hopeful. He wished to follow out the policy of the last war, and to form
a third coalition. But Bonaparte was engaged in almost the same process
in opposition to England, and the chances at first seemed all in favour
of the success of the French in this vast competition. By the Treaty of
Lunéville those German princes who had been dispossessed by the advance
of the French to the Rhine, and by the withdrawal of Tuscany from the
House of Austria, were to be indemnified at the expense of the
ecclesiastical principalities of the Empire. This arrangement might have
been carried out without much difficulty by the Germans themselves, but
the avarice of the great powers Prussia and Austria, and the difficulty
which the smaller princes found in obtaining their restitutions,
rendered mediation necessary, and by a strange act of folly the
arbitration of Bonaparte himself was sought. He had used this
opportunity to flatter Russia by suggesting that the Emperor should be
joined with himself in the duty of arbitration, to please Prussia by
unduly favouring its claims, and to foment all the rivalries of the
Germanic body. He had further, on the rupture of the Peace of Amiens,
suggested that some of the points at issue should be decided by the
arbitration of Russia, hoping thereby to silence for ever any complaints
Alexander might have to urge against him, so that neither that power nor
Prussia was disposed to be unfriendly to him, while Austria was
exhausted under the late heavy blow which had been dealt her, and much
occupied by the rivalry of the other German powers. But in spite of this
appearance of friendship of both Russia and Prussia for France there
were secret causes of hostility between them. Alexander had seen through
the somewhat barefaced attempt to purchase his favour by the offer of
the position of arbitrator, and while consenting to act as mediator, had
continued to urge the injustice of the conduct of the French with regard
both to Piedmont and to Germany. To such an extent had the angry
correspondence been carried, that a scene had taken place (July 29,
1803) between Bonaparte and the Russian ambassador very similar to that
with Lord Whitworth. With Prussia also the ambition of the first Consul
had prevented him from completing his work of conciliation. He had
displeased that Court by a persistent refusal to withdraw his troops
from Hanover. On the whole, the feeling of Lord Harrowby, when he
entered upon the plan of forming a coalition, was that his best hope lay
in the direction of Russia; but that all Europe would remain quiet till
the great invasion of England should either have destroyed that power
or by its repulse offer a favourable opportunity for assaulting France.
[Sidenote: Napoleon's conduct with regard to Georges' conspiracy.]
[Sidenote: Murder of the Duc d'Enghien. March 21, 1804.]
[Sidenote: Napoleon Emperor. May 18, 1804.]
Napoleon's own conduct went far to remove all expected difficulties. No
one could have played more completely into the hands of his enemies. A
conspiracy was set on foot against his Government by the royalists; it
was principally in the hands of Georges, the Breton leader, and of
General Pichegru. At the right moment the Count of Artois was to appear
upon the scene, and the Bourbons to be re-established. The police and
Bonaparte obtained early information of it. Bonaparte made use of his
knowledge to foster the conspiracy, and to implicate General Moreau,
whom he had always regarded as his rival since the battle of
Hohenlinden, and who appears to have been guilty only of having
consented to be reconciled to his old friend Pichegru, from whom
political differences had separated him. Although there is not the
slightest proof of the truth of the fact, it was asserted that the plan
included the assassination of the First Consul; and, determined to make
the most of his knowledge of the conspiracy, Bonaparte sent agents, who
entrapped two of our ministers abroad, Messrs. Drake and Spencer Smith,
into consenting to the conspiracy. Of the real plot they knew nothing,
but were led to believe in the existence of some royalist scheme and to
lend it their aid. Bonaparte then charged them publicly with having
joined in a plan of assassination, demanded, and ultimately (April 1804)
succeeded in procuring, their expulsion from Bavaria and Wurtemburg, and
sent to all the Courts of Europe a coarse and virulent attack upon the
English Government. The reply of Lord Hawkesbury (April 30)--for this
took place during the Addington ministry--to the effect that England had
the right, and would use the right, of taking advantage of the political
situation of countries with which she was at war, justified the conduct
of England in the eyes of all foreign powers, and excited a strong
feeling against the conduct of the Consul. The conspiracy was followed
by a still more startling act of violence. Unable to secure the person
of the Count of Artois, who received timely warning of the plot, and
burning to strike some blow against the Bourbons, Bonaparte, regardless
of the neutrality of the country, sent a body of troops into Baden,
there captured an innocent and unoffending Bourbon prince, the Duc
d'Enghien, son of the Prince of Condé, brought him into France, had him
summarily tried by a military tribunal, and immediately shot. The effect
of this great crime upon the crowned heads of Europe was instantaneous,
and was not decreased when Bonaparte threw off all mask of moderation,
and gave an outward form to the despotism he had long practised by
declaring himself Emperor. But there were still many difficulties to be
overcome before the Courts of Europe could be brought to see the
absolute necessity of forming a coalition. It required a whole year of
negotiation, and of further proofs of Napoleon's character, before
Pitt's object was attained.
