a name="FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_120_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a></p> + +<p>Pitt and Grenville did not comply with this last request; and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>the British declaration itself came just two days too late to give +pause to the National Convention, before it published the +decree on the opening of the Scheldt. Possibly in the days of +telegraphs the warning would have been flashed from The Hague +to Paris in time. As it was, both Powers publicly committed +themselves on the same day to opposite courses of action from +which pride or conviction forbade them to recede. So narrow +sometimes is the space that at first divides the paths leading towards +peace and war.</p> + +<p>The concern of Pitt and Grenville at the French conquest of +Belgium appears in their instructions to Stratton, our <span lang="fr">chargé +d'affaires</span> at Vienna, to confer with the Austrian Chancellor, +Cobenzl, on the threatening situation, setting forth the desire of +George III to contribute to the tranquillity of all the States of +Europe. In his reply of 22nd December Cobenzl declared that +Austria and Prussia must have indemnities for their expenses +in the war, the restoration of monarchy at Paris being another +essential to a settlement.<a name="FNanchor_121_121" id="FNanchor_121_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_121_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a> These statements were most discouraging: +the former pointed to a speedy partition of Poland; +and the forcible restoration of the Bourbons was at this time +wholly repugnant to the feelings of Pitt.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the prospect of war with France had become far +more threatening. The decree of 16th November on the +Scheldt, and that of 19th November on helping foreign malcontents, +were a direct defiance to all neighbouring States, and +especially to Great Britain and Holland. In the latter country +the Patriots were, as in 1787, actively helped from Paris, and +threatened the existence of the Orange <span lang="fr">régime</span>, of which we were +the guarantors. Moreover, the opening of the Scheldt was a +serious blow to Dutch commerce. Sir James Harris, writing +from The Hague in December 1784, when this very question +brought Joseph II to the brink of war with Holland, quoted the +declaration of the Grand Pensionary, that the Dutch ought to +spend their last florin "rather than submit to so destructive and +humiliating a measure as the opening of the Scheldt."<a name="FNanchor_122_122" id="FNanchor_122_122"></a><a href="#Footnote_122_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a> The +effusive thanks of the Dutch when the Court of Versailles opposed +the demand of Joseph II, shows that they looked on the +control of that estuary as vital to their interests. This question +was brought to an issue on 23rd November, when French +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>gunboats entered the Scheldt, and, despite the fire of the Dutch +guardship, made their way up the river in order to assist in +the reduction of the citadel of Antwerp. The senior captain of +the gunboats announced that he did this by order of Dumouriez. +On 8th December seven French ships sailed up to that city, the +first since the Treaty of Münster.</p> + +<p>The affair of the Scheldt was not the only cause of alarm. +The Dutch authorities managed to get a copy of a secret letter +(dated 20th November) from Dumouriez to Maulde, French +envoy at The Hague, in which he assured him that he would do +his best to keep him in that post (despite the ill will of the +Paris Government); for he had much need of him for certain +negotiations. He added these words: "I count on carrying +liberty to the Batavians (Dutch) as I have done to the Belgians; +also that the Revolution will take place in Holland so that +things will return to the state they were in 1788." The Dutch +Government gave a copy of this letter to Auckland, who forwarded +it to Grenville on 23rd November. It reached Whitehall +three days later. Curiously enough, Grenville did not hear +of the French decree for the opening of the Scheldt until 26th +November. But on that day he wrote to Auckland a despatch +which shows his conviction that France meant to force us into +war, and that the chief question for Great Britain and Holland +now was—when should hostilities begin? Clearly, then, Grenville, +and probably Pitt, regarded a rupture with France as unavoidable, +unless she revoked the aggressive decrees. Nevertheless they +decided to send a special envoy to Paris, and drew up rough drafts +undated and addressed to some person unnamed, bidding him +make careful inquiries into the state of affairs at that capital.</p> + +<p>We cannot wonder that Pitt took a gloomy view of things; +for on 24th November a "moderate" member of the French +Convention proposed an addition to the decree of 19th November +(offering help to malcontents in other States), so as to limit +it to nations with which France was at war. This proposal—obviously +designed to soothe the apprehensions of Pitt—displeased +the "patriotic" majority, which disposed of it by carrying +the "previous question." After this the decree of 19th November +could no longer be treated as a meaningless effervescence of +Gallic enthusiasm; and, when taken with the disloyal addresses +presented by certain English clubs on 28th November, its reaffirmation +produced the worst possible impression.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> +<p>On the 29th, Nagel, the Dutch envoy in London, proffered a +formal appeal for help, in addition to requests which he had +made to Grenville a few days before. He further begged him +to order the assembling of a squadron at the Downs, or at +Gravesend, so as to assist the Dutch speedily, if need arose.<a name="FNanchor_123_123" id="FNanchor_123_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_123_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a> +Meanwhile our allies (as usually happens with small States in +presence of danger) sought to temporize; and herein, as also in +the caution of Pitt and Grenville, lay the reason why war did +not break out at once. No one can peruse the despatches of our +Ministers without seeing that they considered war inevitable, +unless the French retracted the obnoxious decrees. It is well to +notice that at this time the question of the trial of Louis XVI +had not come up for consideration. The dispute turned solely on +the frontier rights of the Dutch, which Pitt and his colleagues +believed to be violated by France, and which we were in honour +bound to vindicate.</p> + +<p>On 1st December, then, came the first of those precautionary +measures which not seldom precipitate the conflict they are +designed to avert. The Cabinet issued a royal proclamation, +calling out part of the militia. Ministers took this step partly as +a retort to the seditious addresses of English Radical clubs to +the French Convention,<a name="FNanchor_124_124" id="FNanchor_124_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_124_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a> partly in order to repress tumults. +There had been rioting in a few towns, and the reports from +Scotland were alarming. On 22nd November Dundas, writing +to Pitt from Melville Castle, N.B., stated that sedition had spread +rapidly of late in Scotland, and he estimated that five regiments +would be needed to hold down Dundee, Perth, and Montrose. +He added that the clergy of the Established Church and their +following were loyal, the others far otherwise.<a name="FNanchor_125_125" id="FNanchor_125_125"></a><a href="#Footnote_125_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a></p> + +<p>Still worse was the news from Ireland. Early in 1792 the +Dublin Parliament repealed one or two of the most odious +statutes against Roman Catholics; but later in the year contumeliously +rejected their petition for the franchise. Consequently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +the mass of Irishmen was ready to join the Society of +United Irishmen, a formidable association founded in Ulster in +1791 by Wolfe Tone. This able young lawyer, fired with zeal +for the French Revolution, conceived the statesmanlike notion +of banding together both Presbyterians and Catholics in a +national movement against the exclusive and dominant English +caste. The conduct of the Dublin Parliament made his dream a +reality. At once the ultra-Protestant traders of the North clasped +hands with the Catholic gentry and peasants of the Centre and +South. This unheard-of union was destined to lead Pitt on to a +legislative experiment which will concern us later. Here we +may notice that the clubs of Irish malcontents proceeded to act +on a plan already mooted in the English societies, that of sending +delegates to form a National Convention in Dublin. The +aim was to constitute a body far more national than the corrupt +Protestant clique that sat in Parliament, and, after overawing +that body, to sunder the connection with England. The precedent +set by the Ulster Volunteers in their meeting at Dungannon +in 1782 warranted the hope of an even completer triumph +than was then secured. The correspondence that passed between +Pitt and the Lord-Lieutenant, Westmorland, reveals the concern +which they felt at the news. Pitt advised the early meeting +of the Dublin Parliament, the proposal of concessions sufficient +to allay discontent, and a determined resistance to all attempts +at intimidation. He also suggested the keeping a close watch on +the importation of arms, and levying a Militia if it were practicable.<a name="FNanchor_126_126" id="FNanchor_126_126"></a><a href="#Footnote_126_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a> +In reply Westmorland stated (1st December) that the manifesto +of a meeting of United Irishmen in Dublin was most threatening, +and that the "French mania" was spreading everywhere. +He added: "Belfast is, as always, noisy and republican; but +not above 200 or 300 Volunteers are there."<a name="FNanchor_127_127" id="FNanchor_127_127"></a><a href="#Footnote_127_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a> It seems probable +that the embodying of the Militia in Great Britain was partly +with the view of enabling a few regular regiments to proceed to +Ireland.</p> + +<p>While taking these precautionary measures, Pitt and Grenville +adopted a tone far from unfriendly to the French envoy. Earlier +in the autumn Grenville refused to see Chauvelin on the ground +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>that the French Government which sent him no longer existed. +But after some <span lang="fr">pourparlers</span> he consented to receive him on +29th November. With his usual <span lang="fr">hauteur</span> he prepared to teach +the ex-Marquis his place from the outset. He placed for him a +stiff small chair; but the envoy quickly repelled the slight and +vindicated the honour of the Republic by occupying the largest +arm-chair available. After this preliminary skirmish things went +more smoothly; but only the briefest summary of their conversation +can be given here. Chauvelin assured Grenville of the +desire of France to respect the neutrality of the Dutch, though +they had fired on two French vessels entering the Scheldt. The +opening of that river, he said, was a right decreed by Nature, +and confirmed to France by the conquest of Brabant—a point +which he pressed Grenville to concede. He then charged +England with unfriendly conduct in other respects. In reply +Grenville said that he welcomed this informal explanation, but +he declined to give any assurance on the Scheldt affair. If (said +he) France and England were not on good terms, it was not the +fault of the latter Power, which had consistently remained neutral +but declined to allow the rights of its Allies to be violated.<a name="FNanchor_128_128" id="FNanchor_128_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_128_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a></p> + +<p>Equally firm, though more affable, was the behaviour of Pitt +in an interview of 2nd December with a Frenchman who was +destined to become Foreign Minister under Napoleon. Maret, +the future Duc de Bassano, at this time made a very informal +<span lang="fr">début</span> on the stage of diplomacy. Despite many statements to +the contrary it is certain that he had no official position in +England. He came here merely in order to look after the affairs +of the Duke of Orleans, especially to bring back his daughter, +who had for some time resided in Suffolk with Mme. de Genlis +and "Pamela." Maret's own words to Miles are decisive on this +point: "I was not a secret agent; I had no authority to treat, +nor had I any mission; and in declaring this to Mr. Pitt and to +you I said nothing but the truth."<a name="FNanchor_129_129" id="FNanchor_129_129"></a><a href="#Footnote_129_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a> With characteristic mendacity +Lebrun afterwards informed the Convention that Maret was a +secret agent and that Pitt had requested an interview with him. +The interview came about owing to the exertions of William +Smith, M.P., a well-intentioned Whig, who hoped much from an +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>informal conversation between Pitt and one of the head clerks of +the French Foreign Office. Chauvelin viewed it with jealousy, it +being his aim to represent Maret as an emissary to the British +and Irish malcontents.<a name="FNanchor_130_130" id="FNanchor_130_130"></a><a href="#Footnote_130_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a> Pitt, when he granted the interview, +cannot have known of this, or of the design of Lebrun ultimately +to foist Maret into the place of Morgues at the French Embassy. +Accordingly he welcomed Maret cordially. No tactical skirmish +about chairs took place, and Maret afterwards declared that the +great Minister behaved affably throughout, brightening his converse +at times by a smile. As the personality of the two statesmen +and the gravity of the crisis invest this interview with +unique interest, Pitt's account of it, which is in the Pretyman +MSS., must be given almost in full.</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>He [Maret] expressed his regret at the distant and suspicious terms +on which England and France appeared to stand, his readiness to give +me any <span lang="fr">éclaircissement</span> he could, and his belief that the present French +Government would be very glad if means could be found by private +agents, with no official character, to set on foot a friendly explanation.</p> + +<p>I told him that, if they were desirous of such an explanation, it +seemed to me much to be wished under the critical circumstances; as +we might by conversing freely learn whether it was possible to avoid +those extremities which we should very much regret but which seemed +from what we saw of the conduct and designs of France to be fast approaching; +and I then mentioned to him distinctly that the resolution +announced respecting the Scheldt was considered as proof of an intention +to proceed to a rupture with Holland; that a rupture with Holland +on this ground or any other injurious to their rights, must also lead to +an immediate rupture with this country; and that altho' we should +deeply regret the event and were really desirous of preserving, if possible, +the neutrality to which we had hitherto adhered, we were fully +determined, if the case arose, to give our utmost support to our ally.</p> + +<p>His answer was that he hoped nothing of the sort would happen; +that he believed there was no design of proceeding to hostilities against +Holland; and that it was much the wish of the French Government to +be on good terms with this country; that they wished to <span lang="fr">ménager +l'Angleterre</span>, and therefore to <span lang="fr">ménager l'Hollande</span>; that these were the +sentiments of M. le Brun when he left Paris about 3 weeks ago; that he +believed them to be those of M. Dumouriez; and that, from the despatches +of M. Chauvelin, which he had seen while here, he believed +they continued to be those of the <span lang="fr">Conseil Exécutif</span>; that he thought a +confidential explanation on this subject very desirable; and would either +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>go to Paris or write to M. le Brun, to state what had passed in our +conversation, and that he was persuaded they would be disposed to +[send?] some other person here to enter privately into negotiations upon +it. He afterwards dropped an idea that some difficulty might perhaps +arise from the <span lang="fr">Conseil Exécutif</span> feeling itself pressed by the weight of +public opinion to propose to us to receive some person here in a formal +character. To this I observed that the circumstances would by no means +admit of any formal communication, and that they would certainly see +the necessity of avoiding the difficulties which must arise from such a +proposal, if they were sincere in wishing an explanation with a view to +remove obstacles.</p> + +<p>Towards the end of the conversation, on his repeating his belief that +it would be the wish of the French Government to have such an explanation +and to remove, if possible, the grounds of misunderstanding, I +remarked to him that, if this was really desired, there was another point +which must be attended to—that he must have seen the impression +made here by the decree in France avowing a design of endeavouring +to extend their principles of government by raising disturbances in other +countries; that, while this was professed or attempted, and till we had +full security on this point, no explanation could answer its purpose, and +that such a conduct must be considered as an act of hostility to neutral +nations. He answered that he knew the impression which this circumstance +produced, and had seen the decree I mentioned with consternation; +that he believed it passed only in a moment of fermentation and +went beyond what was intended; that it could be meant only against +nations at war, and was considered as one way of carrying on war against +them; that he believed it was not conformable to the sentiments of the +<span lang="fr">Conseil Exécutif</span>, and that they might possibly find means to revise it. +To this I said that, whatever were the sentiments of the <span lang="fr">Conseil Exécutif</span>, +the decree, as it stood, might justly be considered by any neutral nation +as an act of hostility. He concluded by saying that he would immediately +send to M. le Brun an account of what had passed, which he +hoped might lead to happy consequences.</p> +</div> + + +<p>Maret prefaced his report of this interview by assuring +Lebrun that Pitt was decidedly in favour of peace, and in fact +dreaded war more than the Whig aristocrats; but, he added, +Lord Hawkesbury and the majority of Ministers were for war—a +somewhat doubtful statement. Maret's description of the +interview is graphic but far from complete. He reported Pitt's +gracious effort to minimize the difficulties of form arising from +the lapse of official relations between France and England. But +(he wrote) the Minister's brow darkened at the mention of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +names of Noël and Chauvelin; and he finally suggested that +Maret should be the accredited French agent at London.<a name="FNanchor_131_131" id="FNanchor_131_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_131_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a></p> + +<p>Pitt's account does not name these personal details, and it +lays more stress on the difficulties caused by the French decrees +opening the Scheldt and offering help to malcontents. We must +further remember that Maret's words of warning to his compatriots +on the latter subject were suppressed in the version +published at Paris, which therefore gave the impression that Pitt +was not deeply moved by recent events. This <span lang="la">suppressio veri</span> +partly accounts for the persistence of the French deputies in their +resolves, which prevented the friendly explanations undoubtedly +desired by Pitt and Maret.</p> + +<p>Bad news also came in from The Hague, to the effect that the +French were demanding a passage through the Dutch fortress of +Maestricht. These tidings caused the worst impression. Grenville +wrote in reply to Auckland on 4th December. "The conduct of +the French in all their late proceedings appears to His Majesty's +servants to indicate a fixed and settled design of hostility against +this country and the [Dutch] Republic." Equally threatening +were "their almost undisguised attempts now making to excite +insurrection here and in Holland." Consequently His Majesty +had decided to arm in self defence, and he hoped that the Dutch +would firmly repel all attempts derogatory to their neutrality. +The King (he added), while taking these precautionary measures, +would not omit such steps as might lead to friendly explanations +with France through the private agents of that Government; +but no ambassador would be received.<a name="FNanchor_132_132" id="FNanchor_132_132"></a><a href="#Footnote_132_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a> Pitt and Grenville +set little store by the soothing explanations of Dumouriez and +his friend, Maulde, who had made overtures to Auckland which +met with a guarded but not unfavourable response. On their +renewal, Auckland received them coldly, remarking that the +whole situation was changed by the late violent decrees of the +French Convention. At that time, too, the friendly Maulde was +recalled and replaced by Tainville, "a professed Jacobin with +brutal manners and evident indiscretion,"<a name="FNanchor_133_133" id="FNanchor_133_133"></a><a href="#Footnote_133_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> Thus faded away the +last faint hopes in that quarter.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> +<p>Equally sombre was the outlook at Paris. The pacific reports +sent by Maret and Maulde from London and The Hague were +before the French Ministers at their meeting on 5th December. +They had also the benefit of a lucid and suggestive <span lang="fr">Mémoire</span> +sent by Talleyrand from London a week earlier, setting forth +the desirability of a friendly understanding between the two free +peoples, who, advancing hand in hand, might give liberty to +backward peoples (especially Spanish America), and draw +thence boundless benefits. It was the plan which Dumouriez and +he had drawn up in the spring of that year. Probably the +Executive Council took no notice of it; for certain papers found +in the iron chest at the Tuileries cast doubts on the purity +of Talleyrand's patriotism. Further, as Pache, Minister at +War, hated Dumouriez, personal bias told strongly against the +moderate proposals coming from London and The Hague. +Nevertheless the Executive Council now decided to defer for +the present the invasion of Holland, meanwhile chasing the +Austrians beyond the Rhine, and fortifying Antwerp. The last +step was declared not to infringe the principles of the Republic, +"which oppose the spirit of conquest."</p> + +<p>Obviously there was nothing to prevent the same liberal +adaptation of these principles to Belgium as Grégoire had proposed +for the welfare of the Savoyards. A few deputations of +the liberated people, asking for union with France, would enable +some equally skilful dialectician to discover that Belgium was +naturally a part of the Republic. For the present, however, the +Belgians sent a deputation to demand unconditional independence; +and it taxed the ingenuity even of <span class="ins" title="Barrère">Barère</span>, then President +of the Convention, to waive aside that request, with airy phrases +as to the alliance of the two peoples emanating from the hands +of Nature herself (4th December).<a name="FNanchor_134_134" id="FNanchor_134_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_134_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a></p> + +<p>Pitt cannot have heard of the French Cabinet's decision of +5th December, but he must have read of the ambiguous treatment +of the Belgians at the bar of the Convention the day previously. +It had long been a maxim at Whitehall that the Pays +Bas must never go to France. To prevent such a disaster England +had poured forth blood and treasure for more than a century. +Pitt's resolve two years before, to maintain Austrian authority +in those provinces, had deeply offended Prussia. Now he +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>and Grenville turned to the Court of Vienna, and on 7th December +made friendly overtures to Stadion, Austrian ambassador at +London.<a name="FNanchor_135_135" id="FNanchor_135_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_135_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a> Thus, the French menace ended the long period of +estrangement between Great Britain and Austria, though, as +will duly appear, mutual confidence took root very slowly.</p> + +<p>On 9th December Lebrun sent off an important despatch to +Chauvelin. With respect to the decree of 19th November, it +stated that France would never demean herself by assisting +rioters, but would respond to the "general will" of a people that +desired to break its chains. Further, France could not reverse +her decision concerning the Scheldt. She would not revolutionize +Holland, but she expected Great Britain not to intervene in +support of a constitution which the Dutch considered "vicious +and destructive of their interests." Finally, the French Government +could not recognize the guarantees of the Dutch constitution +undertaken by England and Prussia in 1788.<a name="FNanchor_136_136" id="FNanchor_136_136"></a><a href="#Footnote_136_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a> On the same +day Lebrun sent a message to Maret, who was still in London, +adverting in ironical terms to the military preparations in +England, at which the French would feel no alarm, and insinuating +that the doctrines of liberty were making rapid progress +there. As to negotiations, the only bases on which they could +proceed were the recognition of the Republic, and the refusal of +the French Cabinet to treat except by a fully accredited envoy.</p> + +<p>On receipt of this letter on the 14th, Maret at once showed +it to Miles, who urged him to request an immediate interview +with the Prime Minister. This was accorded, and at 8 p.m. of +that day, Maret met Pitt again. I have found no account of +this interview. All we know is that it was short and depressing. +Maret had to impart the unwelcome news that all the +communications to the French Government must pass through +the hands of Chauvelin—a personal triumph for that envoy. +Pitt on his side declined to give any answer on the subject of +Maret's communication, or on that of receiving Chauvelin.<a name="FNanchor_137_137" id="FNanchor_137_137"></a><a href="#Footnote_137_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a> We +can imagine that under that stiff and cold exterior the Prime +Minister concealed deep agitation; for the determination of the +French rigidly to adhere to their decrees, to force Chauvelin +upon the British Government, and to require the recognition of +the French Republic, meant war.</p> + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">THE RUPTURE WITH FRANCE</p> + +<p class="quote" lang="fr" style="font-style: normal">La guerre aux rois était la conséquence naturelle du procès fait au roi de +France; la propagande conquérante devait être liée au régicide.—<span class="smcap">Sorel.</span></p> + + +<p>The opening of Parliament on 13th December 1792 took +place amidst circumstances that were depressing to friends +of peace. Affairs were gyrating in a vicious circle. Diplomacy, +as we have seen, had come to a deadlock; but more threatening +even than the dispute between Pitt and Lebrun were the rising +passions of the two peoples. The republican ferment at Paris +had worked all the more strongly since 20th November, the date +of the discovery of the iron chest containing proofs of the anti-national +intrigues of the King and Queen. Hence the decree +(3rd December) for the trial of Louis XVI at the bar of the +Convention with its inevitable sequel, the heating of royalist +passion in all neighbouring lands. It is one of the many mishaps +of the revolutionary movement that its enthusiasm finally +aroused an opposite enthusiasm, its fury begot fury, and thus +set in a series of cyclones which scarcely spent their force even +at Waterloo.</p> + +<p>An essentially philosophic movement at the outset, the +French Revolution was now guided by demagogues and adventurers, +whose only hope of keeping erect lay in constant and +convulsive efforts forwards. Worst symptom of all, its armies +already bade fair to play the part of the Praetorians of the later +Roman Empire. Nothing is more singular at this time than the +fear of the troops. Amidst the distress prevalent at Paris, much +apprehension was felt at the return of the armies of Custine and +Dumouriez. In part, of course, this uneasiness arose from a +suspicion that these men, especially the latter, might take up the +<span lang="fr">rôle</span> of Monk and save Louis. But a member of the French +Convention assured Miles that the disbanding of those tumultuary +forces would bring on a social crisis.</p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>War, [he wrote on 9th December] is to a certain extent inevitable, +not so much for the purpose of opening the Scheldt, for that is rather a +pretext in order to animate the people and preserve their enthusiasm, +but to get rid of 300,000 armed vagabonds, who can never be allowed +to return without evident risk to the Convention and Executive Council.... +It is her opinion [Madame Roland's] and mine that we cannot +make peace with the Emperor without danger to the Republic, and +that it would be hazardous to recall an army, flushed with victory and +impatient to gather fresh laurels, into the heart of a country whose +commerce and manufactures have lost their activity, and which would +leave the disbanded multitude without resources or employment.<a name="FNanchor_138_138" id="FNanchor_138_138"></a><a href="#Footnote_138_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>These words are noteworthy; for they show that prudential +or party motives led some at least of the Girondins, formerly +friends of England, to desire an extension of the war.</p> + +<p>In England, too, the war spirit was rising. The traditional +loyalty of the land had been strengthened by the tactful behaviour +of George III since Pitt's accession to power. These +feelings warmed to a steady glow at the time of the King's +illness in 1788–9; and now the trial of Louis XVI, albeit on +grounds which Britons could not understand, seemed an act of +contemptible cruelty. To bring Louis from Versailles to Paris, +to load him with indignities at the Tuileries, to stop his despairing +bolt for freedom, to compass his downfall, to attack him in +his palace and massacre his defenders, to depose him, and now +to try him for his life for the crime of helping on his would-be +deliverers, appeared to a nation of sportsmen a series of odious +outrages on the laws of fair play. The action of certain Radical +Clubs in sending addresses of congratulation to the National +Convention also aroused deep disgust; and (as Bland Burges +wrote to Auckland on 18th December) Loyal Associations +sprang up on all sides.<a name="FNanchor_139_139" id="FNanchor_139_139"></a><a href="#Footnote_139_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a> A typical address was sent by the +Dover Association to Pitt, as Lord Warden, on 19th December, +asking for permission to take arms in defence of King +and Constitution against invaders from without or levellers +within.<a name="FNanchor_140_140" id="FNanchor_140_140"></a><a href="#Footnote_140_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a> The example was widely followed; and thus, as usually +happens in this land, the puny preparations of Government were +helped on by the eager exertions of the people.</p> + +<p>The revulsion in public opinion early in December was so +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>marked as to impress even Chauvelin. He warned Lebrun that +within a month the English had so changed as scarcely to be +recognizable; but he added: "Pitt seems to have killed public +opinion in England." A conversation which Sheridan had with +him on 7th December ought to have disproved this fable. The +Whig orator sternly reprobated the French decree of 19th +November, offering aid to malcontents, and stated that the Opposition +desired peace with France, but not if she attacked +Holland. Nine-tenths of the people would resent any attempt +to interfere with England or her Allies.</p> + +<p>This patriotic utterance of Sheridan expressed the feelings +of a large part of the Whig Opposition. Parliament on 13th +December showed marked approval of the King's Speech, which, +while affirming his peaceful intentions, asserted his resolve to +strengthen the forces. Lansdowne and Stanhope struck a few +jarring notes; but in the Commons the Opposition was almost +paralysed by a split between the New and Old Whigs. At a +meeting of the party, held on 11th December at Burlington +House, the majority decided to support the Government. Indeed +Parliament would probably have presented a united front +but for the action of Lansdowne, Stanhope, and Fox. Much +depended on the conduct of the great orator at this crisis. +A warning uttered by him to French Republicans might have +had the most salutary effect. Unfortunately his conduct was +such as to impair the unity of English sentiment and thereby to +encourage the delusions of the men in power at Paris. In the +meeting on 11th December he asserted that there was no fear +of a revolt (in which he was doubtless correct) and that the +calling out of the Militia was a mere trick, which he would +strenuously oppose. He admitted that we must support the +Dutch if they were attacked, and disapproved of the French +decree respecting the Scheldt, but strongly deprecated war on +that account. On the 12th he threw caution to the winds, and +stated with an oath that there was no address that Pitt could +frame on which he would not propose an amendment and divide +the House.<a name="FNanchor_141_141" id="FNanchor_141_141"></a><a href="#Footnote_141_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a> This is party spirit run mad; but it was in that +spirit that Fox went to the House on the 13th.</p> + +<p>There he made one of his finest flights of oratory. None of +his speeches excels it in beauty of diction and matchless energy +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>of thought. Most forcible was the passage in which he derided +the ministerial maxim that the canon of English laws and +liberties was complete; that we might thenceforth stand still, +and call upon a wondering world to admire it as a model of +human perfection. Even more biting were his taunts at Ministers +for seeking to stamp out the discontent which their injustice and +violence had created.</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>You have gone upon the principles of slavery in all your proceedings; +you neglect in your conduct the foundation of all legitimate government, +the rights of the people; and, setting up this bugbear, you spread +a panic for the very purpose of sanctifying this infringement, while +again the very infringement engenders the evil which you dread. One +extreme naturally leads to another. Those who dread republicanism fly +for shelter to the Crown. Those who desire Reform and are calumniated +are driven by despair to republicanism. And this is the evil that I +dread. These are the extremes into which these violent agitations hurry +the people, to the decrease of that middle order of men who shudder as +much at republicanism on the one hand as they do at despotism on the +other.<a name="FNanchor_142_142" id="FNanchor_142_142"></a><a href="#Footnote_142_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>He then taunted Ministers with abandoning Poland and not +opposing the coalition of Austria and Prussia, and asserted +that the Cabinet refused to negotiate with France because she +was a Republic, and her Ministers had not been anointed with +the holy oil of Rheims. The weakest part of the speech was +that which dealt with the existing crisis. For of what use was +it to point out where Ministers had gone astray months and +years before, if he did not now mark out for them a practicable +course? In truth, though the prince of debaters, Fox lacked +self-restraint, balance of judgement, and practical sagacity. The +sole important issue was the encouraging of the peace party at +Paris, with a view to the revocation of the aggressive decrees of +the Convention. In private, Fox had admitted that they were +wholly indefensible; and yet, in order to snatch an oratorical +triumph, he fired off a diatribe which could not but stiffen the +necks of the French Jacobins. At such a crisis the true statesman +merges the partisan in the patriot and says not a word to +weaken his own Government and hearten its opponents. To +this height of self-denial Fox rarely rose; and the judgement +alike of his fellows and of posterity has pronounced this speech +a masterpiece of partisan invective and of political fatuity.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> +<p>For how was it possible to recognize the French Republic +until it had withdrawn its threats to existing Governments? +Pitt had reason to believe that a firm protest against the +aggressive decrees of November was the only means of averting +an overturn of international law. He took the proper means +of protesting against them, and his protest was disregarded. In +such a case, to recognize a revolutionary Government which had +just proclaimed its sympathy with malcontents and its resolve +to dictate terms to our Dutch allies, would have been a sign of +weakness. There was but one chance of peace, namely, that +Parliament should give so overwhelming a support to Pitt and +Grenville as to convince the tyros at Paris that they had to do, +not with a clique, but a nation. This unanimity the efforts of +Fox impaired. Some of his friends voted with him from a sense +of personal regard; but the greater number passed over to the +Government or did not vote. Consequently the Foxites mustered +50 votes against 290.</p> + +<p>Equally inopportune was his motion of 15th December, for +sending a Minister to Paris to treat with that Government. His +knowledge of all that went on at the French Embassy in Portman +Square was so exact (witness his repetition publicly on the +13th of the very words of one of Lebrun's despatches to Chauvelin),<a name="FNanchor_143_143" id="FNanchor_143_143"></a><a href="#Footnote_143_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a> +that he must have known of the informal communications +between Pitt and Maret, and of the arrival on the 14th of +despatches from Paris, which negatived the requests of the Prime +Minister. Doubtless it was this last circumstance which curtailed +and weakened Fox's second speech. Grey, Erskine, and Whitbread +vigorously supported the motion; but there was a general +feeling that the despatch of an ambassador to Paris would be a +weak acquiescence in the French claims. The motion was therefore +negatived. Pitt was not present at these first debates, not +having yet been re-elected by the University of Cambridge after +his recent acceptance of the Lord Wardenship of the Cinque +Ports. The defence of the Government therefore devolved chiefly +upon Dundas, Windham, and Burke—a significant conjunction +of names. On 16th December Burke for the first time took his +seat on the Treasury Bench.</p> + +<p>A national party might now have been formed but for the +inaction of the Duke of Portland. During the meetings at his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>mansion, Burlington House, he evinced strong disapproval of +the views of Fox; and, as official leader of the Whigs, he had it +in his power to bring nearly the whole of the party over to the +Government side. From this course, which would have placed +country above party, the Duke shrank; and his followers were +left to sort themselves at will. There was a general expectation +that Portland would publicly declare against Fox; but friendship +or timidity held him tongue-tied. Malmesbury sought to waken +him from his "trance," but in vain.<a name="FNanchor_144_144" id="FNanchor_144_144"></a><a href="#Footnote_144_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a> He lay under "the wand +of the magician" (Pitt's phrase for the witchery that Fox exerted), +even when so staunch a Whig as Sir Gilbert Elliot saw that the +wizard's enchantments were working infinite mischief.<a name="FNanchor_145_145" id="FNanchor_145_145"></a><a href="#Footnote_145_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a></p> + +<p>Owing to the wrong-headedness of Fox and the timidity of +Portland, Pitt's triumph in the Commons was not decisive enough +to tear the veil away from the eyes of the French Jacobins. +Nothing short of unanimity at Westminster could have worked +that miracle. Surely not even that novice in diplomacy, Lebrun, +would have threatened to appeal from the British Government +to the British nation, had he not believed the Government to be +without support.</p> + +<p>This delusion appears in the memorable decree of 15th December. +The French Convention thereby asserts its resolve to +revolutionize all countries where its armies are or shall come. +It will recognize no institutions alien to the principles of Liberty, +Equality, and Fraternity. All feudal dues, customs, and privileges +are to be annulled, and the liberated people will meet in primary +assemblies to organize an Administration. Arrangements will +be made for defraying the expenses of the liberating army, and +for maintaining it while it remains.<a name="FNanchor_146_146" id="FNanchor_146_146"></a><a href="#Footnote_146_146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a> Finally France declares +that she will treat as an enemy the people which refuses to +accept Liberty and Equality, and tolerates its prince and +privileged castes. The decree is at once followed by a proclamation +drawn up for the benefit of the subject peoples whom it +may concern. Finally, the Convention decides that the course +of rivers must everywhere be free, and directs its generals to +enforce that principle with respect to the Scheldt.</p> + +<p>In view of this stern reiteration of the right to overturn all +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>Governments that conflict with revolutionary principles, it is +impossible to consider the decree of 19th November, offering +assistance to malcontent peoples, as a meaningless display of +emotion. Subsequent events threw a sinister light on it. The +annexation of Savoy on 27th November was not a convincing +proof of altruism; and the refusal of the Executive Council, on +8th and 9th December, to reconsider its decision on the Scheldt, +marked a firm resolve to carry out French policy in the Pays +Bas, even if it led to war with England. Now there came, as a +damning corollary, the decree of 15th December, which flung +defiance at all Governments of the old type. Like Mohammed, +Lebrun stood forth with the "Contrat Social" in one hand, the +sword in the other, and bade the world take its choice.</p> + +<p>For England there could be no doubt. Pitt and Grenville had +decided that the only chance of peace lay in offering a firm +front to every act of aggression. In this they had general support. +Fox might choose to distort facts by declaring that +Ministers were about to plunge the country into war on a matter +of form<a name="FNanchor_147_147" id="FNanchor_147_147"></a><a href="#Footnote_147_147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a> (the refusal to treat officially with the French Republic); +but everyone knew that the first aggressive action was that of +France, directed against the Anglo-Dutch alliance. The firmness +of Ministers gained them support in unexpected quarters. +On 20th December, when they asked for a vote for 25,000 seamen, +including 5,000 marines, Sheridan heartily declared that +he would have supported a vote for 40,000 seamen if that number +had been deemed necessary. He also made a suggestion +that the British Parliament or people should appeal to the +generous instincts of Frenchmen to spare the life of Louis XVI. +The proposal came somewhat oddly in a debate for increasing +our forces against France; and it brought up Burke in one of +his most acrid moods. Such an appeal, he said, was futile, for +Louis was in the custody of assassins who were both accusers +and judges: his death was inevitable. Sheridan and Fox heartily +reprobated this recklessly vindictive language.</p> + +<p>Pitt then pointed out that on 17th August George III had +expressed an earnest desire for the safety of Louis and the Royal +Family of France in terms which were then read out. The same +was the desire of every Briton; and the sentiments now expressed +in that House would be heard and noted at Paris. If any more +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>formal measure were to be adopted, he suggested the entering +a protest in the Journals of the House; but any public representation, +he said, must be couched in terms of indignation +which must tend to defeat its own object. With this method of +procedure Fox and Sheridan expressed their entire concurrence.<a name="FNanchor_148_148" id="FNanchor_148_148"></a><a href="#Footnote_148_148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a> +It is therefore a malicious falsehood to say that Pitt opposed +their suggestion.<a name="FNanchor_149_149" id="FNanchor_149_149"></a><a href="#Footnote_149_149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a> Burke certainly did so, and in the worst possible +taste; but Pitt carried it out so far as was deemed desirable. +If Sheridan and Fox wished for a public appeal, it was for them +to set it on foot.</p> + +<p>I must here notice the vague and misleading statements in +Godoy's Memoirs (written a generation later) that Spain made +strenuous efforts to save the life of Louis XVI and opened "an +unlimited credit" at Paris with the view of bribing members of +the Convention to secure his acquittal. Further, that he, Godoy, +secretly approached Pitt in order to secure his financial aid, +which that statesman obstinately refused.<a name="FNanchor_150_150" id="FNanchor_150_150"></a><a href="#Footnote_150_150" class="fnanchor">[150]</a> The story does not +hang well together; for if Spain had already opened an unlimited +credit at Paris, why did she want pecuniary help from Pitt? +Further, the opening of unlimited credit, presumably with a +Parisian bank, did not consort well with the secret methods +which were essential to the success of the plan.</p> + +<p>In order to probe this matter to the bottom, I have examined +the British Foreign Office archives relating to Spain for the +months of December and January. They are detailed and apparently +complete. F. J. Jackson, our <span lang="fr">chargé d'affaires</span> at +Madrid, wrote to Lord Grenville every three or four days, as the +relations of the two States had been far from cordial owing to +friction caused by the cession of Nootka Sound, Captain Vancouver +having been employed to settle the boundaries and fix +a neutral zone between the two Empires. Grenville also wrote +three times to Jackson to express his apprehension that the +timidity and poverty of Spain would cause her to yield to the +French Republic in the matter of some demonstrations on the +frontier. But there is no word implying that Spain requested +help from England, either pecuniary or diplomatic, in order to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>save Louis. Early in January Charles IV made such an appeal +to the French Convention, but it was treated with contemptuous +indifference. At that time the Courts of London and Madrid +were beginning to draw closer together in order to withstand +the demands of France; but nothing passed between them +officially respecting the saving of Louis. Now, where the life of +a King was at stake, any communication must have been official, +and if it were made through the Spanish ambassador in London, +Grenville would certainly have referred to it in his despatches +to Madrid.<a name="FNanchor_151_151" id="FNanchor_151_151"></a><a href="#Footnote_151_151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a> We may therefore dismiss Godoy's story as a cruel +and baseless slander, due to the spiteful desire of a discredited +politician to drag down a great name nearer to his own level.</p> + +<p>It is also worth noting that Malouet, who was then in close +touch with Grenville on San Domingo affairs, does not mention +in his Memoirs any attempt to involve the Cabinet in a scheme +for bribing the Convention—an action which the French exiles +in England and Holland were perfectly able to carry out themselves +had they been so minded. The only document bearing +on this question is a Memorial drawn up on 7th December by +Malouet, Lally-Tollendal, and Gillier, stating their horror at the +King's trial, and their belief that his life might be spared if +George III and the British Government issued a Declaration +stating their lively interest in Louis XVI and his family, their +resolve for ever to refuse an asylum to all regicides, and to cut +off all supplies of food from France if the crime were committed.<a name="FNanchor_152_152" id="FNanchor_152_152"></a><a href="#Footnote_152_152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a> +The Memorial was probably presented to Lord Grenville; but +its inutility, or danger, in the proud and exacting mood then +prevalent at Paris, is obvious. The confidential reports sent by +"M. S." from Paris to Lord Grenville do not refer to any such +overture to the Cabinet.<a name="FNanchor_153_153" id="FNanchor_153_153"></a><a href="#Footnote_153_153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a></p> + +<p>Lastly, there is the curious fact that the ex-abbé Noël, one of +Chauvelin's "advisers," came to Miles late on 18th December, +and affected much concern at the prospect of the execution +of Louis. He then suggested that Pitt should confer with a +M. Talon, residing in Sloane Street, who had immense resources +and stood well with all parties in France, in order to devise some +means for saving the life of that monarch. When Miles asked +Noël how Pitt was to assist in this laudable project, no answer +was forthcoming. We must commend Noël's prudence; for he +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>had already stated that Talon was under impeachment in +France. How a man accused of treason could help his King, +save by secretly using some of his immense resources to bribe +the deputies, is no more apparent to us than it was to Miles. In +fact he detected a snare in this effort to associate Pitt with a +wealthy French exile in what must evidently be merely an +affair of bribery. He therefore declined to bring the matter +before Pitt, whereupon Noël betrayed signs of satisfaction at +finding that the Minister really was neutral on French internal +affairs.<a name="FNanchor_154_154" id="FNanchor_154_154"></a><a href="#Footnote_154_154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a> This little episode should open the eyes of detractors +of Pitt to the extraordinary difficulty of his position. Of one +thing we may be certain. The readiest way of assuring the +doom of the hapless monarch was to take up some one of the +silly or guileful schemes then mooted for pressing the British +Government to take sides in the trial. Pitt's rigorous neutrality +was the best means of helping the advocates of Louis in their +uphill fight with the hostile Convention.</p> + +<p>Reverting to events at Westminster, we note that Ministers, +on 21st December, introduced into the Upper House an Aliens +Bill for subjecting to supervision the many thousands of foreigners +who had flocked to these shores. The debates on this +measure showed some approach to unanimity, though Lansdowne +and Lauderdale in the Lords, and Fox in the Commons +opposed it as a breach of the hospitable traditions of this land. +On the 28th Burke spoke in its support with his usual passion, +flinging down a Birmingham dagger as a sign of the French +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>fraternity now introduced into these happy islands.<a name="FNanchor_155_155" id="FNanchor_155_155"></a><a href="#Footnote_155_155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a> After a +few alterations in committee, the Bill passed on the last day of +the year.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, on 18th December, Lebrun had sent to the Convention +a report on the negotiations, which was not adapted to +soften the passions of the time, being merely a piece of parliamentary +declamation; but, as declamation rather than reason +held sway at Paris, some of its phrases must be quoted. After +citing with approval passages from the recent speech of Fox, +Lebrun referred to the eager interest taken by the British nation +in the triumphs of the French arms. "But," he continued, "these +glorious events have a quite contrary effect upon the English +Minister. In a moment, the dread and jealousy of our victories, +the entreaties of cowardly rebels [the French <span lang="fr">émigrés</span>], the vile +intrigues of hostile Courts, and the secret suspicions that the +numerous addresses from all parts of England excited, determined +him to more decisive military preparations and to an +immediate assembling of Parliament." Lebrun then accused +Pitt of seeking to stir up public opinion against France, and +of exciting, "by the most corrupt means, distrusts, doubts, and +disorders." A still more extraordinary charge followed, namely, +that Pitt and Grenville, while refusing to acknowledge the +French diplomatic agents, had "requested to see them confidentially, +to hold communications with them, and to grant +them secret conferences."<a name="FNanchor_156_156" id="FNanchor_156_156"></a><a href="#Footnote_156_156" class="fnanchor">[156]</a> Lebrun then referred in contemptuous +terms to the British naval preparations, and stated that he +had firmly maintained the decree respecting the Scheldt. He +then affirmed the reasonableness of the decree of 19th November; +and scouted the notion that France harboured designs +against Holland. In answer to this last he had said in effect: +"That it was much to be wished that the British Ministry had +never meddled more with the internal government of that +Republic than we ourselves wish to meddle." Finally, if these +disputes led to a rupture, "the war will be only the war of the +British Minister against us; and we will not fail to make a +solemn appeal to the English nation." ... "In short, we will +leave it to the English nation to judge between us, and the issue +of this contest may lead to consequences which he [Pitt] did +not expect."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> +<p>In the sordid annals of party strife this report of Lebrun +holds a high place. In order to furbish up the dulled prestige of +the Gironde he sought to excite national animosity, and to +revive the former hatred of the name of Pitt. What could be +more criminal than to sneer at the smallness of England's naval +preparations? What more false than to charge Pitt and Grenville +with secretly begging for interviews with agents whom outwardly +they scorned? It is by acts like these that nations are +set by the ears; and generally they are at one another's throats +before the lie can be exposed. Lebrun's report was received +with loud applause. No one questioned the accuracy of its details; +and these blind followers of a blind guide unanimously +voted that it should be printed and widely circulated. On 20th +December Lebrun sent a copy of it to Chauvelin, along with +instructions which lost none of their emphasis in the note drawn +up at Portman Square. He forwarded another copy of the report +to Noël, with this significant explanation: "This document will +keep you in touch with the ideas of this country and will show +you that I scarcely have this affair in my hands any longer."<a name="FNanchor_157_157" id="FNanchor_157_157"></a><a href="#Footnote_157_157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a></p> + +<p>This admission is illuminating. The trial of Louis XVI had, +as the men of the Mountain foresaw, placed the Girondin +Ministry and its followers in a most embarrassing position. +Many of them inclined to mercy or to compromises which found +little favour with the populace. Accordingly, the procedure at +the trial, as also the final verdict, turned largely on the desperate +efforts of the Jacobins to discredit their rivals, who sought by +all means to keep their foothold in the revolutionary torrent. +One of the most obvious devices was to represent the Executive +Council as the champion of ultra-democratic ideas as against +envious and reactionary England. If this notion gained currency, +Lebrun and his colleagues might hope still to ride on the crest +of the wave.</p> + +<p>Historical students will remember another occasion when a +tottering Ministry sought to keep pace with public opinion at +Paris. The Duc de Gramont on 12th July 1870 instructed the +French ambassador, Benedetti, to insist on obtaining from King +William of Prussia an immediate answer to a demand that was +certain to arouse angry feelings; and he sent to Benedetti the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>explanation that public opinion was <em>outflanking</em> the Ministry, +and that "the effervescence of spirits is such that we do not +know whether we shall succeed in mastering it." Thus, twice +within eighty years France was hurried towards the brink of the +precipice because her Foreign Minister could not control an +effervescence of spirits which he himself had helped to excite.</p> + +<p>Lebrun's missives of 20th December bore fruit seven days +later in Chauvelin's despatch to Grenville. As this document +has often been printed, only a brief summary need be given +here. The French envoy insisted that the conduct of France towards +England had throughout been correct and conciliatory; but +the Executive Council had long observed with concern the unfriendliness +of the British Ministers, and now pressed its envoy +to demand definitely whether they held the position of a neutral +or an enemy. The only possible cause of enmity could be a +misinterpretation of the decree of 19th November, which obviously +applied merely to peoples that demanded the fraternal +aid of Frenchmen. As France wished to respect the independence +of England and her allies, she would not attack the Dutch. +The opening of the Scheldt, however, was a question decided +irrevocably by reason and justice, besides being a matter of small +moment; and the British Ministers could not venture to make +it a cause of war. If they did, they would not be supported by +the British people. Chauvelin then demanded an official reply, +and expressed the hope that the British Cabinet would not engage +in a war for which it alone would be responsible and to +which the people would not accord its support.<a name="FNanchor_158_158" id="FNanchor_158_158"></a><a href="#Footnote_158_158" class="fnanchor">[158]</a></p> + +<p>What Pitt and Grenville thought of Chauvelin's last effort on +behalf of peace will best appear in Grenville's despatch of 28th +December to Auckland at The Hague:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>The tone and language of Chauvelin's note of the 27th appear calculated +to accelerate a rupture, and the same conclusion seems to follow +from the circumstance of M. Maret's having informed Mr. Pitt that it +was not intended by the <span lang="fr">Conseil Exécutif</span> to charge any private agent +with any commission of the nature which he had himself suggested in +his first conference. I have some reason to believe that it is now intended +to bring forward immediately in Holland the same question of +receiving formal and official communication from the <span lang="fr">Conseil Exécutif</span>. +I trust that the answer will be conformable to opinions entertained here; +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>and, with the view of avoiding as far as possible, any difference, however +slight, in the expression of our sentiments, I shall lose no time in sending +to Your Excellency the copy of the answer to M. Chauvelin when it is +settled.</p> + +<p>I cannot conclude this dispatch without again urging Your Excellency +to press in the strongest manner possible upon the Dutch Ministers +the necessity of immediately bringing forward their whole force. It is +evident that the present intentions of France are those of aggression. +Whichever of the Allies is first attacked, there can be no doubt under the +present circumstances, but that they must make common cause in order +to render the calamity of war short, if it is unavoidable. And if the state +of the preparations of the Republic is found inadequate to the emergency, +the attack will certainly be first made there where least resistance +is expected. Every circumstance therefore, of interest and dignity require +[<span lang="la">sic</span>] that no exertion of which the Republic can be made capable, should +be spared at such a moment as the present.<a name="FNanchor_159_159" id="FNanchor_159_159"></a><a href="#Footnote_159_159" class="fnanchor">[159]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>Evidently Grenville looked on Chauvelin's note as an ultimatum; +and it is noteworthy that Pitt on 28th December refused +to see Chauvelin. Our Dutch Allies, however, were by no +means ready. The separate Admiralties of the Dutch Provinces +had not enough men to equip, still less to man, their ships; and +almost their only defence lay in a British squadron which set +sail for Flushing on or about 29th December.<a name="FNanchor_160_160" id="FNanchor_160_160"></a><a href="#Footnote_160_160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a></p> + +<p>For the present, then, Pitt and Grenville contented themselves +with sending a stiff rejoinder to Chauvelin's note. Grenville +reminded him that he had no official character in this country +since the fall of the French monarchy, and that the sinister +meaning of the decree of 19th November, as shown in the public +reception given at Paris to the promoters of sedition in this +country, was in no wise cleared away by his recent declaration, +which still claimed the right to encourage disloyalty. With +regard to the Scheldt question, Grenville declared again that it +was of the highest importance both in point of fact and of principle; +of fact, because the action of France pre-supposed her +sovereignty of the Low Countries; of principle, because, if passed +over, it would give her the right to abrogate treaties at her will. +The desire of England to preserve strict neutrality in French +affairs was universally acknowledged, and he (Chauvelin) had +not urged a single circumstance in disproof of it. But, England +(continued Grenville) "will never see with indifference that +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>France shall make herself, either directly or indirectly, sovereign +of the Low Countries, or general arbitress of the rights and +liberties of Europe. If France is really desirous of maintaining +friendship and peace with England, she must show herself disposed +to renounce her views of aggression and aggrandisement, +and to confine herself within her own territory, without insulting +other Governments, without disturbing their tranquillity, without +violating their rights."<a name="FNanchor_161_161" id="FNanchor_161_161"></a><a href="#Footnote_161_161" class="fnanchor">[161]</a></p> + +<p>This stern rebuke to the flippant claim of the French Ministers +to settle the affairs of neighbouring States in accord with +their own principles has often been ascribed to Pitt himself. +This is doubtful. I can find no proof that he intervened directly +in the affairs of the Foreign Office after the accession of Grenville, +as he had done in the days of the Duke of Leeds. Perhaps +the austere personality of Grenville forbade any intervention; +or it may be that the two cousins were in so complete an agreement +on principles that Pitt left all details to the Foreign Minister. +Certain it is that he himself remained almost passive at this +time; and all the acts were the acts of Grenville. It was well +known that the two men were in close touch. "I consider his +lordship the same as Mr. Pitt," wrote Miles to Aust.<a name="FNanchor_162_162" id="FNanchor_162_162"></a><a href="#Footnote_162_162" class="fnanchor">[162]</a></p> + +<p>More important is the question—What were the aims of the +British Government for the settlement of Europe? Fortunately, +we are able to answer this without a shadow of doubt. For on +29th December Grenville sent off a despatch to Whitworth at +St. Petersburg referring to an effusive offer of alliance from +Catharine II. Through Vorontzoff, her envoy at London, she +expressed her admiration of the generous conduct of George III, +and her earnest desire to help him in restoring order to Europe +by means of a concert of the Powers, which might be formed at +London. At the same time she found means to instruct her +partisans in the British Parliament to relax their efforts against +the Ministry.<a name="FNanchor_163_163" id="FNanchor_163_163"></a><a href="#Footnote_163_163" class="fnanchor">[163]</a> Pitt and Grenville were not dazzled by these proposals. +The latter generously declared to Auckland that he did +not believe the Opposition to be influenced by unpatriotic motives; +and he doubted the sincerity of Catharine's offer.<a name="FNanchor_164_164" id="FNanchor_164_164"></a><a href="#Footnote_164_164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a> Nevertheless, +in view of the imminence of a French attack on Holland, Grenville +decided to encourage the Czarina to form a league of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>Powers; but the instructions which he sent on 29th December +to Whitworth set forth aims very different from hers. He suggested +that the Powers not yet at war should invite the French +people to accept the following terms:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>The withdrawing of their arms within the limits of the French territory: +the abandoning their conquests; the rescinding any acts injurious to +the sovereignty or rights of any other nations; and the giving, in some +public and unequivocal manner, a pledge of their intention no longer to +foment troubles and to excite disturbances against their own Governments. +In return for these stipulations the different Powers of Europe +who should be parties to this measure might engage to abandon all +measures or views of hostility against France or interference in their +internal affairs, and to maintain a correspondence or intercourse of +amity with the existing powers in that country with whom such a treaty +may be concluded. [If, however, France refuses to give these pledges, +then the Powers will take] active measures to obtain the ends in view, +and it may be considered whether, in such a case, they might not +reasonably look to some indemnity for the expenses and hazards to +which they would necessarily be exposed.<a name="FNanchor_165_165" id="FNanchor_165_165"></a><a href="#Footnote_165_165" class="fnanchor">[165]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>From this remarkable pronouncement it appears that Pitt +and Grenville harboured no hostility to the French Republic +as such, provided that it acted on the principles which it professed +up to the end of October 1792. The ensuing acts of +aggression and propagandism they unflinchingly opposed, but +in the hope that the combined remonstrances of all the Powers +would induce the French leaders to withdraw their untenable +claims. Above all, the British Cabinet did not refuse +eventually to recognize the new state of things at Paris, a point +of view very far removed from the flaming royalism of +Catharine II and Burke. Whether a concert of the Powers could +have been formed on these moderate terms is very doubtful. +What is certain is that Pitt and Grenville saw in it the chief +hope of peace, and that they did not desire to force royalty on +reluctant France. For them the war, if it came, was not a war +of opinion—Monarchy <span lang="la">versus</span> Republic. It was a struggle to +preserve the Balance of Power, which in all ages our statesmen +had seen to be incompatible with the sovereignty of France in +the Low Countries. That danger averted, they were content to +let France settle her own affairs, if she behaved with the like +tolerance towards her neighbours.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> +<p>Unhappily, these pacific and enlightened views were not accompanied +by conciliatory manners. It was the bane of Pitt, +and still more of Grenville, that their innate reserve often cooled +their friends and heated their opponents.<a name="FNanchor_166_166" id="FNanchor_166_166"></a><a href="#Footnote_166_166" class="fnanchor">[166]</a> In the case of so vain +and touchy a man as Chauvelin a little affability would have +gone a long way; and this was especially desirable, as he had +enough support at Paris to thwart the attempt to replace him +by some envoy less disliked at St. James's. Nevertheless, they +persisted in their resolve not to recognize him officially; and +the Executive Council made it a point of honour to force him +on the British Court. Personal questions therefore told against +a peaceful settlement. Even at the end of the year 1792 it was +not wholly impossible, provided that the questions in dispute +were treated with open-mindedness and a desire to understand the +point of view of the opponent.</p> + +<p>Undoubtedly it was for the French Government to take the +first steps towards reconciliation by retracting or toning down the +decrees of 16th and 19th November and 15th December, which +had brought about the crisis. Further, the Convention ought to +have seen through and thwarted the attempt of Lebrun to +regain popularity by insulting Pitt in the report of 18th December. +Had that body been less intent on the party manœuvres +centring in the trial of Louis XVI, it would assuredly not have +furthered the insidious designs of that Minister. It might have +offered to recall Chauvelin, and to substitute Maret, a man +known to be a <span lang="la">persona grata</span> to Pitt. Finally, in view of the large +concourse of Frenchmen now in London, reckoned at 15,000, the +Executive Council would have done well to say nothing about +the passing of the Aliens Bill, obviously a precautionary measure +called for by the emergency.<a name="FNanchor_167_167" id="FNanchor_167_167"></a><a href="#Footnote_167_167" class="fnanchor">[167]</a></p> + +<p>The French Ministers took exactly the contrary course. On +30th December they decided that Chauvelin should demand the +withdrawal of that measure, as contrary to the treaty of 1786; +failing this, France would declare that compact at an end. They +also began to prepare for an invasion of England, on a plan +which came before them on 28th December; and on the last day +of the year, Monge, Minister for the Navy, issued a circular +letter to Friends of Liberty and Equality in the seaports. It contained +passages to the following effect:</p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>The English Government is arming, and the King of Spain, encouraged +by this, is preparing to attack us. These two tyrannical Powers, +after persecuting the patriots on their own territories, think no doubt +that they will be able to influence the judgment to be pronounced on +the traitor, Louis. They hope to frighten us; but no! a people which +has made itself free, a people which has driven out of the bosom of +France, and as far as the distant borders of the Rhine, the terrible army +of the Prussians and Austrians—the people of France will not suffer +laws to be dictated to them by any tyrant. The King and his Parliament +mean to make war upon us. Will the English republicans suffer +it? Already these free men show their discontent and the repugnance +which they have to bear arms against their brothers, the French. Well! +We will fly to their succour. We will make a descent in the island. We +will lodge there 50,000 caps of Liberty. We will plant there the sacred +tree, and we will stretch out our arms to our republican brethren. The +tyranny of their Government will soon be destroyed.</p> +</div> + + +<p>What did the famous mathematician think of this effusion in +the heyday of the Empire, when he became Count of Pelusium +with a Westphalian estate bringing in 200,000 francs a year? +A collection of the frank confessions of the <span lang="fr">ci-devant</span> Jacobins +would form an entertaining volume.</p> + +<p>Not the least piquant of them would be the criticisms of a +Breton captain, Kersaint, on the bellicose speech which he +launched at the Convention on 1st January 1793. Admitting +that Pitt really wanted peace, while Fox only desired to abase +his rival, he averred that the Prime Minister would try to arrest +France in her rapid career of land conquest either by a naval +war or by an armed mediation. War, said Kersaint, must result, +were it only from the perplexities of Pitt and the hatred of +George III for the French Republic. France, then, must threaten +to free the Scottish and Irish nations which England had so long +oppressed. The Republic could appeal with telling effect to the +English sailors not to fight against the champions of the Rights +of Man. Further, France need not fear the British Empire; for +it is vulnerable in every sea, on all the continental markets, while +France stands four-square, rooted in her fertile soil. Let them, +then, attack the sources of British wealth which are easily assailable. +"The credit of England rests upon fictitious wealth, the +real riches of that people are scattered everywhere.... Asia, +Portugal and Spain are the best markets for English products.... +We must attack Lisbon and the Brazils, and carry an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +auxiliary army to Tippoo Sultan." As for Spain (continued Kersaint) +she could be paralysed by the revolutionizing of Spanish +America—the suggestion of Miranda to Dumouriez. In fact, +Frenchmen need not fear war with all Governments. Open +enmity was better than neutrality. This war would "regulate the +destiny of nations and found the liberty of the world." Accordingly +he proposed to offer to England either war or an alliance; +to equip thirty sail of the line and twenty-four frigates; and to +form a Committee of General Defence. The Convention assented +to this last and referred the other questions to it.</p> + +<p>Thus opened the terrible year, 1793. The circular letter of +Monge and the speech of Kersaint furnished the weather-gauge +for the future. In them we detect the mental exaltation, the +boundless daring, the overwrought conviction of their neighbours' +weakness, which were to carry Frenchmen up to bewildering +heights of glory and overwhelm them in final disaster. +We behold in awful perspective the conquest of Holland, Italy, +and Central Europe, the Irish Rebellion, the Egyptian Expedition, +the war on British commerce, culminating in the Continental +System, with its ensuing campaigns in Spain and +Russia, and the downfall of Napoleon. All this and more can be +seen dimly, as in a crystal globe, in that fateful phrase of Kersaint—"The +credit of England rests upon fictitious wealth."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Turning to the last details that preceded the declaration of +war, we notice that on 7th January Chauvelin, acting on the +order of Lebrun, sent in a sharp protest against the Aliens Bill +as an infraction of Pitt's Treaty of Commerce of 1786. On one +count Chauvelin certainly had a right to complain; for, strange +to say, the Act was put in operation against Talleyrand, +nominally his adviser, and the champion of the Anglo-French +<span lang="fr">entente</span>. The ex-Bishop of Autun penned an eloquent protest, +which apparently had some effect, for he was not expelled until +March 1794.<a name="FNanchor_168_168" id="FNanchor_168_168"></a><a href="#Footnote_168_168" class="fnanchor">[168]</a> Far more incisive was Chauvelin's complaint. We +can imagine his feelings when Grenville curtly declined to receive +it.<a name="FNanchor_169_169" id="FNanchor_169_169"></a><a href="#Footnote_169_169" class="fnanchor">[169]</a> At the same time Grenville refused to discuss or explain the +stoppage of certain cargoes of grain destined for French ports. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>His private correspondence with Auckland shows that this +measure was due to the fear that the French would store the +corn for the use of the army that was threatening Holland. +That motive of course could not be disclosed to Chauvelin; and +Grenville declined to explain it at all until the resolutions +arrived at in Paris were clearly set forth.</p> + +<p>On Sunday, 13th January, Chauvelin received from Lebrun a +long despatch, drawn up in less provoking terms than the last. +He sought an informal interview with Grenville, which was <span class="ins" title="imdiately">immediately</span> +granted. Grenville's hitherto unpublished account of the +interview may be quoted in full, as it enables us to see the +<span lang="fr">nuances</span> of the situation:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter"><i>Jan. 13, 1793</i>.<a name="FNanchor_170_170" id="FNanchor_170_170"></a><a href="#Footnote_170_170" class="fnanchor">[170]</a></p> + +<p>M. Chauvelin as soon as he came into my room began by stating +that he was desirous of explaining that all his steps subsequent to the +date of my letter of Dec. 31 had been taken in consequence of positive +instructions from the <span lang="fr">Conseil Exécutif</span>, given before they had received +that letter. That they had seen in that letter one thing which had been +satisfactory to them, notwithstanding the other things of which they +might complain—this was the assurance which enabled them to reject +the idea entertained by some persons in France of its being the intention +of the Government here to declare war at all events. Under this +assurance they had authorized him to give to their answer a form which +was not liable to the exceptions which had before been taken. He then +gave me the despatch from M. Le Brun. When I had read it I told him +only that the circumstances were too critical for me to say anything as +to its contents except to refer him to the answer which I should be [<span lang="la">sic</span>] +to give to it.</p> + +<p>He then said that there was one other point which he was desirous of +mentioning. That one of the difficulties of the present situation of the +two Countries was the want of a proper channel of communication. +That he himself, from having no access to the King's Ministers, was +frequently unable to give accounts of their real views and intentions. +That he was therefore to desire the permission to see me often <span lang="fr">sous la +même forme</span> that he had now come [<span lang="la">sic</span>].</p> + +<p>I told him that this was a point on which I was unwilling to take +upon myself personally to give him an answer; but that he should have +one; and in order to avoid mistakes I repeated to him the phrase, that +his request was to see me <span lang="fr">sous la même forme</span>. He said "yes," and that +this was conceived to be a means of arriving sooner at the object of his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>being allowed to present to the King the <span lang="fr">lettres de créance</span> with which he +was charged. As he did not express this quite distinctly, I asked him +again whether I understood him right; that his present request was only +to communicate under the form in which he now came. He again +assented to this, but in doing it threw out that he had <em>almost</em> had direct +orders from the <span lang="fr">Conseil Exécutif</span> to apply for permission to present his +letters. He however expressly assented to my statement that the other +was at present his only request.</p> + +<p>Nothing else material passed, except justifications of himself from the +imputation of treating on public business with some persons in this +country with whom he had connections of private friendship and intercourse, +and complaints of the manner in which he was treated in the +newspapers. To neither of these points I said anything.<a name="FNanchor_171_171" id="FNanchor_171_171"></a><a href="#Footnote_171_171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>It is not surprising that Grenville asked for time to consult +his colleagues (probably also the King) before returning an +answer to Lebrun's missive; for, though unobjectionable in form, +it re-affirmed the French claims and justified all the proceedings +of that Government. Lebrun accused the Pitt Cabinet of raising +difficulties of form and of discovering hostile intentions where +none existed. While repudiating the notion of annexing Belgium, +he firmly adhered to the Scheldt decree. France, he declared, +would respond to all appeals which emanated from the general +will of a nation, and he even asserted that she could treat only +with a Government which "is deemed the organ of the general +will of the nation governed." If her efforts for peace failed, she +would fight England with regret but without fear.<a name="FNanchor_172_172" id="FNanchor_172_172"></a><a href="#Footnote_172_172" class="fnanchor">[172]</a></p> + +<p>In effect, then, this despatch held out no hope of a reconciliation. +There came with it, however, a long and rambling letter +from Maret to Miles, which was intended partly to threaten, +partly to cajole the Ministry. In its more dulcet passages the +hope was set forth that the Scheldt affair could be settled, and +even that Chauvelin might be replaced by the estimable Barthélemy. +Miles, highly elated, hurried to the Foreign Office on +that momentous Sunday, 13th January, and found that a Cabinet +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>meeting was proceeding. Pitt came out and cordially received +Maret's note. He returned to the Cabinet meeting (at which, +strange to say, Burke was present) but came out again "furious, +freighted with the bile of the whole Cabinet," and forbade Miles +to have any dealings with the French Executive Council.<a name="FNanchor_173_173" id="FNanchor_173_173"></a><a href="#Footnote_173_173" class="fnanchor">[173]</a></p> + +<p>How are we to explain this change from affability to anger? +The impressionable Miles believed that in that hour Pitt capitulated +to Burke and became a man of war. The reader who +takes the trouble to compare Lebrun's note with that of Maret +will probably come to another conclusion, namely, that the +latter seems very like a device to throw the British Ministry off +its guard. The terms of the two notes are widely divergent; +and, in such a case, Pitt naturally accepted that of Lebrun and +scouted that of Maret, as of a busybody or an intriguer. Grenville +objected to this double-dealing;<a name="FNanchor_174_174" id="FNanchor_174_174"></a><a href="#Footnote_174_174" class="fnanchor">[174]</a> and probably the presence +of Burke at the Cabinet meeting sharpened the demand for its +cessation.</p> + +<p>Another explanation of Pitt's fury is possible. Grenville and +he may have received news of the warlike preparations going +on in the French seaports and on the Dutch borders. I have +found no proof of this; but it is certain that by this time they +must have had before them the inflammatory appeal of Monge +to French and English Jacobins as well as the boastful tirade of +Kersaint to the Convention. Having these proofs of the warlike +ardour of the French and of their reliance on British reformers, +how could Pitt and Grenville look on the philanthropic professions +of Maret as anything but a snare, and Miles as his dupe? +Miles had ever been officious. Clearly the time had come to +stop his fussy advances to an unofficial agent, which Lebrun +might once more ascribe to Pitt's secret fear of France.</p> + +<p>It would be interesting to discover how far Pitt and Grenville +were at this time aware of the secret designs of the French +Executive Council. On this topic I have found no definite +evidence. It is very unlikely that on 13th January they knew of +the aggressive plans which the Executive Council had formed +three days before. But it is certain that such plans were set +on foot on 10th January. On that day the Executive Council +drew up secret orders for Generals Dumouriez and Miranda. +The former was then at Paris concerting plans for the next +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>campaign, not for the purpose of saving Louis XVI, as he afterwards +stated. Whether he fanned the warlike ardour of the +Executive Council will perhaps never be known. But undoubtedly +on 10th January the Executive Council bade him +order his lieutenant, Miranda, to prepare for the invasion of +Dutch Flanders and Walcheren within twelve days. Furnaces +were to be supplied to the French gun-vessels in the Scheldt +so as to beat off the frigates, whether English or Dutch is not +stated.<a name="FNanchor_175_175" id="FNanchor_175_175"></a><a href="#Footnote_175_175" class="fnanchor">[175]</a></p> + +<p>Why did not Miranda carry out this plan? Merely because +he had neither stores nor food<a name="FNanchor_176_176" id="FNanchor_176_176"></a><a href="#Footnote_176_176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a>—a fact which justifies the British +Government in placing an embargo on the corn intended for +France. Undoubtedly if he had had supplies, Miranda would have +seized the lands at the mouth of the Scheldt, and cut off the +retreat of the Stadholder to his place of refuge, Walcheren. It +will further be observed that these orders were given at Paris +three days after the despatch of Lebrun's and Maret's notes to +London. The design apparently was to amuse England until a +deadly blow could be struck at the Dutch. Auckland, writing +on the 11th at The Hague, expressed to Grenville the hope that +war might be avoided, or, if that were impossible, that the +rupture should be postponed until the Austrians and Prussians +had re-crossed the Rhine. The preparations of the Dutch were +going on with the usual slowness.<a name="FNanchor_177_177" id="FNanchor_177_177"></a><a href="#Footnote_177_177" class="fnanchor">[177]</a> Evidently the French Government +counted on their traditional inertia and on the malcontents +in Great Britain and Ireland. The private letters of +Maret, that <span lang="fr">soi-disant</span> friend of peace, breathe full assurance of +victory.<a name="FNanchor_178_178" id="FNanchor_178_178"></a><a href="#Footnote_178_178" class="fnanchor">[178]</a></p> + +<p>Grenville of course sent no answer to the last missive of +Maret; but to Lebrun he replied, on 18th January, that his +explanations were wholly unsatisfactory, as they maintained the +right of the Executive Council to annul treaties at will. Until +satisfaction were granted for the aggressions on His Majesty's +ally, he would continue to take all measures needful for their +common safety. The terms of this reply were doubtless due to +the last news received from Paris. On 12th January the arch-intriguer, +Brissot, had fired off at the Convention a warlike +harangue in which he depicted the British Ministry as helpless +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>in the midst of a discontented populace and without a friend in +the world. France could therefore easily arouse Ireland and +Scotland to revolt, besides carrying liberty to India.<a name="FNanchor_179_179" id="FNanchor_179_179"></a><a href="#Footnote_179_179" class="fnanchor">[179]</a> On the +following day the Convention ordered the equipment of 30 +sail-of-the-line and 20 frigates, and the construction of 25 sail-of-the-line +and 20 frigates.</p> + +<p>On his side Chauvelin saw the rupture to be imminent. In +forwarding Grenville's despatch to Lebrun on the 19th he described +his situation in London as intolerable, and added that no +alternative but war was left. His assistant, Reinhard, ended a +letter of that day to Miles with the words "<em>M. Chauvelin +leaves</em>." That resolve must have been strengthened by Grenville's +haughty note of the 20th, stating that no special means +could be taken to protect his couriers and that he must rank +"among the general mass of foreigners resident in England." +On the same day Grenville informed Sir James Murray, who +had gone on a special mission to the Prussian headquarters, that +war was likely to break out, as France "insists on terms entirely +inconsistent with the Government of this country and His +Majesty's dignity and honour." His Majesty is strenuously making +preparations and hopes to concert plans with Prussia and +Austria.<a name="FNanchor_180_180" id="FNanchor_180_180"></a><a href="#Footnote_180_180" class="fnanchor">[180]</a></p> + +<p>Such was the state of affairs on 21st January, when +Louis XVI laid his head on the block in the Place de la Révolution. +The news of this tragedy reached London late in the +afternoon of the 23rd; and the horror which it aroused led to a +demand at the Haymarket that the farce should be put off. On +the advice of the Cabinet George III now intervened. At a +Court held on the morrow at the Queen's House (on the site +of Buckingham Palace) an order was issued that Chauvelin, +as the envoy deputed by Louis XVI, should leave the country +on or before 1st February. But on or before 25th January, that +is, before the news of this mandate can have reached Paris, +Lebrun had decided to recall the French mission from London. +On 25th January he wrote to Monsieur Greenville [<span lang="la">sic</span>] stating +that, as his plenipotentiary, Chauvelin, had orders to return to +Paris, Maret would proceed to London to look after the papers +at the French Embassy. This statement merits attention; for +it shows that Chauvelin's departure was hastened only a day +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>or two by the King's command;<a name="FNanchor_181_181" id="FNanchor_181_181"></a><a href="#Footnote_181_181" class="fnanchor">[181]</a> and further it refutes the oft-repeated +assertion that Maret came charged with offers of peace +to which Pitt and Grenville paid no heed.</p> + +<p>It will be well to examine this latter question somewhat +closely. In order to understand the situation at Paris, we must +remember that Dumouriez was at that time hesitating between +an attack on Holland and a pacific mission to England. On +23rd January, while at Paris, he wrote two very significant +letters, one to Miranda, the other to Auckland. In the former +he states: "The Executive Council ... has thought of sending me +as special ambassador to England to make that country decide +definitely for peace or war. Consequently <em>an order has been given +for our ambassador, Chauvelin, to return</em>. To-morrow they will +send a secret agent [Maret], very well known to Mr. Pitt and +Mr. Fox, to ask the two parties (that is to say the whole nation) +for a safe-conduct for me and an assurance that I shall be +welcome. As I have to ask for <em>yes</em> or <em>no</em>, like Cato at Carthage, +this mission will not last more than eight days." Pending the +reply to the first question (says Dumouriez) he will set out for +Dunkirk, Bruges, and Antwerp. His second letter, of the same +date, is to Auckland at The Hague, stating that he knows him to +be desirous of peace, as he himself is. Can they not have an +interview on the Dutch frontier, near Antwerp, where he will be +on 30th January?<a name="FNanchor_182_182" id="FNanchor_182_182"></a><a href="#Footnote_182_182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a></p> + +<p>Now it is clear from Grenville's and Auckland's correspondence +that Ministers paid some heed to the offer of Dumouriez. +Nothing came of it owing to the arrival of news of the French +declaration of war; but the proposal was at least considered.<a name="FNanchor_183_183" id="FNanchor_183_183"></a><a href="#Footnote_183_183" class="fnanchor">[183]</a> +There is not a line to show that Pitt and Grenville took Maret's +so-called "mission" at all seriously. For, in the first place, he +had no powers, no authority to do anything more than collect +the papers of the embassy. He himself gave out to Miles +that he came on a "pacific mission," but he carefully refrained +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>from telling even him what it was.<a name="FNanchor_184_184" id="FNanchor_184_184"></a><a href="#Footnote_184_184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a> His biographer, Ernouf, +has invested his journey to London with some importance by +declaring that on 22nd January he (Maret) drew up and sent off +a "despatch" to Chauvelin, stating that the French Executive +Council desired peace, and that he was coming as <span lang="fr">chargé +d'affaires</span> to the French Embassy in London. This missive +(whether signed by Lebrun is not stated) met Chauvelin on his +way from London to Dover; but it produced no change whatever +in his plans. He proceeded on his way to Paris, passing +Maret in the night near Abbeville. To assign much importance +to his "despatch" is to overrate both his errand and his position +at Paris. Maret was only one of the head clerks at the French +Foreign Office and had no right to sign official despatches. If +he really was charged by Lebrun to tender the olive-branch, why +was not that despatch sent to London in a form and manner +which would procure credence and have some effect? Again, if +Maret came to restore peace, why did he not at once produce his +powers? The question was infinitely important and undeniably +urgent. Instead of taking decisive action, as any well-wisher of +mankind must have done at so awful a crisis, he declined to +enter into particulars, and, on the plea that Chauvelin was +ordered to Paris (which he himself knew before he left that city) +waited for further instructions—which never came. Finally +he confessed to Miles that he came to prepare the way for +Dumouriez and to discover whether that general would be +assured of personal safety if he came to England.</p> + + +<p class="poem" lang="la" style="font-style: normal"> +Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. +</p> + + +<p>Such must have been the thought of Miles, when he heard +this singular admission. For what trust could be placed in +Dumouriez, whose conquest of Belgium—the source of the +present difficulties—had by no means sated his desire for its +natural sequel, the conquest of Holland? That Maret had +credentials of some kind may be admitted; for he showed them +to Miles and claimed to be <span lang="fr">chargé d'affaires</span>; but, as Miles found +his powers to be "extremely limited,"<a name="FNanchor_185_185" id="FNanchor_185_185"></a><a href="#Footnote_185_185" class="fnanchor">[185]</a> we may doubt whether +they extended beyond the collection and transport of the +archives of Portman Square. If he had any authority to treat +with our Government, it is curious that he refrained from +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>doing so merely on the ground of Chauvelin's departure. +"Apprehensive that this event might derange what had been +agreed upon, he despatched a messenger with a letter to Lebrun +stating that <em>under the present circumstances, he should not think +himself authorized to communicate with the British Ministers +without fresh instructions</em>."<a name="FNanchor_186_186" id="FNanchor_186_186"></a><a href="#Footnote_186_186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a></p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the urgency of the case, he received not a +line, not even a newspaper, from Paris during his stay in London. +In fact, the <span lang="fr">soi-disant "chargé d'affaires"</span> of France knew so little +of the real state of affairs that he assured Miles of the desire of +his countrymen to give up Nice, Mainz, Worms, the Rhineland, +the Scheldt, and the Low Countries<a name="FNanchor_187_187" id="FNanchor_187_187"></a><a href="#Footnote_187_187" class="fnanchor">[187]</a>—at the very time +(31st January) when Danton carried unanimously a decree annexing +the Low Countries to the French Republic.</p> + +<p>The explanation of the silence of Maret and the ambiguous +conduct of Dumouriez may be found in the Memoirs of the +latter. He states that a proposal came up in the French Executive +Council at Paris on 22nd January to send him to London; +but it was negatived by three votes to two. Nevertheless, +he arranged with the minority (Lebrun and Garat) that he +should go to Antwerp and have <span lang="fr">pourparlers</span> with Auckland preparatory +to a mission to England, while Maret returned to +London to pave the way for him.<a name="FNanchor_188_188" id="FNanchor_188_188"></a><a href="#Footnote_188_188" class="fnanchor">[188]</a> The scheme was a private +venture, proposed by Dumouriez, and favoured only by the +minority of the Council. In such a case neither Dumouriez nor +Maret could be invested with official functions; and it was only a +last despairing effort for peace that led Maret to pose as a <span lang="fr">chargé +d'affaires</span> and write to Paris for "fresh instructions." This +praiseworthy device did not altogether impose even on Miles, +who clearly was puzzled by the air of mystery that his friend +assumed.</p> + +<p>In view of the facts now set forth, can we blame Pitt and +Grenville for declining to treat with Maret? He brought with +him no proof that he had any other function than that of taking +over the archives of the French embassy. Grenville stated to +Auckland that Maret's presence caused much dabbling in the +funds, and that his presence was most undesirable if Dumouriez +really intended to treat for peace. Pitt afterwards assured the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>House of Commons that Maret had not made the smallest communication +to Ministers.<a name="FNanchor_189_189" id="FNanchor_189_189"></a><a href="#Footnote_189_189" class="fnanchor">[189]</a> Evidently they looked on him as an +unofficial emissary, to which level Chauvelin had persistently +endeavoured to degrade him.</p> + +<p>Finally, on 4th February, Grenville ordered Maret to leave +the country. By this time news had arrived from Paris that +France had laid an embargo on British ships in her ports; and +this portended more serious news. By that time the die was +cast. On 31st January Danton carried the Convention with him +in a fiery speech, crowned with that gigantic phrase—"Let us +fling down to the Kings the head of a King as gage of battle"; +then, in defiance of the well-known facts of the case, he urged +the deputies to decree an act of political union with the Belgians, +who were already one at heart with them. On the following +day the Convention confirmed this aggressive action by +unanimously decreeing war against Great Britain and Holland. +By so doing the deputies of France merely endorsed the decision +formed by the Executive Council on 10th January.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>The outbreak of war between France and England is an +event so fraught with momentous issues to Pitt, to the two +Powers, and to the whole world, that I have striven to set forth +as fully as possible every incident, every misunderstanding, +every collision of interests or feelings, that brought it to pass. +No episode in the development of the nations of Europe is so +tragic as this. That two peoples should, within the space of +nine months, abjure their friendly relations and furiously grapple +in a life and death struggle over questions of secondary importance +leads the dazed beholder at first to grope after the +old Greek idea of <span class="greek" title="atê" lang="el">ἄτη</span> or Nemesis. In reality the case does not +call for supernatural agency. The story is pitiably human, if +the student will but master its complex details. It may be +well to close our study with a few general observations, though +they almost necessarily involve the risk of over-statement.</p> + +<p>Firstly, the position of absolute neutrality which Pitt took up +from the beginning of the troubles in France was extremely +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>difficult to maintain amidst the rising passions of the year 1792. +The Franco-Austrian war soon led to a situation in which the +future conduct of the neutral aroused far more suspicion, and +scarcely less hatred, than that of the enemy himself. When +brains reeled with rage against tyrants; when cheeks flushed +at the thought of the woes of Marie Antoinette, correct +neutrality seemed inhuman. In an age that vibrated to the +appeals of Madame Roland and Burke, cold passivity aroused +doubt or contempt. Yet it is certain that Pitt and Grenville +clung to that position, even when its difficulties increased tenfold +with the fall of the monarchy and the September massacres. +Lebrun, on coming into office after the former of those +events, was careful to inform his countrymen that the withdrawal +of the British ambassador was not an unfriendly act, +and that England was making no preparations for war. Later +on he chose to represent Pitt's conduct as persistently unfriendly; +but his earlier words prove the contrary.</p> + +<p>Again, was it practicable (as Fox claimed) for Pitt to forbid +Austria and Prussia to coalesce against France? Probably it +was not possible, without bringing Russia and Sweden into the +field on the royalist side. In the excited state of men's minds, +an act so annoying as that of armed mediation would have +widened the circle of war; and, as we have seen, it was the +belief of Pitt and Grenville, in August–September 1792, that the +continental war might probably end from the inability of the +combatants to continue it. No one at that time foresaw the +easy conquest of Savoy and the Low Countries by the French +troops. In one of the few references to foreign affairs in Pitt's +letters of the month following, we find him stating that if France +conquers and keeps Savoy, a new situation will arise.<a name="FNanchor_190_190" id="FNanchor_190_190"></a><a href="#Footnote_190_190" class="fnanchor">[190]</a> But he +remained passive while the French drove the Sardinian troops +from Savoy; and his whole conduct at this time moved Burke +to indignation, if not despair. So late as 6th November Grenville +expressed to Auckland his firm belief in the policy of strict +neutrality.<a name="FNanchor_191_191" id="FNanchor_191_191"></a><a href="#Footnote_191_191" class="fnanchor">[191]</a></p> + +<p>What was it, then, that blighted these hopes? The answer +must be that the French victory of Jemappes (6th November) +and the phenomenally easy conquest of the Austrian Netherlands +speedily brought about a new and most threatening situation. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>It has been usual to say, with Goethe, that Valmy was the +birth of a new age. Far more truly may we say so of Jemappes +and its immediate results. That decisive triumph and the welcome +accorded by the liberated Belgians opened up vistas of +beneficent triumph that set the brain of France in a whirl. +Hence the decrees of 16th November–15th December, which +tear to pieces the old diplomacy, and apply to astonished +Europe the gospel of Rousseau. In place of musty treaties there +will be Social Contracts; instead of States there will be nations +that will speak straight to one another's heart. They do speak: +English Radical Clubs speak to the heart of France, the Convention; +and Grégoire, President of that body, makes answer +that if the rulers of England threaten the delegates and their +comrades, Frenchmen will cross the Straits and fly to their help—"Come, +generous Britons," he cries, "let us all confederate for +the welfare of Humanity."<a name="FNanchor_192_192" id="FNanchor_192_192"></a><a href="#Footnote_192_192" class="fnanchor">[192]</a> In the new age, then, political life +will be a series of <span lang="fr">tableaux</span> from the gospel of Rousseau. To +the true believer there can be no compromise. Relics of old-world +customs, such as the closing of the Scheldt by the Dutch, +must vanish. Here, as elsewhere, Nature will infallibly guide +men aright.</p> + +<p>It was the application of these principles to our ally, the +Dutch Republic, which Pitt refused to accept, especially as their +corollary made for the aggrandisement of France. In his eyes +international law imposed stringent obligations, which no one +State, or nation, had the right to revoke. Old world theories of +life, when rudely assailed at Paris, moved their champions to an +enthusiasm scarcely less keen than that of the Jacobins. Britons +who fraternized with the new hierophants were counted traitors +to their King. Moreover, by a most unfortunate coincidence, the +British Government publicly announced its resolve to support +the Dutch Republic on the very day when the French Convention +passed the first of its subversive decrees. Thus, national +pride came sharply into conflict. Neither side could give way +without seeming to betray alike its principles and its honour.</p> + +<p>Personal questions played a baneful part in embittering the +feud. Pitt and Grenville shrouded themselves in their insular and +innate austerity. They judged the English Radical clubs too +harshly; they ascribed to those who congratulated the Convention<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +on 28th November treasonable aims which can scarcely +have arisen in England when the addresses were drawn up. +Apart from frothy republican talk, which should have been +treated with quiet contempt, those congratulations contained +no sign of consciousness that France was about to challenge +us to conflict. We may admit that Frost and Barlow showed +great tactlessness in presenting those addresses when friction +between the two nations had already begun; for the incident, +besides stiffening the necks of Frenchmen, gave the Reform +movement an appearance of disloyalty to England which worked +infinite harm. Nevertheless, on reviewing these questions, we +see that Pitt treated the foolish ebullitions of youth as though +they implied malice.</p> + +<p>Surely, too, he, and still more Grenville, were unwise in +placing Chauvelin under a political and social ban, which naturally +led him to consort with the bitterest enemies of Government +in order to annoy Ministers here and please his employers +at Paris. A touchy and sensitive nature like Chauvelin's is +usually open to the soothing influences of flattery. Grenville, +however, drove him to open enmity, which finally wreaked its +revenge;<a name="FNanchor_193_193" id="FNanchor_193_193"></a><a href="#Footnote_193_193" class="fnanchor">[193]</a> for it was Chauvelin's report on the readiness of Britons +to revolt which finally decided the Convention to declare war on +1st February. We may also inquire why the Court of St. James's +did not make clear the course of conduct which it proposed to +take in the future respecting France.<a name="FNanchor_194_194" id="FNanchor_194_194"></a><a href="#Footnote_194_194" class="fnanchor">[194]</a> As outlined in the despatch +of 29th December to Whitworth, it formed the basis of a practicable +compromise. If it could be stated confidentially to Russia, +Austria, and Prussia, why not to France? Probably the objections +of George III to the faintest sign of recognition of the +French Republic<a name="FNanchor_195_195" id="FNanchor_195_195"></a><a href="#Footnote_195_195" class="fnanchor">[195]</a> account for the fact that these enlightened +intentions remained, down to the year 1800, secret except to +those Powers. But statesmen err when they bury their good +intentions in the secrecy of archives and allow public opinion +to sympathize with the enemy. Here was Pitt's most serious +blunder. At the outset of the struggle, and throughout its +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>course, he scorned those tactful arts and melodramatic ways +which win over waverers and inspire the fainthearted. Here he +showed himself not a son of Chatham, but a Grenville. The +results of this frigidity were disastrous. All Frenchmen and +many Britons believed that he went out of his way to assail a +peaceful Republic in order to crush liberty abroad and at home. +History has exposed the falseness of the slander; but a statesman +ought not to owe his vindication to research in archives. +He needs whole-hearted support in the present more than justification +by students.</p> + +<p>In this respect Pitt showed less of worldly wisdom than the +journalists and barristers who leaped to power at Paris. Their +chief source of strength lay in skilful appeals to popular passion. +In reality their case was untenable before any calm and judicial +tribunal. But the France of that age was anything but calm +and judicial. It lived on enthusiasm and sensation; and the +Girondins and Jacobins fed it almost to repletion. Unfortunately +Danton, the only man who combined strength with some insight +into statecraft, was away in Belgium while the crisis developed; +and the conduct of affairs rested mainly with Lebrun and his +envoy Chauvelin. It is only fair to remember that they were +thirty and twenty-seven years of age respectively, and had had +just four months and eight months of official experience. In +such a case pity must blend with censure. The frightful loss +of experienced men and the giddy preference for new-comers +were among the most fatal characteristics of the revolutionary +movement. Needing natures that were able, yet self-restrained, +bold, but cautiously bold, it now found as leaders calculating +fanatics like Robespierre, headstrong orators and wire-pullers +like the Girondin leaders, or lucky journalists like Lebrun. To +play to the gallery was his first instinct; and the tottering fortunes +of the Gironde made it almost a necessity. Hence his +refusal and that of his colleagues to draw back a hair's breadth +from the unjustifiable position which they had taken up. Behind +them loomed the September massacres, fatal to two Foreign +Ministers of France; before them shone the splendours of a +liberating crusade. We can scarcely blame men so ardent, so +hard pressed.</p> + +<p>But there are some rules of the game which even the most +irresponsible of Ministers must observe. Here both Chauvelin +and Lebrun went fatally astray. Chauvelin's <span lang="fr">pique</span> at the interview<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +which Pitt had with Maret on 2nd December led him flagrantly +to misrepresent that incident, and Lebrun, as we have +seen, reported it to the Convention in such a way as to impute +to Pitt a discreditable and cowardly intrigue. This is the +climax of malice. An envoy and a Minister who scatter such +insinuations are the most reckless of firebrands. By this conduct +both Lebrun and Chauvelin inflamed the passions of their +countrymen. In truth, it was passion, not policy, that made the +war. The charges which they brought against England were of +secondary importance—her demand for the revocation of the +decrees concerning the Scheldt and the encouragement offered +to malcontents, together with her stoppage of corn ships lading +for France, and her Aliens Bill. Such were the pretexts for the +recall of Chauvelin, which, as we have seen, was decided at Paris +before the Court of St. James's determined to dismiss him.</p> + +<p>Another fact comes out clearly from a survey of the evidence +given above, namely, that the execution of Louis XVI was in no +sense the cause of the war. The question turned essentially on the +conduct of France towards our Dutch Allies. Before Louis was +put on his trial Pitt and Grenville had decided that the French +must retract their aggressive decree against Holland, backed up +as it was by a claim to support malcontents in any land. Failing +this, war would have ensued, even if Louis had not been condemned +to death. The tragedy of 21st January made no difference +to the issue; for, as we have seen, the French Government +by 10th January decided to push on its plans against the Dutch +Republic. It is also impossible to attach any importance to the +vague offers of Dumouriez and Maret, at which Lebrun connived +probably so as to be able to say, without committing himself +in the least, that he had done all he could for peace.</p> + +<p>We may therefore conclude that the wealth and defencelessness +of the Dutch Netherlands lured on the enthusiasts and +intriguers of Paris to an enterprise the terrible results of which +were unsuspected by them. Nothing is more remarkable than +the full assurance of victory which breathes in the letters of +Dumouriez, the despatches of Lebrun, and the speeches of the +French deputies. Experienced statesmen were soon to stand +aghast at the triumph of the Republican arms; but it fell short +of the hopes of the French politicians. In this boundless self-confidence, +sublime were it not so disastrous, is to be found the +chief cause of war in 1793.</p> + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">THE FLEMISH CAMPAIGN (1793)</p> + +<p class="quote">The war is not only unavoidable, but, under the circumstances of the case, +absolutely necessary to the existence of Great Britain and Europe.—<span class="smcap">Pitt</span>, +<i>Speech of 11th March, 1793</i>.</p> + + +<p>In this chapter and the <a href="#CHAPTER_VI">following</a>, dealing with phases of the +Great War, the narrative may seem at times to diverge far +from the life of Pitt. But, in truth, his career now depended upon +the issue of this gigantic strife. Therefore an account merely of +his domestic concerns, of the debates at Westminster, or even of +British and Irish affairs, would be a one-sided and superficial +sketch. For in reality his destiny, together with that of Great +Britain and of Europe at large, turned upon the events that unfolded +themselves in Flanders and the Rhineland, at Toulon and +Quiberon, in Hayti, Corsica, and Egypt. As these in their turn +were potently influenced by the policy pursued at Paris, Vienna, +Berlin, and Madrid, we must take a survey, wide but minute, +sometimes to all appearance diffuse, yet in reality vitally related +to the main theme. In order to simplify the narrative, I have +sought to disentangle the strands of war policy and to follow +them severally, connecting them, however, in the chapter entitled +"<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">Pitt as War Minister</a>," which will sum up the results of these +studies on the period 1793–8.</p> + +<p>If proof be needed that Pitt entered upon the French war +with regret, it may be found in the fact that on 5th February +he and Grenville empowered Auckland to discuss the pacific +overtures of Dumouriez. Grenville, it is true, saw in this move +merely a device to gain time;<a name="FNanchor_196_196" id="FNanchor_196_196"></a><a href="#Footnote_196_196" class="fnanchor">[196]</a> and we may detect in the British +reply the sanguine nature of the Prime Minister. But his hopes +ended on 8th February, when news arrived of the declaration of +war by the French Convention against Great Britain and Holland.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +Thereupon Pitt entered into the struggle without a shadow +of doubt.<a name="FNanchor_197_197" id="FNanchor_197_197"></a><a href="#Footnote_197_197" class="fnanchor">[197]</a> For him it was always a struggle to prevent the +domination of the Netherlands by France; and we may note, as +a sign of the continuity of that policy, that on it largely depended +the rupture with Napoleon in 1803. Pitt summed up the +object of the war in the word "security." In his view, as in that +of his successor, Castlereagh, national security was wholly incompatible +with the possession of Holland, or even the Belgic +Provinces, by France.</p> + +<p>In taking this practical view of the crisis Pitt differed sharply +from George III and Burke. They looked on the struggle as +one for the restoration of monarchy. The King on 9th February +wrote to Grenville that he hoped the war would be the "means +of restoring some degree of order to that unprincipled country," +and Burke flung into an unquotable phrase his anger that the +war should turn on the question of the Scheldt.<a name="FNanchor_198_198" id="FNanchor_198_198"></a><a href="#Footnote_198_198" class="fnanchor">[198]</a> For the present +the aggressive conduct of France welded together these two +wings of the royalist party; but events were soon to reveal the +fundamental difference of view. Indeed, it coloured all their +opinions about the struggle. Wilberforce reports Pitt as saying +that the war would be a short war, and certainly ended in one or +two campaigns. "No, Sir," retorted Burke, "it will be a long +war and a dangerous war, but it must be undertaken."<a name="FNanchor_199_199" id="FNanchor_199_199"></a><a href="#Footnote_199_199" class="fnanchor">[199]</a> In his eyes +the struggle was one between two irreconcilable principles—democracy +and monarchy. Certainly the effort to force 25,000,000 +Frenchmen back into the well-worn grooves was stupendous. +Further, the great Irishman, with the idealism and chivalry which +invest his nature with so much charm, urged the Allies to +abjure all thought of indemnifying themselves at the expense of +France, and to declare their sole aim to be the destruction of +anarchy and the restoration of monarchy, a course of action +which would range on their side a large number of Frenchmen +and avert all risk of identifying that nation with the regicide +Republic. The new letters of Burke suggest the advantages of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>such a declaration and most justly censure the Allies for avowing +their intention of taking land from France. The old man +saw clearly that by so doing they banded Frenchmen together +for a national effort. In the following pages the thoughtful reader +will notice the disastrous effects of this blunder. Here Burke +stood on strong ground; and Pitt was far from guiltless.</p> + +<p>On the general question, however, whether the war should be +for the restoration of monarchy or the attainment of security, +Pitt's position is unassailable. For the mere suspicion that the +Allies intended to impose Louis XVII on France condemned +monarchy in the eyes of patriotic Frenchmen. Only amidst the +exhaustion following on the Napoleonic wars could an intensely +patriotic people accept a king at the sword's point. In the first +glow of democratic ardour absolute destruction seemed preferable +to so craven a surrender. While, then, we join Burke in +censuring the procedure of the Allies, we must pronounce his +advice fatal to the cause which he wished to commend. Further, +his was a counsel of perfection to Austria, England, and the Dutch +Republic. Deeming themselves attacked by France, they were +determined to gain security from the reckless schemes of +aggrandizing philanthropy now in favour at Paris; and, viewing +the matter impartially, we must admit that they were +right. The French having been the aggressors, the three States +justly demanded security at that weak point in the European +system, the Flemish border. Further, as Pitt limited his aims to +the expulsion of the French from the Low Countries, he might +reasonably hope for a speedy peace, the task which he set +before himself being far smaller than that of forcing a king back +on the French nation.<a name="FNanchor_200_200" id="FNanchor_200_200"></a><a href="#Footnote_200_200" class="fnanchor">[200]</a> Ultimately the stiffneckedness of Napoleon +brought all the Powers to the latter solution; but no one in +1793 could foresee the monstrous claim for "the natural frontiers"—the +Rhine, Alps, Pyrenees, and Ocean—which prolonged the +struggle to the year 1814.</p> + +<p>Pitt's optimism will appear not unnatural, if we review the +general situation early in the year 1793. The political atmosphere<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +was disturbed by two cyclones, one in the west, the other +in the east, of Europe. That which centred in the French Revolution +seemed to have reached its maximum intensity; and +skilled observers augured from the execution of Louis XVI +a relapse into savage but almost helpless anarchy. The recent +successes of the French in the Rhineland and Brabant were +rightly ascribed to the supineness of Prussia and Austria; and +already the armies of Custine and Dumouriez were in sore straits. +The plunder of the liberated peoples by the troops and by commissioners +sent to carry out the decrees of fraternity had led to +sharp reprisals all along the straggling front from Mainz to +Bruges; and now Danton's decree of 31st January, annexing the +Belgic provinces to France, exasperated that people.</p> + +<p>Further, the men in power at Paris had as yet shown no +organizing capacity. The administration of the War Department +by "papa" Pache had been a masterpiece of imbecile +knavery which infuriated Dumouriez and his half-starving +troops. We have heard much of the blunders of British Ministers +in this war; but even at their worst they never sank to the +depths revealed in the correspondence of Dumouriez with Pache. +In truth, both Powers began the war very badly; but France +repaired her faults far more quickly, chiefly because the young +democracy soon came to award the guillotine for incompetent +conduct over which the nepotism of Whitehall spread a decent +cloak. The discovery by the Jacobins of the law of the survival of +the fittest served to array the military genius of France against +Court favourites or the dull products of the system of seniority.</p> + +<p>For the present, the misery of the French troops, the immense +extent of their lines, and the singular ingratitude of the liberated +peoples, promised a speedy reversal of the campaign of 1792. +For the re-conquest of Belgium, the Allies now had ready on or +near the Rhine 55,000 Austrians under the Duke of Coburg. +On their right were 11,000 Prussians, under Frederick of Brunswick-Oels, +and 13,000 Hanoverians, destined for Guelderland. +These last were to be paid by the Maritime Powers. In reserve +were 33,000 Prussians, under Hohenlohe-Kirchberg. For the invasion +of Eastern France, Frederick William of Prussia marshalled, +near Frankfurt, a force of 42,000 of his own troops, together +with 14,000 other Germans. Further south was General +Wurmser with 24,000 Austrians. And this was not all. The Holy +Roman Empire promised a force of 120,000, whenever its Translucencies,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +Bishops, Abbesses, and Knights could muster them; +and further east there loomed the hosts of Russia. If these +forces had been used straightforwardly, France must have been +overborne.<a name="FNanchor_201_201" id="FNanchor_201_201"></a><a href="#Footnote_201_201" class="fnanchor">[201]</a></p> + +<p>But the half of them were not used at all. Before the campaign +opened, the eastern cyclone drew to itself the energies +which ostensibly were directed against France. Just one week +before the execution of Louis XVI, five Prussian columns crossed +the borders of Poland. This act aroused a furious outcry, especially +as Frederick William preluded it by a manifesto hypocritically +dwelling upon the danger of allowing Jacobinism to take +root in Poland. Fears of Prussian and Muscovite rapacity had +induced Pitt and Grenville to seek disclaimers of partition at +Berlin and St. Petersburg. Assurances enough were forthcoming. +On 29th January 1793 Markoff sought to convince Whitworth +that no partition was intended.<a name="FNanchor_202_202" id="FNanchor_202_202"></a><a href="#Footnote_202_202" class="fnanchor">[202]</a> But in view of the entire passivity +of Pitt on the Polish Question since his surrender to +Catharine in 1791 the two Powers laid their plans for the act of +robbery which took place a few months later.<a name="FNanchor_203_203" id="FNanchor_203_203"></a><a href="#Footnote_203_203" class="fnanchor">[203]</a></p> + +<p>In this they had the rather doubtful acquiescence of Austria, +provided that they furthered the Belgic-Bavarian exchange so +long favoured at Vienna and resisted at Berlin. As we have +seen, Pitt strongly opposed the exchange; but, early in February +1793, Grenville and he heard that the Emperor Francis II +hoped to facilitate the transference of the Elector of Bavaria +from Munich to Brussels by adding Lille and Valenciennes to +his new dominion.<a name="FNanchor_204_204" id="FNanchor_204_204"></a><a href="#Footnote_204_204" class="fnanchor">[204]</a> These tidings led them to adopt a decision +which was largely to influence the course of the war. They +resolved to commit Austria deeply to war with France by +favouring the acquisition of Lille and Valenciennes by the Hapsburgs +provided that they retained Belgium. This, however, +was far from the wishes of that Court, which longed for parts +of Alsace and Lorraine, and viewed Belgium merely as a sop +to be flung to the Elector of Bavaria.<a name="FNanchor_205_205" id="FNanchor_205_205"></a><a href="#Footnote_205_205" class="fnanchor">[205]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p> +<p>Was there ever a more singular game of cross-purposes? +Austria pursued the war with France chiefly with the object of +gaining Bavaria and parts of Eastern France, Belgium (with +Lille and Valenciennes) being allotted to the Elector uprooted +at Munich. Prussia and Russia promised to abet this scheme +as a set-off to their prospective plunder of Poland; but, obviously, +after securing their booty in the summer of 1793, they had no +interest in aggrandizing the House of Hapsburg. Further, +England entered on the Flemish campaign with motives widely +different from those of Austria. Pitt and Grenville sought to +plant her more firmly at Brussels by girdling her with the fortresses +of French Flanders; but she sought to recover Belgium +only to fling it to the Elector. Finally neither Russia nor the +German Powers cared an iota about the security of Holland. +Their eyes were fixed on Warsaw or Munich. In truth, despite +all their protestations as to the need of re-establishing the French +monarchy, they were mainly bent on continuing the territorial +scrambles of former years. The two aims were utterly incompatible.</p> + +<p>In comparison with the motives prompting the actions of +States, treaties are of secondary importance. Nevertheless (to +finish with these wearisome details) we may note that on 25th +March Grenville and Vorontzoff signed at Downing Street a +treaty of alliance whereby Russia promised, firstly, to use her +forces, along with those of England, against France; secondly, to +prevent neutrals from helping France indirectly (a clause which +involved the lapse of the principles of the Armed Neutrality), +and thirdly, to grant to England a favourable commercial treaty.<a name="FNanchor_206_206" id="FNanchor_206_206"></a><a href="#Footnote_206_206" class="fnanchor">[206]</a> +Agreement with Prussia and Austria was more difficult, but at +last, on 14th July and 30th August, compacts were signed with +them for military aid in return for subsidies; and in the spring +and summer of 1793 Grenville arranged similar conventions with +Sardinia, Hesse-Cassel, Spain, and Naples. In this haphazard +manner did these States agree to war against France. Their +aims being as diverse as their methods were disjointed, the term +"First Coalition" applied to this league is almost a misnomer.</p> + +<p>Before describing the first campaign of the war it will be well +briefly to survey the armed forces of the Crown and the organization +for war. Firstly, we must remember that Pitt had devoted +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>great attention to the navy and to the fortification of Portsmouth +and Plymouth. Despite the hostile vote of the House of Commons +in 1785, he had succeeded in finding money enough to enable +the Duke of Richmond to place those dockyard towns +beyond reach of a <span lang="fr">coup de main</span>; and to Pitt may be ascribed +the unquestioned superiority of Britain at sea. Of the 113 sail-of-the-line +then available, about 90 could soon be placed in +commission, that is, so soon as the press-gang provided the +larger part of the <em>personnel</em>.</p> + +<p>The state of the army was far less satisfactory. Never, in all +probability, since the ignominious times of Charles II, had it +been in so weak a condition relatively to the Continental Powers. +In the Budget of 1792 Pitt asked merely for 17,013 men as +guards and garrisons in these islands; and he reduced even that +scanty force to 13,701 men for the next six months. The regiments +were in some cases little more than skeletons, but with a +fairly full complement of officers. Nominally the army consisted +of eighty-one battalions; but of these the West Indies +claimed as many as nineteen. India needed nine; and on the +whole only twenty-eight line regiments, together with the Guards +and the cavalry, remained for the defence of Great Britain and +Ireland. Efforts were made in December 1792 to bring in +recruits, but with little effect. The defence of London, the dockyard +towns, and other important posts, depended of course +partly on the militia; 19,000 of that useful force were embodied +early in February. But as the authorities forbore to compel men +to serve in person, there was a rush for substitutes, which naturally +told against recruiting for the Line.<a name="FNanchor_207_207" id="FNanchor_207_207"></a><a href="#Footnote_207_207" class="fnanchor">[207]</a> Volunteer Associations were +also relied on for local defence, and for overawing the malcontent +or disorderly elements in the populace. The safety of the coasts +and therefore of the capital rested primarily with the navy; and +for England the war promised to be almost entirely a naval war.</p> + +<p>Equally chaotic was the administration for war. Some time in +February 1793 Dundas sent to Pitt a Memorandum respecting +a new arrangement of offices which had been mooted in the +Cabinet. The need of some change may be judged by the fact +that Dundas was Secretary for Home Affairs (down to July 1794), +First Commissioner for India (that is, virtually, Secretary for +India), and Treasurer of the Navy, besides drawing glory and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>profit from his airy duties of Groom of the Stole. What changes +had been proposed does not appear; but Dundas expressed himself +as follows: "First: That I should remain precisely as I am +while the war continues, provided the arrangement takes place +respecting the Groom of the Stole to Lord Chatham, together +with all the consequent changes in other offices. This in my +judgment is by much the best for the public service, and ought +to supersede all other individual wishes." Failing this patriotic +arrangement, Dundas requested that he should have the first +claim for the Privy Seal for Scotland, provided that Lord +Chatham did not take the Stole. He (Dundas) would give up +the latter but retain his office at the India Board and the Navy. +Or, thirdly, if he received the Privy Seal for Scotland, he would +give up his other offices except that at the India Board. This +last plan would involve a large reduction of income, but he preferred +it to the others except the two previously named.<a name="FNanchor_208_208" id="FNanchor_208_208"></a><a href="#Footnote_208_208" class="fnanchor">[208]</a></p> + +<p>Nevertheless no change of any importance took place. Dundas +continued to be a portly pluralist, utterly unable to overtake the +work of three important offices, with the conduct of the war +often superadded; and Chatham remained at the Admiralty +until the close of 1794, to the annoyance of all champions of +efficiency. In the course of that year Pitt urged the need of +strengthening both the Admiralty and War Departments; but, +as we shall see, Dundas strongly objected to the creation of a +Secretary of State for War, because his duties would overlap +those of the other Departments, and important decisions must +be formed by the Cabinet as a whole.<a name="FNanchor_209_209" id="FNanchor_209_209"></a><a href="#Footnote_209_209" class="fnanchor">[209]</a> I shall touch on this +question more fully in <a href="#CHAPTER_XII">Chapter XII</a>, but mention it here as a +sign of the mental cloudiness which led British Ministers for the +first eighteen months of the war to plod along with the most haphazard +arrangements known even to that age. The contrast +between the boyish irresponsibility of military management in +England and the terrible concentration of power in the hands of +Carnot at Paris, after July 1793, goes far to explain the disasters +to the Union Jack after the first few months of the war.</p> + +<p>The triumph of the French Republic and its transformation into +a military Empire cannot be understood until we probe the +inner weakness of the First Coalition and realize the unpreparedness +of Great Britain. Moreover, as the Allies believed that +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>France would speedily succumb, the allocation of the spoil +claimed their attention more than preparations for the hunt. +The unexpected vigour of the French might have undeceived +them. While Coburg was leisurely preparing to drive the levies +of Dumouriez from the district between Verviers and Aix-la-Chapelle, +the latter laid his plans for a dash into the almost +unprotected Dutch Netherlands, where he hoped to find precious +spoils and valuable munitions of war.<a name="FNanchor_210_210" id="FNanchor_210_210"></a><a href="#Footnote_210_210" class="fnanchor">[210]</a> Breaking up therefore +from Antwerp on 16th February, the Republicans quickly advanced +towards the estuary known as the Hollandsdiep, while +two other columns marched on Breda and Bergen-op-Zoom. As +Dumouriez had foreseen, the torpor of the Stadholder's forces +was as marked as the eagerness of the Dutch Patriots to welcome +the invaders. Breda fell on 26th February; but he failed to +cross the Hollandsdiep, for there the Sea Power intervened.</p> + +<p>On 15th February Auckland begged that the Duke of York +might be sent over with a few battalions. The Ministry at once +answered the appeal. On 20th February seven battalions of the +British Guards were paraded at Whitehall; the Duke of York +announced that the first three would go to Holland, and asked for +volunteers from the other four. The whole line stepped forward. +Huddled on to small transports, the little force reached the Dutch +estuaries in time to thwart the efforts of Dumouriez. Their arrival +heartened the defenders of the Hollandsdiep, and held the French +at bay. Meanwhile Coburg had bestirred himself, and, marching +on Miranda's vanguard on the River Roer, threw it back in utter +rout. Dumouriez, falling back hastily to succour his lieutenant, +encountered the Austrian force at Neerwinden, where the unsteadiness +of the Republican levies enabled Coburg and his +brilliant lieutenant, the Archduke Charles, to win a decisive +triumph (18th March). A great part of the French levies melted +away. The Belgians rose against the retreating bands; and in +a few days that land was lost to France. The failure of Dumouriez +to turn his army against the Convention, and his flight +to the Austrian outposts, need not be described here.<a name="FNanchor_211_211" id="FNanchor_211_211"></a><a href="#Footnote_211_211" class="fnanchor">[211]</a> Suffice it +to say that the northern frontier of France lay open to attack. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>An advance in force in the month of April or May might have +ended the war.</p> + +<p>But, as we have seen, the Allies were too jealous and too distrustful +to act with the necessary vigour. Austria refused to recognize +the Prussian scheme for the Partition of Poland; and the +North German Power retaliated by withholding its contingent +from the support of Coburg.<a name="FNanchor_212_212" id="FNanchor_212_212"></a><a href="#Footnote_212_212" class="fnanchor">[212]</a> That commander, finding himself +duped by the Prussians, pressed the British and Dutch Governments +to send him succour. To this he had some claim; for it +was the Austrian victory at Neerwinden which saved Holland +from the French; and the best method of protecting that land +was to capture the northern fortresses of France. The Dutch +army numbered on paper 50,000 men; 13,500 Hanoverians +were marching towards Guelderland; 8,000 Hessians were entering +the British service. In such a case it would have been disgraceful +not to assist Coburg in completing his triumph. Thus, +as often happens with British expeditions, the scope of the Duke +of York's operations now greatly widened. His original instructions +of 23rd February ordered him not to move more than +twenty-four hours away from Helvoetsluys. On 19th March, as +the danger lessened, the War Office gave him leave to advance, +moving on the right of Coburg's army towards Antwerp and +Ghent.<a name="FNanchor_213_213" id="FNanchor_213_213"></a><a href="#Footnote_213_213" class="fnanchor">[213]</a></p> + +<p>The news of Neerwinden led George III to adopt even +more vigorous measures. True, he disliked Coburg's pressing +demand for help, seeing that no treaty of alliance was formed; +but he permitted the forward move on Ghent, and formulated a +still bolder scheme, that the British, Hanoverians, and Dutch +should advance to besiege Dunkirk; for the capture of that +place would enable a siege-train to be brought easily to the +Austrians for the leaguer of Lille and Valenciennes.<a name="FNanchor_214_214" id="FNanchor_214_214"></a><a href="#Footnote_214_214" class="fnanchor">[214]</a> To Grenville +he expressed the hope that these measures would speedily +end the war.<a name="FNanchor_215_215" id="FNanchor_215_215"></a><a href="#Footnote_215_215" class="fnanchor">[215]</a></p> + +<p>The letter is important as showing the great influence of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>King on military affairs. It must be remembered that Pitt, +Grenville, and Dundas (the three leading members of the +Cabinet) had no knowledge of these questions, while that +shadowy personage, Sir George Yonge, Secretary at War, had +no seat in the Cabinet. A more unsatisfactory state of things +cannot be conceived. It tended to subject questions of military +policy to that influential trio, which in its turn was swayed by +the will of the King. According to constitutional custom, the +Cabinet was collectively responsible for questions of war policy; +but it is difficult to say how far Ministers were individually +responsible. Pitt and Grenville certainly influenced the decisions +arrived at; Dundas drew up and signed the chief military despatches; +but the wishes of George III had great weight.</p> + + +<div> +<a name="image03" id="image03"></a> +</div> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 800px;"> +<img src="images/image03.jpg" width="800" height="706" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Seat of war in Flanders.</span> +</div> + + +<p>In fact, questions of war policy turned largely on motives +other than military. The resolve of the King and his Ministers +to share in the invasion of France sprang not only from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +feelings of military honour, but also from the exigencies of diplomacy. +By the middle of March it was clear that Russia and +Prussia would acquire unexpectedly extensive tracts of Polish +land. Francis II vented his spleen at this rebuff on his Chancellor, +Philip Cobenzl, who was virtually disgraced, while a clever +but unprincipled schemer, Thugut, took his place.<a name="FNanchor_216_216" id="FNanchor_216_216"></a><a href="#Footnote_216_216" class="fnanchor">[216]</a> Another unwelcome +surprise was in store. The Emperor had hoped to find +in the Belgic-Bavarian exchange "compensation" for the presumedly +moderate gains of his rivals in Poland. But to this plan, +as we have seen, George III and his Ministers stoutly demurred; +and Grenville held out the prospect of the acquisition of Lille and +Valenciennes in order once more to lay that disquieting spectre. +As it also alarmed some of the German princes, whose help was +needed against France, the Court of Vienna saw this vision fade +away until Thugut hit upon the design of conquering Alsace, +and finding there the means of effecting the longed-for exchange. +Pitt and Grenville, however, clung to the policy of rooting +Austria firmly at Brussels, with Lille and Valenciennes as her +outworks, and this involved the effort of winning those two +fortresses for the Hapsburgs. Thugut suggested that, if Austria +could not secure French Flanders, she must find compensation +elsewhere; and he declined to satisfy Eden's curiosity on this +threatening word.<a name="FNanchor_217_217" id="FNanchor_217_217"></a><a href="#Footnote_217_217" class="fnanchor">[217]</a> It therefore behoved us to strengthen +Austria's stroke at French Flanders, especially as she now +acquiesced in the British contention, that the Allies should +neither interfere with the form of Government in France nor +recognize the Comte de Provence as Regent.<a name="FNanchor_218_218" id="FNanchor_218_218"></a><a href="#Footnote_218_218" class="fnanchor">[218]</a></p> + +<p>The British Government, however, moved forward its troops +into Flanders reluctantly, firstly, because it wanted to use them +in the West Indies,<a name="FNanchor_219_219" id="FNanchor_219_219"></a><a href="#Footnote_219_219" class="fnanchor">[219]</a> and also discerned the preference of +Frederick William for a Polish to a Flemish campaign. That +monarch and his generals left the Austrians to bear the brunt of +everything on the banks of the Rhine, and also in Brabant. His +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>manner of setting about the siege of Mainz was a masterpiece of +politic delay, in which amorous dalliance played its part.<a name="FNanchor_220_220" id="FNanchor_220_220"></a><a href="#Footnote_220_220" class="fnanchor">[220]</a> When +complaints came from his Allies, he hotly retorted that Coburg +had sent him only 5,000 troops from the northern army instead +of the 15,000 that were promised. The Austrians replied with +no less warmth that Coburg needed those 10,000 men because +he had had no succour from the Prussian force supporting him. +The result was that the Duke of York's corps was thrust into +the part which the Prussian contingent ought to have taken. +Accordingly Pitt and some of his colleagues deemed it preferable, +now that Holland was safe, to withdraw the British +troops with a view to a series of expeditions against the coasts +and colonies of France. This problem called for a clear and +decided solution. Nowhere do we so much lament the secrecy +of Cabinet discussions as on these questions—should the meagre +forces of Britain be used on maritime expeditions (their normal +function in war), or form a petty division in the crusade of two +great Military Powers; or, worst of all, should they be parcelled +out in both kinds of warfare?</p> + +<p>All that we know is that George III, on 29th March, strongly +advocated the siege of Dunkirk, in the hope that the capture of +that seaport would assist the Austrians in reducing the fortresses +of French Flanders, and thus put an end to the war. On the +other hand, the Duke of Richmond counselled the withdrawal of +the British force for use against the coasts and colonies of +France; and his two letters to Pitt, dated Goodwood, 3rd and +5th April, show that Pitt inclined to that opinion. The question +was important in view of a forthcoming conference of the allied +commanders and envoys at Antwerp. The letters are too long +for quotation. In that of 3rd April the duke declares that Ministers +must soon decide whether to persevere in Flanders or in +maritime expeditions. "To attempt both is to do neither well." +For himself, he would much prefer to attack Cherbourg, Brest, +l'Orient, Rochefort, Nantes and Bordeaux; but he fears that the +ardour of the Duke of York will lead him into an extensive +campaign in Flanders.</p> + +<p>In the second and longer letter, Richmond warns Pitt that, if +he prefers to attack the ports and colonies of France (especially +the West Indies), he ought at once to warn the envoys of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>Allies at Antwerp (who were about to discuss the plan of campaign), +that we could not long afford succour to them, and +trusted that after six weeks they could do without it, or, at least, +would need it only to a very slight extent. If, he continues, +Coburg and the Prussians demur to this, we must reply that +England was at first no party to the war, and entered into it only +for the defence of the Dutch; that participation in a continental +campaign is so unpopular and ruinous, that we may be compelled +to desist from it; that by means of naval expeditions we can help +the common cause steadily and effectively; and that we are in +no position to act on the Continent because "our army, cavalry +and infantry, consists almost wholly of recruits, no part of which +(men or horses) have been raised two months, and the greater +part of which are at this moment only raising." Further, if we +clearly warn the Allies of our resolve to withdraw our troops, +they cannot complain of it. Pitt should therefore instruct Lord +Auckland to give clear expression to these ideas. Coburg will +then probably argue as to the extreme importance of clinching +the successes already won, and will therefore urge the Duke of +York to besiege Dunkirk, Graveline, and St. Omer, with a view +to drawing him on finally towards Paris. But any such proceeding +is to be resisted. The German Powers will dismember +France; but we, having little military weight, shall probably +gain next to nothing. Far more advantageous will be our +action elsewhere, <span lang="la">e.g.</span>, in the seizure of Cherbourg, Toulon, etc. +Richmond ends by requesting of Pitt the favour of an interview.<a name="FNanchor_221_221" id="FNanchor_221_221"></a><a href="#Footnote_221_221" class="fnanchor">[221]</a></p> + +<p>Either the interview did not take place, or the duke's arguments +failed to lower the sanguine spirits of the Prime Minister +to the level of prudence. All the letters of Pitt at that time +exude confidence from every line. He hopes that Dumouriez +will succeed in overthrowing the regicides at Paris. The backwardness +of the Prussians in supporting Coburg does not deter +him from ordering to Flanders all the available British and +mercenary troops, in order to besiege Dunkirk, and otherwise +help the Imperialists. As if this is not enough, on or just +before 1st April he treats with Malouet, the French envoy from +Hayti, for the transfer of that colony to the British Crown; he +writes hopefully of finding a force large enough to make an +attempt on the French coast; and a little later Grenville mentions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +a Mediterranean campaign. The King, too, in referring +to a recent offer of peace from Paris, writes that the bounds of +"that dangerous and faithless nation" must be greatly circumscribed +before such a proposal can be entertained.<a name="FNanchor_222_222" id="FNanchor_222_222"></a><a href="#Footnote_222_222" class="fnanchor">[222]</a></p> + +<p>Thus France is to be attacked in Flanders, on the north or +north-west coast, on the Mediterranean coast and in Corsica, as +well as the West Indies, by an army which musters scarcely +20,000 effectives. In this confidence, which wells forth into five +distinct schemes, is to be found the cause for the Jacobin +triumphs which shattered the First Coalition.</p> + +<p>Austria and Prussia were equally puffed up with unreal hopes. +At the conference at Antwerp in the second week of April +occurred the first of the many blunders which helped to rally +Frenchmen around the tricolour. Coburg's promise, in a recent +proclamation to Dumouriez and the French nation, that the +Allies would not make conquests at the expense of France, was +warmly disavowed at the first sitting. Accordingly, a few days +later, Coburg issued a second proclamation, announcing the end +of the armistice and omitting all reference to his disinterested +views. The change of tone speedily convinced the French people +of the imminence of schemes of partition. This it was, quite as +much as Jacobin fanaticism, which banded Frenchmen enthusiastically +in the defence of the Republic. Patriotism strengthened +the enthusiasm for liberty, and nerved twenty-five million +Frenchmen with a resolve to fling back the sacrilegious invaders.</p> + +<p>About this time the French Government sent pacific proposals +to London, which met with no very encouraging reception, Pitt +and Grenville probably regarding them as a means of sowing +discord among the Allies, of worming out their plans, or of +gaining time for the French preparations. It is indeed difficult +to believe that they had any other object. After the defection +of Dumouriez and his Staff, France was in a desperate state, and +her rulers naturally sought to gain a brief respite. Grenville +therefore replied that if France really desired to end the war +which she had forced upon England, definite proposals might be +sent to the British headquarters in the Netherlands.<a name="FNanchor_223_223" id="FNanchor_223_223"></a><a href="#Footnote_223_223" class="fnanchor">[223]</a> None +was sent.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the jealousies of the German Powers, the delay of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>Austria in coming to terms with England, and the refusal of +Coburg to define his plan of campaign, paralysed the actions +of the Allies and saved France. As for the British force, it was +too weak to act independently; and yet the pride of George III +forbade its fusion in Coburg's army.<a name="FNanchor_224_224" id="FNanchor_224_224"></a><a href="#Footnote_224_224" class="fnanchor">[224]</a> By the third week of April +the Duke of York had with him 4,200 British infantry, 2,300 +horsemen, besides 13,000 Hanoverians (clamorous for more pay), +and 15,000 Dutch troops of poor quality and doubtful fidelity; +8,000 hired Hessians had not yet arrived.<a name="FNanchor_225_225" id="FNanchor_225_225"></a><a href="#Footnote_225_225" class="fnanchor">[225]</a> Yet the King and +his Ministers persisted in hoping for the conquest of French +Flanders. The War Office despatch of 16th April specified as +the chief aim of the war the re-conquest of the Low Countries +by Austria, "with such extended and safe frontier as may secure +the tranquillity and independence of Holland." But Pitt and his +colleagues, far from concentrating on Flanders, continued to toy +with expeditions to Brittany, Provence, Corsica, and the West +Indies.</p> + +<p>At first they pressed Coburg to consent to the deviation of the +British force towards Dunkirk; and only on his urgent protest +was that ex-centric move given up until Valenciennes should +have fallen. The Austrian contention was undoubtedly right, as +the British Government grudgingly admitted. The Duke of York's +force therefore moved along with that of Coburg towards that +fortress and showed great gallantry in compelling the French to +evacuate the supporting camp of Famars (23rd May). Early in +June the siege of Valenciennes began in earnest. A British officer +described the defence of the French as "obstinate but not +spirited." They made no sorties, and Custine's army of 40,000 +men, which should have sought to raise the siege, did not attack, +probably owing to the unsteadiness and apathy of his troops.<a name="FNanchor_226_226" id="FNanchor_226_226"></a><a href="#Footnote_226_226" class="fnanchor">[226]</a> +This lack of energy cost him his life; for on 10th July he was +ordered back to Paris and soon went to the guillotine.</p> + +<p>At that time the Jacobins were in a state of mind in which +fury and despair struggled for the mastery. The outlook was as +gloomy as before Valmy in September 1792. Bad news poured +in from all sides. The Girondins, after the collapse of their +power on 2nd June, appealed to the Departments, and two thirds +of France seemed about to support them against the tyranny of +the capital. Had not the Jacobins developed an organizing +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>power immeasurably superior to that of the moderates, the +royalists, and the Allies, the rule of that desperate minority +must speedily have been swept away. On 12th July the Parisian +Government declared itself at war with the moderates, who now +had the upper hand at Lyons and in neighbouring districts. On +that same day Condé (a small fortress north of Valenciennes) +opened its gates. On 22nd July Mainz surrendered to the King +of Prussia; and six days later the Austrian and British standards +were hoisted on the ramparts of Valenciennes.</p> + +<p>This event raised to its climax the fury of the Jacobins; and +on 9th August the Convention passed with acclamation a decree +declaring Pitt to be an enemy of the human race. This singular +manifestation of Gallic effervescence came about in the following +way. The Committee of Public Safety having presented a report +on the scarcity of corn and bread, the Convention was electrified +by the doleful recital. In the ensuing debate stories are told of +men disguised as women who practise insidious devices among +the <span lang="fr">queues</span> at the bakers' shops. At once the Convention decrees +that men acting thus while in disguise shall be deemed worthy +of death. A deputy named Garnier then suggests that as this +is clearly a device of the infamous Pitt to increase disorder, it +shall be declared lawful to murder him. Couthon, for once +speaking the language of moderation, objects to this proposal +as unworthy of the Republic, and moves that Pitt be declared +an enemy of the human race. This is at once approved as worthy +of the humanity and dignity of the Convention. The decree, +then, was obviously a device for shelving the stupid and bloodthirsty +motion of Garnier. The whole discussion may be compared +with Pitt's declaration to the House of Commons on +12th February 1793, that the war, though undoubtedly provoked +by France, would never be waged by England for motives of +vengeance, but merely for the attainment of security.</p> + +<p>Why at this time the name of Pitt should have driven the +Parisian legislators half frantic is not easy to see. Up to that +time the exploits of the small British force at Famars and +Valenciennes had been no more than creditable; and it was not +till the end of the month that the news of the entry of Admiral +Hood's fleet into Toulon threw Paris into a frenzy. The decree of +9th August therefore has merely a psychological interest. When +tyrants thundered at the gates of the Republic, France needed +some names the mere sound of which sufficed to drive her sons to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +arms. In 1792 it was Brunswick or Condé. When they ceased to +be effective, the populace found others first in Coburg and finally +in Pitt. Other names waxed and waned; but that of the son of +Chatham stood fixed in a dull haze of hatred. Thus, by a singular +irony, the very man who in 1786 had branded with folly those +Englishmen who declared France to be our natural enemy, was +now by her banned as the enemy of the human race. And such +he remains for the great majority of Frenchmen. The hasty and +fortuitous phrase of Couthon, which was designed to save him +from the assassin's knife, will doubtless be the permanent catchword, +irremovable by research and explanation.</p> + +<p>The ravings of the French Convention would soon have ended, +had not a great organizer now appeared. On 17th August 1793 +Carnot entered the Committee of Public Safety, and thenceforth +wielded its limitless powers for purposes of national defence. +He was an officer of engineers, and had eagerly studied the +principles of strategy. Throwing himself with ardour into the +Revolution, he became a member of the National Assembly, and +now was charged with the supervision of the War Department. +At the War Committee he had the help of officers scarcely less +able. Among them Mallet du Pan, in an interesting survey of +French administrators, names D'Arçon as largely contributing +to the French triumphs at Dunkirk and Maubeuge. He calls +him a soul on fire and full of resource.<a name="FNanchor_227_227" id="FNanchor_227_227"></a><a href="#Footnote_227_227" class="fnanchor">[227]</a> But the brain and will +of this Committee was Carnot. His application to work for some +twelve or fourteen hours a day, his hold on masses of details, +and his burning patriotism, enabled him to inflame, control, and +energize Frenchmen until they became a nation in arms. Moreover, +Carnot had the invaluable gift of selecting the best commanders. +True, the Frenchman was not hampered by a monarch +who regarded the army as his own, nor by clogging claims of +seniority. The "organizer of victory" had before him a clear +field and no favour.</p> + +<p>The most urgent danger for the Republic soon proved to be +not in Flanders, but in Brittany and la Vendée. There <span lang="fr">la petite +noblesse</span> and the peasantry still lived on friendly terms. They +were alike shocked by the expulsion of the orthodox priests and +the murder of the King. Summoned by the Republic to arms in +the spring of 1793, they rushed to arms against her. In la Vendée, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>the densely wooded district south of the lower Loire, everything +favoured the defence. The hardy peasants were ably led by that +born leader of men, the chivalrous Marquis de Larochejaquelein, +who had inspired the men of his neighbourhood with the words: +"If I advance, follow me; if I retreat, slay me; if I fall, avenge +me." With him was his cousin, Lescure, not less brave, but of +a cooler and more calculating temper. The ardently Catholic +peasantry of the west furnished as leaders a carter, Cathelineau, +of rare ability and generosity of character, and Stofflet, a gamekeeper, +of stern and vindictive stamp. Nerved by fanatical +hatred against the atheists and regicides of Paris, these levies of +the west proved more than a match for all the National Guards, +whole columns of whom they lured into the depths of the Bocage +and cut down to the last man. As Victor Hugo has finely said: +"It was a war of the town against the forest." At first the forest-dwellers +threatened to overrun the towns. On 11th June they +took Saumur, a town on the Loire, after a desperate fight, and +sought to open communication with the coast and the British +fleet by seizing Nantes. This attempt, however, failed; and it is +generally admitted that they erred in not marching on Paris +after their first successes. After gaining a sure base of operations, +they should have strained every nerve in order to strike at the +heart. And if distance and lack of supplies and equipment +shortened their reach, they might at least have carried the war +into the rich central provinces, on which the capital subsisted.</p> + +<p>But the mistake of these poor peasants was venial when compared +with those of the Allies. On the capture of Mainz, Condé, +and Valenciennes, the Prussian, Austrian, and British commanders +did not enforce an unconditional surrender, but offered to allow +the garrisons to march out with the honours of war on condition +of not serving against them for a year. A better example of +shirking present problems at the cost of enhanced difficulties in +the future cannot be imagined. By this improvident lenity the +Allies enabled the regicides to hurl fully 25,000 trained troops +against the royalists of the West and deal them terrible blows. +In September and October the Republicans gained considerable +successes, especially at Cholet. Soon the Vendéan War became +little more than a guerilla strife, which Pitt fed by means of +arms and stores, but not in the energetic manner desired by +Burke and Windham.</p> + +<p>These ardent royalists constantly pressed him to help the men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +of Poitou and Brittany, but had to deplore the wearisome delays +which then clogged all military and naval operations. Most +bitterly did Burke write to Windham, early in November 1793, +that Ministers were so eager in seeking to win indemnities +from France that they had hardened the national resistance +of that nation, and meanwhile had not sent a single shipload +of stores to the brave men of Poitou. Of course it was less +easy than Burke imagined to get stores across a sea not yet +fully commanded by the British fleet, and through inlets and +harbours closely watched by the enemy. But the inaction of a +force entrusted to the Earl of Moira for the support of the +French royalists is certainly discreditable to him and to Ministers. +Among them the Duke of Richmond, Master of Ordnance, +distinguished himself by his incapacity and his ridiculous orders. +Another obvious misfit was Lord Chatham at the Admiralty. +But how can we explain the inactivity of four regiments in the +Channel Islands all the summer? Surely they could have seized +St. Malo or the Quiberon Peninsula.<a name="FNanchor_228_228" id="FNanchor_228_228"></a><a href="#Footnote_228_228" class="fnanchor">[228]</a> Such a diversion would +have been highly effective. For the Bretons and Vendéans, when +supplied with arms, could have marched eastwards and roused +the royalists of Normandy, Maine, and Touraine. With so +potent a foe near to Paris, must not the regicides have been +overborne by Coburg in Flanders? Everything tends to show +that the Republicans feared the royalists of the West more than +the Austrians in the North. But, as will appear in <a href="#CHAPTER_IX">a later chapter</a>, +Pitt and Dundas decided to throw their strength into the West +Indies. On 26th November 1793, Sir John Jervis sailed for that +deadly bourne with 7,000 troops.</p> + +<p>Events were soon to reveal the seriousness of this mistake. It +was far more important to strike at Paris through Brittany than +to occupy even the richest of the French West Indies. For a +triumphant advance of the Bretons and Vendéans must not only +have lessened the material resources of the Republic but also +have deprived its defenders of one of their chief advantages. +Hitherto the Republicans had been better massed together, +while their assailants were spread over wide spaces. It is a well-known +principle in war that an army operating on an inner +arc, or what are termed interior lines, has a great advantage +over forces spread over the outer circumference. The Allies +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>then held the Pyrenees, the Maritime Alps, the Rhine, and most +of Flanders, Brittany, and parts of the South. The defenders, +possessing the central provinces, could mass their units far more +quickly and choose the point on that outer curve against which +they would aim their blow.</p> + +<p>This principle was thoroughly understood by Carnot. Near +the centre of the circle he massed the levies that were to save +the Republic, and, confiding them to zealots who were resolved +to conquer or die, he soon had on foot armies which, however +contemptible as units, were formidable from their weight and +their enthusiasm. As in mechanics the mass multiplied by the +speed gives the effective force, so in the campaign of 1793 the +<span lang="fr">levée en masse</span> multiplied by enthusiasm and impelled by the +brain power of Carnot begot a momentum which, when brought +to bear on light, scattered, and almost stationary bodies, proved +to be irresistible. For while Carnot trusted to concentration, the +Allies either sank into inertia, or made ex-centric movements +which ultimately played into their opponents' hands. The Prussians, +after taking Mainz, did little more than rest on their +laurels, their only move being towards Luxemburg. Coburg was +inclined to follow their example on the ground that an advance +to Paris would unite all the French parties against him, while the +siege of the remaining fortresses in the North would allow anarchy +to run riot at the centre.<a name="FNanchor_229_229" id="FNanchor_229_229"></a><a href="#Footnote_229_229" class="fnanchor">[229]</a> The argument is a good example of +political <span lang="fr">finesse</span> applied to a military problem, with disastrous +results. Coburg therefore set about the siege of Quesnoy.</p> + +<p>Certainly he could urge in excuse that the British Government +now insisted on the resumption of its favourite plan, the +capture of that nest of privateers, Dunkirk. On receipt of the +news of the surrender of Valenciennes, an order was sent to the +Duke of York to begin the siege of that once important stronghold, +and capture it for Great Britain, though it might be allowed +finally to fall to the Emperor as one of his new Barrier fortresses, +provided that we gained indemnities in other parts of the world. +French and German historians, with their usual bias against +Great Britain, have assumed that she had resolved to keep Dunkirk. +The contrary is proved by the despatches of Dundas to +Murray, and by a letter of Sir Gilbert Elliot whom Pitt appointed +commissioner to regulate affairs at Dunkirk. Writing to Lady +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>Elliot on 10th September Sir Gilbert says: "No further conquests +are to be made in that quarter in the name of Great +Britain, nor is it intended to retain Dunkirk after the peace."<a name="FNanchor_230_230" id="FNanchor_230_230"></a><a href="#Footnote_230_230" class="fnanchor">[230]</a> +A speedy capture of Dunkirk was evidently expected, for the +same despatch ordered that the Hessian corps, some 8,000 +strong, then with the Duke, must be held in readiness to depart +to some other destination.<a name="FNanchor_231_231" id="FNanchor_231_231"></a><a href="#Footnote_231_231" class="fnanchor">[231]</a> This referred either to the expedition +in the Mediterranean (soon to be noticed) or to another, +also in course of preparation, against Brittany. The Duke of +York disapproved of the divergence towards Dunkirk, and the +withdrawal of troops from his command.<a name="FNanchor_232_232" id="FNanchor_232_232"></a><a href="#Footnote_232_232" class="fnanchor">[232]</a></p> + +<p>We here touch upon the weak side of Pitt's war policy. His +aims at first had been merely to defend England from invasion, +and to use the fleet and as many troops as could well be spared, +to threaten various points along the coast of France and to capture +her colonies. From these comparatively simple aims he +had been drawn aside into a continental campaign, owing to the +desirability of re-establishing Austria firmly in the Pays Bas. +That is to say, a political aim drew him away from the simple +and effective plan of a maritime and colonial war. Or rather it +would be more correct to say that he tried to carry on a limited +continental campaign as well as the coast expeditions which +promised to paralyse the activities of large numbers of +Frenchmen.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, Pitt and his colleagues, instead of concentrating +their activities on Flanders, prepared also to harass the coasts +and colonies of France, and to withdraw part of the Duke of +York's force for service in the Mediterranean or the West Indies. +Instructions to this effect annoyed both the duke and Coburg. +Most reluctantly did the latter consent to the divergence of the +British towards Dunkirk; but, as he had already decided to +spend the rest of the campaign in reducing the border fortresses, +the division of forces had none of those appalling results which +Alison and others have detected. The duke's corps, then, turned +off to the right, and, after gaining some successes over bodies of +the French, set about the siege of Dunkirk. If his siege train +had arrived in time, the town would probably soon have surrendered.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> +But now Carnot was able to utilize some of the forces +raised in the <span lang="fr">levée en masse</span>. By the beginning of September the +French relieving army amounted to 45,000 men under General +Houchard; while the Hessians and Hanoverians covering the +siege operations did not exceed 9,000 men. These made a most +obstinate and skilful defence in the village of Bambeke, and +thereafter at Hondschoote; but the inequality of force was too +great; and they were outflanked and driven back towards Furnes +and Nieuport with the loss of 2,600 men (6th to 8th September). +The garrison also attacked the besiegers and received much +assistance from French gunboats moored near the shore. It was +an unfortunate circumstance that a storm on 1st September had +compelled a British frigate and a sloop to leave their moorings. +Even so, the duke's force beat back their assailants into the +town. But the defeat of the covering army at Hondschoote +placed it between the French, the walls of Dunkirk, and the sea. +Only by a speedy retreat could he save his men; and at midnight +he drew off, leaving behind 32 siege guns and large +quantities of stores.<a name="FNanchor_233_233" id="FNanchor_233_233"></a><a href="#Footnote_233_233" class="fnanchor">[233]</a></p> + +<p>At once there arose an outcry against our naval and transport +authorities for not sending a squadron to cover the right flank of +the Duke of York opposite Dunkirk. Elliot reports that the +duke violently censured Richmond, head of the Ordnance Department, +and Chatham, First Lord of the Admiralty, the latter +of whom was universally allowed to be incompetent. Elliot adds: +"I have seen Dundas and Pitt since the bad news. Dundas +seems much dismayed. Pitt tried to carry it off better."<a name="FNanchor_234_234" id="FNanchor_234_234"></a><a href="#Footnote_234_234" class="fnanchor">[234]</a> Certainly +the delay in sending ships and stores was discreditable to +all concerned. But the decisive action was that of Hondschoote, +six miles distant from the coast, and that reverse was due +to the inability of Coburg to spare the reinforcements which +Murray pressed him to send. On its side the French Government +was ill satisfied with the success at Hondschoote. Censuring +Houchard for not pressing his advantage to the utmost and +capturing the duke's whole army, it replaced him by his young +and energetic subaltern, an ex-draper named Jourdan, who was +destined to become one of Napoleon's marshals, while Houchard +speedily went to the guillotine. By these drastic methods France +found leaders who could conquer. For them the inspiring thought +was—victory or the guillotine.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p> +<p>The news of the failure at Dunkirk shattered Pitt's hope of a +speedy end to the war. That he faced the prospect of a second +campaign with his usual buoyancy appears from some notes +which bear the date 16th September [1793] and are headed: +"Force to be employed in Flanders, or on the coast of France in +the Channel and the Ocean." He proposes to increase 9 regiments +at home to 800 men apiece, to raise 8 new regiments; +and these, along with Guards and troops from Ireland would +number at least 20,000. He also hoped that at least 20,000 more +Austrians and about 25,000 Bavarians would be available for +Flanders, raising the total force in that quarter to 175,000 men.<a name="FNanchor_235_235" id="FNanchor_235_235"></a><a href="#Footnote_235_235" class="fnanchor">[235]</a> +These roseate views are apt to provoke derision; but we must +remember that not until the close of the year 1793 did the Republic +put forth her full strength and beat back her enemies at +all points.</p> + +<p>It would be tedious to follow in detail the rest of Coburg's +operations in Flanders. Early in September he took Quesnoy, +and then drew together his forces for the capture of the intrenched +camp at Maubeuge. In this he seemed about to succeed, +when Jourdan's relieving force of 60,000 men, handled by +Carnot, drove the Austrians back at Wattignies with much loss, +and thus saved the garrison at Maubeuge, now in dire straits. +On that day, 16th October, the head of Marie Antoinette fell at +Paris.</p> + +<p>As for the Duke of York's army, after remaining in a sorry +plight near Ostend, it moved forward to Quesnoy to prolong +Coburg's right; but the retreat of the main body involved his +retirement towards Ostend, near which town he routed some +detachments of French. For a time the Allies gained a few +advantages and recovered lost ground. But the Republicans +more than made up for occasional losses by pouring troops into +Flanders; and, moving under cover of their fortresses, they often +dealt heavy blows. In quality the Austrians and British far surpassed +the raw levies of France; but these, having the advantage +in number and position, could take the offensive along a wide +ill-defended front. Wherever Coburg and the Duke of York +attacked, they gained an advantage, soon to be lost in face of +the gathering masses of the enemy. As Coburg pointed out, +France sent forth another horde to take the place of one which +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>perished or melted away; and the Allies rarely had the chance +of taking the offensive. By this last statement he passed sentence +against himself. An able commander, even with inferior forces, +will mass them so as to strike with effect. Pitt and Grenville +continually pressed him to form some plan of action in conjunction +with the Duke of York; but to this he as persistently +demurred.<a name="FNanchor_236_236" id="FNanchor_236_236"></a><a href="#Footnote_236_236" class="fnanchor">[236]</a> Is it surprising that Pitt demanded the removal of +Coburg?</p> + +<p>The Rhenish campaign, in which Austria took more interest, +also languished owing to the sluggishness of the Duke of Brunswick. +This, in its turn, resulted from political reasons. Frederick +William, in spite of his treaty obligations to England, refused +to move forward until she guaranteed his late gains in Poland +and made further advances of money. Then, too, he felt no +interest in Austria's proposed acquisition of parts of Alsace and +Lorraine. Pitt and Grenville despatched Lord Yarmouth to the +King's headquarters to make a formal protest against the proposed +withdrawal of the Prussian army. Finally, Frederick +William gave the order to advance, but too late to gain the +results which prompt and vigorous co-operation with the Austrians +should have achieved.<a name="FNanchor_237_237" id="FNanchor_237_237"></a><a href="#Footnote_237_237" class="fnanchor">[237]</a> In short, the course of events in +1793 affords the classic example of the collapse of vast and imposing +efforts owing to division of interests and the intrusion of +jealousies and intrigues. Pitt and Grenville did their best to +keep the Coalition united and active; but a Power which granted +only limited help could not impart that unity of design without +which great enterprises come to naught.</p> + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">TOULON</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 35%"> +Delay leads impotent and snail-paced beggary:<br /> +Then fiery expedition be my wing,<br /> +Jove's Mercury, and herald for a King.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em">—<span class="smcap">Shakespeare</span>, <i>King Richard III</i>, act iv, sc. 3.</span> +</p> + + +<p>The enterprise destined to develop into the occupation of +Toulon arose out of the negotiations for alliance with +Austria, Sardinia, and Naples. By the first of these England +pledged herself to send a considerable fleet into the Mediterranean, +as an effective help to the military operations then +going on in the Maritime Alps and the Genoese Riviera. Indeed, +the Court of Vienna made this almost a <span lang="la">sine quâ non</span> of +its alliance. On its side the British Government gained assurances +of military aid from Sardinia and Naples, the former of +those States agreeing to furnish 20,000 troops in return for the +annual subsidy of £200,000.</p> + +<p>Here, then, were the foundations of a Mediterranean policy +on which Pitt and his colleagues began to build in the years +1793–4, with the singular and unforeseen results at Toulon and +in Corsica. Everything favoured some such design. The French +marine was enfeebled by mutiny, and, as the spring of 1793 +merged into summer, there came ominous signs of revolt in the +South against the Jacobin faction supreme at Paris. Accordingly +Grenville urged the Hapsburg Court, in return for British +help in Flanders, to assist an expedition of the Allies to the +coast of Provence. The conduct of the Austrian Chancellor, +Thugut, was characteristic. Far from strengthening the Imperial +forces in Italy, he prepared to withdraw some of them for the +Rhenish campaign, now that a British fleet spread its covering +wings over the Kingdom of Sardinia.<a name="FNanchor_238_238" id="FNanchor_238_238"></a><a href="#Footnote_238_238" class="fnanchor">[238]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p> +<p>Nevertheless the British Ministers persevered with their +scheme; but whether they at first aimed at Corsica or Toulon +is uncertain.<a name="FNanchor_239_239" id="FNanchor_239_239"></a><a href="#Footnote_239_239" class="fnanchor">[239]</a> Certain it is that Pitt on 19th July proposed to +detach three line regiments from the Duke of York's force +in Flanders and send them to the Mediterranean along with one +brigade of the Hessian corps and a body of Würtembergers. He +pointed out that the naval superiority of Hood and the Spanish +fleet in that sea would enable us to strike a telling blow at Provence +if we were helped by Sardinians, Neapolitans, and Austrians +from the Milanese. He admitted the strength of the arguments +in favour of our land forces acting together on one point; but +he added: "What I now mention seems to offer a fair chance +of doing something material in the South [of France], and, if we +distress the enemy on more sides than one, while their internal +distraction continues, it seems hardly possible that they can long +oppose any effectual resistance."<a name="FNanchor_240_240" id="FNanchor_240_240"></a><a href="#Footnote_240_240" class="fnanchor">[240]</a></p> + +<p>Pitt wrote thus at the time when Mainz and Valenciennes +were on the point of surrender, and the Bretons, together with +nearly the whole of the South of France, were in open revolt +against the regicide Republic. Equally characteristic of his +sanguine temperament is his Memorandum of 23rd August 1793 +as to the allied forces which ought to be available for service +against France in June 1794, namely, 30,000 in Flanders, while +50,000 marched thence on Paris; 50,000 to attack Brest, and as +many more to attack Toulon.<a name="FNanchor_241_241" id="FNanchor_241_241"></a><a href="#Footnote_241_241" class="fnanchor">[241]</a></p> + +<p>It so chanced that on that very day the ardour of the Provençaux +brought about a very different situation. The arrival +of Hood's fleet encouraged the moderates to send two Commissioners, +representing the two coast Departments, to seek help +from the British fleet. Thereupon on his flagship, the "Victory," +Hood drew up a public Declaration that, if the ships-of-war in +Toulon and Marseilles were unrigged and the French Royal +standard hoisted, he would take those cities under his protection, +respect private property and, on the conclusion of peace, +restore the warships to the French monarchy. He then sent to +a Spanish squadron, under Langara, cruising off the coast of +Roussillon, with a request for help. That officer soon had the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>promise of 2,000 Spanish troops, to be detached from the army +invading that province. The Jacobin forces under Carteaux +having crushed the moderates in Marseilles, Hood made for +Toulon, though as yet the Spanish ships were not in sight. He +cast anchor in the outer roadstead on 27th August, and landed +1,500 men near Fort Lamalgue, east of the town. In the afternoon +fifteen Spanish ships arrived, and on the next day landed +1,000 men. On the 28th Hood also issued a proclamation to +the effect that he would hold Toulon in trust only for Louis XVII +until peace should be restored to France.<a name="FNanchor_242_242" id="FNanchor_242_242"></a><a href="#Footnote_242_242" class="fnanchor">[242]</a> To this the Toulonese +assented; the opposition of some of their sailors and troops soon +collapsed; and a detachment of Carteaux' force was easily dislodged +from a strong position near Ollioules, north-west of the +town (31st August). Toulon therefore seemed a sure gain for +the royalist cause.</p> + +<p>Yet Pitt and his colleagues were careful not to identify themselves +with that cause. Hood, having implied in his Toulon +proclamation that one of the objects of Great Britain was the +restoration of the French monarchy, Ministers warned him that +"the true ground of the war was to repel an unjust and unprovoked +aggression against His Majesty, and his Allies, and +the rest of Europe, which had been evidently threatened and +endangered by the conduct of France." True, in the course of +the struggle England had supported the French Royalists, and +might find it prudent, especially in view of the events at Toulon, +to assist in restoring monarchy. "But," adds Lord Chatham, "it +is to be considered as arising out of the circumstances and +founded on the considerations which I have stated, and not as +making part of the object for which His Majesty originally took +up arms."<a name="FNanchor_243_243" id="FNanchor_243_243"></a><a href="#Footnote_243_243" class="fnanchor">[243]</a> This gentle rebuke to Hood (an impetuous and +opinionated officer), clearly shows the attitude of the Cabinet +towards that problem. For Great Britain the re-establishment +of monarchy was not an affair of principle, but solely of expediency. +It is also noteworthy that the inhabitants of Toulon +retained the tricolour flag, thus signifying their adhesion to constitutional +royalism as established in 1791.</p> + +<p>The fortunes of the Republic now appeared desperate; and +the Allies would certainly have triumphed had they put forth +a tithe of the energy developed by the Jacobins at Paris. With +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>ordinarily good management on the part of Austria, Sardinia, +and Naples, Toulon might have become the centre of a great +royalist movement in the South. That was certainly the expectation +of Pitt; and Langara, the Spanish admiral at Toulon, +expressed to his Government the hope that the war would soon +end with honour.<a name="FNanchor_244_244" id="FNanchor_244_244"></a><a href="#Footnote_244_244" class="fnanchor">[244]</a></p> + +<p>No one at first realized the difficulties of the enterprise. The +ramparts of Toulon were extensive; and the outlying forts, from +Lamalgue on the east to Mount Faron on the north, and the +works on the west and south-west, spread over a circumference +of fully fifteen miles. Then again the French royalist committee +in Toulon was somewhat suspicious of the Allies. In truth a +blight seemed to settle on the royalist cause when it handed +over to foreigners one of the cherished citadels of France. +Loyalty to Louis XVII now spelt treason to the nation. The +crisis is interesting because it set sharply against one another +the principles of monarchy and nationality; and the sequel proved +that the national idea, though still far from mature even in +France, had more potency than royalism. A keen-sighted observer +had very forcibly warned the Marseillais against delivering +their city into the hands of the Spaniards, a crime which must +ruin their efforts. Such was the judgement of Bonaparte in that +curious pamphlet "Le Souper de Beaucaire."</p> + +<p>Other invisible agencies, those of time and space, told against +the Allies. Despatches sent by Hood were at least eleven days +in reaching their destination, and often far longer. Consequently, +the plans framed at home were always belated. The first tidings +(received on 7th September) found the Cabinet half committed +to another enterprise, that in the West Indies, which Pitt very +reluctantly postponed owing to the drain of troops to Flanders +and Toulon. A further disadvantage was that disputes between +the British and Spanish commanders at Toulon were known at +Whitehall long after they had come to a head; and the final +reports of the sore straits of the garrison led to the despatch to +Cork of orders for the sailing of reinforcements five days after +the evacuation began at Toulon.</p> + +<p>In these brisk and giddy-paced times it is difficult to realize +the difficulties which then beset British commanders warring in +the Mediterranean against an enemy who could send news to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>Paris in three days. Now the telegraph has annihilated space; +but then, as in the campaigns of Francis I against Charles V, +the compactness of France and her central position told enormously +in her favour. The defence of Toulon was practicable, +provided that adequate reinforcements arrived in time. As +will soon appear, Pitt urged the despatch of strong reinforcements +from Ireland; and, but for delays due to the want of +transports, things might have gone very differently at Toulon. +He also expected Austria to send succours if only as a means +of protecting her Italian possessions. In truth, if the Hapsburgs +had discerned the signs of the times, they would have taken +steps to defend the Milanese at Toulon. They were destined to +rue their folly.</p> + +<p>Further, on 14th September, despite bad news from Dunkirk, +Dundas issued orders that 4,000 Hessians, serving under the +Duke of York, must be withdrawn in order to strengthen the +garrison at Toulon, their place being taken by others hired at +Cassel. On 28th September Dundas added that the artillery +sent for Dunkirk would be withdrawn from Flanders as it was +urgently needed at Toulon. Thus these two expeditions competed +together, and produced a dislocation of plans and ordering +of troops to and fro, which told against success in either +quarter. By 27th October Ministers definitely decided that Toulon, +or la Vendée, was a better fulcrum for their scanty forces than +Flanders.<a name="FNanchor_245_245" id="FNanchor_245_245"></a><a href="#Footnote_245_245" class="fnanchor">[245]</a> Even so, with all these dislocations of the Flemish +plans, Pitt and Dundas relied too much upon Austria; and all +too late found out that she was a broken reed. The Sardinians, +also, lacking due support from the Court of Vienna, were afraid +to denude their borders and therefore sent an inadequate contingent, +despite the fact that they had promised to place 20,000 +troops at the disposal of England free from all expense.</p> + +<p>Far different was the procedure of the French. Carnot determined +to retake Lyons and Toulon, even if the efforts against +Spain and Sardinia had to be relaxed. Further, on the 16th of +September there arrived at the Republican army west of Toulon +the incarnation of warlike energy and skill. At the bidding of +the Commissioners of the Convention, Napoleon Bonaparte had +come from the arsenal at Marseilles to assist the few artillerymen +then before Toulon. On the 17th he was placed in command +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>of their insignificant siege artillery, and forthwith from the slopes +two miles west of the town he opened fire on the nearest ships. +It is incorrect to claim for him the origination of the plan of sinking +the fleet by a fire from the height behind l'Eguilette; for three +days earlier the Commissioners of the Convention had written +that they would secure a position whence the allied fleet could +be sunk by red-hot cannon-balls; and there was no point but +the high ground behind Fort l'Eguilette which dominated both +the inner and the outer harbours.<a name="FNanchor_246_246" id="FNanchor_246_246"></a><a href="#Footnote_246_246" class="fnanchor">[246]</a> But it may freely be granted +that Bonaparte clinched the arguments in favour of this course +and brought to bear on it that masterful energy which assures +triumph. It was the first occasion on which he crossed the path +of Pitt; and here, as always, he had the advantage of a central +position, and of wielding a compact and homogeneous force +against discordant Allies.</p> + +<p>The worst difficulty confronting the defenders of Toulon +remains to be noted. There the Sea Power is at the mercy of +the Land Power. To attempt to defend that city at the head of +its land-locked harbour, dominated by promontories, was to +court disaster unless the fleet had an army to protect it. In +such a case a fleet is a source of danger rather than of safety. Its +true function is to act where it can, either directly or indirectly, +command the land. It operates with most effect against low +and exposed coasts. St. Jean d'Acre affords, perhaps, the best +example of a town at the mercy of a fleet. Portsmouth, Sydney, +Brest, and Toulon cannot be held by an enemy unless he brings +forces sufficient to hold the neighbouring heights. In occupying +Toulon, the Sea Power was virtually putting its head into the +lion's jaw. Only by degrees did the authorities at home understand +this all-important fact. For some time it was veiled from +Pitt; and, as we shall see, the Austrian Chancellor, Thugut, +never did understand it. To those who were on the spot, the +need of occupying the promontory behind l'Eguilette was apparent; +and on 21st September Lord Mulgrave and Rear-Admiral +Gravina led a force to seize the very height on which Bonaparte's +will had already fastened. The Allies crowned it with a temporary +work dignified by the name of Fort Mulgrave. The fortunes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>of Toulon turned on the possession of all the heights commanding +the harbour, but especially of this one.</p> + + +<div> +<a name="image04" id="image04"></a> +</div> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 800px;"> +<img src="images/image04.jpg" width="800" height="521" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Siege of Toulon, 1793, from "L'Histoire de France depuis la Révolution de 1789," +by Emmanuel Toulougeon, Paris, An. XII. [1803].<br /> +A. Fort Mulgrave. A'. Promontory of L'Eguillette. 1 and 2. Batteries. 3. Battery "Hommes sans Peur." The black and +shaded rectangles are the Republican and Allied positions respectively.</span> +</div> + + +<p>Even before the arrival of Bonaparte the difficulties of defence +were very great. A British naval officer wrote on the 14th to +Lord St. Helens, British ambassador at Madrid, that the situation +of the little garrison was very critical owing to daily attacks +from the 5,000 French at Ollioules and the same number on the +eastern side. The Allies, he added, could not wholly trust the +French royalists serving with them, and they were glad to send +away on four French sail-of-the-line some 6,000 French sailors +who had bargained to be landed on the Biscay coast. Having +only 1,570 British and 3,460 Spaniards, they could scarcely man +the ramparts and forts, several of which, especially those on +Mount Faron, were not nearly ready. The houses of the town +were far too near to the ramparts; but the Allies dared not +demolish them until reinforcements arrived. Fortunately the +Spanish Admiral, Gravina, was alert, intelligent, and trustworthy; +and Piedmontese were known to be advancing over +the Maritime Alps into the county of Nice. Part of Hood's +fleet was engaged in intercepting the supplies and stores destined +for the Republicans.<a name="FNanchor_247_247" id="FNanchor_247_247"></a><a href="#Footnote_247_247" class="fnanchor">[247]</a></p> + +<p>The letter brings out vividly the perils of the garrison, which +must have evacuated Toulon had not reinforcements speedily +arrived. On 26th September Hood wrote that the Allies were +kept in perpetual alarm by the French batteries, which must be +kept under at all risks, until more troops arrived.<a name="FNanchor_248_248" id="FNanchor_248_248"></a><a href="#Footnote_248_248" class="fnanchor">[248]</a> Fortunately +the foresight of Pitt and Grenville had provided the means of +backing up operations in the Mediterranean. Apart from the +treaty with Sardinia, there was a compact with Naples, whereby +that Court promised a force of 6,000 men and 12 warships, the +naval expenses being borne by England.<a name="FNanchor_249_249" id="FNanchor_249_249"></a><a href="#Footnote_249_249" class="fnanchor">[249]</a> By 5th October 1,350 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>Sardinian and 4,000 Neapolitan troops arrived, thus enabling +the garrison to hold up against the ever increasing forces of the +Republicans. On the other hand, the fall of Lyons on 9th +October set free large numbers who were available for service at +Toulon. Consequently the troops and seamen of the Allies were +persistently overworked, so that Hood was constrained to hire +1,500 Maltese seamen, to take the place of those serving the +batteries. At first only 750 British troops could be spared from +Gibraltar; but by the end of October, when further help was at +hand, the allied forces (rank and file) stood as follows:</p> + +<table border="0" summary="Allied Forces"> +<tr><td>British</td><td align="right">2,114</td></tr> +<tr><td>French Royalists</td><td align="right">1,542</td></tr> +<tr><td>Spaniards</td><td align="right">6,840</td></tr> +<tr><td>Neapolitans</td><td align="right">4,832</td></tr> +<tr><td>Sardinians</td><td align="right">1,584</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="right">———</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="right">16,912</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>So exacting was the service, and so unhealthy the season (it +cost Bonaparte a sharp attack of malarial fever), that the number +fit for duty did not exceed 12,000.</p> + +<p>It is interesting to compare these figures with the estimate +of Pitt which is in the Pitt MSS. (No. 196).</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter"><i>September 16</i>.</p> + +<p>Force which it is supposed may be collected at Toulon by the end +of October or early in November:</p> + +<table border="0" summary="Forces at Toulon"> +<tr><td> </td><td align="right">Rank and File.</td></tr> +<tr><td>British Marines</td><td align="right">1,500 </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="invisible">Bri</span>"<span class="invisible">ish </span>flank companies from Gibraltar</td><td align="right">600 </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="invisible">Bri</span>"<span class="invisible">ish </span><span class="invisible">fl</span>"<span class="invisible">nk </span><span class="invisible">comp</span>"<span class="invisible">nies </span><span class="invisible">fr</span>"<span class="invisible">m </span>Ireland</td><td align="right">2,000<a name="FNanchor_250_250" id="FNanchor_250_250"></a><a href="#Footnote_250_250" class="fnanchor">[250]</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="invisible">Bri</span>"<span class="invisible">ish </span>Two battalions from Flanders (to be replaced by detachments from the Guards)</td><td align="right">1,200 </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="invisible">Bri</span>"<span class="invisible">ish </span>Cavalry from Ireland</td><td align="right">900 </td></tr> +<tr><td>Hessians from Flanders (to be replaced by the additional corps ordered)</td><td align="right">5,000 </td></tr> +<tr><td>Spanish (suppose)</td><td align="right">3,000 </td></tr> +<tr><td>Neapolitan</td><td align="right">6,000 </td></tr> +<tr><td>Sardinian</td><td align="right">9,000 </td></tr> +<tr><td>Austrian</td><td align="right">5,000 </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="right">——— </td></tr> +<tr><td>Total</td><td align="right">33,200 </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="right">[<span lang="la">sic</span>—really 34,200.] </td></tr> +</table> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> +<p>This Force may be estimated (allowing for some deduction) at 30,000 +men. To this may possibly be added some Force from Corsica, and +probably early in the spring, an additional body of 11,000 Sardinians, +perhaps also of 10,000 Austrians, and some troops of Baden from +hence. Possibly also a body of Swiss, and in the course of the next +summer (if the expedition to the West Indies is successful) about 4,000 +or 5,000 British on their return from the Islands. If 10,000, or 12,000, +Swiss can be secured, it seems not unreasonable to expect that, by the +beginning of next year, there may be an army in the South of France +of near 60,000 men.</p> +</div> + + +<p>Pitt, then, regarded Toulon as the base of operations in the +South of France so extensive as to deal a decisive blow at the +Republic. The scheme was surely due to the influence of +Bacchus rather than of Mars. For how was it possible to spare +6,200 men from the Duke of York's force, then hard pressed +after its retreat from Dunkirk? The estimate of the Sardinian +contingent was based on the treaty obligations of that Power +rather than on probable performance; while that for the Spaniards +is strangely beneath the mark. How boyishly hopeful also +to suppose that the British forces destined for the future conquest +of Corsica could spare a contingent for service in Provence +in the spring of 1794, and that the nervous little Court of Turin +would send an <em>additional</em> body of 11,000 men far into France. +Thus early in Pitt's strategic combinations we can detect the +vitiating flaw. He did not know men, and therefore he did not +know Cabinets. He believed them to be acting according to his +own high standard of public duty and magnanimous endeavour. +Consequently he never allowed for the calculating meanness +which shifted the burdens on to other shoulders.</p> + +<p>The one factor on which he had a right to count was the despatch +of a respectable force of Austrians from the Milanese by +way of Genoa. The Austrian Governor of Milan promised to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>send 5,000 men; but not a man ever stirred.<a name="FNanchor_251_251" id="FNanchor_251_251"></a><a href="#Footnote_251_251" class="fnanchor">[251]</a> Hood did not +hear this disappointing news till 24th November.<a name="FNanchor_252_252" id="FNanchor_252_252"></a><a href="#Footnote_252_252" class="fnanchor">[252]</a> He at once +sent off to London an urgent request for succour; and orders +were given <em>on 23rd December</em> (the day after the arrival of the +news) for three regiments to sail from Cork for his relief. Thus +it came about that 12,000 Allies were left unsupported at Toulon +to bear the brunt of attacks of some 40,000 Frenchmen now +directed by a genius. O'Hara, who took over the command on +his arrival on 27th October, at once gave a verdict consonant +with his pessimistic character. Hood wrote on the morrow to +Dundas: "General O'Hara has just been with me and alarmed +me much. He says our posts are not tenable and that we are +in a dangerous situation for lack of troops that can be relied +upon. And, what is very unpleasant, is the conduct of the +Spaniards, who are striving for power here." On 11th November +O'Hara reported that, in the absence of engineer officers, the +forts had been injudiciously constructed; that their garrisons +began to suffer from exposure to the bleak weather; that the +broken and wooded country greatly favoured the advance of +the enemy, and hampered all efforts to dislodge him; that the +Spaniards and Sardinians had no artillery, tools, or camp equipments; +and that the only means of securing Toulon was to have +an army capable of taking the field.<a name="FNanchor_253_253" id="FNanchor_253_253"></a><a href="#Footnote_253_253" class="fnanchor">[253]</a> Hood and he therefore +counted the hours for the arrival of 5,000 Austrians from Genoa, +and of troops from England.</p> + +<p>The difficulties of the Allies were enhanced by the disputes +which soon arose between the British and Spaniards as to the +command of the garrison. The tactful Gravina having been +badly wounded in driving the French from Mount Faron, Langara +put in a claim that his successor should be commander-in-chief<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> +of the allied forces (23rd October). To this Hood stoutly +demurred, on the ground that he received Toulon in trust before +the Spaniards appeared; and, though it was true that the Spanish +troops outnumbered the British, yet the command of the +Neapolitan and Sardinian contingents belonged of right to the +subsidizing Power. He therefore claimed the supreme command +for General O'Hara. This matter caused much annoyance at +Madrid, where that rankling sore, Nootka Sound, was still kept +open by the all-powerful Minister, Alcudia. Hood's testiness +increased the friction at Toulon. The Spaniards were justified +in claiming equality at that fortress; for only by their arrival +did the position become tenable; and the joint proclamations of +Hood and Langara formed a tacit admission of that equality. +But Pitt early resolved to take a firm stand on this subject. On +17th October, in discussing the instructions for Sir Gilbert +Elliot, the British Commissioner designated for Toulon, he declared +that we must appoint him governor of that town in consequence +of its surrender to us.<a name="FNanchor_254_254" id="FNanchor_254_254"></a><a href="#Footnote_254_254" class="fnanchor">[254]</a></p> + +<p>Pitt kept up this stiff attitude, and on 30th November stated +to St. Helens that, as Toulon surrendered to Hood alone +(Langara having declined to share in the original enterprise) +England must appoint the commander-in-chief, especially as she +could not transfer to a Spaniard the command of her subsidized +Allies. The despatch concluded thus: "His Majesty has in no +case any view upon that place different from that which has +been avowed in his name—that at the conclusion of peace that +port should be restored to the crown of France and that in the +interval it should serve in His Majesty's hands as a means of +carrying on the war and as a pledge of indemnity to him and +his Allies, including the Crown of Spain, whose claim to indemnity +His Majesty has so distinctly avowed."<a name="FNanchor_255_255" id="FNanchor_255_255"></a><a href="#Footnote_255_255" class="fnanchor">[255]</a></p> + +<p>These words were added because the French Royalists and the +Spaniards asserted that England's high-handed conduct at +Toulon arose from her resolve to make of it a second Gibraltar. +The insinuation struck home then, and has been widely repeated.<a name="FNanchor_256_256" id="FNanchor_256_256"></a><a href="#Footnote_256_256" class="fnanchor">[256]</a> +But, on the first receipt of the news of the gain of Toulon, +Grenville declared explicitly to the Austrian Court "that whatever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> +indemnification is to be acquired by this country must be +looked for in the foreign settlements and colonies of France."<a name="FNanchor_257_257" id="FNanchor_257_257"></a><a href="#Footnote_257_257" class="fnanchor">[257]</a> +As we shall see in later chapters, Corsica and the French West +Indies were the acquisitions aimed at by the Pitt Ministry.</p> + +<p>Some colour was given to this charge by the refusal of the +British Government to allow the Comte de Provence, the <span lang="fr">soi-disant</span> +Regent of France, to proceed to Toulon. Grenville even +instructed Francis Drake, our envoy at Genoa, to prevent him +embarking at that port. At first sight this conduct seems indefensible, +especially as the Court of Madrid favoured the Prince's +scheme. It must be remembered, however, that the British +Government had consistently refused to acknowledge the Prince +as Regent, and was now exceedingly annoyed with him for announcing +his resolve to go to Toulon, without first applying for +permission to George III.<a name="FNanchor_258_258" id="FNanchor_258_258"></a><a href="#Footnote_258_258" class="fnanchor">[258]</a> This violation of etiquette prejudiced +his case from the outset. Further, the Royalists of Toulon had +declared for Louis XVII, and a majority of them throughout +France opposed the claim of "Monsieur" to the Regency. The +constitution of 1791 gave him no such right on his own initiative; +and, as Toulon stood for that constitution, not for the "pure" +royalism which he now championed, his arrival would place the +garrison "at the discretion of wild and hot-headed emigrants +and expose them to the reproaches and discontents of the Regent's +Court."<a name="FNanchor_259_259" id="FNanchor_259_259"></a><a href="#Footnote_259_259" class="fnanchor">[259]</a> Besides, what could the Regent of France do in Toulon, +a town closely besieged and in danger of being taken? His +dignity and influence would be far better maintained by remaining +at large than by proceeding thither.<a name="FNanchor_260_260" id="FNanchor_260_260"></a><a href="#Footnote_260_260" class="fnanchor">[260]</a></p> + +<p>Finally, the two princes had given no assurance or promise +that they would recognize the claims of the Allies to indemnities +from France for the expenses of the war.<a name="FNanchor_261_261" id="FNanchor_261_261"></a><a href="#Footnote_261_261" class="fnanchor">[261]</a> On this last matter +the <span lang="fr">émigrés</span> were beginning to raise shrill protests at London; +and it was certainly wise to come to some understanding with +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>the princes on this point before they were put in possession of +Provence. Pitt and Grenville were not made of the same stuff +as the Ministers in power in 1815, who demanded no return for +the sacrifices of blood and treasure in the Waterloo campaign. +None the less, it is certain that Pitt and his cousin had no +thought of keeping either Dunkirk or Toulon, save as a pledge +for the acquisition of some of the French West Indies and +Corsica.