REIGN OF GEORGE III. (_continued_).
Progress of the French Revolution--Death of Mirabeau--Attempted
Flight of the King from Paris--Attitude of the Sovereigns
of Europe--The Parties of the Right and of the Left--The
Girondists--Decrees against the Emigrants--Negotiations
between Marie Antoinette and Pitt--Condition of the French
Army--Session of 1792; Debates on Foreign Affairs--Marriage
of the Duke of York--The Prince of Wales's Allowance--The
Budget--The Anti-Slavery Movement--Magistracy Bill--Attempts at
Reform--The Society of the Friends of the People--Proclamation
against Seditious Writings--Fox's Nonconformist Relief
Bill--Prorogation of Parliament--Associations and
Counter-Associations--Lord Cornwallis's War against Tippoo
Sahib--Capture of Seringapatam--Peace with Tippoo--Embassy to
China--Designs of the Powers against Poland--Catherine resolves
to strike--Invasion of Poland--Neutrality of England--Conquest
of Poland--Imminence of War between France and Austria--It is
declared--Failure of the French Troops--The Duke of Brunswick's
Proclamation--Insurrection of the 10th of August--Massacre of the
Swiss--Suspension of the King--Ascendency of Jacobinism--Dumouriez
in the Passes of the Argonne--Battle of Valmy--Retreat of
the Prussians--Occupation of the Netherlands by the French
Troops--Custine in Germany--Occupation of Nice and Savoy--Edict
of Fraternity--Abolition of Royalty--Trial and Death of the
King--Effect of the Deed on the Continent--The Militia called
out in England--Debates in Parliament on War with France--The
Alien Bill--Rupture of Diplomatic Relations with France--War
declared against Britain--Efforts to preserve the Peace--They are
Ineffectual.
While these things had been passing in England, the Revolution in
France had been making great strides. The Assembly, after its removal
to Paris, passed completely under the influence of the violent Jacobin
Club, and the work of destruction and reconstitution proceeded with
startling rapidity. By the division of France into Departments all the
old territorial arrangements and provincial Assemblies were abolished;
the judicial system was re-established on a popular basis, and its
dependence on the Crown swept away; the Church was made a department
of the State, and its vast property sold, chiefly by means of bills
payable in Church lands and called _assignats_. The position of the
king became well-nigh intolerable. There was a chance, indeed, that
Mirabeau might extricate him from the toils of his enemies. That
great man, now reconciled to the Court, advised him to withdraw from
the capital, and throw himself upon the conservatism of the country
districts. But the death of Mirabeau in April, 1791, deprived Louis
of his only wise adviser, and in June he adopted the ill-judged
course of flying from Paris, with the object of making his way across
the frontier and joining the enemies of his country. The flight was
ill-managed, the royal family were arrested at Varennes and brought
back as prisoners to Paris, where they were placed under the strictest
surveillance.
Had the sovereigns of Europe been in earnest in behalf of the King
of France, and had they at once marched into the country, they could
scarcely have failed to make themselves masters of Paris; though
they might have precipitated the deaths of the king and queen. But,
in truth, the kings of Europe were in no such chivalrous mood; they
were thinking more of their own interests, and actually, some of
them, planning the most disgraceful robberies of their neighbours.
Spain, seeing no sign of coalition amongst the northern sovereigns,
expressed its friendly disposition towards the French Government, and
prevented an attempt on its southern provinces, in which the Knights
of Malta were to assist with two frigates. The French Emigrants at
Brussels and Coblenz were in a state of agitation, declaring that
Monsieur, who had now joined them, was the Regent of the kingdom,
seeing that the king was a prisoner and had no will of his own. The
poor king was compelled by the Assembly to write to them, disavowing
these proceedings. As to the Powers in general, Leopold of Austria,
who had the most direct interest in the rescue of his sister and her
family, was, notwithstanding his recent declarations, desirous rather
of peace and by no means pleased with the Emigrants. A declaration
of allied sovereigns was, indeed, made at Pillnitz, that Prussia and
Austria and Russia would advance to the rescue of Louis XVI.; but the
more immediate object of the agreement made there was the dismemberment
of Poland, which was determined in secret articles. Any concerted
action on the part of the Powers was, in fact, rendered impossible
by the action of Pitt, who, true to his policy of neutrality and of
holding aloof from any interference in the domestic concerns of France,
declined to sanction any appeal to arms.
In September, 1791, the Assembly, having completed the Constitution,
which was accepted by the king, dissolved. Its place was taken by the
National Legislative Assembly, which met on the 1st of October. As the
Jacobins had expected, the elections of the Departments had occupied
but little attention. The public gaze had been fixed on the acts of the
Assembly about to retire, so that a race of new men appeared, which
seemed at first to divide itself into two parties--the _Coté Droit_,
or Constitutional party, and the _Coté Gauche_, or Democratic party;
but the latter party soon divided itself into two, the Mountain and
the Gironde. It is difficult to discern the distinguishing traits of
these two Revolutionary parties. At first they all worked together,
clearly for the downfall of the monarchy. Robespierre, Petion,
Marat, Danton, were associated with those who afterwards divided
themselves into the Gironde, with Condorcet, Brissot, the Rolands,
and Vergniaud. Though Robespierre, Petion, and Danton were no longer
in the Assembly, they ruled the Jacobin party there from the clubs.
It was not till the question of war arose that the split took place.
The Jacobins and Girondists were for war, Robespierre was obstinately
against it. At first he stood nearly alone, but by degrees, though
he did not draw the Jacobins very soon to his views, he drew them
speedily away from the Girondists. This party of the Girondists had
been growing and forming for some time. It took its rise originally at
Bordeaux, the great commercial city of the department of the Gironde.
Bordeaux was of Roman origin. It had always displayed a warm love of
independence, which its Parliaments had continually kept alive. It had
of late years become the chief commercial link between France and the
revolutionised United States. It had early, too, become leavened with
the new philosophy; it was the birthplace of Montaigne and Montesquieu.
The Gironde sent up to the new Assembly twelve deputies, all as yet
unknown, but all deeply imbued with the new principles. These, on
arriving in Paris, soon found themselves mixed up, at the house of
Condorcet and the Rolands, with Robespierre, Danton, Petion, Buzot,
Brissot, Carra-Louvet, Thomas Paine, and, in fact, nearly all the
thorough Revolutionists. The active centre of the whole party, up to
the period of the question of the war against the Emigrants, was Madame
Roland, and such she continued to be of the Girondists after their
separation into a distinct party, and after that they had become the
antagonists of the Mountain or Jacobin party.