[Sidenote: Lord Harrowby's retirement. Dec. 1804.]
[Sidenote: Addington rejoins the ministry.]
The loss of his able Foreign Minister added fresh difficulties to his
negotiations. In December 1804 Lord Harrowby was disabled by an
accidental fall, and had to resign the Foreign Office. His place was
supplied by Lord Mulgrave; but Pitt was made conscious of the weakness
of his ministry by the severe blow that the loss of one member of it was
to him. Addington, since his retirement from office, had been in open
opposition to the minister; but as their views were generally similar,
and the division between them had been entirely owing to the soreness
arising from the manner in which Addington had lost the premiership,
there seemed no reason for a further separation. Addington therefore
rejoined the ministry, taking the title of Lord Sidmouth and the office
of President of the Council, which the Duke of Portland was compelled by
ill health to resign. Pitt's majority was thus increased, although the
strength gained by the adhesion of Addington himself to his ministry was
not much.
[Sidenote: Spain joins France.]
While the negotiations for a coalition were continuing, England carried
on the war singlehanded, and before long such power as Spain possessed
was added to that of France. To support his vast expenditure Napoleon
demanded subsidies from foreign countries under his influence, and a
treaty had been made with Spain, now ruled entirely by Godoy, Prince of
the Peace, by which a considerable sum was annually paid to the French
exchequer. Although this was virtually an act of hostility to England,
the English ministry, aware of the weakness of Spain, had passed it over
in silence; but at the same time our minister, in February 1804,
declared that the preparation of any naval armaments in Spanish ports
would be regarded as a cause of war. In September the English admiral on
the coast of Spain notified the existence of such an armament in Ferrol;
a strong note was written to the Spanish minister, and ultimately the
English ambassador retired from Madrid in November, and in December war
was declared. But already in October, before the declaration of war,
the English had seized four treasure-ships, well knowing that the money
would sooner or later find its way into the hands of Napoleon. The
justice of the action was questioned; but, considering the declaration
of the preceding February, and the known fact that Spain paid subsidies
to France, the seizure seems to have been thoroughly justified.
[Sidenote: Failure of attempts to destroy Napoleon's fleet.]
While our enemy was thus strengthened by the open adhesion of a country
which could at least assist him with ships and convenient harbours, our
efforts to weaken his preparations for invasion, which were continually
being pushed on, were unavailing; descents were made upon the coast and
a few outlying boats captured; but the great attempt which was made in
October to destroy the flotilla produced no result. The expedition is
known as the Catamaran expedition. It was proposed by means of vessels
filled with combustibles to burn the flotilla in Boulogne harbour, but
when the fire-ships were sent in, they either failed to reach the
vessels, or a passage was made for them, and they drifted harmlessly
through.
[Sidenote: Success of the war in India against the Mahrattas.]
It was only outside the limits of Europe that the English showed a
decided superiority, and that great successes kept up the hope of both
ministry and people during this fearful period, when the arrival of
Bonaparte in England was daily expected, and when as yet all Europe
seemed to hold aloof from our alliance. Surinam had been conquered from
the Dutch, and in the year 1805 a great war was brought to a triumphant
conclusion in India. After the capture in 1799 of Seringapatam, the
capital of Tippoo Sahib, the ruler of Mysore, the territories of Mysore
had been divided by what is known as the Tripartite Treaty between the
English, the Nizam of the Deccan, and a descendant of the ancient Rajahs
of Mysore, whom Hyder Ali had dispossessed. By these new acquisitions
the English had come in contact with the great Mahratta power.
[Sidenote: Extent of the Mahratta empire.]
The great empire conquered by this warlike race, which had been founded
by Sivajee in the seventeenth century, extended from Delhi in the north
to the Tumbudra, a southern tributary of the Kistna on the south, and
from the Bay of Bengal on the east to Gujerat in the west. The authority
of the Rajah of Satara, nominal head of the race, had passed into the
hands of his minister the Peishwa, who resided at Poonah, in the Western
Ghauts. His authority had in turn become nominal, and the empire was
broken up among five great chiefs, of whom the Peishwa may be ranked as
one. The others were the Bonslah or Rajah of Berar, occupying the north
and east of the Deccan, and including Cuttack and the mouths of the
Mahanadi in his territories; Sindia, who occupied the north-west of the
Deccan and Kandesh, and whose property extended northwards through a
portion of Malwa as far as Delhi, of which he held possession, and
westward into Gujerat, where he had considerable property; Holkar, who
lay almost entirely in the Malwa, north of the Vindyha range of
mountains, to the east of Sindia, between him and Berar; and, lastly,
the Guicowar, who possessed in Gujerat all except those territories that
were in the hands of Sindia. He alone of the Mahratta chiefs preserved
neutrality during this great war. To the south of the Mahratta states
lay that part of the Deccan which was governed by the Nizam, now
tributary to the English; and south of his dominions, touching on its
north-west the southern extreme of the Mahratta country, was Mysore. All
three Presidencies were therefore in contact with one or other of the
Mahratta states.
