upon the terrors produced by Napo- | events of another kind, but not less
leon's successes in Italy, and Jourdan's important in their future effect upon
irruption into Franconia, easily per- the fate of the war, were preparing upon.
suaded Haugwitz that the period had another element.
now arrived when the interests of Prus-
sia indispensably required the breaking
up of the old Germanic Empire, and the
cession of the left bank of the Rhine as
the boundary of France. In conse-
quence, two conventions, one public,
the other secret, were signed at Berlin
on the 5th August. By the first, which
alone at that time was published, the
line of demarcation, beyond which hos-
tilities were not to pass, was extended,
and made to run from Wesel on the
Rhine, following the frontiers of the
mountains of Thuringia, stretching
along the North Sea, including the
mouths of the Elbe, the Weser, and the
Ems, and so round by the frontiers of
Holland to Wesel again. Beyond this,
in addition to the line already agreed
to by the treaty of Bâle, the Directory
became bound not to push their mili-
tary operations. By the second, which
was kept secret, Prussia recognised the
extension of France to the Rhine; and
the principle, that the dispossessed Ger-
man princes were to be indemnified at
the expense of the ecclesiastical princes
of the Empire. The third article pro-
vided an indemnity to the Prince of
Orange, now evidently and apparently
finally expelled from his dominions:
and Prussia engaged to endeavour for
this purpose to procure the secularisa-
tion of the bishoprics of Bamberg and
Würtzburg. "Such was the Secret
Convention," says Hardenberg, "which
in a manner put the cabinet of Berlin
at the mercy of France in the affairs of
Germany." It may be added, such was
the commencement of that atrocious
system of indemnifying the greater
states at the expense of the lesser, and
satisfying the rapacity of temporal
powers by the sacrifice of the Church,
which soon after not only shook to its
foundation the constitution of the Ger-
manic Empire, but totally overturned
the whole balance of power and system
of public rights in Europe.

69. Three years of continued suc-
cess had rendered the British flag om-
nipotent upon the ocean. Britannia
literally ruled the waves; the enemies'
colonies successively fell beneath her
strokes; and the fleets of France, block-
aded in her harbours, were equally un-
able to protect the commerce of the
Republic, or acquire the experience re-
quisite for maritime success. The min-
ister of the marine, Truguet, in pro-
posing a new system for the regulation
of the navy, gave a gloomy but faith-
ful picture of its present condition.
"The deplorable state of our marine,"
said he, "is well known to our enemies,
who insult us in our very harbours.
Our fleets are humiliated, defeated,
blockaded in their ports; destitute of
provisions and naval equipments; torn
by internal faction, weakened by ig-
norance, ruined by desertion: such is
the state in which the men, to whom
you have intrusted its direction, have
found the French marine." The ruin of
the French navy was not the conse-
quence merely of the superior skill and
experience of the British sailors; it
arose necessarily from the confusion of
finances, loss of colonies, and failure of
resources, which were the result of the
revolutionary convulsion. Fleets can-
not be equipped without naval stores,
nor navigated but by a body of experi-
enced seamen it is impossible, there-
fore, to become a powerful maritime
state without a regular revenue and an
extensive commerce, both of which had
disappeared during the distractions of
the Revolution. Severe internal dis-
tress, by filling the ranks of the army,
may form a formidable military power,
and destitute battalions may issue from
a convulsed state to plunder and op-
press the adjoining nations; but a simi-
lar system will never equip a fleet, nor
enable a revolutionary to contend with
a regular government on the ocean.
From the very elements by which the
contest was carried on, it was already
While these important transactions evident that, though France might de-
were in progress in the heart of Europe, | feat the land forces of Europe, Britain

23/9/59

would acquire the dominion of the

waves.

70. The hostilities carried on by the naval and military forces of Great Britain in the West and East Indies, were attended with the most decisive success. The island of Granada, which had long been in a state of revolt, yielded to the perseverance and ability of General Nicols: Ste Lucie was reduced in May by General Abercromby, and Essequibo and Demerara by General White; while the French could only set off against these losses the destruction of the merchandise and shipping at Newfoundland by Admiral Richery. In the Indian seas, the successes of the British were still more important. A Dutch squadron of three ships of the line, three frigates, and many vessels of inferior size, having on board two thousand land troops, destined to retake the Cape of Good Hope, was captured by Admiral Elphinstone in the bay of Saldanha; while the Batavian settlements of Ceylon, the Malaccas, and Cochin, with the important harbour of Trincomalee, were, early in the year, taken possession of by the British forces. Thus was the foundation laid, in both hemispheres, of the colonial empire of Great Britain, which has subsequently grown up to such an extraordinary magnitude, and promises, in its ultimate results, to exert a greater and more widespread influence on mankind than any which has been effected by human agency, since the Roman legions ceased to conquer and civilise the world.