The Emigrants had continued to flock to Coblenz, and their number,
with their families, now amounted to nearly one hundred thousand of
the most wealthy and influential class in France. They continued to
make preparations for war, and it is no wonder that the people of
France beheld their menacing attitude with uneasiness. Though the
king publicly wrote letters to the Emigrants, desiring them to return
to their country, and employ themselves as good citizens under the
Constitution, there was a strong suspicion that he privately gave them
different advice. That the king did maintain a secret correspondence
with some of the insurgents is certain; but it is neither proved, nor
does it appear probable, that he sanctioned their intention of making
war on the country. But their obstinate absence drove the Assembly now
to such severe measures against them as compelled Louis to exercise
his veto in their favour, and he thus destroyed his popularity with
the public, and caused himself to be considered as really in league
with the Emigrants. Nevertheless, it was the advice of all the king's
Ministers, as well as it appears to have been his own feeling, that
they should return, for they might have added immensely to the
influence in favour of the throne. Louis, therefore, again exhorted
the Emigrants to return; but they continued inflexible. He next wrote
to the officers of the army and navy, deploring the information that
he had received that they were quitting the service, and that he could
not consider those his friends who did not, like himself, remain at
their posts; but this was equally ineffectual, and the Minister of War
reported to the Assembly that one thousand nine hundred officers had
deserted. The Assembly was greatly incensed; the Girondists deemed it
a good opportunity to force the king to deal a blow at the nobility
and at his own brothers. On the 20th of October Brissot ascended the
tribune, and demanded measures of severity against the Emigrants.
At the close of the debate a decree was passed requiring the king's
brothers to return to France within three months, on pain of forfeiting
all their rights as citizens, and their claims as princes on the
succession to the Crown. On the 9th of November a second decree was
passed, declaring that all Frenchmen assembled on the frontiers were
suspected of conspiracy against the country; that all such as should
continue there till the 1st of January should be treated as traitors;
that princes and public functionaries should become amenable to the
same punishments; that the incomes of all such Emigrants, from lands,
moneys, or offices, should from the present moment be sequestrated;
that a court should be appointed in January to try them; and that any
Frenchman, after this, crossing the frontiers, or found guilty of
endeavouring to seduce the people from their allegiance, should be put
to death.
Whilst the nation was growing every day more Jacobinical, and the
danger was becoming more imminent, the queen sent a secret agent to
London to sound Pitt. She hoped to win him to an announcement of
supporting the throne of France in conjunction with the Continental
sovereigns; but Pitt showed his usual reserve. He declared that England
would not allow the Revolutionary spirit to put down the monarchy, but
he said nothing expressly of supporting the monarch himself; and the
queen, who was always suspicious that the Duke of Orleans was aiming at
the Crown, and that he had made himself a party in England, was filled
with alarm, lest Pitt's words only concealed the idea of such a king.
Still the attitude of the Continental Powers became more menacing.
The troops of the Emperor, in Belgium and Luxembourg, pressed upon
the very frontiers of France, and the numbers of the Emigrants were
constantly increasing in the territories of the Electors of Treves,
Mayence, and Spires. Two hundred thousand men, in fact, formed a line
along the French frontiers from Basle to the Scheldt.
The French, exasperated beyond further endurance, on the 22nd of
November entered on the question of war in the Assembly in earnest.
Koch, of Strasburg, the well-known historian, declared that no time
was to be lost; that the German nations were every day violating the
frontiers of France, and that the Minister for Foreign Affairs was
not to be trusted. Three armies were formed. Rochambeau, who was now
ailing, and out of humour, was appointed to that stationed in Flanders,
and called the army of the north; Lafayette was put in command of the
central division stationed at Metz, and Luckner of the one stationed
in Alsace. Narbonne, the new Minister, made a rapid journey, and
returning, announced to the Assembly that the different fortresses were
fast assuming a creditable condition, and that the army, from Dunkirk
to Besançon, presented a mass of two hundred and forty battalions, one
hundred and sixty squadrons, with artillery requisite for two hundred
thousand men, and supplies for six months. This report was received
with acclamations. So closed the year 1791.
The year 1792 opened in England with a state of intense anxiety
regarding the menacing attitude of affairs in France. There were all
the signs of a great rupture with the other Continental nations; yet
the king, in opening Parliament, on the 31st of January, did not
even allude to these ominous circumstances, but held out the hope of
continued peace. George III. stated that he had been engaged with
some of his allies in endeavouring to bring about a pacification
between the Russians and Austrians with Turkey, and that he hoped for
the conclusion of the war in India against Tippoo Sahib, ere long,
through the able management of Lord Cornwallis. He also announced the
approaching marriage of the Duke of York with the eldest daughter of
the King of Prussia. Grey and Fox, in the debate upon the Address,
condemned strongly our interference on behalf of Turkey--a state which
they contended ought, from its corruption, to be allowed to disappear.
They also expressed a strong opinion that the war in India would not
be so soon terminated. Fox was very severe on the treatment of Dr.
Priestley and the Dissenters at Birmingham, declaring the injuries
done to Priestley and his friends equally disgraceful to the nation and
to the national Church. He passed the highest encomiums on the loyalty
of the Dissenters. Pitt regretted the outrages at Birmingham, but slid
easily over them to defend the support of Turkey as necessary to the
maintenance of the balance of power in Europe; and he concluded the
debate by stating that the revenue of the last year had been sixteen
million seven hundred and seventy thousand pounds, and that it left
nine hundred thousand pounds towards the liquidation of the National
Debt.
[Illustration: THE COUNT DE MIRABEAU.]
Grey and Fox then made an equally brisk attack on the support of Turkey
by Ministers. They greatly applauded the Czarina, and Fox affirmed
that so far from Turkey soliciting our interference, it had objected
to it. On the same day, in the Lords, Lord Fitzwilliam opened the same
question. He contended that we had fitted out an expensive armament to
prevent the conquest by Russia of Oczakoff, and yet had not done it,
but had ended in accepting the very terms that the Czarina had offered
in 1790. Ministers replied that, though we had not saved Oczakoff,
we had prevented still more extensive attempts by Russia. Though the
Opposition, in both cases, was defeated, the attack was renewed on the
27th of February, when the Earl Stanhope--an enthusiastic worshipper
of the French Revolution--recommended, as the best means of preventing
aggression by Continental monarchs, a close alliance on our part with
France. Two days afterwards Mr. Whitbread introduced a string of
resolutions in the Commons, condemning the interference of Ministers
between Russia and Turkey, and the needless expenditure thus incurred,
in fact, going over much the same ground. A strenuous debate followed,
in which Grey, Fox, Windham, Francis, Sheridan, and the whole Whig
phalanx, took part. On this occasion, Mr. Jenkinson, afterwards Earl
of Liverpool, first appeared, and made his maiden speech in defence of
Ministers. He showed that the system of aggression had commenced with
Russia, and menaced the profoundest dangers to Europe; that Britain
had wisely made alliance with Prussia to stem the evil, and he utterly
repudiated all notion of the moderation of the Czarina, whose ambition
he asserted to be of the most unscrupulous kind.
