envoys to the Congress of Rastadt, excited the French to fresh energy.
Schérer was replaced by Moreau. Macdonald, who was holding Naples,
hastened to his assistance, and all the armies in the centre were placed
in Massena's hands. But Suwarrow, a semi-barbarian, who had never yet
been conquered, had arrived to take the command in Italy. He pressed on
with great rapidity and success. Moreau was beaten at Cassano (April
27), and fell back behind the Po. He again retired in the direction of
Genoa in order to form a junction with Macdonald coming from Naples.
Suwarrow was thus able to leave him behind him and threaten the French
frontier; the advance of Macdonald however across the Apennines obliged
him to turn. He fell upon that general, and after a three days' battle
upon the Trebia, beat him, and turned rapidly upon Moreau, who had
advanced to Novi, and had there formed a junction with the broken army
of Naples. But both Macdonald and Moreau, as unsuccessful generals, were
removed, and Joubert was given the command. On the 18th of August,
Suwarrow attacked the French at Novi, Joubert was killed, and his troops
completely routed. Italy was thus lost to the French; for in Naples
Cardinal Ruffo had raised the Calabrians, and with the assistance of the
English fleet both Naples and Rome were regained to the coalition. It
was on this occasion that Nelson committed that act which is the great
blot upon his name. He had become infatuated with Lady Hamilton, wife
of the English minister, through whose influence his fleet had been
provisioned before the battle of the Nile, and who was devoted heart and
soul to the execrable Government of the Bourbons, exercised practically
by the Queen, a sister of Marie Antoinette. To please the Court, Nelson,
who arrived at Naples just as the French and Republicans had completed a
capitulation with Cardinal Ruffo, broke off the completed negotiation,
and insisted upon the Republicans capitulating without terms. They were
thus handed over to the cruel vengeance of the Court. 30,000 patriots
were thrown into prison, and for six months all those who had taken the
least part in establishing the Republic were continually exposed to the
danger of execution.
[Sidenote: The coalition captures the Dutch fleet.]
The disasters of the French were to have been completed by a combined
attack of English and Russians upon the other extremity of their line.
On the 22nd of August, a few days after the battle of Novi, the Duke of
York, with 30,000 men, disembarked at the Helder, to advance upon
Amsterdam. The defence of the country was intrusted to Brune, but the
allies succeeded in landing, and captured the whole Dutch fleet in the
Texel. At this moment the hopes of the allies were very high, and the
French, worsted abroad and full of discontent at home, seemed on the
verge of destruction.
[Sidenote: Napoleon defeated at Acre. May 21, 1799.]
The news that Bonaparte had been defeated at Acre added still further to
their depression. To complete his dreams of Eastern conquest, and to
forestall the attacks of an army gathering on that side, Bonaparte had
marched into Syria. He won the battle of El Arish, took Joppa, where he
massacred his prisoners, and advanced as far as Acre at the foot of
Mount Carmel. The fortress, which was held by Djezzar, lately a robber,
now a Pacha, was not in itself strong, but the French operations were
rendered slow by the fortunate capture of their battering train by Sir
Sidney Smith, the English commodore. After fifty days a breach was made,
but the brilliant example of Sir Sidney Smith and his sailors, who
entered the town, encouraged the Turkish garrison to a desperate
resistance, which rendered all efforts at assault vain; Bonaparte had to
retreat disappointed. "Had it not been for Djezzar," he said, "I might
have been Emperor of the East." His retreat was marked by another act of
cruelty; he ordered his sick at Joppa to be poisoned. With a broken army
he regained Egypt, but he was still in a condition to beat the Turks
near Alexandria, at what the French call the battle of Aboukir; but
while thus victorious, he heard news of affairs in Europe which led him
to think that the pear was at length ripened. He slipped secretly from
his army, accompanied by his four friends, Berthier, Lannes, Murat, and
Marmont, and set sail for France, leaving the army under the command of
Kleber.
[Sidenote: Jealousies and disasters of the coalition.]
