The next who took his trial was Horne Tooke. The evidence was much

the same, but the man was different. Tooke was one of the keenest

intellects of the time, full of wit and causticity, by which he had

worsted even Junius. He summoned as witnesses the Prime Minister

himself, the Duke of Richmond, Master-General of the Ordnance, and

others of the Cabinet, who had all in their time been ardent Reformers,

and cross-questioned them in a style which, if he were guilty, showed

that they had once been as much so. Tooke's trial was very damaging to

the Government, and he was also acquitted after a trial of six days,

during the whole of which the jury had not been allowed to separate,

that they might not receive any popular impressions from without--a

course which was not calculated to put them in a particularly good

humour with the prosecutors.

On the 1st of December Bonney, Joyce, Kyd, and Holcroft were brought

up, but the evidence was precisely the same against them as against

Tooke; they were discharged without trial. Holcroft would have made

a speech condemnatory of these prosecutions, but was not allowed.

As these gentlemen were removed from the bar, John Thelwall, the

well-known elocutionist and political lecturer, was brought up. As

the Government thought there were some other charges against him, the

trial went on, and lasted four days, but with the same result; and as

it was found that it was hopeless to expect verdicts of guilty from

English juries for mere demands of Reform, the rest of the accused were

discharged. To the honour of the nation, people of all parties appeared

to rejoice at the independent conduct of the juries.

This noble independence was in bright contrast to that of Scottish

juries. In this very autumn, fresh trials of accused seditionists

had taken place at Edinburgh, in which the conduct of Government and

the servility of the Scottish juries were equally reprehensible.

One Robert Watt, a ruined tradesman of that city, was put upon his

trial, on the 14th of August, charged with eighteen overt acts of high

treason--in exciting many individuals to arm themselves, and to meet

in convention to concoct plans for the overthrow of the Government.

But it appeared on the trial that Watt had long been a Government spy,

employed to instigate people to these courses, by direct orders from

Mr. Secretary Dundas and the Lord Advocate of Scotland. Letters from

these gentlemen containing these orders, and proofs of Watt being in

the pay of Government for these purposes, were produced by Mr. Henry

Erskine, the prisoner's counsel. It was shown unanswerably that he

had been encouraged to have arms made and distributed, and to tempt

soldiers in Edinburgh. He had been thus employed to mislead and ensnare

unsuspecting persons from August, 1792, to October, 1793--more than

twelve months; and it was shown that after this the Government had

abandoned him, and that he had then joined the Reformers in earnest.

Notwithstanding this display of the infamous conduct of the Government,

Watt was condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered.

One Samuel Downie was next arraigned on the same charges, on the

5th of September, as an accomplice of Watt. But it appeared that he

had been rather the dupe of Watt and the spy-employing Government

than anything else; and though the jury pronounced him guilty, they

recommended him to mercy. He was respited and eventually pardoned; but

Watt underwent his sentence, so far as being hanged and beheaded,--a

warning to spies how they trusted a Government equally faithless to the

people and to the tools by which they sought to betray them.

The last act of this year, 1794, was the opening of Parliament on the

30th of December. The king, in his speech, was compelled to confess the

deplorable defeat of our Allies, and of our own army under the Duke

of York. He had to admit that, Robespierre having fallen, there might

possibly be a more pacific spirit in France; that Holland, the only

ally for whom we were verbally bound to take up arms, was negotiating

a peace with the French; that the United States of America had refused

to coalesce with the French against us, and had, on the contrary, made

a treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation with us. Here, then, was

an end of all real causes for anything more than a mere defensive war

on our part. Yet the speech breathed a most warlike spirit, and made a

great deal of the secession of the island of Corsica from France and

its adhesion to England. In the same spirit were the Addresses from

both Houses carried by overwhelming Ministerial majorities.

Canning, now rising into note, and Windham, declared that there were no

motives for peace, but everything to necessitate the active prosecution

of the war; and Windham could not help severely condemning the

acquittal of Horne Tooke, Hardy, Thelwall, and the rest of the accused

Reformers. He was called to order for thus impugning the conduct of

independent juries, and reminded that no legal proofs of the guilt of

the prisoners had been produced--on which he replied that they ought to

have been condemned, then, on moral proofs.

Sheridan marked the opening of the year 1795 by moving, on the 5th of

January, for the repeal of the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act.

He showed that the very grounds on which this suspension had been

based had miserably given way on the trials of Tooke, Hardy, and the

rest; that the whole amount of arms and money on which the so-called

"formidable" conspiracy had rested had been shown to be one pike, nine

rusty muskets, and a fund of nine pounds and one bad shilling! He

said that the great thing proved was the shameful conspiracy of the

Government against the people, and their infamous employment of spies

for that end; that eight thousand pounds had been spent on the Crown

lawyers, and a hundred witnesses examined, only to expose the guilt of

the Ministry. Windham defended the measures of Government, and charged

the juries with ignorance and incapacity, for which Erskine severely

reprimanded him. But the standing majorities of Pitt were inaccessible

to argument, and the continuance of the suspension was voted by a

majority of two hundred and thirty-nine against fifty-three. A like

result attended the debate in the Lords, where, however, the Dukes

of Norfolk and Bedford, the Marquis of Lansdowne, and the Earls of

Lauderdale and Guildford strongly opposed the suspension.

These debates were immediately followed by the opening of the Budget

on the 23rd of February--an opening which was enough to have made any

men but such as were then at the head of British affairs pause in their

ruinous career. There was a call for one hundred thousand seamen,

for one hundred and sixty thousand regulars, and fifty-six thousand

militia--total, two hundred and sixteen thousand soldiers, besides

volunteers, fencibles, and foreign troops in British pay, amounting, by

land and sea, to at least four hundred thousand men! For their support

there were demanded sixteen million and twenty-seven thousand pounds,

in addition to other taxes to make up deficiencies and interest on the

Debt; the whole revenue demanded was twenty-seven million five hundred

thousand pounds. Besides this there was an annual subsidy to the King

of Sardinia of two hundred thousand pounds, although there was no

prospect whatever of saving him. To raise all this, new duties had to

be laid on tea, coffee, raisins, foreign groceries and fruits, foreign

timber, insurances, writs, affidavits, hair-powder, licences, etc., and

the revenue from the Post Office, while the privilege of franking had

to be abridged. The only tax that the compliant aristocracy protested

against was that on the powdered pates of their menials; but the

country cried lustily and in vain against the increase of taxation,

which, gross as it was, was but the beginning of their burdens and of

the burden of posterity.

The Reformers made repeated and strenuous efforts to obtain a

parliamentary expression of the desirableness of this country

refraining from interfering with the internal affairs of France, and of

making specific arrangements with that country. Earl Stanhope made such

a motion in the Lords on the 6th of January, and the Duke of Bedford

made a similar one on the 27th of February. Lord Grey had moved the

same thing on the day before, but all these endeavours were rendered

abortive by Pitt's standing majority. It was replied that France had

no government that could be treated with, and Lord Mansfield asserted

that we had a right to interfere in the internal affairs of any country

that acted on principles dangerous to its neighbour. Fox, on the 24th

of March, moved for a committee of the whole House to inquire into the

state of the nation, but this was rejected on the ground that the times

were too critical, and Canning adduced the condition of Ireland, just

on the verge of rebellion, as a sufficient cause for not ascertaining

our actual state.

[Illustration: THE PALACE OF THE TUILERIES, PARIS.]

The only attempts at reform were in the commissariat and discipline

of the army. The soldiers were allowed an extra quantity of bread and

meat, and the militia regiments were permitted to have artillery,

and to increase their force and improve their staffs. But even these

reforms were made unconstitutionally by the dictum of the Ministers,

without the authority of Parliament, and occasioned smart but

ineffectual remonstrances from the House. Every motion for inquiry or

censure was borne down by the Ministerial majority.