Prussia having been introduced into the debate, on the 1st of March
it was renewed by Mr. Martin, followed by Francis, Fox, and others,
who argued that the secret was thus out; we were fighting again on
account of the old mischief--German alliances. Pitt defended the
policy of Ministers. He asked whether Russia was to be permitted to
drive the Turks from Europe and plant herself in Constantinople, with
Greece as part of her empire? In that case, Russia would become the
first maritime power in the world, for her situation in the heart of
the Mediterranean, and with Greeks for her sailors--the best sailors
in that sea--would give her unrivalled advantages, and make her the
most destructive opponent of British interests that had ever arisen.
Pitt drew a dark character of the Czarina--the Messalina of the
North; reminded the House of her endeavours to strike a mortal blow
at us during the American war; of her arrogance and insolence on many
occasions, and said that he did not envy Fox the honour of having his
bust ordered by this notorious woman from Nollekens, the sculptor. Fox
well deserved this hard blow, for he had shown a strange blindness to
the grasping designs of Russia, and confessed that, whilst in office,
he had refused to concur in remonstrances to Russia against the seizure
of the Crimea. The motion of Whitbread was rejected by a majority of
two hundred and forty-four against one hundred and sixteen.
On the 7th of March the House of Commons went into committee on the
establishment of the Duke of York, on account of his marriage. Fox
united with Pitt in supporting the recommendation that twenty-five
thousand pounds _per annum_ should be added to the twelve thousand
pounds which the duke already had; besides this the duke had a private
yearly revenue of four thousand pounds, making altogether forty-one
thousand a year, in addition to the bishopric of Osnaburg, in Germany,
which had been conferred on the duke, though a layman and a soldier.
Notwithstanding the union of Whigs and Tories on this occasion,
the vote did not pass without some sharp remarks on the miserable
stinginess of the King of Prussia, who only gave his daughter the
paltry sum of twenty-five thousand pounds as a dowry, and stipulated
that even that should be returned in case of the duke's death, though
in that case his daughter was to have a permanent allowance of eight
thousand pounds a year.
Fox, on this occasion, also introduced the subject of the Prince of
Wales's allowance, who, he contended, had far less than had been
granted to a Prince of Wales since the accession of the House of
Hanover, that allowance being one hundred thousand pounds a-year; and
the present parsimony towards the prince being grossly aggravated
by the royal Civil List having been raised, in this reign, from six
hundred thousand pounds to nine hundred thousand pounds, and the Privy
Purse from six thousand pounds to sixty thousand pounds. Fox's remarks
were rendered all the more telling because, when the House went into
committee on the finances, Pitt had made a most flourishing statement
of the condition of the Exchequer. He took off the taxes which pressed
most on the poorer portion of the population--namely, on servants, the
late augmentations on malt, on waggons, on inhabited houses, etc.,--to
the amount of two hundred thousand pounds and appropriated four hundred
thousand pounds towards the reduction of the National Debt. Still blind
to the storm rising across the strait of Dover, he declared that these
were mere trifles compared with what he should be able to do shortly,
for never was there a time when a more durable peace might be expected!
But besides nascent war, the Anti-Slavery movement of Wilberforce,
Pitt's friend, was decidedly adverse to the expected increase of
income. The Abolitionists had now begun to abandon the use of
slave-grown sugar, and they proposed to extend this to all the produce
of the West India islands, till the slave trade should be extirpated.
This alarmed Pitt, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and he prevailed
on Wilberforce to discourage this project for awhile. The Abolition
cause received serious injury from the frightful insurrection
which had broken out in St. Domingo, and from the outrages which
the insurgent blacks had perpetrated on the whites. Such were held
up by the friends of slavery as the natural consequences of novel
doctrines of philanthropy. What made the matter more serious was,
that Brissot and the worst of the Jacobins were the authors of these
bloody tragedies, by their violent advocacy of the universal adoption
of the Rights of Man. All these men were enthusiastic applauders of
the English Abolitionists. Paine was a prominent Abolitionist; and
Clarkson, the right hand of Wilberforce, was an equal admirer of the
French Revolution, and gave serious offence by attending a dinner at
the "Crown and Anchor," to celebrate the taking of the Bastille. These
circumstances had a great effect when Wilberforce, on the 2nd of April,
brought in his annual motion for the immediate abolition of the slave
trade. Fox and Pitt eloquently supported him; but Dundas, now become
Secretary of State, prevailed to introduce into the motion the words
"gradual abolition." The Wilberforce party managed to carry a motion in
the Commons, for the abolition of the trade to the West Indies, on the
1st of January, 1796; but this was thrown out in the Lords, where it
was opposed by the Duke of Clarence, who had been in the West Indies,
and thought the descriptions of the condition of the slaves overdrawn.
It was also opposed by Thurlow, by Horsley, Bishop of St. Davids, and a
considerable majority.
During this Session a very important Bill was introduced, and passed
both Houses, for the improvement of the police, and the administration
of justice in London. The old unpaid and very corrupt magistrates were
set aside. The metropolis was divided into five districts, each having
its police office, at which three justices were to sit, each having
a salary of three hundred pounds per annum. They were not allowed to
take fees in their own persons, and all fines paid in the courts were
to be put in a box towards defraying the salaries and other official
expenses. Constables and magistrates were empowered to take up persons
who could not give a good account of themselves, and commit them as
vagabonds.
A great raid of reform was made in the Opposition, and it fell first
on the corruption of the boroughs, both in Scotland and England. The
subject was brought on, as it were, incidentally. An Enclosure Bill,
affecting some parts of the New Forest, Hampshire, was attacked, as
a job intended to benefit Pitt's staunch supporter, George Rose, who
had rapidly risen from an obscure origin to the post of Secretary to
the Treasury. Rose had a house and small estate in the Forest, and
there was a universal outcry, both in Parliament and in the public
press, that, in addition to the many sinecures of the fortunate
Rose, there was also a sop intended for him at the cost of the
Crown lands. The reformers were successful in casting much blame on
Ministers, and they followed it up by charging Rose with bribing one
Thomas Smith, a publican in Westminster, to procure votes for the
Ministerial candidate, Lord Hood. Though the motion for a committee of
the House to inquire into the particulars of this case was defeated,
yet the debates turned the attention of the country on the scandalous
bribery going on in boroughs. The Scots, the countrymen of Rose,
petitioned for an inquiry into the condition of their boroughs. Of
the sixty-six boroughs, petitions for such inquiry came from fifty.
They complained that the members and magistrates of those corporations
were self-elected, and by these means the rights and property of the
inhabitants were grievously invaded.
