THE YEAR 1794 IN THE ATLANTIC AND ON THE CONTINENT.
While the British ships engaged on the 1st of June were refitting,
Admiral Cornwallis, on the 22d of the month, sailed in command of
Montagu's division for a cruise to the westward, from which he
returned to port on the 8th of July. With this short exception, both
the Channel and the Bay of Biscay were left unguarded until the 3d of
September, when Howe again sailed with thirty-four ships-of-the-line,
five of which were Portuguese, returning on the 21st to Torbay after a
tempestuous cruise. The fleet remained in port until November 8, when
the "Canada" seventy-four arrived with the news that her consort, the
"Alexander," of similar force, had been captured two hundred miles
west of Ushant by a French division of five ships-of-the-line, from
which she herself had escaped by better sailing. The British at once
put to sea, but, it is needless to say, failed to find the French
ships, which had cruised with impunity during their absence; and on
the 29th the fleet anchored again at Spithead, a station so far to the
eastward as to indicate little expectation of interfering with any of
the operations of the enemy from Brest. There accordingly it remained
until the 14th of the following February. The protection of commerce
was entrusted to squadrons of frigates, whose young and enterprising
commanders did much service by capturing or dispersing the French
forces of a similar character.
The Committee of Public Safety determined to use the opportunity which
was permitted them by the diligent care of the British admiral to
economize his fleet. There were, at this time, in Brest and the other
Biscay ports as many as forty-six ships-of-the-line, either afloat or
building; whereas in the Mediterranean, in consequence of the disaster
at Toulon, there were only fifteen. The Committee therefore decided
to send six ships round, and Villaret Joyeuse was directed to sail
with the entire Brest fleet, thirty-five in all, for the purpose of
escorting this division clear of the Bay of Biscay; after which he was
to cruise for a fortnight against British commerce. The destitution
of the Brest arsenal, however, still continued; for, with the enemy's
command of the Channel, the naval stores of the Baltic could reach
Brest only by going north of the British islands, and then running
the risk of capture in the Atlantic by hostile cruisers. There had
therefore been great difficulty in repairing the injuries received in
the actions with Lord Howe, as well as in equipping the ships not then
engaged. When the orders were received, vivid remonstrances were made,
and the condition of the vessels fully represented to the Committee as
being entirely unfit for a winter's cruise. Many masts wounded in the
battle could not be replaced, the rigging was in bad condition, the
crews were untrained. Several of the ships it was proposed to send were
old and worn out; and so great was the dearth of provisions that only
those for Toulon received enough for some months, the others for no
more than four weeks.
Robespierre had fallen five months before, and the Reign of Terror
was now over; but the Committee were still unaccustomed to admit
objections, and did not find in their limited knowledge of sea matters
any reason for recalling orders once given. On the 24th of December,
1794, the fleet began to leave Brest, and, in so doing, one of the
largest, of one hundred and ten guns, was wrecked on a rock in the
entrance. On the 29th the remaining thirty-four had cleared the harbor
and anchored in the road outside, whence they sailed on the 30th. On
the night of January 1, 1795, a furious gale sprang up, followed by
a spell of violent weather. Two eighty-gun ships and a seventy-four
foundered, the crews being with difficulty saved. Two yet larger, of
one hundred and ten guns, had seven feet of water in the hold and would
have been lost had the storm lasted for twenty-four hours longer.
Another seventy-four had to be run on the coast to save the lives
of her people. In the midst of these difficulties, which caused the
separation of the fleet, it was necessary to transfer provisions from
the Toulon division to the other ships, an herculean undertaking, but
imperative to keep the latter from starving. On the 2d of February
the greater part of the survivors again reached Brest; but some had
to scatter to other ports as the weather permitted. The Toulon ships
returned with the rest. This mid-winter cruise had cost the republic
five ships-of-the-line; it brought in one British corvette and seventy
merchantmen as prizes.