conquests of the British at sea, as likely to counterbalance the acquisitions of the Republicans at land. They observed that Rhodes long maintained a doubtful contest with Rome after its land forces had subdued Spain, Carthage, and part of Gaul; and that, in a similar contest, Great Britain would have incomparably greater chances of success than the Grecian commonwealth, from the superior internal strength which the population of its own islands afforded, and the far more extensive commerce which enriched it from every quarter of the globe. "Athens," said Xenophon, "would have prevailed over Lacedæmon, if Attica had been an island inaccessible save by water to the land forces of its opponent;" and it was impossible not to see that nature had given that advantage to the modern, which she had denied to the ancient maritime power. The formation of a great colonial empire, embracing all the quarters of the globe, held together and united by the naval power of Britain, and enriching the parent state by its commerce, and the market it would open for its manufactures, began to engage the thoughts not only of statesmen, but of practical men ; and the Cape and Ceylon were spoken of as acquisitions which should never be abandoned.

72. St Domingo still continued in the distracted and unfortunate state into which it had been thrown by the visionary dreams of the French Republicans, and the frightful flames of a servile war which had been lighted up by their ex71. These important successes, par- travagant philanthropists. All the efticularly the reduction of the Cape, for- forts, both of the French and British, merly detailed, that of Ceylon, and the to restore anything like order among Malaccas, diffused general joy through its furious and savage population, had the British nation. It was justly ob- proved unsuccessful. The latter had served, that the first was a halfway- never been in sufficient force to make house to India, and indispensable to any serious impression on its numerous the mighty empire which we had ac- and frantic inhabitants; and the forquired in the plains of Hindostan; while mer were hardly able to retain a scanty the last secured the emporium of the footing in the northern part of the China trade, and opened up the vast island, far less to attempt to regain the commerce of the Indian Archipelago. splendid and prosperous colony which The attention of the people, by these they had lost. The blacks, taught by great acquisitions, began to be turned experience, perfectly acquainted with towards the probable result and final the country, and comparatively unafissue of the war: they looked to the | fected by its climate, maintained a suc

cessful contest with European forces, |
who melted away more rapidly under
its fatal evening gales, than either by
the ravages of famine or the sword of
the enemy.
Toussaint had already
risen to eminence in the command of
these desultory forces, and was taken
into the French service with the divi-
sion he had organised, in the vain
attempt to re-establish the sinking
authority of the Republican commis-
sioners.

Directory, artfully improving these advantages, had fanned the Spanish discontents into a flame, by holding out hopes of some acquisitions in Italy, won by the sword of Napoleon, in case they joined the Republican alliance. Influenced by these considerations, the Spaniards fell into the snare, from which they were destined hereafter to experience such disastrous effects, and on the 19th August concluded a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, with France, on the footing of the family compact. By this treaty, the powers mutually guaranteed to each other their dominions both in the Old and the New World, and engaged to assist each other, in case of attack, with twenty-four thousand land troops, thirty ships of the line, and six frigates. This was followed, in the beginning of October, by a formal declaration of war, on the part of Spain, against Great Britain. Thus Britain, which had commenced the war with so many confederates, saw herself not only deprived of all her maritime allies, but the whole coasts of Europe, from the Texel to Gibraltar, arrayed in fierce hostility against her. on the coast of Galicia and at Trinidad; and, finally, that the majesty of Spain had been insulted by the decrees of a court in London, authorising the arrest of its ambassador for a small sum. "By all those insults," it concluded, “equally deep and unparalleled, that nation has proved to the universe, that she recognises no other laws than the aggrandisement of her commerce; and by her despotism, which has exhausted our patience and moderation, has rendered a declaration of war un

73. Notwithstanding the disastrous state of the principal colony of France, and the great losses which she had sustained in her maritime possessions, Great Britain showed herself disposed during this year to make great sacrifices to her, to obtain a general peace. In truth, notwithstanding her naval successes, the situation of Britain, from the disasters of her allies, had become sufficiently alarming. Spain, detached by the treaty of Bâle from all connection with the Allies, had lately fallen under the Republican influence, and yielded to that jealousy of the British naval power which is so easily excited among the European states. The *Many grounds of complaint were assigned in the Spanish manifesto on this occasion; but they met with a decisive refutation from the British cabinet, in an able state-paper, drawn up by Mr Canning. It was urged by the Spanish court, that the conduct of the British during the war, but especially at the siege of Toulon, and in the expedition to Quiberon, had determined the cabinet of Madrid to make peace with France as soon as it could be done with safety to the monarchy; that the bad faith of the British gov-avoidable." ernment further appeared in the treaty of 19th November 1794, concluded, without regard to the rights of Spain, with the United States, in the injustice with which they seized the St Jago, at first taken by the French, but afterwards retaken by the English, which, by the subsisting convention, ought to have been restored, and in the intercepting of ammunition for the Spanish squadrons; that the crews of her ships had frequently landed on the coast of Chili, and carried on a contra band trade, as well as reconnoitred these valuable possessions, and had evinced a clear intention of seizing part of the Spanish colonial territories, by sending a considerable force to the Antilles and St Domingo, and by her recent acquisition of the Dutch settlement of Demerara; that frequent insults and acts of violence had been committed by the British cruisers upon Spanish vessels in the Mediterranean; that the Spanish territory had been violated by descents from British ships