Sheridan introduced the subject on the 18th of April, and Fox ably
supported him; but the motion was negatived. But this defeat only
appeared to stimulate the reformers to higher exertions. On the 28th
of April a new Reform society, entitled the Society of the Friends
of the People, was formally inaugurated by the issue of an address,
which was signed by no less than twenty-eight members of the House of
Commons, and a considerable number of Lords, amongst them the Lords
Lauderdale, John Russell, Stanhope, and Fitzgerald. Their title was
unfortunate, for, though they were united only for Parliamentary
reform, this cognomen was so much in the French style as to create
suspicion and alarm. Many of the members were known to be admirers of
the French Revolution, and about the same time another and decidedly
French-admiring society was started, calling itself the Corresponding
Society, and prosecuting a zealous intercourse with the Girondists
and Jacobins. The admiration of French political principles rendered
the conservative portion of the population quite determined to resist
all innovations; and as this Society of the Friends of the People
was regarded as a direct imitation of the Jacobin Club, it was
violently opposed and stigmatised. On the 30th of April Mr. Grey, as
representative of this Society, rose to announce that in the next
Session he meant to introduce a regular measure for the reform of
Parliament; that it was necessary, he said, had long been asserted by
the two leading men of the House--Pitt and Fox. Pitt rose on this, and
declared himself still the friend of Reform; but he contended that this
was not the time to attempt it. He had only, he said, to point to
the state of things in France, and to the effervescence which those
principles of anarchy had produced in Britain, to show the necessity of
remaining quiet for the present; neither did he believe that the mass
of the English people would support any change in our Constitution.
Fox upbraided Pitt with the abandonment of his former sentiments, and
contended that we had only to look at the money spent lately in the
armament against Russia, money thus spent without any consent of the
people, to perceive the necessity of reform in our representation.
He referred to Pitt's remarks on revolutionary books and pamphlets
recently published, and declared that he had read very few of them.
He had only read one of the two books of Thomas Paine, the "Rights of
Man," and did not like it. Burke replied to him, and drew a most dismal
picture of the condition of France under her Revolutionists. He said
that the French Assembly was composed of seven hundred persons, of whom
four hundred were lawyers, and three hundred of no description; that he
could not name a dozen out of the whole, he believed, with one hundred
pounds a-year; and he asked whether we should like a Parliament in
Great Britain resembling it. In this debate, the further dissolution of
the Whig party became obvious when Windham and others took the side of
Burke.
Immediately after this debate the Government took active steps to crush
that spirit of free discussion in books, pamphlets and associations,
which no doubt had been greatly stimulated by the excitement of the
French Revolution, and which they professed to believe was aiming at
the same object--the destruction of the monarchy. But in attempting to
check this spirit, they adopted the un-English plan of fettering the
press and individual opinion. Pitt's Government issued a proclamation
against seditious books, and societies corresponding with the
Republicans across the water; and magistrates were desired to make
diligent inquiries as to the authors of seditious books and pamphlets,
to put down all mischievous associations, and to take the promptest
means of suppressing and preventing riots and disturbances. An Address
in approbation of this proclamation was moved by Mr. Pepper Arden,
the Master of the Rolls, in the Commons, and a short debate was the
consequence. In this Grey and Fox declared that the proclamation was
unconstitutional, mischievous, and oppressive; that it was a stimulus
given to hot-headed and bigoted magistrates all over the country to
invade the freedom of the press and of private life, on pretence of
preventing disturbance; that the true constitutional remedy for any
wrong opinions promulgated by the press was their regulation by right
and sound opinions; that the blow was aimed against the Society of
the Friends of the People, and intended to crush Reform, and divide
the Whig party; that, in truth, the riots and instigations to anarchy
came not from the Reformers, but from the Church, the magistracy, and
the Tories; and they appealed for the truth of this to the disgraceful
scenes which had occurred at Birmingham. They reminded Government that
in 1782 Pitt had joined the Duke of Richmond, Major Cartwright, and
Horne Tooke, in a meeting, at the Thatched House Tavern, for Reform;
that they, the Whigs, had never gone to the length of Cartwright and
Horne Tooke in their principles of Reform, as Pitt had done; and
they reproached the Minister with his shameful inconsistency. Lord
John Russell, Francis, Lambton, and others, supported Grey and Fox;
and Windham, Lord North, Dundas, etc., supported Pitt. The Address
was carried; and when sent up to the Lords produced another striking
exhibition of the change going on in the Whig party; for the Prince of
Wales, who had hitherto been in such close union with them, and had
been so zealously supported by them, now rose and gave his decided
approbation to the Address, declaring that he had been educated in
admiration of the established Constitution, and was determined, so far
as in him lay, to support it. These words were received with triumph by
the Government party, the Address was carried almost unanimously, and
was followed by an immediate prosecution of the "Rights of Man," by the
Attorney-General, which caused it to be far more generally read than it
otherwise would have been.
It appeared to be the design of the Whigs to agitate this Session a
series of questions connected with freedom of opinion, which, from
the spirit of the times, they could not have the slightest chance of
carrying, but merely to maintain the cause of liberty and liberality
against the spirit of alarm and the spirit of tyranny that dogged
its steps. On the 11th of May Fox moved for leave to bring in a Bill
to repeal certain old statutes affecting the Dissenters, but his
principal remarks were directed against the outrages perpetrated on Dr.
Priestley and the Unitarians at Birmingham, his tone being taken from
a petition from that body presented a few days before. Burke replied
to him, and asserted that this body of so-called Religionists was
rather a body of political agitators. He noticed, in proof, the close
connection of Drs. Price and Priestley, and their adherents, with the
French Revolutionists. He quoted Priestley's own writings to show that
they avowed a desire to destroy the National Church. He expressed
his conviction that, from the intolerance shown by this party in the
prosecution of their views, they would, did they succeed in destroying
the Church and the Constitution, prove worse masters than those whom
the English nation then had. He had no desire to see the king and
Parliament dragged after a National Assembly, as they had been by the
admired reforms of Priestley, Price, and that party, and much preferred
to live under George III. or George IV. than under Dr. Priestley or Dr.
Kippis. Pitt expressed his unwillingness to give more power to a party
that declared its desire to overturn both Church and Constitution; and
Fox, in reply, attacked Burke's "Reflections on the French Revolution,"
saying that Paine's "Age of Reason" was a libel on the Constitution
of Great Britain, but that Burke's book was a libel on every free
Constitution in the world. The motion was rejected by one hundred and
forty-two votes against sixty-three.
[Illustration: GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CALCUTTA. (_From a Photograph by Frith
& Co._)]
Lord Rawdon again attempted to mitigate the condition of debtors
imprisoned by their creditors, but did not succeed; and after Dundas
had drawn a very flattering picture of the condition of India in
presenting his annual statement of Indian finance, and had procured
some regulations for insuring the payment of seamen's wages to
themselves or their families, the king prorogued Parliament on the 15th
of June, still congratulating the country on the prospect of peace and
of reducing substantially the National Debt.