<a name="FNanchor_262_262" id="FNanchor_262_262"></a><a href="#Footnote_262_262" class="fnanchor">[262]</a> This was hinted at plainly in the British Declaration +issued at Toulon on 20th November:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>That altho' at the conclusion of peace, we shall think ourselves +entitled to stipulate such terms as may afford just security to ourselves +and our Allies, and a reasonable indemnification for the risks and +expenses of a war in which, without any provocation on our part, we +have been compelled to engage, yet that, for our part our views of +indemnification can only have relation to places not on the Continent +of Europe.</p> +</div> + + +<p>After this explicit statement, there ought to have been no +bickerings about British aggrandisement at Toulon. Some of +the hot-heads in that town (echoed by Fox later on at Westminster) +chose to consider the Declaration as an infraction of +Hood's promise that he would hold Toulon merely in trust for +Louis XVII. The difference, however was not vital. Pitt and +Grenville intended to hold Toulon merely as a pledge that the +British claims to an indemnity elsewhere would be satisfied. +Spain had most cause for annoyance with the Declaration, inasmuch +as she, though having a superior number of troops in that +town, was neither allowed to consider it as a pledge for her +future indemnities, nor to share in its government. It was confided +to three Commissioners—Sir Gilbert Elliot, Hood, and +O'Hara, Elliot being virtually Governor.</p> + +<p>In one other matter the Courts of St. James and of Madrid +were at variance. The latter urged the need of speedily removing +the French warships from Toulon to a Spanish port, or +of making preparations for burning them. Whereas Pitt, who +regarded Toulon, not as a windfall, but as a base of operations +for a campaign in Provence, maintained that such conduct must +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>blight their prospects. With phenomenal stupidity, Langara +allowed his secret instructions on this topic to leak out, thereby +rousing the rage of the Toulonese and the contempt of his +British colleagues. The Duke of Alcudia (better known as +Godoy) expressed sincere regret for this <span lang="fr">bêtise</span>. But the mischief +was done. The French royalists thenceforth figured as traitors +who had let in a band of thieves intent only on the seizure of +the French warships.</p> + +<p>As if this were not enough, Hood quarrelled with our military +officers, with results highly exasperating to our land forces.<a name="FNanchor_263_263" id="FNanchor_263_263"></a><a href="#Footnote_263_263" class="fnanchor">[263]</a> +These last did not shine during the siege. True, in the sortie of +29th November they captured a battery recently erected north +of Malbosquet; but, their eagerness exceeding their discipline, +they rushed on, despite orders to remain in the battery, like a +pack of hounds after a fox (wrote Hood);<a name="FNanchor_264_264" id="FNanchor_264_264"></a><a href="#Footnote_264_264" class="fnanchor">[264]</a> whereupon the +French rushed upon them, driving them back with heavy loss. +O'Hara, while striving to retrieve the day, was wounded and +captured. His mantle of gloom devolved upon Major-General +David Dundas, a desponding officer, who had recently requested +leave to return on furlough on the ground of ill health and +inability to cope with the work. This general's letters to his +ever confident relative, Henry Dundas, at Whitehall, were always +in a minor key. In his eyes the Spanish troops were "everything +that is bad"; half of the Toulonese were hostile to the +Allies; and the latter were heavily handicapped by having to +defend their own fleets. There was some truth in this; but the +whining tone of the letters, due to ill health, drew from the +Minister a stinging retort, to the effect that the occupation of +Toulon had taken Ministers wholly by surprise; that they had +done their best to comply with the new demands for troops, and +expected their general not to look at his own difficulties alone, but +to remember those of the enemy and endeavour to beat him.<a name="FNanchor_265_265" id="FNanchor_265_265"></a><a href="#Footnote_265_265" class="fnanchor">[265]</a></p> + +<p>This was the spirit in which Hood faced the problem. Even +at the close of November, when all hope of the arrival of the +5,000 Austrians was past, he refused to listen to David Dundas's +advice for the evacuation of Toulon; and surely this pertinacity +was consonant with the traditions of the British navy, and of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>army in its better days; but out of this question arose a feud +between army and navy which developed in Corsica with disastrous +results. Ministers strove to send all the succour available. +But they did not hear until 22nd December that the +5,000 Austrians were being withheld. Henry Dundas's letter of +the 28th also breathes deep concern at the news that Sir R. +Boyd had not forwarded from Gibraltar the reinforcements +ordered thence. Further, it appears from an official estimate +drawn up at Whitehall on 18th December, that the troops already +at or ordered to Toulon were believed to be as follows: +British, 2,828; Spanish, 4,147; Sardinians, 2,162; Neapolitans, +8,600. Dundas also included the 1,100 British troops ordered +from Gibraltar (where at that time there was no chance of an +attack), and 2,361 men under directions to sail from Cork, but +which could not stir owing to the non-arrival of the transports.<a name="FNanchor_266_266" id="FNanchor_266_266"></a><a href="#Footnote_266_266" class="fnanchor">[266]</a> +The resulting total of 21,198 is, of course, merely a sign of +Henry Dundas's optimism. But obviously Ministers were unaware +of the acute crisis at Toulon at the time of its surrender. In the +age of telegraphy, that disaster would have been averted. The +delays of the Austrians, and the muddles at Gibraltar and Cork, +would have been known betimes.</p> + +<p>Strange to say, there was at that time lying at anchor at Spithead +a force under Lord Moira's command, destined for Brittany, +but held back for various causes, which would probably +have turned the balance at Toulon, had Ministers known of the +dire need of reinforcements. It is mortifying to read the letters +of Pitt and the Marquis of Buckingham early in December, complaining +that Moira's force is strangely inactive.<a name="FNanchor_267_267" id="FNanchor_267_267"></a><a href="#Footnote_267_267" class="fnanchor">[267]</a> Still more +startling is it to read the hurried order of 23rd December (six +days after the loss of Toulon), that the 40th regiment, then unexpectedly +detained at Cork, though detached for service with +Lord Moira, should set sail at once for the French stronghold +along with the other regiments also detained at Cork.<a name="FNanchor_268_268" id="FNanchor_268_268"></a><a href="#Footnote_268_268" class="fnanchor">[268]</a> What +might not have happened, had those troops set sail for Toulon +before the close of November?</p> + +<p>Hero-worshippers will probably maintain that, even if Toulon +had been held harmoniously by all the troops which the imagination +of Pitt and Dundas conjured up, nevertheless the genius and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>daring of the little Corsican would have prevailed. This view is +tenable; but the prosaic mind, which notes the venturesome +extension of Bonaparte's batteries in November–December, +until they presented their right flanks to the cliffs and their rear +to the open sea, though at too high a level to be cannonaded, +will probably conclude that, if Hood and Langara had had a +force of 20,000 men, they could have driven the French from +those works. As it was, the Allies, not having enough men, +stood on the defensive all along their very extensive front, and +were overpowered at Fort Mulgrave, which was some miles +away from the city. Its garrison of 700 men (British, Spanish, +and a few Neapolitans) was assailed in the stormy night of +16th–17th December by 7,000 of the best of the Republican +troops. The ensuing conflict will best be understood from the +hitherto unpublished account given by the commander-in-chief. +After describing the heavy cannonade from three French batteries +against Fort Mulgrave, he continues thus:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">H.M.S. "Victory," Hières Bay, <i>Dec. 21, 1793</i>.<a name="FNanchor_269_269" id="FNanchor_269_269"></a><a href="#Footnote_269_269" class="fnanchor">[269]</a></p> + +<p>... The works suffered much. The number of men killed and +wounded was considerable. The weather was rainy and the consequent +fatigue great. At 2 a.m. of the 17th, the enemy, who had every advantage +in assembling and suddenly advancing, attacked the fort in +great force. Although no part of this temporary post was such as could +well resist determined troops, yet for a considerable time it was defended; +but, on the enemy entering on the Spanish side, the British +quarter, commanded by Captain Conolly of the 18th regiment, could +not be much longer maintained, notwithstanding several gallant efforts +were made for that purpose. It was therefore at last carried, and the +remains of the garrison of 700 men retired towards the shore of +Balaguier, under the protection of the other posts established on those +heights, and which continued to be faintly attacked by the enemy. As +this position of Balaguier was a most essential one for the preservation +of the harbour, and as we had no communication with it but by water, +2,200 men had been placed there for some time past. On the night +preceding the attack, 300 more men had been sent over, and on the +morning of the 17th, 400 were embarked still further to support it.</p> + +<p>When the firing at Balaguier ceased, we remained in anxious suspense +as to the event, till a little before daylight, when a new scene opened +by an attack on all our posts on Mt. Pharon. The enemy were repulsed +on the east side, where was our principal force of about 700 men, commanded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +by a most distinguished officer, the Piedmontese Colonel, de +Jermagnan, whose loss we deeply lament; but on the back of the +mountain—near 1,800 feet high, steep, rocky, deemed almost inaccessible, +and which we had laboured much to make so—they found +means once more to penetrate between our posts, which occupied an +extent of above two miles, guarded by about 450 men; and in a very +short space of time we saw that with great numbers they crowned all +that side of the mountain which overlooks the town.</p> +</div> + + +<p>In this despatch David Dundas proclaimed his own incompetence. +For some time it had been obvious that the Republicans +were about to attack Fort Mulgrave, which everybody +knew to be essential to the defence of the fleet. Yet he took no +steps to strengthen this "temporary post" so that it might +resist a determined attack. He also entrusted one half of the +battery to the Spaniards whom he had declared to be "everything +that is bad." On his own showing, as many as 2,500 allied troops +were near at hand on the Balaguier or Eguilette heights to act +as supports, before Bonaparte's attack began; and 400 more +were sent thither soon afterwards. A spirited attack by those +troops on the victors at Fort Mulgrave on its blind side +might have retrieved the day; but a panic seized part of the +supports, whom Sidney Smith describes as rushing like swine +towards the sea though the enemy was only in a condition to +attack "faintly." Hood was furious at this spiritless acceptance +of defeat; and in his despatch to Whitehall censured the troops +for not making a timely effort;<a name="FNanchor_270_270" id="FNanchor_270_270"></a><a href="#Footnote_270_270" class="fnanchor">[270]</a> but as David Dundas had all +along opined that the place was untenable, he decided to hold +a council of war. It registered the wishes of the desponding +chief. The officers decided that it was impossible either to retake +the two positions lost, or to establish a post on the outer, +or Cepet, peninsula, capable of protecting the roadstead from +the cross fires which the French would pour in from the Balaguier +and Cape Brun promontories.</p> + +<p>During the next three days the evacuation took place amidst +scenes of misery for the royalist refugees that baffle the imagination. +As many as 14,877 were crowded on board the British +ships, together with some 8,000 troops. At the same time Captains +Sidney Smith, Hare, and Edge, with a picked body of men +burnt or otherwise damaged 27 French warships left in the harbour,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> +while 18 were brought away by the Allies. Eleven of the +twenty-seven were not seriously injured by the fire, and they +afterwards flew the tricolour. But the loss of 34 warships and +nearly all the masts and other valuable stores was a blow from +which the French navy did not recover until Bonaparte before +his Egyptian expedition breathed his own matchless vigour into +the administration. In ships and stores, then, France suffered +far more heavily than the Allies. Their losses elude the inquiries +of the statistician. They consisted in the utter discredit +of the royalist cause throughout France, the resentment that +ever follows on clumsy or disloyal co-operation, and the revelation +of the hollowness of the imposing fabric of the First Coalition. +In the south of France four nations failed to hold a single +fortress which her own sons had placed in their power.</p> + +<p>The Nemesis which waits upon weakness and vacillation has +rarely appeared in more mocking guise than at the close of the +year 1793. About the time when Toulon surrendered, the Austrian +Government finally came to the determination to despatch +thither the 5,000 men which it had formerly promised to send. +Grenville received this news from Eden in the first days of 1794, +shortly after the surrender of the fortress was known. Thereupon +he penned these bitter words: "If the first promise had +been fulfilled agreeably to the expectation which His Majesty +was justified in forming, the assistance of such a body of disciplined +troops would have sufficed to ensure the defence of that +important post; and the injury which the common cause has +sustained on this occasion can be ascribed only to the tardiness +and indecision which so strongly characterize the Austrian Government."<a name="FNanchor_271_271" id="FNanchor_271_271"></a><a href="#Footnote_271_271" class="fnanchor">[271]</a> +Most tactfully he bade Eden refrain from reproaches +on this occasion and to use it merely as an argument for throwing +greater vigour into the next campaign.</p> + +<p>Events pointed the moral far more strongly than Eden could +do. As by a lightning flash, the purblind politicians of Vienna +could now discern the storm-wrack drifting upon them. The +weakness of the Piedmontese army, their own unpreparedness in +the Milanese, the friendliness of Genoa to France, and the Jacobinical +ferment in all parts of Italy, portended a speedy irruption +of the Republicans into an almost defenceless land where +they were sure of a welcome from the now awakened populace. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>So long as Toulon held out, Piedmont and Milan were safe. +Now, the slackness of Austria enabled her future destroyer to +place his foot on the first rung of the ladder of fame, and +prompted those mighty plans for the conquest of the Italian +States which were to ensure her overthrow and his supremacy.</p> + +<p>Well might Eden dwell on the consternation prevalent at +Vienna early in 1794. For, along with news of the loss of +Toulon, tidings of defeat and retreat came from the Rhineland. +Able and vigorous young generals, Hoche and Pichegru, had +beaten back Austrians and Prussians from the hills around +Wörth and Weissenburg; so that the Allies fell back with heavy +losses towards the Rhine. Thus, on the whole, the efforts of +Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, Holland, and some of the smaller +German States had availed merely to capture four fortresses, +Mainz, Condé, Valenciennes, and Quesnoy. It is not surprising +that public opinion in England, even in loyal circles, became +clamorous against the conduct of the war.<a name="FNanchor_272_272" id="FNanchor_272_272"></a><a href="#Footnote_272_272" class="fnanchor">[272]</a></p> + +<p>Not the least of the misfortunes attending the Toulon episode +was that the logic of events, and also the growing savagery of +the Reign of Terror, edged Pitt away from his standpoint of +complete neutrality as to the future government of France. +How could the ally of the Toulonese Royalists profess indifference +on that topic? On 5th October he wrote as follows to +Grenville respecting the powers to be granted to Sir Gilbert +Elliot at Toulon:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>I do not see that we can go on secure grounds if we treat with any +separate districts or bodies of men [in France] who stop short of some +declaration in favour of monarchy: nor do I see any way so likely to +unite considerable numbers in one vigorous effort as by specifying +monarchy as the only system in the re-establishment of which we are +disposed to concur. This idea by no means precludes us from treating +with any other form of regular Government, if, in the end, any other +should be solidly established; but it holds out monarchy as the only +one from which we expect any good, and in favour of which we are +disposed to enter into concert.<a name="FNanchor_273_273" id="FNanchor_273_273"></a><a href="#Footnote_273_273" class="fnanchor">[273]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>These words are remarkable. Clearly, in Pitt's view of things, +"security" for England and Holland was the paramount aim; +but he was beginning to feel that the Republican groups which +scrambled to power at Paris over the headless trunks of their +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>enemies, could offer no adequate security. When the Revolution +began to solidify, as it seemed about to do in 1795–7, he was +willing to treat with its chiefs; but already he was feeling the +horns of the dilemma, which may be described in words adapted +from Talleyrand's famous <span lang="fr">mot</span> of the year 1814: "Either the +Bourbons or the Republic: everything else is an intrigue." The +Toulon episode, more than anything else, bound France to the +regicide cause, and Pitt, albeit unwillingly, to the irreconcilable +Royalists. Thus the event which brought Bonaparte to the front, +shattered the aim of the Prime Minister to effect merely the +restoration of the Balance of Power.</p> + + +<hr /> + + +<div> +<a name="image05" id="image05"></a> +</div> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 800px;"> +<img src="images/image05.jpg" width="800" height="562" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">The House of Commons in 1793. (From a painting in the National Gallery by K. A. Hickel)</span> +</div> + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">THE BRITISH JACOBINS</p> + +<p class="quote">The much better way doubtless will be, in this wavering condition of our +affairs, to defer the changing or circumscribing of our Senate more than may +be done with ease till the Commonwealth be thoroughly settled in peace and +safety.—<span class="smcap">Milton</span>, <i>A Free Commonwealth</i>.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 40%"> +But cease, ye fleecing Senators<br /> +Your country to undo,<br /> +Or know, we British <span lang="fr">sans-culottes</span><br /> +Hereafter may fleece you.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em"><span class="smcap">Thelwall</span>, <i>A Shearing Song</i>.</span> +</p> + + +<p>The outbreak of hostilities often tends to embitter the strife +of parties. Those who oppose war find abundant cause for +criticism in the conduct of Ministers, who in their turn perforce +adopt measures alien to the traditions of Westminster. A system +founded on compromise cannot suddenly take on the ways of a +military State; and efforts in this direction generally produce +more friction than activity. At such times John Bull, flurried +and angry, short-sighted but opinionated, bewildered but dogged +as ever, is a sight to move the gods to laughter and his counsellors +to despair.</p> + +<p>The events of the session of 1793 illustrate my meaning. In +view of the notorious sympathy of the Radical Clubs with +France, Pitt proposed a Bill against Traitorous Correspondence +with the enemy. Both he and Burke proved that the measure, +far from being an insidious attack on the liberties of the subject, +merely aimed at enforcing "the police of war." Nevertheless, it +passed only by a majority of one—a warning to the Ministry +not to proceed further in that doubtful course (9th April 1793). +Pitt had the full support of the House in opposing Grey's motion +for Parliamentary Reform, which was thrown out by 282 votes +to 41. The war spirit also appeared in a sharp rebuff given to +Wilberforce and the Abolitionists on 14th May. The institution<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +of a Board of Agriculture (which Hussey, Sheridan, and Fox +opposed as a piece of jobbery) and the renewal of the Charter +of the East India Company were the chief practical results of +that session. But the barrenness of the session, the passing of the +Traitorous Correspondence Bill, and the hardships connected with +the balloting for the militia stirred the Radical Clubs to redoubled +energy; so that home affairs for two or three years centred in +their propaganda and in Pitt's repressive efforts. The development +of a keen political consciousness in the masses is a subject +of so much interest that I may be pardoned for dwelling on it +somewhat fully, with the aid of new materials drawn from the +Home Office Archives.</p> + +<p>There we see the causes of unrest. Hunger, hatred of the +militia laws, chafing against restraints entailed by the war, all +conduce to discontent. The newly awakened Caliban is also a +prey to suspicion. He hates foreigners. Yet, either as refugees +or prisoners, they swarm along the south coast (there were +for a time 5,000 prisoners in Winchester). Fishermen are +tempted to help in their escape, and a mariner of Emsworth +is arraigned for treason on this count. Even so far west as +Bodmin the prisoners are numerous and threatening. They +convince many of the townsfolk that England would be better +off as a Republic; and two patriotic ladies in fear and horror +inform Lord Mount Edgcumbe anonymously that Frenchmen +cut a mark round the neck of King George on all coins. The +vicar of Ringmer, near Lewes, reports that the smugglers of the +Sussex coast carry on a regular intercourse with France. In the +Isle of Wight even the French royalists, who are there awaiting +the despatch of Lord Moira's long-deferred expedition to +Brittany, figure as murderous Jacobins. In Bath, too, the mayor, +Mr. Harington, is troubled by the influx of Gallic artists and +dancing-masters, especially as they mix in all the "routs," and +dare even there to whisper treason against King George. +Another report comes that a French usher in a large school near +London—was it Harrow?—has converted several of the boys to +republicanism. Clearly, these are cases for the Aliens Act.</p> + +<p>Even Britons, untainted by Gallic connections, are suspect. At +Billingsgate a soldier swears that he was set upon at night because +he wore the uniform of "a d——d tyrant"; and other +evidence proves that the service was unpopular for political reasons +as well as the poor pay. Farmers are plied by emissaries of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> +the clubs as they come in to market. Complaints come to Dundas +that farmers and shippers on the coasts of Lancashire and +Cumberland sell corn to "the natural enemy."</p> + +<p>The discontent takes colour from its surroundings. At Pocklington +in Yorkshire the villagers threaten to burn the magistrates +in their houses in revenge for the conviction of poachers. +The rowdies of Olney in Bucks. (formerly a sore trial to Cowper +and John Newton) terrorize the neighbourhood. Everywhere +the high price of corn produces irritation. The tinworkers of +North Cornwall march in force to Padstow to prevent the exportation +of corn from that little harbour; otherwise they are +law-abiding, though a magistrate warns Dundas that local malcontents +are setting them against the Government. Multiply +these typical cases a thousand fold, and it will be seen that the +old rural system is strained to breaking point. The amenities of +the rule of the squires are now paid back, and that, too, at a +time when England needs one mind, one heart, one soul. At and +near Sheffield serious riots break out owing to the enclosures of +common-fields and wastes, the houses of the agricultural "reformers" +being burnt or wrecked. On the whole, however, I have +found fewer references to enclosures than might be expected.<a name="FNanchor_274_274" id="FNanchor_274_274"></a><a href="#Footnote_274_274" class="fnanchor">[274]</a></p> + +<p>As generally happens in times of excitement, the towns are +the first to voice the dumb or muttering hatreds of the villages. +Parisians led the Revolution in France, though its causes lay +thickest and deepest in the rural districts. Not until Paris +"stormed" its castle did the villagers attack theirs. So, too, in +the muffled repetition of the revolutionary music which England +sounds forth, the towns buzz, while the country supplies but a +dull ground-tone. Dearness of food and scarcity of work were +the chief causes of discontent. The spokesmen for the Spitalfields +weavers, who number 14,000, sent up a temperate petition +setting forth their distress; but, as is often the case in London, +their thoughts turned not to politics, but to practical means of +cure. They stated that the trade in velvets, brocades, and rich +silks would be absolutely ruined unless steps were taken to revive +the fashion in these fabrics. In Liverpool there were far other +grievances. There, as in all seaports, the tyranny of the press-gang +was sharply resented; and, early in November 1793, the +populace clamoured for the election of a "liberty-loving mayor," +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>Mr. Tarleton, who promised to keep the press-gang out of the +town.<a name="FNanchor_275_275" id="FNanchor_275_275"></a><a href="#Footnote_275_275" class="fnanchor">[275]</a></p> + +<p>In general the malcontents urged their case most pointedly in +towns and villages, where branches of the Radical Societies had +taken root. These Societies or clubs continued to grow in +number and influence through the year 1793, the typical club +being now concerned, not with faro, but with the "Rights of Man." +Some of the Reform Clubs sought to moderate the Gallicizing +zeal of the extreme wing. Thus, the "Friends of the People," +whose subscription of two and a half guineas was some guarantee +for moderation, formally expressed their disapproval of Paine's +works and all Republican agencies—a futile declaration; for his +"Rights of Man" was the very life-blood of the new clubs. +Working men had shown little or no interest in the earlier +motions for Reform. The Associations of the years 1780–5 had +lapsed; and it was clearly the joint influence of the French +Revolution and Paine's productions which led to the remarkable +awakening of the year 1792.</p> + +<p>Besides the London Corresponding Society, started (as we saw +in <a href="#CHAPTER_III">Chapter III</a>) by Thomas Hardy early in that year, there +was another formidable organization, the Society for Constitutional +Information, founded in London at the close of 1791. +It, too, was concerned with much more than the Reform of +Parliament; for on 18th May 1792 it recommended the publication +in a cheap form of Paine's "Rights of Man"; and on 21st +November it appointed a Committee for Foreign Correspondence. +A little later were adopted some of the phrases used in +the French Convention, and St. André, Roland, and <span class="ins" title="Barrère">Barère</span> were +admitted to membership. It does not appear that either this +Society, or Hardy's, corresponded with France after the declaration +of war; for the Parliamentary Committee of Secrecy, +charged in 1794 to report on seditious proceedings would, if it +were possible, have fastened on so compromising an act. Its +members belonged to a higher class than those of Hardy's +Society; for they included Romney the painter, Holcroft the +dramatist, Horne Tooke, the humorous <span lang="fr">littérateur</span>, and Thelwall, +the ablest lecturer of the day.<a name="FNanchor_276_276" id="FNanchor_276_276"></a><a href="#Footnote_276_276" class="fnanchor">[276]</a> That these men had +advanced far beyond the standpoint of the Whiggish "Friends +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>of the People," appears from a letter from one of the Norwich +Radical Clubs to the London Corresponding Society:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>The Friends of the People mean only a partial Reform, because they +leave out words expressing the Duke of Richmond's plan and talk only +of a Reform; while the Manchester people seem to intimate, by addressing +Mr. Paine, as though they were intent upon Republican principles +only. Now, to come closer to the main question, it is only +desired to know whether the generality of the Societies mean to rest +satisfied with the Duke of Richmond's plan only, or whether it is their +private design to rip up monarchy by the roots and place democracy in +its stead.<a name="FNanchor_277_277" id="FNanchor_277_277"></a><a href="#Footnote_277_277" class="fnanchor">[277]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>These Societies seem to have put forth no definite programme. +Their defenders claimed that they adhered to the Westminster +programme of 1780, championed by Fox and the Duke of Richmond. +But Fox strongly disapproved of their aims, and even +refused to present their petition for annual parliaments and +universal suffrage.<a name="FNanchor_278_278" id="FNanchor_278_278"></a><a href="#Footnote_278_278" class="fnanchor">[278]</a> In truth, the actions of these bodies belied +their words. They largely devoted their funds and their energies +to the circulation in a cheap form of the works of Paine, +200,000 copies being sold in 1793,<a name="FNanchor_279_279" id="FNanchor_279_279"></a><a href="#Footnote_279_279" class="fnanchor">[279]</a> and still more in the following +year. The Societies also adopted methods of organization +similar to those of the French Jacobins Club, and advocated the +assembly of a representative Convention. Every sixteen members +of the London Corresponding Society could form a division; and +the divisions, by the process of swarming-off, rapidly extended the +organization. They also sent delegates who conferred on matters +of importance, either locally or at headquarters; and the head +delegation finally claimed to represent very large numbers in +London and affiliated centres. In the conduct of details Spartan +self-restraint was everywhere manifest. Members were urged to +be brief in their remarks and business-like in their methods. +Officials must give a solemn promise not to skulk, or make off, +owing to persecution; and members were warned that noisy +declamation was not a proof of zeal but might be a cloak for +treachery. Above the chairman's seat was suspended a card with +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>the words—"Beware of Orators." One would like to have +witnessed the proceedings of these dully earnest men.</p> + +<p>Both in the provinces and in London, reformers of the old +type sought to curb the more dangerous of these developments, +especially correspondence with the Jacobins' Club at Paris. +Thus, the Manchester Constitutional Society having published +its address of congratulation to that body, together with the +reply of Carras, a member, George Lloyd, entered a formal protest +in these terms: "We are not a Republican Society; but +from such connection and correspondence we shall involve ourselves +in the imputation of Republicanism." He added that their +aim was solely the Reform of Parliament, and with that +foreigners had no concern whatever.<a name="FNanchor_280_280" id="FNanchor_280_280"></a><a href="#Footnote_280_280" class="fnanchor">[280]</a> Nevertheless the Society +kept up its foreign correspondence, and received addresses from +Jacobin Clubs in France.</p> + +<p>Another threatening symptom was the attempt to excite discontent +among the soldiery. There being then very few barracks, +the men were quartered on the public houses; and several +petitions were sent to Whitehall by publicans (sometimes even +by Corporations), pointing out the many inconveniences of this +custom. Thus in the autumn of 1793 the publicans of Winchester +complained that they had had to lodge as many as +5,000 men during their passage through that city, besides the +Bucks. regiment stationed there, and they begged that barracks +might be built. The authorities paid the more heed to these +petitions because local malcontents "got at" the soldiery in the +taverns, and brought home to them their grievances, namely, +poor pay, insufficient allowance for food at its enhanced prices, +and the severities of discipline exercised by "effeminate puppies" +drawn from aristocratic circles. In particular they circulated a +pamphlet—"The Soldiers' Friend: or Considerations on the late +pretended Augmentation of the Subsistence of the Private +Soldiers"—pointing out the close connection between the officers +and "the ruling faction," which "ever must exist while we +suffer ourselves to be governed by a faction."</p> + +<p>When the war with France unexpectedly lengthened out, +the Ministry decided to erect new barracks, accommodating +34,000 men, at a total expense of about £1,400,000. In the +debate of 8th April 1796, Fox and General Smith savagely +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>assailed this proceeding as fatal to English liberty. "Good +God!" exclaimed Smith, "is every town to be made a citadel +and every village converted into a garrison?" Windham had +little difficulty in showing that the old barracks were in general +badly situated, and not adapted for cavalry. Buildings for the +use of 5,400 horsemen were now erected; and on the whole +question he asserted that the men would live more cheaply, and +would contract less vicious habits than when lodged in inns. +Above all, they would be removed from the sedition-mongers, +who now plied them with doctrines destructive alike of loyalty +and military discipline. Windham then quoted a phrase from +Molière's "Médecin malgré lui": "If I cannot make him dumb, +I will make you deaf."<a name="FNanchor_281_281" id="FNanchor_281_281"></a><a href="#Footnote_281_281" class="fnanchor">[281]</a> The inference was that the inability of +the Cabinet to silence malcontents involved the expenditure of +£1,400,000 partly in order to stop the ears of the soldiery.</p> + +<p>Lord Bacon, in his pregnant aphorisms upon sedition, does not +venture on a definition of that indefinable term. Where, indeed, +shall one draw the line between justifiable discontent and the +inciting of men to lawless and violent acts? We shall notice +presently the claim of a Scottish judge that an agitator may +have good and upright intentions, and yet, if his words and acts +lead to general discontent, he is guilty of sedition and perhaps +of high treason. At the other extreme of thought stands the +born malcontent. He is generally an idealist, having a keen +sense of the miseries of mankind and very imperfect notions as +to the difficulty of peacefully and permanently ending them. In +times of political excitement the statesman has to deal with +large bands of zealots nerved by these irreconcilable principles. +It was the misfortune of Pitt that he sought to hold together +a nation rent asunder by the doctrines of Burke and Paine. +Compromise was out of the question; and yet a British statesman +cannot govern unless the majority of the people is ready +for compromise. His position becomes untenable if, while upholding +the throne, he infuriates all friends of progress; if, when +he seeks to remove abuses, he is dubbed a traitor to King, +Church, and Constitution. And yet, to abandon his post because +of these difficulties is not only cowardly, but also an act of disloyalty +alike to King and people.</p> + +<p>As the political thermometer rose towards fever point through +the years 1792–3, Government kept closer watch upon the political<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +Societies; but for a long time Pitt took no action against +them. It seems probable that, if they had confined themselves +to their professed programme (that of the Westminster +Reformers of 1780) he would have remained passive. He did not +prosecute those which in November 1792 congratulated the +French Convention on the triumph of its arms in Belgium and +the advent of a Gallic millennium. What, then, were the developments +which met with his stern opposition?</p> + +<p>But, firstly, we must ask the question, Why did not Pitt, in +view of the unswerving loyalty of the great majority of Britons, +rely on the good sense and weight of that mass to overbear the +Jacobinical minority? It is much to be regretted that he did not +take that more intelligent and more courageous course. But +the events of the French Revolution seemed to show the need of +early taking decided measures against a resolute and desperate +group. At half a dozen crises in the years 1789–92 firm action +would have crushed the anarchic forces in Paris, Lyons, and +Marseilles; but, for lack of a strong guiding hand, those forces +broke loose, with results which all genuine friends of liberty have +ever since deplored. It is perfectly certain that, if Mirabeau +had had a free hand, he would have used coercive measures by +the side of which those of Pitt's so-called "Reign of Terror" would +have been but as a pop-gun to a cannon. Besides, to taunt Pitt +with falseness to his principles of the years 1782–5 is to ignore +the patent facts that he advocated very moderate changes in the +representation. The Reform movement virtually collapsed in +1785. That which now borrowed its watchwords was in the main +a Republican and levelling agency. The creed of the Radicals +of 1793 was summed up, not in the academic programme of +the Friends of the People, the lineal heir to the earlier Associations, +but in Part II of Paine's "Rights of Man."</p> + +<p>Here, surely, are the reasons for Pitt's repressive policy. He +entered on it regretfully, but he felt no sense of inconsistency +in his change of attitude towards Reform. The times had wholly +changed; and that movement changed with them. As Macaulay +has well pointed out, Pitt never declared that, under no circumstances, +would he favour a moderate Reform of Parliament. But +he did declare that in his view Reform was at present highly +perilous; and he resolutely set himself to the task of coercing +those men and those agencies who advocated it in dangerous +forms and by lawless methods.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p> +<p>The first prosecution that need be noticed here was directed +against Paine for the seditious utterances in the "Rights of +Man," particularly in Part II. The Attorney-General made +out a formidable indictment, whereupon Paine, then a member +of the French National Convention, informed him that the +prosecution might as well be directed against the man in the +moon, and that the liberties of the people of England were in +reality on their trial. After this impertinence the sentence went +against Paine by default, and that, too, despite a skilful speech +by Erskine (December 1792). The aim of Government of course +was to warn those who were circulating Paine's works that their +conduct was seditious and that they did so at their peril.</p> + +<p>The Home Office Archives show that in very many cases the +warning was disregarded, and several prosecutions ensued, with +varying results. Still more frequent were the cases of cursing +the King, sometimes in obscene terms. To these we need pay +no heed. Frequently the offence was committed in taverns by +democrats in a state of mental exaltation. To this exciting +cause we may probably ascribe the folly of John Frost, the +attorney with whom Pitt had some dealings during the Reform +agitation of 1782. He was now charged with exclaiming excitedly: +"I am for equality"; and, when challenged as to the +meaning of his words, he added: "There ought to be no Kings." +In this connection it should be remembered that Frost and +Barlow had on 28th November 1792 presented to the French +National Convention the most mischievous of all the addresses +sent by Radical Clubs to that body. It ended with the statement +that other nations would soon imitate France (that is by +overthrowing the monarchy) and would "arm themselves for +the purpose of claiming the Rights of Man."<a name="FNanchor_282_282" id="FNanchor_282_282"></a><a href="#Footnote_282_282" class="fnanchor">[282]</a> This piece of +bravado must have told against Frost at the trial; for it proved +that amidst his potations at the tavern he spoke his real mind. +Erskine did his best to defend Frost by quoting Pitt's letters to +him of May 1782, on the subject of Reform.<a name="FNanchor_283_283" id="FNanchor_283_283"></a><a href="#Footnote_283_283" class="fnanchor">[283]</a> The device was +clever; but obviously Pitt's association with Frost for strictly constitutional +purposes in 1782 could not excuse the seditious language +of the latter under wholly different conditions eleven years later. +Frost was condemned to six months' imprisonment in Newgate +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>and was struck off the roll of attorneys.<a name="FNanchor_284_284" id="FNanchor_284_284"></a><a href="#Footnote_284_284" class="fnanchor">[284]</a> Other noteworthy +trials ensued, notably that of the "Morning Chronicle" newspaper, +which ended in an acquittal; but it will be well now to +turn to the important developments taking place north of the +Tweed.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Scotland had now thrown off the trance under which she had +lain since 1745; and her chief towns bade fair to outbid London, +Leeds, Sheffield, and Norwich as centres of democratic activity. +There was every reason why she should awake. She had very +little influence in Parliament. She returned 45 members as +against Cornwall's 44; while the total number of persons +entitled to vote for the fifteen representatives of the Scottish +burghs was 1,303,<a name="FNanchor_285_285" id="FNanchor_285_285"></a><a href="#Footnote_285_285" class="fnanchor">[285]</a> a number smaller than that of the electors of +the city of Westminster. This singular system was defended +chiefly on the ground of the turbulence of the national character. +Even in 1831 a Scottish member declared that Scots could never +assemble without drawing blood; and one of their champions, +Lord Cockburn, made the quaint admission: "The Scots are bad +mobbers. They are too serious at it. They never joke, and they +throw stones." It did not occur to that generation that the cure +for this bloodthirsty seriousness was frequent public meetings, +not no meetings at all. That a high-spirited people should so +long have remained in political childhood seems incredible, until +we remember that a borough election like that of Westminster +was absolutely unknown in the whole course of Scottish history. +Further, it was notorious that the 45 Scottish members were +the most obedient group of placemen in the House of Commons; +and their docility had increased under the bountiful sway of +Henry Dundas, whose control of patronage sufficed to keep the +Caledonian squad close to heel.</p> + +<p>This political apathy was now to end. The men of Edinburgh, +Glasgow, and Dundee began to discuss the "Rights of Man," +and to follow the lead given by the London Corresponding +Society. Thus, on 3rd October 1792, Lieutenant-Colonel William +Dalrymple presided over the first meeting of "The Associated +Friends of the Constitution and of the People," held at Glasgow. +Resolutions were passed in favour of an equal representation of +the people in Parliament, shorter Parliaments, and co-operation +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>with "the Friends of the People" in London. The entrance and +annual subscriptions were fixed at sixpence and one shilling. +Thomas Muir of Huntershill, an able young advocate, was +appointed Vice-President. Other Societies were soon formed, +and on 11th December there assembled at Edinburgh a General +Convention of Delegates from the Societies of the Friends of +the People throughout Scotland. Its proceedings were orderly, +beginning and ending with prayer. Resolutions were passed +deprecating violence whether in language or action; and the +presence either of Lord Daer or Colonel Dalrymple in the chair +showed that some, at least, of the gentry were for Reform. This +was exceptional. A little later the gentlemen of several towns +and counties asserted their loyalty in flamboyant petitions; and +the farmers of Dalkeith district at their meeting added to their +loyal toasts the following: "May we have no fox in our fold or +greys (wild oats) in our corn."<a name="FNanchor_286_286" id="FNanchor_286_286"></a><a href="#Footnote_286_286" class="fnanchor">[286]</a> Sir Kenneth Mackenzie on +3rd January 1793 informed William Pulteney that in the North +the towns were thoroughly loyal, with the exception of Perth +and Dundee, where certain ministers and writers led the people +astray.<a name="FNanchor_287_287" id="FNanchor_287_287"></a><a href="#Footnote_287_287" class="fnanchor">[287]</a></p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the authorities, notably the Lord Advocate, +Robert Dundas, took alarm; and on 2nd January 1793 Thomas +Muir was brought before the deputy-sheriff of Midlothian. Muir +was a man of highly interesting personality. The son of a +Glasgow tradesman, he had shown marked abilities at school +and at the University, whence, owing to his advanced opinions, +he was forced to migrate to Edinburgh. There, in his twenty-seventh +year, he soon became a leader of the Scottish Reformers, +his sincerity, eloquence, and enthusiasm everywhere arousing +keen interest. Had his good sense been equal to his abilities, +he might have gone far; but events soon showed him to be tactless +and headstrong. He went far beyond the rest of the delegates +assembled at Edinburgh, namely, in bringing forward, despite +the reluctance of the Convention, an Address from the Society +of United Irishmen in Dublin. Their conduct much alarmed +the authorities at Dublin Castle, who adopted stringent precautions. +Muir should therefore have seen, what his colleagues +did see, that any plan of co-operation was certain to irritate +Government. Nevertheless he persisted in bringing before the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>Convention the Irish Address, which strongly pointed out the +need of common action in the struggle for Reform and urged +both peoples to persevere "until we have planted the flag of +freedom on the summit, and are at once victorious and secure." +Further, the authorities accused Muir of circulating Paine's +writings and other pamphlets, including "A Dialogue between +the Governors and the Governed," which contained such sentences +as these: "The law is the general will—a new order." +"Nations cannot revolt; tyrants are the only rebels." "We will +live without tyrants, without impostors (priests)."<a name="FNanchor_288_288" id="FNanchor_288_288"></a><a href="#Footnote_288_288" class="fnanchor">[288]</a> The writings +were probably seditious in their tendency;<a name="FNanchor_289_289" id="FNanchor_289_289"></a><a href="#Footnote_289_289" class="fnanchor">[289]</a> but the evidence +that he circulated them was of the flimsiest character.<a name="FNanchor_290_290" id="FNanchor_290_290"></a><a href="#Footnote_290_290" class="fnanchor">[290]</a></p> + +<p>Unfortunately, Muir left the country, though in no clandestine +manner, while legal proceedings were pending. After a short +stay in London he proceeded to Paris, in order (as he said at his +trial) to try to persuade the French democrats to spare the life +of Louis XVI. The credibility of this statement is lessened by +the fact that he arrived in Paris only the evening before the +King's execution and remained there long after that tragedy.<a name="FNanchor_291_291" id="FNanchor_291_291"></a><a href="#Footnote_291_291" class="fnanchor">[291]</a> +A letter from a Scot in Paris, James Smith, to a friend in Glasgow, +which the postal authorities opened, stated that the writer +met Muir in a <span lang="fr">café</span> of the Palais Royal; that Muir did not hear +of his indictment till the evening of 8th February, and would +return to face his trial, though he was loth to leave France, as +he had made "valuable and dear connections." "Mr. Christie +advised me," adds the writer, "to make some little proficiency in +the language before I begin to think of beginning to do anything."<a name="FNanchor_292_292" id="FNanchor_292_292"></a><a href="#Footnote_292_292" class="fnanchor">[292]</a> +Now, as a clique of Britons in Paris had not long before +drunk the toast of "The coming Convention of Great Britain +and Ireland," Government naturally connected the efforts of +Muir with this republican propaganda. His next doings increased +this suspicion. He left France on an American ship which +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>landed him at Belfast; he stayed there a few days, and landed +at Stranraer on 31st July, only to be arrested, along with his +books and papers, and sent to Edinburgh.</p> + +<p>The ensuing trial, held on 30th and 31st August, aroused intense +interest, owing to the eloquence of Muir and the unscrupulous +zeal of the Scottish authorities in ensuring his conviction. +They packed the jury with men who belonged to a loyal Association; +and it is said that the Lord Justice Clerk, McQueen of Braxfield, +welcomed one of them with the words: "Come awa', Maister +Horner, come awa', and help us to hang ane of thae daamed +scoondrels." The trial itself bristled with irregularities; and +Muir, who rejected the proffered help of Erskine and conducted +his own defence, fastened on them so effectively, that at the +conclusion of his final speech the Court resounded with applause. +All was in vain. The jury found him guilty, whereupon the +Court of Justiciary pronounced sentence of transportation for +fourteen years.<a name="FNanchor_293_293" id="FNanchor_293_293"></a><a href="#Footnote_293_293" class="fnanchor">[293]</a></p> + +<p>Admiration of the virtues and courage of Muir must not blind +us to the fact that his conduct had been most provocative. His +visit to Paris, on the scarcely credible pretext that he went +thither to save the King's life, his connection with the United +Irishmen, and his stay in Belfast, told against him. Robert +Dundas, in informing his uncle, Henry Dundas, of his arrest, +added: "I have little doubt that, tho' he avows his intention of +coming home to have been a view to stand trial, [that] he is an +emissary from France or the disaffected in Ireland."<a name="FNanchor_294_294" id="FNanchor_294_294"></a><a href="#Footnote_294_294" class="fnanchor">[294]</a> The Scot +who first advocated common action with the Irish malcontents +should have paid good heed to his steps. Muir did not do so. +Accordingly, though the direct evidence at the trial told in his +favour, the circumstantial evidence weighed heavily against him.<a name="FNanchor_295_295" id="FNanchor_295_295"></a><a href="#Footnote_295_295" class="fnanchor">[295]</a> +At such a time men's actions count for more than their words. It +was the visit to Paris and the dealings with the United Irishmen, +far more than biassed witnesses and the bullying of Braxfield, +which led to the condemnation of this talented youth. For his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>arrest occurred at the time when terror was the order of the day +at Paris, and when the issue of an inflammatory address at +Dundee spread panic in official circles.</p> + +<p>Before adverting to this matter, we may note that Muir settled +down by no means unhappily at Sydney, and bought a farm +which he named Huntershill, after his birthplace. It is now a +suburb of Sydney. A letter from the infant settlement, published +in the "Gentleman's Magazine" of March 1797, describes him +and the other Scottish "martyrs"—Skirving, Margarot, and +Gerrald—as treated indulgently by the authorities, who allotted +to them convicts to till their lands. Shortly afterwards Muir +escaped, and, after exciting experiences, in which he was +wounded, made his way to France. In Paris, early in 1798, he +published some articles on the United Irishmen, which Wolfe +Tone and other Irish patriots deemed most harmful to their +cause. They therefore remonstrated with him, but received the +reply that he knew Ireland as well as they did, and had the +confidence of the United Irishmen as much as they had. Wolfe +Tone says of him: "Of all the vain obstinate blockheads that +ever I met I never saw his equal."<a name="FNanchor_296_296" id="FNanchor_296_296"></a><a href="#Footnote_296_296" class="fnanchor">[296]</a> Fortunately for his associates, +Muir retired into the provinces and died in the year 1799.</p> + +<p>Dundee played a leading part in the democratic agitation. Its +population, consisting largely of poor weavers, suffered severely +in the year 1793 from dearness of food and scarcity of fuel. On +this mass of needy operatives the doctrines of Paine fell like a +spark on tinder. Dundee became the chief focus of discontent +in Scotland. A Tree of Liberty was planted in Belmont Grounds; +bread riots were of frequent occurrence; and Dundas was burnt +in effigy. In the Home Office Archives is a statement that a +local tradesman named Wyllie generously supplied the waistcoat +and breeches: "they was of satin."<a name="FNanchor_297_297" id="FNanchor_297_297"></a><a href="#Footnote_297_297" class="fnanchor">[297]</a> In July 1793 there appeared +an "Address to the People," dated "Berean Meeting +House, Dundee," which painted the Government in the darkest +colours, and contained these assertions: "You are plunged into +war by a wicked Ministry and a compliant Parliament, who +seem careless and unconcerned for your interest, the end and +design of which is almost too horrid to relate, the destruction of +a whole people merely because they will be free.... Your +treasure is wasting fast: the blood of your brethren is pouring +out, and all this to form chains for a free people and eventually +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>to rivet them on yourselves." On 1st August 1793 a Government +agent found the MS. from which this placard was printed +in the house of a liquor-seller in Edinburgh. It was in the +writing of a minister, Palmer: so were two letters referring to it.<a name="FNanchor_298_298" id="FNanchor_298_298"></a><a href="#Footnote_298_298" class="fnanchor">[298]</a> +Robert Dundas therefore sent to have Palmer arrested. In +mentioning this fact to Henry Dundas, he added that Palmer +was "the most dangerous rebel in Scotland." It transpired in +the course of the trial that the address was originally written by +a weaver named Mealmaker, and that Palmer re-wrote it, toning +down some expressions which he thought too strong. Mealmaker +was a witness at the trial, but was not allowed directly +to incriminate himself. The authorities preferred to strike at +Palmer, a man of parts, educated at Eton and Cambridge, who +latterly had officiated as Unitarian Minister at Montrose and +Dundee. Doubtless these facts as well as his association with +the Scottish Friends of Liberty brought on him a sentence of +five years' transportation.<a name="FNanchor_299_299" id="FNanchor_299_299"></a><a href="#Footnote_299_299" class="fnanchor">[299]</a></p> + +<p>If the authorities hoped to crush the Scottish movement by +these severities they were disappointed; for it throve on them. +A spy, "J. B.," who regularly supplied Robert Dundas with +reports about the Edinburgh club, wrote on 14th September +1793 that the sentence on Palmer had given new life to the +Association; for, after a time of decline in the early summer, +more than 200 now attended its meetings. On 28th October he +stated that nearly all the Scottish clubs had revived. Dunlop, +Lord Provost of Glasgow, also declared that discontent made +progress every day; that the soldiery were corrupted, and that +there was an urgent need of barracks.<a name="FNanchor_300_300" id="FNanchor_300_300"></a><a href="#Footnote_300_300" class="fnanchor">[300]</a> Indignation also ran +high at London. Evan Nepean wrote to Robert Dundas: +"There is a devil of a stir here about Muir and Palmer." Braxfield's +address to the jury was thus parodied in the "Morning +Chronicle" of 4th March 1794:</p> + + +<p class="poem"> +I am bound by the law, while I sit in this place,<br /> +To say in plain terms what I think of this case.<br /> +My opinion is this, and you're bound to pursue it,<br /> +The defendants are guilty, and I'll make them rue it.<br /> +</p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p> +<p>Nevertheless, as another Convention had met at Edinburgh, +Robert Dundas wrote to his uncle on 2nd November 1793 strongly +deprecating any mitigation of the sentences. It was therefore +in vain that the Earl of Lauderdale, Grey, and Sheridan interviewed +the Home Secretary and pointed out that the offence of +"leasing-making," or verbal sedition, was punishable in Scots +law only with banishment, not with forcible detention at the +Antipodes.<a name="FNanchor_301_301" id="FNanchor_301_301"></a><a href="#Footnote_301_301" class="fnanchor">[301]</a> Henry Dundas informed his nephew on 16th November +that he would refer the whole question back to the Court +of Justiciary, and if it defended the verdict "scientifically" and +in full detail, he would "carry the sentence into execution and +meet the clamour in Parliament without any kind of dismay."<a name="FNanchor_302_302" id="FNanchor_302_302"></a><a href="#Footnote_302_302" class="fnanchor">[302]</a> +Braxfield and his colleagues defended their conduct in an exhaustive +treatise on "leasing-making," which the curious may +read in the Home Office Archives.</p> + +<p>What was the attitude of Pitt towards these events? Ultimately +he was responsible for these unjust and vindictive sentences; +and it is a poor excuse to urge that he gave Dundas a free hand +in Scottish affairs. Still, it is unquestionable that the initiative +lay with the two Dundases. If any Englishman exerted influence +on the sentences it was the Lord Chancellor, Loughborough.<a name="FNanchor_303_303" id="FNanchor_303_303"></a><a href="#Footnote_303_303" class="fnanchor">[303]</a> +He treated with contempt the motion of Earl Stanhope on 31st +January 1794 for an examination into the case of Muir, when +the Earl found himself in the position which he so much coveted—a +minority of one. On the cases of Muir and Palmer coming +before the Commons (10th March), Pitt upheld the Scottish +Court of Justiciary in what was perhaps the worst speech of his +whole career. He defended even the careful selection of jurymen +hostile to Muir on the curious plea that though they were +declared loyalists, yet they might be impartial as jurymen. He +further denied that there had been any miscarriage of justice, or +that the sentence on the "daring delinquents" needed revision. +And these excuses for biassed and vindictive sentences were +urged after Fox had uttered a noble and manly plea for justice, +not for mercy. Grey bitterly declared that Muir was to be sent +for fourteen years to Sydney for the offence of pleading for +Reform, which Pitt and the Duke of Richmond advocated twelve +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>years before. They sat in the King's Cabinet: Muir was sent to +herd with felons. This taunt flew wide of the mark. Pitt in his +motions for Reform had always made it clear that, while desirous +of "a moderate and substantial Reform," he utterly repudiated +universal suffrage. If those were his views in 1782–5, how could +he accept the Radical programme now that it included the absurd +demand for annual Parliaments? None the less Pitt was +answerable for the action of the Home Minister in referring +the sentences back to the judges who inflicted them—a course +of conduct at once cowardly and farcical. Pitt's speech also +proves him to have known of the irregularities that disgraced the +trials. But he, a lawyer, condoned them and applauded the +harsh and vindictive sentences. In short, he acted as an alarmist, +not as a dispenser of justice.</p> + +<p>It is easy for us now to descant on the virtues of moderation. +But how many men would have held on an even course when the +guillotine worked its fell work in France, when the Goddess of +Reason was enthroned in Notre Dame, and when Jacobinism +seemed about to sweep over the Continent? Here, as at so many +points, France proved to be the worst foe to ordered liberty. +Robespierre and Hébert were the men who assured the doom +of Muir and Palmer. A trivial incident will suffice to illustrate the +alarm of Englishmen at the assembly of a British Convention. +In December 1793 Drane, the mayor of Reading, reported to +his neighbour Addington (Speaker of the House of Commons) +that the "infamous Tom Paine" and a member of the French +Convention had been overheard conversing in French in a public-house. +Their talk turned on a proposed visit to the British +Convention then sitting in Edinburgh. At once Addington sent +for a warrant from the Home Office, while the mayor urged his +informant to hunt the miscreants down. The machinery of the +law was set in motion. A search was instituted; the warrant +came down from Whitehall; and not until the sum of fourteen +guineas had gone to the informant for his patriotic exertions did +the authorities discover that they had been hoaxed.<a name="FNanchor_304_304" id="FNanchor_304_304"></a><a href="#Footnote_304_304" class="fnanchor">[304]</a></p> + +<p>The Edinburgh Convention, consisting of delegates of forty-five +Reform Societies, seems to have pursued dully decorous +methods until 6th November, when citizens Hamilton Rowan +and Simon Butler came to represent Ireland; Joseph Gerrald +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>and Maurice Margarot were the delegates from the London +Corresponding Society; and Sinclair and York from the Society +for Constitutional Information which met at the Crown and +Anchor. A Convention of English Societies assembled at +London about the same time, and deputed the four delegates +to join the Edinburgh body and form a British Convention.<a name="FNanchor_305_305" id="FNanchor_305_305"></a><a href="#Footnote_305_305" class="fnanchor">[305]</a> +Accordingly, on 19th November, it took the title, "British Convention +of Delegates of the People, associated to obtain Universal +Suffrage and Annual Parliaments." The statement of Margarot, +that the London police sought to prevent his journey to Edinburgh, +should have been a warning to members to measure their words +well. Unfortunately, Margarot, a vain hot-headed fellow, at +once began to boast of the importance of the Radical Societies; +though fluctuating in number, they were numerous in London; +there were thirty of them in Norwich; and in the Sheffield district +their members numbered 50,000. "If," he added, "we could get a +Convention of England and Scotland called, we might represent +six or seven hundred thousand males, which is a majority of all +the adults of the Kingdom; and the Ministry would not dare +to refuse our rights."<a name="FNanchor_306_306" id="FNanchor_306_306"></a><a href="#Footnote_306_306" class="fnanchor">[306]</a> Butler then declared that Belfast was in a +state of veiled rebellion; Gerrald, the ablest and best educated +of the delegates, also scoffed at the old party system, and said, +"party is ever a bird of prey, and the people their banquet." On +19th November a delegate from Sheffield, M. C. Brown, moved +that the next British Convention should meet near the borders of +England and Scotland. Thereupon Gerrald proposed that York +should be chosen, despite its ecclesiastical surroundings; for (said +he), "as the Saviour of the world was often found in the company +of sinners, let us go there for the same gracious purpose, to convert +to repentance."<a name="FNanchor_307_307" id="FNanchor_307_307"></a><a href="#Footnote_307_307" class="fnanchor">[307]</a></p> + +<p>All this was but the prelude to more serious work. On 26th–28th +November the Convention declared it to be the duty +of citizens to resist any law, similar to that lately passed in +Dublin, for preventing the assembly of a Convention in Great +Britain; and the delegates resolved to prepare to summon a +Convention if the following emergencies should arise—an invasion, +the landing of Hanoverian troops, the passing of a Convention<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> +Act, or the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. These +defiant resolutions were proposed by Sinclair; and, as he afterwards +became a Government informer, they were probably +intended to lure the Convention away from its proper business +into seditious ways. However that may be, the delegates +solemnly assented to these resolutions.</p> + +<p>Scotsmen will notice alike with pride and indignation that the +delegates of the Societies north of the Tweed adhered to their +main purpose, Parliamentary Reform, until, under the lead of +the men of London, Sheffield, and Dublin, debates became +almost Parisian in vehemence. As reported in the "Edinburgh +Gazetteer" of 3rd December, they gave Robert Dundas the +wished-for handle of attack. Then and there he decided to disperse +the Convention, so he informed Henry Dundas in the +following letter of 6th December: "Last Tuesday's '[Edinburgh] +Gazetteer,' containing a further account of the proceedings of +the Convention appeared to the Solicitor and me so strong that +we agreed to take notice of them. The proper warrants were +accordingly made, and early yesterday morning put in execution +against Margarot, Gerrald, Callender, Skirving, and one or two +others, and with such effect that we have secured all their +Minutes and papers. Their conduct has excited universal detestation."<a name="FNanchor_308_308" id="FNanchor_308_308"></a><a href="#Footnote_308_308" class="fnanchor">[308]</a> +The expulsion took place quite peaceably. The +Lord Provost informed the delegates that it was not their meeting, +but their publications, that led him to intervene. The Chairman, +Paterson, thereupon "skulked off"; but Brown, the Sheffield +delegate, took the chair, and declared that he would not quit it +save under compulsion. The Lord Provost and constables then +pulled him down; and the meeting was adjourned. Events ran +the same course on the morrow, save that the chairman, Gerrald, +was allowed to wind up the proceedings with prayer before he +was pulled down. Thus ended the first British Convention.</p> + +<p>The natural sequel was a trial of the leaders, Sinclair, Margarot, +Gerrald, and Skirving. Sinclair turned informer, whereupon +his indictment was allowed to lapse. The others were +charged with attending the meetings of the Convention which, +"under the pretence of procuring a Reform of Parliament, +were evidently of a dangerous and destructive tendency," modelled +on those of the French Convention and with the like aims +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>in view. The charge was held to be proven, and they were severally +sentenced to transportation for fourteen years. The cases +aroused keen interest, in part owing to the novel claims put +forward by the prosecutor and endorsed by the Judges. The +Lord Advocate argued that these men, in claiming to represent +a majority of the people, were in reality planning a revolt; and +Lord Justice Clerk finally declared that the crime of sedition +consisted "in endeavouring to create a dissatisfaction in the +country, which nobody can tell where it will end. It will very +naturally end in overt rebellion; if it has that tendency, though +not in the mind of the parties at the time, yet, if they have been +guilty of poisoning the minds of the lieges, I apprehend that that +will constitute the crime of sedition to all intents and purposes."<a name="FNanchor_309_309" id="FNanchor_309_309"></a><a href="#Footnote_309_309" class="fnanchor">[309]</a></p> + +<p>To find a parallel to this monstrous claim, that sedition may +be unintentional and may consist in some action which the Government +judges by its results, one would have to hark back to the +days of Judge Jeffreys, whom indeed McQueen of Braxfield resembled +in ferocity, cunning, and effrontery. The insolence of +Margarot at the bar to some extent excused the chief judge for +the exhibition of the same conduct on the bench. But in the +case of Gerrald, an English gentleman of refined character and +faultless demeanour, the brutalities of Braxfield aroused universal +loathing. In one respect Gerrald committed an imprudence. He +appeared in the dock, not in a wig, but displaying a shock of +dishevelled hair, a sign of French and republican sympathies +which seemed a defiance to the Court. Nevertheless, his speech +in his own defence moved to its depths the mind of a young +poet who had tramped all the way from Glasgow in the bleak +March weather in order to hear the trial. At the end of the +speech young Campbell turned to his neighbour, a humble +tradesman, and said: "By heavens, Sir, that is a great man"; +to which there came the reply: "Yes, Sir, he is not only a great +man himself, but he makes every other man feel great who +listens to him."</p> + +<p>In truth, the Scottish trials were a moral defeat for Pitt and +his colleagues. Sympathy with the prisoners and detestation of +the judges aroused a general outcry, which became furious when +Braxfield declared that he had no idea that his sentence of transportation +involved servitude and hard labour.<a name="FNanchor_310_310" id="FNanchor_310_310"></a><a href="#Footnote_310_310" class="fnanchor">[310]</a> The assertion implies<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> +an incredible ignorance in the man who had packed the juries +and sought to get his victims hanged. It may be regarded as a +cunning and cowardly attempt to shift part of the odium on +to the Government. Certainly the prestige of the Cabinet now +fell to zero. Ministers were held responsible for Braxfield's +wanton vagaries, and were accused of luring English democrats +into the meshes of the Scottish law. This last charge is absurd. +As we have seen, the London police sought to stop Margarot, +Sinclair, and Gerrald from going to Edinburgh. It was their +presence and that of the Irishmen which gave to the Convention +almost a national character, and placed it in rivalry to Parliament. +Their speeches were by far the most provocative. Finally, +as the letter quoted above shows, the initiative in arresting the +delegates was taken by Robert Dundas and the Scottish Solicitor-General. +On 11th December Henry Dundas wrote to his +nephew: "You get great credit here [London] for your attack +on the Convention."<a name="FNanchor_311_311" id="FNanchor_311_311"></a><a href="#Footnote_311_311" class="fnanchor">[311]</a></p> + +<p>Far different was the comment of the London Corresponding +Society. On 20th January 1794 that body convened a great +meeting which passed protests against the war, the expulsion of +the British Convention, and the arrest of delegates. It also resolved +that the general committee should sit permanently +throughout the ensuing session. Further, that if the Government +attacked the liberties of the people in the ways described +above, the committee should call "a General Convention of the +People for taking such measures under their consideration."<a name="FNanchor_312_312" id="FNanchor_312_312"></a><a href="#Footnote_312_312" class="fnanchor">[312]</a> +Equally threatening were the resolutions of the Constitutional +Society of London.<a name="FNanchor_313_313" id="FNanchor_313_313"></a><a href="#Footnote_313_313" class="fnanchor">[313]</a> Pitt resolved to take up the gauntlet flung +down by these two powerful Societies. On 24th February 1794 +Eaton, a publisher of Newgate Street, was tried for publishing +in his periodical pamphlet, "Politics for the People: or Hogs-wash," +a little parable with which that witty lecturer, Thelwall, +had delighted a debating society. He told how a gamecock, +resplendent with ermine-spotted breast, and crown or cockscomb, +lorded it greedily over all the fowls of the farmyard.<a name="FNanchor_314_314" id="FNanchor_314_314"></a><a href="#Footnote_314_314" class="fnanchor">[314]</a> +The parallel to George III was sufficiently close to agitate the +official mind; but the jury gave an open verdict, which implied +that the King was not hinted at.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p> +<p>The next prosecution, that of Thomas Walker, of Manchester, +and six others broke down in a way highly discreditable +to the authorities. Walker's services to the cause of Reform +had, as we have seen, been conspicuous alike in energy and +moderation, and his enemies in the Church and King Club +made great exertions in order to procure a conviction. The +archives of the Home Office throw a sinister light on their +methods. A magistrate of Manchester, the Rev. John Griffith, +informed the Home Secretary that Booth, a man who was imprisoned +in June 1793 for seditious practices, made a declaration +against Thomas Walker and McCullum, members of the local +Constitutional Society. According to Booth, McCullum had +said: "Petitioning Parliament be d——d. You may as well petition +the devil to reform himself. The only way is for each +Society to send a number of delegates to a certain place, and +there declare themselves the Representatives of the People and +support themselves as such." Thomas Walker had also said +that each member must have a musket, for they would soon +want them.<a name="FNanchor_315_315" id="FNanchor_315_315"></a><a href="#Footnote_315_315" class="fnanchor">[315]</a> But it transpired in the trial of Walker, McCullum, +and others that Griffith had let Booth see that he wanted to incriminate +Walker. He not only offered Booth his pardon for +such evidence, but left him alone with Dunn, a malicious perjurer, +the falsity of whose charges against Walker was convincingly +demonstrated.<a name="FNanchor_316_316" id="FNanchor_316_316"></a><a href="#Footnote_316_316" class="fnanchor">[316]</a> The case proves how far an unscrupulous +magistrate could succeed in getting charges trumped up against +an innocent man who opposed him in politics. Doubtless in +other cases personal spite, or the desire of a reward, led to the +offer of false charges; and the student who peruses the Home +Office archives needs to remember the Greek caution, <span class="greek" title="memnêsth' +apistein" lang="el">μέμνησθ' ἀπιστεῖν</span>, as much as if he were perusing French Memoirs.</p> + +<p>It is therefore with much doubt that one reads the declaration +of a Sheffield magistrate, in May 1794, that there was in that +town "a most horrid conspiracy against State and Church under +the pretence of Reform." A vast number of pikes and spears +had been made and "cats" to throw in the road to lame the +horses. 2nd July was fixed for the storming of the barracks and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>town. "It is a mercy the plot is discovered. I am to be all night +in the search." More detailed is the deposition of a magistrate of +Sheffield, James Wilkinson, that a democrat named Widdison +had made several pikes and sold twelve to Gales, a well-known +Jacobinical printer. Further, that a witness, William Green, +swore that a man named Jackson had employed him and others +to make spear-heads; they made twelve dozen or more in two +days, and the heads were sent to the lodgings of Hill and Jackson. +Wilkinson wrote for instructions how to deal with these +men; also for a warrant to arrest Gales. On 20th May Dundas +sent down warrants for the arrest of Gales, W. Carnage, H. Yorke +(<span lang="la">alias</span> Redhead), W. Broomhead, R. Moody, and T. Humphreys; +he also issued a warrant against Williams, a gun-engraver, of the +Tower, in London.<a name="FNanchor_317_317" id="FNanchor_317_317"></a><a href="#Footnote_317_317" class="fnanchor">[317]</a></p> + +<p>In Birmingham, as we have seen, the two magistrates, Carles +and Spencer, were out and out loyalists; and, as they wrote to +Dundas on 23rd May 1794 that there was not enough evidence +to warrant a search for arms, we may infer that the Midland +capital caused the authorities less concern than rebellious Sheffield. +But even at Birmingham, with its traditions of exuberant +loyalty, there were grounds for concern. John Brook, the +mayor, informed Dundas that there were many malcontents in +the neighbourhood, especially at Dudley.</p> + +<p>Turning to the East, we find signs that Norwich seethed with +discontent. From that city had come the first suggestion of a +General Convention of the People. On 5th March 1793 one of +the thirty Societies of Norwich wrote up to the London Corresponding +Society advocating that step, which Hardy and his +colleagues approved "so soon as the great body of the people +shall be courageous and virtuous enough to join us in the +attempt." I have found no proof that either at Norwich or in +London these Societies used illegal methods. The seditious +placards posted up at Norwich may have been the work of some +fanatic or of an <span lang="fr">agent provocateur</span>. But it is very doubtful +whether the holding of a People's Convention in the manner +proposed was not an act of defiance to Parliament, and therefore +seditious. Individual members certainly came within the ban of +the law. Thus, Dundas received tidings that two members of +Hardy's Society, named Stone and Meakins, were circulating +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>seditious writings in Essex. When arrested they had with them +one or two military books, copies of the revolutionary song, <span lang="fr">Ça +ira</span>, and similar papers;<a name="FNanchor_318_318" id="FNanchor_318_318"></a><a href="#Footnote_318_318" class="fnanchor">[318]</a> but this fact does not incriminate the +Society at large. In fact, the reports as to the purchase of arms +and secret drillings are not very convincing. To take a few instances: +information was sent to the Home Office that a man +named Kitchen had sixty pikes in his house in George Street, +near York Buildings; also that men were drilled secretly at the +house of Spence, a seller of seditious pamphlets in the Little +Turnstile, Holborn, and at that of Shelmerdine, a small tradesman +of Southwark; the arms in the last case were bought from +Williams, of the Tower, with a sum of £10 contributed by "a +desperate tailor of China Walk, Lambeth."<a name="FNanchor_319_319" id="FNanchor_319_319"></a><a href="#Footnote_319_319" class="fnanchor">[319]</a> Did patriotism or +private spite or greed of money incite these reports? Drawings +of pikes and spear-heads also diversified the report of the Secret +Committee of the Lords appointed to investigate seditious proceedings, +and probably convinced lovers of realism that plots +actually existed.</p> + +<p>More alarming in reality were the preparations for a General +Convention of the People. The authorities knew that plans were +actually on foot for sending delegates to form such a body. On +27th March 1794 the London Corresponding Society consulted +the sister club on this question; and in due course delegates +from the two Societies passed resolutions in favour of the +scheme. Hardy thereupon sent a printed letter round to similar +bodies, probably early in the month of April 1794. It ran +thus:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Notwithstanding the unparalleled audacity of a corrupt and overbearing +faction which at present tramples on the rights and liberties +of our people, our meetings cannot, in England, be interrupted without +the previous adoption of a Convention Bill<a name="FNanchor_320_320" id="FNanchor_320_320"></a><a href="#Footnote_320_320" class="fnanchor">[320]</a>—a measure it is our duty +to anticipate.... Let us then form another British Convention. We +have a central situation in our view, which we believe would be most +convenient for the whole island, but which we forbear to mention ... +till we have the answers of the Societies with which we are in correspondence. +Let us have your answer, then, by the 20th at farthest, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>earlier if possible, whether you approve of the measure and how many +delegates you can send, with the number also, if possible, of your +Societies.</p> + +<p>PS. We have appointed a Secret Committee on this. Will you do +the same?<a name="FNanchor_321_321" id="FNanchor_321_321"></a><a href="#Footnote_321_321" class="fnanchor">[321]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>In order to further the scheme, the London Corresponding +Society held a meeting on 14th April at Chalk Farm, when an +ardent appeal was read from Hardy to resist the encroachments +on liberty recently made by "apostate reformers"—a fling at +Pitt. "Are they alone," he asked, "to judge of the fit time for +Reform?" The meeting then thanked Earl Stanhope for his +manly and successful opposition to the attempt to bring Hanoverian +and Hessian troops into England; it also condemned the +late rapid advances of despotism and the arming one part of the +people against the other. Finally it declared that in cases of +necessity the safety of the people was the only law. We may +here note that a few Hanoverian and Hessian battalions had +been landed in Hampshire, as a temporary measure, previous to +their transference to other ships. This occasioned some clamour +at Westminster, Grey, Fox, Sheridan and others claiming that +the liberties of England were in the direst danger. Pitt refused +to accept a Bill of Indemnity for his action, and the House supported +him by a great majority.<a name="FNanchor_322_322" id="FNanchor_322_322"></a><a href="#Footnote_322_322" class="fnanchor">[322]</a></p> + +<p>The other reference at the Chalk Farm meeting was to the +proposal to sanction the subscriptions to the Volunteer forces +now being raised in various counties.<a name="FNanchor_323_323" id="FNanchor_323_323"></a><a href="#Footnote_323_323" class="fnanchor">[323]</a> At the outset this noble +movement had in view the defence of the constitution no less +than of the land; and this doubtless accounts for the fact that +Coke, Mingay, and other Norfolk Whigs struggled desperately +and successfully to break up a county meeting held at Norwich +for this purpose on 12th April, shouting down even so able +a speaker as Windham. In general, however, these meetings +were an immense success. That at Aylesbury realized £5,851 +for a county corps; and one at Epsom, for Surrey, brought in +nearly double as much.<a name="FNanchor_324_324" id="FNanchor_324_324"></a><a href="#Footnote_324_324" class="fnanchor">[324]</a> Most noteworthy of all these meetings +was one of 19th April 1794 at Birmingham, where loyal sentiments +crystalized in a rhetorical jewel of rare lustre. The "Loyal +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>True Blues" of Birmingham, in view of the threats of the French +"to insult the chalky cliffs of Albion and to plant in this island +their accursed tree of liberty, more baneful in its effects than +the poisonous tree of Java which desolates the country and corrupts +the winds of heaven," resolved to quit the field of argument +and to take arms as a Military Association. For nothing could +be so effective as "the decided and awful plan of the whole +Nation rising in a mass of Volunteers, determined to dispute +every inch of ground with their daring aggressors and to spill +the last drop of their blood in defence of their religion and their +laws." They beg Edward Carver to command them; they will +choose their uniform, will arrange themselves as grenadiers and +light infantry; and, "to preserve the <span lang="fr">coup d'œil</span>, the whole corps +will be arranged with the strictest attention to the height of the +members."<a name="FNanchor_325_325" id="FNanchor_325_325"></a><a href="#Footnote_325_325" class="fnanchor">[325]</a> Possibly the Royalists of Birmingham may have +known of the hint conveyed in Hardy's letter, that the National +Convention should assemble in some convenient centre, a phrase +which seemed to point to their town, which, indeed, the Chartists +chose for that purpose in 1839.</p> + +<p>In view of the fervent loyalty manifested on all sides, Ministers +might surely have trusted to the majority to control the +restless minority. Auckland expressed the general opinion when +he said that the country in the proportion of ten to one was +sound and loyal.<a name="FNanchor_326_326" id="FNanchor_326_326"></a><a href="#Footnote_326_326" class="fnanchor">[326]</a> As the majority was armed, while the malcontents +had but small stores of pikes, there was little cause for +fear, though in the minority were some desperate men. In particular, +Richard Davison, a prominent member of the Sheffield +Constitutional Society, recommended the clubs of London and +Norwich to buy consignments of pikes in order to resist the +"newly-armed minions of the bare-faced aristocracy of the present +Administration"; and it afterwards appeared that he could +sell them at twenty pence each.<a name="FNanchor_327_327" id="FNanchor_327_327"></a><a href="#Footnote_327_327" class="fnanchor">[327]</a> This letter was sent off on +24th April, 1794, seventeen days after the holding of a mass +meeting on Castle Hill, Sheffield, at which the chairman, Henry +Yorke (<span lang="la">alias</span> Redhead), declared that, when the sun of Reason +shone in its fullest meridian, the people would turn out the 558 +gentlemen from Westminster. The meeting resolved that, as the +people ought to demand universal suffrage as a right, and not +petition for it as a favour, they would never again petition the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>House of Commons on this subject.<a name="FNanchor_328_328" id="FNanchor_328_328"></a><a href="#Footnote_328_328" class="fnanchor">[328]</a> Contemptuous epithets +were now constantly hurled at Parliament. On 2nd May, that +genial toper, Horne Tooke, of Wimbledon, declared at a dinner +of the Constitutional Society in London that Parliament was a +scoundrel sink of corruption, and that the scoundrel Opposition +joined the scoundrel Government in order to destroy the rights +of Englishmen. In order to add weight to his epithets he called +the company to witness to his complete sobriety.<a name="FNanchor_329_329" id="FNanchor_329_329"></a><a href="#Footnote_329_329" class="fnanchor">[329]</a></p> + +<p>Pitt and his colleagues now decided to strike at the leaders +who were planning a British Convention. Of these the most +formidable was the Secretary of the London Corresponding +Society. Accordingly, early on 12th May, some Bow Street +officers made their way into Hardy's shop, No. 9, Piccadilly, +arrested him, seized his papers, ransacking the room where Mrs. +Hardy was in bed. The shock to her nerves was such as to bring +on premature child-birth with fatal results. On the same day +a royal message came to Parliament announcing that the efforts +of certain Societies to summon a Convention in defiance of +Parliament had led him to order the seizure of their books and +papers. Those of the Corresponding and Constitutional Societies +were brought, sealed up, to the House of Commons on the morrow, +whereupon Pitt moved for the appointment of a secret +committee to examine them. He himself, Dundas, and nineteen +other members soon drew up the Report. When presented on +16th May, it contained a statement of all the threatening symptoms +of the time, and so far ignored the legal efforts of those +Societies as to form a very alarming diagnosis.<a name="FNanchor_330_330" id="FNanchor_330_330"></a><a href="#Footnote_330_330" class="fnanchor">[330]</a></p> + +<p>The fears of Ministers were further aroused by the contents of +a letter from the Rev. Jeremiah Joyce (tutor of Earl Stanhope's +son) to Horne Tooke, which the Post Office had seized. It announced +the arrest of citizen Hardy, and ended thus: "Query: +is it possible to get ready by Thursday?"<a name="FNanchor_331_331" id="FNanchor_331_331"></a><a href="#Footnote_331_331" class="fnanchor">[331]</a> Some effort of the +imagination was needed to figure the Silenus of the literary +world as a plotter against the lives of Ministers. But they now +decided to arrest him and the Reverend Jeremiah, as well as +Bonney, Richter, and Kyd, also members of the Constitutional +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>Society, besides Camage and one or two other democrats of +Sheffield. Davison, the would-be seller of pikes, had fled betimes.</p> + +<p>These were the circumstances which induced Pitt to propose +the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act (16th May). The +Report of the Secret Committee having been read, he proceeded +to exaggerate the import of the more threatening parts of the +evidence, and to convince the House that these Societies, which +had congratulated the French Convention, and still aped its +methods, were plotting to set up an authority openly hostile to +Parliament. With all the force of his oratory he pictured the +state of things that must ensue—"an enormous torrent of insurrection, +which would sweep away all the barriers of government, +law and religion, and leave our country a naked waste for +usurped authority to range in, uncontrolled and unresisted." +Despite the warning of Fox that the remedy now proposed was +worse than the evil which it sought to avert; despite the pleas +of Grey and Sheridan against indecent haste in hurrying on +this arbitrary measure, it was forced through every stage in the +Commons at that single sitting; finally, at half-past three in the +morning, the numbers of the Whig protestors sank to 13, while +the Ministerialists still mustered 108 strong.<a name="FNanchor_332_332" id="FNanchor_332_332"></a><a href="#Footnote_332_332" class="fnanchor">[332]</a></p> + +<p>This collapse of the Opposition was due to a sharp cleavage +in its ranks on the vital issues now at stake. As has already +appeared, Pitt had consulted the Duke of Portland and his immediate +followers on subjects affecting public order. Some of the Old +Whigs, notably Windham, served on the Committee of Secrecy; +and the evidence there forthcoming led them to propose a +general support of Government both in its war policy and the +maintenance of order. Those eager Royalists, Burke and Windham, +took the lead in proposing an alliance with the Ministry. +The question arose whether the Old Whigs should support from +outside or actually coalesce with the Ministry, taking their fair +share of power. Burke strongly advised the latter course as the +only means of assuring continued and strenuous support. This +opened a sluice gate of correspondence, resulting in important +changes in the Cabinet. I shall refer to this matter later, merely +noting here that the Duke of Portland took over from Dundas +the Home Office, which was thenceforth limited to British and +Irish affairs, Dundas becoming Secretary of State for War, and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>Windham Secretary at War. The changes were most opportune; +for they strengthened the administrative machine and served to +build up a national party strong enough to cope with the growing +difficulties of the time. Thenceforth there was no danger of the +overthrow of the Ministry. Further, the panic pervading all +parts of England in May 1794 was soon allayed by the news of +Howe's victory, termed "the glorious First of June"; while in +July the fall of Robespierre caused a general sense of relief. In +view of these events, Pitt would have done well to relax his +efforts against the British Jacobins. He held on his way and +encountered sharp rebuffs. The trial of Hardy and others in +October dragged on to a great length; and, after hearing an +enormous mass of evidence (some of which proved the possession +of arms by democrats) the jury returned a verdict of Not +Guilty. This result, due to the masterly defence by Erskine +and Gibbs, aroused a tumult of joy in the vast crowd outside +such as London had rarely seen. Hardy afterwards asserted +that, in case of a conviction, Government had decided +to arrest about 800 more persons.<a name="FNanchor_333_333" id="FNanchor_333_333"></a><a href="#Footnote_333_333" class="fnanchor">[333]</a> This is mere hearsay; but +it has been fastened upon by those who seek to father upon +Pitt the design of reviving the days of Strafford and "Thorough." +A fortnight previously Watt, once a government informer, was +convicted at Edinburgh of a treasonable plot to set the city on +fire, sack the banks, and attack the castle. Before he went to +execution he confessed his guilt.<a name="FNanchor_334_334" id="FNanchor_334_334"></a><a href="#Footnote_334_334" class="fnanchor">[334]</a></p> + +<p>This was the only conviction obtained by Government. The +trial of Horne Tooke ran a course unfavourable to Ministers, +the evidence for the prosecution being flimsy in the extreme. +Pitt himself was called to the witness-box, and when closely +cross-questioned by Erskine as to his former connection with +the Reform cause, admitted that he was present at a meeting at +the Duke of Richmond's residence, at which delegates from +county Reform Associations were present. The admission +exposed him to the charge of inconsistency in the eyes of those +who looked only at the surface of things. In reality, those who +met at the Duke of Richmond's house had nothing in common +with the democratic clubs which proposed to override the will +of Parliament by a National Convention. Yet, as the superficial +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>view gains a ready assent, the fame of Pitt now underwent an +eclipse. Never again did he hear the whole-hearted acclaim +which greeted him in the years 1784–90. The roar of delight +which went up at the news of the acquittal of Horne Tooke was +a sign of the advent of a new era, in whose aspirations Pitt had +no part.</p> + +<p>The prosecutions against Bonney, Joyce, Kyd, and Holcroft +were now dropped. The charge against Thelwall was pressed +home, but resulted in another defeat for Government. Thus, +except in the case of Watt, no proof was forthcoming of treasonable +designs, though the apprehension of Davison of Sheffield +might perhaps have led to discoveries of that nature. In the +main, then, Pitt and his colleagues failed to justify the harsh +measure of suspending the Habeas Corpus Act; and the failure +of the State prosecutions led to a marked increase of the membership +and activity of the London Corresponding Society, with +results which will appear later.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, Pitt's conduct is far from indefensible with regard +to the main point at issue, the meeting of a National Convention. +In view of the projects of some of the wilder spirits at London, +Sheffield, Norwich, and Edinburgh, it is presumptuous to charge +him with causelessly seeking to bring about a "Reign of +Terror." He was face to face with developments which might +easily have become dangerous; and, with the example of Paris +before him, he not unnaturally took what he thought to be +the safer course, that of stopping them at the outset. Indeed, +we may question whether Fox, had he been in power, would +have allowed the assembling of a National Convention, pledged +to press upon Parliament measures which he reprobated.</p> + +<p>It is when we come to details that Pitt is open to the charge +of acting with undue severity. Considering the proved loyalty +of the great mass of the people, what need was there to +inaugurate a system of arbitrary arrests? After all, England +was not France. Here no systematic assault had been made on +the institutions in Church and State. The constitution had +suffered dilapidation, but it was storm-proof, and the garrison +was strongly entrenched. Moreover, the democrats for the most +part urged their case without any of the appeals to violence +which wrought havoc in France. There the mob delighted to +hurry a suspect to <span lang="fr">la lanterne</span> and to parade heads on pikes. Here +the mass meeting at Chalk Farm, or on Castle Hill, Sheffield,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +ended with loss neither of life nor of property. So far as I have +found, not one life was taken by the people in the course of this +agitation—a fact which speaks volumes for their religious +sense, their self-restraint even amidst deep poverty, and, in +general, their obedience to law even when they deemed it +oppressive. The hero of the year 1794 is not William Pitt, but +the British nation.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">PITT AND THE ALLIES (1794–5)</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p>The main object of His Majesty is the keeping together by influence and +weight this great Confederation by which alone the designs of France can +be resisted, and which, if left to itself, would be too likely to fall to pieces +from the jarring interests of the Powers engaged in it.—<span class="smcap">Grenville to +Malmesbury</span>, <i>21st April 1794</i>.</p> + +<p>The disgraceful failure of every military operation His Prussian Majesty +has undertaken since the year 1791 has destroyed the reputation of the +Prussian army; and the duplicity and versatility of his Cabinet put an end +to all confidence and good faith.—<span class="smcap">Malmesbury to Grenville</span>, <i>20th September +1794</i>.</p> +</div> + + +<p>As in parliamentary life, so too in the wider spheres of +diplomacy and warfare, a Coalition very rarely holds +together under a succession of sharp blows. This is inherent in +the nature of things. A complex or heterogeneous substance is +easily split up by strokes which leave a homogeneous body +intact. Rocks of volcanic origin defy the hammer under which +conglomerates crumble away; and when these last are hurled +against granite or flint, they splinter at once. Well might +Shakespeare speak through the mouth of Ulysses these wise +words on the divisions of the Greeks before Troy:</p> + + +<p class="poem"> +<span class="i2">Look how many Grecian tents do stand<br /></span> +Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions.<br /> +<span class="spaced">...</span><br /> +Troy in our weakness stands, not in her strength.<a name="FNanchor_335_335" id="FNanchor_335_335"></a><a href="#Footnote_335_335" class="fnanchor">[335]</a> +</p> + + +<p>Pitt and his colleagues were under no illusion as to the weakness +of the first Coalition against France. They well knew the +incurable jealousies of the Houses of Hapsburg and Hohenzollern, +the utter weakness of the Holy Roman Empire, the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>poverty or torpor of Spain, Sardinia, and Naples, the potent +distractions produced by the recent partition of Poland, and the +Machiavellian scheme of the Empress Catharine II to busy the +Central Powers in French affairs so that she might have a free +hand at Warsaw. All this and much more stood revealed to +them. But they grounded their hopes of success on two important +considerations; first, that the finances of France were +exhausted; secondly, that the rule of the Jacobins, fertile in +forced loans, forced service, and guillotining, must speedily +collapse. On the subject of French finance there are many +notes in the Pitt Papers, which show that Pitt believed an utter +breakdown to be imminent. Grenville, too, at the close of +October 1793, stated that France had lost at least 200,000 +soldiers, while more than 50,000 were in hospital. The repugnance +to military service was universal, and the deficit for the +month of August alone was close on £17,000,000.<a name="FNanchor_336_336" id="FNanchor_336_336"></a><a href="#Footnote_336_336" class="fnanchor">[336]</a></p> + +<p>Above all, Pitt and Grenville believed the French Government +to be incompetent as well as exasperatingly cruel. In their +eyes Jacobins were sworn foes to all that made government +possible. The mistake was natural. The English Ministers knew +little of what was going on in France, and therefore failed to +understand that the desperadoes now in power at Paris were +wielding a centralized despotism, compared with which that of +Louis XIV was child's play. As to the Phœnix-like survival +of French credit, it is inexplicable even to those who have +witnessed the wonders wrought by Thiers in 1870–3. All that +can be said is that the Jacobins killed the goose that laid the +golden egg, and yet the golden eggs were laid. Let him who +understands the miracle of revolutionary finance cast the first +stone at Pitt.</p> + +<p>The Prime Minister also erred when he believed the French +social structure to be breaking up. Here again the miscalculation +was perfectly natural in an age which regarded kings, +nobles, and bishops as the fixed stars of a universe otherwise +diversified only by a dim Milky Way. The French were the +first to dispel these notions. In truth the strength of the young +giant bore witness to the potency of the new and as yet allied +forces—Democracy and Nationality. In 1792 Democracy girded +itself eagerly against the semi-feudal Powers, Austria and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>Prussia; but the strength latent in the French people appeared +only in the next year when, on the accession of England, Spain, +and the Empire to the Coalition, plans were discussed of detaching +Alsace, Lorraine, Roussillon, and Flanders.<a name="FNanchor_337_337" id="FNanchor_337_337"></a><a href="#Footnote_337_337" class="fnanchor">[337]</a> To these sacrilegious +schemes the French patriots opposed the dogma of Rousseau—the +indivisibility of the general will. "Perish 25,000,000 +Frenchmen rather than the Republic one and indivisible." This +perfervid, if illogical, exclamation of a Commissioner of the +Convention reveals something of that passion for unity which +now fused together the French nation. Some peoples merge +themselves slowly together under the shelter of kindred beliefs +and institutions. Others again, after feeling their way towards +closer union, finally achieve it in the explosion of war or revolution. +The former case was the happy lot of the British nation; +the latter, that of the French. Pitt, with his essentially English +outlook, failed to perceive that the diverse peoples grouped +together under the French monarchy had now attained to an +indissoluble unity under the stress of the very blows which he +and his Allies dealt in Flanders, Alsace, and Provence.</p> + +<p>For by this time the counter-strokes dealt by the Republicans +were telling with fatal effect on their adversaries. The failure of +the Spanish campaign in Roussillon and the irruption of a French +force into Catalonia dashed the spirits of that weak and wavering +monarch, Charles IV; and already whispers were heard that +peace with France was necessary. The disputes with England +concerning Nootka Sound and affairs at Toulon predisposed the +King and his people to think with less horror of the regicides of +Paris. As for Sardinia, the childish obscurantism of the Court +of Turin had nursed to quick life a mushroom growth of Jacobinism. +The army defending the Alpine passes was honeycombed +with discontent; and the suspicious conduct of Austria towards +her little ally foreshadowed the divisions and disasters which +quickly followed on the advent of Bonaparte at that theatre of +the war.</p> + +<p>It was clear that only from London could come the impulse +which would invigorate this anaemic Coalition. Pitt sought to +impart such an impulse in the King's Speech at the opening of +the Session of 1794. It had throughout a defiant ring. The +capture of three of the northern fortresses of France, the gains +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>in the East and West Indies (they amounted to Pondicherry, +Chandernagore, and Tobago, together with Miquelon and St. +Pierre), the blow dealt to her navy at Toulon, and the impossibility +of her continuing the recent prodigious exertions, were in +turn duly emphasized. And on 21st January 1794, when Fox +moved an amendment in favour of peace, the Prime Minister +spoke even more strongly of the madness of coming to terms +with the present rulers of France. Could any statesman not +gifted with second sight have spoken otherwise? At that time +the Reign of Terror was approaching its climax. The Goddess +of Reason had lately been enthroned in Notre Dame amidst +ribald songs and dances. The schism between Robespierre and +the atheistical party was beginning to appear; and few persons +believed that France would long bend the knee before the lords +of the guillotine, whose resources were largely derived from the +plunder of churches and banks, forced loans from the wealthy, +and a graduated Income Tax resembling the Spartan proposals +of Thomas Paine.</p> + +<p>In such a case Pitt naturally repeated his statement of the +previous session, that he altogether deprecated a peace with +France, unless it possessed some elements of permanence, and +secured due indemnity to Great Britain. Nay, he declared that +he would rather persevere with war, even in the midst of disasters, +than come to terms with the present rulers of France, who +were alike enemies of order and rabid foes of England. They +drove men into battle by fear of the guillotine; they formed +rapine and destruction into a system, and perverted to their +detestable purposes all the talents and ingenuity derived from +the civilization around them. He was careful, however, to correct +the mis-statement of Fox, that the Government was struggling +for the restoration of the French monarchy. While believing +that that nation would live most happily under a King, Pitt +denied that a restoration was the object of the present war. We +have already seen that he held this view in his correspondence +with the Austrian Court. The House supported Ministers by +277 votes to 59.</p> + +<p>These declarations, backed by so large a majority, caused +great satisfaction at Vienna, and heartened that Government in +the midst of its many uncertainties. There was every need of +encouragement. In that age, when the great monarchs of the +eighteenth century had passed, or were passing, away, Francis II<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> +stood somewhat low among the mediocrities on whom fell the +strokes of destiny. He was a poor replica of Leopold II. Where +the father was supple and adroit, the son was perversely obstinate +or weakly pliable. In place of foresight and tenacity in the +pursuit of essentials, Francis was remarkable for a more than +Hapsburg narrowness of view, and he lacked the toughness +which had not seldom repaired the blunders of that House. +Those counsellors swayed him most who appealed to his family +pride, or satisfied his other dominant feelings, attachment to +the old order of things and a pedantic clinging to established +usages. But the weakness of his character soon became so +patent as to excite general distrust, especially as he was +swayed by the wayward impulses of his consort, a daughter of +Ferdinand IV and Maria Carolina of Naples. From her mother +she inherited a hatred of French principles and the bent towards +intrigue and extravagance which wrecked the careers of that +Queen and of her sister, Marie Antoinette. Francis II and his +consort longed to stamp out the French plague; but they lacked +the strength of mind and of will that commands success. Our +special envoy at Vienna, Thomas Grenville, questioned whether +the Emperor "had steadiness enough to influence the Government."</p> + +<p>According to the same competent judge, the Chancellor Thugut +was the only efficient Minister, being very laborious in his +work, and indeed "the only man of business about the Court."<a name="FNanchor_338_338" id="FNanchor_338_338"></a><a href="#Footnote_338_338" class="fnanchor">[338]</a> +Yet Thugut was rather a clever diplomat and ideal head-clerk +than a statesman. In forethought he did not much excel his +master. Indeed, his personality and his position alike condemned +him to aim at cheap and easy gains. His features and figure +were mean. Worse still, he was of low birth, a crime in the eyes +of nobles and courtiers who for nearly half a century had seen +the prestige of the Chancery enhanced by the lordly airs and +whims of Kaunitz. Fear of courtly intrigues ever obsessed the +mind of Thugut; and thus, whenever the horizon darkened, +this coast-hugging pilot at once made for the nearest haven. In +particular, as the recovery of Belgium in the year 1793 brought +no financial gain, but unending vistas of war, he sought other +means of indemnity, and discovered them in Alsace-Lorraine, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>South Poland, and Venice. The first was a concession to the +pride of the House of Hapsburg-Lorraine; but Thugut saw in +Venetia and in the land south of Warsaw the readiest means of +indemnifying Austria for the loss of her Belgic Provinces, which +after the defeat of Wattignies (October 1793) he probably expected +and welcomed.</p> + +<p>In this orientation of Hapsburg policy Thugut did but follow +the impulse first imparted by Hertzberg at Berlin. As we have +seen, Frederick William II entered on the French war in one of +his chivalrous moods, which passed away amidst the smoke of +Valmy. The miseries of the retreat Rhinewards, and the incursion +of the French into the valley of the Main taught him prudence, +while the ease of his conquest of Great Poland early in +the year 1793 assured the victory of statecraft over chivalry. +Morton Eden reported from Berlin that, had the preparations +for the Valmy campaign equalled in thoroughness those for the +invasion of Poland, events must have gone very differently in +Champagne. The circumspection with which the Prussians conducted +the siege of Mainz in the summer of 1793, and the long +delays of the autumn, have already been noticed. The result of +it was that at Christmastide of the year 1793 Pichegru and +Hoche threw back Wurmser in disastrous rout, and compelled +Brunswick hurriedly to retire to the Rhine.</p> + +<p>As always happens between discordant allies after defeats, +Berlin and Vienna indulged in a war of words, amidst which the +Coalition would probably have broken up but for the efforts of +British diplomacy. The Pitt Ministry had despatched to Berlin +the ablest of British diplomatists, Lord Malmesbury, with a view +to strengthening the accord between the three Powers; and the +mingled charm and authority of his presence did much to +thwart the petty prejudices and intrigues prevalent at that +capital. He took Brussels and Frankfurt on his way to Berlin, +and his diary shows the listlessness or discontent which had +infected the officers of the British army. Many of them openly +brought against the Duke of York the most outrageous and +unfounded charges, and it seems that about fifty of them went +on furlough to England, where they spread those slanders and +played into the hands of the Opposition.<a name="FNanchor_339_339" id="FNanchor_339_339"></a><a href="#Footnote_339_339" class="fnanchor">[339]</a> Malmesbury's converse +with the Duke and others at Ath convinced him that the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>commander-in-chief was striving manfully and generously +against a situation full of difficulty.</p> + +<p>At Frankfurt, and again at Berlin, Malmesbury found signs +that Frederick William was ashamed at the ignominious issue +of the campaign, and professed a desire to take up the duties +which the Duke of Brunswick had so haltingly fulfilled. The +King seemed rather pleased than otherwise at the Austrian +reverses in the north of Alsace, but by no means indisposed to +renew the attack upon France, always provided that England +paid him a sufficient subsidy. He assured the envoy that his +<span lang="fr">chef-d'œuvre</span>, the Triple Alliance of 1788, was still a reality, but +he declared, on the faith of an honest man, that the state of +Prussia's finances would not enable him to face a third campaign. +In point of fact, out of the reserve fund of 80,000,000 +crowns which Frederick the Great had handed on, only 20,000,000 +or perhaps only 14,000,000 remained in the early days of 1794.<a name="FNanchor_340_340" id="FNanchor_340_340"></a><a href="#Footnote_340_340" class="fnanchor">[340]</a></p> + +<p>Other difficulties beset the Prussian monarch. Want of work +had driven the weavers of Silesia to a state of frenzy and +tumult almost resembling a <span lang="fr">Jacquerie</span>; and there and elsewhere +serfs and peasants talked openly of casting off the restraints and +burdens of Feudalism. In such a case the veriest autocrat must +pause before he commits his country to the risks of a loan (that +of 1792 had exhausted Prussia's credit), or to a campaign where +the losses were certain and the gains doubtful. On this last +topic various schemes had been bandied to and fro between +Berlin and Vienna. The debt of honour certainly bade Frederick +William help to secure to his rival a counterpart to Prussia's +acquisitions in Poland; but, apart from this consideration and +the need of stamping out the French pest in the Rhineland, the +politicians of Berlin found few reasons for prolonging the war. +What wonder, then, that they set on foot intrigues with the +regicides of Paris? Marshal Möllendorf, the commander whom +Frederick William substituted for the weary and disgusted Duke +of Brunswick, proved to be a partisan of peace.<a name="FNanchor_341_341" id="FNanchor_341_341"></a><a href="#Footnote_341_341" class="fnanchor">[341]</a></p> + +<p>Royalist at heart, but beset by advisers and mistresses who +fanned his jealousy of Austria and love of ease, Frederick +William wavered under the whims of the hour or the counsels +of the last comer. Malmesbury thus summed up the question +now at issue in his letter to Pitt of 9th January 1794: "Can we +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>do without the King of Prussia or can we not? If we can, he is +not worth the giving of a guinea for. If we cannot, I am afraid +we cannot give too many." Malmesbury saw no means of keeping +Frederick William steady up to the end of the war. Pitt and +Grenville, however, devised the following expedient. They offered +the sum of £2,000,000 for bringing 100,000 Prussians into the field. +Of this sum Great Britain would furnish two fifths (or £800,000), +and Austria and Holland each one fifth, the last fifth being +advanced by Prussia herself until she reimbursed herself from +France at the general peace. The device was suggestive of that +of the rustic who tempts his beast of burden onwards by dangling +a choice vegetable before his nose.</p> + +<p>Frederick William alone might have been attracted by the +offer; but his advisers haggled long and obstinately over details. +Chief among the objectors was a Councillor of State, Haugwitz, +an oily, plausible creature, whose Gallophil leanings were +destined finally to place his country under the heel of Napoleon +and deal a death-blow to Pitt. For the present, he treated +Malmesbury with a moderation and courtesy that deftly veiled +a determined opposition. The British envoy was fully his match. +Finding that Haugwitz ascribed all difficulties and delays to the +Austrian embassy, he advised him to propose the transfer of the +negotiations to The Hague, where these annoyances would cease. +Vain and always prone to take the easiest course, Haugwitz +swallowed the bait and succeeded in carrying a point which was +all in Malmesbury's favour, especially as it saved time in communicating +with Downing Street. After annoying delays they set +out on 23rd March; and with the aid of twenty-two horses at +each post traversed the 326 (English) miles to The Hague in 120 +hours during the days, 23rd–30th March, when the campaign +ought to have opened.</p> + +<p>The prospects at Vienna were equally gloomy. Morton Eden's +reports to Grenville form an unrelieved jeremiad. Even amidst +the alarms caused by the disasters at Toulon and in the +Palatinate, jealousy of Prussia was the dominant feeling. The +utmost efforts of our ambassador failed to convince Francis II +and Thugut of the need of humouring Prussia by meeting her +demand for an additional subsidy and by guaranteeing bread +and forage for the 20,000 men who formed her contingent in the +Austrian service. Into these wearisome quarrels we need not +enter, further than to note that they were envenomed by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +acerbity of the Prussian ambassador at Vienna. The Marquis +Lucchesini, born at Lucca in 1752, early entered the service of +Frederick the Great, to whom he acted as reader. He advanced +rapidly under his successor. His commanding demeanour and +vivacity of speech, added to great powers of work, and acuteness +in detecting the foibles of others, made him a formidable opponent. +Further, his marriage with the sister of Bischoffswerder, +until lately the King's favourite adviser, added to his influence, +which, as was natural with a foreigner, inclined towards the +attractive and gainful course. Long afterwards the saviour of +Prussia, Baron vom Stein, classed him among the narrow, +selfish, insincere men who had been the ruin of nations.<a name="FNanchor_342_342" id="FNanchor_342_342"></a><a href="#Footnote_342_342" class="fnanchor">[342]</a> Certainly +he helped to ruin Poland; and now his conduct at Vienna +clogged the efforts of Morton Eden and Malmesbury to strengthen +the Coalition against France. Eden complained that he behaved +as an intriguing subaltern rather than as an ambassador; and +rumour credibly ascribed his tortuous and exasperating conduct +to French gold.</p> + +<p>In the midst of his irritation against Prussia and her envoy, +Thugut heard with astonishment the British proposals, presented +at Berlin early in February, to bring 100,000 Prussians into the +field. Urgently he remonstrated with Eden, pointing out that +Prussia had played them false in two campaigns, and would do +so again, witness her late contention that France must not be +weakened. On no account, then, must Frederick William head a +compact mass of 100,000 men in the Palatinate. He would be +the arbiter of the situation. He would be between the Austrian +army in Brabant and the Hapsburg States. Nay, he might +march into Swabia, reach the Danube, take boats at Ulm, and, +sailing down that stream, have Vienna at his mercy!<a name="FNanchor_343_343" id="FNanchor_343_343"></a><a href="#Footnote_343_343" class="fnanchor">[343]</a> So pressing +were these anxieties that, at the close of February, Thugut +sent a special request to Catharine II to guarantee the security +of Austria's possessions in case Frederick William withdrew +from the Coalition.</p> + +<p>Despite the utmost efforts of the British Ministry and its envoys, +no plan of vigorous co-operation could be arranged between the +two German rivals; the sole link connecting them was the +clause of the treaty of 1792, whereby Austria, as having been +attacked by France, claimed the help of 20,000 Prussians. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>Frederick William decided that this force must remain at Mainz, +in order to guard the Empire from a French raid. He promised +80,000 more troops to Great Britain and Holland, provided that +they were paid for. On one point alone the four Allies came +near to agreement, namely, that the main Prussian army should +operate in Flanders, so as effectively to defend the Dutch territory, +secure conquests in the North of France, and, above all, +preclude the quarrels which must ensue if it acted near the +Austrians.<a name="FNanchor_344_344" id="FNanchor_344_344"></a><a href="#Footnote_344_344" class="fnanchor">[344]</a> Thugut of course assented, his great aim being to +remove the Prussians as far as possible from Swabia. Disputes +on these subjects went on up to the end of March 1794, the time +when an advance into French Flanders promised great results.</p> + +<p>The reader will naturally ask—Can this be called a Coalition? +A Coalition implies some power of coalescing. But among the +four Powers there was far more of disunion than union. In +fact, England was the sole link between these wrangling confederates, +and that, too, solely by means of what Carlyle called +the cash nexus. Grenville, using a more homely metaphor, +averred that the German princes turned towards England as an +inexhaustible milch-cow. The animal in this case could dictate +her terms; and thus the relations of the three Powers resembled +those of a rich but somewhat exigent employer to grumbling and +distrustful employees. Holland also, in return for her sacrifices +in men and money, demanded from Austria a better frontier on +the side of Dutch Flanders and Maestricht, to which the Viennese +Court opposed a quiet but firm resistance.</p> + +<p>It speaks volumes for the confidence inspired by Pitt and +Grenville, and for the tactful zeal of Malmesbury and Eden, that +they induced the German rivals to make one more effort. The +Duke of York also played an important part in the formation of +the plan of campaign; for he it was who persuaded Colonel +Mack to accompany him to London, and there discuss with +Ministers the alternative schemes. The mention of Mack will +excite surprise among those who know of him only by the futile +Neapolitan campaign of 1799, and the frightful disaster of Ulm. +In regard to strategy and the theory of war he displayed much +ability; and his administrative talents and energy as Quarter-Master-General +in 1793 should have screened him from the +criticism that he discoursed brilliantly on war in <span lang="fr">salons</span>, and in +the council rhetorically developed specious and elegant plans.<a name="FNanchor_345_345" id="FNanchor_345_345"></a><a href="#Footnote_345_345" class="fnanchor">[345]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p> +<p>Mack's plan of operations was first submitted to the judgement +of the Archduke Charles, the Prince of Coburg, Count Mercy, the +Prince of Orange, and the Duke of York, at Brussels. Next, he +proceeded, along with Counts Stahremberg and Merveldt to +London, and on 13th February unfolded his plan to Pitt, +Grenville, and Dundas. The Duke of York had preceded him +by two days, but was absent from this conference. It became +piquant when Pitt "playfully" remarked to Mack that a great +general had recently arrived at London whose appointment to +the command of the British force in Flanders would doubtless +meet with his warm approval. After a little more fencing, Pitt +gave the name of the Marquis Cornwallis, who had just returned +from his Viceroyalty in India. Mack by no means welcomed +the proposal, and made the irreverent remark that the best +General, after fighting elephants in India, would be puzzled by +the French. Pitt thereupon observed that the Duke of York +had not the confidence of the army, to which Mack and +Merveldt replied by praising his character, and decrying his +critics as a set of influential but inexperienced youths.</p> + +<p>The matter then dropped, and the Duke was present at the +conference on the morrow. Finally, Austria and England bound +themselves to make great efforts, the latter with at least 40,000 +men, either British or German auxiliaries. The Prussian and +Dutch forces were to be increased so as to bring the grand total +to 340,000 men. Of this large number 170,000 were to operate +in Flanders with a view to a march on Paris; 35,000 held the +country along the right bank of the Meuse; 15,000 protected +Luxemburg; 65,000 Prussians prolonged the line eastwards to +the Rhine, which was guarded by 55,000 Austrians. Certainly +the plan called for a third of a million of men, if all the frontier +strongholds of Flanders were to be taken before the march to +Paris began. In regard to details, Pitt, Grenville, and Dundas +urged that Cornwallis should command the British and subsidiary +forces defending West Flanders—a suggestion which +George III warmly approved, on condition that the Duke of +York, serving with the main body nearer the centre of the +long line, had a number of troops proportionate to his rank +and talents.</p> + +<p>Thus the effort of Pitt and his colleagues to shelve the Duke +of York was foiled. On another and weightier matter he had +his way. Coburg's conduct had been so languid and unenterprising<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> +as to lead to urgent demands for his recall; and it was +understood that the Emperor Francis would take the command, +with Mack as Chief-of-Staff and virtual director of the campaign. +Pitt expressed to Mack his marked preference of this arrangement +to the alternative scheme, the appointment of the Archduke +Charles; for the extreme youth of the Archduke might hinder +a good understanding between him and his subordinate and +senior, the Duke of York. Seeing, then, that Mack declined +absolutely to serve under Coburg,<a name="FNanchor_346_346" id="FNanchor_346_346"></a><a href="#Footnote_346_346" class="fnanchor">[346]</a> nothing but the presence of +the Emperor could end the friction in Flanders.</p> + +<p>But alas for the monarchical cause! At the very time when +the Kaiser was to set out for Brussels, alarming news came from +Cracow. The temper of the Poles, heated by the wrongs and +insults of two years, burst forth in a rising against the Russian +and Prussian authorities. Kosciusko, the last hope of Poland, +issued an appeal which nerved his countrymen to dare the +impossible. Rushing to arms, they astonished the world by +exhibiting in the last throes of their long agony a strength which, +if put forth in 1791, might have saved their land from spoliation. +Even now their despairing struggles turned towards Warsaw +much of the energy which should have trended towards Paris; +and thus, once again, and not for the last time, did the foul +crimes of 1772 and 1793 avenge themselves on their perpetrators. +The last struggles of Poland helped on the French Republic +to its mighty adolescence. Finally, on 2nd April, Francis II +departed for Brussels. Thugut set out nine days later; and in +the interval, on the plausible pretext that Prussia would seize +more Polish land, he stopped the reinforcements destined for +Flanders. He also urged the Czarina on no account to allow a +partition of Poland.<a name="FNanchor_347_347" id="FNanchor_347_347"></a><a href="#Footnote_347_347" class="fnanchor">[347]</a></p> + +<p>While the Continental States were thus pulling different ways, +British diplomacy won two notable triumphs at The Hague. +By dint of threatening Haugwitz with the rupture of the whole +negotiation, Malmesbury induced that Minister to countermand +the order for the retirement of the Prussian troops, which +had already begun. He thereby saved the Allies in the +Palatinate and Flanders from very serious risks in view of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>gathering masses of the French.<a name="FNanchor_348_348" id="FNanchor_348_348"></a><a href="#Footnote_348_348" class="fnanchor">[348]</a> Further, on 19th April, he +induced Haugwitz to sign a treaty which promised to revivify +the monarchical cause. Prussia agreed to furnish, by 24th May, +62,400 men, who were to act conjointly with the British and +Dutch forces in Flanders. For this powerful succour the two +Maritime States would pay a subsidy of £50,000 a month, +besides the cost of bread and forage, reckoned at £1 12<i>s.</i> per +man per month, and £300,000 for initial expenses. As Great +Britain and Holland wholly supported this army, they prescribed +the sphere of its operations, and retained any conquests that it +might make. The treaty was for the year 1794; but its renewal +was stipulated in a separate article. Prussia of course still supplied +to Austria the 20,000 men due by the treaty of 1792.</p> + +<p>If Malmesbury had not induced Haugwitz to sign the treaty +then, it would never have been signed at all. Almost alone in +the Court of Berlin, Frederick William desired to continue the +struggle. His uncle, Prince Henry, had always opposed war with +France, and long before Valmy, had prophesied that her untrained +but enthusiastic levies would be a match for any professional +army. His influence and that of the Duke of Brunswick, +Lucchesini, and Möllendorf, were still cast against the western +crusade, so that Grenville believed Prussia to be dragging on the +negotiation solely in order to embarrass her Allies by throwing +it up early in the campaign.<a name="FNanchor_349_349" id="FNanchor_349_349"></a><a href="#Footnote_349_349" class="fnanchor">[349]</a> Moreover, Malmesbury's treaty +contained its own death warrant. A Great Power can ill afford +to hire out its troops to non-military States, unless they lessen +the humiliation of such a proceeding by according the utmost +possible freedom. But the Hague Convention specified that the +subsidized Prussian army must operate where the paymasters +directed; and they now decided on removing it from the +Palatinate to the valley of the Meuse near Dinant, or even +further west, provided that Austria could fill up the gap thus +left in the Palatinate.<a name="FNanchor_350_350" id="FNanchor_350_350"></a><a href="#Footnote_350_350" class="fnanchor">[350]</a> In passing, I may note that this important +decision was due to George III, as appears in Grenville's final +instruction to Malmesbury: "The King's determination is finally +taken not to agree to any plan by which the Prussians would be +employed more to the left than the country of the Meuse."<a name="FNanchor_351_351" id="FNanchor_351_351"></a><a href="#Footnote_351_351" class="fnanchor">[351]</a> No +one who knows the rigour of the King's resolves can doubt +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>that he was responsible for a determination fraught with unexpected +issues.</p> + +<p>It is alien to my purpose to recount the ensuing disputes. I +can glance only at the part played by Pitt. At one point his +conduct was weak and dilatory. Early in May, when Malmesbury +proceeded to London for the purpose of securing the ratification +of the treaty and the payment of the first subsidy to Prussia, +he encountered most annoying delays. Pitt and Grenville left +him severely alone, probably because they were then so occupied +with the coercion of the English Jacobins as to have no time for +the plans which promised the overthrow of the French Jacobins. +Another topic engaging their attention was the hoped-for coalition +with the Portland Whigs, which shrouded from their gaze +the needs of the European Coalition. However we may explain +the fact, it is certain that during sixteen days (6th to 22nd May) +Malmesbury, despite his urgent entreaties to Grenville, could +procure neither instructions as to his future conduct, nor a +promise for the payment of the first Prussian subsidy. News of +a British disaster in Flanders at last quickened the laggards of +Whitehall. On the 23rd Malmesbury gained his heart's desire, +and set out for the Prussian headquarters on the following day.<a name="FNanchor_352_352" id="FNanchor_352_352"></a><a href="#Footnote_352_352" class="fnanchor">[352]</a> +Meanwhile, owing to this long delay (one of the most discreditable +incidents in the careers of Pitt and Grenville), Prussia took +no steps to carry out the terms of the compact. It so happened +that on 24th May her army in the Palatinate, commanded by +<span class="ins" title="Möllendorff">Möllendorf</span>, gained a victory over the French at Kaiserslautern +in the Palatinate; but that event set them the more against +Malmesbury's treaty, which implied a march of some 120 miles +through difficult country, and across an enemy's front.</p> + +<p>Moreover, as has been hinted, reverses had by this time overtaken +the right wing of the Allies, in West Flanders. At the +centre, near the Sambre, the campaign opened with promise, the +British cavalry gaining a brilliant success at Bethencourt. But +Carnot, having drawn upon the French troops in Lorraine and +the Palatinate, threw his heaviest columns at points on the +extreme west of the French front, the result being that at Turcoing +the Republicans shattered the isolated corps of the Duke of +York and General Otto (18th May). The successes of the Prussians +and of the Austrian army, on the Sambre, saved the situation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> +for a time. But the prospects even in that quarter were +overclouded by the resolve of the Emperor Francis to leave his +army and return to Vienna. News of the critical state of affairs +in Poland prompted this decision, the results of which soon +appeared in quarrels at headquarters and discouragement in the +rank and file. The Austrian soldiery saw in the withdrawal of +the Kaiser the end of his rule in the Netherlands. They were +right. The counsels of Thugut had now prevailed. South Poland +was to be the prize of the Hapsburgs. The tiresome and distant +Netherlands were to be given up, the pecuniary support of +England, however, being assured as far as possible by a feint of +defending them.</p> + +<p>Here we have the explanation of the half-hearted effort made +by the Austrians at Fleurus. There was every reason why +Coburg, now again the commander of the main Austrian force, +should strike vigorously at the French force besieging Charleroi. +A decisive victory in front of Charleroi would not only save that +place, but would give pause to the French forces further west, +now advancing rapidly towards Ghent. Accordingly Coburg, +advancing as far as Fleurus, hard by the village of Ligny, attacked +the Republicans. He had on the whole the best of the fight, +when the arrival of news of the surrender of Charleroi led him +most tamely to call off his men and fall back. The retirement +took place in discreditably good order, not a single gun being +lost (25th June 1794). A bold leader would have beaten the +enemy and probably would have saved Charleroi. With the same +excess of prudence Coburg conducted his retreat, several positions +and strongholds being abandoned in craven fashion.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Pitt and Dundas made great efforts to save West +Flanders. In haste they despatched reinforcements to Ostend; +and among the regiments which landed there on 25th and 26th +June was the 33rd, commanded by Colonel Wellesley. The +future Duke of Wellington found the small garrison of Ostend +in a state of panic; and his chief, the Earl of Moira, deemed it +best to meet the French in the open. By great good fortune +Moira, with most of the regiments, reached Bruges, and beyond +that town came into touch with Clerfait's force. Wellesley, +taking ship, sailed round to Antwerp and reached that column +by a safer route and earlier than his chief. His action is characteristic +of a judgement that never erred, a will that never faltered. +In this campaign, as he afterwards said, he learnt how not to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> +make war. But success not seldom crowns the efforts of him +who has the good sense to probe the causes of failure. Certainly +it rarely comes to British commanders save after very chastening +experiences; and Wellesley now took part in what was, for +the Austrians, a fore-ordained retreat. Despite the manly appeals +of the Duke of York, Coburg declined to make a stand on the +fateful ridge of Mount St. Jean; and the name of Waterloo +appears in the tepid records of 1794 at the head of a plan for +arranging the stages of the retreat (5th July) which the nervousness +of Coburg soon condemned to the limbo of unfulfilled +promises.<a name="FNanchor_353_353" id="FNanchor_353_353"></a><a href="#Footnote_353_353" class="fnanchor">[353]</a> Is it surprising that, two days later, the Duke of York +declared to him that the British were "betrayed and sold to the +enemy"? Worse still, the garrisons of Valenciennes, Condé, +Quesnoy, and Landrecies, amounting to nearly 11,000 men, were +now left to their fate.</p> + +<p>Indirectly Pitt and Dundas were responsible for these disasters. +They weakened the British force in Flanders by sending +large drafts to the West Indies, as will in due course appear. +They also allowed Corsica to be occupied in the spring of 1794, +and yet they made little or no use of that island for expeditions +against the Riviera, which the royalist natives would readily +have undertaken under an inspiring leader. They also relied too +much on the Austrians and Prussians, though the former were +known to care little for their Netherlands, apart from the prospect +of gaining the Barrier fortresses of French Flanders in +order to further the Belgic-Bavarian exchange. Above all, as +we have seen, Pitt's conduct towards Prussia was annoyingly +halting. Malmesbury's treaty could have no effect unless it led +the Prussians to move at once. The delay of sixteen days at +Whitehall must rank as one of the causes of the failures just +recounted; and though Grenville was technically guilty, Pitt +must be blamed for not ensuring the needful despatch in an all-important +decision. It is curious that he never realized his +responsibility. Speaking at a later date of the campaign of +Fleurus, he said that it turned upon as narrow a point as ever +occurred: that England was unfortunate, but the blame did not +rest with her.<a name="FNanchor_354_354" id="FNanchor_354_354"></a><a href="#Footnote_354_354" class="fnanchor">[354]</a> This probably refers to the surrender of Charleroi +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>and the retreat from Fleurus. But Pitt did not understand that +the timely advent of part of the Prussian force on the Meuse, or +even its advance into Lorraine, would have changed the situation; +and for their inactivity he was in some measure responsible.</p> + +<p>At times Pitt lived in dreamland. On 15th July, while the +Austrians were quietly withdrawing from Central Belgium, +he drew up a Memorandum as to the course of events. By +the close of the year Austria was to bring 100,000 men into +Flanders, a close alliance being framed on the basis of her +acquisition of the French border districts (Valenciennes had not +yet surrendered). England was to retain all conquests in the +two Indies. The Prussians were to march towards Flanders, +which they obstinately refused to do. Dutch and other troops +were to be engaged by England, the presumption being that the +year 1795 would see the losses of 1794 more than retrieved. +The mistake of 10,000 in adding up the totals of the troops +(78,000 instead of 88,000) enables one to conjecture at what +time of the day this sketch was outlined.<a name="FNanchor_355_355" id="FNanchor_355_355"></a><a href="#Footnote_355_355" class="fnanchor">[355]</a> One would not take +it seriously had not the Foreign Office soon despatched Earl +Spencer and Mr. Thomas Grenville as special envoys to Vienna +to propose very similar plans, Austria being urged on by the +prospect of acquiring the French Barrier fortresses from Lille +to Sedan.<a name="FNanchor_356_356" id="FNanchor_356_356"></a><a href="#Footnote_356_356" class="fnanchor">[356]</a></p> + +<p>They aroused in Thugut a spirit of greed, not of honourable +emulation. In a private letter to Pitt, dated Vienna 16th +August, Spencer warned him that that Government was "neither +possessed of sufficient energy and vigour, nor sufficiently actuated +by the true principles on which the cause in which we are +engaged ought to be conducted" to justify the demands of +Thugut. They included British subsidies for Austria, though +she could well support the war, and the sacrifice of British +maritime conquests at the general peace as a means of ensuring +the recovery of her losses on land. As to Belgium, added +Spencer, Thugut looked on it "as irrecoverably lost and not worth +regaining, unless with the addition of a very strong and extended +barrier, composed of fortresses which he to-day plainly told us +he did not think there was the least chance of taking in the +course of the war, but that they must be obtained as cessions +from France at the peace."<a name="FNanchor_357_357" id="FNanchor_357_357"></a><a href="#Footnote_357_357" class="fnanchor">[357]</a> Thus Thugut expected that, while +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>the Austrians were ignominiously evacuating the Netherlands, +the British fleet should win French colonies valuable enough to +induce France both to retire from Belgium, and to surrender +to Austria her northern fortresses from Lille to Sedan or +Thionville.</p> + +<p>The capture of Valenciennes and the slaughter of the <span lang="fr">émigrés</span> +in the Austrian garrison was the retort of the French to these +day-dreams (29th August). The fall of Robespierre a month +earlier, and the enhanced authority now enjoyed by Carnot +enabled the authorities at Paris to press on the conquest of Belgium +with an energy which set at defiance the boyish miscalculations +of Pitt and the wavering plans of the Hapsburgs.</p> + +<p>Towards the close of July Pitt and Grenville saw the need of +abating the rigour of their demands on Prussia. For of what +use was it to move 60,000 Prussians more than 100 miles to +defend West Flanders when that province was lost? Malmesbury +therefore was empowered to pay the monthly subsidy of £50,000 +on behalf of Great Britain and Holland, provided that Möllendorf's +army attacked the French about Trèves, thus lessening +the pressure on Coburg's left wing. On 27th July he framed +such an agreement with Hardenberg. This statesman was +destined to be one of the saviours of the Prussian State in its +darkest days, 1810–12; but now, as always, his conduct was shifty; +and it is questionable whether he, any more than Haugwitz, +dealt honourably with England. It must suffice to say that +Möllendorf made not even a demonstration towards Trèves. His +inactivity was in part due to the withdrawal of several regiments +towards Poland, though Great Britain and Holland still paid for +the maintenance of the full quota on the Rhine.</p> + +<p>So flagrant was the breach of faith as to elicit heated protests +from Malmesbury; and Pitt, justly indignant at the use of +British money for what was virtually a partition of Poland, decided +to remonstrate with Jacobi, the Prussian ambassador at +London. Summoning him to Downing Street, at the end of +September, he upbraided him with this dishonourable conduct, +declaring that, unless the Prussians moved forward at once, the +British and Dutch subsidy for October would be withheld. +Much as we may sympathize with this indignant outburst, we +must pronounce it unwise. For firstly, Pitt was intruding upon +the sphere of Grenville in making this declaration, which was +far more acrid than the despatches of the Foreign Secretary.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> +Secondly, it was made in the presence of Dundas, with whom +Grenville was already on bad terms. Is it surprising that the +Foreign Secretary wrote sharply to Pitt protesting against his +acting on a line different from that previously taken at Downing +Street? In his despatch of 30th September to Berlin, Grenville +was careful to make the withdrawal of the subsidy strictly +conditional, and his protest was probably less sharp than that +which Pitt addressed to Jacobi.</p> + +<p>So annoyed was Grenville at Pitt's interference during his +own temporary absence that he wrote to express his willingness +to retire from the Foreign Office if this would solve the difficulties +caused by the appointment of Earl Fitzwilliam to the +Irish Viceroyalty. To that topic I shall recur in a later chapter +on the Irish troubles which now became acute. Here it must +suffice to say that Pitt declined to accept Grenville's offer, and +affairs at Downing Street righted themselves.<a name="FNanchor_358_358" id="FNanchor_358_358"></a><a href="#Footnote_358_358" class="fnanchor">[358]</a> But at Berlin the +mischief was irremediable. Jacobi, a born intriguer, and ever +hostile to England, represented the words of Pitt in the worst +possible light. Accordingly Frederick William affected great +indignation at the conduct of Pitt, accused him of ending the +alliance, and discovered in his own ruffled feelings the pretext +for giving rein to the dictates of self-interest. He gave orders +to end the campaign on the Rhine; and though Grenville sought +to patch matters up, compromise was clearly impossible between +Allies who had lost that mutual confidence which is the only +lasting guarantee of treaties.</p> + +<p>At the autumnal equinox of 1794 Pitt was confronted by a +far more serious crisis than at the beginning of the war in February +1793. The Republicans, after throwing back Clerfait beyond +the River Roer, towards Aix-la-Chapelle, compelled the Duke +of York to abandon the natural line of defence of Holland, +the River Waal; and in the early days of October the British +retired behind Bergen-op-zoom and other Dutch fortresses. +These were found to be totally unprepared to sustain a siege. +The sluggishness of the Orange party, dominant in Holland +since 1787, stood in marked contrast to the eagerness of the +Dutch Patriots to help the invaders. Consequently in a few +weeks the friends of the Stadholder saw their hopes fade away.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p> +<p>There was but one chance of rescue. The Duke of Brunswick, +who so skilfully led the Prussians to Amsterdam in 1787, +might be expected to impart some courage to the Dutch garrisons +and some show of discipline to the disordered relics of +York's and Clerfait's forces now drifting slowly northwards. His +position as a Field-Marshal of the Prussian army also promised +to interest the Court of Berlin in recovering some part, at least, +of the supremacy of the Allies in the Dutch Netherlands. As +the crisis in Holland had served to unite the two great Protestant +Powers, so now it might prevent the dissolution of that salutary +compact. Further, George III, though greatly disliking the +substitution of Cornwallis for the Duke of York, favoured the +appointment of the veteran Brunswick to the supreme command. +Family considerations, always very strong in the King, +here concurred with reasons of state. Not only had Brunswick +married the sister of George III; but their daughter, the Princess +Caroline, was now the reluctant choice of the Prince of Wales. +The parents, both at Windsor and at Brunswick welcomed the +avowal by the royal prodigal of the claims of lawful wedlock. +The Duchess of Brunswick fell into raptures at the brilliant +prospects thus opened out for her daughter; and it seemed that +both Hymen and Mars, for once working in unison, conspired to +bring from his inglorious retreat at Brunswick the man whom +that age still acclaimed as its war-lord.</p> + +<p>Malmesbury therefore proceeded to Brunswick for the double +purpose of arranging the marriage and urging the Duke to take +the command of the allied forces on the Lower Rhine. Overjoyed +at leaving the atmosphere of intrigue at Möllendorf's +headquarters, the envoy journeyed into the northern plain in +hopes of assuring the safety of part of Holland. Early in +November Pitt and his colleagues received a refusal from the +Duke, but now they sent through Malmesbury an offer to subsidize +a corps of 20,000 or 30,000 Austrians in that quarter. +These, along with the British, Hanoverian, and Hessian troops, +when marshalled by Brunswick, might surely be trusted to stay +the French advance. The crisis was momentous. Brunswick +well understood that in reality the fate of North Germany was +at stake; for the French, if masters of the Rhine and Ems +valleys, could easily overrun the northern plain, including his +own duchy. Self-interest, pride in the German name, hatred of +French principles, and, finally, satisfaction at the marriage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +alliance, bade the Duke draw his sword before it was too +late.</p> + +<p>But here again the malign influence of Berlin thwarted the +plans of Pitt. In vain did Malmesbury ply the Duke with arguments +and the Duchess with compliments. On 25th November +the Duke informed him that, as a Prussian Field-Marshal, he +was bound to consult Frederick William: and "the answer he +had received was not of a nature which allowed him to accept +of an offer otherwise so highly honourable and flattering to him." +He then handed to the envoy his formal refusal.<a name="FNanchor_359_359" id="FNanchor_359_359"></a><a href="#Footnote_359_359" class="fnanchor">[359]</a></p> + +<p>Whether the elderly Duke of Brunswick could have withstood +the impetuous onset of the ill-clad, half-starved, but unconquerable +peasants now following the French tricolour in its progress +through Holland, who shall say? The exploits of Pichegru and +his levies border on the miraculous until we remember that half +of the Dutch laboured on their behalf, while the troops of York +and Clerfait distrusted or despised those leaders. This consideration +it was that led Pitt to take a step which he deemed most +necessary for the public service as well as for the reputation of +the Duke of York. On Sunday, 25th November, he wrote at +Holwood a very lengthy letter to the King, setting forth most +deferentially the reasons which impelled him and his colleagues +to request the withdrawal of the Duke from Holland.<a name="FNanchor_360_360" id="FNanchor_360_360"></a><a href="#Footnote_360_360" class="fnanchor">[360]</a> He +touched with equal skill and firmness on the unfortunate feeling +prevalent in the army respecting the Duke of York; and, while +eulogizing His Royal Highness, expressed the conviction of the +Cabinet that, in his own interests as well as those of the country, +he should be recalled from a sphere of action where the difficulties +were wellnigh insuperable. Pitt also suggested to the +King the advisability of transferring the British forces to a more +promising sphere, Brittany or la Vendée. The King's answer +evinced considerable irritation, a proof that he saw little but the +personal aspects of the case. Pitt, however, held to his point, +and the Duke was recalled in order to become a little later +commander-in-chief, a position for which he was far better +suited than for a command in the field. At the close of the year +Pitt showed his regard for the public service by requesting from +the King leave to displace his brother, the Earl of Chatham, +from the Admiralty, where his lethargy had several times +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>hindered the naval operations. Lord Spencer became First Lord, +the Earl of Chatham succeeding to Spencer's position as Lord +Privy Seal.</p> + +<p>Pitt's magnanimous resolve to brave the royal displeasure +rather than keep a royal prince in a situation for which he was +unfit met with general approval. The times were too serious +to admit of pedantic trifling or unmanly shrinking. In quick +succession there arrived news of the definite refusal of the Duke +of Brunswick to come forward, of the incredible apathy of the +Dutch, and of the demoralization of the Allies in their continued +retreat. To add to their misfortunes, nature gripped that +land of waters in a severe frost, so that the Dutch loyalists were +unable, even if they had the hardihood, to let loose the floods +against the invaders. In endless swarms these pressed on from +the South, determined now to realize Dumouriez' dream of conquering +Holland in order to appropriate its resources, pecuniary, +naval, and colonial. Pichegru it was who won immortal fame by +this conquest, which in truth needs not the legendary addition +of his cavalry seizing a Dutch squadron in the Zuyder Zee. A +singular incident attended the journey of Malmesbury with the +future Princess of Wales towards Helvoetsluys, on their way to +England. Unaware of the inroads of the French horse, they had +to beat a speedy retirement, which, unfortunately for the Prince +of Wales, placed them out of reach of the raiders. A little later +the Duke and Duchess of Brunswick were fain to pack up their +valuables and leave their capital in haste.</p> + +<p>Such was the French conquest of Holland and part of +Hanover in the winter of 1794–5. So speedy was it that Pitt +and Dundas took no timely means to ensure the carrying off +the Dutch fleet. As no small part of it was loyal to the Prince +of Orange, who now fled to England, the oversight is to be +censured. Surely Flushing or the Brill could have been secured. +The Cabinet, however, as we shall see later, prepared to rescue +from the general ruin the most valuable of the Dutch colonies, +the Cape of Good Hope, the importance of which, for the safety +of India, Pitt and Dundas rated most highly. Meanwhile, under +the command of Abercromby, Harcourt, Cathcart, and Walmoden, +the British and subsidized German forces fell back +towards the River Ems, and thence to the Weser. Pitt, as we +have seen, desired to recall the British regiments for service in +the West of France. But various considerations told against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> +this plan; and, as will appear later, the King obstinately opposed +the withdrawal of the British cavalry from the confines of his +beloved Electorate until the autumn of 1795. In April of that +year the infantry, now reduced to some 6,000 effectives by the +rigours of winter, embarked at Bremen.</p> + +<p>Thus ended an expedition unprecedentedly fatal to the British +arms. The causes of the disaster are not far to seek. The campaigns +of 1793–4 were undertaken heedlessly, in reliance upon +the strength of a Coalition which proved to have no strength, +and upon the weakness of the French Republic which proved to +be unconquerably strong. The Allies were powerful enough to +goad France to fury, too weak to crush its transports. Their ill-concealed +threats of partition bound France to the cause of the +Jacobins, which otherwise she would have abjured in horror. +Thus the would-be invaders drove France in upon herself, compelled +her to organize her strength to the utmost; and that +strength, when marshalled by Carnot, was destined to shatter +the Coalition and overrun neighbouring lands. She then learnt +the fatal secret that she could conquer Europe.</p> + +<p>In <a href="#CHAPTER_XII">a later chapter</a> I propose to survey Pitt's conduct as War +Minister. Here I need only point out that his mistakes resulted +mainly from his unquenchable hopefulness. A singular proof of +this admirable but dangerous quality is seen in his effort during +the months of February and March 1795 to frame one more plan +of co-operation with the Court of Berlin, which had so cynically +deceived him. To this proposal Grenville offered unflinching +opposition, coupled with a conditional threat to resign. Pitt +persuaded him to defer action until the troubles in Ireland were +less acute. But the King finally agreed with Pitt, and Grenville +was on the point of retiring when news arrived of the defection +of Prussia.<a name="FNanchor_361_361" id="FNanchor_361_361"></a><a href="#Footnote_361_361" class="fnanchor">[361]</a> For some time she had been deep in negotiations +with France, which had the approval of Möllendorf and the +officers of her Rhenish army.<a name="FNanchor_362_362" id="FNanchor_362_362"></a><a href="#Footnote_362_362" class="fnanchor">[362]</a> The upshot of it all was a treaty, +which Hardenberg signed with the French envoy at Basle on +5th April 1795. By this discreditable bargain Frederick William +of Prussia enabled France to work her will on the lands west of +the Rhine, on condition of his acquiring a general ascendancy +over North and Central Germany, which now became neutral in +the strife. Austria and the South German States remained at +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>war with France for two years longer, by which time the tottering +Germanic System fell beneath the sword of Napoleon +Bonaparte.</p> + +<p>Prussia's bargain with France marks a reversion to her traditional +policy, which viewed that Power as the friend and Austria +as the enemy. It undid the life-work of Prince Kaunitz, now +nearing his end at Vienna, and left the Hapsburg States enfeebled. +True, they had a profitable share in the third and last +Partition of Poland, which soon ensued; but this scarcely made +good the loss in prestige due to the undisputed hegemony of +Prussia in the greater part of Germany. The House of Hohenzollern, +impelled by men like Lucchesini, Haugwitz, and Hardenberg, +took the easy and profitable course and plumed itself on +over-reaching its secular rival at Vienna. In reality it sealed the +doom not only of the truly conservative policy of Pitt, but of +the European fabric. Prussia it was which enabled the Jacobins +to triumph and to extend their sway over neighbouring lands. +The example of Berlin tempted Spain three months later to sign +degrading terms of peace with France, and thus to rob England +of her gains in Hayti and Corsica. Thanks to Prussia and Spain, +France could enter upon that career of conquest in Italy which +assured the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte and the temporary ruin +of Austria. The mistakes of Pitt were great; but, after all, they +might have been retrieved were it not for the torpor of the +Viennese Court and the treachery of Prussia.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">THE WEST INDIES</p> + +<p class="quote">Unfortunately, the war was carried on on the old principle of almost undivided +attention to what was termed British interests—that is, looking to +and preferring the protection of trade and the capture of the enemy's +colonial establishments rather than to the objects which had involved Great +Britain in the contest with France.—<span class="smcap">Colonel Thomas Graham's</span> <i>Diary</i>.</p> + + +<p>If we try to picture the course of the war as mapped out by +Pitt, it would probably have appeared somewhat as follows. +Great Britain, after lending to the Dutch a few regiments as a +protection against the threatened raid of Dumouriez, withdraws +them, leaving the Dutch and the subsidized German corps to +guard the rear of the legions of Prussia and Austria during their +conquering march to Paris. England, in the meantime, harasses +the coasts of France, thereby compelling her to detain considerable +forces at the important points, and further cripples her +by sweeping her fleets and merchantmen from the sea and seizing +her colonies.</p> + +<p>In short, Pitt's conception of the true function of Great Britain +in a continental war was based on that of his father, who accorded +comparatively little military aid to Frederick the Great even in his +direst need, but helped him indirectly by subsidies and by naval +expeditions that stalemated no small portion of the French army. +If Chatham's tactics succeeded when Prussia was striving against +France, Austria, and Russia, how much more might Pitt hope to +win a speedy triumph over anarchic France during her struggle +with Austria, Prussia, Spain, Naples, Sardinia, and Holland? He +expected, and he had a right to expect, that these States would +need British money, not British troops, while the Sea Power restricted +its operations to a "minor offensive" along the seaboards +of France and her colonies. Pitt's efforts in this direction +were constantly thwarted by the drain of men to Flanders; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> +his letters to Murray, Chief of Staff to the Duke of York, evince +his anxiety to strike at Toulon and the West Indies, and not +merely to lighten the military duties of Austria and Prussia +on the French borders.<a name="FNanchor_363_363" id="FNanchor_363_363"></a><a href="#Footnote_363_363" class="fnanchor">[363]</a> It would be tedious to recount his +various attempts to prepare an expedition for the West Indies.<a name="FNanchor_364_364" id="FNanchor_364_364"></a><a href="#Footnote_364_364" class="fnanchor">[364]</a> +Of more interest are the requests for protection which he received +from the French colonists of Hayti, the western part of +the great island of San Domingo.</p> + +<p>As appeared in Chapter XX of the former volume, the decrees +of the National Assembly of Paris fired the negroes of the French +West Indies with the resolve to claim the liberty and equality +now recklessly promised by the mother-land. The white settlers, +on the contrary, having recently acquired autonomous rights, +disputed the legality of that levelling legislation, and rejected all +authority but that of Louis XVI. Amidst the ensuing strifes, the +chief colonies, especially Hayti, were menaced by that most horrible +of all commotions, a servile revolt, when, most opportunely, help +arrived from Jamaica. The contrast between the timely succour +of England and the reckless iconoclasm of Paris struck the imagination +of the French settlers, and the Assembly of Hayti forthwith +drew up a declaration, setting forth the illegality of the French +decrees, the miseries resulting from them, and the resolve of the +colonists to sever a connection absolutely fatal to their welfare. +Citing the example of the United States fifteen years before, and +recounting the misdeeds of the mother country, they proclaimed +to the world the justice of the act of severance.</p> + +<p>A copy of this declaration, signed by de Cadusey on 27th +September 1791, was sent forthwith to Pitt, with a request for +the protection of Great Britain. He received it at Burton Pynsent +on 27th October.<a name="FNanchor_365_365" id="FNanchor_365_365"></a><a href="#Footnote_365_365" class="fnanchor">[365]</a> One of the chief delegates from Hayti +was de Charmilly, who on 14th November sought an interview +with Pitt, and a fortnight later wrote to him, earnestly begging +the help of the only nation which could avert ruin from those +islands. France, he declared, had passed a decree of blood +against her own colonies and was powerless to stop its effects. +The National Assembly, having by its annexation of Avignon +recognized the right of that papal district to belong to whom it +would, Hayti of equal right now voted for union with England. +He further advised that its ports should remain open to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>all nations, a course of action which would herald the dawn of +commercial and political freedom among the Spanish colonies of +the New World.<a name="FNanchor_366_366" id="FNanchor_366_366"></a><a href="#Footnote_366_366" class="fnanchor">[366]</a> These alluring prospects failed to entice Pitt +from the strict neutrality to which he had pledged himself. So +far was he from desiring to profit by the misfortunes of France, +as the French princes first, and after them the Jacobins, maliciously +asserted.</p> + +<p>Once more the deputies of France flung the torch of discord +across the Atlantic. By their decree of 4th April 1792 they declared +absolute equality of rights between whites, half-castes, +and blacks, and sent out commissioners to enforce this anarchic +fiat. They forthwith took the side of the rebels, who in Toussaint +l'Ouverture found a leader of terrible force of will. Martinique +and Guadeloupe and the smaller islands were also a prey to +civil war. In sheer desperation the planters and merchants of +Guadeloupe sent over a delegate, Curt, to appeal to the British +Government for protection. Lord Hawkesbury accorded to him +an informal interview in the closing days of 1792. Curt pressed +him for official help, without which his fellow colonists must lose +their lives and property, and declared that he and many others +abjured the name of Frenchmen.<a name="FNanchor_367_367" id="FNanchor_367_367"></a><a href="#Footnote_367_367" class="fnanchor">[367]</a> Malouet, once prominent in +the National Assembly and destined to become famous under +Napoleon, also approached our Ministers, but with more caution. +He knew that in some of the islands the Republic had many +adherents; but after the outbreak of war in February 1793 he +too advocated the sovereignty of Great Britain under certain +conditions, and on behalf of the colonists of Hayti signed a compact +with Dundas to that effect.</p> + +<p>Fear of a revolt of the slaves had induced Ministers to send +out reinforcements, so that, early in 1793, 19 battalions were in +the British West Indies. In the month of April a small British +force easily captured Tobago and restored that valuable little +island to Great Britain. An attack on Martinique at midsummer +was, however, a failure. These attempts, it may be noted, were +made with forces already in the West Indies.<a name="FNanchor_368_368" id="FNanchor_368_368"></a><a href="#Footnote_368_368" class="fnanchor">[368]</a> Pitt and Dundas +have been severely blamed for sending further reinforcements to +the West Indies.<a name="FNanchor_369_369" id="FNanchor_369_369"></a><a href="#Footnote_369_369" class="fnanchor">[369]</a> But a letter which Pitt wrote to Grenville +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>some time in June or July 1793 shows that the news of a French +expedition having set sail to the West Indies, escorted by six or +seven sail-of-the-line from Brest, led him to urge the despatch of +a force for the protection of that important group of colonies.<a name="FNanchor_370_370" id="FNanchor_370_370"></a><a href="#Footnote_370_370" class="fnanchor">[370]</a></p> + +<p>Besides, was a forward policy in the West Indies unwise? In +these days it is hard to realize the value of those islands. The +mention of Hayti conjures up a vision as of a ship manned +by gorillas; for there and in Liberia is seen the proneness of +the negroes to aimless lounging varied by outbursts of passion. +But in the year 1789 Hayti far surpassed Jamaica in wealth and +activity. The French possessed only the western third of the +island; but the Spanish portion to the east was far less fertile, +and far worse cultivated. The French genius for colonization was +seen in the excellent system of irrigation carried on in the vast +and fertile plain, the <span lang="fr">Cul-de-Sac</span>, east of the capital, Port-au-Prince. +But other portions, notably the long peninsula to the +south-west, were also highly prosperous. The chief towns +equalled in splendour and activity the provincial cities of France. +Port-au-Prince and Cap Français were the pride of the West +Indies; and the rocky fortress, Mole St. Nicholas, dominated +those waters as Gibraltar dominates the Eastern Mediterranean. +The population of Hayti was reckoned at 40,000 whites, 60,000 +mulattoes or half-castes, and some 500,000 negro slaves. Its exports +(chiefly sugar, coffee, and cotton) were assessed at upwards +of £7,500,000, or more by one third than that of all the British +West Indies. To some extent Jamaica flourished on its ruin. +For in May 1796 an official report stated that two coffee-planters, +refugees from Hayti, who had settled in the mountains +behind Port Royal, were introducing so many improvements as +to bring the exports of coffee up to 6,000,000 lb.; and they +would soon amount to 50,000,000 lb.<a name="FNanchor_371_371" id="FNanchor_371_371"></a><a href="#Footnote_371_371" class="fnanchor">[371]</a></p> + +<p>The colonists of Hayti, who offered this valuable prize to +Great Britain, were far from being unprincipled adventurers. +Malouet, on whom fell the chief responsibility, was an upright +and able man; and both he and his comrades were deputed by +representative Assemblies which sought to save society from +sinking into a gulf of unutterable horrors. His letters to +Pitt<a name="FNanchor_372_372" id="FNanchor_372_372"></a><a href="#Footnote_372_372" class="fnanchor">[372]</a> are instinct with the conviction that the men of Hayti +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>unanimously desired a British protectorate, and recognized that +the colonists must pay for the support accorded to them. As +we were framing an alliance with Spain, no difficulties were to +be anticipated from the Spanish part of that island. When five +or six valuable islands were to be had, to all appearance with +little risk except from the slaves, Ministers would have been +craven in the extreme not to push on an enterprise which promised +to benefit British commerce and cripple that of France.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, owing to the drain of the Flemish campaign, +their action was tardy. The schisms between Royalists and Republicans +at the city of Cap Français enabled the negroes to +burst in at midsummer of 1793 with fire and knife and glut +their vengeance on some thousands of persons. Even after these +atrocities the Jacobin commissioners continued to make use of +the blacks in order to enforce their levelling decree; and the +year ended amid long drawn out scenes of murder, rape, and +pillage. By these infamous means did democracy win its triumph +in the West Indies.</p> + +<p>In their despair the French loyalists applied for further aid to +Major-General Williamson, the governor of Jamaica. He sent +a force which received a hearty welcome at the little fortress of +Jérémie (19th September), and a few days later at that important +stronghold, Mole St. Nicholas, then blockaded on land +by the blacks. An attempt by the Republicans at the capital, +Port-au-Prince, to send an expedition for the recapture of Mole +St. Nicholas was thwarted; and late in the year 1793 five other +towns accepted British protection. The rapid recovery of prosperity +in the district forming the lower jaw of the griffin-like +head of Hayti is seen in the official exports from the port of +Grand Anse at its tip. During the quarter 20th September to +31st December 1793 it sent the following quantities to British +ports, chiefly Kingston in Jamaica: Coffee, 644,751 lb.; Sugar, +91,593 lb.; Cotton, 56,339 lb.; Cocoa, 66,944 lb. Even larger +quantities of coffee were exported to foreign ports.<a name="FNanchor_373_373" id="FNanchor_373_373"></a><a href="#Footnote_373_373" class="fnanchor">[373]</a> In 1796 +the produce of Hayti was valued at £1,500,000; the colony +employed more than 400 ships.<a name="FNanchor_374_374" id="FNanchor_374_374"></a><a href="#Footnote_374_374" class="fnanchor">[374]</a> Was not this a land for which +some risks might be encountered?</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span></p> +<p>Meanwhile the Spaniards from their part of the island had +overrun certain districts, especially those to the north of Port-au-Prince. +In particular, they for a time occupied the port of +Gonaives, about midway between the capital and Mole St. Nicholas, +a step almost as threatening to the British forces as to +the French Republicans. It is hard to fathom the designs of the +Spaniards at this time. Their pride, their hereditary claims to +the whole of the Indies, and their nearness to this splendid +prize, all urged them on to an effort from which lack of men, +ships and money, and the hatred of the French and the blacks +to their sway should have warned them off. Seeing also that +the French colonists had officially handed over their possession +to Great Britain, Spain should have come to some understanding +with her Ally before invading what was now in effect British +territory. She did not do so; and subsequent events proved that +her King and statesmen harboured deep resentment against the +transfer, and sought to thwart it by underhand means. For the +present, however, their inroad into the north-central districts +dealt one more blow to the power of the French Jacobins and +their black friends. These last were formidable only when the +quest was plunder. Even the iron will of their ablest leader, +Toussaint l'Ouverture, could infuse no steadiness into the swarthy +levies, which, roving almost at will in the mountainous interior, +were wellnigh as dangerous to the Republicans as to the British.<a name="FNanchor_375_375" id="FNanchor_375_375"></a><a href="#Footnote_375_375" class="fnanchor">[375]</a></p> + +<p>It is not surprising, then, that Pitt and Dundas, despite the +drain of ships and men to Ostend and Toulon, did all in their +power to secure this colony, which had always been deemed +essential to the prosperity of French commerce. On 11th +October 1793 Pitt reluctantly admitted the need of further +postponing the West India expedition owing to the uncertainty +of the fate of Ostend and the chance of a French raid on our +shores. But when these dangers passed away the original plan +held the first place; and it should be noted that, by the middle +of November, when the expedition was finally decided on, the +position of the Royalists at Toulon was thought to be satisfactory. +Much, of course, can be urged against sending troops so far +away, when the loyal Bretons needed succour; but Pitt, Grenville,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> +and, still more, Dundas were bent on this colonial enterprise; +and, viewing the situation as it then was, not as we with +our knowledge of later events see it, their decision seems +defensible.<a name="FNanchor_376_376" id="FNanchor_376_376"></a><a href="#Footnote_376_376" class="fnanchor">[376]</a></p> + +<p>On 26th November, then, Sir John Jervis (afterwards Earl of +St. Vincent) set sail with some 7,000 troops commanded by Sir +Charles Grey. After touching at Barbados he made for Martinique +and succeeded in reducing that island by 22nd March +1794. St. Lucia, Guadeloupe, Marie Galante, and the Saintes +surrendered in April, but after struggles which showed that the +Republicans, backed by mulattoes and blacks, were formidable +foes. This anarchic combination was already threatening the +small and scattered British garrisons in San Domingo. But, +when further reinforcements from England reached Mole St. +Nicholas, a force detached thence under Major-General Whyte +made a dash upon Port-au-Prince. Vigorously handled, and +under cover of a violent thunderstorm, the landing parties carried +an important outwork in handsome style, and thus assured the +surrender of the whole place. The spoils were 101 cannon and +32 ships, with cargoes worth about half a million sterling (4th +June 1794). This brilliant success cost the assailants very few +lives; but the heats of the summer and probably also the intemperance +of the troops soon thinned their ranks. The French, +too, having received succours which slipped out from Rochefort, +recovered Guadeloupe in the month of September.<a name="FNanchor_377_377" id="FNanchor_377_377"></a><a href="#Footnote_377_377" class="fnanchor">[377]</a> And from +this point of vantage they sought, often with success, to stir up +the slaves in the British islands.</p> + +<p>Thus by the autumn of 1794 the position was somewhat as +follows. The British had secured all the French colonies in the +West Indies, excepting Guadeloupe. In Hayti they held nearly +all the coast towns, and maintained an intermittent blockade +over the others; but their position was precarious owing to the +thinness of their garrisons, the untrustworthiness of their mulatto +auxiliaries, and the ravages of disease. It seems probable that, +with ordinary precautions and some reinforcements, the garrisons +might have held out in the towns then occupied, provided that +the fleet intercepted French expeditions destined for the West +Indies; and this ought to have been possible after Howe's +victory of 1st June 1794. The fact that the Republic strenuously +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>prepared to regain those islands at the very time when the +Coalition in Europe and the revolt in Brittany threatened its +existence, suffices to justify Pitt and his colleagues in attacking +France in that quarter. A colony which is worth regaining must +be worth gaining. To the capture of Louisburg, a weaker stronghold +than Mole St. Nicholas, England devoted several expeditions +a generation earlier. Had Pitt and Dundas declined to +have as a gift this key to the Indies, what would not their critics +have said of their incapacity and cowardice? For the West +Indies were then far more highly prized than Canada.</p> + +<p>Endless difficulties beset every expedition to the tropics, even +when forethought and care minimize the risks from disease. The +story of England's ventures in those seas is, in general, one of +hasty action and long repentance. No one had made a special +study of the needs of white men in that climate. In fact, the +military martinets of those days made little allowance for the +altered conditions of service under a broiling sun; and, until the +advent of Abercromby, only slight changes took place either in +the uniform or the time of drills. Dr. Pinckard, in his account of +this enterprise, mentions cases of gross stupidity, slovenliness, +and even of dishonesty on the part of army officials in those +colonies;<a name="FNanchor_378_378" id="FNanchor_378_378"></a><a href="#Footnote_378_378" class="fnanchor">[378]</a> and it is clear that to this cause the long death-roll +was largely due. The following figures at the close of 1794 are +instructive:<a name="FNanchor_379_379" id="FNanchor_379_379"></a><a href="#Footnote_379_379" class="fnanchor">[379]</a></p> + +<table border="0" cellspacing="10" summary="West Indies Troops"> +<tr><td> </td><td colspan="2" align="center">BRITISH.</td><td> </td><td colspan="2" align="center">COLONIAL.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="right">Effective.</td><td align="right">Sick.</td><td> </td><td align="right">Effective.</td><td align="right">Sick.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Port-au-Prince</td><td align="right">366</td><td align="right">462</td><td> </td><td align="right">496</td><td align="right">48</td></tr> +<tr><td>Mole St. Nicholas</td><td align="right">209</td><td align="right">166</td><td> </td><td align="right">209</td><td align="right">38</td></tr> +<tr><td>Jérémie</td><td align="right">95</td><td align="right">59</td><td> </td><td align="right">—</td><td align="right">—</td></tr> +<tr><td>St. Marc</td><td align="right">48</td><td align="right">33</td><td> </td><td align="right">813</td><td align="right">321</td></tr> +<tr><td>Tiburon</td><td align="right">34</td><td align="right">18</td><td> </td><td align="right">—</td><td align="right">—</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td colspan="2" align="right">——————</td><td> </td><td colspan="2" align="right">——————</td></tr> +<tr><td>Total</td><td colspan ="2" align="center"> 1490</td><td> </td><td colspan="2" align="center"> 1925</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>It will be observed that the French and coloured troops were +far more immune from sickness. Indeed, the loyal French +colonists felt much annoyance at the comparative uselessness of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>the British force at this time. Charmilly, after a long visit to +Hayti, returned to London in September 1794, and laid stress +on this in several letters to Pitt. On 11th October he urges +him to sanction a plan (already approved) for raising a force of +French <span lang="fr">émigrés</span> in service in Hayti. A month later he complains +that nothing is being done, though the loyalists of Hayti are +willing to pay their share of the expenses. As it is, they are +growing disheartened; for the British troops remain in the +strongholds, thus leaving the colonial troops in the country too +weak to cope with the roving bands of brigands. As for himself, +he is weary of soliciting help which is never vouchsafed; and +he warns Pitt that opinion is gaining ground in Hayti as to the +uselessness of maintaining a struggle in which the British people +take no interest. The note of egotism rarely absent from Charmilly's +letters appears in his assurance that, if something is not +done soon, England will lose the splendid possession which he +has placed in her hand.<a name="FNanchor_380_380" id="FNanchor_380_380"></a><a href="#Footnote_380_380" class="fnanchor">[380]</a></p> + +<p>There were good reasons why Pitt and his colleagues should +not commit themselves deeply to the Haytian embroglio. In +that anxious time, the autumn of 1794, the most urgent needs +were to save Holland from the Jacobins, to distract them by +helping the Royalists of Brittany, and from our new base in +Corsica to clog their attempts at an invasion of Italy. Owing +to the slackness of our Allies, these enterprises proved unexpectedly +difficult. In truth any two of them would have +strained the scanty resources of the British army; and Pitt is +open to censure for not ruling out all but the most essential of +them. But here a word of caution is needful. For us, with our +knowledge of the sequel, it is a comparatively easy task to +assess the gains and losses of the war, and to blame perseverance +in one course as wasteful folly or backwardness in another +as stupid slothfulness. If later critics would seek to realize +the amount of information possessed by fallible mortals at the +time of their decisions, the world would be spared floods of +censure. How was Pitt to know that the Dutch were about to +hamper, rather than assist, the defence of their land by the +Allies; that Prussia would play him false; that the schisms +among the French Royalists would make Quiberon a word of +horror; that Paoli would stir up strife in Corsica; or that Spain +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>was preparing to ruin British rule in Hayti? With loyal cooperation +on the part of the Allies, all these enterprises might +have proceeded successfully side by side.</p> + +<p>There were no solid reasons for distrusting Spain. The Court +of Madrid had eagerly taken up arms against the regicides of +Paris; and Pitt, as we shall see, early sought to avoid friction in +the West Indies. Otherwise, he would be highly blameable; +for England's easy acquisition of Hayti could not but ruffle +the feelings of the Dons. No chord in the highly strung nature +of the Spaniard vibrates so readily and so powerfully as that +of pride in the retention or recovery of the conquests of his +ancestors. The determination of the Court of Madrid to win +back Louisiana and the Floridas, not to speak of Minorca, had +potently influenced its policy in the recent past, and the prospect +of seeing the Union Jack wave over Hayti and Corsica now +envenomed the ever open wound of Gibraltar. True, the French +colonists of Hayti, acting through their local Assemblies, had +the right to will away their land to England. Spain, at least, +could not say them nay; but none the less she longed to see her +flag float once more over the western districts which had slipped +from her grasp.</p> + +<p>Pitt and Grenville had early foreseen trouble ahead with Spain +on the subject of the West Indies. When affairs at Toulon were +causing friction, Grenville instructed Lord St. Helens, British +ambassador at Madrid, to urge that Court to secure the hoped-for +indemnities in the French districts north of the Pyrenees. +As for England, she had in view Hayti and certain of the +French Leeward Islands. This plan, continued Grenville, could +not offend Spain, seeing that the Haytian or western part of +San Domingo fronted Jamaica and fell naturally to the Power +holding that island. But, as the Court of Madrid was known to +cherish desires for a part of Hayti, St. Helens must endeavour +to ascertain their extent so as to come to a friendly compromise.<a name="FNanchor_381_381" id="FNanchor_381_381"></a><a href="#Footnote_381_381" class="fnanchor">[381]</a> +The Spanish Government, at that time incensed by the quarrels +at Toulon, vouchsafed no reply to these courteous overtures. +They were renewed during the year 1794, but with no better +result.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Don Garcia, the Spanish Governor of San +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>Domingo sought to pour oil on the flames of civil strife. He +allowed the bands of negroes to retire into the Spanish districts, +and replenish their stores. In fact, his conduct was so openly +hostile to England, that on 11th November 1794 Grenville instructed +Jackson, British <span lang="fr">chargé d'affaires</span> at Madrid, to demand +the recall of that arrogant official.<a name="FNanchor_382_382" id="FNanchor_382_382"></a><a href="#Footnote_382_382" class="fnanchor">[382]</a> Charmilly also averred that +the brigands often sallied forth from Spanish territory to ravage +the western districts.<a name="FNanchor_383_383" id="FNanchor_383_383"></a><a href="#Footnote_383_383" class="fnanchor">[383]</a> Other facts point in the same direction. +Whence could the Republicans and their black allies have gained +supplies of arms and ammunition but from the Spaniards? The +survey of the British over the western coasts was close enough +to bar those supplies, at least in the quantities that the negroes +demanded. In truth, the enigmas of the Hayti affair can be solved +only by delving in the Spanish archives. The whole question is +closely connected with the extraordinary change that came over +Anglo-Spanish relations in the years 1795–6, a topic which will +be treated in the <a href="#CHAPTER_X">following chapter</a>.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">SPAIN AND HAYTI</p> + +<p class="quote">Are not Martinique, Mole St. Nicholas, and the Cape of Good Hope most +important conquests?—<span class="smcap">Pitt</span>, <i>Speech of 9th December 1795</i>.</p> + + +<p>More than once it has happened that, after a time of +national revival, Spain has fallen under the dominion of a +ruler led by wrongheaded counsellors and intriguing favourites. +Such was the case in the year 1788. Charles III, who then +passed away, had restored the finances, the prosperity, the navy, +and the prestige of that land. But his successor, Charles IV, +proved to be one of the weakest and most indolent members of +that dynasty. Fond of display, and devoted to the pleasures of +the chase and the table, he squandered the resources of the +State, and soon saw his finances fall into hopeless confusion. +Worse still, his consort, a princess of the ducal House of Parma, +and a woman of much energy, conceived a violent passion for +Manuel Godoy, a young private in the royal guards, on whom +she heaped favours and dignities, so that he forced his way into +the highest circles with the title Duke of Alcudia. He was endowed +with a dignified mien, handsome features, affable manners, +and good abilities, so that the British ambassador, Lord +St. Helens, happily characterized him as a Birmingham Villiers. +The measure of his importance and of the degradation of the +Sovereigns may be gauged from the fact that the paramour of +the Queen became the chief Minister of the King. In truth, the +Queen, her lover, and her two confessors governed Spain.</p> + +<p>The habits of the favourite were as follows. He rose early, drove +or rode for an hour, and after breakfast transacted business for +a time. He then relieved the tedium of that time by witnessing +exhibitions of skill and daring by his private matadors, +after which he spent about three hours in the society of the +Queen. He then devoted the same length of time to the conduct<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> +of public business with the King; and the day ended with +dinner, fêtes, the opera, or the consideration of requests for +patronage. This function of State generally occupied three +evenings in the week; and on these occasions a crowd of some +250 suitors filled his meanly lit ante-room with jealous expectancy +and long baffled hopes.<a name="FNanchor_384_384" id="FNanchor_384_384"></a><a href="#Footnote_384_384" class="fnanchor">[384]</a></p> + +<p>Certainly the representatives of monarchy at this time of +acute trial were unequal to the strain. Catharine of Russia was +supremely able, but no less corrupt. Frederick William of +Prussia equalled her in vice and in nothing else. Francis of +Austria had the brain of a master of ceremonies; George III +that of a model squire; Ferdinand of Naples was in his place in +the kennel; Victor Amadeus of Sardinia, in the confessional. It +is difficult to say to what place Charles IV of Spain and his +consort can most fitly be assigned; for they could not live apart +from Godoy; and with Godoy they would have been excluded +from any residence but the royal palace of Spain. The policy of +that Court wavered under his whims and devices. Hated by the +grandees, loathed by honest people, and yet fawned on by all +alike, he sought to strengthen his power by jobbery, with results +fatal to the public services. Such a man evades difficulties instead +of grappling with them. He lives for the day. "After me +the deluge" is the motto of all Godoys.</p> + +<p>The favourite soon perceived that the war with France pleased +neither the Court, the merchants, nor the people. Charles IV +had gone to war for the restoration of royalty; but, thanks to +the perfidy of Prussia and the vacillations of Austria, that ideal +had vanished; and in its place there appeared the spectres of +want and bankruptcy. By the end of 1794 the Republicans had +gained a firm foothold in Catalonia and Biscay; and the prospect +of further campaigns was highly distasteful to a Court which kept +up the traditional pomp of the Spanish monarchy. Even when +the Spanish forces in Catalonia and Biscay were wellnigh +starving, the Court borrowed £160,000 to defray the expenses +of the usual migration to San Ildefonso; and the British ambassador +computed that the cost of a campaign could be saved +by a sojourn in Madrid for the whole year. But parsimony such +as this was out of the question. Accordingly the only possible +alternatives were, peace with France, an issue of paper money, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>or a bankruptcy. Godoy inclined strongly to peace, and discovered +in Anglophobia a means of betraying the French +House of Bourbon. England, so he averred, had entered on the +war solely for her own aggrandisement, with the view of appropriating +first Dunkirk, then Toulon, and, failing them, Corsica +and Hayti, to the manifest detriment of Spain. The argument +was specious; for Pitt's resolve to cripple France by colonial +conquests necessarily tended to re-awaken the old jealousies of +the Spaniards; and herein, as in other respects, the son had to +confront difficulties unknown in the days of his father. The task +of the elder Pitt was simple compared with that of humouring +and spurring on five inert and yet jealous Allies.</p> + +<p>Among them Spain was not the least slothful and exacting. +After the quarrels between Langara and Hood at Toulon, the +despatches from Madrid to London were full of complaints. +Now it was the detention of Danish vessels carrying naval +stores, ostensibly for Cadiz, but in reality, as we asserted, for +Rochefort. Now it was the seizure and condemnation of a +Spanish merchantman, the "Sant' Iago," on a somewhat similar +charge. England had equal cause for annoyance. The embers +of the quarrel of 1790 were once more fanned to a flame by +Spanish officials. Captain Vancouver, of H.M.S. "Discovery," +while on a voyage to survey the island which now bears his +name, had his ship and crew detained and ill-treated at Monterey +Bay by the Governor of California. The Court of St. James +warmly protested against this conduct as contrary to the +Nootka Sound Convention of 1790; and thereby inflamed that +still open wound. Valdez, Minister of Marine, the only rival of +Godoy, now openly avowed his hostility to England. Early in +February 1795, in a conference with the King, he hotly denounced +British designs in Corsica and Hayti. Thenceforth there was no +hope of securing the co-operation of the Spanish fleet for the +blockade of Toulon and other duties too exacting for Admiral +Hotham's squadron. On 11th February Godoy handed to Jackson, +our <span lang="fr">chargé d'affaires</span>, a state paper containing the assurance +that Spain desired to continue the struggle against France; but +"if His Christian Majesty finds another road less dangerous +than that which he follows, he will take it with the dignity becoming +his rank; he will exhaust the means he may have till he +shall obtain the welfare of his people; but he will not look on +their annihilation with indifference, if those who have a similar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> +interest vary the mode of pursuing it." In plain language this +meant that, as Prussia was then treating with France, Spain +would follow her example when she thought fit.<a name="FNanchor_385_385" id="FNanchor_385_385"></a><a href="#Footnote_385_385" class="fnanchor">[385]</a></p> + +<p>Thereafter the Spanish Ministers either manifested sullen +reserve or indulged in petulant complaints respecting the "Sant' +Iago," Corsica, and Hayti. The conduct of the Marquis del +Campo at London was equally sinister; his despatches represented +the policy and conduct of England in the darkest colours. +In the hope of softening these asperities Pitt and Grenville +decided to send the Earl of Bute to Madrid in place of Jackson, +who desired to escape from the insolences of that capital. Thus +by one of the subtle ironies of history, the son of Chatham +despatched to the Court of Madrid the son of the man who +thwarted Chatham's aims respecting that same Power. Bute's +instructions (dated 5th April) bade him humour that Court, but +none the less look out for any signs of a Franco-Spanish compact, +and discover at what place in the Spanish colonies a blow +might be dealt with most effect.</p> + +<p>On 13th April, after receiving news of a Spanish success in +Catalonia, Grenville urged Bute to re-awaken Castilian pride by +holding out the prospect of gains beyond the Pyrenees, and +expressed the hope that Spain might renew her treaty with +England, promising also to consider her claims to parts of +the north-west of Hayti. These hopes were futile. Early in +that year France and Spain began to draw close together. The +more moderate Republicans, Sieyès, Boissy d'Anglas, and +Cambacérès, let it be known that France would offer moderate +terms. Barthélemy, the able French envoy in Switzerland, +furthered these plans, which came near to fulfilment when +Prussia signed with France the Treaty of Basle (5th April 1795). +Charles IV was only waiting for some excuse to follow suit. As +a relative of Louis XVI, he scrupled to take the lead; but he +was ready to follow the lead of Prussia. The sacrifices demanded +of him in March 1795 were considerable, viz., the province of +Guipuzcoa and San Domingo. But Bourgoing, the special +envoy to Madrid, offered a prize which far counterbalanced +these losses. He held out to Godoy the bait which in the more +skilful hands of Napoleon was destined to catch both him and +his credulous master. Portugal was to be theirs if they made +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>common cause with France. Acting together, the two Latin +nations would overwhelm this "province of England," and together +they would chase the British from the Mediterranean. +That Portugal had loyally supported Spain in the monarchist +cause mattered little. In place of the costly war of principle, +Godoy sought to substitute an effort with limited liability, +effective partnership, and enormous profits. He knew not that +in entering on this broad and easy path, he assured the ruin of +Spain and the ultimate loss of her colonial empire.</p> + +<p>In this secret chaffering Pitt and Grenville were worsted as +inevitably as in the similar case of the Partition of Poland. The +Power that cries "hands off" to abettors of robbery needs to +have overwhelming force at its back; but both here and on the +banks of the Vistula England was helpless. There was no +Court of Appeal. Christendom had vanished amidst the schemes +of the monarchs in the East, and under the stabs of regicides +in the West. Thus, while the champions of monarchy were +sharing the last spoils of Poland, France succeeded in detaching +Spain from the royalist league by inciting her to the plunder of +Portugal.</p> + +<p>Few moves have been more mean and cowardly; though the +conduct of the Court of Madrid in this matter touches far deeper +depths of infamy. For its present position was far from hopeless. +With the help of the British fleet the progress of the +French troops towards Bilbao might have been stayed. Affairs +in Catalonia wore a hopeful aspect. England offered to recognize +the Spanish conquests in Hayti and to press for further +indemnities from France at the general peace. But all representations +were in vain. Godoy brushed them aside in order to +compass the ruin of the House of Braganza. On this enterprise +he concentrated all his faculties. He inveighed against the +invasion of Hayti by British troops. "His Britannic Majesty," +he said, "ought to have abstained from any interference with +the island of San Domingo, upon the whole of which His +Christian Majesty had a well-founded claim; or, if any enterprize +was undertaken there by Great Britain, it should have +been in the way of auxiliary to Spain in order to restore to her +her ancient possessions in the West Indies." On other occasions +he moaned over the heavy expenses of the war, the misery of +the people, and the impossibility of resisting the superior power +of France. But his chief theme was Hayti, and he finally suggested<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> +that the British acquisitions in that island should be held +in trust for Louis XVII. He was not a little ruffled by the +reply that they belonged of right to George III, who would +keep them as compensation for the expenses of the war. Another +significant fact was the removal of a fine corps of French <span lang="fr">émigrés</span>, +some 3,300 strong, from the northern provinces to Cadiz, on their +way to the West Indies.</p> + +<p>At the time of the arrival of Bute at that port (25th May), +Fortune vouchsafed a few gleams of hope to the Allies. Spanish +pride having kicked against the French demands, especially +that of the province of Guipuzcoa, Bourgoing's mission proved +fruitless. The diplomatic situation also improved. In February +1795, as we have seen, Catharine II of Russia signed a defensive +treaty with Great Britain, to which Austria acceeded on 20th +May. Thus did Pitt replace the outworn Triple Alliance with +Prussia and Holland by a more powerful confederacy. With +these bright prospects in view, and animated by the hope of +rousing Western France from Quiberon, Pitt had a right to +expect some measure of fortitude even in the Court of Madrid.<a name="FNanchor_386_386" id="FNanchor_386_386"></a><a href="#Footnote_386_386" class="fnanchor">[386]</a> +But Godoy remained obdurate. On 11th June, in his first interview +with Bute, he said he had no faith in Russia; the vacillations +of Austria were notorious; and Pitt was said to be about +to send Eden to Paris to sue for peace. As for Spain, she was +hard pressed; French and American emissaries had stirred up +strife in her colonies; and affairs were most "ticklish" in San +Domingo. His Government had therefore sought for a composition +(not a definite peace) with France. In fact, the war as +a whole had failed, for whereas the Allies had set themselves to +crush French principles, they had succeeded merely in uniting +the French people in one common cause. On 11th July he +promised to recall the Anglophobe Governor of San Domingo; +but he declared the island to be in so distracted a state that +both Spaniards and British would probably be expelled. He +then complained that somehow England always got the better +of Spain; witness Nootka Sound, Hayti, and Corsica. In spite +of Bute's assurance that he came to end these jealousies, Godoy +continued to drift on the tide of events. "No plan is prepared," +wrote Bute on 11th July, "no measures are taken. The accident +of the day seems to determine everything, and happy do the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>Ministers feel when the day is passed." He therefore advised +that Godoy should be bribed.</p> + +<p>The advice came too late. Already the favourite had instructed +Don Domingo d'Yriarte, his envoy to the now extinct Polish +Republic, to confer with Barthélemy, the French Ambassador at +Basle. The actions of Yriarte, of course, depended on the secret +behests of Godoy. On 2nd July Godoy informed him that peace +was the only means of thwarting the efforts of the bad counsellors +of the Crown; and four days later he wrote:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Every day makes peace more necessary. There is no hope of restoring +affairs in Navarre. Cowardice has unnerved our army and the +French will dictate their terms to us.... I fear that their claims will +be excessive, and condescension is our only resource if we are to succeed +in saving ourselves even in part. Your Lordship need not take +alarm at the rigour of the terms of peace; listen to them, accept them, +and forward them to me, saying to yourself that perhaps they will not +be so fatal as the results of a delay in the negotiation might be.<a name="FNanchor_387_387" id="FNanchor_387_387"></a><a href="#Footnote_387_387" class="fnanchor">[387]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>Yriarte, a nervous valetudinarian, eagerly accepted this despicable +advice. Already one of his secretaries had allowed +Barthélemy to see an almost equally base effusion from Godoy; +so that the French ambassador on 21st July informed the Committee +of Public Safety that the game was in their hands. This +was the case. Yriarte, after receiving two packets from Madrid, +hastily sought a nocturnal interview with Barthélemy by the +help of a dark lantern. The French ambassador received him +with some surprise, especially on hearing that he came to sign +a treaty of peace on terms not yet known at Paris. When the +Spaniard insisted on signing at once, Barthélemy examined the +conditions, and finding them highly favourable to France, consulted +his secretaries, with the result that he finally decided to +conclude the affair.</p> + +<p>Thus came about the Peace of Basle (22nd July 1795). Spain +now waived her former demands, the restoration of religious +worship in France, and French aid in the recovery of Gibraltar. +The French, however, now agreed to restore all the districts +held by their troops in the North of Spain, while the Court of +Madrid ceded San Domingo. Spain also made peace with the +Dutch or Batavian Republic, and offered to mediate between +France and Portugal, Naples, Sardinia, and Parma.<a name="FNanchor_388_388" id="FNanchor_388_388"></a><a href="#Footnote_388_388" class="fnanchor">[388]</a> Such were +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>the chief clauses of this astonishing compact. It dealt a deadly +blow to Pitt. For at the very time when he was building up a +formidable league and rousing Brittany against the Republic, +Spain seceded from the monarchist cause, and by surrendering +San Domingo to France, doomed to failure his costly efforts in +Hayti. Further, as will appear in <a href="#CHAPTER_XI">Chapter XI</a>, by setting free +large numbers of the French troops at the Pyrenees, she greatly +enhanced the difficulties of the expedition of General Doyle to +the coast of la Vendée. Worst of all, it soon appeared that +Godoy was bent on reviving the policy of the Family Compact, +making common cause even with the murderers of Louis XVI +in order to thwart England's expansion oversea. Bute therefore +warned our Government to prepare to strike a blow at once, +before the Spanish fleet should be ready to help the French either +in Corsica or Hayti. These precautions proved, for the present +at least, to be unnecessary. The degradation of the Court and +populace of Madrid may be measured by the joy with which the +news of that inglorious peace was received. The Queen, fearful +that the failures in the war would lead to the fall of her paramour, +procured the speedy ratification of the Treaty of Basle +and decorated him with the title Prince of the Peace.</p> + +<p>On hearing of the defection of Spain, Pitt at once took steps +to guard Hayti against a treacherous attack by detaching the +greater part of the British force then preparing to help the +French Royalists of la Vendée. The general opinion both in +London and Madrid was that war must ensue. Godoy kept a +close watch upon Bute, who took a mansion in Madrid on +a long lease in order to lull that Court into security. It was +of the highest importance to avert or delay a rupture with +Spain; for the condition of the British West Indies was most +critical. The French, having recovered Guadeloupe and St. +Lucia, despatched thence emissaries to fire the slaves in the +British islands with the hope of gaining liberty and equality. +The peril became acute in Jamaica. There about 500 negroes +had escaped to the mountains, especially in Trelawny and +Charlestown Counties, and by night carried out murderous raids +against the planters and their dependents. So fiendish were the +atrocities of these Maroons, that the authorities in that island +applied to the Spaniards in Cuba for one hundred bloodhounds +and twenty huntsmen in order to track the Maroons to their +fastnesses. This device proved successful; the murderers were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> +by degrees hunted down, and were transported to British North +America, £25,000 being voted by the Jamaica Assembly for +settling them there.