The stars, or rather the winds, in their courses had fought for Great
Britain; but in no wise did she owe anything to her own efforts. Not
till the 14th of February did the Channel fleet put to sea, nearly a
fortnight after the French had returned to Brest. Whatever may be said
of the inexpediency of exposing the heavy ships to winter weather,
it seems clear that the opposite system left the enemy at perfect
liberty to combine his movements; and that there was little likelihood
of these being made known to the commander-in-chief in Torbay soon
enough for him to follow efficaciously. Howe himself felt this, and,
from instructions issued by him to Sir James Saumarez on the 15th of
January, it would appear that this escape of the French roused him for
a moment to contemplate the close watch off Brest, afterwards practised
by Jervis and Cornwallis.[97] This was the last occasion on which the
veteran admiral actually went to sea in command of a fleet; although,
from an apparent reluctance to try new men, the government insisted
upon his exercising a nominal charge from quarters on shore. He was
now in his seventieth year and suffering from many infirmities. The
command afloat devolved upon a man not much younger, Lord Bridport,
one of the naval family of Hood, but whose career does not bear the
impress of great ability which distinguished so many of its members.
Immediately before this, general dissatisfaction had caused a change
in the Admiralty, over which, since 1788, had presided Pitt's elder
brother, the Earl of Chatham. He was succeeded, in December, 1794, by
Earl Spencer, a more vigorous and efficient man, who remained First
Lord until the fall of Pitt's administration in 1801.
The new head, however, did not make any substantial variation of
system, calculated to frustrate the enemy's naval combinations by
the strategic dispositions of the British fleet. More activity was
displayed by keeping a small squadron of half a dozen ships-of-the-line
constantly cruising in the soundings and to the westward, and the
great Channel fleet was more continuously at sea during the summer
months; but the close blockade of Brest was not attempted, nor was
Bridport the man to persuade the government to the measures afterwards
so vigorously, and in the main successfully, carried out by Lord
St. Vincent, both as successor to Bridport in the Channel fleet and
subsequently as First Lord of the Admiralty. To this faulty policy
contributed not a little the system of telegraphs, adopted in 1795, by
which communications were quickly transmitted from height to height
between London and Portsmouth. This great improvement unfortunately
confirmed the tendency of the Admiralty to keep the Channel fleet
at the latter point, regardless of the obvious, but unappreciated,
strategic disadvantage of a position so far east of Brest, with winds
prevailing from the western quarters. To have the commander-in-chief
just there, under their own hand, to receive orders from them, seemed
much safer than to put him and his fleet in a central position whence
he could most certainly intercept or most rapidly follow the enemy, and
then to trust to the judgment of a trained and competent sea-officer
to act as the emergency required. The plan came near resulting very
disastrously when the French attempted to invade Ireland; and would
have done so, had not the elements again interfered to remedy the
absence of the British fleet. "If," says Osler in his life of Lord
Exmouth,[98] from whom he probably received the idea, "if Lord Bridport
(in 1796) had been waiting at Falmouth, with discretional powers, Sir
Edward Pellew having been instructed to communicate directly with him,
he might have sailed early on December 21st" (Pellew reached Falmouth
from before Brest on the 20th) "and found the enemy in Bantry Bay,
when perhaps not a ship would have escaped him. It is, however, to be
remembered that, as the destination of the French armament was unknown
to the last, the Admiralty might very properly determine that he should
receive his final instructions from themselves, and therefore would
keep the fleet at Spithead (Portsmouth) for the convenience of ready
communication." But why! How could they in London judge better than a
good admiral on the coast?
During the year 1794, now closing, the Revolution in France had been
rapidly devouring its children. After the overthrow of the Girondists
in June, 1793, the Terror pursued its pitiless march, sweeping before
it for the time every effort made in behalf of moderation or mercy. The
queen was put to death on the 16th of October, and her execution was
followed on the 31st by that of those Girondists who had not deigned
to escape from their accusers. Dissension next arose and spread among
the now triumphant party of the Jacobins; resulting in March and April,
1794, in the trial and death of the Hébertists on the one side, and
of Danton and his friends on the other. More and more power fell into
the hands of the Committee of Public Safety, whose tokens to the world
were Robespierre and his chief supporters, St. Just and Couthon, ruling
the Convention which passively decreed their wishes, and, through the
Convention, France. For three short months Robespierre now appeared
as the master of the country, but was himself carried on and away by
the torrent which he had done so much to swell. The exigencies and
dangers of his position multiplied the precautions he deemed necessary
to secure his authority and his safety; and the cold relentlessness
of his character recognized no means so sure as death. On the 10th of
June, by his sole authority, without the intervention of the Committee
of Public Safety, he procured a decree modifying the procedure of the
Revolutionary Tribunal, and suppressing the few checks that restrained
its uncontrolled power. In the fourteen months preceding this decree
1256 persons had been by the tribunal condemned to death; in the six
weeks that followed, until Robespierre himself fell, the executions
were 1361.[99] So extreme an access of fury betokened approaching
exhaustion; no society could endure the strain; the most violent and
blood-thirsty, as well as the most timid, felt their own lives in
danger. Bitter opposition to the dictator arose both in the Committee
of Public Safety and in the Legislature. The doubtful struggle, between
the prestige of his power and long continued success and the various
passions of fear and vengeance animating his opponents, culminated in a
violent scene in the Convention on the 27th of July. For some hours the
issue was balanced, but in the end the arrest and trial of Robespierre
and his chief supporters were decreed. The following day he, St. Just
and Couthon, with some others of lesser note, died on the guillotine.
