mist of misfortune hung over the last years of his home government. The
man on whom he most relied in the ministry was his old friend Lord
Melville, who had fairly justified his confidence by the energy and
success with which he had reconstituted the navy. It was through him
that the Opposition found means to inflict a deadly blow upon the
minister. Lord St. Vincent, though his general administration had been
weak, had been laudably anxious to improve the condition of the
Admiralty, especially in regard to its expenses. He had therefore
established a commission of naval inquiry, which from time to time sent
in its reports. The last of these, the tenth, had been sent in in
February 1805. Even before its publication it was understood to reflect
upon Lord Melville's conduct as Treasurer of the Navy, an office which
he had held along with several others in Pitt's first administration. On
one point he had certainly shown remissness. He had allowed Mr. Trotter,
Paymaster of the Navy, to pay public money to his own account at his
banker's, and to use it as his own. No loss had accrued to the State in
consequence; but no doubt it was a highly censurable misapplication of
public funds. But beyond this, it was asserted that Lord Melville had
himself acted in a similar way, and undoubtedly there were certain sums
unaccounted for. Lord Melville's own account of this matter was, that
since his retirement from office he had destroyed all old vouchers; but
that even if he possessed them, as he at that time held various offices,
and did not keep the accounts entirely separate, he would not have been
able to give a satisfactory account without disclosing confidential
transactions of Government. This no doubt meant that the money had been
employed for some secret service; but his enemies did not scruple to say
that he had appropriated it to his own uses. Upon the report Mr.
Whitbread founded a parliamentary attack upon Melville, and gave notice
that he would bring in a vote of censure upon the 8th of April.
Government had now to determine what they would do. Pitt and his own
immediate friends, entirely disbelieving the charge against Melville,
resolved to withstand it openly. But there was a division in his own
Cabinet. Lord Sidmouth and Melville were great enemies, and, declaring
that he regarded it as impossible for Melville to clear himself,
Sidmouth warned Pitt that if he persisted in defending him he should be
obliged to resign. As this would have been complete ruin, Pitt yielded
to a middle course, and determined to request that the inquiry might be
referred to a select committee. On the 8th the great debate came on. It
was plain that the question would rest with the votes of the independent
members, and when Wilberforce, whose character carried great weight,
declared that he must support the vote of censure, those members who
were pledged to neither party were induced to follow his lead. The
anxious moment for division arrived, and the numbers were declared to be
equal--216 having voted on either side. The Speaker was then called upon
to give his casting vote. The scene is thus described by Lord
Fitzharris:--"I sat wedged close to Pitt himself the night when we were
216; and the Speaker Abbot, after looking as white as a sheet, and
pausing for ten minutes, gave the casting vote against us. Pitt
immediately put on the little cocked hat that he was in the habit of
wearing when dressed for the evening, and jammed it deeply over his
forehead, and I distinctly saw the tears trickling down his cheeks. We
had heard one or two, such as Colonel Wardle, say they would see 'how
Billy looked after it.' A few young ardent followers of Pitt, with
myself, locked their arms together and formed a circle, in which he
moved, I believe unconsciously, out of the House, and neither the
Colonel nor his friends could approach him." The Opposition were not
content with the vote of censure; although Melville at once resigned his
office, Whitbread proceeded to move an address to the King that he
should be removed from the King's Councils and presence for ever. The
feeling of the House did not justify so extreme a measure, and the
motion was withdrawn. But before long the minister thought it necessary
so far to yield to public opinion as to have Lord Melville's name
withdrawn from the Privy Council.
[Sidenote: Sidmouth resigns. July 7.]
[Sidenote: Parliament prorogued. July 12, 1805.]
The disagreement between Pitt and Sidmouth upon Lord Melville's conduct
terminated in the withdrawal of the Lord President and his followers
from the ministry. On the appointment of Sir Charles Middleton, a very
old man, to the Admiralty, in which he had been the constant assistant
of Melville, Sidmouth took the opportunity of expressing his displeasure
and resigned. The charge against Lord Melville was pressed to
impeachment. He delivered a defence before the House of Commons, but it
was not regarded as satisfactory. The House of Lords were therefore
called upon to decide the question, and when it subsequently came to the
vote (June 12, 1806) a very large majority, on all the charges, declared
the prisoner not guilty. But Pitt did not live to hear either this
declaration of the innocence of his friend or to suffer from the
desertion of his colleague Sidmouth. The impeachment was not carried up
to the Bar of the House of Lords till the 26th of June; on the 12th of
July Parliament was prorogued, and Pitt did not live to see the opening
of another session.