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless the use of bloodhounds, which placed Britons on +a level with the Spanish crusaders, aroused general disgust. +Attempts were made in the House of Commons by General +Macleod, Sheridan, and Courtenay to represent the Maroons as +men worthily struggling for liberty. Dundas, while pruning +these sprays of rhetoric, declared that Ministers would thereafter +prohibit the use of bloodhounds. These troubles with the +slaves prejudiced Parliament against any change in their condition. +In vain did Francis, in one of the last speeches of an acrid +but not discreditable career, press for the amelioration of their +lot. At the outset he showed the bitterness of his enmity to Pitt +by charging him with the betrayal of the cause which, in his +oration of 2nd April 1792, he had irradiated with the beatific +vision of a regenerated and blissful Africa. Why, he asked, did +not the Minister resign office after his failure to realize his heart's +desire? He then charged him with insincerity on the whole +question, and urged the House to be content with alleviating the +condition of the slaves by giving them the rudiments of education +and some rights of property, above all by securing the +sanctity of their marriages. Fox followed with a speech aimed +more against Pitt than the slave-owners. The Prime Minister +then replied. Ignoring the charges of his opponents, he pointed +out that the proposed improvements were utterly inadequate to +remedy the ills of the negroes so long as Parliament allowed +shiploads of these unhappy creatures to be cast into the West +Indies every year. What was needed, he said, was the abolition +of that hateful traffic, indeed of the whole system of slavery. +For himself, he still hoped that Parliament would adopt those +measures, which alone could be effective. Wilberforce was absent +through illness. Francis, having elicited in the main mere personalities, +not declarations of principle, withdrew his motion.</p> + +<p>The lapse of the question of Abolition in the years 1795–6 was +a public misfortune; for the slaves, despairing of justice from +England, turned to France. For the good of the cause they +murdered men, women, or children, with equal indifference; and, +when hunted down, died with the cry <span lang="fr">Vive la République</span>. Here +was our chief difficulty in the West Indies. Owing to the +refusal of Parliament to limit the supply of slaves or to alleviate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> +their condition, we had to deal with myriads of blacks, exasperated +by their former hardships, hoping everything from France, +and able to support climatic changes which dealt havoc to the +raw English levies. In truth, the success of the West India +expeditions depended on other factors besides military and +medical skill. It turned on political and humanitarian motives +that were scouted at Westminster. The French Jacobins stole +many a march on the English governing classes; and in declaring +the negro to be an equal of the white man they nearly +wrecked Britain's possessions in the West Indies.</p> + +<p>For a great negro leader had now appeared. Toussaint +l'Ouverture, though probably not of pure negro blood, was born +at Breda in the north of Hayti in 1746. His mental gifts were +formidable; and when sharpened by education and by long contact +with whites, they enabled him to play upon the elemental +passions of his kindred, to organize them, to lead them to the +fight, to cure their wounds, and to overawe their discontent. +A barbarian in his outbursts of passion, and a European in +organizing power, he became a zealot in the Republican cause. +A quarrel with another masterful negro, Jean François, forced +him for a time to retire into the Spanish part of San Domingo; +but he soon returned, and proved to be our most formidable +enemy.</p> + +<p>The position in Hayti at the close of 1795 was somewhat as +follows. The Republicans and their coloured allies, often helped +by the Spaniards, held or ravaged the greater part of the territory +which the French Royalists had invited us to possess. +Their hopeful forecasts had led Pitt and Dundas to send far +too few troops for what proved to be an increasingly difficult +enterprise; and at this time British authority extended scarcely +beyond the reach of the garrisons. The French Royalists had +not given the help which Malouet and Charmilly had led our +Ministers to expect.<a name="FNanchor_389_389" id="FNanchor_389_389"></a><a href="#Footnote_389_389" class="fnanchor">[389]</a> And on the other hand, Victor Hugues, +the Republican leader, managed to spread revolt in St. Vincent, +Grenada, and Dominica. In this critical state of things, the +Cabinet decided to accord to Major-General Williamson, +Governor of Hayti, a long furlough, and to place in supreme +command a man of great resourcefulness and power of character.</p> + +<p>Sir Ralph Abercromby was at this time sixty-one years of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>age; but in zeal and ardour he excelled nearly all the junior +officers. His toughness and energy had invested with dignity +even the disastrous retreat from Holland early in the year. He +was not a great commander; for he lacked both soundness and +firmness of judgement, and he had no grasp of the principles +of strategy; but he restored the discipline and prestige of the +British army; and in him Moore and Wellesley hailed the dawn +of a brighter era. "The best man and the best soldier who has +appeared amongst us this war," was Moore's comment after +Abercromby's glorious death near Alexandria.<a name="FNanchor_390_390" id="FNanchor_390_390"></a><a href="#Footnote_390_390" class="fnanchor">[390]</a> Pitt has often +been charged with lack of judgement in selecting commanders. +Let it be remembered, then, that he sent Abercromby to the +post of difficulty and danger.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, delays multiplied at Spithead. Though the +Cabinet withdrew the marrow of the Vendean expedition, yet +not enough troops were available to complete Abercromby's +muster; and when the men were ready, the ordnance and transports +were not at hand. What Department and what officials +were answerable for this scandalous state of things it is hard to +say. Buckingham, who had several correspondents at Portsmouth, +suspected Abercromby of shiftlessness. However that may be, +the autumn wore away amidst recriminations and growing discontent. +When the fleet at last put to sea, it encountered a +terrible storm off Portland; several transports were dashed to +pieces on that point; while others in the van were flung back on +to the Chesil Beach or the shore near Bridport (18th November). +The horrors of the scene were heightened by the brutality of the +coast population, which rushed on the spoil in utter disregard of +the wretches struggling in the waves. The rest of the convoy +put back to Spithead; and not till the spring of 1796 did +Abercromby reach Jamaica. Dundas had instructed him first +to recover St. Lucia and Guadeloupe, whence Victor Hugues had +flung forth the brands of revolt. Ultimately the flames shrivelled +up the colonies of France; but, for the present, they were more +formidable than her fleets and armies. It was therefore sound +policy to strike at those two islands. In a "secret" despatch of +4th November, Dundas also warned Major-General Forbes closely +to watch the Spaniards in San Domingo, and, though not attacking +their posts, yet to support the French Royalists with arms +and money in case they desired to do so.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p> +<p>Among those who sailed from Portsmouth early in 1796 was +Colonel (afterwards Sir John) Moore.<a name="FNanchor_391_391" id="FNanchor_391_391"></a><a href="#Footnote_391_391" class="fnanchor">[391]</a> He found the West India +service most unpopular. Yet the energy of Abercromby and +Moore brought about the surrender of that almost impregnable +fortress, Morne Fortunée, in St. Lucia. Moore was left as +governor of the island, but with a garrison insufficient to complete +the subjection of the fanatical blacks. General Whyte +found the conquest of the Dutch settlement of Demerara a +far easier task than its retention. Abercromby then relieved St. +Vincent and strengthened the defences of Grenada, that island +having been recaptured by General Nicols. Abercromby and +his comrades thus saved those possessions from the most imminent +danger. His services were almost as great in the quarters +as on the field. He adapted the cumbrous uniform to the needs +of the tropics, and, by abolishing parades and drills in the noontide +heats, and improving the sanitary conditions of the camps, +sought to stay the ravages of disease, of which the carelessness +or stupidity of officials had been the most potent ally. On +21st April 1796 Sheridan moved for a return of the troops +who had succumbed to disease in the West Indies. He asserted +that several of them, on landing, were without shoes and stockings, +that hospitals crowded with sick were without medicines or +bandages, and that in one case a hundred patients had to spend +the night on the bare beach. Dundas's reply was virtually an +admission of the truth of these charges.</p> + +<p>The declaration of war by Spain in the autumn of 1796 +brought about a new situation. The Republicans and their black +allies regularly took refuge and found their supplies in the central +parts of San Domingo now ceded to France; but when the British +sought to follow and attack them there, they were assured that +it was neutral territory. The British Government warmly protested +against this duplicity. Either the island was Spanish, +or it was French. If the former, then Toussaint and his men had +no right to retreat thither. If the latter, the British could attack +them. In point of fact, plans for the transfer of San Domingo +to France were at that time dragging slowly along at Madrid: +and when the French General, Rom, failed to bend that Court +to his terms, he departed for the island under the convoy of a +Spanish squadron. This incident was typical of the recent policy of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>Madrid. In every possible way it favoured France. Early in +1796 seven French warships underwent extensive repairs in the +royal dockyard at Cadiz. Merry, secretary of legation at Madrid, +further reported numerous seizures of British merchantmen by +French privateers which brought them into Spanish harbours. +Twelve ships were thus brought into Alicante in the winter of +1795–6; and English merchants could get no redress for these +seizures. French privateers also fitted out at Trinidad to act +against Grenada and Tobago.<a name="FNanchor_392_392" id="FNanchor_392_392"></a><a href="#Footnote_392_392" class="fnanchor">[392]</a></p> + +<p>Provocations were not all on one side. Early in 1796, three +Spanish West Indiamen were overhauled by two English frigates +and taken to Bermuda, in the belief that war had broken out. +They were, however, at once released. Godoy protested angrily +against this indignity, and early in March hinted that Spain's +neutrality would cease on the establishment of a French +Government. Two months later Bute found that Spain was +seeking to form a Quadruple Alliance, namely, with France, +Denmark, and Sweden, a scheme which Ehrenthal, the Swedish +envoy, warmly furthered. The news of Bonaparte's victories in +Italy and of the financial troubles in England evidently puffed +up Godoy with the hope of playing the part of an Alberoni +for the humiliation of England; and in 1796 Spain had better +prospects of worsting the islanders than in 1718 when they had +the alliance of France, Austria, and Holland. In truth, no +period was more favourable for a revival of the Latin races +than the years 1796–7, when England was in dire straits, when +Austria succumbed under the blows of Bonaparte, and the +Dutch, Danes, and Swedes opposed the British Power. With +singleness of purpose and honesty in their administrations, +France, Spain, and their Allies should have wrecked the lifework +of the two Pitts.</p> + +<p>The British Ministers felt the gravity of the situation. In +view of the collapse of the Austrian Power in Lombardy, Pitt +wrote to Grenville on 28th June in unusually despondent terms, +that it was hopeless to expect Austria to prolong the war after +the present campaign. We should be left alone to confront +France and Holland, "probably joined by Spain, and perhaps +favoured more or less openly by the Northern Powers."<a name="FNanchor_393_393" id="FNanchor_393_393"></a><a href="#Footnote_393_393" class="fnanchor">[393]</a> Accordingly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> +we must see to our home defences, and also consider +the possibility of a general peace. Grenville therefore urged +Bute to seek by all methods compatible with his dignity "to +preserve the good understanding of the two countries." In fact, +Pitt and his colleagues now decided to bring about a general +pacification; and, as will appear later, they held to that resolve, +in spite of the strong opposition of George III. But, on 5th +August, while they were discussing details, Bonaparte won a +crushing victory over Wurmser at Castiglione, and, eleven days +later, Godoy definitely sided with France. Pitt feared that the +hostile league would include Denmark and Sweden; and, but +for his foresight in gaining over Catharine, this would have been +the issue of events. Even so, Godoy hoped to form a Quadruple +Alliance with France, Holland, and Prussia. He therefore took +a high tone with Bute, declaring that England would not be +allowed to attack San Domingo, as it was still Spanish, and there +was a necessary connection between France and Spain; but he +would not hear of Bute accepting that statement as a declaration +of war.</p> + +<p>Clearly, Spain was trying to gain time; for reports from Cadiz +showed her fleet to be far from ready, several of the ships being +leaky. The repairs to the French ships at that dockyard also +went on in the most leisurely manner. But on 4th August all +was ready. Admiral Mann with a small blockading force having +been called by Jervis into the Mediterranean, the French +ships set sail, escorted by twenty Spanish sail-of-the-line. The +French squadron made for the Bank of Newfoundland and inflicted +great damage. Why it did not proceed along with the +Spaniards to the West Indies is hard to say. The impact of +twenty-seven sail-of-the-line in that quarter would have been decisive; +but probably Godoy did not yet feel warranted in throwing +down the gauntlet. Pitt and Grenville decided to overlook +the gross breach of neutrality at Cadiz, and even now hoped +for a change in Godoy's mood. On 26th August Grenville informed +Bute that, though England had good cause for declaring +war, she would await the result of the recent proposals to Spain. +On or about that date Las Casas, the Spanish ambassador, pettishly +left London on a flimsy pretext; and two days later Dundas +warned the commander-in-chief in Hayti of the imminence +of war. Nevertheless, while taking every precaution, he was not +to attack the Spaniards until definite news of a rupture arrived.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> +Further, on the 31st (as will appear in the <a href="#CHAPTER_XI">following chapter</a>) +Portland despatched orders to Sir Gilbert Elliot, Viceroy of +Corsica, to prepare for the immediate evacuation of that island.</p> + +<p>It is therefore clear that Pitt and his colleagues used all possible +means to avert war with Spain. Bute, acting on orders +from London, carried complaisance to lengths derogatory, as he +thought, to the honour of Great Britain, and Godoy humoured him +to the top of his bent. Thus, on 10th September, in the course +of a singular interview, Godoy assured him that, even if war broke +forth, it would be brief. If (he continued) England had not annoyed +Spain by her naval and colonial policy, the latter might +have arranged to find some indemnity, either at the expense of +Holland, or else "something on the coast of California. You +English have a passion for California, and the trade is in the +most flourishing state." Half amused by these dilatory tactics, +Bute sought to find out the real state of the case; and he discovered +that the Franco-Spanish compact aimed at the joint +conquest of Portugal as well as of Naples, Sicily, and Gibraltar, +while England was to be compelled to surrender Honduras and +Hayti. On the 5th of October he received from Godoy the +Spanish declaration of war. It laid stress on the disputes at +Toulon, England's seizure of Corsica, Hayti, and Dutch Demerara, +besides the founding of British mercantile posts on the +River Missouri, which evidently aimed at securing the routes to +the Pacific.<a name="FNanchor_394_394" id="FNanchor_394_394"></a><a href="#Footnote_394_394" class="fnanchor">[394]</a> Of these schemes, the conquest of Portugal lay the +nearest to the heart of Godoy.</p> + +<p>The rupture with Spain is an event of prime importance. +Because her fleet was disastrously beaten by Jervis off Cape +St. Vincent in February 1797, it has too often been assumed +that she counted for little in the war. An examination of the +British Records reveals the error of that assumption. The +evacuation of Corsica and of the Mediterranean by the British +forces resulted solely from the Spanish offensive. Though weak +in herself, Spain held so strong a position in Europe and the +West Indies as to endanger British enterprises at many points, +besides threatening the coasts of Ireland. In truth, but for Spanish +support in the Mediterranean, Bonaparte could never have ventured +upon his Eastern expedition. Thus the defection of the +Court of Madrid changed the character of the war. Thenceforth +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>it revolved more and more around colonial questions, to the +weakening of the royalist and republican motives which had +worked so potently in its early stages. The oriental adventure of +the young Corsican was to emphasize the contrast between the +years 1793 and 1798; but the scene-shifting began with the +intrigues of Godoy. In a sense Pitt himself helped on the +transformation. He did not regard the struggle against France +as one of political principle. He aimed solely at curbing the +aggression of the Jacobins upon Holland; and the obvious +device of weakening France by expeditions to the West Indies +further helped to bring events back into the arena of eighteenth-century +strife. Now that Spain, the protagonist of the French +Bourbons, deserted their cause and attacked the Power in which +they most trusted, all pretence of a war of principle vanished. +The importance of the change was not perceived at the time, +though signs of it were not wanting. Both in France and England +democratic enthusiasm speedily died down, and the discontent, +which now and again flared forth in both lands, was but a feeble +sputter compared with the devouring flame of 1789.</p> + +<p>In the West Indies the effects of the rupture with Spain +were speedily felt. On 9th September 1796 Dundas instructed +Forbes, commander-in-chief in Hayti, to help the Spanish +settlers if they resisted the transfer of their part of the island +to France. He also enjoined the utmost possible economy in +public expenditure, and urged that the French settlers should +have a large share in the conduct of local affairs. This zeal on +behalf of local self-government was markedly opportunist. It +arose from a suggestion of Colonel Wigglesworth, Commissary-General +in Hayti, that the expenses of that colony would not +lessen until there was a regular Government. In the midst of +the financial strain at home Pitt and his colleagues desired +that the French settlers should bear their share of the expense +of maintaining bands of native auxiliaries. By one of the +unaccountable impulses that sway the negro mind, a considerable +force was now available; but it could not be utilized +owing to the rigid economy enjoined by the Home Government. +As the financial outlook darkened, Portland and Dundas +sent urgent warnings to the new Governor of Hayti, Major-General +Simcoe, bidding him concentrate the whole of the +British force at Cape Nicholas Mole, the probable objective of +the French and Spaniards. The military administration must be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> +withdrawn to that fortress, the British cavalry being sent home. +Further, as Great Britain could in no case bear a larger financial +burden than £300,000 a year for Hayti, expenses were to be +reduced on all sides, the residue falling to the share of the +colonists. A larger naval force would, however, be sent; and +Simcoe was advised to seize the island of Tortuga and to alarm +the Spaniards by feints against Havannah.</p> + +<p>This was the beginning of the end at Hayti. Ministers, in +despair of pacifying that racial cauldron, now looked on the +Spanish colonies as an easier prize. Dundas therefore ordered +Abercromby to capture Porto Rico or Trinidad; and he even +dallied with a fantastic scheme for shipping the Haytian colonists +to Porto Rico. Abercromby, however, who again set sail from +Portsmouth in November 1796, decided to make for Trinidad, +and by a brilliant stroke captured its capital, Port of Spain. +The attack on San Juan, in Porto Rico, met with unexpected +difficulties, and ended in failure (February and April 1797). Matters +now became desperate in Hayti. The rebels captured several +posts near Port-au-Prince, largely owing to dissensions among +the defenders. Simcoe, despite a serious illness on his way out, +worked miracles with his skeleton regiments, but both he +and his subordinates failed to cut down expenses as the +Cabinet demanded. Accordingly, on 9th June 1797, Portland +and Dundas reminded him that no further reinforcements could +be sent out, and added this ominous sentence: "It is but too +obvious that ... the immense sacrifices this country has made +for the protection of the French part of San Domingo have too +frequently been diverted from purposes of public utility to +answer the worst ends of private peculation and inordinate +cupidity."</p> + +<p>In a recent debate in the House of Commons St. John assessed +the expenses of Hayti for January 1797 at £700,000; and stated +that, for the discharge of judicial duties, a Frenchman was +receiving £2,500 a year, which he was now squandering in London. +Pitt remained silent. Dundas did not deny these allegations, +but begged members to recollect the great difficulties of +our officials in Hayti.<a name="FNanchor_395_395" id="FNanchor_395_395"></a><a href="#Footnote_395_395" class="fnanchor">[395]</a> This was undeniable. It is the curse of a +policy of retirement that waverers haste to leave betimes with all +the spoils obtainable. The signs of abandonment of Hayti caused +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>a stampede, demoralizing to all concerned. On 1st January +1798, Portland and Dundas penned the order for the evacuation +of Hayti, owing to the impossibility of making good the loss of +troops or of recruiting in the island. After dwelling on the +impossibility of reducing the expenditure to the requisite +amount, Ministers explained that they had deferred the evacuation +of Hayti "as long as the negotiation which His Majesty +had opened with the enemy at Lille, and the disposition of a +majority in the two Councils of Legislature in France, left a +hope that some immediate arrangement might be made with +that country, which in its consequences might operate to relieve +England from the intolerable burdens by which the British part +of St. Domingo is retained, and to a certain degree to ensure to +its inhabitants a continuance of security and protection.... +The rupture of the negotiation and the avowed system of the +present Government of France appear on the one hand to render +the attainment of this desirable end precarious, if not remote, +whilst on the other they impose on H.M.'s confidential servants +an additional obligation of reducing the heavy burdens of a war, +the continuance of which is unavoidable, within the narrowest +limits, in order to be able to persevere in it until adequate +terms of peace can be obtained; and it is certainly their first +and essential duty to appropriate the resources of the country +with such management and economy as may ensure the preservation +and defence of the essential possessions of the Crown...."</p> + +<p>The good faith of Pitt in the Lille negotiation appears clearly +in this interesting statement, which further proves that he held +on to Hayti in the hope of ceding it to France on terms satisfactory +to Great Britain and the colonists. Doubtless it was the +perception of this truth which led many of the settlers to decamp +after spoiling the Egyptians. The thankless duty of evacuation +devolved on Brigadier-General Maitland, who carried it out with +skill and patience. Especially admirable is his secret bargain +with Toussaint, whereby that able chief agreed not to molest the +British either in Hayti or in Jamaica, while in return he was to +receive provisions at certain ports under his control. Ministers +had not advised any such proceeding, but they cordially approved +of it, despite the clamour of the West India planters at a +compact with a negro.<a name="FNanchor_396_396" id="FNanchor_396_396"></a><a href="#Footnote_396_396" class="fnanchor">[396]</a> Thus was laid the basis of that good +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>understanding which subsequently enabled Toussaint to defy +Bonaparte.</p> + +<p>The success attending this agreement shows what power England +might have wielded had not her King, her Princes, and her +Parliament insisted on maintaining intact the institution of +slavery. They thereby aroused an enemy more terrible than +yellow fever, the negro. France profited by the blunder; but she +rushed blindly forward, using the black man with a recklessness +which gave him the mastery. On the other hand, if Pitt and +Wilberforce had succeeded in carrying out their programme in +the years 1790–2, the incendiary devices of Brissot and Victor +Hugues would have come to nought. In that case the transfer +of Hayti to England would have placed at her disposal myriads +of devoted blacks, ready and able to plant the Union Jack on +every fortress in the West Indies, and to conquer the colonies of +Spain if she changed sides. It was not to be. Far from gaining +an accession of strength in that quarter, England lost heavily in +men and treasure, and at the Peace of Amiens retained only +Trinidad in return for all her sacrifices.</p> + +<p>In no part does Pitt's war policy appear to more disadvantage +than in the West Indies. He entered into those expeditions +when the army at home was unable to meet the demands of +the service in Flanders, and on the coasts of Brittany and Provence, +not to speak of the needs of Ireland and the East Indies. +He allowed Dundas to send out levies which were far too raw to +withstand the strain of the tropics. This fact, together with the +stupidity of the regulations and the inexperience, or worse, of +the medical staff, accounts for the waste of life and the barrenness +of these tedious campaigns. At no time had England in +the West Indies a force sufficient to withstand the ravages of +disease and to overcome the Republicans and their black allies. +Nevertheless, while the conduct of the West Indian campaigns is +open to censure, it is difficult to see what other course could have +been adopted towards those important colonies, in view of the resolve +of the French Jacobins to revolutionize them. The attempt +was made and partly succeeded. Could Pitt and his colleagues +stand merely on the defensive, while incendiaries sought to stir up +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>a war of colour? Was it not the natural and inevitable step to endeavour +to extirpate those fire-brands? And when so attractive +an offer as that of Hayti was made by the royalist settlers, could +the British Government hold timidly aloof and allow that rich +land to breed revolt? Surely a servile war could be averted only +by intervention at the natural centre of influence. If from Guadeloupe, +after its recapture by the French, the seeds of rebellion +were sown broadcast, would not Hayti have become a volcano +of insurrection? Finally, it is unquestionable that the change of +front of the Court of Madrid in the years 1795–6 blighted the +whole enterprise at the very time when success seemed attainable. +On Godoy, then, not on Pitt, must rest the responsibility +for the lamentable waste of life in the West Indies and the +ultimate lapse into barbarism of their most fertile island.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE: CORSICA: QUIBERON</p> + + +<p>The French Jacobins early laid stress on the weakness of +the British Empire. An official report issued in January +1793 at Paris advocated a close alliance with Tippoo Sahib, the +Raja of Mysore, and recommended that the French force sent to +assist him should threaten or secure the Dutch possessions at the +Cape of Good Hope, and in Java and Ceylon. "There," it continued, +"you would meet only with men enervated by luxury, soft +beings that would tremble before the soldiers of liberty." The +French conquest of Holland and the capture of the Dutch fleet +in the winter of 1794–5 brought these schemes within measurable +distance of fulfilment. Failing to save a single Dutch fortress or +warship, Pitt and his colleagues became alarmed about the Dutch +colonies; and when the lethargic Stadholder and his consort +Wilhelmina landed in England, Ministers conferred with him on +this topic.</p> + +<p>On 7th February 1795, shortly after his arrival at Kew House, +thenceforth the scene of his debauches, he drew up an order for +the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, bidding him welcome +the arrival of a friendly British force, which would save Cape Town +from the French. That important post belonged to the Dutch East +India Company, then virtually bankrupt, and altogether unable +to maintain its neutrality amidst the struggles for a world-empire +now entering on a new phase. The officials of the Company at +Amsterdam on 3rd February issued warnings to all Dutch ships +in British ports to set sail forthwith, and further requested the +French Government to secure Dutch vessels from attacks by its +war vessels or privateers.<a name="FNanchor_397_397" id="FNanchor_397_397"></a><a href="#Footnote_397_397" class="fnanchor">[397]</a> A few days later the invaders of +Holland laid hands on British ships and detained even the +packet-boats. In fact, though the Dutch did not frame an +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>alliance with France until 16th May, it existed in effect from +the month of February.<a name="FNanchor_398_398" id="FNanchor_398_398"></a><a href="#Footnote_398_398" class="fnanchor">[398]</a> These facts explain the action of the +Prince of Orange, which is otherwise unjustifiable. It was a +natural retort to the conduct of the Dutch authorities. The +British archives also show the alarm of our India Board and of +its president, Dundas. On 5th February he urged the British +East India Company to send in duplicate urgent messages to +India. On 8th and 10th February he inquired whether the extra +troops needed for India could sail on three of their ships now +ready in the Thames; and he requested that some of the Company's +troops stationed at St. Helena should proceed to India, +their place being taken by drafts from home.<a name="FNanchor_399_399" id="FNanchor_399_399"></a><a href="#Footnote_399_399" class="fnanchor">[399]</a></p> + +<p>Foremost among Dundas's plans for assuring British supremacy +in India was the acquisition of the Cape. Not that he +valued the Cape and Egypt on their own account. That generation +regarded them merely as half-way-houses to India, witness +the curious statement of Sir Francis Barings, Director of the +East India Company, to Dundas, that the Cape was of no advantage +whatever to us, and might be a dangerous drain upon +our population; but in the hands of France it would most seriously +menace our interests.<a name="FNanchor_400_400" id="FNanchor_400_400"></a><a href="#Footnote_400_400" class="fnanchor">[400]</a> Of how many prosperous British colonies +has not this been said? For similar reasons we took possession +of large parts of India and Canada, not to speak of Malta, portions +of Australia, New Zealand, and the Egyptian Soudan.</p> + +<p>Early in March Commodore Blankett set sail from Spithead with +four ships, having on board part of the 78th regiment, besides +marines. The "Sphinx" was to join them at St. Helena. The land +forces were commanded by Major-General Sir James Craig. +Early in April Rear-Admiral Sir Keith Elphinstone sailed with +a larger force, and a further expedition was in preparation under +the command of Major-General Alured Clarke. The Cabinet +expected little or no resistance, and even referred to a friendly +reception as the probable issue. They had some grounds for hope. +The Dutch force at the Cape consisted of about 800 German +mercenaries, whose pay was far in arrears. It was suggested that +we should take them into our pay, and quiet the people by the +promise of abolishing the abuses of the Dutch Company. These +hopes proved excessive. Craig, on making False Bay on 11th +June, soon found Governor Sluysken totally unaffected by the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>Stadholder's letter. He was a man "of the most uncommon +<span lang="fr">sangfroid</span>" professing affection to England and dislike of France, +but resolved to keep a firm hold of Cape Town. He offered to +give the squadron all it wanted, and begged for time to consider +the British demand.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile mounted burghers poured in from the eastern settlements, +and greatly strengthened the Dutch camp, situated in +a pass half way between the town and False Bay. These +sturdy farmers hoped to win entire independence; for indeed the +Dutch East India Company cramped the life of the settlers at +every turn. Despite the wealth of that land in corn, cotton, +wine, and cattle, it made little progress. The fisheries might +have been productive but for the regulations which forbade the +colonists even a pleasure boat. The Company claimed one-tenth +of the produce of all sales and had the right of pre-emption +and of fixing the prices of goods. Settlers might not even kill +their own cattle for food without the permission of officials. +Cape Town was the only market for foreign commerce, and all +products going in and out were subject to heavy dues.<a name="FNanchor_401_401" id="FNanchor_401_401"></a><a href="#Footnote_401_401" class="fnanchor">[401]</a> Far +from thriving on these exclusive rights, that corporation found +its funds crippled by the very regulations which impoverished +and irritated the burghers. In fact the first aim of the Boers +was to trek beyond reach of the arm of the law. Thus came +about the settlement of the remote townships, Swellendam and +Graaf-Reinet, and thus was implanted in that virile race the +resolve to secure complete independence of the enfeebled motherland.</p> + +<p>The time seemed to have come when the British force menaced +Cape Town. The Boers, no less than the Governor Sluysken, +regarded the letter of the Prince as a forgery and the whole +affair a mere trick. In vain did Elphinstone and Craig offer +guarantees for good government. The officials and soldiery +were impressed by the offer of enrolment in the British service, +but the armed farmers proved intractable. Not having artillery +or sufficient troops, Craig awaited the arrival of reinforcements +from St. Helena; but on 14th July he landed about 1,600 men +at Simon's Town, and somewhat later began the advance towards +Cape Town. With little difficulty his men drove the +Dutch from a strong position in the Pass of Muysenberg. On +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>the next day the Dutch advanced from Cape Town with all their +force and eight guns, but failed to dislodge Craig, despite his +lack of artillery.</p> + +<p>A period of much anxiety ensued, owing to the delay in +the arrival of the reinforcements under Major-General Alured +Clarke, without which an advance on Cape Town was perilous. +The Dutch meanwhile received supplies from interlopers, concerning +whom Elphinstone wrote with nautical emphasis: "The +seas are infested with Americans, Danes, Genoese, Tuscans, etc., +or in other terms smuggling ships, mostly belonging to Britain +and Bengal, entrenched with oaths and infamy, who trade to +the French islands [Bourbon, etc.] and all the ports in India, +changing their flags as is most convenient to them."<a name="FNanchor_402_402" id="FNanchor_402_402"></a><a href="#Footnote_402_402" class="fnanchor">[402]</a> He therefore +forbade any of them to touch at the Cape. On the arrival +of Clarke's force Craig took the offensive. About 4,000 strong, +the British pushed on towards Cape Town, amidst a dropping +fire from the mounted burghers, until they drew near to Wynberg. +There the Dutch prepared to offer a stout resistance; but +the diversion caused by three British ships entering Table Bay, +and firing at Cape Town, unsteadied them; and, after little +fighting, they retired towards the capital, crying out that Sluysken +had betrayed them. Early on the morrow he offered to +surrender; and the Union Jack was hoisted on 16th September.</p> + +<p>The conquest was delusively easy. The mounted Boers, who +were the heart of the defence, rode off with their arms, vowing +vengeance against the invaders; and some hundred of the +foreign mercenaries, who entered the British service, soon +deserted. On 22nd September Craig wrote that, except the six +principal merchants in Cape Town, all the population was +hostile, and would certainly join the French, if they appeared, +Jacobin ideas being rife alike in town and country. He hoped +that the abolition of "the abominable monopolies" would have +some effect. After Clarke and most of his troops sailed on to +their destination, India, Craig viewed the future with concern, +as Cape Town and the neighbouring bays needed a considerable +force for adequate defence. The population of Cape Town +and district then amounted to 4,957 settlers and their children, +6,068 servants, and 9,049 slaves. In the whole colony there were +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>14,929 free settlers, 11,555 servants, and 19,807 slaves. The +oxen numbered 418,817.</p> + +<p>The news of the capture of Cape Town caused great relief at +Whitehall. Dundas on 16th January 1796 assured Craig that +His Majesty would have preferred a peaceful acquisition. The +remark does not evince much sagacity; for in that case the +Boers would have represented the occupation as an act of +trickery concocted with the Prince of Orange. As it was, the +Cape was conquered after a fair fight. Undoubtedly in the +month of August the burghers might have beaten Craig had +they been either well led or enterprising. Dundas also instructed +Clarke to leave a strong garrison at Cape Town, and forwarded +news of the capture of Trincomalee, the Dutch stronghold in +Ceylon. The Dutch soon sent a force of 2,000 troops convoyed +by six warships, for the recapture of the Cape; but, while sheltering +in Saldanha Bay, some fifty miles north of Cape Town, it +was surprised by Elphinstone's squadron and capitulated (17th +August 1796). The news of this disaster hastened the surrender +of the burghers of Graaf Reinet who had defied British authority.</p> + +<p>In order to mark the permanence of British rule, Pitt decided +to send out as Governor Lord Macartney, who previously had +undertaken a mission to "Louis XVIII" at Verona. His arrival +in May 1797 helped to check the growth of discontent which +was again becoming formidable. Macartney's difficulties were +great. The Dutch held sullenly aloof, in the belief that England +must give up her prize at the peace. Our military and naval +officers disliked Cape Town, owing to the lack of amusements, +the dearness of provisions, and the badness of the roadstead. +Admiral Pringle declared to Lady Anne Barnard that, as a +naval station, it was the worst that the devil could have contrived; +that the people were objectionable, and the animals vile, +even the hens being unable to lay fresh eggs. The soldiers +grumbled at the high prices; for, though beef was only fourpence +a pound, and good wine sixpence a bottle, yet an egg cost threepence +and a dish of cauliflowers eighteenpence. Readers of +Lady Anne's sprightly letters will note in germ the problem +that has beset the British in South Africa.<a name="FNanchor_403_403" id="FNanchor_403_403"></a><a href="#Footnote_403_403" class="fnanchor">[403]</a> They formed a restless +minority among a people curiously unreceptive and suspicious. +They were bored by the surroundings, puzzled by +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>Dutch elusiveness, and doubtful as to the future. The war was +going far from well; and the alliance of Spain with France in +the summer of 1796 facilitated attacks from the Canaries and +Monte Video. These difficulties were enhanced by the cold and +tactless behaviour of Macartney.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless Pitt resolved at all costs to hold the Cape. Signs +of disgust at the state of affairs in Corsica and the West Indies +early figure in his letters; but as to the retention of Cape Town +he never wavered. Bonaparte's capture of Egypt in 1798 showed +that India was about to be assailed by way of the Red Sea. The +greater, then, was the need to retain the stronghold which dominated +the sea-route to the East Indies. The resolve of Pitt to +assure the communication with India by one or other of the two +routes will concern us later. But we may risk the assertion that +he would certainly have avoided the blunder of the Addington +Ministry in 1802 in giving up the Cape and neglecting to secure +Malta against recapture by Napoleon. Early in the course of +the Napoleonic War, Pitt resolved at all costs to retain Malta +and to re-conquer the Cape. During the negotiations of 1805 +with Russia he refused to allow the discussion of our title to +Malta; and in the parleys with Prussia a little later he distinctly +excepted the Cape from the list of the conquered colonies which +Britain might be willing to restore at the general peace.<a name="FNanchor_404_404" id="FNanchor_404_404"></a><a href="#Footnote_404_404" class="fnanchor">[404]</a> Six +days before Pitt expressed this resolve, Nelson won his last +and greatest triumph, thus enabling the Prime Minister to deal +with full effect the blow which won Cape Colony for the British +flag. It is clear, then, that Pitt discerned the enormous importance +of that station as an outwork of India. In fact, after the +expedition of Bonaparte to Egypt and the renewal of his oriental +schemes in 1803, no statesman worthy of the name could fail +to see that either Egypt and Malta, or the Cape of Good Hope, +must belong to the mistress of the East Indies. In the last +resort, then, it was the world-policy of Napoleon which planted +the Union Jack for ever both at Malta and the Cape of Good +Hope.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Naval campaigns almost of necessity resolve themselves into +a series of experiments; and after the failure of the attempt to +hold Toulon, a blow at Corsica was the natural sequel. At a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>time when Great Britain had no post within the Mediterranean, +that island was a most desirable prize. Its supplies of naval +stores to the dockyard at Toulon were of the highest value to +the French; and Nelson declared the occupation of Corsica to +be imperatively necessary, as it furnished that dockyard with +the decks, sides, and straight timbers for ships.<a name="FNanchor_405_405" id="FNanchor_405_405"></a><a href="#Footnote_405_405" class="fnanchor">[405]</a> Accordingly, +after the evacuation of Toulon by the Allies in December 1793, +Admiral Hood decided to effect the reduction of the island for +the royalist cause.</p> + +<p>Already, while at Toulon, he had received an urgent invitation +from Paoli, the leader of the Royalist, or British, party in Corsica, +to help the islanders in driving out the French. Victor in the +long feud against the Bonapartes, whom he expelled at midsummer, +Paoli now resolved to root out the Jacobins, and his +Anglophil leanings induced him to offer the crown of Corsica +to George III. Both the King and his Ministers received the +offer favourably, Pitt and Grenville regarding Corsica as one of +the indemnities to be exacted from France. Sir Gilbert Elliot, +the King's Commissioner in the Mediterranean, was therefore +charged to administer Corsica. Disputes between Admiral Hood +and General Dundas, the commander of the British troops, somewhat +hampered the sieges of the three French garrisons still +holding out; but by August 1794 Calvi, the last hope of the +French, succumbed to the vigour of the attack of General Stuart, +effectively helped by Nelson, who there lost the sight of his +right eye.</p> + +<p>Subsequent events in Corsica, although of great interest, are +not closely connected with the life of Pitt; and I therefore propose +to describe them and the details of the Quiberon expedition +in the volume entitled "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies." In +this chapter only the incidents which more particularly concern +Pitt will be noticed.</p> + +<p>The attempt to rule that most clannish and suspicious of +Mediterranean peoples first called forth the administrative +powers of Sir Gilbert Elliot, first Earl of Minto. Acting as +Viceroy of Corsica, he sought to promote contentment by promulgating +an excellent constitution and administrative reforms. +But, being hampered from the outset by the factious behaviour +of Paoli, he, with the consent of the Cabinet, deported him +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>to England in the autumn of 1795. An equally serious complication +was the feud between the British army and navy. +These disputes, originating at Toulon, grew apace in Corsica. +Elliot sided with Hood, and was therefore detested by Dundas, +his successor, Sir Charles Stuart, and their coadjutor, Colonel +Moore. This brilliant young officer, by nature somewhat a +<span lang="fr">frondeur</span>, was finally guilty of expressions so disrespectful as to +lead to his removal shortly before that of Paoli. He carried his +complaints to Pitt, who bade him set forth his case dispassionately. +Indeed, so impressed was he with Moore's abilities, that +he decided to employ him in the West Indies, and afterwards +advanced him to posts of high importance.</p> + +<p>Pitt took little interest in Corsica, leaving it to the intermittent +attentions of Portland. Consequently that interesting experiment +had not a fair chance. The possession of the island +was also nearly useless in a military sense; for the British garrison +could spare no detachments, which, even with the help of the +loyal Corsicans, could effectively harass the French forces campaigning +in the Genoese Riviera. Elliot entered into relations +with the Knights of Malta, and in other ways sought to develop +a Mediterranean policy; but in this he met with scant support +from London. In excuse of Pitt it must be said that he had his +hands more than full elsewhere. Moreover the peace between +France and Spain, framed in July 1795, caused him great concern, +especially as the Court of Madrid manifested deep resentment +at the British occupation of Corsica. In October 1795 +Pitt inclined strongly towards peace, and thenceforth carried on +the war mainly with a view to securing indemnities. Corsica +apparently he now looked on as burdensome; for in his speech +of 9th December 1795 he did not include it among the three +valued acquisitions of the war—Martinique, Cape Nicholas Mole +(in Hayti), and the Cape of Good Hope. Dundas always looked +on the occupation of Corsica as prejudicial to the colonial efforts +which held the first place in his thoughts. Accordingly it was +not utilized in the spring of 1796, when expeditions ought to +have set forth to hamper the march of Bonaparte's ill-equipped +columns along the coast from Nice to Savona.</p> + +<p>The opportunity then lost was never to return. Bonaparte's +triumphs in Italy enabled him to prepare at Leghorn to deal a +blow for the recovery of his native island. Checked for the time +by the other claims of the war and the presence of Nelson, he kept<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> +this aim in view; and the conquest of North and Central Italy at +the close of that campaign compromised the safety of the small +British and <span lang="fr">émigré</span> force in Corsica. The final reason, however, +for the evacuation of the island was neither the menace from +Italy nor the discontent of the islanders, but the alliance of +Spain with France. As Nelson foresaw, that event endangered +the communications with England. Ministers also knew that a +plan was on foot for a French invasion of Ireland, which, as we +shall see, was attempted at the end of the year. They therefore +determined to concentrate their forces for home defence and the +protection of the most important possessions, a decision which +involved the abandonment of the Mediterranean. Accordingly, +on 31st August 1796, Portland sent orders for the evacuation of +Corsica and of Elba. For a few days in the latter half of October +Ministers revoked these orders, and bade Elliot hold firm, their +hope being to tempt the Empress Catharine to active co-operation +against France by the cession of Corsica to her. Whether +that wily potentate saw through this device is doubtful; for she +died on 16th November. Her death put an end to the fleeting +hope of opposing France with an equality of force; for the bent +of her successor, Paul I, was at first towards peace.</p> + +<p>Despite the comparative neglect of Mediterranean affairs by +Pitt at this time, they exerted a profound influence upon his +career. In view of the many claims upon the British navy, it +was perhaps impossible to exert upon the coast of Nice and +Genoa the pressure which Elliot desired; but the failure to do +so in the spring of 1796 enabled Bonaparte to win the triumphs +which changed the history of the world. Further, the British +occupation of Corsica, scarcely less than that of Hayti, aroused +keen jealousy at Madrid, and thus helped to set in motion forces +which for the time checkmated England in the Mediterranean. +Not until the Spaniards were beaten by Jervis and Nelson could +she stretch forth her trident over that sea, first from Minorca and +finally from Malta. The loss of Corsica was keenly felt. For, +had England made full use of that island as a base of operations, +Bonaparte could not have carried out his Egyptian expedition +in 1798. Austria also ascribed her overthrow in Venetia and +Styria to the withdrawal of the British fleet from the Mediterranean. +That step seemed a confession of pitiable weakness, +though in reality it enabled the Government to concentrate the +fleet at points more important than Bastia and Ajaccio.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p> +<p>Amidst the disasters at the end of the Flemish campaign of +1794 Pitt sought to divert the energies of England to a more +promising field. Thwarted on the Lower Rhine by the vacillations +of the German Powers and the torpor of the Dutch, he +hoped for success among the Royalists of Brittany and la +Vendée. He framed this decision reluctantly; for it involved +co-operation with the French princes, the Comte de Provence +and the Comte d'Artois, and with the swarms of fanatical +<span lang="fr">émigrés</span> who had long pestered him with mad projects. Further, +he had always been loath to declare for the restoration of the +Bourbons. To do so would be to flaunt the <span lang="fr">fleur-de-lis</span> in the +face of a nation which hated all that pertained to the old régime. +Besides, it implied a surrender to the clique headed by Burke +and Windham, which scoffed at the compromise between monarchy +and democracy embodied in the French constitution +of 1791. Pitt, with his innate moderation and good sense, saw +the folly of these reactionary views and the impossibility of +forcing them upon the French people. Nevertheless, as an experiment +in the course of that bewildering strife, he had recourse +to the <span lang="fr">émigrés</span>.</p> + +<p>The accession of Windham to the Cabinet, in July 1794, had +strengthened their influence at Westminster; and incidents +which occurred in France during the winter of 1794–5 evinced a +decline of Jacobinical enthusiasm. The sentiment of loyalty, +damped by the chilling personality of Louis XVI and the follies +of his brothers, revived now that the little Louis XVII was being +slowly done to death by his gaolers in the Temple. The rapacity +and vulgar ostentation of the Thermidorian party, then in power, +provoked general disgust; and despair of any satisfactory settlement +began to range friends of order on the side of the monarchy. +The late American envoy at Paris, Gouverneur Morris, informed +Bland Burges at our Foreign Office, on 28th June 1795, that the +state of France was so desperate as to admit of cure only by the +restoration of the old dynasty; that the recent death of Louis XVII +was a benefit to the cause inasmuch as his mind had been completely +brutalized; and finally the envoy heartily wished success +to every effort to overthrow the despicable Government at +Paris.</p> + +<p>Though the Royalist leaders in the west of France early in the +year 1795 made a truce with the Republic, yet the resumption of +the civil war in that quarter was known to be only a question<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> +of time. Windham, therefore, urged the despatch of an expedition +to Brittany. His royalist zeal had now developed his +powers to their utmost. Early in the course of the French Revolution +the chivalry of his nature detached him from the Foxites. +The glow and beauty of his periods marked him out as the +successor of Burke in the House of Commons; yet in no respect +did he attain complete success. His speeches were too refined +and subtle for that audience; and, worse still, his diffidence or +torpor led him often to miss opportunities of effective intervention. +The sensitiveness of his nature appeared in his falling in +love at first sight with a Highland girl whom Burke and he +casually met during a tour. His loss of her made a painful impression +on him.<a name="FNanchor_406_406" id="FNanchor_406_406"></a><a href="#Footnote_406_406" class="fnanchor">[406]</a> The butt of an unkind fate, he seemed +destined also to be the leader of lost causes; and the proud and +penniless <span lang="fr">émigrés</span> found in him their most devoted friend.</p> + +<p>Despite the opposition of Dundas, and the doubts of Pitt, his +views prevailed; and preparations began for an Anglo-French +expedition to the coast of Brittany. During the winter there had +arrived in London a Breton leader of gigantic stature and considerable +mental powers, the Comte de Puisaye. He had fought +devotedly for the constitutional monarchy in that great province +and had the confidence of its inhabitants, whether nobles or +peasants (<i>Chouans</i>). But French princes and the cliques of +"pure" Royalists looked on him, as Marie Antoinette looked on +Mirabeau, merely as a rebel who had partly seen the error of his +ways. Secretly they resolved to make use of him, as he had +gained the confidence of Windham and Pitt, but to throw him +over at the first opportunity.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the Cabinet began to equip regiments of French +Royalists destined to form the spearhead of the "Royal and +Catholic Army." Various causes delayed the preparations, the +chief being the absence in North Germany of seasoned corps +of <span lang="fr">émigrés</span> whose presence in Brittany, was essential. Puisaye +therefore urged Ministers to allow him to enrol recruits from +among the French prisoners of war in England—a dangerous +device which, unfortunately, was adopted. Undoubtedly the +initiative in this matter rested with him; and it is noteworthy +that other royalist leaders had tried the plan, hitherto with +no untoward results.<a name="FNanchor_407_407" id="FNanchor_407_407"></a><a href="#Footnote_407_407" class="fnanchor">[407]</a> Prisoners were not forced into the new +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>corps; but it is clear that some of them enlisted in order +to get back to France. As for the finances of the enterprise, +they were partly met by the manufacture of royalist <span lang="fr">assignats</span>. +Whether they were like the forged <span lang="fr">assignats</span> manufactured, with +the connivance of Government, near Hexham and Durham, is +not clear. It is alleged by royalist writers that they bore a +mark ensuring identification, so that, in case of a monarchist +triumph, they would be duly honoured. The chief aim, however, +certainly was to discredit the republican notes and to embarrass +the Parisian Government. That Pitt should in any way have +countenanced these underhand devices is discreditable.</p> + +<p>Owing to the declaration of war by Holland (May 1795), the +vacillations of Spain, and the determination of George III to +keep troops in Hanover,<a name="FNanchor_408_408" id="FNanchor_408_408"></a><a href="#Footnote_408_408" class="fnanchor">[408]</a> very few British were available for the +enterprise. It is worth noting that the King disliked the <span lang="fr">émigrés</span> +and often shocked Windham by assertions at Court that they +would prove false. His influence was used steadily against all +attempts in their favour. There were, indeed, good grounds for +suspicion even at this time. Seeing that Charette and other +Breton leaders still observed the truce with the Republic, the +risks of a landing were great; and this explains the reluctance +of the Cabinet to allow the Comte d'Artois to proceed with +the first contingent.<a name="FNanchor_409_409" id="FNanchor_409_409"></a><a href="#Footnote_409_409" class="fnanchor">[409]</a> It was charged to occupy the Quiberon +Peninsula as a base for further exertions, to supply arms to the +Bretons, and thus prepare for a general rising, the effect of which +would be clinched by the arrival of a larger force. The vanguard +set sail from Spithead on 17th June 1795. It consisted of some +3,800 <span lang="fr">émigrés</span>, under the general command of Puisaye, though by +some mistake in drafting the orders, considerable power was +given to Comte d'Hervilly, the senior officer of the subsidized +regiments. At first all went well. The convoying fleet under +Lord Bridport, after capturing three French sail-of-the-line off +l'Orient, made Quiberon Bay and assisted in the capture of Fort +Penthièvre, commanding the narrow isthmus (3rd July).</p> + +<p>Disputes now began between Puisaye and Hervilly, the former +desiring to push on boldly, while the latter insisted on remaining +in the peninsula. Time was thus given for the republican +general, Hoche, to collect his forces and make spirited attacks +upon the invaders, who soon fell a prey to schism and discouragement.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> +The doom of the expedition was decided by +the treacherous surrender of the fort to Hoche's men at the close +of a night attack (21st July). As day dawned the Republicans +drove their foes into the peninsula. Wild scenes of panic ensued. +A storm having compelled the larger British warships to keep +in the offing, Puisaye went off in a boat to beg succour from +Admiral Warren. The defence speedily collapsed. De Sombreuil, +who was left in command near the tip of the tongue of +land, unaccountably surrendered, though a British corvette, the +"Lark," and gunboats were effectively covering his flank. At +the instigation of Tallien, the French Convention disavowed the +promise of its officers at Quiberon to spare the lives of those who +laid down their arms; and 712 Royalists were shot down in cold +blood at Auray and neighbouring places.</p> + +<p>The evidence proves that the Pitt Ministry had done its best +for this expedition, which went to pieces owing to the quarrels +of its leaders and the refusal of Charette to stir a finger on behalf +of Puisaye, whom he detested. For the final massacre +Tallien and the French Convention are wholly responsible. Yet +it suited the tactics of the English Opposition to accuse Pitt of +planning the death of the French Royalists. Fox, in one of his +wildest outbreaks, charged Ministers with deliberately sending +noble gentlemen to a massacre. Sheridan, too, declared that, +though British blood had not flowed, yet "British honour had +bled at every pore." These reckless mis-statements have been +refuted by the testimony of La Jaille, Vauban, and Puisaye, +royalist officers who escaped.</p> + +<p>Before these horrible events were known in England, Ministers +prepared to succour the vanguard at Quiberon. News that Spain +had made peace with France in a highly suspicious manner +weakened this second effort, it being necessary to safeguard the +British West Indies from a probable attack by the Spaniards. +As no more than four newly raised British regiments could be +spared for the Biscay coast, the Earl of Moira threw up the +command, which General Doyle then accepted. It seems probable +that by 3rd August Pitt doubted the expediency of sending +a second expedition to Brittany or la Vendée. Nevertheless, +the Comte d'Artois, who about that time arrived at Spithead +from North Germany with a force of <span lang="fr">émigrés</span>, desired to make +the venture, relying on Charette, and other royalist chiefs who +had once more aroused the men of the West. The Count also<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> +cherished the hope that the numerous bands of malcontents in +Paris would overthrow that tottering Government.</p> + +<p>Events turned out otherwise. The first plan, that of occupying +Noirmoutier, an island close to the Vendéan coast, proving impracticable, +Doyle sailed to a smaller island, Yeu, farther out at +sea. There the 5,500 troops, miserably cramped and underfed, +waited until the Comte d'Artois should make good his boast of +throwing himself into a boat, if need be, in order to join his +faithful Charette. It was soon apparent that he preferred to stay +in Yeu with his mistress, Mme. Polastron. In vain did the +Bretons under Puisaye and Vauban, and the Vendéans under +Charette, beg him to join them. Meanwhile, amid the early +autumn rains the troops deteriorated, and the royalist rising at +Paris proved a miserable fiasco, some 30,000 National Guards +being scattered by a small force well handled by Bonaparte and +Barras (5th October). Finally, a deputation of Bretons proceeded +to Yeu, and begged Artois to place himself at the head of the +numerous bands of devoted gentlemen and peasants who still +awaited his appearance. All was in vain. <span lang="fr">Je ne veux pas aller +Chouanner</span> (play the Chouan) was his reply (12th November). +On the morrow he informed Vauban that he had received orders +from England to return at once. This assertion was at the time +generally believed to be false; the letters of Grenville to the +Prince prove it to be grossly exaggerated. To the despair and +disgust of his soldiers he departed, and finally sought refuge +from his creditors in Holyrood Castle. The British and French +royalist regiments were withdrawn with much difficulty during +the storms of December 1795. Nearly all the horses had to be +destroyed.</p> + +<p>Undoubtedly Pitt and Grenville had become disgusted with +the torpor of Artois and the follies of the French Royalists. +In particular the absurd failure at Paris seems to have prompted +the resolve of the Cabinet to withdraw the British troops +from Yeu. Pitt's letters of the latter half of October also evince +a desire to pave the way for some understanding with the +French Directory. As that Government was firmly installed +in power, an opportunity presented itself, for the first time since +the opening of the war, of arranging a lasting peace. These +hopes were to be blighted; but it is certain that Pitt cherished +them; and, doubtless, among the motives operating in favour of +peace the foremost was a feeling of disgust at the poltroonery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> +of the French Princes and the incurable factiousness of their +followers, in whom the faculties which command success were +lost amidst vices and perversities sufficient to ruin the best of +causes. Pitt continued to support the Chouans by money and +arms; but, despite the frequent protests of Windham, not a +British soldier was landed on that coast.<a name="FNanchor_410_410" id="FNanchor_410_410"></a><a href="#Footnote_410_410" class="fnanchor">[410]</a></p> + + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">PITT AS WAR MINISTER (1793–8)</p> + +<p class="quote" lang="fr" style="font-style: normal">Si vous affaiblissez vos moyens en partageant vos forces, si vous rompez +en Italie l'unité de la pensée militaire, je vous le dis avec douleur, vous +aurez perdu la plus belle occasion d'imposer des lois à l'Italie.... La guerre +est comme le gouvernement, c'est une affaire de tact.—<span class="smcap">Napoleon</span>, <i>Letters +of 14th May 1796</i>.</p> + + +<p>In estimating the services of Pitt as War Minister during the +first phases of the conflict we must remember that the +ambition of his life was to be a Peace Minister. Amidst the +exhaustion caused by the American War, he deemed it essential +to ensure the continuous growth of savings and investments +which, under favourable conditions, advance at the rate of +Compound Interest. His success in the time of peace 1783–93, +may be measured by the fact that, despite the waste of war, the +rate of progress was not seriously checked in the years 1793–6. +A Scotsman, MacRitchie, who travelled through England in 1795<a name="FNanchor_411_411" id="FNanchor_411_411"></a><a href="#Footnote_411_411" class="fnanchor">[411]</a> +was surprised to find the large towns in a most flourishing state; +and it is well known that the exports of cottons largely increased +in the last decade of the century. Seeing that the war became +"a contention of purse," the final triumph of England may be +ascribed to the reserve of strength which Pitt had helped to +assure. He did not live on to witness the issue of the economic +struggle brought about by the Continental System of Napoleon. +But a study of the commercial war of the years 1806–13 shows +that Pitt's forethought enabled Britain to foil the persistent +efforts of her mightiest enemy.</p> + +<p>Military critics will, however, reply that Pitt's economies in +the earlier period so far weakened her army as to lead to the +failures of the Revolutionary War. There is some force in this +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>contention. A closer examination, however, will reveal facts that +necessarily weaken it. Firstly, England had never kept up a +large army in time of peace. Dislike of a standing army was +almost inconceivably strong; and it is certain that an attempt +by Pitt to maintain an army in excess of the ordinary peace +establishment would have aroused a powerful opposition. He +therefore concentrated his efforts on the navy; and the maritime +triumphs of the war were due in the last resort to his +fostering care. As for the army, he kept it at its normal strength +until the spring of the year 1792, when he decided to effect some +reductions. In one sense this decision is creditable to him. It +proves that he neither desired nor expected a rupture with +France. In his view the risks of war were past. After his +surrender to the Empress Catharine in 1791 peace seemed +assured. Further, his decision to reduce the British Army was +formed before the declaration of war by France against Austria +(20th April 1792). After the rupture of France with Sardinia +and Prussia it appeared the height of madness for a single disorganized +State to enlarge the circle of its enemies. Consequently, +up to the second week of November 1792, Pitt and +Grenville were fully justified in expecting the duration of peace +for Great Britain. Here, as at many points in the ensuing +struggle, it was the impossible which happened.</p> + +<p>Is Pitt to be blamed for effecting economies which led to a +reduction of taxes and an alleviation of the burdens of the +poor? The chief danger of the years 1791, 1792 came not from +the French Jacobins, but from their British sympathizers; and +experience warranted the belief that, with a lightening of the +financial load, the nation would manifest its former loyalty. On +23rd August 1791 Grenville wrote: "Our only danger is at home, +and for averting that danger, peace and economy are our best resources."<a name="FNanchor_412_412" id="FNanchor_412_412"></a><a href="#Footnote_412_412" class="fnanchor">[412]</a> +These considerations are political rather than military. +But it is impossible to separate the two spheres. The strength +of the army depends ultimately on the strength of the nation.</p> + +<p>It is also well to remember that systematic preparation for +war was an outcome of that struggle. Conscription was a bequest +of the French Revolution. Planned first by Carnot, it was carried +out by Dubois Crancé and others in 1798. But in 1793 the days +of large armies had not dawned. It was usual to maintain +small forces of professional soldiers, together with a more or less +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>inefficient militia. In England methods not unlike those of the +age of Falstaff still held good. War was an adventure, not a +science. In France first it became an intensely national effort. +The Jacobins evoked the popular enthusiasm; the Committee +of Public Safety embodied it in citizen armies; and the science +of Carnot and Napoleon led them to victories which shattered +the old-world systems and baffled the forecasts of Pitt.</p> + +<p>Let us briefly survey the conduct of the war by Pitt in its +chief stages up to the year 1798. The first period is from the +declaration of war in February 1793, to the Battle of Fleurus, +near the close of June 1794. At the outset he is alarmed by the +irruption of Dumouriez into Holland, and hastily sends a small +British force under the Duke of York, solely for the defence of +Helvoetsluys and its neighbourhood. It answers its purpose; +the French are held up at the Hollandsdiep, while the Austrians +crush their main force at Neerwinden. Thereupon Coburg claims +the Duke's assistance in driving the Republicans from the +fortresses of French Flanders. Pitt and his colleagues give their +assent, because the enterprise seems easy after the defection of +Dumouriez, and Dunkirk is a tempting prize near to hand, but +mainly owing to their urgent desire that Austria shall find her +indemnity not in Bavaria, but in the French border fortresses. +Thus, for reasons which are political, rather than military, the +Cabinet embarks an insufficient force on what proves to be a +lengthy and hazardous enterprise. Further, while the British +push on, Prussia holds back; so that the Duke of York virtually +takes the place of the Prussian contingent. Unaware of the +duplicity of Berlin, and trusting that the Allies will soon master +the border strongholds, Pitt and Dundas prepare to harry the +coasts of France, and to secure her most valuable colony, Hayti. +These are their chief aims in the war. But, while preparing +maritime expeditions, they also drift into a continental campaign, +from which they find it hard to withdraw.</p> + +<p>The efforts put forth at Toulon and in Corsica were the outcome +of the treaties with Austria, Sardinia, and Naples, which +required the appearance of a British fleet off the coasts of France +and Italy. While seeking to strengthen both the Coalition and +the Royalists of Provence, Admiral Hood's force found an unexpected +sphere of action at Toulon. In August 1793 that city +admitted the British troops and a Spanish force a few days later. +Thereupon Pitt claimed the help which he had a right to expect<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> +from his Allies. Naples and Sardinia sent contingents deficient +in quality or numbers; and the Court of Vienna, after promising +to send 5,000 troops from the Milanese, neglected to do so. +Quarrels and suspicions hampered the defence; but the arrival +of the Austrian contingent would probably have turned the +scale. Owing to the length of time required for despatches from +Toulon to reach London, Pitt and his colleagues did not hear of +the remissness of Austria until 22nd December, that is, five days +after the fall of that stronghold. Had they known it a month +earlier, they could have sent thither the large force, then mustering +in the Solent, which on 26th November set sail for the +West Indies.</p> + +<p>This seems an unpardonable diffusion of efforts. But Ministers +must already have regretted their readiness to take up the duties +incumbent on Prussia in Flanders; and doubtless they resolved +not to play the part of the willing horse at Toulon. In the early +days of every league there comes a time when an active Power +must protest against the shifty ways which are the curse of +Coalitions. Besides, Pitt had to keep in view the interests of +Great Britain. These were, firstly, to guard the Low Countries +against French aggression, and, secondly, to gain an indemnity +for the expenses of the war either in the French West Indies, or +in Corsica. The independence of the Low Countries was a +European question. The maritime conquests concerned England +alone. Were Britons to shelve their own interests for a +question of international import? The statesman who does so +will not long hold the reins at Westminster. Besides, no device +for weakening France was deemed more effective than that of +seizing her wealthiest group of colonies. On the other hand, +there was pressing need of armed help for the Royalists of +Brittany; and on this ground we must pronounce the West +India enterprise ill timed. A still worse blunder was the continued +inactivity of Moira's force in the Solent and the Channel +Islands. The reports of an intended French invasion form a +wholly inadequate excuse for his inaction. His troops could +have rendered valuable service either in Brittany, Flanders, or +at Toulon. The riddle of their inaction has never been solved. +Ultimately the blame must rest with Pitt, Dundas, and Lord +Chatham.<a name="FNanchor_413_413" id="FNanchor_413_413"></a><a href="#Footnote_413_413" class="fnanchor">[413]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p> +<p>In 1794 Pitt hoped to retrieve the failures of the first campaign +and to wear down the French defence. For this purpose +he liberally subsidized Austria and concluded with Prussia a +treaty which, with better management, might have brought a +second highly efficient army into Flanders. The compacts of +that springtide warranted the hope that 340,000 allied troops +would advance on the north and north-east frontiers of France. +They were not forthcoming; but, even as it was, the Imperialists +and the Duke of York routed the French levies in Flanders and +seemed about to open the way to Paris. Earl Howe's victory, +named "the glorious first of June," ensured supremacy in the +Channel. Brittany and la Vendée were again aflame. The +Union Jack replaced the tricolour on the strongholds of Corsica +and in the most fertile parts of the West Indies. In April–May +1794 the collapse of the Jacobins seemed imminent.</p> + +<p>But these early triumphs of the Allies were almost as fatal as +their later disasters. Indeed they were largely the cause of them. +Believing that they had the game in their hands, Prussia and +Austria relaxed their efforts at the very time when France +girded herself for a mightier struggle. Moreover, the emergence +of the Polish Question in an acute phase served once again to +distract the German rivals and to weaken their efforts in the +West. Moreover, the Anglo-Prussian Treaty of May 1794 prescribing +the valley of the Meuse as the sphere of action of the +62,400 Prussians subsidized by England and Holland was so +rigid as to furnish their generals with good excuses for refusing +to march from the Palatinate across the front of the French +columns now pressing forward. The upshot was that England +and the Dutch Republic got nothing in return for their subsidies, +while the Prussians on their side chafed at the insistent demands +from London and The Hague for the exact fulfilment of the +bargain. The situation was annoying for military men; and the +British Government erred in tying them down too stringently +to a flank march, which was fraught with danger after the long +delay of Pitt in ratifying the compact (6th–23rd May); while +the postponement in the payment of the first subsidies gave +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>the Prussians a good excuse for inaction.<a name="FNanchor_414_414" id="FNanchor_414_414"></a><a href="#Footnote_414_414" class="fnanchor">[414]</a> His remonstrance to +the Prussian envoy in London, at the close of September 1794, +was also unwise. For it exceeded the more measured protests +of Grenville, and furnished the Berlin Court with the desired +excuse for recalling its troops from the Rhine. In short, the +campaign of 1794 failed, not so much because the French were +in superior force at the battles of Turcoing and Fleurus, as because +the Allies at no point worked cordially together. The +intrusion of political motives hampered their generals and turned +what ought to have been an overwhelming triumph into a disgracefully +tame retreat.</p> + +<p>The disasters at Turcoing and Fleurus open up the second +stage of the war. Realizing more and more the difficulty of +defending Holland and Hanover, Pitt seeks to end that campaign +and to concentrate on colonial enterprises and the war in +Brittany and la Vendée. Experience of the utter weakness of +his Administration for purposes of war also leads him to +strengthen it at the time of the union with the Old Whigs. +They demanded that their leader, the Duke of Portland, should +take the Home Office. On Dundas demurring to this, Grenville +generously assented to Pitt's suggestion that he should vacate +the Foreign Office (6th July). Fortunately the Duke declined to +take it; and Pitt resolved to make drastic changes, especially by +curtailing the functions of the Secretary of State for Home +Affairs, and creating a War Ministry of Cabinet rank. Some +change was clearly requisite; for of late Dundas had supervised +internal affairs, including those of Ireland, as well as the conduct +of the war; as Treasurer of the Navy he managed its finances, +and, as President of the India Board, he sought to control the +affairs of that Empire. As for the War Office, it was a petty +office, controlled by a nonentity, Sir Charles Yonge, who was +soon to be transferred to the Mint.</p> + +<p>In the haphazard allotment of military business to the Commander-in-Chief, +Amherst, to the head clerk of the War Office, +Yonge, and to the overworked pluralist, Dundas, we discern +the causes of disaster. The war with France being unforeseen, +Pitt had to put up with these quaint arrangements; but the reverses +in Flanders and the incoming of the Portland Whigs +now enabled him to reduce chaos to order. He insisted that the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>Secretary of State for Home Affairs should cease to direct the +course of the war, but consented that colonial business should +fall to his lot. On the other hand he greatly enlarged the functions +of the War Office. His will prevailed. On 7th July Portland +agreed to become Home Secretary, while his supporter, +Windham, came into the re-organized War Office as Secretary +at War, Dundas becoming Secretary of State for War and the +Colonies. Despite the obvious need of specializing and strengthening +these Departments, the resistance of Dundas was not easily +overcome. His letter to Pitt on this subject betrays a curious +cloudiness of vision on a subject where clearness is essential:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">Wimbledon, <i>July 9, 1794</i>.<a name="FNanchor_415_415" id="FNanchor_415_415"></a><a href="#Footnote_415_415" class="fnanchor">[415]</a></p> + +<p>... The idea of a War Minister as a separate Department you must +on recollection be sensible cannot exist in this country. The operations +of war are canvassed and adjusted in the Cabinet, and become the joint +act of His Majesty's servants; and the Sec<sup>y</sup> of State who holds the pen +does no more than transmit their sentiments. I do not mean to say that +there is not at all times in H. M.'s Councils some particular person who +has, and ought to have, a leading and even an overruling ascendency in +the conduct of public affairs; and that ascendency extends to war as it +does to every other subject. Such you are at present as the Minister of +the King. Such your father was as Secretary of State. Such you would +be if you was Secretary of State, and such Mr. Fox would be if he was +Secretary of State and the Duke of Bedford First Lord of the Treasury. +In short it depends, and must ever depend, on other circumstances +than the particular name by which a person is called; and if you was to +have a Secretary of State for the War Department tomorrow, not a +person living would ever look upon him, or any other person but you, +as the War Minister. All modern wars are a contention of purse, and +unless some very peculiar circumstance occurs to direct the lead into +another channel, the Minister of Finance must be the Minister of War. +Your father for obvious reasons was an exception to the rule.</p> + +<p>It is impossible for any person to controvert the position I now state; +and therefore, when you talk of a War Minister, you must mean a +person to superintend the detail of the execution of the operations which +are determined upon. But do you think it possible to persuade the +public that such a separate Department can be necessary? Yourself, so +far as a general superintendence is necessary, must take that into your +own hands. If it was in the hands of any other, it would lead to a constant +wrangling between him and the various Executive Boards.</p> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p> +<p>The illogicality of this letter would be amusing if it had not +been so disastrous. Because war depends ultimately on money, +therefore (said Dundas) the Chancellor of the Exchequer ought +to control its operations and act virtually as Secretary of State +for War. Then why not also as First Lord of the Admiralty? +No sooner is the question formulated than we see that Dundas +is confusing two very different things, namely, general financial +control and the administration of military affairs. In fact, Dundas +still clung to the old customs which allotted to the Secretaries of +State wide and often overlapping duties. He did not see the +need of a specialized and authoritative War Office, though the +triumphs achieved by Carnot and the Committee of Public Safety +during the past twelvemonth might have opened his eyes. Fortunately, +Pitt discerned the necessity of strengthening that Department; +and, as we have seen, he made Dundas and Windham +War Ministers, with seats in the Cabinet. Thus from July +1794 military affairs had a chance of adequate treatment in that +body; and Pitt deserves great credit for remodelling the Cabinet +in a way suited to the exigencies of modern warfare.</p> + +<p>Why did he not appoint that experienced soldier, the Marquis +Cornwallis, Secretary of State for War? The answer is that he +designed him as successor to the Duke of York in Flanders. As +has already appeared, Pitt framed this resolve in February 1794, +on the return of Cornwallis from India; and, though rebuffed +then, he continued to revolve the matter until the beginning of +the autumn, when the opposition of George III and of Francis +II of Austria prevented the appointment of that experienced +soldier to the supreme command of the Allies. As for the +accession of Windham to the War Department, it seems to have +been merely a device to satisfy the Old Whigs. Probably the +question was not even discussed until 4th July, when the Duke of +Portland first named it to Windham. As it finds no place in the +Pitt-Grenville letters until 7th July, we may infer that Pitt and +Dundas accepted Windham with some reluctance as an ardent +partisan of Burke and the <span lang="fr">émigrés</span>. Windham now persistently +urged an expedition to Brittany; and the Quiberon and Yeu +enterprises were largely due to him. Pitt and Dundas, after +their experience of the <span lang="fr">émigrés</span>, had no great hope in these +efforts; and after the defection of Spain they discerned the +increasing need of concentrating their efforts on home defence +and operations which safeguarded British interests in the East<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> +and West Indies. To these causes may be ascribed their +decision to withdraw the British force from the island of Yeu. +The indignant letters of Windham to Pitt in 1796–8 show +that, after the Yeu fiasco and the beginning of the peace negotiations +with France, his advice was slighted. His moanings to +Mrs. Crewe over the degeneracy of the age also tell their tale. +In October 1796 he merely "drags on" at the War Office until +he sees what turn things will take.</p> + +<p>Pitt's determination to ensure efficiency in the services appears +from two incidents of the closing weeks of 1794. He deposed +Lord Chatham from the Admiralty in favour of the far more +efficient Lord Spencer; and he removed the Duke of York from +the command in Holland. Another change remains to be noted, +namely, the retirement of the Master General of the Ordnance. +The Duke of Richmond had for some time ceased to attend the +meetings of the Cabinet. During six months Pitt put up with +this peevishness; but on the receipt of alarming news from +Holland, he exerted his authority. On 27th January 1795 he +informed Richmond that his long absence from the Cabinet and +his general aloofness would make his return unpleasant and +"embarrassing to public business. This consideration," he added, +"must decide my opinion ... and at this critical time it seems +indispensable to make some such arrangement as shall substitute +some other efficient military aid in so important a Department."<a name="FNanchor_416_416" id="FNanchor_416_416"></a><a href="#Footnote_416_416" class="fnanchor">[416]</a> +This cutting note produced the desired result. Richmond resigned +and Cornwallis took his place at the Ordnance and in +the Cabinet. No change was more beneficial. During the next +three years the Ministry had the advice of the ablest soldier +of the generation preceding that of Wellington. Unfortunately +the Cornwallis letters are so few that his share in the shaping of +war policy is unknown; but it is clear that he helped Ministers +finally to override the resolve of the King to keep the relic of the +British force for the defence of Hanover.<a name="FNanchor_417_417" id="FNanchor_417_417"></a><a href="#Footnote_417_417" class="fnanchor">[417]</a></p> + +<p>To conclude the survey of these changes, we may note that +the Duke of York, after returning from Holland, became Commander-in-Chief +of the British army, a situation in which he +earned general approbation. Thus, when it is asserted that Pitt +altogether lacked his father's power of discerning military talents, +the reply must be that he rendered an incalculable service by +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>organizing a competent War Ministry, that he put the right men +in the right place, though at the cost of offending the King, the +Duke of York, a powerful nobleman, and his own brother; and +that he quickly noted the transcendent abilities of Moore even +when under censure for acts of disobedience in Corsica. The +results attained by the elder Pitt were far more brilliant; for he +came to the front at a time when the problems were far less +difficult and illusory than those of the Revolutionary Era; but, +if the very diverse conditions of their times be considered, the +services of Pitt will not suffer by comparison even with those of +his father.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>The torpor of the Dutch in defending their country and the +refusal of the Duke of Brunswick to organize the defence of +North Germany virtually ended the war on that side. In one +respect the defection of Prussia in April 1795 proved beneficial; +for she undertook to keep the States of North and Central Germany +entirely neutral. Had George III condescended at once +to place his Electorate under her covering wing, the whole British +and subsidized force might have been withdrawn in the spring +of that year. Pride, however, for some time held him back from +that politic but humiliating step. Consequently several battalions +remained in Hanover for so long a time as to weaken the blow +dealt at Paris through Quiberon. This was highly prejudicial to +the Breton movement, which would have found in the troops +detained in Germany the firm nucleus that was so much needed. +Even after the ghastly failure at Quiberon, had the French +<span lang="fr">émigré</span> corps arrived at Spithead at the end of July instead of +August, the expedition to the Vendéan coast might have ended +differently. It is usual to blame Pitt or Dundas for the delay in +those preparations. But George must be held finally responsible. +As to the Quiberon disaster, it has been proved to result +from the hot-headedness of Puisaye, the criminal carelessness +of Hervilly, and the ceaseless schisms of the Royalists.</p> + +<p>With the alliance of the Dutch and French Republics in May +1795, and the almost open avowal of the French cause by the +Court of Madrid in July, the war entered upon a third phase. +Thenceforth the colonial motive was paramount at Westminster, +for Pitt and his colleagues questioned the wisdom of holding +Corsica. On the other hand they sought to safeguard India by +seizing the Cape of Good Hope, and to preserve Hayti from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> +inroads of the French, to whom Spain handed over her possession, +San Domingo. Unfortunately the greater the prominence +accorded to colonial affairs, the wider grew the breach with Spain, +until in October 1796 the Court of Madrid declared war. Is Pitt +to be blamed for the rupture with Spain? From the standpoint +of Burke and Windham he is open to grave censure. Surveying +the course of events from their royalist minaret, these prophets +ceased not to proclaim the restoration of the Bourbons to be the +sole purpose of the war. Let there be no talk of indemnities. +Be content with crushing Jacobinism and restoring order. Such +was their contention; and much may be said for it.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, we must remember that at first England +was not a principal in the contest. It was thrust upon her by +the aggressions of the Jacobins, and perforce she played a subordinate +part in continental campaigns, the prizes of which +Austria and Prussia had already marked out. The reproaches +hurled by Burke and Windham were the outcome of ignorance +as to the aims of the powerful Allies, whose co-operation, +illusory though it came to be, was at that time deemed essential +to success. Further, in striking at the French colonies, Pitt +followed the course successfully adopted by England in several +wars. But here again his difficulties were greater than those +of Chatham. Indeed, they were enhanced by the triumphs of +Chatham. Where now could he deal the most telling blow? +Not against Canada; for his father had reft that prize. The +French settlements in the East Indies were of small account. It +was in Hayti, Martinique, and Guadeloupe that French commerce +could be ruined. At them, therefore, he struck. But in +so doing he reopened the old disputes with Spain. In vain +did he seek to avert bickerings by suggesting a friendly +understanding about Hayti. Godoy was determined to bicker. +And, as the war changed its character, the old Latin affinities +helped that adventurer to undermine the monarchical league +and to draw back Spain to the traditional connection with +France.</p> + +<p>The Spanish declaration of war in October 1796 opens the +fourth phase of the struggle. Thenceforth England stood on the +defensive in Europe in order to guard and strengthen her +Colonial Empire. She abandoned Corsica and Elba; she withdrew +her fleet from the Mediterranean so that Ireland might be +screened from attack. Pitt's views also underwent a change.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> +Foreseeing the collapse of Austria, he sought to assure peace +with France and Spain by conquering enough territory oversea +to counterbalance the triumphs of Bonaparte and Moreau in +Italy and the Rhineland. If he could not restore the Balance of +Power on the Continent, he strove to safeguard British interests +at all essential points. Failing to save Holland from the Jacobins' +grip, he conquered and held the Cape. This was the bent +of his policy during the peace overtures of the year 1796. He +struggled on reluctantly with the war, opposing as inopportune +the motions of Fox, Grey, or Wilberforce for peace, but ever +hoping that France would be compelled by the pressure of bankruptcy +to come to terms and surrender some of her continental +conquests on consideration of recovering her colonies. Wilberforce +heard him declare that he could almost calculate the time when +her resources would be exhausted. On the philanthropist repeating +this at a dinner party, one of his guests, de Lageard, +wittily remarked: "I should like to know who was Chancellor +of the Exchequer to Attila."<a name="FNanchor_418_418" id="FNanchor_418_418"></a><a href="#Footnote_418_418" class="fnanchor">[418]</a> This remark shore asunder Pitt's +financial arguments and reveals the weak point of his policy. +He conducted the war as if it were a Seven Years' War. It was +a Revolutionary War; and at this very time a greater than +Attila was at hand. Bonaparte was preparing to use the spoils +of Italy for the extension of the arena of strife. Nelson, then +seeking to intercept the supplies of Bonaparte's army in the +Riviera, foresaw the danger and thus graphically summarized it: +"Italy is the gold mine; and if once entered, is without means +of resistance." As by a flash we see in this remark and in that of +de Lageard the miscalculation which was to ruin the life work +of Pitt and almost ruin his country.</p> + +<p>Despite the opposition of the King and Grenville to the negotiations +for peace, Pitt held firm; and early in 1796 advances +were made through Wickham, our enterprising envoy in Switzerland. +They were foredoomed to failure; on 26th March the +Directory declared its resolve to listen to no proposals involving +the surrender of any of the lands incorporated in France by the +terms of the constitution of 1795. This implied that she would +retain the Rhine boundary, along with Savoy, Nice, and Avignon. +Grenville received the news with satisfaction, remarking to Wickham +that the Directory had acted clumsily and "in fact played +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>our game better than we could have hoped."<a name="FNanchor_419_419" id="FNanchor_419_419"></a><a href="#Footnote_419_419" class="fnanchor">[419]</a> The effect on +public opinion was even better when it appeared that France +expected England to surrender her colonial conquests. That +France should gain enormously on land while the British acquisitions +oversea were surrendered, was so monstrous a claim +as to arouse the temper of the nation. Even Fox admitted that +if France retained her conquests in Europe, England must keep +those gained at sea. As Pitt pointed out in his speech of 10th +May 1796, the French demands blighted all hope of peace; and +we must struggle on, "waiting for the return of reason in our +deluded enemy."</p> + +<p>Pitt regarded the French conquest of Italy as counterbalanced +by the triumph of Jervis and Nelson at Cape St. Vincent in +February 1797; and he therefore refused to consider the cession +of Gibraltar to Spain. Wholeheartedly he sought for peace in +that year. But it was to be peace with honour. In fact, Great +Britain fared better after 1796 than before. As Allies fell away +or joined the enemy, her real strength began to appear. The +reasons for the paradox are not far to seek. Open enemies are +less dangerous than false friends. Further, the complexities of +the war, resulting from the conflicting aims of the Allies, vanished. +England therefore could act in the way in which Pitt would all +along have preferred her to act, namely, against the enemy's +colonies. In Europe her attitude was defensive; and for a time +in the summer and autumn of 1796 fears of invasion were rife. +Accordingly the Quarter-Master-General, Sir David Dundas, +drew up a scheme of coast defence, especially for the district +between Pegwell Bay and Pevensey Bay; he also devised +measures for "driving" the country in front of the enemy. In +November of that year he recommended the construction of +batteries or entrenchments at Shooter's Hill, Blackheath, on the +hills near Lee, Lewisham, Sydenham, Norwood, Streatham, +Merton, and Wandsworth. The failure of Hoche's attempt at +Bantry Bay and the victory off Cape St. Vincent somewhat +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>assuaged these fears; but, owing to the alarming state of Ireland, +England remained on the defensive through the years 1797–8, +until Bonaparte's Egyptian expedition enabled her to strike a +crushing blow at the chief colonial enterprise of her antagonist. +That adventure, together with the aggressions of France at Rome +and in Switzerland, aroused the anger or fear of Russia, Austria, +and Naples, and thereby led up to the war of the Second +Coalition.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Amidst the conflict of aims which distracted the Allies in the +First Coalition, Pitt's foresight was not seldom at fault. But only +those who have weighed the importance of the diplomatic issues +at stake, and have noted their warping influence on military +affairs, have the right to accuse him of blindness and presumption. +The problem before him was of unexampled complexity, +and its solution could be effected only by a succession of experiments. +That he put forth too many efforts at one time may +be granted; and yet in each case, if the details are fully known, +the reasons for making the attempt seem adequate. Did not +Chatham fail in most of the expeditions which he sent against +the coasts of France? Even those who censure Pitt for his blunders +in the war will admit that the inspiring influence of his +personality and patriotism nerved the nation and Parliament for +the struggle. True, the Opposition indulged in petty nagging +and in ingeniously unpatriotic tactics; but they only served to +throw up in bold relief the consistent and courageous conduct +of the Prime Minister. It was an easy task to refute the peevish +efforts of Fox to justify the French Jacobins alike before the war, +throughout its course, and in their rejection of the British overtures +for peace. But in every encounter Pitt won more than a +personal triumph. He proved that the war was forced upon us; +that on our side it was a defensive effort; and that despite the +perverse conduct of Prussia and Spain, England had won notable +gains oversea and might expect an advantageous peace, provided +only that the nation persevered.</p> + +<p>One question remains. Why did not Pitt call the nation to +arms? The reasons for his caution are doubtless to be found in +the ingrained conservatism of the English character, and in the +political ferment which marked the years 1794–5. The mere +proposal to merge Line, Militia, and Volunteers in one national +array would have seemed mere madness. For the populace had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> +recently been protesting against the facilities given to the loyal +to arm and drill themselves. It was rumoured that, by way of +retort, the men of Sheffield, Southwark, and Norwich secretly +mustered for practice with pikes. In such circumstances, conscription +might well spell Revolution. Here was the weak place +in Pitt's armour. By parting company with the reformers, he +had embittered no small section of his countrymen. In 1794, as +we have seen, he was considered a reactionary and an oppressor. +He therefore could not appeal to the nation, as Carnot did in +France. Even his Bill of March 1794 for increasing the Militia +by an extension of the old custom of the ballot or the drawing +of lots produced some discontent. A similar proposal, passed a +year earlier by the Dublin Parliament for raising 16,000 additional +Militiamen in Ireland, led to widespread rioting, especially in +Ulster. Not until 1797 did the Scottish Militia Act ensure the +adoption of similar methods by Scotland, though regiments of +Fencibles were raised in the meantime.</p> + +<p>The preparations for national defence continued to proceed in +these parochial ways. Pitt's authority at Westminster was at no +time more firmly founded than at the time of the meeting of the +new Parliament in the autumn of 1796. Yet the piecemeal +methods went on as before. He proposed to raise by means of +the ballot a levy of 15,000 men in order to recruit the navy and +the Line regiments; and he further asked for a levy of 60,000 +men as a Supplementary Militia, one tenth being embodied by +turns so as not to withdraw from work too many hands at one +time. Nor was this all. For the purpose of strengthening the +irregular cavalry, he proposed that every person who kept ten +horses should be required to furnish one horseman and a horse +for such a corps, and those who owned more than ten horses +were to subscribe a proportionate sum towards its maintenance. +He also required gamekeepers and those who took out licenses +to shoot either to serve on horseback or to find a substitute. +In all he expected to raise 20,000 horsemen by these means.</p> + +<p>The attitude of the House was on the whole highly favourable +to these proposals. Fox accused Ministers of raising an invasion +scare in order to compass their own nefarious designs; but Pitt's +first proposals passed without a division; that on the cavalry by +140 votes to 30. Nevertheless, Pitt did nothing towards securing +cohesion in these diverse forces, except by a provision which +obliged Volunteers to enrol in the Supplementary Militia, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> +take the oath as such, and to train by turns for twenty days at +a time in any part of the country, instead of training once or +twice a week in their own towns. This must have been beneficial +where it was carried out; but, as the Militia was controlled by +the Home Office, it is doubtful whether enough energy was +thrown into the scheme to ensure success.</p> + +<p>These arrangements are miserably inadequate in comparison +with the <span lang="fr">levée en masse</span> of Carnot, which baffled the calculations +of foreign statesmen, flung back the armies of the Coalition, and +opened up the path of glory for Bonaparte. Here the popular +armament did not become in any sense national until after the +renewal of war in 1803. The possibilities open to England, even +in that trying year 1795, were set forth by Major Cartwright +in a suggestive pamphlet—"The Commonwealth in Danger." +After pointing out that, having been deserted by Prussia and +Spain, we must now depend on ourselves alone, he depicted the +contrast between England and France. The French Republic, +relying on the populace, had more than a million of men under +arms. Great Britain was "a disarmed, defenceless, unprepared +people, scarcely more capable of resisting a torrent of French +invaders than the herds and flocks of Smithfield." How, then, +could the danger be averted? Solely (he replied) by trusting the +people and by reviving the ancient laws which compelled householders +to bear arms. But this implied the concession of the +franchise. Be bold, he said. Make the Kingdom a Commonwealth +and the nation will be saved. He continued in these noteworthy +words: "The enemy is at the gates, and we must be friends or +perish. Adversity is a school of the sublime virtues. Necessity +is an eloquent reconciler of differences.... By saying to Britain—Be +an armed nation, she secures her defence and seals her freedom. +A million of armed men, supporting the State with their +purse, and defending it with their lives, will know that none +have so great a stake as themselves in the Government.... +Arming the people and reforming Parliament are inseparable."</p> + +<p>At first sight this seems mere rhetoric, but on reflection it will +appear the path of prudence. By the talisman of trust in the +people France conjured up those armed hosts which overthrew +old Europe. At the stamp of Napoleon's heel a new Europe +arose, wherein the most potent defiance came from the peoples +which drew upon their inmost reserves of strength. That these +consist in men, not in money, is clear from the course of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> +struggle against the great Emperor. Spain, Russia, and Prussia +adopted truly national systems of defence, and quickly forged +to the front. Britain and Austria clung to their old systems, +and, thanks to Wellington's genius and Metternich's diplomacy, +they survived. But they did not play the decisive part which +they might have done if George III and Pitt, Francis II and +Thugut, had early determined to trust and arm their peoples. +Unfortunately for England, she underwent no military disaster; +and therefore Pitt was fain to plod along in the old paths and +use the nation's wealth, not its manhood. He organized it +piecemeal, on a class basis, instead of embattling it as a whole. +In the main his failure to realize the possibilities of the situation +arose from his abandonment of those invigorating principles +which nerved him to the achievements of the earlier and better +part of his career. It is conceivable that, had he retained the +idealism of his youth and discovered a British Scharnhorst, +Waterloo might have been fought in 1796 and won solely by +British troops.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">DEARTH AND DISCONTENT</p> + +<p class="quote">The Waste Land Bill will turn the tide of our affairs and enable us to +bear without difficulty the increased burdens of the war.—<span class="smcap">Sinclair to +Pitt</span>, <i>13th March 1796</i>.</p> + + +<p>On 29th October 1795 occurred an event unparalleled within +the memory of Englishmen then living. An immense +crowd, filling the Mall, broke into loud hissing and hooting when +George III left Buckingham House in the state carriage to proceed +to Westminster for the opening of Parliament. The tumult +reached its climax as the procession approached the Ordnance +Office, when a small pebble, or marble, or shot from an air-gun, +pierced the carriage window. The King immediately said to +Westmorland, who sat opposite, "That's a shot," and, with the +courage of his family, coolly leaned forward to examine the +round hole in the glass. Similar scenes occurred on his return +to St. James's Palace. The mob pressed forward with an eagerness +which the Guards could scarcely restrain, calling out "Peace, +Peace; Bread, Bread; No Pitt; No Famine." With some difficulty +the gates of the Horse Guards were shut against them. +Opposite Spring Gardens a stone struck the woodwork of the +carriage; and the intrepid monarch alighted at St. James's +amidst a commotion so wild that one of the horses took fright +and flung down a groom, breaking his thigh. Thereafter the +rabble set upon the state carriage, greatly damaging it; and +when George later on proceeded in his private carriage to +Buckingham House, he again ploughed his way through a din +of curses. Pitt kept discreetly in the background, or he would +have been roughly handled.</p> + +<p>A loyalist caricature of the period gives an imaginative +version of the incident. In it Pitt figures as the coachman +whipping on the horses of the royal carriage amidst a shower of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> +stones, eggs, and cats. The King sits inside absolutely passive, +with large protruding eyes; Lansdowne, Bedford, Whitbread, +and others strive to stop the wheels; Fox and Sheridan, armed +with bludgeons, seek to force open the door; while Norfolk fires +a blunderbuss at the King. The sketch illustrates the fierce +partisanship of the time, which stooped to incredibly coarse +charges. But scarcely less strange was the insinuation of Lansdowne, +immediately after the affair, that Ministers had themselves +planned it in order to alarm the public and perpetuate +their despotic rule. The same insinuation found favour with +Francis Place, a rabid tailor of Holborn, and a prominent +member of the London Corresponding Society, who charged +Pitt with imperilling the life of George III in order to keep +office. "It is a curious circumstance," he wrote, "that Pitt +carried all his obnoxious measures, silenced or kept down his +opponents and raised vast sums of money by means of the +alarms which he and his coadjutors had created. The war was +commenced after an alarm had been created, and it was kept up +by the same means."<a name="FNanchor_420_420" id="FNanchor_420_420"></a><a href="#Footnote_420_420" class="fnanchor">[420]</a> Fox and his followers often uttered similar +taunts.</p> + +<p>The insults to the King were but the climax of an agitation +which had previously gone to strange lengths. On 27th October +1795 the London Corresponding Society convened a monster +meeting in the fields near Copenhagen House, Islington, in order +to protest against the war and to press for annual Parliaments +and universal suffrage. A crowd said to number nearly 150,000 +persons assembled under the chairmanship of John Binns, and +passed an "Address to the Nation," which concluded as follows: +"If ever the British nation should loudly demand strong and +decisive measures, we boldly answer, 'We have lives and are +ready to devote them either separately or collectively for the +salvation of our country.'" Outwardly the meeting was orderly, +if that epithet can be applied to a monster meeting which +advocated civil war. But probably less than one tenth of the +assemblage heard the resolution. Equally threatening was a +hand-bill circulated in London on the practice of "King-killing." +Place says nothing about this, and ridicules the "Address to the +Nation" as a foolish production, which he had opposed no less +strongly than the convocation of the meeting. This was the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>usual attitude of Place. He sought to figure as the apostle of +reasonableness, deprecating all unwise acts and frothy talk on +the part of his associates, but minimizing the follies of British +democrats, which he usually ascribed to the insidious advice of +the emissaries of Pitt.</p> + +<p>Let us enlarge our survey. From the Home Office Records +it is clear that dear food and uncertain work had aggravated the +political discontent of the years 1792–4, until the autumn of 1795 +witnessed almost an epidemic of sedition. To take one significant +episode. An inflammatory placard, dated Norwich, 16th +October 1795, was widely circulated. That city, as we have seen, +was a hotbed of Radicalism. There it was that the democratic +clubs sought to federate with the view of forming a National +Convention. One of their members, named Besey, now posted +up the following placard. After stating that the prevailing misery +is due to the present unjust and unnecessary war, the number of +abuses and sinecures, and "the monopoly of farms which disgraces +this country," it continues thus: "The Minister would +gladly instigate you to riot and plunder that he might send against +you those <i>valiant</i> heroes who compose his devoted Volunteer +corps.... This would accelerate his darling object of governing +us by a military aristocracy. The countries which supplied us +with quantities of corn now groan under the iron yoke of the +Tigress of the North or lie desolate from this infernal war. We +send immense stores to the emigrants and the <i>Chouans</i>. Those +rebels, not satisfied with traitorously resisting the constituted +authorities of their country, have desolated the face of it. These +honourable Allies must be fed, as others of the kind are paid, by +us." He then urges them to form popular Societies and demand +redress of grievances. He concludes thus: "You may as well +look for chastity and mercy in the Empress of Russia, honour +and consistency from the King of Prussia, wisdom and plain +dealing from the Emperor of Germany, as a single speck of +virtue from our <strong>Hell-born Minister</strong>."<a name="FNanchor_421_421" id="FNanchor_421_421"></a><a href="#Footnote_421_421" class="fnanchor">[421]</a></p> + +<p>In view of these facts, is it surprising that Ministers decided +to issue a royal proclamation against seditious assemblies and +the circulation of treasonable papers? Sheriffs, magistrates, +and all law-abiding men were charged to apprehend those who +distributed such papers and to help in the suppression of seditious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> +meetings (4th November). Six days later Grenville introduced +the Treasonable Practices Bill, while Pitt in the Commons +moved the Seditious Meetings Bill. The Prime Minister +stated that, as soon as the Habeas Corpus Act came again into +operation, the political clubs renewed their propaganda and +brought about the present dangerous situation. In order to +suppress gatherings of a definitely seditious character, he proposed +that, before a meeting of more than fifty persons which +was not convened by the local authorities, notice must be given +by seven householders and sent to the magistrates. The Bill +also required the presence of a magistrate, and invested him with +power to stop any speech, disperse the meeting, and order the +arrest of the speaker. But this was not all. The authorities had +been alarmed by the popularity of Thelwall's racy discourses, +resumed early in 1795, which represented Government as the +source of all the country's ills. Whether his sprightly sallies +were dangerous may be doubted; but Pitt, with characteristic +lack of humour, paid Thelwall the compliment of ordaining that +lecture-halls must be licensed by two magistrates; and a magistrate +might enter at any time. The Bill was passed for three years.</p> + +<p>Equally drastic was the Treasonable Practices Bill. Declaring +the planning or levying war within the kingdom to be an act of +substantive treason, it imposed dire penalties on those who devised +evil against the King, who sought to coerce Parliament or +help the invaders. Even those who spoke or wrote against the +constitution came under the penalties for treason and might be +transported for seven years. As Fox indignantly exclaimed, if +he criticized a system which allotted two members to Old Sarum +and none to Manchester, he might be sent to Botany Bay. The +alarm of Pitt at the state of affairs appears in a request which he +and Portland sent to the Duke of York, on 14th November, for +reinforcements of cavalry. They asked him to despatch three +troops of the 1st Dragoon Guards from Romford to Hackney, +replacing the Pembroke Fencible Cavalry, which was utterly +useless; to order up two troops of the Cornish Fencible Cavalry +from Barnet to Hampstead and Highgate; to despatch the 11th +Light Dragoons from Guildford to Ewell or Kingston, and the +1st Fencibles from Reading to Uxbridge. These, along with +the Lancashire Militia at Lewisham and Greenwich, and the +Guards in London, would suffice for the crisis.<a name="FNanchor_422_422" id="FNanchor_422_422"></a><a href="#Footnote_422_422" class="fnanchor">[422]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p> +<p>Such were the conditions under which the debates on the two +Bills proceeded. They turned largely on the connection between +the Islington meeting and the outrage on the King. Canning +stoutly affirmed that connection, which Sheridan and Fox no +less vehemently denied. Wilberforce on this occasion supported +the Government. Pitt showed little zeal in defending his Bill, +promising to safeguard the right of public meeting when +lawfully exercised. The debate in the Lords elicited from the +Bishop of Rochester the significant statement that he did not +know what the great mass of the people had to do with the laws +except to obey them. The Earl of Lauderdale pilloried this +utterance, thereby consoling himself for being in a minority of 5. +In the Commons Fox mustered 22, as against 167 for the +Government (6th November–14th December 1795). Meanwhile +monster meetings of protest were held on 12th November and +2nd and 7th December, the two last in Marylebone Fields, +which now form the greater portion of Regent's Park. The +orderliness of these vast throngs, comprising perhaps a quarter +of a million of men, affords a strong argument against the two +Acts. Lord Malmesbury much regretted that there was no rioting, +now that all was ready for its repression. After the passing +of those "barbarous bloodthirsty" measures (as Place called +them) the country settled down into a sullen silence. Reformers +limited their assemblies to forty-five members; but even so they +did not escape the close meshes of the law. Binns and Jones, +delegates of the London Corresponding Society who went to +Birmingham, were arrested there; and the Society soon gave up +its propaganda. All but the most resolute members fell away, +and by the end of 1796 it was £185 in debt.<a name="FNanchor_423_423" id="FNanchor_423_423"></a><a href="#Footnote_423_423" class="fnanchor">[423]</a></p> + +<p>Undoubtedly these measures mark the nadir of Pitt's political +career. Nevertheless, the coincidence between the London Corresponding +Society's meeting at Islington and the attempted +outrage on George III was suspiciously close in point of time; +and a dangerous feeling prevailed throughout the country. Pitt, +as we shall see, took steps to alleviate the distress which was its +chief cause; but after the insult to the King he could not but take +precautionary measures against sedition. After such an incident, +a Minister who did nothing at all would be held responsible if +the monarch were assassinated. Some coercive measures were +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>inevitable; and it is clear that they cowed the more restive spirits. +Among other persons who wrote to Pitt on this topic, Wilson, +formerly his tutor at Burton Pynsent and Cambridge, sent him +a letter from Binfield, in which occur these sentences: "The +Sedition Bills also have had so good an effect. Our farmers can +now go to market without being exposed to the danger of having +republican principles instilled into them while they are dining." +Apparently, then, the loyal efforts of Berkshire magistrates extended +to the interiors of inns. Whether the two Acts were not +needlessly prolonged is open to grave question. Certainly, while +driving the discontent underground, they increased its explosive +force. General David Dundas, in his Report on National Defence +of November 1796, states that at no time were there so many +people disposed to help the invaders. Perhaps we may sum up +by declaring the two Acts a disagreeable but necessary expedient +during the time of alarm, and mischievous when it passed away.<a name="FNanchor_424_424" id="FNanchor_424_424"></a><a href="#Footnote_424_424" class="fnanchor">[424]</a></p> + +<p>The insult to the King was but one symptom of a distemper +widely prevalent. Its causes were manifold. Chief among them +was a feeling of disgust at the many failures of the war. The +defection of Prussia and Spain, the fruitless waste of British +troops in the West Indies, the insane follies of the French +<span lang="fr">émigrés</span>, the ghastly scenes at Quiberon, and the tragi-comedy +of Vendémiaire in the streets of Paris, sufficed to daunt the +stoutest hearts. By the middle of the month of October 1795, +Pitt decided to come to terms with France, if the Directory, +newly installed in power, should found a stable Government and +exhibit peaceful tendencies. His position in this autumn is +pathetic. Reproached by the <span lang="fr">émigrés</span> for recalling the Comte +d'Artois from Yeu, taunted by Fox for not having sought peace +from the Terrorists, and reviled by the populace as the cause +of the dearth, he held firmly on his way, shelving the <span lang="fr">émigrés</span>, +maintaining that this was the first opportunity of gaining a +lasting peace, and adjuring the people to behave manfully in +order the more speedily to win it.</p> + +<p>This advice seemed but cold comfort to men and women +whose hardships were severe. Political discontent was greatly +increased by dear food and uncertainty of employment. The +symptoms had long been threatening. At midsummer of the +year 1795 the men of Birmingham assembled in hundreds +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>opposite a mill and bakehouse on Snow Hill, crying out: "A +large loaf. Are we to be starved to death?" They were dispersed +by armed force, but not without bloodshed. At that time +insubordination in the troops was met by summary executions +or repression at Horsham, Brighton, and Dumfries. In July a +drunken brawl at Charing Cross led to a riot, in the course of +which the mob smashed Pitt's windows in Downing Street, and +demolished a recruiting station in St. George's Fields, Lambeth. +The country districts were deeply agitated by the shortage of +corn resulting from the bad harvest of 1794. A report from Beaminster +in Dorset stated that for six weeks before the harvest of +1795 no wheat remained; and the poor of that county would +have starved, had not a sum of money been raised sufficient to +buy cargoes of wheat which then reached Plymouth.</p> + +<p>The suffering was increased by the extraordinary cold of that +midsummer which destroyed hundreds of newly-shorn sheep and +blighted the corn. Driving storms of rain in August laid the crops. +On heavy land they were utterly spoilt, so that even by October +the poor felt the pinch. From all parts there came the gloomiest +reports. In Oxfordshire there was no old wheat left, and the +insatiable demands from the large towns of the north sent up +prices alarmingly. In November Lord Bateman wrote from +Leominster that the wheat crop was but two thirds of the +average, and, if Government did not import wheat directly, not +through fraudulent contractors, riots must ensue. Reports from +Petworth, East Grinstead, and Battle told of the havoc wrought +by blight and rains. At Plymouth the price of wheat exceeded +all records. Lord Salisbury reported a shortage of one third in +the wheat crop of mid-Hertfordshire. Kensington sent a better +estimate for its corn lands. But the magistrates of Enfield and +Edmonton deemed the outlook so threatening that they urged +Pitt and his colleagues (1) to encourage the free importation of +wheat, (2) to facilitate the enclosure of all common fields and the +conversion of common and waste lands into tillage; (3) to pass +an Act legalizing relief of the poor in every parish by the weekly +distribution of bread and meat at reduced prices in proportion +to the size of the family and of its earnings.<a name="FNanchor_425_425" id="FNanchor_425_425"></a><a href="#Footnote_425_425" class="fnanchor">[425]</a></p> + +<p>The protests against the Corn Laws are significant. In 1773 +the bounty system of the reign of William III was revised, the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>average price of wheat being reckoned at forty-four shillings the +quarter. If it fell below that figure, a bounty of five shillings a +quarter was granted on export, so as to encourage farmers to +give a wide acreage to wheat, in the assurance that in bountiful +seasons they could profitably dispose of their surplus. But when +the price rose to forty-four shillings exportation was forbidden, +and at forty-eight shillings foreign corn was admitted on easy +terms so as to safeguard the consumer; for, as Burke said: "he +who separates the interest of the consumer from the interest of +the grower starves the country." Unfortunately, in 1791, Government +raised the price at which importation was allowed to fifty-four +shillings the quarter. The upward trend of prices may have +called for some change; but it was too drastic. In view of the +increase of the manufacturing townships, Pitt should have +favoured the import of foreign corn, though not in such a way +as unduly to discourage agriculturists. England, in fact, was then +reaching the stage at which she needed foreign corn when nature +withheld her bounties at home, and it is well to remember that +1792 was the last year in which England exported any appreciable +amount of wheat. During the Great War she became an +importing country, and at no time was the crisis worse than in +the winter of 1795–6. Early in the year 1796 the best wheat sold +at six guineas the quarter, or four times its present price; the +inferior kinds were very dear, and many poor people perished +from want if not from actual starvation. So grave was the crisis +as to evoke a widespread demand for Free Trade in corn. This +feeling pervaded even the rural districts, a report by John Shepherd +of Faversham being specially significant. In the towns +there was an outcry against corn merchants, who were guilty of +forestalling and regrating. Possibly but for these tricks of trade +the supply of home wheat might almost have sufficed.</p> + +<p>Pitt seems to have thought so; for he wrote to the Marquis of +Stafford, stating his desire to have powers for compelling exhaustive +returns of the wheat supply to be sent in. On the whole, +however, he deemed such an expedient high-handed and likely +to cause alarm. He therefore decided to call for a special +committee to inquire into the high price of corn, and explained his +reasons to the House of Commons on 3rd November 1795. He +urged the need of modifying the old and nearly obsolete law relating +to the assize of bread, and he suggested the advisability of +mixing wheat with barley, or other corn, which, while lessening the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> +price of bread, would not render it unpalatable. As to prohibiting +the distillation of whiskey, he proposed to discontinue that +device after February 1796, so that the revenue might not unduly +suffer. The committee was equally cautious. In presenting its +report eight days later, Ryder moved that the members should +pledge themselves to lessen the consumption of wheat in their +households by one third. These proposals appeared wholly inadequate +to Bankes and Sheridan, who urged that all classes +should be compelled to eat the same kind of bread. Francis, +however, asserted that the poor in his district now refused to eat +any but the best wheaten bread. There was therefore every need +for a law compelling bakers to make bread only two thirds of +wheat. Nevertheless, the House agreed to the proposals of the +committee. Members also bound themselves to forswear pastry, +and by all possible means to endeavour to lessen the consumption +of fine wheaten flour. History does not record how far these +resolves held good, and with what hygienic results. An external +sign of the patriotic mania for economy in wheat was the disuse +of hair-powder, which resulted from the tax now imposed on that +article. Thus Rousseau, Pitt, and Nature are largely responsible +for a change which in its turn hastened the disappearance of wigs.</p> + +<p>Pitt and his colleagues sought to check the practice of forestalling. +But, as usually happens in a struggle with human selfishness, +success was doubtful. More fruitful was the expedient +of attracting foreign corn by granting large bounties on imports. +As if this were not enough, British warships sometimes compelled +neutral corn-vessels, bound for France, to put in at our +harbours and sell their cargoes at the high prices then prevailing, +a high-handed practice which prepared the way for the Armed +Neutrality League of 1800. These exceptional expedients seem +to have been due to what Sheffield called "a sure little junto,"—Pitt, +Ryder, and Jenkinson. He further accused them of taking +the corn trade out of the hands of the merchants and then dropping +State management prematurely. Over against this captious +comment may be placed the undoubted fact that, early in the +year 1796, wheat sold at six guineas the quarter, and by the +month of May was down nearly to normal prices. In that month +Pitt deemed the crisis past; for the King's Speech of 19th May, +at the end of the last session of that Parliament, congratulated +members on the success of their efforts to afford relief to the +people. The harvest of 1796 was more abundant; but confidence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> +was not restored until late in the year. As Whitbread pointed +out, the increase of large farms at the expense of the little men +led to the holding back of the new corn. The small farmer perforce +had to sell his corn at once. The wealthy farmer could +bide his time.<a name="FNanchor_426_426" id="FNanchor_426_426"></a><a href="#Footnote_426_426" class="fnanchor">[426]</a></p> + +<p>In these years of dearth, when the troubles in Poland restricted +the supply of corn from that natural granary, the +importance of the United States became increasingly obvious. +Pitt had consistently sought to improve the relations with our +kinsmen, and in 1791 sent out the first official envoy, George +Hammond. The disputes resulting from the War of Independence +and those arising out of the British Maritime Code during +the Great War, brought about acute friction; but the good sense +of Pitt, Washington, and John Jay, his special envoy to London, +led to the conclusion of an Anglo-American Treaty (7th +October 1794). Though hotly opposed by the Gallophil party at +Washington, it was finally ratified in September 1796, and thus +postponed for sixteen years the hostilities which had at times +seemed imminent. For the present the United States sent us +an increased quantity of cotton wool, but mere driblets of corn +except in seasons of scarcity. Lancashire benefited from the +enhanced trade, while the British farmer did not yet discern the +approach of times of ruinous competition.<a name="FNanchor_427_427" id="FNanchor_427_427"></a><a href="#Footnote_427_427" class="fnanchor">[427]</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Agriculture had long been an occupation equally fashionable +and profitable. No part of the career of George III deserves +more commendation than his patronage of high farming. That +he felt keen interest in the subject appears from the letters +which he sent to "The Annals of Agriculture" over the signature +of "Ralph Robinson," one of his shepherds at Windsor. A +present of a ram from the King's fine flock of merinos was a +sign of high favour. Thanks to this encouragement and the +efforts of that prince of agricultural reformers, Arthur Young, +the staple industry of the land was in a highly flourishing condition. +The rise in the price of wheat now stimulated the demand +for the enclosure of waste lands and of the open or common-fields<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> +which then adjoined the great majority of English +villages. The reclamation of wastes and fens was an advantage to +all but the very poor, who, as graziers, wood-cutters, or fishermen, +dragged along a life of poverty but independence. Though they +might suffer by the change to tillage, the parish and the nation +at large reaped golden harvests.</p> + +<p>The enclosure of common fields was a different matter. +Though on them the traditional rotation of crops was stupid and +the husbandry slipshod, yet the semi-communal tillage of the +three open strips enabled Hodge to jog along in the easy ways +dear to him. In such cases a change to more costly methods +involves hardship to the poor, who cannot, or will not, adopt the +requirements of a more scientific age. Recent research has also +shown that villagers depended mainly on their grazing rights. +Now, a small grazier does not readily become a corn-grower. +Even if he can buy a plough and a team, he lacks the experience +needful for success in corn-growing. Accordingly, the small +yeomen could neither compete with the large farmers nor imitate +their methods. While the few who succeeded became prosperous, +the many sank into poverty. These results may also be +ascribed to the expense and injustice too often attending the +enclosures of this period. Far from striking off at one blow the +fetters of the old system, as happened in France in 1789, English +law required each parish to procure its own Enclosure Act. +Thus, when the parishioners at the village meeting had decided +to enclose the common fields and waste, there occurred a long +and costly delay until the parochial charter was gained.</p> + +<p>Then again, the difficult task of re-allotting the wastes and +open fields in proportion to the rights of the lord of the manor, +the tithe-owner, and the parishioners, sometimes furnished an +occasion for downright robbery of the poor. That staunch champion +of high-farming and enclosures, Arthur Young, names many +instances of shameful extortion on the part of landlord and +attorneys. Where the village carried out its enclosure fairly and +cheaply, the benefits were undoubtedly great. The wastes then +became good pasture or tolerable tillage; and the common fields, +previously cut up into small plots, and worked on a wasteful +rotation, soon testified to the magic of individual ownership. A +case in point was Snettisham, near Sandringham, where, as the +result of the new wealth, the population increased by one fifth, +while the poor-rate diminished by one half. Young also declared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> +that large parts of Norfolk, owing to judicious enclosures, produced +glorious crops of grain and healthy flocks fed on turnips +and mangolds, where formerly there had been dreary wastes, +miserable stock, and underfed shepherds.</p> + +<p>The dearth of the year 1795 brought to the front the question +of a General Enclosure Act, for enabling parishes to adopt this +reform without the expense of separately applying to Parliament. +To devise a measure suitable to the wide diversities of +tenure prevalent in English villages was a difficult task; but it +had been carried out successfully in Scotland by the Act of +1695; and now, a century later, a similar boon was proposed for +England by one of the most enterprising of Scotsmen. Sir +John Sinclair was born in 1754 at Thurso Castle. Inheriting +large estates in the county of Caithness, he determined to enter +political life, and became member for Lostwithiel, in Cornwall. +Differing sharply from Pitt over the Warren Hastings affair, he +adopted the independent line of conduct natural to his tastes, +and during the Regency dispute joined the intermediate party +known as the Armed Neutrality.</p> + +<p>Above all he devoted himself to the development of Scottish +agriculture, and began in 1790 a work entitled "A Statistical +Account of Scotland." He also founded a society for improving +the quality of British wool, and in May 1793 he urged the Prime +Minister to incorporate a Board of Agriculture. Young bet that +Pitt would refuse; for, while favouring commerce and manufactures, +he had hitherto done nothing for the plough. He lost +his bet. Pitt gave a conditional offer of support, provided that +the House of Commons approved. The proposal won general +assent, despite the insinuations of Fox and Sheridan that its +purpose was merely to increase the patronage at the disposal of +the Cabinet. Sinclair became president, with Young as secretary.<a name="FNanchor_428_428" id="FNanchor_428_428"></a><a href="#Footnote_428_428" class="fnanchor">[428]</a> +The Englishman complained that Sinclair's habit of playing +with large schemes wasted the scanty funds at their disposal. +But the Board did good work, for instance, in setting on foot +experiments as to the admixture of barley, beans, and rice in the +partly wheaten bread ordained by Parliament in 1795.</p> + +<p>With the view of framing a General Enclosure Act, Sinclair +sought to extract from parochial Enclosure Acts a medicine +suitable to the myriad needs and ailments of English rural +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>life. His survey of typical enactments is of high interest. He +summarizes the treatment accorded to the lord of the manor, +the rector or other tithe owner, and the parishioners. Thus, in +the case of three parishes near Hull, namely, Hessle, Anlaby, and +Tranley, the wastes and open fields, comprising 3,640 acres, +were divided by an act of the year 1792 in a way which seems +to have given satisfaction. Commissioners appointed by the +local authorities divided the soil among the lords of the manors, +the tithe-owners, and the parishioners, the landlords retaining +half of their portions in trust for the poor. Other instances, however, +reveal the difficulty of the question of tithes. Young and +Sinclair felt bitterly on this subject, as their recent proposal to +give a detailed description of the lands of every parish in +England was successfully opposed by Dr. Moore, Archbishop +of Canterbury.</p> + +<p>Pointing out the need of a General Enclosure Act, Sinclair +claimed that of the 22,107,000 acres of waste in England and +Wales, a large portion could be afforested, while only one million +acres were quite useless—a very hopeful estimate.<a name="FNanchor_429_429" id="FNanchor_429_429"></a><a href="#Footnote_429_429" class="fnanchor">[429]</a> In +order to investigate this question, a Select Committee was +appointed, comprising among others Lord William Russell, +Ryder, Carew, Coke of Norfolk, Plumer, and Whitbread. The +outcome of its research was the General Enclosure Bill introduced +early in the session of 1796, which elicited the sanguine +prophecy of its author quoted at the <a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">head of this chapter</a>.</p> + +<p>The measure aroused keen interest. On 15th March the London +Court of Aldermen urged its members to assist in passing some +such measure with a view to increasing the food supply, and +providing work for the poor, as well as for soldiers and sailors +discharged at the peace. The proposals were as follows: The +present method of enclosure would be extended so as to enable +the parties concerned to frame an inexpensive and friendly +agreement. In case of disagreement the Bill would enable the +majority of the parishioners, voting, not by head, but according +to the value of their rights, to decide on the question of +enclosure. But, in order to safeguard the rights of the poor, the +choice of commissioners charged with the duty of re-allotting +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>the soil would rest with the majority, reckoned both according +to heads and value. The lord of the manor could not veto +enclosure; but his convenience was specially to be consulted in +the re-apportionment of the land. Sinclair also pointed out to +Pitt that, as tithe-owners were now "much run at," their interests +must be carefully guarded. As for the cottagers, they +would find compensation for the lapse of their fuel rights by the +acquisition of small allotments near to their cottages. The poor +also would not be charged with the expenses of enclosure, and +might raise money on loan to fence the plots awarded to them +in lieu of their share in the waste and the open fields. To insist, +said Sinclair, on four acres being annexed to every cottage was +really harmful. Finally he expressed the hope that, under his +plan, the legal expenses of enclosure would on an average be +£5 per parish as against the present burden of £500.<a name="FNanchor_430_430" id="FNanchor_430_430"></a><a href="#Footnote_430_430" class="fnanchor">[430]</a></p> + +<p>Pitt's treatment of the General Enclosure Bill is somewhat +obscure. Again and again Sinclair urged him to greater activity. +In April 1796 he begged him to consult with the judges so as +to meet the objections of tithe-owners. In May he warned +him of the general disappointment that must ensue if no +measure of that kind passed in that session. He asked him +whether the Bill, as now amended by the committee, would not +answer its purpose. Pitt gave no encouraging sign. On the +contrary, he gratified the country gentlemen by opposing a Bill +for the Reform of the Game Laws. The proposer, Curwen, +sought merely to legalize the killing of game started on ground +farmed by the occupier. But the squires took alarm, asserting +that every small farmer could then pursue hares and rabbits from +his ground into their preserves, and that country life, on those +terms, would be intolerable. Pitt took their side, averring that +sport was a relaxation well suited to the higher Orders of State, +but likely to entice farmers away "from more serious and +useful occupations." Much may be forgiven to a Prime Minister +shortly before a General Election, which, in fact, gave to Pitt a +new lease of power.</p> + +<p>To Sinclair the election brought defeat and chagrin. He +travelled northward to the Orkneys to seek a seat there, and, +writing from Edinburgh on 6th July, tartly informed Pitt of his +rejection after a journey of nearly a thousand miles. He must +(he adds) either obtain a seat elsewhere, or take no further +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>interest in the Board of Agriculture. If Pitt approves of his +labour at the Board, will he show it in some way? "If, on the +other hand," he continues, "you feel the least hesitation about +giving it support, your candour, I am persuaded, will induce you +to inform me at once, that I may no longer be tempted to +waste so much time and labour in such pursuits.... I still +flatter myself, however, that you will see the object in such a +light that you will give the President of the Board of Agriculture +a seat either in the Upper or the Lower House, that he +may be encouraged to carry on the concerns of that useful +institution with redoubled energy." Pitt's comment on the back +of the letter is suggestive: "That he has lost his election, but +flatters himself that a seat will be given him either in the <em>Lower</em> +or Upper House, or he must decline taking further concern in the +proceedings of the Board of Agriculture." A little later Sinclair +renewed his appeal for a seat either at Midhurst, or in Scotland. +Failing that, he hinted that the President of the Board of Agriculture +ought to be a Peer. Is it surprising that Pitt fulfilled +the suggestion by giving his influence in favour of Lord Somerville, +who displaced Sinclair at the Board in 1798? Loughborough +it was who suggested the change;<a name="FNanchor_431_431" id="FNanchor_431_431"></a><a href="#Footnote_431_431" class="fnanchor">[431]</a> but Pitt must have +approved it; and thereafter the Board deteriorated.</p> + +<p>In truth the thane of Thurso had become a bore. His letters +to Pitt teem with advice on foreign politics and the distillation +of whisky, on new taxes and high farming, on increasing the +silver coinage and checking smuggling, on manning the navy and +raising corps of Fencibles. Wisdom flashing forth in these diverse +forms begets distrust. Sinclair the omniscient correspondent injured +Sinclair the agrarian reformer. Young treated the Prime +Minister with more tact. His letters were fewer, and his help +was practical. A pleasing instance of this was his presence at +Holwood in April 1798, when Pitt was draining the hillside +near his house, so as to preserve it from damp and provide water +for the farm and garden below. Young drew up the scheme, went +down more than once to superintend the boring and trenching, +and then added these words: "I beg you will permit me to give +such attention merely and solely as a mark of gratitude for the +goodness I have already experienced at your hands."<a name="FNanchor_432_432" id="FNanchor_432_432"></a><a href="#Footnote_432_432" class="fnanchor">[432]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p> +<p>Sinclair, now member for Petersfield, brought his General Enclosure +Bill before Parliament in 1797. In order to meet the objections +of tithe-owners and lawyers, he divided it into two parts, +the former applying to parishes where all the persons concerned +were unanimous, the latter where this was not the case. Even so +the measure met with opposition from the legal profession; and on +13th May he wrote to Pitt expressing deep concern at the opposition +of the Solicitor-General. In July he besought Pitt to make +the Bill a Cabinet measure in order to "prevent either legal or +ecclesiastical prejudices operating against it." Nevertheless Pitt +remained neutral, and the Bill was lost in the Lords, mainly +owing to the opposition of the Lord Chancellor.<a name="FNanchor_433_433" id="FNanchor_433_433"></a><a href="#Footnote_433_433" class="fnanchor">[433]</a> In December +Sinclair announced his intention of bringing in a Bill for the +improvement of waste land; but, he added significantly, "I should +be glad previously to know whether it is your intention to support +that measure or not." Pitt gave no sign, and the proposal did +not come forward.</p> + +<p>Pitt's treatment of one of the most important questions of that +time deserves censure. We may grant that the fussiness of +Sinclair told against his proposals. It is also true that the +drafting of a Bill applicable to every English parish was beset +with difficulties, and that enclosures, while adding greatly to the +food supply of the nation, had for the most part told against the +independence of the poorer villagers. But this was largely due +to the expense and chicanery consequent on the passing of +parochial Acts of Parliament; and what objections were there to +facilitating the enclosure of wastes and open fields by parishes +where everyone desired it? In such a case it was the bounden duty +of Parliament to end the law's delays and cheapen the procedure.</p> + +<p>That Pitt did little or nothing to avert the hostility of bishops +and lawyers in the Upper House convicts him either of apathy +or of covert opposition. He is largely responsible for the continuance +of the old customs, under which a parish faced the expense +of procuring a separate Act of Parliament only under stress of +severe dearth; and, as a rule, the crisis ended long before the +cumbrous machinery of the law enabled the new lands to come +under the plough. It is, however, possible that he hoped to inaugurate +a system of enclosures of waste lands by a clause which +appeared in his abortive proposals of the year 1797 for the relief +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>of the poor. His Bill on that subject comprised not only very +generous plans of relief, but also the grant of cows to the deserving +poor, the erection of Schools of Industry in every parish +or group of parishes, and facilities for reclaiming waste land. +His treatment of the question of poor relief is too extensive a +subject to admit of adequate description here; but I propose to +return to it and to notice somewhat fully the criticisms of Bentham +and others.<a name="FNanchor_434_434" id="FNanchor_434_434"></a><a href="#Footnote_434_434" class="fnanchor">[434]</a> It must suffice to say that the draft of that +measure bespeaks a keen interest in the welfare of the poor, +and indeed errs on the side of generosity. Abbot, afterwards +Lord Colchester, was asked by Pitt to help in drafting the Poor +Bill; and he pronounced it "as bad in the mode as the principles +were good in substance."<a name="FNanchor_435_435" id="FNanchor_435_435"></a><a href="#Footnote_435_435" class="fnanchor">[435]</a></p> + +<p>After the withdrawal of Pitt's Poor Bill, nothing was done +to facilitate enclosures until the accession of Addington to +power. His General Enclosure Act of the year 1801 afforded +timely relief in the matter of food-supply, a fact which shows +that the difficulties in the way of such a measure were far from +serious. The passing of that Bill, it is true, was helped on by +the terrible dearth of that year, when the average price of wheat +was close on 116 shillings the quarter. But Pitt was content to +meet the almost equally acute crisis of 1795–6 by temporary +shifts, one of which exasperated the neutral States of the North +and prepared the way for the renewal of the hostile League of +the Baltic.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">THE YEARS OF STRAIN (1796–7)</p> + +<p class="quote">Torn as we are by faction, without an army, without money, trusting +entirely to a navy whom we may not be able to pay, and on whose loyalty, +even if we can, no firm reliance is to be placed, how are we to get out of this +cursed war without a Revolution?—<span class="smcap">Cornwallis to Ross</span>, <i>15th December +1797</i>.</p> + + +<p>The year 1797, which opened with events portending the +overthrow of Austria and the financial collapse of +England, brought a passing gleam of sunshine into the gray life +of Pitt. For some time he had been a frequent visitor at Eden +Farm, Beckenham, the seat of Lord Auckland. It was on the +way to Holwood, and the cheerful society of that large family +afforded a relief from cares of state not to be found in his +bachelor household. His circle of friends, never large, had somewhat +diminished with the wear and tear of politics. His affection +for Wilberforce, perhaps, had not quite regained its former +fervour. As for the vinous society of Dundas, a valuable colleague +but a far from ideal companion, Pitt must in his better moments +have held it cheap. He rarely saw his mother, far away in +Somerset; and probably his relations to his brother had cooled +since he removed him from the Admiralty. In truth, despite his +loving disposition, Pitt was a lonely man.</p> + +<p>The voice of rumour, in his case always unfair, charged him +with utter indifference to feminine charms. His niece, Lady +Hester Stanhope, who later on had opportunities of observing +him closely, vehemently denied the charge, declaring that he +was much impressed by beauty in women, and noted the least +defect, whether of feature, demeanour, or dress. She declared +that, on one occasion, while commending her preparations for +the ball-room, he suggested the looping up of one particular fold. +At once she recognized the voice of the expert and hailed the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> +experiment as an artistic triumph. Hester's recollections, it is +true, belong to the lonely years spent in the Lebanon, when she +indulged in ecstatic or spiteful outbursts; and we therefore +question her statement that Pitt was once so enamoured of a +certain Miss W——, who became Mrs. B——s of Devonshire, +as to drink wine out of her shoe. But Hester's remarks are +detailed enough to refute the reports of his unnatural insensibility, +which elicited coarse jests from opponents; and we may +fully trust that severe critic of all Pitt's friends, when, recalling a +special visit to Beckenham Church, she pronounced the Honourable +Eleanor Eden gloriously beautiful.<a name="FNanchor_436_436" id="FNanchor_436_436"></a><a href="#Footnote_436_436" class="fnanchor">[436]</a></p> + + +<div> +<a name="image06" id="image06"></a> +</div> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 280px;"> +<img src="images/image06.jpg" width="280" height="400" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Hon. Eleanor Eden. (From a miniature)</span> +</div> + + +<p>To this bright vivacious girl of twenty years Pitt's affections +went forth in the winter of 1796–7;<a name="FNanchor_437_437" id="FNanchor_437_437"></a><a href="#Footnote_437_437" class="fnanchor">[437]</a> and she reciprocated +them. Every one agrees that Eleanor combined beauty with +good sense, sprightliness with tact. Having had varied experiences +during Auckland's missions to Paris, Madrid, and The +Hague, she had matured far beyond her years. In mental +endowments she would have been a fit companion even to Pitt; +and she possessed a rich store of the social graces in which he +was somewhat deficient. In fact, here was his weak point as a +political leader. He and his colleagues had no <span lang="fr">salon</span> which could +vie with those of the Whig grandees. The accession of Portland +had been a social boon; but Pitt and his intimate followers +exerted little influence on London Society. He and Grenville +were too stiff. Neither Dundas nor Wilberforce moved in the +highest circles. Portland, Spencer, and Windham held somewhat +aloof, and Leeds, Sydney, and others had been alienated. Accordingly, +the news that Pitt was paying marked attentions to +Auckland's eldest daughter caused a flutter of excitement. Her +charm and tact warranted the belief that in the near future the +Prime Minister would dominate the social sphere hardly less +than the political.</p> + +<p>Among his friends who knew how warm a heart beat under +that cold exterior, the news inspired the hope that here was the +talisman which would reveal the hidden treasures of his nature. +The stiff form would now unbend; the political leader would +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>figure as a genial host; the martinet would become a man. +Assuredly their estimate was correct. Pitt's nature needed more +glow, wider sympathies, a freer expression. A happy marriage +would in any case have widened his outlook and matured his +character. But a union with Eleanor Eden would have supplied +to him the amenities of life. We picture her exerting upon +him an influence not unlike that which Wordsworth believed +that his sister had exerted upon his being:</p> + + +<p class="poem"> +<span class="i2">thou didst plant its crevices with flowers,<br /></span> +Hang it with shrubs that twinkle in the breeze,<br /> +And teach the little birds to build their nests<br /> +And warble in its chambers.<a name="FNanchor_438_438" id="FNanchor_438_438"></a><a href="#Footnote_438_438" class="fnanchor">[438]</a> +</p> + + +<p>It was not to be. After toying with this day-dream, Pitt suddenly +broke away to Downing Street. His letter to Auckland, +written there on 20th January 1797, announced the decision +of the Minister in chillingly correct terms. In pathetically halting +and laboured phraseology he implied that he had throughout +observed a correct aloofness. After five long sentences of apology +to the father he proceeded thus:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Whoever may have the good fortune ever to be united to her is +destined to more than his share of human happiness. Whether, at any +rate, I could have had any ground to hope that such would have been +my lot, I am in no degree entitled to guess. I have to reproach myself +for ever having indulged the idea on my own part as far as I have done, +without asking myself carefully and early enough what were the difficulties +in the way of its being realised. I have suffered myself to overlook +them too long, but having now at length reflected as fully and as +calmly as I am able on every circumstance that ought to come under +my consideration (at least as much for her sake as for my own) I am +compelled to say that I find the obstacles to it decisive and insurmountable.<a name="FNanchor_439_439" id="FNanchor_439_439"></a><a href="#Footnote_439_439" class="fnanchor">[439]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>Auckland had a right to feel the deepest pain at this official +missive. The matter had been discussed in newspapers. Indeed, +a caricaturist ventured to publish a sketch showing Pitt as Adam +conducting Eve to the nuptial bower in the garden of Eden, +while behind it squatted Satan as a toad, leering hatred through +the features of Fox. It is to be hoped that Auckland did not +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>know of this indelicate cartoon when he replied to Pitt. That +letter has very properly been destroyed. But we have Pitt's +second letter to Auckland, in which he again assures him how +deeply he is affected by hearing of "the sentiments of another +person, unhappily too nearly interested in the subject in question." +He adds these moving words: "Believe me, I have not +lightly or easily sacrificed my best hopes and earnest wishes to +my conviction and judgment." Auckland's reply of 23rd January +reveals the grief of his wife and daughter. For two or three +days they remained in absolute solitude, and that, too, in a +household remarkable for domestic affection. To Pitt also the +decision was a matter of deep pain and life-long regret. Thenceforth +he trod the path of duty alone. On 7th February the +Archbishop of Canterbury wrote to Auckland (his brother-in-law) +that Pitt lived in seclusion and seemed dreamy. At a +recent Council meeting his face was swollen and unhealthy +looking. Probably this was the time at which Pitt informed +Addington that he must take the helm of State.<a name="FNanchor_440_440" id="FNanchor_440_440"></a><a href="#Footnote_440_440" class="fnanchor">[440]</a></p> + +<p>We can only conjecture as to the insuperable obstacles to the +union; but it seems highly probable that they were of a financial +kind. In the Pitt MSS. (No. 196) there is a brief Memorandum +in Pitt's writing, of the year 1797, which must refer to his +yearly expenses, either at Downing Street or at Holwood. It +gives the liquor account of the steward's room as "£300 and +upwards," and states that the other expenses of that room +might be reduced from £600 to £300, those of his own wardrobe +from £600 to £400, and those of the stable from £400 to £300. +These figures do not tally with those of the Downing Street or +Holwood accounts for the latter half of 1797, which will be +stated later; and the loose way in which Pitt estimates his +expenses is highly suggestive. We now know that he was heading +straight for bankruptcy throughout this period; and probably +on looking into his affairs he discovered the fact. It is +also certain that he lent money to his mother. She seems to +have lost on farming experiments at Burton Pynsent; for she +charged her sons to defray her just debts incurred in this manner, +and the Bishop of Lincoln in July 1801 stated that she owed +to Pitt the sum of £5,800 on which she ought to pay interest +but did not. Chatham also borrowed £1,000 from Pitt in August +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>1791, and the fact that he paid not a penny to help to discharge +the debts of his brother in the year 1801 seems to show that he +himself was still in low water.<a name="FNanchor_441_441" id="FNanchor_441_441"></a><a href="#Footnote_441_441" class="fnanchor">[441]</a></p> + +<p>Piecing together these fragments of evidence, we may infer +that Pitt's near relations were a source of considerable expense, +and that his own heedlessness had by this time further served +to embarrass him. Therefore, his conduct towards Miss Eden, +which at first sight seems heartless, was probably dictated by +sheer financial need. We may also reject the spiteful statement +in which Lady Hester Stanhope represented Pitt as saying: +"Oh, there was her mother [Lady Auckland],—such a chatterer! +and then the family intrigues! I can't keep them out of my +house; and for my King's and my country's sake I must remain +a single man." This is mere romancing. Pitt went to the +Aucklands' house, not they to his. As for the remark about +Auckland's intrigues, it clearly refers to the painful days after +1801, when Pitt broke with the household at Beckenham.</p> + +<p>There was only one method whereby Pitt could have assured +his marriage with Eleanor Eden, namely, by condescending to +political jobbery. It was beyond the power of Auckland, a comparatively +poor man, burdened with a large family, to grant a +dowry with her unless Pitt awarded to him a lucrative post and +sinecures. Of course any such step was wholly out of the question +for either of them. In fact, Pitt opposed Auckland's promotion, +opened up by the death of Lord Mansfield, President +of the Council, though the public voice acclaimed Auckland as +the successor.<a name="FNanchor_442_442" id="FNanchor_442_442"></a><a href="#Footnote_442_442" class="fnanchor">[442]</a> Equally noteworthy is the fact that, early in the +year 1798, Pitt appointed Auckland Postmaster-General, with +an annual stipend of £2,500, but required him to give up his +pension of £2,000 for diplomatic services.<a name="FNanchor_443_443" id="FNanchor_443_443"></a><a href="#Footnote_443_443" class="fnanchor">[443]</a> It is pleasing to +record that their friendship was not overclouded, except for a +brief period.</p> + +<p>There, then, we must leave this painful incident, but with +heightened admiration for Pitt. Outwardly his conduct appears +frigid in the extreme. Those, however, who probe the +secrets of that reserved soul see that his renunciation of conjugal +bliss resulted from a scrupulous sense of honour. As to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>the tenderness of his feelings at this time, Addington, who +knew him well, gives striking testimony, averring that in his +disposition there was "very much of the softness and milkiness +of human nature." That was the real Pitt.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Finance was the all-absorbing question in that gloomy winter of +1796–7. The triumphs of Bonaparte in Italy and Hoche's attempt +to invade Ireland sank into insignificance in comparison with the +oncoming shadow of bankruptcy. The causes of this phenomenon +are too technical to receive adequate treatment here. Certainly +the Bank Crisis of February of 1797 was not due to the exhaustion +of the nation; for the revenue testified to its abounding +vitality. The Permanent Taxes maintained nearly the high level +reached in the prosperous year of peace, 1792, and the figures for +British Imports and Exports told the same tale, but the sums of +money borrowed in the years 1796, 1797 undoubtedly strained the +national credit.<a name="FNanchor_444_444" id="FNanchor_444_444"></a><a href="#Footnote_444_444" class="fnanchor">[444]</a> Austria also applied to England for loans to +enable her to continue the war; and Pitt helped her to borrow in +London the sum of £4,600,000 in 1795, and £4,620,000 in 1796.</p> + +<p>In one particular Pitt's action was unprecedented. In July +1796, during the interval between the seventeenth and eighteenth +Parliaments of Great Britain, Austria sent urgent requests for +pecuniary help so as to stay the triumphs of the French in Italy +and Swabia. Pitt yielded and secretly remitted the sum of +£1,200,000 as a loan. Undoubtedly this opportune help enabled +Austria to make the surprising efforts which flung back the +French to the Rhine, and checked the triumphal progress of +Bonaparte. Nevertheless, Fox threatened his rival with impeachment +for this unconstitutional action. Pitt replied with irresistible +cogency that the crisis called for bold handling, and that +England helped her ally to save the Empire and to maintain +the contest in Italy. The House condoned his action by 285 +votes to 81, a proof that he dominated the new Parliament as +completely as its predecessor. He has been accused of lavishing +money on the Allies; but, except in this instance, he did +not by any means satisfy their claims. Moreover, they were +justified in expecting England to provide money in lieu of the +troops which her War Office failed to raise. Austria also solemnly +covenanted to repay the loans; and her neglect to do so +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>occasioned a bitter dispute which long held the two Powers +apart. Pitt also refused her request for a loan in the year 1797. +As far as possible, he discouraged the raising of war loans in +London. Early in 1796 he did so in the case of Portugal from a +fear that the export of bullion would impair credit.<a name="FNanchor_445_445" id="FNanchor_445_445"></a><a href="#Footnote_445_445" class="fnanchor">[445]</a></p> + +<p>At that time a novel expedient was shaping itself in his mind. +On New Year's Day he drove Sir John Sinclair from Dundas's +house at Wimbledon up to town; and on the way the baronet +suggested the raising a great loan on easy terms by an appeal +to the loyalty of Britons.<a name="FNanchor_446_446" id="FNanchor_446_446"></a><a href="#Footnote_446_446" class="fnanchor">[446]</a> The need of some such device became +increasingly apparent; for sinister symptoms began to appear +amidst the alarms of the autumn of 1796. The threats of +invasion led the Ministry to propose a special levy of 15,000 men +to reinforce the army, of 20,000 irregular cavalry, and of 60,000 +supplemental Militia (18th October). These expenses, in addition +to the ever growing demands for the public services, involved a +deficit of £18,000,000. It was most important to raise this sum +promptly in order to uphold the credit and display the loyalty +of the nation; for, as we shall see, Pitt had recently opened +negotiations for peace at Paris in the hope that the late successes +of the Austrians both in Italy and the Rhineland (which +proved to be only temporary), would induce the Directory to +accord fair terms to enemies who thus evinced their energy and +vitality. After consultation with the officials of the Bank of +England, he decided to raise the required sums, not by means +of "contractors," but by appealing direct to the public. Accordingly, +on 1st December, he adopted the unusual course of +appealing to the Lord Mayor and the Directors of the Bank +of England to encourage in every possible way the raising of an +extraordinary loan of £18,000,000. The rate of interest, 5 5/8 per +cent., seems somewhat high in the case of a "Loyalty Loan," +especially as Consols rose from 53 3/4 in September to 57 in +November; but competent authorities agree that it was not too +high.<a name="FNanchor_447_447" id="FNanchor_447_447"></a><a href="#Footnote_447_447" class="fnanchor">[447]</a></p> + +<p>The response was most gratifying. The Bank subscribed +£1,000,000, the Directors in their private capacity further contributing +£400,000. Similar feelings were displayed in the City +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>and in the provinces. Before the hour of 10 a.m. on 5th December, +when the subscription list was opened at the Bank, the +lobby of the hall and even the approaches were crowded with +eager patriots, who fought their way towards the books. Those +in the rear called to more fortunate friends in the front to inscribe +their names. Within an hour and twenty minutes the +amount which could then be allotted was made good, and hundreds +retired disappointed. Similar scenes ensued on the two +following days, the whole sum of £18,000,000 being subscribed +in less than fifteen and a half hours.<a name="FNanchor_448_448" id="FNanchor_448_448"></a><a href="#Footnote_448_448" class="fnanchor">[448]</a></p> + +<p>It was under these encouraging conditions that on 7th December +1796 Pitt made his Budget Statement, which included +the proposal of further advances of £3,000,000 to our Allies. +As a set-off to this, he pointed to the yield of the taxes and the +Imports and Exports for the quarter as affording gratifying +proof of the strength of the country. But, he added, "this +flourishing state of our affairs ought not to lessen our moderation +or abate our desire for peace." Those who blame him +for continuing to pay £200,000 into the Sinking Fund, while +he had to borrow large sums at a ruinous rate of interest, should +remember that he believed this costly device to be only temporary +in view of his efforts for peace.</p> + +<p>The usually dull details of finance are at this point enlivened +by the ingenious suggestions poured in upon Pitt for opening up +new sources of revenue. The aim of financiers then being to +press on the taxpayer at all points with the imperceptible impartiality +of air, the hints as to the taxation of neighbours and +rivals are of refreshing variety. Among the less obvious are +duties on barges, pawnbrokers' takings, toys, theatre and concert +tickets, buttons, corks, glass bottles, umbrellas, sheriffs and +under-sheriffs, county commissioners and attorneys who keep +clerks. On behalf of the last suggestion an anonymous writer +points out that it would enhance the dignity of the legal profession.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> +Another correspondent suggests a similar impost on +physicians, surgeons, and chemists, ranging from ten guineas in +London to three guineas in the provinces, in order to discourage +the entry of illiterates. He also urges the need of stopping the +increase of luxury and amusements by taxing hot-houses, horses +and carriages let out on Sundays, organs, pianos, and all musical +instruments, as well as the owners thereof, on the ground that +this step will lessen the alarming growth of bankruptcies and +divorces. A tax on armorial bearings is suggested as one which +will not be resented by the rich. A fourth correspondent advocates +a graduated Income Tax, ranging from 6<i>d.</i> in the pound +on incomes under £400, up to 5<i>s.</i> in the pound on incomes of +more than, £30,000 a year, and estimates the total yield at +£62,625,000. The same writer urges the need of a tax on +sinecures and pensions, and finally begs Pitt for a place for +life, devolving on his son.<a name="FNanchor_449_449" id="FNanchor_449_449"></a><a href="#Footnote_449_449" class="fnanchor">[449]</a></p> + +<p>The Chancellor of the Exchequer therefore had the choice of +the direct attack on the purse or the increase of atmospheric +pressure. For the present he chose the latter method, enhancing +the duties on tea, wines, sugar, spirits, game licences, glass, +tobacco, and snuff, besides raising the "Assessed Taxes" by +ten per cent. The produce of some of these imposts is curious. +Hair-powder yielded £197,000; the extra tea and wine duties +£186,000 and £923,000, severally; those on tobacco and snuff +only £40,000. Pitt's procedure in December 1796 was very +cautious. He carefully watched the yield of the new taxes, in +order to see whether the increase of price checked consumption. +Finding that this did not happen in the case of tea and spirits, +he further raised the duties on those commodities; but, on +behalf of the poor, he exempted the cheaper kinds of tea. On +the other hand he proposed to check the consumption of spirits +by imposing an extra duty of five pence a gallon along with a +surcharge on distillery licences. Further, as the duties on bricks, +auction sales, sugar, bar iron, oil, wines, and coal had not lessened +consumption, he again increased them. A questionable +experiment was an increase in the postage of letters and parcels, +and in the duties on newspapers, stage coaches, and canal tolls. +A new House Duty, levied in proportion to the number of +servants, is open to less objection. On the whole he expected +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>the new taxes to yield £2,138,000. The total supply asked for +was £27,640,000.</p> + +<p>The financial outlook grew darker in the year 1797. At the +close of January came the news of Hoche's expedition to Bantry +Bay, which revealed the possibility of revolutionizing Ireland. +On 4th February Pitt heard of the triumph of Bonaparte at +Rivoli. The tidings told disastrously on markets already in a +nervous state. A correspondent of Pitt attributed the decline to +the action of the Bank of England at the close of 1795, in +reducing their discounts. Fox and his friends ascribed it to the +export of specie to Vienna; while Ministers and their friends +gave out that it resulted from the fears of invasion, and the +desire of depositors everywhere to withdraw their money and +place it in hiding. Privately, however, Pitt confessed to Auckland +that the export of gold brought matters to a climax.</p> + +<p>The amount of specie in the Bank of England, which was +nearly £8,000,000 in 1795, fell to £1,272,000 in February 1797. +In reality the Bank was solvent, but it could not have realized +its securities; and on several occasions the Directors warned +Pitt that any further withdrawals of specie would bring on a +crisis.<a name="FNanchor_450_450" id="FNanchor_450_450"></a><a href="#Footnote_450_450" class="fnanchor">[450]</a> The final cause of alarm was a loan of £1,500,000 to +the Irish Government, the first occasion on which any large sum +was raised for that Administration.<a name="FNanchor_451_451" id="FNanchor_451_451"></a><a href="#Footnote_451_451" class="fnanchor">[451]</a> On 25th and 26th February, +then, crowds rushed to withdraw money from the Bank into +which eleven weeks before they thronged in order to procure +shares in the Loyalty Loan. So serious was the crisis that +Ministers decided to intervene. On Sunday the 26th a meeting +was held of the Privy Council, which issued an Order in Council +empowering the Directors to refuse payments in cash until Parliament +gave further orders on the subject.<a name="FNanchor_452_452" id="FNanchor_452_452"></a><a href="#Footnote_452_452" class="fnanchor">[452]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p> +<p>For a few hours there was the prospect of a general collapse; +and as the Bank issued no notes for less than £5, though Sinclair +and others had advised the issue of £3 and £2 notes, small +traders were threatened with a recurrence to barter. Fortunately +on 27th February the Directors published a reassuring statement, +and the Lord Mayor presided at an influential meeting on +the same day, which decided to accept banknotes as legal tender +for any amount. Thus a crash was averted. But Fox, Sheridan, +and the Opposition ably accused Pitt of leading his own country to +the brink of bankruptcy, even while he proclaimed the imminent +insolvency of France. They thundered against the export of +gold to the Emperor, and demanded a searching inquiry into the +high-handed dealings of the Minister with the Bank and with +national finance. "We have too long had a confiding House of +Commons," exclaimed Fox; "I want now an inquiring House +of Commons." Despite Pitt's poor defence of his loans to the +Emperor, the Government carried the day by 244 votes to 86 +(28th February); but the unwonted size of the minority was a +sharp warning to curtail loans and subsidies. Apart from a +small loan to Portugal in 1798, nothing of note was done to +help Continental States until Russia demanded pecuniary aid +for the War of the Second Coalition. In order to provide a +circulating medium, the Bank was empowered to issue notes for +£2 and £1, and to refuse cash payments for sums exceeding £1 +(March to May 1797).</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, shortly after the Bank crisis, came news of the +failure of an American, Colonel Tate, with some 1,400 French +gaol-birds, to make a raid at Fishguard in Pembrokeshire. A +later legend sought to embellish this very tame affair by ascribing +his failure to the apparition on the hills of Welsh women in +high hats and scarlet cloaks, whom the invaders took for regulars. +Unfortunately for lovers of the picturesque, the apparition occurs +only in much later accounts.<a name="FNanchor_453_453" id="FNanchor_453_453"></a><a href="#Footnote_453_453" class="fnanchor">[453]</a> Far more important were the +tidings from Cape St. Vincent. There Jervis, with only fifteen +ships, boldly attacked twenty-seven Spaniards while still in confusion +after a foggy night. As is well known, the boldness of +Nelson, in wearing out of the line so as to prevent the reunion +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span>of the enemy's ships, crowned the day with glory (14th February). +The weakness of the Spanish navy stood glaringly revealed, and +the fear of invasion, which turned mainly on a junction of their +fleet to that of France, thenceforth subsided.</p> + +<p>Jervis remarked before the fight that England never stood in +more need of a victory. The news reached London most opportunely +on 3rd March; for, along with the Bank crisis, came +rumours of serious discontent among our seamen. Even Jervis +could scarcely stamp out disaffection in the fleet that rode +triumphantly before Cadiz; and in home waters mutiny soon +ran riot. Is it surprising that sailors mutinied? In large part +they were pressed men. Violence swept the crews together, and +terror alone kept them together. The rules of the service prescribed +flogging for minor offences, hanging for refusal to work. +How men existed in the over-crowded decks is a mystery. On +paper the rations seem adequate, a pound of meat per day, a +proportionate amount of biscuit, and half a pint of rum. But +these provisions were issued by pursers who often eked out +their scanty pay by defrauding the crew. Weevilly biscuits and +meat of briny antiquity were therefore the rule, excess of salt +and close packing being deemed adequate safeguards against +decay. Finally the indurated mass became so susceptible of +polish as in the last resort to provide the purser with a supply +of snuff-boxes. One little comfort was allowed, namely, cocoa +for breakfast. But the chief solace was rum, cheap, new, and +fiery, from the West Indies. This and the rope-end formed the +<span lang="la">nexus</span> of the crew. As for the pay, from which alone the sailor +could make his lot bearable, it had not been increased since the +reign of Charles II. Thanks to the Duke of York, that of the +army had been raised from 8 1/4<i>d.</i> to 1<i>s.</i> a day, though not in proportion +to the cost of living, the net gain being only 2<i>d.</i> a day. +The sailor alone was forgotten, and, lest he should come into +touch with Radical clubs, leave of absence was rarely if ever +accorded.</p> + +<p>The men of the Channel Fleet were the first to resolve to end +their chief grievances, namely, insufficient pay, withdrawal of +leave of absence, and the unfair distribution of prize money. +On putting back to Spithead in March 1797, they sent to +Admiral Howe several round-robins demanding an increase of +pay. He was then ill at Bath, and, deeming them the outcome +of a single knot of malcontents, ignored them. This angered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> +the men. His successor in command, Lord Bridport (brother of +Sir Alexander Hood), was less popular; and when it transpired that +the fleet would soon set sail, the men resolved to show their +power. Accordingly, on 15th April, on the hoisting of the +signal to weigh anchor, the crew of the flag-ship, the "Queen +Charlotte," manned her shrouds and gave three cheers. The +others followed her example, and not an anchor was weighed. +On the next day (Easter Sunday) the men formed a central +committee, sent ashore some hated officers, and formulated the +demands outlined above, promising to fight the French if they +put to sea, and afterwards to renew the same demands.</p> + +<p>That Easter was a time of dismay in London. Ministers at +once met in Cabinet Council and agreed to despatch to Portsmouth +Spencer, first Lord of the Admiralty, along with Admiral +Young, and others. Spencer's reputation for sincerity, love of +justice, and regard for the seamen inspired general confidence; +and when the Commissioners were joined by Bridport, Parker, +Colpoys, and Gardner, there was hope of a compromise. The +men allowed Bridport to retain his command, provided that he +did not issue orders for sea; they enforced respect to officers; +they flogged one man who became drunk, and ducked more +venial offenders three times from a rope tied at the main-yard. +Their committee of thirty-two (two from each ship), met every +day on the "Queen Charlotte"; it demanded an increase of pay +from 9 3/4<i>d.</i> to 1<i>s.</i> a day. But when Spencer promised to lay this +request before the King, on condition of immediate restoration +of discipline, the men demurred. Conscious of their power, they +now claimed that rations must be served out, not 12 ounces, +but 16 ounces to the pound; that the power of awarding heavy +punishments for petty offences should be curtailed, extended +opportunities being also granted for going ashore. In vain did +Spencer and his colleagues protest against this dictation of terms. +A personal appeal to the crew of the "Royal George" had no +effect; and when Gardner vehemently reproached the men for +skulking from the French, they ran at him; and he would have +fared badly had he not placed his neck in a noose of a yard-rope +and called on the men to hang him provided they returned +to duty. The men thereupon cheered him and retired.</p> + +<p>On 18th April the men's committee formulated their demands +in two manifestoes. Further conferences took place, in one of +which Gardner shook a delegate by the collar and was himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> +nearly murdered. The whole fleet then defiantly flew the red +flag. Spencer and his colleagues returned to London for an +interview with Pitt; and along with him and the Lord Chancellor +they posted to Windsor to urge the need of compliance +with the men's demands. Grenville, journeying from Dropmore, +joined them, and a Privy Council was held. Pitt's and +Spencer's views prevailed, and a Royal Proclamation was drawn +up on 22nd April, pardoning the crews if they would return +to duty. A horseman riding at full speed bore the document +to Portsmouth in seven hours, and the fleet, with the +exception of the "Marlborough," re-hoisted the white ensign +and prepared for sea. The discontent rife at Plymouth also +subsided. On 26th April, during a Budget debate, Pitt promised +to provide for the extra pay to seamen and marines.</p> + +<p>But on 3rd May an indiscreet opening of the whole question +in the House of Lords by the Duke of Bedford led to a revival +of discontent at Spithead. He upbraided Pitt with delay in +introducing a Bill to give effect to the Royal Proclamation. +Howe thereupon proceeded to justify his former conduct; and +Spencer remarked that he did not expect to receive the King's +commands to bring down any communication on the affair to +the House of Lords. By an unscrupulous use of these remarks +agitators inflamed the crews with the suspicion of ministerial +trickery; and on 7th May, every ship refused to obey Bridport's +orders to weigh anchor. The men arrested Colpoys and sent +fifteen officers on shore. Pitt thereupon, on 8th May, moved a +resolution in the terms of the decision framed at Windsor on +22nd April. He begged the House for a silent vote on this +question; but Fox and Sheridan could not resist the temptation +to accuse him of being the cause of this second mutiny. Clearly +it resulted from the remarks in the House of Lords on 3rd May, +which led the seamen to believe that Pitt was about to play +them false.</p> + +<p>The Commons passed the resolution; but Whitbread, on the +morrow, moved a vote of censure on Pitt for delay in dealing +with this important question. Again Pitt pointed out that the +promise given during the Budget debate sufficed for the time, +but he admitted that preliminary forms and inquiries had +absorbed an undue amount of time. Fox and Sheridan pounced +down on this admission, the latter inveighing against the +"criminal and murderous delay" of Ministers, whose incapacity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> +earned the contempt of the House. Spying a party advantage +in protracting these debates, Whitbread renewed his attack on +the next day (10th May). Pitt replied with admirable temper, +and showed that the delay in presenting a Bill arose partly from +the action of the Opposition itself. Will it be believed that +Parliament wasted two days, while the navy was in mutiny, in +discussing whether Pitt had or had not been guilty of delay? +The results were deplorable. An anonymous chronicler, hostile +to Pitt, confessed that the men at Spithead were "better pleased +with reading Fox and Sheridan's speeches than with the long-expected +settlement of their claims."<a name="FNanchor_454_454" id="FNanchor_454_454"></a><a href="#Footnote_454_454" class="fnanchor">[454]</a></p> + +<p>In this state of things Pitt despatched Howe ("Black Dick"), +the most popular of the admirals, in order to convince the seamen +of the sincerity of Government. The following is the letter in +which he apprised Bridport of Howe's mission:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">Downing Street, <i>May 10, 1797</i>.<a name="FNanchor_455_455" id="FNanchor_455_455"></a><a href="#Footnote_455_455" class="fnanchor">[455]</a></p> + +<p>The account we have received this morning led to a great degree of +hope that the distressful embarrassments which you have experienced +may already in a great degree have subsided. You will, however, have +learnt that in the suspense in which we remained yesterday, it had been +determined to send Lord Howe with such instructions under the sign +manual as seemed to us best adapted to the very difficult emergency. +His presenting this commission seems still [more] likely to confirm the +good disposition which had begun to show itself, and his not coming +after the intention had once been announced might lead to unpleasant +consequence [<span lang="la">sic</span>]. It was thought best to make this a civil commission +in order not to interfere with the military command of the fleet, and at +the same time to give the commission to a distinguished naval character, +though not with any naval authority or functions. It was also thought +that making a communication of this nature after all that had passed +through some other channel than the commander of the fleet was for +other reasons preferable and likely to be thought so by you.</p> + +<p>I earnestly hope this measure will produce good effects and will both +in itself and in its consequences be satisfactory to you. At all events I +am sure you will continue to contribute your exertions with the same +zeal and public spirit which you have shewn under such trying difficulties +to bring this arduous work, if possible, to a happy termination. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>I hope I need not say how sincerely and deeply, in addition to the +public difficulties, I have felt for the situation in which you have been +placed. If the favourable turn which has been given to affairs should +be happily confirmed, I look forward to the hope that your command +may still be attended with circumstances which may repay you for the +labour and anxiety with which you have had to struggle.</p> +</div> + + +<p>Howe found it no easy task to vindicate the good faith of +Ministers; but by visiting each ship in turn, he prevailed on the +men to submit to discipline. The 14th of May was a day of +great rejoicing at Spithead; the men's delegates landed and +carried the venerable admiral in triumph to Government House, +where he and his lady entertained them at dinner. Three days +later the whole fleet put to sea.</p> + +<p>But already there had fallen on Pitt a still severer blow. On +10th May appeared the first signs of discontent in the ships +anchored off Sheerness. In all probability they may be ascribed +to the factious wrangling at Westminster and the revival of the +mutiny at Spithead on 7th May. Seeing that the demands of +the sailors had been conceded before this outbreak occurred at +the Nore, nothing can be said on behalf of the ringleaders, except +that amidst their worst excesses they professed unswerving +loyalty, firing salutes on 29th May in honour of the restoration +of Charles II and on 4th June for King George's birthday. +Apart from this their conduct was grossly unpatriotic. On 12th +May the crew of H.M.S. "Sandwich," headed by a supernumerary +named Parker, captured the ship, persuaded eleven other crews +to mutiny, and sent delegates to Portsmouth to concert action +with Bridport's fleet.</p> + +<p>In this they failed; and, had Vice-Admiral Buckner, in command +at the Nore, acted with vigour, he might have profited by +the discouragement which this news produced. He acted weakly; +and the men paid no heed to the Royal Proclamation issued on +23rd May, offering the same terms as those granted at Portsmouth +and pardon to all who at once returned to duty. Spencer +and his colleagues came from London in the hope of persuading +the men, but in vain. The men sought to tempt the one loyal +ship, the "Clyde," from its duty. Fortunately this Abdiel of a +false company was able to slip off by night and guard the entrance +to Sheerness harbour. Government then hurried up troops +and had new batteries constructed to overawe the fleet. Unfortunately, +at the end of May, thirteen more ships, deserters from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> +the fleets of Duncan and Onslow, joined the mutineers at the +Nore. This event might have led to a double disaster. Stout +old Duncan with only two ships sailed on undaunted to the +Texel, where lay a Dutch fleet of fifteen sail preparing for sea. +In order to impose on them he kept flying signals as if to consorts +in the offing, a stratagem which entirely succeeded. The +danger was, however, acute until, acting on Spencer's suggestion, +Vorontzoff ordered a Russian squadron, then in British waters, to +sail to Duncan's help.</p> + +<p>Equally serious was the situation at the Nore. The mutineers, +strong in numbers but lacking beef and beer, stopped the navigation +of the Thames and captured provisions from merchantmen, +thus causing a panic in London. On 5th June, after firing the +royal salute, the crews seized some unpopular officers and boatswains, +tarred and feathered them, and landed them at Gravesend, +a spectacle for gods and men. In these and other reckless acts +the fever expended its force. Food and water ran short; for the +banks were strictly guarded, and ships ceased to arrive. The +desperate suggestion of handing the ships over to the Dutch +was frustrated, if it were ever seriously considered, by the removal +of the outer buoys. One by one ships fell away and +replaced the red flag by the white ensign. Enough force was +now at hand to quell the desperate minority; and on 15th June +the "Sandwich," renouncing the authority of Parker, sailed under +the guns of Sheerness. A fortnight later Parker swung from the +yardarm of that ship. His had been a strange career. The son +of a tradesman of Exeter, he is said to have entered the navy +as a midshipman, but to have been thrice dismissed from his ship +for bad conduct. Settling down at Perth, he was imprisoned for +debt, but gained his freedom and also a bounty for enrolling in +the navy as a volunteer. His daring spirit and sturdy frame +brought him to the front in the way that we have seen, the moral +perversity of his nature largely determining the course of the +mutiny at the Nore. After him twenty-two other mutineers were +hanged.</p> + +<p>Few men have done more harm to England than Parker. So +heavy a blow did the Nore mutiny deal to credit that 3 per cent. +Consols, which did not fall below 50 at the Bank crisis, sank to +48 in June, the lowest level ever touched in our history. After +the collapse of the mutiny they rose to 55 1/2. The serenity of +Pitt never failed during this terrible time. A remarkable proof<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> +of his self-possession was given by Spencer. Having to consult +him hastily one night, he repaired to Downing Street and found +that he was asleep. When awakened, he sat up in bed, heard +the case, and gave his instructions, whereupon Spencer withdrew. +Remembering, however, one topic which he had omitted, he +returned, and found him buried in slumber as profound as if he +had not been disturbed. Fox and his friends were far from showing +the same equanimity. Because the House by 256 votes to +91 opposed a motion for Reform which Grey most inopportunely +brought forward in the midst of the mutiny, they decided to leave +Parliament. But the effect of this "secession" was marred by +the occasional reappearance of Sheridan, Tierney, and others +who had loudly advocated it.<a name="FNanchor_456_456" id="FNanchor_456_456"></a><a href="#Footnote_456_456" class="fnanchor">[456]</a> Unpatriotic in conception, it +speedily became ludicrous from its half-hearted execution.</p> + +<p>The question has often been raised whether the mutineers +were egged on by malcontent clubs. There are some suspicious +signs. A mutineer on board H.M.S. "Champion" told his captain +that they had received money from a man in a black coat. +This alone is not very convincing. But the malcontents at the Nore +certainly received money, though from what source is uncertain. +The evidence brought before the Committee of Secrecy as to the +connection of the United Irishmen with the mutineers, seems +rather thin. As to French bribery, the loyal sailors at Spithead +in their address to the Nore mutineers bade them not to be any +longer misled by "French principles and their agents, under +whatsoever mask." It was also reported in August 1798 that the +French Government paid an Irishman, Duckett, to go and <em>renew</em> +the mutiny. The officials of the Home Office believed the London +Corresponding Society to be guilty; and on 16th June one of +them, J. K[ing], issued a secret order to two of his agents at +Sheerness to discover whether two members of that society, +named Beck and Galloway, had had dealings with the rebel +crews. The agents, A. Graham and D. Williams, on 24th June +sent to the Duke of Portland the following report, which merits +quotation almost in full:<a name="FNanchor_457_457" id="FNanchor_457_457"></a><a href="#Footnote_457_457" class="fnanchor">[457]</a></p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>... Mr. Graham and Mr. Williams beg leave to assure his Grace +that they have unremittingly endeavoured to trace if there was any connexion +or correspondence carried on between the mutineers and any +private person or any society on shore, and they think they may with +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>the greatest safety pronounce that no such connexion or correspondence +ever did exist. They do not however mean to say that wicked and +designing men have not been among the mutineers; on the contrary +they have proof sufficient to found a belief upon that several whose +mischievous dispositions would lead them to the farthest corner of the +kingdom in hopes of continuing a disturbance once begun have been +in company with the delegates on shore, and have also (some of them) +visited the ships at the Nore, and by using inflammatory language endeavoured +to spirit on the sailors to a continuance of the mutiny, without +however daring to offer anything like a plan for the disposal of the +fleet or to do more than insinuate that they were belonging to clubs or +societies whose members wished well to the cause, but from which +societies Mr. Graham and Mr. Williams are persuaded no such persons +were ever regularly deputed. Neither do they believe that any club or +society in the kingdom or any of those persons who may have found +means of introducing themselves to the delegates have in the smallest +degree been able to influence the proceedings of the mutineers, whose +conduct from the beginning seems to have been of a wild and extravagant +nature not reducible to any sort of form or order and therefore +capable of no other mischief than was to be apprehended from a want +of the fleet to serve against the enemy. In this state however they were +unfortunately suffered to go on without interruption until they began to +think themselves justifiable in what they were doing, and by stopping +up the mouth of the Thames they were suspected of designs for which +Mr. Graham and Mr. Williams can by no means give them credit. The +want of beer and fresh beef prompted them to revenge, and that and +nothing else induced them to interrupt the trade of the river. It was +done on the spur of the occasion, and with a view of obtaining a supply +of fresh provisions. Another thing, namely the systematic appearance +with which the delegates and the sub-committees on board the different +ships conducted the business of the mutiny may be supposed a good +ground of suspecting that better informed men than sailors in general are +must have been employed in regulating it for them. This Mr. Graham +and Mr. Williams at first were inclined to believe too; but in the course +of their examinations of people belonging to the fleet they were perfectly +convinced that without such a combination and with the assistance of +the newspapers only (independent of the many cheap publications to be +had upon subjects relating to clubs and societies of all descriptions) +and the advantage of so many good writers as must have been found +among the quota-men, they were capable of conducting it themselves.</p> +</div> + + +<p>Graham and Williams arrested at Sheerness three strangers, +Hulm, McLaurin, and McCan, who were making mischief. Nothing +seems to have come of these arrests; and, despite the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> +opinion of Pitt, expressed in his speech of 2nd June, we may +dismiss the charge against the London Corresponding Society. +It is clear, however, that busybodies circulated newspapers and +pamphlets at Sheerness, Chatham, and Maidstone. The reports +of the parliamentary debates of 3rd, 8th, 9th, and 10th May +would alone have encouraged the mutineers; and the chiefs of +the Opposition must bear no small share of responsibility for +the disastrous events at Spithead and the Nore. They were +warned that their nagging tactics would cause trouble in the +navy. They persisted, in the hope of discrediting the Ministry. +They succeeded in paralysing the navy; and the only excuse +for their conduct is that their hatred of Pitt blinded them to +the obvious consequences. From this censure I must except +Sheridan, whose speech of 2nd June was patriotic; and he +further is said to have suggested the plan of removing the buoys +beyond the mutinous fleet.</p> + +<p>For a brief space disquieting symptoms appeared in the army. +An inflammatory appeal to the troops was distributed at Maidstone +by Henry Fellows; and the same man addressed a letter +to some person unnamed, asking him to send on 100 copies of +the Ulster Address, 50 of "Boniparte's [<span lang="la">sic</span>] Address," 50 of +"the Duke of Richmond's Letter," and 50 of Payne's "Agrarian +Justice." The last named was found among the papers of John +Bone, a member of the London Corresponding Society.<a name="FNanchor_458_458" id="FNanchor_458_458"></a><a href="#Footnote_458_458" class="fnanchor">[458]</a> It is +not unlikely that this propaganda was connected with that at +Chatham barracks, where a seditious handbill was left on 21st +May 1797, urging the men to cast off the tyranny misnamed +discipline, to demand better food, better clothing, and freedom +from restraint in barracks. "The power is all our own," it concludes. +"The regiments which send you this are willing to do +their part. They will show their countrymen they can be +soldiers without being slaves ... Be sober, be ready."<a name="FNanchor_459_459" id="FNanchor_459_459"></a><a href="#Footnote_459_459" class="fnanchor">[459]</a> The +paper was probably connected with the mutiny at the Nore. +There were also some suspicious doings in London barracks. +One of the incendiaries there was, "wicked Williams," who +certainly had run through the whole gamut of evil. First as a +clergyman, he ruined himself by his excesses; then as a penitent +he applied to Wilberforce for relief, and, after disgusting even +that saintly man, he in revenge carried round to certain barracks +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span>the signature of his would-be benefactor appended to a seditious +appeal. Busybodies lacking all sense of humour therefore +buzzed it about that the abolitionist leader sought to stir up a +mutiny. On 13th May Pitt sent to him to sift any grains of +truth that there might be in this peck of lies. The following +unpublished letter from Wilberforce to Pitt shows that he advised +him to use Williams so as to get at the grains:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">2.20 Sat<sup>y</sup> mng. [<i>May 1797</i>?]<a name="FNanchor_460_460" id="FNanchor_460_460"></a><a href="#Footnote_460_460" class="fnanchor">[460]</a></p> + +<p>Williams has been with Windham and is to wait on him again. The +latter has been with me, and I have been guarding him about W<sup>ms's</sup> +character, telling him that we wish to enable some proper person to +watch W<sup>ms's</sup> motions by becoming acquainted with his person. Now, if +this watch should be at or near Windham's, this point could be obtained. +My other means of making the discovery have failed, and I can devise +no other. Williams avowed to Windham that he had been employed in +endeavouring to inflame the soldiery, but that his mind was not prepared +to go the lengths he found it would be required to go. I am +pretty sure the best way would be to give Williams money, a little, to +infuse a principle of hope. I dare say he is hungry. You must place no +dependence whatever on him, but if he would act for you, he would be +a useful agent, and I think a little money in his case indispensable. I +intreat you not to neglect this. I suppose there will now be no use in +my seeing Ford.</p> +</div> + + +<p>In a second letter, written an hour later, Wilberforce urges +Pitt not to neglect this note. Williams some years ago sought to +make a mutiny; he was skilled in intrigue, had "held Jacobinical +language, and was going on in the most profligate and abandoned +way." This is all the information that the Pitt MSS. yield upon +this question. But in the private diary of Wilberforce there +is the significant entry: "Pitt awaked by Woolwich artillery +riot and went out to Cabinet." The cool bearing of Lord +Harrington, commander of the forces in London, helped to +restore confidence. On 3rd June Government introduced and +speedily passed a Bill for preventing seduction of the soldiery. +There were rumours of an intended mutiny in the Guards; but +fortunately the troops remained true to duty, and some of +them helped to quell the mutiny at the Nore.</p> + +<p>A survey of Pitt's conduct during these critical months +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>reveals the limitations of his nature. He was wanting in foresight. +He seems to have been taken unawares both by the +Bank crisis and the mutinies. He met the financial crisis +promptly when it became acute, though by means which caused +incalculable inconvenience at a later time. The mutinies also +ought to have been averted by timely concessions to the sailors, +who needed increase of pay fully as much as the soldiery. For +this neglect, however, the Admiralty Board, not Pitt, is chiefly +to blame. When the storm burst, Ministers did not display the +necessary initiative and resourcefulness; and the officials of the +Admiralty must be censured for the delay in bringing forward +the proposals on which Parliament could act. The Opposition, +as usual, blamed Pitt alone; and it must be confessed that he +did not exert on officials the almost terrifying influence whereby +Chatham is said to have expedited the preparation of a fleet of +transports. The story to that effect is of doubtful authenticity.<a name="FNanchor_461_461" id="FNanchor_461_461"></a><a href="#Footnote_461_461" class="fnanchor">[461]</a> +But there is no doubt that Chatham's personality and behaviour +surpassed those of his son in face of a national crisis. The eagle +eye of the father would have discerned the growth of discontent +in the navy, and his forceful will would have found means to allay +or crush it. Before the thunder of his eloquence the mewlings +of faction must have died away. The younger Pitt was too +hopeful, too soft, for the emergency. But it is only fair to remember +the heartache and ill health besetting him since the +month of January, which doubtless dulled his powers during +the ensuing period of ceaseless strain and anxiety.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">NATIONAL REVIVAL</p> + +<p class="quote">A common feeling of danger has produced a common spirit of exertion, +and we have cheerfully come forward with a surrender of part of our property, +not merely for recovering ourselves, but for the general recovery of +mankind.—<span class="smcap">Pitt</span>, <i>Speech of 3rd December 1798</i>.</p> + + +<p>The desire of Pitt for peace with France led him in the +autumn of 1796 to renew more formally the overtures +which he had instituted early in that year. His first offer was +repelled in so insolent a way that the King expressed annoyance +at its renewal being deemed necessary to call forth the spirit of +the British lion. Pitt, however, despatched Lord Malmesbury +on a special mission to Paris; and the slowness of his journey, +due to the bad roads, led Burke to remark: "No wonder it was +slow; for he went all the way on his knees." Pitt's terms were +by no means undignified. He offered that France should keep +San Domingo and her conquests in Europe except those made +from Austria. The French reverses in Swabia and the check to +Bonaparte at Caldiero made the French Directory complaisant +for a time; but his victory at Arcola (17th November), the death +of the Czarina Catharine, and the hope of revolutionizing Ireland, +led it to adopt an imperious tone. Its irrevocable resolve +to keep Belgium and the Rhine boundary appeared in a curt +demand to Malmesbury, either to concede that point or to quit +Paris within forty-eight hours (19th December).