To this manifesto, the acrimonious style of which too clearly betrayed the quarter from which it had proceeded, it was replied by the British government, that "the unprovoked declaration of war on the part of Spain had at length compelled the King of England to take measures to assert the dignity of his crown: that a simple reference to the Spanish declaration, and a bare enumeration of the frivolous charges which it contains, must be sufficient to satisfy every reasonable and impartial person that no part of the conduct of Great Britain towards Spain has afforded the smallest ground of complaint. The acts of hostility attributed to England, consist either of matters perfectly innocent, or of imputed opinions and intentions, of which no proof is adduced, nor effect alleged, or of complaints of the misconduct of unauthorised individuals, concerning which his Majesty has always professed his willingness to institute inquiry, and grant redress, where it was really due.

74. Impressed with these dangers, | ment, and the restitution of all the and desirous also of disarming the nu- colonies to France and Holland, which merous and powerful party in Great had been conquered since the comBritain who contended against the war mencement of the war. In return for as both unnecessary and impolitic, Mr these concessions, they insisted that the Pitt, in the close of this year, made French should restore the Low Counovertures for a general peace to the tries to the Emperor, Holland to the French government. Lord Malmesbury Stadtholder, and evacuate all their conwas despatched to Paris to open the quests in Italy; but they were to retain negotiations; but it is probable that no Luxembourg, Namur, Nice, and Savoy. great hopes of their success were en- It was hardly to be expected that the tertained, as, nearly at the same time, Republican government, engaged in so an alliance was concluded with Russia, dazzling a career of victory as they had for the aid of sixty thousand auxiliary recently followed in Italy, and entirely troops to the Austrian forces. The dependent on popular favour, would British envoy arrived at Paris on the consent to these terms, or that they 22d October, amidst the acclamations could have maintained their place at of the inhabitants, and proposals of the head of affairs, if they had subpeace were immediately made through mitted to them. Accordingly, after the him. These were, the recognition of negotiations had been continued for the Republic by the British govern- two months, they were abruptly broken

sures of retaliation on the part of the British government; but so earnest was their desire to maintain peace, that they repeatedly endeavoured to ascertain when the Spanish right to the ceded territory was to terminate, in order that their efforts might be directed against the French alone. Some irregularities, in the course of so long and vast a contest, may have been committed by the British cruisers in the exercise of the undoubted right of search enjoyed by every belligerent state; but to the readiness of the British

The charge of misconduct on the part of the British admiral at Toulon is unprecedented and absurd; and this is perhaps the first instance that it has been imputed as a crime to one of the commanding officers of two powers, acting in alliance, and making a common cause in war, that he did more than his proportion of mischief to the common enemy. The treaty with America did nothing more than what every independent power has a right to do, or than his Spanish Majesty has since that time himself done; and inflicted no injury whatever on the sub-government to grant redress, in every case jects of that monarchy. The claims of all where an injury has been committed, even parties in regard to the condemnation of the Spain herself can bear testimony. The comSt Jago, captured by his Majesty's forces, plaint regarding the alleged decree against were fully heard before the only competent the Spanish ambassador, is, if possible, still tribunal, and one whose impartiality is above more frivolous, that being nothing more than all suspicion. The alleged misconduct of some a simple citation to answer for a debt demerchant-ships, in landing their crews on the manded, the mistaken act of an individual coast of Chili and Peru, forms no legitimate who was immediately disavowed and proseground of complaint against the British gov-cuted by the government, and made repeated ernment; and, even if some irregularities had been committed, they might have been punished on the spot, or the courts of London were always ready to receive and redress complaints of that description.

but vain submissive applications to the Spanish ambassador for forgiveness, such as in all former cases had been deemed satisfactory.