No immediate change in the form of government ensued. The Committee
of Public Safety, reconstituted, continued to exercise the executive
functions which nominally depended upon the Convention; and the impulse
which it had imparted to the soldiers and armies of France continued
for a time to carry them resistlessly forward. But the delirious
intensity of the popular movement had reached its climax in the three
months' unrestrained power of Robespierre, with whose name it has
been ever associated. Though the external manifestations of strength
continued for a time unabated, the inner tension was relaxing. Weakness
was about to succeed the strength of fever, to spread from the heart
throughout the whole organism, and, by threatening social dissolution,
to prepare the way for concentrated absolute power.
The onward swing of the French armies on the north-east still
continued. The year 1794 had opened with the investment of Landrecy by
the allies, and its surrender to them on the 30th of April. The French
began their campaign with the plan, especially affected by Carnot in
all his military combinations, of attacking at the same time both
flanks of the allied Austrians, Dutch and English, concentrating at
each extremity of the line a force greatly superior to the enemy before
it. As Jourdan, commanding the French right, threatened the allied
stronghold of Charleroi, he drew thither the greater effort of the
allies, and Pichegru, on the left, found his task easier. Five times
did Jourdan cross the Sambre to attack Charleroi, and four times was
he compelled to re-cross; but on the fifth, before the allies could
come up in sufficient force, the place capitulated,—the guns of the
relieving force being heard just as the garrison was marching out.
The following day, June 26, 1794, Jourdan fought and won the battle
of Fleurus; the Austrians retreating upon Nivelles towards the future
field of Waterloo. The allies on both flanks continued to fall back;
Ostend and Nieuport, ports on the North Sea facilitating communication
with England, were successively surrendered, and Brussels uncovered.
On the 10th of July Pichegru entered Brussels and formed his junction
with Jourdan. On the 15th the allies lost Landrecy, the first and only
prize of the campaign. On the same day the French attacked in force
the centre of the allied line, where the Anglo-Dutch left touched the
Austrian right. The former being gradually turned fell back, and the
Austrians, finding their flank uncovered, did the same. From this time
the allies retired in divergent directions, the Anglo-Dutch north-east
toward Holland, the Austrians eastward toward Coblentz; thus repeating
in retreat the unmilitary and ruinous mistake which had rendered
abortive the offensive campaign of 1793.
The French advance was now stayed by the Committee of Public Safety, in
deference to an emotion of patriotism, until the towns surrendered the
year before should be retaken. On the 11th of August Le Quesnoy opened
its gates, on the 27th Valenciennes, and on the 30th Condé. The siege
corps now rejoined the armies in the field and the advance was resumed;
Pichegru following the British and Dutch toward Holland, Jourdan, by
a series of flank attacks which threatened the communications of the
Austrians, forcing the latter from one position to another, until on
the 5th October they recrossed to the east side of the Rhine, the
French occupying Coblentz and Bonn on the west bank. The advance of
Pichegru was marked by less of battle and more of siege than that of
Jourdan, but was alike successful. By the middle of October his army
had reached the Rhine; which in Holland divides into two branches,
the Waal and the Leek, between which the enemy lay. A month later
they had retreated beyond the latter, the French being for a moment
stopped by the floating ice in the rivers; but the winter was one of
unusual severity, and early in January the waters were frozen hard.
On the 17th of January, 1795, the Prince of Orange left Holland for
England, and on the 20th Pichegru entered Amsterdam. The provinces and
cities everywhere declared for the French, and a provisional republican
government was established; while the pursuit of the British troops was
continued with unremitting diligence until they had escaped into German
territory, whence they returned, in April, to England.