<a name="FNanchor_462_462" id="FNanchor_462_462"></a><a href="#Footnote_462_462" class="fnanchor">[462]</a></p> + +<p>It argued singular hopefulness in Pitt that, despite the opposition +of the King, he should make a third effort for peace in +the summer of the year 1797, when the loyalty of the fleet was +open to grave doubt, when rebellion raised its head in Ireland, +and Bonaparte had beaten down the last defences of Austria; +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>but so early as 9th April he urged on George the need of making +pacific overtures to Paris, seeing that Austria was at the end +of her resources and seemed on the point of accepting the French +terms. The untoward events of the next weeks deepened his +convictions; and to a letter of the Earl of Carlisle, pressing on +him the urgent need of peace, he replied as follows:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>[<i>Draft.</i>] <i>Private.</i></p> + +<p class="letter">Downing St., <i>4 June 1797</i>.<a name="FNanchor_463_463" id="FNanchor_463_463"></a><a href="#Footnote_463_463" class="fnanchor">[463]</a></p> + +<p>I can also venture to assure you that I feel not less strongly than +yourself the expediency of taking every step towards peace that can be +likely to effect the object, consistent with the safety and honour of the +country; and I have no difficulty in adding (for your <em>private</em> satisfaction) +that steps are taken of the most direct sort, and of which we must soon +know the result, to ascertain whether the disposition of the enemy will +admit of negotiation. On this point the last accounts from Paris seem +to promise favourably. You will have the goodness to consider the fact +of a step having been actually taken, as confidentially communicated to +yourself.</p> +</div> + + +<p>Three days previously Pitt had sent to Paris suggestions for +peace. Delacroix, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, whose asperities +were so unbearable in 1796, now replied with courtesy. Pitt +therefore persevered, declaring it to be his duty as a Christian +and a patriot to end so terrible a war. On the other hand +Grenville pronounced the negotiation mischievous at the present +crisis, when the French Government would certainly proffer intolerable +demands. Much, it was true, could be said in favour +of concluding peace before Austria definitely came to terms with +France; and if Russia and Prussia had shown signs of mediating +in our favour, the negotiation might have had a favourable issue. +But neither of those Courts evinced good-will, and that of Berlin +angered Grenville. He therefore strongly opposed the overture to +France, and herein had the support of the three Whig Ministers, +Portland, Spencer, and Windham. The others sided with Pitt, +Lord Liverpool after some hesitation. On 15th June there were +two long and stormy meetings of the Cabinet, the latter lasting +until midnight; but on the morrow, the day after the collapse +of the Nore Mutiny, the Cabinet endorsed the views of Pitt. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span>Thereupon Grenville entered a written protest, and wrote to +the King, stating that he would offer his resignation if the times +were not so critical. George thanked him, and in a highly +significant phrase urged him to remain at his post so as "to +stave off many farther humiliations."<a name="FNanchor_464_464" id="FNanchor_464_464"></a><a href="#Footnote_464_464" class="fnanchor">[464]</a></p> + +<p>Malmesbury proceeded to Lille and entered into negotiations +with the French plenipotentiaries, Letourneur, Pléville, and +Maret. The last was he who came on a fruitless errand to +London in January 1793, and finally became Duc de Bassano, +and Foreign Minister under Napoleon. It soon appeared that +the only hope of peace lay in the triumph of the Moderates +over the Jacobins at Paris. The former, who desired peace, +and had an immense majority in the country, at first had the +upper hand in the Chambers. They were willing to give up +some of the French conquests on the Rhine and in the Belgic +Provinces, if their distracted and nearly bankrupt country gained +the boon of peace. Their opponents, weak in numbers, relied on +the armies, and on the fierce fanaticism which clung alike to the +principles and the conquests of the Jacobins. Pitt was willing to +meet France half-way. He consented to leave her in possession +of her "constitutional" frontiers, <span lang="la">i.e.</span>, Belgium, Luxemburg, +Avignon, Savoy, and Nice, besides restoring to her and her +allies all naval conquests, except the Cape of Good Hope and +Trinidad. Ceylon, a recent conquest, was to be reserved for +exchange. So far, but no farther, Pitt consented to go in his +desire for peace. Later on he assured Malmesbury that he +would have given way either on Ceylon or the Cape of Good +Hope. But this latter concession would have galled him deeply; +for, as we shall see, he deemed the possession of the Cape essential +to British interests in the East. Spain's demand for Gibraltar +he waived aside as wholly inadmissible, thus resuming on this +question the attitude which he had taken up in the years 1782–3.<a name="FNanchor_465_465" id="FNanchor_465_465"></a><a href="#Footnote_465_465" class="fnanchor">[465]</a></p> + +<p>Far though Pitt went on the path of conciliation, he did not +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span>satisfy the haughty spirits dominant at Paris. It was soon +evident that the only means of satisfying them were subterranean; +and a go-between now offered himself. An American, +Melvill, who claimed to be on intimate terms with the most +influential persons at Paris, assured Malmesbury that he could +guarantee the concession of the desired terms, on consideration +of the payment of £450,000 to the leading men at Paris. +Malmesbury at first believed in Melvill's sincerity and sent +him over to see Pitt. They had some interviews at Holwood +at the close of August, apparently to the satisfaction of the +Prime Minister; for, after referring the proposal to Grenville, he +laid it before the King. His reply, dated Weymouth, 9th September, +advised a wary acceptance of the terms, provided that +France also gave up her claim of indemnity for the ships taken +or burnt at Toulon in 1793.</p> + +<p>The King did not then know of the <span lang="fr">coup d'état</span> of Fructidor 18 +(4th September), whereby Augereau, the right hand of Bonaparte, +coerced the Moderates and installed the Jacobins in power. The +work was done with brutal thoroughness, prominent opponents +being seized and forthwith deported, while the triumphant +minority annulled the elections in forty-nine Departments, and +by unscrupulous pressure compelled voters to endorse the <span lang="la">fiat</span> of +the army. Thus did France plunge once more into a Reign of +Terror, and without the golden hopes which had made the +former experiment bearable. Such was virtually the end of +parliamentary government in France. It is indeed curious that +critics of Pitt, who label his repressive measures a "Reign of +Terror," bestow few words of regret on the despicable acts of +the "Fructidorians," whose policy of leaden repression at home +and filibustering raids abroad made the name of Liberty odious +to her former devotees.</p> + +<p>The new tyrants at Paris withheld all news of the <span lang="fr">coup d'état</span> +until they could override the policy of the French plenipotentiaries +at Lille. There it seemed probable that peace might +ensue, when, on 9th September, the first authentic news of +Augereau's violence arrived. Even so, Pitt hoped that the +triumphant faction would be inclined to enjoy their success in +peace. It was not to be. A member of the French embassy at +Lille discerned far more clearly the motives now operating at +Paris, that the new Directory, while making peace with Austria, +would continue the war with England in order to have a pretext<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> +for keeping up its armies and acquiring compensations. In any +case the successors of the pacific trio with whom Malmesbury +had almost come to terms, demanded that England should +restore every possession conquered from the French or their +allies. This implied the surrender of the Cape, Ceylon, and +Trinidad, besides minor places on which Pitt and his colleagues +held firm. Brief discussions took place, Malmesbury continuing +to show tact and good temper; but on Sunday, 17th September, +the French plenipotentiaries requested him, if he could not grant +their demands, to leave Lille within twenty-four hours. He departed +early on Monday, reached London by noon of Wednesday, +and saw Grenville and Canning immediately. Pitt, owing +to news of the death of his <span class="ins" title="brother in-law">brother-in-law</span>, Eliot, was too prostrate +with grief to see him until the morrow. It then appeared +that the Directory on 11th September issued a secret order to +its plenipotentiaries to send off Malmesbury within twenty-four +hours if he had not full powers to surrender all Britain's +conquests.<a name="FNanchor_466_466" id="FNanchor_466_466"></a><a href="#Footnote_466_466" class="fnanchor">[466]</a></p> + +<p>Even now there was a glimmer of hope. By some secret +channel, Melvill, O'Drusse, or else Boyd the banker, Pitt received +the startling offer, that Talleyrand, if he remained in +favour at Paris, could assure to England the Dutch settlements +in question if a large enough sum were paid over to Barras, +Rewbell, and their clique. Pitt clutched at this straw, and on +22nd September wrote to the King, stating that for £1,200,000 +we could retain Ceylon, and for £800,000 the Cape of Good +Hope. While withholding the name of the intermediaries, +known only to himself and Dundas, he strongly urged that +£2,000,000 be paid down when a treaty in this sense was signed +with France, provided that that sum could be presented to +Parliament under the head of secret service. George, now at +Windsor, cannot have been pleased that Pitt and Dundas had +a state secret which was withheld for him; but he replied on the +morrow in terms, part of which Earl Stanhope did not publish. +"I am so thoroughly convinced of the venality of that nation +[France] and the strange methods used by its Directors in carrying +on negotiations that I agree with him [Pitt] in thinking, +strange as the proposal appears, that it may be not without +foundation."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span></p> +<p>George, then, was more sceptical than Pitt; and Grenville and +Malmesbury soon had cause to believe the offer to be merely an +effort of certain Frenchmen to speculate in the English funds. +Nothing came of the matter. Melvill, O'Drusse, and Talleyrand +on the French side, and Boyd in London, seem to have been the +wire-pullers in this affair, which was renewed early in October; +it may have been only a "bull" operation. The secret is hard +to fathom; but Pitt and Dundas were clearly too credulous. +Such was the conclusion of Malmesbury. It tallied with the +pronouncement of Windham, who in one of his captious moods +remarked to Malmesbury that Pitt had no knowledge of the +world, and kept in office by making concessions, and by "tiding +it over." Grenville (he said) thought more of the nation's dignity, +but was almost a recluse. In fact, the Cabinet was ruled by +Dundas, whom Grenville hated. Dundas it was who had sacrificed +Corsica, which involved the loss of Italy.<a name="FNanchor_467_467" id="FNanchor_467_467"></a><a href="#Footnote_467_467" class="fnanchor">[467]</a> Windham of +course detested the author of the colonial expeditions, which +had diverted help from the Bretons. In the Chouans alone he +saw hope; for how could England struggle on alone against +France if she could use all the advantages offered by Brest and +Cherbourg?</p> + +<p>Much can be said in support of these contentions; for now that +the Directory threw away the scabbard, England felt the need +of the stout Bretons, whose armies had become mere predatory +bands. The last predictions of Burke were therefore justified. +That once mighty intellect expended its last flickering powers +in undignified gibes at the expense of Pitt and his regicide +peace. Fate denied to him the privilege of seeing Malmesbury +again expelled from France and whipped back "like a cur to his +kennel." The great Irishman passed away, amidst inconceivable +gloom, in his 68th year, at Beaconsfield (8th July 1797). In the +view of Windham and other extreme Royalists, Burke was +wholly right, and Pitt's weakness was the cause of all his +country's ills.</p> + +<p>We may grant that the summer of the year 1797 was one of +the worst possible times in which to open a negotiation with +triumphant France; for she was certain to exact hard terms +from a power whose credit and whose prestige at sea had +grievously suffered. Nevertheless, the mistake, if mistake it was, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span>is venial when compared with the unstatesmanlike arrogance of +the French Directors, who, when an advantageous and brilliant +peace was within their reach, chose to open up a new cycle of +war. Of late France had made use of the pretext that she must +gain her "natural frontiers"—the Rhine, the Alps, the Pyrenees, +and the Ocean—for the sake of security against the old dynasties. +By rejecting Pitt's overtures, her leaders now proclaimed their +resolve to dominate Italy and Germany and to secure supremacy +at sea. Their intrigues with British malcontents and the United +Irishmen also showed their determination to revolutionize our +institutions. Thus England was to be abased and insulted, +while France lorded it over all her neighbours and prepared to +become mistress of the seas. The war therefore ceased to be in +any sense a war of principle, and became for France a struggle +for world-wide supremacy, for England a struggle for national +existence; and while democratic enthusiasm waned at Paris, the +old patriotic spirit revived everywhere in Great Britain. The +newspapers were full of appeals for unanimity; and on 20th +November appeared the first number of that bright and patriotic +paper, the "Anti-Jacobin," under the editorship of Canning and +Hookham Frere, which played no small part in arousing +national ardour. On the next day the French Directory issued +an appeal to France to bestir herself to overthrow the British +power, and to dictate peace at London.</p> + +<p>There was need of unanimity; for while France was stamping +out revolt, and Great Britain felt increasingly the drag of Ireland, +Pitt encountered an antagonist of unsuspected strength. Over +against his diffuse and tentative policy stood that of Bonaparte, +clear-cut, and for the present everywhere victorious. While Pitt +pursued that will o' the wisp, a money-bought peace, the Corsican +was bullying the Austrian negotiators at Udine and Campo +Formio. Finally his gasconnades carried the day; and on 17th +October Austria signed away her Netherlands to France and her +Milanese and Mantuan territories to the newly created Cisalpine +Republic. Bonaparte and the Emperor, however, agreed to +partition the unoffending Venetian State, the western half of +which went to the Cisalpines, the eastern half, along with +Venice, Istria, and Dalmatia, to the Hapsburgs. The Court of +Vienna struggled hard to gain the Ionian Islands; but on these, +and on Malta, the young general had set his heart as the natural +stepping-stones to Egypt. At the close of the year he returned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> +to Paris in triumph, and was invited by the Director, Barras, to +go and conquer England.</p> + +<p>Some such effort, either directly against London, or by a deadly +ricochet through Ireland, would have been made, had not Duncan, +on 11th October, crushed the Dutch off Camperdown, taking +nine ships out of fifteen. The consequences were far reaching. +The Dutch navy was paralysed; and without it the squadrons +at Cherbourg and Brest were not yet strong enough to attack +our coasts, until the Toulon and Cadiz fleets sailed northwards. +Bonaparte, who was sent to survey the ports in Flanders and the +north of France, reported to the Directory on 23rd February +1798 that there were fitting out at Brest only ten sail-of-the-line, +which moreover had no crews, and that the preparations +were everywhere so backward as to compel Government to +postpone the invasion until 1799. The wish was father to that +thought. Already he had laid his plans to seize Egypt, and +now strongly advised the orientation of French policy. A third +possible course was the closing of all continental ports against +England, an adumbration of the Continental System of 1806–13 +for assuring the ruin of British commerce.</p> + +<p>The news of Camperdown and Campo Formio added vigour +to Pitt's appeal for national union in his great speech of +10th November, in which he gave proofs of the domineering +spirit of the party now triumphant at Paris. Very telling, +also, was his taunt at the Whig press, "which knows no other +use of English liberty but servilely to retail and transcribe +French opinions." Sinclair, who had moved a hostile amendment, +was so impressed as to withdraw it; and thus at last the +violence of the French Jacobins conduced to harmony at +Westminster.</p> + +<p>Already there were signs that the struggle was one of financial +endurance. At the close of November 1797 Pitt appealed to the +patriotism of Britons to raise £25,500,000 for the estimated expenses +of the next year, in order to display the wealth and +strength of the kingdom. He therefore proposed to ask the +Bank of England to advance £3,000,000 on Exchequer bills; +and he urged the propertied classes to submit to the trebling of +the Assessed Taxes on inhabited houses, windows, male servants, +horses, carriages, etc. The trebling of these imposts took the +House by surprise, and drew from Tierney, now, in the absence +of Fox, the leader of Opposition, the taunt that Pitt had to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> +cringe to the Bank for help. A few days later Pitt explained +that the triple duty would fall only upon those who already +paid £3 or more on that score. If the sum paid were less than +£1 it would be halved. Those who paid £3 or more would be +charged at an increasing rate, until, when the sum paid exceeded +£50, the amount would be quadrupled. Nor was this all. By a +third Resolution he outlined the scheme of what was in part a +progressive Income Tax. Incomes under £60 were exempt; +those between £60 and £65 paid at the rate of 2<i>d.</i> in the pound; +and the proportion rose until it reached 2<i>s.</i> in the pound for +incomes of £200 or more.</p> + +<p>Though Pitt pointed out the need of a patriotic rejoinder to +the threats of the French Government, the new Assessed Taxes +aroused a furious opposition. "The chief and almost only topic +of conversation is the new taxes," wrote Theresa Parker to +Lady Stanley of Alderley. "How people are to live if the Bill +is passed I know not. I understand the Opposition are much +elated with the hope of the Bill's being passed, as they consider +Mr. Pitt infallibly ruined if it does, and that he must go out."<a name="FNanchor_468_468" id="FNanchor_468_468"></a><a href="#Footnote_468_468" class="fnanchor">[468]</a> +The patriotism of London equalled that of the Foxites. City +men, forgetting that the present proposals were due to the +shameless evasions of the Assessed Taxes, raised a threatening +din, some of them declaring that Pitt would be assaulted if he +came into the City. Several supporters of Pitt, among them +the Duke of Leeds, Sir William Pulteney and Henry Thornton, +opposed the new imposts, and the Opposition was jubilantly +furious. Sheridan, who returned to the fray, declared that +though the poor escaped these taxes they would starve; for the +wealth which employed them would be dried up. Hobhouse +dubbed the Finance Bill inquisitorial, degrading, and fatal +to the virtues of truthfulness and charity. Squires bemoaned +the loss of horses and carriages and the hard lot of their footmen. +Arthur Young warned Pitt that if the taxes could not be +evaded, gentlemen must sell their estates and live in town. +Bath, he was assured, welcomed the new imposts because they +would drive very many families thither. He begged Pitt to reconsider +his proposals, and, instead of them, to tax "all places +of public diversion, public dinners, clubs, etc., not forgetting +debating societies and Jacobin meetings"; for this would restrain +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span>"that violent emigration to towns, which the measure dreadfully +threatens."<a name="FNanchor_469_469" id="FNanchor_469_469"></a><a href="#Footnote_469_469" class="fnanchor">[469]</a></p> + +<p>A sign of the hopes of the Opposition was the re-appearance of +Fox. Resuming his long vacant seat, he declared Pitt to be the +author of the country's ruin. For himself, he upheld the funding +system, that is, the plan of shelving the debt upon the future. +The palm for abusiveness was, however, carried off by Nicholls +and Jekyll. The former taunted Pitt with losing all his Allies +and raising France to undreamt-of heights of power, with failing +to gain peace, with exhausting the credit and the resources of +England until now he had to requisition men's incomes. As for +Jekyll, he called the present proposals "a detestable measure of +extortion and rapacity." The debates dragged on, until, after a +powerful reply by Pitt in the small hours of 5th January 1798 +the Finance Bill passed the Commons by 196 to 71. The Lords +showed a far better spirit. Carrington declared that Pitt's proposals +did not go far enough. Lord Holland in a maiden speech +pronounced them worse than the progressive taxes of Robespierre. +But Liverpool, Auckland, and Grenville supported the +measure, which passed on 9th January 1798 by 75 to 6.</p> + +<p>For a time the Finance Bill injured Pitt's popularity in the +City. During the State procession on 19th December 1797, +when the King, Queen, and Ministers went to St. Paul's to +render thanks for the naval triumphs of that year, he was hooted +by the mob; and on the return his carriage had to be guarded +by a squadron of horse. Nevertheless, it is now clear that Pitt's +proposals were both necessary and salutary. The predictions of +commercial ruin were soon refuted by the trade returns. Imports +in 1798 showed an increase of £6,844,000 over those of 1797; +exports, an increase of £3,974,000. In part, doubtless, these +gratifying results may be ascribed to renewed security at sea, the +bountiful harvest of 1798, and the recent opening up of trade to +Turkey and the Levant. But, under a vicious fiscal system, trade +would not have recovered from the severe depression of 1797. +Amidst all the troubles of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, Pitt +derived comfort from the signs of returning prosperity.</p> + +<p>The confidence which he inspired was proved by the success +of a remarkable experiment, the Patriotic Contribution. In the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>midst of the acrid debates on the Finance Bill, the Speaker, +Addington, tactfully suggested the insertion of a clause enabling +the Bank of England to receive voluntary gifts, amounting +to one-fifth of the income. Pitt gratefully adopted the proposal, +and early in the year 1798 patriots began to send in large +sums. Pitt, Addington, Dundas, the Lord Chancellor, and +Lords Kenyon and Romney at once gave £2,000 each; the +King graciously allotted from the Privy Purse £20,000 a year +during the war. The generous impulse speedily prevailed, and +the City once more showed its patriotism by subscribing £10,000; +the Bank gave £200,000. A platform was erected near the Royal +Exchange for the receipt of contributions. Among others, a +wealthy calico printer, Robert Peel, father of the statesman, felt +the call of duty to give £10,000. He went back to Bury (Lancashire) +in some anxiety to inform his partner, Yates, of this +unbusinesslike conduct, whereupon the latter remarked, "You +might as well have made it £20,000 while you were about it." If +all Britons had acted in this spirit, the new taxes would have +met the needs of the war. But, as will subsequently appear, +they failed to balance the ever growing expenditure, and Pitt in +1799–1800 had to raise loans on the security of the Income Tax +to make up its deficiencies.</p> + +<p>A pleasing proof of the restoration of friendship between +Auckland and Pitt appears in a letter in which the former asked +advice as to the amount which he should give to this fund. He +was now Postmaster-General, and stated that his total gross income +was £3,600, out of which the new taxes took £320. Should +he give £1,000? And what should he give for his brother, Morton +Eden, ambassador at Vienna? Pitt answered that £700 +should be the utmost for him; the sum of £500 for Morton +would also be generous.<a name="FNanchor_470_470" id="FNanchor_470_470"></a><a href="#Footnote_470_470" class="fnanchor">[470]</a> On the whole, £2,300,000 was subscribed—a +sum which contrasts remarkably with the driblets +that came in as a response to Necker's appeal in the autumn of +1789 for a patriotic contribution of one fourth of the incomes of +Frenchmen.</p> + +<p>Even so, Pitt had to impose new taxes in his Budget of 1798, +and to raise a loan of £3,000,000. Further, on 2nd April, he +proposed a commutation of the Land Tax. Of late it had been +voted annually at the rate of 4<i>s.</i> in the pound, and produced about +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span>£2,000,000. Pitt now proposed to make it a perpetual charge +upon parishes, but to enable owners to redeem their land from +the tax at the existing valuation. The sums accruing from these +sales were to go to the reduction of the National Debt. His aim, +that of enhancing credit, was as praiseworthy as his procedure +was defective. For there had been no valuation of the land for +many years, and the assessments varied in the most surprising +manner even in neighbouring districts. Doubtless it was impossible +during the Great War to carry out the expensive and +lengthy process of a national valuation; but, as manufactures +and mining were creating a new Industrial England, the time +was most unsuited to the imposition of a fixed quota of Land +Tax.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, Pitt took as basis the assessment of 1797, and +made it a perpetual charge upon each parish. The results have +in many cases been most incongruous. Agricultural land, which +was generally rated high, continued to pay at that level long +after depreciation set in. On the other hand, large tracts in the +manufacturing districts, rapidly increasing in value, paid far less +than their due share. In some cases where a barren moor has +become a hive of industry, the parish now raises its quota by a +rate of .001 in the pound. In a few cases, where the fall in value +has been severe, the rate is very heavy, in spite of remedial +legislation. Pitt could not have foreseen differences such as +these; but, in view of the rapid growth of manufactures in the +Midlands and North, he should have ensured either a re-valuation +of the parochial quotas or a complete and methodical redemption +from the Land Tax. He took neither course, and that, too, +in spite of the warnings of Lord Sheffield and Sinclair as to the +injustice and impolicy of his proposals. They passed both +Houses by large majorities, perhaps because he offered to landlords +the option of redeeming their land at twenty years' purchase. +Less than one fourth of the tax was redeemed before the +year 1800, a fact which seems to show that the landed interest +was too hard pressed to profit by the opportunity. As Sir Francis +Burdett said, country gentlemen had to bear a heavy burden of +taxation, besides poor-rates, tithes, and the expense of the +mounted yeomanry. Thurlow compared the country magnates +to sheep who let themselves be shorn and re-shorn, whereas +merchants and traders were like hogs, grunting and bolting as +soon as one bristle was touched. In defence of Pitt's action, it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> +may be said that he hoped to secure a considerable gain by the +investment of the purchase money in Consols and to enhance +their value; but it appears that not more than £80,000 a year +was thus realized.<a name="FNanchor_471_471" id="FNanchor_471_471"></a><a href="#Footnote_471_471" class="fnanchor">[471]</a></p> + +<p>The prevalence of discontent early in 1798 and the threatened +coalition of Irish and British malcontents will be noticed in the +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">following chapter</a>. Pitt was so impressed by the danger as to +press for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act and the renewal +of the Aliens Act (April 1798). As happened in 1794, the +revival of coercion produced vehement protests. Already the +Duke of Norfolk had flung defiance at Ministers. Presiding at a +great banquet held at the Crown and Anchor, on the occasion of +Fox's birthday, 24th January, he not only compared the great +orator to Washington, but hinted that the 2,000 men present +might do as much as Washington's handful had done in America. +Finally he proposed the distinctly Jacobinical toast, "Our Sovereign, +the Majesty of the People." For this he was dismissed +from the command of a militia regiment and from the Lord +Lieutenancy of the West Riding of Yorkshire.</p> + +<p>Fox chose to repeat the toast early in May 1798, when large +parts of Ireland were on the brink of revolt. In so dire a crisis +it behoved a leading man to weigh his words. But the wilful +strain in his nature set all prudence at defiance. Thereupon +several of Pitt's friends recommended a public prosecution for +sedition, or at least a reprimand at the bar of the House of Commons. +To the former course Pitt objected as giving Fox too +much consequence, besides running the risk of an acquittal; but +he saw some advantage in the latter course; for (as he wrote to +Dundas) Fox, when irritated by the reprimand, would probably +offer a new insult and could then be sent to the Tower for the +rest of the Session. The suggestion is perhaps the pettiest in +the whole of Pitt's correspondence; but probably it was due to +the extremely grave situation in Ireland and the fear of a French +invasion. Further, Fox had ceased to attend the House of Commons; +and a member who shirks his duty is doubly guilty when +he proposes a seditious toast. Pitt, however, did not push +matters to extremes, and the course actually adopted was the +removal of the name of Fox from the Privy Council by the hand +of George III on 9th May.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span></p> +<p>Sixteen days later, Pitt and Tierney had a passage of arms in +the House. That pugnacious Irishman had thrust himself to the +fore during the secession of Fox and other prominent Whigs +from the House, and had to bear many reproaches for his officiousness. +He also nagged at Pitt at every opportunity, until, on +his opposing a motion of urgency for a Bill for better manning +the Navy, Pitt's patience gave way. He accused the self-constituted +leader of seeking to obstruct the defence of the country. +The charge was in the main correct; for Tierney's opposition to +a pressing measure of national defence was highly unpatriotic. +Nevertheless, Tierney had right on his side when he called Pitt +to order and appealed to the Speaker for protection. Rarely has +that personage been placed in a more difficult position. Pitt was +right in his facts; but etiquette required that he should withdraw +or at least attenuate his charge. Addington politely hinted that +the words were unparliamentary, but suggested that the Minister +should give an explanation. Pitt stiffly refused either to withdraw +his words, or to explain their meaning. There the incident +closed. On the next day, Saturday, 26th May, Tierney sent Pitt +a challenge, which was at once accepted.</p> + +<p>We find it difficult now to take seriously a duel between a slim +man of near forty who had rarely fired a shot in sport, never in +anger, and a stoutly built irascible Irishman, for whom a good +shot meant lynching or lasting opprobrium. Visions of Bob +Acres and Sir Lucius O'Trigger flit before us. We picture +Tierney quoting "fighting Bob Acres" as to the advantage of a +sideways posture; and we wonder whether the seconds, if only +in regard for their own safety, did not omit to insert bullets. +The ludicrous side of the affair soon dawned on contemporaries, +witness the suggestion that in all fairness Pitt's figure ought to +be chalked out on Tierney's, and that no shot taking effect outside +ought to count. But, on the whole, people took the incident +seriously. Certainly the principals did. Pitt made his will +beforehand, and requested Addington as a friend to come and +see him, thereby preventing his interposition as Speaker. He +asked Steele to be his second; but, he being away from town, +Dudley Ryder took his place. Leaving Downing Street about +noon on Whitsunday, 27th May, the pair walked along Birdcage +Walk, mounted the steps leading into Queen Street, and entered +a chaise engaged for their excursion. After passing the villages +of Chelsea and Putney, and, topping the rise beyond, they proceeded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> +along the old Portsmouth Road, which crosses the +northern part of Putney Heath. At the top of the steep hill +leading down into Kingston Vale they alighted, made their way +past the gibbet where swung the corpse of a well-known highwayman, +Jerry Abershaw, long the terror of travellers on that road. +Did Pitt know that libellers likened him to the highwayman; +for "Jerry took purses with his pistols, and Pitt with his Parliaments"? +Lower down Pitt and Ryder found Tierney and his +second, General Walpole, in a charming dell radiant with golden +gorse and silver birches.<a name="FNanchor_472_472" id="FNanchor_472_472"></a><a href="#Footnote_472_472" class="fnanchor">[472]</a></p> + +<p>But they were not alone. That fine Whitsuntide had brought +many chaises along the road; and not a few curious persons +skirted the rising ground towards Putney and Wimbledon. To +these inquisitive groups rode up a tall bland-looking man, now +more than usually sedate. It was Addington. Probably he was +the most anxious man alive. He knew that his weakness as +Speaker had freed Pitt from the necessity of apologizing to +Tierney as the occasion demanded. Now, too, as Speaker, he +ought to intervene. As a friend, pledged by Pitt to secrecy, he +could do nothing but look on. Below, in the dell, the seconds +saw to the pistols and measured the distance—twelve paces. +Pitt and Tierney coolly took aim, and, at the signal, fired. +Addington's heart must have leaped with joy to see Pitt's figure +still erect. Again the seconds produced pistols, and again the +pair fired: but this time Pitt discharged his weapon into the air. +Was it a sign of his contrition for his insult to Tierney, or of his +chivalrous sense of Tierney's disadvantage in the matter of +target-space? Certain it is that Walpole leaped over the furze +bushes for joy on seeing the duellists still erect.</p> + +<p>Thus ended the duel, to the satisfaction of all present. Pitt +had behaved with spirit, and Tierney had achieved immortal +fame. But that the duel was fought at all caused deep concern. +Hannah More was inexpressibly shocked at the desecration of +Whitsunday; Wilberforce also was deeply pained. Indeed, he +deemed the matter so serious as to propose to give notice of a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span>motion for preventing duelling; but he dropped it on Pitt frankly +assuring him that, if carried, it would involve his resignation. +George III signified to Chatham his decided disapproval, and +expressed to Pitt a desire that such an incident should never +occur again. "Public characters," he added, "have no right to +weigh alone what they owe to themselves; they must consider +what they owe to their country." Thomas Pitt strongly reprobated +the conduct of Tierney in challenging Pitt; for we find the +latter replying to him on 30th May: "I shall feel great concern +if the feelings of my friends betray them into any observations +on Mr. Tierney's conduct reproachful or in the smallest degree +unfavourable to him, being convinced that he does not merit +them." This is the letter of a spirited gentleman. Buckingham +evidently sympathized with Thomas Pitt; for he expressed his +surprise that the Prime Minister should risk his life against such +a man as Tierney. A more jocular tone was taken by the Earl +of Mornington, soon to become the Marquis Wellesley. Writing +to Pitt from Fort St. George on 8th August 1799 (three months +after the capture of Seringapatam), he expressed strong approval +of his Irish policy and concluded as follows: "I send you by +Henry a pair of pistols found in the palace at Seringapatam. +They are mounted in gold and were given by the late King of +France to the 'citizen Sultan' (Tippoo). They will, I hope, answer +better for your next Jacobin duel than those you used +under Abershaw's gibbet."<a name="FNanchor_473_473" id="FNanchor_473_473"></a><a href="#Footnote_473_473" class="fnanchor">[473]</a>—What became of those pistols?</p> + +<p>The general opinion was adverse to Pitt's conduct. For at +that time the outlook in Ireland could scarcely have been +gloomier, and Bonaparte's armada at Toulon was believed to be +destined for those shores. In such a case, despite the nice +punctilio of honour, neither ought Tierney to have sent a challenge +nor Pitt to have accepted it. The recklessness of Pitt in +this affair is, however, typical of the mood of the British people in +the spring and summer of that year. The victories of Jervis and +Duncan, the rejection of Pitt's offers of peace by the French +Directory, and its threats to invade these shores, aroused the +fighting spirit of the race. As the war became a struggle for +existence, all thoughts of surrender vanished. The prevalent +feeling was one of defiance. It was nurtured by Canning in the +"Anti-Jacobin," in which he lampooned the French democrats +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span>and their British well-wishers. Under the thin disguise of "the +Friend of Humanity" he satirized Tierney in the poem, "The +Knife-Grinder," a parody, in form, of Southey's "Widow," and, +in meaning, of Tierney's philanthropic appeals. In a play, "The +Rovers," he sportfully satirized the romantic drama of Schiller, +"The Robbers." In one of the incidental poems he represented +the hero, while in prison, recalling the bright days</p> + + +<p class="poem"> +<span class="i8">at the U-<br /></span> +-niversity of Göttingen,<br /> +-niversity of Göttingen.<br /> +</p> + + +<p>Pitt was so charmed with this <span lang="fr">jeu d'esprit</span> that he is said to +have added the following verse in the same mock-heroic style:<a name="FNanchor_474_474" id="FNanchor_474_474"></a><a href="#Footnote_474_474" class="fnanchor">[474]</a></p> + + +<p class="poem"> +Sun, moon, and thou, vain world, adieu,<br /> +That Kings and priests are plotting in;<br /> +Here doomed to starve on water gru-<br /> +-el, never shall I see the U-<br /> +<span class="i4">-niversity of Göttingen,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">-niversity of Göttingen.<br /></span> +</p> + + +<p>A Prime Minister who can throw off squibs, and a nation that +can enjoy them, will not succumb even in the worst crisis.</p> + +<p>In truth, all patriots were now straining their utmost to repel +an aggressive and insolent enemy. The Volunteer Movement +more than ever called forth the manly exertions of the people; +and one of the most popular caricatures of the time (May 1798) +shows Pitt as a Volunteer standing rigidly at attention. Sermons, +caricatures, pamphlets, and songs, especially those of Dibdin, +served to stimulate martial ardour. Singular to relate, +Hannah More (now in her fifty-third year) figured among the +patriotic pamphleteers, her "Cheap Repository" of political +tracts being an effective antidote to the Jacobinical leaflets +which once had a hold on the poorer classes. Space will not +admit of an account of all the agencies which heralded the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span>dawn of a more resolute patriotism. Though the methods were +varied, the soul of them all was Pitt.<a name="FNanchor_475_475" id="FNanchor_475_475"></a><a href="#Footnote_475_475" class="fnanchor">[475]</a></p> + +<p>The tone of public opinion astonished that experienced writer, +Mallet du Pan, who, on coming from the Continent to England, +described the change of spirit as astounding. There the monarchical +States, utterly devoid of dignity and patriotism, were +squabbling over the details of a shameful peace. "Here," he +writes in May 1798, "we are in the full tide of war, crushed by +taxation, and exposed to the fury of the most desperate of +enemies, but nevertheless security, abundance, and energy reign +supreme, alike in cottage and palace. I have not met with a +single instance of nervousness or apprehension. The spectacle +presented by public opinion has far surpassed my expectation. +The nation had not yet learnt to know its own strength or its +resources. The Government has taught it the secret, and inspired +it with an unbounded confidence almost amounting to presumption." +No more striking tribute has been paid by a foreigner to +the dauntless spirit of Britons. Rarely have they begun a war +well; for the careless ways of the race tell against the methodical +preparation to which continental States must perforce submit. +England, therefore, always loses in the first rounds of a +fight. But, if she finds a good leader, she slowly and wastefully +repairs the early losses. In September 1797 the French Directory +made the unpardonable mistake of compelling her to prepare +for a war to the knife. Thenceforth the hesitations of Pitt, +which had weakened his war policy in 1795–6, vanished; and he +now stood forth as the inspirer of his countrymen in a contest +on behalf of their national existence and the future independence +of Europe.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">THE IRISH REBELLION</p> + +<p class="quote">The dark destiny of Ireland, as usual, triumphed.—<span class="smcap">T. Moore</span>, <i>Mems. of +Lord Edward Fitzgerald</i>.</p> + + +<p>Various orders of minds ascribe the Irish Rebellion of +1798 to widely different causes. The ethnologist sees in it +the incompatibility of Celt and Saxon. To the geographer it +may yield proofs of Nature's design to make Ireland a nation. +If approached from the religious standpoint, it will be set down +either to Jesuits or to the great schism of Luther. The historian +or jurist may trace its origins back to the long series of wrongs +inflicted by a dominant on a subject race. Fanatical Irishmen +see in it a natural result of the rule of "the base and bloody +Saxon"; and Whig historians ascribe it to Pitt's unworthy treatment +of that most enlightened of Lords-Lieutenant, Earl Fitzwilliam. +Passing by the remoter causes, I must very briefly +notice the last topic.</p> + +<p>The appointment of the Whig magnate, Fitzwilliam, to the +Irish Viceroyalty in 1794 resulted from the recent accession of +the "Old Whigs," led by the Duke of Portland, to the ministerial +ranks. That union, as we have seen, was a fertile cause of +friction. Fitzwilliam was at first President of the Council; but +that post did not satisfy the nephew and heir of the Marquis of +Rockingham. He aspired to the Viceroyalty at Dublin; and +Portland, who, as Home Secretary, supervised Irish affairs, +claimed it for him. Pitt consented, provided that a suitable appointment +could be arranged for the present Viceroy, the Earl +of Westmorland. This was far from easy. Ultimately the position +of Master of the Horse was found for him; but, long before +this decision was formed, Fitzwilliam wrote to the Irish patriot, +Grattan, asking him and his friends, the Ponsonbys, for their +support during his Viceroyalty. This move implied a complete<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> +change of system at Dublin, Grattan and the Ponsonbys having +declared for the admission of Roman Catholics to the then exclusively +Protestant Parliament. True, this reform seemed a +natural sequel to Pitt's action in according to British Catholics +the right of public worship and of the construction of schools +(1791). Further, in 1792, he urged Westmorland to favour the +repeal of the remaining penal laws against Irish Catholics; but +the Dublin Parliament decisively rejected the proposal. Nevertheless, +in 1793 he induced Westmorland to support the extension +of the franchise to Romanists, a measure which seemed to +foreshadow their admission to Parliament itself. There is little +doubt that Pitt, who then expected the war to be short, intended +to set the crown to this emancipating policy; for even in the +dark times that followed he uttered not a word which implied +permanent hostility to the claims of Catholics. His attitude +was that of one who awaited a fit opportunity for satisfying them.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, the overtures of Fitzwilliam to Grattan and +the Ponsonbys became known at Dublin, with results most +humiliating for Westmorland. The exultation of the Ponsonbys +and the Opposition aroused the hopes of Catholics and the +resentment of the more extreme Protestants. Chief among the +champions of the existing order was the Irish Lord Chancellor, +Baron Fitzgibbon, afterwards Earl of Clare. A man of +keen intellect and indomitable will, he swayed the House of +Lords, the Irish Bar, and the Viceregal councils. It was he +who had urged severe measures against the new and powerful +organization, the United Irishmen, started in Ulster by Wolfe +Tone, which aimed at banding together men of both religions in +a solid national phalanx. Scarcely less influential than Fitzgibbon +was Beresford, the chief of the Revenue Department, +whose family connections and control of patronage were so extensive +as to earn him the name of the King of Ireland. Like +Fitzgibbon he bitterly opposed any further concession to Catholics; +and it was therefore believed that the dismissal of these +two men was a needful preliminary to the passing of that important +measure. Rumours of sweeping changes began to fly +about, especially when Grattan came to London, and had interviews +with the Lord Chancellor. The frequent shifts whereby +the Scottish Presbyterian, Wedderburn, became the reactionary +Lord Loughborough were notorious; and it is one of the suspicious +features of the Fitzwilliam affair that he, now Lord<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> +Chancellor of Great Britain, should urge Pitt to treat Fitzwilliam +with the confidence due to his prospective dignity. The +Attorney-General, Sir Richard Pepper Arden, sent to Pitt the +following caution:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter"><i>September 1794</i>.<a name="FNanchor_476_476" id="FNanchor_476_476"></a><a href="#Footnote_476_476" class="fnanchor">[476]</a></p> + +<p>... My wife says she dined the other day with Grattan at the Chancellor's. +I am sadly afraid that preferment in Ireland will run too much +in favour of those who have not been the most staunch friends of +Government; but, pray, for God's sake, take care that the new Lord +Lieutenant does not throw the Government back into the hands of +Lord Shannon and the Ponsonbys, nor turn out those who behaved +well during the King's illness to make way for those who behaved +directly the reverse. Excuse my anxiety on this head but I fear there is +good reason for it.</p> +</div> + + +<p>Arden was correctly informed. Now or a little later, Fitzwilliam +formed the resolve to dismiss Fitzgibbon and Beresford. +On the other hand, the lowering outlook in Holland in the +autumn of 1794 induced in Pitt the conviction that the time had +not yet come for sweeping changes at Dublin. Accordingly, late +in October, or early in November, he and Grenville thoroughly +discussed this subject with the newly appointed Ministers, +Portland, Fitzwilliam, Spencer, and Windham. Grenville's account +of this conference, which has but recently seen the light, +refutes the oft repeated statement,<a name="FNanchor_477_477" id="FNanchor_477_477"></a><a href="#Footnote_477_477" class="fnanchor">[477]</a> that Pitt accorded to Fitzwilliam +a free hand at Dublin. On the contrary, it was agreed, +apparently with the full consent of the Viceroy-elect, that he +should make no change of system.<a name="FNanchor_478_478" id="FNanchor_478_478"></a><a href="#Footnote_478_478" class="fnanchor">[478]</a> Fully consonant with this +decision was the reply of Pitt to Sir John Parnell, Grattan, and +the two Ponsonbys, who in the third week of November 1794 +begged him to lower the duties on inter-insular imports. While +expressing his complete sympathy with their request, he declared +the present critical time to be inopportune for a change +which must arouse clamour and prejudice.<a name="FNanchor_479_479" id="FNanchor_479_479"></a><a href="#Footnote_479_479" class="fnanchor">[479]</a> The conduct of +Fitzwilliam was far different. Landing near Dublin on 4th +January 1795, he on the 7th sent Daly to request Beresford to +retire from office. Beresford refused, and sent off an appeal +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span>to his old friend, Auckland, with the result that the Cabinet +soon met to consider the questions aroused by this and other +curt dismissals. It being clear that Fitzwilliam was working with +the Ponsonbys for a complete change of system, he was asked +to modify his conduct. He refused to do so.</p> + +<p>The King now intervened in an unusually incisive manner. +He informed Pitt that it would be better to recall Fitzwilliam +than to allow further concessions to Catholics, a subject which +was "beyond the decision of any Cabinet of Ministers." Accordingly, +Fitzwilliam was recalled, his departure from Dublin arousing +a storm of indignation which bade fair to overwhelm the +Administration of his successor, Earl Camden.</p> + +<p>Such is a brief outline of the Fitzwilliam affair. No event +could have been more unfortunate. It led Irish patriots and the +Whigs at Westminster to inveigh against the perfidy and tyranny +of Pitt. He was unable to publish documents in his own defence, +while Fitzwilliam crowned his indiscretions by writing two +lengthy letters charging the Cabinet with breach of faith and +Beresford with peculation. Nominally private, they were published +at Dublin, with the result that Pitt and Camden were held +up to execration and contempt. On reviewing this question, we +may conclude that Pitt erred in not procuring from Fitzwilliam +a written statement that he would make no sweeping changes at +Dublin, either in regard to men or measures, without the consent +of the Cabinet. It is, however, clear that Ministers regarded the +verbal understanding with Fitzwilliam as binding; for Grenville, +Portland, Spencer, and Windham sided with Pitt in this painful +dispute, Portland's chilling behaviour to the Earl on his return +marking his disapproval of his conduct.</p> + +<p>Never did a Lord-Lieutenant enter on his duties under auspices +more threatening than those besetting the arrival of Camden on +31st March 1795. After the swearing-in ceremony the passions +of the Dublin mob broke loose. Stones were flung at the carriages +of the Primate and Fitzgibbon. The rabble then attacked +the Speaker's residence and the Custom House, and not till two +of their number fell dead under a volley of the soldiery did the +rioters disperse. The rebellion which Fitzwilliam predicted on +his departure seemed to be at hand.</p> + +<p>Camden, on whom this storm was to burst three years later, +was not a strong man. He entered on his duties doubtfully and +before long sent requests for his recall on account of his family<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> +concerns. He might well quail at the magnitude of his task. +His instructions bade him by all available means discourage the +claims of the Catholics, and rally the discouraged Protestants. +Thereafter he might conciliate the Catholics by promising relief +for their parochial clergy, the foundation of a seminary for the +training of their priests, and some measure of education for the +peasantry. The instructions ended thus: "Moderate, soothe, +conciliate these jarring spirits. We have great confidence in +your judgment, firmness, discretion."<a name="FNanchor_480_480" id="FNanchor_480_480"></a><a href="#Footnote_480_480" class="fnanchor">[480]</a> The despatch refutes the +oft-repeated assertion that the Ministry sought to inflame the +animosities of Protestants and Catholics in order to force on +the Union. That was the outcome of the whole situation; but in +the spring of 1795 Ministers hoped to calm the ferment, which +they rightly ascribed to the imprudence of Fitzwilliam. Their +forecast for a time came true. In the first debates at Dublin the +lead given by Camden's able Secretary, Pelham, served to close +the schism in the Protestant ranks. Despite the vehement efforts +of Grattan, his Bill for the admission of Catholics was thrown +out by a majority of more than one hundred; and Ireland entered +once more on the dreary path of reaction.</p> + +<p>In the hope of softening the asperities of Irish life, Pitt +favoured the plan of founding a seminary for the training of +Catholic priests in Ireland. The proposal was alike one of +justice and expediency; of justice, because the expense of +training Irish priests in foreign seminaries had been a sore +burden to their co-religionists; and of expediency, because the +change promised to assuage the anti-British prejudices of the +priests. Moreover, amidst the sweeping triumph of secularism +in France and Belgium, most of the seminaries frequented by +Irish youths had disappeared. The chief objections urged +against the scheme were the narrowness of view certain to +result from the curriculum of a semi-monastic institution, and +the desirability of educating priests at Trinity College along +with Protestants. On these grounds we must regret Pitt's decision +to found a separate training college, albeit at first intended +for the education of lay youths as well. The considerations +above set forth, however, prevailed; and the chief legislative +result of the year 1795 at Dublin was the charter establishing +Maynooth College. Undoubtedly it was the outcome of Pitt's +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span>desire to pacify Catholic Ireland; but the unhappy conditions of +the ensuing period told heavily against success. Indeed, as Wolfe +Tone predicted, that institution fostered insular patriotism of a +somewhat narrow type.</p> + +<p>The trend of things in the years 1795–7 set steadily towards +rebellion. The discontent was most threatening among the +sturdy Presbyterians of Ulster, chafed as they were by the +exaction of tithes by the Protestant Established Church. The +founders and the ablest leaders of the League of United Irishmen +were Protestants. For a time they aimed merely at a +drastic measure of Parliamentary Reform similar to that advocated +by English Radicals. But the disappointment of the hopes +of Grattan and Irish Whigs in the spring of 1795 exasperated +all sections of reformers and impelled the League towards revolutionary +courses. Sops like Maynooth they rejected with +scorn; and at the close of that year, after the passing of certain +repressive measures, their organization became secret; they +imposed an oath on members and gradually devised means for +organizing the whole of Ireland in brotherhoods, which by +means of district and county delegations, carried out the behests +of the central committee at Dublin.</p> + +<p>Yet their system was far from absorbing the whole of the +nation. The vivacity of the Celt and the hardness of the Saxon +tell against close union; and where the two races dwell side by +side, solidarity is a dream. Now, as always, in times of excitement +the old animosities burst forth. The Catholic peasantry +banded together in clubs, known as Defenders, to glut their +hatred upon Protestant landlords and tithe-reaping clergy. Their +motives seem in the main to have been agrarian rather than +religious; but, as in Leinster, Munster, and Connaught the +dividing lines between landlords and peasants were almost +identical with those between Protestants and Catholics, the land +feud became a war of creed. The ensuing horrors, midnight +attacks, cattle-maiming, and retaliation by armed yeomanry, +exerted a sinister influence upon Ulster, where the masses were +fiercely Protestant. Certain of the Catholic villages were ravaged +by Protestant Peep o' Day Boys, until the Irishry fled in +terror to the South or West, there wreaking their vengeance +upon squires and parsons. By degrees the Peep o' Day Boys +became known as Orangemen, whose defiant loyalty sometimes +caused concern to Camden and Pitt; while the Defenders<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> +joined the better drilled ranks of United Ireland, which therefore +became a preponderatingly Catholic body.</p> + +<p>Thus affairs revolved in the old vicious circle. Feuds, racial, +religious, and agrarian, rent Ireland asunder. Disputes about +land have ever sunk deep into the brooding imagination of the +Celt; and the memories of holdings absorbed, or of tithes +pitilessly exacted in lean years, now flashed forth in many a +deed of incendiarism or outrage. To Camden there appeared to +be only one means of cure, coercion. An Indemnity Act was +therefore passed to safeguard squires and yeomen who took the +law into their own hands. Then followed the Insurrection Act, +for disarming the disaffected, and the suspension of the Habeas +Corpus Act for strengthening the arm of the law.</p> + +<p>The outcome was that the United Irishmen turned towards +France. Even in the year 1793 the Republic sent agents into +Ireland to stir up revolt. Nothing definite came of those efforts, +except that a section of Irish patriots thenceforth began to +strive for separation from Great Britain. Early in 1796 Wolfe +Tone proceeded to Paris to arrange for the despatch of a French +auxiliary corps. On 20th April General Clarke, head of the +Topographical Bureau at the War Office, agreed to send 10,000 +men and 20,000 stand of arms. The mercurial Irishman encountered +endless delays, and was often a prey to melancholy; +but the news of Bonaparte's victories in Italy led him to picture +the triumph of the French Grenadiers in Ireland.<a name="FNanchor_481_481" id="FNanchor_481_481"></a><a href="#Footnote_481_481" class="fnanchor">[481]</a></p> + +<p>Another interesting figure is that of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. +Sprung from the ancient line of the Geraldines, and son of the +Duke of Leinster, he plunged into life with the gaiety and +bravery of a Celt. After serving with distinction in the British +army in America he returned, became a member of the Irish +Parliament, and in 1790 during the acute friction with Spain, +received from his uncle, the Duke of Richmond, an introduction +to Pitt, who offered him the command of an expedition +against Cadiz. Nothing came of the proposal; but the incident +reveals the esteem in which the chivalrous young officer was held. +He soon married Pamela, the reputed daughter of the Duke of +Orleans and Mme. de Genlis, whence he himself was often dubbed +"Egalité." The repressive policy of Camden made him a rebel; +and in May 1796 he made his way to Hamburg, hoping to concert<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> +plans for a French invasion. There he was joined by Arthur +O'Connor, who impressed Reinhard with a sense of ability and +power. Together the two Irishmen travelled to Basle, where they +induced Barthélemy to favour their scheme. Meanwhile the +French Directory entered into the plan of Wolfe Tone; the +mission of Fitzgerald had no direct result, apart from the revelation +of his plan to a travelling companion, who had been the +mistress of a British Minister, and now forwarded a description +of it to London.<a name="FNanchor_482_482" id="FNanchor_482_482"></a><a href="#Footnote_482_482" class="fnanchor">[482]</a></p> + +<p>Meanwhile Wolfe Tone had sketched the outline of the +enterprise to Clarke and General Hoche, predicting to the latter, +the commander-elect, that he would "amputate the right hand +of England for ever."<a name="FNanchor_483_483" id="FNanchor_483_483"></a><a href="#Footnote_483_483" class="fnanchor">[483]</a> As is well known, Hoche's expedition to +Bantry Bay at the close of the year 1796 was an utter failure; +and the sterner spirits in Ulster believed that the French had +designed that it should end so. The malcontents therefore relaxed +their efforts for a time, until, in the spring following, the +mutinies in the British fleet aroused new hopes. It seems probable +that their intrigues had some effect on events at the Nore. +In quick succession United Ireland despatched to Paris two +delegates, named Lewins and McNevin, to concert plans for +another landing. The Directory sent an agent to treat with the +League. Fitzgerald met him in London, and declared that the +Irish Militia and Yeomanry would join the French on their +landing. The United Irishmen also sought help from Spain.<a name="FNanchor_484_484" id="FNanchor_484_484"></a><a href="#Footnote_484_484" class="fnanchor">[484]</a></p> + +<p>In Ireland the organisation went on apace until Camden +struck sharp blows through the military. In the middle of May +1797, when the malcontents were excited by news of the second +mutiny at Portsmouth, they rose in the North, but in three or +four engagements the loyal Militia and Yeomanry broke up their +bands. The South remained quiet, and the efforts to seduce the +army and Militia were fruitless; but Lord Clifden, writing to +Abbot on 15th May, predicted a general rising when the French +attempted a second invasion, as they certainly would.<a name="FNanchor_485_485" id="FNanchor_485_485"></a><a href="#Footnote_485_485" class="fnanchor">[485]</a> On 19th +June Beresford wrote from Dublin to Auckland, stating that, but +for the repressive measures and wholesale seizures of arms, not a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span>loyalist's head would have been safe.<a name="FNanchor_486_486" id="FNanchor_486_486"></a><a href="#Footnote_486_486" class="fnanchor">[486]</a> The spring of 1797 was +indeed a time of great risk. But for the weakness of the Dutch +and French navies, a landing in Ireland could have taken place +with every chance of success. As it was, Camden's vigorous +measures so far cowed the malcontents that the rebellion was +deferred for a year. This respite probably saved the British +Empire. Amidst the financial and naval difficulties of the first +half of the year 1797, a telling blow struck at Ireland could +scarcely have failed of success. Rarely were the enemies of +England so formidable; never were her means of defence so +weak. Fortunately, no blow was aimed at her until the month +of October; and then, when the Dutch fleet set out to convoy +an expedition to Ireland, it was utterly crushed by Duncan at +Camperdown. There was therefore little risk of an invasion in +force after October 1797, the very month which saw Napoleon +Bonaparte set free from his lengthy negotiations with Austria. +Verily, if Fortune pressed hard on Pitt at Toulon and in Flanders +and Hayti, she more than redressed the balance by her +boons at sea in the year 1797.</p> + +<p>Camden's letters to Pitt reveal the imminence of bankruptcy +in Ireland throughout that year; and it is noteworthy that the +loan raised for the Irish Government in January and February was +the final cause of the Bank crisis in London. Even so, the Irish +Exchequer was in dire need. On 25th April Camden informed +Pitt that only £8,000 remained in the Exchequer, and he had +no means for equipping the troops if the French should land. +The sum of £200,000 must be sent at once. Such a demand at +that time was impossible; and not until the end of May could +Pitt forward the half of that sum, Camden meanwhile borrowing +money in Dublin at 8 3/8 per cent. On 1st June he wrote to Pitt +a confidential letter, laying bare his real aims. He urged him +to do all in his power to procure peace from France. He had +recommended this step in April; but now his language was most +insistent. Assuming that it would be sheer madness to tempt +fortune in another campaign, he suggested that, if the French +terms were too onerous, Pitt should leave it to another Prime +Minister to frame a peace. But whatever happened, Pitt must +not lower his dignity by conceding Reform and Catholic Emancipation +in Great Britain and Ireland. If those measures were +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span>inevitable, others must carry them. The latter would only satisfy +the Irish Catholics for a time, their aim being to rule the country. +The only way of escaping these difficulties was a Union of the +Parliaments; but he (Camden) could not undertake to carry it, +still less Catholic Emancipation. Finally he declared the Presbyterians +of Ulster to be Republicans who would rise <span lang="fr">en masse</span> +if the French landed; but if Cornwallis were sent over to lead +the troops, even that crisis might be overcome.<a name="FNanchor_487_487" id="FNanchor_487_487"></a><a href="#Footnote_487_487" class="fnanchor">[487]</a></p> + +<p>Pitt received this letter at the height of the mutiny at the +Nore. He seems to have sent no answer to it: indeed, silence +is the best reply to such an effusion. Camden's letters to Pitt +show that he longed for his recall. In that of 16th November +1796 he concluded with the significant remark that he looked +forward to the time when they would once more live as country +gentlemen in Kent. Pitt had the same longing; but he never +wrote a line expressing a desire to leave the tiller at the height +of the storm. Obviously Camden was weary of his work. Fear +seems to have been the motive which prompted his proclamation +of martial law in several counties and the offer of an amnesty to +all who would surrender their arms before Midsummer 1797. +Those enactments, together with the brutal methods of General +Lake and the soldiery in Ulster and Leinster, crushed revolt for +the present but kindled a flame of resentment which burst forth +a year later. As the danger increased, so did the severities of +the Protestant Yeomanry and Militia. Thus, fear begot rage, +and rage intensified fear and its offspring, violence. The United +Irishmen had their revenge. In the summer of 1797 their two +delegates, Lewins and McNevin, did their utmost to defeat the +efforts of Pitt to bring about peace with France; and the former +had the promise of the Director, Barras, that France would never +sheathe the sword until Ireland was free.<a name="FNanchor_488_488" id="FNanchor_488_488"></a><a href="#Footnote_488_488" class="fnanchor">[488]</a></p> + +<p>Again Camden begged Pitt to seek the first opportunity of +freeing him from his duties in order to disentangle his private +affairs which were in much confusion, the excess of expenditure +over income at Dublin being a further cause of embarrassment. +In fact nothing but a sense of public duty, in view of a hostile +invasion, kept him at his post. So far from the truth are those +who, without knowledge of the inner motives of statesmen, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span>accuse them of delight in cruelty and of intriguing to provoke +a revolt.</p> + +<p>Early in the year 1798 the hopes of malcontents centred in +the naval preparations progressing at Brest and Toulon.<a name="FNanchor_489_489" id="FNanchor_489_489"></a><a href="#Footnote_489_489" class="fnanchor">[489]</a> Bonaparte +also seemed about to deal a blow at London. In February +he surveyed the flotilla at Dunkirk and neighbouring ports; +and the hearts of English Jacobins beat high at the thought of +his landing in Kent or Sussex. The London Corresponding +Society, after a time of suspended animation, had now become +a revolutionary body. On 30th January its new secretaries, +Crossfield and Thomas Evans, issued an encouraging address to +the United Irishmen. Somewhat later Evans and Binns formed +a society, the United Englishmen, which imposed on its members +an oath to learn the use of arms, its constitution in local, +or baronial, committees being modelled on that of the United +Irishmen. A society of United Scotsmen was founded about +the same time; a society of United Britons also came to being, +and issued a fraternal address to the United Irishmen on 5th +January.</p> + +<p>Most significant of these effusions is one, dated 6 Pluviôse +An VI [25th January 1798], by "the Secret Committee of England" +to the French Directory, containing the assurance that +Pitt had come to the end of his borrowing powers and that the +people were ready to throw off his yoke. "United as we are," it +concluded, "we now only await with impatience to see the Hero +of Italy and the brave veterans of the great Nation. Myriads +will hail their arrival with shouts of joy: they will soon finish +the glorious campaign." This address was drawn up fourteen +days before Bonaparte set out for Dunkirk. It is clear, then, +that its compilers were not so ignorant as that consequential +tailor, Francis Place, represented them. Their chief mistake lay +in concluding that Bonaparte intended to "leap the ditch." As +we now know, his tour on the northern coast was intended merely +to satisfy the Directors and encourage the English and Irish malcontents +to risk their necks, while he made ready his armada at +Toulon for the Levant.<a name="FNanchor_490_490" id="FNanchor_490_490"></a><a href="#Footnote_490_490" class="fnanchor">[490]</a> Meanwhile the United Britons and +United Irishmen sought to undermine Pitt's Government so that +it might fall with a crash at the advent of the hero of Italy. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span>They knew not that the chief efforts of the "soldiers of liberty" +were then being directed to the pillage of Rome and of the cantonal +treasuries of Switzerland in order to provide funds for +Bonaparte's oriental adventure.</p> + +<p>Already Irish, English, and French democrats had been fraternizing. +In January 1798 the United Englishmen sent over +two delegates to Dublin to concert action, and about the same +time a priest of Dundalk, named O'Coigly (<span lang="fr">Anglicé</span> Quigley), +came over from Ireland as a delegate from the United Irishmen +to Evans's Society. Place asserts that his plan of proceeding to +France was not known. But, as Place habitually toned down or +ridiculed the doings of that Society, this is doubtful. Owing to +secret information (probably from Turner, a British spy at Hamburg) +the Government arrested Quigley, Arthur O'Connor, and +Binns, a leading member of the London Corresponding Society, +at Margate as they were about to board a hoy for France (28th +February). A little later Colonel Despard, Bonham, and Evans +were arrested. The evidence against all but Quigley was not +conclusive, and they were released. The case against Quigley +depended on a paper found by a police officer in his pocket, +urging a French invasion of England. He was therefore condemned +for high treason and was hanged on 7th June 1798. +Probably Quigley had that paper from a London Society; but +if so, why were not its officials seized? In some respects the +Quigley affair still remains a mystery. Certainly it added fuel +to the hatred felt for Pitt by British and Irish Jacobins.<a name="FNanchor_491_491" id="FNanchor_491_491"></a><a href="#Footnote_491_491" class="fnanchor">[491]</a></p> + +<p>The evidence against O'Connor was weighty. It was proved +that he was the leader of the party and that he knew Quigley +well. He had a cipher in his possession, which was surely superfluous +if, as he stated, he was travelling on private business. +Probably his acquittal was due to his relationship to Lord +Longueville, an influential Irish peer. Fox, Sheridan, and the +Duke of Norfolk also proceeded to Maidstone to answer for the +virtuous and patriotic character of O'Connor, a fact which +probably led the judge to give a strangely favourable summing-up. +The conduct of the Opposition leaders in this matter led +their former comrade, the Earl of Carlisle, to declare that they +had now sunk to a lower political hell than any yet reached. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span>The Government, however, had not done with O'Connor. He +was at once arrested at Maidstone on another charge (22nd +May), and was in prison in Dublin during the rebellion. He +then confessed that he had done more than any one to organize +Leinster for revolt, also that he had had conferences with French +generals with a view to invasion so far back as 1793; and he +stated that he knew the member of the United Irishmen who +in the winter of 1796 advised the French not to come until the +spring of 1797.<a name="FNanchor_492_492" id="FNanchor_492_492"></a><a href="#Footnote_492_492" class="fnanchor">[492]</a> There certainly was some misunderstanding +between the Irish rebels and their would-be helpers; but the +full details are not known. Finally O'Connor was allowed to +retire to France; he became a French general, and helped +Napoleon to concert plans for the invasion of Ireland, assuring +him that, after the work of liberation was done, 200,000 Irishmen +would help him to conquer England.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile further news respecting the Franco-Irish plans +reached Pitt through a man named Parish at Hamburg. An +American friend of his at Brussels, while waiting at the municipal +office for passports, saw those of two young Irishmen, +named O'Finn, delegates of the United Irishmen of Cork. They +had a large packet for the Directory at Paris, which contained +the plans of the United Irishmen, the numbers and positions of +the British troops and of the British warships between Dungeness +and the North Foreland. The O'Finns stated this to the +commissary of the Brussels bureau, who heard it with joy. The +American secretly forwarded the news to Parish. The fact that +the O'Finns had a list of the forces on the Kentish coast implied +information from the English malcontents. Accordingly, on +19th April, Government seized the papers of the London Corresponding +Society. They contained nothing of importance +except the constitution of the Society, the oath to learn the use +of arms, and the address to the United Irishmen. The Parliamentary +Committee of Secrecy also believed that a plan was +afoot for bringing to London a band of Irish fanatics to strike a +blow which would paralyse Government while the French landed +and Ireland revolted. This inference seems far-fetched; but the +evidence at hand warranted the suspension of the Habeas Corpus +Act, which Pitt procured from Parliament on the following day. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span>Place, with his usual perverse ingenuity, argued that Pitt nursed +the conspiracy in order to be able to create alarm and govern +despotically.<a name="FNanchor_493_493" id="FNanchor_493_493"></a><a href="#Footnote_493_493" class="fnanchor">[493]</a></p> + +<p>Events were now moving fast in Ireland. Chief among the +exciting causes were the repressive measures of Camden and +the licence of the Militia and Yeomanry. So able and active +a commander as General Abercromby failed to keep discipline +and prevent military outrages. Not long after his return from +the West Indies he reluctantly accepted these thankless duties +(November 1797). His dislike of the work appears in the following +letter, addressed probably to one of Pitt's colleagues:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">Bantry, <i>Jan. 28, 1798</i>.<a name="FNanchor_494_494" id="FNanchor_494_494"></a><a href="#Footnote_494_494" class="fnanchor">[494]</a></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>... I have found the country everywhere quiet, but there exists +among the gentlemen the greatest despondency: they believe, or affect +to believe, that there is a plot in every family, and a conspiracy in every +parish, and they would abandon the country unless the troops were dispersed +over the face of it for their protection. I believe the lower ranks +heartily hate the gentlemen because they oppress them, and the gentlemen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> +hate the peasants because they know they deserve to be hated. +Hitherto rents have been paid, tithes have not been refused or taxes +withheld. No arms or ammunition have anywhere been introduced, and +there are no tumultuous assemblings of the people. I have often heard +of disaffection among the militia; it may perhaps exist among a few +individuals; but it cannot exist to any considerable amount. My inquiries +have been unremitted in this particular. Were, however, a landing +of the enemy to take place, I cannot say what might happen to a +people dissatisfied with their situation and naturally of great levity; the +new doctrines would give activity. We are preparing for whatever may +happen and no labour or exertion shall be wanting.</p> +</div> + + +<p>Abercromby soon proclaimed his disgust at the excesses of +his troops in unmeasured terms. True, he had much provocation. +The militia officers under him were a loose swaggering +set, whose cruelties to the peasantry during the prolonged +search for arms were unpardonable. Further, their powers had +been enlarged by Camden's order of May 1797, allowing them +to use armed force without the requisition of magistrates, a step +deemed necessary to screen the civil authorities from outrage or +murder. Seeing that officers often put these powers to a brutal +and arbitrary use, exasperating to the peasants and demoralizing +to the soldiery, Abercromby determined publicly to rescind +the viceregal mandate. The language in which he announced +his decision was no less remarkable than the decision itself. On +26th February 1798 he stated in a general order: "That the +frequency of courts-martial, and the many complaints of irregularities +in the conduct of the troops in this kingdom having +too unfortunately proved the army to be in a state of licentiousness +which must render it formidable to everyone but the enemy, +the commander-in-chief" forbids officers ever to use military +force except at the requisition of magistrates.</p> + +<p>That the army and militia did not assault their commander +after this outrageous insult shows that their discipline had not +wholly vanished. In face of the vehement outcries of the Irish +loyalists against Abercromby, Camden showed much forbearance. +He issued a guarded statement that Abercromby had been +accustomed to command troops abroad, and did not realize the +impression which would be caused in Ireland by his censure of +the soldiery. Portland, however, openly blamed the commander-in-chief. +Pitt's letter of 13th March to Camden shows that, had +he seen Portland's censure before it went off, he would have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> +toned down some of its expressions; but on the whole he +heartily disapproved of Abercromby's indiscriminate rebuke to +the army as not only unjust, but calculated to depress its spirits +and encourage those of the French and the Irish malcontents. +Portland's reprimand brought about Abercromby's resignation, +which Camden sought to avert. Thus again events took the worst +possible course. Abercromby was an able and energetic man; and +his resignation, at the time when the arrival of the French was +expected, undoubtedly helped to raise the hopes of malcontents. +Well might Camden write to Pitt on 25th April that Abercromby +had done much harm. With that commander's desire to repress +the outrages of the soldiery everyone must sympathize. The +manner in which he sought to effect it was incredibly foolish.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the work of the conspirators had been undermined +by treachery. One of the conspirators, named Reynolds, +took fright and revealed the secret of the plot to an official at +Dublin Castle (26th February), adding the information that the +Dublin committee would hold a secret meeting on 12th March. +The police, bursting in, seized eighteen members, including +McNevin, along with their papers, amongst which were some incriminating +O'Coigly. Lord Edward Fitzgerald escaped for a +time; but an informer gained knowledge of his movements, and +those of two brothers named Sheares. On his warning the Castle +that they were about to arouse Dublin to revolt, Camden resolved +to anticipate the blow. Two police officers, Swan and +Ryan, tracked Fitzgerald to his lair on the 19th of May. They +found him in bed. At once the fierce spirit of his race surged up. +He sprang at them with the small dagger ready by his side and +struck at Swan. The blow went home, while the pistols aimed +by the officers missed fire. Turning on Ryan, he dealt thrust +upon thrust. The two wounded men clung to him while he +struggled and struck like a wild beast. He was dragging them +towards the door when Major Sirr rushed in and shot him in +the shoulder. Even then his convulsions were so violent that two +or three soldiers, who ran upstairs, scarcely overpowered him. +Swan soon died. The wounds of Ryan were not mortal. That +of Fitzgerald was not deemed serious, but it mortified, and he +passed away on 4th June, mourned by all who knew his chivalrous +daring spirit.<a name="FNanchor_495_495" id="FNanchor_495_495"></a><a href="#Footnote_495_495" class="fnanchor">[495]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span></p> +<p>The fury of Fitzgerald is intelligible. He was the one necessary +man in the plot then coming to a head for the capture of +Dublin on 23rd May. Among his effects were found a green +uniform, the seal of the Irish Union, the line of route for the +Kildare rebels in their advance, together with a plan for the +seizure of the chief officials. The triumph of the Castle was completed +by the capture of Neilson and the Sheares. Their papers +showed that no quarter was to be given. Irish historians (among +them Plowden) maintained that Pitt and Camden all along knew +of the plot and allowed the conspirators to drive on their mine +in order at the right moment to blow them up. There is no +evidence to this effect, except during the few days preceding the +blow. Camden's efforts were uniformly directed towards disarmament +and coercion, so much so that he is reproached for his +cruelty by the very men who accuse him of playing with the +conspiracy. It is clear that he sought to prevent a rising, which +was expected to coincide with a French invasion. In fact the +only prudent course was to repress and disarm at all possible +points.</p> + +<p>The severity of the crisis appears in the letters which Beresford, +Cooke, and Lees, officials at Dublin Castle, wrote to Auckland. +In answer to Lord Moira's reckless charge in the Irish Parliament, +that they were pushing on the country to rebel, Beresford +on 10th April asks Auckland how can they, who are daily exposed +to murder, push on a nation to deeds of violence which +must fall on them? On 1st May he writes: "We think the +Toulon squadron will join the expedition against Ireland.... +Pikes are making in numbers, and the idea of a rising prevails. +Kildare and Wicklow are armed, organized, and rebellious. +Dublin and the county are very bad. The rebels expect the +French within a month. Such is their last Gazette." On 7th +May Lees writes to Auckland: "Lord Camden must steel his +heart. Otherwise we are in great jeopardy." On 9th May +Beresford states that it would be a good plan to seize a number +of malcontents, threaten them with flogging and induce them to +turn informers. He adds: "At present the quiet which prevails +in some parts is deceptive. Where the country is organized, +quiet appears. Where the organization is going on there is disturbance. +In Kildare there are complete regiments, with large +quantities of arms in their possession." On 10th May Lees +writes that Galway is arming for revolt, and, nine days later,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> +after the arrest of Fitzgerald, he states that they expect a rising +in Dublin on the morrow. On 21st May after the arrest of the +Sheares, Cooke writes: "A rising is not given up; but I think it +will not take place. Parts of Kildare will not give up arms.... A +search for arms will commence. We are in good spirits." On +20th May Beresford informs Auckland of the receipt of news at +the Castle from three different quarters that there would be a +rising on the 21st, owing to the vigorous measures now taken by +the Government.<a name="FNanchor_496_496" id="FNanchor_496_496"></a><a href="#Footnote_496_496" class="fnanchor">[496]</a></p> + +<p>This is not the language of men who are nursing a plot. It +evinces a resolve to stamp out disaffection before the Brest and +Toulon fleets arrive. As for Pitt, his letters show a conviction of +the need of continuing the repressive measures whereby Camden +had "saved the country." He approved the plan of allowing +officers to act without the orders of magistrates, seeing that the +latter were often murdered for doing their duty. The thinness of +his correspondence with Camden is somewhat surprising until +we remember that his energies mainly went towards strengthening +the army and navy. His letter to Grenville early in June +shows that he expected news of the arrival of the French off the +Irish coast, since they had got out from Toulon on 19th May.</p> + +<p>It is not surprising that Ireland was thought to be their goal. +Bonaparte and the Directory had kept the secret of their +Eastern Expedition with far more care than Pitt displayed in +worming it out. Certainly Pitt's spy system was far less efficient +than has been imagined.<a name="FNanchor_497_497" id="FNanchor_497_497"></a><a href="#Footnote_497_497" class="fnanchor">[497]</a> With ordinary activity the oriental +scheme could have been found out from one of Barras' mistresses +or from some official at Toulon. The fact that Bonaparte had +some time previously engaged Arab interpreters might surely +have enlightened an agent of average intelligence. So far back +as 20th April French engineers in uniform, accompanied by +interpreters, had arrived at Alexandria and Aleppo in order to +prepare for the reception of large forces. The interpreters, it is +said, "collect all possible information respecting Suez and the +navigation of the Red Sea, as also particularly whether the +English have any ships in the Persian Gulf. It is supposed that +General Buonaparte will divide his army, one corps to be embarked +from the Red Sea and pass round to the Gulf of Persia, +the other part to proceed from Syria overland to the Euphrates, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span>by which river they are to advance and join the remainder near +the mouth of this river; from thence to make, <em>united</em>, the grand +descent on the coast of Malabar or Deccan."<a name="FNanchor_498_498" id="FNanchor_498_498"></a><a href="#Footnote_498_498" class="fnanchor">[498]</a> In these days it +is difficult to imagine that this news did not reach Pitt until +about 5th July.</p> + +<p>The Irish malcontents were as ill informed as Pitt. Basing +their hopes on the arrival of the French fleet, they prepared to +rise about the end of May. But the arrests in Dublin hurried on +their plans. The men of Kildare and Westmeath received orders +from the secret Directory in Dublin to take arms on 23rd May, +on the understanding that the whole of Ireland would revolt. +They were to seize the towns and villages on the roads to +Dublin, while the rebels in the city murdered the authorities +and captured the chief positions. But on the 22nd the Government +seized quantities of arms, and the presence of General +Lake's garrison of 4,000 Yeomen daunted the United Irishmen; +on the night of the 23rd–24th only the more daring of them +stole about the environs, waiting for a signal which never came; +and by dawn their bands melted away. In Meath also the +rising failed miserably. A large concourse assembled on the +historic slopes of Tara Hill, whence 400 Fencibles and Yeomen +drove them with ease (25th May).</p> + +<p>In Kildare and the north of Wicklow, where the influence of +the Fitzgeralds made for revolt, large throngs of men assembled +on the night of 23rd–24th May, and made desperate attacks +on Naas and Clane, important posts on the roads leading to the +capital. Their headlong rushes broke in vain against the stubborn +stand of the small garrisons. But at a village hard by, named +Prosperous, the rebel leaders fooled the chief of a small detachment +by a story of their intention to deliver up arms. Gaining +access to the village, they surprised the soldiers in the barracks, +girdled them with fire, and spitted them on their pikes as they +jumped forth. That night of horror ended with the murder of +the Protestant manufacturer, whose enterprise had made their +village what it was. A few days later General Ralph Dundas +somewhat indiscreetly granted an armistice to a large body of +Kildare rebels at Kilcullen on the promise that they would give +up their arms and go home. Nevertheless a large body of them +were found on the Curragh and barred the way to General Duff, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span>who courageously marched with 600 men to the aid of Dundas. +Duff was informed that these rebels would be willing to lay +down their arms. His men were advancing towards them when +a shot or shots were fired by the rebels, whether in bravado or +in earnest is doubtful. The troops, taking it as another act of +treachery, charged with fury and drove the mass from the plain +with the loss of more than 200 killed. Thus, here again, events +made for animosity and bloodshed. Protestants remembered the +foul play at Prosperous; the rebels swore to avenge the treachery +at the Curragh.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>News of the first of these events sped across the Irish Sea on +25th and 26th May. They reached Pitt just before or after his +Whitsunday duel on Putney Heath. Thick and fast came the +tales of slaughter. On 29th May Camden wrote in almost +despairing terms—The rebellion was most formidable and extensive. +It would certainly be followed by a French invasion. +It must be suppressed at once. The Protestants and the military +were mad with fury, and called aloud for a war of extermination. +The strife would be marked by unheard-of atrocities. +For the sake of human nature, Pitt must at once send 5,000 +regular troops. Camden added that cavalry were useless against +lines of pikemen, a phrase which tells of the dogged fury of the +peasantry. Nevertheless, his assertion that the rebellion was +extensive proves his lack of balance. The saving facts of the +situation were that the Ulstermen had not yet moved; that Connaught +and Munster were quiet; and of Leinster, only Kildare, +Wexford, and parts of Carlow and Wicklow were in arms. In +Dublin murder was rife, but the pikemen did not muster.</p> + +<p>Pitt's reply of 2nd June to Camden is singularly cool. In +brief and businesslike terms he stated that, despite the difficulties +of the situation, he had already prepared to despatch +5,000 men; but Camden must send them back at the earliest +possible moment in order not to disarrange the plans for the +war. Still more frigid was the letter of George III to Pitt. The +King lamented the need of sending troops to Ireland, as they +would thereby be cut off from "active service." Camden (he +wrote) must really not press for them unnecessarily. However, +as the sword was drawn in Ireland, it must not be sheathed +until the rebels submitted unconditionally. Eleven days later +the King wrote to Pitt that the new Lord Lieutenant "must not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> +lose the present moment of terror for frightening the supporters +of the Castle into an Union with this country; and no further +indulgences must be granted to Roman Catholics, as no country +can be governed where there is more than one established +religion."<a name="FNanchor_499_499" id="FNanchor_499_499"></a><a href="#Footnote_499_499" class="fnanchor">[499]</a> The thinness of the King's thought is in part redeemed +by its tenacity. His mind resembled an elemental two-stringed +instrument, which twanged forth two notes—Church +and State.</p> + +<p>In strange contrast to the calculations of the King and Pitt +were the effusions of Camden. On 7th June he referred plaintively +to Portland's despatch, stating that only 3,000 men could +be sent. He warned Pitt that it was a religious war; priests +marched at the head of the rebels, who swept together and +drove at their head the reluctant. For the sake of humanity +Pitt must send larger reinforcements. He added that Lake was +unequal to the emergency. Fortunately, on that day Pitt +received the consent of the Marquis Cornwallis to act as Lord +Lieutenant and Commander-in-Chief in Ireland. As Camden +had more than once pointed out the urgent need of that appointment, +it is surprising to find him on 16th June upbraiding Pitt +with the suddenness of the change. Surely it was no time for +punctiliousness. Already the Ulstermen were rising, and 30,000 +rebels were afoot in Wexford. But, as it happened, the worst of +the trouble was over before Cornwallis could take the field. +Landing on 20th June near Dublin, he heard news portending a +speedy decision in Wexford.</p> + +<p>It is not easy to account for the savagery of the revolt in that +county. The gentry resided among their tenants on friendly +terms; and the search for arms had been carried out less harshly +than elsewhere. Gordon, the most impartial historian of the +rebellion, admits that the floggings and half-hangings had been +few in number, yet he adds that the people were determined to +revolt, probably from fear that their turn would come. Neither +is the religious bigotry of the rebels intelligible. The Protestants +were numerous in Wexford town, Enniscorthy, and New Ross; +but there seems to have been little religious animosity, except +where tales were circulated as to intended massacres of Catholics +by Orangemen. The Celt is highly susceptible to personal influence;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> +and, just as that of the Fitzgeralds largely accounts for +the rising in Kildare, so does the personality of Father John +Murphy explain the riddle of Wexford. The son of a peasant +of that county, he was trained for the priesthood at Bordeaux, +and ardently embraced the principles of the French Revolution +and the aims of United Ireland. His huge frame, ready wit, and +natural shrewdness brought him to the front in Wexford; and +he concerted the plan of establishing an Irish Republic on a +strictly Romanist basis, a programme incompatible with that of +Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen.</p> + +<p>Murphy, marching with his flock to the house of a neighbouring +Protestant clergyman, bade him and his terrified +friends surrender. Meeting with a refusal, they fired the outbuildings; +and when the flames gained the house, they granted +the prayers of the occupants for mercy if they came out. On +coming out the adult males were forthwith butchered. Meeting +with large reinforcements from the hills, Father John's pikemen +beat off a hasty attack by 110 men of the North Cork Militia, +only seven of whom escaped to Wexford. Such were the doings +on that Whitsunday in Wexford (27th May). Next, the rebels +swept down upon Enniscorthy; and though beaten back from +the very heart of the town by the steady valour of the defenders, +these last were yet fain to fall back on Wexford. But for the +plundering habits of the peasantry, not a man could have reached +that town. The priest and his followers now took post on +Vinegar Hill, a height east of the River Slaney, which overlooks +Enniscorthy and the central plain of the county. There on +successive days he and his council dealt out pike-law to some +four or five hundred Protestants and landlords. Meanwhile, as +no help drew nigh, Maxwell, the commander at Wexford, +deeming that town untenable, beat a timely retreat westwards to +Duncannon Fort on Waterford Harbour (30th May).</p> + +<p>Master of Wexford county, Murphy and his colleague, Father +Michael, proposed to raise Wicklow and Waterford. If these +efforts succeeded, it was probable that Dublin and Munster +would rise. Ulster might then revolt; and the advent of the +French would clinch the triumph. In full confidence, then, the +masses of pikemen moved against the loyalists at New Ross, an +important position on the River Barrow. Parish by parish, the +priests at their head, they marched, some 30,000 strong. At +dawn of 5th June, when near the town, they knelt during the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> +celebration of Mass. Then they goaded on herds of cattle to +serve as an irresistible vanguard, and rushed at the old walls. +General Johnstone and the 1,400 defenders were at first overborne +and had to retreat over the bridge; but the plundering +habits of the victors were their ruin. The soldiery re-formed, +regained their cannon, and planting them skilfully, dealt such +havoc among the disorderly mass, that finally it surged out into +the plain.<a name="FNanchor_500_500" id="FNanchor_500_500"></a><a href="#Footnote_500_500" class="fnanchor">[500]</a> After their defeat the rebels deposed Harvey, a Protestant, +from his nominal command.</p> + +<p>This success of the loyalists saved Waterford and Kilkenny +from anything more than local riots; and Moore, moving up +from Fermoy and Clonmel, soon threatened the rebel county +from the west. The beaten peasants glutted their revenge on +Protestant prisoners near New Ross; and a general massacre +of prisoners at Wexford was averted only by the rapid advance +of Moore. Meanwhile, Father John, moving into County Wicklow +with a force some 30,000 strong, sought to break down +the defence at Arklow. But that important post on the River +Avoca was stoutly held by General Needham with some 1,500 +men, mostly militia and yeomen. There, too, the priests led on +the peasants with a zeal that scorned death. One of the peasant +leaders rushed up to a gun, thrust his cap into it, and shouted, +"Come along, boys; her mouth is stopped." The next moment +he and his men were blown to pieces. Disciplined valour gained +the day (9th June), and John and his crusaders retired to Vinegar +Hill. His colleague, Father Michael Murphy, who had claimed +to be able to catch Protestant bullets, was killed by a cannon-shot; +and this may have decided the rebels to retreat.</p> + +<p>The British Guards had now arrived, to the inexpressible +relief of Camden and his advisers. Beset by reports of a general +rising in Ulster and by the furious protests of loyalists against the +inaction of Pitt, the Lord Lieutenant had held on his way, acting +with energy but curbing the policy of vengeance, so that, as he +informed Pitt, he was now the most unpopular man in Ireland. +Nevertheless, before he left her shores, he had the satisfaction to +see his measures crowned with success. The converging moves +of Lake, Needham, Dundas, and Johnstone upon Vinegar Hill +cooped up the rebels on that height; and on 21st June the royal +troops stormed the slopes with little loss. The dupes of Father +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span>John no longer believed in his miraculous powers. The survivors +broke away southwards, but then doubled back into the +mountains of Wicklow. The war now became a hunt, varied by +savage reprisals. Father John was hanged on 26th June. By his +barbarities he had ended the dream of United Ireland. Few of +the malcontents of Antrim and Down obeyed the call to arms +of the United Irishmen early in June; and the risings in those +counties soon flickered out. Religious bigotry enabled Dublin +Castle once more to triumph.</p> + +<p>Pitt was vehemently blamed by Irish loyalists for his apathy +at the crisis. The accusation, quite natural among men whose +families were in hourly danger, was unjust. As we have seen, +even before the arrival of Camden's request, he took steps to +send off 5,000 men. As the Duke of York and Dundas cut down +that number to 3,000, and endeavoured to prevent any more +being sent, they were responsible for the despatch of an inadequate +force. If the French detachments intended for Ireland +had arrived early in June, they must have carried all before +them. But it was not until 22nd August that General Humbert, +with 1,100 men, landed at Killala. Even so his little force +was believed to be the vanguard of a large army, a fact which +explains the revival of rebellion at the end of the summer.</p> + +<p>Not until 1st September did Pitt hear this alarming news. At +once he ordered all possible reinforcements to proceed to Ireland. +There was need of them. The Irish militiamen under +Lake and Hutchinson who opposed the French at Castlebar +rushed away in wild panic from one-fourth of their numbers +(27th August). Such were "the Castlebar Races." Probably the +Irishmen were disaffected; for many of them joined the enemy. +Cornwallis proceeded to the front, and with 11,000 men made +head against the rebels and the French. The latter were now +but 800 strong, and after a most creditable stand finally surrendered +with the honours of war (8th September). Cornwallis +issued a tactful bulletin,<a name="FNanchor_501_501" id="FNanchor_501_501"></a><a href="#Footnote_501_501" class="fnanchor">[501]</a> commending his troops for their meritorious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> +exertions and trusting to their honour not to commit acts +of cruelty against their deluded fellow subjects. In point of +fact 11,000 men with difficulty brought 800 to surrender and +then gave themselves up to retaliation on the rebels. Fortunately +the French Directory sent only small parties of raiders. +A month later, Wolfe Tone, with a squadron, appeared off +Lough Swilly; but the French ships being overpowered by Sir +John Warren, Tone was captured, taken to Dublin, and cut his +throat in order to escape the ignominy of a public hanging. +Another small French squadron entered Killala Bay late in October, +but had to make for the open. Thus flickered out a flame +which threatened to shrivel up British rule in Ireland.</p> + +<p>What causes contributed to this result? Certainly not the +activity and resourcefulness of Pitt and his colleagues; for their +conduct at the crisis was weak and tardy. The Duke of York +and Dundas must primarily be blamed for the despatch of inadequate +reinforcements; but Pitt ought to have overruled their +decision. Perhaps the Cabinet believed England to be the objective +of Bonaparte and the fleet at Brest; but, thanks to the +rapid growth of the Volunteer Movement, England was well +prepared to meet an invading force and to quell the efforts of +the malcontent Societies. In Ireland the outlook was far more +gloomy. After the resignation of Abercromby, Camden and the +officials of Dublin Castle were in a state of panic. Pitt did well +finally to send over Cornwallis; but that step came too late to +influence the struggle in Leinster. In truth the saving facts of +the situation were the treachery of informers at Dublin and the +diversion of the efforts of Bonaparte towards the East. The +former event enabled Camden to crush the rising in Dublin; the +latter left thousands of brave Irishmen a prey to the false hopes +which the French leaders had designedly fostered, Barras having +led Wolfe Tone to believe that France would fight on for the +freedom of Ireland. The influence of Bonaparte told more and +more against an expedition to her shores; but the Irish patriots +were left in the dark, for their rising would serve to distract the +energies of England, while Bonaparte won glory in the East. To +save appearances, the French Government sent three small expeditions +in August to October; but they merely prolonged the +agony of a dying cause, and led that deeply wronged people to +ask what might not have happened if the promises showered on +Wolfe Tone had been made good.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span></p> +<p>It is recorded of William of Orange, shortly before his intended +landing in England, that, on hearing of the march of +Louis XIV's formidable army into the Palatinate, he serenely +smiled at his rival's miscalculation. Louis sated his troops with +plunder and lost a crown for James II. Similarly we may imagine +the mental exultation of Pitt on hearing that Bonaparte had gone +the way of Alexander the Great and Mark Antony. Camden +and he knew full well that Ireland was the danger spot of the +British Empire, and that the half of the Toulon force could overthrow +the Protestant ascendancy. Some sense of the magnitude +of the blunder haunted Napoleon at St. Helena; for he confessed +to Las Casas: "If, instead of the expedition to Egypt, I had +undertaken that against Ireland, what could England have done +now?" In a career, illumined by flashes of genius, but wrecked +by strange errors, the miscalculation of the spring of 1798 was +not the least fatal. For of all parts of the British Empire Ireland +was that in which the Sea Power was most helpless when once a +French <span lang="fr">corps d'armée</span> had landed.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">THE SECOND COALITION</p> + +<p class="quote">To reduce France within her ancient limits is an object of evident and +pressing interest to the future tranquillity and independence of Europe.—<i>Foreign +Office Despatch of 16th November 1798</i>.</p> + + +<p>It is difficult to realize that the independence of Europe was +endangered by the French Republic. We associate the +ascendancy of France in Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, +and Holland with the personality of Napoleon; and by contrasting +him with the pygmies who strutted on the stage after +the death of Pitt we find the collapse of Europe intelligible. +But a backward glance of one decade more shows France +dominating the Continent. True, it was Bonaparte's genius +which brought Austria to the humiliating Peace of Campo +Formio (October 1797); but his triumphs in Italy merely crowned +the efforts of France in 1793–5. After the close of his Italian +campaigns a touch of her little finger unseated the Pope. At +the Congress of Rastatt her envoys disposed of German duchies +and bishoprics in the lordliest way. Switzerland she overran, +plundered, and unified. Ferdinand IV of Naples and his consort, +Maria Carolina, quaked and fumed at her threats. Prussia +was her henchman. And in the first months of his reign Paul I +of Russia courted her favour. French policy controlled Europe +from the Niemen to the Tagus, from the Zuyder Zee to the +Campagna.</p> + +<p>Yet this supremacy was in reality unsound. So fitful a ruler +as the Czar Paul was certain to weary of his peaceful mood. +He had good ground for intervention. By the Treaty of +Teschen (1779) Russia became one of the guarantors of the +Germanic System which the French now set at naught. Moreover +his chivalrous instincts, inherited from his mother, Catharine, +were chafed by the news of French depredations in Rome and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> +Switzerland. The growth of indignation at St. Petersburg begot +new hopes at Vienna. In truth Francis II, despite his timidity, +could not acquiesce in French ascendancy. How could his motley +States cohere, if from Swabia, Switzerland, and Italy there +dropped on them the corrosive acid of democracy? The appeals +from his father-in-law, Ferdinand of Naples, also had some +weight. In fine the Court of Vienna decided to make overtures +to London. On 17th March 1798 the Chancellor, Thugut, +urged his ambassador, Stahremberg, to find out whether England +would help Austria against "a fierce nation irrevocably +determined on the total subversion of Europe, and rapidly +marching to that end"; also whether Pitt would send a fleet to +the Mediterranean, and, if necessary, prolong the struggle into +the year 1799.<a name="FNanchor_502_502" id="FNanchor_502_502"></a><a href="#Footnote_502_502" class="fnanchor">[502]</a> The entreaties from Naples were still more +urgent.</p> + +<p>Pitt resolved to stretch out a helping hand. Early in April +he sought to induce Earl Spencer, First Lord of the Admiralty, +to send to that sea a strong squadron detached from +Earl St. Vincent's force blockading Cadiz. His letter asking for +information on several topics is missing; but Spencer's letter +to Grenville throws so much light on the situation that I quote +parts of it, summarizing the remainder:<a name="FNanchor_503_503" id="FNanchor_503_503"></a><a href="#Footnote_503_503" class="fnanchor">[503]</a></p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">Admiralty, <i>April 6, 1798</i>.</p> + +<p>"I send you by Mr. Pitt's desire a sketch I have made out of answers +to the queries he put down upon paper yesterday in Downing Street. +The result is to my mind a decision which I fear will not tally very well +with our wishes and the views you have formed as the groundwork of +the communication at present proposed with Vienna." He then states +that, even if a Russian squadron appears in the North Sea, yet we cannot +keep a permanent squadron in the Mediterranean. "For that purpose +we should at least have 70 sail, as the Channel cannot be trusted with +safety with less than 35, including the coast of Ireland, and the remaining +35 would be but barely enough to watch Cadiz and command the +Mediterranean. Our best plan appears to me to be to maintain as long +as we can a position between Lisbon and Cadiz, and when we are +excluded (which I conclude we soon shall be) from the Tagus, to send +Lord St. Vincent with the fleet he now has to take a sweep round the +Mediterranean and do all the mischief he can to the French navy." If, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span>he adds, the Spaniards come northward, our home fleet can deal with +them: if they go to the Mediterranean and join the French there will +not be much danger from so ill-combined a force when opposed to +St. Vincent's fleet, "which I consider as being the best formed to act +together that perhaps ever existed." If Austria would be satisfied with +our sweeping round the Mediterranean, Spencer advocates that plan, +but not that of keeping a fleet there, "because, exclusive of the great +expense, it would leave the Spaniards too much at liberty."</p> + +<p>In answer to Pitt's questions Spencer states the force disposable for the +Channel and the coast of Ireland as 34, for the Mediterranean 24; 3 more +were fitting for sea, and 8 others were nearing completion; but the chief +deficiency was in men, 8,000 more being needed. He adds that the +Neapolitans have 4 sail-of-the-line and 7 frigates: the French have 6 +sail at Corfu; but he thinks not more than 10 sail can be equipped at +Toulon. He regards the Venetian fleet as valueless.</p> +</div> + + +<p>Clearly Spencer underrated the force at Toulon and in the +ports of North Italy. But, even so, the position was critical. +To send an undermanned fleet into the Mediterranean, while +France was preparing a blow at Ireland, seemed almost foolhardy. +Nevertheless, Pitt resolved to do so. For, as he stated +to Grenville on 7th April, they must encourage Austria to play +a decisive part in resisting French aggression; and, in view of +the revival of the old English spirit, he was prepared to brave +the risks of invasion, deeming even that event preferable to a +lingering and indecisive war. As usual, Pitt's view prevailed; +and a few days later orders went forth to St. Vincent to despatch +a squadron under Nelson to the Mediterranean, Austria being +also apprised of this decision, in terms which implied the formation +of a league against France. While Russia and, if possible, +Prussia defended Germany, Austria was to expel the French +from Italy.<a name="FNanchor_504_504" id="FNanchor_504_504"></a><a href="#Footnote_504_504" class="fnanchor">[504]</a> Here again Pitt's hopeful nature led him to antedate +the course of events. The new Coalition came about very +slowly. England and Austria were held apart by disputes respecting +the repayment of the last loan, on which Pitt and +Grenville insisted, perhaps with undue rigour. Distrust of Prussia +paralysed the Court of Vienna, and some time elapsed before it +came to terms with Russia. But in the midst of the haggling +came news which brought new vigour to the old monarchies.</p> + +<p>On 1st August 1798 Nelson destroyed the French fleet in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span>Aboukir Bay; and thus, at one blow, naval supremacy in the +Mediterranean passed from the tricolour to the Union Jack. +This momentous change resulted primarily from the bold resolve +of Pitt to encounter even a French descent on our coasts, provided +that he could strike at France in the Mediterranean. Thus +he exchanged the defensive for the offensive in a way no less +bewildering to the French than reassuring to friendly Powers; +and it is noteworthy that he adopted the same course in 1805, +in sending Craig's expedition into that sea, thereby replacing +Addington's tame acceptance of events by a vigorous policy +which heartened Austria and Naples for the struggle against +Napoleon. On both occasions he ran great risks, but his audacity +proved to be the highest prudence. The results of the +Battle of the Nile were immeasurably great. Bonaparte and his +30,000 veterans were cooped up in Egypt. The Maltese rose +against the French garrison of Valetta two days after the +arrival of the glad tidings from the Nile. At Naples the news +aroused a delirium of joy, and filled Queen Maria Carolina with +a resolve to drive the French force from the Roman States.</p> + +<p>To Pitt also the news of Nelson's triumph brought intense +relief. The disappearance of Bonaparte's armada after the +capture of Malta had caused much concern. True, Naples, +which was thought to be his objective, was safe; but Ireland +and Portugal were deemed in jeopardy. No one at Whitehall +anticipated the seizure of Malta and Egypt, still less the +emergence of plans for a French conquest of India. A tone of +anxiety pervades Pitt's letter of 22nd August to his mother: +"The account of Bonaparte's arrival at Alexandria is, I am afraid, +true; but it gives us no particulars, and leaves us in entire +suspense as to Nelson."<a name="FNanchor_505_505" id="FNanchor_505_505"></a><a href="#Footnote_505_505" class="fnanchor">[505]</a> All the greater, then, was the relief on +2nd October, when tidings of Aboukir at last arrived.</p> + +<p>Further, there were signs of a Russo-French war. The romantic +nature of the Czar was fired by the hope of acquiring Malta. +At Ancona, early in 1797, Bonaparte had intercepted a Russian +envoy bearing offers of alliance to the Knights of the Order of +St. John; and their expulsion by the French at Midsummer 1798 +seemed to Paul a personal affront. Some of the Knights proceeded +to St. Petersburg and claimed his protection. The affairs of the +Order became his most cherished concern; and on 24th July Sir +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span>Charles Whitworth, British ambassador at that Court, reported +that Russia would now become a principal in the war against +France, her aim being the re-establishment of peace on safe and +honourable terms, but not the restoration of the French monarchy, +on which Catharine had insisted. With this declaration +the British and Austrian Cabinets were in full accord; and thus +at last there was a hope of framing a compact Coalition. Fortunate +was it that Bonaparte's seizure of Malta incensed Paul +against France; for, early in August, the Swiss thinker, Laharpe, +tutor of the future Czar Alexander I, brought tempting offers +from Paris, with a view to the partition of the Turkish Empire.<a name="FNanchor_506_506" id="FNanchor_506_506"></a><a href="#Footnote_506_506" class="fnanchor">[506]</a> +That glittering prize was finally to captivate the fancy of Paul; +but for the present he spurned the offer as degrading.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the news of Aboukir did not wholly please him. +For, while rejoicing at the discomfiture of the French atheists, +he saw in Nelson's victory a sign of England's appropriation of +Malta. In truth, that island now became the central knot of +far-reaching complications. Formerly the bulwark of Christendom +against the infidels, it now sundered European States.<a name="FNanchor_507_507" id="FNanchor_507_507"></a><a href="#Footnote_507_507" class="fnanchor">[507]</a> So +doubtful was the attitude of Paul and Francis that Pitt, in +October 1798, twice wrote despondingly as to any definite decision +on their part. All that was clear was their inordinate +appetite for subsidies. These he of course withheld, knowing +full well that neither would Paul tolerate for long the presence +of the French at Malta, nor Francis their occupation of Switzerland. +In any case he resolved not to give more than +£2,000,000 to the two Empires for the year 1799.<a name="FNanchor_508_508" id="FNanchor_508_508"></a><a href="#Footnote_508_508" class="fnanchor">[508]</a> For the +time his hope lay only in the exertions of England, Europe +being meantime "left to its fate." In order to humour the Czar, +who was about to become Grand Master of the Knights of +St. John, Grenville, on 23rd November, wrote to assure his +Government that England renounced all aims of conquest in the +Adriatic, or of the possession of Malta.</p> + +<p>At the close of the year Pitt proudly displayed the inexhaustible +resources of Great Britain. His Budget speech of 3rd December +1798 marks an epoch in economic history, alike for the +boldness of the underlying conception and the statesmanlike +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span>assessment of the national resources. Well might Mallet du +Pan declare that the speech surpassed all previous efforts in its +illuminating exposition of a nation's finance. As appeared in our +survey of the Budget of 1797, Pitt then sought to meet the +year's expenses within the year. To a generation accustomed to +shift present burdens on to its successors the proposal seemed +Quixotic; and Fox blamed him for not adopting this device. +Pitt held to his plan, and outlined a ten per cent. tax upon income. +Having failed to gain the requisite tenth by means of the +Assessed Taxes, he proposed to raise it by methods which +even the shirkers could with difficulty circumvent.</p> + +<p>In order to lay a first rough actuarial basis for his Income +Tax, he made a careful study of the nation's resources in the +autumn of 1798. The results he summarized in an interesting +statement. There were available at that time only rough estimates, +even as to the area of cultivated land and its average +rental. Relying upon Davenant, King, Adam Smith, Arthur +Young, and Middleton, he estimated the area at 40,000,000 acres, +and the average rental at 15<i>s.</i> an acre. He prudently fixed the +taxable value at 12<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> an acre. The yearly produce of mines, +timber, and canal shares he assessed at £3,000,000. He reckoned +house rent at double that sum, and the earnings of the legal +profession at one half of it. Half a million he deemed well +within the total of doctors' fees. He assessed the incomes +derived from the British West Indies at £4,000,000, and those +from the rest of the world at £1,000,000, a highly suggestive +estimate. Tithes were reckoned at £4,000,000; annuities from +the public funds at £12,000,000; the same sum for profits derived +from foreign commerce; and £28,000,000 for the profits +of internal trade, whether wholesale or retail. Fixing the rental +of land at £6,000,000, he computed the total national income +as £102,000,000, which should therefore yield not less than +£10,000,000 a year. He proposed to safeguard the collection by +imposing an oath at the declaration of income, and enjoining +absolute secrecy on the Crown commissioners. The new tax, +beginning from April 1799, would take the place of the Assessed +Taxes. As will appear in a later chapter, the new impost did +not yield the amount which Pitt expected; but the failure was +probably due to defects in the methods of collection. Pitt further +proposed to set aside £1,200,000 for the Sinking Fund.</p> + +<p>His purpose in making this prodigious effort was to inspirit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> +other nations to similar patriotic exertions. He pointed out +with pride that after nearly six years of war British exports +and imports exceeded those of any year of peace. Thus, far +from declining in strength and prowess, as croakers averred, +England had never shone so transcendently in the arts of peace +and the exploits of war, a prodigality of power which presaged +the vindication of her own rights and of the liberties of Europe.</p> + +<p>What was the new Europe which Pitt sought to call to +being? The question is of deep interest, not only as a psychological +study, but as revealing glimpses of British policy in the +years 1814–15. The old order having been rudely shaken in +Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Italy, Pitt sought +to effect a compromise between the claims of tradition and those +of expediency. It being of paramount importance to safeguard +Europe against France, Pitt and Grenville insisted on the limitation +of that Power within its old boundaries, and the complete +independence of Switzerland and Holland. That of the Kingdom +of Sardinia afterwards figured in their stipulations. But one significant +change now appears. The restoration of Austrian rule at +Brussels being impracticable, it was suggested that the Belgic +Provinces should go to the Prince of Orange when restored to +his rights at The Hague. In the desperate crisis of 1805, as we +shall see, Pitt sought to allure Prussia by offering Belgium to +her; but that was a passing thought soon given up. The other +solution of the Netherlands Question finally prevailed, thanks to +the efforts of Pitt's pupil, Castlereagh, in 1814. The Foreign +Office did not as yet aim at the retention of the Cape of Good +Hope and Ceylon as a set off to British efforts for the Dutch +and their acquisition of Belgium; but this thought was already +taking shape. The barrier against French aggressions in the +south-east was to be found in the reconstituted Kingdom of +Sardinia, the House of Savoy rendering in that quarter services +similar to the House of Orange in Flanders and Brabant. In +other respects the British Cabinet favoured Austria's plans of +aggrandisement in Italy as enhancing her power in a sphere +which could not arouse the jealousy of Prussia. The aims of +Berlin not being known, except that the restoration of the House +of Orange was desired, Pitt and Grenville remained silent on +that topic.<a name="FNanchor_509_509" id="FNanchor_509_509"></a><a href="#Footnote_509_509" class="fnanchor">[509]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span></p> +<p>The question whether the peoples concerned would submit to +this under-girding of the European fabric did not trouble them. +They saw only the statics of territories; they had no conception +of the dynamics of nations. A future in which Nationality, +triumphant in Italy and Germany, would bring about a Balance +of Power far more solid than any which their flying buttresses +could assure, was of course entirely hidden from them. But they +failed to read the signs of the times. The last despairing efforts +of the Poles, and the <span lang="fr">levée en masse</span> of the French people, now +systematized in the Conscription Law of 5th September 1798, +did not open their eyes to the future. For they were essentially +men of the Eighteenth Century; and herein lay the chief cause +of their failure against Revolutionary France. They dealt with +lands as with blocks. She infused new energy into peoples.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Meanwhile the return of Nelson to the Neapolitan coast +intoxicated that Court with joy. Queen Maria Carolina, ever +the moving spirit at Naples, now laid her plans for the expulsion +of the French from Italy. Trusting to her influence over her +son-in-law, Francis II, and to a defensive compact which the +Courts of Vienna and Naples had framed on 20th May 1798, she +sought to incite him to take the offensive. Her close friendship +with Lady Hamilton, wife of the British ambassador at +Naples, also enabled her to gain complete ascendancy over +Nelson, who, with his usual hatred of "the French villains," +counselled open and immediate war. For abetting this design, +Sir William Hamilton received a sharp rebuke from Downing +Street. Francis II and Thugut were even more annoyed. They +repulsed the Neapolitan emissary who begged for help, and +roundly accused the Pitt Ministry of inciting Naples to war in +order to drag in Austria. Their anger was not appeased by the +successes of the Neapolitans near Rome, which the French +evacuated on 29th November. The counter-stroke soon fell. +The French, rallying in force, pushed the Bourbon columns +southwards; and the early days of 1799 witnessed in swift +succession the surrender of Naples, the flight of its Court and +the Hamiltons to Palermo on Nelson's fleet, the foundation of +the Parthenopean Republic, and the liquefaction of the blood of +St. Januarius in sign of divine benediction on the new <span lang="fr">régime</span>.<a name="FNanchor_510_510" id="FNanchor_510_510"></a><a href="#Footnote_510_510" class="fnanchor">[510]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span></p> +<p>Nevertheless, Nelson and the royal fugitives had set in motion +forces which elsewhere made for triumph. Paul, re-assured as +to England's desire to re-establish the Order of St. John at +Malta, entered into an alliance with her on 29th December 1798, +whereby the two Powers agreed to reduce France within her old +boundaries, Russia furnishing to England an army of 45,000 +men, mainly with a view to the support of Prussia, on condition +of receiving £75,000 per month and three months' subsidies in +advance. She also promised to send 3,000 men to help in the +siege of the French garrison at Malta and others to assist England +in the defence of the Neapolitan lands. Austria, resentful +towards Pitt and fearful of Prussia's designs, still held back, +though the events in Italy, especially the dethronement of +Charles Emmanuel IV of the House of Savoy by the French +should have spurred her to action. Probably she waited until +the needs of England and Russia should enable her to dictate +her terms. The cupidity of Thugut had been whetted by Pitt's +speech as to the wealth of England; and the efforts of Cobenzl +at St. Petersburg led Whitworth to sign a compact on terms so +onerous to the British Treasury as to draw on him a sharp disclaimer +and reprimand from London.<a name="FNanchor_511_511" id="FNanchor_511_511"></a><a href="#Footnote_511_511" class="fnanchor">[511]</a> So matters dragged on +far into the year 1799, when plans for the ensuing campaign +ought to have been matured.</p> + +<p>Still more luckless were the dealings of the British Cabinet with +Prussia. In the hope of winning over Frederick William III, +Grenville in November 1798 despatched his brother Thomas on +a mission to Berlin. His journey thither was one of the longest +and most eventful on record. At Yarmouth he was detained by +easterly gales; and when at last the packet boat made the +mouth of the Elbe it was wrecked. The passengers and crew +succeeded in making their way to shore over the pack-ice, +Grenville saving his papers, except the "full-power" needful for +signing a treaty. He reached Cuxhaven in great exhaustion; +and arrived at Berlin on 17th March, only to find that the French +by daring and intrigue had cowed the North German States +into subservience. The terrible winter of 1798–9 largely accounts +for the delays which ruined the subsequent campaign. Whitworth +remained long without news from Downing Street; and +at last, on 12th February, announced that he had received nine +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span>posts at once. Meanwhile France, controlling all the coasts from +Bremen to Genoa, not only excluded British messengers, but +carried on her diplomatic bargaining in Germany without let or +hindrance. For all his trouble, Thomas Grenville could get no +firm footing amidst the shifting sands of Prussian diplomacy. +So nervous were the Austrian Ministers as to Prussia's future +conduct that they seemed about to come to terms with France +and join in the plunder of the smaller German States. This +might have been the upshot had not French armies crossed the +Rhine (1st March 1799), and shortly afterwards invaded the +Grisons Canton.<a name="FNanchor_512_512" id="FNanchor_512_512"></a><a href="#Footnote_512_512" class="fnanchor">[512]</a> Goaded to action, Francis II declared war +eleven days later. On 28th April Austrian hussars seized the +French envoys withdrawing from Rastatt, murdering two of the +four and seizing the papers of all.</p> + +<p>Thus began the war of the Second Coalition. Bonaparte's +seizure of Malta and Egypt without a declaration of war, and +the unbearable aggressions of the French in Switzerland, Italy, +and on the Rhine, stirred to action States which the diplomatic +efforts of Pitt and Grenville had left unmoved. For none of the +wars of that period was France so largely responsible. Even +now, when the inroad of the French into Germany threatened +the ascendancy of Prussia, Frederick William declined to join +the Allies; and his unstatesmanlike refusal thwarted the plans +of Pitt for the march of the subsidized Muscovite force through +Prussia for the recovery of Holland.</p> + +<p>Another essential point was Switzerland. Like a bastion +frowning over converging valleys, that Alpine tract dominates +the basins of the Po, the Inn, the Upper Rhine, and the Upper +Rhone. He who holds it, if strong and resolute, can determine +the fortunes of North Italy, Eastern France, South Germany, and +the West of the Hapsburg domains. Further, by closing the +passes over the Alps he can derange the commerce of Europe; +and the sturdy mountaineers will either overbear the plain-dwellers, +or will serve as mercenaries in their forces. Accordingly +Switzerland, like her Asiatic counterpart, Afghanistan, has +either controlled her neighbours, or has been fought for by +them. As commerce-controller, provider of troops, and warden +of the passes, she holds a most important position. Fortunate +it is that the Swiss have loved freedom, or money, more than +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span>dominion. For so soon as a great State possesses their land, the +Balance of Power becomes a fiction.</p> + +<p>Pitt evinced sure insight in his resolve to free the Switzers +from the Jacobin yoke. To it the men of the Forest Cantons +succumbed only after desperate struggles, which inspired Wordsworth +with one of the noblest of his sonnets. There is no sign +that Pitt set much store on winning over the public opinion of +Europe by siding with the oppressed against the oppressor, as +his disciple, Canning, did during the Spanish National Rising; +but help from the Swiss was certainly hoped for. So early as +August 1798 Pitt proposed to allot £500,000 for assistance to +them, and, but for the delays at St. Petersburg and Vienna, the +Allies might have rescued that brave people before it fell +beneath the weight of numbers. Even in March 1799, when the +rising against the French had scarcely begun, he set apart +£31,000 per month for the purpose of equipping a corps of 20,000 +Swiss. On 15th March, after hearing of the outbreak of war on +the Rhine, Grenville urged that the Russian force subsidized by +England should march towards Switzerland, now that Prussia's +doubtful behaviour prevented a conquest of Holland by land. +He also insisted that this addition to the allied forces destined +for Switzerland must not be allowed to lessen the number of +Austrians operating there.<a name="FNanchor_513_513" id="FNanchor_513_513"></a><a href="#Footnote_513_513" class="fnanchor">[513]</a></p> + +<p>The Court of Vienna at once saw in the subsidized Russian +army a tool useful for its own plans, and requested that it should +serve with the Austrians in Swabia. The answer to this singular +request can be imagined. For a day or two Whitworth was also +disturbed by a belated effort of the French Directory to restore +peace. It offered Poland to the Elector of Saxony, and Saxony +to Prussia for her friendly services, Austria being led to expect +Bavaria, if she would keep Russia "within her ancient limits." +Whitworth mentioned this overture to Cobenzl, and saw him +blush for the first time on record.<a name="FNanchor_514_514" id="FNanchor_514_514"></a><a href="#Footnote_514_514" class="fnanchor">[514]</a> Probably, then, the scheme +had some powerful backing; but now Austria had crossed the +Rubicon.</p> + +<p>At first all went well. The French had played a game of +bluff which they could not sustain. On all sides they were +worsted in a way which suggests how decisive the campaign +might have been had the Allies heartily seconded the salutary +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span>plans of Pitt. Unfortunately, despite his efforts, no compact +came about between Great Britain and Austria. Russia and the +Hapsburg State were but loosely connected; and, owing to a +long delay in the arrival of the ratification of the Anglo-Russian +Treaty, Paul did not until the beginning of May send forward +the subsidized army under the command of Korsakoff.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, the auxiliary Russian force sent forward +to the help of Austria had by that time helped the white-coats +to win notable triumphs in North Italy. In the months of April +and May, Melas and the Imperialists, powerfully backed by +Suvóroff's Muscovites, carried all before them, and drove the +enemy from Milan. Soon afterwards the Allies entered Turin; +and only by hard fighting and heavy losses did Moreau with the +chief French army cut his way through to the Genoese coast. +Meanwhile General Macdonald, retiring with a French corps +from Naples, left that city to the vengeance of Nelson and Maria +Carolina with results that are notorious. The French general +made a brave stand in North Italy, only to fall before the onsets +of the Allies at the Trebbia (17th–19th June). He, too, barely +escaped to Genoa, where the relics of the two French armies +faced about. These successes aroused the highest hopes at +Westminster. Canning, who resigned his Under-Secretaryship +of Foreign Affairs in March 1799, wrote that he cared not +whether the Austrians were beaten; for their failure would serve +as a good example to Europe. But in June, after their brilliant +successes, he expressed a confident hope of the collapse of "the +monstrous fabrick of crimes and cruelties and abominations" +known as French policy; he added that Prussia could not be so +stupid as to hold aloof from the Coalition; and that Pitt, again +vigorous in mind and body, would carry through the war to +the end.</p> + +<p>But now in the train of victory there appeared its parasite, +discord. The re-conquest of Italy was so brilliant and easy as +to arouse disputes about the spoils; and when the Imperialists +began to treat Suvóroff and his heroes cavalierly, the feud +became acute. His complaints to his Sovereign that the Austrians +thwarted him at every turn threw the irascible Czar into a rage, +and he inveighed against the insolence of the Court of Vienna +and its minions. Finally, in order to end these disputes, the +British Ministry proposed the departure of Suvóroff to Switzerland +in order to take command of Korsakoff's subsidized force.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span> +In the third week of June Grenville urged this plan on the +Russian Court as securing concentration of force and unity of +command, the result in all probability being the liberation of +Switzerland, whereupon the Allies could prepare for an invasion +of France on her undefended flank, Franche Comté. England +(added Grenville) disapproved of the presence of "Louis XVIII" +at the Russian headquarters; and if Monsieur, his brother, +issued a declaration, it must be drafted with care. The need of +caution appears in Monsieur's offer of pardon and clemency to +the misguided French, provided that they joined his standard.<a name="FNanchor_515_515" id="FNanchor_515_515"></a><a href="#Footnote_515_515" class="fnanchor">[515]</a></p> + +<p>The Allies, it will be seen, built their hopes on a revolt of the +royalists of the East of France. In fact, widespread risings +were expected. Bordeaux had been the centre of a conspiracy +for leaguing together the malcontents of la Vendée with those +of the South, these again being in touch with the royalists of the +Lyonnais and Franche Comté. Wickham, who was sent as British +agent to Switzerland in June 1799, opened up an extensive correspondence +which promised to lead to a formidable revolt whenever +the Allies invaded Franche Comté and Nice. The malcontents +had as leaders Generals Précy, Pichegru, and Willot. In +due course the Comte d'Artois ("Monsieur") was to appear and +put himself at their head. Accordingly, in August 1799, he left +Holyrood, came to London, and dined at Grenville's house with +him and Pitt. The Prime Minister afterwards paid him a private +visit: but the details of their conference are not known. It is +certain, however, that the Cabinet accorded large sums of money +to Wickham for use in the East of France. Even after the +failure in Switzerland, he pressed for the payment of £365,000 +in order to maintain the royalist movement.<a name="FNanchor_516_516" id="FNanchor_516_516"></a><a href="#Footnote_516_516" class="fnanchor">[516]</a></p> + +<p>Pitt, then, was bent on using all possible means for humbling +France; and, in view of her disasters in the field, the discontent +at home, and the absence of Bonaparte's army in Egypt, the +triumph of the Allies seemed to depend solely on their unanimity. +Much can be said in favour of the British plan of uniting +the two Russian armies in Switzerland to act with that of +the Archduke Charles, in order to strike at Franche Comté in +overwhelming force, while the Austrians in Italy invaded Nice. +If all the moves had taken place betimes, formidable forces +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span>would have been massed for an attack upon the weakest parts +of the French frontier. The Czar agreed to the plan on 9th +July; but the Emperor Francis withheld his sanction for a +suspiciously long time. Here again, as in 1794–6, the men of +the pen interfered with the men of the sword. Immersed in +plans for a vast extension of Austria's domains in Italy, Thugut +turned a deaf ear to the demands of Russia and England for the +restoration of the House of Savoy to the throne of Turin. He +declared that, as Austria had recovered the continental domains of +that dynasty, she could therefore dispose of them. It soon appeared +that she sought to appropriate Piedmont, as well as Venetia, +Lombardy, Parma, Modena, and the northern part of the Papal +States in place of her troublesome Belgic domains, thus liberally +fulfilling Pitt's suggestion that her chief gains should be on the +side of Italy.</p> + +<p>On this question Pitt and Grenville differed. The latter, +sympathizing with Russia, strongly objected to Austria annexing +Piedmont. Pitt, however, maintained that such an acquisition +would not resemble the partition of Poland or of Venetia; +for Charles Emmanuel had lost his lands through his own weakness, +and now did nothing towards recovering them. Further, +it was to the advantage of Europe that the rescuing Power, +Austria, should hold them as a barrier against France. If the +Czar Paul could not be induced to take this view we might leave +the two Empires to settle the matter; but, at present this solution +offered the best chance of arriving at a compact with Austria +so much to be desired. Thus, in order to strengthen the Barrier +System against France, Pitt was prepared to sacrifice legal rights +to expediency, while Grenville upheld the claims of justice.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Limits of space preclude an investigation of the causes of the +humiliating failure of the campaign in Switzerland. Suffice it to +say that, when Korsakoff's army finally entered the north-east +of Switzerland, the Archduke Charles was compelled by imperious +mandates from Vienna to withdraw into Swabia. He +foresaw disaster; and it soon came. While Suvóroff's army was +toiling down the northern defiles of the St. Gotthard, Masséna, +after receiving strong reinforcements, overwhelmed Korsakoff at +Zurich (25th–26th September). That Pitt expected defeat after +the withdrawal of the Archduke Charles appears from his letter +to Windham:</p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span></p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">Downing Street, <i>30th August 1799</i>.<a name="FNanchor_517_517" id="FNanchor_517_517"></a><a href="#Footnote_517_517" class="fnanchor">[517]</a></p> + +<p>I should gladly accept your proposal to join the water-party today, +but I came to town to meet Lord Grenville; and, having seen him, I +am preparing to return part of the way to Walmer in the course of the +evening. I was brought to town by the vexatious accounts from Vienna, +which give too great a chance of our being disappointed in our best +hopes by the blind and perverse selfishness of Austria's counsels.</p> +</div> + + +<p>Grenville was equally indignant and accused Austria of +treachery.<a name="FNanchor_518_518" id="FNanchor_518_518"></a><a href="#Footnote_518_518" class="fnanchor">[518]</a> Much can be said in support of that charge. Whatever +may have been her motive, her conduct ruined the campaign. +South-east of Zurich, Soult routed Hotze's Austrian corps, +which might have linked the movements of Suvóroff with +those of Korsakoff, and Suvóroff on arriving at Altorff found +no other course practicable than to strike away eastwards over +the Panixer Pass to Coire in the Grisons. There he arrived after +severe hardships on 8th October, and swore never again to act +with the Austrians. Paul, on hearing these dire tidings, registered +the same vow, and informed the Viennese Court that +thenceforth he separated his interests entirely from hers. Thus +was it that Pitt's plans miscarried. Thus was it that British +subsidies were flung away into the limbo strewn with tokens of +Hapsburg fatuity.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>The Anglo-Russian effort against the Batavian Republic is +often referred to as if it were the principal event of the year +1799. On the contrary, it was little more than a diversion intended +to help the chief enterprise in Switzerland and Franche +Comté. The Czar Paul and Pitt probably did not intend to +hold the Dutch Provinces unless the Allies pressed France hard +on the Swiss frontier and the Orange party rose in force. If +these contingencies held good, then Holland might be held as +far as the River Waal. If not, then the effort must be temporary. +Even so, its advantages were great. The seizure of the Dutch +fleet at the Texel and Helder would end all chance of invasion +from that quarter. Fears of such an attempt had prompted a +counter-stroke dealt by General Coote's force in the spring of +1798 at the sluice-gates near Ostend. Its surrender under untoward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> +circumstances was, perhaps, nearly counterbalanced by +the destruction of canal works necessary for the assembly of the +flat-bottomed boats at Ostend.</p> + +<p>For a brief space the doubtful attitude of Prussia led Pitt and +Grenville to concert a larger scheme. They hoped to form a +great array of Prussians, Russians, Britons, and Hanoverians +which would sweep the French out of Holland; but obviously +such a plan depended on the support of the Berlin Cabinet. If it +were hostile, or even unfriendly, no force could advance through +Hanover for the delivery of Holland; for it would be at the +mercy of Prussia. In order to bring her into the league, Pitt +and Grenville held out the promise of gains near the Dutch +frontier; but she held coyly aloof, doubtless from a conviction +that Austria would oppose her aggrandisement. So at least +Thugut declared to Eden on his departure from Vienna. Well +might his successor, Lord Minto, remark that the Allies spent +as much time in watching each other's moves as those of the +enemy.</p> + +<p>Prussia being immovable, England and Russia laid their plans +for a naval expedition to Holland. By a Convention signed at +midsummer 1799 at St Petersburg, Russia agreed to send a +squadron of 11 ships, convoying an expeditionary force of 17,500 +men to the Dutch coast, England paying £44,000 per month for +their services after embarkation. The Czar hoped that England +would send some 6,000 men. The help of 8,000 Swedes was +also expected; but the King of Sweden, annoyed at England's +seizure of Swedish merchantmen, refused all assistance. For a +time Pitt desired both to attack the Island of Voorn below +Rotterdam, and to effect a landing in the estuary of the Ems, +provided that 25,000 British, 18,000 Russians, and 8,000 Swedes +were available. Here, as so often, Pitt's hopes outran the actuality. +Windham believed that he wished to conquer Flanders. +But Windham's moods were so various and perverse that he can +scarcely be trusted. In his view every effort not directed towards +Brittany was wasted; and certainly feints against the coasts of +Brittany and Spain promised to further the Dutch expedition.<a name="FNanchor_519_519" id="FNanchor_519_519"></a><a href="#Footnote_519_519" class="fnanchor">[519]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span></p> +<p>Early in August Pitt and his colleagues finally resolved to +send the expedition to the Dutch coast; but they had not decided +as to the length or extent of the occupation. So, at least, +it appears from a letter of Pitt to Sir Charles Grey:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">Downing Street, <i>Aug. 23, 1799</i>.<a name="FNanchor_520_520" id="FNanchor_520_520"></a><a href="#Footnote_520_520" class="fnanchor">[520]</a></p> + +<p>You will not wonder that the circumstances of the present moment +have strongly recalled to Mr. Dundas's mind and mine the conversations +which we have at different times had with you respecting the possibility +of a successful stroke against Brest. The assemblage of the +combined fleets<a name="FNanchor_521_521" id="FNanchor_521_521"></a><a href="#Footnote_521_521" class="fnanchor">[521]</a> in that port renders such an object more tempting than +ever. We have a prospect, if the expedition in Holland should terminate +speedily, of having a large army of 30,000 men at least, and a large +body of marines, with any number of sail-of-the-line that may be thought +necessary, applicable to such a service by the month of October; and if +the Allies continue to push their operations on the other side of France, +the bulk of the French force will find sufficient occupation at a distance +from their coast. In all these respects the time seems as favourable as +it can ever be expected to be to such an enterprise; and if it is to be +undertaken, we shall derive the greatest confidence of success from seeing +the execution of it placed in your hands. Many circumstances may +undoubtedly arise in the course of the next six weeks which may oblige +us to abandon the idea....</p> +</div> + + +<p>This letter proves that Pitt did not expect a prolonged occupation +of Holland, at least by British troops; but the notions of +Ministers on this topic were singularly hazy. All things considered, +the expedition at first fared well. Sir Ralph Abercromby, +the leader of the first detachment of some 12,000 British +troops, effected a landing near the forts at the Helder, and on +27th August speedily captured them. Three days later Admiral +Mitchell captured a squadron of 10 sail-of-the-line and several +frigates anchored behind the Texel. Pitt was elated by these +successes, and wrote from Walmer Castle on 5th September: +"We are impatiently waiting till this east wind brings our transports +in sight to carry the remainder of our troops, in order to +compleat speedily what has been so gloriously begun." He adds +that in a short autumn session he hopes speedily to pass by +acclamation a Bill ensuring the doubling of the regular army by +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span>another levy from the militia.<a name="FNanchor_522_522" id="FNanchor_522_522"></a><a href="#Footnote_522_522" class="fnanchor">[522]</a> Other letters bespeak his anxiety +as to the safety of his brother, the Earl of Chatham, who served +on the Council of War directing the operations of the Duke +of York.</p> + +<p>Abercromby's first successes were for a time maintained. At +dawn of 10th September the British force beat off a sharp attack +by Vandamme at the Zuype Canal on the way southwards to +Alkmaar. Three days later the Duke of York arrived and took +the command, including that of a Russian corps under General +Hermann. Moving forwards with some 30,000 men, the Duke +attacked a Franco-Dutch force somewhat inferior in numbers +but very strongly posted at and around the village of Bergen. +The onset failed, mainly owing to the fierce but premature and +disorderly onset of the Russians on the right wing, which ended +in a rout. Abercromby's flanking movement came too late to +restore the fight, which cost the British 1,000 men and the +Russians more than double as many (19th September). Hermann +was taken prisoner.<a name="FNanchor_523_523" id="FNanchor_523_523"></a><a href="#Footnote_523_523" class="fnanchor">[523]</a></p> + +<p>On 2nd October the Allies compelled the enemy to retreat +from Bergen; but the success was of little service. The defenders, +now strongly reinforced, held several good positions +between Alkmaar and Amsterdam. Meanwhile the Orange +party did not stir. Torrents of rain day after day impaired the +health of the troops and filled the dykes. An advance being +impossible in these circumstances, the Duke of York retreated +to the line of the Zuype (8th to 9th October). There he could +have held his own; but, in view of the disasters in Switzerland, +Ministers decided to evacuate Holland (15th October). Accordingly, +by the Convention of Alkmaar, on the 18th, the Duke of +York agreed to evacuate the Dutch Netherlands by the end +of November, 8,000 of the prisoners of war then in England +being restored. Most questionable was the decision of Ministers +to evacuate the Helder and the Texel. Grenville desired to hold +those posts as bases for a second attempt in 1800; but this was +not done. The only result, then, was the capture of the Dutch +fleet, a prize gained without loss by the end of September.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span></p> +<p>The censures bestowed on this undertaking are very natural. +Success was scarcely possible in the narrow, marshy strip of land +north of Amsterdam. In such a district victory must be costly, +while defeat spelt disaster. The whole enterprise was unwarrantable, +unless the Orange party was about to rise; but on this +subject Ministers were deceived. The Prince of Orange and +his son assured them that it was necessary even to hold back +the loyalists until armed help appeared, so eager were they to +expel the French.<a name="FNanchor_524_524" id="FNanchor_524_524"></a><a href="#Footnote_524_524" class="fnanchor">[524]</a> Not a sign of this eagerness appeared.</p> + +<p>Undaunted by this failure, which Sheridan wittily called nibbling +at the French rind, Pitt sought to utilize the Russian force +withdrawn from Holland for the projected blow at Brest. It +was therefore taken to the Channel Islands, greatly to the hurt +of the inhabitants. Pitt and Grenville also concerted plans with +the Austrian Court, which, chastened by the disasters in Switzerland, +now displayed less truculence. It agreed to repay the loan +of May 1797, to restore Piedmont to the House of Savoy, and +to give back to France any provinces conquered in the war, on +condition of the re-establishment of monarchy. Thus, a friendly +understanding was at last arrived at; and on 24th December +1799 Grenville empowered Minto to prepare a treaty, adding +that on the first opportunity the French Government should be +informed of this engagement.</p> + +<p>The occasion occurred at once. Bonaparte, having become +master of France by the <span lang="fr">coup d'état</span> of Brumaire (10th November), +wrote on Christmas Day to Francis II and George III +proposing terms of peace. The statesmanlike tone of that offer +has been deservedly admired; but his motives in making it do +not concern us here.<a name="FNanchor_525_525" id="FNanchor_525_525"></a><a href="#Footnote_525_525" class="fnanchor">[525]</a> Suffice it to say that Pitt and Thugut saw +in it a clever device for sundering the Anglo-Austrian compact. +As appears from a letter of Canning, Pitt looked on the new +Consular Government as a make-shift. Writing early in December +to Canning, Pitt stated that the new French constitution +might prove to be of a moderate American kind. To this +Canning answered on the 7th that it might perhaps last long +enough to admit of Bonaparte sending off a courier to London +and receiving the reply if he were kicked back. Or more probably, +France would fall under a military despotism, "of the +actual and manifest instability of which you seem to entertain +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span>no doubt." In answer to Pitt's statement "that we ought not +to commit ourselves by any declaration that the restoration of +royalty is the <span lang="la">sine qua non</span> condition of peace," Canning advised +him to issue a declaration "that you would treat with a monarchy; +that to the monarchy restored to its rightful owner you would +give not only peace, but peace on the most liberal terms."</p> + +<p>Clearly, then, Pitt was less royalist than Canning; but he +decided to repel all overtures from Paris (so he wrote to Dundas +on 31st December), because the condition of France did not +provide a solid security for a peace. He added that he desired +"to express strongly the eagerness with which we should +embrace any opening for general peace whenever such solid +security should be attainable. This may, I think, be so expressed +as to convey to the people of France that the shortest road to +peace is by effecting the restoration of Royalty, and thereby to +increase the chance of that most desirable of all issues to the +war." As Grenville and Dundas concurred in this view, the +Foreign Office sent off a reply stating that the usual diplomatic +forms would be observed; that His Majesty sought only to +maintain the rights of his subjects against a war of aggression; +and that the present time was unsuitable for negotiations +with persons recently placed in power by a Revolution, until +they should disclaim the restless and subversive schemes which +threatened the framework of society. His Majesty, however, +would welcome peace when it could be attained with security, +the best pledge of which would be the restoration of Royalty.</p> + +<p>This reply ranks among the greatest mistakes of the time. It +made the name of the Bourbons odious and that of Bonaparte +popular throughout France; and the scornful references to the +First Consul's insecurity must have re-doubled the zeal of +Frenchmen for the erection of a truly national and monarchical +system under his auspices. In truth, it is difficult to see why +Pitt, who held out the olive-branch to the newly-established +Directory in the autumn of 1795, should have repelled the +proffered hand of Bonaparte. The probable explanation is that +he thought more of the effect of the reply at Vienna than at +Paris. On 6th January Grenville forwarded a copy to Minto, +expressing also the hope that it would be regarded as a sign of +the fidelity of England to the Emperor. Further, Pitt's oration on +3rd February 1800 on this topic was marked by extreme acerbity +against Bonaparte. He descanted on his perfidy and rapacity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> +at the expense of Venice and the Sultan's dominions, and deprecated +a compact with "this last adventurer in the lottery of +Revolutions.... As a sincere lover of peace," he added, "I +will not sacrifice it by grasping at the shadow, when the reality +is not substantially within my reach. <span lang="la">Cur igitur pacem nolo? +Quia infida est, quia periculosa, quia esse non potest.</span>"<a name="FNanchor_526_526" id="FNanchor_526_526"></a><a href="#Footnote_526_526" class="fnanchor">[526]</a> In reply +to a verbal challenge from Tierney a fortnight later, he fired off +an harangue which ranks among the ablest and most fervid of +improvisations. The Whig leader having defied him to state in +one sentence without <em>ifs</em> and <em>buts</em> the object of the war, Pitt +flung back the retort:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>... I know not whether I can do it in one sentence, but in one word +I can tell him that it is security; security against a danger the greatest +that ever threatened the world; ... against a danger which has been +resisted by all the nations of Europe, and resisted by none with so much +success as by this nation, because by none has it been resisted so +uniformly and with so much energy.... How or where did the +honourable gentleman discover that the Jacobinism of Robespierre, of +Barère, of the Triumvirate, of the Five Directors, which he acknowledged +to be real, has vanished and disappeared because it has all been +centred and condensed into one man, who was reared and nursed in its +bosom, whose celebrity was gained under its auspices, who was at once +the child and champion of all its atrocities and horrors? Our security in +negotiation is to be this Buonaparte, who is now the sole organ of all +that was formerly dangerous and pestiferous in the Revolution.... <em>If</em> +peace afford no prospect of security; <em>if</em> it threaten all the evils which +we have been struggling to avert; <em>if</em> the prosecution of the war afford +the prospect of attaining complete security; and <em>if</em> it may be prosecuted +with increasing commerce, with increasing means, and with increasing +prosperity, except what may result from the visitations of the seasons; +then I say it is prudent in us not to negotiate at the present moment. +These are my <em>buts</em> and my <em>ifs</em>. This is my plea, and on no other do I +wish to be tried by God and my country.</p> +</div> + +<p>One who heard that spirited retort left on record the profound +impression which it produced on the House.<a name="FNanchor_527_527" id="FNanchor_527_527"></a><a href="#Footnote_527_527" class="fnanchor">[527]</a></p> + +<p>Seeing that Bonaparte was then known merely as an able +<i>condottiere</i>, not as the re-organizer of French society, Pitt's +haughty attitude, though deplorable, is intelligible. The prospects<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span> +of the war were not unfavourable. He hoped that Austria, +now about to invade Nice and Savoy, would be able by her own +efforts to reduce France within her old limits, England's duty +being to offer help on the Riviera, to make a dash at Brest, and +to seize Belleisle as a base of supplies for the Breton royalists, +now once more in revolt. It is significant that Dundas wrote to +Pitt on 4th January expressing his belief that Bonaparte must +be serious in his desire for peace because he had no other game +to play.<a name="FNanchor_528_528" id="FNanchor_528_528"></a><a href="#Footnote_528_528" class="fnanchor">[528]</a></p> + +<p>Many influences conspired to mar these hopes. The enterprises +against Brest and Belleisle proved to be impracticable, and +a landing at Quiberon failed because the Breton rising occurred +too soon. The royalists of Provence did not rise at all. An +attempt by Sir James Pulteney and a small force upon Ferrol +was an utter failure. All the operations were paralysed by uncertainty +as to the future conduct of Russia. The indignation of +the Czar against Austria extended to England after the failure +of the joint expedition to Holland; and his testiness increased +owing to maritime disputes and the friction caused by the outrages +of his troops in the Channel Islands. In the Riviera the +Austrians continued their successes, and finally shut up Masséna +in Genoa, where the British fleet rendered valuable service. +But it is not surprising to find Grenville writing on 10th April +to Dundas: "For God's sake, for your own honour, and for the +cause in which we are engaged, do not let us, after having by +immense exertions collected a fine army, leave it unemployed, +gaping after messengers from Genoa, Augsburg, and Vienna till +the moment for acting is irrecoverably passed by."</p> + +<p>This, however, was the outcome of events. The French, acting +on interior lines, and propelled by the will of Bonaparte, utterly +crushed these sporadic efforts. The Royalists were quelled or +pacified, the coasts were well guarded, while the First Consul, +crossing the Great St. Bernard, overthrew the Austrians at Marengo +(14th June). Before long Naples made peace with the conqueror. +Meanwhile the Sea Power, operating on diverse coasts, delayed, +but did not reverse, the progress of the French arms. British +forces for a time defended Portugal and held Minorca and the +citadel of Messina, but without any appreciable effect on Spain +or Italy. The fleet played an important part in starving out the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span>French garrisons of Genoa and Valetta. But elsewhere the +action, or inaction, of the British forces was discreditable. True, +the conditions were adverse, but an army numbering more than +80,000 men, and costing nearly £10,000,000 sterling, should have +accomplished something in Europe.</p> + +<p>Only at one point did the British arms win a decisive success. +The French occupation of Egypt had aroused the apprehensions +of Dundas for India; and throughout the year 1800 he continued +to urge an expedition to Egypt, though other Ministers +inclined to put it off. Finally, when Bonaparte's triumph at +Marengo shattered all hopes of an Austrian invasion of Provence, +and the surrender of Valetta, early in September, set free +the British squadron long blockading that port, Dundas pressed +the Egyptian project in a letter to Pitt, dated Wimbledon, +19th September 1800. The gist of it is as follows:<a name="FNanchor_529_529" id="FNanchor_529_529"></a><a href="#Footnote_529_529" class="fnanchor">[529]</a></p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>On reconsidering the discussion on Egypt at the Cabinet meeting of +yesterday, I am impressed by the danger of delaying action. The importance +of expelling the French from Egypt is obvious; for it is clear +that Bonaparte will subordinate every object to the retention of that +colony. The danger to India may not be immediate, but it must be +faced. Besides, our sacrifice of Turkish interests to those of Austria +[that is, by refusing to ratify the Franco-Turkish Convention of El Arish] +may induce the Sultan to bargain with France on terms very unfavourable +to us. Or, again, France and Russia may plan a partition of the +Ottoman Empire. The objections, that we are pledged to do what we +can for Portugal and Austria, are not vital. For Portugal is safe while +the Viennese Court opposes France; and by our subsidies and naval +help we have borne our fair share in the Coalition. Further efforts in +that direction will be fruitless. We must now see to our own interests. +By occupying all the posts of Egypt, we can coop up the French and +force them to capitulate. Action must not be postponed for any consideration +whatever.</p> +</div> + + +<p>The opinion of Dundas soon prevailed; for, on 6th October, +Grenville wrote that the Egyptian Expedition was decided on. +As is well known, the joint efforts of forces from England, India, +and the Cape of Good Hope brought about the surrender of the +French garrisons, and the acquisition for the British Museum of +the treasures designed for the Louvre. This brilliant result was in +the last instance due to Abercromby, Hutchinson, Popham, and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span>their coadjutors. But the enterprise resulted from the untiring +championship of the interests of India by Dundas. Long afterwards +at Perthshire dinner-tables he used to tell with pride how +George III once proposed a toast to the Minister who planned +the expedition to Egypt and in doing so had the courage to +oppose not only his colleagues but his King.</p> + +<p>As the year 1800 drew to its close, the opposition of the +Baltic Powers to the British maritime code became most threatening. +The questions at issue are too technical to be discussed +here. Pitt and his colleagues believed the maintenance of the +rights of search and of the seizure of an enemy's goods on +neutral ships to be essential to the existence of England. For +this view of the case much was to be said. In every war France +used neutral ships in order to get supplies; and the neutrals +themselves sought to filch trade from British merchants. Now, +to hinder or destroy the commerce of the enemy, and to prevent +neutrals from bringing naval stores to his ports, were the +only means of bringing pressure from the sea upon the dominant +Land Power. In a strife for life or death Pitt and his colleagues +perforce made use of every weapon, even to the detriment of +non-combatants. This stiff attitude, however, contrasted with +that of Bonaparte, who, in July 1800 flattered the Czar by sending +back Russian prisoners and by offering to cede Malta to him. +Paul, not knowing that the fall of Valetta was imminent, was +duped by this device; and, a few weeks later, occurred the +rupture between Russia and England.</p> + +<p>Thus, within a year, the Second Coalition against France +went to pieces, and was succeeded by a league against England. +Thanks to the victory of Nelson at Copenhagen and the murder +of the Czar Paul in the spring of 1801, that unnatural alliance +speedily collapsed. These events, however, belong to a time +subsequent to Pitt's resignation of office, after the completion of +the union with Ireland, to which we must now return. Enough +has been said to show the statesmanlike nature of his plans for +the vindication of European independence. The intrigues of +Thugut, the selfish isolation of Prussia, and the mad oscillations +of Paul marred those plans and left the Continent a prey to the +unbridled ambition of Bonaparte, from which it was to be saved +only after a decade of exhausting wars.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">THE UNION</p> + +<p class="quote">I am determined not to submit to the insertion of any clause that shall +make the exclusion of the Catholics a fundamental part of the Union, as I +am fully convinced that, until the Catholics are admitted into a general +participation of rights (which, when incorporated with the British Government, +they cannot abuse) there will be no peace or safety in Ireland.—<span class="smcap">Cornwallis +to Ross</span>, <i>30th September 1798</i>.</p> + + +<p>The fairest method of dealing with the Act of Union of the +British and Irish Parliaments seems to be, firstly, to trace +the development of Pitt's thoughts on that subject; secondly, to +survey the state of affairs in Ireland after the Rebellion of 1798; +and thirdly, to trace the course of the negotiations whereby the +new Lord Lieutenant, Cornwallis, succeeded in carrying through +the measure itself.</p> + +<p>Firstly, it is clear that Pitt had long felt the need of closer +commercial ties between the two islands. As was shown in +Chapter XI of the former part of this work, he sought to prepare +the way for such a measure in the session of 1785. The importance +which he attached to the freeing of inter-insular trade +appears in a phrase of his letter of 6th January 1785 to the +Duke of Rutland as to Great Britain and Ireland becoming +"one country in effect, though for local concerns under distinct +legislatures," This represents his first thoughts on the subject. +Obviously they were then limited to a commercial union. If the +two Parliaments and the two nations could have shaken off their +commercial jealousies, Pitt would probably have been satisfied +with fostering the prosperity of both islands, while leaving their +legislative machinery intact. But, being thwarted by the stupidity +of British traders and the nagging tactics adopted at Dublin, he +wrote to Rutland that his plan was not discredited by failure and +they must "await times and seasons for carrying it into effect."</p> + +<p>Times and seasons brought, not peace and quiet, but the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span> +French Revolution. With it there came an increase of racial +and religious feuds, which, however, did but strengthen his conviction +of the need of a closer connection between the two +islands; witness his letter of 18th November 1792 to the Lord +Lieutenant, the Earl of Westmorland:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>The idea of the present fermentation gradually bringing both parties +to think of an Union with this country has long been in my mind. I +hardly dare flatter myself with the hope of its taking place; but I believe +it, tho' itself not easy to be accomplished, to be the only solution for +other and greater difficulties. The admission of Catholics to a share of +suffrage could not then be dangerous. The Protestant interest, in point +of power, property and Church Establishment, would be secure because +the decided majority of the supreme Legislature would necessarily be +Protestant; and the great ground of argument on the part of the +Catholics would be done away, as, compared with the rest of the Empire, +they would become a minority. You will judge when and to whom this +idea can be confided. It must certainly require great delicacy and +management; but I am heartily glad that it is at least in your thoughts.<a name="FNanchor_530_530" id="FNanchor_530_530"></a><a href="#Footnote_530_530" class="fnanchor">[530]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>These words show why Pitt allowed proposals so imperfect +as the Franchise Bill of 1793 to become law. It enfranchised +most of the Irish peasantry, the great majority of whom were +Catholics, though men of their creed were excluded from Parliament. +But he hoped in the future to supplement it by a far +greater measure which would render the admission of Catholics +to Parliament innocuous, namely, by the formation of a united +Parliament in which they would command only a small minority +of votes. Pitt's words open up a vista which receded far away +amidst the smoke of war and the mirage of bigotry, and did not +come into sight until the second decade of the period of peace, +when Canning, Pitt's disciple, was the chief champion of the +measure here first clearly outlined. Pitt, then, desired a Union +as the sole means of ending commercial disputes, otherwise as +insoluble as those between England and Scotland previous to +the year 1707; but also for an even weightier reason, because +only so could the religious discords of Irishmen be ended; only +so could the chafing of the majority against the rule of a cramping +caste cease. By the formation of an Imperial Parliament, +the Irish Protestants would have solid guarantees against the +subversion of all that they held most dear.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span></p> +<p>The full realization of these aims was impossible. Early in +1793 came war with France, with its sequel, the heating of +nationalist and religious feeling in Ireland; and while the officials +of Dublin Castle embarked on a policy of repression, the United +Irishmen looked for help to Paris. The results appeared in the +Rebellion of 1798. The oft-repeated assertion that Pitt and +Camden brought about the revolt in order to force on the Union +is at variance with all the available evidence. They sought by all +possible means to prevent a rising, which, with a reasonable +amount of help from France, must have shaken the British +Empire to its base. When the rebellion came and developed +into a bloody religious feud, they saw that the time for a Union +had come.</p> + +<p>The best means of checking hasty generalizations is to peruse +letters written at the time, before ingenious theories could be spun. +Now, the definite proposal of a Union very rarely occurs before +the month of June 1798. One of the first references is in a letter +of the Lord Chancellor, Loughborough, to Pitt, dated 13th June +1798. After approving the appointment of Cornwallis as the best +means of quelling the revolt in Ireland, he adds: "Every reasonable +man in that country must feel that their preservation depends +on their connection with England, and it ought [to] be their first +wish to make it more entire. It would be very rash to make any +such suggestion from hence: but we should be prepared to +receive it and to impose the idea whenever it begins to appear in +Ireland."<a name="FNanchor_531_531" id="FNanchor_531_531"></a><a href="#Footnote_531_531" class="fnanchor">[531]</a></p> + +<p>More important, as showing the impossibility of continuing +the present chaotic administration at Dublin, is the following +letter from the Earl of Carlisle, formerly Lord Lieutenant, to +Pitt. It is undated, but probably belongs to 2nd June 1798:<a name="FNanchor_532_532" id="FNanchor_532_532"></a><a href="#Footnote_532_532" class="fnanchor">[532]</a></p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>... It may perhaps be but a weak apology for this interruption to +own I cannot help looking at that country [Ireland] with a sort of affection, +like an old house which one has once inhabited, not disliking the +antient arrangement of its interior, and perhaps unreasonably prejudiced +against many of its modern innovations. The innovation that has long +given me uneasiness, and which now seems most seriously to perplex +the Irish Government, was the fatal institution of an Irish Cabinet, which +has worked itself into being, considered almost as a component part of +that deputed authority. A Government composed of Lords Justices, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span>natives of that country, as a permanent establishment, absurd as such +an expedient might be, would not have at least that radical defect of +authority disjoined from responsibility. We now feel all the bad effects +of a power which should never have been confer'd, and which is strengthen'd +from hence by many acting with you, so as to make it impossible +for the Lord Lieutenant to manage with it or without it.</p> + +<p>You have, in my poor judgment, an opportunity offer'd to crush at +one blow this defective system. Ireland, I scruple not to say, cannot be +saved if you permit an hour longer almost the military defence of that +country to depend upon the tactical dictates of Chancellors, Speaker of +the House of Commons, etc. I mean to speak with no disrespect of Lord +Camden; I never heard anything but to his honour; but I maintain +under the present circumstances the best soldier would make the best +Lord-Lieutenant; one on whom no Junto there would presume to fling +their shackles, and one who would cut them short if they presumed to +talk of what they did not understand. With this idea, I confess, L<sup>d</sup> +Cornwallis naturally occurs to me. Next to this, but not so efficacious, +would be sending some one equal to the military duties, freed from all +control, saving that, for form's sake, good sense would acquiesce under +to [<span lang="la">sic</span>] the King's Deputy. But I cannot doubt but a deeper change +would be most advisable. The disaffected to our Government (and I +fear it is too general) may perhaps have their degrees and divisions of +animosity against it, and some possibly may be changed by a change of +men more than by a professed change of measures, which perhaps they +think little about. I know they are taught to believe a particular set of +men are their enemies; in truth I question if, in tyrannising over and +thwarting the Castle, and talking so injudiciously, they ought to be considered +as our friends....</p> +</div> + + +<p>Thus the man to whom in 1795 Earl Fitzwilliam poured +forth his grievances against Pitt, now advised him to end the +mischievous dualism at Dublin, which enabled Lords Justices +and the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons to paralyse +the Executive. There, as at Berlin, advisers who had great +influence but no official responsibility, often intervened with +disastrous results; and not until Stein took the tiller after Tilsit did +the Prussian ship of State pursue a straight course. At Dublin +the crisis of 1798 revealed the weakness of the Irish Executive, +and naturally led to a complete break with the past.<a name="FNanchor_533_533" id="FNanchor_533_533"></a><a href="#Footnote_533_533" class="fnanchor">[533]</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Amidst the mass of Pitt's papers relating to Ireland there is +no sign of his intention to press on an Act of Union before the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span>middle of the month of June 1798, that is, in the midst of the +Rebellion. The first reference to it occurs in a memorandum endorsed +by Pitt "received June 19, 1798," and obviously drawn +up by Camden a few days before he resigned the Viceroyalty in +favour of Cornwallis. Pitt's letter of inquiry is missing. Camden's +reply is too long for quotation, but may be thus summarized:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>The plan of a Union should be detailed as far as possible before it is +attempted. The King's Cabinet should be at once consulted, also leading +persons in both islands. If their opinion is favourable, the measure +should then be brought forward. If the Catholic claims are to be met, +the advice of their leading men, as for instance Lords Fingal and +Kenmare, should be sought. The legal attainments of the Irish Chancellor, +the Earl of Clare, and the parliamentary and commercial connections +of the Speaker, Foster, entitle their opinions to great weight. +Foster may perhaps be won over by the offer of an English peerage. +The Irish Bar, as also Lords Shannon and Ely, will probably oppose a +Union. Some persons will object to the admission of Catholics even to +the United Parliament, though that measure cannot do harm. The +Scottish Catholics should have the same privileges accorded to them, +and a provision should be made for the Dissenting clergy. Parliamentary +Reform must be considered, but it will not be dangerous now. The French +will never make peace until Great Britain is weakened. The religious +difficulty of a Union will not be great, for the Protestants will always form +the majority in the United Parliament. Legal expenses in the case of +Irish suits will be little more than in Scottish suits. As Dublin will +suffer from the removal of the Parliament, the Lord Lieutenant's Court +must be kept up in great splendour, the residence of influential persons +in Ireland being encouraged in every possible way. The communications +between the two islands must be improved, free packet-boats being +provided. In a postscript Camden adds that he hopes Cornwallis will +continue the present repressive policy, which otherwise must appear +unduly harsh by contrast.<a name="FNanchor_534_534" id="FNanchor_534_534"></a><a href="#Footnote_534_534" class="fnanchor">[534]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>The most significant passages are those in which Camden +refers to the plan of a Union as so unformed as to require preliminary +inquiries, and in which he presumes that after the +Union Dissenters and Catholics will have "the same advantages +as are bestowed upon the rest of the inhabitants of the three kingdoms." +Clearly, then, Pitt and Camden had come to no decision +on the Union; but Camden, from what he knew of Pitt's views, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span>believed that he favoured a broad and inclusive policy, not a +Union framed on a narrowly Protestant basis. Neither of them +seems to have anticipated serious resistance on the religious +question, even though the King, at the time of the Fitzwilliam +crisis of 1795, had declared the admission of Catholics to the +Irish Parliament to be a matter which concerned his conscience, +not his Cabinet.</p> + +<p>It is also obvious that the question of the Union was forced +to the front by the cumbrous dualism of the Irish Executive, +which proved to be utterly unable to cope with the crisis of the +Rebellion. The King, as we have seen, shrewdly suggested that +Cornwallis ought to make use of the fears of Irish loyalists in +order to frighten the Dublin Parliament into acquiescence in an +Act of Union. The same opinion was gaining ground; but +several of Pitt's supporters doubted the advisability of so far-reaching +a measure. Thus, on 4th July 1798, Hatsell, Clerk of +the House of Commons, wrote to Auckland that of all possible +plans a Union was the worst, "full of difficulties, to be brought +about by errant jobs; and, when done, not answering the purpose. +You must take out the teeth, or give the Catholics sops to +eat. One or other; but the half-measure won't do." Better +balanced was the judgement of the Earl of Carlisle, as stated to +Auckland some time in September. After asking whether the +recurrence of local risings in Ireland did not prove the unwisdom +of the policy of lenience pursued by Cornwallis, he +added these significant words: "In this distress it is not strange +that we should turn to the expedient of Union; but this is running +in a dark night for a port we are little acquainted with.... +If you did not satisfy Ireland by the measure and take off some +part of those ill-disposed to England, you would only make +matters worse. But in truth something must be done, or we +must fight for Ireland once a week."<a name="FNanchor_535_535" id="FNanchor_535_535"></a><a href="#Footnote_535_535" class="fnanchor">[535]</a></p> + +<p>That the activity of the rebels varied according to the prospects +of aid from France was manifest. Thus, on 25th July +Beresford wrote to Auckland that the people seemed tired of +rebellion, which would die out unless the French landed. But +on 22nd August, after the arrival of Humbert's little force in +Killala Bay, he described the whole country as in revolt. The +State prisoners, O'Connor, McNevin, and Addis Emmett, sent +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span>to the papers a denial of their former pacific assurances;<a name="FNanchor_536_536" id="FNanchor_536_536"></a><a href="#Footnote_536_536" class="fnanchor">[536]</a> and +even after the surrender of Humbert's force, Beresford wrote to +Auckland on 15th September: "... Should the French or the +Dutch get out an armament and land, there will be a very general +rising. I have it from a man on whose veracity I can depend, +and who was on the spot in Mayo, during the French invasion, +that the Catholics of the country ran to join them with eagerness, +and that they had more than they could arm; that, as they +moved on, they were constantly joined; but he says the Irish behaved +so ill that the French made use of discipline, which thinned +their ranks; however, they had 4,000 of them when they were attacked +by Colonel Vereker, and about 200 of the Limerick militia. +By our late accounts there are said to be in Mayo and Roscommon +10,000 rebels up: they are destroying the country."<a name="FNanchor_537_537" id="FNanchor_537_537"></a><a href="#Footnote_537_537" class="fnanchor">[537]</a> +Beresford then blames the Viceroy's proclamation, offering pardon +to rebels who come in within a month, and he says their leaders +tell them that 20,000 French will soon land. Equally significant +is the statement of George Rose in a letter of 23rd September. +Referring to the fact that two French warships had got away +from Brest towards the Irish coast, he writes: "If they land, +the struggle may be more serious. The truth is that it will be +nearly impossible to keep Ireland as a conquered country. +Union is become more urgent than ever." This was also the +opinion of Lord Sheffield. Writing on 29th September from +Rottingdean to Auckland, he remarks on the disquieting ease +with which the French squadrons reach Ireland. He has had a +long argument with the Irish Judge, Sir William Downes, and +proved to him the necessity of a Union with Ireland. But (he +proceeds) it will never take place, if it is set about publicly.</p> + +<p>Irish loyalists united in decrying the comparatively lenient +methods of Cornwallis; but, despite the urgent advice of Camden +to Pitt, the change of system met with approval at Downing Street. +This is the more remarkable as letters from Dublin were full of +invectives against Cornwallis. Buckingham wrote almost daily +to his brother, Grenville, foretelling ruin from the weakness and +vacillation of the Lord Lieutenant. Still more furious were +Beresford, Cooke, and Lees. Their correspondence with Auckland, +Postmaster-General at London, was so systematic as to +imply design. Probably they sought to procure the dismissal of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span>Cornwallis and the nomination of Auckland in his place. There +can be little doubt that Auckland lent himself to the scheme +with a view to maintaining the Protestant ascendancy unimpaired; +for he wrote to Beresford that public opinion in England +favoured the maintenance of the existing order of things in +Church and State in both kingdoms. The following extracts +from the letters which he received from Cooke and Lees are +typical. On 4th October Lees writes: "I am afraid Lord Cornwallis +is not devil enough to deal with the devils he has to contend +with in this country.... The profligacy of the murderous +malignant disposition of Paddy soars too high for his humane +and merciful principles at this crisis." Cooke was less flowery +but equally emphatic: "If," he wrote on 22nd October, "your +Union is to be Protestant, we have 100,000 Protestants who are +connected by Orange Lodges, and they might be made a great +instrument.... Our robberies and murders continue; and the +depredations of the mountain rebels increase."<a name="FNanchor_538_538" id="FNanchor_538_538"></a><a href="#Footnote_538_538" class="fnanchor">[538]</a></p> + +<p>Nevertheless Cornwallis held on his way. In the period 22nd +August 1798 to the end of February 1799, he reprieved as many +as 41 rebels out of 131 on whom sentence of death had been +passed, and he commuted to banishment heavy sentences passed +on 78 others. It is clear, then, that, despite the efforts of Buckingham +and the officials of Dublin Castle, Pitt continued to uphold +a policy of clemency. But it is equally clear that the reliance +of Irish malcontents on French aid, the persistent efforts of the +Brest squadron to send that aid, and the savage reprisals demanded, +and when possible enforced, by the loyal minority of +Irishmen, brought about a situation in which Ireland could not +stand alone.<a name="FNanchor_539_539" id="FNanchor_539_539"></a><a href="#Footnote_539_539" class="fnanchor">[539]</a></p> + +<p>Preliminary inquiries respecting the Act of Union were set +on foot, and the results were summarized in Memoranda of the +summer and autumn of 1798. One of them, comprised among +the Pelham manuscripts, is annotated by Pitt. The compiler thus +referred to the question of Catholic Emancipation: "Catholics to +be eligible to all offices, civil and military, taking the present +oath. Such as shall take the Oath of Supremacy in the Bill of +Rights may sit in Parliament without subscribing the Abjuration. +Corporation offices to be Protestant." On this Pitt wrote +the following note: "The first part seems unexceptionable, and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span>is exactly what I wish ... but if this oath is sufficient for office, +why require a different one for Parliament? And why are Corporation +offices to be exclusively Protestant, when those of the +State may be Catholic?"<a name="FNanchor_540_540" id="FNanchor_540_540"></a><a href="#Footnote_540_540" class="fnanchor">[540]</a> Well might Pitt ask these questions, +for the whole system of exclusion by religious tests was condemned +so soon as admission to Parliament ceased to depend +on them. Other Memoranda dealt mainly with the difficult +question of compensation to the borough-holders and placemen +who would suffer by the proposed change. But for the present +it will be well to deal with the question of the abolition of +religious tests.</p> + +<p>The procedure of Pitt in regard to this difficult subject was +eminently cautious. As was the case before dealing with the +fiscal problem in 1785, so now he invited over certain leading +Irishmen in order to discuss details. About the middle of +October he had two interviews with the Earl of Clare, Lord +Chancellor of Ireland. These important conferences took place +at Holwood, where he was then occupied in marking out a new +road; for his pastime every autumn was to indulge his favourite +pursuit of planting trees and otherwise improving his grounds. +The two ablest men in the sister kingdoms must have regarded +one another with interest. They were not unlike in figure except +that Clare was short. His frame was as slight as Pitt's; +his features were thin and finely chiselled. Neither frame nor +features bespoke the haughty spirit and dauntless will that +enabled him at times to turn the current of events and overbear +the decisions of Lords Lieutenant. In forcefulness and narrowness, +in bravery and bigotry, he was a fit spokesman of the British +garrison, which was resolved to hold every outwork of the citadel.</p> + +<p>The particulars of their converse are unknown. Probably +Clare had the advantage which a man of narrow views but +expert knowledge enjoys over an antagonist who trusts in lofty +principles and cherishes generous hopes. Clare, knowing his +ground thoroughly, must have triumphed. Pitt did not confess +his defeat. Indeed, on 16th October, he wrote reassuringly to +Grenville: "I have had two very full conversations with Lord +Clare. What he says is very encouraging to the great question +of the Union, in which I do not think we shall have much +difficulty; I mean, in proportion to the magnitude of the subject. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span>At his desire I have written to press the Speaker [Foster] to +come over, which he seems to think may be of great importance." +Here is Clare's version of the interviews in a letter of the +same day to his fellow countryman, Castlereagh: "I have seen +Mr. Pitt, the Chancellor, and the Duke of Portland, who seem +to feel very sensibly the critical situation of our damnable +country, and that the Union alone can save it. I should have +hoped that what has passed would have opened the eyes of +every man in England to the insanity of their past conduct +with respect to the Papists of Ireland; but I can very plainly +perceive that they were as full of their popish projects as ever. +I trust, and I hope I am not deceived, that they are fairly inclined +to give them up, and to bring the measure forward unencumbered +with the doctrine of Emancipation. Lord Cornwallis +has intimated his acquiescence in this point; Mr. Pitt is decided +upon it, and I think he will keep his colleagues steady."<a name="FNanchor_541_541" id="FNanchor_541_541"></a><a href="#Footnote_541_541" class="fnanchor">[541]</a></p> + +<p>The mention of Castlereagh seems to call for a short account +of one who, after assisting in carrying the Act of Union, was +destined to win a European reputation as a disciple of Pitt. +Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, and second Marquis of +Londonderry (1769–1822), was the son of Robert Stewart of +Ballylawn in County Londonderry by his first marriage, that +with the daughter of the Earl of Hertford. Educated at Armagh +and at St. John's College, Cambridge, he soon returned to contest +the seat of County Down with Lord Downshire, and +succeeded by dint of hard work and the expenditure of £60,000. +He entered the Irish Parliament as a representative of the freeholders +as against the aristocracy; but the second marriage of +his father (now Marquis of Londonderry) with the eldest daughter +of the late Earl Camden brought the family into close connection +with the second Earl, who, on becoming Lord Lieutenant in +1795, soon succeeded in detaching young Stewart from the +popular party, already, from its many indiscretions, distasteful +to his cool and cautious nature. Stewart had recently married +Lady Emily Hobart, the daughter of the late Earl of Buckinghamshire, +and became Viscount Castlereagh in October 1795. +Though continuing to support the claims of the Catholics, he +upheld Camden's policy of coercion; and his firm and resolute +character made his support valuable in Parliament.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span></p> +<p>The sagacity of his advice in committee, and the straightforward +boldness of his action as an administrator, are in marked +contrast to his rambling and laboured speeches, in whose incongruous +phrases alone there lurked signs of Hibernian humour. +"The features of the clause"; "sets of circumstances coming up +and circumstances going down"; "men turning their backs upon +themselves"; "the constitutional principle wound up in the +bowels of the monarchy"; "the Herculean labour of the honourable +member, who will find himself quite disappointed when +he has at last brought forth his Hercules"—such are a few of +the rhetorical gems which occasionally sparkled in the dull +quartz of his plentiful output. Nevertheless, so manly was his +bearing, so dogged his defence, that he always gained a respectful +hearing; and supporters of the Government plucked up +heart when, after a display of dazzling rhetoric by Grattan or +Plunket, the young aristocrat drew up his tall figure, squared +his chest, flung open his coat, and plunged into the unequal +contest. Courage and tenacity win their reward; and in these +qualities Castlereagh had no superior. It is said that on one +occasion he determined to end a fight between two mastiffs, +and, though badly bitten, he effected his purpose. These virile +powers marked him out for promotion; and during the illness +of Pelham, Chief Secretary at Dublin, Castlereagh discharged +his duties. Cornwallis urged that he should have the appointment; +and to the King's initial objection that a Briton ought +to hold it, Cornwallis successfully replied that Castlereagh was +"so very unlike an Irishman" that the office would be safe in +his hands. Castlereagh received the appointment early in November +1798. He, the first Irishman to hold it, was destined to +overthrow the Irish Parliament.<a name="FNanchor_542_542" id="FNanchor_542_542"></a><a href="#Footnote_542_542" class="fnanchor">[542]</a></p> + +<p>We must now revert to the negotiations between Pitt and +Clare. It is surprising to find Clare convinced that the +Prime Minister would keep faithful to the Protestant cause its +unfaithful champion, Loughborough, also that Cornwallis had +acquiesced in the shelving of Catholic Emancipation. Probably +Clare had the faculty, not uncommon in strong-willed +men, of reading his thoughts into the words of others. For +Cornwallis, writing to Pitt on 8th October, just after saying +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span><span class="ins" title="arewell">farewell</span> to Clare at Dublin, describes him as a well-intentioned +man, but blind to the absolute dependence of Irish Protestants +on British support and resolutely opposed to the admission of +Romanists to the united Parliament. As to himself, Cornwallis +pens these noble words: "I certainly wish that England could +now make a Union with the Irish nation, instead of making it +with a party in Ireland"; and he expresses the hope that with fair +treatment the Roman Catholics will soon become loyal subjects. +Writing to the Duke of Portland in the same sense, Cornwallis +shows a slight diffidence in his ability to judge of the chief +question at issue.</p> + +<p>Probably the solution of the riddle is here to be found. It +seems that the Lord Lieutenant was politely deferential to +Clare; that at Holwood Clare represented him as a convert to +the ultra-Protestant tenets; and that Pitt accepted the statements +of the Irish Chancellor. William Elliot, Under-Secretary at War +at Dublin, who saw Pitt a week later, found him disinclined to +further the Catholic claims at the present juncture, though equally +resolved not to bar the way for the future. Possibly the King +now intervened. It is a significant fact that Clare expected to +have an interview with him before returning to Ireland. If so, +he must have strengthened his earlier resolve. Pitt, then, gave +way on the question of the admission of Dissenters and Catholics +to the Irish Parliament. But he kept open the more important +question of the admission of Catholics to the United Parliament. +Obviously, the latter comprised the former; and it was likely to +arouse the fears of the Irish Protestants far less. On tactical +grounds alone the change of procedure was desirable. It is +therefore difficult to see why Elliot so deeply deplored his +surrender to the ultra-Protestants. Pitt had the approval of +Grenville, who, owing to the religious feuds embittered by the +Rebellion, deprecated the imposition of the Catholic claims on +the fiercely Protestant Assembly at Dublin.<a name="FNanchor_543_543" id="FNanchor_543_543"></a><a href="#Footnote_543_543" class="fnanchor">[543]</a> Yet he warmly supported +them in the United Parliament, both in 1801 and 1807.</p> + +<p>The next of the Protestant champions whom Pitt saw was +Foster, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, whose forceful +will, narrow but resolute religious beliefs, and mercantile connections +gave him an influence second only to that of Clare. In +the course of a long conversation with him about 15th November,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span> +Pitt found him frank in his opinions, decidedly opposed to +the Union, but not so fixedly as to preclude all hope of arrangement. +On this topic Pitt dilated in a "private" letter of 17th +November, to Cornwallis:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>... I think I may venture to say that he [Foster] will not obstruct +the measure; and I rather hope if it can be made palatable to him personally +(which I believe it may) that he will give it fair support. It +would, as it seems to me, be worth while for this purpose, to hold out +to him the prospect of a British peerage, with (if possible) some ostensible +situation, and a provision for life to which he would be naturally entitled +on quitting the Chair. Beresford and Parnell do not say much on +the general measure, but I think both, or at least the former against +trying it, but both disposed to concur when they understand it is finally +resolved on. They all seem clearly (and I believe sincerely) of opinion +that it will not be wise to announce it as a decided measure from +authority, till time has been given for communication to all leading individuals +and for disposing the public mind. On this account we have +omitted all reference to the subject in the King's Speech; and the communication +may in all respects be more conveniently made by a separate +message when the Irish Parliament is sitting, and it can be announced +to them at the same time. In the interval previous to your Session there +will, I trust, be full opportunity for communication and arrangement +with individuals, on which I am inclined to believe the success of the +measure will wholly depend. You will observe that in what relates to +the oaths to be taken by members of the United Parliament, the plan +which we have sent copies the precedent I mentioned in a former +letter of the Scotch Union; and on the grounds I before mentioned, I +own I think this leaves the Catholic Question on the only footing on +which it can safely be placed. Mr. Elliott when he brought me your +letter, stated very strongly all the arguments which he thought ought to +induce us to admit the Catholics to Parliament, and office; but I confess +he did not satisfy me of the practicability of such a measure at this +time, or of the propriety of attempting it. With respect to a provision +for the Catholic clergy, and some arrangement respecting tithes, I am +happy to find an uniform opinion in favor of the proposal, among all +the Irish I have seen; and I am more and more convinced that those +measures, with some effectual mode to enforce the residence of <em>all</em> ranks +of the Protestant clergy, offer the best chance of gradually putting an +end to the evils most felt in Ireland.<a name="FNanchor_544_544" id="FNanchor_544_544"></a><a href="#Footnote_544_544" class="fnanchor">[544]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>The suggestion that Foster's opposition might be obviated +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span>by the promise of a peerage emanated first from Camden. +Its adoption by Pitt marks the first step in the by-paths of +bribery on which he now entered. In this case his action is +not indefensible; for the abolition of the Speakership at Dublin +naturally involved some indemnity. Besides, in that Parliament +no important measure passed without bribery. That eager +democrat, Hamilton Rowan, foresaw in the Union "the downfall +of one of the most corrupt assemblies I believe ever existed." +The proprietors of the pocket-boroughs were needy and grasping, +some of them living by the sale of presentation of seats. +Government generally managed to control them, but only on +condition of dispensing favours proportionate to the importance +of the suitor and the corruptness of the occasion. As Beresford +remarked with unconscious humour, the borough-mongers "cannot +be expected to give up their interest for nothing; and those +who bought their seats cannot be expected to give up their term +for nothing." Here he expressed the general conviction of that +age, which Pitt recognized in his Reform Bill of 1785 by seeking +to indemnify the borough-holders of Great Britain.</p> + +<p>A typical specimen of the borough-owner was that "ill-tempered, +violent fellow," Lord Downshire, who controlled the +Crown patronage in the North by virtue of his seven borough +seats. Lord Ely had six seats; and the Duke of Devonshire, and +Lords Abercorn, Belmore, Clifden, Granard, and Shannon, four +apiece. In the counties, Downshire, the Ponsonbys, and the +Beresfords controlled about twenty seats. Camden, writing to +Pitt on 11th August 1799, thus described Downshire: "He is +not personally corrupt; but the larger the compensation for the +boroughs is to be, the more readily will he listen to you or Lord +Castlereagh."<a name="FNanchor_545_545" id="FNanchor_545_545"></a><a href="#Footnote_545_545" class="fnanchor">[545]</a> Lord Longueville, a borough-owner of great influence +in County Cork, wrote as follows to Pitt on 3rd December, +1798:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>... Long attached to you, and confirmed in that attachment for life +by the direction and advice of Lord Westmorland, I have now no object +to look up to, to prevent my falling a sacrifice to my political enemies, +but to you. When Lord Shannon opposed your measures, I spent +£30,000 of my own money to frustrate his intentions and support your +measures. I shall now act by your advice and opinion on this great +business of a Union with Great Britain. My friends are numerous and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span>firm; they look up to you for decision on every occasion. My interest +in Ireland is extensive. I wish to be a British peer before the measure +of a Union takes place, or after. I wish the city of Cork to have two +members, Bantry one and Mallow one.</p> +</div> + + +<p>Longueville gained his desire and the patronage of the Revenue +offices in Cork City.<a name="FNanchor_546_546" id="FNanchor_546_546"></a><a href="#Footnote_546_546" class="fnanchor">[546]</a> From Pitt's letter to Cornwallis it is clear +that he believed that the promise of Government stipends for +the Catholic clergy, and a reform in tithes would induce them +to support the Union. But it seems impossible to reconcile his +statement as to Beresford's opposition to the Union with the +assertion of the latter, that, in an interview of 12th November, +he pressed Pitt to take immediate steps to ensure the success of +the measure, which otherwise would have to struggle against +unfair odds at Dublin. The curious tendency of Hibernian affairs +towards confusion also appears in Cornwallis's statement, on +15th November, that he had urged Pitt not to close the door +to the Catholics in the United Parliament. Whereas Pitt was +resolved to admit them at an early opportunity.