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XVIII.

3.

Treaty be

land and

France.

The disunited and unwieldy mass of the Germanic CHAP. Empire, without altogether discontinuing military operations, pursued them in so languid a manner as was equiva- 1795. lent to a complete pacification. Bavaria, the Elector of State of the Mayence, and several other powers, issued a declaration, Oct. 1794. Empire. that the states of the Empire had taken up arms only tween Holfor the protection of the states adjoining Alsace, and that they had no inclination to interfere in the internal affairs of France. Spain, exhausted and dejected, awaited only the most favourable opportunity of making a separate peace, and concluding a contest from which she had already suffered so much; while Piedmont, crushed by the weight of armaments beyond its power to support, which cost more than three times the subsidies granted by Great Britain, equally desired a conclusion to hostilities without venturing to express the wish. The conquest of Holland relieved the French government of all anxiety in that quarter, by compelling the Dutch to conclude an alliance, offensive and defensive, with the Republic. The Dec. 25, principal conditions of that treaty were, that the United 1794. Provinces ceded Venloo and Maestricht to Belgium; and bound themselves to aid the French with twelve ships of the line, and eighteen frigates, and one half of the troops Martens. which they had under arms.1

Thus the whole weight of the war fell on Austria and Accident merely prevented the treaty of Bâle from being followed by a general revolution in Europe. Had Frederick-William been animated with the spirit of Frederick the Great, he would have negotiated with the olive branch in one hand and the sword in the other; and, supporting Holland, he would even have included it in the line of his military protection. By so doing, he would have risen to the rank not only of the mediator, but the arbiter of Europe, and been enabled to aspire to the glorious mission of balancing the dominion of the seas against Continental despotism. Whereas, the peace of Bâle, concluded in narrow views, and without any regard to the common cause, destroyed the personal character of Frederick-William, and stript the Prussian monarchy of its glorious reputation. We may add, that if, ten years afterwards, Prussia was precipitated in the abyss, it is to be imputed to its blind and obstinate adherence to the system of neutrality, which commenced with the treaty of Bâle. No one felt this more deeply, or expressed it more loudly, than the Prussian diplomatist who concluded that pacification."-PRINCE HARDENBERG'S Memoirs, iii. 150, 151. These able Memoirs, though written by the Count D'Allonville, were compiled from Prince Hardenberg's papers.

1 Jom. vii.

8, 16, 18.

Th. vii. 203.

CHAP.
XVIII.

1795.

4.

between

Great Bri

tain.

Great Britain. The former of these powers had suffered too much by the loss of the Low Countries to permit her to think of peace, while the disasters she had experienced had Fresh treaty not as yet been so great as to compel her to renounce the Austria and hope of regaining them: Mr Pitt, in the latter, was fully aware of the approaching danger, and indefatigable in his efforts to revive the confederacy. He met with a worthy ally in Thugut, who directed the cabinet of Vienna. On May 4, and the 4th May 1795, a treaty offensive and defensive was concluded between the two powers, by which Austria engaged to maintain 200,000 men in the field during the 1 Jom. vii. approaching campaign, and Great Britain to furnish a Hist. xxxii. subsidy of £6,000,000 sterling. The utmost efforts were tens, vi. 65. at the same time made to reinforce the Imperial armies on the Rhine.1

20.

15,16. Parl.

576. Mar

5.

Efforts of

Great Britain to maintain the war. Land and

The British government made exertions for the prosecution of the war more considerable than they had yet put forth, and seemed sensible that the national strength required to be more fully exerted now that the war Sea forces, approached her own shores. The naval force was augand supplies, mented to one hundred thousand seamen; one hundred and treaty with Russia. and eight ships of the line were put in commission, and the land forces raised to one hundred and fifty thousand men. The expenditure of the year, exclusive of the interest of the national debt, amounted to £27,000,000, of which £18,000,000 was raised by loan, and £3,500,000 by exchequer bills. New taxes to the amount of £1,600,000 2 Ann. Reg. were imposed,2 and, notwithstanding the most vehement p. 31, 33, debates on the conduct of the ministry, and the original expedience of the war, a large majority in parliament concurred in the necessity, now that the country were embarked in the contest, of prosecuting it with vigour. On the 18th February, an alliance offensive and defensive was concluded between Great Britain, Austria, and Russia. This important event, the first step towards the great and decisive share which the last-mentioned power ultimately took in the contest, was not, however, at first productive

45, 49.

Feb. 18.

XVIII.

1795.

of any results. The Empress Catherine, whose attention was wholly engrossed in securing the immense territories which had fallen to her by the partition of Poland, merely sent a fleet of twelve ships of the line, and eight frigates, to reinforce Admiral Duncan, who was cruising in the North Seas, to blockade the squadron recently acquired by France from the Dutch republic; but neither had vii. 11, 17. any opportunity of measuring their strength with the vi. 11. enemy.1

1 New Ann.

Reg. 31, 33,

45,49. Jom.

