Berlin, May 25th, 1799.
MY DEAREST BROTHER,
My last letters from Cleveland Row have, thank God, brought you
back safe and sound to your own fireside and to the many who share
the comforts of it with you; it cannot, I presume, be very long
before I may reckon myself of that number, although as I do not
like to do anything by halves, I consider myself as liable to duty
as long there is any fair demand to be made upon me. You will have
heard from William all that was to be heard of our hopes and of our
disappointments, and you will know likewise from him that our stock
of those articles is not yet exhausted, although the briskness of
the market is a little affected by the absence of the King. The
Berlin reviews being over, he has begun a military progress, which
will carry him through Brunswick, Minden and Wesel to Cassel and to
Anspach, and after various reviews in those places he will return
to Potsdam in the first week of July.
Whether in the first of these places, or in the last, or in any of
them, he will have determined to take his part with us, remains to
be decided, and it will be less hazardous to abide the event than
to pretend to foretel it. It is certain that the inclination to war
has grown very much of late among all the thinking men in the
country, and the regular Ministers have agreed in recommending it
very strongly to the King; the disinclination to it is chiefly
found in the confidential aides-de-camp and the subordinate
characters, whose familiar habits with the King enable them to
exercise a very governing influence upon him.
The King himself is, I believe, of a very well-disposed and honest
character; his inclinations are English, and his personal respect
for the King of England is very striking; his suspicion and dislike
of the French is also beyond all question, and there are so many
ingredients in his situation and character that should lead him to
an open declaration against France, that it is not easy to account
for the different line which he pursues; it must, however, be
attributed to the influence of the very weak persons who are in
familiar confidence with him, and to his being too diffident in
himself to decide upon the important measure of engaging Prussia in
war. I am, however, inclined to believe that such will at last be
his decision, though there is too much hesitation in his own mind
to give us any solid ground of reliance until he shall be
completely embarked.
Meantime, all is going on prosperously under the active exertions
of Suwaroff, who is daily hemming in and menacing Turin, and who
has now advanced to Chivasso, and has detached Kaim with a
considerable force to the Valais. The general opinion here is that
the French will evacuate Switzerland whenever their line at
Luceinsteig and Coire is forced, and some accounts to-day seem to
announce that event as having happened.
Moreau, with seventeen thousand men, is at Alexandria, and I
suppose the Naples army will try to join him, although Macdonald
will find that junction rather difficult to accomplish.
We are all still waiting in anxious expectation for news of the
fleet. The Ministers here think the Mediterranean is the object,
and to me it seems not unlikely that they may pursue that object,
and at the same time detach to Ireland.
God bless you, dearest brother.
The occupation which was given by the Austrians and Russians to the
French troops in Italy and Germany, appearing to offer a favourable
opportunity to rescue Holland from the hands of the republicans, an
expedition, under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby, set sail from
England on the 13th of August, and disembarked off the Helder. On the
30th, the Dutch fleet surrendered, and hoisted the Orange flag. In
order, probably, to give more weight and effect to a mission which had
for its object the restoration of the Stadtholder, it was proposed that
Lord Grenville should undertake an embassy to Holland, and that Mr.
Thomas Grenville (who had in the interim returned home) should proceed
to St. Petersburg.