<a name="FNanchor_547_547" id="FNanchor_547_547"></a><a href="#Footnote_547_547" class="fnanchor">[547]</a></p> + +<p>On the various interests at stake there is in the Pretyman +archives a long but undated Memorandum, with notes at the side +by Pitt, or perhaps by Grenville; for their writing, when cramped, +was similar. It recommends that the precedent of the Union with +the Scottish Parliament shall be followed where possible; that few +changes shall be made in the Irish legal system, appeals being +allowed to the Irish Lord Chancellor and three chief judges, +who may also deal with evidence for parliamentary and private +Bills affecting Ireland. The general aim should be to lessen the +expense of resort to the United Parliament for private business. +Pitt here added at the side—"Particularly in divorces and exchange +of lands in settlement," also in certain "private" Bills. +The compiler then refers to the difficulty of assessing or equalizing +the Revenues, National Debts, and the fiscal systems of +the two islands, but suggests that on the last topic Pitt's Irish +proposals of 1785 shall be followed. To this Pitt assents, suggesting +also that the proportions of Revenue and Debt may soon +be arranged provisionally, Commissioners being appointed to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span>discuss the future and definitive quotas. Further, Pitt expresses +the desire to model the election of Irish peers on that of +Scottish peers. The compiler of the plan advises a delegation +of 40 Irish peers, and not less than 120 Commoners to Westminster; +but, as electoral changes are highly dangerous to both +countries, he drafts a scheme by which either 125 or 138 Irish +Commoners will sit in the United Parliament.<a name="FNanchor_548_548" id="FNanchor_548_548"></a><a href="#Footnote_548_548" class="fnanchor">[548]</a></p> + +<p>Here Pitt and his colleagues differed from their adviser. Probably +they heard rumours of the fears aroused by the advent of +Irish members. The repose of Lord Sheffield was troubled by +thoughts of the irruption of "100 wild Irishmen"; and he deemed +the arrival of 75 quite sufficient, if staid country gentlemen were +not to be scared away from St. Stephen's. By way of compromise +the Cabinet fixed the number at 100 on or before 25th +November 1798.<a name="FNanchor_549_549" id="FNanchor_549_549"></a><a href="#Footnote_549_549" class="fnanchor">[549]</a> At that date Portland also informed Cornwallis +that the number of Irish Peers at Westminster must not +exceed 32.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the tangle at Dublin was becoming hopeless. +There, as Beresford warned Pitt, the report of the proposed +Union was the letting out of water. Captain Saurin, an eminent +counsel who was commander of a corps of lawyers nick-named +the Devil's Own, insisted on parading his battalion in order to +harangue them on the insult to Ireland and the injury to their +profession. His example was widely followed. On 9th December +the Dublin Bar, by 168 votes to 32, protested strongly +against the proposal to extinguish the Irish Parliament. Eloquent +speakers like Plunket warned that body that suicide was the +supreme act of cowardice, besides being <span lang="la">ultra vires</span>. The neighbouring +towns and counties joined in the clamour. The somnolence +of Cornwallis, his neglect to win over opponents by tact +or material inducements, and the absence of any Ministerial declaration +on the subject, left all initiative to the Opposition. On +24th December Cooke wrote to Auckland in these doleful terms:<a name="FNanchor_550_550" id="FNanchor_550_550"></a><a href="#Footnote_550_550" class="fnanchor">[550]</a></p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>... Our Union politics are not at present very thriving. Pamphlets +are in shoals, in general against a Union; a few for it; but I do not yet +see anything of superior talent and effect. The tide in Dublin is difficult +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span>to stem. In the country hitherto, indifference. We have no account +from the North, and that is the quarter I apprehend. The South will +not be very hostile. The Bar is most impetuous and active, and I +cannot be surprized at it. The Corporation have not sense to see that +by an Union alone the Corporation can be preserved. Most of the best +merchants are, I know, not averse. The proprietors of Dublin and the +county are violent, and shopkeepers, etc. The Catholics hold back. +They are on the watch to make the most of the game, and will intrigue +with both parties.... In the North they expect the Dutch fleet. If we had +a more able active conciliating Chief, we might do; but the <span lang="la">vis inertiae</span> +is incredible. There is an amazing disgust among the friends of Government. +The tone of loyalty is declining, for want of being cherished. +Do not be surprized at a dreadful parliamentary opposition and a personal +opposition.</p> +</div> + + +<p>Cooke's reference to the mediocrity of the pamphlets for the +Union is a curious piece of <span lang="fr">finesse</span>; for he was known to be the +author of an able pamphlet, "Arguments for and against an +Union between Great Britain and Ireland." In it he dilated on +the benefits gained by Wales and Scotland from a Union with +England. He dwelt on the recent increase of strength in France +consequent on the concentration of political power at Paris, and +demonstrated the unreality of the boasted independence of the +Dublin Parliament, seeing that Irish enactments must be sealed +by the Seal of Great Britain. After touching on the dangerous +divergence of policy at Westminster and Dublin during the +Regency crisis of 1789, he showed that peace and prosperity +must increase under a more comprehensive system, which would +both guarantee the existence of the Established Church, and +accord civic recognition to Catholics. At present, said he, it +would be dangerous to admit Catholics to the Irish Parliament; +but in the United Parliament such a step would be practicable. +This semi-official pronouncement caused a sensation, and before +the end of the year twenty-four replies appeared. In one of the +counterblasts the anonymous author offers "the reflections of a +plain and humble mind," by stating forthwith that the policy of +the British Government had been to foment discontent, to excite +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span>jealousies, to connive at insurrections, and finally to "amnestize" +those rebellions, for the purpose of promoting its favourite and +now avowed object of a Union.<a name="FNanchor_551_551" id="FNanchor_551_551"></a><a href="#Footnote_551_551" class="fnanchor">[551]</a></p> + +<p>Far abler is the "Reply" to Cooke by Richard Jebb, who +afterwards became a Justice of the King's Bench in Ireland. He +showed that only in regard to the Regency had any serious +difference arisen between the two Parliaments; he scoffed at the +notion of Ireland's needs finding satisfaction at Westminster. +Would Pitt, he asked, who whirled out of the Cabinet the gigantic +Thurlow, ever attend to Irish affairs? Jebb then quoted with +effect Clare's assertion that the Irish Parliament alone was competent +to deal with the business of the island. He admitted the +directing power of the British Cabinet over Ireland's concerns; +but he averred that under the new system the Lord Lieutenant +would be little more than a Great Contractor. As to the satisfaction +to be granted to Catholics, the Under-Secretary had done +well not to be too explicit, lest he should offend jealous Protestants. +But, asked Jebb, would the Catholics have much influence +in the United Kingdom, where they would be, not three +to one as in Ireland, but three to fourteen? Nature herself had +intended England and Scotland to be one country; she had +proclaimed the need of some degree of independence in Ireland. +Finally, he deprecated in the mouth of an official a reference to +the success attending the policy of annexation pursued by France, +which Pitt had always reprobated. The effect produced by these +replies appears in a letter of Lees to Auckland on 29th December. +Dublin, he writes, is in a frenzy against the Union. As for +Cornwallis, he was as apathetic as usual: "We are asleep, while +the disaffected are working amain."<a name="FNanchor_552_552" id="FNanchor_552_552"></a><a href="#Footnote_552_552" class="fnanchor">[552]</a></p> + +<p>Not until 21st December did Pitt and his colleagues come to +a final decision to press on the Act of Union at all costs. On +that day he held a Cabinet meeting in Downing Street, all +being present, as well as the Earl of Liverpool and Earl Camden. +The following Minute of their resolution was taken by Lord +Grenville.</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>That the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland should be instructed to state +without delay to all persons with whom he may have communication +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span>on this subject, that His Majesty's Government is decided to press the +measure of an Union as essential to the well-being of both countries +and particularly to the security and peace of Ireland as dependent on +its connection with Great Britain: that this object will now be urged to +the utmost, and will even in the case (if it should happen) of any present +failure, be renewed on every occasion till it succeed; and that the +conduct of individuals on this subject will be considered as the test of +their disposition to support the King's Government.<a name="FNanchor_553_553" id="FNanchor_553_553"></a><a href="#Footnote_553_553" class="fnanchor">[553]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>Portland forthwith informed the Lord-Lieutenant, Cornwallis, +of the purport of this resolution. Drastic proceedings were now +inevitable; for mischievous rumours were rife at Dublin that nobody +would suffer for his vote against the Union.</p> + +<p>A brief Declaration as to the essentials of the Government +plan was issued at Dublin on 5th January 1799. It stated that +twenty-eight temporal peers elected for life would be delegated +to Westminster, and four Protestant bishops, taken in rotation. +Irish peers not elected might sit for British counties and +boroughs, as before. The Crown retained the right of creating +Irish peers. As to the delegation of the Commons of Ireland, +each county or large town now returning two members could +send only one to Westminster, except Dublin and Cork, each of +which would return two members. Of the 108 small boroughs, +one half would return members for one Parliament, the other +half for the next Parliament. In the sphere of commerce Ireland +would enjoy the same advantages as Great Britain, the duties +between the two islands being equalized, the linen manufacturers +retaining their special privileges. The Exchequer and National +Debt of each island were to continue separate, the quota paid +by Ireland into the Imperial Exchequer being reserved for +future consideration, it being understood that when the Irish +Revenue exceeded its expenses, the excess must be applied to +local purposes, the taxes producing the excess being duly +modified.</p> + +<p>Apart from the inevitable vagueness as to the proportion of +Ireland's quota, the Declaration was calculated to reassure Irishmen. +The borough-mongers lost only one half of their lucrative +patronage. True, the change bore hard upon the 180 Irish +peers, of whom only one in six would enter the House of Lords +at Westminster. But commerce was certain to thrive now that +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span>the British Empire unreservedly threw open its markets to Irish +products; and in the political sphere the Act of Union, by shattering +the Irish pocket-borough system, assigned an influence to +the larger towns such as those of Great Britain did not enjoy +until the time of the Reform Bill. Nothing, it is true, was said to +encourage the Catholics; but in Cooke's semi-official pamphlet +they had been led to hope for justice in the United Parliament.</p> + +<p>The following letter of Cooke to Castlereagh (6th January) is +interesting:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>We shall have difficult work; but there is no need to despair. I do +not hear of anything formidable from the country. Armagh is stirred by +Lord Charlemont; Louth, I suppose, by the Speaker; Lord Enniskillen +will move Fermanagh; Queen's County will be against [us]. I hear +Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Limerick is [<span lang="la">sic</span>] with us. Sir Edward O'Brien +in Clare is against and is stirring. Derry will be quiet, if not favourable. +The North is so in general at present. The sketch of terms thrown out +is much relished. I cannot tell you how our numbers will stand on the +22nd. The Catholics will wait upon the question, and will not declare +till they think they can act with effect. Many persons are anxious to +make them part of the measure. Grattan is come. I know not yet what +he is doing. I hope all friends in London will be sent over. The first +burst is everything. It would be decisive if the Prince of Wales would +declare publicly in favour and hoist his banner for the Union.<a name="FNanchor_554_554" id="FNanchor_554_554"></a><a href="#Footnote_554_554" class="fnanchor">[554]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>Apart from this enigmatical reference, there were few grounds +for hope. The landlords and traders of Dublin naturally opposed +a measure certain to lessen the importance of that city. +Trinity College, the Corporation of Dublin, and the gentry and +freeholders of County Dublin all protested against Union. +Equally hostile were most Irish Protestants. In their pride as +a dominant Order, they scorned the thought of subordination +to Great Britain. Sixteen years of almost complete legislative +independence had quickened their national feelings; and many +of them undoubtedly set love of country before the promptings +of caste. How was it possible, they asked, that the claims of +Ireland should receive due attention amidst the clash of worldwide +interests at Westminster?</p> + +<p>Doubts like these should have been set at rest. Surely Pitt +missed a great opportunity in not promising the appointment of +a perpetual committee at Westminster, elected by the Irish +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span>members for the consideration of their local affairs. A similar +committee for Scottish business would also have been a statesmanlike +proposal, in view of the increase of work certain to +result from the Union. Doubtless those committees would have +interfered with the functions of the Lord Lieutenant at Dublin, +and the Scottish patronage controlled by Henry Dundas. But +some such measure would have appeased the discontent rife in +both kingdoms, and, while easing the strain on the Imperial +Parliament, would have nurtured the growth of that wider +patriotism which has its roots in local affections.</p> + +<p>A survey of the facts passed under review must, I think, lead +to the conclusion that the conduct of Pitt in preparing for the +Act of Union was halting and ineffective. It is true that Camden +had advised him to make careful preliminary inquiries; but they +were not instituted until October 1798, and they dragged on to +the end of the year, by which time the fear of a French invasion +had subsided. There were but two satisfactory ways of carrying +the Act of Union through the hostile Parliament at Dublin. +In June–October, during the panic caused by the Rebellion and +the French raids, Pitt might have intimated secretly though +officially to the leading loyalists that Great Britain could not +again pour forth her blood and treasure for an unworkable system, +and that the acceptance of that help must imply acquiescence +in a Union. Such a compact would of course be termed +unchivalrous by the rhetoricians at St. Stephen's Green; but it +would have prevented the unchivalrous conduct of many so-called +loyalists, who, after triumphing by England's aid, then, +relying upon that aid for the future, thwarted Pitt's remedial +policy. Prudence should have enjoined the adoption of some +such precaution in the case of men whose behaviour was exacting +towards England and exasperating towards the majority of +Irishmen. In neglecting to take it, Pitt evinced a strange lack +of foresight. At this point George III showed himself the +shrewder tactician; for he urged that Cornwallis must take +steps to frighten the loyal minority into accepting an Act of +Union.</p> + +<p>But there was an alternative course of action. Failing to come +to an understanding with the ultra-Protestant zealots of Dublin, +Pitt might have elicited a strong declaration from the many +Irishmen who were in favour of Union. He seems to have +taken no such step. Though aware that Cornwallis was in civil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span> +affairs a figure-head, he neglected to send over a spokesman +capable of giving a decided lead. In the ensuing debates at +Dublin, Castlereagh showed the toughness, energy, and resourcefulness +which, despite his halting cumbrous style, made him a +power in Parliament; but his youth and his stiff un-Hibernian +ways told against him. Beresford was detained by illness in +London; and Clare, after his return to Dublin, did strangely +little for the cause. Thus, at this critical time the Unionists +were without a lead and without a leader. The autumn of 1798 +was frittered away in interviews in London, the purport of which +ought to have clearly appeared two or three months earlier. +The passive attitude and tardy action of Pitt and Portland in +these critical weeks offer a strange contrast to the habits of clear +thinking and forceful action characteristic of Napoleon. It is +painful to compare their procedure with the action of the First +Consul in speedily bringing ecclesiastical bigots and fanatical +atheists to the working compromise summed up in the Concordat. +In the case of the Union, the initiative, energy, and +zeal, which count for much among a Celtic people, passed to +the side of Pitt's opponents. Thenceforth that measure could +be carried through the Irish Parliament only by coercion or +bribery.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">THE UNION (continued)</p> + +<p class="quote">"We must consider it as a measure of great national policy, the object of +which is effectually to counteract the restless machinations of an inveterate +enemy, who has uniformly and anxiously endeavoured to effect a separation +between the two countries."—<span class="smcap">Pitt</span>, Speech on the Union, <i>21st April, 1800</i>.</p> + + +<p>On 22nd January 1799 the long talked-of Act of Union was +pointedly referred to in the King's Speech read out to the +Irish Parliament. The Speech was adopted by the House of +Lords, amendments hostile to the proposed measure being rejected +by large majorities. But in the House of Commons +nationalist zeal raged with ever-increasing fury from dusk until +the dawn of the following day. In vain had Castlereagh made +liberal use of the sum of £5,000 which he begged Pitt to send +over to serve as a <span lang="la">primum mobile</span> at Dublin. In vain had he +"worked like a horse." The feeling against the measure was too +strong to be allayed by bribery of a retail kind.</p> + +<p>Owing to ill health Grattan was not present. Sir John Parnell, +Chancellor of the Exchequer, was among the less violent opponents; +but the most telling appeal was that of Plunket, an +Ulsterman. With an eloquence which even won votes he denied +either the right of the Government to propose such a measure +or the competence of that Assembly to commit political suicide. +If the Act of Union were passed, he said, no one in Ireland would +obey it. Then, turning to the Speaker, he exclaimed: "You are +appointed to make laws and not Legislatures. You are appointed +to exercise the functions of legislators, and not to transfer them; +and if you do so, your act is a dissolution of the Government." +On behalf of Government Castlereagh made a well-reasoned +reply; but his speech was too laboured to commend a cause +which offended both the sentiments and interests of members; +and the Opposition was beaten by only one vote—106 to 105. +The debate was marked by curious incidents. Sir Jonah Barrington,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span> +a chronicler of these events, declared that Cooke, +perturbed by the threatened defection of a member named +French, whispered to Castlereagh, and then, sidling up to the +erring placeman, spoke long and earnestly until smiles spread +over the features of both. A little later French rose to state his +regret at the opinions which he had previously expressed. The +story is not convincing in the case of a building provided with +committee-rooms; but there can be no doubt that bribery went +on before the debate. The final voting showed that there were +limits to that form of influence. Even the canvassing of Castlereagh +failed to persuade members to pass sentence of political +death on half of their number and of transportation on the +remainder. The joy of the men of Dublin found expression in a +spontaneous illumination, and the mob broke all windows which +were not lit up.</p> + +<p>On all sides the procedure of the Government met with severe +censure. As usual, blame was lavished upon Cornwallis, Lord +Carysfort warning Grenville that the defeat was due to the disgust +of "Orangemen and exterminators" at his clemency. Buckingham, +writing to Pitt on 29th January, reported that on the +estimate of Archbishop Troy, nine-tenths of the Irish Catholics +were for the Union: "Remember, however," he added, "that this +can only be done by the removal of Lord Cornwallis and Lord +Castlereagh.... I protest I see no salvation but in the immediate +change. Send us Lord Winchilsea, or rather Lord Euston, +or in short send us any one. But send us Steele as his Secretary, +and with firmness the Question (and with it Ireland) will +be saved. Excuse this earnestness."<a name="FNanchor_555_555" id="FNanchor_555_555"></a><a href="#Footnote_555_555" class="fnanchor">[555]</a> Pitt took no notice of +this advice, but continued to support Cornwallis. As for the +Irish Executive, it proceeded now to the policy of official coercion +recommended from Downing Street. Parnell was dismissed +from the Exchequer; the Prime Serjeant was deposed, and four +opponents of Union were removed from subordinate posts, +among them being Foster, son of the Speaker.</p> + +<p>So confident was Pitt of victory at Dublin that he introduced +the Bill of Union at Westminster on 23rd January. The King's +Speech referred to the designs of enemies and traitors to separate +Ireland from Great Britain, and counselled the adoption of +means for perpetuating the connection. Forthwith Sheridan +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span>moved a hostile amendment. With his wonted zeal and eloquence, +he urged the inopportuneness of such a measure when +40,000 British troops were holding down Ireland, and he denied +the competence either of the British or Irish Parliament to decide +on it. Pitt promptly refuted Sheridan's plea by referring to the +action of the English and Scottish Parliaments at the time of +their Union, and he twitted him with seeking to perpetuate at +Dublin a system whose injustice and cruelty he had always reprobated. +Allowing that British rule in Ireland had been narrow +and intolerant, Pitt foretold the advent of a far different +state of things after the Union. Then, pointing to the divergence +of British and Irish policy at the time of the Regency crisis +he pronounced it a dangerous omen, and declared the Union to +be necessary to the peace and stability of the Empire. The +House agreed with him and negatived the amendment without a +division.</p> + +<p>It is worth noting that of Sheridan's hypothetical colleagues +in office under the Prince Regent in the Cabinet outlined in +February 1789, not one now supported him. Fox was not present, +being engrossed in Lucretius and the "Poetics" of Aristotle. +He, however, informed Lord Holland that he detested the +Union and all centralized Governments, his predilection being +for Federalism.<a name="FNanchor_556_556" id="FNanchor_556_556"></a><a href="#Footnote_556_556" class="fnanchor">[556]</a> The remark merits notice in view of the concentration +of power in France, and in her vassal Republics at +Rome, Milan, Genoa, and Amsterdam. That eager student of +the Classics wished to dissolve the British Isles into their component +parts at a time when the highly organized energy of the +French race was threatening every neighbouring State. While the +tricolour waved at Amsterdam, Mainz, Berne, Rome, Valetta, and +Cairo, Fox thought it opportune to federalize British institutions. +The means whereby Pitt sought to solidify them are open to +question. But which of the two statesmen had the sounder sense?</p> + +<p>On 31st January, after the receipt of the disappointing news +from Dublin, Pitt returned to the charge. Expressing deep +regret that the Irish House of Commons should have rejected +the plan of a Union before it knew the details, he proceeded to +describe the proposals of the Government. Firstly, he insisted +that it was the concerted action of invaders from without and +traitors within that made the measure necessary. He then +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span>argued that the settlement of 1782, according legislative independence +to the Irish Parliament, was far from final, as appeared +in the ministerial declarations of that time. Moreover, Irish +Bills did not become law unless sanctioned by the King and +sealed by the Great Seal of Great Britain on the advice of British +Ministers, facts which implied the dependence of the Irish Parliament. +Turning to the commercial issues at stake, he effectively +quoted the statement of Foster to the Irish House of Commons +in 1785, that they would be mad to reject the commercial proposals +then offered, which, if thrown out, would not be renewed. +But now, said Pitt, they are renewed in the projected Union; +and Foster has used his influence to reject a measure which +breaks down the fiscal barriers between the two kingdoms. After +referring to the Regency Question, he pointed out the danger of +France attacking the British race at its weakest point. Never +would she cease to assail it until the Union was indissoluble. +Commerce, he said, was the source of wealth; and the wealth +needed to withstand the predatory designs of France would be +enhanced by a free interchange of British and Irish products. +The Union would encourage the flow into the poorer island of +British capital which it so much needed. Next, adverting to the +religious feuds in Ireland, he remarked on the danger of granting +concessions to the Irish Catholics while Ireland remained a distinct +kingdom. He then uttered these momentous words:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>On the other hand, without anticipating the discussion, or the propriety +of agitating the question, or saying how soon or how late it may +be fit to discuss it, two propositions are indisputable; first, when the +conduct of the Catholics shall be such as to make it safe for the +Government to admit them to the participation of the privileges granted +to those of the established religion, and when the temper of the times +shall be favourable to such a measure—when these events take place, it +is obvious that such a question may be agitated in an United Imperial +Parliament with much greater safety, than it could be in a separate +Legislature. In the second place, I think it certain that, even for whatever +period it may be thought necessary after the Union to withhold +from the Catholics the enjoyment of those advantages, many of the +objections which at present arise out of their situation would be removed, +if the Protestant Legislature were no longer separate and local, +but general and Imperial: and the Catholics themselves would at once +feel a mitigation of the most goading and irritating of their present +causes of complaint.</p> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span></p> +<p>Pitt then deprecated the effort to inflame the insular pride of +Irishmen. Could Irishmen really object to unite with Britons? +For it was no subordinate place that they were asked to take, +but one of equality and honour. Most happily then did he quote +the vow of Aeneas for an equal and lasting compact between +his Trojans and the Italians:</p> + + +<p class="poem" lang="la" style="font-style: normal"> +Non ego nec Teucris Italos parere jubebo,<br /> +Nec nova regna peto: paribus se legibus ambae<br /> +Invictae gentes aeterna in foedera mittant.<a name="FNanchor_557_557" id="FNanchor_557_557"></a><a href="#Footnote_557_557" class="fnanchor" style="font-style: normal">[557]</a> +</p> + + +<p>He ended his speech by moving eight Resolutions on the +question; and the House approved their introduction by 140 +votes to 15. This statesmanlike survey lacked the fire and +imaginative elevation of his speech on the Slave Trade in +1792. But there was little need of rhetoric and invective. Pitt's +aim was to convince Ireland of the justice of his proposals. +And his plea, though weak at one point, must rank among the +ablest expositions of a great and complex question. How different +the course of events might have been if the Commons of +Ireland had first heard Pitt's proposals of Union, clearly and +authoritatively set forth, not in the distorted form which rumour +or malice depicted. In this respect Gladstone proved himself an +abler tactician than Pitt. His Home Rule Bill of 1886 remained +a secret until it was described in that masterly statement which +formed a worthy retort to Pitt's oration of 31st January 1799. +Pitt prepared it with great care, so Auckland avers; and, as he +and Long had secured the presence of the best reporters, the +text of the speech is among the most accurate that we possess +for that period. He now resolved to bring forward specific +Resolutions, instead of, as before, proposing merely to appoint +Commissioners to consider the details of the Bill of Union. It is +unfortunate that he did not take this step at first. The mistake +probably resulted from his besetting sin—excess of confidence. +On 26th January he expressed to Cornwallis his deep disappointment +and grief at the action of the Dublin Parliament, +which he ascribed to prejudice and cabal. Clearly he had +underrated the force of the nationalist opposition.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span></p> +<p>Meanwhile Castlereagh endeavoured to reckon the value of the +pecuniary interests in Ireland opposed to the Union. In a +characteristically narrow spirit he assessed the losses to borough-holders +at £756,000; to controllers of counties at £224,000; to +barristers at £200,000; to purchasers of parliamentary seats at +£75,000; and he estimated the probable depreciation of property +in Dublin at £200,000. Thus, moneyed interests worth +£1,433,000 were arrayed against the Union. He proposed to +whittle down these claims by raising the number of Irish +members in the United Parliament either to 127 or 141. Both +at Dublin and Westminster Ministers were intent on appeasing +hostile interests on the easiest terms. Among Pitt's papers is a +curious estimate of the opinion of the propertied classes in the +counties and chief towns of Ireland. "Property" is declared to +favour the Union in Antrim, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Galway, +Kerry, Leitrim, Londonderry, Mayo, Waterford, and Wexford. +It was hostile in Carlow, Cavan, Dublin, Fermanagh, Kildare, +and Louth. In the other counties it was divided on the subject. +Among the towns, Cork, Galway, Lisburne, Londonderry, +Waterford, and Wexford supported Union. Clonmell, Drogheda, +and Dublin opposed it; while Belfast, Kilkenny, and +Limerick were doubtful. Most of the Grand Juries petitioned +for Union, only those of Dublin, Louth, Queen's County, and +Wicklow pronouncing against it.<a name="FNanchor_558_558" id="FNanchor_558_558"></a><a href="#Footnote_558_558" class="fnanchor">[558]</a> In view of the expected +attempt of the Brest fleet, the Grand Jury of Cork burst into a +patriotic rhapsody which must be placed on record:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter"><i>March 26, 1799</i>.<a name="FNanchor_559_559" id="FNanchor_559_559"></a><a href="#Footnote_559_559" class="fnanchor">[559]</a></p> + +<p>... At the present awful moment whilst we await the threatened +attempt of the enemies of religion and of man to crush us in their +sacrilegious embrace; whilst their diabolical influence cherishes rebellion +and promotes assassination in the land, we look back with gratitude +to the timely interposition of Great Britain, which has more +than once rescued us from that infidel yoke under which so great a +portion of distracted Europe at this moment groans. We have still to +acknowledge how necessary that interposition is to protect us from the +further attempts of an unprincipled foe, ... and to her assistance we are +... indebted for keeping down an unnatural but wide extended rebellion +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span>within the bosom of this country. To become a constituent part of that +Empire to whose protection we owe our political existence and whose +constitution is the admiration of the civilized world; to participate in +those resources which are inexhaustible; to become joint proprietors of +that navy which is irresistible; and to share in that commerce which +knows no bounds, are objects beyond which our most sanguine wishes +for the wealth and prosperity of Ireland cannot possibly extend, whilst +the prospect which they hold forth of terminating the jarring interests of +party and reconciling the jealous distinctions of religion, promises a +restoration of that tranquillity to which the country has too long been a +stranger.</p> +</div> + + +<p>This exuberant loyalty may have been heightened by the hope +that Cork would reap from the Union a commercial harvest +equal to that which raised Glasgow from a city of 12,700 souls +before the Anglo-Scottish Union, to one of nearly 70,000 in the +year 1800. But the men of Cork forgot that that marvellous +increase was due to the coal, iron, and manufactures of Lanarkshire, +no less than to free participation in the trade of the +Empire.</p> + +<p>The fact that Cork was then far more Unionist than Belfast is +apt to perplex the reader until he realizes that Roman Catholics +for the most part favoured Union, not so much from loyalty to +George III, as from the conviction that only in the Imperial +Parliament could they gain full religious equality. On the other +hand the Presbyterians of Ulster had fewer grievances to be +redressed, and were not without hope of gaining satisfaction +from the Protestant Legislature at Dublin. It is certain that +the Catholic Archbishops of Dublin and Tuam, besides Bishop +Moylan of Cork and other prelates, used their influence on +behalf of the Union. Cornwallis was known to favour the Catholic +claims; and Wilberforce, writing to Pitt, says: "I have long +wished to converse with you a little concerning the part proper +for you to take when the Catholic Question should come before +the House. I feel it due to the long friendship which has subsisted +between us to state to you unreservedly my sentiments +on this very important occasion, especially as I fear they are +different from your own."<a name="FNanchor_560_560" id="FNanchor_560_560"></a><a href="#Footnote_560_560" class="fnanchor">[560]</a> Pitt does not seem to have welcomed +the suggestion couched in these magisterial terms, and, +as the sequel will show, he had good grounds for concealing his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span>hand. Only at one point did the Cabinet declare its intentions. +There being some fear that the Opposition at Dublin would +seek to win over the Catholics by the offer of Emancipation, the +Government declared its resolve to oppose any step in this +direction so long as that Parliament existed.<a name="FNanchor_561_561" id="FNanchor_561_561"></a><a href="#Footnote_561_561" class="fnanchor">[561]</a></p> + +<p>It is well also to remember that the concession of the franchise +to the bulk of the Irish peasantry in 1793, with the full approval +of Pitt, enabled the Catholics to control the elections in the +counties and "open" boroughs except in Ulster. Therefore, +though they could not send to Parliament men of their creed, +they could in many instances keep out Protestants who were +inimical to their interests. In the present case, then, Catholic +influence was certain to tell powerfully, though indirectly, in +favour of Union. These facts explain the progress of the +cause early in the year 1799. Opponents of the measure began +to tremble for their seats owing to the action either of Government +or of the Catholic vote. Accordingly, despite the frantic +efforts of Lord Downshire and Foster, Government carried the +day by 123 to 103 (15th February). Fear worked on behalf of +Union. A great fleet was fitting out at Brest, the Dutch ports +were alive with work, and again Ireland was believed to be the +aim of the Republicans. As was the case in 1798, they encouraged +numbers of Irishmen to make pikes, to muster on the +hills of Cork and Wicklow, dealing murder and havoc in the +plains by night. Cornwallis therefore proclaimed martial law, +armed the yeomen, and sought to crush the malcontents, a +proceeding which led critics to charge Government with inciting +the people to outrage in order to coerce them. Those who +flung out the sneer should also have proved that the naval preparations +at Brest and the Texel were instigated from Downing +Street in order to carry the Union.</p> + +<p>The real feelings of Dublin officials appear in the letters of +Beresford, Cooke, and Lees to Auckland. On 15th March +1799 Beresford writes: "Our business is going on smoothly in +Parliament; from the day that Government took the courage +[<span lang="la">sic</span>] of dividing with the Opposition, they have grown weaker +and weaker every day as I foretold to you they would. The +Speaker [Foster], as I hear, appears to be much softened. I am +sure he sees that he has pledged himself too far, and that he +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span>cannot depend upon those who heretofore supported him: and +both he and Ponsonby are conscious that the point will be +carried and they, of course, left in the lurch.... The country is +in a wretched way, organization going on everywhere; and if +the French should land, I much fear that there will be very universal +risings." On the subject of inter-insular trade Beresford +informs Auckland on 29th March that Ireland depends almost +entirely upon Great Britain and her colonies, having a balance +in her favour in that trade but an adverse balance in her dealings +with foreign lands. She exports 41,670,000 yards of linen to +Great Britain and only 4,762,000 yards to other lands. Besides, +the British trade is increasing fast, as England uses less and less +foreign linen. On the morrow, Cooke declares that, if the +French do not land, the Irish malcontents will settle down. Commending +the policy of going slowly with the Union, he says: +"By letting the subject cool, by opening its nature, tendencies, +and advantages, and seeming not to press it, and by insinuating +that no other course of safety to property remains, the mind +begins to think seriously and faints. I think during the Vacation +pains may be taken with the House of Commons so as to give us +a fair majority, and if the Catholics act steadily we should be +able to carry the point. I could wish that Mr. Pitt would suffer +some person of ability to prepare all the necessary Bills, and to +fill up every detail; so that the measure might be seen in its +complete stage. I despair of this being done, tho' obviously +right; for Ministers never will act till they are forced, and I do +not wonder at it."<a name="FNanchor_562_562" id="FNanchor_562_562"></a><a href="#Footnote_562_562" class="fnanchor">[562]</a></p> + +<p>Again, all the energy was on the side of the Opposition. On +11th April Foster passed the whole subject in review in a speech +of four hours' duration. In order to weaken one of the strongest +of Pitt's arguments, he proposed that in case of a Regency, the +Regent, who was chosen at Westminster, should necessarily be +Regent at Dublin. This proposal of <span class="ins" title="couse">course</span> implied the dependence +of the Irish Parliament on that of Great Britain; but, as +invalidating one of the chief pleas for Union, Foster pressed it +home. He also charged Pitt with endeavouring to wring a large +sum of money every year from Ireland. The speech made a deep +impression. The only way of deadening its influence and +stopping the Regency Bill was to postpone it until August and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span>summarily to close the session on 1st June. The meanness of +this device is a tribute to the power of Foster and the mediocrity +of the officials of Dublin Castle.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the naval situation had cleared up, so far as concerns +Ireland. On 25th April Admiral Bruix, with a powerful fleet, +slipped out from Brest by night past Lord Bridport's blockading +force. For some days panic reigned in London, and it is significant +that Bridport took especial measures to guard the coasts of +Ireland, thus enabling the French to get clear away to the Mediterranean. +With bolder tactics they should have been able to +reduce the new British possession, Minorca, or annihilate the +small force blockading Malta. The relief felt at Dublin Castle, +on hearing of Bruix' southward voyage, appears in Beresford's +letter of 15th May, in which he refers to the revival of loyalty +and the terrible number of hangings by courts martial: "We +consider ourselves as safe from the French for this year; but I +am in great anxiety for my friend St. Vincent. What steps will +be taken against those damned dogs in the Mediterranean?... +I expect that the French going to the Mediterranean, instead of +coming to the assistance of their friends here, will have a very +great effect upon the people of this country, who, as soon as +they find that they have been made fools of will endeavour to +get out of the scrape they are in." On 1st June Cooke writes +"secretly" to Auckland, expressing regret that Pitt ever attacked +Foster, whose opposition is most weighty. The Cabinet lost the +measure by want of good management in 1798: and the same is +now the case. Nothing has been done to win over Lord Downshire +with his eight votes, or Lords Donegal and De Clifford, +who had half as many. He even asks whether Pitt will think it +worth while to spend three months' work on the Union now that +the French had gone to the Mediterranean.<a name="FNanchor_563_563" id="FNanchor_563_563"></a><a href="#Footnote_563_563" class="fnanchor">[563]</a> The question reveals +the prevalence of the belief that Pitt paid little attention to +Irish affairs. Probably it arose from his stiffness of manner and +his execrable habit of leaving letters unanswered. This defect +had become incurable, witness the complaint of Wilberforce to +Addington—"You know how difficult, I may say next to +impossible, it is to extort a line from Pitt."<a name="FNanchor_564_564" id="FNanchor_564_564"></a><a href="#Footnote_564_564" class="fnanchor">[564]</a></p> + +<p>In July the return of Bruix with the Cadiz fleet into the Atlantic +renewed the fears of Irish loyalists and the hopes of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span>malcontents. The combined fleet managed to enter Brest on +13th August 1799; and its presence there was a continual source +of unsettlement to Ireland, preparations for revolt being kept up +in several parts. A large British force was therefore kept in +Ireland, not for the purpose of forcing through the Union, as +Pitt's enemies averred, but in order to guard against invasion +and rebellion. Though reinforcements arrived, Cornwallis complained +that he had not enough troops. On 24th July 1799 he +informed the Duke of Portland that he had only 45,000 regular +infantry, a number sufficient to preserve order but totally inadequate +to repel an invasion in force. Thus the facts of the case +are, that French threats to tear Ireland from Great Britain kept +up the threatening ferment and necessitated the presence of a +considerable military force; but they also led Pitt to insist on +the Union as a means of thwarting all separatist efforts whether +from without or from within. It is clear, however, that Pitt and +Earl Spencer trusted to Bridport's powerful squadron to intercept +any large expedition of the enemy. The blow then preparing +against the Dutch was in part intended to ensure the safety +of the British Isles.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile at Westminster the cause of the Union met with +almost universal approval. The debate in the Lords on 11th +April elicited admirable speeches, from Dr. Watson, the learned +Bishop of Llandaff, and from Lords Auckland and Minto. Only +Lords Holland, King, and Thanet protested against the measure. +In the Commons, Lord Sheffield, while supporting the Union, +reproved Ministers for allowing their aim to become known in +Ireland several weeks before the details of their proposals were +made public. The measure received warm support from Canning, +who a month earlier had resigned the Under-Secretaryship for +Foreign Affairs, and was now for the time merely on the India +Board of Control, with a sinecure superadded. The sensitive +young Irishman had found it impossible to work with the cold +and austere Grenville; and his place was taken for a time by his +coadjutor on the "Anti-Jacobin," Hookham Frere, to whom the +Grenville yoke proved scarcely less irksome.</p> + +<p>Canning flung himself with ardour into the struggle for the +Union, and proved a match for his brilliant fellow countryman, +Sheridan. He combated the notion that the Irish Parliament +was unalterably opposed to the measure, and, arguing from the +contemptuous manner in which the French had met our overtures<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span> +for peace, he inferred their resolve to sever Ireland from +the Empire. In animated style he declared that Ireland would +not lose but gain in dignity by the Union, which would confer +on her what she most needed, stronger and steadier government. +On this occasion Sheridan did not speak, and Fox was absent. +After a protest by Lord William Russell against infringing the +final settlement of 1782, Pitt arose merely in order to challenge +this statement and to read the letters of the Duke of Portland +to Lord Shelburne of May–June 1782; they refuted Russell's +contention only in so far as to show that Ministers then designed +to legislate further on the subject. The Irish Parliament certainly +regarded the legislative independence then granted as +complete and final. The House of Commons supported Pitt by +a unanimous vote.</p> + +<p>During the summer the outlook at Dublin became somewhat +brighter, as appears from the following "secret" letter of Cooke +to Lord Camden. After congratulating him on receiving the +Garter, he continues:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">Dublin, <i>14 Aug., 1799</i>.</p> + +<p>... I think Union gains ground. Lord Cornwallis is in earnest on the +subject and feels himself committed. The Catholics have been chiefly +courted by him, and he has always been of opinion that, if they would +act heartily in support, the Protestants would not resist the efforts of the +British Government, assisted by the population of the kingdom. I +believe this position to be true. It cannot, however, be fully acted upon, +in my mind, unless there be a determination to make <span class="ins" title="futher">further</span> concessions +to that body. To such concessions I confess I do not see insuperable, +tho' I do strong, objections. I think they vanish in the superior importance +of the question of Union. From the present state of the +country I conceive the question may be brought forward with safety. +If the Catholics were steady, Dublin might be preserved quiet, tho' the +Opposition would be clamorous. Our difficulties will be in Parliament. +I think the Speaker will not relax. Lord Downshire, I am sorry to say, +seems very hostile. Lord de Clifford is also unfriendly. Lord Donegal +I hear is coming round. Could Lord Downshire and Lord de Clifford +be made cordial, the Parliament would be secure. I see not any great +difficulty in settling the terms except as to the representation of the +Commons and compensation to the boroughs. Allowing two members +for each county—which makes 64—there is no principle which can be +exactly applied for classing the boroughs and selecting the great towns, +and tho' it would be easy to compensate the close boroughs, it is almost +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span>impossible to compensate pot-walloping boroughs.<a name="FNanchor_565_565" id="FNanchor_565_565"></a><a href="#Footnote_565_565" class="fnanchor">[565]</a> The difficulties here +are enhanced by the consideration that in this case private not public +interests are concerned. When I thus represent the probability of success, +I am aware of the strange volatility of the Irish mind; and I should +not be surprised at any sudden turn of the present appearances....</p> +</div> + + +<p>Very interesting is the statement as to the courting of the +Catholics by Cornwallis. Pitt certainly knew of these advances; +for on New Year's Day 1801 Castlereagh reminded him by +letter that Cornwallis did not venture to make them until the +Cabinet had discussed the matter sometime in the autumn of +1799, and had come to a conclusion entirely favourable to the +Catholic claims, finally assuring him that he "need not hesitate in +calling forth the Catholic support in whatever degree he found it +practicable to obtain it." This and other passages in Castlereagh's +letter prove conclusively that not only Pitt, but the Cabinet as +a whole was responsible for the procedure of Cornwallis, which +ensured the more or less declared support of the Irish Catholics.<a name="FNanchor_566_566" id="FNanchor_566_566"></a><a href="#Footnote_566_566" class="fnanchor">[566]</a></p> + +<p>The chief difficulty was with the Protestant clique which largely +controlled State patronage. In the autumn Pitt had another interview +with Downshire, but found him full of complaints, demanding +among other things that Ireland should send at least 300 +Commoners to Westminster. He departed for Dublin declaring +that he would do his duty. In October the Government's cause was +furthered by a state progress of Cornwallis through the North of +Ireland, during which he received numerous addresses in favour +of Union. At Belfast 150 of the chief citizens attended a banquet +in his honour; Londonderry was enthusiastic in the cause; and +it was clear that the opposition of the Protestants of the North +was slackening. But, as often happened in Ireland, many +Catholics now began to doubt the utility of a measure commended +by their opponents. The interest which Pitt felt in this +complex problem and in Cornwallis's tour appears in the following +Memorandum which he wrote probably at the end of October +1799:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>The number of placemen in Ireland is 71. Of these such as hold +office for life or during good behaviour, 11, and 2 holding places for +pleasure, vote against. It is said 63 seats have been vacated by Government<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span> +by a misuse of the Place Bill. This number is exaggerated; but +at least 10 were vacated to serve Opposition. A charge is made against +Lord Cornwallis for canvassing for declarations in favour of Union. +The fact is that Lord Cornwallis, being commander-in-chief, thought it +his duty to make a progress of inspection thro' the kingdom in order to +examine the state of the army and to be a judge of the means of defence +he could rely on. In this progress he received numerous addresses +in favour of Union. A charge is made against Government of intimidation +and the exertion of martial law. There was only one attempt to +substantiate such a charge which was by Sir L. Parsons, which, instead +of terminating in censure, produced a vote of unanimous approbation in +favour of Government. There have been general charges of corruption +adduced, but no proof attempted. The charge retorted by Government +on Opposition for forming the most extensive subscriptions for the +purpose of corruption has not been denied by them.</p> +</div> + + +<p>The last sentence refers to a curious incident. Downshire, the +most influential opponent of the Union, had opened a fund for +influencing members of Parliament. It reached a large amount, +probably £100,000. Beresford in a letter to Auckland states +that £4,000 was paid to win over a supporter of Government. +Pitt, as we have seen, believed that Downshire's fund necessitated +the extensive use of bribery by Government. But it is on the +whole more likely that Dublin Castle opened the game by its +request early in 1799, for £5,000 immediately from London. +Further sums were forwarded, for on 5th April, Cooke, after +interviews with Pitt and Portland, assured Castlereagh that +Portland would send "the needful" to Dublin. He adds: "Pitt +will contrive to let you have from £8,000 to £10,000 for five +years," though this was less than Castlereagh required. After +this, it is absurd to deny that Pitt used corrupt means to carry +the Union. He used them because only so could he carry +through that corrupt Parliament a measure entailing pecuniary +loss on most of its members. Probably he disliked the work as +much as Cornwallis, who longed to kick the men whom he had +to conciliate.—"I despise and hate myself every hour," so Cornwallis +wrote to Ross, "for engaging in such dirty work, and am +supported only by the reflection that without an Union, the +British Empire must be dissolved."<a name="FNanchor_567_567" id="FNanchor_567_567"></a><a href="#Footnote_567_567" class="fnanchor">[567]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span></p> +<p>The winter of 1799–1800 was marked by fierce discontent; +and again, after the rise of Bonaparte to power, there were +rumours of invasion which excited the peasants of South Ireland. +The men of Dublin on some occasions assaulted Unionist +Members of Parliament. Cornwallis, however, believed that the +country as a whole favoured the cause; and Castlereagh received +favourable assurances as to the attitude of the great majority of +Catholics except in County Dublin.<a name="FNanchor_568_568" id="FNanchor_568_568"></a><a href="#Footnote_568_568" class="fnanchor">[568]</a> Some leading Episcopalians +were appeased by the insertion of a clause uniting the +Protestant Churches of England and Ireland in one body. This +concession did not satisfy the Orangemen, who, despite the prohibition +of their Grand Lodge, clamoured against the Union, and +threatened to oppose it by force.</p> + +<p>So doubtful were the omens when Cornwallis opened the Irish +Parliament on 5th February 1800, in a speech commending the +present plan of unification. Castlereagh then defended the proposals +and declared them to have the support of three fourths +of the property there represented. After showing the need of +keeping the debts of the two islands distinct, he explained that +an examination of the Customs and Excise duties warranted the +inference that the contribution of Ireland towards Imperial expenses +should be two fifteenths of that of Great Britain. He claimed +that this plan would press less heavily on Ireland than the present +duty of contributing £1,000,000 to the British armaments +in time of war and half that amount in peace. Further, the +Union would tend to assuage religious jealousies and to consolidate +the strength of the Empire. Early on the next morning +the House divided—158 for and 115 against Government. This +result did not wholly please Dublin Castle. Cooke wrote on the +morrow to Auckland: "The activity and intimidation of Opposition, +together with their subscription purse, does sad mischief. +They scruple not to give from 3,000 to 4,000 guineas for a vote." +Government therefore had to mourn over seven deserters.<a name="FNanchor_569_569" id="FNanchor_569_569"></a><a href="#Footnote_569_569" class="fnanchor">[569]</a> Nevertheless, +this division was decisive. Castlereagh rounded up his +flock, and by the display of fat pasture called in some of the +wanderers. Is it possible that the Opposition purse was merely +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span>the device of a skilful auctioneer, who sends in a friend to raise +the bids?</p> + +<p>The triumph of Government at Dublin had its effects at Westminster. +On 21st April 1800 Pitt explained the Resolutions as +recently accepted by the Irish Parliament. He spoke very briefly, +probably owing to ill health, which beset him through many +weeks of that year.<a name="FNanchor_570_570" id="FNanchor_570_570"></a><a href="#Footnote_570_570" class="fnanchor">[570]</a> He soon met a challenger. Thomas Jones +dared him to combat by accusing Ministers of seeking to disfranchise +Ireland by corrupt means. Foiled in argument, they +now acted on the principle</p> + + +<p class="poem" lang="la" style="font-style: normal"> +Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo. +</p> + + +<p>After a further display of classical knowledge, Jones declared +that the introduction of 100 Irish members into that House +must destroy the British constitution, which, like Damocles, +would for ever be threatened with the sword of Dionysius suspended +over it by a single hair.</p> + +<p>Disregarding rhetoric and classical allusions, Pitt plunged into +business. In none of his speeches is there a simpler statement +of a case. He declared the Union to be absolutely necessary as +a means of thwarting the machinations of an enemy ever intent +on separating the two kingdoms. It would further allay the +religious animosities rife in Ireland, and would conduce to her +freedom and happiness. He then uttered these words: "It may +be proper to leave to Parliament an opportunity of considering +what may be fit to be done for His Majesty's Catholic subjects, +without seeking at present any rule to govern the Protestant +Establishment or to make any provision upon that subject." +This statement is not wholly clear; but it and its context undoubtedly +opened up a prospect of Catholic Emancipation such +as Cornwallis had far more clearly outlined. The significance +of Pitt's declaration will appear in the sequel.</p> + +<p>On the subject of commerce Pitt laid down the guiding principle +that after the Union all Customs barriers between the two +islands ought to be swept away as completely as between England +and Scotland. If at present they swerved from this grand +object, it was for the sake of reaching it the more surely. In +compliance with the demand of Ireland, they would allow her +to maintain a protective duty of 10 per cent. on cottons and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span>woollens, in the latter case for not more than twenty years. He +then added these words: "The manufacturers of this country +do not, I believe, wish for any protecting duties; all they desire +is a free intercourse with all the world; and, though the want of +protecting duties may occasion partial loss, they think that +amply compensated by general advantage." No more statesmanlike +utterance had been heard in the House of Commons. +Only by degrees had Pitt worked his way to this conviction. In +his early Budgets, as we saw, he clung to the system of numerous +duties; but, despite the cramping influence of war, he now relied +on the effects of a two-shilling Income Tax and aimed at the +abolition of protective Customs dues. He was fated never to +reach this ideal; but there can be no doubt that he cherished it +as one of the hopes of his life.</p> + +<p>Turning next to the question of Ireland's contribution to the +Imperial Exchequer, Pitt set forth his reasons for fixing it at +two fifteenths of the revenue of Great Britain; but, as this decision +might in the future unduly burden the smaller island, it +would not be final; and he suggested that at the end of twenty +years the resources of each would so far have developed as to +admit of a more authoritative assessment. If, however, in the +meantime the amount paid by Ireland should be in excess of +what ought to be paid, the surplus should be applied either +to the extinction of her Debt or to local improvements. He +further expressed the hope that in course of time the Debts and +the produce of taxation would be so far assimilated in the two +kingdoms as to admit of the formation of one National Debt +and one system of taxation. Despite the favourable nature of +these proposals, Pitt encountered a spirited opposition. Grey +declared the measure to be a gross violation of the rights of the +Irish people. Sheridan, Dr. Laurence (the friend of Burke), and +Tierney continued in the same strain; and Grey finally dared +the Minister to dissolve the Irish Parliament and appeal to the +people. Throwing off all signs of bodily weakness, Pitt took up +the challenge. Last year, he said, when the Commons of Ireland +rejected the Union, certain members applauded them. +Now, when they passed it, the same members said "appeal to +the people." He refused to do so, knowing well the scenes of +violence and intimidation that would result from consulting +primary assemblies of Irishmen. The reference to those bodies, +so notorious during the French Revolution, clinched his reply;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span> +and the House expressed approval of the Union by 236 votes +to 30 (21st April 1800).</p> + +<p>The further debates on the Bill are of little interest. In the +absence of Fox, Grey was the protagonist of Opposition. Bankes, +once a firm supporter of Pitt, opposed the measure. Wilberforce +confessed to tremulous uncertainty about it, ostensibly because +the addition of 100 Irish members to the House would add to +the influence of the Crown, but more probably because he foresaw +Catholic Emancipation. Peel, already known as one of the +most successful and patriotic of Lancashire manufacturers, spoke +up manfully for the Union, though he deeply regretted that +Ireland would retain certain protective duties against Great +Britain. Very noteworthy, in view of the son's championship of +Free Trade in 1845, was the contention of the father that a weak +country (Ireland) had no need of "protection" against a stronger +one. In reality it would be as if a poor family shut its doors +against assistance from a wealthy one. On the trading proposals +Pitt's following was thinned down to 133; but the main question +went through in May by overwhelming majorities in both Houses. +In the following month it passed through the Irish Parliament.</p> + +<p>Castlereagh thereupon introduced a Bill to indemnify the +holders of pocket boroughs who would lose patronage by the +proposed changes. The Government, having now revised its +previous resolve, proposed to disfranchise as many as 84 small +Irish boroughs, and allotted £15,000 for each, or £1,260,000 in +all. In explanation of this payment it must be remembered that +the owning of such boroughs was a recognized form of property, +as appeared in Pitt's proposal of 1785 to compensate British +owners whom he sought to dispossess. Nothing but the near +approach of revolution in 1832 availed to shatter the system of +pocket boroughs in Great Britain; and then their owners were +sent empty away. The difference in treatment marks the infiltration +of new ideas. In England and Ireland a vote and a seat had +been a form of property. According to the Rights of Man the +franchise was an inalienable right of citizenship.</p> + +<p>The list of Union honours and preferments having been published, +we need not dwell on that unsavoury topic, except to +remark that the promotions in the peerage conferred for services +in connection with the Union numbered forty-six; that the +opposition of the Protestant Archbishop of Cashel was bought +off by the promise of the Archbishopric of Dublin; and that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span> +number of ecclesiastical jobs consequent on the Union was +nearly twenty. The promotions in the legal profession numbered +twelve. Twelve pensions and four titular honours were also +granted. Five aspirants refused the posts offered to them because +they expected "snug sinecures" which "require no attendance +at all." In March 1805 Lord Hardwicke, successor to Cornwallis, +complained that his funds were so embarrassed by the various +claims that the Irish Civil List had only £150 in hand.<a name="FNanchor_571_571" id="FNanchor_571_571"></a><a href="#Footnote_571_571" class="fnanchor">[571]</a> These +sordid bargainings cannot be said to amount to wholesale corruption, +and did not much exceed those which usually were needed +to carry an important Bill through that Parliament. On the +whole Pitt and his colleagues might reflect with satisfaction that +the use of bribes served to cleanse the political life of Ireland in +the future.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>The Union of the British and Irish Parliaments is generally +considered from the insular point of view. This is quite natural; +for primarily it concerned the British Isles. Nevertheless the +influences which brought it about were more than insular. The +formation of the United Kingdom, by the Act which came into +effect on 1st January 1801, was but one among many processes +of consolidation then proceeding. France was the first State +which succeeded in concentrating political power at the capital; +and the new polity endued her with a strength sufficient to break +in pieces the chaotic systems of her neighbours. The mania +of the French for centralization was seen in their dealings with +the Batavian Republic, and with the Swiss Confederation, which +they crushed into the mould of an indivisible Republic. Everywhere +the new unifying impulse undermined or swept away +local Parliaments or provincial Estates. Liberty, Equality, and +Fraternity in practice meant a single, democratic, and centralized +Government. In self defence the Powers threatened by France +borrowed her political weapons. In succession Great Britain, +Prussia, and for a time even Austria, pulled themselves together +for the struggle. As the binding powers of commerce also tended +towards union, the Nineteenth Century witnessed the absorption +of little States, except where they represented a distinct +nationality.</p> + +<p>Confronted by the new and threatening forces in France, Pitt +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span>was virtually compelled to abrogate a system under which the +Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, and Ministers who +had no definite responsibility, could meddle in military affairs. +Under the sway of Mars dualism cannot exist. In the crises of +a great war Cabals and Juntos go by the board. The Irish +Ministry was little more than a Junto; and Ireland need not +mourn its loss.</p> + +<p>The loss of her Parliament was far more serious; and if that +body had represented the Irish people, Pitt's action would be indefensible. +But Grattan's Parliament represented only a small +minority of the Irish people; and that minority was resolved not +to admit Catholics to full civic rights. It would have fought to +maintain Protestant Episcopalian ascendancy; and under the +conditions then existing England must have drawn the sword on +behalf of her exacting "garrison."</p> + +<p>Even in ordinary times such a state of things was unbearable; +and the French saw it. Their aim was to strike at England +through Ireland; and, but for Bonaparte's dreams of conquest +in the East, this blow would have been dealt. Fortunately for +Great Britain, his oriental ambitions served to divert to the +sands of Egypt a thunderbolt which would have been fatal at +Dublin. Even as it was, the mere presence of Bruix' great fleet +at Brest prolonged the ferment in Ireland, thus emphasizing the +force of the arguments in favour of Union. As we have seen, +Pitt placed them in the forefront of his speeches; and those who +charge him with hypocrisy, because France did not strike vigorously +at Ireland during or after the Rebellion of 1798, only expose +their ignorance of the facts and sentiments of that time. +Throughout the years 1799 and 1800 the thought of invasion +filled the minds of loyalists with dread, of malcontents with +eager hope.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless Pitt saw in the Union, not merely an expedient +necessitated by war, but a permanent uplift for the whole nation. +From the not dissimilar case of the Union with Scotland he +augured hopefully for Ireland, believing that her commerce +would thrive not less than that of North Britain. Still more did +he found his hopes upon the religious settlement whereby he +sought to crown his work. Ever since the days of Queen Elizabeth +the strife between the Protestants and Catholics had marred +the fortunes of that land. Pitt believed that it could be stilled in +the larger political unity for which he now prepared.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">RESIGNATION</p> + +<p class="quote">It is well known that no quiet could subsist in a country where there is +not a Church Establishment.—<span class="smcap">George III to Addington</span>, <i>29th January +1801</i>.</p> + + +<p>On 25th September 1800 Pitt wrote to the Lord Chancellor, +Loughborough, then in attendance on the King at Weymouth, +requesting his presence at a Cabinet meeting in order to +discuss the Catholic Question and proposals respecting tithes +and a provision for the Catholic and Dissenting clergy. Five +days later he explained to his colleagues the main proposal. In +place of the Oaths of Supremacy and Abjuration he desired to +impose on members of Parliament and officials merely the Oath +of Allegiance, which would be no bar to Romanists. The change +won the approval of all the Ministers present except Loughborough. +He strongly objected to the proposal, upheld the +present exclusive system, and demurred to any change affecting +Roman Catholics except a commutation of tithes, a measure +which he had in preparation. His colleagues, astonished at this +firm opposition from the erstwhile Presbyterian of East Lothian, +begged him to elaborate his Tithe Bill, and indulged the hope +that further inquiry would weaken his resistance to the larger +Reform. They did not know Loughborough.</p> + +<p>There is a curious reference in one of Pitt's letters, of October +1798, to Loughborough as the Keeper of the King's conscience.<a name="FNanchor_572_572" id="FNanchor_572_572"></a><a href="#Footnote_572_572" class="fnanchor">[572]</a> +The phrase has an ironical ring well suited to the character of +him who called it forth. Now, in his sixty-seventh year, he had +run through the gamut of political professions. An adept in the +art of changing sides, he, as Alexander Wedderburn, had earned +the contempt or envy of all rivals. Yet such was the grace of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span>his curves and the skill of his explanations that a new turn +caused less surprise than admiration. Unlike his rival, Thurlow, +who stormed ahead, Wedderburn trimmed his sails for every +breeze and showed up best in light airs. Making few friends, he +had few inveterate enemies; but one of them, Churchill, limned +him as</p> + + +<p class="poem"> +Adopting arts by which gay villains rise<br /> +And reach the heights which honest men despise;<br /> +Mute at the Bar and in the Senate loud,<br /> +Dull 'mong the dullest, proudest of the proud,<br /> +A pert prim prater of the northern race,<br /> +Guilt in his heart, and famine in his face.<br /> +</p> + + +<p>This was before Wedderburn had wormed himself into favour +with Lord North and won the office of Solicitor-General (1778). +Two years later he became Lord Loughborough, a title which +Fox ascribed to his rancorous abuse of the American colonists. +Figuring next as a member of the Fox–North Administration, he +did not long share the misfortunes of his colleagues, for he alone +of his colleagues contrived not to offend either the King or Pitt. +This sleekness had its reward. The perversities of Thurlow +having led to his fall in 1792, Loughborough became Lord Chancellor. +His sage counsels heightened his reputation; and in +October 1794 Pitt assigned to him the delicate task of seeing +Earl Fitzwilliam and Grattan in order to smooth over the difficulties +attending the union with the Old Whigs. At his house +in Bedford Square, Bloomsbury, occurred some of the conferences +which ensured Fitzwilliam's acceptance of the Irish +Viceroyalty. Loughborough urged Pitt to do all in his power to +prevent a rupture with the Portland Whigs or the Irish people. +Counsels of conciliation then flowed from his lips and were +treasured up. In fact, Pitt seems to have felt no suspicion of him +despite his courtier-like ways and his constant attendance on the +King. For Loughborough, like Dundas, had outlived the evil +reputation of an earlier time. The Marquis of Buckingham, +writing to Grenville on an awkward episode affecting Lord +Berkeley, advised him to consult Loughborough as a man of +discretion and undoubted private honour.<a name="FNanchor_573_573" id="FNanchor_573_573"></a><a href="#Footnote_573_573" class="fnanchor">[573]</a></p> + +<p>Neither Pitt nor Grenville knew that Loughborough had +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span>played them false in 1795. The man who urged them to send +Fitzwilliam to Dublin with the olive-branch soon tendered to +George III official advice of an exactly opposite tenour, namely, +that assent to Catholic Emancipation would involve a violation +of the Coronation Oath. A day or two later he stated to Rose +that he had given to the King wholly different counsels, to the +effect that the Coronation Oath did not apply to the question at +issue, which referred to a legislative enactment, not to an act of +the King in his executive capacity.<a name="FNanchor_574_574" id="FNanchor_574_574"></a><a href="#Footnote_574_574" class="fnanchor">[574]</a> Two other legal authorities +unequivocally declared for this view of the case.</p> + +<p>Whether in the autumn and winter of 1800 Loughborough's +secret counsels had much effect on the King may be doubted; +for George, in his letter of 6th February 1795 to Pitt, declared +Catholic Emancipation to be "beyond the decision of any +Cabinet of Ministers." As for the Church Establishment, it was +essential to every State, and must be maintained intact. When +George had once framed a resolve, it was hopeless to try to +change it. Moreover, during the debates on the Union, early in +1799, he remarked to Dundas at Court that he hoped the Cabinet +was not pledged to anything in favour of the Romanists. "No," +was the wary reply, "that will be a matter for future consideration." +Thereupon he set forth his scruples respecting the Coronation +Oath. Dundas sought to allay them by observing that the +Oath referred, not to his executive actions, but only to his assent +to an act of the Legislature, a matter even then taken for granted. +The remark, far from soothing the King, elicited the shrewd +retort, "None of your Scotch metaphysics, Mr. Dundas! None of +your Scotch metaphysics!"</p> + +<p>The action of Loughborough, then, can only have put an edge +on the King's resolve; and all speculation as to the exact nature +of his "intrigues" at Weymouth or at Windsor is futile. In +truth a collision between the King and Pitt on this topic was +inevitable. The marvel is that there had been no serious friction +during the past eighteen years. Probably the knowledge that a +Fox Cabinet, dominated by the Prince of Wales, was the only +alternative to Pitt had exerted a chastening influence on the +once headstrong monarch; but now even that spectre faded +away before the more potent wraith of mangled Protestantism. +The King was a sincerely religious man in his own narrow way; +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span>and arguments about the Coronation Oath were as useless with +him as discussions on Modernism are with Pius X.</p> + +<p>Pitt therefore kept his plans secret. But we must here digress +to notice an assertion to the contrary. Malmesbury avers that +Loughborough, while at Weymouth in the autumn of 1800, +informed his cousin, Auckland, and the Archbishop of Canterbury +of the danger to the Established Church; that the latter +wrote to the King, who thereupon upbraided Pitt. Now, it is +highly probable that Auckland knew nothing of the matter until +the end of January 1801,<a name="FNanchor_575_575" id="FNanchor_575_575"></a><a href="#Footnote_575_575" class="fnanchor">[575]</a> and the secret almost certainly did +not come to light until then, when the Archbishop, Auckland's +brother-in-law, was a prey to nervous anxieties resulting from +recent and agitating news. Further, no such letter from the +King to Pitt is extant either at the Public Record Office, +Orwell Park, or Chevening; and if the proposals were known +to George why did he fume at Pitt and Castlereagh on 28th +January for springing the mine upon him? Finally, if the King, +while at Weymouth, blamed Pitt for bringing the matter forward, +why did Malmesbury censure him for keeping it secret? +It is well to probe these absurdities, for they reveal the untrustworthiness +of the Earl on this question.</p> + +<p>To revert to Pitt's procedure; there were two arguments on +which he must have relied for convincing the King of the need +of granting Catholic Emancipation. Firstly, the Irish Catholics +had, on the whole, behaved with marked loyalty and moderation +during the wearisome debates on the Union at Dublin, a course +of conduct markedly different from the acrid and factious tactics +of the privileged Protestant Episcopalians. Secondly, as the +summer of 1800 waned to autumn, the position of Great Britain +became almost desperate. Her ally, Austria, had lost Lombardy +and was fighting a losing game in Swabia. Russia had not only +left the Second Coalition, but was threatening England with a +renewal of the Armed Neutrality League. At home a bad harvest +was sending up corn to famine prices; and sedition again raised +its head. In such a case would not a patriotic ruler waive his +objections to a measure essential not only to peace and quiet in +Ireland, but to the stability of the United Kingdom? The latter +consideration derived added force from the fact that Bonaparte, +fresh from his triumphs in Italy, was inaugurating a policy of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span>conciliation which promised to end the long ferment in the west +of France and to make of her a really united nation. While he +was allaying Jacobinical zeal and royalist bigotry, could Britons +afford to keep up internal causes of friction, and, disunited +among themselves, face a hostile world in arms? In such an +emergency would not the King waive even his conscientious +scruples, and at the cost of some qualms pacify and consolidate +his nominally united realms?</p> + +<p>For it was certain that the Irish Catholics would not rest now +that the boon of Emancipation was well within reach. Pitt and +Cornwallis had aroused their hopes. While not openly promising +that the portals at Westminster should be thrown open to +Roman Catholics, Ministers had allowed hints to go forth +definite enough to influence opinion, especially in Cork, Tipperary, +and Galway. In fact, Castlereagh assured Pitt that the +help of Catholics had turned the wavering scales in favour of +Union.<a name="FNanchor_576_576" id="FNanchor_576_576"></a><a href="#Footnote_576_576" class="fnanchor">[576]</a> The claims of honour therefore required that Pitt should +do all in his power to requite the services of a great body of men, +long depressed and maligned, who, when tempted by the foreigner +to revolt, had on the whole shown remarkable patience and +fidelity. The pressure of this problem was too much for the +scanty strength of Pitt. Worried by private financial needs, and +distressed at the bewildering change in European affairs, he broke +down in health in September–October; and a period of rest +and change at Addington's seat at Woodley, near Reading, was +all too short for a complete recovery (18th October to 5th November). +Addington, describing this visit, remarked that Pitt +had become one of his family. Neither of them knew that a time +of feud was at hand.</p> + +<p>At the close of the year Castlereagh came from Dublin to +London to confer with Ministers on legal and other details connected +with the proposal of Catholic Emancipation. By that +time Loughborough's sharp opposition to the measure was +known at Dublin Castle, where Cornwallis declared all resistance +to the measure to be mere madness. The Catholics, he +reported, were quiet merely because they were confident of success. +Cooke, though once opposed to Catholic Emancipation, now +accepted it as a necessity.<a name="FNanchor_577_577" id="FNanchor_577_577"></a><a href="#Footnote_577_577" class="fnanchor">[577]</a> Nevertheless in the King's view +Catholic Emancipation was wholly incompatible with his Coronation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</a></span> +Oath and with the Church Establishment in England. In +the middle of December the Chancellor drew up an able and +very detailed Memorandum on the legal aspects of the case. He +even discoursed on the proselytizing zeal of Romanists and the +material causes of discontent in Ireland which the Union would +probably dispel. As Cooke remarked, the paper seemed designed +to close the question for ever.<a name="FNanchor_578_578" id="FNanchor_578_578"></a><a href="#Footnote_578_578" class="fnanchor">[578]</a></p> + +<p>Pitt was equally determined to set the question at rest. He +and Castlereagh had confidence in the issue; and Cornwallis +declared that if Pitt were firm he would meet with no difficulty. +Accordingly Pitt inserted in the King's Speech for the ensuing +session a passage expressing confidence that Parliament would +seek to improve the benefits already secured by the Act of +Union. The phrase was smooth enough to leave the King's +conscience unruffled, and on 23rd January he assented to the +Speech, requesting that no change be made.<a name="FNanchor_579_579" id="FNanchor_579_579"></a><a href="#Footnote_579_579" class="fnanchor">[579]</a> But while Pitt +sapped the approaches to the citadel, Loughborough countermined +him. On what day and in what manner he informed +the King of the proposed measure of Catholic Emancipation is +not clear. Possibly George scented mischief in a short conversation +with Spencer and Grenville about the middle of +January. But his brain was set on fire by something which he +heard on 27th or 28th January. On the latter day (Wednesday), +during the <span lang="fr">levée</span> at St. James's Palace, his behaviour betrayed +unusual excitement, and he said warmly to Windham, a friend +of the measure, that he regarded all supporters of it as "personally +indisposed" to him. Waxing hotter in the course of the +function, he declared in a loud voice to Dundas: "What is this +that the young Lord [Castlereagh] has brought over, which they +are going to throw at my head? Lord C. came over with the +plan in September.... I shall reckon any man my personal +enemy who proposes any such measure. The most Jacobinical +thing I ever heard of."</p> + +<p>This extraordinary outburst naturally led Ministers to confer +together on the morrow; and they requested Grenville to prepare +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</a></span>a paper explaining the proposed changes in the form of oath for +members of Parliament and officials. Grenville declined this +task, which Pitt himself then undertook. This question, I may +note, was far more difficult than outsiders could understand. +Castlereagh's interviews with Pitt in September, and now again +in January, had only recently brought Ministers near to an agreement, +a fact which fully accounts for the delay in drafting the +proposals in a form suitable for the King's inspection.<a name="FNanchor_580_580" id="FNanchor_580_580"></a><a href="#Footnote_580_580" class="fnanchor">[580]</a> On that +day George took another step betokening irrevocable opposition. +He begged Addington to see Pitt and convince him of +the danger of the measure. The King confessed that he could +scarcely keep his temper in speaking about it; for it portended +the destruction of the Established Church and the end of all +order in civil life. Addington therefore paid a visit to Pitt, who +cannot have been well pleased to see him acting as a tool of the +King. The interview, however, seems to have been friendly, +and it inspired Addington with the complacent hope that he +had dissuaded Pitt. Possibly he or Auckland alarmed Dr. Moore, +Archbishop of Canterbury, and set the bishops in motion. +Other persons working to this end were the Earl of Clare and +the Irish Primate. The latter took a prominent part in arousing +the fears of the King. Cooke wrote: "The Primate was a great +card, was much consulted by the King, for ever with him, or +in correspondence with him.... The Archbishop of Canterbury +was at first so nervous that for ten or twelve nights he +could not sleep, and our Primate was daily with him, encouraging +him."<a name="FNanchor_581_581" id="FNanchor_581_581"></a><a href="#Footnote_581_581" class="fnanchor">[581]</a></p> + +<p>It is uncertain how far Pitt was aware of the many adverse +influences playing upon the King; for his papers on this topic +are unusually scanty. On the 30th he sent a draft of his proposals +to Loughborough, a sign that he would persevere with them. +On the morrow George again summoned Addington to the +palace, and adjured him to form a Ministry. This offer preceded +the arrival of any intimation from Pitt of his desire to resign if +his advice were rejected. Addington for his part begged to be +excused; whereupon the King exclaimed: "Lay your hand +upon your heart and ask yourself where I am to turn for support +if <em>you</em> do not stand by me."<a name="FNanchor_582_582" id="FNanchor_582_582"></a><a href="#Footnote_582_582" class="fnanchor">[582]</a> Meanwhile Pitt was inditing his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</a></span>famous letter of 31st January, to the King, of which this summary +must suffice:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Pitt has heard with deep regret of the opposition displayed by His +Majesty to the proposals of Catholic Emancipation, which are approved +by the majority of the Cabinet and regarded as a natural sequel to the +Act of Union. The admission of Catholics and Dissenters to certain +offices, and of Catholics to Parliament, now involves little or no danger +to the Established Church or to the Protestant interest, as the Catholics +disclaim the obnoxious tenets once held by them. A form of oath can +be devised to exclude those Dissenters who may have designs against +the constitution either in Church or State. The Irish Catholic clergy +may be attached to the Government by making their maintenance partly +dependent on the State. These changes would adapt the constitution to +present needs. Pitt therefore earnestly commends the measure to the +consideration of His Majesty. Meanwhile no steps will be taken in the +matter; but, if on examination the measure should not be approved, +Pitt will beg to be allowed to resign, though in such a way as to occasion +the least possible difficulty. Finally he takes the liberty "of most +respectfully, but explicitly, submitting to Your Majesty the indispensable +necessity of effectually discountenancing, in the whole of the interval, +all attempts to make use of Your Majesty's name, or to influence the +opinion of any individual on any part of the subject."</p> +</div> + + +<p>In the last sentence Pitt administered a telling and dignified +rebuke for the outrageous behaviour of the King at the <span lang="fr">levée</span>. A +reply came on the morrow, couched in pompously ungrammatical +terms, which sufficiently refute the rumour that it was composed +by that polished talker, Loughborough. George declared +that his Oath bound him to support the Established Church; +that State officials must be in active communion with that +Church. He therefore refused to discuss the present proposals, +which tended to destroy the groundwork of the Constitution. +Respecting the suggested truce of silence he wrote as follows: +"Mr. Pitt once acquainted with my sentiments, his assuring +me that he will stave off the only question whereon I fear from +his letter we can never agree—for the advantage and comfort of +continuing to have his advice and exertions in public affairs I +will certainly abstain from talking on this subject which is the +one nearest my heart." The meaning of these words is not easy +to fix; but apparently the King meant to say that his silence +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</a></span>on the subject was conditional on Pitt promising never to bring +it forward again. Now, Pitt had made no such promise. He +required that, while the King was examining the proposals of his +Cabinet, he would abstain from setting his counsellors against +it. George III evaded this request, thereby leaving himself free +to talk at large against Catholic Emancipation while he was +supposed to be examining its details. We may be sure that this +sentence clinched Pitt's resolve to resign at the earliest possible +moment.<a name="FNanchor_583_583" id="FNanchor_583_583"></a><a href="#Footnote_583_583" class="fnanchor">[583]</a></p> + +<p>He said so in his reply of 3rd February to the King. He expressed +both regret at the King's resolve on this question, and a +desire to consult his convenience, though continuance in office +even for a short time became very difficult in view of the King's +refusal to undertake to discountenance the use of his name +during the interval. In every respect the accession of another +Minister was to be desired. Pitt closed this painful correspondence +with a letter, also of 3rd February, requesting a pension of +£1,500 a year for Long, one of the secretaries of the Treasury, +whose private means were so slender as to leave him in discomfort +if he should resign. The King briefly assented to Pitt's +retirement and to Long's pension. To Long's services the King +accorded a few words of thanks: to those of Pitt not a word. +This is the more remarkable as Pitt was then suffering from an +attack of gout which depressed him greatly; but, as we shall +see, the King in private expressed his deep obligations, and +requested him to keep in office until all the new appointments +were settled.<a name="FNanchor_584_584" id="FNanchor_584_584"></a><a href="#Footnote_584_584" class="fnanchor">[584]</a> This involved a delay of nearly six weeks, which +were among the most trying of his career.</p> + +<p>On 5th February the King succeeded in persuading Addington +to form a Ministry. Accordingly on the 10th he resigned +the office of Speaker, being succeeded by Sir John Mitford, +afterwards Lord Redesdale. There is no ground for the insinuation +that Addington snatched at office. He took it without +eagerness but from conscientious conviction; and Pitt, with the +usual generosity of his nature, assured him of his support as a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</a></span>private member. Of Pitt's colleagues Grenville, Dundas, Spencer, +and Windham offered their resignations; so also did Cornwallis +and Castlereagh at Dublin. Portland retained the Home +Secretaryship. Of late he had wavered on the subject of Catholic +Emancipation, perhaps owing to the arguments of Loughborough. +Westmorland and Chatham also kept their positions +of Lord Privy Seal and Lord President. The retention of office +by the latter aroused some comment; but as the earnest desire +of Pitt was to disarrange the Ministry as little as possible, he +probably approved conduct which outsiders condemned as unbrotherly.</p> + +<p>The following letter from Chatham, dated Winchester, 6th +February, is of interest. After expressing his regret at Pitt's +resignation, he continues: "Upon the measure itself of granting +further indulgence to the Catholics I have neither time, nor +indeed would it be of any use, to say anything at present. I +will only observe that if, by being on the spot, I could in any +degree have contributed even to put off the extremity to which +the agitation of it has led, I should think I had done much, and +I should be most unhappy in having been absent; otherwise I +consider myself as fortunate in having avoided a discussion +which could only have been painful to me in many respects. As +things stand, I shall certainly think it my duty to come to town +in a few days, and I will defer, till we meet, any further remarks; +I will only add that if your part is irrevocably taken, the King +could not have acted more wisely than in having recourse to the +Speaker.... I see all the difficulty and delicacy of your situation."<a name="FNanchor_585_585" id="FNanchor_585_585"></a><a href="#Footnote_585_585" class="fnanchor">[585]</a></p> + +<p>Far less charitable were the sentiments of Dundas in the following +letter:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">Wimbledon, <i>7 Feb., 1801</i>.<a name="FNanchor_586_586" id="FNanchor_586_586"></a><a href="#Footnote_586_586" class="fnanchor">[586]</a></p> + +<p>I know not to what stage the Speaker's endeavours to form an Arrangement +have proceeded; but it is impossible for me not to whisper into +your ear my conviction that no Arrangement can be formed under him +as its head that will not crumble to pieces almost as soon as formed. +Our friends who, as an act of friendship and attachment to you agree to +remain in office, do it with the utmost chagrin and unwillingness; and +among the other considerations which operate upon them the feeling +that they are embarking in an Administration under a head totally incapable +to carry it on and which must of course soon be an object of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</a></span>ridicule is uppermost in their minds. Add to this that, though they will +not certainly enter into faction and opposition, all the aristocracy of the +country at present cordially connected with Government, and part of it +under you, feel a degradation in the first Minister of the Country being +selected from [<span lang="la">sic</span>] a Person of the description of Mr. Addington without +the slightest pretensions to justify it, and destitute of abilities to +carry it on. Depend upon it I am not exaggerating the state of the case; +and a very short experience will prove that I am right; and the Speaker +will ere long feel that he has fallen from a most exalted situation and +character into one of a very opposite description. Save him from it if +not too late. Yourself excluded from it, I am afraid nothing permanent +can be formed; but if the Speaker was to advise the King to call upon +the Duke of Portland to form an Administration, I am persuaded His +Grace at the head of it, with either Steele, Ryder, Lord Hawkesbury, or +even Mr. Abbott as his Chancellor of the Exchequer, would fill the +public eye infinitely more than anything that can be found upon the +plan now in agitation. By the answer I have received from the King to +my resignation I must entreat you without delay to send for my correspondence +with Lord Westmorland in order that I may be sure of what +my recollection suggests, that I refused to give the promise of the +Government at home that what was then proposed was the ultimatum +of concession.</p> +</div> + + +<p>The last sentence of Chatham's letter refers to the difficulties +of Pitt's position. These have nearly always been overlooked. +Yet his decision turned finally on a question of honour. It is +true that neither Pitt nor Cornwallis gave a distinct pledge to +the Irish Catholics that the Cabinet would press their claims +if they would support the Union. But no such pledge could +have been given without exasperating the King and the privileged +phalanx at St. Stephen's Green. Therefore, when the +critics of Pitt demand to see the proof that he made a promise, +they ask for what, in the nature of the case, could not be forthcoming. +Cornwallis and Castlereagh were aware of the need of +extreme caution in making overtures to the leading Catholics; +and they afterwards denied that they gave a distinct pledge. +Nevertheless, some of their agents induced the Catholics of the +south and west of Ireland, to act in a "highly useful" manner, +which averted an otherwise dangerous opposition. Castlereagh +explained this to Pitt early in January;<a name="FNanchor_587_587" id="FNanchor_587_587"></a><a href="#Footnote_587_587" class="fnanchor">[587]</a> and the scrupulous +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[Pg 442]</a></span>Minister must have considered these promises as a debt of +honour. That some of the leading Irish Catholics viewed them +in the same light appears in an account of a representative +meeting held at Ryan's house in Marlborough Street, Dublin, +on 27th October 1804. Ryan then set forth the condition of +his co-religionists at the time of the Union, and referred to the +stipulations made to them by Government. Others, including +Lord Fingall and a barrister, Scully, followed; and after two +more meetings, they resolved to petition Pitt, who had by that +time returned to office, it being known that he was at heart +favourable to their claims.<a name="FNanchor_588_588" id="FNanchor_588_588"></a><a href="#Footnote_588_588" class="fnanchor">[588]</a> But in his speech of 14th May 1805 +on this topic, he said, "I did not make a distinct pledge. On +the contrary, I believe the line of argument I took was, that if +it should be thought right to give what the Catholics required, +it might be given with more safety to the Empire."<a name="FNanchor_589_589" id="FNanchor_589_589"></a><a href="#Footnote_589_589" class="fnanchor">[589]</a></p> + +<p>What the stipulations were is not clear; for with this exception +the Irish Records are disappointingly silent. But it is clear that +Canning finally came to consider them binding on an honourable +man. In his great speech on Catholic Emancipation in +March 1827, while admitting that Pitt in 1800 made no definite +promise to the Catholics, he added these notable words: "The +Catholics were made to believe, and that belief was a powerful +inducement to them to lend their aid towards the accomplishment +of the measure [the Union] that in the Imperial Parliament +the question which so nearly concerned them would be more +favourably entertained.... There is no tribunal, however solemn, +before which I am not prepared to depose to my firm belief in +the sincerity of Mr. Pitt's wishes and intentions to carry it." +This passage once for all refutes the charges of insincerity which +certain of Canning's biographers have brought against Pitt.</p> + +<p>Light is thrown on this topic by notes of Bishop Tomline. Pitt +consulted his former tutor at this crisis; for on 6th February he +wrote warning him of his approaching resignation on grounds +which he desired to explain. He added: "I am in the firm persuasion +that an Arrangement can be formed to which I can give +a cordial general support, and which may keep everything safe."<a name="FNanchor_590_590" id="FNanchor_590_590"></a><a href="#Footnote_590_590" class="fnanchor">[590]</a> +The bishop thereupon came to town and saw much of Pitt, +whose conduct he thus describes: "I never saw Mr. Pitt in more +uniformly cheerful spirits, although everyone about him was dejected<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</a></span> +and melancholy. He talked of his quitting office with the +utmost composure, gave the King the highest credit for the +notions on which he acted, and also fully acquitted those who +were supposed to have influenced his sentiments and conduct. +He felt some dissatisfaction at the conduct of one who was <em>not</em> a +Cabinet Minister, and was under great obligations to Mr. Pitt, who +had by intrigues and misrepresentations and every unfair means +in his power endeavoured to influence people's opinion on the +question and to excite alarm and prejudice against him." The +reference here is to Lord Auckland, but nothing definite is +known as to his conduct. The bishop then states that Pitt's +equanimity was surprising, inasmuch as his resignation would +reduce his income to less than that of a country gentleman and +necessitate the sale of Holwood. Nevertheless, no hasty word +fell from him even in the most confidential conversation; but +he talked cheerfully of living in privacy for the rest of his life, +and expressed satisfaction that men who were attached to the +constitution would carry on affairs of State. The safety of the +country seemed to be his only concern. Tomline then describes +the cause and the circumstances of Pitt's resignation:<a name="FNanchor_591_591" id="FNanchor_591_591"></a><a href="#Footnote_591_591" class="fnanchor">[591]</a></p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>While the business of the Union was going on, Lord Cornwallis had +informed the Ministers in England that the support of the Catholics to +the measure would in a great degree depend upon the intention of +Ministers to remove those disabilities under which they at present +laboured. This produced in the Cabinet a discussion of the question of +Catholic Emancipation, as it is called, and Lord Cornwallis was authorized +to declare that it was intended by Government, after the Union +should have taken place, to grant to the Catholics some further indulgences; +but he was not authorized to pledge the Government to any +particular measure, nor was any plan of this kind settled by the Cabinet. +When the King's Speech was to be drawn up for the opening of the +Imperial Parliament, the Catholic Question naturally occurred and gave +rise to a good deal of discussion in the Cabinet. Mr. Pitt, Lord Grenville, +Lord Spencer, Mr. Dundas, and Mr. Wyndham declared themselves +in favour of Catholic Emancipation; and the Lord Chancellor, +the Duke of Portland and Lord Westmorland against it. Lord Chatham +and Lord Liverpool did not attend the Council, the former being at +Winchester as military commander of that district and the latter was +confined to his house by illness.</p> + +<p>The King was of course informed of this division in the Cabinet and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[Pg 444]</a></span>took a decided part by talking against the question freely and openly to +everyone he saw. On Wednesday, the 28th of January, the King said to +Mr. D[undas] at the <span lang="fr">levée</span> in such a voice that those who were near +might hear him—"So here is an Irish Secretary come over to propose +in Parliament the Emancipation of the Irish Catholics, as they call it"—and +then he declared himself in the strongest degree hostile to the question. +This was of course reported to Mr. Pitt. On the Friday (the 30th) +the King sent for the Speaker to the Queen's House and conversed with +him a long time. Upon my mentioning this circumstance to Mr. Pitt, +he said he knew what happened at that interview and seemed perfectly +satisfied with it. He had before told me (namely, the first night he saw +me, Saturday, Feb. 7th) that he knew nine days before that he should +be under the necessity of resigning. On the 31st Mr. Pitt wrote his first +letter to the King. Two letters only passed on each side, which see. +Mr. Pitt did not see the King till at the <span lang="fr">levée</span> on Wednesday the 11th +[February]. The King spoke to him in the most gracious manner—"You +have behaved like yourself throughout this business. Nothing +could possibly be more honourable. I have a great deal more to say to +you."—"Your Majesty has already said much more than the occasion +calls for."—"Oh no, I have not; and I do not care who hears me: it +was impossible for anyone to behave more honourably." After more +conversation of the same kind the King desired to see Mr. Pitt in the +closet. The <span lang="fr">levée</span> continued, and, some little time after, Mr. Pitt said to +the King: "Your Majesty will pardon me if I take the liberty of saying +that I fear I shall not be able to attend Your Majesty in the closet."—"Oh +yes: you must; I have just done." The King went to the closet +and Mr. Pitt attended him. Nothing could exceed the kindness of the +King towards Mr. Pitt: he was affected very much and more than once. +The conversation lasted more than half an hour; and in the course of it +the King said that, tho' he could no longer retain Mr. Pitt in his service, +he hoped to have him as his friend. Mr. Pitt, with strong expressions +both of duty and attachment and love to His Majesty, submitted that +any intercourse of that kind might be injurious to His Majesty's Government; +for that it was very important that his new Ministers should +appear to act by themselves and for themselves, and that if he was +frequently with His Majesty, unfavourable conclusions might be drawn +concerning his interference or influence. This seemed to satisfy the +King, and they parted. At the <span lang="fr">levée</span> the King spoke in the highest terms +of Mr. Pitt's conduct throughout the business of his resignation, and +said that it was very different from that of his predecessors.</p> +</div> + + +<p>This narrative needs little comment, except on the phrase that +the Cabinet had promised to grant the Catholics "some further +indulgences." Probably the schism occurred on the extent of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[Pg 445]</a></span> +those concessions, Pitt and the majority desiring the admission +of Catholics to Parliament and to offices of trust, while Loughborough +and the minority refused to do more than grant some +measure of support to the Irish priests.<a name="FNanchor_592_592" id="FNanchor_592_592"></a><a href="#Footnote_592_592" class="fnanchor">[592]</a> The King probably +opposed both concessions; and Pitt seems to have ascribed his +strenuous opposition more to the intrigues of Auckland than to +those of Loughborough. In this he was probably mistaken. +The best judge on this question, the monarch himself, certainly +looked on the Chancellor as a traitor. But in truth the crisis +could not be avoided. The King acknowledged as much in his +effusive comments on the extremely honourable conduct of +Pitt, but he also most firmly declared that he could no longer +retain him in his service. This was in effect a dismissal. On +18th February, George wrote a brief letter expressing his sorrow +at the close of Pitt's political career and his satisfaction that +Parliament had passed the Ways and Means without debate. +Thus did he close his correspondence with a Minister who had +devotedly served him for more than seventeen years.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>There is little need to notice the hasty and spiteful comments +of Lord Malmesbury, that Pitt was playing a selfishly criminal +game by resigning, with the evident aim of showing his own +strength and being called back to office on his own terms.<a name="FNanchor_593_593" id="FNanchor_593_593"></a><a href="#Footnote_593_593" class="fnanchor">[593]</a> The +Malmesbury Diaries at this point consist chiefly of hearsays, +which can readily be refuted. But this calumny spread widely, +and Fox finally barbed it with the hint that the substitution of +Addington for Pitt was "a notorious juggle," the former being +obviously a dummy to be knocked down when it suited Pitt +to come back fancy-free about the Catholics. Fortunately, the +correspondence of statesmen often supplies antidotes to the +venomous gibes of bystanders; and a case in point is a phrase +in Grenville's letter of 13th February to Minto: "There was no +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[Pg 446]</a></span>alternative except that of taking this step [resignation] or of +agreeing to the disguise or dereliction of one's opinion on one +of the most important questions in the whole range of our +domestic policy."<a name="FNanchor_594_594" id="FNanchor_594_594"></a><a href="#Footnote_594_594" class="fnanchor">[594]</a></p> + +<p>Pitt has been sharply censured for his excessive scrupulousness +in resigning at so serious a crisis. But the verdict must +depend on three main issues, the importance of the question at +stake, that of the services rendered by the Irish Catholics, and +the nature of the promises made to them. Now, no one will deny +that in the days when France was striving to effect the independence +of Ireland—for Bonaparte was thought to be pressing +on the war with that aim in view<a name="FNanchor_595_595" id="FNanchor_595_595"></a><a href="#Footnote_595_595" class="fnanchor">[595]</a>—the question of the Union +stood paramount. It was the most important problem confronting +Parliament since the Union with Scotland in 1707; and the +difficulties encountered were greater than those raised by the +Scots. The services of the Irish Catholics to the cause of the +Union are not easy to assess; but Castlereagh, a cool judge, +rated them high. In such a case a man of sensitive conscience +will deem himself bound to those who, in reliance on his sense +of honour, acted in a way that ensured the success of his measure. +Above all, in so tangled a situation the final decision will depend +on the character of the statesman. Walpole would have waived +aside the debt of honour. Pitt resolved to discharge it.</p> + +<p>It is scarcely necessary to notice another slander, that Pitt +resigned because, in his inability to procure peace from France, +he intended to put Addington in office merely for that purpose, +to be ousted when it was fulfilled. No evidence is forthcoming +in support of this version, which found no small favour with +Continental historians of a former generation; but it is now clear +that the split occurred solely on Catholic Emancipation. Those +Ministers who approved it resigned; while its opponents remained +in office, namely, Portland, Chatham, and Westmorland. +The same is true of the subordinate offices. The new Cabinet +decided to grant only occasional relief and a "compassionate +allowance" to the Irish priests.<a name="FNanchor_596_596" id="FNanchor_596_596"></a><a href="#Footnote_596_596" class="fnanchor">[596]</a> In several other matters its +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[Pg 447]</a></span>policy differed from that of Pitt; and Addington soon made it +apparent that he was no stop-gap.</p> + +<p>But now this clear issue was to be blurred in the blinding +glare of the King's lunacy. The causes of the malady of +February 1801 were partly physical, partly mental. While still +agitated by the dismissal of his trusted Minister, the King, two +days later, went to church on the day appointed for the National +Fast. That day of supplication for delivery from the perils of +the time was shrouded in gloom and snow. He remained a long +time in church and took a chill. Nevertheless, with his wonted +energy he persisted in transacting business with Addington, +until the stress told on the brain. On the 16th slight feverish +symptoms began to develop. Yet Addington saw him often +about new appointments, until on Sunday the 22nd the symptoms +caused some concern. Willis, son of the man who had so +much control over him during the illness of 1788–9, now came to +the Queen's House, and resumed the old regimen. Dr. Gisborne +was also in attendance. From the notes of Tomline we glean +curious details about the illness. The bilious symptoms were +very pronounced, and after the 23rd the King became worse. +His manner became nervous and "hurried." He went up to +Willis and shook him eagerly by the hand. When the Queen +and princesses rose to leave, he jocosely extended his arms so +as to stop them; whereupon Willis stepped forward, and, looking +at him earnestly, told him he was very ill. The King at once +said with a deep sigh: "I see, I cannot deceive you. I have +deceived all the rest. They think me well; but I cannot deceive +you." He then burst into an agony of weeping, threw himself +into Willis's arms, and said: "You are right. I am ill indeed. +But oh! for God's sake, keep your father from me, and keep off +a Regency."</p> + +<p>After weeping for a quarter of an hour, he walked about the +room with Willis for an hour and a half. In the evening he +grew worse. At 2.30 a.m. he went to bed, while the Duke of +Kent and Willis watched by the door. As in the previous +seizure, intervals of calm and reasonableness alternated strangely +with fits of delirium or even of violence. Now and again he spoke +collectedly, and at such times those about him rejoiced to hear +the familiar "What, what," wherewith he prefaced his remarks.<a name="FNanchor_597_597" id="FNanchor_597_597"></a><a href="#Footnote_597_597" class="fnanchor">[597]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[Pg 448]</a></span></p> +<p>Frequently he declared that he would uphold the Church of +England; or again his thoughts started away from the loathed +spectre of a Regency. On 2nd March the illness took so violent +a turn that his life seemed in danger; but, as was the case twelve +years before, long spells of sleep supervened and brought his +pulse down from 136 to 84. His powers of recovery surprised +every one about him. By 6th March he was so far well as to be +allowed to see the Dukes of York, Kent, and Cumberland. Not +until 9th March did he undergo the more trying ordeal of seeing +the Prince of Wales. On that same day he requested to see Pitt, +who very properly declined, suggesting, with all deference, that +Addington was the proper person for an interview.<a name="FNanchor_598_598" id="FNanchor_598_598"></a><a href="#Footnote_598_598" class="fnanchor">[598]</a></p> + +<p>Meanwhile, at or just after the crisis of the illness, Pitt gave +a very important pledge. If we may trust the far from convincing +statements of Lord Malmesbury, who had the story from +Pelham, the King on 7th March charged Willis to inform Pitt +of the improvement in his health, and to add the biting words: +"But what has not <em>he</em> to answer for who is the cause of my +having been ill at all?" Pelham further asserted that Pitt, in a +"most dutiful, humble and contrite answer," wrote down his +resolve to give up Catholic Emancipation.<a name="FNanchor_599_599" id="FNanchor_599_599"></a><a href="#Footnote_599_599" class="fnanchor">[599]</a> Now it is almost +certain that Pitt sent no such letter, for none exists either at +the Public Record Office, Orwell Park, or Chevening. Tomline +asserts that Pitt sent by Willis a verbal assurance that he would +not agitate Catholic Emancipation again during the King's reign; +whereupon George III exclaimed: "Now my mind will be at +ease." The bishop, however, believed that Pitt's assurance was +reported in a more emphatic form than was warranted; and the +statesman does not seem to have considered himself absolutely +bound by it. Yet the written assurance sent by Rose to the +King on behalf of Pitt seems binding during that reign.<a name="FNanchor_600_600" id="FNanchor_600_600"></a><a href="#Footnote_600_600" class="fnanchor">[600]</a></p> + +<p>Thus had the King conquered—by madness. No incident in +the life of Pitt is more unfortunate than this surrender. The +King had made an ungenerous use of the privileges of an invalid, +and the pressure which he put on Pitt passes the bounds even +of the immorality of a sick-room. The illness began with a chill +due to his own imprudence; but he used its later developments +to extort a promise which otherwise would never have been +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[Pg 449]</a></span>forthcoming. Nothing but the crisis in the King's illness led +Pitt to waver. For at the end of February he authorized +Castlereagh to send to Cornwallis at Dublin a declaration +intended to reassure the Irish Catholics. It pointed out that +the majority of the Cabinet had resigned owing to the impossibility +of carrying Catholic Emancipation at the present juncture. +He (Pitt) still resolved to do his utmost for the success +of that cause; and therefore begged them to refrain from any +conduct which would prejudice it in the future. Cornwallis +delivered this and another paper to the titular Archbishop of +Dublin and Lord Fingall for circulation among their friends and +found that it produced good results.<a name="FNanchor_601_601" id="FNanchor_601_601"></a><a href="#Footnote_601_601" class="fnanchor">[601]</a> Far different, of course, +was the effect produced on those few who knew of Pitt's private +promise to the King. They contrasted it with the contrary +promise to the Irish Catholics and drew the most unfavourable +inferences, forgetting that between 27th February and 2nd March +the King's illness had taken so dangerous a turn as perhaps to +justify the use of that political sedative.</p> + +<p>While blaming Pitt for weakness in giving this pledge to the +King, we must remember that the prolongation of the reign of +George III was the first desire of all responsible statesmen. +The intrigues of the Prince of Wales and Fox for a Regency +were again beginning; and thus there loomed ahead an appalling +vista of waste and demoralization. In these circumstances +Dundas and Cornwallis came to the conclusion that the King's +conscience must not again be troubled. Grenville seems to have +held firm on the Catholic Question.<a name="FNanchor_602_602" id="FNanchor_602_602"></a><a href="#Footnote_602_602" class="fnanchor">[602]</a> But his colleagues now +took an opportunist view. Pitt had two or three interviews +with the Prince of Wales, late in February and early in March, +and made it clear that the Prince would be well advised to +accept the Regency Bill drafted in 1789. On the Prince asking +whether this was the opinion of certain of Pitt's colleagues, who +then opposed that Bill as derogatory to his interests, Pitt at +once replied in the affirmative; and when the Prince further +objected to certain restrictions on the power of the Regent, Pitt +declared that no change would be acceptable. They parted +courteously but coolly; and we may be sure that the Prince +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[Pg 450]</a></span>never forgave Pitt for his uncompromising assertion of the rights +of Parliament.</p> + +<p>So dark was the outlook at home and abroad that Pitt was +persuaded, probably by Dundas, Tomline, Rose, and Canning, +to re-consider the whole question with a view to continuance in +office, provided that some suitable position were found for +Addington. The bishop penned some notes of sharp criticism +on the conduct of Addington, affirming that, if he had been +patriotic and sincere, he would have pressed Pitt to remain in +office. The following words are remarkable: "Mr. Pitt, Mr. Dundas +and myself had a long conversation upon this point at Wimbledon; +and I am satisfied that, if Mr. Addington had entered +into the idea cordially, Mr. Pitt's resignation might have been +prevented." He adds that they drew up a tentative scheme of a +Cabinet, Pitt remaining as chief, while Addington was to be a +Secretary of State; but the latter rejected this indignantly.<a name="FNanchor_603_603" id="FNanchor_603_603"></a><a href="#Footnote_603_603" class="fnanchor">[603]</a> +Pitt also finally deemed the plan "utterly improper," and threatened +to hold aloof from those who would not support the new +Administration or croaked about its instability. The action of +Dundas and the bishop was unfortunate; for it gave rise to the +report that Pitt was intriguing with them for a shuffling of +offices in which he would again come out at the top; and, as +usually happens, the meanest version overshadowed the truth.</p> + +<p>Fortune willed that the new Ministry, by far the weakest +Ministry of recent times, should win two brilliant successes and +secure a not inglorious peace. So bewildering a change seemed +impossible in the dark days of February–March 1801, when it +was the bounden duty of every strong man to remain at his +post, and of under-studies to stand aside. The fates and +Addington willed otherwise. Pitt resigned on 14th March, +nineteen days before Nelson triumphed at Copenhagen.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Pitt had endeavoured to place the nation's finance +on a sound footing. His Budget speech of 18th February has a +ring of confidence and pride. True, the expenses were unprecedentedly +heavy. Great Britain had to provide £12,117,000, +and Ireland £3,785,000, for the army alone. The navy cost +£15,800,000; the Ordnance £1,938,000. The bad seasons or +other causes having lessened the yield of the Income Tax and +the Malt Tax, he proposed further imposts upon sugar, raisins, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[Pg 451]</a></span>tea, paper, timber, lead, and all exports without exception. He +increased the Excise duty on horses, even those used for agriculture, +on stamp duties, and on the postage of letters. He also +urged that not less than £200,000 (the normal amount) should +be set apart for the reduction of the British National Debt. +Over against these depressing proposals he set the notable +fact that British commerce prospered more than ever, and that +the revenue showed remarkable buoyancy. From these extraordinary +<span class="ins" title="symptons">symptoms</span> he augured that the strength and spirit of +the people were equal to all the demands of the crisis; and he +declared that the attachment of the nation to its revered monarch +and beloved constitution furnished a moving spectacle to +Europe. The House accepted these crushing imposts without +demur.</p> + +<p>He found it more difficult to reconcile his followers to the +sway of Addington. As we have seen, Dundas had already expressed +to Pitt his scorn of him and his desire for a Portland +Ministry. Rose also refused to serve under a man whom he +accused (unjustly, as we now know) of worming his way to office; +and the high-spirited Canning declined to give to Pitt any pledge +except that he would not laugh at the new Prime Minister. It +is clear that Canning, like his chief, disliked resignation. As +the gifted young Irishman wrote, it was not at all good fun to +move out of the best house in London (Downing Street) and +hunt about for a little dwelling.<a name="FNanchor_604_604" id="FNanchor_604_604"></a><a href="#Footnote_604_604" class="fnanchor">[604]</a> Ryder and Steele kept their +posts.</p> + +<p>Singular to relate, the Mr. Pliable of so many Ministries was +soon to be turned out. Loughborough, on whose back Addington +climbed to power, forthwith received a direct intimation to +withdraw. The Lord Chancellor therefore closed his career, the +King bestowing on him for his services to religion the title Earl +of Rosslyn. To finish with him, we may note that his settlement +near Windsor and his assiduous courting of the royal +favour finally secured an epitaph quite as piquant as any which +George bestowed. On hearing of Rosslyn's sudden death early +in 1805, the King earnestly asked the messenger whether the +news was trustworthy; and, on receiving a reassuring reply, he +said: "Then, he has not left a greater knave behind him in my +dominions." The comment of Thurlow on this gracious remark +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[Pg 452]</a></span>is equally notable: "Then I presume that His Majesty is quite +sane at present."</p> + +<p>One of Pitt's friendships was severed by the crisis. As we +have seen, he deeply resented the part played by Auckland. To +his letter of remonstrance he replied very briefly that, widely as +they differed on the topic at issue, they differed quite as much +as to the question on which side there had been a failure of +friendship, confidence, or attention. The rupture became complete +on 20th March, when Auckland declared in the Lords +that Pitt's resignation was involved in mystery which the eye +could not penetrate. The insinuation wounded Pitt deeply; and +his intercourse with Auckland entirely ceased. Pitt was not +exacting in his social intercourse; but no man of high feeling +can endure secret opposition, followed by a veiled insinuation +that what he has done from high principle resulted from +motives that cannot bear the light. This is an unpardonable sin +that ends friendship.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>With all his outward composure, Pitt must have felt deep distress +at his failure to complete the Union by the act of grace +which he had in contemplation. The time was ripe, indeed overripe, +for a generous experiment, whereby seven tenths of the +Irish people would have gained religious equality. If the populace +of Dublin hailed with joy the St. Patrick's cross on the new +Union Jack,<a name="FNanchor_605_605" id="FNanchor_605_605"></a><a href="#Footnote_605_605" class="fnanchor">[605]</a> we may be sure that Irishmen, irrespective of +creed, would have joined heart and soul in the larger national +unity which it typified. It is probable that Pitt, when granting +the franchise to Irish Catholics in 1793, resolved to make the +other concessions at an early date. But the cause of Catholic +Emancipation having been prejudiced by the unwise haste of +Fitzwilliam in 1795, and by raids and revolts soon after, the time +of the Union was the first which he could seize with any chance +of success; and he hoped to vitalize that Union by an act which +would then have been hailed as a boon. Such acts of grace are +all too rare in the frigid annals of British Parliaments. The +Anglo-Saxon race builds its political fabric too exclusively on +material interests; and the whole structure is the uglier and +weaker for this calculating hardness. At the time of the Union +with Scotland, the counsellors of Queen Anne utterly failed to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[Pg 453]</a></span>touch the hearts of the Scots; and it was left to commerce +sluggishly and partially to mingle the two peoples. In contrast +with this dullness, how inspiring are the annals of France in the +early and best days of the Revolution. Then the separatist +Provincial System vanished as a miasma; and amidst the eager +hopes and class renunciations of that golden day the French +people found a unity such as legislators alone can neither make +nor unmake. With the insight of a statesman Pitt now sought +to clinch legislation by sentiment. He desired to vivify the +Union with Ireland by a concession which would come with all +the more graciousness because he had not introduced it into the +legal contract of marriage. But the outcome of it all was, for +himself resignation, for the two peoples the continuance of their +age-long feud.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[Pg 454]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">PITT AND HIS FRIENDS (1794–1805)</p> + +<p class="quote">Nothing could be more playful, and at the same time more instructive, +than Pitt's conversation on a variety of topics while sitting in the library at +Cirencester. You never would have guessed that the man before you was +Prime Minister of the country, and one of the greatest that ever filled that +situation. His style and manner were quite those of an accomplished idler.—"Malmesbury +Diaries," iv, 34.</p> + + +<p>The conflict of parties and interests is apt to thin the circle +of a statesman's friends; and in that age of relentless strife +the denuding forces worked havoc. Only he who possesses truly +lovable qualities can pass through such a time with comparatively +little loss; and such was the lot of Pitt. True, his circle was +somewhat diminished. The opposition of Bankes had been at +times so sharp as to lessen their intimacy; and the reputation of +Steele had suffered seriously from financial irregularities.<a name="FNanchor_606_606" id="FNanchor_606_606"></a><a href="#Footnote_606_606" class="fnanchor">[606]</a> Pitt's +affection for Dundas and Grenville had also cooled; but on +the whole his friendships stood the test of time better, perhaps, +than those of any statesman of the eighteenth century. Certainly +in this respect he compares favourably with his awe-inspiring +father. Not that Pitt possessed the charm of affability. +On most persons his austere self-concentration produced a repellent +effect; and it must be confessed that the Grenville strain in +his nature dowered him with a fund of more than ordinary +English coldness. Such was the opinion not only of the French +<span lang="fr">émigrés</span>, whom he designedly kept at arm's length, but even of +his followers, to whom his aloofness seemed a violation of the +rules of the parliamentary game. But it was not in his nature to +expand except in the heat of debate or in congenial society. In +general his stiffness was insular, his pre-occupation profound. +Lady Hester Stanhope, who saw much of him in the closing +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[Pg 455]</a></span>years, pictures his thin, tall, rather ungainly figure, stalking +through Hyde Park, oblivious of all surroundings, with head +uptilted, "as if his ideas were <span lang="fr">en air</span>, so that you would have +taken him for a poet."<a name="FNanchor_607_607" id="FNanchor_607_607"></a><a href="#Footnote_607_607" class="fnanchor">[607]</a></p> + +<p>The comparison is as flighty as Lady Hester's remarks usually +were, though the passage may depict with truth the air that Pitt +assumed when walking with her. No one else accused him of +having affinities to poets. In truth, so angular was his nature, +so restricted his sympathies, that he never came in touch with +literary men, artists, or original thinkers. His life was the poorer +for it. A statesman should know more than a part of human +life; and Pitt never realized the full extent of his powers +because he spent his time almost entirely amongst politicians of +the same school. His mind, though by no means closed against +new ideas, lacked the eager inquisitiveness of that of Napoleon, +who, before the process of imperial fossilization set in, welcomed +discussions with men of all shades of opinion, and encouraged +in them that frankness of utterance which at once widens and +clarifies the views of the disputants. It is true that Pitt's private +conversations are almost unknown. They appear to have ranged +within political grooves, with frequent excursions into the loved +domains of classical and English literature; but he seems +never to have explored the new realms of speculation and +poetry then opened up by Bentham and the Lake Poets. A +letter of the poet Hayley to him will serve to suggest the extent +of his loss in limiting his intercourse to a comparatively small +coterie:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">Felpham, near Chichester, <i>Sept. 9</i>[?].<a name="FNanchor_608_608" id="FNanchor_608_608"></a><a href="#Footnote_608_608" class="fnanchor">[608]</a></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Pitt</span>,</p> + +<p>Why are you slow in doing the little good in your power? Yes: +great as you are, the real good you can do must be little; but that little +I once believed you would ever haste to do with a generous eagerness +and enthusiasm, and therefore I used to contemplate your character +with an enthusiastic affection. That character, high as it was, sunk in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[Pg 456]</a></span>my estimation from the calamitous delay concerning the promised +pension of Cowper, a delay which allowed that dear and now released +sufferer to sink into utter and useless distraction before the neglected +promise was fulfilled. Will you make me some amends for the affectionate +concern I suffered for the diminution of your glory in that +business by expediting now a pension eagerly but ineffectively solicited +by many <em>great people</em>, as I am told, for a most deserving woman, the +widow of Mr. Green, the consul at Nice?... Deserve and receive +a kind and constant remembrance in the benedictions of a recluse who +has still the ambition to live in your regard by the good which he +would excite you to perform. At all events forgive this very unexpected +intrusion and importunity from the old and long sequestered admirer of +your youth,</p> + +<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">W. Hayley</span>.</p> +</div> + + +<p>Hayley's letter is a trifle too presumptuous in tone even for +an old friend; but it affords one more proof of Pitt's neglect of +literary men, though it is but fair to remember that in 1793–4 +he was hard pressed by the outbreak of war with France and the +struggle to keep the Allies together. Still, the greatest of statesmen +is he who, in the midst of world politics, neither neglects +old friends, nor forgets the claims of literature and art. In this +connection it is painful to add that he allowed the yearly stipend +of the King's Painter, Sir Joshua Reynolds, to be reduced from +£200 to £50. On Reynolds soliciting the secretaryship to the +Order of the Bath, he was told that it had been promised to an +official of the Treasury. Another request, proffered through his +patron, the Duke of Rutland, also proved fruitless, and he had +reason to write with some bitterness—"Mr. Pitt, I fear, has not +much attention to the arts."<a name="FNanchor_609_609" id="FNanchor_609_609"></a><a href="#Footnote_609_609" class="fnanchor">[609]</a> His neglect of literature and the +arts was the more unfortunate because George III and his sons +did not raise the tone of the Court in this respect, witness the +remark of the King to Gibbon at a State function. "Well, +Mr. Gibbon, it's always scribble, scribble, I suppose."<a name="FNanchor_610_610" id="FNanchor_610_610"></a><a href="#Footnote_610_610" class="fnanchor">[610]</a></p> + +<p>Apart from these obvious limitations in Pitt's nature, there +was a wealth of noble qualities, which ensured life-long devotion +from those who penetrated the protective crust and came to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[Pg 457]</a></span>know, not the statesman, but the man. In him the qualities that +command respect and excite affection were happily balanced. +To a manly courage which never quailed in the hour of disaster, +and a good sense that provided sage counsels alike in private +and public affairs, he added the tenderer gifts. His affection once +given was not lightly withdrawn. He looked always on the best +side of men, and to that noble failing, if failing it be, most of his +blunders may be ascribed. Even when his confidence was abused, +he was loth to take revenge, so that Canning expressed regret +at his reluctance to punish those who betrayed him.<a name="FNanchor_611_611" id="FNanchor_611_611"></a><a href="#Footnote_611_611" class="fnanchor">[611]</a> Such a +man will often make mistakes, but he will also inspire the devotion +that serves to repair them. Moreover, even his opponents +were forced to admit the conscientiousness of his conduct. On +this topic the testimony of his friend Wilberforce is of value; +for they had differed sharply as to the rupture with France in +1793; and, somewhat later, Wilberforce lamented the relaxation +of Pitt's efforts against the Slave Trade. Yet their differences +did not end their friendship; on 30th November 1797 the philanthropist +wrote as follows to Sir Richard Aclom on the subject +of the reformation of morals:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>... There is one point only on which I will now declare we perfectly +coincide, I mean, that of a general moral reform being the only +real restorative of the health of our body politic. But I hesitate not to +say that, tho' the Government is in its system and principle too much +(indeed ever so little is, as I think, too much) tainted with corruption, +yet it is more sound than the people at large. You appear to feel the +disposition of the public to yield an implicit assent to Ministers without +stopping to investigate the causes of that disposition (which are chiefly +to be found in the violence of the Opposition and the established predominance +of party). I will frankly avow no man has lamented this more +than myself; I may indeed say more than this. I have endeavoured +both in public and in private to fight against it. But selfishness has +diffused itself thro' the whole mass of our people, and <span lang="la">hinc illae lacrymae</span>. +You mistakenly conceive, as do many others, that I am biassed by +personal affection for Mr. Pitt. When we meet, I will rectify your error +on that head....<a name="FNanchor_612_612" id="FNanchor_612_612"></a><a href="#Footnote_612_612" class="fnanchor">[612]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>Again, on 20th February 1798, Wilberforce wrote to William +Smith, an active Abolitionist and now prominent in the Opposition,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[Pg 458]</a></span> +deploring the dilatoriness of Pitt, but maintaining that +his patriotism was purer and more disinterested than that of +anyone not under the direct influence of Christian principles. +He adds these words:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>I speak not this from the partiality of personal affection. In fact for +several years past there has been so little of the <span lang="la">eadem velle et eadem +nolle</span> that our friendship has starved for want of nutriment. I really love +him for his public qualities and his private ones, though there too he +is much misunderstood. But how can I expect that he should love me +much, who have been so long rendering myself in various ways vexatious +to him, and, above all, when, poor fellow, he never schools his mind by +a cessation from political ruminations, the most blinding, hardening, +and souring of all others?<a name="FNanchor_613_613" id="FNanchor_613_613"></a><a href="#Footnote_613_613" class="fnanchor">[613]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>These passages explain why the personality of Pitt attracted +all that was purest and most patriotic in the public life of +England. Men might disagree with particular actions, but they +saw in him the saving genius of the State; and this was the +dominant feeling until the year 1801 when events scattered his +following and reduced public life almost to a state of chaos.</p> + +<p>His character, then, was strong in the virtues of steadfastness +and loyalty, on which the social gifts can root deeply and bear +perennial fruit. Of these he had rich store. His conversations +possessed singular charm; for his melodious voice, facile fancy, +and retentive memory enabled him to adorn all topics. His +favourite themes were the Greek and Latin Classics. The rooms +at Holwood or Walmer were strewn with volumes of his favourite +authors, on whom he delighted to converse at length. Grenville +declared to Wellesley that Pitt was the best classical scholar he +had ever met. Yet, with the delicate tact which bade him enliven, +not dominate, the social circle, he refrained from obtruding +those subjects on occasions when they would be neither known +nor appreciated. Equally good was his knowledge of English +literature; so that in the company of kindred spirits, the flow of +wit and learning, imagination and experience, must have rivalled +that of the Literary Club over which Dr. Johnson held sway.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, only the merest scraps survive; but the testimony +of Pitt's friends suffices to refute the Whig legend as to +his cold and calculating selfishness, which filled even the hours +of leisure with schemes for making himself necessary to the King +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[Pg 459]</a></span>and country.<a name="FNanchor_614_614" id="FNanchor_614_614"></a><a href="#Footnote_614_614" class="fnanchor">[614]</a> On the contrary, he was fond of society, throwing +himself so heartily into the conversation that the <span lang="fr">savant</span> was +merged in the wit, the Prime Minister in the genial companion. +His jests were of that Attic flavour which seasons without +stinging; and this was the outcome, not of calculation, but of a +kindly disposition, which delighted to throw off political cares +amidst the tide of mirth which he helped to carry to the full. +He also felt increasingly the charms of country life, and at Holwood +was never more happy than when labouring along with +his gardeners in the effort to enhance the beauty of his grounds. +This strenuous work, together with horse exercise and occasional +bursts with the West Kent or Dover hunt, provided the recreation +which enabled his naturally weak and gout-ridden frame to +withstand the wear and tear of official life up to his forty-seventh +year.</p> + +<p>In town he delighted to visit friends in an informal manner, +and was never more pleased than when he could have games +with children. His romp with young Napier and the two Stanhopes +when they succeeded in corking his face, has been already +described; but it appears that even in 1805, when beset by +manifold cares, he often dropped in at Broom House, Parson's +Green, the residence of Sir Evan Nepean, and would "take a +chair in a corner, and, laying aside state and gravity, would +gambol and play with the boys."<a name="FNanchor_615_615" id="FNanchor_615_615"></a><a href="#Footnote_615_615" class="fnanchor">[615]</a> At times his repartees were +piquant. When his friend and admirer, the Duchess of Gordon, +who had not seen him for some time, met him at the <span lang="fr">levée</span> and +asked whether he talked as much nonsense as of yore, he laughingly +replied: "I do not know whether I talk so much nonsense: +certainly I do not <em>hear</em> so much."<a name="FNanchor_616_616" id="FNanchor_616_616"></a><a href="#Footnote_616_616" class="fnanchor">[616]</a></p> + +<p>Is it surprising that a character so benevolent, and social gifts +of so much charm, should attract men about him? Of those who +came forward to fill the gaps of the circle, only two, Wellesley +and Canning, were men of powers so exceptional as to claim +more than passing notice. Though descended from families +domiciled in Ireland, they differed widely, except in versatility +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[Pg 460]</a></span>and devotion to Pitt. Wellesley's nature was Saxon in its inner +hardness. Like his younger brother, the future Duke of Wellington, +he rarely displayed signs of emotion; but his temperament, +though cold at the heart, thrilled at the approach of great and +perilous enterprises, amidst which he rivalled his brother in +activity and resourcefulness. Accordingly, his Viceroyalty of +India moved Bonaparte to envy, patriotic Britons to rapturous +applause, and the parsimonious Directors of the Company to +carping criticisms. Those who deny to Pitt the gift of choosing +able and inspiring men, forget that he made Wellesley Governor-General +of India, and supported him in his quarrels with the +India House. As Earl of Mornington, Wellesley had helped +the Irish Administration in various ways, and became closely +acquainted with the Grenvilles. His first letter to Pitt, dated +Dublin, January 1785, expresses thanks for assistance and for +the offer of support in case the annoyances of his situation drove +him to England. Thus, Mornington was first attracted to Pitt +by his loyalty to subordinates; and, later, after his return to +England, respect for the Minister ripened into admiration and +love of the man.</p> + +<p>They had much in common. Manly in bearing, persistent of +purpose, and prompt in decision, they were also richly dowered +with social gifts. Like Pitt, Mornington had classical attainments +and literary gifts of no mean order; and his high spirits +and powers of repartee must have brought new energy to the +jaded statesman. Entering Parliament as member for Windsor, +he found his duties far from congenial. On some occasions +nervousness marred the effect of his speeches; and his constituents +involved him in so much expense and worry as to prompt +a request, in the autumn of 1794, for the intervention of Pitt, +seeing that his rival, Isherwood, had "the means of supplying +the rapacity even of the electors of Windsor." On 4th October +he thanked Pitt for relieving him from further obligations to +"the worthy electors of that loyal borough"; but he continued +for a time to sit in Parliament. Meanwhile his fine presence and +lively converse brought him into favour with the Prince of +Wales. On 4th August 1793, writing at Brighthelmstone, he +heartily congratulated Pitt on the surrender of Valenciennes, +which sanguine persons hoped might hasten the end of the war. +But, he added, "I own my most sanguine expectations cannot +reach the notion of our being able to bring down the power of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[Pg 461]</a></span> +France in one campaign to the level to which I think it must be +reduced for our safety and for that of the rest of the world. +H.R.H. the Prince of Wales has been pleased to be most gracious +to me.... I suppose you have heard of his dinner on the capture +of Valenciennes. We sat from five till half-past ten, and +many were very drunk, particularly H.R.H. He really did the +honours most admirably...." In the next letter, of the early part +of August 1796, Mornington sends a quatrain of Latin Elegiacs +which he had composed at Dundas's house, on the exploits of +Wurmser in relieving Mantua, of Davidovitch at Roveredo, and +Quosdanovitch at Brescia (not Verona), which seemed to presage +the ruin of Bonaparte.</p> + + +<p class="poem" lang="la" style="font-style: normal"> +Mantua Vurmisero gaudet, Rovereda Davido,<br /> +<span class="i2" style="font-style: normal">Et Verona tibi, Quosdanovice, patet.<br /></span> +Vae mihi (raptor ait Gallus) ne forte per Alpes<br /> +<span class="i2" style="font-style: normal">Heu! Bona pars in rem cogar abire malam.<a name="FNanchor_617_617" id="FNanchor_617_617"></a><a href="#Footnote_617_617" class="fnanchor" style="font-style: normal">[617]</a></span> +</p> + + +<p>For some time Mornington had felt the charm of Indian history; +and the blend of energy with romance in his being may have +prompted Pitt's selection of him as Viceroy in 1797. After a +most tedious voyage he reached the Hooghly in time to foil the +blow which Tippoo Sahib, Bonaparte's prospective ally, aimed +at Madras. In his letter to Pitt, written there on 20th April +1799, he expressed a hope of the capture of Seringapatam, and +continues thus: "I assure you that my nerves are much strengthened +by all the exertions which I have been obliged to make, +and in this land of indolence I pass for rather an active, stout, +hardy fellow and can now fast till four o'clock (save only a bit +of biscuit and a glass of port). I am happy to hear that you are +better than you have ever been in your life. There is no comfort +in mine but the distant hope of seeing you all again safe, +well, and quizzing in England. I have only one request to make +to you if you do not mean to abridge either my doleful days or +the period of my Government—do not suffer that <i>cantancerous</i> +[<span lang="la">sic</span>] fellow, Sir J[ames] Craig, to be made commander-in-chief +in Bengal. Send me a sober discreet decent man, but do not +allow the etiquette of throwing inkstands to be revived at the +Council Board."<a name="FNanchor_618_618" id="FNanchor_618_618"></a><a href="#Footnote_618_618" class="fnanchor">[618]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[Pg 462]</a></span></p> +<p>On 12th May, after announcing to Pitt the capture of Seringapatam, +Mornington adds: "If Buonaparte should now chuse +to visit Malabar, I think he will find supper prepared for him +before he has reached Calcutta." Reviewing the events of his +Viceroyalty he writes on 8th August: "I suppose you will +either hang me or magnificently honour me for my deeds (mine +they are, be they good or bad). In either case I shall be gratified; +for an English gallows is better than an Indian throne; but +these words must be buried in your own breast; for here I pretend +to be very happy and humble; although I am as proud as +the D. and as wretched as his dam. I think you will enjoy 'Le +Citoïen Tipou' and 'Citoïen Sultan' in the papers found at +Seringapatam. I admire your conduct with respect to the +Union [with Ireland]. I hope you will persevere, but I <em>trust</em> you +will not <em>trust</em> Ireland to my old friend Hobart. He used to be +a good humoured fellow; but from what I have heard of his +reign here, he is utterly unfit to govern anywhere."<a name="FNanchor_619_619" id="FNanchor_619_619"></a><a href="#Footnote_619_619" class="fnanchor">[619]</a></p> + +<p>Pitt did not receive this letter by 6th November, when he +informed Wellesley that the King, as a mark of high approbation, +conferred on him the title the Marquis Wellesley, suitable +arrangements being also in contemplation for his family. An +Irish marquisate was far from the magnificent reward which the +Viceroy desired; and on 28th April 1800 he expressed his +anguish of mind at receiving only an Irish and pinchbeck +reward for exploits neither Irish nor pinchbeck. Nevertheless, +while requesting a speedy recall so that he might hide his +chagrin in retirement, he uttered no vindictive word against +Pitt. Despite its morbid expressions, the letter is that of a +friend to a friend. On 27th September Pitt wrote in reply one +of the longest of his private letters. With equal tact and frankness +he reviewed the whole question, proving that Wellesley's +services were not undervalued, that the bestowal of an English +marquisate would have been an advance of four steps in the +peerage for what was after all a short Viceroyalty; and that the +present honour equalled that conferred on Cornwallis at the end +of his term. The question was whether Wellesley should receive +an English earldom or an Irish marquisate; and the latter was +deemed preferable. Further, if the notion prevailed at Calcutta +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[Pg 463]</a></span>that Wellesley had been slighted, it might be due to a suspicion +that he himself harboured it. Pitt then begged Wellesley to +regard this frankness as the best proof of real friendship.<a name="FNanchor_620_620" id="FNanchor_620_620"></a><a href="#Footnote_620_620" class="fnanchor">[620]</a></p> + +<p>Wellesley showed his good sense by acquiescing, and their +letters though rare, became thoroughly cordial. Writing at +Patna on 6th October 1801, he gently reproached Pitt for his +long silence, especially for not explaining the reason of his +resignation; he also expressed the hope that he approved his +remaining at Calcutta until a successor was appointed. He added +that his state progress up the Ganges to Patna had been +favoured by an easterly gale of unusual strength which the +natives ascribed either to his happy star or to an Order in +Council. As for his health, it was better than in "the reeking +House of Commons." Again at the beginning of 1804 he expressed +regret that Pitt had neither written nor vouchsafed any +sign of approbation at recent events, including the victory of +Assaye, which assured British ascendancy in the East.</p> + +<p>At last, on 30th August 1804, three months after resuming +office, Pitt apologized for his neglect on the ground of excess of +work in preparing to meet a French invasion, in which he had +so far succeeded as to hope that the attempt might be made. +At that time he expected Wellesley to come home in order to +escape the petty cabals of the Company's Directors; but he left +the decision entirely to him. Pitt's next letter, at Christmastide, +breathes a profound hope for Wellesley's speedy arrival as a +means of lightening the then heavy burden of political life. +Wellesley, however, on 25th March 1805, announced his chivalrous +resolve to remain in India another season owing to financial +troubles and disputes with the Company. To Dundas, in May +1805, he wrote: "I imagined myself to be one of the best friends +of the Company, but I hear that I am a traitor, and a conspirator, +and an interloper. Time discovers truth, and I must +leave the Honourable Courts' opinions to that test."<a name="FNanchor_621_621" id="FNanchor_621_621"></a><a href="#Footnote_621_621" class="fnanchor">[621]</a> In August, +after transferring his duties to Cornwallis, he set sail for England, +and landed in time to have a few last words with Pitt. The +interview must have been deeply affecting. At its conclusion +Pitt fainted away. Of all the estimates of Pitt none breathes +deeper devotion than that of Wellesley. Was it not because he +at last saw the pettiness of his own pride and petulance when contrasted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[Pg 464]</a></span> +with the self-abnegation of him who was truly the Great +Commoner? And did not even his meteoric career in the East +pale before the full-orbed splendour of the quarter of a century +of achievement which made up the public life of Pitt?</p> + +<p>The other enthusiastic friend was typically Irish in temperament. +Celtic in vivacity and charm, feminine in sensitiveness, +Canning was dowered with virile persistence and pugnacity. In +histrionic and versifying power he rivalled his countryman, +Sheridan, who never forgave him for deserting the Whigs and +going over to Pitt. The loss was indeed serious; for the young +orator was far more than a <span lang="fr">frondeur</span>. As editor of the "Anti-Jacobin," +conjointly with Hookham Frere, he covered with ridicule +the detractors of their country, and helped on the revival of +national spirit which began in 1798. But he also possessed great +administrative talents, displaying as Under-Secretary for Foreign +Affairs an insight into character in which his chief, Grenville, +was signally lacking. Canning's letters to Pitt on the negotiation +at Lille in 1797 show signs of those inductive powers which +appear at their zenith in his brilliantly correct inference ten +years later that the Danish fleet must be snatched from the +clutch of Napoleon.</p> + +<p>The statuesque calm of Pitt's personality charmed and overawed +this impressionable Irishman from the time of their first +interview in the summer of 1792. Always versatile and sometimes +shifty, he seems instinctively to have felt in him the +needed counterpart. As the Czar Alexander leaned on the rock-like +Stein in the crisis of 1812, so Canning gained strength and +confidence from reliance on Pitt. He on his side took a keen +interest in his disciple, discerning in him the propagator of the +Pitt doctrine and tradition. At times the fostering care became +fatherly. A case in point was Canning's marriage with a wealthy +Scottish heiress (July 1800). Pitt regarded this event as essential +to his success as the future leader of the party. Indeed, so +absorbed was he in his own thoughts during the ride to the +church as not to notice a pert remark of Canning's friend, Hookham +Frere. The clergyman, Frere, and he were in a coach +driving along Swallow Street towards Brook Street when a +carter who saw them called out: "What! Billy Pitt! and with a +parson too!" Thereupon Frere burst out with the daring jest, +"He thinks you are going to Tyburn to be hanged privately!" +But Pitt was too pre-occupied to notice the gibe. Again, after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[Pg 465]</a></span> +the ceremony, in the vestry Pitt was so nervous as to be unable +to sign as a witness, and Canning had to whisper to Frere to +sign without waiting for him.<a name="FNanchor_622_622" id="FNanchor_622_622"></a><a href="#Footnote_622_622" class="fnanchor">[622]</a> They ascribed his strange inaction +to extreme regard for Canning. But surely another explanation +is more natural. How could a man of keenly affectionate nature +share in that ceremony without feeling deeply his own lonely +lot? Three and a half years ago poverty and debt had stepped +in to part him and Eleanor Eden. Was it not the wraith of his +buried love which now hovered before him, blotting out the +sight of the carter, deafening his ears to the jest, and palsying +his hand?</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Pitt's resignation of office sorely tried his friends; for, without +informing them of the inmost reasons that prompted that step, +he pressed them to remain in office under his successor, Addington. +As we have seen, some of them refused. Of those not holding +Cabinet appointments, Rose and Long, joint Secretaries of the +Treasury, Lord Granville Leveson-Gower, a Lord of the Treasury, +and Canning, joint Paymaster of the Forces, decided to resign. +Pitt's silence and his urgent requests to his friends to remain in +office were of course open to misconstruction; and several of his +supporters echoed the malicious assertion of Frere, that his aim +was for Addington to take office as a <span lang="la">locum tenens</span>, and sign a +discreditable peace, whereupon he (Pitt) would come back to +power and find his former supporters in their old places. +Malmesbury gave colour to the story by stating that Addington +described himself as <span lang="la">locum tenens</span>, a remark utterly inconsistent +with all that is known of his complacent pride. Nevertheless the +slander gained general currency, and, even now, despite convincing +refutation, dies hard. That Canning and others resented +Pitt's silence and his pressure to remain in office is undeniable; +but, while saying nothing as to the cause of his own conduct, he +explained clearly to Canning that, as a friend, he was gratified +by his conduct in resigning, however much he deplored his +action on public grounds. Of course the <span lang="la">tu quoque</span> retort was +inevitable; but Canning's curiosity was not gratified.<a name="FNanchor_623_623" id="FNanchor_623_623"></a><a href="#Footnote_623_623" class="fnanchor">[623]</a></p> + +<p>For a time he talked of breaking with Pitt, and sent him a +copy of a letter to Frere couched in those terms. Pitt replied +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[Pg 466]</a></span>calmly on 26th April 1801 that on reviewing his conduct he +found it neither unkind nor unfair. While lamenting that Canning +should thus have misunderstood his conduct, he expressed +a resolve to forget the incident and a hope that their friendship +might endure. Serenity such as this is the best cure to Celtic +susceptibility. But other grievances were discovered, and on +12th July Canning dashed off to Frere a furious missive full +of dashes and underlinings, charging Pitt with showing to him +"confidence just enough to mislead and not enough to guide"; +on which promising theme he fired off clause upon clause of an +incoherent sentence which fills thirty-five lines of print and then +expires in a dash. What it was all about is far from clear, except +that Canning believed Pitt to have done "scrupulously +and magnanimously <em>right</em> by everybody but <em>me</em>."<a name="FNanchor_624_624" id="FNanchor_624_624"></a><a href="#Footnote_624_624" class="fnanchor">[624]</a> Before long +the sensitive youth was moving heaven and earth to bring back +Pitt to power. But, even in December 1803, when his whole +soul was bound up in him, he reproached him with lover-like +vehemence for having inspired a derogatory article in the +"Accurate Observer." Apparently the wounded friend had no +proof whatever that Pitt had sped or barbed the shaft.</p> + +<p>Among those who won Pitt's confidence in his closing years +was Spencer Perceval, an able young barrister, who entered +Parliament in 1796 as member for Northampton, and showed +considerable skill in finance and debating powers of no mean +order. "He spoke (says Sinclair) without the disagreeable cant +of the Bar, was never tedious, was peculiarly distinct in matters +of business, and explained his financial measures with clearness +and ability. His style was singularly acute, bold, sarcastic, and +personal." The same authority avers that Pitt, on being asked—"If +we lose you, where could we find a successor?"—answered +at once, "Perceval." The reply is remarkable; for Perceval, +besides opposing Catholic Emancipation, displayed little tact in +dealing with men and a strangely narrow outlook. Probably it +was his power of hard work, his grasp of finance, and his resolute +disposition which led Pitt to prefer him to Canning, who in +other respects was far better qualified to act as leader.</p> + +<p>I must here notice charges which have been brought against +Pitt, that his creations of peers, or promotions in the peerage, +which by the year 1801 exceeded 140, were fraught with evil to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[Pg 467]</a></span>the Upper House, lowering the intellectual level of its debates, +and impairing the balance of parties, with results damaging to +the constitution.<a name="FNanchor_625_625" id="FNanchor_625_625"></a><a href="#Footnote_625_625" class="fnanchor">[625]</a> It has even been suggested that the friction +between the two Houses in the years 1830–1911 resulted in no +small degree from the reckless conduct of Pitt in this respect. +Vague and sweeping assertions like these can neither be substantiated +nor refuted. But the only definite part of them, +namely, that Pitt's creations degraded the House of Lords, is +obviously overstrained. At no period was the tone of its debates +higher than in that of Pitt's supremacy, witness those on Warren +Hastings, the disputes with Spain and Russia, and the Great +War. They have not the brilliance of those of the Commons in +the days of Burke, Fox, Pitt and Sheridan; but they often excel +them in statesmanlike qualities; and a perusal of them reveals +the fact that the ablest of the Lords were, not those of the old +governing families, which at that period showed signs of decadence, +but those for whose creation Pitt was mainly responsible. +Malmesbury, Buckingham, Grenville, Auckland, Carrington, +Minto, and at a later period, Sidmouth and Castlereagh, excelled +in ability and weight the representatives of the older nobility. +Far from degrading and weakening the peerage, Pitt strengthened +it by an infusion of new blood which was sorely needed at that +time of strain and stress. Further, it must be remembered that +Burke's Economy Bill had abolished many of the sinecures +which were considered due for steady support in Parliament; and, +while at Bath in the year 1797, he admitted that his reform was +accountable for the large increase of peerages, thenceforth the +chief hope of the faithful.<a name="FNanchor_626_626" id="FNanchor_626_626"></a><a href="#Footnote_626_626" class="fnanchor">[626]</a> Pitt's correspondence also shows that +he frequently repulsed the insistent claims of his supporters for +titles, a theme on which piquant letters might be adduced.</p> + +<p>Surely, too, it is unjust to say that Pitt entirely altered the +political complexion of the Upper House. During the greater +part of his career the so-called political differences were based +mainly on personal considerations; and throughout the struggle +against France, Whigs and Tories, with the exception of a small +coterie, were merged in the national party which recognized in +Pitt the saviour of British institutions. The charge that he was +largely responsible for the friction between the two Houses after +1830 needs little notice; for that friction was clearly due to the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[Pg 468]</a></span>progress of democratic principles and the growth of an enormous +industrial community in these islands. Both of those developments +told strongly against the parity of political influence of +the two Houses of Parliament. Amidst the torpor of the previous +age the prerogatives of the Peers had gone unchallenged. +After the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution a +challenge was certain to come; and in this, as in many other +respects, the conduct of Pitt was such as to strengthen our institutions. +By adding to the House of Lords a considerable +number of commoners he enabled it to withstand the storms of +the Revolutionary age and the inevitable conflicts of the future.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>To revert to the year 1801, there occurred early in the autumn +an event of high import. The struggle of eight years between +Great Britain and France ended in stalemate. The collapse +of the Armed Neutrality League together with the capture of +Malta and the surrender of the French garrisons in Egypt left +the Union Jack triumphant at sea and the tricolour on the Continent. +Each State had need of rest to restore its finances and +consolidate its conquests. Therefore, though Bonaparte had at +the end of March 1801 sharply repelled the pacific overtures of +the Addington Cabinet, yet negotiations were resumed at the +close of summer, a fact which proves that the First Consul was +influenced, not by spite to Pitt and goodwill to his successor, +but by the constricting grip of the Sea Power. Hawkesbury, +Grenville's successor at the Foreign Office, asserted that shortly +before the end of the negotiation Pitt sat up with him through +part of a night discussing finance, and finally advising the cessation +of hostilities.</p> + +<p>Not that Pitt directed the negotiations; for both Addington +and Hawkesbury were proud and sensitive men, and Pitt +at some points criticized the conditions of the Preliminaries +of London (1st October 1801). They were as follows: Great +Britain agreed to restore to France, Spain, and the Batavian, or +Dutch, Republic all their possessions recently conquered by her, +with the exception of Trinidad and Ceylon, ceded to her by +Spain and the Dutch respectively. She also retired from Elba +and restored Malta to the Knights of St. John, under conditions +to be further specified. The French restored Egypt to the +Sultan, and evacuated Naples and the Papal States. Portugal +was also saved from danger of partition. Nothing was said respecting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[Pg 469]</a></span> +the resumption of trade between England and France; +and no assurance was forthcoming as to the independence of the +Republics bordering on France. By his recent compact with +Austria the First Consul agreed to respect their independence; +but England had no definite ground for complaint if it were +violated.</p> + +<p>While the London rabble shouted itself hoarse with joy at the +advent of peace, Grenville, Windham, and Canning saw disgrace +and disaster ahead. Pitt thought otherwise. At the small house +in Park Place which he had leased for his visits to London, he +wrote to Long on 1st October, describing the terms as not all +that could be wished but "highly creditable, and on the whole +very advantageous." Finding that Grenville considered them +disastrous, he on the 5th expressed concern at their disagreement. +Though regretting the surrender of the Cape, and the +uncertainty of the fate of Malta, he considered the acquisition +of Ceylon and Trinidad most beneficial; and he hailed with +satisfaction a peace which saved Turkey and Portugal from +spoliation. He therefore suggested an interview for the sake +of reconciling their differences. To this Grenville somewhat +coolly assented, remarking that the differences were fundamental +and could not be concealed, and that his confidence in the Addington +Cabinet was irretrievably destroyed by a treaty which +ceded to France Martinique, Malta, Minorca, the Cape, Cochin +China, and all the Dutch settlements. Clearly, then, Grenville +looked on the Dutch Republic and Spain as dominated by +Bonaparte, who would seize Minorca, Malta, and the Cape whenever +it suited him. He also wrote to the King expressing regret +that he could no longer support Addington, whose conduct towards +France and Russia was "marked throughout by a tone of +unnecessary and degrading concession."<a name="FNanchor_627_627" id="FNanchor_627_627"></a><a href="#Footnote_627_627" class="fnanchor">[627]</a></p> + +<p>Here, then, the two cousins began sharply to differ. On 3rd +November, during the debates on the Peace, Pitt rose to rebut the +censures of Thomas Grenville on a policy which implied the surrender +of the Mediterranean to France. He deprecated these sweeping +criticisms; for he had ever been ready to frame a treaty which, +though falling short of our just pretensions, was not inconsistent +with honour and security. The present terms did not fulfil all his +wishes; but the difference between them and the best possible +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[Pg 470]</a></span>terms was not worth the continuance of war. If both Trinidad +and Malta could not be retained, he commended Ministers for +choosing Trinidad; for the sight of the Union Jack at Malta would +have hurt the pride of France. With regard to the Cape of Good +Hope he deemed it a far more important possession than +Hawkesbury had represented, though inferior to Ceylon. He +deplored our failure to restore the House of Savoy to its capital, +Turin; but the chief object of the war, the security of Great +Britain, had been attained. True, the restoration of the French +monarchy would have furnished a better safeguard for peace; +but we had never insisted on it as essential, though it might have +been assured if the Allies had fulfilled their duties. As to the +future, if the First Consul aimed at founding a military despotism, +he probably would not select England as the first object of his +attack; and we had every prospect of enjoying a long peace. +Remembering, perhaps, that he made the same prophecy early +in 1792, he uttered this warning: "I am inclined to hope everything +that is good; but I am bound to act as if I feared otherwise." +In none of his speeches did Pitt display less foresight. +The preference of Trinidad to Malta and of Ceylon to the Cape +is curious enough; but the prophecy as to a long period of +peace and the probable immunity of England from Bonaparte's +attack argues singular blindness to the colonial trend of French +policy since the year 1798. Despite acrid comments by Fox and +Windham, the speech carried the day and firmly established +Addington in power.</p> + +<p>The sequel is well known. In the interval of six months, +during which the aged and gouty Cornwallis sought to reduce +the Preliminaries of London to the Treaty of Amiens (27th +March 1802), Bonaparte remodelled the Batavian, Ligurian, and +Cisalpine Republics in a way wholly at variance with the Treaty +of Lunéville. Against these breaches of faith the Addington +Cabinet made no protest; and the treaty in its final form provided +a complex and unsatisfactory compromise on the Maltese +question.<a name="FNanchor_628_628" id="FNanchor_628_628"></a><a href="#Footnote_628_628" class="fnanchor">[628]</a> Canning and Windham strove to elicit from Pitt a +public expression of his disapproval of the treaty; but their +efforts were in vain. On 20th April 1802 Canning, while at his +country seat, South Hill, Bracknell (Berks), wrote thus to +Windham:<a name="FNanchor_629_629" id="FNanchor_629_629"></a><a href="#Footnote_629_629" class="fnanchor">[629]</a></p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[Pg 471]</a></span></p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>... Do not suppose that this is because I have the slightest doubt +as to the impression which may be made by pointing out the gross +faults and omissions, the weakness, and baseness, and shuffling, and +stupidity, that mark this Treaty even beyond the Preliminaries that led +to it. But I think people do not want to be convinced of this; that +they will not take it kindly, but rather otherwise, to have it forced upon +their observation; that, if parted to a division, they will vote for the +Treaty with all its imperfections upon its head.... Now as to Pitt +himself. He cannot and does not think of this as he did of the Preliminary +Treaty. But debate it; and he will, he must, debate as warmly +for it. He can take no distinction without seeming to abandon Addington; +and that he will not do. He cannot object to any part of the +Peace in public, without weakening the grounds upon which he contends +peace upon the whole to be preferable to war, and <em>that</em> he will not do. +... Leave it possible for Pitt to say six or eight months hence that +the Preliminaries promised well, but that the Treaty did not come up +to them. I do not promise you that he ever will say this. But I am +fairly persuaded that, if you force from him a public approbation of the +Treaty, you defer for at least as many months as have passed since the +debates of October, the chance of his coming to see things almost as +you and I see them....</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 10%" /> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter"><i>April 27 1802</i>.</p> + +<p>Since I wrote to you, I have seen Lord Grenville, and I think the +plan of action, which he tells me had been concerted between you and +him, so perfect, that I retract everything in what I wrote to you (if +anything there were) which could be construed as making against it. +To debate "about it and about it," as much as you will, to move for +papers, to move for taking the Treaty into consideration—all this may +be done with great and good effect, but a condemnation of the Treaty, +such as would force P[itt] into a defence of it, and identify him with +the makers of it, is what of all things is to be avoided. I hope you +think so.—Whether P[itt] <em>will</em> save us I do not know. But surely he is +the only man that <em>can</em>.</p> +</div> + + +<p>All was in vain. Pitt, having promised to support Addington, +deemed himself in honour bound to fulfil that pledge. But, as +the events of the year 1802 showed more and more the imbecility +of the Addington Cabinet, torturing doubts preyed upon +his mind. His friends, especially Canning, now began to discern +the pathos of his position, but sought to draw him from his +seclusion at Walmer. An opportunity occurred in the month of +May. Pitt's birthday was on the 28th. Would not all who foresaw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[Pg 472]</a></span> +ruin for England in the supremacy of "the Doctor" welcome +a demonstration on behalf of his predecessor? For more than a +year Pitt's friends had been puzzled and abashed by his unexplained +retirement, witness the uncharitable surmise of the +usually benevolent Dr. Burgh—"Can I see Addington climb +upon the stooping neck of Mr. Pitt, and not believe that it is +done in hostility or in a masked confederacy? If the former, +how am I to estimate the man who comes in? If the latter, what +judgement can I form of the man who goes out?"<a name="FNanchor_630_630" id="FNanchor_630_630"></a><a href="#Footnote_630_630" class="fnanchor">[630]</a> Slander also +was busy in the guise of that gadfly, Nicholls, who proposed to +thank the King for dismissing him. By way of retort Pitt's +friends triumphantly carried a motion of thanks to Pitt for his +great services, against a carping minority of fifty-two; but +members were heard to mutter their preference for Addington +over all "the d—d men of genius."</p> + +<p>Was it not time to arouse the country from sloth? The +England of 1802 seemed to Wordsworth</p> + + +<p class="poem"> +a fen of stagnant waters. +</p> + + +<p>While he invoked the memory of Milton, Canning resolved to +appeal to Pitt. In a day or two he threw off a poem which, +though slighted by him, gained a wider vogue than any of his +effusions, "The Pilot that weathered the Storm." The last and +best stanza is as follows:</p> + + +<p class="poem"> +And O! if again the rude whirlwind should rise,<br /> +<span class="i2">The dawning of peace should fresh darkness deform,<br /></span> +The regrets of the good and the fears of the wise<br /> +<span class="i2">Shall turn to the pilot that weathered the storm.<br /></span> +</p> + + +<p>The song was enthusiastically received by the company assembled +at the Merchant Taylors' Hall; and the reference to the +recall of Pitt roused the company to a high pitch of excitement. +The song, as a whole, is laboured and strained. The only stanza +which happily weds phrase and thought is the last. The others +form a lumbering prelude to this almost Sibylline cadence.</p> + +<p>Despite these efforts to sow discord between Pitt and Addington, +they remained on excellent terms;<a name="FNanchor_631_631" id="FNanchor_631_631"></a><a href="#Footnote_631_631" class="fnanchor">[631]</a> and the support given +by the former to the Peace of Amiens ensured to the Minister an +overwhelming victory at the polls in the General Election of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[Pg 473]</a></span>summer of 1802. Pitt was of course returned by the University +of Cambridge, "with every mark of zeal and cordiality"—so he +wrote to Rose on 10th July. The rest of the summer he passed +either near London or at Walmer. It is unfortunate that he did +not visit France, as Fox, Romilly, and many others now did. +Probably his sharp rebuff to Bonaparte's overture at the end of +1799, and his subsequent diatribes against him precluded such +a step. But he also needed rest and quiet. On 8th June +he wrote to Windham: "The sea air and the contrast of the +scene to that which I left behind me in London have, as usual, +done me a great deal of good."<a name="FNanchor_632_632" id="FNanchor_632_632"></a><a href="#Footnote_632_632" class="fnanchor">[632]</a> He set to work to improve the +grounds adjoining the castle, and invited Addington, who was +then spending some weeks at Eastbourne, to come over and see +the changes. Further, he leased a large farm near Walmer, and +expressed a hope that he might spend the rest of the year in +farming. The splendour of that summer and the bounteous +crops of corn evidently captivated Pitt. The supreme need +of England was more corn. A man who could not serve her at +Westminster could serve her by high farming. This was Pitt's +forecast, unless "the <span lang="la">pacificator</span> of Europe takes it into his head +to send an army from the opposite coast to revenge himself for +some newspaper paragraph."<a name="FNanchor_633_633" id="FNanchor_633_633"></a><a href="#Footnote_633_633" class="fnanchor">[633]</a></p> + +<p>At this time, too, he finally succeeded in disposing of Holwood. +The sale was inevitable; for Pitt's finance had long been a +source of deep anxiety. So far back as 18th October 1800 +Rose informed the Bishop of Lincoln that bailiffs threatened +the seizure of Pitt's furniture in Downing Street for debts of £600 +and £400. Then, referring to Pitt's ill health, he wrote: "I conceived +till this morning [it] was owing to the state of public +matters; but I am now strongly inclined to think he is agitated +by the state of his own affairs. Bullock came to me this morning +and forced upon me such a history of debts and distresses +as actually sickened me.... Something must be done before +Pitt returns to town. His expenses in the last years were nearly +£26,000. I am quite certain Holwood must be parted with."<a name="FNanchor_634_634" id="FNanchor_634_634"></a><a href="#Footnote_634_634" class="fnanchor">[634]</a></p> + +<p>Pitt's private finance is involved in mystery. His official +stipend was £6,000 a year; and as Lord Warden of the Cinque +Ports he drew £3,000 more. Yet he was now insolvent. Among +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[Pg 474]</a></span>his papers systematic accounts are extant only for the latter +half of the years 1794 and 1799. Even these are not complete, +especially for the household at Walmer Castle. Those +for the house in Downing Street are the fullest; but, for the last +six months of 1799, they amount to £3,789 at Downing Street, +and £2,382 at Holwood, the latter sum including a charge of +£1,163 for farm expenses which cannot much have exceeded the +income.<a name="FNanchor_635_635" id="FNanchor_635_635"></a><a href="#Footnote_635_635" class="fnanchor">[635]</a> The Walmer accounts vary according to the duration +of Pitt's residence. Those for the summer and autumn of 1794 +amount only to £458. Evidently, then, Pitt benefited by the +King's gift of the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports. But he gave +£1,000 in 1793 to start the Dover Volunteer corps and doubtless +other sums towards the Fencibles of the other Cinque Ports.</p> + +<p>At all times the servants at Downing Street and the farm at +Holwood were a heavy drain. The amount of the servants' private +bills charged to Pitt at Downing Street is disgraceful. Pitt kept +a good table and a good cellar, as the customs of the age required; +but neither these expenses nor his heavy outlay on his +tailor would have brought about a crisis, had not his town servants +and tradesmen plundered him. Morse, the tailor, charged at +the rate of £130 to £140 a quarter for Pitt's clothes. Now Pitt +was neat and punctilious in his attire, but he was no dandy. As +for the farm at Holwood, accounts for straw and manure were +charged twice over, as some friendly accountant pointed out. +Probably, too, his experiments in landscape-gardening were as +costly as they had been to Chatham; for lavishness was in the +nature both of father and son. Pitt once confessed to his niece, +Hester Stanhope, that he never saw a house and grounds without +at once planning improvements. In this phrase as in the +suggestive item on farm expenses we can see why the sale of +Holwood was necessary; but for various reasons it did not take +place until the autumn of 1802.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile his friends bestirred themselves to prevent the +scandal of an execution. They succeeded in staving off a crisis +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[Pg 475]</a></span>until schemes of relief were concerted, but here again there was +much difficulty; for, on hearing of the proposed private subscription +on his behalf, he declared that he would rather return +to practice at the Bar than submit to such a humiliation. Fox +might allow friends to pay his gambling debts; but the pride of +Pitt scorned to accept help on behalf of liabilities even if due to +pre-occupation in public affairs. Rose deemed a sum of £25,000 +necessary to his peace and quietness, seeing that the total +liabilities were £45,064. The letters which passed between Camden, +the Bishop of Lincoln, and Rose, evince deep affection for +the shy, proud man. The following is a <span lang="fr">précis</span> of a letter of Rose +to Tomline which is among the Pretyman MSS.:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">Christchurch, <i>July 21, 1801</i>.</p> + +<p>I am in great perplexity about Pitt's affairs. Joe Smith has been +strangely misled respecting them.<a name="FNanchor_636_636" id="FNanchor_636_636"></a><a href="#Footnote_636_636" class="fnanchor">[636]</a> The unforeseen demands have been +very large. If Holwood fetches a good price, the sum of £24,000 will +set the matter at rest. Pitt's diamonds have been sold for £680 to pay +pressing claims. The unpaid bills now amount to £9,618. Old debts +come to £9,600 more. Mr. Soane and Mr. Coutts might be asked to +wait, as neither would suffer from it. The debt due to Banker (£5,800) +cannot surely be a separate one of Pitt's; for I think he could give no +security on it. Probably it is a debt contracted jointly with Lord Chatham, +the whole of which Pitt may have to pay. Of the last sum which +in his own deep distress he borrowed on the security of Holwood, he +gave (I know) £1,000 to Lord Chatham. These are trifling considerations +compared with that of getting him to accept the means of relief. +They are as follows: (1) a vote from Parliament; (2) a free gift from +the King; (3) a private subscription; (4) an additional office for life. +The first and second of these Pitt has peremptorily declined. The third +he refused in 1787 when the London merchants offered £100,000. +The fourth course would not be wholly creditable, but Pitt thinks it +the least objectionable. He dislikes the second and third alternatives +because the second (as he thinks) would give the King a hold over him +and the third would entitle the subscribers to his favour. The notion of +an execution by bailiffs in his house is too painful to contemplate. I +consider the first or second alternatives the best.</p> +</div> + + +<p>The reference here to a gift, or loan, from Pitt to his brother +prompts the inquiry whether similar acts of benevolence may +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[Pg 476]</a></span>not explain his difficulties. We find the second Earl of Chatham +in August 1797 acknowledging a loan of £1,000 from Pitt. The +bishop, replying to Rose on 24th July 1801, states that the +debt of £5,800 was to the best of his knowledge a sum advanced +through Thomas Coutts, the banker, to Lady Chatham upon the +Burton Pynsent estate. He adds that she ought to pay interest +to Pitt upon it, but did not. It seems that Pitt advanced £11,750 +in all on behalf of the Burton Pynsent estate. Here, then, was +a grievous family burden. Probably the debt was left by his +father, and may have been increased by his mother. So far back +as November 1793 he wrote to her stating his desire to help +her at any time of need; and in August of the following year, +when she believed her end to be near, she begged her sons to +pay her "just debts," which were due, not to vain expenses, but +to outlays upon the farm which she at the time believed to +be for the best.<a name="FNanchor_637_637" id="FNanchor_637_637"></a><a href="#Footnote_637_637" class="fnanchor">[637]</a> The eldest son could not help her, for he required +succour from Pitt. If, then, the farming experiments at +Burton Pynsent failed, the loss fell upon Pitt. We may infer, +then, that his debts were occasioned partly by rapacious servants +and tradesmen in London, partly by farming and gardening at +Holwood, but also by the needs of his mother and brother. The +fact that Chatham paid not a shilling towards the discharge of +Pitt's liabilities proves that he was in low water; and as no +one, not even Tomline, knew of the source of Pitt's embarrassments, +they must have been of a peculiarly delicate character.</p> + +<p>Tomline's decision, that Pitt could never accept a sinecure +from Addington, is indisputable. The words in which Pitt declared +that he could not accept the sum of £30,000 graciously +offered by the King breathe more independence than those in +which he first expressed his gratitude for the offer. There remained, +then, the plan of a private subscription. The Bishop of +Lincoln mentioned it to him with admirable delicacy on 6th +August 1801, and gained his consent. The following were the +subscribers: Lords Bathurst, Camden, and Carrington, together +with Tomline, Rose, and Steele, £1,000 each. From Scotland +came £4,000, probably in equal parts from the Dukes of Buccleugh +and Gordon, Dundas, and the Chief Baron. Wilberforce, +Long, and Joseph Smith each gave £500, and another (Lord +Alvanley?) £200. Bishop Tomline and Rose showed equal +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[Pg 477]</a></span>activity and tact in raising this sum of £11,700, so that the +details remained unknown to Pitt.<a name="FNanchor_638_638" id="FNanchor_638_638"></a><a href="#Footnote_638_638" class="fnanchor">[638]</a> Later on he felt pecuniary +embarrassments, partly owing to his share in maintaining the +Cinque Ports Volunteers, and at his death his debts amounted +to £40,000.</p> + +<p>His relations to his bankers, Messrs. Coutts, continued cordial, +though on 24th April 1805 Thomas Coutts ventured to +state that there was an overdraft against him of £1,511, which, +however, was redressed by the arrival of his quarterly official +stipends.<a name="FNanchor_639_639" id="FNanchor_639_639"></a><a href="#Footnote_639_639" class="fnanchor">[639]</a> Pitt's loyalty to his friends appears in his effort during +his second Ministry to procure the royal assent to his nomination +of Bishop Tomline to the Archbishopric of Canterbury shortly +after the death of Dr. Moore early in 1805. The King, however, +who did not admire Tomline, and believed the Bishop of Norwich +to have prior claims, refused his reiterated requests. Pitt's second +letter to the King on this subject is couched in terms almost of +remonstrance.<a name="FNanchor_640_640" id="FNanchor_640_640"></a><a href="#Footnote_640_640" class="fnanchor">[640]</a></p> + +<p>Reverting to Pitt's life at Walmer, we find that in the summer +of 1802 he fell a prey to nausea and lassitude; so that Lady +Hester Stanhope, who visited him in September, found him very +weak. Probably his indisposition was due less to the exceptional +heat of that season than to suppressed gout aggravated by +anxiety. As we saw, he invited Addington to come over from +Eastbourne and discuss public affairs. The conference seems to +have caused him much concern; for Tomline in July 1802 jotted +down notes of a conversation with Pitt, in which Addington is +described as "without exception the vainest man he (Pitt) had +ever met with." Pitt's advice had often been asked before the +Preliminaries of Peace were signed, but afterwards he was neglected. +Cornwallis, too, had evidently believed that by the Treaty +of Amiens all former treaties with France were revived without +being named; and probably Ministers were under the same delusion. +The last King's Speech was also annoying to Pitt, who +characterized Addington as "a man of little mind, of consummate +vanity and of very slender abilities." As to resumption of +office Pitt thought it impossible during the life of the King, except +in case of some great emergency.<a name="FNanchor_641_641" id="FNanchor_641_641"></a><a href="#Footnote_641_641" class="fnanchor">[641]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[Pg 478]</a></span></p> +<p>Equally frank were Pitt's confessions to Canning, who stayed +at Walmer in September–October 1802. He admitted that his +resignation was due partly to the manner in which the King +opposed him on Catholic Emancipation. But he quitted office +with a clear conscience, leaving full means for attacking Egypt +and the Armed Neutrals, so that the reproaches of desertion of +duty were unjust. He pledged himself to support Addington; +and from this only Addington could release him. He admitted +that this was a mistake, now that current events showed +Bonaparte's ambition to be insatiable; but none the less he +waved aside Canning's reiterated appeals that he would apply to +Addington for release from the pledge, on the ground that such +a step would seem an intrigue for a return to power. "My +ambition (he proudly said) is character, not office."</p> + +<p>Was a statesman ever placed in a more embarrassing situation? +Pitt had resigned office on a point of honour, and yet felt +constrained to humour the royal invalid by abandoning the very +measure which caused his resignation. Incautiously he pledged +himself to support Addington, thereby alienating some of his +own supporters. He defended his pacific policy until it led to a +bad treaty followed by a series of humiliations. By October +1802 Bonaparte was master of four Republics bordering on +France, and had annexed Piedmont and Elba, besides securing +Parma and Louisiana by profitable exchanges. Such a peace +was worse than a disastrous war. Yet Addington made no protest +except against the virtual subjugation of Switzerland. True, +the Cabinet now clung to the Cape and Malta as for dear life; +but elsewhere the eye could see French influence creeping resistlessly +over Europe, while the German Powers were intent only on +securing the spoils of the Ecclesiastical States. Well might Pitt +write to Wilberforce on 31st October: "You know how much +under all the circumstances I wished for peace, and my wishes +remain the same, if Bonaparte can be made to feel that he is not +to trample in succession on every nation in Europe. But of this +I fear there is little chance, and without it I see no prospect but +war." Worst of all, there were sure signs that France and the +other Powers distrusted and despised Addington. Vorontzoff, +the Russian ambassador, declared that he would work hard to +form an alliance with Pitt, but despaired of effecting anything +with his successor.<a name="FNanchor_642_642" id="FNanchor_642_642"></a><a href="#Footnote_642_642" class="fnanchor">[642]</a> In truth, Pitt's excessive scrupulousness at +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[Pg 479]</a></span>the time of his resignation had enclosed himself and his country +in a vicious circle from which the only means of escape was war.</p> + +<p>A prey to these harassing thoughts, Pitt left Walmer near +the close of October 1802 to take the waters at Bath. On the +way he visited Sir Charles Middleton at Teston in Kent, and +sought distraction by inquiries on farming. Middleton wrote to +Wilberforce on 26th October: "His inquiries were very minute +and judicious; and it is incredible how quickly he comprehended +things, and how much further he reasons on them than I can +follow him.... I believe Mr. Pitt has it in his power to become the +first farmer in England if he thinks the pursuit worth his time +and attention."<a name="FNanchor_643_643" id="FNanchor_643_643"></a><a href="#Footnote_643_643" class="fnanchor">[643]</a> The treatment at Bath suited Pitt so well that +he prolonged his stay. Rose, whom he invited to Bath in the +second week of November, thus describes to Bishop Tomline his +manner of life:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">Bath, <i>Nov. 21, 1802</i>.<a name="FNanchor_644_644" id="FNanchor_644_644"></a><a href="#Footnote_644_644" class="fnanchor">[644]</a></p> + +<p>Mr. Pitt's health mends every day: it is really better than it has been +ever since I knew him. I am quite sure this place agrees with him +<em>entirely</em>, he eats a small [<i>illegible</i>] and a half for breakfast, and more at +dinner than I ever saw him at 1/2 past 4: no luncheon: two very small +glasses of Madeira at dinner and <em>less</em> than a pint of port after dinner: +at night, nothing but a bason of arrowroot: he is positively in the best +possible train of management for his health.... He is positively +decided to have no responsibility whatever respecting what has been +done or is doing on the subject of foreign politics; he not only adheres +to his resolution of not going up for the opening [of Parliament]; but +will not attend even on the estimates unless a necessity should arise: +he writes to day both to Mr. Addington and Lord Hawkesbury in a +style that will not only manifest the above, <em>but will prevent all further +attempts to draw him into confidential communication</em>. He has also +made up his mind to take office again whenever the occasion shall +arise, when he can come in properly, and has now no reluctance on the +subject. I dare not say more by the Post. If my letter is opened, the +Ministers will know the first part is true, and I don't care about their +learning the latter. Lord Grenville will positively not take a line to +render it difficult for Mr. Pitt and him to act together; he will move no +amendment to the Address....</p> +</div> + + +<p>Rose, as we have seen, disliked Lord Auckland, who was joint +Postmaster-General; and if Pitt's letters were opened at the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[Pg 480]</a></span>Post Office, we can understand the thinness of his correspondence.<a name="FNanchor_645_645" id="FNanchor_645_645"></a><a href="#Footnote_645_645" class="fnanchor">[645]</a> +Recently he had advised Addington not to retain Alexandria, +Malta, Goree, and Cape Town, but to trust rather to +defensive preparations, which might include a friendly understanding +with other aggrieved Powers. This surely was the +dignified course. Even Malta was not worth the risk of immediate +war unless we were ready both with armaments and +alliances. The foregoing letter, however, shows that Pitt believed +his advice to be useless. Possibly he heard that the Cabinet had +decided to retain those posts; and finally, as we shall see, Pitt +approved their action in the case of Malta. Meanwhile matters +went from bad to worse. Ministers complained of Pitt's aloofness; +but his friends agreed that he must do nothing to avert +from Addington the consequences of his own incompetence. +Even the cold Grenville declared Pitt to be the only man who +could save England. But could even he, when under an incompetent +chief, achieve that feat?</p> + +<p>For by this time Addington had hopelessly deranged the +nation's finance. While giving up Pitt's drastic Income Tax, +which had not brought in the expected £10,000,000 but a net +sum of £6,000,000, he raised the Assessed Taxes by one third, +increased Import and Export duties with impartial rigour, and +yet proposed to raise £5,000,000 by Exchequer Bills, which were +to be funded at the end of the Session or paid off by a loan. This +signal failure to meet the year's expenses within the year exasperated +Pitt. At Christmas, which he spent with Rose at his +seat in the New Forest, he often conversed on this topic; and +his host thus summed up his own conclusions in a letter to +Bishop Tomline:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">Cuffnells, <i>December 24, 1802</i>.<a name="FNanchor_646_646" id="FNanchor_646_646"></a><a href="#Footnote_646_646" class="fnanchor">[646]</a></p> + +<p>... There is hardly a part of the Budget that is not too stupidly +wrong even for the doctor's dullness and ignorance. I am sure Mr. Pitt +must concur with me; and I have all the materials for him.—Wrong +about the increase of the revenue; wrong as to the produce of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[Pg 481]</a></span>Consolidated Fund; scandalously wrong as to what is to be expected +from it in future by at least £2,800,000 a year; wrong as to the money +he will want this year by millions....</p> +</div> + + +<p>During his stay at Cuffnells Pitt received a letter from +Addington urging the need of an interview. Viewing the +request as a sign of distress with which he must in honour +comply, Pitt agreed to stay a few days early in January 1803 at +the White Lodge in Richmond Park, which the King had for the +time assigned to his favoured Minister. Addington described him +as looking far from well, though his strength had improved and +his spirits and appetite were good.<a name="FNanchor_647_647" id="FNanchor_647_647"></a><a href="#Footnote_647_647" class="fnanchor">[647]</a> Apparently Pitt found the +instruction of his host in finance a subject as dreary as the +winter landscape. He afterwards told Rose that Addington +mooted his entrance to the Cabinet awkwardly during their +farewell drive to town. But this does not tally with another +account, which is that Pitt, on the plea of winding up the +transfer of Holwood, suddenly left the White Lodge on 6th +January. On the 11th he wrote from Camden's seat, The +Wilderness, in Kent, that his views on foreign affairs were +nearly in accord with those of the Cabinet, but that he failed to +convince Addington of his financial error.</p> + +<p>This, then, was still the rock of offence. Nevertheless, Pitt +begged Rose not to attack the Cabinet on that topic, as it would +embarrass him. If it were necessary on public grounds to set +right the error, he (Pitt) would do so himself on some fit +occasion. Malmesbury and Canning did their utmost to spur +him on to a more decided opposition; and the latter wrote him +a letter of eight pages "too admonitory and too fault-finding for +even Pitt's very good humoured mind to bear."<a name="FNanchor_648_648" id="FNanchor_648_648"></a><a href="#Footnote_648_648" class="fnanchor">[648]</a> Pitt replied by +silence. In vain did friends tell him that Ministers had assured +the King of his intention to bring forward Catholic Emancipation +if he returned to office. In vain did Malmesbury declare +that Pitt must take the helm of State, otherwise Fox would do +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[Pg 482]</a></span>so. In vain did Rose predict the country's ruin from Addington's +appalling ignorance of finance. Pitt still considered himself in +honour bound to support Addington. At the close of January +he held friendly converse with him, before setting out for Walmer +for a time of rest and seclusion. Canning's only consolation was +that Bonaparte would come to their help, and by some new act +of violence end Pitt's scrupulous balancing between the claims +of national duty and of private obligations. The First Consul +dealt blow upon blow. Yet even so, Canning's hopes were long +to remain unfulfilled. As we saw in the former volume, the +relations of Pitt to Addington had for many years been of an +intimate nature; but occasions arise when a statesman ought +promptly to act upon the maxim of Mirabeau—"<span lang="fr">La petite morale +est ennemie de la grande.</span>" In subordinating the interests of +England to the dictates of a deep-rooted but too exacting +friendship, Pitt was guilty of one of the most fatal blunders of +that time.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[Pg 483]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">ADDINGTON OR PITT?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 33%"> +Once more doth Pitt deem the land crying loud to him—<br /> +Frail though and spent, and an hungered for restfulness<br /> +Once more responds he, dead fervours to energize<br /> +Aims to concentre, slack efforts to bind.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em"><span class="smcap">Thomas Hardy</span>, <i>The Dynasts</i>, Act i, sc. 3.</span> +</p> + + +<p>On 30th January 1803 there appeared in the "Moniteur" +the official Report of Colonel Sebastiani, Napoleon's envoy +to the Levant. So threatening were its terms respecting the +situation in Egypt and Corfu, that the Addington Ministry at +once adopted a stiffer tone, and applied to Parliament for +10,000 additional seamen and the embodying of the militia. +But the House, while readily acceding on 9th March, evidently +wanted not only more men but a man. The return of Pitt +to power was anxiously discussed in the lobbies. The Duke +of Portland and Lord Pelham strongly expressed their desire +for it. Yet Pitt remained at Walmer, feeling that he could not +support financial plans fraught with danger to the State. Addington +therefore resolved to sound him again with a view to +his entering the Cabinet as a coadjutor. The envoy whom he +chose for this delicate mission was Henry Dundas, now Lord +Melville. He could count on his devotion; for, besides nominating +him for the peerage, he is said to have opened to his gaze +a life of official activity and patronage as First Lord of the +Admiralty in place of the parsimonious and unmannerly St. +Vincent.<a name="FNanchor_649_649" id="FNanchor_649_649"></a><a href="#Footnote_649_649" class="fnanchor">[649]</a> Pitt received his old friend at Walmer with a shade +of coolness in view of his declaration, on quitting office, that he +could accept no boon whatever from Addington. To come now +as his Cabinet-maker argued either overwhelming patriotism +or phenomenal restlessness.</p> + + +<div> +<a name="image07" id="image07"></a> +</div> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 284px;"> +<img src="images/image07.jpg" width="284" height="400" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Henry Dundas, First Viscount Melville. (From a painting by Sir T. Lawrence)</span> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[Pg 484]</a></span></p> +<p>Nevertheless, the two friends resumed at Walmer the festive +intercourse of the Wimbledon days; and in due course, after +dinner and wine, Melville broached the subject of his visit. It +was that Addington, who was First Lord of the Treasury and +Chancellor of the Exchequer, should resign the latter office to +Pitt, and take Lord Pelham's place as Secretary of State for +Home Affairs. We can picture the astonishment and wrath of +Pitt as this singular proposal came to light. At once he cut +short the conversation, probably not without expletives. But +Melville was pertinacious where patriotism and office were at +stake; and their converse spread over the two days, 21st–22nd +March, Melville thereupon sending a summary of it to Addington, +couched in terms which Pitt deemed too favourable. The +upshot was that on personal grounds Pitt desired not to return +to office; and, if affairs were efficiently conducted, would prefer +to continue his present independent support. If, however, +the misleading statements of the Treasury were persisted in, he +must criticize them. Above all, if he returned to office it must +be as First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer.</p> + +<p>But Addington, foreseeing that Pitt would claim his two +former offices, had concocted a sovereign remedy for all these +personal sores. Pitt was to take office as Chancellor of the Exchequer, +serving under his brother, the Earl of Chatham, as +Prime Minister. Is it surprising that he negatived this singular +proposal "without reserve or affectation"? By way of retort to +this family prescription he charged Melville to point out the +absolute need of the Cabinet being under the control of "the First +Minister," who must not only have the confidence of the King and +administer the finances, but also in the last resort impose his will +on his colleagues. For himself he declared he would never come +forward unless bound by public duty and with the enjoyment of +the fullest confidence of the King.<a name="FNanchor_650_650" id="FNanchor_650_650"></a><a href="#Footnote_650_650" class="fnanchor">[650]</a> There is a discrepancy between +Melville's letter to Addington and a short account given +by Pitt to Wilberforce two years later, to the effect that Melville, +on cautiously opening his proposals at Walmer, saw that +it would not do and stopped abruptly. "Really," said Pitt with +a sly severity, "I had not the curiosity to ask what I was to be."