Before Napoleon arrived the danger of France from without had
disappeared. Jealousy had arisen between the Austrians and the Russians,
which was not likely to be soothed by the rough behaviour of Suwarrow or
the palpable self-seeking of the Court of Vienna. It became necessary to
rearrange the commands. The war in Switzerland was to be intrusted to
Suwarrow, who was to march thither and effect a junction with his
Lieutenant Korsakoff, who was already in the country. But before the
junction could be effected Massena annihilated the army of Korsakoff at
the battle of Zurich (Sept. 26), and when Suwarrow had forced his way
over the St. Gotthard Pass, he found himself in the midst of hostile
armies instead of meeting his friends. He turned suddenly to the right,
and making an extraordinary march among the glaciers and peaks of the
Alps, he succeeded in reaching Coire in safety. Believing himself
betrayed by the Austrians, he refused to serve again, and retired to
Russia, where he died in disgrace. Nor had the Duke of York been more
successful in Holland. The character of the country rendered it very
difficult to advance, while the want of discipline of the Russians on
the right wing entailed a defeat before Bergen. The town was indeed
afterwards taken, but loss in battle and by ill health, and the want of
all signs of co-operation on the part of the inhabitants, induced the
English to sign what must be considered a disgraceful convention at
Erckmar, by which they agreed to withdraw from Holland, and give over
10,000 French prisoners without exchange; the English however kept
possession of the Dutch fleet.
[Sidenote: Success in India against Tippoo Sahib and the French.]
In India the English arms had been more successful. The intrigues of
Tippoo with the French having been clearly discovered, and efforts at
friendly arrangement having proved vain, General Harris, with a
considerable army, was ordered in February 1799 to march upon
Seringapatam. The Governor-General at this time was Lord Mornington,
brother of the Duke of Wellington, who himself, as Colonel Arthur
Wellesley, was one of the leaders of the expedition. After two
successful skirmishes, General Harris appeared before the capital, which
was a strong city well prepared for a siege. In about a month the place
was taken by assault and Tippoo himself killed. This success placed the
whole kingdom of Mysore, with a large amount of treasure, in the hands
of the conquerors.
[Sidenote: Napoleon returns, and is made First Consul. Nov. 11, 1799.]
On his return to Paris (Oct. 16), therefore, Bonaparte found himself in
a position to carry out his plans for personal aggrandizement; and
though the great danger from foreign enemies had disappeared, the
interior of France offered him every opportunity for laying hands on the
Government. It was not forgotten that during his absence the safety of
the Republic had been risked, and its hard-won victories rendered
useless; and as the incapacity of their present rulers had been even
more obvious at home than abroad, all eyes turned to him as the natural
saviour of the State. Moreover, now that the first fervour of
revolutionary energy had worn itself out, the bulk of the nation desired
order, even though earned at the expense of liberty. Of the two Councils
that of the Ancients was decidedly inclined in favour of a more settled
Government, and it was through it that Napoleon determined to work. The
Council of Five Hundred was more difficult to deal with. For a moment
Napoleon shrunk before their patriotic and republican cries, but, urged
by the Abbé Sièyes, who pressed him to action, crying, "They have put
you outside the law, do you put them outside their hall," he recovered
courage, and his Grenadiers, entering the hall with beating drums,
quietly extruded the representatives. Thus was accomplished the great
_coup d'état_ of the 18th Brumaire (Nov. 9). The Directory was
destroyed; a new constitution, spoken of as the Constitution of the year
8, was established, by which the executive power was vested nominally in
three consuls, but really in the First Consul, Bonaparte, who thus
became practically Dictator. His measures were anti-revolutionary, his
object being to restore confidence and to heal faction. With his
thoughts thus turned to the reorganization of France, he desired to be
free for the present from foreign wars, and one of his earliest steps
was to make overtures with the continental powers. To England he made
proposals of peace in a letter addressed immediately to the King (Dec.
25). This was of course a grave breach of the etiquette of courts, and
the letter was answered by Grenville in anything but a conciliatory
spirit, while the whole blame of the war was thrown upon the French,
with whom the English minister declined to enter into negotiations so
long as the Government was in the hands of those "whom the Revolution
had so recently placed in the exercise of power." Some more
correspondence ensued, but the English ministers positively refused to
treat. It is certain that Napoleon's offer was merely to gain time; on
the other hand, the dictatorial tone of Grenville's reply could not but
be very irritating to the French.