The remainder of the parliamentary session was occupied with royal

marriages and settlements. George III. and his queen, though pious and

decorous in their own lives, had the misfortune to have amongst their

sons some of the most dissolute and debauched men that ever figured in

the corrupt atmosphere of courts. The Prince of Wales was become a very

byword for his profligacy and extravagance. The Duke of York was but

little better, so far as his means allowed him; and the Duke of Sussex,

wishing to marry a woman to whom he was really attached, found the

Royal Marriage Act standing in his way.

The marriage of the Prince of Wales with Mrs. Fitzherbert was

notorious; but as it was not openly avowed by the Prince, no steps were

taken to dissolve it. But in 1794 the Prince had got a new favourite,

the Lady Jersey, already a grandmother, but a young one. For her Mrs.

Fitzherbert was dismissed, showing how little the Prince thought of

the reality of the marriage with that fair lady, and he now lived

openly and ostentatiously with Lady Jersey, Lord Jersey being well

contented with the arrangement for the sake of the good things he hoped

to gain by it, being at once appointed Master of the Horse to the

Prince. But the Prince's extravagance and gambling, by the practice

of which, notwithstanding his own losses, he reduced his friends, one

after the other, as the Earl of Moira, Sir Wallace Porter, and others,

to beggary, had now brought him into extreme difficulties. His debts,

after having been more than once paid off by Parliament, now again

amounted to six hundred and thirty thousand pounds! Another appeal

to Parliament was absolutely necessary, for his creditors were grown

excessively clamorous. The king seized the opportunity to induce the

Prince to marry a foreign princess, representing it as the only plan

by which they could apply to Parliament for such an increase of means

as would enable him to liquidate his debts. But instead of allowing

the Prince to go abroad and make his own selection, so that there

might be possibly some degree of freedom of choice in the matter, the

queen was anxious to have her own niece, the Princess Louisa Augusta

Amelia of Mecklenburg, selected for him. This Princess, afterwards the

popular Queen of Prussia, was a good creature, and might possibly have

wrought some favourable change even in so depraved a nature as that

of the Prince of Wales. But the king was equally determined to secure

the unenviable post for his own niece, Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, the

second daughter of the Duke of Brunswick, who was one of the petty

princes of Germany. To effect this arrangement, an attachment between

the Crown Prince of Prussia and this Princess Caroline had to be rent

asunder. The Prince was ready to fall in with any such bargain, on

condition that he was liberated from his debts. It was certain that he

would please himself as to the lady or ladies with whom he would really

live. All obstacles of nature, or of nearness of consanguinity, or of

private attachments were overborne by diplomacy, and by the promise of

the discharge of the Prince's debts. The Princess Caroline of Brunswick

was selected--a young lady of not unpleasing person in her youth,

according to the descriptions of the time, but of defective education,

and coming to this country with the repugnance of a prior and

rudely-sundered attachment. She landed at Greenwich on Sunday, the 5th

of April, 1795, and the marriage ceremony was performed at St. James's,

by the Archbishop of Canterbury, on the 8th. The Princess had not

been ignorant of the dissolute character of her appointed husband, and

his mode of receiving her was not calculated to inspire any brilliant

hopes of his improvement. He had sent his mistress, the Lady Jersey,

to meet her on landing, and he made no disguise of his connection with

her before or after the marriage. The Memoirs of the time assert that

Lady Jersey omitted no arts to render the Princess ridiculous and even

disgusting to the Prince; but what chagrined him far more deeply was

the breach of the promises held out to him of the discharge of his

debts by a parliamentary grant or grants.

On the 27th of April Pitt introduced a message from the king,

recommending the settlement of a suitable provision on the Prince of

Wales on his marriage. The Prince expected that Pitt would propose and

carry, by means of his compliant majority, which had readily voted

away millions to foreign monarchs, a vote for the immediate discharge

of his debts. His astonishment may therefore be imagined, when Pitt

proposed that Parliament should grant him such an income as should

enable him, by decent economy, to defray these debts by instalments

through a course of years. Having stated these debts at six hundred and

thirty thousand pounds, he proposed to increase the Prince's allowance

from seventy-five thousand to one hundred and forty thousand pounds,

an increase of sixty-five thousand pounds a-year. Twenty-five thousand

pounds of this were to be set apart every year for the liquidation

of the debts in the course of twenty-seven years. This was, in fact,

only giving him an increase on his marriage of forty thousand pounds

per annum; but so unpopular was the Prince that not even that amount

of money could be obtained. The question was warmly debated during

two months, and it was not till the 27th of June that it was finally

settled in still worse terms for the Prince, namely, that his allowance

should be one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds per annum, with

the income of the Duchy of Cornwall, about fifteen thousand pounds

more, thus making up the one hundred and forty thousand pounds; but out

of this seventy-five thousand pounds per annum were appropriated to the

payment of his debts, leaving him only sixty-seven thousand pounds a

year clear for his own expenditure, or eight thousand pounds per annum

less than his previous allowance. With the grant to the Prince this

Session closed, namely, on the 27th of June.

The first transactions of the campaign of 1795 which demand our

attention, are those of Holland. To the British army these were most

disastrous, and came to an end before the winter closed. The Duke of

York had returned to England early in December, 1794, leaving the chief

command to General Walmoden, a Hanoverian, second to whom was General

Dundas. Walmoden had gone quietly into winter quarters in the isle of

Bommel, forgetting that the firmness of the ice would soon leave him

exposed with his small force to the overwhelming swarms of the French,

under Pichegru, who, in the middle of December, crossed the Waal with

two hundred thousand men, and drove in his lines. General Dundas

advanced against him with eight thousand men, and, for the time, drove

the French back, on the 30th of December, across the Waal. But this

could not last with such disproportionate forces, especially as our

troops were left with the most wretched commissariat, and an equally

wretched medical staff; in fact, there were neither surgeons to attend

the greater part of the wounded, nor medicines for the sick. On the

4th of January, 1795, the French came back with their overpowering

numbers, and on the 6th the British were compelled to retire across

the Leck, and continue their retreat, suffering indescribable miseries

from the want of food, tents, and proper clothes, in the horrors of a

Dutch winter. Notwithstanding this, the British repeatedly turned and

drove back the enemy with heavy slaughter. But on the 11th of January

Pichegru attacked them in a defile between Arnhem and Nimeguen, with

a condensed force of seventy thousand men, and took every measure to

destroy, or compel the surrender of, the whole British army. They,

however, fought their way through and continued their march for the

Elbe, the only quarter open to them. During this retreat they were less

harassed by the French, who fell off to occupy Utrecht and Rotterdam,

than by the fury of the winter and the hostility of the Jacobinised

Dutch, who cursed them as the cause of all the sufferings of their

country. Such was the end of Britain's campaign for the defence of

her Dutch allies. Holland was proclaimed a free Republic under the

protection of France, and Britain immediately commenced operations for

indemnifying herself, by seizing the ships and colonies of her late

ally in every quarter of the globe. They intercepted the homebound

Dutch Indiamen, and when the Council of Government sent deputies to

London to reclaim them, Lord Grenville, the Foreign Minister, asked

them in what character they came. They replied, that they came as

representatives of the sovereign people of Batavia. The Foreign

Minister said he knew of no such Power, and declined to receive them.

No time was lost in seizing the Dutch colonies and factories. On

the 14th of July Admiral Sir G. Keith Elphinstone appeared in Table

Bay, and landed a considerable force under command of Major-General

Craig. They possessed themselves of Simon's Town and the strong fort

of Muyzenberg, and in the beginning of September, being reinforced by

another body of troops, under Major-General Alured Clarke, on the 23rd

of that month they were masters of Cape Town. A similar activity was

displayed in the East Indies; and in the course of the year, or early

in 1796, all the Dutch possessions in Ceylon, Malacca, Cochin, Amboyna,

and other places were surrendered to the British. The same seizures

were in course of execution on the settlements of the Dutch in the West

Indies, and on the coast of South America.