[Sidenote: Progress of the war. 1804.]
While misfortune was thus following the minister in Parliament, his
great plans of European policy had been continued and had at last met
with success. In fact, in this matter Napoleon had been his best ally,
and had been gradually forcing the great powers of Europe into
hostility. The ill feeling which had arisen between the Emperor
Alexander and Bonaparte in the preceding year had been increased by
subsequent events, and the Czar had been gradually taking up a position
of more defined hostility. On the 24th of May 1804, he contracted a
defensive alliance with Prussia, though not intending immediate war if
it could be avoided. The murder of the Duc d'Enghien and the violation
of neutral territory had forced him further in the same direction. So
strongly had he resented this act, that it was through his
representations to the Diet of Ratisbon (July) that Austria and Prussia,
who would otherwise have passed it over in silence, were induced to take
any notice of it, and at length, finding his indirect action through the
German powers of no avail, he had remonstrated directly with France and
withdrawn his ambassador from Paris (Aug. 18). Prussia, which pursued
throughout a weak and vacillating policy, also expressed its
disapprobation of Napoleon's conduct by a change of ministry, which
removed Haugwitz, a constant friend of France, from office. But instead
of seeking to allay its fears, Napoleon still further excited its
jealousy by intriguing with the smaller States of Germany, and making a
violent inroad into the territory of Hamburg (Oct. 25), to carry off
thence the English minister. Austria too, though restrained by her
weakness from overt action, in November contracted a treaty with Russia
similar to that of Prussia. Very little was wanted to bring all three
powers into open hostility with France.
[Sidenote: Treaty of St. Petersburg. April 11, 1805.]
[Sidenote: The coalition practically formed. Sept. 1805.]
The character of Alexander gave indeed to Napoleon an opportunity which
he ought to have seized. He was full of high-flown notions for the
regeneration of Europe, for the more equitable division of states, and
some generally established system of public law. With some such scheme
his minister Nowosiltzoff came to England in 1805. Pitt speedily
modified his views, and proved to him that before so grand a scheme
could be realized the practical work to be done was to insist upon the
establishment of the terms of the treaties of Lunéville and Amiens.
Accordingly, on the 11th of April, the Treaty of St. Petersburg was
signed. The two countries pledged themselves to support a general
European league, for the purpose of demanding the evacuation of Hanover,
Italy, and Elba, the real independence of Holland and Switzerland, and
the complete establishment of the kingdom of Naples: they especially
pledged themselves not to interfere with the internal government of
France, and to close all questions by a general European congress. As
England refused to evacuate Malta, the Czar declined to ratify the
treaty, and determined to make one more effort singlehanded to avoid
war. For this purpose he despatched an ambassador with much more
favourable terms than those implied in the late treaty. But Napoleon
declined to see him for two months, and in those two months he had had
himself declared King of Italy (May 26), had accepted the offer of the
Doge of Genoa to comprise the Ligurian Republic in his Italian kingdom
(June 3), had created Lucca into a principality for the husband of his
sister Eliza (July 21), and had received an ambassador from the Court of
Naples with the most stinging threats and insults. The Russian
ambassador was therefore recalled, and, though without declaration of
war, the coalition was in fact in existence, and arrangements for a
general attack upon France began. The coalition was thus the fruit
rather of Napoleon's conduct than of Pitt's diplomacy; the occupation of
Hanover, the violation of the neutral territory of Baden, the murder of
the Duc d'Enghien, the establishment of the kingdom of Italy, the
annexation of Genoa and Lucca, and virtually of Holland and of
Switzerland, supplied ample reasons to excite the alarm of Europe and to
drive the powers into coalition.
[Sidenote: Napoleon prepares to invade England.]