</p> + +<p>Such was the bomb-shell exploded on Addington's bureau on +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[Pg 485]</a></span>23rd March. It must have cost him no less concern than Bonaparte's +outrageous behaviour to our ambassador, Lord Whitworth, +ten days before. That scene before the diplomatic circle at the +Tuileries portended war. How would Addington and his colleagues +behave in this crisis? Would they sink all personal feelings, +and, admitting that they could not weather the storm, +accept the help and guidance of long tried navigators? Or would +they stand on their dignity and order the pilot-boat to sheer +off? Clearly it was a case where half measures were useless. +The old captain and his chosen subalterns must command the +ship. Pitt made this clear during conversations with Addington +at Long's house at Bromley Hill (10th April). While declaring +that he would not urge any point inconsistent with His +Majesty's intentions, he demanded that Grenville, Melville, +Spencer, and Windham should enter the Cabinet with him on +the clearly expressed desire of the King, and at the request of +the present Ministry. The last conditions seem severe. But +Pitt's pledge to Addington made it essential that the Prime +Minister should take the first step. To these terms two days +later Addington made demur, but promised to communicate +them to his colleagues; whereupon Pitt declared that he had +said the last word on the matter; and when Ministers objected +to Grenville and Windham, he was inexorable.<a name="FNanchor_651_651" id="FNanchor_651_651"></a><a href="#Footnote_651_651" class="fnanchor">[651]</a> That their anger +waxed hot against him appears from the following letter sent to +Pitt by Lord Redesdale, formerly Sir John Mitford, and now +Lord Chancellor of Ireland, who had been with Pitt and Addington +at their conferences at Bromley:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">Albemarle St., <i>April 16, 1803</i>.<a name="FNanchor_652_652" id="FNanchor_652_652"></a><a href="#Footnote_652_652" class="fnanchor">[652]</a></p> + +<p>What passed yesterday and the day before at Bromley Hill, has made +so strong an impression on my mind that I have been unable to relieve +myself from the anxiety which it has occasioned. However you may +flatter yourself to the contrary, it seems to me most clear that your return +into office, with the impression under which you have appeared to +act, must have the effect of driving from their situations every man now +in office, and making a greater change than has ever been made on +any similar occasion. I think myself as one of those persons individually +intitled to call upon your honour not to pursue the line of conduct +which you seem determined to adopt. The present Administration, so +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[Pg 486]</a></span>far from having been formed in hostility to you, was avowedly formed +of your friends. When you quitted office, you repeatedly declared that +you should consider yourself as obliged to those friends who would +continue in office or would accept office under Mr. Addington. You +must recollect that I expressed to you my disapprobation of the change +and my wish to retire to my situation at the Bar, quitting the office of +Attorney-General; and that you used to me these words—"That you +<em>must</em> not do, for my sake." The words were too strongly impressed +upon my mind at the moment to have escaped my memory. You encouraged +me to take the office of Speaker much against my will. If I +had not taken that office, nothing should have induced me to take that +in which I am now placed, and by which I have been brought into a +position of much anxiety, separated from all my old friends. Many +many others are in similar situations, and all are to be sacrificed to +those men who were said by yourself at the time to be acting in contradiction +to your wishes in quitting their offices or those who dragged +you out of office with them. You will probably tell me that you have +no such intentions, particularly with respect to myself. But, whatever +may be your intentions, such must be the unavoidable consequence of +the changes which you have determined upon. I thought, when I took +a situation under the Administration at the head of which you placed +Mr. Addington, that I was doing you service. It was of no small importance +to you, whether you looked to a return to office, or to retirement +from public life, that the Government should not fall into the +hands of those who had been engaged in violent opposition to you; +and you yourself stated to me that you apprehended that must be the +consequence if Mr. Addington should not be able to form an Administration.... +Some of your last words to me induce me to think that +you have not yourself abandoned the plan formed for giving to the +Roman Catholic Church full establishment in Ireland—for such I consider +the plan suggested by Lord Castlereagh, with any modification of +which it is capable. Indeed, if all those who went out of office because +that measure was not approved then (such being the ostensible cause of +their quitting their stations) are to come into office again, there can be +no doubt in the mind of the public that it is determined to carry that +measure....</p> +</div> + + +<p>That at so critical a juncture a supporter of Addington, not +of Cabinet rank, should rake up personal reasons why Pitt +should let things drift to ruin is inconceivable. And did Redesdale +really believe Protestantism to be endangered by Pitt's +return to office, after his assurance at Bromley that he would +not press any point at variance with the royal resolves? The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[Pg 487]</a></span> +King, who knew Pitt far better than Redesdale did, had no fear +that he would belie his word by bringing forward Catholic +Emancipation. But the phrases in the letter quoted above show +that some of the Ministers were preparing to beat the drum +ecclesiastic, and, in the teeth of the evidence, to charge Pitt with +ingratitude and duplicity if he became Prime Minister. Ignoring +the national crisis, they concentrated attention solely on the +personal questions at issue; and it is humiliating to have to add +that their petty scheming won the day. A compromise between +Pitt and Addington was exceedingly difficult, but their reproaches +and innuendoes made it impossible.<a name="FNanchor_653_653" id="FNanchor_653_653"></a><a href="#Footnote_653_653" class="fnanchor">[653]</a></p> + +<p>The outcome was disastrous. The failure to form a strong +and truly national Administration ended all hope of peace. +Over against Addington set Bonaparte; with Hawkesbury compare +Talleyrand; with Hobart, Berthier.<a name="FNanchor_654_654" id="FNanchor_654_654"></a><a href="#Footnote_654_654" class="fnanchor">[654]</a> The weighing need +go no further. The British Ministry kicks the beam; and in +that signal inequality is one of the chief causes of the war of +1803. The first Consul, like the Czar Alexander I, despised the +Addington Cabinet. He could not believe that men who were +laughed at by their own supporters would dare to face him in +arms. Twice he made the mistake of judging a nation by its +Ministers—England by Addington in 1803, Spain by Godoy in +1808. Both blunders were natural, and both were irreparable; +but those peoples had to pour forth their life blood to recover +the position from which weakness and folly allowed them to +slide. Politics, like meteorology, teaches that any sharp difference +of pressure, whether mental or atmospheric, draws in a +strong current to redress the balance. Never were the conditions +more cyclonic than in 1803. A decade of strife scarcely +made good the inequality between the organized might of +France and the administrative chaos of her neighbours; between +the Titanic Corsican and the mediocrities or knaves who held +the reins at London, Vienna, Berlin, and Madrid.</p> + +<p>War having been declared on 18th May 1803, Pitt sought the +first opportunity of inspiriting Parliament and the nation. On +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[Pg 488]</a></span>the 23rd a great concourse crowded the House in the hope of +hearing him speak; and cries of "Pitt, Pitt" arose as he strode +to his seat on the third row behind Ministers, beside one of the +pillars. The position gave point to a remark of Canning to +Lord Malmesbury, that Pitt would fire over the heads of +Ministers, neither praising nor blaming them, but merely supporting +the policy of the war. Such was the case. Replying to +a few criticisms of Erskine, he defended the Cabinet and powerfully +described the unbearable aggressions of the First Consul.</p> + +<p>The speech aroused a patriotic fervour which cannot be fully +realized from the meagre and dreary summary of it which survives. +Romilly pronounced it among the finest, if not the very +finest, which he had ever made;<a name="FNanchor_655_655" id="FNanchor_655_655"></a><a href="#Footnote_655_655" class="fnanchor">[655]</a> and Sheridan, in a vinous +effusion to Lady Bessborough, called it "one of the most +magnificent pieces of declamation that ever fell from that rascal +Pitt's lips. Detesting the dog, as I do, I cannot withhold this +just tribute to the scoundrel's talents." There follows a lament +over Pitt's want of honesty, which betokens the maudlin mood +preceding complete intoxication.<a name="FNanchor_656_656" id="FNanchor_656_656"></a><a href="#Footnote_656_656" class="fnanchor">[656]</a> On the morrow Fox vehemently +blamed the Cabinet in a speech which, for width of +survey, acuteness of dialectic, wealth of illustration and abhorrence +of war, stands unrivalled. Addington's reply exhibited +his hopeless mediocrity; but, thanks to Pitt, Ministers triumphed +by 398 votes to 67. As they resented the absence of definite +praise in his speech, he withdrew to Walmer, there to serve +his country and embarrass his finances by raising the Cinque +Ports Volunteers.</p> + +<p>Before recounting Pitt's services in East Kent, I must mention +a bereavement which he had sustained. His mother died, after +a very short seizure, at Burton Pynsent on 3rd April 1803. Thus +was snapped a link connecting England with a mighty past. A +quarter of a century had elapsed since her consort was laid +to rest in the family vault in Westminster Abbey; she followed +him while the storm-fiends were shrouding in strife the two +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[Pg 489]</a></span>hereditary foes; and the Napoleonic War was destined to +bring her gifted son thither in less than three years. The father +had linked the name of Pitt with military triumphs; the son, +with futile efforts for peace and goodwill; but the lives both of +the war-lord and of the would-be peacemaker were to be ended +by tidings of national disaster.</p> + + +<p class="poem"> +No parleying now. In Britain is one breath;<br /> +We all are with you now from shore to shore;<br /> +Ye men of Kent, 'tis victory or death!<br /> +</p> + + +<p>We all know these lines of Wordsworth. Do we know equally +well that on Pitt, as Lord Warden, fell the chief burden of +organization on the most easily accessible coast, that which +stretches from Ramsgate to Rye?<a name="FNanchor_657_657" id="FNanchor_657_657"></a><a href="#Footnote_657_657" class="fnanchor">[657]</a> It was defenceless but for +the antiquated works at Sandown, Deal, Walmer, Dover, and a +few small redoubts further west. Evidently men must be the +ramparts, and Pitt sought to stimulate the Volunteer Movement, +which now again made headway. He strove to make it a +National Movement. At the close of July he sent an official +offer to raise 3,000 Volunteers in Walmer and its neighbourhood; +and he urged Ministers to have recourse to a <span lang="fr">levée en +masse</span>, whereupon Yorke, Under Secretary at War, proposed a +scheme somewhat on those lines. Probably the encouragement +offered to Volunteers was too great; for, while they were required +to do less than was necessary to ensure efficiency, they +were freed from all risk of compulsory enrolment in the Militia. +This force and the Army consequently suffered, while the +Volunteer Associations grew apace. On 27th October 1803 the +King reviewed in Hyde Park as many as 27,000 of the London +Volunteers and showed his caustic wit by giving the nickname +of "the Devil's Own" to the Inns of Court Volunteers.</p> + +<p>Pitt was not present on this occasion, he and his neighbour, +Lord Carrington, on whom in 1802 he bestowed the command +of Deal Castle, being busy in organizing the local Volunteers. +As Constable of Dover Castle, Pitt summoned the delegates of +the Cinque Ports to meet him there to discuss the raising of +local corps; and he gave the sum of £1,000 towards their +expenses. Dover contributed £885; Sandwich, £887; Margate, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[Pg 490]</a></span>£538, and so on. As Lord Warden, he also took steps to secure +a large number of recruits for the new Army of Reserve, and he +further instructed local authorities to send in returns of all men +of military age, besides carts, horses, and stock, with a view to +the "driving" of the district in case of a landing.<a name="FNanchor_658_658" id="FNanchor_658_658"></a><a href="#Footnote_658_658" class="fnanchor">[658]</a> At Walmer +he kept open house for officers and guests who visited that coast. +By the end of the year 1803 more than 10,000 Kentishmen had +enrolled as Volunteers, and 1,040 in the Army of Reserve, +exclusive of Sea Fencibles serving on gunboats. For the whole +of Great Britain the totals were 379,000 and 31,000 respectively.<a name="FNanchor_659_659" id="FNanchor_659_659"></a><a href="#Footnote_659_659" class="fnanchor">[659]</a> +Pitt's joke at the expense of a battalion which laid more stress +on privileges than drills, has become historic. Its organizers +sent up a plan containing several stipulations as to their duties, +with exceptions "in case of actual invasion." Pitt lost patience +at this Falstaff-like conduct, and opposite the clause that they +were on no account to be sent out of the country he wrote the +stinging comment—"except in case of invasion."</p> + +<p>The pen of Lady Hester Stanhope gives life-like glimpses of +him during the endless drills between Deal and Dover. She had +fled from the levelling vagaries of Earl Stanhope at Chevening +to Lady Chatham at Burton Pynsent; but that home being now +broken up, Pitt offered to install her at Walmer Castle. He did +so with some misgiving; for her queenly airs and sprightly +sallies, however pleasing as a tonic, promised little for comfort +and repose. But the experiment succeeded beyond all hope. +She soon learnt to admire his serenity, while his home was the +livelier for the coming of this meteoric being. Her complexion +was dazzlingly bright. Her eyes, usually blue, would flash black, +as did those of Chatham in moments of excitement. Her +features, too, had a magical play of expression, lighting up at a +pleasing fancy, or again darting forth scorn, with the April-like +alternations that irradiated and overclouded the brow of her +grandsire. Kinglake, who saw her half a century later in her +Syrian fastness, was struck by the likeness to the Chatham of +Copley's famous picture.</p> + +<p>Certainly she had more in common with him than with the +younger Pitt. During the time when she brought storm and +sunshine to Walmer, Park Place, and Bowling Green House, +she often rallied her uncle on showing undue complaisance to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[Pg 491]</a></span>the King or to stupid colleagues whom the Great Commoner +would have overawed. Pitt laughingly took the second place, +and at times vowed that when her voice rang with excitement, +he caught an echo of the tones of his father.<a name="FNanchor_660_660" id="FNanchor_660_660"></a><a href="#Footnote_660_660" class="fnanchor">[660]</a> Perhaps it was +this which reconciled him to her vagaries. For her whims and +moods even then showed the extravagance which made her the +dreaded Sultana of that lonely Syrian castle where she ended +her days amidst thirty quarrelsome but awe-struck servants, +and an equal number of cats, over whom an apprehensive doctor +held doubtful sway.</p> + +<p>But that bitter, repining, spirit-haunted exile was far different +from the joyous creature who shed light on Pitt. Her spasmodic +nature needed his strength; her waywardness, his affectionate +control. As for her tart retorts, terrifying to bores and toadies, +they only amused him. In truth she brought into his life a beam +of the sunshine which might have flooded it had he married +Eleanor Eden. Hester soon found that, far from being indifferent +to the charms of women, he was an exacting judge of beauty, +even of dress. In fact, she pronounced him to be perfect in +household life. His abilities in gardening astonished her; and +we may doubt the correctness of the local legend which ascribes +to her the landscape-gardening undertaken in the grounds +of Walmer Castle in 1803. The dell at the top of the grounds +was Hester's favourite haunt.</p> + +<p>The varied excitements of the time are mirrored in her +sprightly letters. Thus, on 15th November 1803, she wrote at +Walmer:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>We took one of their gunboats the other day: and, as soon as she +came in, Mr. Pitt, Charles,<a name="FNanchor_661_661" id="FNanchor_661_661"></a><a href="#Footnote_661_661" class="fnanchor">[661]</a> Lord Camden and myself took a Deal boat +and rowed alongside of her. She had two large guns on board, 30 +soldiers and 4 sailors. She is about 30 feet long, and only draws about +4 feet of water; an ill-contrived thing, and so little above the water +that, had she as many men on board as she could really carry, a +moderate storm would wash them overboard.... Mr. Pitt's 1st battalion +of his newly-raised regiment was reviewed the other day by +General Dundas, who expressed himself equally surprised and pleased +by the state of discipline he found them in.... I like all this sort of +thing, and I admire my uncle most particularly when surrounded with a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[Pg 492]</a></span>tribe of military attendants. But what is all this pageantry compared +with the unaffected simplicity of real greatness!</p> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 10%" /> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">Walmer Castle, <i>Nov. 19, 1803</i>.</p> + +<p>To F. R. Jackson, Esq.</p> + +<p>To express the kindness with which Mr. Pitt welcomed my return +and proposed my living with him would be impossible; one would +really suppose that all obligation was on his side. Here then am I, +happy to a degree; exactly in the sort of society I most like. There are +generally three or four men staying in the house, and we dine eight or +ten almost every other day. Military and naval characters are constantly +welcome here; women are not, I suppose, because they do not form any +part of our society. You may guess, then, what a pretty fuss they make +with me. Pitt absolutely goes through the fatigue of a drill sergeant. It +is parade after parade at 15 or 20 minutes' distance from each other. I +often attend him; and it is quite as much as I am equal to, although I +am remarkably well just now. The hard riding I do not mind, but to +remain almost <em>still</em> so many hours on horseback is an incomprehensible +bore, and requires more patience than you can easily imagine. However, +I suppose few regiments for the time were ever so forward; therefore +the trouble is nothing. If Mr. Pitt does not overdo and injure his +health every other consideration becomes trifling. [She then states her +anxiety on this score. She rarely speaks to him on it, as he particularly +dislikes it. She adds:] I am happy to tell you, sincerely, I see nothing +at all alarming about him. He had a cough when I first came to England, +but it has nearly or quite left him. He is thin, but certainly +strong, and his spirits are excellent.... Mr. Pitt is determined to +remain acting colonel when his regiment is called into the field.</p> +</div> + + +<p>On this topic Pitt met with a rebuff from General (afterwards +Sir John) Moore, commander of the newly formed camp at +Shorncliffe, near Folkestone. Pitt rode over from Walmer to +ask his advice, and his question as to the position he and his +Volunteers should take brought the following reply: "Do you +see that hill? You and yours shall be drawn up on it, where +you will make a most formidable appearance to the enemy, +while I with the soldiers will be fighting on the beach." Pitt +was highly amused at this professional retort; but at the close of +1804 his regiment was pronounced by General David Dundas +fit to take the field with regulars. Life in the open and regular +exercise on horseback served to strengthen Pitt's frame; for +Hester, writing in the middle of January 1804, when her uncle +was away in London for a few days, says: "His most intimate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[Pg 493]</a></span> +friends say they do not remember him so well since the year +'97.... Oh! such miserable things as these French gunboats. +We took a vessel the other day, laden with gin—to keep their +spirits up, I suppose." Bonaparte was believed to be at Boulogne; +and there was much alarm about a landing; but she was resolved +"not to be driven up country like a sheep."</p> + +<p>This phrase refers to the arrangements for "driving" the +country, that is, sweeping it bare of everything in front of the +invaders. The plans for "driving" were thorough, but were finally +pronounced unworkable. His efforts to meet the Boulogne flotilla +were also most vigorous. On 18th October 1803 he informs Rose +that he had 170 gunboats ready between Hastings and Margate +to give the enemy a good reception whenever they appeared. +He adds: "Our Volunteers are, I think, likely to be called upon +to undertake permanent duty, which, I hope, they will readily +consent to. I suppose the same measure will be recommended +in your part of the coast [West Hants]. I wish the arrangements +for defence were as forward everywhere else as they are +in Hythe Bay under General Moore. We begin now to have no +other fear in that quarter than that the enemy will not give us +an opportunity of putting our preparations to the proof, and will +select some other point which we should not be in reach of in +the first instance." On 10th November he expresses a hope of +repelling any force that attempted to land in East Kent, but +fears that elsewhere the French cannot be stopped until they +arrive disagreeably near to London.<a name="FNanchor_662_662" id="FNanchor_662_662"></a><a href="#Footnote_662_662" class="fnanchor">[662]</a></p> + +<p>It is clear, then, that Pitt was not dismayed by the startling +disparity of forces. On the coast of Flanders and Picardy were +ranged regular troops amounting to 114,554 men seemingly +ready for embarkation on an immense flotilla of small craft, part +of which was heavily armed. It is now known that these imposing +forces were rarely, if ever, up to their nominal strength; +that part of the flotilla was unseaworthy; that the difficulties of +getting under way were never overcome; and that the unwieldy +mass would probably have been routed, if not destroyed, by the +cruisers and gunboats stationed on the Kentish coast. Still, even +if part of it made land, the crisis would be serious in view of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[Pg 494]</a></span>paucity and want of organization of the British forces. As bearing +on this subject, a letter of Lord Melville to a relative deserves +quotation:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">"Dunira, <i>16 Dec., 1803</i>.<a name="FNanchor_663_663" id="FNanchor_663_663"></a><a href="#Footnote_663_663" class="fnanchor">[663]</a></p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Alexander</span>,</p> + +<p>"I received your letter from Walmer and was extreamly happy +to learn from it that Mr. Pitt was in such excellent health. Long, I pray, +may it continue. He has been very usefully and creditably employed, +but not exactly in the way his country could have wished; but that is a +subject on which I never now allow myself to think.... If Mr. Pitt, +from what he feels within himself or from the enthusiasm he may have +inspired in those he commands, conceives that the defence of the +country could at any time be safely entrusted with the Volunteers alone, +as the newspapers seem to convey as his sentiments, he is by much too +sanguine. On the other hand it is talking wildly, or like old women, to +contend, as Mr. Windham and Mr. Fox do, that great bodies of Britains +[<span lang="la">sic</span>], with arms in their hands and trained to the use of them, are not a +most important bulwark of security to the Empire. My opinion, however, +lays perhaps in the middle, and I would have greatly preferred a +much smaller number to have secured more effectually their uniform +efficiency. I would much rather have had 200,000 on the footing of +Lord Hobart's first letter in June than double that number selected and +formed in the loose and desultory manner they have more recently been +under the variety of contradictory orders they have since received and +by which Government have annoyed every corner of the country." +Melville adds that they would be useful if thoroughly trained and not +allowed to leave their corps; but exemptions from the Militia and Army +of Reserve ballots granted to the recent Volunteer Corps are mischievous, +and interfere with the recruiting. The Militia is unnecessarily large +and interferes with recruiting for the regular army. He would have +enough trained troops at home to be able to send abroad "50,000 +infantry for offensive operations either by ourselves or in co-operation +with such European Powers as may recover their senses, as sooner or +later they must and will do."</p> +</div> + + +<p>Pitt did not leave his post for long, except when high winds +made an invasion impossible. At such times he would make a +trip to London. A short sojourn in town in the early spring +elicits from Lady Hester the words: "I cannot but be happy +anywhere in Mr. Pitt's society"; and she hoped that she helped +to amuse and entertain him. Certainly Pitt did his utmost to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[Pg 495]</a></span>enliven her stay at the little residence at Park Place. In the +Memoirs of the Comtesse de Boigne, who claims to have known +her well, we catch a glimpse of Pitt acting as <span lang="fr">chaperon</span> at balls +which obviously bored him. Yet he would patiently wait there +until, perhaps, four a.m., when Lady Hester returned to end his +<span lang="fr">ennui</span>. Is it surprising that after his death she called him that +adored angel?</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Early in the year 1804 a ministerial crisis seemed at hand. +The personal insignificance of Ministers, the hatred felt for +St. Vincent at the Admiralty, the distrust of Hobart at the +War Office, and the deep depression caused by the laboured infelicities +of Addington's speeches presaged a breakdown. So +threatening was the outlook that Grenville urged Pitt to combine +with him for the overthrow of an Administration which palsied +national energy. For reasons which are far from clear, Pitt +refused to take decisive action. During his stay in London in +mid-January he saw Grenville, but declined to pledge himself to +a definite opposition. Grenville and his coadjutors, among them +Lord Carysfort, were puzzled by this wavering conduct, which +they ascribed to <span lang="fr">finesse</span>, pettiness, or even to insincerity.<a name="FNanchor_664_664" id="FNanchor_664_664"></a><a href="#Footnote_664_664" class="fnanchor">[664]</a> But it is +clear that Pitt objected only to their proposed methods, which he +termed a teasing, harassing opposition. In vain did the Bishop +of Lincoln, who came to town at Pitt's request, seek to reconcile +their differences. The most to be hoped for was that Pitt would +be compelled by force of circumstances to concert a plan with +the Grenvilles for Addington's overthrow. The following letter +of Carysfort to the bishop is of interest:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter"><i>Jan<sup>y</sup>. 18, 1804</i>.<a name="FNanchor_665_665" id="FNanchor_665_665"></a><a href="#Footnote_665_665" class="fnanchor">[665]</a></p> + +<p>Lord Grenville and Mr. Pitt being agreed upon so material a point +as the necessity of removing Mr. A[ddington] from his present situation, +it must be a matter not only of regret but of surprise, that they should +not be able to reconcile any difference of opinion between them as to +the sort of opposition to be carried on in Parliament; and I cannot +help thinking that Mr. Pitt's avowal that he intends opposition would in +itself be sufficient to incline (not merely Lord Grenville and his friends, +who have made it a principal object to be united with Mr. Pitt and +place him again at the head of affairs) but all the parties who may mean +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[Pg 496]</a></span>to oppose, to leave the mode pretty much at his option!... [Your +letter] leads me to think that Mr. Pitt and he may not have understood +each other. Lord Grenville's attachment to Mr. Pitt has been so conspicuous, +and I am persuaded his communications have been so frank +and so explicit, that I cannot account for Mr. Pitt using any reserve +with him, and must be of opinion that greater openness, where there is +such solid ground of confidence, would lead to more satisfactory results. +[Lord Carysfort then says that Pitt should not keep public opinion so +long in suspense; for] the public danger from a Ministry confessedly +incapable is already great and urgent and will be continually increasing.</p> +</div> + + +<p>Failing to get help from Pitt, Grenville, at the end of January, +sought the help of Fox! Through his brother, Thomas Grenville, +as go-between he offered the Whig leader his alliance for +the overthrow of Addington and the formation of a Ministry of +the talented men of all parties. Here, then, is the origin of the +broad-bottomed or All the Talents Administrations which produced +so singular a muddle after the death of Pitt. The Fox–Grenville +bargain cannot be styled immoral like that of Fox +and North in 1782; for it expressly excluded all compromise on +matters of conviction. Nevertheless it was a tactical mistake, +for which Pitt's exasperating aloofness was largely responsible. +Few occurrences in this time of folly and blundering were more +untoward. Pitt's letter of 4th February to Grenville shows that +he discerned the magnitude of the error, little though he saw +his own share in it. The result of the union of Fox and +Grenville was likely to be the fall of Addington, an appeal of +the King to him (Pitt) to form a Cabinet, which would be +narrowed and weakened by the present effort of Grenville to +form a strong and comprehensive Administration.<a name="FNanchor_666_666" id="FNanchor_666_666"></a><a href="#Footnote_666_666" class="fnanchor">[666]</a></p> + +<p>Presumably the national crisis was not yet acute enough to +satisfy Pitt that he might conscientiously oppose Addington. +But that he was drifting to this <span class="ins" title="convicton">conviction</span> appears in the following +letter from Rose to the Bishop of Lincoln.</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter"><i>Feb. 11, 1804</i>.<a name="FNanchor_667_667" id="FNanchor_667_667"></a><a href="#Footnote_667_667" class="fnanchor">[667]</a></p> + +<p>I showed Mr. Pitt your letter because it expressed so entirely my own +view of the interesting subject: he appeared at first against anything +like hostility, but I think is now disposed to point out pretty strongly +the neglect of proper measures of defence in the naval and military departments<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[Pg 497]</a></span> +and to suggest the necessary ones; so [as] to throw on the +Government the just responsibility and odium of rejecting them if they +shall determine to do so.</p> +</div> + + +<p>Rose then states that the Bishop of St. Asaph calls the new +Volunteer Bill "the most wishy-washy thing that ever was +produced." He also adds that the King is ill, probably of +dropsy. The fact was even worse. A chill caught in drenching +rain developed into the former mental malady. Thus the nation +was for a time kingless, leaderless, and open to a deadly thrust +from Boulogne. For a short time his life was in danger, and all +the troubles of a Regency loomed ahead. The Prince of Wales +having ventured on the compromising prophecy that the illness +"<em>must</em> last several months," Pitt quoted to his informant, +Malmesbury, the damning line</p> + + +<p class="poem"> +Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought. +</p> + + +<p>In truth, there now began a series of intrigues, in which the +Prince, Fox, and the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire played +the leading parts, for assuring a Regency and the formation of a +Fox Administration. While England needed to keep her gaze +on Boulogne, the intriguers thought only of the death or lunacy +of the King, the accession of the Prince and the apportionment +of the spoils of office. Sheridan on this occasion played his own +game and for this was heartily cursed by the expectant Creevey.<a name="FNanchor_668_668" id="FNanchor_668_668"></a><a href="#Footnote_668_668" class="fnanchor">[668]</a></p> + +<p>In view of these last complications and the prospect of an invasion, +Pitt revised his former judgement, and informed Malmesbury +that, while declining the offers of the Grenvilles to help to +overthrow Addington, he would not refuse to take office if for any +reason Ministers resigned. On that day (19th February) Melville +wrote to him from Melville Castle that the outlook was full of +horror, and everything depended on the formation of a steady +and permanent Government with which foreign nations could +treat. For this reason he (Melville) urged that the King should +be relieved of his executive duties, which it was sheer cruelty to +exact from him.<a name="FNanchor_669_669" id="FNanchor_669_669"></a><a href="#Footnote_669_669" class="fnanchor">[669]</a> Pitt's answer to this daring proposal is not +known; but later, on 29th March, in answer to further overtures +from Melville, he stated that the King's illness was less serious +than was reported by the Earl of Moira, the <span lang="fr">confidante</span> of the +Prince of Wales; and that while it lasted he doubted the propriety<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[Pg 498]</a></span> +of taking any steps to overturn the Ministry.<a name="FNanchor_670_670" id="FNanchor_670_670"></a><a href="#Footnote_670_670" class="fnanchor">[670]</a> To this +scrupulousness Melville was a stranger, and on 4th April again +urged him to form a compact opposition for the overthrow of +Addington, and promised him the votes of at least twenty-six +Scottish members (out of forty-five) for any such effort.<a name="FNanchor_671_671" id="FNanchor_671_671"></a><a href="#Footnote_671_671" class="fnanchor">[671]</a></p> + +<p>Meanwhile the King recovered but slowly. The nervous, +excited, irritable symptoms showed little abatement; and in +the third week in March he fell into a fit of anger of such +violence that he had to be strapped to his bed. Even more +threatening was the military situation. Yorke, early in March, +proposed a Volunteer Consolidation Bill, which met with general +derision. As the state of the Navy was also unsatisfactory, Pitt +freely criticized Ministers, especially St. Vincent; and, on one +occasion, when Addington showed boyish petulance, he met with +a serene and courteous answer. Tierney, Treasurer of the Navy, +attacked Pitt coarsely; Sheridan, with his usual wit and brilliance; +but neither coarseness nor eloquence could rehabilitate +that Ministry. The urgency of the crisis appears in the following +letter written by Pitt at Walmer Castle to some person unknown:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter"><i>April 11, 1804</i>.</p> + +<p>... The experience of the last summer and the discussions of this +session confirm me in the opinion that while the Government remains +in its present shape and under its present leader, nothing efficient can +be expected either to originate with them or to be fairly adopted and +effectually executed. With this persuasion, and thinking that a system +of more energy and decision is indispensable with a view to the immediate +crisis and the many difficulties he may have to encounter in the +course of the present contest, I mean to take an early opportunity of +avowing and acting on these sentiments more explicitly and decidedly +than I have hitherto done; and I shall endeavour to give effect to my +opinion by the support of all the friends whom I can collect. My object +will be to press to the utmost those points which I think essential to the +public defence, and at the same time in doing so to make it, if I can, +impossible for the present Government to maintain itself. In this +object I have every reason to believe that I shall have the fullest concurrence +of all those with whom I have the most differed on former +occasions and with whom possibly I may as little agree in future. With +their number added to my own more immediate friends, and to the few +who have acted with L<sup>d</sup> Grenville and Windham, I am persuaded that our +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[Pg 499]</a></span>division on any favourable question will probably be such as would be +sufficient to shake a much stronger Government than the present....<a name="FNanchor_672_672" id="FNanchor_672_672"></a><a href="#Footnote_672_672" class="fnanchor">[672]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>On the same day he promised Melville to return to town in +the middle of April, and to make the "principal push" against +Addington on 23rd April, on the subject of Yorke's Bill for +suspending the completion of the Army Reserve. If they failed, +he would return to Walmer for another kind of contest. The +joint assault by Fox and Pitt against the Ministry on 23rd +April produced a great sensation, the speech of Pitt being +remarkable for its suppressed sarcasm and thinly veiled charges +of inefficiency. As a call to arms, it stands without a rival. +Ministers were utterly beaten in argument, and escaped defeat +only by thirty-seven votes. Addington became alarmed, and +advised the King, who was now convalescent, to instruct the +Lord Chancellor, Eldon, to confer with Pitt, a fact which refutes +the charges of Brougham and Dean Pellew against Eldon.</p> + +<p>Finally the King allowed Pitt to make proposals concerning +a new Ministry. Pitt did so fully and courteously in a paper +which George III forthwith described to Eldon as containing +"many empty words and little information." To Pitt himself +the King, on 5th May, expressed his deep regret that he had +taken such a dislike to Mr. Addington, after the praiseworthy +services of the latter to our glorious Constitution in Church and +State. He could never forget the wound which Pitt proposed to +deal it, and "the indelicacy (not to call it worse) of wanting His +Majesty to forego his solemn Coronation Oath." He therefore +required Pitt to give a solemn pledge not to propose the least +alteration in the Test Act. As to a proposal to admit Fox to +the Cabinet, the King expressed "his astonishment that Mr. +Pitt should one moment harbour the thought of bringing such a +man before his Royal notice." References to the "wild ideas" +of Burke, and to Grenville being guided by obstinacy, "his +usual director," filled up the interstices of this strange composition.<a name="FNanchor_673_673" id="FNanchor_673_673"></a><a href="#Footnote_673_673" class="fnanchor">[673]</a> +Evidently the enfeebled brain of George could form +no notion of the national danger. While Pitt thought only of +the safety of England, the King's thoughts continued to gyrate +angrily around the Test Act, the Coronation Oath, and the +iniquities of Fox.</p> + +<p>It was therefore with grave apprehension that on 7th May +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[Pg 500]</a></span>Pitt went to Buckingham House for attendance upon the King, +the first for nearly three and a quarter years. He expected an +outburst of rage when he mentioned the chief subject at issue, +namely the inclusion of Fox and the Grenvilles in the future +Administration. The King, however, kept surprising control +over his feelings, behaved graciously to Pitt, tactfully waived +aside smaller questions that he disliked, even consented to admit +the Grenvilles, but for ever barred the way to the return of Fox. +The utmost that he would hear was the employment of Fox as +an ambassador. Once again, then, the royal convalescent outwitted +Pitt. "Never," said Pitt to Eldon, "in any conversation I +have had with him in my life has he so baffled me." Fox being +excluded by the King, there was scant hope of bringing in his new +allies, the Grenvilles and Windham. Pitt broached the matter to +Lord Grenville on 7th May, and received on the morrow a friendly +but firm refusal. The following sentences are noteworthy: "We +rest our determination solely on our strong sense of the impropriety +of our becoming parties to a system of Government which +is to be formed at such a moment as the present on a principle +of exclusion.... We see no hope of any effectual remedy for +those mischiefs but by uniting in the public service as large a +proportion as possible of the weight, talents, and character to be +found in public men of all descriptions and without any exception."</p> + +<p>The refusal of Grenville to join Pitt has often been ascribed +to jealousy of Pitt, and the latter is reported to have said that he +would teach that proud man that he could do without him. +The sentiment is alien to the tolerant nature of Pitt,<a name="FNanchor_674_674" id="FNanchor_674_674"></a><a href="#Footnote_674_674" class="fnanchor">[674]</a> who +must have respected his cousin's decision, based as it was on a +determination to break down the bigoted resolve of the King. +But Grenville's conduct punished Pitt far more severely than the +King. For while George in his feeble, irritable condition thought +only about the Test Act and Fox, Pitt was intent on forming a +truly national Administration, including Fox, Fitzwilliam, and +Melville as Secretaries of State, with Spencer at the Admiralty, +Grenville as Lord President, and Windham as Chancellor of the +Duchy of Lancaster.<a name="FNanchor_675_675" id="FNanchor_675_675"></a><a href="#Footnote_675_675" class="fnanchor">[675]</a></p> + +<p>The actual result was far inferior. Fox, Fitzwilliam, Spencer, +Grenville, and Windham being ruled out by the King's action +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">[Pg 501]</a></span>and Grenville's resolve, the Cabinet was formed as follows: Pitt, +First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer; +Harrowby, Foreign Secretary; Hawkesbury, Home Secretary; +Camden, Secretary at War and for the Colonies; Portland, Lord +President; Eldon, Lord Chancellor; Westmorland, Privy Seal; +Melville, Admiralty; Chatham, Master of Ordnance; Mulgrave, +Duchy of Lancaster; Castlereagh, President of the India Board; +the Duke of Montrose, President of the Board of Trade. Of +these twelve Ministers, six had been with Addington, namely, +Hawkesbury (though at the Foreign Office, which he unwillingly +vacated), Portland, Eldon, Westmorland, Chatham, and +Castlereagh.<a name="FNanchor_676_676" id="FNanchor_676_676"></a><a href="#Footnote_676_676" class="fnanchor">[676]</a> Pitt dispensed with the services of Addington, St. +Vincent, and Pelham. Of non-Cabinet appointments, the chief +were those of the Earl of Hardwicke as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; +Sir Evan Nepean, Irish Secretary; William Dundas, War +Office; Canning, Treasury of the Navy, in place of Tierney, who +declined to serve with Pitt; Lord Charles Somerset and George +Rose, Joint Paymasters of the Forces; and Perceval, Attorney-General. +Canning and Rose were dissatisfied with their appointments, +the latter writing to Bishop Tomline in deep chagrin at +Pitt's neglect of his faithful services.</p> + +<p>The new Cabinet, besides being too large, was half Addingtonian +and half Pittite, a source of weakness which soon led to +further changes. It was also weighted with inefficient members—Chatham, +Hawkesbury, and Portland. The King disliked Hawkesbury, +and said he had no head for business, no method, and no +punctuality. Harrowby, though a man of brilliant parts in +private life, and an excellent speaker, was oppressed by a delicate +frame, precarious health, and a peevish temper. During +no small part of his tenure of office he had to take the waters at +Bath, and was therefore a poor substitute for the experienced +and hard-working Grenville. Pitt, for some unexplained reason, +disliked placing Melville at the Admiralty, a strangely prophetic +instinct. Camden and Mulgrave were also misfits. Hawkesbury +did better work at the Home Office than the Foreign Office; +but on the whole, the new arrangement aroused widespread +grumbling and distrust. The result of it all was the dissolution +of the great national party formed in the year 1794 and the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">[Pg 502]</a></span>formation of three groups, following Pitt, Addington, and Grenville, +the Addingtonians showing much bitterness at the treatment +of their chief, while the Grenvilles and Windham inveighed +against the new Ministry, as formed on the principle of excluding +Fox.<a name="FNanchor_677_677" id="FNanchor_677_677"></a><a href="#Footnote_677_677" class="fnanchor">[677]</a> The charge was unfair; for at that crisis Pitt could +not stand by and see the national resources frittered away by +Addington. The King's Government had to be carried on; and, +like Wellington a generation later, Pitt consented to do so in the +only way which was practicable.</p> + +<p>The limitations of his power were soon obvious. The two unfriendly +groups eagerly criticized him at all times and accorded +grudging and doubtful support even on measures which they +approved. This was especially the case with regard to the +Abolition of the Slave Trade. Thanks to the untiring exertions +of Wilberforce, Clarkson, and others, that movement had made +considerable progress during the interval of peace. The outbreak +of war in May 1803 darkened the outlook; for once again +the cry was raised that England must not cut off a trade which +was essential to the welfare of the West Indies, highly lucrative +to British shipowners, and a necessary adjunct to the mercantile +marine. Nevertheless, the accession of Pitt to power and the +goodwill of the majority of the Irish members inspired Wilberforce +with hope. True, Addington always strenuously opposed +him; and among the younger members of the Cabinet Castlereagh +had declared his hostility; but at first all went well. At +the close of May 1804 Pitt and Fox united in expressing +approval of Wilberforce's proposals. Addington, in remarks +which lasted exactly forty seconds, scouted the measure, but +carried with him only 49 members as against 124. The majorities +were nearly as great at the second and third readings.</p> + +<p>In the Lords the omens were inauspicious. Some bishops +were away in their dioceses: the supporters of the West India and +shipping interests were at hand, using their utmost endeavours to +delay, if not to defeat, the measure. Pitt despaired of thwarting +these dilatory tactics, backed by wealth and influence from all +quarters. Wilberforce wrote indignantly to Lord Muncaster: +"It was truly humiliating to see four of the Royal Family come +down to vote against the poor, helpless, friendless slaves." A +wild speech by Stanhope told against the cause which he +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[Pg 503]</a></span>meant to further, and the motion was adjourned to avoid +defeat.</p> + +<p>Pitt's subsequent conduct in 1805 disappointed Wilberforce. +Certainly it was half-hearted and procrastinating. But, seeing +that he had to rely more on Addington and finally to bring him +into the Cabinet, his difficulties were great. The Irish members +also showed signs of defection; and it was certain that the Bill +would fail in the Lords. Accordingly, Pitt begged Wilberforce +to wait for a more propitious time. A sense of religious duty +impelled him to persevere, with the inevitable result, a crushing +defeat (19th February 1805).<a name="FNanchor_678_678" id="FNanchor_678_678"></a><a href="#Footnote_678_678" class="fnanchor">[678]</a> On a smaller question, connected +with the prohibition of the supply of slaves to Guiana, then +recently conquered from the Dutch, he finally brought Pitt to +acquiesce. But here again the conduct of the Minister was tardy. +Wilberforce urged Pitt to abolish the Guiana Slave Trade by +an Order in Council, and early in May wrote: "One very powerful +and important reason for your abolishing the Guiana Slave +Trade by an act of Government, not by, or in consequence of a +vote of Parliament, is that it would tend to confirm the disposition +so strongly manifested by the Dutch to abolish the +Slave Trade, and give them the sort of compensation they +demand." The British Order in Council did not appear until +13th September 1805.<a name="FNanchor_679_679" id="FNanchor_679_679"></a><a href="#Footnote_679_679" class="fnanchor">[679]</a></p> + +<p>Nevertheless, their friendship remained firm to the end. "Had +much talk with him [Pitt] on political topics, finding him very +open and kind." Such is Wilberforce's account of his last interviews +with Pitt; and he certainly could not have remained on +friendly terms with one who was deliberately untrue to the cause. +He knew better than recent critics the difficulties resulting from +the compromise with Addington and from the ceaseless friction +with the followers of Fox and Grenville.</p> + +<p>The case of the Slave Trade serves to illustrate the peculiar +difficulties of Pitt's position, which were to appear on even more +important questions. The King, Addington, Grenville, and Pitt +had all contributed to the tangle. Limiting our survey to the +conduct of Addington and Pitt, we must pronounce both of them +culpable. Addington should have seen that Pitt's promise of +support, given at the time of the King's lunacy in February–March +1801, was not morally binding three years later when +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[Pg 504]</a></span>the existence of the nation was at stake in the Napoleonic War. +At such a time an enlightened patriot does not stand upon +punctilio, but gladly takes a second place if he can thereby place +in authority an abler man. Addington alone could release Pitt +from the debt of honour incurred in February 1801, and faithfully +discharged for three weary years, at the cost of the alienation of +friends and the derision of opponents. He never spoke or wrote +that word of release, but held Pitt to the bargain with an insistence +which would be contemptible were it not in large measure +the outcome of a narrow complacent nature blind to its own +shortcomings.</p> + +<p>Pitt, also, behaved weakly. The original promise, to support +an untried man, was a piece of astounding trustfulness; and +when the weakness of Addington's Administration involved the +nation in war and brought it to the brink of disaster, he should +openly have claimed release from a pledge too hastily given, +leaving the world to judge between them. As it was, for nearly +a year he wavered to and fro between the claims of national +duty and private honour, thereby exasperating his friends and +finally driving the Grenvilles, Windham, and Spencer to a union +with Fox which in its turn blighted the hope of forming a +national Administration. Finally, he made only one effort to +induce the King to accept Fox. True, the situation was a +delicate one; for pressure brought to bear on George on that +topic would have brought back the mental malady. But the +Grenvilles, viewing the situation with pedantic narrowness, +considered the attempt so half-hearted as to warrant their +opposition to the new Cabinet. On the whole, then, Pitt's +punctiliousness must be pronounced a secondary but vital cause +of the lamentable <span lang="fr">dénouement</span>, which left him exposed at forty +five years of age, enfeebled by worry and gout, to a contest with +Napoleon at the climax of his powers.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[Pg 505]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">PITT AND NAPOLEON</p> + +<p class="quote">I made a mistake about England, in trying to conquer it. The English +are a brave nation. I have always said that there are only two nations, the +English and the French; and I made the French.—<span class="smcap">Napoleon to Macnamara</span> +(1814), <i>Lord Broughton's Recollections</i>, i, 180.</p> + + +<p>The two protagonists now stood face to face—Napoleon, +Emperor of the French, President of the Italian Republic, +Mediator of the Swiss Republic, controller of Holland, absolute +ruler of a great military Empire; Pitt, the Prime Minister of an +obstinate and at times half-crazy King, dependent on a weak +Cabinet, a disordered Exchequer, a Navy weakened by ill-timed +economies, and land forces whose martial ardour ill made up for +lack of organization, equipment, and training. Before the outbreak +of war in May 1803, Napoleon had summed up the situation +in the words—"Forty-five millions of people must prevail +over sixteen millions." And now after a year of hostilities his +position was far stronger. In Hanover the French troops were +profitably installed on the Elector's domains. Soult's corps +occupied the Neapolitan realm, thus threatening Malta, the +Ionian Isles, the Morea, and Egypt. The recent restitution of +several colonial conquests by England not only damaged her +trade, but enabled her enemy to stir up trouble in India. There, +thanks to Wellesley's dramatic victory at Assaye, the Union +Jack waved in triumph; but at other points Napoleon might +hope to gain the long contested race for Empire.</p> + +<p>So convinced was Pitt of the need of fighting out the quarrel +thrust upon us by Napoleon's aggressions, that he waved aside +an offer of Livingston, American envoy at Paris, to effect a reconciliation. +During a brief visit to London, Livingston sent +proposals to this effect through Whitworth, who declined to meet +a man hitherto remarkable for a strong anti-British bias; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">[Pg 506]</a></span> +Pitt approved this repulse.<a name="FNanchor_680_680" id="FNanchor_680_680"></a><a href="#Footnote_680_680" class="fnanchor">[680]</a> Nevertheless, on 5th June Livingston, +accompanied by Fox and Grey, called on Pitt at Downing +Street; but his proposals proved to be merely the outcome of +informal conversations with Joseph Bonaparte, who was known +to be far more peacefully inclined than his brother. Joseph's +notions were that Malta should perhaps be garrisoned by Russians, +and must in any case be relinquished by England; that +France should withdraw her troops from the Dutch and Swiss +Republics, the status of which was not defined.<a name="FNanchor_681_681" id="FNanchor_681_681"></a><a href="#Footnote_681_681" class="fnanchor">[681]</a> Pitt set little +store by these shadowy proposals, doubtless seeing in them a +way of discovering whether England was concerting a league +against France.</p> + +<p>Already, in spite of many obstacles, he was taking the first +steps in that direction. An initial difficulty lay in the mental +aberrations of the King, whose conduct still caused intense +anxiety or annoyance.<a name="FNanchor_682_682" id="FNanchor_682_682"></a><a href="#Footnote_682_682" class="fnanchor">[682]</a> Scarcely a day passed without a lapse +into incoherence or violence. Moreover, his conversation often +showed a lack of discrimination, being the same to the Queen, +the physicians, or the servants. He made the most capricious +changes, turning off the Queen's favourite coachman, and making +grooms footmen, and footmen grooms, to the distraction of the +household. On assuming office, Pitt consulted the royal physicians +and received a reply, dated Queen's Palace, 16th May +1804, stating that the King was equal to the discharge of important +business, but must avoid long conferences or any deviation +from his usual habits, quiet being essential. Thereupon Pitt +and Lord Eldon wrote to the King urging this prudent course. +They frequently visited Buckingham House, where five physicians +were in almost constant attendance, a state of things +viewed with alarm by patriots and with eager hope by the +Foxites and their hangers on.<a name="FNanchor_683_683" id="FNanchor_683_683"></a><a href="#Footnote_683_683" class="fnanchor">[683]</a></p> + +<p>Unfortunately George could not compose himself to rest. +Such is the tenor of hasty notes sent to Pitt by Villiers, now +high in favour at Kew and Windsor. They describe the King's +fussy intervention in household affairs, his orders for sudden and +expensive changes in the palaces, his substitution of German for +English servants, his frequent visits to the stables unaccompanied +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">[Pg 507]</a></span>by the equerry, his irritability on the most trifling occasions, and, +alternating with this undignified bustle, fits of somnolence which +at times overtook him even on horseback. Then, too, there were +quarrels with the Queen, whose conduct, said Villiers, was such +as to aggravate these troubles and check the course of recovery. +Indeed, the King's violent headaches seemed to Dr. Milman to +presage an attack of apoplexy. At all times he showed a +marked preference for the company of servants and workmen, +declaring the higher officials to be "Court nuisances." Villiers +therefore begged Pitt to request an interview with the King, now +at Kew, for he took no notice of letters. On Midsummer day +Villiers suggested means for assuring the veto of the physicians +on the projected visit to Weymouth, in view of the extravagance +and inconvenience of the plans to which it gave rise.</p> + +<p>Among them was the collection of a large military force in +Dorset, George being convinced that the French would land +there rather than in Kent or Essex. Fortunately, the Duke of +York dissuaded him from a step so eminently favourable to +Napoleon; for about this time the King wrote to the Duke: +"As I am no friend to obstinacy, I will agree to lessen the +demand from other districts" (<span lang="la">i.e.</span>, for an "Army of Reserve" in +Dorset). The visit to Weymouth was also postponed; and +Camden, Secretary at War, countermanded the construction of +huge barracks at that town, which the King had ordered without +consulting the Cabinet or the Duke of York. On 1st August +Villiers reported the refusal of the King to see the Prince of +Wales, with whom no complete reconciliation was possible. +George wished Villiers to come and reside near Windsor and +manage all his private affairs, and would take no refusal. But +how, asked Villiers, was he to do this on £330 a year? He therefore +requested the advice and help of Pitt.<a name="FNanchor_684_684" id="FNanchor_684_684"></a><a href="#Footnote_684_684" class="fnanchor">[684]</a></p> + +<p>At Weymouth, late in the summer, the quarrels between the +King and Queen again became acute, as appears from confidential +letters which Lord Hawkesbury wrote to Pitt. The +latter sided with the Queen and Princes on some points; and +indeed through these months the conduct of George seems to +have been so exasperating that the Princesses almost sank +under the ceaseless strain, for Queen Charlotte, too, was "ill and +cross." In vain did Pitt seek to effect a reconciliation between +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">[Pg 508]</a></span>the King and the Prince of Wales. The only result of his efforts +was a formal and fruitless interview. Last but not least of Pitt's +Court worries was the conduct of the Princess of Wales. Her +wayward and extravagant habits increased the aversion of the +Prince, and produced scandals so serious that Pitt urgently but +ineffectually remonstrated with her at her residence in Blackheath. +Such were the diversions of a Minister on whom almost +singly rested the burden of defending his country at this crisis.</p> + +<p>The eccentricities of the King seriously hampered British +diplomacy. For how could Russia and Austria bind themselves +to an Administration which might at any time be succeeded by +one which was under the domination of the Prince of Wales, +Fox, and Sheridan? True, offers of a defensive alliance were +mooted at St. Petersburg to our ambassador, Admiral Warren. +But it was obvious even to that misplaced sailor, whom Pitt +soon recalled, that Russia merely aimed at securing English +subsidies and help for her garrison at Corfu, now threatened by +Soult. The timid conduct of Francis II, who, as if in imitation +of Napoleon, assumed the title of Hereditary Emperor of +the Austrian Empire, further prescribed caution; and only by +slow degrees did the Czar Alexander feel his way towards an +understanding with England. His jealousy respecting Malta, +and the uncertainties at London and Windsor, held these +natural allies apart for many months. Pitt did not hurry +matters, doubtless from a conviction that the conduct of +Napoleon must before long bring both Russia and Austria into +the field. Meanwhile, he withheld subsidies which would have +helped them to arm for an almost inevitable struggle.<a name="FNanchor_685_685" id="FNanchor_685_685"></a><a href="#Footnote_685_685" class="fnanchor">[685]</a> We need +not therefore trace the course of these coy advances until they +led to definite overtures. Here as always Pitt showed a dignified +reserve and a cautious regard for British finances, which refute +the stories officially circulated at Paris as to his lavishly bribing +the Continental States to attack France. As usually happens, +the prosaic truth long remained hidden in British despatches, +while the piquant slander gained all but universal acceptance.</p> + +<p>Pitt's first thought was to enhance the value of England's +friendship by strengthening her navy and enabling her to take +the offensive if an occasion offered. The French royalist refugee, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">[Pg 509]</a></span>General Dumouriez, in a long Memoir which he drew up for the +Cabinet, pointed out that nothing was more perilous than a +perpetual defensive, as it allowed the enemy quietly to perfect +his plans for attack at any point over the whole field.<a name="FNanchor_686_686" id="FNanchor_686_686"></a><a href="#Footnote_686_686" class="fnanchor">[686]</a> Pitt was +well aware of this danger. In fact, his policy of military pinpricks, +while apparently wasteful and inconclusive, had prevented +that concentration of the enemy's force which alone could ensure +the capture of London. Once more, then, he aimed at strengthening +the regular army, reducing the Militia to its usual quota, +and raising a large force of Volunteers. On 5th June 1804 he +brought forward his proposal for repairing the defects of Yorke's +Army of Reserve Act. They arose from the following provisions. +A man, when drawn to serve in that force, must either come +forward, find a substitute, or pay a fine of £20 for each year of +default. A penalty also fell on every parish failing to supply +its quota. The consequence was that parishes and individuals +offered high bounties in order to escape the fine—sometimes as +much as £40 or £60 per man.<a name="FNanchor_687_687" id="FNanchor_687_687"></a><a href="#Footnote_687_687" class="fnanchor">[687]</a> These bounties naturally drew +the best recruits to the Army of Reserve, to the detriment both +of the army and navy. Another source of loss to the line regiments +was the addition to the strength of the Militia, the net +result being that 9,000 more recruits were required annually for +the regular forces. These therefore suffered from the competition +of the second and third lines of defence; and in this competition +(then unusually severe) has always lain the crux of the +British military problem.</p> + +<p>Pitt sought to solve the problem by reducing the Militia (now +74,000 strong) to the old standard of 52,000 men, transferring +the surplus to the Army of Reserve. He also suggested various +inducements to men in the latter force to enter the line regiments. +Further, he proposed to lessen the penalties levied on +defaulters. While maintaining the principle of compulsory service, +at least for a considerable part of the population, he lessened +the inducements which told in favour of the Army of Reserve +and against the Line. Further, in place of the irritating plan of +recruiting by the compulsion of the ballot, Pitt made the parish +authorities responsible for the supply of their quota. If, even so, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">[Pg 510]</a></span>the parishes could not find the men, the commander of the district +was empowered to raise them by the ordinary means of +recruiting. He further proposed to associate in each district the +battalions of the Army of Reserve with those of the Line, in the +well-grounded hope of increasing <span lang="fr">esprit de corps</span> and stimulating +the flow of men into the first line of defence.</p> + +<p>The chief critic of these proposals was Sheridan who, on 18th +June brilliantly declaimed against the formation of a great +Regular Army, as alien to the spirit of our people, and by all +the arts of rhetorical necromancy sought to raise the spectre of +a Standing Army. When others bemoaned the threatened increase +of taxation and Windham and Craufurd ("Craufurd of +the Light Division") criticized the measure severely, the Opposition +cherished the hope of defeating the Ministry. The debate +dragged on till 4 a.m. when 265 members supported Pitt against +223 Noes. The Bill became law on 29th June. Undoubtedly it +failed to answer his hopes. Recruits did not come in, probably +because most parishes were thenceforth content to pay the +smaller fines now imposed. Grenville even ventured to assert +that the Regular Army was smaller at the beginning of 1805 +than a year earlier. Certainly the numbers were deficient; and +Pitt accordingly on 31st March 1805 brought in a Bill to attract +men from the Supplementary Militia into the Regular Army by +a bounty of ten guineas per man. This brought forward 11,000 +men, but at the expense of the Militia.<a name="FNanchor_688_688" id="FNanchor_688_688"></a><a href="#Footnote_688_688" class="fnanchor">[688]</a> Thus Pitt did not solve +the military problem. Who indeed has solved it?</p> + +<p>Most fortunately for England, the Emperor had made serious +miscalculations respecting the flotilla now preparing at the ports +between Ostend and Etaples. First he armed his gun-boats +heavily so that they might fight their way across against a fleet. +On finding this to be impossible, he had to face the delay and +expense of reconstruction. Next the harbours at and near +Boulogne proved to be too shallow and too small for the enlarged +flotilla. The strengthening of the French fleet was also a +work of time. England therefore gained a year's respite. Indeed +not a few experienced naval officers scouted an invasion by the +flotilla as impossible. General Moore also believed that Napoleon +would never be so mad as to make the attempt, which +must end in our glory and his disgrace. Only by continuing to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">[Pg 511]</a></span>threaten us could he do harm.<a name="FNanchor_689_689" id="FNanchor_689_689"></a><a href="#Footnote_689_689" class="fnanchor">[689]</a> Another sceptic was Lord +Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty, who, in a letter of 14th +October, urged Pitt during his stay at Weymouth to represent +to the King the importance of attacking the flotilla at Boulogne, +if only in order to show the impracticability of Napoleon's +scheme. Experienced officers, said Melville, reported that the +flotilla must embark the troops in the outer road; yet the +work of getting that vast concourse of boats out of the inner +harbour could not be accomplished in less than four, five, or +perhaps even six tides. We must therefore attack them during +this tedious operation. "Our officers and seamen," he continues, +"have a perfect confidence that they can attack them under +their own batteries, and put them into immediate confusion.... +Their confidence is founded on the experiment they have already +made of entering in the night the Bay of Boulogne and sustaining +for many hours the whole fire of the enemy's batteries without +a single man being hurt." Moreover, the British fire-ships, +being like ordinary ships, will take the enemy by surprise and +cause irremediable confusion.<a name="FNanchor_690_690" id="FNanchor_690_690"></a><a href="#Footnote_690_690" class="fnanchor">[690]</a> Apparently the King and Pitt +thought an attack not only too risky, in view of the failures at +Boulogne in 1801 and on 3rd October 1804, but also needless, if +the flotilla were no more formidable than Melville pronounced. +While inspecting the "Royal Sovereign" at Portsmouth on 6th +October the King wrote to Pitt enjoining great caution, as a +failure would be very discreditable.<a name="FNanchor_691_691" id="FNanchor_691_691"></a><a href="#Footnote_691_691" class="fnanchor">[691]</a></p> + +<p>I do not propose to discuss here the much debated question +whether Napoleon intended to invade England, or to wear us +out by threats of invasion.<a name="FNanchor_692_692" id="FNanchor_692_692"></a><a href="#Footnote_692_692" class="fnanchor">[692]</a> Suffice it to say that no responsible +Minister could ignore those formidable preparations. Pitt therefore +strove might and main to raise martial enthusiasm by +attending drills and reviews of Volunteers. A cynical phrase in +Grenville's letter of 25th August 1804 dwells on the ridiculous +figure which he cut, riding from Downing Street to Wimbledon +Common and thence to Cox Heath in Kent "to inspect military +carriages, impregnable batteries, and Lord Chatham's reviews. +Can he possibly be serious in expecting Bonaparte now?" The +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512">[Pg 512]</a></span>sneer is a sign of the strained relations between the cousins. +Assuredly, if Bonaparte had come, Grenville and his Foxite +allies would have impeached a Minister who left his country +defenceless. Pitt showed a good example to country gentlemen +by drilling his corps of Volunteers at Walmer, so that it became +a model of efficiency. There was the greatest need at that point, +for the coast between Ramsgate and Dungeness presented exceptional +facilities for a landing except under the guns of Sandown, +Deal, Walmer, and Dover. Pitt's attention was specially +directed to the open shelving beach between Folkestone and +Dungeness.</p> + +<p>In truth, the district of Romney Marsh, which is not normally +marshy, offered the maximum of attractions to an invader, +who, after beaching his boats and entrenching himself behind +a fosse, would find few, if any, physical obstacles to his advance +into the level tract between Ashford and Tonbridge. As this +route was undefended, Pitt and Camden, by the month of +October 1804, decided on the construction of the Hythe Military +Canal. On 24th October Pitt attended a meeting of the +"surveyors, lords, bailiffs and jurats" of Romney Marsh held +at Dymchurch, Generals Sir David Dundas and Moore, and +Colonel Brown being also present. It was agreed that the proposed +canal from Sandgate to Rye would be beneficial to Romney +Marsh, and landlords were urged forthwith to put their +property at the disposal of Government, trusting to receive compensation +assessed by a duly qualified local jury. On Pitt's +recommendation the matter was passed at once, and he returned +to Walmer Castle.<a name="FNanchor_693_693" id="FNanchor_693_693"></a><a href="#Footnote_693_693" class="fnanchor">[693]</a> By the end of 1804 the work was well in +hand, the expense of cutting the fosse of ten feet deep being +estimated at £150,000. Batteries and martello towers were +designed for its protection especially around Hythe and Dymchurch. +At the latter place were sluices for flooding the marsh. +Criticisms have fallen freely upon Pitt's canal, the report gaining +currency that it was intended for the conveyance of military +stores. Its true purpose was to isolate the most vulnerable part +of the coast and to form a barrier which would at least delay an +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[Pg 513]</a></span>invader until reinforcements arrived. In its original condition it +was an excellent first line of defence of South Kent; and, unless +the French flotilla brought over pontoons, it formed a barrier not +easily penetrable, which fully justified its comparatively small +cost.</p> + +<p>The same remarks apply to the martello towers. The responsibility +for them rests mainly with Colonel Twiss and Captain +Ford, who in the summer of 1803 recommended their construction +at exposed points of the shore, at a cost of about £3,000 +apiece. The experience of our troops in Corsica showed that +such towers, even when held by small garrisons, could hold at +bay a greatly superior force.<a name="FNanchor_694_694" id="FNanchor_694_694"></a><a href="#Footnote_694_694" class="fnanchor">[694]</a> The towers were begun soon +afterwards; but those in Pevensey Bay were not undertaken till +1805–6. The first points to be defended were those nearest to +France.</p> + +<p>In the winter of 1804–5 there was need to strengthen the +coast defences; for the declaration of war by Spain placed the +whole of the coast line from the Texel to Toulon at Napoleon's +disposal for shipbuilding. There seemed therefore every +prospect of our being finally overwhelmed at sea, a consummation +which the French Emperor might have ensured had he refrained +from irritating the monarchs of Russia and Austria. +Fortunately for England, his nature was too restless and domineering +to admit of the necessary concentration of effort on the +naval problem; and that besetting sin, megalomania, marred +prospects which then seemed easily realizable. Playing with +coolness and patience, he had the game in his hands in 1804, +when as yet there was little prospect of an Anglo-Russian +alliance.</p> + +<p>An offensive alliance of Spain with France was the natural +result of the treaty of 1796 between the two Powers. In vain +did the luxurious Charles IV and his pampered minion, Godoy, +Prince of the Peace, seek to evade their obligations. Under +threat of a French invasion they gave way and agreed to pay +72,000,000 francs a year into the French exchequer, and to +force the hand of Portugal. That little Power purchased immunity +for a time by paying an annual subsidy of 12,000,000 +francs to France. Spain also repaired French warships which +took refuge at Ferrol in July 1804, and allowed reinforcements +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[Pg 514]</a></span>to their crews to travel thither overland. When Pitt and Harrowby +remonstrated on this conduct, Spain armed as if for war; +and in answer to inquiries from London, Godoy alleged certain +disputes with the United States as the cause of his alarm. The +arrival in London of Frere, our ambassador at Madrid, on 17th +September 1804 revealed the unreality of this excuse; for he +reported that Spain had previously decided to yield on that +question. As the Spanish fleet was evidently preparing to cooperate +with that of Napoleon, Pitt resolved to deal the blow +which Chatham was not allowed to deliver in 1761. The weak +point of Spain was her treasure fleet; there was an inner fitness +in wrenching from her the gold which was soon to go into +Napoleon's coffers.</p> + +<p>On Tuesday, 18th September, the Cabinet assembled, Eldon, +Camden, Hawkesbury, Melville, Mulgrave, and Pitt being +present. In view of the news brought by Frere, and other tidings +from Rear-Admiral Cochrane off Ferrol, Ministers decided to +order Cochrane closely to blockade that port, preventing both +French and Spanish ships from sailing out. Admiral Cornwallis, +then blockading Brest, was to reinforce Cochrane, thereby assuring +the capture of the Spanish treasure ships bound from South +America to Cadiz.<a name="FNanchor_695_695" id="FNanchor_695_695"></a><a href="#Footnote_695_695" class="fnanchor">[695]</a> Pitt at once reported this decision to Harrowby, +then in attendance on the King at Weymouth, and urged +a speedy ratification of it.<a name="FNanchor_696_696" id="FNanchor_696_696"></a><a href="#Footnote_696_696" class="fnanchor">[696]</a> Hence without delay the order went +forth which enlarged the area of strife. The four frigates despatched +for the seizure of the treasure-ships were not so +superior in force to the convoying corvettes as to avert a conflict. +One of the Spanish ships blew up: the others surrendered +(5th October 1804). Resenting this outrage, Spain declared war +on 12th December.<a name="FNanchor_697_697" id="FNanchor_697_697"></a><a href="#Footnote_697_697" class="fnanchor">[697]</a> Pitt did not consider the capture of the +treasure-ships as necessarily involving war, but rather as a sharp +warning, called for by the hostile conduct of Spain; for on 23rd +September he wrote to Harrowby stating that they must wait +for the Spanish answer to our ultimatum, and in the meantime +Spanish merchantmen might leave British ports unmolested.<a name="FNanchor_698_698" id="FNanchor_698_698"></a><a href="#Footnote_698_698" class="fnanchor">[698]</a></p> + +<p>The seizure of the Spanish treasure-ships caused resentment +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[Pg 515]</a></span>at St. Petersburg until the causes of Britain's action were more +fully known. But the event did not long delay a good understanding. +The prospect of Sicily falling a prey to the French +army of occupation in South Italy alarmed both the Czar +Alexander and Pitt. The former was bound by a Convention +signed in 1798 to befriend the Neapolitan Court; and it was +also to his interest to prevent France dominating the Mediterranean +and expelling the Russians from Corfu. He therefore +demanded from Napoleon the evacuation of Italy and North +Germany, a suitable compensation for the King of Sardinia for +the loss of his mainland possessions, and the recognition of the +complete neutrality of the Germanic Empire. Far from complying +with these demands, Napoleon kept his troops in South +Italy and Hanover, and early in November seized Sir Horace +Rumbold, British ambassador at Hamburg. At once Pitt and +Harrowby made effective use of this incident to prove the impossibility +of peace with Napoleon. The Russian and Prussian +Courts sent sharp remonstrances to Paris; and, to humour +Frederick William, Napoleon ordered the release of the envoy, +though in the most grudging way possible. This violation of international +law served to counterbalance our irregular action +against Spain.</p> + +<p>In short, Napoleon's evident resolve everywhere to carry +matters with a high hand convinced the Czar that war was inevitable; +and he prepared to espouse the cause of Britain, not so +much from sympathy with her as from detestation of her restless +adversary.<a name="FNanchor_699_699" id="FNanchor_699_699"></a><a href="#Footnote_699_699" class="fnanchor">[699]</a> On 20th November Pitt wrote from Downing Street +to Harrowby, who was then taking the waters at Bath, expressing +joy that the views of Russia coincided entirely with ours, +especially as to the reduction of the French Power within its +ancient limits. He added these noteworthy words: "The restoration +of the [French] monarchy may become in the course of +events an object to be distinctly aimed at, but it certainly cannot +be made a substantive object in the first instance; and it is +very satisfactory to see that in this important point there is no +apparent difference in our sentiments."<a name="FNanchor_700_700" id="FNanchor_700_700"></a><a href="#Footnote_700_700" class="fnanchor">[700]</a> The hope of ending +Prussia's subservience to Napoleon, and of inspiring Francis of +Austria with a manly resolve, proved futile. Frederick William +and Haugwitz hoped to creep into Hanover, under the French +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">[Pg 516]</a></span>Emperor's cloak, and Austria had not yet suffered enough +humiliation to lead her to fling down the gauntlet. True, she +signed a compact with Russia on 6th November 1804; but it +was timidly defensive in tone. Alexander therefore held back in +the hope that events would compel her to take sides against +Napoleon.</p> + +<p>Far less calculating was Gustavus IV of Sweden. With the +chivalrous zeal of his race he stood forth the first among the +European monarchs as the declared ally of England. After the +execution of the Duc d'Enghien by the French Emperor, he informed +"Monsieur" Napoleon Bonaparte of the rupture of all +relations between them; and now, on 3rd December 1804, an +Anglo-Swedish Convention was signed, placing at our disposal +the Isle of Rügen and the fortress of Stralsund in Swedish +Pomerania, in return for a subsidy of £80,000. This sum served +but to whet his appetite for subsidies, his demands almost +equalling in extravagance his Quixotic summons to a royalist +crusade.</p> + +<p>Pitt therefore based his hopes on the statesmanlike policy of +the Czar, who in that month despatched to London one of his +confidants, a clever but viewy young man, of frank and engaging +manners, Count Novossiltzoff. Ostensibly the mission was for +scientific purposes; but French agents discovered that he took +with him a plan of a Coalition against Napoleon.<a name="FNanchor_701_701" id="FNanchor_701_701"></a><a href="#Footnote_701_701" class="fnanchor">[701]</a> This seems +to have led the Emperor to take a step similar to that of +Christmastide 1799. On 2nd January 1805 he wrote a letter +direct to George III, proposing terms of peace. The King at +once expressed to Pitt his astonishment that "the French +usurper" had addressed him in this objectionable manner, and +highly approved the draft of an answer which Pitt had thoughtfully +forwarded to Windsor. In it Pitt declared that His Majesty +could not enter upon the proposed overtures for peace until he +had communicated them to the Powers with which he had confidential +ties, especially to the Emperor of Russia. At the +King's command, he sent a copy of this answer to St. Petersburg. +At London, then, as also at Paris, Napoleon's offer was +deemed a diplomatic device for getting news, though it also +enabled him to represent himself as the friend of peace and Pitt +as its worst enemy.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[Pg 517]</a></span></p> +<p>While the French Emperor played his game with the advantages +conferred by a daring initiative, superior force, and unquestioned +authority at home, Pitt had to employ all possible +means to conciliate allies abroad and half-hearted friends at +Westminster. His position was far from secure. True, the King +had now recovered almost his usual health; but in Parliament +the Ministry with difficulty repelled the bitter attacks of Fox, +Sheridan, Grenville, and Windham. The speech of Grenville +on the seizure of the Spanish treasure ships was of singular +bitterness. Though aware of the provocations of the Spanish +Court, he chose to represent that affair as a cowardly, and +almost piratical attack on an unprepared Power. Pitt had expected +some such misrepresentations. He knew that the Opposition +would strain every nerve to overthrow him; and in the +Christmas Vacation he made timely overtures through Hawkesbury +for the support of Addington. The two old friends met on +23rd December 1804, at Hawkesbury's residence, Coombe Wood, +near Richmond Park. The host contrived to be absent when +Pitt entered the room, and he advanced with the cordial greeting: +"I rejoice to take you by the hand again."</p> + +<p>Converse of three hours ensued between them alone. Addington +demurred to Pitt's request that he should retire to the Upper +House. Finally, however, he agreed to do so, accepting the +title of Viscount Sidmouth, taking also the Presidency of the +Council, which the Duke of Portland, for reasons of health, +wished to relinquish, though he finally agreed to remain in the +Cabinet without office. Lord Hobart, now Earl of Buckinghamshire, +also entered the Cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy +of Lancaster in place of Lord Mulgrave, who now succeeded +Lord Harrowby at the Foreign Office. Pitt further promised +to promote some of Addington's supporters, including his +brother-in-law, Bragge Bathurst.</p> + +<p>These changes were resented by several of Pitt's supporters, +especially by Rose. We have already noticed his contempt for +Addington's financial shifts; and he now, on 8th January 1805, +wrote to Bishop Tomline deploring Pitt's junction with "a man +whose imbecility and falsehood, under Mr. Pitt's own sanction," +had weakened the country. Pitt would now gain a few votes, +no additional talents, and an increase of rancour in the Opposition. +"We shall," adds Rose, "drag on a wretched existence +and expire not creditably. What next will happen God only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[Pg 518]</a></span> +knows."<a name="FNanchor_702_702" id="FNanchor_702_702"></a><a href="#Footnote_702_702" class="fnanchor">[702]</a> Canning was equally annoyed at the new Coalition.<a name="FNanchor_703_703" id="FNanchor_703_703"></a><a href="#Footnote_703_703" class="fnanchor">[703]</a> +His sharp tongue and still sharper pen had deeply annoyed +Addington. Who, indeed, would not have resented this reference +in the "Apothecary's Hall (First of April)":</p> + + +<p class="poem"> +When his speeches hobble vilely<br /> +How "Hear him" bursts from brother Hiley!<br /> +When his faltering periods lag<br /> +Hark to the cheers of brother Bragge!<br /> +</p> + + +<p>Sarcasms on Hawkesbury had also annoyed that susceptible +Minister; so that in June 1804 Canning offered to resign his +Treasurership of the Navy. The matter was patched up, only +to be opened once more in the winter. Pitt sought to mediate +between the bard and his victim, but failed to elicit from +Canning an apology as complete as Hawkesbury demanded. +Finally, on 18th January, Canning informed Pitt that, as Hawkesbury +had left his letter unanswered for three days, he declined +to take the further steps which Pitt recommended.<a name="FNanchor_704_704" id="FNanchor_704_704"></a><a href="#Footnote_704_704" class="fnanchor">[704]</a> Is it surprising +that the health of the Prime Minister began to suffer? +Friends noted with concern his thinness and a hacking cough. +Nevertheless, he rode out successfully the squalls of the session +of 1805, beating off the onset of Sheridan against his Defence +Bill, and defeating an inopportune motion of Fox for Catholic +Emancipation.</p> + +<p>On this subject Pitt secretly sympathized with Fox, but his +hands were tied both by his promise of March 1801 to the King +not to bring up the subject during his reign, and recently by his +union with Addington. The Irish Catholics knew of these difficulties; +and at meetings held by their leading men at the house +of James Ryan, a wealthy Dublin merchant, in the autumn of +1804, both Lord Fingall and Counsellor Scully deprecated a +petition to Parliament as alike useless and embarrassing. Scully +urged that they must conciliate one whose "opinions had literally +proved of great weight in the Catholic cause.... The Catholics +owe him [Pitt] respect for his enlarged and manly conceptions +of the necessity of relieving them, and the dignified energy with +which he publicly expressed those conceptions." A Committee +was chosen to consider the matter and communicate with Pitt. +It included Fingall, Sir Thomas French, Scully, and others. At +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">[Pg 519]</a></span>the third meeting at Ryan's house, on 17th November, Keogh +sharply blamed Fingall for opposing the petition, and commented +adversely on the silence of Pitt. Scully inferred from it +"that he is favourably disposed, but in some way, to them unknown, +not in a situation in which he can freely act," or even +explain his reticence; but no Catholic wished to embarrass him.<a name="FNanchor_705_705" id="FNanchor_705_705"></a><a href="#Footnote_705_705" class="fnanchor">[705]</a> +Nevertheless, the petition was resolved on; and it is clear that +Fox encouraged the petitioners rather from the hope of embarrassing +Pitt than of carrying Catholic Emancipation.<a name="FNanchor_706_706" id="FNanchor_706_706"></a><a href="#Footnote_706_706" class="fnanchor">[706]</a></p> + +<p>In March 1805 Scully came to London, and saw Fox, Nepean, +and Grey. Pitt received him and others of the Irish deputation +at Downing Street on the 12th. Scully noted in his diary: "He +[Pitt] wore dirty boots and odd-fashioned, lank leather breeches, +but otherwise well dressed and cleanly, his hair powdered, etc. +He was very courteous and cordial in words and looks, but his +carriage was stiff and strait, perhaps naturally so. His face cold +and harsh, rather selfish, but acute and sensible. We took our +seats after much reciprocal ceremony." Pitt declined Fingall's +request that he should present the Catholic petition, though he +admitted that the measure would be most salutary whenever the +proper time would arrive; but he added with a smile that he +could not tell when that would be. The deputation failed to +move him from this position, and thereafter committed its cause +to the Opposition.<a name="FNanchor_707_707" id="FNanchor_707_707"></a><a href="#Footnote_707_707" class="fnanchor">[707]</a> Despite excellent speeches by Fox and +Grey, and by Grenville and Holland in the Lords, the motions +for Catholic Emancipation were rejected by large majorities. +The speech of Pitt on 14th May, to which reference has already +been made, naturally lacked energy and fire; he opposed Fox's +motion solely on the ground of present expediency.<a name="FNanchor_708_708" id="FNanchor_708_708"></a><a href="#Footnote_708_708" class="fnanchor">[708]</a></p> + +<p>The worst trial of the session was the impeachment of his old +friend, Lord Melville. As Treasurer of the Navy in Pitt's former +Administration, he had been guilty of a serious irregularity in +not preventing Deputy Treasurer Trotter from using the sum of +£10,000 for private speculation. Suspicions having been aroused +on this and other grounds, a Commission was appointed to sift +the matter to the bottom. The tenth Report dealing with these +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">[Pg 520]</a></span>charges came out on 17th or 18th March; and Wilberforce, who +then chanced to be with Pitt, noted how eagerly, without waiting +to cut open the pages, he sought to tear out the secret. +It proved to be highly unfavourable to Melville. In vain did +Wilberforce and Bankes seek to persuade Pitt to adopt a judicial +attitude on this question. Though his friendship with Melville +had cooled, yet it was still strong, and he finally agreed with +Lord Sidmouth to press for a committee of inquiry. Only so +could he count on the support of the Addingtonians. On 8th +April, then, he resolutely defended Melville against the aspersions +of Whitbread, maintaining that the evidence before the +Commission was far from conclusive, and moving that a select +Committee of the House should make further investigations.</p> + +<p>The debate was long and stormy. Petty, Tierney, George +Ponsonby, and Fox censured Melville severely. Canning with his +wonted brilliance, Castlereagh with the usual laboured infelicity, +sought to strengthen the defence; but it had almost collapsed +when, about 4 a.m. of 9th April, Wilberforce arose. At once +Pitt bent forward and sent an eager glance down the Treasury +bench at his old friend; for the verdict of a conscientious and +independent member at such a time is decisive. Speaking with +the calm of deep conviction, the member for Yorkshire declared +against Melville, whereupon Pitt sank back with signs of +deep pain. The division showed 216 for and 216 against the +motion of censure. The Speaker, Abbott, turned deathly white, +and after a long and trying pause gave the casting vote against +the Government. Then the pent up feelings burst forth. The +groups of the Opposition united in yells of triumph; one member +gave the "view holloa," and others shouted to Pitt to resign. +He meanwhile pressed forward his hat to hide the tears which +stole down his cheeks. Fitzharris, son of Lord Malmesbury, +and a few devoted friends formed a phalanx to screen him from +the insolent stare of Colonel Wardle and others who were +crowding round the exit to see "how Billy Pitt looked after +it"; and he was helped out of the House in a half unconscious +state. The blow told severely on a frame already enfeebled by +overwork and worry.<a name="FNanchor_709_709" id="FNanchor_709_709"></a><a href="#Footnote_709_709" class="fnanchor">[709]</a></p> + +<p>Whitbread's further motion for impeachment was rejected +(11th June), but a similar motion succeeded a fortnight later. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">[Pg 521]</a></span>Public opinion, however, soon began to veer round and pronounce +the conduct of the Opposition rancorous. Melville's relative, +Sir Charles Middleton, in a letter to Wilberforce, denounced it +as sheer persecution, seeing that the nation had suffered no loss, +and Melville had served it many years with indefatigable zeal. As +for Melville, he retired to his Highland seat, "Dunira," and in the +last letter which he wrote to Pitt, dated 11th November 1805, +expressed gratitude for Pitt's recent message that his energy at +the Admiralty had largely contributed to the triumph at Trafalgar. +Melville's feelings further appeared in the postscript, +that Nelson's death was "enviable beyond expression," as placing +"his fair fame beyond the reach of caprice, envy, or malevolence."<a name="FNanchor_710_710" id="FNanchor_710_710"></a><a href="#Footnote_710_710" class="fnanchor">[710]</a> +Pitt did not live on to see the vindication of his old +friend. On 12th June 1806, after a trial of twelve days in Westminster +Hall, the Peers acquitted Melville on all the ten counts, +the prosecution failing to prove that he had benefited by Trotter's +irregular use of the sum of £10,000. It is worth noting that +Whitbread in his final attack declared his belief that Pitt in +similar circumstances would have died rather than connive at +such an irregularity.<a name="FNanchor_711_711" id="FNanchor_711_711"></a><a href="#Footnote_711_711" class="fnanchor">[711]</a> This statement may be set against the +Bacchic outburst of Creevey, after the hostile vote in Parliament, +that Pitt had betrayed Melville in order to save himself from +ruin.<a name="FNanchor_712_712" id="FNanchor_712_712"></a><a href="#Footnote_712_712" class="fnanchor">[712]</a></p> + +<p>Pitt, seconded in this by Grenville, urged the appointment of +Middleton, whose sagacity and long experience at the Admiralty +had of late furnished the First Lord with invaluable counsel. +True, he was eighty years of age, but neither had his frame lost +vigour nor his mind alertness. Seeing that his reputation as a +naval expert was unequalled, Pitt little expected to encounter +the stiff opposition of Lords Sidmouth and Buckinghamshire to +the appointment, which they designed for Buckinghamshire, +Hawkesbury, or Charles Yorke. The King, too, probably influenced +by Sidmouth, expressed his disapproval of Middleton, +preferring those just named, or Castlereagh, or even Chatham. +In a matter which concerned the safety of the nation Pitt was +inexorable, facing for several days the threats of resignation of +his two colleagues and the disapproval of the King. Finally he +carried his point, the two lords being pacified by the assurance +that Middleton's appointment would be temporary. The King +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">[Pg 522]</a></span>also consented to raise him to the peerage as Lord Barham, +adding, however, the proviso that he should attend the Cabinet +only during the discussion of naval affairs. In this grudging +way did the Monarch and Sidmouth permit Middleton to reap +the reward of life-long service and the nation to benefit by his +unique experience. Only of late has the work done by Barham +during the Trafalgar campaign been duly set forth; and it is +therefore possible now to estimate the service rendered by Pitt +in insisting on his appointment even at the risk of the secession +of the Addingtonian group.<a name="FNanchor_713_713" id="FNanchor_713_713"></a><a href="#Footnote_713_713" class="fnanchor">[713]</a></p> + +<p>Before referring to naval affairs, we must glance at the efforts +of Pitt to frame a Coalition of the Powers against France. In the +middle of January 1805 he had important interviews with Novossiltzoff, +the envoy whom the Czar Alexander had despatched +to London on an important mission. For this ardent young +reformer Alexander had drawn up secret instructions which the +curious may read in the Memoirs of his Minister, Czartoryski.<a name="FNanchor_714_714" id="FNanchor_714_714"></a><a href="#Footnote_714_714" class="fnanchor">[714]</a> +They illustrate the mingling of sentimentality and statecraft, of +viewiness and ambition, which accounts for the strange oscillations +of Muscovite policy between altruistic philosophy and +brutal self-seeking. At present the Russian Janus turned his +modern face westwards. Alexander insisted on the need of +tearing from France the mask of liberty which she had so long +and so profitably worn. Against the naturalism of Rousseau, +which supplied Napoleon with excellent reasons for every annexation, +Alexander resolved to appeal to historical rights and +the Balance of Power. Yet he also resolved to uphold the +rights of all the peoples concerned. They must be reconciled +to their rulers so as to harmonize the claims of legitimacy and +liberty. Thus, the King of Sardinia, when restored to his throne +at Turin, was to be induced to grant a Constitution. The Germanic +System was to be rescued from chaos by the grant of +free federal institutions. The independence of the Italian, Helvetic, +and Dutch Republics was a matter of urgency, those +States being also strengthened against French aggressions. +Finally, Russia and England were, if possible, to secure the +friendship of Turkey.</p> + +<p>With these aims Pitt declared his entire concurrence, a just +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">[Pg 523]</a></span>and lasting peace being the first of British interests. He developed +these notions in a remarkable document of date 19th +January 1805. We may be sure that it is his; for, an accident +having befallen the Earl of Harrowby at the close of 1804, Lord +Mulgrave took his place at the Foreign Office, and a new comer +would not have ventured to impose his own views as to the +future of Europe. Pitt now recurred to his plans of the year +1798 for assuring the repose of the Continent. In brief, they +were the aggrandisement of Austria in Northern Italy and of +Prussia in the Low Countries so as to form barriers against +France. The Italian Republic must therefore be divided between +the Hapsburgs and the King of Sardinia, the latter also absorbing +the Genoese Republic, which had forfeited all claim to consideration. +Pitt did not enter into details respecting Belgium; +but probably he intended to offer it to Prussia, in order to still +her cravings for Hanover. Such was his proposal to the Court +of Berlin in October 1805.<a name="FNanchor_715_715" id="FNanchor_715_715"></a><a href="#Footnote_715_715" class="fnanchor">[715]</a> Conscious, perhaps, that the present +plans were not consonant with the benevolent idealism of Russian +policy, which, however, stole sidelong glances at Constantinople, +Pitt declared that only by these arrangements could the +peace of Europe be secured. They were therefore "not repugnant +to the most sacred principles of justice and public +morality." In order further to curb the aggressions of Napoleon, +the Great Powers were mutually to guarantee their possessions, +thus laying the foundation of a system of public right.<a name="FNanchor_716_716" id="FNanchor_716_716"></a><a href="#Footnote_716_716" class="fnanchor">[716]</a></p> + +<p>This scheme clearly foreshadows the system of alliances and +compromises carried out by Castlereagh in the Treaty of Chaumont +nine years later. Pitt also assented to the Czar's proposal +that the final settlement should be guaranteed by international +agreements forming a basis for the new European polity, a suggestion +in which lies the germ of the Holy Alliance. It would +be absurd to hold Pitt responsible for the strange and unforeseen +developments of the years 1815–25. But it is to be regretted +that fear of Napoleon should have obliterated his earlier aim of +forming a defensive league of the weaker States. His cure for +the evils of French domination was scarcely better than the evils +themselves. The installation of the Hapsburgs at Venice and +Milan, of Victor Emmanuel I at Genoa, of Frederick William of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">[Pg 524]</a></span>Prussia at Brussels, could not permanently improve the lot of +the Italian and Belgian peoples. So soon as we formulate the +question we see that, as in 1798, Pitt left their welfare out of +count. He aimed merely at piling up barriers against France, +and trusted to some vague arrangement with the Czar for safeguarding +the political rights of the bartered peoples.</p> + +<p>Pitt's reliance on the statics of statecraft rather than on the +dynamics of nationality tells against the credibility of the oft-repeated +story that he prophesied the liberation of Europe by +the enthusiasm and efforts of the Spaniards. Wellington afterwards +told the Spanish general, Alava, that Pitt, on hearing of +the disaster of Ulm, made this prophecy at a dinner party at +which he (then Sir Arthur Wellesley) was present. Difficulties of +time and place militate against the anecdote, which, moreover, is +out of harmony with the sentiments expressed in Pitt's speeches, +letters, and despatches.<a name="FNanchor_717_717" id="FNanchor_717_717"></a><a href="#Footnote_717_717" class="fnanchor">[717]</a> Further, his experience of Spain was +such as to inspire him with deep distrust; and, finally, the cast +of his mind was so far objective as to forbid the indulgence of +speculations on the little-known topic of nationality. Distrusting +novel theories, he sought to utilize forces of tried potency. He +worked by diplomatic methods through Governments, not through +the tumultuary efforts of peoples. Dependence on a nation so +backward as the Spaniards would have seemed to him madness. +Even if he could have seen the surprising events of May–June +1808, he would probably have distrusted the spirit which +prompted them. In truth, he lacked the sympathetic instinct +which led Canning at that crisis to side with the Spanish patriots +and thus open a new chapter in the history of Europe.</p> + +<p>Yet it is but just to remember that Pitt the diplomatic bargainer +of 1805 differed from Pitt the upholder of weak States +in 1790, only because the times had completely changed. Against +the destructive schemes of Joseph II, Catharine II, and Hertzberg +he worked on the whole successfully. But now Poland was +gone; Sweden and Turkey were safe; the German tangle had +been cut by the Secularizations of Church domains in 1803. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525">[Pg 525]</a></span>Now the danger was from the West. France had swallowed +up her weaker neighbours. Napoleon dominated Spain, Italy, +Switzerland, the Rhenish States, and the Netherlands. Russian +policy, subversive under Catharine, was in a European sense +conservative under Alexander. Then the most damaging thrusts +to the European fabric came from Vienna and St. Petersburg. +Now they came from Paris. Pitt therefore sought to construct a +rampart out of the weak States bordering on France. As the +Barrier Treaties of a century earlier were directed against +Louis XIV, so now Pitt sought to inaugurate an enlarged +Barrier policy as a safeguard against Napoleon. The efforts of +at least half a million of trained troops being available, the time +had apparently come for a final effort to preserve the Balance of +Power before it was irretrievably impaired.</p> + +<p>For a time the Russian and British Governments seemed in +complete accord. Novossiltzoff, on his return to St. Petersburg, +wrote to Pitt on 20th March 1805 (N.S.), describing the entire +concurrence of his master with the principles on which they had +agreed at London. In about eight days he would leave for +Berlin to put forth his utmost endeavours to gain the alliance +of that Court. He would then proceed to Paris to present the +Czar's ultimatum. A refusal was expected; but his master believed +it more dignified to take all reasonable means of ensuring +peace. The orders for mobilizing the Russian troops would go +forth at the time of his departure for Berlin. Before his arrival +at Paris, he hoped to receive from London full powers authorizing +him to speak for Great Britain as well as for Russia.<a name="FNanchor_718_718" id="FNanchor_718_718"></a><a href="#Footnote_718_718" class="fnanchor">[718]</a></p> + +<p>All this implied the closest union and sympathy. But now +Alexander showed the other side of his nature. He sought to +drive a hard bargain with Pitt. Firstly, he strove to obtain the +promise of a larger British force to form an integral part of a +Russian expedition for the deliverance of the Kingdom of Naples. +In view of the paucity of our disposable forces, Pitt had sought to +limit the sphere of action to Sicily and the neighbouring parts +of Calabria, the defence of Sicily, the key of the Mediterranean +and the outwork of Egypt, being now and throughout the war +one of the cardinal aims of British policy. An expedition +under General Sir James Craig was about to set sail for Malta +and Messina; and the Czar required that, when strengthened, it +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526">[Pg 526]</a></span>should act in any part of South Italy, under a Russian general. +After wearisome correspondence, a compromise was arrived at; +and on 19th April 1805 Craig set sail from Portsmouth on his +perilous voyage over seas now and again swept by French and +Spanish warships. By good fortune he escaped these many +dangers, and reached Malta, there setting free seasoned troops +for operations in South Italy. The hardihood of Pitt in sending +forth this expedition has often provoked criticism. But it was +worth while to run serious risks to save Sicily from the grip of +Napoleon, and to wrest from him the initiative which he had +hitherto enjoyed unchallenged. Besides, the Czar insisted on +that effort, and made it almost a <span lang="la">sine quâ non</span> of his alliance. +In a military sense the results were contemptible; in the diplomatic +sphere they were very great.<a name="FNanchor_719_719" id="FNanchor_719_719"></a><a href="#Footnote_719_719" class="fnanchor">[719]</a></p> + +<p>Twelve days before Craig set sail, Czartoryski worried or +coaxed the British ambassador at St. Petersburg, Lord Granville +Leveson-Gower, into signing a provisional treaty of +alliance. The Czar now promised to set in motion half a million +of men (half of them being Austrians, and only 115,000 Russians) +so as to drive the French from Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and +the Low Countries, England subsidizing the allied forces at the +rate of £1,250,000 a year for every 100,000 men actually employed. +The liberated lands were to have the right of building +their own fortresses and choosing their own constitutions. But +firstly, Alexander would seek to restore peace to Europe; and +to this end he would consent to Napoleon placing his brother +Joseph on the throne of North Italy, either in Piedmont or in +the Italian Republic, shadowy realms being outlined in the +Peninsula for the consolation of the dispossessed King of Sardinia. +But the sting of the proposal was in its tail. Alexander +suggested that, to secure the boon of peace, England should +restore her maritime conquests in the war, and also Malta if +Napoleon insisted on this last, the island being then garrisoned +by Russians. In its blend of hazy theorizings on general topics +with astute egotism in Russian affairs, the scheme is highly +characteristic, peace being assured by means which would substitute +Muscovite for British rule at Malta; while in the event +of war, Great Britain was to pay at the rate of £6,250,000 a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527">[Pg 527]</a></span>year for campaigns that would aggrandise the continental States +at the expense of France.<a name="FNanchor_720_720" id="FNanchor_720_720"></a><a href="#Footnote_720_720" class="fnanchor">[720]</a></p> + +<p>What must have been the feelings of Pitt when he perused +this Byzantine offer? While prepared to give way on some +parts of the January proposals, he was determined to hold fast +to Malta. The island had not been named by him and Novossiltzoff, +its present destiny being assumed as irrevocably fixed. +But now Alexander swung back to the aims of his father, the +domination of the Central Mediterranean from the impregnable +fortress of Valetta. Probably some of the Knights of the Order +of St. John who had sought refuge in Russia gained the ear of +Alexander in the spring of 1805, and produced the startling +change in his policy just described. Whatever the cause, Pitt's +answer could be none other than a firm refusal. In Count +Simon Vorontzoff, Russian ambassador at London, he found a +secret sympathizer, who entered heartily into his plans for the +salvation of Europe, foreseeing that only by the retention of +Malta for the Union Jack could the Mediterranean be saved +from becoming a French lake; and that if either Gower or Pitt +wavered on this question, the country would disown them.<a name="FNanchor_721_721" id="FNanchor_721_721"></a><a href="#Footnote_721_721" class="fnanchor">[721]</a> +Official etiquette, of course, compelled him to proffer Alexander's +demand, and to declare that, unless Pitt gave way about Malta, +there was an end of all hope of the alliance. Here Pitt intervened +with the statesmanlike remark: "It will not save Europe. +The Mediterranean, the Levant and Egypt, will be in the power +of France the moment a British squadron ceases to have for +base a good port protected by formidable fortifications.... So, +whatever pain it causes us (and it is indeed great) we must give +up the hope of seeing the alliance ratified, since its express condition +is our renunciation of Malta. We will continue the war +alone. It will be maritime."</p> + +<p>Thus Malta, the final cause of the Great War, now promised to +limit that war. Vorontzoff prevailed on Pitt to defer reporting +his refusal to St. Petersburg. But on 27th May he stated that +the last ray of hope had disappeared, as neither Court would +give way. On 5th June, then, Mulgrave penned for Gower a +despatch summarizing Pitt's reasons why England must retain +Malta. She was ready to restore her valuable conquests in the +East and West Indies, but the key of the Mediterranean she +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528">[Pg 528]</a></span>must not and would not surrender. Neither would she relax her +maritime code as the Emperor of Russia now insisted; for experience +had shown it to be necessary for the equipment of the +British fleets and the crippling of the enemy's naval construction. +In the maintenance of these fleets lay the only hope of assuring +the salvation of Europe. A more convincing exposition of the +importance of Sea Power has never gone forth from a Government +office.<a name="FNanchor_722_722" id="FNanchor_722_722"></a><a href="#Footnote_722_722" class="fnanchor">[722]</a></p> + +<p>The deadlock was therefore complete. But now, as happened +more than once in the development of the Coalitions, Napoleon +himself came to the rescue. Whether he was aware of the +breakdown of the Anglo-Russian negotiation is uncertain; but +his remark to Fouché—"I shall be able to strike the blow +before the old Coalition machines are ready"—and his conduct +in Italy in the months of May and June 1805 bear the imprint of +a boundless confidence, which, on any other supposition, savours +of madness. He well knew that no continental ruler but +Gustavus of Sweden desired war with him. Austria maintained +her timid reserve. Alexander was ready to negotiate with him +through the medium of Novossiltzoff, who was now at Berlin +awaiting permission to proceed to Paris. The predilections of +Frederick William of Prussia for France were notorious; for +Hanover was his goal; and he and his <span class="ins" title="counsellers">counsellors</span> saw far more +hope of securing it from Napoleon than from King George.<a name="FNanchor_723_723" id="FNanchor_723_723"></a><a href="#Footnote_723_723" class="fnanchor">[723]</a></p> + +<p>Prudence and patience were therefore peculiarly necessary +for Napoleon at this juncture. He had the game in his +hands if he would but concentrate all his energies against England +and leave severely alone the land which then most interested +Russia and Austria, namely, Italy. But, either from the +ingrained restlessness of his nature, which chafed at the stalemate +at Boulogne, or from contempt of "the old Coalition +machines," or from an innate conviction that Italy was his own +political preserve, he now took two steps which aroused the +anger of the Russian and Austrian Emperors. On 26th May +1805 he crowned himself King of Italy in the cathedral of +Milan, thereby welding that populous realm indissolubly to his +Empire. On 4th June he annexed outright the Genoese or +Ligurian Republic. Both acts were flagrant infractions of his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529">[Pg 529]</a></span>Treaty of Lunéville with Austria of four years before; and they +contemptuously overturned the Balance of Power which Alexander +was striving to re-establish. The results were soon apparent. +"This man is insatiable," exclaimed Alexander; "his +ambition knows no bounds; he is a scourge of the world: he +wants war; well, he shall have it, and the sooner the better."</p> + +<p>Novossiltzoff left Berlin for St. Petersburg; and his despatches +of 10th July to Vorontzoff and to Hardenberg, Foreign Minister +at Berlin, prove conclusively that it was Napoleon's annexation +of Genoa which ended all hope of peace on the Continent.<a name="FNanchor_724_724" id="FNanchor_724_724"></a><a href="#Footnote_724_724" class="fnanchor">[724]</a> The +French Emperor himself admitted as much a few years later +when he visited Genoa. Looking down on that beautiful city, +he exclaimed: "Ah! It was worth a war." In order to work +French patriotism up to the necessary pitch he on 30th May +1805 ordered Fouché to have caricatures made at Paris depicting +John Bull, purse in hand, entreating the Powers to take his +money and fight France. Insults to Russia and England make +up the rest of that angry and almost illegible scrawl.<a name="FNanchor_725_725" id="FNanchor_725_725"></a><a href="#Footnote_725_725" class="fnanchor">[725]</a> In his +heart he knew that the war sprang from his resolve to make the +Mediterranean a French lake and Italy an annexe of his imperial +fabric.</p> + +<p>The sequel may be told very briefly. On 28th July the Court +of St. Petersburg agreed to Pitt's version of the Anglo-Russian +compact; and on 9th August the British ambassador at St. +Petersburg pledged his country to join the two Empires if +Napoleon rejected the conditions of peace still left open to him. +In that case Gower promised to assure the advance of five +months' subsidy at the rate mentioned above.<a name="FNanchor_726_726" id="FNanchor_726_726"></a><a href="#Footnote_726_726" class="fnanchor">[726]</a> It is needless to +say that Napoleon rejected all thought of compromise; and +Austria began to hurry her troops up the banks of the Danube +for the Bavarian campaign.<a name="FNanchor_727_727" id="FNanchor_727_727"></a><a href="#Footnote_727_727" class="fnanchor">[727]</a> Thus Pitt won the diplomatic game. +Or rather, his opponent gave it to him by the last reckless +move at Genoa. The wrath of Alexander at this affront obliterated +his annoyance at the retention of Malta by Great Britain; +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530">[Pg 530]</a></span>and both he and the Emperor Francis now prepared to enter +the lists against Napoleon.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Meanwhile, Pitt sought to strengthen his Ministry in view +of the desertion of the Addingtonians. Two of them, Hiley +Addington and Bond, spoke bitterly against Melville during the +debates of June, which led Gillray to represent them as jackasses +about to kick a wounded lion. So annoyed was Pitt as to refuse +them promotions which they expected, whereupon Sidmouth +and Buckinghamshire tendered their resignations. The old +friends parted sorrowfully after a final interview at Pitt's house +on Putney Heath (7th July). Camden now became President of +the Council, and Castlereagh Minister at War, Harrowby re-entering +the Cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.</p> + +<p>As the prospect of further taxation was calculated to depress +Pitt's supporters and inspirit the Opposition, he proceeded to +Weymouth in the middle of September to lay before the King +an important proposal. The formation of a truly national Administration +being more than ever essential, he besought George +to admit certain members of the parties of Fox and Grenville, +especially in order to facilitate the passing of the next Budget. +The Monarch, however, was obdurate, asserting that Pitt had +done well in the past session and would probably fare better still +in the next. On 22nd September he repeated these statements +to Rose, whom he called to him on the esplanade, and was quite +unconvinced by his arguments that in the present state of parties +the Budget could scarcely be passed, and that, if Pitt chanced to +be laid up with a fit of gout for two or three weeks, there would +be an end of the Administration. The King would not hear of +any change, and proved more intractable on this topic than in +the year before, during his stay at Cuffnells.<a name="FNanchor_728_728" id="FNanchor_728_728"></a><a href="#Footnote_728_728" class="fnanchor">[728]</a> In fact, in Rose's +manuscript is a statement, prudently omitted from the published +Diaries, that George, on returning to his residence at Weymouth, +declared his resolve rather to risk a civil war than to admit Fox +into his councils.<a name="FNanchor_729_729" id="FNanchor_729_729"></a><a href="#Footnote_729_729" class="fnanchor">[729]</a> Thus ended Pitt's last effort to form a national +Administration fitted to cope with the gigantic power of Napoleon.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to realize the multiplicity of the cares which +pressed upon Pitt. Rose feared that he would soon succumb to +the burden; for, apart from the defence of a weak Government +against a strong Opposition, Pitt transacted very much of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531">[Pg 531]</a></span>business of the War Office and Foreign Office, besides assisting +the Admiralty and the Commander-in-Chief. No one in Europe, +with the exception of Napoleon, worked so hard; and Pitt, +besides being ten years older than the Emperor, had far less +physical strength. We may judge, then, of the effect produced +by a life such as Lady Hester Stanhope described in a passage +of more than usual credibility: "Ah doctor," she said in her +Lebanon days, "what a life was his! Roused from sleep (for he +was a good sleeper) with a despatch from Lord Melville; then +down to Windsor; then, if he had half an hour to spare, trying +to swallow something; Mr. Adams with a paper, Mr. Long with +another; then Mr. Rose: then, with a little bottle of cordial +confection in his pocket, off to the House until three or four in +the morning; then home to a hot supper for two or three hours +more, to talk over what was to be done next day:—and wine, +and wine. Scarcely up next morning, when 'tat-tat-tat,' twenty +or thirty people one after another, and the horses walking before +the door from two till sunset, waiting for him. It was enough +to kill a man—it was murder."<a name="FNanchor_730_730" id="FNanchor_730_730"></a><a href="#Footnote_730_730" class="fnanchor">[730]</a></p> + +<p>One who knew Pitt well gave wise advice to his secretary, William +Dacre Adams. "Attend to your meals regularly even if you +sit up or rise the earlier for it to get through the business. I have +often been told that half Mr. Pitt's complaints were originally +brought on by fasting too long and indeed only eating when he +found it convenient, which ruined the tone of his stomach."<a name="FNanchor_731_731" id="FNanchor_731_731"></a><a href="#Footnote_731_731" class="fnanchor">[731]</a> These +statements explain the reason for the collapse of Pitt's strength late +in the year. Hester's concluding remark is somewhat hysterical, +but it is nearer the truth than the charge that Pitt was greedy of +power. He killed himself by persistent overwork on behalf of a +nation which did not understand him, and in the service of a Monarch +who refused to allow him to strengthen his Administration.</p> + +<p>It is impossible now to feel one's way along all the threads +which Pitt held in his hands. But occasionally a chance reference +reveals his connection with designs of vast moment. The +following is a case in point. Castlereagh wrote to him, probably +on 20th August 1805, in terms which show that Pitt took a +leading part in one of the decisions bearing on the fate of the +naval campaign which culminated at Trafalgar. The daring +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_532" id="Page_532">[Pg 532]</a></span>and wisdom of his naval policy in 1805 has lately been fully +vindicated.<a name="FNanchor_732_732" id="FNanchor_732_732"></a><a href="#Footnote_732_732" class="fnanchor">[732]</a> But the following letter throws new light on the +complex problem which arose after the indecisive success gained +by Admiral Calder over Villeneuve's French and Spanish fleets +off Cape Finisterre on 22nd July, and while the subsequent movements +of those fleets were not yet definitely known. Baird's +expedition at Cork was destined for the reduction of the Cape +(ever Pitt's pre-occupation) so soon as the way was fairly safe.</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">Downing S<sup>t</sup> <i>Tuesday</i> 3 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span><a name="FNanchor_733_733" id="FNanchor_733_733"></a><a href="#Footnote_733_733" class="fnanchor">[733]</a></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>I have just seen Lord Hawkesbury and Lord Barham, Adm<sup>l</sup> +Cornwallis having anticipated your intentions by detaching 20 sail of +the line off Ferrol, and the wind being now favourable, it appears to us +that no time should be lost in ordering Sir D. Baird to sail. As L<sup>d</sup> H. +and L<sup>d</sup> B. seem to entertain no doubt of your approving of this step, I +shall send the orders without delay. I shall remain in town tonight and +be at your disposal as best suits your engagements.</p> + +<p style="text-align: right; margin-right: 20%">Ever yours,</p> + +<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">Castlereagh.</span></p> +</div> + + +<p>The most interesting words in this letter are "your intentions." +They seem to imply that the plan of detaching part of Admiral +Cornwallis's fleet off Brest to the assistance of Calder off the +North West of Spain was originally Pitt's own, not Lord Barham's, +as has been hitherto supposed. They must not be pressed too +much; for the advice of Barham, First Lord of the Admiralty, +must have been paramount. Nevertheless the proposal was +evidently Pitt's as well as Barham's. The fact that Cornwallis +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533">[Pg 533]</a></span>anticipated it bespeaks the resolve alike of Ministers and the +admiral at all costs to stop Villeneuve off Finisterre and prevent +the naval concentration in French waters on which Napoleon +laid so much stress. The success of the British counter-stroke +is well known. Villeneuve, having been roughly handled by +Calder, put into Ferrol, and finally, a prey to discouragement, +made off for Cadiz, thus upsetting Napoleon's scheme for the +invasion of England. In due course Nelson returned to England +for a brief time of rest at "dear, dear Merton," and then set off +on his last cruise. Before his departure he had an interview with +Pitt at Downing Street—the only occasion, I believe, on which +they met—and found in the ante-room Sir Arthur Wellesley, +just returned from India. At the end of the interview Pitt +flattered the great seaman by an act of attention which he thus +described: "Mr. Pitt paid me a compliment, which, I believe, +he would not have paid to a Prince of the Blood. When I rose +to go, he left the room with me and attended me to the carriage." +By attentions such as these Chatham was wont to stimulate the +patriotism of our warriors; and on this occasion his son played +an equally inspiriting part. Imagination strives to picture the +scene, especially when England's greatest statesman and greatest +seaman passed through the ante-room where stood the future +victor of Waterloo.<a name="FNanchor_734_734" id="FNanchor_734_734"></a><a href="#Footnote_734_734" class="fnanchor">[734]</a></p> + +<p>Never again were those three heroes to meet. Nelson departed +for Trafalgar. Pitt resumed the work which was wearing +him to death, nerved, however, by the consciousness that the +despatch of Nelson to the Mediterranean would foil Napoleon's +project of making that sea a French lake, "the principal aim of +my policy" as he declared it to be. In that quarter, then, Pitt +won a decisive victory which was destined to save not only that +sea, but the Continent from the domination of France. Whether +a glimpse of the future course of events opened out to the +wearied gaze of the statesman we know not. All we know is +that in mid-December, when the "Victory" lay jury-masted +and wind-bound for three days off Walmer Castle, the Lord +Warden was at Bath, in hope of gaining health and strength +for a struggle which concerned him even more nearly than that +in the Mediterranean, namely, the liberation of North Germany +and the Dutch Netherlands from the Napoleonic yoke.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_534" id="Page_534">[Pg 534]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<p class="title spaced">THE LAST STRUGGLE</p> + +<p class="quote">Heavens! What has Prussia to answer for! For nothing less, in my +mind, than every calamity which has befallen Europe for more than ten +years.—<span class="smcap">General Paget to Sir Arthur Paget</span>, <i>24th January 1806</i>.</p> + + +<p>The opening moves in the great game between Pitt and +Napoleon were divided with a curious evenness. As we +have seen, the French Emperor's defiant annexation of Genoa +obliterated the anger of the Czar at Pitt's insistence on the retention +of Malta; and if Pitt's high-handed conduct forced Spain to +declare against England, yet, on the other hand, Napoleon wantonly +challenged Austria and Russia to a conflict. The first +events of the war showed a similar balance. On 20th October +the French Emperor compelled the Austrian commander, +General Mack, to surrender at or near Ulm in Swabia with almost +the whole of an army of some 70,000 men. On the next +day Nelson destroyed the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar. +So quickly did the forcefulness or ineptitude of four commanders +determine the course of events. By the end of October +the tricolour waved triumphant over Central Europe; but the +Union Jack was thenceforth scarcely challenged by sea; and +Britain began to exert that unseen but resistless pressure upon +her enemy which gradually edged him to his ruin. Consequently +the appalling failures of the Third Coalition on land only delayed +the final triumph on which the serene genius of Pitt surely +counted.</p> + +<p>At first everything seemed to favour his designs. Part of +Napoleon's army in its hurried march from North Germany +towards Ulm violated the neutrality of the Prussian principality +of Anspach, apparently by command of the Emperor. This +short cut to success nearly entailed disaster; for it earned the +sharp resentment of Prussia at a time when he especially valued<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_535" id="Page_535">[Pg 535]</a></span> +her friendship. Indeed, so soon as he resolved to turn the +"Army of England" against Austria, he despatched his most +trusted aide-de-camp, Duroc, to Berlin, to tempt that Court with +that alluring bait, Hanover. Russia and England were, however, +making equal efforts in the hope of gaining the help of the magnificent +army of Frederick William III. For a time Pitt also +hoped to add the South German States, and in all to set in +motion a mass of 650,000 men against France, Austria contributing +250,000, Russia 180,000, Prussia 100,000 (later on he +bargained for 180,000), Sardinia 25,000, Naples 20,000, Sweden +16,000, and the small German States the remainder. Napoleon, +on the other hand, strove to paralyse the efforts of the Coalition +by securing the alliance or the friendly neutrality of Prussia. +With 200,000 hostile or doubtful troops on her frontier, Austria +could do little, and Russia still less. Further, as he still had +French troops in one or two fortresses of Hanover, he could +utter the words so often on the lips of Bismarck—<span lang="la">Beati possidentes</span>. +Hanover belonged of right to George III; but Napoleon +could will it away to Prussia.</p> + +<p>Thus the fortunes of Europe depended largely on Frederick +William. Unfortunately he was incapable of rising to the +height of the situation; for he utterly lacked the virile qualities +which raised the House of Hohenzollern above petty compeers +in Swabia to fame and prosperity. Essentially mediocre, and +conscious of his slender endowments, he, like Louis XVI, nearly +always hesitated, and therefore generally lost. His character +was a dull compound of negations. Prone neither to vice nor to +passion, he was equally devoid of charm and graciousness. +Freezing men by his coldness, he failed to overawe them by +superiority; and, with a weak man's dislike of genius and +strength, he avoided great men, preferring trimmers like Haugwitz +and Lombard, who played upon his foibles, and saved him +from disagreeable decisions. The commanding personality of +Stein inspired in him nervous dislike which deepened into peevish +dread. Only in the depths of disaster, into which his own weakness +was to plunge him, did he have recourse to that saviour of +Prussia.</p> + +<p>By the side of Frederick William was that radiant figure, Queen +Louisa, who recalls the contrast between Marie Antoinette and +her uninteresting, hapless spouse. For Louisa, too, had ambition +and the power of inspiring devotion, though etiquette and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_536" id="Page_536">[Pg 536]</a></span> +jealousy forbade her intervention in affairs of State;<a name="FNanchor_735_735" id="FNanchor_735_735"></a><a href="#Footnote_735_735" class="fnanchor">[735]</a> otherwise +the Prussian Government would have shaken off that paralysing +indecision which left its people friendless and spiritless on the +bursting of the storm a year later. For the present, the King's +chief adviser, Hardenberg, sought to impart to Prussian policy a +trend more favourable to England and Russia. Conscious of the +need of a better frontier on the west and of the longing of his +master for the greater part of Hanover, he sought to attain this +end by means not wholly opposed to the feelings of George III +and the policy of Pitt. Above all, he strove to end the humiliating +subservience of his Court to France, which galled the spirit +of all patriotic Prussians. Their great desire was to join the new +Coalition even though such a step entailed war with Napoleon. +They rejoiced at the news of Admiral Calder's victory off +Finisterre, and hailed every sign of war at St. Petersburg and +Vienna.<a name="FNanchor_736_736" id="FNanchor_736_736"></a><a href="#Footnote_736_736" class="fnanchor">[736]</a> On the other hand, the French party was strong at +Court. Haugwitz, its head, was still nominally Minister for +Foreign Affairs, and, though often absent for long periods on +his Silesian domain, resumed the control of them when he returned +to Berlin. This singular arrangement enabled the King +to keep up the game of political see-saw which brought relief to +him, disgust to his would-be allies, and ruin to his country.</p> + +<p>To tilt the balance in favour of the Coalition was now the +chief aim of Pitt. And who shall say that, if Prussia, with +strength still unimpaired, had played the part which her enfeebled +people insisted on taking up in 1813, the doom of +Napoleon might not have been assured in the autumn and winter +which we associate with the names of Ulm and Austerlitz? All +this was possible, nay, probable, had Frederick William surveyed +the situation with the sound judgement of Pitt. But the British +statesman laboured under one great disadvantage. He could not +offer to Prussia what she most wanted. He could do no more +than promise to extend her western confines to Antwerp and +Ostend; and she far preferred Hanover, as solidifying her +straggling western lands, without bringing her near to France. +Here was an almost insuperable obstacle; and we can imagine +that, like his father, he cursed Britain's connection with Hanover. +His chief hope was, that Prussia would discern her true interest +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_537" id="Page_537">[Pg 537]</a></span>in acquiring less by honourable means than very much from +Napoleon, whose gifts were often perilous. Russia, too, at that +time seemed to adopt the British view of the Hanoverian question; +and in the early autumn that Power mustered her second +army on the borders of Prussia in a highly threatening manner. +Finally, the Czar declared that if his troops were refused a +passage through Silesia, he would make his way by force, the +Pitt Cabinet informing him that, in that case, the liberal subsidies +intended for Prussia, would be added to those already on their +way to St. Petersburg. But even threats failed to bring Frederick +William to a decision; and Hardenberg announced that a +forcible entry of the Russians would involve war with Prussia.<a name="FNanchor_737_737" id="FNanchor_737_737"></a><a href="#Footnote_737_737" class="fnanchor">[737]</a></p> + +<p>While Frederick William fumed at the Muscovite threats, +came news of the violation of his Anspach domain on 3rd October. +At once he declared his intention to avenge the insult and +to expel Duroc from Prussian territory. He also raised high the +hopes of the Allies by allowing the Russians to enter Silesia, and +by favouring Pitt's plan of a joint expedition of the Allies to +Hanover with a view to the liberation of Holland; and when +he ordered the mobilization of the whole Prussian army, there +appeared good grounds for expecting the speedy accession of at +least 150,000 troops trained in the school of Frederick the Great. +Even Haugwitz now suggested that if war came England must +give Prussia a subsidy.<a name="FNanchor_738_738" id="FNanchor_738_738"></a><a href="#Footnote_738_738" class="fnanchor">[738]</a> The Anglophil party at Berlin raised +its head in triumph at the approach of the Russian Emperor; +and when on 28th October he entered Berlin with enthusiastic +greetings from the populace, Europe seemed about to be leagued +against Napoleon. Chivalry and prudence alike counselled such +a union, for on the morrow arrived news of the annihilation +of Mack's army. Nothing but prompt action could save Germany +from the Napoleonic deluge.</p> + +<p>The first rumours of the disaster at Ulm did not reach London +until 2nd November. Lord Malmesbury was dining with Pitt +and mentioned the report to him, whereupon the Prime Minister +exclaimed in loud and angry tones, "Don't believe a word of it: +it is all a fiction."<a name="FNanchor_739_739" id="FNanchor_739_739"></a><a href="#Footnote_739_739" class="fnanchor">[739]</a> But on the morrow a Dutch newspaper was +brought, and Malmesbury translated the account, which was so +clear and detailed as to leave little room for doubt. Pitt's countenance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_538" id="Page_538">[Pg 538]</a></span> +changed. There came over him that look which his +friends saw imprinted more deeply with every week of deepening +gloom. For a brief space it passed away. On 6th November +London heard the joyful yet painful news of Trafalgar. It +reached Downing Street at 3 a.m. Pitt was so moved by conflicting +emotions that he, the soundest of sleepers, could not find +repose, but roused himself for work. The Stock Exchange registered +the swift oscillations from confidence to doubt, for +though all fear of the French and Spanish fleet was at an end, +yet, as Nelson perished, national security seemed imperilled, and +Consols sank.</p> + +<p>The contrast between the victorious constancy of Britain and +the wavering and hapless counsels of the Germanic States inspired +Pitt with one of the most magnanimous utterances of that +age. At the Lord Mayor's banquet on 9th November, that +dignitary proposed his health as the Saviour of Europe. Pitt +concentrated his reply into these two memorable sentences: +"I return you many thanks for the honour you have done me; +but Europe is not to be saved by any single man. England has +saved herself by her exertions, and will, as I trust, save Europe +by her example." In its terseness and strength, its truth and +modesty, its patriotism and hopefulness, this utterance stands +unrivalled. The effect must have been all the greater because +Pitt then bore on his countenance signs of that anxious forethought +in which now lay the chief hope of European independence.</p> + +<p>Six days before the arrival of news of the Austrian disaster, +Pitt had sought to expedite a union with Prussia. In view of the +urgency of the case, he decided to send his trusted friend, the +Earl of Harrowby, the Dudley Ryder of former days. Harrowby's +great abilities have never met with due recognition, +probably owing to the persistent ill health which impaired alike +his equanimity and his power of work; but Wilberforce had +good cause for commending Pitt's choice; and he added in a +letter of 25th October that the capacity of Harrowby was rated +far higher by foreigners than by Englishmen.<a name="FNanchor_740_740" id="FNanchor_740_740"></a><a href="#Footnote_740_740" class="fnanchor">[740]</a> The instructions +to the Earl, drafted by Lord Mulgrave on 27th October, reveal +Pitt's resolve to go very far in order to buy the support of +Prussia. They empowered Harrowby to offer her the Belgic +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_539" id="Page_539">[Pg 539]</a></span>provinces and such German lands as would connect them with +the Westphalian domains of Prussia. The need of money for the +immediate equipment of her army being also urgent, Harrowby +was to offer a yearly subsidy of £12 10<i>s.</i> for each Prussian +soldier actually serving against France, the hope being expressed +that from 150,000 to 200,000 men would be forthcoming. +At the same time Pitt explained that at the general +peace Great Britain would restore all her acquisitions oversea, +Malta and the Cape of Good Hope alone excepted. Harrowby +was also charged to do all in his power to effect the liberation of +North Germany and Holland by the Russo-Swedish force then +mustering at Stralsund. Such were the plans of Pitt. Even in +this brief outline, their magnanimity is apparent. In order to +assure the freedom of the Continent, he was ready to pour forth +the wealth of Britain, and to sacrifice all her conquests, except +those two bulwarks of Empire, Malta and the Cape.<a name="FNanchor_741_741" id="FNanchor_741_741"></a><a href="#Footnote_741_741" class="fnanchor">[741]</a> Already +even before Nelson gained the mastery of the seas at Trafalgar, +Baird's force had set sail for the reduction of the Cape. It +achieved its purpose in the month in which Pitt died. It is not +generally known that the foundation of our South African +Empire was due primarily to his foresight. The war having +originated in Napoleon's aggressions and his threats respecting +Egypt and the Orient generally, Pitt resolved that England +should thenceforth dominate both the sea route and the overland +route to the East Indies.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, owing to the fogs on the River Elbe and other +delays at Hamburg, Harrowby did not reach Berlin until the +middle of November;<a name="FNanchor_742_742" id="FNanchor_742_742"></a><a href="#Footnote_742_742" class="fnanchor">[742]</a> and a fortnight earlier (3rd November) +the sovereigns of Russia and Prussia had framed the Treaty of +Potsdam. Ostensibly, it bound Prussia to side with the Allies +unless within four weeks Napoleon accepted her armed mediation, +which she proposed to offer forthwith. She required from +the French Emperor a full recognition of the independence of +Germany, Holland, Switzerland, and Naples, which of course +implied the withdrawal of French troops from those lands. +Napoleon was also to grant to the dispossessed King of Sardinia +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_540" id="Page_540">[Pg 540]</a></span>the following indemnities—Genoa, Parma, and Piacenza; while +Austria was to recover Central Venetia as far as the River +Mincio. The Allies flattered themselves that Napoleon would +at once reject these terms and throw Prussia into their arms. +Such, too, was the conviction of Pitt. While regretting that France +should keep Piedmont and find no barrier opposed to her in +Holland,<a name="FNanchor_743_743" id="FNanchor_743_743"></a><a href="#Footnote_743_743" class="fnanchor">[743]</a> he felt so convinced of Napoleon's refusal and of +Prussia's good faith that he prepared to satisfy her demand for +a British subsidy. Prussian troops were marching into Hanover, +as if with the aim of ousting the French and restoring the +authority of George III; and Hardenberg assured Harrowby in +their first interview, on 16th November, that that force would protect +the flank of the Anglo-Russian expedition then about to +enter the Electorate.</p> + +<p>On the surface, then, everything seemed to augur a brilliant +success for Pitt's policy. As had happened before, the recklessness +of Napoleon favoured the British cause; and it is probable +that, if Frederick William had sent to the French headquarters +any one but Count Haugwitz, Prussia would have drawn the +sword. Napoleon was in great danger. True, he met with little +opposition in his advance to Vienna and thence into Moravia. +But the deeper he plunged into that province, the worse would +be his position if 180,000 Prussians were launched at his +flank and rear. The Court of Berlin was well aware that the +destinies of Europe lay in its hands; and for once a fatal confidence +possessed Frederick William. He and his advisers used +the crisis, not in the magnanimous spirit which impelled Pitt to +sacrifice nearly the whole of Britain's naval conquests, but in +order to assure Prussia's gain even at the expense of the solidarity +of the European League. The Coalition's extremity was +Prussia's opportunity. Hanover was her price for joining it. +Such was the purport of a secret article of the Treaty of +Potsdam, to which the Czar had most reluctantly given his +consent.</p> + +<p>In order to bring the utmost possible pressure to bear upon +the British Government, a special Russian envoy, Count d'Oubril, +set out from Berlin to London, crossing Harrowby on the way. +Oubril arrived in London on or about 16th November; and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_541" id="Page_541">[Pg 541]</a></span>after a short delay Vorontzoff and he communicated to Pitt the +document containing the ominous demand. The Russian ambassador +noted that Pitt, despite long training in the concealment +of his feelings, displayed some emotion on reading the +fateful words. In truth, they dealt the second of the strokes +which struck him to the heart. But, collecting himself with an +effort, he informed Vorontzoff that, so great was the King's +attachment to Hanover, the patrimony of his family for upwards +of a thousand years, that no Minister would venture ever to +name the proposal, as it might either kill him or drive him mad. +All the arguments of Vorontzoff and Oubril on behalf of the +Prusso-Russian demand utterly failed. Pitt expressed a desire to +meet Prussia's wishes for a better western frontier, but never at +the expense of Hanover.<a name="FNanchor_744_744" id="FNanchor_744_744"></a><a href="#Footnote_744_744" class="fnanchor">[744]</a> Thus he deliberately faced a terrible +diplomatic reverse rather than expose the King to a recurrence +of his mental malady. A little later he recovered his equanimity; +for on 19th November he informed Harrowby that, though +Hanover was out of the question, yet he hoped to find an +equivalent which would satisfy Prussia. The two Emperors +could not in their present plight object to her gaining a large +accession of territory. Moreover it would be an infinite disgrace +to them now to make a separate peace with Napoleon.</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Still [he added] even if this should happen, we have a strong interest +that a separate peace should provide all the security that can be +obtained for the Continent. If decent terms are obtained, particularly +if France is obliged <em>really</em> to evacuate Holland and leave it in a state of +independence, and if the three great Continental Powers after extorting +concessions from France in the moment of victory, unite cordially in an +obligation to resist all future encroachments, not only Europe will have +gained much, but we shall have gained for the separate objects of this +country more than enough to compensate for all the expense of subsidies +in this year; and we may return to a state of separate war with +little to guard against but the single point of Boulogne and with increased +means of concentrating both our naval and land defence. The +first object therefore of my wishes is, the immediate rejection of the +mediation<a name="FNanchor_745_745" id="FNanchor_745_745"></a><a href="#Footnote_745_745" class="fnanchor">[745]</a> and the <em>embarking Prussia at any rate in active and decisive +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_542" id="Page_542">[Pg 542]</a></span>operations</em> towards Germany and Holland, leaving it to be considered +afterwards what territorial arrangements can be agreed upon to secure +her permanent co-operation. The next would be, in the event of +negotiation, our being included in it, on the terms of restoring all our +conquests except Malta and the Cape—and the third (and tho' the worst +not a bad one) as good a separate peace as possible for our perfidious +Allies, leaving us to fight our battle for ourselves....<a name="FNanchor_746_746" id="FNanchor_746_746"></a><a href="#Footnote_746_746" class="fnanchor">[746]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>Pitt's indignation against Prussia did not lead him to fling +a refusal at her. On the contrary, he sought to postpone that +announcement until the expiration of the four weeks, within +which she must make her decision to side with or against +Napoleon. Such was the purport of his letter of 23rd November +to Harrowby. He also announced an increase in the numbers of +the British force destined to serve in Hanover. This expedition +under General Don was now being pushed on with great zeal. +It met with disapproval from Canning, who with much sagacity +pointed out, on 29th November, that if the war were continued +the gain of a month or two was a trifling object; whereas, if the +Allies ended the war, France would certainly offer Hanover to +Prussia.<a name="FNanchor_747_747" id="FNanchor_747_747"></a><a href="#Footnote_747_747" class="fnanchor">[747]</a> The dash of pessimism in Canning's nature enabled +him to discern difficulties and dangers which were hidden from +Pitt's ever hopeful vision. Mulgrave seems to have shared Pitt's +view; for he signed all the despatches relating to the Hanoverian +expedition. On 23rd November he informed Harrowby that, +early in the year 1806, as many as 70,000 British and Hanoverian +troops would be ready for service, either in Hanover or wherever +they could be employed to most effect. He therefore +expected that by that time the Allies would have nearly +300,000 men in North Germany; and, as the resources of Austria +were not depleted by the disaster at Ulm, she and Russia +ought then to have nearly half a million of men on foot.<a name="FNanchor_748_748" id="FNanchor_748_748"></a><a href="#Footnote_748_748" class="fnanchor">[748]</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Pitt's eagerness to receive news from Harrowby appears in +the closing phrases of his letter of 29th November to that +envoy: "We are counting moments till we hear in what state +you found things on your arrival [at Berlin], and what has been +Haugwitz's reception at the French headquarters." Again, on +5th December, he sent off to him a letter, which as being the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_543" id="Page_543">[Pg 543]</a></span>last of any importance written by him at Downing Street, must +be given in full:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">Downing St. <i>Dec. 5th, 1805</i>.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Harrowby</span>,</p> + +<p>I am grieved to hear by your letter of the 24th that you had +been so much persecuted by headaches, and that you had allowed the +secret article of Potsdam [<span lang="la">sic</span>] to give you so much uneasiness. You +must I am sure be satisfied that the way in which you have treated it is +<em>the best possible</em>, because it gives no hopes of the thing being consented +to, and at the same time avoids the necessity of any formal and official +negative. The great object I think is that Prussia should if possible, +decide on the result of C<sup>t</sup> Haugwitz's mission, without giving to the evil +councillors of the King of Prussia the advantage of stating to him that +this object is precluded for ever. At the same time we cannot in good +faith give the least assurance that it is likely to be ever attainable. +Woronzow [Vorontzoff] who has been in town for ten days but is gone +again, writes to Alopeus that he has received from him the <span lang="fr">mémoire +raisonné</span> on the exchange of Hanover, but cannot present it to us till +he has orders to do so from his own Court. We are therefore supposed +to know nothing more of the matter.</p> + +<p>On the whole state of things, you will perhaps be angry with me for +saying that my hopes are still sanguine. I think I see great chance of +Prussia agreeing to co-operate either for a definite object or a limited +time, in return for subsidies and for our assurance (which you know to +be a very sincere one) of wishing to procure for them important acquisitions. +The question of Hanover may I think be left aloof. As to plans +of operations, it is almost idle to say anything. But you will have seen +that we think the first and <em>essential</em> point is to act (as Prussia seems to +intend) with a force sure of success in the rear of the French Army in +Germany. Still I cannot conceive what can be the military reasons why +an attack on Holland should not take place at the same time, or at least +should not be prepared so as to be put into execution whenever the +effect of any great success of the Allies, or a frost, or an appearance of +good disposition in the country, should afford a favourable opening for +such an enterprise, the advantages of which in its impression and consequences +I need not state to you. We have finally decided with a view +to this chance and for the sake of shewing at any rate our readiness to +co-operate, to send the 12,000 men which have been prepared, to Embden +[<span lang="la">sic</span>], and if this wind continues, I hope they will sail within three +days. Endeavour to make Prussia send under General Kalkreuth (or +whoever may be the general they destine for that quarter) not merely +10,000 men, but enough to make such an army as can scarce be resisted. +Our force with the Russians (exclusive of the Swedes and after +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_544" id="Page_544">[Pg 544]</a></span>allowing for something to watch Hameln<a name="FNanchor_749_749" id="FNanchor_749_749"></a><a href="#Footnote_749_749" class="fnanchor">[749]</a>) will be near 40,000 men. It +surely cannot be difficult for Prussia to add 30,000 to that number +within a very few weeks on increased subsidies beyond the number they +now propose, and that without at all impairing the effort against Bonaparte's +army. As to your stay at Berlin I can only say that if your +health will permit, <em>everything that we value most</em> may depend on your +remaining till you have seen the leading points of the negociation fairly +through. As to details with Saxony and Hesse, they cannot be worth +your waiting for, if they require any time, which, however, supposing you +once to settle with Prussia, they cannot. The important moment seems +to be that when the issue of Haugwitz's negociation shall have been +known in Berlin and time given to communicate with Austria and +Russia on the result. Under these circumstances it will I am afraid +hardly be as pleasant to you as it is to me to know that Parliament will +not meet till the 21st of Jan<sup>y</sup> [1806] and that you have not on that account +any reason for your immediate return. If, however, (as I most +earnestly hope will not be the case) you should really find the fatigue +and anxiety too much for you, it is certainly among <em>the things that we +value most</em>, that you should return, having suffered as little as possible. +A frigate will be sent to wait your orders at the Elbe, but I hope you +will have no occasion to use it, till after you have signed a provisional +treaty, and seen the Prussians on their march against the enemy.</p> + +<p style="text-align: right; margin-right: 20%">Ever most sincerely yours</p> + +<p class="letter">W. P.</p> +</div> + + +<p>Three days before Pitt poured forth this sanguine forecast, +Napoleon struck the Coalition to the heart. As "the sun of +Austerlitz" set, the two Emperors were in flight eastwards, +while their armies streamed after them in hopeless rout, or +struggled through the funnel of death between the two lakes +(2nd December). Marbot's story of thousands of Russians +sinking majestically under the ice is a piece of melodrama. But +the reality was such as to stun the survivors. In his dazed +condition the Emperor Francis forthwith sent proposals for a +truce. It proved to be the precursor of the armistice of 6th +December, which involved the departure of the Russian army +and the exclusion of that of Prussia from Austrian territories. +In the calculating balance maintained at Berlin, this diplomatic +surrender proved to be a greater calamity than the military +disaster. True, the news of the battle caused consternation; but +for the present Frederick William held firm and on 8th December<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_545" id="Page_545">[Pg 545]</a></span> +ordered part of the Prussian army (now 192,000 strong) +to enter Bohemia for the succour of the Allies.<a name="FNanchor_750_750" id="FNanchor_750_750"></a><a href="#Footnote_750_750" class="fnanchor">[750]</a> Not until after +the 13th, after the arrival of news of the armistice, did he seek to +evade his obligations to Russia; and, obviously, a new situation +arose when Alexander gave up the campaign, and Francis promised +to bar out the Prussians. Hardenberg sought to hide from +Harrowby this change of front, hinting, however, that Prussia +might have to consult her own interests. In the light of the +events of 1795, that phrase was clear enough; and Harrowby +forthwith sent orders to General Don to countermand the +advance of his troops towards Hanover.<a name="FNanchor_751_751" id="FNanchor_751_751"></a><a href="#Footnote_751_751" class="fnanchor">[751]</a></p> + +<p>To complete this chapter of misfortunes, Harrowby's health +broke down. On discovering the truth about Prussia's secret +demand for Hanover, he fell into the depths of despair and +nervous prostration, as appears from the postscript of his letter +of 24th November to Pitt:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>This horrible secret article has finished me. It stood with its +mouth open, and from mere cowardice I have run into it, and it will +devour me. I am persuaded, however, that it would equally have +caught me if I had run away. There is something, however, in every +view of it which agonises me. I am anxious beyond imagination to +know what passes in England upon it and conclude I shall by the next +newspaper. Would it be impossible to prevail upon the King to listen +to the idea of a sort of Barrier-treaty for Hanover, which would give +Prussia a military frontier but not the territorial possession?<a name="FNanchor_752_752" id="FNanchor_752_752"></a><a href="#Footnote_752_752" class="fnanchor">[752]</a></p> +</div> + + +<p>On 8th December, after hearing the first news of Austerlitz, +he writes in equally dolorous strains, concluding with a request +that Pitt would send a frigate to the mouth of the Elbe to bring +away his coffin. Again he writes in these pathetic terms:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><i>Most secret.</i></p> + +<p class="letter">Berlin, <i>12 Dec. 1805</i>.<a name="FNanchor_753_753" id="FNanchor_753_753"></a><a href="#Footnote_753_753" class="fnanchor">[753]</a></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Pitt</span>,</p> + +<p>The current of events has been so rapid, and the embarrassments +they produce from every quarter is [<span lang="la">sic</span>] so intolerable, that, +weakened as my brain has been by nervous spasms of giddiness, I hardly +keep my senses. Cool judgment is required; and I can only take steps +in a state of agitation—repent; and there is something more to be +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_546" id="Page_546">[Pg 546]</a></span>repented of. I shall not long stand it; but, in the meantime, what mischief +may not have happened! The sacrifice of myself is nothing. All +is over with me even if I survive. I am tolerably at intervals, but every +fresh occurrence brings with it distraction. I tremble at the consequences. +You can conceive no state of mind, or rather of mind and +body operating upon each other; you cannot even pity it; you can only +despise it. Good God. If it be possible, do not betray me. I may +recover. I try to disguise my feelings. I write to my wife with affected +cheerfulness. She would not survive. For heaven's sake, keep this to +yourself.</p> + +<p style="text-align: right; margin-right: 20%">Yours ever,</p> + +<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">Harrowby</span>.</p> +</div> + + +<p>To what mistake Harrowby here alludes is a mystery. But +George Jackson states that he had three fits at Berlin, besides +spasms every day. Indeed his state was so pitiable that his +selection for this difficult post was matter of general comment. +The physicians strongly urged him to return to England at +once.<a name="FNanchor_754_754" id="FNanchor_754_754"></a><a href="#Footnote_754_754" class="fnanchor">[754]</a> Pitt cannot have received Harrowby's pathetic confession +when he replied as follows, probably to the letter of the 8th:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">Bath, <i>Dec. 21st, 1805</i>.<a name="FNanchor_755_755" id="FNanchor_755_755"></a><a href="#Footnote_755_755" class="fnanchor">[755]</a></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Harrowby</span>,</p> + +<p>I was prevented from writing a few lines as I intended by the +messenger we sent from hence yesterday. We are sending orders for +another today to pass through Berlin on his way to the Emperor's +head-quarters, to remind them of sending the ratification which we have +never yet received. We have nothing very authentic from the armies +later than your despatch of the 9th by estafette, but there are accounts +thro' Hamburg from Berlin of the 10th, corroborated by reports from +various quarters, which lead us to hope that the sequel of the battle +at length terminated in great success on the part of Russia. If this +proves true, I flatter myself your subsidiary treaty will have been soon +brought to a prosperous issue, and you will be delivered from all your +fatigue and anxiety. I am quite grieved to think how much you have +suffered, tho' I trust your complaint is only temporary, and that a good +battle and a good treaty will send you back to us in better health than +you went. I see no danger of your exceeding our limit in the amount +of subsidy, as we looked if necessary to an actual annual payment of +£3,000,000, and the number proposed in the treaty, of 180,000 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_547" id="Page_547">[Pg 547]</a></span>Prussians and 40,000 Allies, will not require more than £2,750,000, +which still leaves room for 25,000 men more if they are wanted and can +be had. I have been here for ten days and have already felt the effect +of the waters in a pretty smart fit of the gout from which I am just +recovering, and of which I expect soon to perceive the benefit.</p> + +<p style="text-align: right; margin-right: 20%">Ever yours,</p> + +<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">W. Pitt.</span></p> + +<p>I need hardly tell you that every step you have taken has been exactly +what we should have desired.</p> +</div> + + +<p>He who wrote these cheering words was in worse health than +Harrowby. The latter lived on till the year 1847; Pitt had now +taken his last journey but one. Sharp attacks of gout had reduced +him to so weak and tremulous a state that he could +scarcely lift a glass to his lips. So wrote Mrs. Jackson on 9th +December, long before the news of Austerlitz reached these +shores.<a name="FNanchor_756_756" id="FNanchor_756_756"></a><a href="#Footnote_756_756" class="fnanchor">[756]</a> So far back as 27th November, Canning, in prophetic +strains, begged him not to defer a projected visit to Bath until +it was too late for the waters to do him good. But "the pilot +that weathered the storm" refused to leave the tiller in case +decisive news came from Harrowby. He also prepared to +strengthen his Cabinet against the attacks certain to be made +in the ensuing session, by including in it two excellent speakers, +Canning and Charles Yorke, the latter taking the Board of +Control. Why he did not complete these changes, as Canning +begged him to do, is far from clear. Possibly the sharp though +friendly criticism which Canning levelled against the Anglo-Russian +expedition to Hanover made him apprehensive of +divisions in the Cabinet on a question which was very near his +heart. Certainly much could be said in favour of an expedition +to Walcheren, which Canning urged should be entrusted to +General M[oore?]. Pitt preferred the Hanoverian enterprise, +doubtless because it would lay Russia and Prussia under a debt +of honour to co-operate to the utmost of their power.</p> + +<p>At last the strain became too great, and on 7th December Pitt +set out for Bath, arriving there on the 11th. He resided at +Harrowby's house, 11, Laura Place. His stay in Bath aroused +interest so intense that he found it necessary to vary the time of +his visits to the Pump Room in order to escape the crowd +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_548" id="Page_548">[Pg 548]</a></span>which would otherwise have incommoded him.<a name="FNanchor_757_757" id="FNanchor_757_757"></a><a href="#Footnote_757_757" class="fnanchor">[757]</a> As has just +appeared, he expected a speedy recovery; for, as was the case +with his father, if the attack of gout ran a normal course, the +system felt relief. Freedom from worry was the first condition +of amendment. After his retirement from office in 1768 Chatham +recovered so quickly that his opponents gibed at the illness +as a political device.<a name="FNanchor_758_758" id="FNanchor_758_758"></a><a href="#Footnote_758_758" class="fnanchor">[758]</a> Ten years later he succumbed to excitement +and strain.</p> + +<p>During the first part of his stay at Bath, Pitt was in good +spirits and wrote cheerfully about his health. The following +letter to his London physician, Sir Walter Farquhar, is not that +of a man who feels death approaching:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="letter">Bath, <i>Dec. 15. 1805</i>.<a name="FNanchor_759_759" id="FNanchor_759_759"></a><a href="#Footnote_759_759" class="fnanchor">[759]</a></p> + +<p>The gout continues pretty smartly in my foot; and I find from +Mr. Crooks that it is attended with a feverish pulse and some other +symptoms of the same nature. I have communicated to Mr. Crooks +your directions, and he is to send me the saline draughts with some +little addition, which he will explain to you. I thought he would detail +symptoms more precisely than I could, and have therefore desired him +to write to you. On the whole, I have no doubt the plan you have laid +down will answer, and I do not at present see the smallest occasion to +accept your kind and friendly offer of coming here.</p> + +<p>P.S. 4.30 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span> I enclose Mr. Crooks' letter to you. His account to +me of the pulse was that it was not strong, but quick and beating near +an hundred. One of the saline draughts which I have taken since I +wrote the foregoing letter, seems, as far as I can judge from feeling, +already to have had a very good effect.</p> +</div> + + +<p>Not until ten days later do we find signs of alarm in the letters +of his friends; for it is characteristic of his buoyant nature that +he never wrote despondingly about himself. There is a well-known +story to the effect that, on hearing the news of Austerlitz, +he called for a map of Europe, to see where the place was, +and then said with a sigh: "Roll up that map: it will not be +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_549" id="Page_549">[Pg 549]</a></span>wanted these ten years." One version assigns the incident to +Shockerwick House, near Bath. Pitt is looking over the picture +gallery, and is gazing at Gainsborough's portrait of the actor +Quin. His retentive memory calls up the lines in Churchill's +"Characters":</p> + + +<p class="poem"> +Nature, in spite of all his skill, crept in—<br /> +Horatio, Dorax, Falstaff—still 'twas Quin.<br /> +</p> + + +<p>At that moment he hears the beat of a horse's hoofs. A courier +dashes up. He comes in, splashed with mud, hands the despatches. +Pitt tears them open and hurriedly reads them. His +countenance changes, he calls for brandy, then for a map, and +is finally helped to his carriage, uttering the historic phrase.<a name="FNanchor_760_760" id="FNanchor_760_760"></a><a href="#Footnote_760_760" class="fnanchor">[760]</a> +In another version he mournfully rolls out the words to +Lady Hester Stanhope, as she welcomes him in the hall of +Bowling Green House, after his last journey to his home on +Putney Heath.<a name="FNanchor_761_761" id="FNanchor_761_761"></a><a href="#Footnote_761_761" class="fnanchor">[761]</a> The words probably fell from him on some +occasion. But at the risk of incurring the charge of pedantry, I +must point out that the news of Austerlitz did not come on him +as one overwhelming shock: it filtered through by degrees. As +we have seen, he wrote to Harrowby on 21st December, stating +that reports from Berlin and other quarters represented the +sequel to the battle as a great success for the Russians. It +appears that Thornton, our envoy at Hamburg, wrote as follows +on 13th December to Mulgrave: "From everything I can learn +(for the details are even yet far from being circumstantial +and decisive) the tide of success had completely turned in +favour of the Russian and Austrian armies, tho', as the conflict +still continued to the 4th and perhaps to the 5th, it could +not be positively said on which side the victory had been declared. +The certain intelligence cannot now be long delayed."<a name="FNanchor_762_762" id="FNanchor_762_762"></a><a href="#Footnote_762_762" class="fnanchor">[762]</a></p> + +<p>Castlereagh also, writing to Pitt on 19th December, assured +him that he had heard similar news through various channels, +and therefore cherished high hopes that something good had +happened.<a name="FNanchor_763_763" id="FNanchor_763_763"></a><a href="#Footnote_763_763" class="fnanchor">[763]</a> Mulgrave, who was then also at Bath along with +Bathurst, Hawkesbury, and Canning, shared these hopes. Despite +the first reports of Austerlitz, which were promptly contradicted,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_550" id="Page_550">[Pg 550]</a></span> +the Ministerial circle at Bath had no want of diversion. +On 12th December Mulgrave sent to Pitt a short poem on +Trafalgar for his correction, and Pitt touched up a few lines. +On 21st December Mulgrave wrote to him: "I send you +Woronzow [Vorontzoff] and Ward, <span lang="fr">faute de mieux</span>. I was rejoiced +to find you were gone out in your carriage when I called +at your home after church. As Bathurst, Canning, and the +gout have left you, I hope you will be able to return to the mess +to-morrow." This does not imply that Pitt was living the life of +an invalid, or was kept to so strict a diet as during his sojourn +at Bath three years before.</p> + +<p>Equally hopeful was the estimate of Canning. He spent a +week with Pitt at Bath, and, after leaving him shortly before +Christmas, informed a friend that Pitt was "recovering from a +fit of the gout, which has done him abundance of good, and puts +off the time of his driving after old Frere—I trust to an incalculable +distance.... There wants only an official confirmation of +all the good news (that has reached us through every possible +channel except those of Office) to complete it."<a name="FNanchor_764_764" id="FNanchor_764_764"></a><a href="#Footnote_764_764" class="fnanchor">[764]</a></p> + +<p>Canning, we may note here, had discussed with Pitt his projected +poem—"Ulm and Trafalgar" (which bore the motto +"Look here, upon this picture, and on that"). It began:</p> + + +<p class="poem"> +While Austria's yielded armies, vainly brave,<br /> +Moved, in sad pomp, by Danube's blood-stained wave<br /> +</p> + + +<p>and ended with a noble acclaim to Nelson:</p> + + +<p class="poem"> +Thou, bravest, gentlest Spirit, fare thee well. +</p> + + +<p>On the first line Canning plumed himself until he remembered +the warning of an old tutor at Magdalen, that when anything in +your verses pleased you very much, it was best to strike it out. +Canning referred the phrase "yielded armies" to Pitt, who +probably found relief from his cares in touching up the poem.<a name="FNanchor_765_765" id="FNanchor_765_765"></a><a href="#Footnote_765_765" class="fnanchor">[765]</a> +That Christmastide, then, was a time of anxiety, but not of +settled gloom. There is no sign that Pitt or his colleagues felt +the position to be desperate until the end of the year. On +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_551" id="Page_551">[Pg 551]</a></span>Christmas Day Castlereagh wrote from Downing Street to Pitt: +"I am sorry to add to your materials for criticism and speculation. +I send you Cooke's 'Courant,' There is intelligence in the +City from Amsterdam of the 21st. Nothing official known here +of an <span lang="fr">armistice</span>. You have received from Lord B[arham?] every +information from that quarter."<a name="FNanchor_766_766" id="FNanchor_766_766"></a><a href="#Footnote_766_766" class="fnanchor">[766]</a></p> + +<p>Indeed, the hopefulness of Ministers now involved them in +greater difficulties. Building on Prussia's promises, they decided +early in December to order the despatch of strong reinforcements +to the British corps then on the point of entering +Hanover.<a name="FNanchor_767_767" id="FNanchor_767_767"></a><a href="#Footnote_767_767" class="fnanchor">[767]</a> In all, as many as 65,000 British and King's Germans +were to be sent—the largest force that had ever set sail from these +shores, a fact which testifies to the ardour of Pitt's desires for +the liberation of Hanover and Holland. Even the immediate +results of this decision were disastrous. Sixty-seven transports, +forthwith setting sail, encountered a terrible storm, which flung +three of them on the enemy's coast, while one sank with all hands +on the Goodwins. Such was the purport of the news sent by +Castlereagh to Pitt at Bath on 19th December. He added that, +in spite of these losses, "the little Cabinet of five" (with Lord +Barham in attendance) decided to order all the remaining transports +to sail, so that Prussia might be encouraged to "throw her +strength to the southward. We have acted for the best, and I +hope you and your companions will approve."<a name="FNanchor_768_768" id="FNanchor_768_768"></a><a href="#Footnote_768_768" class="fnanchor">[768]</a> Pitt, of course, +did approve, not knowing that while England was encountering +heavy risks in order to effect the liberation of North Germany, +her Allies had come to terms with Napoleon.</p> + +<p>At last, on 29th December, definite news concerning the armistice +of 4th December reached London. It must have chilled +the hearts of the boldest. For, trusting in the continued exertions +of the Allies, England had sent to North Germany as +many as 257 transports, and of these 8 were now known to be +lost, involving the death of 664 men, and the capture of about +1,000 on the enemies' coasts. All this effort and loss of life +now appeared to be useless, in view of the vacillating conduct +of Prussia. Only with her good will could the British troops, +with the Russian and Swedish contingents, hope to conquer +Holland. If she declared against us, the whole force would be +in jeopardy. Such were the tidings which Castlereagh bore with +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_552" id="Page_552">[Pg 552]</a></span>him to Pitt at the end of the year.<a name="FNanchor_769_769" id="FNanchor_769_769"></a><a href="#Footnote_769_769" class="fnanchor">[769]</a> Not a line survives respecting +that mournful interview; but we can picture the deathly +look coming over Pitt's emaciated features as he now for the +first time faced the prospect of the dissolution of the mighty +league which he had toiled to construct. Probably it was this +shock to the system which brought on a second attack of +the gout, accompanied with great weakness and distaste for +food.<a name="FNanchor_770_770" id="FNanchor_770_770"></a><a href="#Footnote_770_770" class="fnanchor">[770]</a></p> + +<p>Nevertheless he clung to the hope that Prussia would stand +firm. On 3rd January 1806 further news reached him from the +Austrian and Prussian Governments. The Austrian despatches +represented Austerlitz as a repulse, but not a disaster, and the +armistice as a device for enabling Prussia to prepare her blow at +Napoleon's flank or rear. On 5th January Mulgrave found in +the despatches from Berlin grounds for believing that that Court +might under certain conditions assist the two Emperors in Moravia +and the British force in Hanover. On the morrow he wrote +to Pitt in emphatic terms, urging him to offer to Prussia the +Dutch Republic. That little State (he urged) could not again +be independent, save in circumstances now scarcely imaginable, +much less realizable. Further, the Stadholder having very +tamely accepted the domain of Fulda as an indemnity, we need +feel no qualms for the House of Nassau; and, as Prussia was +influenced solely by territorial greed, and Hanover was out of the +question, she might well acquire the Dutch Netherlands, which +would link her to British interests.<a name="FNanchor_771_771" id="FNanchor_771_771"></a><a href="#Footnote_771_771" class="fnanchor">[771]</a> Again we have to admit +ignorance of Pitt's opinion on this degrading proposal. Certainly +it never took definite shape.<a name="FNanchor_772_772" id="FNanchor_772_772"></a><a href="#Footnote_772_772" class="fnanchor">[772]</a> Though willing to assign to Prussia +the Belgic Netherlands, he laid great stress on the independence +of the Dutch Netherlands, which indeed was the corner-stone of +his foreign policy. Moreover, to barter away an unoffending little +State was to repeat the international crimes of the partitions of +Poland and Venetia. We may be sure that that proud and just +spirit would rather have perished than stoop to such ignominy.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_553" id="Page_553">[Pg 553]</a></span></p> +<p>In effect, he fell a victim to his resolve never to barter away +the patrimony of George III. We now know that Prussia's +policy at this crisis turned mainly on the acquisition of Hanover. +Her envoy, Haugwitz, whom she sent to Napoleon's headquarters +charged with the offer of Prussia's armed mediation on behalf of +Europe, had on 15th December signed with him the humiliating +Convention of Schönbrunn, whereby Prussia agreed to make +certain cessions of territory on condition of acquiring Hanover. +About Christmastide Frederick William decided to close with +this offer, which involved the expulsion of the Anglo-Russian +force from the Electorate. Premonitory signs of this change of +front were soon visible at Berlin. Indeed, the trend of Prussian +policy during the last decade prepared the British Ministry for +the ruin of their hopes. Pitt must have been racked with anxiety +lest Prussia should doff the lion's skin and don that of the jackal; +for he alone knew of the nervous breakdown of Harrowby.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it was the hope of helping on that negotiation from +Downing Street, added to the verdict of Sir Walter Farquhar +that the Bath waters were now of no avail, which induced him on +9th January to set out on his homeward journey. He was believed +to be in better health than at the time of his arrival; such +at least was the announcement of the "Bath Herald" on the 11th; +and his hopeful outlook appears in a curious detail which afterwards +came to light. In order to beguile the tedium of the journey +he had taken out from a circulating library in Bath the following +works, each in two volumes, "The Secret History of the +Court of Petersburg," and Schiller's "History of the Thirty Years' +War."<a name="FNanchor_773_773" id="FNanchor_773_773"></a><a href="#Footnote_773_773" class="fnanchor">[773]</a> A man who believes death to be near does not undertake +a study of the manifold intrigues of Catharine II, or of the +Thirty Years' War. He also had the prospect of seeing the liveliest +and most devoted of friends, Canning, at his country home, +South Hill, Bracknell, in Windsor Forest. Canning sent the invitation +on the 5th, and it was accepted on the 8th in terms +which implied a sojourn of some days. He offered to accompany +him from Bath, if he felt strong enough to converse on the way; +but Pitt declined this offer, and it is doubtful whether he stayed +at South Hill; for Malmesbury declares that he had to remain a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_554" id="Page_554">[Pg 554]</a></span>long time in bed at Reading. On the other hand the Bishop of +Lincoln declared that the journey took only two days, and that +at its close Pitt showed no very marked signs of fatigue. Lady +Hester Stanhope, however, was shocked by his wasted appearance +on reaching his home, Bowling Green House, on Putney +Heath.</p> + +<p>Some eighteen months earlier he had leased that residence. +It stands on the (old) Portsmouth Road, and had earlier been an +inn frequented by lovers of that game and patrons of cockfighting. +After enlargement it had been converted into a gentleman's +abode which well suited the modest requirements of +Pitt and of his niece, Lady Hester Stanhope.<a name="FNanchor_774_774" id="FNanchor_774_774"></a><a href="#Footnote_774_774" class="fnanchor">[774]</a> There, not far +from the scenes of his youthful frolics with Wilberforce, and +only a quarter of a mile from the dell where he fought the duel +with Tierney, he found solace from the ever-increasing cares of +state. In those last months Hester felt for him feelings akin to +adoration.</p> + + +<div> +<a name="image08" id="image08"></a> +</div> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 800px;"> +<img src="images/image08.jpg" width="800" height="532" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Bowling Green House, Putney Heath. (From a pencil sketch by Elsie H. Rose)</span> +</div> + + +<p>On the morrow, Sunday, their circle was enlarged by the +arrival of his old friend and counsellor, Bishop Tomline, who +was shocked at the change which had taken place in him since +he left for Bath. The physicians, Farquhar, Reynolds, and Baillie, +however, saw no cause for alarm, the only disquieting symptoms +being intense weakness and dislike of animal food. There is a +forcibly significant phrase in a recent letter of George Rose to +Tomline, that he dreaded the effect on the invalid of an excessive +use of medicines.<a name="FNanchor_775_775" id="FNanchor_775_775"></a><a href="#Footnote_775_775" class="fnanchor">[775]</a> Evidently Rose believed the digestive +organs to be impaired by this habit. Pitt's daily potations of +port wine for many years past must further have told against +recovery. Whether Farquhar and his colleagues cut off medicine +and sought to build up that emaciated frame is uncertain. All +that we know is that they prescribed complete quiet, and therefore +requested the bishop to open all Pitt's letters so as to preclude +all chance of excitement.</p> + +<p>On 12th January, Pitt wrote an affectionate letter to the Marquis +Wellesley, welcoming him on his return from his memorable +Vice-royalty in India. He begged him to come to Bowling +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_555" id="Page_555">[Pg 555]</a></span>Green House at the earliest opportunity. The letter closes with +these remarkable words: "I am recovering rather slowly from a +series of stomach complaints, followed by severe attacks of gout, +but I believe I am now in the way of real amendment."<a name="FNanchor_776_776" id="FNanchor_776_776"></a><a href="#Footnote_776_776" class="fnanchor">[776]</a> The +Bishop also describes him as gaining ground until Monday the +13th. On that day he went out in his coach in the morning, but +in the evening Lords Castlereagh and Hawkesbury, having obtained +permission from the physicians to interview their chief, +communicated news which had a most agitating effect. Pitt +afterwards assured the Bishop "that he felt during that conversation +some sensation in his stomach which he feared it might +be difficult to remove."<a name="FNanchor_777_777" id="FNanchor_777_777"></a><a href="#Footnote_777_777" class="fnanchor">[777]</a> It is surprising that the physicians +allowed an interview of an agitating nature; but the ministerial +pressure brought to bear on them may have overborne their +better judgement. In matters of Cabinet discipline Pitt was an +autocrat, insisting that no important action should be taken +without his cognizance. Probably, then, it was his own sense of +responsibility which exposed him to the death blow.</p> + +<p>Certainly the question at issue was of the gravest kind. +Should Ministers order the return of the British reinforcements +last sent to Hanover? That expedition was the work of Pitt. +He it was who had reared the fabric of a European Coalition; +and, even after the withdrawal of Austria, he clung to the hope +that Prussia would take her place, and, with the help of British, +Prussian, Russian, and Swedish troops, drive the French from +North Germany and the Dutch Republic. How could his colleagues +order back a large part of the British force, thereby +justifying the vacillations of Prussia and ensuring a parliamentary +triumph to Fox and Grenville? And yet Ministers knew, +better than Pitt could know, the danger of relying on the Court +of Berlin. Though not yet fully aware of its resolve to take Napoleon's +side, they had strong reasons for expecting this course of +action; and in that case the British expedition would be in grave +danger between the Prussians on the east, the Franco-Dutch forces +on the south-west and the ice-floes which were forming on the +River Weser. Prudence counselled the timely return of our +troops who were yet on board ship at or near Bremen.<a name="FNanchor_778_778" id="FNanchor_778_778"></a><a href="#Footnote_778_778" class="fnanchor">[778]</a> Patriotic +pride prompted a bold offensive. But the King and Pitt alone +could utter the decisive words. The King approved the return +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_556" id="Page_556">[Pg 556]</a></span>of the last reinforcements, and Pitt, it seems, must have conceded +the point. But the concession struck him to the heart. It +was the last of the deadly stabs which fate dealt him thick and +fast in his time of weakness.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, on the morrow he drove out in his carriage, but +was visibly weaker than before the interview. For a few minutes +he saw his brother and then Lord Wellesley. The latter found +his mind as clear as ever; and he uttered these remarkable +words about Sir Arthur Wellesley: "He states every difficulty +before he undertakes any service, but none after he has undertaken +it." What a prophecy of Vittoria and Waterloo there +is in these words—the swan-song of Pitt. It was too much +for him. He fainted before Wellesley left the room. On +the 18th he rallied for a time, and the doctors saw a gleam of +hope.<a name="FNanchor_779_779" id="FNanchor_779_779"></a><a href="#Footnote_779_779" class="fnanchor">[779]</a></p> + +<p>In reality there was only one faint chance of recovery, that good +news might arrive. The chief cause of physical collapse was +the torture of the brain; and it was possible that the whole +system might even now rally under the vitalizing thrills of hope. +But as day by day passed by and brought nearer that dreaded +occasion, the opening of Parliament on 22nd January, this last +chance vanished. The news which reached the Foreign Office +became more and more gloomy. On 10th January Mulgrave decided, +when recalling Harrowby, to entrust his mission at Berlin +to the Earl of Harrington, in the hope that that Court would +keep troth.<a name="FNanchor_780_780" id="FNanchor_780_780"></a><a href="#Footnote_780_780" class="fnanchor">[780]</a> But all negotiation was useless. By the 19th the +conduct of Prussia respecting Hanover appeared so threatening +that Ministers ordered the immediate recall of the whole +British force.<a name="FNanchor_781_781" id="FNanchor_781_781"></a><a href="#Footnote_781_781" class="fnanchor">[781]</a> Thus, England had sent forth some 60,000 troops +in order to bring them back again. She had paid a million sterling +to Austria, and the results were Ulm and Austerlitz. +Nearly as much had gone to Russia, and the outcome was the +armistice. A British subsidy had been claimed by Prussia, and +in return she was about to take Hanover as a gift from Napoleon. +It is to be hoped that Ministers kept the last bitter truth from +Pitt; but from their silence he must have augured the worst. +Surely death itself was better than to be driven from power by +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_557" id="Page_557">[Pg 557]</a></span>the combined attacks of Fox, Grenville, and Windham, the success +of which was now assured.</p> + +<p>A touching instance of Pitt's thoughtfulness during these +days of waning strength is recorded by Robert Plumer Ward. +He had accepted office as Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs; +but, in the event of the overthrow of the Ministry, he would be +in a far worse position than before. Pitt remembered this fact, +and whispered to Farquhar the words "Robert Ward." He also +made signs for paper and ink and sought to pen a request for a +pension; but he succeeded only in tracing strokes which could +not be deciphered.<a name="FNanchor_782_782" id="FNanchor_782_782"></a><a href="#Footnote_782_782" class="fnanchor">[782]</a> His thoughts were also with his nieces, +especially Lady Hester Stanhope. Farquhar sought to prevent a +parting interview with her; but during his temporary absence +she slipped into the bedroom, there to receive the blessing of +her uncle and an affectionate farewell. To her brother James, +who then came in, he said; "Dear soul, I know she loves me. +Where is Hester? Is Hester gone?" Early on the 22nd he dictated +these words to the bishop: "I wish £1,000 or £1,500 a +year to be given to my nieces if the public should think my long +services deserving it; but I do not presume to think I have +earned it."<a name="FNanchor_783_783" id="FNanchor_783_783"></a><a href="#Footnote_783_783" class="fnanchor">[783]</a> He then named those to whom since 1801 he owed +sums of money: Long, Steele, Lords Camden and Carrington, +the Bishop of Lincoln and Joseph Smith; he also entrusted +his papers to the bishop and to Lord Chatham.</p> + +<p>Already Bishop Tomline had warned him of his approaching +change and besought him to prepare his mind for the Sacrament. +This he declined, alleging his unworthiness to receive it. +Thereupon the bishop prayed with him. He calmly murmured +the responses and humbly confessed that he had too much +neglected prayer. Nevertheless, he affirmed the steadiness of his +religious faith and principles, and declared that he had ever +sought to fulfil his duty to God and to mankind, though with +many errors and failures. While the bishop was overcome with +emotion, the dying man thanked him earnestly for all his kindness +throughout life. Once his thoughts recurred to his own +conduct; he expressed heartfelt satisfaction at the innocency +of his life, and declared that he died in perfect charity with all +mankind.<a name="FNanchor_784_784" id="FNanchor_784_784"></a><a href="#Footnote_784_784" class="fnanchor">[784]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_558" id="Page_558">[Pg 558]</a></span></p> +<p>He lingered on to the early hours of 23rd January, the twenty-fifth +anniversary of his entry into Parliament. During that night +the cares of state once more pressed upon him. He spoke often +about a private letter from Lord Harrowby, probably the +pathetic effusion quoted above. At times he asked his nephew +the direction of the wind, and on hearing it was in the east +he murmured: "East—ah that will do: that will bring him +quick."<a name="FNanchor_785_785" id="FNanchor_785_785"></a><a href="#Footnote_785_785" class="fnanchor">[785]</a> Then he fell into conversation with a messenger, or, +again, he murmured "Hear, hear," until sleep enfolded him. The +last thoughts of Napoleon are said to have centred in his early +love and his army—"Joséphine:—Tête d'armée" he gasped as +he neared his end. In Pitt's being there was but one master +passion; and to it his wandering fancies returned during a last +brief spell of consciousness. As James Stanhope listened to the +breathing, there fell on his ears with a strange clearness the +words: "My country! How I leave my country!" Then the +sufferer fell once more into a deep sleep; and so he lay, until, +some three hours before the dawn, his spirit passed away in a +long-drawn sigh.</p> + + + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_559" id="Page_559">[Pg 559]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="EPILOGUE" id="EPILOGUE"></a>EPILOGUE</h2> + +<p style="margin-left: 40%"> +Now is the stately column broke<br /> +The beacon-light is quench'd in smoke,<br /> +The trumpet's silver sound is still<br /> +The warder silent on the hill.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em"><span class="smcap">Scott</span>, <i>Marmion</i>.</span> +</p> + + +<p>This noble epitaph to the memory of Pitt conveys an impression +alike of heroic endeavour and of irretrievable +failure. It is the Funeral March of Chopin, not of Handel, and it +echoes the feeling of the time. An impenetrable darkness hung +over England. Ulm, Austerlitz, the armistice, and the desertion +of the Allies by Prussia were successive waves of calamity, +which obliterated all landmarks and all means of safety. The +dying words of Pitt found response in every breast, with this +difference, that, while he was proudly conscious of the correctness +of his aims, the many, who judge solely by tangible +results, imputed to him the disasters of the war and the collapse +of the Coalition. Even Auckland exclaimed that the continental +alliances had been wretchedly mismanaged, a remark which +Malmesbury treated with quiet contempt. Grenville, who was +about to move a vote of censure on the Ministry, burst into an +agony of tears on hearing that Pitt was at death's door. His +distress of mind probably arose from a belated perception of the +factiousness of his own conduct and from grief at the unrelieved +gloom of the end of a career whose meridian splendour had +shed lustre upon him.</p> + +<p>The House of Commons did not whole-heartedly accord to +the deceased statesman a burial in Westminster Abbey in the +tomb of Chatham. A motion to that effect, moved by Lascelles +and seconded by the Marquis of Titchfield, was strongly opposed +by Fox, George Ponsonby, Windham, and three other speakers. +It passed by 258 votes to 59. Still more painful was the discussion +in the Common Council of the City of London, where a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_560" id="Page_560">[Pg 560]</a></span> +proposal to erect a monument to Pitt was carried only by 77 +votes to 71. It is safe to say that, if the fortune of war had +gone against France at Ulm and Austerlitz, Pitt would have +been ecstatically hailed as the saviour of Europe, as indeed he +was at the Guildhall after Trafalgar. How long was it before it +dawned on Auckland, Windham, and the seventy-one councillors +of the City of London, that the censures cast on the memory +of Pitt ought to have been levelled at the defender of Ulm, +the Czar Alexander and his equally presumptuous advisers at +Austerlitz, and most of all at the cringing politicians of Berlin?</p> + +<p>It is now abundantly clear that Pitt fell a victim to his confidence +in the rulers of three great monarchies, whose means +were vast, whose promises were lofty, and whose surrender after +the first reverses baffled all forecasts. The descendants of Maria +Theresa and Catharine tamely retired from the fray after a single +adverse blow; and the successor of the great Frederick sheathed +his sword after the unpardonable insult at Anspach.</p> + +<p>In truth, the career of Pitt came to a climax at a time of unexampled +decadence of the ancient dynasties. The destinies of +the allied Houses of Bourbon rested upon Louis XVI of France +and Charles IV of Spain. To the ineptitude of the former the +French Revolution was in large measure due. To the weakness +and falsity of the latter we may ascribe the desertion of the +royalist cause by Spain in 1795–6, with the train of disastrous +results in the Mediterranean and the West Indies. In Central +Europe Francis of Austria was scarcely more than a tool in the +hands of those subtle schemers, Thugut and Cobenzl. The +boundless resources of Russia were at the disposal of Paul and +Alexander, who, with all their generous impulses, were incapable +of steadily applying them to one definite end. Only after +weary years of subservience to Napoleon did Alexander develop +that firmness of character which finally brought salvation to the +Continent. From Frederick William even deeper humiliations +failed to evoke any heroic resolve. Among the statesmen of those +three monarchies at the time of Pitt there is but one who was a +fit compeer to him; and the fates willed that Stein should not +control affairs until the year 1807. The age of Pitt was the age +of Godoy, Thugut, and Haugwitz—weavers of old-world +schemes of partition or barter, and blind to the storm gathering +in the West.</p> + +<p>The importance of his achievements in curbing their ambitions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_561" id="Page_561">[Pg 561]</a></span> +and saving the smaller States has not received due +recognition. He did much to rescue the Dutch Netherlands +from anarchy, and Sweden and Turkey from the clutches of +powerful neighbours. He failed, indeed, in his diplomatic +contest with Catharine; but the duplicity of the Court of Berlin, +and the factious opposition of the Whigs, made success impossible; +and he had thereafter to look on helplessly at the final +Partitions of Poland. Only those who have probed the policy of +Russia, Austria, and Prussia in the years 1787–92 can fully +realize the difficulties which attended his efforts to frame a solid +league against Revolutionary France. As well might one +attempt out of rubble to build a cannon-proof rampart.</p> + +<p>At home Pitt had to deal with George III. Now, even under a +limited monarchy the fortunes of a statesman depend largely on +the character of his Sovereign. While possessing the initiative +which proffers timely advice, it should be under the control of +unfailing tact. Dowered with insight into character and foresight +as to the trend of events, the Monarch must, for the most +part, subordinate energy to self-repression and the prophetic +instinct to the warnings of courtly sagacity. Yet the ideal +British ruler must at times assert his will, albeit indirectly, and +with the personal charm which ensures the smooth working of +this delicately poised machine. He should therefore be the embodiment +of all the political virtues. Will even the admirers of +George claim that he realized that ideal? However excellent as +Elector of Hanover, he was a doubtful blessing as King of Great +Britain and Ireland.</p> + +<p>In truth, the Hanoverian strain in his nature had not been +toned to the degree of fineness needful for the kingly office +in these islands. In a time of peculiar difficulty he sought to +govern almost absolutely by means which ensured the temporary +subservience of Parliament, and in a spirit which brought +disruption upon the Empire. The former half of Pitt's career +was largely occupied in repairing the financial waste consequent +on the American War, or in making good long arrears of legislation. +Here, indeed, is his most abiding contribution to the +national welfare. But his indebtedness to the King on questions +of foreign and domestic policy is rarely apparent. Reform, +whether Economical or Parliamentary, encountered the more or +less declared opposition of the Sovereign. On the other hand, +George showed marked ability in the support of corporate interests<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_562" id="Page_562">[Pg 562]</a></span> +and the management of men; so that his relations to Pitt +were not unlike those of the Duke of Newcastle to Chatham. +The Pitts supplied the brain power while the Monarch or the +Duke by the award of favours ensured the needful degree of +subservience at the polls or in the lobbies of St. Stephens.</p> + +<p>After the "surrender" at the close of the American War, the +attitude of George towards his British subjects was one of +scarcely concealed scorn. Now and again his feelings burst +forth uncontrollably. Shortly before his second attack of lunacy, +which occurred near the end of the fortieth year of his reign, he +astonished the congregation in church by repeating in loud and +emphatic tones the response: "Forty years long was I grieved +with this generation and said: 'It is a people that do err in +their hearts, for they have not known My ways.'" The tones of +the voice betokened the approach of lunacy, but the conviction +of the mind was always the same. For the most part, however, +scorn was tempered by calculation. His letters to Pitt are full of +commendation of the House of Commons when it unquestioningly +passed Government Bills or the Supplies; whereas he +looked on Fox and Burke as baneful and wearisome talkers, +consumers of time, and foes to healthful slumber. Similarly, in +his political catechism, the whole duty of Parliament was to help +Ministers to govern; while their proper function was to raise the +maximum of revenue with the minimum of fuss and change. In +short, to maintain the existing social order; to allow no change +in a constitution which aroused the wonder or envy of other +nations; to use peerages and bishoprics, pocket boroughs and +sinecures, as a means of buttressing that fabric, such were the +aims of the third George.</p> + +<p>Failing materially to weaken the force of this mighty engine of +patronage, Pitt was fain to make the best of things as they were. +The defeat of his Reform Bill in 1785 was the chief crisis in +his early career; for it involved the failure of the Abolition Bill, +perhaps also of the schemes for the relief of the poor which he +outlined in 1797. In fact, after the year 1785, and still more so +after 1790, he had to govern mainly as King's Minister, not as +the people's Minister. Worst of all, the centre of political gravity +remained dangerously high throughout the storms of the Revolutionary +Era. How much of the nation's energy then went forth +in justifiable discontent and futile efforts at repression has already +appeared. Up to the year 1798 the struggle against France was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_563" id="Page_563">[Pg 563]</a></span> +largely one of the governing class against a nation; and for this +the King and the British oligarchy, not Pitt, were responsible. +Personal charm and the magnetic gift of evoking enthusiasm +have in some monarchs counterbalanced defects of narrowness +and intolerance. George was not deficient in courtly grace and +tact—witness his remark to Pitt at their first interview after the +long separation of the years 1801–1804. When Pitt ventured +to compliment the King on his looking better than after the +illness of 1801, the latter at once replied: "That is not to be +wondered at: I was then on the point of parting with an old +friend. Now I am about to regain one." But these gracious +remarks came rarely in his closing years, which were marked by +increasing harshness to his family, petulance on the most trivial +affairs, and an outlook more narrowly personal than ever.</p> + +<p>Such a nature chafes its surroundings. It arouses no enthusiasm; +it merely begets heat by friction. Pitt has been blamed +for spending too much time and energy in speeches about the war. +But there was no other way of kindling the nation's zeal. The +Princes very rarely spoke in the House of Lords, except under +an overmastering fear of the abolition of the Slave Trade. None +of the Ministers, except Windham, had the gift of oratory. On +Pitt alone devolved the task of arousing a national spirit; and a +cruel destiny cut short his life at the very time when his inspiring +presence was most needed. How much England then lost +can never be known. Vorontzoff, Russian ambassador at London, +who had earlier been a bitter enemy of Pitt, now expressed the +fervent desire that death had carried off his weary old frame, +rather than that of the potential Saviour of Europe. The words +are instinct with prescience. The personality and the actions of +Pitt were alike a summons to a life of dignity and manly independence. +His successors had perforce to take a course not +unlike that which they were about to censure in him; and the distrust +which the Czar Alexander felt for them in part accounts +for the collapse at Tilsit and the ensuing years of bondage to +Napoleon.</p> + +<p>The disintegrating effects of the party system, or rather of its +factious use by the Whig leaders, have been explained in these +pages. Its first result was seen in the divergence of the careers +of Pitt and Fox. The cause of Reform ought to have received +their undivided support; but little by little they were edged +apart, and their hostility was perhaps the most lasting of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_564" id="Page_564">[Pg 564]</a></span> +many evils wrought by the unnatural Coalition of Fox and North. +For a time Pitt gathered around him a national party, which +became avowedly so on the junction of the Old Whigs in 1794. +But in the last years of his life the denuding influences of partisan +and personal feuds disastrously thinned his following. From the +refusal of George to grant Catholic Emancipation, and the consequent +resignation of Pitt in the spring of 1801, we may trace +three sinister results. The Union with Ireland was bereft of its +natural sequel, Catholic Emancipation; the Ministerial ranks +were cleft in twain; and the crisis brought to the front Addington, +a man utterly incapable of confronting Napoleon. Had Pitt +remained in power, the Peace of Amiens would have been less +one-sided, its maintenance more dignified; and the First Consul, +who respected the strong but bullied the weak, would probably +have acquiesced in a settlement consonant with the reviving +prestige of England. But though the Union Jack won notable +triumphs in the spring of 1801, yet at London everything went +awry. Moved by consideration for the King, then recovering +from lunacy, Pitt weakly promised not to bring forward Catholic +Emancipation during his life, an act which annoyed the Grenville–Windham +group. His rash promise to support Addington tied +his hands in the following years; and even after the renewal +of war he too scrupulously refrained from overthrowing a +Ministry whose weakness had invited foreign aggressions and +was powerless to avenge them. Finally, the Grenvilles joined +Fox; and thus the King's perversity nullified the efforts of Pitt +to form an Administration worthy to cope with Napoleon.