But though we punished the Dutch for their French predilections,

the tide of French success was rolling on in various quarters, and

presenting a prospect of a single-handed conflict with France. The

powers on whose behalf we had armed were fast, one after another,

making terms with the Republicans. Holland was in their hands, and the

King of Prussia, on the 5th of April, concluded a peace with them at

Basle, in which he agreed to surrender to France all his possessions

on the left bank of the Rhine, on condition of retaining those on the

right. There was a mutual exchange of prisoners, including the troops

of such other German States as had served with Prussia. Spain hastened

to follow the example of Prussia. A peace was concluded at the same

place--Basle--on the 22nd of July, by which she gave up all the Spanish

part of San Domingo. To purchase the French evacuation, the Ministers

of Spain itself recognised the Batavian Republic--which was become, in

reality, a province of France--and promised to intercede with Portugal,

Naples, Parma, and Sardinia. The Grand Duke of Tuscany followed with

a proclamation of a treaty of neutrality with France, on the 1st of

March. Sweden and the Protestant Cantons recognised the French Republic

and the Batavian one, its ally; and the Duke of Hesse-Cassel, and even

George III., as Elector of Hanover, were compelled to an agreement to

furnish no more troops to the Emperor of Germany. Whilst the Allies

were thus falling away in rapid succession before the forces of

Republican France, Britain, instead of taking warning, and resolving

to mind only her own business, went madly into fresh treaties with

Continental Powers. Russia and Austria were received into fresh

treaties of mutual defence. Russia we were to assist with ships, and

Austria with twenty thousand foot and six thousand horse, or to pay

each month ten thousand florins for every thousand infantry, and

thirty thousand florins for every thousand of cavalry. To complete the

circle of treaties, Sir Gilbert Elliot, British Governor of Corsica,

entered into a treaty with the Dey of Algiers, by which, on payment

of a hundred and seventy-nine thousand piastres, he was to restore

all the Corsicans captured and enslaved by him, and was to enjoy the

strange privilege of carrying all his piratical prizes into the ports

of Corsica, and to sell them there--which was, in fact, licensing this

chief of sea-robbers to plunder all the other Italian States.

On the Rhine there was a good deal of sharp fighting between the

French and Austrians. General Bender had been compelled to surrender

Luxembourg, on the 7th of July, and allowed to retire with his army of

ten thousand men into Germany, on condition of not serving again till

exchanged. There then remained little on either bank of the Rhine to

restrain the advance of the French, except Mayence on the left bank,

and Manheim and Düsseldorf on the right. Pichegru, in August, made

himself master of both Düsseldorf and Manheim, and was advancing to

the reduction of Heidelberg when he was met by old General Wurmser,

and driven back to Manheim. He was, in fact, meditating treachery.

Jourdain, who was advancing in another direction to co-operate with

Pichegru in the reduction of Mayence, was encountered by Clairfait, and

driven back to Düsseldorf. Clairfait then attacked the French forces

already investing Mayence, and the garrison making a sally at the

same time, the French were completely dispersed, and part retreated

north and part south. Wurmser then invested Manheim, and compelled its

surrender on the 22nd of November. Pichegru signed an armistice with

the Austrians before joining them. Jourdain also retreated.

In Italy nothing was done till late in the year. Towards the end of

November, the French army, under Massena, commenced operations in

earnest. The Austrians and Piedmontese being scattered over a wide

extent of country, defending various passes, the French attacked and

beat them from different points. The right and centre of the Allies

were ere long routed; and the left, posted on the shores of the bay St.

Pier d'Arena, near Genoa, was attacked, both from the land and from the

water, by gunboats, which Nelson, who had been detached to co-operate

with the Austrians, had no means of coping with, except by letting

loose a far greater number of armed vessels, and was also compelled

to flight. Nelson managed to keep open the Bochetta pass for them, or

from eight thousand to ten thousand prisoners would have been made,

including the Austrian General Devins himself, who was laid up at Novi,

at the foot of the Apennines. The French were then in a position to

open the campaign against Italy in the spring.

The massacre of Savenay had not settled La Vendée. In the spring of

1794 armed parties were again on foot. The largest body was that

under Charette, posted on the Isle Noirmoutier, to which many of the

fugitives who escaped from the massacre of Savenay betook themselves.

Amongst these was the wounded General D'Elbée, with his wife, and a

brother of Cathelinau. Charette quitted the isle to make an attack on

some of the Republican troops left in small bodies in the country,

consigning the care of the sick and wounded to the protection of a

garrison of one thousand eight hundred men. This garrison was soon

corrupted by the Republican general, Turreau; it surrendered, and

D'Elbée and his wife were both shot, and the sick and wounded treated

with merciless cruelty. This was about the only place of any strength

left the Vendéans; but a worse misfortune was at hand. The young and

chivalrous Henri La Roche-Jaquelein, marching, at the head of a body of

his own peasantry, between Trementine and Nouaillé, met two Republican

soldiers. The count generously offered them quarter; but, instead of

accepting it, one of them instantly levelled his musket and shot him

through the head. The two soldiers were immediately dispatched by his

followers and, supposing that a Republican column must be at hand,

they buried the three hastily in one grave and fled. The young count

was only in his twenty-first year, and with him died the hopes and

confidence of his peasantry. Stofflet succeeded him in the command of

his people, but Charette might be considered the Commander-in-Chief of

the Vendéans.

The fall of Robespierre produced a marked change in the policy of

the Convention towards the Royalists of this district, and they were

promised, on laying down their arms, that they should enjoy their

country and their religion in peace. On this assurance, Charette

signed a treaty of pacification with the agents of the Government at

Nantes, in February, 1795. But scarcely was the peace signed, when

Charette received a letter from Monsieur--brother of the late king,

and now appointed by the Royalist party Regent to the Dauphin, now

styled by them Louis XVII.--assuring him of his confidence, declaring

him the second founder of the monarchy, and appointing him his

Lieutenant-General. Charette wrote back to inform him that he had been

compelled to sign a peace, but that his submission was only apparent,

and when the Royalist affairs were somewhat reinstated, he should be

ready to take up arms and die in the service of his prince. The young

General Hoche, who was sent to reduce the insurgents of Brittany,

whilst Canclaux reduced those of La Vendée, did not for a moment

believe in the sincerity of the peace. He was aware that Puisaye,

the chief of the insurgents in Brittany, was gone to England, to

endeavour to induce Pitt to do what all the efforts and importunities

of the Bourbon princes and Emigrant nobles had failed to do--to send

an expedition to the coast of Brittany, with another to the coast

of La Vendée, in which the British fleet should support the bodies

of Emigrants who had, in England and the Channel Islands, formed

themselves into regiments for the purpose. Aware of this, he still did

all he could to reconcile the peasantry to the peace, and very soon

they would have been pacified by this judicious treatment, and been

averse from rising again, with a prospect of re-experiencing their

former sufferings; but the Bourbon princes and the tribes of Emigrants

now driven from the Rhine did not allow them that chance.

[Illustration: LA ROCHE-JAQUELEIN AND THE REPUBLICAN SOLDIERS.

(_See p._ 444.)]

Puisaye's mission to London had been successful. Pitt was weak enough

to fall into the plan of sending over the Emigrants in our ships--as

if any such force could do more against the Republican armies than

create fresh miseries to all parties, and bring down worse vengeance

on the unfortunate Vendéans and Bretons. Puisaye, with the aid of

the Counts d'Hervilly, d'Hector, du Dresnay, Colonel Routhalier, and

other Royalist officers, had mustered a most miscellaneous body of

three thousand Emigrants, most of whom had been soldiers, and who

were accompanied by four hundred artillerymen of Toulon, commanded by

Routhalier. Besides these men, of whom the Count d'Artois, for the

time, gave the command to Puisaye, intending himself to follow, Puisaye

carried over ten thousand pounds, furnished by the Count d'Artois,

twenty-seven thousand muskets, six hundred barrels of gunpowder,

uniforms for seventeen thousand infantry and four thousand cavalry,

as well as provisions for three months. These troops and stores were,

after many delays, conveyed in a little squadron of three ships of

the line and six frigates, attended by transports, and commanded by

Sir John Borlase Warren. They sailed from the Isle of Wight in the

beginning of June, another squadron being sent to take up the Emigrant

troops in the Channel Islands, and land them at St. Malo, where they

were to co-operate with bodies of Chouans. These Chouans were smugglers

and bandits, who had led a life of plunder, and had been easily

collected into a sort of guerilla force, and their mode of warfare

still bore a strong resemblance to their old habits. These men, under

their different chiefs, had been excited by Puisaye to combine for a

strong resistance to the Republicans. They were dressed in green coats

and pantaloons, with red waistcoats. During his absence, Puisaye had

deputed the chief command of the Chouan bands to the so-called Baron

Cormatin, or Sieur Désoteux, who had assumed the title of Baron de

Cormatin from an estate of his wife's. Cormatin was a vain, weak man,

and by no means trustworthy, being ready, at any moment, to supersede

his chief, Puisaye, and act for himself. If the expedition against St.