[Sidenote: Napoleon regains the North of Italy.]
[Sidenote: Napoleon's victories.]
The weary war therefore continued, and before the year was over the
position of affairs abroad had so changed that England was no longer
able to maintain the haughty tone which had been adopted. War in the
hands of Bonaparte was a very different thing from war in the hands of
the Directory. In April the French were again across the Rhine, and the
Austrians driven behind the Inn; while in Italy, though Genoa, the last
town in the possession of the French, surrendered, its danger was turned
to immediate advantage by Bonaparte. Under pretence of collecting an
army for its relief, he massed his troops in the neighbourhood of Dijon,
and while all eyes were directed towards the siege, he suddenly pushed
across the Great St. Bernard and appeared at Ivrea on the rear of the
besieging army. Melas, who commanded the Austrians, at length perceived
his danger. He ordered Otto, his lieutenant, to raise the siege, with
the intention of concentrating his troops; his orders were disregarded,
and Genoa was taken, but the delay was fatal. It gave time for Bonaparte
to re-establish the Cisalpine Republic, and, turning backwards, to place
himself between Melas and Mantua, whither that general was now anxious
to withdraw. A decisive battle was brought on before Alessandria, from
which stronghold the Austrians advanced, on the 14th of June, against
the French on the plains of Marengo. The Austrians, more numerous than
the French, had apparently won the battle, and by three o'clock the
whole French army had retreated. Melas withdrew to rest, leaving what he
believed to be a pursuit in the hands of General Zach; but the French
army, reinforced by the reserves, and headed by Desaix, made a great
final effort. The Austrians, who had advanced too rashly in the
eagerness of their pursuit, were unable to withstand his charge; they
broke, and their victory was changed into a disastrous defeat. On the
following day, with the victorious army in his front, and the liberated
garrison of Genoa in his rear, the Austrian general, seeing no hope,
entered into a convention, called the Convention of Alessandria, by
which the greater part of North Italy was surrendered to the French.
[Sidenote: Battle of Hohenlinden. Dec. 2, 1800.]
[Sidenote: Treaty of Lunéville. Feb. 9, 1801.]
An attempt was made to change this Convention into a more general peace,
and a Congress was held for this purpose at Lunéville, but the English
Cabinet was much divided in its own views, the Austrian Government acted
with extreme duplicity, and Napoleon demanded a separate treaty with the
two belligerent powers, which Austria, knowing its weakness when
separate from England, was afraid to grant. The Congress came to
nothing, and in November the army under Moreau renewed the campaign. The
Austrians were determined to hold the line of the Inn, but their troops,
very badly commanded by Archduke John, were attacked in the forest of
Hohenlinden, and sustained a crushing defeat. Their loss is put at
25,000 men and 100 guns. There could no longer be any question in the
matter, and the Emperor had no choice, if he would save his capital, but
to sue for a separate peace. By the Treaty of Lunéville (Feb. 9, 1801)
the frontier of the Rhine was again ceded to France.
[Sidenote: Russia deserts the coalition.]
It needed but a breach with Russia to leave England singlehanded in
opposition to France. The Emperor Paul, but little removed from madness,
had seen with disgust the defeat of his troops in Switzerland, and
believed that in the joint expedition to Holland his army had been
wilfully sacrificed. He was also smitten with extreme admiration for the
genius of Bonaparte, who took care to flatter this feeling and to
intrigue against English influence. The old question of the right of
search gave Paul a pretext to break with his allies. The doctrine of the
English, accepted generally as the law of nations, was that a
belligerent had the right of searching neutral ships for contraband of
war or for property of the enemy. The Northern powers claimed that the
neutral flag should cover the cargo, with the exception of contraband of
war. This had been their view for many years, and, as has been
mentioned, gave rise to the Armed Neutrality of 1780.[15] This view they
had not been able to enforce, but it was quite an open question whether
ships under convoy of a man-of-war could be searched. On this point the
English and the Danes twice came into collision; but during the summer
of 1800 an amicable arrangement had been arrived at. Paul however
refused to let the matter drop; he took it up as an injury to the whole
Northern powers, laid an embargo upon all English property in Russia,
made prisoners 300 merchant seamen, and renewed the Armed Neutrality,
which was joined willingly by Sweden, and under pressure by Denmark
also. The English Government at once retaliated by an embargo on the
property of the allied nations; and England was thus left completely
singlehanded, for her allies in the south of Europe were much too weak
to afford her any assistance, while her maritime superiority seemed
seriously compromised by the action of the Baltic powers.