The occupation of Belgium and Holland by the French was in every
way a matter of concern to the other European powers. It threatened
Great Britain in the North Sea, where her flank had previously been
strengthened by the Dutch alliance, and compelled her at once to
weaken the Channel fleet by a detachment of five ships-of-the-line to
confront the Dutch squadrons. The merchants of Holland being among
the great money-lenders of Europe, large revenues were opened to the
needy French; and the resources thus gained by them were by the same
blow lost to the allies. Great Britain thenceforth had to bear alone
the money burden of the war. But on the other hand the republican
commissaries sucked like leeches the substance of the Dutch; and
the sources of their wealth, commerce and the colonies, were at the
same time threatened with extinction by the British sea power, whose
immediate hostility was incurred by the change in their political
relations. Within a month, on the 9th of February, orders were issued
to arrest all Dutch ships at sea; temporary provision being made to
restore neutral property found on board them, because shipped while
Holland was an ally. Vigorous measures were at once taken for the
seizure of the rich Dutch colonies in all parts of the world; and
before the year 1795 closed, there passed into the hands of Great
Britain the Cape of Good Hope, Malacca, all the Dutch possessions
on the continent of India, and the most important places in Ceylon;
the whole island submitting in 1796. Besides these, other colonies
were taken in the farther East and in the West Indies. The Dutch
navy remained inoffensively in its ports until the year 1797, with
the exception of a small expedition that escaped from the Texel in
February, 1796, prepared to retake the Cape of Good Hope. Unable to go
through the English Channel, which was completely under the enemy's
control, it passed north of the British Islands and eluded capture
until Saldanha Bay, near the Cape, was reached. Upon hearing of its
arrival the British admiral on that station sailed in pursuit, and,
having a greatly superior force, received its instant surrender.
The success that followed the French standards in Belgium and Holland
during 1794 accompanied the less striking operations on the Rhine and
in the South. At the end of the year the Austrians and Prussians had
abandoned the west bank of the river, except Luxembourg and the very
important fortress of Mayence. Luxembourg also was closely invested,
and capitulated in June, 1795. In the Pyrenees, the Spaniards were
driven across the frontiers, and had, in the early autumn, established
themselves in a strong entrenched camp at Figueras. On the 17th and
20th of November the French assaulted this position, and on the latter
day drove the enemy from all their works round the place, forcing
them to retreat upon Gerona. The garrison of Figueras, ten thousand
strong, capitulated a week later, and the French then invested Rosas,
which held out for two months longer; but the resistance of Spain was
completely broken, and the further events of the war in that quarter
are unimportant.
On the Italian frontier the year opened with substantial successes
on the part of the French, who got possession of important mountain
passes of the Alps; but progress here was stopped, in May, by reverses
attending the operations on the Rhine, causing troops to be withdrawn
from the Army of the Alps. The belligerents rested in the same relative
positions during the remainder of 1794.
The important political results of the French military successes in
the campaign of 1794 were demonstrated and sealed by treaties of peace
contracted in 1795 with Prussia, Spain, and Holland. That with the
latter power was one not only of peace, but also of alliance, offensive
and defensive. The principal naval conditions were that the United
Provinces should furnish twelve ships-of-the-line, with frigates, to
cruise in the North Sea and Baltic, and should admit a French garrison
into the important seaport of Flushing. This treaty was signed May
15, 1795. The Prussian treaty was concluded on the 5th of April. It
stipulated, generally, the surrender of Prussian possessions on the
left bank of the Rhine, and by a later agreement established a neutral
zone in North Germany under Prussian guarantee. The treaty with Spain
was signed at Basle on the 22d of July. It maintained the integrity
of the Spanish possessions in Europe, but provided for the cession to
France of Spain's part of Haïti.
On the other hand, Great Britain during the same year drew closer the
ties binding her to her still remaining allies. An agreement was made
in May with the emperor of Germany that he should provide not less than
two hundred thousand men for the approaching campaign, while Great
Britain was to pay a large subsidy for their support. This was followed
by a treaty of defensive alliance, each government engaging not to make
a separate peace. With Russia also was made a defensive alliance, and
the czarina sent twelve ships-of-the-line to cruise with the British
fleet in the North Sea.