Malo did not succeed, it was to join Puisaye and his detachment in the

Bay of Quiberon; and transports were also sent to the mouth of the

Elbe, to fetch thence the Emigrant regiments with the black cockade,

and bring them to join Puisaye. If all went well, the Count d'Artois

was to follow with British troops. The grand error of the whole was,

that the French prince did not put himself at once at the head of

the expedition, and see the different squadrons united in the Bay of

Quiberon before making the descent, though, even then, it could have

effected no great success.

On the passage, the squadron of Sir John Warren came in sight of the

French fleet of Villaret-Joyeuse, of nine ships of the line, but it

bore away, and left them to pursue their course. They entered the

Bay of Quiberon on the 25th of June and, after much wrangling as to

the best situation for landing, they put the troops ashore at the

village of Carnac. There they were immediately joined by Georges

Cadoudal, d'Allègre, Dubois-Berthollet, and other Chouan chiefs, with

about four thousand or five thousand of their wild and bandit-looking

soldiers. Along with the Chouans came troops of peasants, crying

"_Vive le Roi!_" and bringing in abundance of fresh eggs, poultry, and

other provisions. Puisaye was delighted, and felt confident that all

Brittany was ready to rise. But this delusion was soon dissipated. The

Emigrants, accustomed to regular armies, looked with contempt on this

wild and ragged band, and they, on their part, were not restrained, on

the landing of the arms and uniforms, from seizing and carrying them

off, without much exertion on the part of Puisaye. There was danger

of bloodshed. At length, in about a couple of days, ten thousand of

them were put into red coats, and furnished with muskets. But fatal

dissensions prevented all operations. Puisaye proposed to march up the

country, seize different towns, such as Vannes and Rennes, and take up

their position behind the Mayenne; but d'Hervilly refused to march till

the troops were formed into regular regiments, and the Emigrants joined

him in despising the Chouans, and in complaining that they had not

been taken to La Vendée to join Charette. Puisaye and d'Hervilly also

disputed the supreme command, and Puisaye had to dispatch letters to

London, to Count d'Artois, on the subject. At length, after five days

had been wasted in this contention, Puisaye proposed that they should

endeavour to carry Fort Penthièvre, which stood on a small peninsula on

Quiberon Bay, and was united to the main land by a sandy isthmus. To

this d'Hervilly consented, and Sir John Warren agreed to support him in

the attempt. On the 1st of July Warren began to bombard the fort, and

on the 3rd, the place being warmly assailed by both the British and the

Chouans, the Republicans surrendered. Meanwhile, Puisaye had sent off

emissaries all over Brittany, to rouse Scépeaux, Charette, Stofflet,

and the rest of the insurgent chiefs. The news of the landing had flown

all over Brittany in a few days, and the Royalists were full of joy.

But the Convention sent to Hoche two extraordinary Commissioners to

stimulate him to the utmost activity. Hoche immediately wrote to the

Committee of Public Welfare to assure them that nothing was wanting

to his success but for Government to support him with "provisions, of

which we are in want, and the twelve thousand men whom you promised me

so long ago." He posted his generals on every frontier, and in every

strong place. Thus he had enveloped Brittany on all sides; instead of

the Bretons rising _en masse_, as was expected, they kept quiet, and

only the Chouans appeared in arms. Even they demanded that the Count

d'Artois should come and put himself at their head; and the Emigrants

asked to be re-embarked, and taken to La Vendée to support Charette.

On their part, the able arrangements of Hoche and Canclaux prevented

the Vendéans from operating in favour of the Bretons, and Puisaye saw

himself paralysed by the vigour of his opponents and the dissensions

of his followers. The different bodies of Chouans were repulsed by the

Republicans as they advanced towards Quiberon Bay, and they complained

that d'Hervilly had withdrawn the four hundred men of the line who had

been ordered to support them. D'Hervilly replied that he had recalled

them to assist at the taking of Penthièvre. Thus favoured by the

wranglings of the Royalists, Hoche, on the 5th of July, found himself

established on the heights of St. Barbe, commanding the Isthmus of

Falaise. On the 7th d'Hervilly, supported by his regulars and by two

hundred British marines, endeavoured to drive him thence, but was

repulsed with great slaughter. Hoche then bore down from the heights,

and drove all the miscellaneous forces of Emigrants and Chouans,

mingled with women and children, to the promontory, and under the guns

of Fort Penthièvre. But for the well-directed fire from Warren's boats

the mass, nearly twenty thousand fugitives, must have surrendered at

once, having no outlet of escape. There, however, for some days they

stoutly defended themselves.

On the 15th the British squadron brought in the Emigrant troops from

the Elbe, under the young and gallant Count de Sombreuil; but they

amounted only to eleven thousand men. Puisaye now ordered the Count

de Vauban to advance against Hoche with twelve thousand Chouans, and,

whilst they attacked on the right, he himself attacked his lines in

front. After some desperate fighting they were driven back, and lost

most of their cannon in the deep sand of the isthmus. Their misfortunes

were completed, on the 20th, by the garrison of the fort of Penthièvre

going over to the enemy, surrendering the fort to them, and helping to

massacre such of their officers and comrades as refused to follow their

example. The English admiral exerted himself to receive the remainder

of the troops who remained true on board his ships; but the storminess

of the weather and the impatience of the fugitives rendered this a

most difficult task. About fourteen thousand regulars and two thousand

four hundred Chouans were got on board; but Sombreuil, exposed to the

murderous fire from the enemy whilst waiting on the beach, surrendered

on promise of life. No sooner, however, were they in the hands of the

Republicans than all the officers and gentlemen were led out and shot;

and the common men enrolled in Hoche's regiments.

Sir John Warren put the two thousand four hundred Chouans on shore

near Lorient, and left them to return to their own predatory mode of

warfare. He then located himself on two small neighbouring islands,

and waited for a fresh squadron carrying four thousand British troops,

which arriving in September, he bore away with them for La Vendée, and

thus terminated the miserable descent on the coast of Brittany. The

descent on the coast of La Vendée was still more unsatisfactory. On

arriving there, it was found that fifteen thousand Republicans were

in possession of the Isle Noirmoutier, formerly the stronghold of

Charette. The British, therefore, disembarked on the little desolate

Isle Dieu, about five leagues from Noirmoutier, and there awaited the

arrival of Count d'Artois, who did not come till the 10th of October,

and then, alarmed at the fusillading of the officers at Quiberon,

declined to land. On hearing this, Charette exclaimed--"We are lost!

To-day I have fifteen thousand men about me; to-morrow I shall not have

five hundred!" And, in fact, chagrined at the pusillanimous conduct of

the prince, and the approach of Hoche with his victorious troops from

Brittany, his followers rapidly dispersed, and at the end of the year

the British armament returned home, having done nothing. From this

day may be dated the extinction of the war in La Vendée. Stofflet, in

January, 1796, was defeated, and in February was betrayed to the enemy,

and on the 26th of that month was executed at Angers with four of his

companions. Charette was captured a month afterwards, and was shot at

Nantes on the 29th of March. With him died the last Vendéan general of

mark. By this time, the spring of 1796, not a fifth part of the male

population of La Vendée remained alive; and Hoche himself calculated

that the Vendéan war had cost France a hundred thousand men.