[Sidenote: Internal condition of England.]
Nor was it only abroad that danger seemed impending. The condition of
the country was rendered miserable both by heavy taxes and by the
pressure of two years of scarcity. Corn had risen to the unprecedented
price of 120 shillings the quarter, a price which could not possibly
have been maintained under any reasonable system of political economy.
But at this time it was held in the last degree dangerous to admit corn
from abroad, partly because it was thought that a nation should trust to
its own resources for the prime necessaries of life, partly because it
was believed that a diminution of gold and silver, which must inevitably
follow from large importations, was a disastrous thing for the nation.
Nor was this all, the arrangements of the poor law were such that it
became necessary to maintain high prices in the agricultural districts.
The received opinion was that the increase of population, irrespective
of the powers of employing it, was a distinct advantage. Premiums were
given for early marriages, and assistance granted from the rates in
proportion to the numbers in a family. The natural tendency was a
fearful increase of population, depending for the most part on the
rates, which were therefore inordinately high. It thus became possible
for the farmers to pursue the plan they have always regarded as most
conducive to their interests, and to drive down the wages to the lowest
point; the people were reduced to a condition little above serfdom; and
to enable the agricultural districts to support the pressure of the
rates high prices had to be maintained. The condition of the country
districts was thus kept tolerably even, and the burden of the high
prices fell almost exclusively upon the industrious population of the
towns. It was natural that a House of Commons returned chiefly by the
landowners should favour protective duties, which thus rendered them at
once absolute masters of their peasantry and threw the burden of their
increased expenditure upon the towns. But such a state of things
produced much suffering, and suffering produced riots, which the folly
and ignorance of the judges increased. From the Lord Chief Justice
downwards, they seemed to have combined to throw the blame upon the corn
factors, whom they charged with the obsolete crimes of forestalling and
engrossing. Punishment was indeed inflicted for the crime of buying corn
and selling it at a higher price in the same market. The people
naturally took their cue from these blind leaders, and corn riots were
very prevalent. It is of course plain that whatever tends to the
husbanding of resources and to the equalization of prices is really
advantageous, and that the corn factors, in carrying out the law of
supply and demand, were a most useful set of men.
[Sidenote: Autumn session. Oct. 1800.]
To meet these difficulties Pitt thought it expedient to have an autumn
session. He was himself inclined to think that some extraordinary
measures were desirable to alleviate the distress, and in the existing
state of the law he was perhaps right. But Grenville, a more rigid
follower of the principles of political economy, was much opposed to any
tampering with the natural laws of supply and demand.[16] When
Parliament met the action of the judges was gravely censured, and
several remedial measures were introduced, such as bounties on
importation of grain, and the prohibition of the use of corn in
distilling and starch making, and (though this proved a useless and
pernicious measure) of the use of any but brown bread. Large
subscriptions were also made to alleviate the distress.
[Sidenote: Pitt proposes a Catholic Relief Bill. 1801.]
[Sidenote: Pitt resigns. Addington Prime Minister. 1801.]