During the recess of Parliament there was an active contest between
the new French opinions and the old constitutional ones. One called
forth and provoked the other. Clubs and societies for Reform were
more after the model of the wholesale proceedings of France than the
old and sober ones of England. The Society of the Friends of the
People was compelled to disclaim all connection with the Society for
Constitutional Information in London, which was in open correspondence
with the Jacobins of Paris. It was forced to disown societies in the
country of the same stamp, and especially to check a branch of the
Society for Constitutional Information in Sheffield, which, in May of
the present year, called on the Society of the Friends of the People to
establish a Convention in London. To allow of no mistake as to their
principles, the Society of the Friends of the People held a great
meeting on the 5th of May, in which they announced that they had no
other object but to obtain Parliamentary Reform by strictly legal and
constitutional means, and that after this end had been secured they
should dissolve themselves. Yet, notwithstanding this, there were those
in the Society who deemed that they were in connection with persons
and associations whose views went farther than their own, and, on this
ground, on the 9th of June, Mr. Baker, who had been the chairman at the
late meeting at the Freemasons' Tavern, Lord John Russell, who had been
deputy-chairman, Dudley North, Mr. Curwen, and Mr. Courtney, withdrew
from it.
On the other hand, the Corresponding Society and the Society for
Constitutional Information kept up an open correspondence with the
National Convention of France, even after the bloody massacres of
September of this year, which we have yet to mention. Unwarned by these
facts, they professed to see, in the example of Frenchmen, the only
chance of the liberation of the English nation from the oppressions
of the Crown and of an overgrown aristocracy. They made no secret
of their desire to establish a Republic in Great Britain; and the
Society for Constitutional Information included amongst its members
a number of red-hot Americans. These Societies and the Revolutionary
Society in London continued to send over glowing addresses to the
French Convention, declaring their desire to fraternise with them for
liberty and equality, and their determination never again to fight with
Frenchmen at the command of despots.
These proceedings called forth an opposite class of Associations, in
which the clergy of the Establishment took the lead. The bishop and
clergy of Worcester, and Dr. Watson, the bishop, and the clergy of
Llandaff, met and presented addresses to the king, expressing their
abhorrence of the doctrines of these Associations, which made no
secret of their demand for "the rights of man--liberty and equality,
no king, no Parliament;" and they expressed their conviction that this
country already possessed more genuine liberty than any other nation
whatever. They asserted that the Constitution, the Church, and State
had received more improvements since the Revolution in 1688 than in
all previous ages; that the Dissenters and Catholics had been greatly
relieved, the judges had been rendered independent, and the laws in
various ways more liberalised since the accession of his present
Majesty than for several reigns previously. They asserted boldly that
in no country could men rise from the lowest positions to affluence
and honour, by trade, by the practice of the law, by other arts and
professions, so well as in this; that the wealth everywhere visible,
the general and increasing prosperity, testified to this fact, in
happy contrast to the miserable condition of France. They concluded
by recommending the formation of counter-associations in all parts of
the country, to diffuse such constitutional sentiments and to expose
the mischievous fallacies of the Democratic societies. This advice
was speedily followed, and every neighbourhood became the arena of
conflicting politics. The Democrats, inoculated by the wild views of
French licence, injured the cause of real liberty and progress by their
advocacy of the mob dominion of Paris; and the Constitutionalists,
urged by the alarm and the zeal inspired by opposition, grew intolerant
and persecuting. The eyes of thousands who had at first hailed the
French Revolution as the happy dawn of a new era of liberty and
brotherhood, were now opened by the horrors of the massacres of the
French clergy in September of this year, and by the sight of swarms
of priests, who had fled for security to London and were everywhere
to be seen in the streets, destitute and dejected. A public meeting
was called at the London Tavern towards the close of 1792, and a
subscription entered into for their relief.
In March of this year Lord Cornwallis had brought a war in India with
the implacable enemy of the British to a very successful close. Early
in the preceding year, 1791, he had reinstated our ally, the Rajah
of Travancore, in his dominions, and had further seized nearly all
Tippoo's territories on the Malabar coast. He then determined to strike
a decisive blow, by marching upon Tippoo's capital, Seringapatam. In
February he took the city of Bangalore, and early in May he was on
his route for Seringapatam. Tippoo was in the deepest consternation.
Lord Cornwallis arrived in the neighbourhood of Seringapatam on the
13th of May, and immediately attacked Tippoo, who was drawn up with a
large force. The Mysoreans broke and fled before the British bayonets.
The British army was in full view of the capital, and expected a rich
booty, when Cornwallis was compelled to order a retreat. The forces
of General Abercromby, who had to make his way from another quarter
through the mountains, had not come up; neither had the Mahrattas,
who were to join with twenty thousand men. The rains had set in, and
the army was without provisions, for Tippoo had laid all the country
waste. In these circumstances, Lord Cornwallis somewhat precipitately
destroyed his battering guns, and retired from before Seringapatam.
He sent word to Abercromby, who was now approaching, to retire also.
On the 26th of May, the very first day of his retreat, the Mahrattas
arrived; but as the rains continued and his soldiers were suffering
from illness, he determined to retreat to Bangalore, where he procured
four battering trains; and having laid in plentiful stores and obtained
strong reinforcements, as soon as the season was favourable he again
set out for Seringapatam. After taking different forts on his way, he
appeared before that wealthy city on the 5th of February, 1792, in
company with General Abercromby and a native force belonging to our
ally, the Nizam. Tippoo was drawn up before the city, having between
it and himself the rapid river Cauvery, and the place extremely well
fortified and defended by batteries. He had forty thousand infantry
and five thousand horse; but he was speedily defeated, and driven
across the river into the city. There the British followed him, and,
under the guidance of the brave generals, Medows and Abercromby, they
soon penetrated so deeply into the place that Tippoo was compelled to
capitulate. In these actions the British were said to have lost about
six hundred men, Tippoo four thousand.
The conditions proposed by Lord Cornwallis were, that Tippoo should
cede one-half of his territories; that he should pay three crores and
thirty lacs of rupees; that he should restore all the prisoners taken
since the time of his father, Hyder Ali; and that two of his eldest
sons should be given up as hostages for the faithful fulfilment of
the articles. On the 26th the boys, who were only eight and ten years
old, were surrendered, and part of the money was sent in. Cornwallis
received the little princes very kindly, and presented each of them
with a gold watch, with which they were delighted. When, however, it
came to the surrender of the territory, Tippoo refused and began to
make preparations for resistance; but Lord Cornwallis's active firmness
soon compelled him to submit. He ordered the captive children to be
sent away to Bangalore, and prepared to storm the town, for which both
our soldiers and those of the Nizam were impatient. Tippoo gave way;
and the surrender of territory according to the treaty was completed.