Meanwhile the Convention determined to proceed to the abolition of the

Constitution of '93, and to the establishment of one more accordant

with their own tendencies. In 1793 the Revolutionists were as violent

against aristocracy as against monarchy, and had allowed only one

legislative body. The precipitate acts of the last three years had

now persuaded them that at least a second, if not an aristocratic,

chamber might be useful, as a balance against legislation under violent

impulses. They proposed, then, to have two chambers--one called the

Council of Five Hundred, composed of that number of members of at least

thirty years of age, having exclusively the right of proposing laws,

of whom one-third should be renewed every year; the second, called the

Council of the Ancients, to consist of two hundred and fifty members,

of at least forty years of age, all either widowers or married,

having the sanctioning of the law, and also to be annually renewed

by one-third. No sooner were these decrees passed than there was a

violent outburst of discontent. On April 1st, and again on May 20th,

the Parisian mob rose in insurrection, but were completely suppressed.

This was the death-blow of the Democratic party. Then came the turn of

the Royalists. A meeting took place in the Odéon theatre, on the 3rd

of October, under protection of some battalions of National Guard. The

Duke of Nivernois presided. The Committees of Public Safety and Welfare

gave the alarm to the Convention, and the Convention sent a force to

disperse the meeting, but it had already dissolved itself. The Sections

had committed the mistake of refusing to allow the ultra-Jacobins to

vote, and the Convention now embodied and armed one thousand eight

hundred of these, ready, in their indignation, to do anything. On the

4th, the Section Lepelletier beat to arms, and the committee held its

meeting in the convent of Filles St. Thomas, in the Rue Vivienne.

General Menou was summoned from the camp at Sablons, and ordered to

disperse the meeting. He proceeded to the convent, found the committee

of the Section armed, and, instead of dispersing them, agreed to retire

on a promise that they would withdraw of themselves. The Convention

immediately arrested Menou as a traitor, and deprived him of his

command. They forthwith appointed Barras general of the interior in

the place of Menou, and ordered him to clear the streets, and place

troops in a position to insure the safety of the Convention. Barras

was a general of brigade, but he was not too fond of exposing himself

and, fortunately for him and for another, he had his eye on one who

would execute the orders of the Convention without shrinking. This was

Napoleon Buonaparte. The Convention had about five thousand troops;

but the decision of the conflict must depend on the cannon. These were

in the camp at Sablons. Buonaparte instantly dispatched Murat to secure

them, and received the insurrectionists with such a shower of grape

that after a short resistance they were completely defeated.

During this time Britain was suffering severely from the effects of

the war. The nation was indignant under the disgrace of the complete

defeat of its army on the Continent, at the defection of those very

Allies who had been so profusely subsidised, at the perfidy by which

these despot Powers had made Britain the efficient party in the

dismemberment of Poland, and at the heavy taxes imposed in consequence.

Political meetings were held in most large towns and in the metropolis,

expressing the most decided disapprobation of the policy of Ministers

and at the refusal of all reforms. At the end of June a monster meeting

had been held in St. George's Fields, and on the 26th of October,

another, of fifty thousand people, near Copenhagen House, at which the

lately prosecuted but acquitted agitators, Thelwall, Gale Jones, and

others, were the speakers. The numbers and tone of these meetings,

which were accompanied with loud cries of "Bread! Bread!" and "Down

with Pitt!" greatly alarmed Government, and there was a summons of

Parliament at the unusually early date of October 29th, only three

days after the meeting in Copenhagen Fields. On going to the House to

open the session, the king--who had become very unpopular from his

eager support of the war, and his going about saying, "The French won't

leave a single crowned head in Europe!"--was shot at with an air-gun in

Margaret Street, opposite to the Ordnance Office, the ball from which

passed through the windows of the carriage, between his Majesty and the

Earl of Westmoreland. The king on entering the House, exclaimed to the

Lord Chancellor, "My lord, I have been shot at!" As the king returned,

he was again furiously hissed; there was the same vociferous shouting

of "Bread! Bread!" and "No Pitt!" Stones were thrown at the royal

carriage; and, in the haste and confusion to escape into the palace

of St. James's, one of the royal grooms was thrown to the ground, and

had his thigh broken. The king got into a private coach to regain

Buckingham House, where his family was; but he was recognised, and

pursued by the same cries of "Bread! Bread!" and "Peace!" That evening

the king, who had behaved throughout with great courage, accompanied

the queen and three of his daughters to Covent Garden Theatre, where

he was received with zealous acclamations; the actors sang "God save

the king!" three times over. Some of the people in the gallery were,

however, pretty vehement in their hisses, but were attacked and turned

out.

[Illustration: ATTACK ON THE ROYAL CARRIAGE. (_See p._ 448.)]

The Ministers, instead of making rational concessions to the demands

of the people for Reform, proceeded without delay to fresh aggressions

on their liberties. Not contented with the existing suspension of the

Habeas Corpus Act, and with introducing into the Lords a Bill for the

protection of the king's person and Government, they passed a law

prohibiting all political meetings, and another to extend the law of

treason; they recommenced arrests and prosecutions, and sent out shoals

of spies and informers, so that all the safeguards of public liberty

were completely annihilated. These despotic measures did not pass

without energetic opposition and a good deal of violent language from

Fox; but all remonstrance was useless against Pitt's majority. Still

the alarm of the Government was not allayed. On the 8th of December

the king sent a message to both Houses, reiterating his assurance of

an earnest desire to negotiate peace with France. The Opposition very

properly pointed out that, so far as France was concerned, victorious

in its armies, and as anti-monarchical in its government as ever,

there were less hopes of any consent on its part to peace than when

the Opposition had so repeatedly urged the same measure. In this

unsatisfactory state closed the year 1795.

Mr. Grey seized the professed desire of peace by Government, so soon

as Parliament met after the Christmas recess, to bind them to it by a

resolution. He complained that, so far from any intentions of peace,

Ministers were making fresh preparations for the prosecution of the

war. Pitt denied this, and asserted that the Government was really

anxious for peace, but could not consent to it unless France agreed

to yield up its conquests of Belgium, Holland, Savoy, and Nice. On

the 10th of March Mr. Grey moved for an inquiry into the state of the

kingdom. He showed that this contest, so unsuccessful, had already, in

three years, added seventy-seven millions to the national debt; more

than the whole expense of the American war, which had cost sixty-three

millions. He commented severely on the wasteful manner in which this

money had been thrown away on monarchs who had badly served the cause,

or had perfidiously betrayed it; and on the plunder of the country by

jobbers, contractors, commissaries, and other vampires, who had left

the poor soldiers to neglect, starvation, and death, amid the horrors

of winter, and inhospitable, pretended friends, for whom they had been

sent to fight. Grey and Fox followed this up by fresh resolutions and

motions condemning Ministers for their misconduct of the war, and

enormous waste of the public money; but all these were triumphantly got

rid of by overwhelming majorities; and in the face of this ineffectual

assault, Pitt introduced his Budget, calling for fresh loans, amounting

to no less than twenty-five million five hundred thousand pounds, and

for supplies to the amount of upwards of forty-five millions. Some

of the items of this sum were--navy, seven million five hundred and

twenty-two thousand five hundred and fifty-two pounds; army, eleven

million nine hundred and eleven thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine

pounds; ordnance, one million nine hundred and fifty-four thousand

six hundred and sixty-five pounds; miscellaneous and extraordinary,

thirteen million eight hundred and twenty-one thousand, four hundred

and thirty pounds. The last item alone amounted to more than the whole

national expenditure before the commencement of this war, yet the whole

of these startling sums were readily voted away by the Ministerial

majority; and with these funds in hand for renewed prosecution of the

war, the Session ended, on the 19th of May.