Martens,

in Great

against the

war.

A powerful and energetic party in Great Britain still 6. declaimed against the war as unjust and unnecessary, and Arguments viewed with secret complacency the triumphs of the Britain Republican forces. A secret belief that the cause of France was at bottom their own, led them to desire its success. It was urged in parliament, that the Revolutionary government in France being now overturned, and one professing moderation installed in its stead, the great object of the war was in fact at an end; that the continued disasters of the Allies proved the impossibility of forcing a government on that country contrary to the inclination of its inhabitants: that the confederacy was now practically dissolved, and the first opportunity should therefore be seized to conclude a contest from which no rational hopes of success any longer remained: that, if we continued fighting till the Bourbons were restored, it was impossible to see any end to the contest, or to the burden which would be imposed upon the country during its continuance that nothing but disaster had hitherto been experienced in the struggle; and if that was the case formerly, when all Europe was arrayed against the Republic, what might now be expected when Great Britain and Austria alone were left to continue the struggle, and the French power extended from the Pyrenees to the berforce's Speeches. Texel? that every consideration of safety and expedience, New Ann. therefore, recommended the speedy close of a contest, of Parl. Deb. doubtful policy in its commencement, and more than 242. doubtful justice in its principles.2

2 Mr Fox

and Mr Wil

Reg. 13, 14.

xxxii. 231,

CHAP.
XVIII.

1795.

7.

Mr Pitt's

reply.

Mr Pitt replied,-The object of the war was not to force the people of France to adopt any particular form of government, but merely to secure their neighbours from their aggression. Although there was great reason to fear that no security could be found for this till a monarchy was restored in that country, yet it was no part of the Allied policy to compel its adoption: the government of the French Republic was changed in form only, and not in spirit, and was as formidable as when the war was first provoked by the declamations of the Girondists: hostilities would again be commenced as soon as the military power of their enemies was dissolved, and the Allies would then find it as difficult a matter to reassemble their forces, as the French would now find it to dissolve theirs. It is highly improbable that the Republican government will be able to induce men accustomed to war and rapine to return to the peaceful occupations of life; and much more likely that they will find it necessary to employ them in schemes of ambition and plunder, to prevent them from turning their arms against domestic authority. War, however costly, at least gives to Great Britain security; and it would be highly impolitic to exchange this for the peril necessarily consequent upon a resumption of amicable relations with a country in such a state of political contagion. Peace would at once prove destructive to the French West India islands, by delivering them over to anarchy and Jacobinism, and from them the flame of servile revolt would speedily spread to our own colonial possessions in that quarter. Notwithstanding the great successes of the French on the Continent, the balance of conquest in the contest with Great Britain is decidedly in favour of this country: the losses of the Republicans in wealth and resources have been greater since the beginning of the war than those of all the Allies put together; the forced requisitions and assignats of the French, which have hitherto maintained the contest, cannot be continued without the severities of the Reign of Terror; and now is

XVIII.

1795.

the time, by vigorously continuing the contest, to compel CHAP. the Directory to augment their redundant paper currency, and thus accelerate the ruin which it is evident such a system must sooner or later bring on the financial resources of the country. Parliament by a large majority supported ministers in the prosecution of the war, in both 242, 251. houses of parliament.1

1 New Ann. Reg. p. 16,

17. Parl.

Deb. xxxii.

8.

crease in the

The internal feeling of Great Britain, notwithstanding the continued ill success of its arms on the Continent, Great inwas daily becoming more unanimous in favour of the war. patriotic The atrocities of the Jacobins had moderated the ardour spirit of the people. of many of the most enlightened of their early friends, and confirmed the hostility of almost all the moral and religious, as well as the opulent and influential classes; the spectacle of the numerous and interesting emigrant families, who had been reduced from the height of prosperity to utter destitution, awakened the compassion of the humane over the whole country; while the immense successes of the Republicans, and, above all, the occupation of Holland, excited the hereditary and ill-extinguished jealousy of the British people of their ancient rivals. Although, therefore, the division of parties continued most vehement, and the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act still invested the government with extraordinary powers, yet the feeling of the country was gradually becoming more united, and its passions, like those of a combatant who has been wounded in the strife, were p. 34, 42. waxing warmer with all the blood which it had lost.2

2 Ann. Reg.

state of

In France, on the other hand, the exhaustion con- 9. sequent upon a state of extraordinary and unparalleled Exhausted exertion was rapidly beginning to display itself. The France. system of the Convention had consisted in spending the capital of the country by means of confiscations, forced loans, and military requisitions; and the issue of assignats, supported by the Reign of Terror, had, beyond all former example, carried their designs into effect. But all such violent means of obtaining supplies can, from their very

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