"It will be plain to posterity, it is now notorious to Europe, that neither to the genu"In regard to the expedition of St Do- ine wishes, nor even the mistaken policy of mingo and Demerara, with all the regard Spain, is her present conduct to be attriwhich he feels to the rights of neutral powers, buted; that not from enmity towards Great it is a new and unheard-of extension of neu- Britain, not from any resentment of past, or tral rights which is to be restricted by no apprehension of future injuries, but from a limits, and is to attach not to the territories blind subservience to the views of his Majesof a neutral power itself, but whatever may ty's enemies-from the dominion usurped once have belonged to it, and to whatever over her councils and actions by her new may be situated in its neighbourhood, though allies, she has been compelled to act in a in the actual possession of an enemy. The quarrel, and for interests, not her own; to complaint in regard to St Domingo is pecu- take up arms against one of those powers in liarly unfortunate, as the cession of part of whose cause she had professed to feel the that island, by the recent treaty, from Spain strongest interest, and to menace with hostilto France, is a breach of that solemn treaty ity another, against whom no cause of comunder which alone the crown of Spain holds plaint is pretended, but an honourable adherany part of its American possessions. Such ence to its engagements."-Ann. Reg. 1796, an act would at once have justified any mea- | 147; State Papers.

off, by the Directory ordering Lord Malmesbury to quit Paris in twentyfour hours, and he immediately returned to his own country. But it must ever be a matter of pride to the British historian, that the power which had been uniformly victorious on its own element, should have offered to treat on terms of equality with that from which it had so little to dread; and that Britain, to procure favourable terms for her allies, was willing to have abandoned all her own acquisitions.

While these negotiations were yet pending, a measure was undertaken by the French government, which placed Britain in the utmost peril, and from which she was saved rather by the winds of heaven than by any exertions of her own. It was the extravagant expectations they had formed of success from this operation, which led to the long delay and final rupture of the negotiation.

the counties: arms were secretly provided; leaders and rallying-points universally chosen; and nothing was wanting but the arrival of the French troops to proclaim the insurrection in every part of the country. Their design was to break off the connection with Britain, confiscate every shilling of British property in Ireland, and form a Hibernian Republic in close alliance with the great parent democracy at Paris. With such secresy were the preparations made, that the British government had but an imperfect account of its danger; while the French Directory, accurately informed by its emissaries of what was going forward, was fully prepared to turn it to the best account.*

*The intentions of the Irish revolutionists, and the length to which they had in secret carried their preparations for the formation of a Hibernian Republic, will be best understood from the following passages, in a memorial presented by Wolfe Tone, one of their principal leaders, to the French Directory:

"The Catholics of Ireland are 3,150,000, all trained from their infancy in a hereditary haFor

tred and abhorrence of the English name.
these five years they have fixed their eyes
most carnestly on France, whom they look
upon, with great justice, as fighting their
battles, as well as those of all mankind who
are oppressed. Of this class, I will stake my
head there are 500,000 men who would fly to
the standard of the Republic, if they saw it
their country.
once displayed in the cause of liberty and

"The Republic may also rely with confidence on the support of the Dissenters, actuated by reason and reflection, as well as the Catholics, impelled by misery and inflamed by detestation of the English name. In the year 1791, the Dissenters of Belfast first formed the club of United Irishmen-so called, because in that club, for the first time, Dissenters and Catholics were seen together

75. Ireland, long the victim of oppressive government and barbaric indolence, and now convulsed by popular passion, was at this period in a state of unusual excitement. The successful issue of the French Revolution had stimulated the numerous needy and ardent characters in that distracted nation to project a similar revolt against the authority of England; and above two hundred thousand men, in all parts of the country, were engaged in a vast conspiracy for overturning the established government, and erecting a democracy, after the model of France, in its stead. Overlooking the grinding misery which the convulsions of the Republic had occasioned to its inhab-in harmony and union. Corresponding clubs itants-without considering how an insular power, detached from the Continent, and with no habits of industry or accumulated wealth to support the contest from its own resources, was to maintain itself against the naval forces of Britain, the patriots of Ireland rushed blindly into the project, with that ardent but inconsiderate zeal and inveterate rancour against the British government for which the people of that country have always been distinguished. The malcontents were enrolled under generals, colonels, and officers, in all

were rapidly formed, the object of which was to subvert the tyranny of England, establish republic on the broad basis of liberty and equalthe independence of Ireland, and frame a free ity. These clubs were rapidly filled, and extended in June last over two-thirds of that province. Their members are all bound by an oath of secresy, and could, I have not the smallest doubt, on a proper occasion, raise the entire force of the province of Ulster, the most populous, warlike, and best informed in the nation.

"The Catholics also have an organisation commencing about the same time with the clubs last mentioned, but composed of Cathoorganisation baffled the utmost vigilance of the lics only. Until within these few months this Irish government, unsuccessfully applied to