In March, 1796, Mr. Wickham, the British envoy to Switzerland, asked

of M. Barthélemy, by direction of Pitt, whether the French Directory

were desirous of entertaining the question of peace. Barthélemy

replied that the Directory would enter into negotiations on the basis

of France retaining all the Netherlands won from Austria, which were

now annexed to the Republic, and which France would never restore.

The reply was certainly insincere. France was as busy as ever by her

emissaries undermining the loyalty of all the populations around her

on pretence of liberating them. She had worked upon the Swiss, so that

it was evident that they would soon fall into her net. She had entered

into a treaty with the disaffected in Ireland, namely, Lord Edward

Fitzgerald, Wolfe Tone, Arthur O'Connor, and their fellow-conspirators,

and the treaty was already signed, and a large fleet and force

preparing for the invasion of Ireland. Not only was France on the

very eve of invading Ireland, but she had issued a decree prohibiting

the introduction of all British manufactures into Holland, Belgium,

and the German states on the Rhine, as well as into any of the French

colonies, on the severest penalties. Yet, in the face of all these

hostile demonstrations, did Pitt send over Lord Malmesbury to endeavour

to negotiate a peace. Lord Malmesbury arrived in Paris, on the 22nd of

October, with a splendid retinue. The Directory received him haughtily,

and commissioned M. Delacroix to discuss the matter with him. Lord

Malmesbury insisted on the restoration of the Netherlands to Austria,

a point on which the French Government had declared there could be

no treaty, and which rendered the embassy, from the first moment,

utterly absurd. Delacroix communicated the proposal to the Directory,

and the Directory immediately published it, contrary to all the rules

of diplomacy, in the _Moniteur_, Instead of proceeding further with

Britain, the Directory immediately dispatched General Clarke, an

officer of Irish extraction, and afterwards made Duke of Feltre, under

Buonaparte, to Vienna, to treat separately with Austria. This failed,

and, of course, with it all failed; though there was much talk between

Malmesbury and the Directory on the subject of Britain restoring the

French colonies in the East and West Indies, since the restoration of

Belgium and Holland was a _sine quâ non_. Thus, as might have been seen

from the first, the negotiation was at a deadlock. The King of Sardinia

was already in negotiation for peace for himself; and therefore British

Ministers did not add to his difficulties by demanding the restoration

of Savoy and Nice.

At the very moment that these negotiations on the part of Britain were

going on, Buonaparte, who had been appointed to the command of the army

of Italy, was achieving there victory after victory. Genoa had shut her

ports against our ships, Naples had concluded peace with France, Spain

had been induced to proclaim war against us, and Hoche had sailed for

Ireland with twenty-five thousand troops. On the 19th of December Lord

Malmesbury received a message to quit Paris within forty-eight hours,

with the additional assurance, that whenever Great Britain was prepared

to accept the terms of France, an ordinary courier would answer the

same purpose as well as a lord. The blame of continuing the war thus

lay entirely with the French.

During the year 1796 strong forces were sent to the West Indies, and

the Island of Grenada was recovered by General Nichols; St. Lucia,

by General Abercromby, whilst General Whyte conquered the Dutch

settlements of Demerara, Berbice, and Essequibo; but some of these

possessions were dearly purchased by the number of the troops who

perished from the unhealthiness of their climate. The Dutch made

an effort to recover the Cape of Good Hope. They were to have been

assisted by the French in this enterprise, but their allies not keeping

their engagement, they sailed alone, and reached Saldanha Bay on the

3rd of August, when Rear-Admiral Sir George Elphinstone surprised and

captured the whole of their vessels, consisting of two sixty-four-gun

ships, one fifty-four, five frigates and sloops, and a store-ship. A

squadron then proceeded from the Cape to Madagascar, and destroyed a

French settlement there, seizing five merchant vessels.

During the summer a French squadron stretched away across the Atlantic

with six sail of the line, and finding our Newfoundland coasts almost

wholly unprotected, destroyed and plundered the fishermen's huts and

fishing stages, as well as their vessels, and then, returning, picked

up a considerable number of our merchantmen at sea, and was lucky

enough to make a retreat, by favour of a fog, through our watching

squadrons, into Brest. After this clever exploit, they joined the great

Brest fleet, which sailed for Ireland on the 15th of December. This

consisted of no fewer than forty-three sail, seventeen of them of the

line, four frigates, six corvettes and brigs, with six transports. On

board the transports were twenty-five thousand men, who had been well

tried in the war of La Vendée, and abundance of arms and ammunition, as

well as extra arms to put into the hands of the disaffected Irish, for

to Ireland the armament was bound. General Hoche, who had terminated

the Vendéan war, was appointed to terminate all the woes of Ireland,

and convert that sacred island into another French paradise. Besides

Hoche, Generals Grouchy, Hombert, and Bruix were attached to the

expedition. The fleet sailed out and anchored in Camaret Bay, but no

British fleet was visible to intercept them. But no sooner did the

armament put out to sea again the next day, than it was assailed by

a tempest and the ships were driven different ways. One of them was

forced immediately on the Grand Stenet rock, and wrecked--out of one

thousand four hundred souls on board only sixty were rescued. Seven

ships of the line, and ten of the vessels commanded by Rear-Admiral

Bouvet, managed to reach Bantry Bay on the 24th of December, but

there the storms continued to batter them. There being no sign of an

insurrection, and no other part of the fleet appearing, they sailed

back and reached Brest on the 1st of January, 1797. When they were

gone, another portion of the fleet arrived in Bantry Bay, but only to

be tossed and driven about without rest, to lose several of the ships,

and to put back again. As for Hoche, he never saw Ireland; the greater

part of the fleet being driven about and swamped in the Channel. Of

the forty-three sail, only thirty-one returned, and thousands of the

soldiers were drowned in the foundering transports. Sir Edward Pellew,

in the _Indefatigable_, of forty-four guns, and Captain Reynolds, in

the _Amazon_, of thirty-six guns, fell in with the _Droits de l'Homme_,

of seventy-four guns, and after a severe fight close in Audierne Bay,

south of Ushant, left her a wreck aground, where, of the one thousand

eight hundred men aboard, scarcely more than three hundred were saved,

notwithstanding the greatest exertions of the British seamen to rescue

them.

The Directory began its campaigns of 1796 with much spirit and ability.

The plans which had been repeatedly pointed out by Dumouriez, Pichegru,

Moreau, and more recently by Buonaparte, of attacking the Austrians

in Germany and Italy simultaneously, and then, on the conquest of

Italy, combining their armies and marching them direct on the Austrian

capital, were now adopted. Pichegru, who had lost the favour of the

Directory, was superseded by Moreau, and that general and Jourdain were

sent to the Rhine. Jourdain took the command of sixty-three thousand

foot and eleven thousand horse, at Coblenz, and immediately invested

the famous fortress of Ehrenbreitstein, on the opposite bank of the

river. Moreau was sent to lead the army at Strasburg, consisting of

seventy-two thousand foot and nearly seven thousand horse. Jourdain

found himself soon menaced by the Archduke Charles, the Emperor's

brother, the ablest and most alert general that the Austrians possessed

at that period. He advanced rapidly on Jourdain's position with seventy

thousand foot and twenty thousand horse, defeated a division of

Jourdain's army under General Lefebvre, and compelled Jourdain himself

to raise the siege. But the archduke, out of too much anxiety for

Wurmser, who was opposed to Moreau with much inferior forces, ascended

the Rhine to support him, and Jourdain immediately availed himself of

his absence to advance and seize Frankfort on the Main, Würzburg, and

other towns. Moreau advanced to drive back Wurmser and the archduke,

till a union with Jourdain would enable them to fall conjointly on

the Austrians. But the archduke perceived that, in consequence of the

orders of the Directory, Moreau was spreading his army too wide, and he

retreated so as to enable Wurmser to join him. This retrograde movement

was mistaken, both by friends and enemies, for a sign of weakness;

and whilst Moreau advanced with increased confidence, many of the raw

contingents of the archduke's army deserted, and several of the petty

States of Germany sued to the Directory for peace. But the moment for

the action of the archduke had now arrived. Whilst Moreau was extending

his lines into Bavaria, and had seized Ulm and Donauwörth, and was

preparing to occupy the defiles of the Tyrol, the Archduke Charles

made a rapid detour, and, on the 24th of August, fell on Jourdain, and

completely defeated him. He then followed him to Würzburg, and on the

3rd of September routed him again. With a velocity extraordinary in an

Austrian, the archduke pushed on after Jourdain's flying battalions,

and on the 16th of September gave him a third beating at Aschaffenburg,

and drove his army over the Rhine. Moreau--left in a critical position,

so far from the frontiers of France, and hopeless of any aid from

Jourdain, who had lost twenty thousand men and nearly all his artillery

and baggage--made haste to retrace his steps. Thus both of the French

armies were beaten back to the left bank of the Rhine, and Germany was

saved.