But while the coalition was forming, and Napoleon seemed wantonly to be
insulting Europe and ignoring the danger of exciting fresh enemies, he
was in fact urging on with all rapidity his schemes for the invasion of
England, which he probably hoped might be so successful as to paralyse
all action on the part of the European powers. The constantly repeated
representations of his naval officers had forced him, much against his
will, to believe that his descent upon England would be impracticable
unless secured by the presence of his fleet. In spite of the general
voice of those who knew the condition of the French navy, he determined
to act with his fleet on the same principles as he would have acted with
his army; a gigantic combination of various squadrons was to be
effected, and a fleet great enough to destroy all hope of opposition to
sweep the Channel. For this purpose the eighteen ships of the line at
Brest under Admiral Gantheaume, the squadron at Rochefort under
Villeneuve, and the Toulon fleet under Latouche-Tréville, were to unite.
The last mentioned admiral was intrusted with the chief command. Sailing
up the coast of France, he was to liberate from their blockade the
squadrons of Rochefort and Brest, and with their combined fleets appear
before Boulogne. But Latouche-Tréville died, and Napoleon intrusted his
plans to Villeneuve. Those plans, all of them arranged without regard to
the bad condition of the French ships, or to the uncertainty of the
weather, were frequently changed; at one time Villeneuve from Toulon,
and Missiessy, his successor, at Rochefort, were to proceed to the West
Indies, drawing the English fleet thither; then Gantheaume was to appear
from Brest, throw troops into Ireland, and thus cover the flotilla. At
another time, all the fleets were to assemble at the West Indies, and,
joining with the Spanish fleet at Ferrol, appear in the Straits of
Calais.
[Sidenote: Nelson's pursuit of Villeneuve. May 1805.]
To complete this last measure Villeneuve set sail from Toulon on the
30th of March 1805, joined Gravina at Cadiz, and reached Martinique on
the 13th of May with twenty-eight ships and seven frigates. His voyage
was so slow that Missiessy had returned from the West Indies to France,
and the junction failed. In hot pursuit of Villeneuve, Nelson, who had
at length found out his destination, had hurried. At Martinique
Gantheaume, with the Brest fleet, should have joined Villeneuve;
unfortunately for him Admiral Cornwallis blockaded his fleet. Villeneuve
therefore had to return to Europe alone, sailing for Ferrol to pick up a
squadron of fifteen ships. He was then, at the head of thirty-five
ships, ordered to appear before Brest, liberate Gantheaume, and appear
in the Channel. Back again in pursuit of him Nelson sailed, but supposed
that he would return to the Mediterranean and not to Ferrol; he
therefore again missed him; but as he had found means to inform the
English Government that Villeneuve was returning to Europe, Calder, with
a fleet of fifteen ships, was sent to intercept him. The fleets
encountered off Cape Finisterre. The French had twenty-seven vessels,
Calder but fifteen, and after an indecisive battle, in which two Spanish
ships were taken, he was afraid to renew the engagement, and Villeneuve
was thus enabled to reach Ferrol in safety. However, all the operations
towards concentration had led to absolutely nothing, and the English
fleets, which the movements towards the West Indies were to have decoyed
from the Channel, were either still off the coast of France or in
immediate pursuit of the fleet of Villeneuve. Nelson returned to
Gibraltar, and as soon as he found out where Villeneuve was, he joined
his fleet to that of Cornwallis before Brest, and himself returned to
England.
[Sidenote: Failure of Napoleon's schemes. Aug.]
The day before Calder had also left nine ships with Cornwallis, who had
thus a fleet of thirty-five vessels. He divided them into two equal
parts, sending one to Ferrol, and keeping the other to guard Gantheaume
in Brest. Meanwhile Villeneuve had not been able to get ready for sea
till the 11th of August. Had he then sailed he would probably have
encountered with his own nineteen ships Cornwallis' fleet of thirty-five
vessels off Brest. Had he indeed postponed his sailing for a few days he
would have found Cornwallis' fleet separated, but even then it was
improbable that he would have escaped one or other of its divisions. But
in fact he did not know of its division, and therefore, acting in the
belief of the union of the great fleet off Brest, he was afraid to
venture northwards, and with the full approbation of his Spanish
colleague Gravina, determined to avail himself of a last alternative
which Napoleon had suggested, and sailed to Cadiz. This was a fatal blow
to the gigantic schemes of Napoleon. Up till the 22nd of August he still
believed that Villeneuve would make his appearance, and in fact wrote to
him that day at Brest, closing his letter with the words, "England is
ours." As the time for his great stroke drew near he grew nervously
anxious, constantly watching the Channel for the approach of the fleet,
and at last, when his Minister of Marine, Decrès, told him that the
fleet had gone to Cadiz, he broke forth in bitter wrath against both his
minister and Villeneuve, whom he accused of the most shameful weakness.