[Sidenote: Lord Wellesley's subsidiary system.]
At the beginning of the century the Mahrattas were at war among
themselves, and Holkar, in his rivalry with Sindia, had thought it
advisable to expel the Peishwa from Poonah, and to set up a creature of
his own there. The deposed Peishwa sought an asylum among the English in
Bombay. The presence of the predatory chief Holkar in the south induced
the English to occupy their northern frontier in Mysore with an army of
observation. While things were in this position the Peishwa offered to
enter into a perpetual treaty with the English if they would reinstate
him in Poonah. Lord Wellesley was at this time Governor-General of
India. He had set on foot a policy which had been much opposed by the
authorities in the India House, and the support of which by Pitt had
been constantly assaulted by the Opposition. This policy is known as the
subsidiary system. It was found impossible, in the presence of the
native powers, naturally anxious to rid themselves of the English
conquerors, and certain to find ready assistance from the French, to
remain in a state of inaction. On the other hand, Wellesley did not
think it desirable or just to conquer and annex all the neighbouring
territories, which would in fact only have enlarged the sphere of
danger. He preferred to establish English influence, to oblige the
native rulers to enter into permanent treaties with him, to place the
political management of their provinces in the hands of a British
resident, to pay for the support of an army largely officered by
Europeans, while the native princes, at the same time, retained the
domestic government in their own hands. It is now generally allowed that
this was a wise system, but at the time the outcry against it was so
great, that even after the success of the Mahratta war Wellesley had in
fact to yield to it, and returned to England in 1805. While this policy,
however, was uppermost, such an offer as that of the Peishwa was certain
to be accepted, and at the end of 1802, by the Treaty of Bassein, the
English accepted the friendship of the Peishwa, and undertook to restore
him.
[Sidenote: Outbreak of the Mahratta war. 1803.]
The threatening attitude of the English compelled the Mahratta chiefs
for a time to lay aside their private enmities, and Holkar, Sindia, and
the Rajah of Berar made common cause against the invaders. What rendered
this coalition more formidable was, that Sindia had established in the
Douab, or district lying between the Jumna and the Ganges, a French
state in the hands of a certain M. Perron, in which there was a
considerable number of troops drilled in the European fashion, and
officered by Frenchmen, while in the south, the neighbourhood of
Pondicherry, which had been restored to France by the Peace of Amiens,
gave an opening to that power to interfere should war again break out in
Europe. The first act of the war was rapidly and successfully carried
out. General Wellesley marched, in the spring of 1803, from the frontier
of Mysore, was joined by Colonel Stevenson with the Nizam's army from
Hyderabad, recaptured Poonah on the 20th of April, and by the middle of
May had reinstated the Peishwa. The General at that time believed that
all disputes with the Mahratta powers would be settled by negotiation.
It before long became evident that on the part of the Mahrattas these
negotiations were a feint, and that the three chiefs, with their French
allies on the north, were still determined to fight, and had designs
upon the territories of the subsidiary Prince, the Nizam, who was at the
point of death. To withstand this great confederacy a large and
well-combined plan of operations was made. To secure unity of action,
General Wellesley was invested with supreme authority in the Deccan,
General Lake was given similar powers in the valley of the Ganges, while
secondary attacks were directed against Sindia's territories in Gujerat
under the command of Colonel Murray, and against the Bonslah's province
of Cuttack under Colonel Harcourt. The confederation was thus assaulted
simultaneously at four points. In the meantime the rupture of the Peace
of Amiens had become known. Pondicherry was carefully watched, and
French troops recently landed there taken prisoners.
[Sidenote: Battle of Assye. Sept. 23, 1803.]
[Sidenote: Battle of Argaum.]
[Sidenote: Subsidiary treaties with Sindia and Berar.]