But meanwhile in Italy the French had been completely successful.

Buonaparte reached the French headquarters at Nice on the 26th of

March, and immediately set himself to organise and inspirit the

forces, which were in great disorder; he found the commissariat also

in a deplorable condition. The troops amounted to fifty thousand;

the Austrians, under the veteran General Beaulieu, to considerably

more. The united army of the Sardinians and Austrians, Beaulieu on

the left, d'Argenteau in the centre, and Colli with the Piedmontese

division on the right, hastened to descend from the Apennines, to which

they had retreated at the end of the last campaign. Beaulieu met the

French advanced guard at Voltri, near Genoa, on the 11th of April, and

drove it back. But d'Argenteau had been stopped in the mountains by

the resistance of a body of French, who occupied the old redoubt of

Montenotte. Buonaparte, apprised of this, hurried up additional forces

to that point, and defeated d'Argenteau before Beaulieu or Colli could

succour him. Having now divided the army of the Allies, Buonaparte

defeated a strong body of Austrians under General Wukassowich; and

having left Colli and the Piedmontese isolated from their Allies,

debouched by the valley of Bormida into the plains of Piedmont.

Beaulieu retreated to the Po, to stop the way to Milan; and Buonaparte,

relieved of his presence, turned against Colli, who was compelled to

retreat to Carignano, near Turin. Trembling for his capital, and with

his means exhausted, Victor Amadeus made overtures for peace, which

were accepted; the terms being the surrender of all the Piedmontese

fortresses and the passes of the Alps into the hands of the French,

and the perpetual alienation of Nice and Savoy. This humiliation broke

the heart of the poor old king, who died on the 16th of October.

Buonaparte, however, did not wait for the conclusion of this peace;

the truce being signed, he hastened on after Beaulieu whom he defeated

and drove across the Po. Beaulieu next posted himself at Lodi, on the

Adda; but Buonaparte, after a fierce contest, drove him from the bridge

over the Adda on the 10th of May, and with little further opposition

pursued him to Milan. Beaulieu still retreated, and threw himself into

the fastnesses of the Tyrol. On the 15th Buonaparte made a triumphal

entry into Milan, and immediately sent troops to blockade Mantua.

Buonaparte then advanced into the Papal States, rifling the Monti de

Pietà at Bologna and Ferrara. Everywhere contributions were demanded

at the point of the bayonet, and French authorities superseded the

native ones. Pius VI. made haste to sue for peace, and it was granted

on the most exorbitant terms. Fifteen millions of francs must be paid

down in cash, six millions in horses and other requisites for the army.

A great number of paintings and statues were to be selected from the

galleries of art, and five hundred manuscripts from the library of the

Vatican. The provinces of Ferrara and Bologna must be ceded; the port

and citadel of Ancona, and all the Papal ports, must be closed against

the British. This most costly peace was signed on the 23rd of June,

and Buonaparte hastened northward to stop the advance of the army of

Wurmser, which had been sent through the Tyrol to compete with the

rising Corsican.

[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL OF MILAN.]

Wurmser advanced down the valley of Trent with fifty thousand men,

whose number was increased, by the remains of the army of Beaulieu, to

sixty thousand. With such a force well conducted, the Austrians might

have worsted Buonaparte, whose troops were not more than forty-five

thousand, and already greatly harassed by rapid marches. But there was

no comparison between the genius of the commanders. The conduct of the

Austrians was a series of fatal blunders. Had the Archduke Charles

been there it might have been different; but the first thing which

Wurmser did was to weaken himself by dividing his forces, and sending

one detachment under Quasdanowich along the western shore of the Lake

of Garda, and marching along the eastern bank himself with the other.

The quick eye of Buonaparte instantly saw his advantage; neither of the

divisions was now equal to his own, and he beat them both in detail. He

raised the blockade of Mantua, defeated Quasdanowich at Lonato, chased

him back into the mountains, and then engaged and routed him twice

near Castiglione, on the 3rd and 5th of August. Wurmser had to make a

hasty retreat into the mountains, leaving behind his artillery and many

thousand men slain. Buonaparte pursued him into the very gorges of the

Tyrol, and inflicted fresh losses upon him. The sturdy but not very

bright old Austrian, however, made a detour in the hills, and again

issued on the plains from the valley of the Brenta. With remarkable

address and agility for him, he made his way to Mantua, and threw

himself into the fortress with the wretched remains of his army, about

eighteen thousand men.

There was still a fair chance for the Austrians--Britain had furnished

them with money--and two fresh armies were descending from the hills.

One of these, amounting to thirty thousand, was led by a brave officer,

General Alvinzi; the other of twenty thousand, under Davidowich, was

marching from the Tyrol to meet Alvinzi near Verona, who was coming

from Carinthia by Belluno. Buonaparte did not allow them to meet.

He attacked Alvinzi on the 6th of November, and met with a terrible

repulse. A detachment of French under Vaubois had been dispatched to

impede the march of Davidowich, but was also in retreat. Buonaparte

again attacked Alvinzi near Verona, and again was repulsed. Had the

Austrians united their two new armies before entering Italy, or had

Wurmser marched from Mantua to support Alvinzi, the French must

have been utterly annihilated. As it was, Napoleon was dreadfully

disheartened, and wrote a despairing letter to the Directory, saying

his best officers were killed, and his men exhausted from fighting

and severe marches. But his pride and dogged pertinacity came to his

aid. He made a rapid march and got into the rear of Alvinzi, but found

himself stopped by a narrow bridge over the Alpone at Arcole. The

country on each side was a marsh, and the only approach to the bridge

was by long narrow causeways. As the French advanced along the causeway

on their side to storm the bridge, they were swept down by hundreds

by the Austrian cannon. Time after time, Buonaparte drove his columns

along the causeway, but only to see them mown down by grape shot. His

men fled into the very marshes to save themselves, and he himself was

thrown from his horse into the marsh, and had to be dragged from the

mire. Bodies of Hungarians and Croats made a final sally along the

causeway, cutting down all before them, and it was marvellous that he

escaped them. By this time Alvinzi had brought up his main body to the

neighbourhood of the bridge, and the battle raged obstinately there

for three days. Seeing it impossible to carry the bridge against that

solid mass of troops, Buonaparte dispatched General Guyeuse to cross

the Adige at the ferry of Albaredo, below the confluence of the Alpone,

and take Alvinzi in flank. Guyeuse succeeded in crossing, but was

repulsed on the other side by the Austrians. Buonaparte again, on the

16th, made one more desperate rush at the bridge, but only to receive

another bloody defeat. The next day he threw a bridge over the Alpone,

just above its confluence with the Adige, and sent over Augereau with

a powerful force, whilst he again assailed the bridge from his side.

These combined operations succeeded. Alvinzi was compelled to retreat

to Vicenza and Bassano. Scarcely had he given way, when Davidowich,

who ought to have joined him long before, came down the right bank of

the stream. He now came only to experience a severe defeat, whereas

his timely arrival might have insured a complete victory. He again had

recourse to the security of the hills. The belligerents then went into

winter quarters, leaving the French victorious.