The Parliament which assembled early the following year (1801) was the
first united Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland, and but a few days
of its existence had elapsed before a great and most unexpected change
took place in the position of affairs. There had long been a want of
harmony among the members of the Cabinet with regard to the war; but
there had now arisen an even more formidable question. The union had
been effected by much bribery in money, titles, and places; these
promises had all been fulfilled. But there was one section of the Irish
whose opposition would have been fatal to the measure, but to which such
promises could not be made. The tacit support, or at all events
neutrality, of the Irish Roman Catholics had been secured by a vague but
very well-understood promise that their claims should be considered
under the new arrangement. It is certain that both Castlereagh and
Cornwallis understood that this was so, and Pitt felt it an imperative
duty to make an effort to fulfil this promise. The matter had been
talked over in the Cabinet as early as the autumn of 1799, and was
formally discussed in the presence of Lord Castlereagh at the end of
September 1800. The Chancellor, Lord Loughborough, was at that time in
attendance upon the King at Weymouth. He was a man of a base and
time-serving nature. At this Cabinet he displayed his hostility to any
measure for the relief of the Catholics, and used his opportunity to
instill into the King's mind that to consent to any such measure would
be a breach of his coronation oath. In this he was backed up by Lord
Auckland, who had always been a friend of Pitt's, but who was inclined
to underhand intrigue, and did not think it beneath him to prejudice the
King's mind against Pitt's policy. Matters were brought to a crisis
when, at a levée in the beginning of 1801, the King mentioned openly to
Dundas that he was aware that such a measure was in contemplation,
adding his usual formula, that he "should hold any one who supported it
as his personal enemy." It became plain to Pitt that he could hesitate
no longer, and although the King sent Addington the Speaker, a personal
friend of Pitt's, to persuade him not to bring the matter forward, he
sent a letter to George declaring his intention and his determination to
resign if he was not allowed to fulfil his promises to the Irish. The
King wrote back urging him to remain in office and to drop the measure,
but Pitt was determined, and the King was forced to accept his
resignation. In his place he desired Addington, a man of very
second-rate ability, to form a ministry, a duty which, on the advice of
Pitt, he accepted. The resignation of the great minister, as it was only
personal, did not imply the resignation of the whole ministry, but all
the great members of it, Grenville, Dundas, Windham, and Spencer,
retired with him. It is pleasant to think that Lord Loughborough's
duplicity received no reward, he was excluded from the new arrangements,
Lord Eldon, at the King's own request, became Lord Chancellor, and
Loughborough had to content himself with the earldom of Rosslyn.
[Sidenote: Illness of the King.]
[Sidenote: Character of the Addington ministry.]
The shock of parting with a minister he had so long trusted brought on a
renewal of the King's insanity, and measures were taken for a regency
under the same restrictions that Pitt had before insisted upon. George
was at this time so popular that even the Opposition treated him in his
illness with every consideration. His popularity, the natural
consequence of his well-ordered domestic life, had been considerably
increased by an attempt in the preceding year on his life. When entering
Drury Lane Theatre a man had risen in the pit and discharged a pistol at
him, two bullets passing a very little above his head. The miscreant who
made the attempt was a lunatic of the name of Hadfield. The King, always
remarkable for his personal courage, had displayed great calmness under
the circumstances, and the loyalty of the nation had been much excited.
Fortunately, under Dr. Willis's treatment, his illness was speedily
mastered, and in the beginning of March he was declared convalescent.
But his illness, which he himself traced to Pitt's conduct, had such an
effect upon that statesman, that he wrote promising never to reintroduce
the Catholic question. His friends did not see why, under these
circumstances, he should not remain in office, but Addington naturally
objected to giving up the place he had just gained, and the Government
continued in his hands, supported by a Cabinet of complete mediocrity,
upheld for the present by Pitt's influence. It was indeed just such a
minister and Cabinet as suited the King's well-known views--safe,
conservative, submissive, and without commanding ability. Nor did the
great country party object to a change which freed them from the
imperious domination of one so vastly their superior as Pitt, and placed
over them a man whose talents were not superior to their own, and whom
they might hope to guide rather than follow. Though Pitt acted honestly
in the first instance, it is only too probable that he regarded
Addington as a temporary substitute for himself, and designed to return
to power after the present difficulty was over, and when he had made a
public demonstration for the purpose of saving his honour. However this
may be, his somewhat lukewarm support was before long changed into open
enmity. At first, however, he spoke with even exaggerated admiration of
the new Cabinet, which in the House was completely successful, while
great successes both by sea and land somewhat relieved the nation from
its embarrassing position.
[Sidenote: The French army in Egypt.]
[Sidenote: Battle of Alexandria. March 21, 1801.]