These acquisitions were more valuable for the defence which they
afforded the British than for the direct income, which did not amount
to more than half a million sterling a year; but they included all
Tippoo's dominions on the coast of Malabar, thus cutting off his
mischievous communications with the French by sea. It would have been
easy at this time to have stripped Tippoo of the whole of Mysore, but
it was not deemed politic. We were far from having great faith in the
continued fidelity of the Mahrattas, and it was thought necessary
not to remove the check which the existence of Tippoo's power, and
his desire for revenge on the Mahrattas, presented. Besides, the
finances of India were in a very embarrassed state, and the question of
Indian war was unpopular in Britain. With all the territory resigned
to the Indian allies, Lord Cornwallis could not avoid giving deep
offence to the Mahrattas, who desired to obtain a regiment of British
troops in pay. The ill-concealed jealousy between them and the Nizam
made an outbreak between these States very possible; and the moody
resentment of Tippoo, who writhed under his humiliation, added greatly
to the uncertainty of long-continued peace. On the other hand, the
soldiers were highly discontented at not having had the opportunity
of plundering the opulent city of Seringapatam; and to soothe them
Cornwallis and General Medows, the second in command, surrendered to
them their shares of prize money, and the former ordered them, besides,
six months' batta out of the money paid by Tippoo.
It was during Lord Cornwallis's campaign in Mysore that Lord Macartney
made his celebrated embassy to China, to endeavour to induce the
Chinese to open their ports to trade with Britain; but his lordship
succeeded in very little beyond making the Chinese and their country
better known in the work written by his secretary, afterwards Sir John
Barrow.
Very important events had during this time been taking place in Europe.
In the north, Russia, checked in its encroachments on Turkey for the
present, turned its eyes on the inviting region of Poland. Poland,
after neglecting its own internal improvement, and the raising of
the condition of its people, so as to give them a real interest in
the defence of the country, had suddenly set about establishing a
new Constitution, very much on the model of the French Revolutionary
one. The Diet declared the throne hereditary, and not elective, as
hitherto; and Stanislaus Augustus, the king--that is, Poniatowski, the
former lover and favourite of Catherine of Russia--was wholly agreeable
to this. The Diet proposed the Elector of Saxony as Poniatowski's
successor, the king having no children. It also admitted the burgher
class into its body. As there was a strong party, however, in
opposition to the popular party, the patriots met secretly, and not
only pledged themselves to the new Constitution, but to pass it _en
masse_ and at once, without canvassing the particular articles of it.
The king, being privy to this, on the 3rd of May, 1791, entered the
hall of the Diet. The new Constitution was read, passed by a majority,
and signed by the king. Stanislaus then led the way to the cathedral,
where he was followed by all the nuncios except twelve, and there both
he and they swore to maintain this new Constitution. An unexpected
difficulty was found in persuading the Elector of Saxony to accept the
Crown; for, though both Russia and Prussia still professed friendship
for Poland, he was too well aware of the designs of Russia on Poland to
accept the dangerous post without much hesitation. At length, in the
month of April, 1792, the Elector gave his reluctant consent, but not
without stipulating that they should give more power to the sovereign,
and limit more that of the Diet; that the right of determining peace
and war should belong to the king, as well as the authority over the
army. He objected to a number of things, evidently borrowed from the
revolutionary French, such as the oath taken to the nation, and the
education of the heir by the Diet, just as the National Assembly had
claimed the right to educate the Dauphin.
But now Catherine of Russia had concluded her entanglements with
Turkey. It was the August of 1791, and her eyes turned immediately
on Poland, and she pretended to take great offence and alarm at the
new Constitution, as full of French and Revolutionary principles, and
therefore intolerable to any neighbouring state. She began to negotiate
with Sweden, and Prussia, and Austria, to co-operate with her in her
design against Poland. Prussia was easily led to adopt her ideas, for
the king was like herself, greedy of his neighbour's dominions, and had
been repulsed by the Poles in grasping at Thorn and Dantzic. Leopold
of Austria was, by his connection with the royal party of France,
through his sister, naturally ready to put down any influence from the
French Revolution in a neighbouring country; but he was indisposed to
war, and too just and moderate for aggression. His death, on the 1st
of March, 1792, removed this obstacle, and Francis, his successor, was
found to be more accessible to the Czarina's selfish arguments. Russia,
Prussia, and Austria were all agreed on the plunder of Poland, whilst
they still preserved the most hypocritical appearance of caring only
for its unity and national interests. As for Gustavus III., of Sweden,
brave and honest as he was, he was of such chivalrous and, to a certain
degree, insane character, that he was easily led on by the artful
Empress of Russia to lend himself to her designs, without being aware
of them. He had declared himself the knight of Marie Antoinette, and
had sworn to rescue her. He was avaricious of military glory, and, like
his predecessor, Charles XII., he was desirous only of conducting some
great and brilliant enterprise. He desired to lead an army against the
French, now bursting out under the Revolutionary general, Custine, on
Germany, and, joining with the army of the Emigrants, eighteen thousand
in number, to beat back the Democratic general, to march into France,
and restore the throne of Louis and Marie Antoinette. But he had no
money; the Empress of Russia, who wished him employed at a distance,
and especially in keeping back the French Democrats, whilst she carved
up Poland, offered him both money and arms. But the Empress was
relieved of the high-minded Gustavus in a manner which she had by no
means contemplated. He fell, on the 16th of March, in his own capital,
by the hand of an assassin called Ankarström.
Catherine of Russia, thus rid of the only two monarchs who were
likely to trouble her with scruples, hastened her grand design of
absorbing Poland. She professed to be much scandalised and alarmed
at the proceedings of the king, who had attended a dinner given by
the municipality of Warsaw on the anniversary of the passing of their
new Constitution, at which he had not only responded to the toast
of his health by drinking to the nation and the municipality, thus
sanctioning them as great powers, as the French had done, but had sat
complacently amid the loud cries of "Long live Liberty! Long live the
nation, and our citizen king, the friend of the Rights of Man!" The
Poles had certainly become enthusiastic imitators of the French; they
had established clubs in imitation of the clubs of Paris, had sent
a deputation to congratulate the French on their Revolution, and had
passed various decrees of a Jacobin character. Neither did she lack
a sanction from the Poles themselves. There had always been violent
parties in that kingdom; and at this time a number of nobles, who
opposed the new Constitution, sent a deputation with a memorial to the
Empress, at St. Petersburg, inviting her to assist them in restoring
the old Constitution. Catherine gave them a ready promise, and, on
the 14th of May, Felix Potocki, Branicki, Rzewinski, and eleven other
nobles, met at Targowica, and entered into a confederacy for this
purpose. This confederacy was followed, only four days after its
signing, by a protest issued by Bulgakoff, the Russian Minister, at
Warsaw, against the whole of the new institutions and decrees. On the
18th of May, the same day that this proclamation was issued at Warsaw,
a hundred thousand Russian troops marched over the Polish frontiers,
attended by some of the pro-Russian confederates, and assumed the
appearance of an army of occupation.