In August General Wellesley left Poonah, Colonel Stevenson acting in
correspondence with him further to the east. He marched direct to
Ahmednuggur, which he captured, crossed the Godavery river, and arrived
at Aurungabad. Meanwhile Sindia had fallen back northward, and in
September the two English commanders joined their forces a little to the
east of Aurungabad, and advanced to meet him. Sindia's forces,
reinforced by sixteen battalions officered by Frenchmen, lay not far
from Assye on the river Kaitna; between them and the English extended a
range of hills; to prevent their escape the English commanders
separated--Stevenson marching by the eastern, Wellesley by the western
end of the range. When Wellesley heard that the enemy were moving off,
he determined upon an attack without waiting for Stevenson's arrival. To
get at the enemy it was necessary to cross the river which was on his
right; although assured by his guide that it was impassable, he
conjectured the existence of a passage from the appearance of two
villages immediately opposite each other on the two banks of the river.
He found his conjecture was correct, and his troops, when they had
crossed the river, exactly occupied the space between that and another
stream on which Assye stands. His two flanks were thus covered. He there
with 4500 men entirely defeated Sindia's army, numbering more than
30,000. At the close of the day he found himself in possession of nearly
100 cannon and the whole of the camp equipage. The General mentioned it
afterwards as the bloodiest battle for the numbers that he ever saw; the
killed and wounded among the English amounting to more than 1500, a
third of their entire force. The Mahratta army separated into two
divisions, one division under the Rajah of Berar retiring westward as
though to attack Poonah. Leaving Stevenson, therefore, to follow the
northern division under Sindia, Wellesley hastened in pursuit of the
Rajah. Sindia, being close pressed by Stevenson, begged for a truce; but
as it was found that his troops were still serving in the army of the
Rajah of Berar, and that the truce was merely deceptive, the pursuit was
recommenced, and the enemy brought to a final engagement on the plain of
Argaum, where they were again entirely defeated. The war in the Deccan
was closed by the capture, by the combined armies, of Gawulgur, near the
sources of the Taptee river. Two days afterwards, on the 17th of
December, the Rajah of Berar submitted, and before the end of the month
Sindia also consented to treat. By these treaties the province of
Cuttack was annexed to the English possessions, Sindia was driven
entirely from the Deccan, and lost some strong places in the Douab. Both
princes entered into subsidiary arrangements, and promised to admit no
foreigners but English to their confidence.
[Sidenote: Lake's successes in the Douab.]
[Sidenote: Conclusion of the war. 1805.]
These treaties were the consequence of the combined campaigns of
Wellesley and Lake; for during the brilliant campaign of Assye in the
Deccan, Lake had been carrying on war with equal success in the valley
of the Ganges. The French province in the Douab had given but little
trouble. Perron had retired from one of his fortresses, Coel, without
fighting; his second stronghold, Alleghur, had been captured; his troops
had indeed remained to fight, but he had himself surrendered to the
English. The capture of Alleghur had been followed by a great victory
over the Mahrattas within sight of Delhi. Lake had entered that capital,
restored the aged Shah Allum to the Mogul throne, and attached to the
English by so doing the whole Mahommedan population of India. He had won
further victories at Muttra and Agra on the Jumna, and finally, on the
1st of November, at the same time that Wellesley was carrying out the
pursuit which preceded the battle of Argaum, won the great battle of
Laswari. The secondary attacks had been no less successful. While Murray
had captured Baroach and subjugated the rest of Sindia's possessions in
Gujerat, Harcourt had secured Cuttack at the mouths of the Mahanadi and
the great temple of Juggernaut. The subsidiary treaties signed at the
close of the year were the consequences of this series of victories. In
reward for their services Lake was raised to the Peerage and Wellesley
made a Knight of the Bath. Holkar alone remained unsubdued. The
following year, 1804, he was again in arms, and though thoroughly
defeated by General Lake, succeeded in obtaining the support of the
Rajah of Berhampoor, and prolonged the war till the close of the year
1805.
[Sidenote: Sad close of Pitt's career.]
The success in India was no doubt of great importance both in sustaining
the courage of the people and in cheering the last days of Pitt; but he
was not destined to close his life in happiness and triumph. He lived,
indeed, long enough to see the great coalition for which he had been
working completed, and to receive the adhesion to it of Russia, Austria,
Sweden, and Naples; he lived long enough to see the English again
triumphant upon the ocean, to hear the news of the greatest victory
which had ever attended their arms, and to rejoice at the dispersion of
the threatening cloud which for more than a year had hung over the
country. But he also lived just long enough to see, as far as his
foreign policy was concerned, the whole of his careful structure dashed
to pieces, and the complete triumph of his arch enemy at the battle of
Austerlitz.
[Sidenote: Attack on Lord Melville.]
[Sidenote: Naval inquiries. Feb. 1805.]
[Sidenote: Vote of censure against Melville. April 8, 1805.]