[Sidenote: He changes his plan and marches against Austria.]
But Napoleon was not a man who let his success be staked upon one plan
alone. Though studiously hiding from his people the existence of the
coalition, and not scrupling to have recourse to forged letters and
fabricated news for the purpose, he was fully aware of its existence. He
knew too of the movements of the armies of Austria and Russia, and had
already taken some steps to meet them. Without much difficulty,
therefore, he at once resigned his great plans upon England, and
directed his army towards the eastern frontier, determined to wipe out
by a great campaign, in which the chances were all in his favour, the
disgrace and ridicule of his long-threatened but abortive attack upon
England. The largest and best part of the Austrian army was in Italy
under the Archduke Charles. On the Inn there were barely 80,000 men,
commanded by General Mack. The Russians had yet far to go before they
could form a junction with the Austrian troops, and Napoleon, when he
first changed his plan on the 25th of August, intended to march by the
most direct route to meet the Austrians, and if possible prevent them
from crossing the Inn. For this purpose he could bring, counting the
army of occupation of Hanover, nearly 200,000 men into the field. The
passage of the Rhine was open to him; it was no longer necessary as of
old to fight his way through the Black Forest. By pursuing a direct
course he would be able to pick up the troops who were in Hanover on his
way, and bring his whole army to bear at once upon the Inn. The
Austrians, however, little calculating on the rapidity of his movements,
believing that the army was engaged on the northern coast, and desirous
of securing the assistance of the Bavarian army of 25,000 men, rashly
crossed the Inn on the 7th of September, and advanced to Ulm. Their
movements were accurately known to Napoleon, who had sent Murat in
disguise into Bavaria to watch them; and when he heard that they had
taken up their position so far in advance of their base of operations,
he formed his great plan for surrounding and capturing the whole army at
Ulm.
[Sidenote: Capitulation of the Austrian army at Ulm. Oct 19.]
While Napoleon was thus hurrying off to destroy the Austrian troops,
Nelson, having heard of the destination of Villeneuve, and feeling that
the fleet he had so long pursued was his fair prey, offered his services
to Government. They were gladly accepted, and on the 13th of September
he left his home for the last time to take command of the fleet off
Cadiz. Thus, each on its own element, the two great nations of Europe,
commanded by the two great leaders of the day, were engaged almost
simultaneously in undertakings of the last importance, and almost
simultaneously the results of those undertakings became known. On the
19th of October, Mack, finding himself surrounded and cut off from
Vienna, with all hope of relief gone, capitulated at Ulm, and his whole
army of 30,000 men laid down their arms before the enemy. On the 21st
of the same month the English and French fleets encountered just within
sight of Cape Trafalgar, outside the Straits of Gibraltar.
[Sidenote: Battle of Trafalgar. Oct. 21.]
The fleet of the English numbered twenty-seven vessels, Villeneuve had
the command of thirty-three, without reckoning five frigates and two
smaller ships. In other respects, in ability of seamanship, and in
knowledge of the management of guns, the English were undoubtedly
superior. Some days before the battle Nelson had conceived and made
known his plan of action. The assault was to be made in two lines; at
the head of one Nelson was himself to break the line in the centre,
while Collingwood led the second to the attack of the rear squadron. The
French were formed in one line, and were sailing in a south-easterly
direction. Nelson's plan was therefore calculated not only to destroy
the enemy, but also to cut off his retreat from Cadiz and the north.