[Illustration: VIEW IN OLD PARIS: RUE DE PIROUETTE, NORTH SIDE OF LES
HALLES. (_After Martial._)]
The Diet issued a counter-proclamation rebutting Catherine's long
catalogue of charges _seriatim_, and denying the right of any nation,
under any pretence whatever, to interfere with the internal changes of
another nation executed by the proper authorities and representatives
of the people. Stanislaus Augustus issued an address to the Polish
army, calling upon it to defend the national rights from the domination
of Russia. But, unfortunately, Poland was in no condition to cope with
the might of Russia. No pains had been taken to organise the army
in years past on any scale capable of defending the nation; the new
rights conferred on the people were too new to have given them yet any
interest in them. Poland, therefore, in all haste, made solicitations
for help to Prussia, Austria, Britain, Sweden, and Denmark; but in
vain. Sweden and Denmark had, now that Gustavus was dead, determined
to have no concern in wars resulting in any way from the French
Revolution. Frederick William of Prussia pretended to have foreseen
this offence to Russia in the alarming measures of the Diet, and
protested that had it not been for these, Russia would never have taken
the decided step which she had now done. He, however, coldly professed
himself ready to unite with Russia and Austria to restore the former
state of things in Poland. As for Austria, she lay cold and neutral
in appearance; but though Poland was not aware of it, both Prussia
and Austria were in the secret league for the dismemberment of that
unfortunate country.
Britain was anxiously appealed to for aid; but Pitt, who had raised
so powerful an armament to check the attacks of Russia on Turkey, was
not disposed to denounce the attempts of Russia on Poland. He might
be blamed for refraining from exerting the moral power of Britain in
condemnation of the unprincipled aggression of Russia, but he could
not be expected to take arms in defence of Poland, so far removed from
the influence of a maritime nation. Colonel Gardiner, our Minister
at Warsaw, was instructed by our Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Lord
Grenville, to express a friendly interest towards Poland, but to
take care to avoid raising hopes of assistance. The Poles, repelled
by Prussia and Austria, and finding no warmth of sympathy in the
agent of Britain, dispatched Count Bukaty in June to London to plead
for aid. But Pitt was cold and immovable, though he saw with regret
that the absorption of this large country, in the centre of Europe,
would formidably increase that preponderance of Russia, which he had
attempted to prevent when there was a question of the absorption
of Turkey. He adopted an attitude of strict neutrality. No motion
condemnatory of Russia's grasping schemes was made in Parliament; it
seemed to Britain a matter of no moment that one of the chief nations
of Europe should be torn in pieces by rapacious Powers, contrary to
all moral and international law. The Whigs, those warm advocates of
revolution and of popular freedom, were dumb. In fact, what could
they say? Fox and his admirers had all along been lauding the Russian
Empress as one of the greatest, ablest, and most innocent of monarchs,
simply in opposition to Pitt and his endeavours to repress her schemes
of aggrandisement. Fox had even sent Mr. Adair as his emissary to St.
Petersburg, to congratulate her on her successes, and to assure her of
the admiration of Englishmen. Such are the perversities into which men
are driven by party spirit! At this very moment Fox and the Whigs were
flattering and patting Catherine on the back, when her bandit armies
had already their feet on the doomed soil of Poland, and they were
still applauding the Revolutionists of France, when they were already
beyond the Rhine, on that crusade of conquest which plunged Europe
into more than twenty years of the most horrible bloodshed. They saw
all this when too late. For the present, what was done for Poland was
to call a meeting at the Mansion House and open a subscription for the
suffering Poles.
Poland, abandoned to her own resources, made a brave but ineffectual
defence. The Russians received several severe checks in their advance.
At Zadorsk, at Palorma, and finally at Dulienska, the Poles fought
them gallantly. At the last-named battle, on the 17th of July, the
heroic Kosciusko made terrible havoc of the Russian lines, and was
only prevented from utterly routing them by his flank being turned by
another arrival of Russians, whom the Emperor Francis, of Austria, had
allowed to march through Galicia. The Russians advanced to Warsaw,
took regular possession of it, and of all the towns and military
forts throughout the country. They dismissed the patriot officers
of the army, and dispersed the army itself in small divisions into
widely-separated places. They abolished the new Constitution, thrust
the burgher class again out of their newly-acquired privileges, and
put the press under more ignominious restrictions than before. They
confiscated the estates of nobles who had advocated the new reforms.
Both Catherine and her Ministers treated the idea of any partition of
Poland as the most groundless and ridiculous of notions. They pointed
to the invasion of Germany already by Custine, the French Revolutionary
general, and justified the temporary occupation of Poland as necessary
to the security of both Poland and the neighbouring states. We must
leave the three robber Powers, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, therefore,
gloating over their prey, and ready to rend it asunder, in order to
continue the narrative of the wild explosion of France.
The Girondists were, at the opening of the year 1792, vehemently urging
on war against the Emigrants and the Emperor of Germany. Just at this
crisis, as we have seen, Leopold of Austria died, and was succeeded by
his nephew, Francis II.; and war became more inevitable, for Francis
had not the same pacific disposition as Leopold, and the Gironde was
bent on war. The internal condition of France also seemed to indicate
that there must soon be war abroad or civil war at home. The Ministers
were at variance; the Jacobins and Girondists were coming to an open
and desperate feud; the people, both in Paris and throughout the
country, were excited by the Jacobin publications to the utmost pitch
of fury against the Royalists and the priests.
Whilst the Gironde was thus weakened by this implacable and incurable
feud with the Jacobins, Austria was making unmistakable signs of
preparations for that war which Leopold had often threatened, but never
commenced. Francis received deputations from the Emigrant princes,
ordered the concentration of troops in Flanders, and spoke in so firm a
tone of restoring Louis and the old system of things, that the French
ambassador at Vienna, M. De Noailles, sent in his resignation, stating
that he despaired of inducing the Emperor to listen to the language
which had been dictated to him. Two days afterwards, however, Noailles
recalled his resignation, saying he had obtained the categorical answer
demanded of the Court of Vienna. This was sent in a dispatch from Baron
von Cobentzel, the Foreign Minister of Austria. In this document, which
was tantamount to a declaration of war, the Court of Vienna declared
that it would listen to no terms on behalf of the King of France,
except his entire restoration to all the ancient rights of his throne,
according to the royal declaration of the 23rd of June, 1789; and the
restoration of the domains in Alsace, with all their feudal rights, to
the princes of the Empire. Moreover, Prince Kaunitz, the chief Minister
of Francis, announced his determination to hold no correspondence with
the Government which had usurped authority in France.