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the challenge flung down to England by the +French regicides in 1793 was such as to enhance the person of the +Monarch in these islands; and the Revolutionary War, which +was fatal to several dynasties on the Continent, served to consolidate +the power of the House of Brunswick. For, though +Pitt sought to keep the war from becoming a royalist crusade, +it almost inevitably assumed that character. During hostilities +there can be but two sharply defined parties. Accordingly, +Pitt, who opened his career with a bold attack upon the prerogatives +of George III, ended it as his champion, even consenting +to surrender a cherished conviction in order that the +Monarch's peace of mind might not be troubled. Was ever a +Minister beset by more baffling problems, by more hampering +restrictions? Peace might have solved and shattered them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_565" id="Page_565">[Pg 565]</a></span> +But peace he could not secure in the years 1796, 1797; and +when finally it came it proved to be no peace, merely a pause +before a still greater cycle of war.</p> + +<p>The grandeur of Pitt's efforts for ensuring the independence +of Europe has somewhat obscured his services as Empire builder. +Yet, with the possible exception of Chatham, no statesman has +exercised a greater influence on the destinies of the British race. +On two occasions he sternly set his face against the cession of +Gibraltar; he took keen interest in the settlement of New South +Wales; his arrangements for the government of Canada deserve +far higher praise than they have usually secured; and his firmness +in repelling the archaic claims of Spain to the shores of the +Northern Pacific gained for his people the future colony of +British Columbia. Cherishing a belief in the pacific nature of +Bonaparte's policy at the time of the Treaty of Amiens, he condoned +the retrocession of the Cape of Good Hope and of Malta, +on condition of the gain of Ceylon and Trinidad; but after the +revival of French schemes of aggression in the East he saw the +imperative need of planting or maintaining the Union Jack at +those commanding points. He, who has been accused of excessive +trust in allies, prepared to forego the alliance of Russia +rather than give up Malta; and, even before Nelson gained the +mastery at sea, Pitt sent forth an expedition to conquer the +Cape. In his magnanimous desire of securing to Europe the +blessings of a lasting peace he was ready to surrender maritime +conquests of greater pecuniary value so long as England held +the keys of the overland and sea routes to India. To that +empire his just and statesmanlike policy brought a new sense of +confidence and therefore a time of comparative rest, until the +threatening orientation of Bonaparte's plans once more placed +everything at hazard. Thanks to the exertions of Dundas and +the Wellesleys, the crisis was averted; but the policy which +assured British supremacy in the East was essentially that of +Pitt.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>It is far easier to assess the importance of the life work of Pitt +than to set forth his character in living traits. Those who knew +him well agree as the charm of his personality; but they supply +few illuminating details, perhaps out of respect for the reserve +which was his usual panoply. Like Chatham he rarely revealed +his inmost self. The beauties of his conversation, informed with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_566" id="Page_566">[Pg 566]</a></span> +learning, sparkling with wit, always vivacious yet never spiteful, +never appeared in their full glow except in the circle of his +dearest friends; but by singular ill fortune they who could have +handed on those treasures, were satisfied with entries such as: +"Pitt talked a great deal among his friends"; or, "In society +he was remarkably cheerful and pleasant, full of wit and playfulness";<a name="FNanchor_786_786" id="FNanchor_786_786"></a><a href="#Footnote_786_786" class="fnanchor">[786]</a> +or again, "His great delight was society. There he +shone with a degree of calm and steady lustre which often +astonished me more than his most splendid efforts in Parliament; +... he seemed utterly unconscious of his own superiority +and much more disposed to listen than to talk; ... his +appearance dispelled all care, his brow was never clouded even +in the severest public trials."<a name="FNanchor_787_787" id="FNanchor_787_787"></a><a href="#Footnote_787_787" class="fnanchor">[787]</a> These are only the <span lang="fr">hors d'œuvres</span> +of what must have been a feast of delight; but even they +suffice to refute the Whig slanders as to Pitt's austerity and +selfishness. Under happier auspices he would have been known +as the most lovable of English statesmen; and his exceptional +fondness for children would alone suffice to expose the falsity of +his alleged reply to a manufacturer who complained that he +could not get enough men—"Then you must take the children."<a name="FNanchor_788_788" id="FNanchor_788_788"></a><a href="#Footnote_788_788" class="fnanchor">[788]</a> +Cynicism at the expense of the weak was a trait utterly alien to +him. It is also incorrect to assert, with Macaulay, that "pride pervaded +the whole man, was written in the harsh rigid lines of his +face, was marked by the way in which he walked, in which he +sat, in which he stood, and, above all, in which he bowed." The +Whig historian, here following the Whig tradition, formed his +estimate of the whole man from what was merely a parliamentary +mannerism. Pitt, as we have seen, was a prey to shyness +and <span lang="fr">gaucherie</span>; and the rigid attitude which he adopted for +the House was not so much the outcome of a sense of superiority +(though he had an able man's consciousness of worth) as a +screen to hide those defects. A curiously stilted manner has been +the bane of many gifted orators and actors; but the real test is +whether they could throw it off in private. That Pitt threw it off +in the circle of his friends they all agree. The only defects +which Wilberforce saw in him were an inadequate knowledge of +human nature, a too sanguine estimate of men and of the course +of events, and, in later years, occasional displays of petulance in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_567" id="Page_567">[Pg 567]</a></span>face of opposition.<a name="FNanchor_789_789" id="FNanchor_789_789"></a><a href="#Footnote_789_789" class="fnanchor">[789]</a> The first are the defects of a noble nature, +the last those of a man whose strength has long been overtaxed.</p> + +<p>In fact, Pitt's constitution was unequal to the prolonged strain. +In childhood his astonishingly precocious powers needed judicious +repression. Instead, they were unduly forced by the paternal +pride of Chatham. At Cambridge, at Lincoln's Inn, and in +Parliament the intellectual pressure was maintained, with the +result that his weakly frame was constantly overwrought and +attenuated by a too active mind. Further, the pressure at Westminster +was so continuous as to preclude all chance of widening +his nature by foreign travel. He caught but a glimpse of the +life of France in 1783; and his knowledge of other peoples and +politics was therefore perforce derived from books. It is therefore +surprising that the young Prime Minister displayed the +sagacity and tolerance which marked his career.</p> + +<p>But his faculties, though not transcendently great, were +singularly well balanced, besides being controlled by an indomitable +will and tact that rarely was at fault. In oratory he +did not equal Sheridan in wit and brilliance, Burke in richness +of thought and majesty of diction, or Fox in massive strength +and debating facility; but, while falling little short of Fox in +debate, he excelled him in elegance and conciseness, Burke in +point and common sense, Sheridan in dignity and argumentative +power, and all of them in the felicitous wedding of elevated +thought or vigorous argument to noble diction. By the side of his +serried yet persuasive periods the efforts of Fox seemed ragged, +those of Burke philosophic essays, those of Sheridan rhetorical +tinsel. And this harmony was not the effect of long and +painful training. His maiden speech of 26th February 1781 +displayed the grace and forcefulness which marked his classic +utterance at the Lord Mayor's banquet ten weeks before his +death.</p> + +<p>Precocious maturity also characterized his financial plans, +which displayed alike the shrewd common sense of those of +Walpole and the wider aims of Adam Smith. Before his twenty-sixth +year Pitt laid the basis of a system which, whatever its +defects, ensured the speedy recovery of national credit and +belied the spiteful croakings of foreign rivals. Four days after +his death, Fox freely admitted that the establishment of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_568" id="Page_568">[Pg 568]</a></span>Sinking Fund had been most beneficial; and this belief, though +we now see it to be ill-founded, certainly endowed the nation +with courage to continue the struggle against the overgrown +power of France. Scarcely less remarkable is his record of +legislative achievement. His India Bill of 1784, his attempt to +free Anglo-Irish trade from antiquated shackles, his effort to +present to Parliament a palatable yet not ineffective scheme of +Reform, raise him above the other law-givers of the eighteenth +century in the grandeur of his aims if not in his actual achievements. +By the India Bill of 1784 he reconciled the almost +incompatible claims of eastern autocracy and western democracy. +If he failed to carry fiscal and Parliamentary Reform, it was +due less to tactical defects on his part than to prejudice and +selfishness among those whom he sought to benefit.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, his intense hopefulness often led him +to overlook obstacles and to credit all men with his own high +standard of intelligence and probity, a noble defect which not +seldom marred his diplomatic and military arrangements during +the Great War. At no point have I slurred over his mistakes, +his diffusion of effort over too large an area of conflict, and his +perhaps undue trust in doubtful allies. But, even so, as I have +shown, a careful examination of all the available evidence +generally reveals the reasons for his confidence; and failures +due to this cause are far less disastrous, because less dispiriting +to the nation, than those which are the outcome of sluggishness +or cowardice. Of those unpardonable sins Pitt has never been +accused even by his severest critics. After the repulse of his +pacific overtures by the French Directory in September 1797 +his attitude was one almost of defiance, witness his curt rejection +of similar offers by Bonaparte early in 1800, which may be pronounced +the gravest defect of his diplomatic career.</p> + +<p>In that age the action of statesmen was often dilatory; and +we must admit that in regard to the Act of Union with Ireland +Pitt's procedure was halting and ineffective, so that finally he +was driven to use corrupt means to force through the corrupt +Irish Parliament a measure which in the autumn of 1798 would +have been accepted thankfully by the dominant caste. His +Bill of 1797 for the relief of the poor and his Land Tax Commutation +Act of 1798 are examples of improvident legislation. +But from a leader overburdened with the details of war and +diplomacy we should not expect the keen foresight, the minute<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_569" id="Page_569">[Pg 569]</a></span> +care as to details, which distinguished Gladstone. To compare +the achievements of a statesman hard pressed by the problems +of the Revolutionary Era with those of a peaceful age when the +standard of legislative effort had been greatly raised is unfair; +and the criticism of Pitt by a distinguished historian evinces +partiality towards the Victorian statesman rather than an adequate +appreciation of the difficulties besetting a Minister of +George III in those times of turmoil.<a name="FNanchor_790_790" id="FNanchor_790_790"></a><a href="#Footnote_790_790" class="fnanchor">[790]</a> It is true that Pitt did +not inaugurate Factory legislation; that was the work of the +Addington Cabinet in 1802; he did not link his name with the +efforts of Romilly and others for the reform of the brutal Penal +Code; and he did little for art and literature; but neither the +personality of George nor the state of the national finances +favoured the rise of a Maecenas.</p> + +<p>Concentration of effort on political and diplomatic questions +was the alpha and omega of Pitt's creed. The terrible pressure +of events forbade his looking far ahead or far afield; he marched +straight onward, hoping by his untiring efforts first to restore +national prosperity and thereafter to secure a peace which would +inaugurate a brighter future. His overtaxed strength collapsed +when the strain was most tense; and his life therefore figures as +a torso, which should not be criticized as if it were the perfect +statue. Yet, as moral grandeur is always inspiring, Pitt's efforts +were finally to be crowned with success by the statesmen who +had found wisdom in his teaching, inspiration in his quenchless +hope, enthusiasm in his all-absorbing love of country. An +egoist never founds a school of the prophets. But Pitt, who</p> + + +<p class="poem"> +Spurn'd at the sordid lust of pelf<br /> +And served his Albion for herself,<br /> +</p> + + +<p>trained and inspired a band of devoted disciples such as no +other leader of the eighteenth century left behind him. Some +were unimaginative plodders, as Perceval; others were capable +administrators and shrewd diplomatists, as Castlereagh; to one +alone was vouchsafed the fire of genius, the sympathetic insight, +the soaring ambition held in check by overmastering +patriotism, which were commingled in the personality of the +master; and Canning afterwards declared that he buried his +political allegiance in the grave of Pitt. It was granted to these +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_570" id="Page_570">[Pg 570]</a></span>men to labour on in the cause for which he gave his life, and +finally, in the years 1814–15, to bring back France to her old +frontiers by arrangements which he clearly outlined in the years +1798 and 1805. Of the numerous annexations and changes of +boundaries effected by Napoleon, only one, the Valtelline, was +destined to survive. But Europe after Waterloo testified alike +to the sagacity and the limitations of the mind of William Pitt.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_571" id="Page_571">[Pg 571]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="STATISTICS" id="STATISTICS"></a>STATISTICS OF THE YEARS 1792–1801</h2> + +<p style="margin-bottom: 3em"><span lang="la">N.B.</span>—The figures under the heading "money borrowed" are taken from the official statistics presented by the Rt. Hon. +George Rose, "Brief Examination into the Increase of the Revenue, Commerce and Navigation of Great Britain" (London, +1806), p. 16. The total statistics are given in round numbers.</p> + +<table border="1" rules="groups" cellpadding="10" class="right" summary="Statistics of the years 1792–1801"> +<thead> + <tr align="center"> + <td>YEAR.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_572" id="Page_572">[Pg 572]</a></span></td> + <td>PERMANENT<br />TAXES.</td> + <td>IMPORTS.</td> + <td>EXPORTS.</td> + <td>NAVY.</td> + <td>ARMY.</td> + <td>MONEY<br />BORROWED.</td> + </tr> +</thead> +<tbody> +<tr><td>1792</td><td>14,284,000</td><td>19,659,000</td><td>24,465,000</td><td>1,985,000</td><td>1,819,000</td><td align="center">——</td></tr> +<tr><td>1793</td><td>13,941,000</td><td>19,256,000</td><td>19,676,000</td><td>3,971,000</td><td>3,993,000</td><td>4,500,000</td></tr> +<tr><td>1794</td><td>13,858,000</td><td>22,288,000</td><td>25,111,000</td><td>5,525,000</td><td>6,641,000</td><td>12,907,000</td></tr> +<tr><td>1795</td><td>13,557,000</td><td>22,736,000</td><td>25,036,000</td><td>6,315,000</td><td>11,610,000</td><td>19,490,000</td></tr> +<tr><td>1796</td><td>14,292,000</td><td>23,187,000</td><td>28,025,000</td><td>11,883,000</td><td>14,911,000</td><td>29,726,000</td></tr> +<tr><td>1797</td><td>13,332,000</td><td>21,013,000</td><td>26,315,000</td><td>13,033,000</td><td>15,488,000</td><td>44,029,000</td></tr> +<tr><td>1798</td><td>14,275,000</td><td>27,857,000</td><td>30,289,000</td><td>13,449,000</td><td>12,852,000</td><td>15,000,000</td></tr> +<tr><td>1799</td><td>15,727,000</td><td>26,837,000</td><td>33,640,000</td><td>13,642,000</td><td>11,840,000</td><td>15,500,000</td></tr> +<tr><td>1800</td><td>14,238,000</td><td>30,570,000</td><td>38,119,000</td><td>13,619,000</td><td>11,941,000</td><td>18,500,000</td></tr> +<tr><td>1801</td><td>14,641,000</td><td>32,795,000</td><td>37,786,000</td><td>15,857,000</td><td>12,117,000</td><td>25,500,000</td></tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_573" id="Page_573">[Pg 573]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2> + + +<table style="width:75%; text-align: center; font-weight: bold" border="1" summary="Index"> + <tr> + <td> <a href="#IX_A">A</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_B">B</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_C">C</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_D">D</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_E">E</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_F">F</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_G">G</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_H">H</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_I">I</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_J">J</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_K">K</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_L">L</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_M">M</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> <a href="#IX_N">N</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_O">O</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_P">P</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_Q">Q</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_R">R</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_S">S</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_T">T</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_U">U</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_V">V</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_W">W</a></td> + <td> X</td> + <td> <a href="#IX_Y">Y</a></td> + <td> <a href="#IX_Z">Z</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_A"></a><a id="Abbot"></a>Abbot, Charles (afterwards Lord Colchester), <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Speaker, <a href="#Page_520">520</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Abercorn, Lord, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li> +<li>Abercromby, Sir Ralph, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Commander-in-Chief in the West Indies, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>;</li> + <li>in Ireland, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>–<a href="#Page_354">354</a>;</li> + <li>resigns, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>;</li> + <li>campaign in Holland, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>;</li> + <li>in Egypt, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>;</li> + <li>his death, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Aboukir Bay, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>–<a href="#Page_369">369</a>.</li> +<li>"Accurate Observer," the, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>.</li> +<li>Acton, General, <a href="#Page_150">150</a> <i>n.</i></li> +<li>Acton, Lord, on Pitt and the execution of Louis XVI, refuted, <a href="#Page_94">94</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_569">569</a>.</li> +<li>Adair, Robert, <a href="#Page_337">337</a> <i>n.</i></li> +<li>Adams, W. D., Pitt's secretary, <a href="#Page_531">531</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Addington"></a>Addington, Henry (afterwards Viscount Sidmouth), Speaker, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a> <i>n.</i>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>suggests the Patriotic Contribution, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>;</li> + <li>at the duel between Pitt and Tierney, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>;</li> + <li>Pitt at his house, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>;</li> + <li>tries to dissuade Pitt from Catholic Emancipation, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>;</li> + <li>urged by the King to form a Ministry, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>;</li> + <li>Prime Minister, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>, <a href="#Page_445">445</a>–<a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>, <a href="#Page_469">469</a>, <a href="#Page_487">487</a>, <a href="#Page_488">488</a>;</li> + <li>Pitt supports him, <a href="#Page_471">471</a>, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>, <a href="#Page_479">479</a>, <a href="#Page_488">488</a>, <a href="#Page_496">496</a>, <a href="#Page_503">503</a>, <a href="#Page_504">504</a>;</li> + <li>visits Pitt at Walmer, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>;</li> + <li>his finance, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>–<a href="#Page_482">482</a>;</li> + <li>failure of his negotiations with Pitt, <a href="#Page_483">483</a>–<a href="#Page_487">487</a>;</li> + <li>plans for his overthrow, <a href="#Page_495">495</a>–<a href="#Page_499">499</a>;</li> + <li>resigns, <a href="#Page_499">499</a>;</li> + <li>opposes abolition of the Slave Trade, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>;</li> + <li>union with Pitt, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>;</li> + <li>created Viscount Sidmouth, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>;</li> + <li>Lord President, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>, <a href="#Page_520">520</a>–<a href="#Page_522">522</a>;</li> + <li>resigns, <a href="#Page_530">530</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Addington, Hiley, <a href="#Page_530">530</a>.</li> +<li>Agriculture, Board of, instituted, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li> +<li>Agriculture, flourishing state of, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>influence of enclosures on, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Alava, General, <a href="#Page_524">524</a>.</li> +<li>Alcudia, Duke of. <i>See</i> <a href="#Godoy">Godoy</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Alexander_I"></a>Alexander I, Czar, <a href="#Page_487">487</a>, <a href="#Page_508">508</a>, <a href="#Page_515">515</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his instructions to Novossiltzoff, <a href="#Page_522">522</a>, <a href="#Page_525">525</a>;</li> + <li>his terms of alliance, <a href="#Page_525">525</a>–<a href="#Page_527">527</a>;</li> + <li>his designs on Malta, <a href="#Page_527">527</a>;</li> + <li>at Berlin, <a href="#Page_537">537</a>;</li> + <li>treaty of Potsdam, <a href="#Page_539">539</a>;</li> + <li>battle of Austerlitz, <a href="#Page_544">544</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Aliens' Bill (1792), <a href="#Page_94">94</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>its withdrawal demanded by France, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</li> + <li>renewal of (1798), <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Alkmaar, Convention of, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li> +<li>All the Talents, Administration of, <a href="#Page_496">496</a>.</li> +<li>Alsace, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> +<li>Alvanley, Lord. <i>See</i> <a href="#Arden">Arden, Richard Pepper</a>.</li> +<li>Amherst, Lord, Commander-in-Chief, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li> +<li>Amiens, Treaty of, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>, <a href="#Page_564">564</a>, <a href="#Page_565">565</a>.</li> +<li>Anckarström, Johann Jakob, assassinates Gustavus III, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li> +<li>Anspach, Principality of, overrun by Napoleon, <a href="#Page_534">534</a>, <a href="#Page_537">537</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>.</li> +<li>"Anti-Jacobin," the, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>.</li> +<li>"Anti-Levelling Society," the, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> +<li>Antwerp, trade of, strangled by the Dutch, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>reduction of the citadel, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;</li> + <li>proposed fortification of, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;</li> + <li>conference at (1793), <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Aranda, Count of, Spanish Minister, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li> +<li>Arcola, battle of, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Arden"></a>Arden, Sir Richard Pepper (Lord Alvanley), Master of the Rolls, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>on Irish affairs, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>"Argus," the, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>in the pay of the French Embassy, <a href="#Page_66">66</a> <i>n.</i></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Armed Neutrality League, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>collapse of, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Army, the, debate on the Estimates, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>state of 1793, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>;</li> + <li>Pitt's measures for increasing, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>–<a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>;</li> + <li>disaffection in, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Army of Reserve Act, <a href="#Page_499">499</a>, <a href="#Page_509">509</a>, <a href="#Page_510">510</a>.</li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_574" id="Page_574">[Pg 574]</a></span>Artois, Comte d' (afterwards Charles X), <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>and the Quiberon Expedition, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>–<a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</li> + <li>retires to Holyrood, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</li> + <li>dines with Pitt and Grenville, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Assaye, battle of, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>, <a href="#Page_505">505</a>.</li> +<li><span lang="fr">Assignats</span>, royalist, manufacture of, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li> +<li>"Associated Friends of the Constitution," the, at Glasgow, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li> +<li>Auckland, Lord (William Eden), Ambassador at The Hague, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>–<a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Pitt's intimacy with his daughter, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>–<a href="#Page_303">303</a>;</li> + <li>Postmaster-General, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>–<a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>, <a href="#Page_434">434</a>;</li> + <li>his reported intrigues, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>, <a href="#Page_445">445</a>;</li> + <li>rupture with Pitt, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>;</li> + <li>his "inquisitiveness," <a href="#Page_479">479</a>, <a href="#Page_480">480</a> <i>n.</i>;</li> + <li><a href="#Page_559">559</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Augereau, P. F. C., Duc de Castiglione, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>.</li> +<li>Austerlitz, battle of, <a href="#Page_536">536</a>, <a href="#Page_544">544</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>reception of the news of in England, <a href="#Page_548">548</a>, <a href="#Page_549">549</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Austria, alliance with Prussia (1791), <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>war with France, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</li> + <li>her share in the partition of Poland, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</li> + <li>evacuates Brussels, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</li> + <li>end of estrangement with England, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>;</li> + <li>her aims in the war, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</li> + <li>alliance with England (1793), <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</li> + <li>fails to send reinforcements to Toulon, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;</li> + <li>disputes with Prussia, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>–<a href="#Page_202">202</a>;</li> + <li>evacuation of the Netherlands, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>;</li> + <li>treaty with Russia and England (1795), <a href="#Page_235">235</a>;</li> + <li>receives financial aid from England, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>;</li> + <li>her struggle with Napoleon, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>;</li> + <li>treaty of Campo Formio (1797), <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>;</li> + <li>appeals to England, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>;</li> + <li>schemes for expansion in Italy, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>;</li> + <li>declares War against France (1799), <a href="#Page_374">374</a>;</li> + <li>negotiations with England (1799), <a href="#Page_383">383</a>;</li> + <li>her defeats at Marengo, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Ulm, <a href="#Page_534">534</a>, <a href="#Page_542">542</a>,</li> + <li>and Austerlitz, <a href="#Page_544">544</a>, <a href="#Page_552">552</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>.</li> + </ul></li> + <li><i>See</i> <a href="#Francis_II">Francis II</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Avignon, annexed by France, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>.</li> +<li>Aylesbury, county meeting at, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_B"></a>Baillie, Dr., <a href="#Page_554">554</a>.</li> +<li>Baird, Sir David, his expedition to the Cape, <a href="#Page_532">532</a>, <a href="#Page_539">539</a>.</li> +<li>Bank of England, crisis in 1797, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> +<li>Bankes, Sir Henry, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>, <a href="#Page_520">520</a>.</li> +<li>Bantry Bay, expedition to, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> +<li>Barère de Vieuzac, Bertrand, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Barham"></a>Barham, Lord (Sir Charles Middleton), Pitt visits him at Teston, <a href="#Page_479">479</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>appointed First Lord of the Admiralty, <a href="#Page_521">521</a>, <a href="#Page_522">522</a>, <a href="#Page_532">532</a>, <a href="#Page_550">550</a>, <a href="#Page_551">551</a>;</li> + <li>created Lord Barham, <a href="#Page_522">522</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Baring, Sir Francis, on the Cape, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li> +<li>Barlow, Joel, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.</li> +<li>Barnard, Lady Anne, her "South Africa a Century Ago," <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li> +<li>Barras, Paul François Nicolas, Comte de, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>promises help to Ireland, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Barrington, Sir Jonah, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.</li> +<li>Barthélemy, François, Marquis de, French envoy in Switzerland, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> +<li>Basle, Treaties of (1795), <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li> +<li>Bassano, Duc de. <i>See</i> <a href="#Maret">Maret</a>.</li> +<li>Bath, French refugees in, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Pitt's stay at, <a href="#Page_479">479</a>, <a href="#Page_547">547</a>–<a href="#Page_553">553</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Bathurst, Bragge, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>, <a href="#Page_518">518</a>.</li> +<li>Bathurst, Lord, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>, <a href="#Page_549">549</a>, <a href="#Page_550">550</a>.</li> +<li>Bavaria, Electorate of, proposal for exchange, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</li> +<li>Beaufoy, Henry, M.P., <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li> +<li>Bedford, Duke of, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> +<li>Belfast, French sympathies in, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>sedition in, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li><a id="Belgic_Provinces"></a>Belgic Provinces, French designs on, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>French conquest of, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</li> + <li>demand independence, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;</li> + <li>annexed by France, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</li> + <li>Austrian proposal for exchange, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</li> + <li>reconquered, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</li> + <li>Austrian evacuation of, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>–<a href="#Page_212">212</a>;</li> + <li>plans for, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Belmore, Lord, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li> +<li>Benoît, Pierre Victor, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li> +<li>Beresford, John, Irish Chief Commissioner of the Revenue, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Lord Fitzwilliam and, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>;</li> + <li>on the Irish Rebellion, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>;</li> + <li>on the Union, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>–<a href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Berg, Duchy of, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li> +<li>Bergen-op-Zoom, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>failure of attack on, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Bethencourt, battle of, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> +<li>Binns, John, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_575" id="Page_575">[Pg 575]</a></span>Birmingham, riots in (1791), <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>–<a href="#Page_19">19</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>malcontents in, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;</li> + <li>the "Loyal True Blues," <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;</li> + <li>riots in (1795), <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Biron, Duc de, his mission to London, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>arrested for debt, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Bischoffswerder, Baron von, Prussian Minister, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</li> +<li>Blankett, Commodore, expedition to the Cape, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li> +<li>Boissy d'Anglas, François Antoine de, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.</li> +<li>Bolton, Lord. <i>See</i> <a href="#Orde">Orde, Thomas</a>.</li> +<li>Bonaparte, Joseph, <a href="#Page_506">506</a>, <a href="#Page_526">526</a>.</li> +<li>Bonaparte, Napoleon. <i>See</i> <a href="#Napoleon">Napoleon</a>.</li> +<li>Bond, <a href="#Page_530">530</a>.</li> +<li>Bone, John, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li> +<li>Bonham, arrested, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> +<li>Bonney, arrested, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>discharged, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Booth, his evidence against Thomas Walker, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li> +<li>Boyd, Sir R., <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li> +<li>Boyd, Walter, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> +<li>Brabant. <i>See</i> <a href="#Belgic_Provinces">Belgic Provinces</a>.</li> +<li>Breda, captured by Dumouriez, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> +<li>Brest, naval preparations at, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>proposed attack on, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li><a id="Bridport"></a>Bridport, Lord (Alexander Hood), <a href="#Page_261">261</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>and the mutiny at the Nore, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>–<a href="#Page_313">313</a>;</li> + <li>blockades Brest, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Brissot, Jacques Pierre, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li> +<li>British Columbia, <a href="#Page_565">565</a>.</li> +<li>British Convention, meets at Edinburgh, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> +<li>Brook, John, attorney and Mayor of Birmingham, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li> +<li>Brooks's Club, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li> +<li>Brown, Matthew C., of Sheffield, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li> +<li>Brown, Colonel, <a href="#Page_512">512</a>.</li> +<li>Bruix, Admiral, <a href="#Page_381">381</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>.</li> +<li>Brunswick, Charles, Duke of, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his manifesto, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;</li> + <li>his retreat through the Argonne, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</li> + <li>campaign on the Rhine, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</li> + <li>superseded, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</li> + <li>opposed to continuation of the war, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;</li> + <li>refuses to take command in Holland, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>–<a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Brunswick, Duchess of, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li> +<li>Brunswick-Oels, Frederick, Duke of, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li> +<li>Brussels, evacuated by the Austrians, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li> +<li>Buccleugh, Duke of, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>.</li> +<li>Buckingham, Marquis of (George Grenville, Earl Temple), <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>on the state of Ireland, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>;</li> + <li>on Lord Loughborough, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Buckinghamshire, Earl of (Lord Hobart), <a href="#Page_462">462</a>, <a href="#Page_487">487</a>, <a href="#Page_494">494</a>, <a href="#Page_495">495</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Chancellor of the Duchy, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>, <a href="#Page_521">521</a>;</li> + <li>resigns, <a href="#Page_530">530</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Buckner, Vice-Admiral, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</li> +<li>Burdett, Sir Francis, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li> +<li>Burges, Bland, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.</li> +<li>Burgh, Dr., <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.</li> +<li>Burgoing, special envoy to Madrid, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</li> +<li>Burgoyne, General, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li> +<li>Burke, Edmund, interview with Pitt and Grenville, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>fears the spread of French principles, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</li> + <li>on Reform, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>;</li> + <li>Paine's reply to his "Reflections," <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;</li> + <li>other replies, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;</li> + <li>his "Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs," <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;</li> + <li>his "Reflections," <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a> <i>n.</i>;</li> + <li>letter to Grenville after the September massacres, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</li> + <li>on the Treasury Bench, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</li> + <li>declares the death of Louis inevitable, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</li> + <li>his speech on the Aliens Bill, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</li> + <li>his view of the war, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>;</li> + <li>on the Traitorous Correspondence Bill, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</li> + <li>proposes Coalition Ministry (1794), <a href="#Page_191">191</a>;</li> + <li>his Economy Bill, <a href="#Page_467">467</a>;</li> + <li>as an orator, compared with Pitt, <a href="#Page_567">567</a>;</li> + <li>his death, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Burke, Richard, at Coblentz, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.</li> +<li>Burney, Fanny, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> +<li>Burton Pynsent, expenses of, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>.</li> +<li>Butler, Simon, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li> +<li>Bute, Earl of, sent to Madrid, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>–<a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>–<a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> +<li>Buzot, F. L. Nicolas, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_C"></a>Cadusey, de, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</li> +<li>Calder, Admiral, <a href="#Page_532">532</a>, <a href="#Page_536">536</a>.</li> +<li>Caldiero, battle of, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li> +<li>Calonne, Charles Alexandre de, his mission to England, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li> +<li>Calvi, capture of, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li> +<li>Camage, W., of Sheffield, arrested, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.</li> +<li>Cambacérès, J. J. Régis de, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.</li> +<li>Camden, Charles Pratt, 1st Earl, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> +<li>Camden, John Jeffreys Pratt, 2nd Earl (afterwards Marquis), Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>–<a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>–<a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his friendship <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_576" id="Page_576">[Pg 576]</a></span>with Pitt, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>, <a href="#Page_481">481</a>, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>;</li> + <li>Secretary at War, etc., <a href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a href="#Page_507">507</a>, <a href="#Page_514">514</a>;</li> + <li>President of the Council, <a href="#Page_530">530</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li><a id="Camelford"></a>Camelford, Lord (Thomas Pitt), <a href="#Page_37">37</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>on Pitt's duel with Tierney, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Campbell, Thomas, at the trial of Gerrald, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</li> +<li>Camperdown, battle of, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li> +<li>Campo Formio, Treaty of, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li> +<li>Canada, Upper, establishment of Government of, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li> +<li>Canning, George, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his interview with Pitt, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;</li> + <li>the "Anti-Jacobin," <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>;</li> + <li>on conditions of peace with France, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>;</li> + <li>resigns the Under-Secretaryship, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>;</li> + <li>strongly supports the Union, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>;</li> + <li>on Catholic Emancipation, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>;</li> + <li>resigns office (1801), <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>;</li> + <li>on Pitt's generosity, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>;</li> + <li>his relations with Pitt, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>–<a href="#Page_466">466</a>, <a href="#Page_567">567</a>;</li> + <li>his marriage, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>;</li> + <li>opposed to peace (1801), <a href="#Page_469">469</a>, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>;</li> + <li>on Pitt's position, <a href="#Page_471">471</a>;</li> + <li>his poems, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>, <a href="#Page_518">518</a>;</li> + <li>urges Pitt to action, <a href="#Page_481">481</a>, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>;</li> + <li>Treasurer of the Navy, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>;</li> + <li>falls out with Hawkesbury, <a href="#Page_518">518</a>;</li> + <li>defends Melville, <a href="#Page_520">520</a>;</li> + <li>his sympathy with Spanish patriots, <a href="#Page_524">524</a>;</li> + <li>disapproves of the expedition to Hanover, <a href="#Page_542">542</a>, <a href="#Page_547">547</a>;</li> + <li>anxious for Pitt's health, <a href="#Page_547">547</a>;</li> + <li>with Pitt at Bath, <a href="#Page_549">549</a>, <a href="#Page_550">550</a>, <a href="#Page_553">553</a>;</li> + <li>mentioned, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>, <a href="#Page_488">488</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Canterbury, Archbishop of. <i>See</i> <a href="#Moore">Moore, John</a>, and <a href="#Sutton">Sutton, Charles Manners</a>.</li> +<li>Cape of Good Hope, the, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>British conquest of, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>–<a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>, <a href="#Page_469">469</a>, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>, <a href="#Page_565">565</a>;</li> + <li>Baird's expedition to, <a href="#Page_532">532</a>, <a href="#Page_539">539</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Cape Town, capture of, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>–<a href="#Page_254">254</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>population of, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Carew, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li> +<li>Carles, John, of Birmingham, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li> +<li>Carlisle, Earl of, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>on Irish affairs, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Carlyle, Thomas, on the September massacres, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li> +<li>Carmarthen, Marquis of. <i>See</i> <a href="#Leeds">Leeds, Duke of</a>.</li> +<li>Carnot, L. N. M., French general and Minister of War, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li> +<li>Caroline, Princess, of Brunswick, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>as Princess of Wales, <a href="#Page_508">508</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Carrington, Lord, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>, <a href="#Page_489">489</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li> +<li>Carteaux, Jean François, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</li> +<li>Cartwright, Major John, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his "Commonwealth in Danger," <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Carver, Edward, of Birmingham, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li> +<li>Carysfort, Lord, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_495">495</a>.</li> +<li>Castiglione, battle of, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li> +<li>"Castlebar Races," the, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li> +<li>Castlereagh, Viscount, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>, <a href="#Page_569">569</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>account of, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;</li> + <li>Irish Chief Secretary, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>–<a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>, <a href="#Page_423">423</a>–<a href="#Page_425">425</a>, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>–<a href="#Page_437">437</a>, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>, <a href="#Page_486">486</a>;</li> + <li>resigns, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>;</li> + <li>President of the India Board, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>;</li> + <li>defends Melville, <a href="#Page_520">520</a>;</li> + <li>Minister at War, <a href="#Page_530">530</a>;</li> + <li>letters to Pitt, <a href="#Page_531">531</a>, <a href="#Page_532">532</a>, <a href="#Page_549">549</a>–<a href="#Page_551">551</a>;</li> + <li>interview with Pitt at Bath, <a href="#Page_551">551</a>, <a href="#Page_552">552</a>;</li> + <li>at Putney, <a href="#Page_555">555</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Catalonia, French invasion of, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Republican rising in, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li><a id="Catharine_II"></a>Catharine II, Czarina, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>her designs on Poland, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</li> + <li>encourages Polish malcontents, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</li> + <li>invades Poland, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;</li> + <li>her success, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>;</li> + <li>offers alliance to England, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</li> + <li>treaty with England and Austria (1795), <a href="#Page_235">235</a>;</li> + <li>her death, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Cathelineau, Jacques, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> +<li>Catholic Emancipation, question of, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>–<a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>, <a href="#Page_426">426</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>, <a href="#Page_486">486</a>, <a href="#Page_487">487</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>opposed by the King, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>–<a href="#Page_439">439</a>, <a href="#Page_564">564</a>;</li> + <li>division in the Cabinet on, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>–<a href="#Page_445">445</a>;</li> + <li>motion for, rejected, <a href="#Page_518">518</a>, <a href="#Page_519">519</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Catholics, the, in Ireland, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>–<a href="#Page_401">401</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>in favour of the Union, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>–<a href="#Page_419">419</a>;</li> + <li>courted by Cornwallis, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>, <a href="#Page_423">423</a>;</li> + <li>question of promises made to them, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>–<a href="#Page_446">446</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Cazalès, Jacques Antoine Marie de, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li> +<li>Ceylon, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>–<a href="#Page_470">470</a>, <a href="#Page_565">565</a>.</li> +<li>Chalk Farm, mass meeting at, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</li> +<li>Chandermagore, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li> +<li>Charette, François, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>–<a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li> +<li>Charlemont, Lord, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>.</li> +<li>Charleroi, surrender of, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</li> +<li>Charles, Archduke of Austria, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>.</li> +<li>Charles IV, of Spain, appeals to France on behalf of Louis, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his weakness and extravagance, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_513">513</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>;</li> + <li>his policy, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_577" id="Page_577">[Pg 577]</a></span>Charles X, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>.</li> +<li>Charles Emmanuel IV, King of Sardinia (1796–8), his abdication, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>.</li> +<li>Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li> +<li>Charlotte, Queen, her relations with the King, <a href="#Page_506">506</a>, <a href="#Page_507">507</a>.</li> +<li>Charmilly, de, delegate from Hayti, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li> +<li>Chatham, John Pitt, Earl of, First Lord of the Admiralty, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his incompetence, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</li> + <li>made Lord Privy Seal, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;</li> + <li>borrows money of Pitt, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>;</li> + <li>engaged in Holland, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>;</li> + <li>Lord President, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>;</li> + <li>letter to Pitt on his resignation, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>;</li> + <li>Master of the Ordnance, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Chatham, William Pitt, 1st Lord, and Pitt compared, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>, <a href="#Page_490">490</a>, <a href="#Page_562">562</a>, <a href="#Page_565">565</a>.</li> +<li>Chatham, Lady, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> +<li>Chatham, Dowager Lady, Pitt's mother, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>her death, <a href="#Page_488">488</a>, <a href="#Page_490">490</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Chaumont, Treaty of (1814), <a href="#Page_523">523</a>.</li> +<li>Chauvelin, Marquis de, French Ambassador in London, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his cold reception, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;</li> + <li>account of, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;</li> + <li>tries to stir up discontent, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>;</li> + <li>interview with Grenville, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</li> + <li>piqued at Pitt's interview with Maret, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li> + <li>refused official recognition, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</li> + <li>conversation with Sheridan, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;</li> + <li>Lebrun's instructions to, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;</li> + <li>note to Grenville, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</li> + <li>protests against the Aliens Bill, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</li> + <li>interview with Grenville, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</li> + <li>ordered to leave England, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>–<a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li> + <li>his responsibility for the war, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>–<a href="#Page_117">117</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>China, British embassy to, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li> +<li>Chouans, the, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>–<a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> +<li>Christie, William, his "Catechism of the French Constitution," <a href="#Page_22">22</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li><a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>"Church and King Club," <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li> +<li>Churchill, Charles, on Lord Loughborough, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>.</li> +<li>Cinque Ports Volunteers, Pitt and the, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>, <a href="#Page_488">488</a>–<a href="#Page_490">490</a>.</li> +<li>Cisalpine Republic, the, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Clare"></a>Clare, Earl of (Baron Fitzgibbon), Lord Chancellor of Ireland, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>interviews with Pitt, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>–<a href="#Page_400">400</a>;</li> + <li>opposes Catholic Emancipation, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Clarence, Duke of, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li> +<li>Clarke, Major-General Alured, his expedition to the Cape, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li> +<li>Clarke, General, agrees to send a French expedition to Ireland, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> +<li>Clarkson, Thomas, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li> +<li>Clavière, Etienne, French Minister of Finance, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li> +<li>Clerfait, Field Marshal, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>–<a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li> +<li>Clifden, Lord, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li> +<li>Clubs, political, growth of, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>–<a href="#Page_23">23</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>their aims, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;</li> + <li>accused of foreign connections, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;</li> + <li>their rejoicings at the Revolution, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</li> + <li>addresses to French National Convention, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>–<a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</li> + <li>growth of, in 1793, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</li> + <li>their organization, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.</li> + <li><i>See</i> <a href="#CHAPTER_VII">Chap. VII</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Coalition, the First, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>weakness of, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;</li> + <li>the Second, <i>see</i> <a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">Chap. XVII</a>;</li> + <li>the Third, <a href="#Page_529">529</a>, <a href="#Page_534">534</a> <span lang="la">et seq.</span></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Cobenzl, Count Ludwig, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>.</li> +<li>Cobenzl, Count Philip, Austrian Chancellor, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his fall, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Coblentz, Royalist leaders at, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li> +<li>Coburg, Duke of, his campaign in Flanders, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>–<a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>–<a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>.</li> +<li>Cochrane, Admiral, <a href="#Page_514">514</a>.</li> +<li>Cockburn, Lord, on the Scots, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</li> +<li>Coke of Norfolk, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li> +<li>Colchester, Lord. <i>See</i> <a href="#Abbot">Abbot, Charles</a>.</li> +<li>Colpoys, Vice-Admiral, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> +<li>Condé, captured by the Allies, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>surrendered, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Conolly, Captain, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.</li> +<li>Conscription, in France, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +<li>Consols, great rise in (1783–1792), <a href="#Page_31">31</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>rise in (1796), <a href="#Page_305">305</a>;</li> + <li>fall after the Nore mutiny, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Constitutional Information, London Society for, <a href="#Page_12">12</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</li> +<li>Cooke, Edward, his letters to Auckland and Castlereagh on the Irish question, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>–<a href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>–<a href="#Page_437">437</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his pamphlet on the Union, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>;</li> + <li>his conduct during the debate on the Union, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Coote, General, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.</li> +<li>Copenhagen, battle of, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>.</li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_578" id="Page_578">[Pg 578]</a></span>Cork, despatch of troops from, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>sentiments of the Grand Jury on the Union, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Corn Laws, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li> +<li>Cornwall, representation of, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</li> +<li>Cornwallis, Admiral, <a href="#Page_514">514</a>, <a href="#Page_532">532</a>.</li> +<li>Cornwallis, Marquis, suggested as Commander-in-Chief in Flanders, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Master-General of the Ordnance, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>;</li> + <li>Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>–<a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>–<a href="#Page_426">426</a>, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>;</li> + <li>resigns, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>;</li> + <li>Viceroy of India, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>;</li> + <li>negotiates the Treaty of Amiens, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Corporation Act, the, efforts to repeal, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li> +<li>Corresponding Society for Reform of Parliamentary Representation, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>–<a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>monster meeting at Islington, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>;</li> + <li>supposed connection with the mutiny at the Nore, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>–<a href="#Page_318">318</a>;</li> + <li>becomes a revolutionary body, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>;</li> + <li>its papers seized, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Corsica, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>British occupation of, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>–<a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>;</li> + <li>evacuated, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>County Reform Associations, the, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> +<li>"Courier," the, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> +<li>Courtenay, John, M.P., <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li> +<li>Couthon, Georges, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.</li> +<li>Coutts, Thomas, <a href="#Page_306">306</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>–<a href="#Page_477">477</a>.</li> +<li>Cowper, W., his pension, <a href="#Page_455">455</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>.</li> +<li>Craig, Major-General Sir James, in command at the Cape, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>–<a href="#Page_254">254</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his expedition to Malta, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_524">524</a>, <a href="#Page_525">525</a>;</li> + <li>Mornington's opinion of, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Crancé, Dubois, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +<li>Craufurd, Major-General Robert, <a href="#Page_510">510</a>.</li> +<li>Creevey, Thomas, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>, <a href="#Page_521">521</a>.</li> +<li>Crossfield, Secretary of the London Corresponding Society, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li> +<li>Cumberland, Duke of, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>.</li> +<li>Curragh, affair on the, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> +<li>Curt, delegate from Guadeloupe, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>.</li> +<li>Custine, General, Comte de, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li> +<li>Czartoryski, Prince, <a href="#Page_522">522</a>, <a href="#Page_526">526</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_D"></a>Daer, Lord, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li> +<li>Dalrymple, Colonel William, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li> +<li>Daly, Denis, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li> +<li>Danton, George Jacques, Minister of Justice, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his alleged offer to save Louis, <a href="#Page_94">94</a> <i>n.</i>;</li> + <li>his decree annexing Belgium, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>D'Arçon, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.</li> +<li>Davison, Richard, of Sheffield, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</li> +<li>De Clifford, Lord, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>.</li> +<li>Delacroix, Jacques Vincent, French Foreign Minister, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.</li> +<li>Del Campo, Marquis, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.</li> +<li>Delessart, A. de Valdec, French Foreign Minister, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>arrested, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Demerara, Dutch, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li> +<li>Democracy, new birth of, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>progress of, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>–<a href="#Page_68">68</a>;</li> + <li>opposition to, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Derby, Society for Constitutional Information at, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> +<li>Despard, Colonel, arrested, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> +<li>"Devil's Own," the, <a href="#Page_489">489</a>.</li> +<li>Devonshire, Duke of, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>.</li> +<li>Devonshire, Duchess of, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>.</li> +<li>Dibdin, Charles, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li> +<li>Dillon, General Theobald, murdered by his troops, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> +<li>Dissenters. <i>See</i> <a href="#Nonconformists">Nonconformists</a>.</li> +<li>Dominica, revolt in, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li> +<li>Don, General, <a href="#Page_542">542</a>, <a href="#Page_545">545</a>.</li> +<li>Donegal, Lord, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>.</li> +<li>Dover Loyal Association, address to Pitt, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li> +<li>Downes, Sir William, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.</li> +<li>Downshire, Lord, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his opposition to the Union, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>–<a href="#Page_424">424</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Doyle, General, expedition to la Vendée, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li> +<li>Drake, Francis, British agent at Genoa, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.</li> +<li>Drane, Mr., Mayor of Reading, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.</li> +<li>Duckworth, Sir James, <a href="#Page_532">532</a> <i>n.</i></li> +<li>Duff, General, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> +<li>Dumouriez, General, French Foreign Minister, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his "Reflections on Negotiations with England," <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;</li> + <li>appeals to England to prevent war with Prussia, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;</li> + <li>his resignation, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</li> + <li>Campaign in the Low Countries, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>;</li> + <li>his proposed mission to London, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>–<a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;</li> + <li>his self-confidence, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li> + <li>correspondence with Pache, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</li> + <li>failure of his campaign in Belgium, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</li> + <li>his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_579" id="Page_579">[Pg 579]</a></span>treason, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>–<a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</li> + <li>Memoir on the defence of England, <a href="#Page_509">509</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Duncan, Admiral Lord, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li> +<li>Duncombe, C. S., M.P., <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li> +<li>Dundas, Major-General Sir David, at Toulon, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>in Corsica, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>;</li> + <li>his scheme of coast defence, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</li> + <li>and the Volunteers, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>, <a href="#Page_492">492</a>, <a href="#Page_512">512</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li><a id="Dundas"></a>Dundas, Henry (afterwards Lord Melville), Home Secretary, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>opposes repeal of the Test Act in Scotland, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</li> + <li>puts down the Birmingham riots, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</li> + <li>on the proclamation against seditious writings, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;</li> + <li>anxious for union with the Old Whigs, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;</li> + <li>friendly to France, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;</li> + <li>on sedition in Scotland, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;</li> + <li>his scheme for rearranging the Cabinet, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;</li> + <li>his many offices, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>;</li> + <li>his conduct of the war, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</li> + <li>ignorant of military affairs, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</li> + <li>his influence in Scotland, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>;</li> + <li>and the Scottish prosecutions, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>–<a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;</li> + <li>burnt in effigy at Dundee, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>;</li> + <li>Secretary of State for War, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>–<a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>–<a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>;</li> + <li>President of the India Board, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>;</li> + <li>letter to Pitt on the idea of a War Minister, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>;</li> + <li>his friendship with Pitt, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>;</li> + <li>urges the Egyptian expedition, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>;</li> + <li>his conversations with the King on Catholic Emancipation, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>;</li> + <li>resigns, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>;</li> + <li>on Pitt's resignation, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>;</li> + <li>created Lord Melville, <a href="#Page_483">483</a>;</li> + <li>his mission to Pitt at Walmer, <a href="#Page_483">483</a>, <a href="#Page_484">484</a>;</li> + <li>on the Volunteers, <a href="#Page_494">494</a>;</li> + <li>on the King's illness, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>;</li> + <li>First Lord of the Admiralty, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a href="#Page_511">511</a>, <a href="#Page_514">514</a>;</li> + <li>his impeachment, <a href="#Page_519">519</a>–<a href="#Page_521">521</a>;</li> + <li>acquitted, <a href="#Page_521">521</a>;</li> + <li>on India, <a href="#Page_565">565</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Dundas, General Ralph, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li> +<li>Dundas, Robert, Lord Advocate for Scotland, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>–<a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> +<li>Dundas, William, Secretary at War, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li> +<li>Dundee, political agitation in, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li> +<li>Dungannon, Ulster Volunteers in, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li> +<li>Dunkirk, siege of, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>–<a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Napoleon at, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Dunlop, John, Lord Provost of Glasgow, <a href="#Page_175">175</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li> +<li>Duroc, General, Duc de Frioul, his mission to Berlin, <a href="#Page_535">535</a>, <a href="#Page_537">537</a>.</li> +<li>Dutch, the, their rights over the Scheldt, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>their apathy, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>;</li> + <li>at the Cape, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>–<a href="#Page_255">255</a>;</li> + <li>defeated at battle of Camperdown, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Dutch East India Company, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Dutch_Republic"></a>Dutch Republic, the, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>treaty with England (1788), <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;</li> + <li>threatened by France, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>–<a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;</li> + <li>English assurances to, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</li> + <li>plots of the "Patriots," <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;</li> + <li>appeals to England for help, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;</li> + <li>unprepared for war, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;</li> + <li>France declares war on, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;</li> + <li>French conquest of, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>–<a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>;</li> + <li>peace with Spain, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>;</li> + <li>alliance with France (1795), <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>;</li> + <li>Anglo-Russian expedition to, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>–<a href="#Page_383">383</a>;</li> + <li>remodelled by Bonaparte, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>;</li> + <li>proposal to offer it to Prussia, <a href="#Page_552">552</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_E"></a>East India Company, renewal of Charter, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li> +<li>Eaton, Daniel Isaac, prosecution of, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> +<li>Eden, Eleanor, Pitt's relations with, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>–<a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>her marriage, <a href="#Page_462">462</a> <i>n.</i></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Eden, Morton, Ambassador at Vienna, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>–<a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>.</li> +<li>Edge, Captain, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</li> +<li>Edinburgh, Conventions of Friends of the People at, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Radical club at, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>;</li> + <li>British Convention at, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Egypt, Napoleon's expedition to, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>English expedition to, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>;</li> + <li>surrender of French garrisons in, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>;</li> + <li>to be restored to the Sultan, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Ehrenthal, Swedish envoy at Madrid, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li> +<li>El Arish, Convention of, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>.</li> +<li>Elba, evacuation of, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Eldon"></a>Eldon, Lord (Sir John Scott), <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_499">499</a>, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a href="#Page_506">506</a>, <a href="#Page_514">514</a>.</li> +<li>Eliot, Edward J., his death, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li> +<li>Elliot, Sir Gilbert. <i>See</i> <a href="#Minto">Minto, Earl of</a>.</li> +<li>Elliot, William, Irish Under-Secretary at War, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.</li> +<li>Elphinstone, Rear-Admiral Sir Keith, his expedition to the Cape, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_580" id="Page_580">[Pg 580]</a></span>Ely, Lord, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li> +<li>Emmett, Addis, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.</li> +<li>Enclosures, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>–<a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li> +<li>Enghien, Duc d', execution of, <a href="#Page_516">516</a>.</li> +<li>England, discontent in (1793), <a href="#Page_165">165</a>–<a href="#Page_167">167</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>(1795), <i>see</i> <a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">Chap. XIII</a>;</li> + <li>(1798), <a href="#Page_333">333</a>;</li> + <li>fears of invasion, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>;</li> + <li>national defence, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>–<a href="#Page_281">281</a>;</li> + <li>shortage of corn, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>–<a href="#Page_291">291</a>;</li> + <li>state of agriculture, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>;</li> + <li>policy of enclosures, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>–<a href="#Page_298">298</a>;</li> + <li>financial crisis (1797), <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>;</li> + <li>increasing prosperity, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>;</li> + <li>public opinion in (1798), <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>"English Chronicle," the, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> +<li>Enniskillen, Lord, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>.</li> +<li>Epsom, county meeting at, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li> +<li>Erskine, Thomas, Baron, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_488">488</a>.</li> +<li>Euston, Lord, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.</li> +<li>Evans, Thomas, Secretary of the London Corresponding Society, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>arrested, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +</ul> + + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_F"></a>Famars, evacuated by the French, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.</li> +<li>Farquhar, Sir Walter, <a href="#Page_548">548</a>, <a href="#Page_553">553</a>, <a href="#Page_554">554</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li> +<li>Federalism, advocated by Fox, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.</li> +<li>Fellows, Henry, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li> +<li>Ferdinand IV, King of Naples, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>.</li> +<li>Ferrol, expedition to (1800), <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.</li> +<li>Fersen, Count, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> +<li>Fingall, Lord, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>, <a href="#Page_518">518</a>, <a href="#Page_519">519</a>.</li> +<li>Finisterre, Cape, battle off, <a href="#Page_532">532</a>, <a href="#Page_536">536</a>.</li> +<li>Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his capture and death, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Fitzgerald, Pamela, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li> +<li>Fitzgibbon, Baron. <i>See</i> <a href="#Clare">Clare, Earl of</a>.</li> +<li>Fitzharris, Lord, <a href="#Page_520">520</a>.</li> +<li>Fitzwilliam, Earl, Viceroy of Ireland, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>–<a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>, <a href="#Page_500">500</a>.</li> +<li>Fleurus, battle of, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li> +<li>Flood, Henry, M.P., his motion for Reform, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li> +<li>Floridablanca, Count, his fall, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li> +<li>Forbes, Major-General, Commander-in-Chief in Hayti, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> +<li>Ford, Captain, <a href="#Page_513">513</a>.</li> +<li>Fortiquerri, Marshal, <a href="#Page_150">150</a> <i>n.</i></li> +<li>Foster, John (afterwards Baron Oriel), Irish Speaker, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>interview with Pitt, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>;</li> + <li>his opposition to the Union, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>–<a href="#Page_420">420</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Foster, son of the Speaker, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.</li> +<li>Fouché, Joseph, Duke of Otranto, <a href="#Page_528">528</a>, <a href="#Page_529">529</a>.</li> +<li>Fox, Charles James, gains ground with Nonconformists, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>on the Army Estimates (1792), <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</li> + <li>his Libel Bill, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>;</li> + <li>opposes proclamations against seditious writings, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>;</li> + <li>suggested coalition with Pitt, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;</li> + <li>unpatriotic speeches, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>–<a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>;</li> + <li>intimate with the French embassy, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</li> + <li>opposes the Aliens Bill, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</li> + <li>disapproves of the Radical Clubs, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;</li> + <li>opposes erection of barracks, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</li> + <li>on the Scottish prosecutions, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</li> + <li>in favour of peace, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>;</li> + <li>on slaves in Jamaica, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</li> + <li>on the massacre of royalists at Quiberon, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>;</li> + <li>on the Treasonable Practices Bill, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>;</li> + <li>on the Bank crisis (1797), <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>;</li> + <li>and the mutinies in the fleet, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>;</li> + <li>his "secession," <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>;</li> + <li>on the Finance Bills of 1797–8, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>;</li> + <li>his name removed from the Privy Council, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>;</li> + <li>and Arthur O'Connor, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>;</li> + <li>his views on the Union and Federalism, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>;</li> + <li>on Pitt's resignation, <a href="#Page_445">445</a>;</li> + <li>intrigues with the Prince of Wales, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>;</li> + <li>on the peace proposals, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>;</li> + <li>on the war (1803), <a href="#Page_488">488</a>;</li> + <li>on the Volunteers, <a href="#Page_494">494</a>;</li> + <li>alliance with Grenville, <a href="#Page_496">496</a>;</li> + <li>attack on Addington, <a href="#Page_499">499</a>;</li> + <li>the King objects to his inclusion in Pitt's ministry, <a href="#Page_499">499</a>, <a href="#Page_500">500</a>;</li> + <li>supports abolition of the Slave Trade, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>;</li> + <li>his motion of Catholic Emancipation, <a href="#Page_518">518</a>, <a href="#Page_519">519</a>;</li> + <li>opposes Pitt's burial in the Abbey, <a href="#Page_559">559</a>;</li> + <li>as an orator, compared with Pitt, <a href="#Page_567">567</a>;</li> + <li>mentioned, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_506">506</a>, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>, <a href="#Page_518">518</a>, <a href="#Page_555">555</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>, <a href="#Page_562">562</a>, <a href="#Page_563">563</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>France, the flight to Varennes, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>change of ministry, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</li> + <li>declares war against Austria, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</li> + <li>first signs of friction with England, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;</li> + <li>the September massacres, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>–<a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</li> + <li>addresses of English clubs to the Convention, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <span lang="la">et seq.</span>;</li> + <li>trial of the King decreed, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</li> + <li>conquest of Belgium, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;</li> + <li>the November decrees, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</li> + <li>annexes Savoy, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;</li> + <li>her designs on Holland, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>–<a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;</li> + <li>negotiations with England, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>–<a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>–<a href="#Page_107">107</a>;</li> + <li>decree of 15th December, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;</li> + <li>annexes <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_581" id="Page_581">[Pg 581]</a></span>Belgium, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</li> + <li>declares war on England and Holland, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;</li> + <li>evacuates the Netherlands, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</li> + <li>the Convention declares Pitt the enemy of the human race, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;</li> + <li>revolts in the South and in Brittany, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</li> + <li>destruction of her navy at Toulon, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>;</li> + <li>the miracle of revolutionary finance, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>;</li> + <li>passion for unity in, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;</li> + <li>successes in Belgium, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>–<a href="#Page_212">212</a>;</li> + <li>conquest of Holland, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>–<a href="#Page_216">216</a>;</li> + <li>treaty of Basle, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</li> + <li>action in the West Indies, <i>see</i> <a href="#CHAPTER_IX">Chaps. IX</a> and <a href="#CHAPTER_X">X</a>;</li> + <li>peace with Spain, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>;</li> + <li>alliance with Holland, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>;</li> + <li>supposed connection with the mutiny at the Nore, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>;</li> + <li>negotiations at Lille, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>–<a href="#Page_325">325</a>;</li> + <li><span lang="fr">coup d'état</span> of Fructidor 18, 1797, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>;</li> + <li>the Directory rejects Pitt's overtures for peace, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>–<a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>;</li> + <li>intrigues with Irish rebels, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>–<a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>;</li> + <li>preparations for the eastern expedition, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>;</li> + <li>makes offers of peace to Russia, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>;</li> + <li>expeditions to Ireland, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>–<a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>–<a href="#Page_396">396</a>;</li> + <li>her supremacy in Europe, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>;</li> + <li>destruction of her fleet at Aboukir, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>;</li> + <li>conquest of Naples, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>;</li> + <li>Austria declares war on (1799), <a href="#Page_374">374</a>;</li> + <li>her responsibility for the war, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>;</li> + <li>defeats in Italy, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>;</li> + <li>Peace of Amiens, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>;</li> + <li>declares war on England (1803), <a href="#Page_487">487</a>;</li> + <li>alliance with Spain, <a href="#Page_513">513</a>, <a href="#Page_514">514</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li><a id="Francis_II"></a>Francis II, Emperor, his accession, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>war with France, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</li> + <li>his French policy, <a href="#Page_120">120</a> <i>n.</i>;</li> + <li>dismisses Cobenzl, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</li> + <li>his character, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>–<a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>;</li> + <li>takes command of the army in Flanders, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</li> + <li>returns to Vienna, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;</li> + <li>appeals to England, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>;</li> + <li>refuses to interfere in Naples, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>;</li> + <li>declares war against France, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>;</li> + <li>his timid conduct, <a href="#Page_508">508</a>, <a href="#Page_515">515</a>;</li> + <li>his truce proposals after Austerlitz, <a href="#Page_544">544</a>, <a href="#Page_545">545</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Francis, Sir Philip, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li> +<li>Free Trade, demand for (in corn), <a href="#Page_289">289</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Pitt's ideal, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li><a id="Frederick_William_II"></a>Frederick William II, of Prussia, alliance with Austria, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>signs the Declaration of Pilnitz, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;</li> + <li>encourages Francis II to war, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</li> + <li>his conduct of the war, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>–<a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</li> + <li>difficulties of his position, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</li> + <li>affects indignation with Pitt, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>;</li> + <li>makes treaty of Basle with France, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</li> + <li>his character, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li><a id="Frederick_William_III"></a>Frederick William III, of Prussia, refuses to join the Allies, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his policy, <a href="#Page_515">515</a>, <a href="#Page_523">523</a>, <a href="#Page_528">528</a>, <a href="#Page_535">535</a>–<a href="#Page_537">537</a>;</li> + <li>his character, <a href="#Page_535">535</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>;</li> + <li>signs the Treaty of Potsdam, <a href="#Page_539">539</a>;</li> + <li>his demand for Hanover, <a href="#Page_540">540</a>, <a href="#Page_541">541</a>, <a href="#Page_552">552</a>;</li> + <li>agrees to the Convention of Schönbrunn, <a href="#Page_553">553</a>;</li> + <li>deserts the Allies, <a href="#Page_553">553</a>, <a href="#Page_556">556</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>French <span lang="fr">émigrés</span>, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>–<a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Pitt and, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>;</li> + <li>in England, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>;</li> + <li>and the Quiberon expedition, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>–<a href="#Page_261">261</a>;</li> + <li>hated by George III, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>French, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_518">518</a>.</li> +<li>Frere, Hookham, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>;</li> + <li>at Canning's wedding, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>;</li> + <li>Ambassador at Madrid, <a href="#Page_514">514</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>"Friends of the People," the, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.</li> +<li>Frost, John, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his conviction, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_G"></a>Gales, of Sheffield, arrested, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li> +<li>Game Laws, Bill for Reform of, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li> +<li>Garat, Dominique Joseph, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li> +<li>Garcia, Don, Spanish Governor of San Domingo, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</li> +<li>Gardiner, Colonel, British envoy at Warsaw, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li> +<li>Gardner, Vice-Admiral Sir Allan, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> +<li>Garnier, moves that it shall be lawful to murder Pitt, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.</li> +<li>General Convention of the People, proposal for, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>–<a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li> +<li>Genlis, Mme. de, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Genoa"></a>Genoa (the Ligurian Republic), <a href="#Page_150">150</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>annexed by Napoleon, <a href="#Page_528">528</a>, <a href="#Page_529">529</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>George III, his replies to Leopold II and Gustavus III on intervention in France, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>dismisses Thurlow, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;</li> + <li>his attitude to proposed coalition of Pitt and the Old Whigs, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>–<a href="#Page_38">38</a>;</li> + <li>his reception of Talleyrand, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>;</li> + <li>his hostility to France, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</li> + <li>increasing loyalty to, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</li> + <li>sympathy with Louis XVI, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;</li> + <li>orders Chauvelin to leave the country, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a> <i>n.</i>;</li> + <li>his view of the war, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</li> + <li>advocates the siege of Dunkirk, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>;</li> + <li>his influence in military affairs, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</li> + <li>opposed to peace, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>–<a href="#Page_323">323</a>;</li> + <li>offered the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_582" id="Page_582">[Pg 582]</a></span>crown of Corsica, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>;</li> + <li>insists on keeping troops in Hanover, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>;</li> + <li>his dislike of the <span lang="fr">émigrés</span>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>;</li> + <li>outrage on, in the Mall, <a href="#Page_277">277</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>;</li> + <li>his patronage of agriculture, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>;</li> + <li>on the peace negotiations, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>;</li> + <li>disapproves of Pitt's duel with Tierney, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>;</li> + <li>Irish policy, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>;</li> + <li>story of Dundas and, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>;</li> + <li>his opposition to Catholic Emancipation, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>–<a href="#Page_439">439</a>;</li> + <li>accepts Pitt's resignation, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>, <a href="#Page_445">445</a>;</li> + <li>his madness, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>–<a href="#Page_499">499</a>, <a href="#Page_506">506</a>, <a href="#Page_507">507</a>;</li> + <li>extracts a pledge from Pitt, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>;</li> + <li>his neglect of literature and art, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>;</li> + <li>objects to Fox's inclusion in the Ministry, <a href="#Page_499">499</a>, <a href="#Page_500">500</a>, <a href="#Page_530">530</a>;</li> + <li>rejects Napoleon's peace overtures, <a href="#Page_516">516</a>;</li> + <li>his character and relations with Pitt, <a href="#Page_561">561</a>–<a href="#Page_564">564</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Gerrald, Joseph, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his trial and transportation, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Gibbon, Edward, remark of George III to, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>.</li> +<li>Gibraltar, proposed cession to Spain, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>demanded by Spain, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_565">565</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Gillray, James, <a href="#Page_530">530</a>.</li> +<li>Gisborne, Dr., <a href="#Page_447">447</a>.</li> +<li>Gladstone, W. E., his Home Rule Bill (1886), <a href="#Page_415">415</a>.</li> +<li>Glasgow, political agitation in, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Godoy"></a>Godoy, Manuel de (afterwards Duke of Alcudia and Prince of the Peace), Spanish Minister, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his story concerning Pitt refuted, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;</li> + <li>his relations with the Queen, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</li> + <li>his character, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>;</li> + <li>Anti-British intrigues, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</li> + <li>makes peace with France, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>;</li> + <li>protests against British action in Hayti, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>;</li> + <li>made Prince of the Peace, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>;</li> + <li>declares war against England, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>;</li> + <li>gives aid to France, <a href="#Page_513">513</a>, <a href="#Page_514">514</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Gordon, Duke of, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>.</li> +<li>Gordon, Duchess of, <a href="#Page_300">300</a> <i>n.</i>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Pitt and, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Gower, Earl, Ambassador at Paris, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>recalled, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Gower, Lord Granville Leveson-, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Ambassador at St. Petersburg, <a href="#Page_526">526</a>, <a href="#Page_527">527</a>, <a href="#Page_529">529</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Graaf-Reinet, settlement of, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li> +<li>Graham, A., and D. Williams, their report on the mutiny at the Nore, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>–<a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li> +<li>Granard, Lord, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li> +<li>Grattan, Henry, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>–<a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.</li> +<li>Gravina, Rear-Admiral, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.</li> +<li>Grégoire, Henri, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.</li> +<li>Grenada, revolt in, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>capture of, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Grenville, Thomas, special envoy at Vienna, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his mission to Berlin (1798), <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>;</li> + <li>on the peace proposals (1801), <a href="#Page_469">469</a>;</li> + <li>negotiates the Grenville–Fox alliance, <a href="#Page_496">496</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Grenville, William Wyndham, Lord, Foreign Secretary, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>–<a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>opposes Flood's motion for Reform, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</li> + <li>on the Birmingham riots, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;</li> + <li>his marriage, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;</li> + <li>his assurances to Talleyrand, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>–<a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</li> + <li>his policy regarding the Belgic Provinces, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;</li> + <li>his treatment of Chauvelin, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</li> + <li>assertion of neutrality, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</li> + <li>policy towards Poland, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;</li> + <li>ignorant of events in France, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</li> + <li>his concern at the November decrees, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>–<a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</li> + <li>regards war as unavoidable, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;</li> + <li>makes overtures to Austria, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>;</li> + <li>his fears of Spanish weakness, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</li> + <li>negotiations with France, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>–<a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>–<a href="#Page_108">108</a>;</li> + <li>his despatch to Whitworth on British aims, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>;</li> + <li>declines to treat with Maret, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>–<a href="#Page_112">112</a>;</li> + <li>his belief in neutrality, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</li> + <li>forms the first coalition, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;</li> + <li>ignorant of military affairs, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</li> + <li>his war policy, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>–<a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>–<a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>–<a href="#Page_380">380</a>, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>–<a href="#Page_384">384</a>;</li> + <li>offers to resign, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>;</li> + <li>West Indian policy, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;</li> + <li>negotiations with Spain, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</li> + <li>opposed to negotiations for peace, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>–<a href="#Page_326">326</a>;</li> + <li>introduces the Treasonable Practices Bill, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;</li> + <li>supports the Finance Bill (1797), <a href="#Page_330">330</a>;</li> + <li>on Irish policy, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>;</li> + <li>and the Catholic question, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>, <a href="#Page_439">439</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>, <a href="#Page_519">519</a>;</li> + <li>resigns, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>;</li> + <li>on Pitt's resignation, <a href="#Page_445">445</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>;</li> + <li>his relations with Pitt, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>, <a href="#Page_469">469</a>, <a href="#Page_479">479</a>, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>, <a href="#Page_510">510</a>, <a href="#Page_511">511</a>;</li> + <li>on Pitt's scholarship, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>;</li> + <li>opposed to peace (1801), <a href="#Page_469">469</a>;</li> + <li>his plans for overthrowing Addington, <a href="#Page_495">495</a>, <a href="#Page_496">496</a>;</li> + <li>alliance with Fox, <a href="#Page_496">496</a>;</li> + <li>refuses to join Pitt's new ministry, <a href="#Page_500">500</a>–<a href="#Page_502">502</a>;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_583" id="Page_583">[Pg 583]</a></span></li> + <li>opposes Pitt, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>–<a href="#Page_504">504</a>, <a href="#Page_510">510</a>, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>, <a href="#Page_559">559</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Grey, General Sir Charles (afterwards 1st Earl Grey), <a href="#Page_225">225</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>letter from Pitt to, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Grey, Charles (afterwards 2nd Earl Grey), <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_516">516</a>, <a href="#Page_519">519</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>motions for Reform, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>;</li> + <li>opposes proclamation against seditious writings, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;</li> + <li>supports Fox, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</li> + <li>on the Scottish prosecutions, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</li> + <li>opposes the Act of Union, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Griffith, Rev. John, of Manchester, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li> +<li>Guadeloupe, planters appeal to England for protection, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>captured and again recovered, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Guiana, abolition of Slave Trade in, <a href="#Page_503">503</a>.</li> +<li>Guipuzcoa, province of, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</li> +<li>Gustavus III of Sweden, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>–<a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>assassinated, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Gustavus IV of Sweden, refuses aid against Holland, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>makes a convention with England, <a href="#Page_516">516</a>;</li> + <li>his hostility to Napoleon, <a href="#Page_528">528</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +</ul> + + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_H"></a>Habeas Corpus Act, suspension of (1794), <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>(1798), <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>;</li> + <li>in Ireland, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Hague Convention (1794), <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li> +<li>Hailes, Daniel, British envoy at Warsaw, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>–<a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li> +<li>Hair-powder, disuse of, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>tax on, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Hameln, held by the French, <a href="#Page_544">544</a>.</li> +<li>Hamilton, Sir William, <a href="#Page_150">150</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> +<li>Hamilton, Lady, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> +<li>Hammond, George, envoy to the United States, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li> +<li>Hanover, British troops kept in, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>coveted by Prussia, <a href="#Page_535">535</a>–<a href="#Page_537">537</a>, <a href="#Page_540">540</a>, <a href="#Page_541">541</a>, <a href="#Page_552">552</a>;</li> + <li>British expedition to, <a href="#Page_542">542</a>, <a href="#Page_551">551</a>, <a href="#Page_555">555</a>, <a href="#Page_556">556</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Hanoverian troops, landed in England, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li> +<li>Hanriot, François, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> +<li>Hardenberg, Karl August, Prince von, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>signs the Treaty of Basle, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</li> + <li>Prussian Foreign Minister, <a href="#Page_529">529</a>, <a href="#Page_536">536</a>, <a href="#Page_540">540</a>, <a href="#Page_545">545</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Hardwicke, Earl of, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li> +<li>Hardy, Thomas, his "Corresponding Society," <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>letter to Dr. Adams, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;</li> + <li>sends address from combined patriotic societies to French Convention, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;</li> + <li>circular on a General Convention, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</li> + <li>arrested, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;</li> + <li>acquitted, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</li> + <li>letter from Thelwall to, <a href="#Page_352">352</a> <i>n.</i></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Hare, Captain, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</li> +<li>Harington, Mr., Mayor of Bath, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li> +<li>Harrington, Earl of, commander of the forces in London, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his mission to Berlin, <a href="#Page_556">556</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Harris, Sir James. <i>See</i> <a href="#Malmesbury">Malmesbury, Lord</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Harrowby"></a>Harrowby, Earl of (Dudley Ryder), <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>acts as Pitt's second, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>;</li> + <li>Foreign Secretary, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a href="#Page_514">514</a>, <a href="#Page_515">515</a>, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>, <a href="#Page_523">523</a>;</li> + <li>Chancellor of the Duchy, <a href="#Page_530">530</a>;</li> + <li>his mission to Berlin, <a href="#Page_538">538</a>–<a href="#Page_547">547</a>, <a href="#Page_552">552</a> <i>n.</i>;</li> + <li>breakdown of his health, <a href="#Page_545">545</a>, <a href="#Page_546">546</a>, <a href="#Page_553">553</a>, <a href="#Page_558">558</a>;</li> + <li>recalled, <a href="#Page_556">556</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Haugwitz, Count von, Prussian Foreign Minister, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_515">515</a>, <a href="#Page_536">536</a>, <a href="#Page_537">537</a>, <a href="#Page_540">540</a>, <a href="#Page_543">543</a>, <a href="#Page_553">553</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>.</li> +<li>Hawkesbury, Lord, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Foreign Secretary, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>, <a href="#Page_479">479</a>, <a href="#Page_487">487</a>;</li> + <li>Home Secretary, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a href="#Page_507">507</a>, <a href="#Page_514">514</a>, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>, <a href="#Page_518">518</a>, <a href="#Page_521">521</a>, <a href="#Page_532">532</a>, <a href="#Page_549">549</a>, <a href="#Page_555">555</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Hayley, W., letter to Pitt, <a href="#Page_455">455</a>, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Hayti"></a>Hayti, proposed transfer to England, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>rising of negroes in, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</li> + <li>requests British protection, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>;</li> + <li>its wealth and prosperity, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</li> + <li>British successes in, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>–<a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</li> + <li>Spanish action in, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>–<a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;</li> + <li>increasing difficulties in, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>;</li> + <li>English evacuation of, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>;</li> + <li><a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Hébert, Jacques René, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.</li> +<li>Helvoetsluys, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>.</li> +<li>Henry, Prince, of Prussia, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li> +<li>Hermann, General, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li> +<li>Hervilly, Comte d', <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li> +<li>Hesse-Cassel, compact with England, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li> +<li>Hessian troops, landed in England, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li> +<li>Hobhouse, Sir Benjamin, on the Finance Bill of 1797, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li> +<li>Hoche, General Lazare, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> +<li>Hohenlohe-Kirchberg, Prince of, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li> +<li>Holcroft, Thomas, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>,</li> +<li>Holwood House, sale of, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>.</li> +<li>Holland. <i>See</i> <a href="#Dutch_Republic">Dutch Republic</a>.</li> +<li>Holland, Lord, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_481">481</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_519">519</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>opposes the Act of Union, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Hondschoote, battle of, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_584" id="Page_584">[Pg 584]</a></span>Hood, Alexander. <i>See</i> <a href="#Bridport">Bridport, Lord</a>.</li> +<li>Hood, Samuel Lord, occupies Toulon, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his difficulties and quarrels, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>–<a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>;</li> + <li>occupies Corsica, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Hotham, Admiral (afterwards Lord), <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Horsley"></a>Horsley, Samuel, Bishop of Rochester, and afterwards of St. Asaph, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>.</li> +<li>Houchard, General, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li> +<li>Howe, Admiral Lord, his victory of the 1st of June, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>quells the mutiny at Spithead, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>–<a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Hugues, Victor, Republican leader in the West Indies, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li> +<li>Humbert, General, his expedition to Ireland, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.</li> +<li>Hutchinson, John Hely, General (afterwards Earl of Donoughmore), at the "Castlebar Races," <a href="#Page_362">362</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>in Egypt, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Hythe military canal, <a href="#Page_512">512</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_I"></a>Illuminati, the, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>.</li> +<li>Income Tax, graduated, suggested, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>imposed by Pitt, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>;</li> + <li>abandoned by Addington, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>India, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>–<a href="#Page_464">464</a>, <a href="#Page_565">565</a>.</li> +<li>India Bill, Pitt's (1784), <a href="#Page_568">568</a>.</li> +<li>Ireland, Parliament refuses franchise to Catholics, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>grave situation in, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>;</li> + <li>Hoche's expedition to, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>;</li> + <li>English loan to, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>;</li> + <li>the Rebellion of 1798, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <i>and see</i> <a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">Chaps. XVI</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">XVIII</a>;</li> + <li>Earl Fitzwilliam's Viceroyalty, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>–<a href="#Page_342">342</a>;</li> + <li>Maynooth founded, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>;</li> + <li>feuds and disturbances, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>;</li> + <li>Camden's policy of coercion, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>–<a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>;</li> + <li>financial straits, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>;</li> + <li>Franco-Irish plots, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>–<a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>;</li> + <li>resignation of Abercromby, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>;</li> + <li>progress of the Rebellion, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>–<a href="#Page_364">364</a>;</li> + <li>French invasions, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>–<a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>;</li> + <li>the Union, <i>see</i> <a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">Chaps. XVIII</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">XIX</a>;</li> + <li>policy of Cornwallis, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>;</li> + <li>corruption in Parliament, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>;</li> + <li>debates on the Act of Union, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>–<a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>–<a href="#Page_428">428</a>;</li> + <li>continued danger from France, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>;</li> + <li>financial relations with England, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>, <a href="#Page_568">568</a>;</li> + <li>Act of Union passed, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>;</li> + <li>pocket boroughs disfranchised, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>;</li> + <li>Union honours, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Isherwood, Mr., <a href="#Page_460">460</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_J"></a>Jackson, George, his "Diaries," <a href="#Page_546">546</a>.</li> +<li>Jackson, Mrs., <a href="#Page_547">547</a>.</li> +<li>Jackson, F. L., <span lang="fr">chargé-d'affaires</span> at Madrid, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>recalled, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Jacobi, Baron, Prussian Ambassador in London, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li> +<li>Jacobins Club, the, in Paris, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.</li> +<li>Jamaica, sends help to Hayti, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>coffee-planting in, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>;</li> + <li>atrocities of Maroons in, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Jassy, Treaty of, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li> +<li>Jay, John, American envoy to London, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li> +<li>Jean François, negro leader, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li> +<li>Jebb, Richard, his pamphlet against Union, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.</li> +<li>Jekyll, Joseph, M.P., on the new taxes (1797), <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li> +<li>Jemappes, battle of, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.</li> +<li>Jenkinson, Charles. <i>See</i> <a href="#Liverpool">Liverpool, Earl of</a>.</li> +<li>Jermagnan, Colonel de, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</li> +<li>Jervis, Sir John. <i>See</i> <a href="#St_Vincent">St. Vincent, Earl of</a>.</li> +<li>Johnstone, General, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li> +<li>Jones, Thomas, M.P., <a href="#Page_426">426</a>.</li> +<li>Jourdan, Marshal, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> +<li>Joyce, Rev. Jeremiah, letter to Horne Tooke, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>arrested, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;</li> + <li>discharged, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Jülich, Duchy of, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li> +<li>June 1st, 1794, battle of, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_K"></a>Kaiserslautern, battle of, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> +<li>Kalkreuth, General, <a href="#Page_543">543</a>.</li> +<li>Kaunitz, Prince, Austrian Chancellor, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>–<a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</li> +<li>Keir, Dr., of Birmingham, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li> +<li>Keith, Sir Robert Murray, Ambassador at Vienna, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>begs for recall, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Kenmare, Lord, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>.</li> +<li>Kent, Duke of, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>.</li> +<li>Kenyon, Lord, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li> +<li>Kersaint, Captain, his speech against England, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li> +<li>Killala, French landing at, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>.</li> +<li>King, Lord, opposes the Act of Union, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.</li> +<li>Kinglake, A. W., <a href="#Page_490">490</a>.</li> +<li>Korsakoff, General, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.</li> +<li>Kosciusko, Thaddeus, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.</li> +<li>Kyd, Stewart, arrested, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>discharged, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_585" id="Page_585">[Pg 585]</a></span><a id="IX_L"></a>Lageard, de, witty remark of, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>.</li> +<li>Laharpe, F. C. de, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>.</li> +<li>Lake, General, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li> +<li>Lally-Tollendal, Comte de, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li> +<li>Lambton, John, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> +<li>Landrecies, surrendered, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</li> +<li>Land Tax, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Pitt's Commutation Act, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>–<a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_568">568</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Langara, Admiral, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li> +<li>Lansdowne, Marquis of, Gillray's cartoon of, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>intimate with Talleyrand, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a> <i>n.</i>;</li> + <li>opposes Government policy, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;</li> + <li>opposes the Aliens Bill, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</li> + <li>on the insult to the King, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Larochejaquelein, Marquis de, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> +<li>Las Casas, Spanish Ambassador in London, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li> +<li>Lascelles, Mr., M.P., <a href="#Page_559">559</a>.</li> +<li>Lauderdale, Earl of, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>opposes the Aliens Bill, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Laurence, Dr. French, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>.</li> +<li>Lebrun, P. M. Henri, French Foreign Minister, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>account of his career, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</li> + <li>his instructions to Dumouriez, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</li> + <li>and Maret, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>–<a href="#Page_81">81</a>;</li> + <li>negotiations with England, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>–<a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>–<a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</li> + <li>his report on the negotiations, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li><a id="Leeds"></a>Leeds, Duke of (Marquis of Carmarthen), <a href="#Page_35">35</a> <i>n.</i>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>suggested as First Lord of the Treasury in Coalition Ministry, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>–<a href="#Page_38">38</a>;</li> + <li>interview with the King, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;</li> + <li>opposes the taxes of 1797, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Lees, John, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li> +<li>Leopold II, correspondence with George III on intervention in France, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>signs the Declaration of Pilnitz, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;</li> + <li>distrusted by Pitt and Grenville, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</li> + <li>anxious to avoid war with France, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>;</li> + <li>his death, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Lescure, Marquis de, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> +<li>Letourneur, C. L. F. Honoré, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>.</li> +<li>Lewins, Edward John, delegate of the United Irishmen in Paris, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>.</li> +<li>Liancourt, Duc de, story of his flight, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> +<li>Ligurian Republic. <i>See</i> <a href="#Genoa">Genoa</a>.</li> +<li>Lille, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>peace negotiations at (1797), <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>–<a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Lincoln, Bishop of. <i>See</i> <a href="#Tomline">Tomline, George Pretyman</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Liverpool"></a>Liverpool, Earl of (Charles Jenkinson), <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.</li> +<li>Liverpool, dock strike at, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>press-gang at, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Livingston, Mr., American Envoy at Paris, <a href="#Page_505">505</a>, <a href="#Page_506">506</a>.</li> +<li>Lloyd, George, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.</li> +<li>London, Preliminaries of, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>–<a href="#Page_470">470</a>.</li> +<li>Long, Charles (afterwards Lord Farnborough), <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li> +<li>Longueville, Lord, letter to Pitt on the Union, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.</li> +<li>Lorraine, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> +<li>Loughborough, Lord (Alexander Wedderburn), Lord Chancellor, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his efforts to bring about a union between Pitt and the Old Whigs, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>–<a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a> <i>n.</i>;</li> + <li>on the Scottish prosecutions, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</li> + <li>interviews with Grattan, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>;</li> + <li>on union with Ireland, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;</li> + <li>opposes Catholic Emancipation, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>–<a href="#Page_437">437</a>, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>, <a href="#Page_445">445</a>;</li> + <li>his record, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>;</li> + <li>dismissed and created Earl of Rosslyn, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>;</li> + <li>the King's comment on his death, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Louis XVI, the flight to Varennes, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>accepts new constitution, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;</li> + <li>letter to George III, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>;</li> + <li>his trial decreed, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;</li> + <li>English sympathy for, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</li> + <li>proposed appeal from England for his life, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</li> + <li>stories of Spanish and other efforts on his behalf, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>–<a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</li> + <li>his execution, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li> + <li>his responsibility for the Revolution, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Louis, Dauphin (Louis XVII), <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his death, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Louis XVIII. <i>See</i> <a href="#Provence">Provence, Comte de</a>.</li> +<li>Louisa, Queen, of Prussia, <a href="#Page_535">535</a>, <a href="#Page_536">536</a>.</li> +<li>Loyal Associations, growth of, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li> +<li>Loyalty Loan, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li> +<li>Lucchesini, Marquis di, Prussian Ambassador at Vienna, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li> +<li>Lunéville, Treaty of, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>, <a href="#Page_529">529</a>.</li> +<li>Lyons, fall of, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_M"></a>Macartney, Earl, his embassy to Pekin, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Governor of the Cape, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>MacBride, Admiral, <a href="#Page_269">269</a> <i>n.</i></li> +<li>McCullum, of Manchester, trial of, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li> +<li>Macdonald, General, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.</li> +<li>Macdonald, Sir Archibald, Attorney-General, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.</li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_586" id="Page_586">[Pg 586]</a></span>Mack, General, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his plan of campaign (1794), <a href="#Page_205">205</a>;</li> + <li>declines to serve under Coburg, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</li> + <li>surrenders at Ulm, <a href="#Page_534">534</a>, <a href="#Page_537">537</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Mackenzie, Sir Kenneth, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li> +<li>Mackintosh, Sir James, his "Vindiciae Gallicae," <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> +<li>Macleod, General, M.P., <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li> +<li>McNevin, William James, delegate of the United Irishmen in Paris, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>arrested, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Macqueen of Braxfield, Lord Justice Clerk, his trial of Muir, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>trial of Margarot and Gerrald, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>MacRitchie, W., his "Diary of a Tour through Great Britain in 1795," <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li> +<li>Maestricht, the French demand a passage through, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</li> +<li>Mainz, siege of, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> +<li>Maitland, General, evacuates Hayti, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li> +<li>Mallet du Pan, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Malmesbury"></a>Malmesbury, Lord (Sir James Harris), furthers proposed union between Pitt and the Old Whigs, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>on the opening of the Scheldt, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;</li> + <li>his mission to Berlin, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>–<a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</li> + <li>makes treaty with Prussia, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>–<a href="#Page_208">208</a>;</li> + <li>agreement with Hardenberg, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>;</li> + <li>goes to Brunswick, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</li> + <li>his mission to Paris, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>;</li> + <li>negotiations at Lille, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>–<a href="#Page_326">326</a>;</li> + <li>his statements controverted, <a href="#Page_434">434</a>, <a href="#Page_445">445</a>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>, <a href="#Page_550">550</a> <i>n.</i>;</li> + <li>urges Pitt to action, <a href="#Page_481">481</a>;</li> + <li>mentioned, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>, <a href="#Page_524">524</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_537">537</a>, <a href="#Page_553">553</a>, <a href="#Page_559">559</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Malouet, Baron Pierre Victor, his "Mémoires," <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>envoy from Hayti to England, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a> <i>n.</i></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Malt, tax on, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>.</li> +<li>Malta, Pitt's policy with regard to, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>–<a href="#Page_470">470</a>, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>, <a href="#Page_565">565</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>the French in, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>;</li> + <li>Craig's expedition to, <a href="#Page_525">525</a>, <a href="#Page_526">526</a>;</li> + <li>Russian aims in, <a href="#Page_526">526</a>–<a href="#Page_527">527</a>;</li> + <li>its value to England, <a href="#Page_539">539</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Manchester, Nonconformists in, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>political clubs founded, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</li> + <li>disorder in, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>"Manchester Constitutional Society," <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li> +<li>Mann, Admiral, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li> +<li>Mansfield, Lord, death of, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>.</li> +<li>Marengo, battle of, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Maret"></a>Maret, Hugues Bernard (afterwards Duc de Bassano), in London, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>interviews with Pitt, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>–<a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>;</li> + <li>his letter to Miles, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>–<a href="#Page_107">107</a>;</li> + <li>his alleged mission to London, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>–<a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li> + <li>ordered to leave, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;</li> + <li>on Chauvelin, <a href="#Page_115">115</a> <i>n.</i>;</li> + <li>one of the plenipotentiaries at Lille, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Margarot, Maurice, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his trial and transportation, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>–<a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.</li> +<li>Maria Luisa, of Parma, Queen of Spain, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li> +<li>Maria Theresa, 2nd wife of the Emperor Francis II, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li> +<li>Marie Antoinette, the flight to Varennes, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>her anger, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;</li> + <li>her schemes, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</li> + <li>her execution, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Maritime Code, British, opposed by the Baltic powers, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>.</li> +<li>Markoff, Russian minister, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li> +<li>Maroons, their atrocities in Jamaica, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li> +<li>Marseilles, the Royalists in, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>–<a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> +<li>Martello towers, <a href="#Page_512">512</a>, <a href="#Page_513">513</a>.</li> +<li>Martinique, failure of English attack on, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>capture of, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>;</li> + <li>to be ceded to France, <a href="#Page_469">469</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Masséna, André (Duc de Rivoli), <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.</li> +<li>Maubeuge, siege of, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> +<li>Maulde, French envoy at The Hague, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li> +<li>Maxwell, Colonel, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li> +<li>Maxwell, Dr., of York, his order for daggers, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li> +<li>Maxwell, James, of York, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li> +<li>Maynooth College, founded, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li> +<li>Mealmaker, author of "An address to the People," <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li> +<li>Melas, Field-Marshal, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.</li> +<li>Melvill, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>–<a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> +<li>Melville, Lord. <i>See</i> <a href="#Dundas">Dundas, Henry</a>.</li> +<li>Mercy d'Argenteau, Count, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</li> +<li>Merry, Antony, Secretary of legation at Madrid, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li> +<li>Merveldt, General Count, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</li> +<li>Middleton, Sir Charles. <i>See</i> <a href="#Barham">Barham, Lord</a>.</li> +<li>Miles, William Augustus, British agent at Paris, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>–<a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li> +<li>Militia, the, <a href="#Page_509">509</a>, <a href="#Page_510">510</a>.</li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_587" id="Page_587">[Pg 587]</a></span>Militia Acts, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li> +<li>Milman, Dr., the King's physician, <a href="#Page_506">506</a>.</li> +<li>Mingay of Norfolk, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Minto"></a>Minto, Earl of (Sir Gilbert Elliot), his motion to repeal the Test Act in Scotland, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>on Fox's conduct, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</li> + <li>commissioner at Dunkirk, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>–<a href="#Page_140">140</a>;</li> + <li>commissioner at Toulon, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</li> + <li>Viceroy of Corsica, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>–<a href="#Page_258">258</a>;</li> + <li>Ambassador at Vienna, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>;</li> + <li>speech on the Union, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Mirabeau, Count, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.</li> +<li>Miranda, General Francesco, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>ordered to prepare for invasion of Holland, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;</li> + <li>defeated by Coburg, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Missouri River, British mercantile ports on, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> +<li>Mitchell, Admiral, his successes against the Dutch, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Mitford"></a>Mitford, Sir John (afterwards Lord Redesdale), made Speaker, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>letter to Pitt, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>, <a href="#Page_486">486</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Moira, Earl of, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>.</li> +<li>Möllendorf, Marshal, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> +<li>Monge, Gaspard, French Minister for the Navy, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his circular letter, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>–<a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Montrose, Duke of, President of the Board of Trade, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Moore"></a>Moore, John, Archbishop of Canterbury, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>and Catholic Emancipation, <a href="#Page_434">434</a>, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>;</li> + <li>death of, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Moore, Sir John, on Abercromby, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>in the West Indies, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>;</li> + <li>in Corsica, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>;</li> + <li>in Ireland, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>;</li> + <li>and the Volunteers, <a href="#Page_492">492</a>, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>, <a href="#Page_510">510</a>, <a href="#Page_512">512</a>, <a href="#Page_547">547</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>More, Hannah, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li> +<li>Moreau, General, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.</li> +<li>"Morning Chronicle," the, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>in the pay of the French Embassy, <a href="#Page_66">66</a> <i>n.</i>;</li> + <li>prosecution of, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>"Morning Post," the, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> +<li>Mornington, Earl of. <i>See</i> <a href="#Wellesley">Wellesley, Marquis</a>.</li> +<li>Morris, Gouverneur, <a href="#Page_96">96</a> <i>n.</i>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>on the state of France in 1795, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Moylan, Bishop, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a href="#Page_425">425</a> <i>n.</i></li> +<li>Muir, Thomas, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>goes to Paris, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</li> + <li>his trial and sentence, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</li> + <li>at Sydney, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>;</li> + <li>his death, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Mulgrave, 1st Lord, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li> +<li>Mulgrave, Henry, 2nd Lord (afterwards Earl of Mulgrave), Chancellor of the Duchy, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a href="#Page_514">514</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Foreign Secretary, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>, <a href="#Page_523">523</a>, <a href="#Page_527">527</a>, <a href="#Page_538">538</a>, <a href="#Page_542">542</a>, <a href="#Page_549">549</a>, <a href="#Page_550">550</a>, <a href="#Page_552">552</a>, <a href="#Page_556">556</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Munro, British <span lang="fr">chargé-d'affaires</span> in Paris, <a href="#Page_64">64</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> +<li>Münster, Treaty of (1648), <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> +<li>Murphy, Father John, his barbarities in Wexford, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>–<a href="#Page_362">362</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>hanged, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Murphy, Father Michael, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>killed, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Murray, Sir James, envoy at Frankfurt, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a> <i>n.</i>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Chief of Staff to the Duke of York, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_N"></a>Nagel, Dutch envoy in London, appeals for help, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li> +<li>Nantes, assault of, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> +<li>Naples, compact with England, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>French conquest of, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>;</li> + <li>Nelson's vengeance on, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>;</li> + <li>makes peace with Bonaparte, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>;</li> + <li><a href="#Page_468">468</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li><a id="Napoleon"></a>Napoleon Bonaparte, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_570">570</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his "Souper de Beaucaire," <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</li> + <li>at Toulon, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</li> + <li>his Italian campaign, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>;</li> + <li>his Eastern expedition, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>;</li> + <li>disperses the royalist rising in Paris (1795), <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</li> + <li>peace of Campo Formio, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>;</li> + <li>at Dunkirk, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>;</li> + <li>First Consul, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>–<a href="#Page_470">470</a>, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>;</li> + <li>proposes terms of peace to Austria and England, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_568">568</a>;</li> + <li>battle of Marengo, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>;</li> + <li>dupes the Czar, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>;</li> + <li>renews peace negotiations, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>;</li> + <li>his conquests (1802), <a href="#Page_478">478</a>;</li> + <li>his behaviour to Whitworth, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>;</li> + <li>declares war on England, <a href="#Page_487">487</a>;</li> + <li>threatened invasion of England, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>, <a href="#Page_510">510</a>, <a href="#Page_511">511</a>;</li> + <li>his position in 1804, <a href="#Page_505">505</a>;</li> + <li>seizes Sir H. Rumbold, <a href="#Page_515">515</a>;</li> + <li>again proposes terms of peace, <a href="#Page_516">516</a>;</li> + <li>crowned King of Italy, <a href="#Page_528">528</a>;</li> + <li>annexes Genoa, <a href="#Page_528">528</a>, <a href="#Page_529">529</a>;</li> + <li>battle of Austerlitz, <a href="#Page_544">544</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>National Debt, the (1792), <a href="#Page_31">31</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>(1801), <a href="#Page_451">451</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>National Defence, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>–<a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li> +<li>Navy, state of the (1793), <a href="#Page_124">124</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>causes of discontent in, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>;</li> + <li>mutinies at Spithead and the Nore, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>–<a href="#Page_320">320</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Needham, General, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li> +<li>Neerwinden, battle of, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>.</li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_588" id="Page_588">[Pg 588]</a></span>Nelson, Lord, in Corsica, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>on the position of Italy, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>;</li> + <li>at Cape St. Vincent, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>;</li> + <li>battle of the Nile, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>–<a href="#Page_369">369</a>;</li> + <li>at Naples, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>;</li> + <li>battle of Copenhagen, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>;</li> + <li>interview with Pitt, <a href="#Page_533">533</a>;</li> + <li>battle of Trafalgar, <a href="#Page_534">534</a>, <a href="#Page_538">538</a>, <a href="#Page_565">565</a>;</li> + <li>death of, <a href="#Page_521">521</a>, <a href="#Page_538">538</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Nepean, Sir Evan, on the Scottish prosecutions, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Pitt at his house, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>;</li> + <li>Irish Secretary, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a href="#Page_519">519</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Netherlands, Austrian, ceded to France, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li> +<li>Netherlands, Dutch. <i>See</i> <a href="#Dutch_Republic">Dutch Republic</a>.</li> +<li>New Ross, fight at, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li> +<li>New South Wales, <a href="#Page_565">565</a>.</li> +<li>Nicholls, Mr., <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.</li> +<li>Nicols, General, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li> +<li>Nile, battle of the, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>.</li> +<li>Noël, French agent in London, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Nonconformists"></a>Nonconformists, position of, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>no longer support Pitt, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</li> + <li>riots in Birmingham, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Nootka Sound dispute, the, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Convention, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Nore, the, mutiny at, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>–<a href="#Page_320">320</a>.</li> +<li>Norfolk, Duke of, his seditious speech, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>and Arthur O'Connor, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Norwich, Bishop of. <i>See</i> <a href="#Sutton">Sutton, Charles Manners</a>, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>.</li> +<li>Norwich, Radical Clubs at, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li> +<li>Novossiltzoff, Count, his mission to London, <a href="#Page_516">516</a>, <a href="#Page_522">522</a>, <a href="#Page_525">525</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>in Berlin, <a href="#Page_528">528</a>, <a href="#Page_529">529</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_O"></a>O'Brien, Sir Edward, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>.</li> +<li>O'Coigly. <i>See</i> <a href="#Quigley">Quigley</a>.</li> +<li>O'Connor, Arthur, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.</li> +<li>O'Drusse, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> +<li>O'Finn, the brothers, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li> +<li>O'Hara, General, at Toulon, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>captured, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Orange, Prince of. <i>See</i> <a href="#William_V">William V</a>.</li> +<li>Orange, Wilhelmina, Princess of, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> +<li>Orangemen, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>oppose the Union, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li><a id="Orde"></a>Orde, Thomas (afterwards Lord Bolton), <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li> +<li>Orleans, Duke of (Philippe Egalité), <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li> +<li>Otto, General, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> +<li>Oubril, Count d', <a href="#Page_540">540</a>, <a href="#Page_541">541</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_P"></a>Pache, Jean Nicolas, French Minister of War, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li> +<li>Paine, Thomas, his "Rights of Man," <a href="#Page_14">14</a>–<a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>–<a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>intimate with Talleyrand, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;</li> + <li>elected as deputy for Calais, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</li> + <li>circulation of his works, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</li> + <li>prosecution of, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</li> + <li>story of, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Palmer, T. F., transported for sedition, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.</li> +<li>Paoli, Pascal, <a href="#Page_150">150</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> +<li>Paris, deputation of British residents to the National Convention, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>activity of Britons in, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</li> + <li>royalist rising in, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Parker, Vice-Admiral, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> +<li>Parker, Richard, and the Mutiny at the Nore, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> +<li>Parker, Theresa, on the taxes of 1797, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li> +<li>Parliament, movement for Reform, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>–<a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>evolution of the Cabinet, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;</li> + <li>growing power of the Prime Minister, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;</li> + <li>election of 1796, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Parnell, Sir John, Irish Chancellor of the Exchequer, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.</li> +<li>Parsons, Sir L., <a href="#Page_424">424</a>.</li> +<li>Parthenopean Republic, the, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> +<li>Paterson, Chairman of the British Convention, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li> +<li>Patriotic Contribution, the (1797), <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Paul_I"></a>Paul I, Czar, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his indignation with France, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>;</li> + <li>alliance with England, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>;</li> + <li>breaks with Austria, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>;</li> + <li>joins England in the expedition against Holland, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>;</li> + <li>duped by Bonaparte, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>;</li> + <li>murdered, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Pays Bas. <i>See</i> <a href="#Belgic_Provinces">Belgic Provinces</a>.</li> +<li>Peel, Robert (senior), and the Patriotic Contribution, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>on the Union, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Peep o' Day Boys, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li> +<li>Pelham, Thomas (afterwards Earl of Chichester), Secretary to Earl Camden, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Irish Chief Secretary, <a href="#Page_359">359</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;</li> + <li>on Pitt's pledge to the King, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>;</li> + <li>Home Secretary, <a href="#Page_483">483</a>, <a href="#Page_484">484</a>;</li> + <li>omitted from Pitt's ministry, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Perceval, Spencer, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Attorney-General 501, <a href="#Page_569">569</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Perth, sedition in, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li> +<li>Pétion, Jérôme, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li> +<li>Petty, Lord Henry, <a href="#Page_520">520</a>.</li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_589" id="Page_589">[Pg 589]</a></span>Pichegru, General Charles, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li> +<li>Pilnitz, Declaration of, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> +<li>Pinckard, Dr., his account of the West India expedition, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</li> +<li>Pitt, Lady Ann, marries Lord Grenville, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li> +<li>Pitt, Thomas, of Boccanoc. <i>See</i> <a href="#Camelford">Camelford, Lord</a>.</li> +<li>Pitt, William, his neutrality towards the French Revolution, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>–<a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>first private meeting with Burke, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</li> + <li>distrusts Leopold II, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</li> + <li>opposes Nonconformist claims, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>–<a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>;</li> + <li>his opposition to Reform, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>–<a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</li> + <li>his finance, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>–<a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>–<a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>–<a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>–<a href="#Page_371">371</a>, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>;</li> + <li>sends Lord Macartney to China, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;</li> + <li>insists on dismissal of Thurlow, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;</li> + <li>rumour of his impending fall, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>;</li> + <li>negotiates for union with the Old Whigs, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>–<a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>;</li> + <li>made Warden of the Cinque Ports, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</li> + <li>interview with Canning, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>–<a href="#Page_41">41</a>;</li> + <li>his reception of Talleyrand, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>;</li> + <li>discussion of his policy, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>–<a href="#Page_48">48</a>;</li> + <li>assertion of neutrality, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</li> + <li>cautious Polish policy, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>;</li> + <li>ignorant of events in France, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</li> + <li>life at Holwood and Walmer, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;</li> + <li>foresees no danger, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>;</li> + <li>his concern at the November decrees, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>–<a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;</li> + <li>his assurances to Holland, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</li> + <li>considers war unavoidable, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;</li> + <li>interviews with Maret, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>–<a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>;</li> + <li>support of his policy not unanimous, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</li> + <li>his firm attitude, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;</li> + <li>Godoy's story of, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;</li> + <li>Lebrun's charges against, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li> + <li>stiff reply to Chauvelin, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</li> + <li>declaration of policy, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>;</li> + <li>his anger with Miles, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</li> + <li>difficulties of neutrality, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>–<a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</li> + <li>faults of his policy, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>–<a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</li> + <li>harsh treatment of Radical Clubs, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>–<a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</li> + <li>his view of the war, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>–<a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>;</li> + <li>his war policy (1793), <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</li> + <li>his care for the navy, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>;</li> + <li>ignorant of military affairs, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</li> + <li>his optimism, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;</li> + <li>demands removal of Coburg, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</li> + <li>Mediterranean policy, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>;</li> + <li>his intentions at Toulon, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>–<a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</li> + <li>effect of Toulon on his policy, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>;</li> + <li>his Traitorous Correspondence Bill, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>;</li> + <li>altered attitude to Reform, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</li> + <li>policy of repression, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>–<a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>;</li> + <li>speech on the Scottish prosecutions, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</li> + <li>suspends the Habeas Corpus Act, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>;</li> + <li>mistaken as to affairs in France, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;</li> + <li>deprecates peace, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>;</li> + <li>war policy in 1794, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>–<a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</li> + <li>dilatoriness in ratifying Prussian Alliance, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>;</li> + <li>remonstrance to Prussian Ambassador, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>;</li> + <li>insists on recall of the Duke of York, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</li> + <li>policy in the West Indies, <a href="#Page_220">220</a> <span lang="la">et seq.</span>;</li> + <li>negotiations with Spain, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</li> + <li>makes treaty with Russia and Austria, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>;</li> + <li>speech on abolition of slavery, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</li> + <li>inclines towards peace, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</li> + <li>tries to avert war with Spain, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>;</li> + <li>policy at the Cape, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>;</li> + <li>attitude towards Corsica, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>–<a href="#Page_258">258</a>;</li> + <li>relations with the <span lang="fr">émigrés</span>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</li> + <li>the Quiberon expedition, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>–<a href="#Page_262">262</a>;</li> + <li>policy as War Minister, <i>see</i> <a href="#CHAPTER_XII">Chap. XII</a>;</li> + <li>changes in the Cabinet, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>–<a href="#Page_272">272</a>;</li> + <li>national defence policy, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>–<a href="#Page_281">281</a>;</li> + <li>agitation against him, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>–<a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>;</li> + <li>caricatures of, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>;</li> + <li>his Sedition Bills, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>–<a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</li> + <li>action with regard to shortage of corn, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>;</li> + <li>institutes a Board of Agriculture, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>;</li> + <li>treatment of the Enclosures question, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>–<a href="#Page_297">297</a>;</li> + <li>his Poor Bill (1797), <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>;</li> + <li>his relations with Miss Eden, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>–<a href="#Page_303">303</a>;</li> + <li>his financial embarrassments, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>–<a href="#Page_477">477</a>;</li> + <li>issues a "Loyalty Loan," <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>;</li> + <li>and the mutinies in the fleet, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>–<a href="#Page_320">320</a>;</li> + <li>compared with Chatham, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;</li> + <li>further efforts for peace, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>–<a href="#Page_326">326</a>;</li> + <li>hostility to his new taxes (1797), <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>;</li> + <li>the "Patriotic Contribution," <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>;</li> + <li>his Land Tax proposals, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>–<a href="#Page_333">333</a>;</li> + <li>his duel with Tierney, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>–<a href="#Page_336">336</a>;</li> + <li>verses in the "Anti-Jacobin," <a href="#Page_337">337</a>;</li> + <li>Irish policy, <i>see</i> <a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">Chaps. XVI</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">XVIII</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">XIX</a>, <a href="#Page_566">566</a>;</li> + <li>sends a squadron to the Mediterranean, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>;</li> + <li>his Income Tax, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>;</li> + <li>his aims in Europe (1798), <a href="#Page_371">371</a>;</li> + <li>his policy towards Switzerland, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>;</li> + <li>the expedition to Holland, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>–<a href="#Page_383">383</a>;</li> + <li>rejects Bonaparte's offers of peace, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>–<a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>;</li> + <li>on commercial union with Ireland, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>;</li> + <li>his first reference to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_590" id="Page_590">[Pg 590]</a></span>Union, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>;</li> + <li>preparations for the Union, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>–<a href="#Page_410">410</a>;</li> + <li>speeches on the Act of Union, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>–<a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_426">426</a>, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>;</li> + <li>his use of bribery in Ireland, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>;</li> + <li>his proposal for Catholic Emancipation, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>;</li> + <li>opposition of the King, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>–<a href="#Page_439">439</a>;</li> + <li>breaks down in health, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>;</li> + <li>his resignation, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>–<a href="#Page_446">446</a>, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>;</li> + <li>his promises to the Catholics, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>;</li> + <li>gives a pledge to the King during his illness, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>, <a href="#Page_518">518</a>;</li> + <li>breach with Auckland, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>;</li> + <li>personal characteristics, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>–<a href="#Page_459">459</a>, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>;</li> + <li>his neglect of literature and art, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>;</li> + <li>his scholarship, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>;</li> + <li>his friendship with Wellesley and Canning, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>–<a href="#Page_466">466</a>;</li> + <li>his creations of peers, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>–<a href="#Page_468">468</a>;</li> + <li>supports Addington and the peace proposals (1801), <a href="#Page_468">468</a>–<a href="#Page_472">472</a>, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>;</li> + <li>vote of thanks to him carried, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>;</li> + <li>at Walmer, <a href="#Page_471">471</a>, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>;</li> + <li>his interest in farming and gardening, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>, <a href="#Page_479">479</a>, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>;</li> + <li>his private expenses, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>;</li> + <li>subscription for, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>;</li> + <li>relations with Addington, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>–<a href="#Page_482">482</a>, <a href="#Page_503">503</a>, <a href="#Page_504">504</a>;</li> + <li>at Bath, <a href="#Page_479">479</a>;</li> + <li>negotiations with Dundas, <a href="#Page_483">483</a>, <a href="#Page_484">484</a>;</li> + <li>his terms for return to office, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>;</li> + <li>speech on the war with France (1803), <a href="#Page_487">487</a>, <a href="#Page_488">488</a>;</li> + <li>death of his mother, <a href="#Page_488">488</a>;</li> + <li>organizes the East Kent Volunteers, <a href="#Page_489">489</a>–<a href="#Page_494">494</a>, <a href="#Page_511">511</a>, <a href="#Page_512">512</a>;</li> + <li>Lady Hester Stanhope at Walmer, <a href="#Page_490">490</a>–<a href="#Page_493">493</a>;</li> + <li>refuses to join Grenville, <a href="#Page_495">495</a>, <a href="#Page_496">496</a>;</li> + <li>agrees to accept office, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>;</li> + <li>attack on Addington, <a href="#Page_499">499</a>;</li> + <li>forms a ministry, <a href="#Page_500">500</a>–<a href="#Page_502">502</a>;</li> + <li>and the Slave Trade, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>, <a href="#Page_503">503</a>;</li> + <li>difficulties of his position, <a href="#Page_503">503</a>, <a href="#Page_504">504</a>;</li> + <li>declines Livingston's peace proposals, <a href="#Page_505">505</a>, <a href="#Page_506">506</a>;</li> + <li>remonstrates with the Princess of Wales, <a href="#Page_508">508</a>;</li> + <li>his measures for strengthening the army, <a href="#Page_509">509</a>, <a href="#Page_511">511</a>;</li> + <li>constructs the Hythe Military Canal, <a href="#Page_512">512</a>;</li> + <li>seizes Spanish treasure-ships, <a href="#Page_514">514</a>;</li> + <li>on the restoration of the French monarchy, <a href="#Page_515">515</a>;</li> + <li>rejects Napoleon's overtures, <a href="#Page_516">516</a>, <a href="#Page_566">566</a>;</li> + <li>forms a junction with Addington, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>;</li> + <li>opposes Fox's motion for Catholic Emancipation, <a href="#Page_518">518</a>, <a href="#Page_519">519</a>;</li> + <li>on the impeachment of Lord Melville, <a href="#Page_519">519</a>–<a href="#Page_521">521</a>;</li> + <li>his foreign policy (1805), <a href="#Page_523">523</a>–<a href="#Page_525">525</a>;</li> + <li>negotiations with Russia, <a href="#Page_525">525</a>–<a href="#Page_529">529</a>;</li> + <li>final parting with Addington, <a href="#Page_530">530</a>;</li> + <li>fails to form a national administration, <a href="#Page_530">530</a>;</li> + <li>multiplicity of his cares, <a href="#Page_530">530</a>, <a href="#Page_531">531</a>;</li> + <li>interview with Nelson, <a href="#Page_533">533</a>;</li> + <li>receives the news of Ulm, <a href="#Page_537">537</a>, <a href="#Page_538">538</a>;</li> + <li>his speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet (1805), <a href="#Page_538">538</a>;</li> + <li>his magnanimous offers to Prussia, <a href="#Page_538">538</a>, <a href="#Page_539">539</a>;</li> + <li>his foresight in South Africa, <a href="#Page_539">539</a>;</li> + <li>rejects Prussia's demand for Hanover, <a href="#Page_541">541</a>, <a href="#Page_542">542</a>;</li> + <li>correspondence with Harrowby, <a href="#Page_541">541</a>–<a href="#Page_547">547</a>;</li> + <li>goes back to Bath, <a href="#Page_547">547</a>;</li> + <li>story of his reception of the news of Austerlitz, <a href="#Page_548">548</a>, <a href="#Page_549">549</a>;</li> + <li>returns home, <a href="#Page_553">553</a>, <a href="#Page_554">554</a>;</li> + <li>last days and death, <a href="#Page_554">554</a>–<a href="#Page_558">558</a>;</li> + <li>opposition to his burial in the Abbey, <a href="#Page_559">559</a>;</li> + <li>summary of his career and character, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>–<a href="#Page_570">570</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Place, Francis, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> +<li>Pléville, Admiral, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>.</li> +<li>Plunket, William C. (afterwards Baron), <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.</li> +<li>Plymouth, fortification of, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li> +<li>Pocket Boroughs, in Ireland, disfranchised, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>.</li> +<li>Poland, new Constitution in, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Russian designs on, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</li> + <li>scheme of partition of, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</li> + <li>Russian invasion of, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>–<a href="#Page_56">56</a>;</li> + <li>Prussian invasion of, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</li> + <li>rising in, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</li> + <li>third Partition of, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Polastron, Mme., <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li> +<li>Pondicherry, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li> +<li>Ponsonby, George, <a href="#Page_521">521</a>, <a href="#Page_559">559</a>.</li> +<li>Ponsonby, George, and William (afterwards Baron), Fitzwilliam's overtures to, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>–<a href="#Page_342">342</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li><a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Poor Bill, Pitt's (1797), withdrawn, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_568">568</a>.</li> +<li>Portland, Duke of, proposed coalitions with Pitt, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>–<a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Canning and, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;</li> + <li>refuses to break with Fox, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</li> + <li>Home Secretary, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>–<a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>, <a href="#Page_483">483</a>;</li> + <li>censures Abercromby, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>;</li> + <li>his letters to Shelburne on the Irish settlement of 1782, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>;</li> + <li>Lord President, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Porto Rico, failure of attack on, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> +<li>Portsmouth, fortification of, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li> +<li>Portugal, Spanish designs on, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>loan to, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>;</li> + <li>defended by England, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>, <a href="#Page_469">469</a>;</li> + <li>pays an annual subsidy to France, <a href="#Page_513">513</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Potsdam, Treaty of (1805), <a href="#Page_539">539</a>, <a href="#Page_540">540</a>.</li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_591" id="Page_591">[Pg 591]</a></span>Press-gang, the, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li> +<li>Pretyman, Dr. <i>See</i> <a href="#Tomline">Tomline, Bishop</a>.</li> +<li>Price, Dr., his sermon in the Old Jewry, <a href="#Page_12">12</a> <i>n.</i>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his death, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Priestley, Dr., <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a> <i>n.</i>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his sermon on the death of Dr. Price, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</li> + <li>his chapel and house wrecked, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Pringle, Admiral, his opinion of Cape Town, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li> +<li>Prosperous, affair at, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> +<li>Protestants, the, in Ireland, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>their hostility to the Union, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a href="#Page_423">423</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li><a id="Provence"></a>Provence, Comte de (afterwards Louis XVIII), <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>refused permission to go to Toulon, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</li> + <li>at the Russian headquarters, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Prussia, alliance with Austria, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>renounces alliance with Turkey, <a href="#Page_5">5</a> <i>n.</i>;</li> + <li>declares war against France, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</li> + <li>her betrayal of Poland, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</li> + <li>invades Poland, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;</li> + <li>compact with England (1793), <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;</li> + <li>her disputes with Austria, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>–<a href="#Page_202">202</a>;</li> + <li>state of her finances, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</li> + <li>English proposals to, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;</li> + <li>treaty with England (1794), <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>;</li> + <li>her breach of faith, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>;</li> + <li>treaty with France (1795), <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</li> + <li>attitude of, in 1799, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>;</li> + <li>her conduct with regard to Hanover, <a href="#Page_535">535</a>–<a href="#Page_537">537</a>, <a href="#Page_540">540</a>, <a href="#Page_541">541</a>, <a href="#Page_552">552</a>, <a href="#Page_553">553</a>, <a href="#Page_556">556</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>.</li> + <li><i>See</i> <a href="#Frederick_William_II">Frederick William II</a> <i>and</i> <a href="#Frederick_William_III">Frederick William III.</a></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Puisaye, Comte de, Breton leader, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>–<a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li> +<li>Pulteney, Sir James, failure of his attack on Ferrol, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.</li> +<li>Pulteney, Sir William, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>opposes the taxes of 1797, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Putney, Bowling Green House, <a href="#Page_554">554</a>–<a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_Q"></a>Quesnoy, siege of, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>surrendered, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Quiberon Expedition, the, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>–<a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>failure of landing at (1800), <a href="#Page_385">385</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li><a id="Quigley"></a>Quigley (O'Coigly), hanged for treason, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_R"></a>Radical, use of the term, <a href="#Page_1">1</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> +<li>Rastatt, Congress of, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>.</li> +<li>Redesdale, Lord. <i>See</i> <a href="#Mitford">Mitford, Sir John</a>.</li> +<li>Reeves, John, founder of the "Anti-Levelling Society," <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> +<li>Reform, influence of the French Revolution on, in England, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Flood's motion for, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</li> + <li>Hardy's efforts for, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;</li> + <li>Pitt's opposition to, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>–<a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</li> + <li>change of aims, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Regency, threatened, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>.</li> +<li>Reichenbach, Conference of, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Convention of, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Reinhard, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> +<li>Reuss, Prince, Austrian envoy at Berlin, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li> +<li>Rewbell, Jean François, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li> +<li>Reynolds, Dr., <a href="#Page_554">554</a>.</li> +<li>Reynolds, Sir Joshua, Pitt's neglect of, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>.</li> +<li>Richmond, Duke of, his charge against Paine, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Master-General of the Ordnance, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>;</li> + <li>his incompetence, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>;</li> + <li>his Reform plan, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</li> + <li>resigns, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Richter, arrested, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</li> +<li>Rivoli, battle of, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>.</li> +<li>Robespierre, François Maximilien Joseph Isidore, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his fall, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Rochester, Bishop of. <i>See</i> <a href="#Horsley">Horsley, Samuel</a>.</li> +<li>Roer, River, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li> +<li>Roland, J. Marie, French Minister of Home Affairs, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> +<li>Roland, Mme., <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li> +<li>Rolle, Baron, French royalist agent, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li> +<li>Rom, General, goes to San Domingo, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li> +<li>Romilly, Sir Samuel, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_487">487</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_488">488</a>, <a href="#Page_569">569</a>.</li> +<li>Romney, Lord, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li> +<li>Romney, George, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> +<li>Rose, George, Secretary to the Treasury, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>resigns, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>;</li> + <li><a href="#Page_473">473</a>, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>, <a href="#Page_479">479</a>–<a href="#Page_482">482</a>, <a href="#Page_496">496</a>, <a href="#Page_530">530</a>, <a href="#Page_554">554</a>;</li> + <li>Paymaster of the Forces, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Rousseau, Jean Jacques, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li> +<li>Roussillon, Spanish campaign in, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li> +<li>Rowan, Hamilton, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li> +<li>Rumbold, Sir Horace, Ambassador at Hamburg, seized by Napoleon, <a href="#Page_515">515</a>.</li> +<li>Russell, Lord William, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>.</li> +<li>Russia, her designs on Poland, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>peace with Turkey, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</li> + <li>treaties with England, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_592" id="Page_592">[Pg 592]</a></span><a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_529">529</a>;</li> + <li>successes in Italy, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>;</li> + <li>failure of campaign in Switzerland, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>;</li> + <li>Dutch campaign, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>–<a href="#Page_383">383</a>;</li> + <li>rupture with England, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>;</li> + <li>understanding with England, <a href="#Page_508">508</a>, <a href="#Page_515">515</a>;</li> + <li>compact with Austria (1804), <a href="#Page_516">516</a>;</li> + <li>treaty of Potsdam, <a href="#Page_539">539</a>.</li> + <li><i>See</i> <a href="#Catharine_II">Catharine II</a>, <a href="#Paul_I">Paul I</a>, <i>and</i> <a href="#Alexander_I">Alexander I.</a></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Rutland, Duke of, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>.</li> +<li>Ryan, James, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>, <a href="#Page_518">518</a>, <a href="#Page_519">519</a>.</li> +<li>Ryder, Dudley. See <a href="#Harrowby">Harrowby, Earl of</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_S"></a>St. André, André Jeanbon, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> +<li>St. Asaph, Bishop of. <i>See</i> <a href="#Horsley">Horsley, Samuel</a>.</li> +<li>St. Helen's, Lord, Ambassador at Madrid, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li> +<li>St. Januarius, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> +<li>St. John, Lord, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> +<li>St. John, Order of, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>, <a href="#Page_527">527</a>.</li> +<li>St. Lucia, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li> +<li><a id="St_Vincent"></a>St. Vincent, Sir John Jervis, Earl of, expedition to the West Indies, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>battle of St. Vincent, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>;</li> + <li>in the Mediterranean, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>;</li> + <li>First Lord of the Admiralty, <a href="#Page_483">483</a>, <a href="#Page_495">495</a>, <a href="#Page_498">498</a>, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>St. Vincent, revolt in, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>relief of, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>St. Vincent, Cape, battle of, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li> +<li>Saldanha Bay, defeat of the Dutch in, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li> +<li>San Domingo, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>ceded to France, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li> + <li><i>See also</i> <a href="#Hayti">Hayti</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Santerre, Claude, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li> +<li>"Sant' Iago," the, seizure of, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.</li> +<li>Sardinia, compact with England, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>growth of Jacobinism in, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;</li> + <li>independence of, stipulated by Pitt, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Saumur, capture of, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> +<li>Saurin, Capt. William, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a> <i>n.</i></li> +<li>Savoy, annexed by France, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>.</li> +<li>Saxony, Elector of, King-elect of Poland, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li> +<li>Scheldt, the, opening of, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>French gunboats in, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Schönbrunn, Convention of, <a href="#Page_553">553</a>.</li> +<li>Scotland, waking of political life in, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>failure of motion to repeal the Test Act in, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</li> + <li>Radical movement in, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a> <span lang="la">et seq.</span></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Scott, Sir John. <i>See</i> <a href="#Eldon">Eldon, Lord</a>.</li> +<li>Scully, Denys, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>, <a href="#Page_518">518</a>, <a href="#Page_519">519</a>.</li> +<li>Sebastiani, Colonel, <a href="#Page_483">483</a>.</li> +<li>Secrecy, Parliamentary committee of, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li> +<li>"Secret Committee of England," the, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li> +<li>Seditious Meetings Bill, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>–<a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li> +<li>Seditious writings, proclamation against, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> +<li>Ségur, Comte de, his mission to Berlin, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>–<a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> +<li>September Massacres, the, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>–<a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</li> +<li>Seringapatam, capture of, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>.</li> +<li>Servan, Joseph, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li> +<li>Shannon, Lord, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li> +<li>Sheares, Henry and John, United Irishmen, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>arrested, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Sheffield, disorder in, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>victory of Jermappes celebrated in, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>;</li> + <li>riots at, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</li> + <li>arrests at, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;</li> + <li>mass meeting at, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Sheffield Association, the, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li> +<li>Sheffield, Earl of, on French emissaries, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>on the Corn Trade, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>;</li> + <li>on Pitt's redemption of Land Tax, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>;</li> + <li>on Irish affairs, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Shepherd, John, of Faversham, his report on shortage of corn, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li> +<li>Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, his breach with Canning, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>warns Chauvelin of Whig patriotism, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;</li> + <li>suggests an appeal to France to spare Louis, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a> <i>n.</i>;</li> + <li>on the massacre of royalists at Quiberon, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>;</li> + <li>and the mutinies in the fleet, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>;</li> + <li>on the new taxes (1797), <a href="#Page_329">329</a>;</li> + <li>and Arthur O'Connor, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>;</li> + <li>opposes the Act of Union, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>;</li> + <li>on Pitt's speech on the war (1803), <a href="#Page_488">488</a>;</li> + <li>on the danger of a standing army, <a href="#Page_510">510</a>;</li> + <li>as an orator, compared with Pitt, <a href="#Page_567">567</a>;</li> + <li>mentioned, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>, <a href="#Page_498">498</a>, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>, <a href="#Page_518">518</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Sicily, policy of defence of, <a href="#Page_525">525</a>, <a href="#Page_526">526</a>.</li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_593" id="Page_593">[Pg 593]</a></span>Sidmouth, Viscount. <i>See</i> <a href="#Addington">Addington, Henry</a>.</li> +<li>Sieyès, Abbé, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.</li> +<li>Silesia, rising of the weavers in, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</li> +<li>Simcoe, Major-General, Governor of Hayti, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> +<li>Sinclair, Charles, delegate to the British Convention, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>turns informer, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Sinclair, Sir John, President of the Board of Agriculture, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>–<a href="#Page_295">295</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>loses his seat, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;</li> + <li>his correspondence with Pitt, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;</li> + <li>his General Enclosure Bill, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>;</li> + <li>his financial suggestions, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>;</li> + <li>withdraws amendment hostile to Pitt, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>;</li> + <li>on Spencer Perceval, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Sinking Fund, the, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_568">568</a>.</li> +<li>Sistova, Congress of, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.</li> +<li>Skirving, William, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his trial and transportation, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>–<a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Slavery question, in the West Indies, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li> +<li>Slave Trade, Wilberforce's proposals for abolition of, defeated, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>–<a href="#Page_503">503</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>abolished in Guiana, <a href="#Page_503">503</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Sluysken, Governor of the Cape, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>–<a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li> +<li>Smith, Adam, his "Wealth of Nations," <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_567">567</a>.</li> +<li>Smith, James, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li> +<li>Smith, Joseph, Pitt's private secretary, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li> +<li>Smith, Captain (afterwards Sir Sidney), at Toulon, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</li> +<li>Smith, General, M.P., <a href="#Page_68">68</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>opposes erection of barracks, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Smith, William, M.P., <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>.</li> +<li>Smugglers, their intercourse with France, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li> +<li>Snettisham, result of enclosures at, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li> +<li>"Soldiers' Friend," the, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.</li> +<li>Sombreuil, de, surrenders at Quiberon, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.</li> +<li>Somerset, Lord Charles, Paymaster of the Forces, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li> +<li>Somerville, Lord, President of the Board of Agriculture, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>.</li> +<li>Sorel, Albert, mis-statements by, refuted, <a href="#Page_277">277</a> <i>n.</i></li> +<li>Soult, Marshal, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_505">505</a>, <a href="#Page_508">508</a>.</li> +<li>Spain, compact with England, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>her co-operation at Toulon, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;</li> + <li>disputes with the English, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;</li> + <li>her action in Hayti, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>–<a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>;</li> + <li>state of under Charles IV, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>;</li> + <li>hostility to England, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</li> + <li>peace with France, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>;</li> + <li>declares war against England, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a> (1804), <a href="#Page_513">513</a>, <a href="#Page_514">514</a>;</li> + <li>Pitt and, <a href="#Page_524">524</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Spanish treasure-ships, seizure of, <a href="#Page_514">514</a>.</li> +<li>Spencer, Rev. Dr., of Birmingham, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li> +<li>Spencer, Earl, special envoy to Vienna, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>First Lord of the Admiralty, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>;</li> + <li>and the mutinies in the fleet, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>;</li> + <li>opposes negotiations for peace, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>;</li> + <li>resigns, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>, <a href="#Page_500">500</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Spitalfields weavers, their grievances, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li> +<li>Spithead, mutiny at, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>–<a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</li> +<li>Stadion, Johann Philipp Karl Joseph, Austrian Ambassador in London, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li> +<li>Staël, Mme. de, at Juniper Hall, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> +<li>Stahremberg, Count, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Austrian Ambassador in London, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Stanhope, Earl, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_490">490</a>, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li> +<li>Stanhope, Lady Hester, on Pitt and women, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>, <a href="#Page_455">455</a>, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>, <a href="#Page_531">531</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>at Walmer, <a href="#Page_490">490</a>–<a href="#Page_495">495</a>;</li> + <li>at Putney, <a href="#Page_549">549</a>, <a href="#Page_554">554</a>;</li> + <li>her parting with Pitt, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Stanhope, Lord Charles, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>.</li> +<li>Stanhope, Lord James, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>, <a href="#Page_558">558</a>.</li> +<li>Stanislaus, King, of Poland, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li> +<li>"Star," the, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> +<li>Steele, Robert, Secretary to the Treasury, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li> +<li>Stein, Baron vom, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_535">535</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>.</li> +<li>Stockport, "Friends of Universal Peace" at, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li> +<li>Stofflet, Nicolas, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> +<li>Stralsund, Russians and Swedes at, <a href="#Page_539">539</a>.</li> +<li>Stratton, Mr., British <span lang="fr">chargé d'affaires</span> at Vienna, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> +<li>Stuart, General Sir Charles, in Corsica, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Sutton"></a>Sutton, Charles Manners, Bishop of Norwich, made Archbishop of Canterbury, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>.</li> +<li>Sweden, refuses to aid the expedition to Holland, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>convention with England (1804), <a href="#Page_516">516</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Swellendam, settlement of, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_594" id="Page_594">[Pg 594]</a></span>Switzerland, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>importance of her position, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>;</li> + <li>Pitt's policy with regard to, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>;</li> + <li>failure of campaign in, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>"Sun," the, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> +<li>Suvóroff, Prince, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.