This part of his plan Villeneuve saw through and avoided. He changed the
direction of his line, so that the rear squadron became the leading
squadron, and the road to Cadiz was kept open. In this order, in full
sail, with the wind in their favour, the English attacked and broke the
French line. All the advantages of this well-known manœuvre were
gained, and by half-past five in the evening, of the thirty-three
vessels of the enemy eighteen were in the hands of the English, eleven
with difficulty retreated towards Cadiz, and four others, which had
formed the leading squadron of the French, were standing out to sea,
only to be captured a few days afterwards by another fleet. But the
victory was dearly won. Nelson, who had appeared as usual with his
orders on his coat, had formed a mark for the riflemen with whom the
rigging of the French ships was filled. He fell early in the action, but
lived long enough to hear of his complete victory. He died thanking God
he had done his duty, and even to the last, mindful of the safety of his
fleet, giving orders that it should at once anchor to await a gale whose
approach he had foreseen. The storm came as he had expected; a
considerable part of our prizes was lost, and three of the French
fugitives were wrecked before they reached the port of Cadiz. Of the
whole fleet eight vessels alone escaped, which remained blockaded in
Cadiz till they fell a prey to the Spanish insurgents.
[Sidenote: Battle of Austerlitz. Dec. 2, 1805.]
But though the sea thus passed entirely under the command of the
English, though all chance of invasion had disappeared, a crushing blow
upon the Continent shattered for the time all hope of permanent
opposition to the advance of Napoleon. The catastrophe at Ulm was
followed by a rapid advance upon Vienna. The wisdom Napoleon had shown
in concentrating his troops for one great and decisive blow at once bore
fruit. The army of Italy was obliged to retreat before the advance of
Massena, in time to defend if possible Austria itself. It was too late
even for that, and it was compelled to withdraw into Hungary, for the
Emperor, desirous of saving the Viennese from the horrors of a siege,
had withdrawn with his troops into Moravia, in the hopes of there
meeting the main body of the Russians whom Alexander was bringing to his
succour. Thither Napoleon pursued him, and there, with his back to the
citadel of Brünn, not far from Olmutz, he brought on the great battle of
Austerlitz, and before the close of the day the forces of the coalition
were completely beaten, losing upon the field 27,000 killed and wounded,
20,000 prisoners, and 133 pieces of cannon.
[Sidenote: Death of Pitt. Jan. 23, 1806.]
While these stirring events had been happening, the health of the
English minister had been sensibly declining. Cheered for a moment by
the news of Trafalgar, clouded though they were by the death of Nelson,
the rapidly-occurring disasters of Ulm and Austerlitz, and the
dissolution, by the Treaty of Presburg, of the coalition he had so
laboriously established, went far to render fatal the disease which was
already threatening him. He returned from Bath, still hoping against
hope that he might be present at the opening of Parliament, withdrew for
quiet to his villa at Putney, and there died on the 23rd of January
1806.
[Sidenote: New ministry.]
The death of Pitt was followed by the break-up of his Cabinet, which was
not so constituted as to be able to stand without him. The King did
indeed attempt to continue it under the leadership of Lord Hawkesbury;
but upon his refusal to accept the responsibilities of the Premiership,
the King was obliged to have recourse to the Opposition, and to summon
Lord Grenville to his Councils. The admission of Grenville to the
ministry implied the admission of Fox; the close political alliance they
had formed, the determination they had already expressed, when rejecting
Pitt's offers, never to join in any separate arrangements, rendered it
quite impossible for either to accept office without the other. In
spite, therefore, of the King's anger and dislike, he was compelled to
admit his old enemy Fox to the ministry. The basis on which Grenville
and Fox had been united in opposition was the strong belief which both
felt that in the present crisis a ministry of a broad and national
character was required. On this principle they formed their new
administration, which was known by the name of "the Ministry of all the
talents." Lord Grenville became First Lord of the Treasury; Earl Spencer
and Mr. Windham, members of Pitt's first administration, Secretaries for
the Home and War departments; Fox became Foreign Secretary, and his
friends Earl Fitzwilliam and Grey (now Lord Howick), the one Lord
President of the Council, and the other First Lord of the Admiralty.
Lord Moira, Master-General of the Ordnance, represented the friends of
the Prince of Wales; while Lord Sidmouth became Lord Privy Seal, and as
he insisted on bringing one friend with him into the Cabinet, introduced
with questionable wisdom Lord Ellenborough, the Lord Chief Justice. It
has since this time been generally held that such a position is
incompatible with high judicial duties. Lord Henry Petty, afterwards
Lord Lansdowne, was Chancellor of the Exchequer. Before the ministry
went out all due honour had been paid to the late minister; a public
funeral and monument had been voted, together with the sum of £40,000
for the payment of his debts.
[Sidenote: Character of Fox.]