Dumouriez, the new Foreign Minister, advised the king to communicate
this note to the Assembly without a moment's delay. There was immediate
dissension in the royal council. This was the commencement of the
division in the Gironde Ministry, which quickly destroyed it. Dumouriez
proceeded, in the presence of the king, the rest of the Ministers, and
a number of courtiers, on the 20th of April, to make that announcement
which was to decide the fate of France and of Europe. Roland and
the more determined Girondists had recommended that the king should
himself make the declaration of war; but as the war itself was most
repugnant to the king, Dumouriez had advised that he should only
consult with the Assembly on the necessity of this declaration, and
thus throw the responsibility on that body. There had been division of
opinion amongst Ministers, and now Dumouriez read a detailed account
of the negotiations with Austria, and then Louis, who looked jaded
and anxious, stated that he had followed the recommendations of the
Assembly, and of many of his subjects in various parts of France, in
these negotiations, and, as they had heard the results, he put it to
the Assembly whether they could any longer submit to see the dignity
of the French people insulted, and the national security threatened.
The speech was received with loud acclamations and cries of "_Vive le
Roi!_" The President said they would deliberate, and the result was
that a decree was passed resolving upon war. This resolve the Assembly
justified by the declaration that the Emperor of Austria had concerted
with the Emigrants and foreign princes to threaten the peace and the
constitution of France; that he had refused to abandon these views
and proceedings, and reduce his army to a peace establishment, as
demanded of him by a vote of the 11th of March of this year; that he
had declared his intention to restore the German princes by force to
the possessions they had held in Alsace, although the French nation
had never ceased to offer them compensation; and that, finally, he
had closed the door to all accommodation by refusing to reply to the
dispatches of the king.
Dumouriez had no sooner come into office than he laid down a great
military plan. He proposed that wherever France extended to what
he called her natural limits--that is, to the Rhine, the Alps, the
Pyrenees, and the sea--they should act only on the defensive; but in
the Netherlands, where the territory did not extend to the Rhine, and
in Savoy, where it did not extend to the Alps, there they should act
on the offensive, and carry France to what he called its boundaries by
the genuine laws of nature. This plan was adopted. The Austrians had
only thirty thousand men in Belgium, and Lafayette was to make a dash
on that division of the Netherlands. From Namur he was to push on for
Liége, which would make him complete master of the country, and was
to be strengthened by a reinforcement of thirty thousand infantry, so
that he would be seventy-five thousand strong before the Emperor could
advance to his attack. Further, while Lafayette was marching from Givet
on Namur, a division of his army of ten thousand men, under General
Biron, was to march upon Mons, where Beaulieu, the Austrian general,
was posted with only two thousand five hundred men. On the same day
Major-General Theobald Dillon was to advance with three thousand six
hundred men from Lille, in Tournay, and to surprise that place. The
French calculated on the support of the Belgians who had been strongly
inoculated with the spirit of the Revolution. The two smaller divisions
were punctual in their movements; but Lafayette, instead of marching
simultaneously, remained strengthening himself in his position at
Givet. General Biron set out from Valenciennes, and, on the 29th of
April, crossed the Belgian frontiers, and the next day marched towards
Mons. But no sooner did the French cavalry come in sight of some light
troops, said only to amount to about five hundred men, than they fled,
crying that they were betrayed. Beaulieu's horse pursued and captured
Biron's baggage and military chest. On the very same day, Dillon's
division, on their march from Lille to Tournay, fled with the very same
cry from nine hundred Austrians who had issued from Tournay. The French
officers in vain endeavoured, in both cases, to rally their forces,
and Dillon was murdered by his own men on re-entering Lille with a
lieutenant-colonel and an unsworn priest. Lafayette, hearing this
strange news, did not venture to quit Givet.
The news of this astonishing cowardice of the soldiery caused great
consternation in Paris. Lafayette and Rochambeau wrote complaining
of Dumouriez and the Gironde Ministry; the Girondists accused the
Jacobins of inciting the troops to this conduct; and the Jacobins
blamed the incompetence of the Gironde. The king proceeded to dismiss
his Girondist Ministry, and to rule with something like independence.
In the early part of July it was known at the Tuileries that the
Prussians, having joined the Austrians, had marched on Coblenz, to the
number of eighty thousand men, all old soldiers of the great Frederick,
and commanded by the Duke of Brunswick, the nephew of Frederick, who
had won so much distinction in the Seven Years' War. Marshal Luckner,
not deeming himself strong enough to resist this force, had retired
upon Lille and Valenciennes. The Court was in high spirits; the queen
told her ladies, in confidence, that the Allies would be in Paris in
six weeks. The king wrote to the allied camp recommending moderation.
In this moment of effervescence appeared the proclamation of the Duke
of Brunswick as commander of the allied armies, and in the name of the
allied monarchs. This proclamation arrived in Paris on the 28th of
July, though it was dated Coblenz, July 25th. It was far from being
of the reasonable nature which the king had recommended, and was
calculated to do the most fatal injuries to his interests. It stated
that the Emperor and the King of Prussia, having seen the manner in
which the authority of the King of France had been overturned by a
factious people, how his sacred person and those of his family had been
subjected to violence and restraint, in which those who had usurped
his Government had, besides destroying the internal order and peace
of France, invaded the Germanic Empire, and seized the possessions of
the princes of Alsace and Lorraine, had determined to march to his
assistance, and had authorised himself, a member of the Germanic body,
to march to the aid of their friend and ally; that he came to restore
the king to all his rights, and to put an end to anarchy in France;
that he was not about to make war on France, but on its internal
enemies, and he called on all the well-disposed to co-operate in this
object; that all cities, towns, villages, persons, and property would
be respected and protected, provided that they immediately concurred
in the restoration of order. He summoned all officers of the army and
the State to return to their allegiance; all Ministers of Departments,
districts, and municipalities were likewise summoned, and were to be
held responsible, by their lives and properties, for all outrages and
misdemeanours committed before the restoration of order; and all who
resisted the royal authority, and fired on the royal troops or the
Allies, should be instantly punished with all rigour, and their houses
demolished or burned. Paris, in case of any injury done to the royal
family, was to be delivered up to an exemplary and ever-memorable
vengeance; that no laws were to be acknowledged as valid but such
as proceeded from the king when in a state of perfect liberty.
[Illustration: THE ROYAL FAMILY OF FRANCE ON THEIR WAY TO THE ASSEMBLY.
(_See p._ 403.)]
This was an announcement of the utter overthrow of the Revolution,
and the restoration of the ancient condition of France, with its
aristocracy and its slaves. The sensation which it produced was
intense. The king was immediately accused of secretly favouring this
language, though it was far from being the case. It was in vain that he
disavowed the sentiments of this haughty and impolitic proclamation to
the Assembly; he was not believed, and the exasperation against him was
dreadfully aggravated.