</li> +<li>Sydney, Muir at, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_T"></a>Tainville, French envoy at The Hague, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</li> +<li>Talleyrand, Périgord Charles Maurice de, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his mission to London, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>–<a href="#Page_44">44</a>;</li> + <li>second mission, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>–<a href="#Page_51">51</a>;</li> + <li>intimacy with the Opposition, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;</li> + <li>again in London, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;</li> + <li>at Juniper Hall, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</li> + <li>his "Mémoire" on a Franco-British understanding, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;</li> + <li>doubts of his loyalty, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;</li> + <li>expelled from England, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</li> + <li>and the peace negotiations, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Tallien, Jean Lambert, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.</li> +<li>Talon, M., <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> +<li>Tara Hill, fight at, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li> +<li>Targowicz, Confederation of, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li> +<li>Tarleton, Mr., Mayor of Liverpool, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> +<li>Tate, Colonel, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> +<li>Teschen, Treaty of (1779), <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li> +<li>Test Act, the, efforts to repeal, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>in Scotland, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Thanet, Lord, opposes the Act of Union, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.</li> +<li>Thatched House Tavern, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</li> +<li>Thelwall, John, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his trial, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;</li> + <li>letter to Hardy, <a href="#Page_352">352</a> <i>n.</i></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Thornton, Edward, British envoy at Hamburg, <a href="#Page_549">549</a>.</li> +<li>Thornton, Henry, opposes the taxes of 1797, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li> +<li>Thugut, Baron Franz von, Austrian diplomatic agent at Brussels, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Chancellor, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>;</li> + <li>his character and aims, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Thurlow, Lord, Lord Chancellor, his character, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>dismissed, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>;</li> + <li>hostile to France, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;</li> + <li>on Lord Loughborough's death, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Tierney, George, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>, <a href="#Page_520">520</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his duel with Pitt, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>–<a href="#Page_336">336</a>;</li> + <li>satirized by Canning, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>;</li> + <li>Treasurer of the Navy, <a href="#Page_498">498</a>;</li> + <li>refuses to serve under Pitt, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>"Times," the, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> +<li>Tippoo Sahib, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>.</li> +<li>Titchfield, Marquis of, <a href="#Page_559">559</a>.</li> +<li>Tobago, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>captured by Great Britain, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li><a id="Tomline"></a>Tomline, George Pretyman, Bishop of Lincoln, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_456">456</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>–<a href="#Page_477">477</a>, <a href="#Page_495">495</a>, <a href="#Page_496">496</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>on Pitt's resignation, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>–<a href="#Page_444">444</a>, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>;</li> + <li>on the King's illness, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>;</li> + <li>at Putney, <a href="#Page_554">554</a>–<a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Tone, Wolfe, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>goes to Paris, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>;</li> + <li>his capture and death, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Tooke, Horne, intimate with Talleyrand, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his speech, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;</li> + <li>arrested, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;</li> + <li>acquitted, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Tortuga, island of, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> +<li>Toulon, <i>see</i> <a href="#CHAPTER_VI">Chap. VI</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>occupied by Hood, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>;</li> + <li>British aims at, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>–<a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</li> + <li>evacuated, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;</li> + <li>destruction of French navy at, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>;</li> + <li>Napoleon's preparations at, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Toussaint l'Ouverture, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li> +<li>Trafalgar, battle of, <a href="#Page_521">521</a>, <a href="#Page_533">533</a>, <a href="#Page_534">534</a>.</li> +<li>Traitorous Correspondence Bill, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li> +<li>Treasonable Practices Bill, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>–<a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li> +<li>Trevor, J. H. (afterwards Viscount Hampden), British Minister at Turin, <a href="#Page_153">153</a> <i>n.</i></li> +<li>Trincomalee, capture of, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li> +<li>Trinidad, capture of, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>valued highly by Pitt, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>–<a href="#Page_470">470</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Trotter, Deputy-Treasurer of the Navy, <a href="#Page_519">519</a>, <a href="#Page_521">521</a>.</li> +<li>Troy, Archbishop, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a href="#Page_425">425</a> <i>n.</i></li> +<li>"True Briton," the, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> +<li>Turcoing, battle of, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li> +<li>Turin, captured by the allies, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li><a href="#Page_470">470</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Turkey, makes peace with Russia, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li> +<li>Tuscany, attitude of, <a href="#Page_150">150</a> <i>n.</i></li> +<li>Twiss, Colonel, <a href="#Page_513">513</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_U"></a>Ulm, battle of, <a href="#Page_524">524</a>, <a href="#Page_534">534</a>, <a href="#Page_536">536</a>, <a href="#Page_537">537</a>, <a href="#Page_556">556</a>.</li> +<li>Union, the, with Ireland, <i>see</i> <a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">Chs. XVIII</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">XIX</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li><a href="#Page_568">568</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Unitarians, Pitt opposes removal of disabilities of, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li> +<li>United Britons, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li> +<li>United Constitutional Societies, meeting at Norwich (1792), <a href="#Page_26">26</a>.</li> +<li>United Englishmen, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> +<li>United Irishmen, Society of, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>turn to France, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_595" id="Page_595">[Pg 595]</a></span>United Provinces. <i>See</i> <a href="#Dutch_Republic">Dutch Republic</a>.</li> +<li>United Scotsmen, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li> +<li>United States, treaty with England (1794), <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li> +<li>Utrecht, Treaty of (1713), <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_V"></a>Valdez, Don, Spanish Minister of Marine, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li> +<li>Valenciennes, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>siege and fall of, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>;</li> + <li>surrendered, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Valmy, battle of, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> +<li>Vancouver, Captain, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>ill-treated in California, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Vandamme, General, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li> +<li>Varennes, the flight to, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>receipt of the news in London, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Vauban, Count, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li> +<li>Vendée, la, insurrection in, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>expedition to, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Venice, suggested partition of, <a href="#Page_129">129</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> +<li>Vereker, Colonel, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.</li> +<li>Victor Amadeus, King of Sardinia, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li> +<li>Victor Emmanuel I, King of Sardinia, <a href="#Page_522">522</a>, <a href="#Page_523">523</a>, <a href="#Page_539">539</a>.</li> +<li>Villeneuve, Admiral, <a href="#Page_532">532</a>, <a href="#Page_533">533</a>.</li> +<li>Villiers, George, <a href="#Page_506">506</a>, <a href="#Page_507">507</a>.</li> +<li>Vinegar Hill, fight at, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li> +<li>Volunteer Bill (1804), <a href="#Page_497">497</a>, <a href="#Page_498">498</a>.</li> +<li>Volunteers, the, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Pitt's encouragement of, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>, <a href="#Page_488">488</a>–<a href="#Page_494">494</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Volunteers, the Ulster, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li> +<li>Vorontzoff, Count, Russian Ambassador in London, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>, <a href="#Page_487">487</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_527">527</a>, <a href="#Page_529">529</a>, <a href="#Page_541">541</a>, <a href="#Page_543">543</a>, <a href="#Page_550">550</a>, <a href="#Page_563">563</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_W"></a>Walcheren, Isle of, <a href="#Page_547">547</a>.</li> +<li>Wales, George, Prince of (afterwards George IV), his first speech at Westminster, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>and the Princess Caroline, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;</li> + <li>and the King's illness, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>;</li> + <li>interviews with Pitt, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>;</li> + <li>Lord Mornington and, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>;</li> + <li>his relations with the King, <a href="#Page_507">507</a>, <a href="#Page_508">508</a>;</li> + <li>and with the Princess, <a href="#Page_508">508</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Wales, Princess of, her extravagant conduct, <a href="#Page_508">508</a>.</li> +<li>Walker, Thomas, his "Review of Political Events in Manchester," <a href="#Page_11">11</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>founds the Manchester Constitutional Society, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</li> + <li>prosecution of, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Walpole, General, acts as Tierney's second, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>.</li> +<li>Walpole, Horace, and the French refugees, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> +<li>Walter, John, of "The Times," <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> +<li>Ward, Robert Plumer, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, <a href="#Page_550">550</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Pitt's care for, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Wardle, Colonel, <a href="#Page_520">520</a>.</li> +<li>Warren, Admiral Sir John, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_532">532</a> <i>n.</i>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Ambassador at St. Petersburg, <a href="#Page_508">508</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Washington, George, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li> +<li>Watson, Dr., Bishop of Llandaff, his speech on the Union, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.</li> +<li>Watt, convicted at Edinburgh, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</li> +<li>Wattignies, battle of, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> +<li>Weishaupt, Adam, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>.</li> +<li><a id="Wellesley"></a>Wellesley, Marquis (Earl of Mornington), <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a> <i>n.</i>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>on Pitt's duel with Tierney, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>;</li> + <li>his friendship with Pitt, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>–<a href="#Page_464">464</a>, <a href="#Page_554">554</a>, <a href="#Page_556">556</a>, <a href="#Page_566">566</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Wellesley, Sir Arthur (afterwards Duke of Wellington), in Flanders, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>battle of Assaye, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>, <a href="#Page_505">505</a>;</li> + <li>anecdote of Pitt told by, refuted, <a href="#Page_524">524</a>;</li> + <li>meeting with Nelson, <a href="#Page_533">533</a>;</li> + <li>Pitt's last words on, <a href="#Page_556">556</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>West Indies, <i>see</i> <a href="#CHAPTER_IX">Chaps. IX</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_X">X</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>British designs on, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</li> + <li>risings of negroes, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</li> + <li>slavery in, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;</li> + <li>incomes derived from, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Westminster programme of 1780, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.</li> +<li>Westmorland, Earl of, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Master of the Horse, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>;</li> + <li>Lord Privy Seal, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Wheat, shortage of (1795–6), <a href="#Page_288">288</a>–<a href="#Page_291">291</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>regulation of export and import of, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Whitbread, Samuel, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>moves a vote of censure on Pitt, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>;</li> + <li>his attack on Lord Melville, <a href="#Page_518">518</a>, <a href="#Page_519">519</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Whitworth, Lord, Ambassador at St. Petersburg, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>ambassador in Paris, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>, <a href="#Page_505">505</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Whyte, Major-General, in the West Indies, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li> +<li>Wickham, William, envoy in Switzerland, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_596" id="Page_596">[Pg 596]</a></span>Wigan, strike of colliers at, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</li> +<li>Wigglesworth, Colonel, Commissary-General in Hayti, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> +<li>Wilberforce, William, opposes Flood's motion for reform, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his relations with Pitt, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>, <a href="#Page_503">503</a>;</li> + <li>and "wicked" Williams, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>;</li> + <li>pained by Pitt's duel with Tierney, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>;</li> + <li>on the Catholic question, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>;</li> + <li>and the Slave Trade, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>, <a href="#Page_503">503</a>;</li> + <li>and the impeachment of Melville, <a href="#Page_520">520</a>;</li> + <li>on Lord Harrowby, <a href="#Page_538">538</a>;</li> + <li>mentioned, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>, <a href="#Page_566">566</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Wilkinson, James, of Sheffield, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li> +<li><a id="William_V"></a>William V, Prince of Orange, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>his letter to the Governor of the Cape, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>–<a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Williams, "wicked," stirs up disaffection in the army, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li> +<li>Williamson, Major-General, Governor of Jamaica, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Governor of Hayti, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;</li> + <li>recalled, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Willis, Dr. (jun.), <a href="#Page_447">447</a>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>.</li> +<li>Wilson, Rev. Edward, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li> +<li>Winchester, French prisoners at, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>soldiers quartered at, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Winchilsea, Lord, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.</li> +<li>Windham, William, on reform, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>on the war in la Vendée, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;</li> + <li>on the erection of barracks, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</li> + <li>Secretary at War, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>–<a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>–<a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>;</li> + <li>opposes negotiations for peace, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>;</li> + <li>resigns, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>;</li> + <li>opposed to peace (1801), <a href="#Page_469">469</a>, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>;</li> + <li>on the Volunteers, <a href="#Page_494">494</a>;</li> + <li>joins Fox and Grenville, <a href="#Page_500">500</a>, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>, <a href="#Page_504">504</a>, <a href="#Page_510">510</a>, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>;</li> + <li>opposes motion to bury Pitt in the Abbey, <a href="#Page_559">559</a>, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>;</li> + <li>mentioned, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_498">498</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>"World," the, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> +<li>Wurmser, General, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_Y"></a>Yarmouth, Lord, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li> +<li>Yeu, expedition to, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</li> +<li>Yonge, Sir Charles, Secretary at War, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li> +<li>York, Duke of, his marriage, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Commander-in-Chief in Flanders, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>–<a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>–<a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>;</li> + <li>effort to shelve him foiled, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</li> + <li>recalled, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>;</li> + <li>Commander-in-Chief, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>–<a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_507">507</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>York, delegate to the British Convention, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li> +<li>Yorke, Charles, Under-Secretary at War, <a href="#Page_489">489</a>, <a href="#Page_498">498</a>, <a href="#Page_499">499</a>, <a href="#Page_509">509</a>, <a href="#Page_521">521</a>, <a href="#Page_547">547</a>.</li> +<li>Yorke, Henry (alias Redhead), of Sheffield, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li> +<li>Young, Arthur, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>; + <ul class="IX"> + <li>Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>;</li> + <li>superintends draining works at Holwood, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;</li> + <li>on the new taxes (1797), <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li> + </ul></li> +<li>Young, Admiral, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> +<li>Yriarte, Don Domingo d', signs the peace of Basle, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a id="IX_Z"></a>Zurich, battle of, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>.</li> +<li>Zuype Canal, the, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<p class="center small" style="margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 3em"> +CHISWICK PRESS: PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. +</p> + + + +<div class="footnotes"> + + +<p class="title">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> I am perfectly aware that the term "Radical" (in its first form, "Radical +Reformer") does not appear until a few years later; but I use it here and in +the following chapters because there is no other word which expresses the +same meaning.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> See Vivenot, i, 176–81; Beer, "Leopold II, Franz II, und Catharina," +140 <span lang="la">et seq.</span>; Clapham, "Causes of the War of 1792," ch. iv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 34438; Vivenot, i, 185, 186. "He [the Emperor] was +extremely agitated when he gave me the letter for the King" (Elgin to +Grenville, 7th July, in "Dropmore P.," ii, 126).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 34438.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span> Grenville to Ewart, 26th July. Calonne for some little time resided +at Wimbledon House. His letters to Pitt show that he met with frequent +rebuffs; but he had one interview with him early in June 1790. I have found +no details of it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> "Diary and Corresp. of Fersen," 121.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Arneth, "Marie Antoinette, Joseph II, und Leopold II," 148, 152.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Mr. Nisbet Bain (<span lang="la">op. cit.</span>, ii, 129) accuses Pitt and his colleagues of +waiving aside a proposed visit of Gustavus III to London, because "they +had no desire to meet face to face a monarch they had already twice deceived." +Mr. Bain must refer to the charges (invented at St Petersburg) +that Pitt had egged Gustavus on to war against Russia, and then deserted +him. In the former volume (chapters xxi-iii) I proved the falsity of those +charges. It would be more correct to say that Gustavus deserted England.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 34438.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Martens, v, 236–9; "F.O.," Prussia, 22. Ewart to Grenville, 4th August.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> On 15th August Prussia renounced her alliance with Turkey (Vivenot, +i, 225).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Sybel, bk. ii, ch. vi; Vivenot, i, 235, 243.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 192.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> G. Rose, "Diaries," i, 111.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Arneth, 206, 210; Vivenot, i, 270.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Burke ("Corresp.," iii, 308, 342, 346) shows that Mercy d'Argenteau, +after his brief mission to London, spread the slander. Pitt and Grenville +said nothing decisive to him on this or any other topic. Kaunitz partly +adopted the charge. (See Vivenot, i, 272.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> "F.O.," Russia, 22. Grenville to Whitworth, 27th October, and W. to +G., 14th October 1791.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Larivière, "Cath. II et la Rév. franç.," 88–90, 110–17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Burke's "Works," iii, 8, 369 (Bohn edit.).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxviii, 1–41.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> T. Walker, "Review of ... political events in Manchester (1789–1794)."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> T. Walker, "Review of ... political events in Manchester (1789–1794)," +452–79. I cannot agree with Mr. J. R. le B. Hammond ("Fox," 76) that +Pitt now spoke as the avowed enemy of parliamentary reform. Indeed, +he never spoke in that sense, but opposed it as inopportune.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Rutt, "Mems. of Priestly," ii, 25. As is well known, Burke's "Reflections +on the Fr. Rev.," was in part an answer to Dr. Price's sermon of 4th November +1789 in the Old Jewry chapel, to the Society for celebrating the Revolution +of 1688.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> It was more of a club than the branches of the "Society for Constitutional +Information," which did good work in 1780–4, but expired in 1784 +owing to the disgust of reformers at the Fox–North Coalition—so Place +asserts (B.M. Add. MSS., 27808).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> T. Walker, <span lang="la">op. cit.</span>, 18, 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxix, 488–510.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, 113–9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> M. D. Conway, "Life of T. Paine," i, 284.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Burke's Works, iii, 76 (Bohn edit.).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, iii, 12. So, too, on 30th August 1791 Priestley wrote that Pitt had +shown himself unfavourable to their cause (Rutt, "Life of Priestley," ii, 145).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Prior, "Life of Burke," 322, who states very incorrectly that not one of +them has survived.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> "H. O.," Geo. III (Domestic), 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span> As late as 9th August a proclamation was posted about Birmingham: +"The friends of the good cause are requested to meet us at Revolution +Place to-morrow night at 11 o'clock in order to fix upon those persons who +are to be the future objects of our malice." Of course this was but an incitation +to plunder. See Massey, iii, 462–6, on the Birmingham riots.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 133, 136; "Parl. Hist.," xxix, 1464.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Burke "Reflections on the Fr. Rev.," 39 (Mr. Payne's edit.).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Conway, <span lang="la">op. cit.</span>, ii, 330. The printer and publisher were prosecuted +later on, as well as Paine, who fled to France.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> "Mem. of T. Hardy," by himself (Lond., 1832).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Leslie Stephen, "The Eng. Utilitarians," i, 121. I fully admit that the +Chartist leaders in 1838 went back to the Westminster programme of 1780. +See "The Life and Struggles of William Lovett"; but the spirit and methods +of the new agitation were wholly different. On this topic I feel compelled to +differ from Mr. J. L. le B. Hammond ("Fox," ch. v, <span lang="la">ad init.</span>). Mr. C. B. R. +Kent ("The English Radicals," 156) states the case correctly.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxix, 1303–9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> "Application of Barruel's 'Memoirs of Jacobinism' to the Secret Societies +of Ireland and Great Britain," 32–3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> "Application of Barruel's 'Memoirs of Jacobinism' to the Secret Societies +of Ireland and Great Britain," Introduction, p. x.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> "H. O.," Geo. III (Domestic), 20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxix, 810–15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, 834.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxix, 551–602, 1404–31.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Stanhope, ii, 148–50, and App., xv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Twiss, "Life of Lord Eldon," ch. x.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Fitzmaurice, "Shelburne," iii, 500–4; Salomon, "Pitt," 596. The King +later on teased the Duke of Leeds by a more compromising overture.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> "Malmesbury Diaries," ii, 454–64.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> "Leeds Mem.," 188.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, 194.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> "Auckland Journals," ii, 417, 418.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 103.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> I accept, with some qualification, Mr. Oscar Browning's explanation, +that Lord Loughborough had exaggerated the accounts of his interviews +with Pitt and the Whig leaders. (see "Leeds Mem.," 197, note).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Stanhope, ii, 160.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> "Bland Burges P.," 208.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> Stanhope, "Miscellanies," ii, 57–63. Letter of Canning to W. Sturges +Bourne, 3rd September 1792. This interview is not referred to by Mr. +H. W. V. Temperley ("Canning," ch. ii), Mr. Sichel ("Sheridan"), Captain +Bagot ("Canning and his Friends"), or E. Festing ("Frere and his Friends"). +In "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies" I shall publish new letters of Canning. +One, dated 15th March 1793, declines an offer of Portland to bring him into +Parliament.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> Pallain, "La Mission de Talleyrand à Londres," 41.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> Keith's "Mems.," ii, 494. Keith to Grenville, 14th January 1792.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> "Gower's Despatches," 142, 143, 145, 149.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> Pallain, pp. xv-xviii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> Pallain, 56, 57.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> Pallain, 106, 107.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> "Wealth of Nations," bk. iv, ch. iii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> "Gower's Despatches," 165, 171.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> Sorel, ii, 216.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> Fersen, "Diary" (Eng. edit.), 255.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> Clapham, "Causes of the War of 1792," 231.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> On the Tobago proposal see "Dropmore P.," ii, 260.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> Pallain, 215–9. The original is in Pitt MSS., 333.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> Fersen, "Diary" (Eng. edit.), 316, 319.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 267. See, too, further details in "Dumouriez and the +Defence of England against Napoleon," by J. H. Rose and A. M. Broadley.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 333. Chauvelin to Dumouriez, 28th April.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxix, 1522.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> "Rights of Man," pt. ii, ch. v.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 282; "Auckland Journals," ii, 410.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> "Ann. Reg." (1792), 178–82, 225–32; Sorel, ii, 445–54; Heidrich, pt. ii, +ch. ii. I fully agree with Dr. Salomon ("Pitt," 537) as to the sincerity +of Pitt's desire for neutrality.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> Sybel, ii, 142.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> For the discussions between the three Powers on Poland see Heidrich, +165–219; and Salomon, "Das Politische System des jüngeren Pitt und die +zweite Teilung Polens" (Berlin, 1895).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> "F. O.," Poland, 6. Hailes to Grenville, 16th and 27th June 1792.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 142; see, too, ii, 279.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> "Mems. of Fox," iii, 18.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> Aulard, "La Rév. Franç.," 270–2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 291.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> "Bland Burges P.," 207, 211.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> Dumont, "Souvenirs"; Bulwer Lytton, "Hist. Characters" (Talleyrand).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> W. A. Miles, "Corresp.," i, 349–51; Sorel, iii, 18–20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> Burke, "Corresp.," iv, 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> Sorel, iii, 139.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> Carlyle, "Fr. Rev.," iii, bk. i, ch. vi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> "Mems. of Romilly," i, 351, 352.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 318.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> "H. O.," Geo. III (Domestic), 19, 20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span> In all, 3,772 French refugees landed in September 1792 ("Ann. +Reg." 39). The first subscription for them realized £1,468. Burke gave £20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> "H. O.," Geo. III (Domestic), 21; Twiss, "Life of Lord Eldon," i, 218; +"Bland Burges P.," 203. Our agent, Munro, on 17th December 1792 reported +from Paris: "Dr. Maxwell has at last obtained a company in the French +service, and I understand is soon to leave this to join the army" (Gower's +"Despatches," 260). Mr. Elgar has not been able to trace him afterwards.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> Massey, iv, 45. This was said to be spoken to Bland Burges; but the +papers of the latter (p. 204) contain no reference to it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> "H. O.," Geo. III (Domestic), 21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> "H. O.," Geo. III (Domestic), 21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> Miles ("Corresp.," 333) states that the editors of the "Argus" and +"Morning Chronicle" were regularly paid by the French Embassy and were +often there.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> "Bland Burges P.," 227–9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> Virgil, "Georgics," i, 463–5. "Who would dare call the sun a liar? In +truth, he often warns of the approach of hidden seditions and of the swellings +of treachery and strifes yet unseen."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> "F. O.," France, 40.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> "H. O.," Geo. III (Domestic), 22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 322.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> "Auckland Journals," ii, 449, 455; "Dropmore P.," ii, 324.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> Sorel, iii, 143.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> "Auckland Journals," ii, 465.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> On 24th November Noël wrote from London to Lebrun: "<span lang="fr" style="font-style: normal">Tous les +symptômes annoncent que les mouvements révolutionnaires ne peuvent être +éloignés.</span>" Quoted by Sorel, iii, 214. See, too, Ernouf's "Maret," p. 84.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> "Auckland Journals," ii, 481. Tomline, iii, 458, 459. Burke's unfortunate +phrase in the "Reflections": "Learning will be cast into the mire and +trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> B.M. Place MSS., vol. entitled "Libel, Sedition, Treason, Persecution."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> "Moniteur," 29th November 1792.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> "Residence in France in 1792–5," by an English Lady, i, 190–2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> Auckland says ("Journals," ii, 473) he has seen Paris bulletins and +letters which counted absolutely on a revolt in England.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 344. Grenville to Auckland, 27th November.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, 351–2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> Salomon, "Pitt," 599.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118_118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> Rojas, "Miranda dans la Rév. Franç.," 3–4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_119_119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 339, 341, 343; "Auckland Journals," ii, 471; Lecky, +vi, 70–4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_120_120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> "F. O.," Holland, 20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_121_121" id="Footnote_121_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor_121_121"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> "F. O.," Austria, 31, 32. See, too, Vivenot, ii, 446, 447.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_122_122" id="Footnote_122_122"></a><a href="#FNanchor_122_122"><span class="label">[122]</span></a> "Malmesbury Diaries," ii, 89, 90.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_123_123" id="Footnote_123_123"></a><a href="#FNanchor_123_123"><span class="label">[123]</span></a> "Malmesbury Diaries," ii, 89, 90. This despatch, and the letter of the +Prince of Orange referred to above, correct the statement of Mr. Browning +("Varennes," etc., 191) and Mr. Hammond ("Fox," 257), that the Dutch did +not call upon us for help. This was asserted by Lord Lansdowne on 21st December, +but his information was unofficial and is refuted by that given above.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_124_124" id="Footnote_124_124"></a><a href="#FNanchor_124_124"><span class="label">[124]</span></a> Marsh, "Politics of Great Britain and France," i, 260–2. The militia +were not called out in Surrey, Herts, Berks, and Bucks ("Dropmore P.," +ii, 348).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_125_125" id="Footnote_125_125"></a><a href="#FNanchor_125_125"><span class="label">[125]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_126_126" id="Footnote_126_126"></a><a href="#FNanchor_126_126"><span class="label">[126]</span></a> Pitt to Westmorland, 14th October and 18th November 1792, in Salomon, +"Pitt" (App.); "Dropmore P.," ii, 318, 320–3, 328, 330, 333, 336; "Mems. +of Lord Ed. Fitzgerald," 155–60.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_127_127" id="Footnote_127_127"></a><a href="#FNanchor_127_127"><span class="label">[127]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_128_128" id="Footnote_128_128"></a><a href="#FNanchor_128_128"><span class="label">[128]</span></a> "F. O.," France, 40. For Grenville's account of the interview, see "Pitt +and Napoleon Miscellanies."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_129_129" id="Footnote_129_129"></a><a href="#FNanchor_129_129"><span class="label">[129]</span></a> Miles, "Correspondence," ii, 46; see, too, Ernouf, "Maret," 89, 95. This +corrects the mis-statement of Lecky (vi, 94) on this topic.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_130_130" id="Footnote_130_130"></a><a href="#FNanchor_130_130"><span class="label">[130]</span></a> Ernouf, "Maret," 90.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_131_131" id="Footnote_131_131"></a><a href="#FNanchor_131_131"><span class="label">[131]</span></a> "Ann. Reg." (1792), 190–3; Ernouf, "Maret," 94–8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_132_132" id="Footnote_132_132"></a><a href="#FNanchor_132_132"><span class="label">[132]</span></a> "F. O.," Holland, 41; B.M. Add. MSS., 34446. Grenville to Auckland, +4th December.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_133_133" id="Footnote_133_133"></a><a href="#FNanchor_133_133"><span class="label">[133]</span></a> "F. O.," Holland, 42. Auckland to Grenville, 7th and 8th December +1792. See, too, Miles, "Correspondence," i, 382; Sorel, iii, 224.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_134_134" id="Footnote_134_134"></a><a href="#FNanchor_134_134"><span class="label">[134]</span></a> Sorel, iii, 204, 224.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_135_135" id="Footnote_135_135"></a><a href="#FNanchor_135_135"><span class="label">[135]</span></a> Vivenot, ii, 393.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_136_136" id="Footnote_136_136"></a><a href="#FNanchor_136_136"><span class="label">[136]</span></a> Sorel, iii, 225, 226.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_137_137" id="Footnote_137_137"></a><a href="#FNanchor_137_137"><span class="label">[137]</span></a> Miles, "Corresp.," i, 388, 389.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_138_138" id="Footnote_138_138"></a><a href="#FNanchor_138_138"><span class="label">[138]</span></a> Miles, "Corresp.," i, 385–7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_139_139" id="Footnote_139_139"></a><a href="#FNanchor_139_139"><span class="label">[139]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 34446.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_140_140" id="Footnote_140_140"></a><a href="#FNanchor_140_140"><span class="label">[140]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 245. Published in "Napoleon and the Invasion of England," +by H. E. Wheeler and A. M. Broadley, ii, App.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_141_141" id="Footnote_141_141"></a><a href="#FNanchor_141_141"><span class="label">[141]</span></a> "Malmesbury Diaries," ii, 475.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_142_142" id="Footnote_142_142"></a><a href="#FNanchor_142_142"><span class="label">[142]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxx, 19–21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_143_143" id="Footnote_143_143"></a><a href="#FNanchor_143_143"><span class="label">[143]</span></a> Miles ("Corresp.," i, 391), who also asserts that Sheridan echoed words +used by the French agent, Noël.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_144_144" id="Footnote_144_144"></a><a href="#FNanchor_144_144"><span class="label">[144]</span></a> "Malmesbury Diaries," ii, 478–81.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_145_145" id="Footnote_145_145"></a><a href="#FNanchor_145_145"><span class="label">[145]</span></a> "Life and Letters of Earl Minto," ii, 82.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_146_146" id="Footnote_146_146"></a><a href="#FNanchor_146_146"><span class="label">[146]</span></a> Chuquet, "Jemappes," 196–7, shows that the urgent needs of the army +in Belgium were the <span lang="fr">raison d'être</span> of the decree.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_147_147" id="Footnote_147_147"></a><a href="#FNanchor_147_147"><span class="label">[147]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 359–62; "Parl. Hist.," xxx, 126.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_148_148" id="Footnote_148_148"></a><a href="#FNanchor_148_148"><span class="label">[148]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxx, 137–46.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_149_149" id="Footnote_149_149"></a><a href="#FNanchor_149_149"><span class="label">[149]</span></a> "Méms. tirés des Papiers d'un homme d'Etat," ii, 100. This false assertion +was adopted by Malouet ("Méms.," ii, 201), whence it has been copied +largely, without examination of the debate itself.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_150_150" id="Footnote_150_150"></a><a href="#FNanchor_150_150"><span class="label">[150]</span></a> Godoy, "Mems.," i, ch. vi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_151_151" id="Footnote_151_151"></a><a href="#FNanchor_151_151"><span class="label">[151]</span></a> "F. O.," Spain, 25, 26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_152_152" id="Footnote_152_152"></a><a href="#FNanchor_152_152"><span class="label">[152]</span></a> "F. O.," France, 40.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_153_153" id="Footnote_153_153"></a><a href="#FNanchor_153_153"><span class="label">[153]</span></a> "F. O.," France, 40, 41.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_154_154" id="Footnote_154_154"></a><a href="#FNanchor_154_154"><span class="label">[154]</span></a> Miles, "Corresp.," i, 398–400. Unfortunately, Lord Acton ("Lects. on +the French Rev.," 253) accepted the stories against Pitt. He states that +Danton secretly offered to save Louis for £40,000; that Lansdowne, +Sheridan, and Fox urged Pitt to interpose; and that Pitt informed Maret that +he did not do so because the execution of Louis would ruin the Whigs. I +must reply that Lord Fitzmaurice assures me there is no sign that the first +Lord Lansdowne urged Pitt to bribe the Convention, though in the debate +of 21st December 1792 he suggested the sending an ambassador to Paris to +improve the relations of the two lands, and assuage the hostility to Louis. +Further, Danton could scarcely have made that offer; for he left Paris for +Belgium on 1st December, and did not return till 14th January, after which +he was engrossed in the last illness of his wife. Danton's name was dragged +into the affair probably by mistake for Dannon (see Belloc, "Danton," +200). Lastly, as Maret left London on 19th December, and did not return +until 30th January, he did not see Pitt at the crucial time of the trial. And +would Pitt have made so damaging a remark to a Frenchman? Is it not +obviously a Whig slander?</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_155_155" id="Footnote_155_155"></a><a href="#FNanchor_155_155"><span class="label">[155]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxx, 189. See ch. iii of this work.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_156_156" id="Footnote_156_156"></a><a href="#FNanchor_156_156"><span class="label">[156]</span></a> See ch. iii for a refutation of this.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_157_157" id="Footnote_157_157"></a><a href="#FNanchor_157_157"><span class="label">[157]</span></a> Sorel, iii, 241. So, too, Gouverneur Morris, then in Paris, thought the +French Ministers, despite their bluster, wished to avoid war "if the people +will let them." (Quoted by Lecky, vi, 114.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_158_158" id="Footnote_158_158"></a><a href="#FNanchor_158_158"><span class="label">[158]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxx, 250–3; "Ann. Reg." (1793), 114–16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_159_159" id="Footnote_159_159"></a><a href="#FNanchor_159_159"><span class="label">[159]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 34446.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_160_160" id="Footnote_160_160"></a><a href="#FNanchor_160_160"><span class="label">[160]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, and "Dropmore P.," ii, 361.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_161_161" id="Footnote_161_161"></a><a href="#FNanchor_161_161"><span class="label">[161]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxx, 253–6; "Ann. Reg." (1793), 116–9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_162_162" id="Footnote_162_162"></a><a href="#FNanchor_162_162"><span class="label">[162]</span></a> Miles, "Corresp.," i, 351.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_163_163" id="Footnote_163_163"></a><a href="#FNanchor_163_163"><span class="label">[163]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 363.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_164_164" id="Footnote_164_164"></a><a href="#FNanchor_164_164"><span class="label">[164]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 34446.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_165_165" id="Footnote_165_165"></a><a href="#FNanchor_165_165"><span class="label">[165]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 34446. Grenville to Whitworth, 29th December.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_166_166" id="Footnote_166_166"></a><a href="#FNanchor_166_166"><span class="label">[166]</span></a> Miles, "Corresp.," i, 441.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_167_167" id="Footnote_167_167"></a><a href="#FNanchor_167_167"><span class="label">[167]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, i, 439.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_168_168" id="Footnote_168_168"></a><a href="#FNanchor_168_168"><span class="label">[168]</span></a> I published it in the "Eng. Hist. Rev." for April 1906; see, too, Fitzmaurice, +"Shelburne," iii, 515. Bulwer Lytton, "Hist. Characters" (Talleyrand), +wrongly states that he was at once expelled.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_169_169" id="Footnote_169_169"></a><a href="#FNanchor_169_169"><span class="label">[169]</span></a> "Ann. Reg.," 122–5; "Parl Hist.," xxx, 259–61; Miles, "Corresp.," ii, 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_170_170" id="Footnote_170_170"></a><a href="#FNanchor_170_170"><span class="label">[170]</span></a> "F. O.," France, 41.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_171_171" id="Footnote_171_171"></a><a href="#FNanchor_171_171"><span class="label">[171]</span></a> Whether Chauvelin was guilty of any worse offence than entertaining at +his house the editors of Opposition newspapers (Miles, "Corresp.," i, 440) +is not proven. Maret admitted to Miles that some scoundrels were sowing +sedition in England; but he added the not very comforting assurance that, +in that case, they would cease to be Frenchmen. Miles evidently believed +those intrigues to be the work of French emissaries, (<span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, 450, 451).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_172_172" id="Footnote_172_172"></a><a href="#FNanchor_172_172"><span class="label">[172]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxx, 262–6; "Ann. Reg.," 119–22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_173_173" id="Footnote_173_173"></a><a href="#FNanchor_173_173"><span class="label">[173]</span></a> Miles, "Corresp.," ii, 28–36, 42. See, too, Sorel, iii, 258, on Maret's letter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_174_174" id="Footnote_174_174"></a><a href="#FNanchor_174_174"><span class="label">[174]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 366; but see Miles, "Corresp.," ii, 43, 44.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_175_175" id="Footnote_175_175"></a><a href="#FNanchor_175_175"><span class="label">[175]</span></a> "Corresp. du Gén. Miranda avec le Gén. Dumouriez ... depuis janvier +1793," 3–8. See "Dropmore P.," ii, 371, on Dumouriez' plan.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_176_176" id="Footnote_176_176"></a><a href="#FNanchor_176_176"><span class="label">[176]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, 8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_177_177" id="Footnote_177_177"></a><a href="#FNanchor_177_177"><span class="label">[177]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 365.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_178_178" id="Footnote_178_178"></a><a href="#FNanchor_178_178"><span class="label">[178]</span></a> Miles, ii, 36.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_179_179" id="Footnote_179_179"></a><a href="#FNanchor_179_179"><span class="label">[179]</span></a> "Gower's Despatches," 278.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_180_180" id="Footnote_180_180"></a><a href="#FNanchor_180_180"><span class="label">[180]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 34447.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_181_181" id="Footnote_181_181"></a><a href="#FNanchor_181_181"><span class="label">[181]</span></a> "F. O.," France, 41. The order to Chauvelin must have been given +earlier, probably on 22nd January, as will be seen by Dumouriez' letter to +Miranda soon to be quoted. George III's order of 24th January (endorsed +by Pitt) for Chauvelin's expulsion cannot have the importance which Mr. +J. L. le B. Hammond ("Fox," 262–3) assigns to it. See "Pitt and Napoleon +Miscellanies" for Lebrun's letter to Grenville.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_182_182" id="Footnote_182_182"></a><a href="#FNanchor_182_182"><span class="label">[182]</span></a> Published in "Dumouriez, etc.," 159, 160, by J. H. Rose and A. M. +Broadley, from B.M. Add. MSS., 34447.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_183_183" id="Footnote_183_183"></a><a href="#FNanchor_183_183"><span class="label">[183]</span></a> Lecky, vi, 119–22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_184_184" id="Footnote_184_184"></a><a href="#FNanchor_184_184"><span class="label">[184]</span></a> Miles, "Corresp.," ii, 55.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_185_185" id="Footnote_185_185"></a><a href="#FNanchor_185_185"><span class="label">[185]</span></a> Miles, "Conduct of France towards Great Britain," 108; "Corresp.," ii, 62.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_186_186" id="Footnote_186_186"></a><a href="#FNanchor_186_186"><span class="label">[186]</span></a> Miles, "Conduct of France towards Great Britain," 108.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_187_187" id="Footnote_187_187"></a><a href="#FNanchor_187_187"><span class="label">[187]</span></a> Miles, "Corresp.," ii, 62.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_188_188" id="Footnote_188_188"></a><a href="#FNanchor_188_188"><span class="label">[188]</span></a> Dumouriez, "Méms.," ii, 128–31 (edit. of 1794).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_189_189" id="Footnote_189_189"></a><a href="#FNanchor_189_189"><span class="label">[189]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxx, 350. Fox admitted (p. 371) that Maret did not think +himself authorized to negotiate. See, too, Bland Burges in "Auckland +Journals," ii, 493. I cannot agree with Mr. Oscar Browning ("Varennes, +etc.," 198), and Mr. J. L. le B. Hammond ("Fox," 258) as to the importance +of Maret's "mission." Lecky (vi, 126) also overrates it, in my judgement.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_190_190" id="Footnote_190_190"></a><a href="#FNanchor_190_190"><span class="label">[190]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 322.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_191_191" id="Footnote_191_191"></a><a href="#FNanchor_191_191"><span class="label">[191]</span></a> "Auckland Journals," ii, 465.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_192_192" id="Footnote_192_192"></a><a href="#FNanchor_192_192"><span class="label">[192]</span></a> "Moniteur," 29th November 1792.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_193_193" id="Footnote_193_193"></a><a href="#FNanchor_193_193"><span class="label">[193]</span></a> Maret stated that "M. Chauvelin had shamefully deceived the Executive +Council, and that nothing but misrepresentations and falsehoods had marked +his despatches since he lost all hope of remaining in this country" (Miles, +"Corresp.," ii, 62).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_194_194" id="Footnote_194_194"></a><a href="#FNanchor_194_194"><span class="label">[194]</span></a> Wilberforce urged this ("Life," ii, 13).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_195_195" id="Footnote_195_195"></a><a href="#FNanchor_195_195"><span class="label">[195]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 339, 351, 378.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_196_196" id="Footnote_196_196"></a><a href="#FNanchor_196_196"><span class="label">[196]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 377.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_197_197" id="Footnote_197_197"></a><a href="#FNanchor_197_197"><span class="label">[197]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxx, 565.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_198_198" id="Footnote_198_198"></a><a href="#FNanchor_198_198"><span class="label">[198]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 378; Prior, "Burke," 368.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_199_199" id="Footnote_199_199"></a><a href="#FNanchor_199_199"><span class="label">[199]</span></a> "Life of Wilberforce," ii, 11. Note the statement of George Rose to +Auckland (8th February, 1793): "Our revenue goes on gloriously. The year +ending 5th January shows £300,000 more than the year preceding.... We +may suffer in some respects; but we must crush the miscreants"(B.M. Add. +MSS., 34448).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_200_200" id="Footnote_200_200"></a><a href="#FNanchor_200_200"><span class="label">[200]</span></a> "F. O.," Austria, 32 (Stratton to Grenville, 22nd December, 1792). +Cobenzl, Austrian Chancellor, assured Stratton that Francis II would require +from France "l'établissement d'une constitution quelconque fondée sur les +bases les plus essentiels du gouvernement monarchique." +</p><p> +In view of these considerations I cannot endorse Lecky's censure (vi, 134) +on Pitt's "blindness" as to the character of the war.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_201_201" id="Footnote_201_201"></a><a href="#FNanchor_201_201"><span class="label">[201]</span></a> Sir James Murray, our envoy at Frankfurt, was assured on 1st February +that 138,419 Austrians were ready for the campaign.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_202_202" id="Footnote_202_202"></a><a href="#FNanchor_202_202"><span class="label">[202]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 34448.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_203_203" id="Footnote_203_203"></a><a href="#FNanchor_203_203"><span class="label">[203]</span></a> See Martens, v, 530–5, for the Russo-Prussian treaty of 13th July 1793.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_204_204" id="Footnote_204_204"></a><a href="#FNanchor_204_204"><span class="label">[204]</span></a> Murray to Grenville, 19th January 1793; see "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies," +which also contain the new letters of Burke referred to above.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_205_205" id="Footnote_205_205"></a><a href="#FNanchor_205_205"><span class="label">[205]</span></a> Vivenot, ii, 498–506.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_206_206" id="Footnote_206_206"></a><a href="#FNanchor_206_206"><span class="label">[206]</span></a> Martens, v, 438–42.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_207_207" id="Footnote_207_207"></a><a href="#FNanchor_207_207"><span class="label">[207]</span></a> Hon. J. W. Fortescue, "Hist. of the British Army," iv, 77–83.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_208_208" id="Footnote_208_208"></a><a href="#FNanchor_208_208"><span class="label">[208]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_209_209" id="Footnote_209_209"></a><a href="#FNanchor_209_209"><span class="label">[209]</span></a> Chevening MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_210_210" id="Footnote_210_210"></a><a href="#FNanchor_210_210"><span class="label">[210]</span></a> Murray reported to Grenville on 10th and 18th February that the Allies +at Frankfurt were disturbed by news of the negotiation with Dumouriez. See +too, Vivenot, ii, 489.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_211_211" id="Footnote_211_211"></a><a href="#FNanchor_211_211"><span class="label">[211]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 377–81; "Dumouriez," by J. H. Rose and A. M. +Broadley, 162–75.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_212_212" id="Footnote_212_212"></a><a href="#FNanchor_212_212"><span class="label">[212]</span></a> "F. O.," Austria, 32, Morton Eden to Grenville, 30th March.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_213_213" id="Footnote_213_213"></a><a href="#FNanchor_213_213"><span class="label">[213]</span></a> "War Office" 6, (7); 23rd February, to Duke of York; B.M. Add. MSS +34448, Grenville to Auckland, 23rd February; Calvert, "Campaigns in +Flanders and Holland," chs. i, ii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_214_214" id="Footnote_214_214"></a><a href="#FNanchor_214_214"><span class="label">[214]</span></a> This letter (for which see "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies") corrects +Mr. Fortescue's statement (iv, 125) that Ministers alone were responsible for +the Dunkirk scheme. George III was morally responsible for it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_215_215" id="Footnote_215_215"></a><a href="#FNanchor_215_215"><span class="label">[215]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 387.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_216_216" id="Footnote_216_216"></a><a href="#FNanchor_216_216"><span class="label">[216]</span></a> "F. O.," Austria, 33, Eden to Grenville, 27th and 28th March, 10th +April; Vivenot, ii, 541; Häusser, i, 483.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_217_217" id="Footnote_217_217"></a><a href="#FNanchor_217_217"><span class="label">[217]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, Eden to Grenville, 15th April. This probably refers to Alsace; but +it may possibly hint at a partition of Venice which had been mooted at +Vienna before. A slice of Piedmont was also desired (Eden to Grenville, +8th June).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_218_218" id="Footnote_218_218"></a><a href="#FNanchor_218_218"><span class="label">[218]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, Eden to Grenville, 30th March.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_219_219" id="Footnote_219_219"></a><a href="#FNanchor_219_219"><span class="label">[219]</span></a> The West India expedition was again and again deferred in favour of +that to la Vendée or Toulon (Vivenot, iii, 383).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_220_220" id="Footnote_220_220"></a><a href="#FNanchor_220_220"><span class="label">[220]</span></a> Sybel, iii, 38–40; Häusser, i, 488, 489.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_221_221" id="Footnote_221_221"></a><a href="#FNanchor_221_221"><span class="label">[221]</span></a> Pretyman MSS. I have published the letter of 5th April 1793 almost in +full in the "Eng. Hist. Rev." for April 1910.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_222_222" id="Footnote_222_222"></a><a href="#FNanchor_222_222"><span class="label">[222]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 388–93, 399.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_223_223" id="Footnote_223_223"></a><a href="#FNanchor_223_223"><span class="label">[223]</span></a> "F. O.," France, 42. I cannot agree with Sorel (iii, 405) in taking the +French overtures seriously.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_224_224" id="Footnote_224_224"></a><a href="#FNanchor_224_224"><span class="label">[224]</span></a> "W. O.," 6 (10), Dundas to Murray (now secretary to the Duke of York).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_225_225" id="Footnote_225_225"></a><a href="#FNanchor_225_225"><span class="label">[225]</span></a> Calvert, 80.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_226_226" id="Footnote_226_226"></a><a href="#FNanchor_226_226"><span class="label">[226]</span></a> Calvert, ch. iii; Fortescue, iv, 111.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_227_227" id="Footnote_227_227"></a><a href="#FNanchor_227_227"><span class="label">[227]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," iii, 493.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_228_228" id="Footnote_228_228"></a><a href="#FNanchor_228_228"><span class="label">[228]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 436.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_229_229" id="Footnote_229_229"></a><a href="#FNanchor_229_229"><span class="label">[229]</span></a> Sybel, iii, 136, 137.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_230_230" id="Footnote_230_230"></a><a href="#FNanchor_230_230"><span class="label">[230]</span></a> "Mems. of Sir G. Elliot (Earl of Minto)," ii, 159.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_231_231" id="Footnote_231_231"></a><a href="#FNanchor_231_231"><span class="label">[231]</span></a> "W. O.," 6 (10), 1st August, to Sir J. Murray, which corrects the statement +in Sybel (iii, 140), that England meant to keep Dunkirk.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_232_232" id="Footnote_232_232"></a><a href="#FNanchor_232_232"><span class="label">[232]</span></a> "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 18.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_233_233" id="Footnote_233_233"></a><a href="#FNanchor_233_233"><span class="label">[233]</span></a> Calvert, 119–21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_234_234" id="Footnote_234_234"></a><a href="#FNanchor_234_234"><span class="label">[234]</span></a> "Mems. of Sir G. Elliot," ii, 160.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_235_235" id="Footnote_235_235"></a><a href="#FNanchor_235_235"><span class="label">[235]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 196.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_236_236" id="Footnote_236_236"></a><a href="#FNanchor_236_236"><span class="label">[236]</span></a> Vivenot, iii, 352, 353.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_237_237" id="Footnote_237_237"></a><a href="#FNanchor_237_237"><span class="label">[237]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, 320, 321, 339, 379, 380; "Dropmore P.," ii, 470, 536. In the last +passage Yarmouth accuses the King of Prussia of deliberately thwarting the +action of the Austrian army under Wurmser.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_238_238" id="Footnote_238_238"></a><a href="#FNanchor_238_238"><span class="label">[238]</span></a> "F. O.," Austria, 33, Grenville to Eden, 11th June; Eden to Grenville, +26th June.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_239_239" id="Footnote_239_239"></a><a href="#FNanchor_239_239"><span class="label">[239]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 392, 399, 407, 412. Spain hoped to find her "indemnity" +in Corsica. See too Fortescue, iv, 116, 117.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_240_240" id="Footnote_240_240"></a><a href="#FNanchor_240_240"><span class="label">[240]</span></a> See "Eng. Hist. Rev." for October 1909, p. 748.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_241_241" id="Footnote_241_241"></a><a href="#FNanchor_241_241"><span class="label">[241]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 196.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_242_242" id="Footnote_242_242"></a><a href="#FNanchor_242_242"><span class="label">[242]</span></a> "H. O.," Adm. Medit., 1793.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_243_243" id="Footnote_243_243"></a><a href="#FNanchor_243_243"><span class="label">[243]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_244_244" id="Footnote_244_244"></a><a href="#FNanchor_244_244"><span class="label">[244]</span></a> "F. O.," Spain, 28. St. Helens to Grenville, 4th and 11th September.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_245_245" id="Footnote_245_245"></a><a href="#FNanchor_245_245"><span class="label">[245]</span></a> "W. O.," 6 (10). See Fortescue (iv, pt. i, chs. vi, vii) for criticisms of +these measures.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_246_246" id="Footnote_246_246"></a><a href="#FNanchor_246_246"><span class="label">[246]</span></a> The arguments of Mr. Spenser Wilkinson in "Owens College Essays," +do not convince me that Napoleon alone devised that plan. Chuquet's +conclusion ("Toulon," 176), "Bonaparte partageait l'avis des représentants," +seems to me thoroughly sound. So, too, Cottin, "Toulon et les Anglais," ch. xi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_247_247" id="Footnote_247_247"></a><a href="#FNanchor_247_247"><span class="label">[247]</span></a> "F. O.," Spain, 28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_248_248" id="Footnote_248_248"></a><a href="#FNanchor_248_248"><span class="label">[248]</span></a> "H. O." (Adm. Medit., 1793). Nevertheless Hood sent off a small +squadron to offer help to Paoli in Corsica, but with very disappointing results. +On 7th October he writes: "Paoli is a composition of art and deceipt [<span lang="la">sic</span>]." +He also dwells on the hostile conduct of Genoa and Tuscany.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_249_249" id="Footnote_249_249"></a><a href="#FNanchor_249_249"><span class="label">[249]</span></a> Martens, v, 473–83. In "H. O.," Secrs. of State, 4, is a despatch of +General Acton of 30th October 1793 to Sir W. Hamilton, stating that when +transports reach Naples, they will take off 1,200 more troops for Toulon, +making a total of 6,300. But ships and supplies of food were wanting. The +troops must be commanded by a Neapolitan, Marshal Fortiquerri, whom +Hood had censured for incompetence!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_250_250" id="Footnote_250_250"></a><a href="#FNanchor_250_250"><span class="label">[250]</span></a> On 15th September Pitt wrote to the Earl of Westmorland, Viceroy of +Ireland, asking him to send the flank companies (the best men) of the +regiments then in Ireland. Westmorland agreed on 18th September, but +said they could not sail in less than three weeks. As the crisis at Toulon +deepened, Pitt, about the middle of November, begged the Lord Lieutenant +to send the 35th, 41st, and 42nd regiments from Ireland to Toulon. On +20th November Westmorland agreed (though pointing out the danger of an +Irish rising). On the 30th he said the two latter regiments were ready to sail +from Cork whenever the transports should arrive; but the delays in the +arrival and sailing of transports had always been serious—a prophetic +remark (Pitt MSS., 331).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_251_251" id="Footnote_251_251"></a><a href="#FNanchor_251_251"><span class="label">[251]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 471. Thugut took no interest whatever in Toulon +(see Vivenot, iii, 324, 327, 362, 363). Other proofs follow (pp. 381, 384) of the +pressing demands which Grenville, also Mr. Trevor at Turin, made for the +fulfilment of the Emperor's promise. Some difficulties supervened as to the +provisioning of the 5,000 Austrian troops on the march and the place of embarkation; +but these were far from insuperable. Clearly the operating cause +was Thugut's conviction that there was at Toulon a number of troops "excédant +ce que toute place quelconque peut exiger pour sa défense" (<span lang="la">ibid.</span>, 385).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_252_252" id="Footnote_252_252"></a><a href="#FNanchor_252_252"><span class="label">[252]</span></a> "H. O." (Adm. Medit, 1793), Hood to Dundas, 24th November.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_253_253" id="Footnote_253_253"></a><a href="#FNanchor_253_253"><span class="label">[253]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span> O'Hara to Hood. This reached London on 8th December; but, +as we have seen, Ministers up to 22nd December continued to rely on the +arrival of the Austrians as providing a sufficient reinforcement.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_254_254" id="Footnote_254_254"></a><a href="#FNanchor_254_254"><span class="label">[254]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 447; "Mems. of Sir G. Elliot," ii, 190, <span lang="la">et seq.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_255_255" id="Footnote_255_255"></a><a href="#FNanchor_255_255"><span class="label">[255]</span></a> "F. O.," Spain, 28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_256_256" id="Footnote_256_256"></a><a href="#FNanchor_256_256"><span class="label">[256]</span></a> Even by M. Cottin in his works, "Toulon et les Anglais," "L'Angleterre +et les Princes."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_257_257" id="Footnote_257_257"></a><a href="#FNanchor_257_257"><span class="label">[257]</span></a> "F. O.," Austria, 34. Grenville to Eden, 7th September. So in his letter +of 4th October to Pitt he refers to "such other towns or districts [in +S. France] as may become objects of indemnity." See, too, "Dropmore P.," +ii, 412, 438; Vivenot, iii, 326.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_258_258" id="Footnote_258_258"></a><a href="#FNanchor_258_258"><span class="label">[258]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," iii, 487.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_259_259" id="Footnote_259_259"></a><a href="#FNanchor_259_259"><span class="label">[259]</span></a> "H. O.," 455, <span lang="la">ad fin.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_260_260" id="Footnote_260_260"></a><a href="#FNanchor_260_260"><span class="label">[260]</span></a> "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 33.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_261_261" id="Footnote_261_261"></a><a href="#FNanchor_261_261"><span class="label">[261]</span></a> "F. O.," Spain, 28. Grenville to St. Helens, 22nd October 1793. Cottin +omits this despatch, which is essential to the understanding of British policy. +See for further details C. J. Fox, "Bonaparte at the Siege of Toulon," bk. ii, +ch. ii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_262_262" id="Footnote_262_262"></a><a href="#FNanchor_262_262"><span class="label">[262]</span></a> "F. O.," Spain, 28. On 30th November Grenville instructed St. Helens +to express regret that Spain seemed to retract her wish, previously expressed, +that Corsica should go to England; and also to advise that Spain +should take her indemnity from France on the Pyrenean frontier.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_263_263" id="Footnote_263_263"></a><a href="#FNanchor_263_263"><span class="label">[263]</span></a> Fortescue, iv, 172.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_264_264" id="Footnote_264_264"></a><a href="#FNanchor_264_264"><span class="label">[264]</span></a> "H. O.," Adm. Medit., 1793.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_265_265" id="Footnote_265_265"></a><a href="#FNanchor_265_265"><span class="label">[265]</span></a> "H. O.," Mil., 455. Fortescue (iv, 175) vehemently censures Henry +Dundas, but I think without sufficient ground. The letters of David Dundas +called for reproof. See Mr. Oscar Browning's "Youth of Napoleon" (App. iv).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_266_266" id="Footnote_266_266"></a><a href="#FNanchor_266_266"><span class="label">[266]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 331; "H. O.," Mil., 455.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_267_267" id="Footnote_267_267"></a><a href="#FNanchor_267_267"><span class="label">[267]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 476, 477; "Mems. of Sir G. Elliot," ii, 198.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_268_268" id="Footnote_268_268"></a><a href="#FNanchor_268_268"><span class="label">[268]</span></a> Admiralty. Out Letters, xiii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_269_269" id="Footnote_269_269"></a><a href="#FNanchor_269_269"><span class="label">[269]</span></a> "H. O.," Mil., 455.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_270_270" id="Footnote_270_270"></a><a href="#FNanchor_270_270"><span class="label">[270]</span></a> "H. O.," Adm. Medit., 1794.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_271_271" id="Footnote_271_271"></a><a href="#FNanchor_271_271"><span class="label">[271]</span></a> "F. O.," Austria, 36. Grenville to Eden, 3rd January 1794.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_272_272" id="Footnote_272_272"></a><a href="#FNanchor_272_272"><span class="label">[272]</span></a> Pellew, "Sidmouth," i, 112.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_273_273" id="Footnote_273_273"></a><a href="#FNanchor_273_273"><span class="label">[273]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 438.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_274_274" id="Footnote_274_274"></a><a href="#FNanchor_274_274"><span class="label">[274]</span></a> See "The Complaints of the Poor People of England," by G. Dyer, B.A. +(late of Emmanuel College, Camb., 1793).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_275_275" id="Footnote_275_275"></a><a href="#FNanchor_275_275"><span class="label">[275]</span></a> "H. O.," Geo. III (Domestic), 27, 28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_276_276" id="Footnote_276_276"></a><a href="#FNanchor_276_276"><span class="label">[276]</span></a> E. Smith, "The English Jacobins," 111–3; C. Cestre, "John Thelwall," +ch. ii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_277_277" id="Footnote_277_277"></a><a href="#FNanchor_277_277"><span class="label">[277]</span></a> "Report of the Committee of Secrecy," May 1794. The Duke of Richmond's +plan was the Westminster programme of 1780, which became the +"six points" of the Charter of 1838.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_278_278" id="Footnote_278_278"></a><a href="#FNanchor_278_278"><span class="label">[278]</span></a> See Fox's letter of 2nd May 1793 to Hardy in "State Trials," xxiv, 791.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_279_279" id="Footnote_279_279"></a><a href="#FNanchor_279_279"><span class="label">[279]</span></a> M. Conway, "Life of T. Paine," i, 346.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_280_280" id="Footnote_280_280"></a><a href="#FNanchor_280_280"><span class="label">[280]</span></a> In the Place MSS. (Brit. Mus.), vol. entitled "Libel, Sedition, Treason, +Persecution"—a valuable collection.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_281_281" id="Footnote_281_281"></a><a href="#FNanchor_281_281"><span class="label">[281]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxxii, 929–44.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_282_282" id="Footnote_282_282"></a><a href="#FNanchor_282_282"><span class="label">[282]</span></a> "Collection of Addresses ... to the National Convention of France" +(Debrett, 1793), 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_283_283" id="Footnote_283_283"></a><a href="#FNanchor_283_283"><span class="label">[283]</span></a> "Speeches of Lord Erskine," 293.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_284_284" id="Footnote_284_284"></a><a href="#FNanchor_284_284"><span class="label">[284]</span></a> "State Trials," xxii, 471–522.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_285_285" id="Footnote_285_285"></a><a href="#FNanchor_285_285"><span class="label">[285]</span></a> Porritt, ii, 128.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_286_286" id="Footnote_286_286"></a><a href="#FNanchor_286_286"><span class="label">[286]</span></a> "H. O.," Scotland, 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_287_287" id="Footnote_287_287"></a><a href="#FNanchor_287_287"><span class="label">[287]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_288_288" id="Footnote_288_288"></a><a href="#FNanchor_288_288"><span class="label">[288]</span></a> "State Trials," xxiii, 118–26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_289_289" id="Footnote_289_289"></a><a href="#FNanchor_289_289"><span class="label">[289]</span></a> I differ here from Lord Cockburn, "Examination of the Trials for Sedition +in Scotland," i, 147.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_290_290" id="Footnote_290_290"></a><a href="#FNanchor_290_290"><span class="label">[290]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, i, 162–5; "State Trials," xxiii, 146–8, 160.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_291_291" id="Footnote_291_291"></a><a href="#FNanchor_291_291"><span class="label">[291]</span></a> P. Mackenzie, "Life of Muir," does not state the reason for Muir's visit +to Paris.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_292_292" id="Footnote_292_292"></a><a href="#FNanchor_292_292"><span class="label">[292]</span></a> "H. O.," Scotland, 8. Dunlop, Lord Provost of Glasgow, sent it to Robert +Dundas on 12th March 1793. For this William Christie, who translated the +French Constitution of 1791 into English, see Alger, "Englishmen in the +French Revolution," 78, 98.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_293_293" id="Footnote_293_293"></a><a href="#FNanchor_293_293"><span class="label">[293]</span></a> See Campbell, "Lives of the Lord Chancellors," vii, 273, note, and viii, +143–5, for criticisms on the judges: also Cockburn, <span lang="la">op. cit.</span>, i, 147–80; "Life +of Romilly," i, 23.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_294_294" id="Footnote_294_294"></a><a href="#FNanchor_294_294"><span class="label">[294]</span></a> "H. O.," Scotland, 8. Letter of 2nd August 1793. Dundas further stated +that Muir had several Irish handbills on him.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_295_295" id="Footnote_295_295"></a><a href="#FNanchor_295_295"><span class="label">[295]</span></a> Curiously enough, Lord Cockburn paid no heed to this in his otherwise +able examination of the case.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_296_296" id="Footnote_296_296"></a><a href="#FNanchor_296_296"><span class="label">[296]</span></a> T. Wolfe Tone, "Autobiography," ii, 285.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_297_297" id="Footnote_297_297"></a><a href="#FNanchor_297_297"><span class="label">[297]</span></a> "H. O.," Scotland, 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_298_298" id="Footnote_298_298"></a><a href="#FNanchor_298_298"><span class="label">[298]</span></a> "H. O.," Scotland, 8. W. Scot to R. Dundas, 1st August.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_299_299" id="Footnote_299_299"></a><a href="#FNanchor_299_299"><span class="label">[299]</span></a> See the "Narrative of the Sufferings of T. F. Palmer and W. Skirving" +(1794), and "Monthly Mag.," xvii, 83–5, for Palmer's adventures. He died +of dysentery in 1799.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_300_300" id="Footnote_300_300"></a><a href="#FNanchor_300_300"><span class="label">[300]</span></a> "H. O.," Scotland, 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_301_301" id="Footnote_301_301"></a><a href="#FNanchor_301_301"><span class="label">[301]</span></a> Their Memorial to Henry Dundas is in "H. O.," Geo. III (Domestic), +27. They did not claim that he was innocent, merely that the punishment +was excessive and unjust.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_302_302" id="Footnote_302_302"></a><a href="#FNanchor_302_302"><span class="label">[302]</span></a> "Arniston Mems.," 240.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_303_303" id="Footnote_303_303"></a><a href="#FNanchor_303_303"><span class="label">[303]</span></a> Campbell, <span lang="la">op. cit.</span>, viii, 145, 147.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_304_304" id="Footnote_304_304"></a><a href="#FNanchor_304_304"><span class="label">[304]</span></a> "H. O.," Geo. III (Domestic), 27.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_305_305" id="Footnote_305_305"></a><a href="#FNanchor_305_305"><span class="label">[305]</span></a> For the instructions see E. Smith, "The Story of the English Jacobins," 87.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_306_306" id="Footnote_306_306"></a><a href="#FNanchor_306_306"><span class="label">[306]</span></a> "State Trials," xxiii, 414.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_307_307" id="Footnote_307_307"></a><a href="#FNanchor_307_307"><span class="label">[307]</span></a> J. Gerrald had published a pamphlet, "A Convention the only Means +of saving us from Ruin" (1793). It is in the British Museum.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_308_308" id="Footnote_308_308"></a><a href="#FNanchor_308_308"><span class="label">[308]</span></a> "H. O.," Scotland, 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_309_309" id="Footnote_309_309"></a><a href="#FNanchor_309_309"><span class="label">[309]</span></a> "State Trials," xxiii, 766.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_310_310" id="Footnote_310_310"></a><a href="#FNanchor_310_310"><span class="label">[310]</span></a> "Auckland Journals," iii, 205.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_311_311" id="Footnote_311_311"></a><a href="#FNanchor_311_311"><span class="label">[311]</span></a> "Arniston Mems.," 242.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_312_312" id="Footnote_312_312"></a><a href="#FNanchor_312_312"><span class="label">[312]</span></a> E. Smith, "The Eng. Jacobins," 93–7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_313_313" id="Footnote_313_313"></a><a href="#FNanchor_313_313"><span class="label">[313]</span></a> See "Report of the Committee of Secrecy" (17th May 1794).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_314_314" id="Footnote_314_314"></a><a href="#FNanchor_314_314"><span class="label">[314]</span></a> C. Cestre, "John Thelwall," 77.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_315_315" id="Footnote_315_315"></a><a href="#FNanchor_315_315"><span class="label">[315]</span></a> "H. O.," Geo. III (Domestic), 30.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_316_316" id="Footnote_316_316"></a><a href="#FNanchor_316_316"><span class="label">[316]</span></a> "State Trials," xxiii, 1055–1166. For technical reasons this statement +of Booth could not be given at Walker's trial. Besides Walker's Constitutional +Society, there were two others, the Reformation and Patriotic Societies, +founded in March and April 1792.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_317_317" id="Footnote_317_317"></a><a href="#FNanchor_317_317"><span class="label">[317]</span></a> See E. Smith, "The Eng. Jacobins," ch. vi, for the meetings at Sheffield +and the part played by Yorke.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_318_318" id="Footnote_318_318"></a><a href="#FNanchor_318_318"><span class="label">[318]</span></a> "H. O.," Geo. III (Domestic), 31.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_319_319" id="Footnote_319_319"></a><a href="#FNanchor_319_319"><span class="label">[319]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, 27, 29. Spence purveyed "Pigs' Meat," while Eaton sold "Hogs' +Wash." The titles are a take-off of Burke's phrase "the swinish multitude."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_320_320" id="Footnote_320_320"></a><a href="#FNanchor_320_320"><span class="label">[320]</span></a> <span lang="la">I.e.</span>, similar to the one passed in Dublin against a People's Convention.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_321_321" id="Footnote_321_321"></a><a href="#FNanchor_321_321"><span class="label">[321]</span></a> "Report of the Parl. Comm. of Secrecy" (17th May 1794).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_322_322" id="Footnote_322_322"></a><a href="#FNanchor_322_322"><span class="label">[322]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxx, 1363–91; xxxi, 1–27.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_323_323" id="Footnote_323_323"></a><a href="#FNanchor_323_323"><span class="label">[323]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, xxxi, 97–121.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_324_324" id="Footnote_324_324"></a><a href="#FNanchor_324_324"><span class="label">[324]</span></a> "Morning Chronicle" for April 1794.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_325_325" id="Footnote_325_325"></a><a href="#FNanchor_325_325"><span class="label">[325]</span></a> "H. O.," Geo. III (Domestic), 30.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_326_326" id="Footnote_326_326"></a><a href="#FNanchor_326_326"><span class="label">[326]</span></a> "Auckland Journals," iii, 213.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_327_327" id="Footnote_327_327"></a><a href="#FNanchor_327_327"><span class="label">[327]</span></a> "State Trials," xxiv, 588, 600, 601.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_328_328" id="Footnote_328_328"></a><a href="#FNanchor_328_328"><span class="label">[328]</span></a> "State Trials," xxiv, 626.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_329_329" id="Footnote_329_329"></a><a href="#FNanchor_329_329"><span class="label">[329]</span></a> E. Smith, "Eng. Jacobins," 116.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_330_330" id="Footnote_330_330"></a><a href="#FNanchor_330_330"><span class="label">[330]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxxi, 475–97.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_331_331" id="Footnote_331_331"></a><a href="#FNanchor_331_331"><span class="label">[331]</span></a> "Life of Horne Tooke," ii, 119. It was afterwards absurdly said that +Dundas, Horne Tooke's neighbour at Wimbledon, had had the letter filched +from his house. Both of them lived on the west side of the "green."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_332_332" id="Footnote_332_332"></a><a href="#FNanchor_332_332"><span class="label">[332]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxxi, 497–505.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_333_333" id="Footnote_333_333"></a><a href="#FNanchor_333_333"><span class="label">[333]</span></a> "Life of T. Hardy," 42; "State Trials," xxiv, 717, 729, 762, etc. The +evidence fills 1,207 pages.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_334_334" id="Footnote_334_334"></a><a href="#FNanchor_334_334"><span class="label">[334]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, 1–200.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_335_335" id="Footnote_335_335"></a><a href="#FNanchor_335_335"><span class="label">[335]</span></a> "Troilus and Cressida," act i, sc. 3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_336_336" id="Footnote_336_336"></a><a href="#FNanchor_336_336"><span class="label">[336]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 452.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_337_337" id="Footnote_337_337"></a><a href="#FNanchor_337_337"><span class="label">[337]</span></a> Thugut in the autumn of 1793 sketched a scheme for annexing the north +of France from the Somme to Sedan.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_338_338" id="Footnote_338_338"></a><a href="#FNanchor_338_338"><span class="label">[338]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 628. So, too, Morton Eden wrote to Grenville on +1st January 1793: "The steadfastness of the Emperor does not equal his +moral rectitude" ("F. O.," Austria, 32).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_339_339" id="Footnote_339_339"></a><a href="#FNanchor_339_339"><span class="label">[339]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 491; "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 17–19, 69.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_340_340" id="Footnote_340_340"></a><a href="#FNanchor_340_340"><span class="label">[340]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 494; "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 31, <span lang="la">et seq.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_341_341" id="Footnote_341_341"></a><a href="#FNanchor_341_341"><span class="label">[341]</span></a> "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 50; Sorel, iv, 17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_342_342" id="Footnote_342_342"></a><a href="#FNanchor_342_342"><span class="label">[342]</span></a> Seeley, "Stein," i, 65.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_343_343" id="Footnote_343_343"></a><a href="#FNanchor_343_343"><span class="label">[343]</span></a> "F. O.," Austria, 36. Eden to Grenville, 15th and 27th February.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_344_344" id="Footnote_344_344"></a><a href="#FNanchor_344_344"><span class="label">[344]</span></a> "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 81, 82.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_345_345" id="Footnote_345_345"></a><a href="#FNanchor_345_345"><span class="label">[345]</span></a> Sorel, iv, 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_346_346" id="Footnote_346_346"></a><a href="#FNanchor_346_346"><span class="label">[346]</span></a> Vivenot, iii, 89–96; "Dropmore P.," ii, 505–7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_347_347" id="Footnote_347_347"></a><a href="#FNanchor_347_347"><span class="label">[347]</span></a> "F. O.," Austria, 36, Eden to Grenville, 31st March, 9th April. See, +too, Vivenot, iii, 172, for proofs that Kosciusko sought to delay the rising, and +looked to Vienna for help against Russia and Prussia.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_348_348" id="Footnote_348_348"></a><a href="#FNanchor_348_348"><span class="label">[348]</span></a> "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 85, 89.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_349_349" id="Footnote_349_349"></a><a href="#FNanchor_349_349"><span class="label">[349]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 516.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_350_350" id="Footnote_350_350"></a><a href="#FNanchor_350_350"><span class="label">[350]</span></a> "F. O.," Prussia, 33. Grenville to Malmesbury, 21st April.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_351_351" id="Footnote_351_351"></a><a href="#FNanchor_351_351"><span class="label">[351]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, Same to same, 23rd May.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_352_352" id="Footnote_352_352"></a><a href="#FNanchor_352_352"><span class="label">[352]</span></a> "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 96.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_353_353" id="Footnote_353_353"></a><a href="#FNanchor_353_353"><span class="label">[353]</span></a> "W. O.," I, 169. See an admirable article in the "United Service +Mag." (Aug. 1897), by Colonel E. M. Lloyd, founded on the papers of +General Sir James Craig, Adjutant-General of the Duke of York.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_354_354" id="Footnote_354_354"></a><a href="#FNanchor_354_354"><span class="label">[354]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxxii, 1132.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_355_355" id="Footnote_355_355"></a><a href="#FNanchor_355_355"><span class="label">[355]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 599.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_356_356" id="Footnote_356_356"></a><a href="#FNanchor_356_356"><span class="label">[356]</span></a> "F. O.," Austria, 38. Despatch of 19th July.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_357_357" id="Footnote_357_357"></a><a href="#FNanchor_357_357"><span class="label">[357]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 180. See, too, "Dropmore P.," ii, 617–20, 626.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_358_358" id="Footnote_358_358"></a><a href="#FNanchor_358_358"><span class="label">[358]</span></a> See "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies" for Grenville's letters. Pitt was +the guest of Grenville at Dropmore at the end of November 1794 ("Buckingham +P.," ii, 319).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_359_359" id="Footnote_359_359"></a><a href="#FNanchor_359_359"><span class="label">[359]</span></a> "F. O.," Prussia, 35. Malmesbury to Grenville, 25th November 1794.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_360_360" id="Footnote_360_360"></a><a href="#FNanchor_360_360"><span class="label">[360]</span></a> See "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies" for this letter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_361_361" id="Footnote_361_361"></a><a href="#FNanchor_361_361"><span class="label">[361]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," iii, 26–30, 50, 57.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_362_362" id="Footnote_362_362"></a><a href="#FNanchor_362_362"><span class="label">[362]</span></a> Ranke, "Hardenberg," i, 258; "Paget P.," i, 95, <span lang="la">et seq.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_363_363" id="Footnote_363_363"></a><a href="#FNanchor_363_363"><span class="label">[363]</span></a> See "Eng. Hist. Rev.," October 1909.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_364_364" id="Footnote_364_364"></a><a href="#FNanchor_364_364"><span class="label">[364]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 395, 438, 443, 444, 464.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_365_365" id="Footnote_365_365"></a><a href="#FNanchor_365_365"><span class="label">[365]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 349.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_366_366" id="Footnote_366_366"></a><a href="#FNanchor_366_366"><span class="label">[366]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 121.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_367_367" id="Footnote_367_367"></a><a href="#FNanchor_367_367"><span class="label">[367]</span></a> "F. O.," France, 40.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_368_368" id="Footnote_368_368"></a><a href="#FNanchor_368_368"><span class="label">[368]</span></a> Malouet, "Méms.," ii, 209–11; Morse Stephens, "French Rev.," ii, 481–4; +"Dropmore P.," ii, 388.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_369_369" id="Footnote_369_369"></a><a href="#FNanchor_369_369"><span class="label">[369]</span></a> Fortescue, iv, pt. i, 77, 78.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_370_370" id="Footnote_370_370"></a><a href="#FNanchor_370_370"><span class="label">[370]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 402, 403.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_371_371" id="Footnote_371_371"></a><a href="#FNanchor_371_371"><span class="label">[371]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 349.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_372_372" id="Footnote_372_372"></a><a href="#FNanchor_372_372"><span class="label">[372]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 155, 349. In the latter packet is Malouet's letter of 10th +March 1793 from Kingston, Jamaica, to M. Franklyn at London, dwelling +on the woes of San Domingo and Martinique—all due to the folly and +wickedness of one man, probably Brissot. He despairs of the French West +Indies. See, too, "Dropmore P.," ii, 388.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_373_373" id="Footnote_373_373"></a><a href="#FNanchor_373_373"><span class="label">[373]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 349.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_374_374" id="Footnote_374_374"></a><a href="#FNanchor_374_374"><span class="label">[374]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxxiii, 586.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_375_375" id="Footnote_375_375"></a><a href="#FNanchor_375_375"><span class="label">[375]</span></a> The facts stated above suffice to refute the strange statement of Mr. +Morse Stephens ("Fr. Rev.," ii, 476) that the English invasion of San +Domingo was "absurd." It was not an invasion, but an occupation of the +coast towns after scarcely any resistance.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_376_376" id="Footnote_376_376"></a><a href="#FNanchor_376_376"><span class="label">[376]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 443, 454, 464.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_377_377" id="Footnote_377_377"></a><a href="#FNanchor_377_377"><span class="label">[377]</span></a> Fortescue, iv, pt. i, chs. xiii, xiv; James, i, 250–2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_378_378" id="Footnote_378_378"></a><a href="#FNanchor_378_378"><span class="label">[378]</span></a> Pinckard, "Notes on the Expedition to the West Indies," ii, especially +Letter 15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_379_379" id="Footnote_379_379"></a><a href="#FNanchor_379_379"><span class="label">[379]</span></a> Bryan Edwards, "Hist. Survey of S. Domingo" (1801), 204. Fortescue +(iv, 385) assesses the British losses in the West Indies in 1794 at 12,000 men, +apart from deaths in battle.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_380_380" id="Footnote_380_380"></a><a href="#FNanchor_380_380"><span class="label">[380]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 121.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_381_381" id="Footnote_381_381"></a><a href="#FNanchor_381_381"><span class="label">[381]</span></a> "F. O.," Spain, 28. Grenville to St. Helens, 30th November 1793. On +1st October Pitt pressed Grenville to open this question to the Spanish +Court ("Dropmore P.," ii, 433, 438).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_382_382" id="Footnote_382_382"></a><a href="#FNanchor_382_382"><span class="label">[382]</span></a> "H. O." (Secretaries of State), 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_383_383" id="Footnote_383_383"></a><a href="#FNanchor_383_383"><span class="label">[383]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 349. He added that in 1788, 584 European and 699 American +ships set sail from Hayti: 37,447 negroes were imported.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_384_384" id="Footnote_384_384"></a><a href="#FNanchor_384_384"><span class="label">[384]</span></a> "F. O.," Spain, 36. Bute to Grenville, 26th June 1795.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_385_385" id="Footnote_385_385"></a><a href="#FNanchor_385_385"><span class="label">[385]</span></a> "F. O.," Spain, 36. Jackson to Grenville, 2nd January and 11th February +1795.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_386_386" id="Footnote_386_386"></a><a href="#FNanchor_386_386"><span class="label">[386]</span></a> "F. O.," Spain, 37. Grenville to Bute, 5th, 12th, and 19th June.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_387_387" id="Footnote_387_387"></a><a href="#FNanchor_387_387"><span class="label">[387]</span></a> Del Cantillo, "Tratados," 660.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_388_388" id="Footnote_388_388"></a><a href="#FNanchor_388_388"><span class="label">[388]</span></a> "Papiers de Barthélemy," vi, Introd., xv, 71, 77–85.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_389_389" id="Footnote_389_389"></a><a href="#FNanchor_389_389"><span class="label">[389]</span></a> "W. O.," vi, 6, which contains other despatches of Dundas cited later.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_390_390" id="Footnote_390_390"></a><a href="#FNanchor_390_390"><span class="label">[390]</span></a> "Diary of Sir John Moore," i, 208, 221, 233, 243; ii, 18, 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_391_391" id="Footnote_391_391"></a><a href="#FNanchor_391_391"><span class="label">[391]</span></a> "Diary of Sir John Moore," 2 vols. Edited by General Maurice.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_392_392" id="Footnote_392_392"></a><a href="#FNanchor_392_392"><span class="label">[392]</span></a> "F. O.," Spain, 39, 40. Merry to Grenville, 20th and 25th December and +19th January, 10th February, 6th and 29th March.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_393_393" id="Footnote_393_393"></a><a href="#FNanchor_393_393"><span class="label">[393]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," iii, 214.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_394_394" id="Footnote_394_394"></a><a href="#FNanchor_394_394"><span class="label">[394]</span></a> "F. O.," Spain, 44. Bute to Grenville, 10th September and 21st October.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_395_395" id="Footnote_395_395"></a><a href="#FNanchor_395_395"><span class="label">[395]</span></a> For the disgust of Pitt and Dundas, see "Dropmore P.," iii, 390.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_396_396" id="Footnote_396_396"></a><a href="#FNanchor_396_396"><span class="label">[396]</span></a> Malouet wrote to Pitt on 24th June 1798: "The wisdom of General +Maitland's measures, the perfect order in which he has conducted the operations +have lessened the disasters attending it, and by means of a truce and +convention agreed on with the Republican chiefs, not an inconsiderable +number of inhabitants has been induced to remain on their plantations" +(Pitt MSS., 146).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_397_397" id="Footnote_397_397"></a><a href="#FNanchor_397_397"><span class="label">[397]</span></a> "F. O.," Holland, 57.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_398_398" id="Footnote_398_398"></a><a href="#FNanchor_398_398"><span class="label">[398]</span></a> "Cape Records," i, 98.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_399_399" id="Footnote_399_399"></a><a href="#FNanchor_399_399"><span class="label">[399]</span></a> "W. O.," vi, 67.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_400_400" id="Footnote_400_400"></a><a href="#FNanchor_400_400"><span class="label">[400]</span></a> "Cape Records," i, 17, 22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_401_401" id="Footnote_401_401"></a><a href="#FNanchor_401_401"><span class="label">[401]</span></a> "Cape Records," i, 23–6, 138–40; Cory, "Rise of South Africa," i, ch. ii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_402_402" id="Footnote_402_402"></a><a href="#FNanchor_402_402"><span class="label">[402]</span></a> "W. O.," i, 323. In "F. O.," Holland, 57, is a memorial of Elphinstone +and Craig to Grenville, stating why they had detained at the Cape the U. S. +ship "Argonaut," whose owners now prosecuted them for £100,000.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_403_403" id="Footnote_403_403"></a><a href="#FNanchor_403_403"><span class="label">[403]</span></a> "South Africa a Century ago." By Lady Anne Barnard.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_404_404" id="Footnote_404_404"></a><a href="#FNanchor_404_404"><span class="label">[404]</span></a> "F. O.," Prussia, 70. Pitt to Harrowby, 27th October 1805.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_405_405" id="Footnote_405_405"></a><a href="#FNanchor_405_405"><span class="label">[405]</span></a> "Nelson Despatches," ii, 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_406_406" id="Footnote_406_406"></a><a href="#FNanchor_406_406"><span class="label">[406]</span></a> "Corresp. of Sir John Sinclair," i, 141–3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_407_407" id="Footnote_407_407"></a><a href="#FNanchor_407_407"><span class="label">[407]</span></a> Puisaye, "Mems.," ii, 594–603; Forneron, "Hist. des Emigrés," ii, 13, 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_408_408" id="Footnote_408_408"></a><a href="#FNanchor_408_408"><span class="label">[408]</span></a> Cornwallis, "Corresp.," iii, 289.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_409_409" id="Footnote_409_409"></a><a href="#FNanchor_409_409"><span class="label">[409]</span></a> "F. O.," France, 44. Grenville to d'Harcourt, 19th June 1795.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_410_410" id="Footnote_410_410"></a><a href="#FNanchor_410_410"><span class="label">[410]</span></a> On 19th January 1798 Pitt, Windham, and Canning agreed to give +£9,082 and £9,400 for the discharge of debts due for services of the Royalists +in France, incurred in England and France respectively, leaving a balance +of £8,000 for future payment. The following sums were paid to the Duc +d'Harcourt for the support of "Monsieur": in 1796, £3,000; in 1797, £9,000; +and after May 1798 at the rate of £500 per month (B.M. Add. MSS., 37844). +I have not found the sums allowed to the Comte d'Artois.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_411_411" id="Footnote_411_411"></a><a href="#FNanchor_411_411"><span class="label">[411]</span></a> "Diary of a Tour through Great Britain in 1795," by W. MacRitchie +(1897).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_412_412" id="Footnote_412_412"></a><a href="#FNanchor_412_412"><span class="label">[412]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," ii, 172.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_413_413" id="Footnote_413_413"></a><a href="#FNanchor_413_413"><span class="label">[413]</span></a> In "H. O.," Geo. III (Domestic), 27, are Dundas's instructions to Moira, +dated 20th November 1793, appointing him Major-General in an expedition +to Guernsey, with Admiral MacBride, taking with him a Hessian corps as +soon as it arrives. He is to seize St. Malo or any place near it suitable for +helping the Royalists and harassing the enemy. If he deems success doubtful, +he is to await reinforcements. The aim is to help the cause of Louis XVII +and lead to a general pacification.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_414_414" id="Footnote_414_414"></a><a href="#FNanchor_414_414"><span class="label">[414]</span></a> "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 96–8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_415_415" id="Footnote_415_415"></a><a href="#FNanchor_415_415"><span class="label">[415]</span></a> Chevening MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_416_416" id="Footnote_416_416"></a><a href="#FNanchor_416_416"><span class="label">[416]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_417_417" id="Footnote_417_417"></a><a href="#FNanchor_417_417"><span class="label">[417]</span></a> "Cornwallis Corresp.," ii, 289.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_418_418" id="Footnote_418_418"></a><a href="#FNanchor_418_418"><span class="label">[418]</span></a> "Life of Wilberforce," ii, 92.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_419_419" id="Footnote_419_419"></a><a href="#FNanchor_419_419"><span class="label">[419]</span></a> Sorel, v, 41; "Wickham Corresp.," i, 269–74, 343. Some mis-statements +of Sorel may be noted here. On pp. 39, 40 of vol. v he states that Pitt was +intent on acquiring Malta and Egypt (though he was then in doubt whether +to retain Corsica): also that, after the insult to George III in London on +29th October 1795, Pitt proposed a loan of £18,000,000 and new taxes, which +Parliament refused. The facts are that Pitt asked for that loan on 7th December +1796, and it was subscribed in twenty-two hours. On the same day +Parliament voted the new taxes.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_420_420" id="Footnote_420_420"></a><a href="#FNanchor_420_420"><span class="label">[420]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 27808.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_421_421" id="Footnote_421_421"></a><a href="#FNanchor_421_421"><span class="label">[421]</span></a> "H. O.," Geo. III (Domestic), 36.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_422_422" id="Footnote_422_422"></a><a href="#FNanchor_422_422"><span class="label">[422]</span></a> "H. O.," (Departmental), Secs. of State.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_423_423" id="Footnote_423_423"></a><a href="#FNanchor_423_423"><span class="label">[423]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 27808; "Hist. of the Two Acts," 330 <span lang="la">et seq.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_424_424" id="Footnote_424_424"></a><a href="#FNanchor_424_424"><span class="label">[424]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 190; "W. O.," 113.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_425_425" id="Footnote_425_425"></a><a href="#FNanchor_425_425"><span class="label">[425]</span></a> "H. O.," Geo. III (Domestic), 36.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_426_426" id="Footnote_426_426"></a><a href="#FNanchor_426_426"><span class="label">[426]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxxii, 235–42, 687–700, 1156; Tooke, "Hist. of Prices," i, +185 <span lang="la">et seq.</span>; Porter, "Progress of the Nation," 147, 452.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_427_427" id="Footnote_427_427"></a><a href="#FNanchor_427_427"><span class="label">[427]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," iii, 87, 243, 526–30; "Report of the American Hist. +Assoc." (1903), ii, 67–9, 354, 375, 440 <span lang="la">et seq.</span>, 552–8; E. Channing, "United +States," 148–50; Cunningham, 512, 694.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_428_428" id="Footnote_428_428"></a><a href="#FNanchor_428_428"><span class="label">[428]</span></a> "Mems. of Sir John Sinclair," i, ch. iv; ii, ch. i.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_429_429" id="Footnote_429_429"></a><a href="#FNanchor_429_429"><span class="label">[429]</span></a> "Mems. of Sir John Sinclair," ii, 60–4, 104; Sinclair, "Address ... on +the Cultivation of Waste Lands (1795)"; "Observations on ... a Bill for +facilitating the Division of Commons." He first urged this on Pitt on 10th +January 1795 (Pitt MSS., 175).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_430_430" id="Footnote_430_430"></a><a href="#FNanchor_430_430"><span class="label">[430]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 178.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_431_431" id="Footnote_431_431"></a><a href="#FNanchor_431_431"><span class="label">[431]</span></a> "Corresp. of Sir John Sinclair," i, 124.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_432_432" id="Footnote_432_432"></a><a href="#FNanchor_432_432"><span class="label">[432]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 193. Sinclair raised two corps of Fencibles. The list of his +works, pamphlets, etc., fills thirty-two pages at the end of his Memoirs.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_433_433" id="Footnote_433_433"></a><a href="#FNanchor_433_433"><span class="label">[433]</span></a> "Mems. of Sir John Sinclair," ii, 106–9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_434_434" id="Footnote_434_434"></a><a href="#FNanchor_434_434"><span class="label">[434]</span></a> "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_435_435" id="Footnote_435_435"></a><a href="#FNanchor_435_435"><span class="label">[435]</span></a> "Lord Colchester's Diary," i, 82.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_436_436" id="Footnote_436_436"></a><a href="#FNanchor_436_436"><span class="label">[436]</span></a> "Mems. of Lady Hester Stanhope," i, 177–81. Tomline asserted that a +lady of the highest rank desired to marry Pitt. Various conjectures have +been made on this topic. Lord Rosebery suggests that the Duchess of +Gordon was hinted at.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_437_437" id="Footnote_437_437"></a><a href="#FNanchor_437_437"><span class="label">[437]</span></a> "Auckland Journals," iii, 356, 363, 369, 373–4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_438_438" id="Footnote_438_438"></a><a href="#FNanchor_438_438"><span class="label">[438]</span></a> Wordsworth, "Prelude," bk. xiv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_439_439" id="Footnote_439_439"></a><a href="#FNanchor_439_439"><span class="label">[439]</span></a> Pretyman MSS. Quoted in full, with Pitt's second letter and one of +Auckland, by Lord Ashbourne ("Pitt," 241–4).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_440_440" id="Footnote_440_440"></a><a href="#FNanchor_440_440"><span class="label">[440]</span></a> Pellew, i, 183.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_441_441" id="Footnote_441_441"></a><a href="#FNanchor_441_441"><span class="label">[441]</span></a> Ashbourne, 162, 179; G. Rose, "Diaries," i, 410, 429.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_442_442" id="Footnote_442_442"></a><a href="#FNanchor_442_442"><span class="label">[442]</span></a> "Auckland Journals," iii, 359. George III, who disliked Auckland, +ordered the appointment of Chatham.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_443_443" id="Footnote_443_443"></a><a href="#FNanchor_443_443"><span class="label">[443]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, iii, 387.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_444_444" id="Footnote_444_444"></a><a href="#FNanchor_444_444"><span class="label">[444]</span></a> See Appendix for the sums borrowed, expended on the army and navy, +and raised by the Permanent Taxes in 1792–1801.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_445_445" id="Footnote_445_445"></a><a href="#FNanchor_445_445"><span class="label">[445]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxxii, 1297–1347; Pitt MSS., 102. Pitt to Boyd, 4th +January 1796.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_446_446" id="Footnote_446_446"></a><a href="#FNanchor_446_446"><span class="label">[446]</span></a> "Mems. of Sir John Sinclair," ii, 276.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_447_447" id="Footnote_447_447"></a><a href="#FNanchor_447_447"><span class="label">[447]</span></a> W. Newmarch, "Loans raised by Pitt (1793–1801)," pp. 16, 25–33.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_448_448" id="Footnote_448_448"></a><a href="#FNanchor_448_448"><span class="label">[448]</span></a> On 2nd December 1796, Thomas Coutts, Pitt's banker, wrote to him: +"Mr. Dent, Mr. Hoare, Mr. Snow, Mr. Gosling, Mr. Drummond, and myself +met today, and have each subscribed £50,000.... I shall leave town +tomorrow, having staid solely to do any service in my power in forwarding +this business, which I sincerely wish and hope may be the means of procuring +peace on fair and honourable terms. P.S.—We have subscribed £10,000 +in your name, and shall take care to make the payments" (Pitt MSS., 126). +Mr. Abbot ("Lord Colchester's Diary," 76) states that fear of a compulsory +contribution helped on the Loyalty Loan.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_449_449" id="Footnote_449_449"></a><a href="#FNanchor_449_449"><span class="label">[449]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 272.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_450_450" id="Footnote_450_450"></a><a href="#FNanchor_450_450"><span class="label">[450]</span></a> Ann. Reg. (1797), 130–42.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_451_451" id="Footnote_451_451"></a><a href="#FNanchor_451_451"><span class="label">[451]</span></a> Sir J. Sinclair, "Hist. of the Public Revenue," ii, 143.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_452_452" id="Footnote_452_452"></a><a href="#FNanchor_452_452"><span class="label">[452]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 272; "Parl. Hist.," xxxii, 1517; Gilbart, "History ... of +Banking" (ed. by E. Sykes), i, 46. On 25th February 1797 Pitt wrote a memorandum +(Pitt MSS., 102), stating that the crisis was due to the too great circulation +of paper notes by banks having limited resources. Their stoppage +affected larger Houses and paralysed trade. He had wanted to meet the +City men, who met on the 22nd to discuss the situation, but failed to agree on +any remedy. Finally they agreed to meet at the Mansion House to discuss +the issue of Exchequer Bills. Coutts, on 19th March 1797, informed Pitt +that gambling in the Prince of Wales' Debentures, which exceeded £432,000, +ruined the market for ordinary securities (Pitt MSS., 126). Sinclair had +vainly urged Pitt to compel bankers to find and exhibit securities for the +paper notes which they issued ("Corresp. of Sir J. Sinclair," i, 87).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_453_453" id="Footnote_453_453"></a><a href="#FNanchor_453_453"><span class="label">[453]</span></a> H. F. B. Wheeler and A. M. Broadley, "Napoleon and the Invasion of +England," ch. ii, have proved this.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_454_454" id="Footnote_454_454"></a><a href="#FNanchor_454_454"><span class="label">[454]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxxiii, 473–516; "Hist. of the Mutiny at Spithead and the +Nore" (Lond. 1842), 61–2; "Dropmore P.," iii, 323.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_455_455" id="Footnote_455_455"></a><a href="#FNanchor_455_455"><span class="label">[455]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 102. Lord Mornington deemed the surrender to the seamen +destructive of all discipline in the future ("Buckingham P.," i, 373).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_456_456" id="Footnote_456_456"></a><a href="#FNanchor_456_456"><span class="label">[456]</span></a> Holland, i, 84–91.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_457_457" id="Footnote_457_457"></a><a href="#FNanchor_457_457"><span class="label">[457]</span></a> "H. O.," Geo. III (Domestic), 137.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_458_458" id="Footnote_458_458"></a><a href="#FNanchor_458_458"><span class="label">[458]</span></a> "Report of the Comm. of Secrecy" (1799), 23; App., v, vi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_459_459" id="Footnote_459_459"></a><a href="#FNanchor_459_459"><span class="label">[459]</span></a> From Mr. Broadley's MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_460_460" id="Footnote_460_460"></a><a href="#FNanchor_460_460"><span class="label">[460]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 189. See, too, "Life of Wilberforce," ii, 217; Windham +("Diary," 363) saw Williams on and after 13th May.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_461_461" id="Footnote_461_461"></a><a href="#FNanchor_461_461"><span class="label">[461]</span></a> J. Corbett, "England in the Seven Years' War," i, 191.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_462_462" id="Footnote_462_462"></a><a href="#FNanchor_462_462"><span class="label">[462]</span></a> "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 259–368; "Dropmore P.," iii, 239–42, 256, +287, 290.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_463_463" id="Footnote_463_463"></a><a href="#FNanchor_463_463"><span class="label">[463]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 102. See Stanhope, iii, App., for the letters of the King and +Pitt; "Dropmore P.," iii, 310 <span lang="la">et seq.</span>; also C. Ballot, "Les Négociations de +Lille," for an excellent account of these overtures and the European situation.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_464_464" id="Footnote_464_464"></a><a href="#FNanchor_464_464"><span class="label">[464]</span></a> See Pitt's letter of 16th June to the King and new letters of Grenville in +"Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies"; "Windham's Diary," 368; C. Ballot, <span lang="la">op. +cit.</span>, ch. v and App.; Luckwaldt (<span lang="la">vice</span> Huffer) "Quellen," pt ii, 153, 161, 176, 183.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_465_465" id="Footnote_465_465"></a><a href="#FNanchor_465_465"><span class="label">[465]</span></a> On 1st August 1797 Wilberforce wrote to Pitt a letter (the last part of +which is quoted in Chapter XX of my former volume) urging him, even if +the negotiation failed, to declare on what terms he would resume it. In +Mr. Broadley's library is a letter of Lord Shelburne to Vergennes, dated +13th November 1782, which makes it clear that Pitt in 1782–3 was wholly +against the surrender or the exchange of Gibraltar.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_466_466" id="Footnote_466_466"></a><a href="#FNanchor_466_466"><span class="label">[466]</span></a> Ballot, <span lang="la">op. cit.</span>, 302, who corrects Thiers, Sorel, and Sciout on several +points.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_467_467" id="Footnote_467_467"></a><a href="#FNanchor_467_467"><span class="label">[467]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," iii, 377, 380–2; "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 590.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_468_468" id="Footnote_468_468"></a><a href="#FNanchor_468_468"><span class="label">[468]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxxiii, 1076; "The Early Married Life of Lady Stanley," +149.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_469_469" id="Footnote_469_469"></a><a href="#FNanchor_469_469"><span class="label">[469]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 193. Mr. Abbott, afterwards Lord Colchester, differed from +his patron, the Duke of Leeds, on this question. See "Lord Colchester's +Diaries," i, 124–31.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_470_470" id="Footnote_470_470"></a><a href="#FNanchor_470_470"><span class="label">[470]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 34454.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_471_471" id="Footnote_471_471"></a><a href="#FNanchor_471_471"><span class="label">[471]</span></a> "Parl. Hist.," xxxiii, 1434–54, 1481; "Mems. of Sir John Sinclair," i, +310, 311.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_472_472" id="Footnote_472_472"></a><a href="#FNanchor_472_472"><span class="label">[472]</span></a> Addington's description (Pellew, "Sidmouth," i, 206) fixes the spot. Mr. +A. Hawkes, in an article in the "Wimbledon Annual" for 1904, places it in +front of the house called "Scio," but it must be the deeper hollow towards +Kingston Vale. Caricatures of the time wrongly place the duel on the high +ground near the windmill. A wag chalked on Abershaw's gibbet a figure of +the two duellers, Tierney saying: "As well fire at the devil's darning-needle."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_473_473" id="Footnote_473_473"></a><a href="#FNanchor_473_473"><span class="label">[473]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.; "Dropmore P.," iv, 222.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_474_474" id="Footnote_474_474"></a><a href="#FNanchor_474_474"><span class="label">[474]</span></a> The hero is probably Robert Adair, the Whig "envoy" to St. Petersburg +in 1791,</p> + + +<p class="poem"> +<span class="i4">"the youth whose daring soul<br /></span> +With <em>half a mission</em> sought the frozen pole."<br /> +</p> + + +<p>Pitt's authorship of the lines quoted above is denied by Mr. Lloyd Sanders +in his Introduction to the "Anti-Jacobin" (Methuen, 1904); but his arguments +are not conclusive. Lines 370–80 of "New Morality" are also said to +be by Pitt.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_475_475" id="Footnote_475_475"></a><a href="#FNanchor_475_475"><span class="label">[475]</span></a> In "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies" I shall describe Pitt's work in +the national defence. See an excellent account of the popular literature of +the time in "Napoleon and the Invasion of England," by H. F. B. Wheeler +and A. M. Broadley, i, ch. vii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_476_476" id="Footnote_476_476"></a><a href="#FNanchor_476_476"><span class="label">[476]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 108. See "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies," for a fuller +investigation of the Fitzwilliam affair in the light of new evidence.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_477_477" id="Footnote_477_477"></a><a href="#FNanchor_477_477"><span class="label">[477]</span></a> Lecky, vii, 41–4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_478_478" id="Footnote_478_478"></a><a href="#FNanchor_478_478"><span class="label">[478]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," iii, 35–8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_479_479" id="Footnote_479_479"></a><a href="#FNanchor_479_479"><span class="label">[479]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 331.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_480_480" id="Footnote_480_480"></a><a href="#FNanchor_480_480"><span class="label">[480]</span></a> Quoted by Froude, "The English in Ireland," iii, 158–61.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_481_481" id="Footnote_481_481"></a><a href="#FNanchor_481_481"><span class="label">[481]</span></a> "Autobiography of Wolfe Tone," ii, chs. iv-vi; Guillon, "La France et +l'Irlande."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_482_482" id="Footnote_482_482"></a><a href="#FNanchor_482_482"><span class="label">[482]</span></a> "Mems. of Ld. E. Fitzgerald," ch. xx.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_483_483" id="Footnote_483_483"></a><a href="#FNanchor_483_483"><span class="label">[483]</span></a> Tone, "Autob.," ii, 99.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_484_484" id="Footnote_484_484"></a><a href="#FNanchor_484_484"><span class="label">[484]</span></a> "Report of the Comm. of Secrecy" (1799), 22, 25; W. J. Fitzpatrick, +"Secret Service under Pitt," ch. x; C. L. Falkiner, "Studies in Irish +History," ch. iv; "Castlereagh Corresp.," i, 270–88.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_485_485" id="Footnote_485_485"></a><a href="#FNanchor_485_485"><span class="label">[485]</span></a> "Lord Colchester's Diary," i, 103.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_486_486" id="Footnote_486_486"></a><a href="#FNanchor_486_486"><span class="label">[486]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 34454.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_487_487" id="Footnote_487_487"></a><a href="#FNanchor_487_487"><span class="label">[487]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 326. Quoted with other extracts from Camden's letters, in +"Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_488_488" id="Footnote_488_488"></a><a href="#FNanchor_488_488"><span class="label">[488]</span></a> Tone, "Autob.," ii, 272.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_489_489" id="Footnote_489_489"></a><a href="#FNanchor_489_489"><span class="label">[489]</span></a> "Castlereagh Corresp.," i, 165–8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_490_490" id="Footnote_490_490"></a><a href="#FNanchor_490_490"><span class="label">[490]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 27808; "Report of the Comm. of Secrecy" (1799), +App. x; "Nap. Corresp.," iii, 486–92. For Place see <span lang="la">ante</span>, ch. vii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_491_491" id="Footnote_491_491"></a><a href="#FNanchor_491_491"><span class="label">[491]</span></a> W. J. Fitzpatrick, "Secret Service under Pitt," ch. iii; "Report of the +Comm. of Secrecy" (1799), App. xxvi. For Despard, the plotter of 1802, +see "Castlereagh Corresp.," i, 306, 326; ii, 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_492_492" id="Footnote_492_492"></a><a href="#FNanchor_492_492"><span class="label">[492]</span></a> "Auckland Journals," iv, 52. I have published the statements of O'Connor, +etc., and the news sent by a British agent at Hamburg, in the "Eng. Hist. +Rev." for October 1910.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_493_493" id="Footnote_493_493"></a><a href="#FNanchor_493_493"><span class="label">[493]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 324; B.M. Add. MSS., 27808; "Dropmore P.," iv, 167. +On 24th May 1798 Thelwall wrote to Thos. Hardy from Llyswen, near +Brecknock, describing his rustic retreat, and requesting a new pair of +farmer's boots for "Stella." He hopes that O'Connor has returned in +triumph to his friends. Tierney's vote in favour of suspending the Habeas +Corpus Act does not surprise him, for he is vulgar and a sycophant. Hardy +is too angry with Sheridan, whose chief offence is in going at all to the +House of Commons. Sheridan surely does well in encouraging the people +to resist an invasion. "I remain steady to my point—'no nation can be +free but by its own efforts.' As for the French Directory and its faction, +nothing appears to me to be further from their design than to leave one +atom of liberty either to their own or to any nation. If, however, Mr. +Sheridan supposes that all his talents can produce even a temporary +unanimity while the present crew are in power, even for repelling the +most inveterate enemy, he will find himself miserably mistaken. No such +unanimity ever can exist: I am convinced, nay, the Ministers themselves +seem determined, that it <em>shall</em> not. The only way to produce the unanimity +desired is to stand aloof, and let these ruffians go blundering on till our +most blessed and gracious sovereign shall see that either Pitt and Co. must +bow down to the will of the people or his British crown bow down to five +French shillings.... But what have we to do with Directories or politics? +Peaceful shades of Llyswen! shelter me beneath your luxuriant foliage: +lull me to forgetfulness, ye murmuring waters of the Wye. Let me be part +farmer and fisherman. But no more politics—no more politics in this bad +world!" (From Mr. A. M. Broadley's MSS.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_494_494" id="Footnote_494_494"></a><a href="#FNanchor_494_494"><span class="label">[494]</span></a> Pretyman MSS. See, too, "Diary of Sir J. Moore," i, ch. xi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_495_495" id="Footnote_495_495"></a><a href="#FNanchor_495_495"><span class="label">[495]</span></a> "Castlereagh Corresp.," i, 458–67; "Life and Letters of Lady Sarah +Lennox," ii, 299–302; "Mems. of Lord E. Fitzgerald," chs. 27–30.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_496_496" id="Footnote_496_496"></a><a href="#FNanchor_496_496"><span class="label">[496]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 34454.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_497_497" id="Footnote_497_497"></a><a href="#FNanchor_497_497"><span class="label">[497]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," iv, 230, 239.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_498_498" id="Footnote_498_498"></a><a href="#FNanchor_498_498"><span class="label">[498]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 34454. News received through Sir F. d'Ivernois.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_499_499" id="Footnote_499_499"></a><a href="#FNanchor_499_499"><span class="label">[499]</span></a> Pretyman MSS. The King also stated that Pitt had "saved Ireland" +by persuading Pelham to return and act as Chief Secretary. Pelham was a +clever man, but often disabled by ill health.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_500_500" id="Footnote_500_500"></a><a href="#FNanchor_500_500"><span class="label">[500]</span></a> J. Alexander, "... Rebellion in Wexford" (Dublin, 1800).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_501_501" id="Footnote_501_501"></a><a href="#FNanchor_501_501"><span class="label">[501]</span></a> "Cornwallis Corresp.," ii, 395–404. For the panic in Dublin see "Dropmore +P.," iv, 289 <span lang="la">et seq.</span> Cooke wrote to Castlereagh on 28th September +that the Bishop of Killala and his family were saved from slaughter by a +few French officers, "who execrate our savages more than they whom they +have plundered." He adds that though the United Irishmen began the +plot the Catholics are turning it solely to their own interests (Pitt MSS., +327). See, too, H. F. B. Wheeler and A. M. Broadley, "The War in +Wexford" (1910).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_502_502" id="Footnote_502_502"></a><a href="#FNanchor_502_502"><span class="label">[502]</span></a> "F. O.," Austria, 51; "Dropmore P.," iv, 170. The French took nearly +33,000,000 francs from the Swiss cantonal treasuries.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_503_503" id="Footnote_503_503"></a><a href="#FNanchor_503_503"><span class="label">[503]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 108.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_504_504" id="Footnote_504_504"></a><a href="#FNanchor_504_504"><span class="label">[504]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," iv, 166, 172; "F. O.," Austria, 51. Grenville to Eden, +20th April.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_505_505" id="Footnote_505_505"></a><a href="#FNanchor_505_505"><span class="label">[505]</span></a> The Earl of Crawford's MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_506_506" id="Footnote_506_506"></a><a href="#FNanchor_506_506"><span class="label">[506]</span></a> "F. O.," Russia, 40. Whitworth to Grenville, 6th August 1798.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_507_507" id="Footnote_507_507"></a><a href="#FNanchor_507_507"><span class="label">[507]</span></a> See my Introduction to "The History of Malta, 1798–1815," by the late +W. Hardman.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_508_508" id="Footnote_508_508"></a><a href="#FNanchor_508_508"><span class="label">[508]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," iv, 344, 355.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_509_509" id="Footnote_509_509"></a><a href="#FNanchor_509_509"><span class="label">[509]</span></a> See Rose, "Napoleonic Studies," 54–8, for this despatch of 16th November +1798.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_510_510" id="Footnote_510_510"></a><a href="#FNanchor_510_510"><span class="label">[510]</span></a> For a fuller account see "Camb. Mod. Hist.," viii, ch. xxi, by the present +writer.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_511_511" id="Footnote_511_511"></a><a href="#FNanchor_511_511"><span class="label">[511]</span></a> "F. O.," Russia, 42. Despatches of 2nd, 8th and 25th January 1799.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_512_512" id="Footnote_512_512"></a><a href="#FNanchor_512_512"><span class="label">[512]</span></a> Huffer, "Quellen," i, 23–9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_513_513" id="Footnote_513_513"></a><a href="#FNanchor_513_513"><span class="label">[513]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," iv, 297, 338, 505; "F. O.," Russia, 42.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_514_514" id="Footnote_514_514"></a><a href="#FNanchor_514_514"><span class="label">[514]</span></a> "F. O.," Russia, 42. Whitworth to Grenville, 29th March.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_515_515" id="Footnote_515_515"></a><a href="#FNanchor_515_515"><span class="label">[515]</span></a> "F. O.," Russia, 43. Grenville to Whitworth, 23rd June.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_516_516" id="Footnote_516_516"></a><a href="#FNanchor_516_516"><span class="label">[516]</span></a> G. Caudrillier, "L'Association royaliste ... et la Conspiration anglaise +en France" (Paris, 1908); Wickham, "Corresp.," ii, <span lang="la">passim</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_517_517" id="Footnote_517_517"></a><a href="#FNanchor_517_517"><span class="label">[517]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 37844.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_518_518" id="Footnote_518_518"></a><a href="#FNanchor_518_518"><span class="label">[518]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," v, 400. I propose to examine this campaign in "Pitt +and Napoleon Miscellanies."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_519_519" id="Footnote_519_519"></a><a href="#FNanchor_519_519"><span class="label">[519]</span></a> "F. O.," Russia, 43. Whitworth to Grenville, 23rd June 1799; "Dropmore +P.," v, 133, 259; Windham, "Diary," 411. On 22nd July Windham +urged Pitt to send a force to help the Bretons rather than to Holland. "If +we succeed in France, Holland falls of course, but not <span lang="la">vice versa</span>" (Pitt +MSS., 190).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_520_520" id="Footnote_520_520"></a><a href="#FNanchor_520_520"><span class="label">[520]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_521_521" id="Footnote_521_521"></a><a href="#FNanchor_521_521"><span class="label">[521]</span></a> That of Bruix, which after entering the Mediterranean, returned to +Brest on 13th August along with the Spanish fleet.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_522_522" id="Footnote_522_522"></a><a href="#FNanchor_522_522"><span class="label">[522]</span></a> The Earl of Crawford's MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_523_523" id="Footnote_523_523"></a><a href="#FNanchor_523_523"><span class="label">[523]</span></a> Fortescue, iv, 662, 673–6; Bunbury, "Narrative of the War (1799–1810)," +50. Hermann wrote to the Emperor blaming the British for not supporting +his advance ("Dropmore P.," v, 425); but on 10th October Paul dismissed +him from the Russian service ("F. O.," Russia, 44).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_524_524" id="Footnote_524_524"></a><a href="#FNanchor_524_524"><span class="label">[524]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," v, 446.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_525_525" id="Footnote_525_525"></a><a href="#FNanchor_525_525"><span class="label">[525]</span></a> See Rose, "Napoleon I," 240–2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_526_526" id="Footnote_526_526"></a><a href="#FNanchor_526_526"><span class="label">[526]</span></a> Cicero, Seventh Philippic, ch. iii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_527_527" id="Footnote_527_527"></a><a href="#FNanchor_527_527"><span class="label">[527]</span></a> The father of the present Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. See +his work, "Ten Great and Good Men," 49.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_528_528" id="Footnote_528_528"></a><a href="#FNanchor_528_528"><span class="label">[528]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_529_529" id="Footnote_529_529"></a><a href="#FNanchor_529_529"><span class="label">[529]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_530_530" id="Footnote_530_530"></a><a href="#FNanchor_530_530"><span class="label">[530]</span></a> Salomon, "Pitt," 599. See, too, the similar letter of Richmond to his +sister, Lady Conolly, in June 1795 (Lecky, vii, 134).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_531_531" id="Footnote_531_531"></a><a href="#FNanchor_531_531"><span class="label">[531]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 328.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_532_532" id="Footnote_532_532"></a><a href="#FNanchor_532_532"><span class="label">[532]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, 169.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_533_533" id="Footnote_533_533"></a><a href="#FNanchor_533_533"><span class="label">[533]</span></a> Porritt, ii, ch. iii; Seeley, "Stein," i, 267–82.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_534_534" id="Footnote_534_534"></a><a href="#FNanchor_534_534"><span class="label">[534]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 326. For the text in full see "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_535_535" id="Footnote_535_535"></a><a href="#FNanchor_535_535"><span class="label">[535]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 34454.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_536_536" id="Footnote_536_536"></a><a href="#FNanchor_536_536"><span class="label">[536]</span></a> See my article in the "Eng. Hist. Rev." for October 1910.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_537_537" id="Footnote_537_537"></a><a href="#FNanchor_537_537"><span class="label">[537]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 34454.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_538_538" id="Footnote_538_538"></a><a href="#FNanchor_538_538"><span class="label">[538]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 34455.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_539_539" id="Footnote_539_539"></a><a href="#FNanchor_539_539"><span class="label">[539]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>; "Cornwallis Corresp.," iii, 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_540_540" id="Footnote_540_540"></a><a href="#FNanchor_540_540"><span class="label">[540]</span></a> Lecky, viii, 328 note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_541_541" id="Footnote_541_541"></a><a href="#FNanchor_541_541"><span class="label">[541]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," iv, 344; "Castlereagh Corresp.," i, 393.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_542_542" id="Footnote_542_542"></a><a href="#FNanchor_542_542"><span class="label">[542]</span></a> "Castlereagh Corresp.," i, 424 <span lang="la">et seq.</span>; "Cornwallis Corresp.," ii, 439–441; +Brougham, "Statesmen of George III"; Lecky, viii, 311; Wilberforce +("Life," iii, 178) calls Castlereagh "a cold-blooded creature."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_543_543" id="Footnote_543_543"></a><a href="#FNanchor_543_543"><span class="label">[543]</span></a> "Castlereagh Corresp.," ii, 29; "Buckingham P.," ii, 411, 412.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_544_544" id="Footnote_544_544"></a><a href="#FNanchor_544_544"><span class="label">[544]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 325; "Cornwallis Corresp.," ii, 441–3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_545_545" id="Footnote_545_545"></a><a href="#FNanchor_545_545"><span class="label">[545]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_546_546" id="Footnote_546_546"></a><a href="#FNanchor_546_546"><span class="label">[546]</span></a> Pretyman MSS. "Cornwallis Corresp.," iii, 3; Macdonagh, "The Viceroy's +Post Bag," 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_547_547" id="Footnote_547_547"></a><a href="#FNanchor_547_547"><span class="label">[547]</span></a> "Beresford Corresp.," ii, 189; "Cornwallis Corresp.," ii, 436; "Castlereagh +Corresp.," i, 404.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_548_548" id="Footnote_548_548"></a><a href="#FNanchor_548_548"><span class="label">[548]</span></a> For the plan and notes, see "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_549_549" id="Footnote_549_549"></a><a href="#FNanchor_549_549"><span class="label">[549]</span></a> "Cornwallis Corresp.," ii, 456, 457.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_550_550" id="Footnote_550_550"></a><a href="#FNanchor_550_550"><span class="label">[550]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 34455. William C. Plunket (1764–1854), born in co. +Fermanagh, was called to the Irish Bar in 1787, and entered Parliament in +1798. He speedily made his mark, and in 1803 was State Prosecutor of +Emmett. In Pitt's second Administration (1804) he was Solicitor-General: +he was created Baron Plunket in 1827 and was Lord Chancellor of Ireland +in 1830–41. William Saurin sat in the Irish Parliament as a nominee of +Lord Downshire ("Cornwallis Corresp.," iii, 212).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_551_551" id="Footnote_551_551"></a><a href="#FNanchor_551_551"><span class="label">[551]</span></a> "Strictures on a Pamphlet, etc.," 5 (Dublin, 1798).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_552_552" id="Footnote_552_552"></a><a href="#FNanchor_552_552"><span class="label">[552]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 34455. The term "Contractor" used above is equivalent +to "Undertaker," <span lang="la">i.e.</span>, one who undertook to get business through the Irish +Parliament for certain rewards (Lecky, iv, 353).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_553_553" id="Footnote_553_553"></a><a href="#FNanchor_553_553"><span class="label">[553]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_554_554" id="Footnote_554_554"></a><a href="#FNanchor_554_554"><span class="label">[554]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.; also in Pitt MSS., 327.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_555_555" id="Footnote_555_555"></a><a href="#FNanchor_555_555"><span class="label">[555]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_556_556" id="Footnote_556_556"></a><a href="#FNanchor_556_556"><span class="label">[556]</span></a> "Mems. of Fox," iii, 150; "Grattan Mems.," iv, 435.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_557_557" id="Footnote_557_557"></a><a href="#FNanchor_557_557"><span class="label">[557]</span></a> Virgil, "Aen.," xii, 189–91. "As for me, I will neither bid the Italians +obey the Trojans, nor do I seek a new sovereignty. Let both peoples, unsubdued, +submit to an eternal compact with equal laws." The correct +reading is "Nec mihi regna peto," which Pitt altered to "nova."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_558_558" id="Footnote_558_558"></a><a href="#FNanchor_558_558"><span class="label">[558]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 196, 320.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_559_559" id="Footnote_559_559"></a><a href="#FNanchor_559_559"><span class="label">[559]</span></a> Pretyman MSS. See "Cornwallis Corresp.," iii, 125, 210, for Unionist +sentiment in Cork.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_560_560" id="Footnote_560_560"></a><a href="#FNanchor_560_560"><span class="label">[560]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 189.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_561_561" id="Footnote_561_561"></a><a href="#FNanchor_561_561"><span class="label">[561]</span></a> "Cornwallis Corresp.," iii, 52, 54; Hunt, "Pol. Hist. of England," x, +447.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_562_562" id="Footnote_562_562"></a><a href="#FNanchor_562_562"><span class="label">[562]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 35455.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_563_563" id="Footnote_563_563"></a><a href="#FNanchor_563_563"><span class="label">[563]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 35455.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_564_564" id="Footnote_564_564"></a><a href="#FNanchor_564_564"><span class="label">[564]</span></a> "Life of Wilberforce," ii, 227.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_565_565" id="Footnote_565_565"></a><a href="#FNanchor_565_565"><span class="label">[565]</span></a> These were boroughs in which all holders of tenements where a pot could +be boiled had votes. See Porritt, ii, 186, 350.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_566_566" id="Footnote_566_566"></a><a href="#FNanchor_566_566"><span class="label">[566]</span></a> "Castlereagh Corresp.," iv, 8–10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_567_567" id="Footnote_567_567"></a><a href="#FNanchor_567_567"><span class="label">[567]</span></a> "Cornwallis Corresp.," iii, 101, 102, 226; "Castlereagh Corresp.," iii, +260; Plowden (ii, 550), without proof, denies the existence of Downshire's +fund.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_568_568" id="Footnote_568_568"></a><a href="#FNanchor_568_568"><span class="label">[568]</span></a> "Castlereagh Corresp.," iii, 135, 226. On the proposed changes in the +Catechism there is a long <span lang="fr">précis</span> in the Pretyman MSS., being a summary +of the correspondence of Lords Castlereagh and Hobart with Archbishop +Troy and Bishop Moylan.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_569_569" id="Footnote_569_569"></a><a href="#FNanchor_569_569"><span class="label">[569]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 35455; "Dropmore P.," vi, 121.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_570_570" id="Footnote_570_570"></a><a href="#FNanchor_570_570"><span class="label">[570]</span></a> "Castlereagh Corresp.," iii, 263, 278.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_571_571" id="Footnote_571_571"></a><a href="#FNanchor_571_571"><span class="label">[571]</span></a> M. Mac Donagh, "The Viceroy's Post-Bag," 43–53; "Cornwallis +Corresp.," iii, 245, 251–6, 267, 318–21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_572_572" id="Footnote_572_572"></a><a href="#FNanchor_572_572"><span class="label">[572]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," iv, 337.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_573_573" id="Footnote_573_573"></a><a href="#FNanchor_573_573"><span class="label">[573]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," v, 82; "Malmesbury Diaries," ii, 507. Sir John Macpherson +called Loughborough by far the cleverest man in the country +("Glenbervie Journals," 54).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_574_574" id="Footnote_574_574"></a><a href="#FNanchor_574_574"><span class="label">[574]</span></a> Campbell, viii, 172; G. Rose, "Diaries," i, 300.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_575_575" id="Footnote_575_575"></a><a href="#FNanchor_575_575"><span class="label">[575]</span></a> "Malmesbury Diaries," iv, 21; "Auckland Journals," iv, 114–25.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_576_576" id="Footnote_576_576"></a><a href="#FNanchor_576_576"><span class="label">[576]</span></a> "Castlereagh Corresp.," iv 8–12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_577_577" id="Footnote_577_577"></a><a href="#FNanchor_577_577"><span class="label">[577]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, iii, 418; iv, 13, 17–20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_578_578" id="Footnote_578_578"></a><a href="#FNanchor_578_578"><span class="label">[578]</span></a> Pellew, i, <span lang="la">ad fin.</span> The original is in "H. O.," Ireland (Corresp.), 99, +together with nine others for or against Catholic Emancipation, some with +notes by Castlereagh.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_579_579" id="Footnote_579_579"></a><a href="#FNanchor_579_579"><span class="label">[579]</span></a> The first Imperial Parliament met on 22nd January; but time was taken +up in swearing in members and choosing a Speaker. Addington was chosen. +The King's Speech was fixed for 2nd February.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_580_580" id="Footnote_580_580"></a><a href="#FNanchor_580_580"><span class="label">[580]</span></a> "Castlereagh Corresp.," iv, 17–20; G. Rose, "Diaries," i, 303.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_581_581" id="Footnote_581_581"></a><a href="#FNanchor_581_581"><span class="label">[581]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, iv, 81.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_582_582" id="Footnote_582_582"></a><a href="#FNanchor_582_582"><span class="label">[582]</span></a> G. Rose, "Diaries," i, 309; Pellew, i, 287. Addington afterwards destroyed +those letters of the King to him which he considered unsuitable +for publication.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_583_583" id="Footnote_583_583"></a><a href="#FNanchor_583_583"><span class="label">[583]</span></a> Grenville agreed with Pitt's letter to the King, but doubted the possibility +of precluding discussion on the question, as it was already in the +papers. He assured Pitt that he would act closely with him (Grenville to +Pitt, 1st February 1801; Pretyman MSS.). Pitt afterwards declared that his +resignation was largely due to the manner in which the King opposed him.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_584_584" id="Footnote_584_584"></a><a href="#FNanchor_584_584"><span class="label">[584]</span></a> "Lord Colchester's Diaries," i, 224.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_585_585" id="Footnote_585_585"></a><a href="#FNanchor_585_585"><span class="label">[585]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 122.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_586_586" id="Footnote_586_586"></a><a href="#FNanchor_586_586"><span class="label">[586]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_587_587" id="Footnote_587_587"></a><a href="#FNanchor_587_587"><span class="label">[587]</span></a> "Castlereagh Corresp.," iv, 8–12. Both Grenville and Windham declared +in Parliament in May 1805 that hopes were held out to the Irish Catholics, +and that their support of the Union was the result (Hansard, iv, 659, 1022).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_588_588" id="Footnote_588_588"></a><a href="#FNanchor_588_588"><span class="label">[588]</span></a> "H. O.," Ireland (Corresp.), 99.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_589_589" id="Footnote_589_589"></a><a href="#FNanchor_589_589"><span class="label">[589]</span></a> Hansard, iv, 1015.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_590_590" id="Footnote_590_590"></a><a href="#FNanchor_590_590"><span class="label">[590]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_591_591" id="Footnote_591_591"></a><a href="#FNanchor_591_591"><span class="label">[591]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_592_592" id="Footnote_592_592"></a><a href="#FNanchor_592_592"><span class="label">[592]</span></a> In "H. O.," Ireland (Corresp.), 99, are long reports of the Irish Catholic +bishops, dated November 1800, on the state of their dioceses. The bishops' +incomes did not average more than £300 a year. The Archbishops of Dublin +and Tuam reckoned the total number of parish priests and curates at 1,800, +of whom 1,400 were seculars and 400 regulars. The benefices numbered +1,200; each required the services of two priests. The destruction of the +seminaries in France and the poverty of the Irish made it impossible to +supply or support 2,400 clergy. Other papers follow for and against Catholic +Emancipation. See also "Castlereagh Corresp.," iii, <span lang="la">ad fin.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_593_593" id="Footnote_593_593"></a><a href="#FNanchor_593_593"><span class="label">[593]</span></a> "Malmesbury Diaries," iv, 3, 8, 9, 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_594_594" id="Footnote_594_594"></a><a href="#FNanchor_594_594"><span class="label">[594]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," vi, 445. Mulgrave, who knew Pitt well, was convinced +of his sincerity in resigning. His letter of 9th February 1801 (quoted by +R. Plumer Ward, "Memoirs," i, 44) refutes the insinuations of Sorel (vi, 101) +that Pitt resigned because he could not make peace with France.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_595_595" id="Footnote_595_595"></a><a href="#FNanchor_595_595"><span class="label">[595]</span></a> "Castlereagh Corresp.," iii, 285.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_596_596" id="Footnote_596_596"></a><a href="#FNanchor_596_596"><span class="label">[596]</span></a> "Lord Colchester's Diaries," i, 286.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_597_597" id="Footnote_597_597"></a><a href="#FNanchor_597_597"><span class="label">[597]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_598_598" id="Footnote_598_598"></a><a href="#FNanchor_598_598"><span class="label">[598]</span></a> G. Rose, "Diaries," i, 313, 330; "Lord Colchester's Diaries," i, 244.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_599_599" id="Footnote_599_599"></a><a href="#FNanchor_599_599"><span class="label">[599]</span></a> "Malmesbury Diaries," iv, 31, 32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_600_600" id="Footnote_600_600"></a><a href="#FNanchor_600_600"><span class="label">[600]</span></a> G. Rose, "Diaries," i, 360; Stanhope, iii, 304, 305.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_601_601" id="Footnote_601_601"></a><a href="#FNanchor_601_601"><span class="label">[601]</span></a> "Cornwallis Corresp.," iii, 343–9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_602_602" id="Footnote_602_602"></a><a href="#FNanchor_602_602"><span class="label">[602]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, iii, 346; "Lord Colchester's Diaries," i, 243. The writer in the +"Edinburgh Review" for 1858, who censured Pitt, failed to notice the entire +change in the political situation brought about by the King's acute malady.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_603_603" id="Footnote_603_603"></a><a href="#FNanchor_603_603"><span class="label">[603]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_604_604" id="Footnote_604_604"></a><a href="#FNanchor_604_604"><span class="label">[604]</span></a> Bagot, "Canning and his Friends," i, 180.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_605_605" id="Footnote_605_605"></a><a href="#FNanchor_605_605"><span class="label">[605]</span></a> "Castlereagh Corresp.," iv, 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_606_606" id="Footnote_606_606"></a><a href="#FNanchor_606_606"><span class="label">[606]</span></a> Wraxall, iii, 458. For Pitt's earlier friendships see my former volume.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_607_607" id="Footnote_607_607"></a><a href="#FNanchor_607_607"><span class="label">[607]</span></a> "Mems. of Lady Hester Stanhope," iii, 187.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_608_608" id="Footnote_608_608"></a><a href="#FNanchor_608_608"><span class="label">[608]</span></a> From Mr. Broadley's MSS. Hayley's efforts on behalf of Cowper have +been described by Professor E. Dowden, "Essays: Modern and Elizabethan" +(1910). Ultimately a pension of £300 a year was assigned to Cowper: +the authorization, signed by the King and Pitt, and dated 23rd April +1794, is now in the Cowper Museum, Olney, Bucks, so the secretary, Mr. +Thomas Wright (editor of Cowper's Letters), kindly informs me.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_609_609" id="Footnote_609_609"></a><a href="#FNanchor_609_609"><span class="label">[609]</span></a> "Rutland Papers," iii, 229, 241 (Hist. MSS. Comm.). <span class="ins" title="Soo">So</span>, too, Tomline +said that Pitt had no ear for music, and little taste for drawing or painting, +though he was fond of architecture, and once drew from memory the plan +of a mansion in Norfolk, with a view to improving it (Lord Rosebery, "Tomline's +Estimate of Pitt," 34).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_610_610" id="Footnote_610_610"></a><a href="#FNanchor_610_610"><span class="label">[610]</span></a> "Glenbervie Journals," 195.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_611_611" id="Footnote_611_611"></a><a href="#FNanchor_611_611"><span class="label">[611]</span></a> "Malmesbury Diaries," iv, 26; G. Rose, "Diaries," i, 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_612_612" id="Footnote_612_612"></a><a href="#FNanchor_612_612"><span class="label">[612]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 189.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_613_613" id="Footnote_613_613"></a><a href="#FNanchor_613_613"><span class="label">[613]</span></a> "Life of Wilberforce," ii, 270.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_614_614" id="Footnote_614_614"></a><a href="#FNanchor_614_614"><span class="label">[614]</span></a> The estimate of Pitt by Wellesley, summarized above, refutes the ungenerous +remark of Lecky (v, 72) that he took little delight in books and +"was a politician, and nothing more." Lecky was perhaps misled by the +ignorant libel on Pitt in Wraxall, iii, 223.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_615_615" id="Footnote_615_615"></a><a href="#FNanchor_615_615"><span class="label">[615]</span></a> "Diary of D. Scully," quoted by Dr. Hunt, "Transactions of Royal +Hist. Soc." (1908), p. 12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_616_616" id="Footnote_616_616"></a><a href="#FNanchor_616_616"><span class="label">[616]</span></a> Lord Rosebery, "Tomline's Estimate of Pitt," 33.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_617_617" id="Footnote_617_617"></a><a href="#FNanchor_617_617"><span class="label">[617]</span></a> <span lang="la">I.e.</span>, Mantua rejoices in Wurmser, Rovereda in Davidovitch, Verona is +open to Quosdanovitch. "Woe is me," says the greedy Gaul, Bonaparte, +"I shall have to be off through the Alps and go to the dogs."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_618_618" id="Footnote_618_618"></a><a href="#FNanchor_618_618"><span class="label">[618]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 188.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_619_619" id="Footnote_619_619"></a><a href="#FNanchor_619_619"><span class="label">[619]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 188. Hobart married Pitt's early love, Eleanor Eden, and +became Minister at War under Addington. For Mornington's comments on +his factious conduct at Madras, see "Dropmore P.," iv, 384, 476; v, 268; vi, 338.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_620_620" id="Footnote_620_620"></a><a href="#FNanchor_620_620"><span class="label">[620]</span></a> Stanhope, iii, 232; Rosebery, "Pitt," 213–7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_621_621" id="Footnote_621_621"></a><a href="#FNanchor_621_621"><span class="label">[621]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 188.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_622_622" id="Footnote_622_622"></a><a href="#FNanchor_622_622"><span class="label">[622]</span></a> Gabrielle Festing, "J. H. Frere and his Friends," 31.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_623_623" id="Footnote_623_623"></a><a href="#FNanchor_623_623"><span class="label">[623]</span></a> "Malmesbury Diaries," iv, 8; Pellew, i, ch. xi; G. Festing, "Hookham +Frere," 42–4; R. Bell, "Canning," 176; H. W. V. Temperley, "Canning," 62–3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_624_624" id="Footnote_624_624"></a><a href="#FNanchor_624_624"><span class="label">[624]</span></a> Stanhope, iii, 315; Festing, 47–51.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_625_625" id="Footnote_625_625"></a><a href="#FNanchor_625_625"><span class="label">[625]</span></a> May, "Constit. Hist.," i, 232–8; Lecky, v, 27.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_626_626" id="Footnote_626_626"></a><a href="#FNanchor_626_626"><span class="label">[626]</span></a> Wraxall, ii, 286.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_627_627" id="Footnote_627_627"></a><a href="#FNanchor_627_627"><span class="label">[627]</span></a> Stanhope, iii, 352; "Dropmore P.," vii, 49–51. For new letters of Canning +and Grenville, see "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_628_628" id="Footnote_628_628"></a><a href="#FNanchor_628_628"><span class="label">[628]</span></a> See Rose, "Life of Napoleon," i, ch. xiv, for details.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_629_629" id="Footnote_629_629"></a><a href="#FNanchor_629_629"><span class="label">[629]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 37844.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_630_630" id="Footnote_630_630"></a><a href="#FNanchor_630_630"><span class="label">[630]</span></a> "Private Papers of Wilberforce," 110.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_631_631" id="Footnote_631_631"></a><a href="#FNanchor_631_631"><span class="label">[631]</span></a> For the passing misunderstanding of February 1802, see Pellew, ii, 489–92, +with Pitt's letters.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_632_632" id="Footnote_632_632"></a><a href="#FNanchor_632_632"><span class="label">[632]</span></a> B.M. Add. MSS., 37844.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_633_633" id="Footnote_633_633"></a><a href="#FNanchor_633_633"><span class="label">[633]</span></a> Pellew, ii, 75, 76.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_634_634" id="Footnote_634_634"></a><a href="#FNanchor_634_634"><span class="label">[634]</span></a> Pretyman MSS. Bullock paid the servants and supervised the accounts +at Downing Street. Pitt was then staying with Addington near Reading.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_635_635" id="Footnote_635_635"></a><a href="#FNanchor_635_635"><span class="label">[635]</span></a> Omitting shillings, the details for Downing Street and Holwood for +July–December 1799 are respectively: Table, £344, £231; Cellar, £169, +£126; Housekeeping, £531, £156; Private Account, £357, £—; Servants' +Wages, £251, £69; Servants' Board Wages, £329, £80; Servants' Bills, +£353, £15; Liveries, £41, £—; Taxes, etc., £747, £77; Farm, £—, £784; +Farm Labourers, £—, £379; Garden, £—, £125; Stable, £155, £—; Job +Horses, £165, £—; Incidentals, £347, £340. (Pitt MSS., 201.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_636_636" id="Footnote_636_636"></a><a href="#FNanchor_636_636"><span class="label">[636]</span></a> Joseph Smith (no relative of "Bob Smith," Lord Carrington) became +Pitt's private secretary in 1787. His letters, published along with "The +Beaufort Papers" in 1897, throw no light on Pitt's debts.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_637_637" id="Footnote_637_637"></a><a href="#FNanchor_637_637"><span class="label">[637]</span></a> Ashbourne, 162. See, too, ch. xv of this work.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_638_638" id="Footnote_638_638"></a><a href="#FNanchor_638_638"><span class="label">[638]</span></a> G. Rose, "Diaries," i, 429; ii, 215.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_639_639" id="Footnote_639_639"></a><a href="#FNanchor_639_639"><span class="label">[639]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 126. Coutts and five other bankers each subscribed £50,000 +to the "Loyalty Loan" in 1797 and invested £10,000 on behalf of Pitt.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_640_640" id="Footnote_640_640"></a><a href="#FNanchor_640_640"><span class="label">[640]</span></a> Stanhope, iv, 233, 252; Ashbourne, 351–4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_641_641" id="Footnote_641_641"></a><a href="#FNanchor_641_641"><span class="label">[641]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_642_642" id="Footnote_642_642"></a><a href="#FNanchor_642_642"><span class="label">[642]</span></a> "Private Papers of Wilberforce," 34; G. Rose, "Diaries," i, 508.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_643_643" id="Footnote_643_643"></a><a href="#FNanchor_643_643"><span class="label">[643]</span></a> "Letters of Wilberforce," i, 256.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_644_644" id="Footnote_644_644"></a><a href="#FNanchor_644_644"><span class="label">[644]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_645_645" id="Footnote_645_645"></a><a href="#FNanchor_645_645"><span class="label">[645]</span></a> Auckland, while ambassador at The Hague, was suspected of too great +inquisitiveness as to the British despatches which passed through that +place. On 20th July 1790, Aust, of the Foreign Office, wrote to Sir R. M. +Keith at Vienna that Keith's new cipher puzzles "our friends at the Hague," +and that Auckland's curiosity is "insatiable" (B.M. Add. MSS., 35543). +See, too, a note by Miss Rose in G. Rose "Diaries," ii, 75.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_646_646" id="Footnote_646_646"></a><a href="#FNanchor_646_646"><span class="label">[646]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_647_647" id="Footnote_647_647"></a><a href="#FNanchor_647_647"><span class="label">[647]</span></a> Pellew, ii, 113. Lord Holland, writing early in 1803 to his uncle, General +Fox, then at Malta, says that there are three parties in Parliament, besides +many subdivisions, "Grenville and Windham against peace and nearly +avowed enemies of the present Government; the old Opposition; and +Addington [<span lang="la">sic</span>]. Pitt, as you know, supports Addington, but the degree of +intimacy and the nature of his connection with Ministers are riddles to +every one." (From Mr. Broadley's MSS.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_648_648" id="Footnote_648_648"></a><a href="#FNanchor_648_648"><span class="label">[648]</span></a> "Malmesbury Diaries," iv, 168; G. Rose, "Diaries," ii, 6–9; Pellew, ii, 113.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_649_649" id="Footnote_649_649"></a><a href="#FNanchor_649_649"><span class="label">[649]</span></a> Addington desired the retirement of St. Vincent. See "Dropmore P.," +vii, 121; Stanhope, iv, 21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_650_650" id="Footnote_650_650"></a><a href="#FNanchor_650_650"><span class="label">[650]</span></a> Pellew, ii, 114–6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_651_651" id="Footnote_651_651"></a><a href="#FNanchor_651_651"><span class="label">[651]</span></a> "Lord Colchester's Diaries," i, 415; Pellew, ii, 121–4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_652_652" id="Footnote_652_652"></a><a href="#FNanchor_652_652"><span class="label">[652]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_653_653" id="Footnote_653_653"></a><a href="#FNanchor_653_653"><span class="label">[653]</span></a> G. Rose, "Diaries," ii, 156; "Lord Colchester's Diaries," i, 416, 417; +Pellew, ii, 119–28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_654_654" id="Footnote_654_654"></a><a href="#FNanchor_654_654"><span class="label">[654]</span></a> Hawkesbury's remissness (so Vorontzoff told Rose) then lost an opportunity +of gaining the friendly mediation of the Czar (G. Rose, "Diaries," ii, +43, 157). Romilly ("Mems.," i, 427) calls the Ministry a thing of no account +in comparison with Pitt, and says it was universally despised.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_655_655" id="Footnote_655_655"></a><a href="#FNanchor_655_655"><span class="label">[655]</span></a> Romilly Memoirs, i, 427.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_656_656" id="Footnote_656_656"></a><a href="#FNanchor_656_656"><span class="label">[656]</span></a> Sichel, "Sheridan," i, 440. Spencer Stanhope declared Pitt's speech the +finest he ever heard. His wife wrote to their son: "He (Pitt) spoke for two +hours, but unless he can be prevailed upon to give it himself, as the shorthand-writers +were excluded, the speech will be lost for ever. Your father +thinks it will be made out by some of his friends and submitted to his +inspection; therefore, tho' we may lose much, we shall not lose the +whole" (A. M. W. Stirling, "Annals of a Yorkshire House," ii, 282).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_657_657" id="Footnote_657_657"></a><a href="#FNanchor_657_657"><span class="label">[657]</span></a> "Dumouriez and the Defence of England against Napoleon," by J. H. +Rose and A. M. Broadley.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_658_658" id="Footnote_658_658"></a><a href="#FNanchor_658_658"><span class="label">[658]</span></a> Lyon, "Hist. of Dover," p. xxxiii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_659_659" id="Footnote_659_659"></a><a href="#FNanchor_659_659"><span class="label">[659]</span></a> Hansard, i, 1899–1902.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_660_660" id="Footnote_660_660"></a><a href="#FNanchor_660_660"><span class="label">[660]</span></a> "Mems. of Lady Hester Stanhope," i, 174.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_661_661" id="Footnote_661_661"></a><a href="#FNanchor_661_661"><span class="label">[661]</span></a> Lady Hester's second brother.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_662_662" id="Footnote_662_662"></a><a href="#FNanchor_662_662"><span class="label">[662]</span></a> G. Rose, "Diaries," ii, 70–2; Desbrière, "Projets de Débarquement," +iii, 98–105; Wheeler and Broadley, "Napoleon and the Invasion of England," +ii, ch. 14; Cornwallis ("Corresp.," iii, 500) thought ill of our chances +if the French landed, but he doubted if they could. (<span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, iii, 503.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_663_663" id="Footnote_663_663"></a><a href="#FNanchor_663_663"><span class="label">[663]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 157.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_664_664" id="Footnote_664_664"></a><a href="#FNanchor_664_664"><span class="label">[664]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," vii, 193, 196.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_665_665" id="Footnote_665_665"></a><a href="#FNanchor_665_665"><span class="label">[665]</span></a> Pretyman MSS. It is in answer to the one referred to in "Dropmore P.," +vii, 209.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_666_666" id="Footnote_666_666"></a><a href="#FNanchor_666_666"><span class="label">[666]</span></a> "Dropmore P.," vii, 211–14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_667_667" id="Footnote_667_667"></a><a href="#FNanchor_667_667"><span class="label">[667]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_668_668" id="Footnote_668_668"></a><a href="#FNanchor_668_668"><span class="label">[668]</span></a> "Creevey Papers," i, 25–7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_669_669" id="Footnote_669_669"></a><a href="#FNanchor_669_669"><span class="label">[669]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_670_670" id="Footnote_670_670"></a><a href="#FNanchor_670_670"><span class="label">[670]</span></a> Stanhope, iv, 139–44.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_671_671" id="Footnote_671_671"></a><a href="#FNanchor_671_671"><span class="label">[671]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_672_672" id="Footnote_672_672"></a><a href="#FNanchor_672_672"><span class="label">[672]</span></a> From Mr. A. M. Broadley's MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_673_673" id="Footnote_673_673"></a><a href="#FNanchor_673_673"><span class="label">[673]</span></a> Stanhope, iv, App. viii-ix.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_674_674" id="Footnote_674_674"></a><a href="#FNanchor_674_674"><span class="label">[674]</span></a> G. Rose, "Diaries," i, 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_675_675" id="Footnote_675_675"></a><a href="#FNanchor_675_675"><span class="label">[675]</span></a> Stanhope, iv, 177.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_676_676" id="Footnote_676_676"></a><a href="#FNanchor_676_676"><span class="label">[676]</span></a> Pitt thoroughly approved of Castlereagh taking the India Board under +Addington in July 1802; in October he entered the Cabinet ("Private +Papers of Wilberforce," 131).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_677_677" id="Footnote_677_677"></a><a href="#FNanchor_677_677"><span class="label">[677]</span></a> Wraxall (iii, 281) with his usual bias says that Pitt "affected" to desire +the inclusion of Fox.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_678_678" id="Footnote_678_678"></a><a href="#FNanchor_678_678"><span class="label">[678]</span></a> "Life of Wilberforce," iii, 168, 182, 184, 211, 212.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_679_679" id="Footnote_679_679"></a><a href="#FNanchor_679_679"><span class="label">[679]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, iii, 230–4; Pitt MSS., 189.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_680_680" id="Footnote_680_680"></a><a href="#FNanchor_680_680"><span class="label">[680]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 102. Pitt to Whitworth, 28th May 1804; G. Rose, "Diaries," +ii, 136. See, too, Rose, "Despatches relating to the ... Third Coalition," 27.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_681_681" id="Footnote_681_681"></a><a href="#FNanchor_681_681"><span class="label">[681]</span></a> Stanhope, iv, 199–201.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_682_682" id="Footnote_682_682"></a><a href="#FNanchor_682_682"><span class="label">[682]</span></a> Czartoryski, "Memoirs," ii, 35.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_683_683" id="Footnote_683_683"></a><a href="#FNanchor_683_683"><span class="label">[683]</span></a> "Creevey Papers," i, 28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_684_684" id="Footnote_684_684"></a><a href="#FNanchor_684_684"><span class="label">[684]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_685_685" id="Footnote_685_685"></a><a href="#FNanchor_685_685"><span class="label">[685]</span></a> Rose, "Despatches relating to the ... Third Coalition" (Royal Hist. +Soc., 1904), 14–19; also Rose, "Napoleonic Studies," 364–6, for the tentative +Russian overture of November 1803.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_686_686" id="Footnote_686_686"></a><a href="#FNanchor_686_686"><span class="label">[686]</span></a> Rose and Broadley, "Dumouriez and the Defence of England against +Napoleon," 260.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_687_687" id="Footnote_687_687"></a><a href="#FNanchor_687_687"><span class="label">[687]</span></a> Fortescue, v, 204–13. Half of the fine went to the overseers of the parish, +who were bound under penalties to provide a parochial substitute.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_688_688" id="Footnote_688_688"></a><a href="#FNanchor_688_688"><span class="label">[688]</span></a> Fortescue, v, 239, 240.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_689_689" id="Footnote_689_689"></a><a href="#FNanchor_689_689"><span class="label">[689]</span></a> "Creevey Papers," i, 29.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_690_690" id="Footnote_690_690"></a><a href="#FNanchor_690_690"><span class="label">[690]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 157.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_691_691" id="Footnote_691_691"></a><a href="#FNanchor_691_691"><span class="label">[691]</span></a> Pretyman MSS. See "Ann. Reg." (1805) for the failure at Boulogne on +3rd October 1804.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_692_692" id="Footnote_692_692"></a><a href="#FNanchor_692_692"><span class="label">[692]</span></a> See Desbrière, "Projets ... de Débarquement, etc.," vol. v; J. Corbett, +"The Campaign of Trafalgar," chs. ii, iii, ix.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_693_693" id="Footnote_693_693"></a><a href="#FNanchor_693_693"><span class="label">[693]</span></a> "Kentish Gazette," 26th October 1804. Apparently Moore agreed to the +scheme, despite his opinion quoted above. For information on this topic I +am indebted to Lieutenant-Colonel Fynmore of Sandgate. In the manœuvres +of 1910 regiments were told off to extemporize means of crossing the canal +in the quickest and most effective way.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_694_694" id="Footnote_694_694"></a><a href="#FNanchor_694_694"><span class="label">[694]</span></a> "W. O.," 76; "Diary of Sir J. Moore," ii, 71–4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_695_695" id="Footnote_695_695"></a><a href="#FNanchor_695_695"><span class="label">[695]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_696_696" id="Footnote_696_696"></a><a href="#FNanchor_696_696"><span class="label">[696]</span></a> Harrowby MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_697_697" id="Footnote_697_697"></a><a href="#FNanchor_697_697"><span class="label">[697]</span></a> Mahan, ii, ch. xv, <span lang="la">ad fin.</span>; "Ann. Reg." (1804), 555; "Mems. of R. P. +Ward," i, ch. vii. For the subsequent plan of Ministers to attack Ferrol, +from which Moore dissuaded them, see "Diary of Sir J. Moore," ii, ch. xxi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_698_698" id="Footnote_698_698"></a><a href="#FNanchor_698_698"><span class="label">[698]</span></a> Harrowby MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_699_699" id="Footnote_699_699"></a><a href="#FNanchor_699_699"><span class="label">[699]</span></a> Rose, "Third Coalition," 32, 53, 61, 65, 67, 71, 75.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_700_700" id="Footnote_700_700"></a><a href="#FNanchor_700_700"><span class="label">[700]</span></a> Harrowby MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_701_701" id="Footnote_701_701"></a><a href="#FNanchor_701_701"><span class="label">[701]</span></a> Lefebvre, "Cabinets de l'Europe," ii, 33.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_702_702" id="Footnote_702_702"></a><a href="#FNanchor_702_702"><span class="label">[702]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_703_703" id="Footnote_703_703"></a><a href="#FNanchor_703_703"><span class="label">[703]</span></a> Stanhope, iv, 244–8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_704_704" id="Footnote_704_704"></a><a href="#FNanchor_704_704"><span class="label">[704]</span></a> See the letter in "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_705_705" id="Footnote_705_705"></a><a href="#FNanchor_705_705"><span class="label">[705]</span></a> "H. O." Ireland (Corresp.), 99.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_706_706" id="Footnote_706_706"></a><a href="#FNanchor_706_706"><span class="label">[706]</span></a> "Mems. of Fox," iv, 45, 68, 72, 75.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_707_707" id="Footnote_707_707"></a><a href="#FNanchor_707_707"><span class="label">[707]</span></a> See an interesting account by Dr. Hunt, "Transactions of the Royal +Hist. Soc." (1908), pp. 7–16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_708_708" id="Footnote_708_708"></a><a href="#FNanchor_708_708"><span class="label">[708]</span></a> Hansard, iv, 1013–22, 1060.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_709_709" id="Footnote_709_709"></a><a href="#FNanchor_709_709"><span class="label">[709]</span></a> Hansard, iv, 255–325; "Life of Wilberforce," iii, 219–23; "Malmesbury +Diaries," iv, 338, 347; "Lord Colchester's Diaries," i, 544–9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_710_710" id="Footnote_710_710"></a><a href="#FNanchor_710_710"><span class="label">[710]</span></a> Chevening MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_711_711" id="Footnote_711_711"></a><a href="#FNanchor_711_711"><span class="label">[711]</span></a> "Trial of Lord Melville" (1806), 256–9, 370, 378.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_712_712" id="Footnote_712_712"></a><a href="#FNanchor_712_712"><span class="label">[712]</span></a> "Creevey Papers," i, 34.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_713_713" id="Footnote_713_713"></a><a href="#FNanchor_713_713"><span class="label">[713]</span></a> "Barham Papers" (Navy Records Society), iii; Corbett, "Trafalgar +Campaign," 70–2; Stanhope, iv, 287; Pellew, ii 356–64.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_714_714" id="Footnote_714_714"></a><a href="#FNanchor_714_714"><span class="label">[714]</span></a> Czartoryski, "Mems.," ii, ch. vii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_715_715" id="Footnote_715_715"></a><a href="#FNanchor_715_715"><span class="label">[715]</span></a> "F. O.," Prussia, 70; Rose, "Napoleonic Studies," 54–8; Rose, "Napoleon," +ii, 54.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_716_716" id="Footnote_716_716"></a><a href="#FNanchor_716_716"><span class="label">[716]</span></a> Garden, "Traités," viii, 317–23; Alison, App. to ch. xxxix.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_717_717" id="Footnote_717_717"></a><a href="#FNanchor_717_717"><span class="label">[717]</span></a> Toreno ("War of Independence in Spain," vol. i, <span lang="la">ad fin.</span>) had the story +from Alava, who connected it with the arrival of the news of Ulm, on +2nd November. Pitt said: "All is not lost if I can succeed in raising up a +national war in Europe, and this must have its commencement in Spain." +But Malmesbury ("Diaries," iv, 340), who was present, does not name the +incident, and states that Pitt disbelieved the news (see ch. xxiv).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_718_718" id="Footnote_718_718"></a><a href="#FNanchor_718_718"><span class="label">[718]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_719_719" id="Footnote_719_719"></a><a href="#FNanchor_719_719"><span class="label">[719]</span></a> Rose, "Third Coalition," 25, 32, 44, 61, 66, 73, 76, 87, 97, etc.; Mr. Julian +Corbett, "The Trafalgar Campaign," chs. i, ii. For a critique on Pitt's +Mediterranean plans, see Bunbury's "Great War with France," 183–95.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_720_720" id="Footnote_720_720"></a><a href="#FNanchor_720_720"><span class="label">[720]</span></a> Rose, "Third Coalition," 127–30.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_721_721" id="Footnote_721_721"></a><a href="#FNanchor_721_721"><span class="label">[721]</span></a> Czartoryski, "Mems.," ii, 74–6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_722_722" id="Footnote_722_722"></a><a href="#FNanchor_722_722"><span class="label">[722]</span></a> Czartoryski, "Mems.," ii, 78; Rose, "Third Coalition," 155–64.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_723_723" id="Footnote_723_723"></a><a href="#FNanchor_723_723"><span class="label">[723]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, 232; Ulmann, "Russisch-preussische Politik"; Hansing, "Hardenberg +und die dritte Coalition."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_724_724" id="Footnote_724_724"></a><a href="#FNanchor_724_724"><span class="label">[724]</span></a> "Paget Papers," ii, 186; Sir G. Jackson, "Diaries," i, 304, 458–60; Rose, +"Third Coalition," 180.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_725_725" id="Footnote_725_725"></a><a href="#FNanchor_725_725"><span class="label">[725]</span></a> "Lettres inédites de Napoléon," i, 50.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_726_726" id="Footnote_726_726"></a><a href="#FNanchor_726_726"><span class="label">[726]</span></a> Rose, "Third Coalition," 279–82. On 9th August Austria allied herself +to Russia.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_727_727" id="Footnote_727_727"></a><a href="#FNanchor_727_727"><span class="label">[727]</span></a> For a time her action was unknown at London; and Pitt and Mulgrave +outlined a plan of campaign turning largely on the liberation of South and +Central Italy. See Mr. Corbett, "Trafalgar Campaign," App. B.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_728_728" id="Footnote_728_728"></a><a href="#FNanchor_728_728"><span class="label">[728]</span></a> G. Rose, "Diaries," ii, 198–200.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_729_729" id="Footnote_729_729"></a><a href="#FNanchor_729_729"><span class="label">[729]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_730_730" id="Footnote_730_730"></a><a href="#FNanchor_730_730"><span class="label">[730]</span></a> "Lady Hester Stanhope's Mems.," ii, 63.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_731_731" id="Footnote_731_731"></a><a href="#FNanchor_731_731"><span class="label">[731]</span></a> Chevening MSS. See, too, G. Rose, "Diaries," ii, 235, as to Pitt's +reliance on "cordial medicines."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_732_732" id="Footnote_732_732"></a><a href="#FNanchor_732_732"><span class="label">[732]</span></a> By Mr. Julian Corbett, "The Campaign of Trafalgar." Mr. Corbett has +kindly helped me to fix the probable date of Castlereagh's letter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_733_733" id="Footnote_733_733"></a><a href="#FNanchor_733_733"><span class="label">[733]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 121. In Pitt MSS., 111, is a hasty and undated note of Pitt +to Middleton (probably of February 1805) asking him to consider "whether +it might not be expedient to direct Sir John Warren to proceed to Cape de +Verde, and if he there found that Sir James Duckworth was gone to the +West Indies, but not upon certain information of the enemy having preceded +him, that Sir J. Warren should be ordered on to the Cape, unless he +received intelligence that the enemy had taken another course." He adds +that this suggestion arises out of the news received from the Cape, where +French troops were expected. In that case the operations would be protracted. +Pitt hoped that Warren would be back in five months, that is by +1st June, before which time the French preparations for the invasion of +England would not be far advanced. Evidently, then, Pitt sought Middleton's +advice direct on the complex problem of defending England and +guarding the overland and the sea routes to India at the same time. On +this see Corbett, "Trafalgar Campaign," 236–8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_734_734" id="Footnote_734_734"></a><a href="#FNanchor_734_734"><span class="label">[734]</span></a> Wellington in 1834 told Croker that they met in the anteroom of the +Secretary of State, Castlereagh (Croker, "Diaries," ii, 234).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_735_735" id="Footnote_735_735"></a><a href="#FNanchor_735_735"><span class="label">[735]</span></a> G. Jackson ("Diaries," i, 270) gives a supposed instance of her interference +in favour of Haugwitz.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_736_736" id="Footnote_736_736"></a><a href="#FNanchor_736_736"><span class="label">[736]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, i, 301, 305, 314–9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_737_737" id="Footnote_737_737"></a><a href="#FNanchor_737_737"><span class="label">[737]</span></a> Metternich, "Mems.," i, 57 (Eng. ed.); Hardenberg, "Mems.," ii, 220–4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_738_738" id="Footnote_738_738"></a><a href="#FNanchor_738_738"><span class="label">[738]</span></a> Hardenberg, "Mems.," ii, 292–300.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_739_739" id="Footnote_739_739"></a><a href="#FNanchor_739_739"><span class="label">[739]</span></a> "Malmesbury Diaries," iv, 340.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_740_740" id="Footnote_740_740"></a><a href="#FNanchor_740_740"><span class="label">[740]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.; "Life of Wilberforce," iii, 412.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_741_741" id="Footnote_741_741"></a><a href="#FNanchor_741_741"><span class="label">[741]</span></a> Rose, "Third Coalition," 208–20. +In "F. O.," Russia, 59, is a ciphered despatch of 25th October 1805 that, +if circumstances favoured, a second British expedition (<span lang="la">i.e.</span>, besides that +destined for Hanover) would be made ready to seize Walcheren.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_742_742" id="Footnote_742_742"></a><a href="#FNanchor_742_742"><span class="label">[742]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 142.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_743_743" id="Footnote_743_743"></a><a href="#FNanchor_743_743"><span class="label">[743]</span></a> See Hansing, "Hardenberg und die dritte Coalition" (Appendix), for a +comparison of these terms with those of the Anglo-Russian treaty of 11th +April 1805.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_744_744" id="Footnote_744_744"></a><a href="#FNanchor_744_744"><span class="label">[744]</span></a> Czartoryski, "Mems.," ii, ch. ix. The editor wrongly gives the date of +Vorontzoff's letter as 17/29 September 1805, though it contains references to +Ulm and Trafalgar. It is of 18th–21st November. "F. O.," Prussia, 70. +Mulgrave to Harrowby, 23rd November.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_745_745" id="Footnote_745_745"></a><a href="#FNanchor_745_745"><span class="label">[745]</span></a> <span lang="la">I.e.</span>, the Prussian mediation by Napoleon.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_746_746" id="Footnote_746_746"></a><a href="#FNanchor_746_746"><span class="label">[746]</span></a> Harrowby MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_747_747" id="Footnote_747_747"></a><a href="#FNanchor_747_747"><span class="label">[747]</span></a> See "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies" for the letter in full.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_748_748" id="Footnote_748_748"></a><a href="#FNanchor_748_748"><span class="label">[748]</span></a> Rose, "Third Coalition," 230–5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_749_749" id="Footnote_749_749"></a><a href="#FNanchor_749_749"><span class="label">[749]</span></a> The French held the fortress of Hameln.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_750_750" id="Footnote_750_750"></a><a href="#FNanchor_750_750"><span class="label">[750]</span></a> Rose, "Third Coalition," 259.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_751_751" id="Footnote_751_751"></a><a href="#FNanchor_751_751"><span class="label">[751]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, 260, 261.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_752_752" id="Footnote_752_752"></a><a href="#FNanchor_752_752"><span class="label">[752]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 142.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_753_753" id="Footnote_753_753"></a><a href="#FNanchor_753_753"><span class="label">[753]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_754_754" id="Footnote_754_754"></a><a href="#FNanchor_754_754"><span class="label">[754]</span></a> G. Jackson, "Diaries," i, 377, 381, 384. Harrowby left Berlin on 7th or +8th January 1806 (<span lang="la">ibid.</span>, 390).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_755_755" id="Footnote_755_755"></a><a href="#FNanchor_755_755"><span class="label">[755]</span></a> Harrowby MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_756_756" id="Footnote_756_756"></a><a href="#FNanchor_756_756"><span class="label">[756]</span></a> G. Jackson, "Diaries," i, 381.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_757_757" id="Footnote_757_757"></a><a href="#FNanchor_757_757"><span class="label">[757]</span></a> Peach, "Historic Houses of Bath." The "Bath Herald" of 11th January +1806 has an ode containing the lines: +</p> + + +<p class="poem"> +<span class="i10">Oh prepare, prepare<br /></span> +The renovating draught! He comes by stealth<br /> +(For so unconscious worth is ever seen)<br /> +With thoughts uplifted but retiring mien.<br /> +</p> +</div> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_758_758" id="Footnote_758_758"></a><a href="#FNanchor_758_758"><span class="label">[758]</span></a> Ruville, "Chatham," iii, 246.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_759_759" id="Footnote_759_759"></a><a href="#FNanchor_759_759"><span class="label">[759]</span></a> Chevening MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_760_760" id="Footnote_760_760"></a><a href="#FNanchor_760_760"><span class="label">[760]</span></a> Thomas Hardy ("The Dynasts," i, Act vi, sc. 7) places the incident in +the week after Austerlitz. The date is impossible.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_761_761" id="Footnote_761_761"></a><a href="#FNanchor_761_761"><span class="label">[761]</span></a> Stanhope, iv, 369.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_762_762" id="Footnote_762_762"></a><a href="#FNanchor_762_762"><span class="label">[762]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 337.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_763_763" id="Footnote_763_763"></a><a href="#FNanchor_763_763"><span class="label">[763]</span></a> <span lang="la">Ibid.</span>, 121. See, too, in his letter of 23rd December ("Castlereagh Corresp.," +vi, 92).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_764_764" id="Footnote_764_764"></a><a href="#FNanchor_764_764"><span class="label">[764]</span></a> J. Bagot, "Canning and his Friends," i, 227. The statement about the +gout corrects Malmesbury ("Diaries," iv, 343) that the attack of gout left +Pitt far weaker and with digestion impaired. Malmesbury was not at Bath. +Frere's father had lately died.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_765_765" id="Footnote_765_765"></a><a href="#FNanchor_765_765"><span class="label">[765]</span></a> Bagot, "Canning, etc.," 415–9; H. Newbolt, "Year of Trafalgar," 190–3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_766_766" id="Footnote_766_766"></a><a href="#FNanchor_766_766"><span class="label">[766]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 121.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_767_767" id="Footnote_767_767"></a><a href="#FNanchor_767_767"><span class="label">[767]</span></a> "Castlereagh Corresp.," vi, 70–85.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_768_768" id="Footnote_768_768"></a><a href="#FNanchor_768_768"><span class="label">[768]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 121.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_769_769" id="Footnote_769_769"></a><a href="#FNanchor_769_769"><span class="label">[769]</span></a> "Castlereagh Corresp.," vi, 100; "Malmesbury Diaries," iv, 344.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_770_770" id="Footnote_770_770"></a><a href="#FNanchor_770_770"><span class="label">[770]</span></a> Gifford, "Life of Pitt," vi, 802; Lord Rosebery, "Tomline's Estimate of +Pitt" (1903), p. 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_771_771" id="Footnote_771_771"></a><a href="#FNanchor_771_771"><span class="label">[771]</span></a> Pitt MSS., 142.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_772_772" id="Footnote_772_772"></a><a href="#FNanchor_772_772"><span class="label">[772]</span></a> In the "Hardenberg Memoirs" (ii, 353) it is stated that Harrowby offered +Holland to Prussia. Every despatch that I have read runs counter to this +assertion. If Harrowby made the offer, it was in sheer desperation and on +his own authority; but he nowhere mentions it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_773_773" id="Footnote_773_773"></a><a href="#FNanchor_773_773"><span class="label">[773]</span></a> Chevening MSS.; "Notes and Queries," 12th November 1864. Mr. +John Upham of Bath on 10th March 1806 sent these particulars to Lord +Chatham. Gifford ("Life of Pitt," vi, 803) wrongly states that the journey +took four days.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_774_774" id="Footnote_774_774"></a><a href="#FNanchor_774_774"><span class="label">[774]</span></a> The house has been very little altered since 1806, and not at all on the +side shown in the accompanying sketch, which, by kind permission of Mr. +and Mrs. Doulton, was done by my daughter. The room over the veranda +is that in which Pitt died.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_775_775" id="Footnote_775_775"></a><a href="#FNanchor_775_775"><span class="label">[775]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_776_776" id="Footnote_776_776"></a><a href="#FNanchor_776_776"><span class="label">[776]</span></a> Stanhope, iv, 374.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_777_777" id="Footnote_777_777"></a><a href="#FNanchor_777_777"><span class="label">[777]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_778_778" id="Footnote_778_778"></a><a href="#FNanchor_778_778"><span class="label">[778]</span></a> "Castlereagh Corresp.," vi, 103–112, 119.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_779_779" id="Footnote_779_779"></a><a href="#FNanchor_779_779"><span class="label">[779]</span></a> Stanhope, iv, 375; "Malmesbury Diaries," iv, 346; "Dropmore P.," +vii, 327</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_780_780" id="Footnote_780_780"></a><a href="#FNanchor_780_780"><span class="label">[780]</span></a> "F. O.," Austria, 77. Mulgrave to Harrington, 10th January 1806.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_781_781" id="Footnote_781_781"></a><a href="#FNanchor_781_781"><span class="label">[781]</span></a> "Castlereagh Corresp.," vi, 126.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_782_782" id="Footnote_782_782"></a><a href="#FNanchor_782_782"><span class="label">[782]</span></a> R. P. Ward, "Memoirs," i, 176.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_783_783" id="Footnote_783_783"></a><a href="#FNanchor_783_783"><span class="label">[783]</span></a> Pretyman MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_784_784" id="Footnote_784_784"></a><a href="#FNanchor_784_784"><span class="label">[784]</span></a> Lord Rosebery, "Tomline's Estimate of Pitt," 18; "Dropmore P.," +vii, 330.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_785_785" id="Footnote_785_785"></a><a href="#FNanchor_785_785"><span class="label">[785]</span></a> Stanhope, iv, 381.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_786_786" id="Footnote_786_786"></a><a href="#FNanchor_786_786"><span class="label">[786]</span></a> "Life of Wilberforce," v, 260; "Private Papers of Wilberforce," 68.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_787_787" id="Footnote_787_787"></a><a href="#FNanchor_787_787"><span class="label">[787]</span></a> Marquis Wellesley, "Quarterly Rev." (1836).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_788_788" id="Footnote_788_788"></a><a href="#FNanchor_788_788"><span class="label">[788]</span></a> Michelet, "La Femme," Introd., ch. ii, quoted by Stanhope, iv, 405.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_789_789" id="Footnote_789_789"></a><a href="#FNanchor_789_789"><span class="label">[789]</span></a> "Private Papers of Wilberforce," 67–72.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_790_790" id="Footnote_790_790"></a><a href="#FNanchor_790_790"><span class="label">[790]</span></a> Lord Acton, "Letters to Mary Gladstone," 45, 46, 56.</p></div> + +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of William Pitt and the Great War, by +John Holland Rose + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM PITT AND THE GREAT WAR *** + +***** This file should be named 24980-h.htm or 24980-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/9/8/24980/ + +Produced by Paul Murray, Wolfgang Menges and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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