Whilst the French had been thus beating the Austrians out of Italy,

and thus rendering abortive our new and lavish subsidy to the Emperor,

Ministers had been busy in the election of a new Parliament. This new

Parliament assembled on the 6th of October, and was full of patriotism.

As Hoche's army had not yet sailed, and as nobody seemed to know its

destination, Pitt represented that it probably was for the coast of

England, and called for the enrolment of fifteen thousand men from

the parishes, half of whom were to be sent into the navy, and for

sixty thousand militia and twenty thousand more yeomen cavalry, all

which were carried. On the 26th of October Windham, as Secretary at

War, announced the whole military force of the country at home and

abroad, apart from the troops in the East Indies, which were raised and

maintained by the Company, to be one hundred and ninety-six thousand

men, and he demanded for their payment five million one hundred and

ninety thousand pounds. On the 7th of November Pitt opened his Budget,

requiring no less than twenty-seven million nine hundred and forty-five

thousand pounds for the total expenditure of the year. There was

another loan called for of eighteen million pounds, and though the

terms were then considered low, such was the spirit of the nation that

the amount was subscribed within two days.

The year 1797 was opened by the suspension of cash payments. The

Bank of England had repeatedly represented to Pitt, as Chancellor of

the Exchequer, that his enormous demands upon it for specie, as well

as paper money, had nearly exhausted its coffers and could not long

be continued. The payment of our armies abroad, and the advances to

foreign kings, were necessarily made in cash. The Government, in spite

of enormous taxation, had already overdrawn its account eleven million

six hundred and sixty-eight thousand eight hundred pounds, and the sole

balance in the hands of the Bank was reduced to three million eight

hundred and twenty-six thousand eight hundred and ninety pounds. Pitt

was demanding a fresh loan for Ireland, when a message came from the

Bank to say that, in existing circumstances, it could not be complied

with. Thus suddenly pulled up, the Privy Council was summoned, and

it was concluded to issue an order for stopping all further issue of

cash, except to the Government, and except one hundred thousand pounds

for the accommodation of private bankers and traders. Paper money was

made a legal tender to all other parties, and the Bank was empowered

to issue small notes for the accommodation of the public instead of

guineas. A Bill was passed for the purpose, and that it might not

be considered more than a temporary measure, it was made operative

only till June; but it was renewed from time to time by fresh Acts of

Parliament. The system was not abolished again till 1819, when Sir

Robert Peel brought in his Bill for the resumption of cash payments,

and during the whole of that time the depreciation of paper money was

comparatively slight.

At the same time, our seamen--who were the real and proper defenders

of the country but were so miserably paid and so abominably treated

in many ways, that they could only be compelled into the service by

the odious operation of pressgangs--now burst forth into mutiny. Their

complaints and resistance compelled a small advance and improvement.

None since then had taken place. This advance of wages did not amount

to more than eightpence-halfpenny a day to able seamen and sevenpence

to ordinary seamen. And the low pay was but the smallest part of the

complaint of these brave men. They complained that a most unfair

system of prize-money had prevailed, by which the admirals and chief

officers swept off most of the money and left little or nothing to

the petty officers and the men; that their treatment on board was

barbarous, unfeeling, and degrading; that their provisions were of the

vilest description, being the direct consequence of the contracts with

villainous purveyors, through equally rascally Navy Commissioners, so

that, in fact, they were served with such salt beef, salt pork, and

biscuit as no dog would touch. Nor did their list of grievances only

too real end here. Instead of Government paying the pursers direct

salaries, they were paid by deducting two ounces from every pound

of provisions served out to the men. Thus, instead of sixteen ounces

to the pound, they received only fourteen ounces; and the same rule

applied to the measurement of liquids--beer and grog--served out to

them. Things had come to such a pass from these causes, and the neglect

of their complaint was so persevering, that the whole fleet determined

on a mutiny.

Accordingly, petitions were sent in from several of the principal

men-of-war lying at Portsmouth, to Lord Howe, the commander of the

Channel fleet, praying him to intercede with the Admiralty for the same

liberality towards the seamen of the royal navy and their families as

had been shown to the army and militia, in increase of pay and better

provisions. Lord Howe, instead of complying with this reasonable

desire, sent the petitions to the port-admiral, Sir Peter Parker, and

to Lord Bridport, who commanded the Channel fleet under Howe. They

treated the petitions as the work of some ill-disposed person, and

therefore of no consequence; but Parker was very soon compelled to

inform Lord Spencer, the head of the Admiralty, that he had discovered

that there was a general conspiracy to take the command of the ships

from the officers on the 16th of April. To test this, orders were

immediately issued to put out to sea; and the moment that Lord Bridport

signalled this order to the fleet, the effect was seen. The sailors

all ran up into the rigging and gave several tremendous cheers. They

instantly followed up this by taking the command from the officers,

and sending two delegates from each ship to meet on board the _Queen

Charlotte_, Lord Howe's flag ship. They thence issued orders for all

the seamen to swear fidelity to the cause, and the next day they all

swore. They kept part of the officers on board as hostages, and put

others, whom they accused of oppression, on shore. They next passed

resolutions to maintain order, and treat the confined officers with

all due respect. They then drew up a petition to the Admiralty stating

their grievances, and respectfully praying for redress. This brought

down to Portsmouth Lord Spencer, and other lords of the Admiralty,

where they met in council with Bridport and other admirals. Had these

admirals shown a proper attention to the health and claims of these

men, their grievances must long ago have ceased; but though they

were perfectly well aware of them, they now proposed, along with the

Admiralty, to recommend the granting of part of their demands. The

deputies replied that they sought nothing but what was reasonable,

and would never lift an anchor till those terms were granted. This

Admiralty committee then offered some of the terms, but left out

the proposal that the pensions of the Greenwich veterans should be

raised from seven pounds to ten pounds, and the crews of men-of-war

should have vegetables when in port. The sailors, indignant at this

miserable parsimony, returned on board and hoisted the red flag at

every mast-head. This was a sign that no concession would be made.

Yet, on the 22nd, the delegates addressed letters to the Admiralty,

and to Lord Bridport, firm, but respectful. Government then tried its

usual resource, the proclamation of a pardon, but without taking notice

of the necessary concessions. With this proclamation, Lord Bridport

went the next day on board the _Royal George_, and assured the seamen

that he had brought a royal pardon, and also the redress of all their

grievances. On this assurance, the crew hauled down the red flag, and

all the other ships did the same.

News now came that the Brest fleet was putting to sea. On the 7th of

May Lord Bridport went on board and ordered anchor to be weighed. Not

a man stirred; nor was it likely. No sooner had Lord Bridport told

them what was not true, that their demands were acceded to, than, in

the House of Lords and the House of Commons, Ministers had spoken

of the subject in very ambiguous terms, and the Board of Admiralty

had only ended the ambiguity by issuing an order on the 1st of May,

commanding, in consequence of "the disposition lately shown by the

seamen of several of his Majesty's ships," that the arms and ammunition

of the marines should be kept in readiness for use in harbour, as

well as at sea; and that on the first appearance of mutiny the most

vigorous measures should be taken to quell it. This was ordering the

officers of marines to fire on the sailors who should refuse to be thus

shamefully juggled out of their promised rights by the Government. On

board the _London_, Vice-Admiral Colpoys pushed the matter so far that

his men resisted orders; and as one was unlashing a gun, Simpson, the

first-lieutenant, told him that if he did not desist he would shoot

him. The man went on unlashing, and Simpson shot him dead! On this,

the sailors, in a rage, disarmed the officers and proceeded to hang

Simpson at the yard-arm. Colpoys then begged for the lieutenant's

life, assuring them that the order was his own, and that Simpson had

only done his duty in obeying it. The chaplain and surgeon joined in

the entreaty; and the men, far more merciful and reasonable than

their commanders, complied. They ordered, however, Colpoys and all

the officers to their respective cabins, and put the marines, without

arms, below deck. Similar scenes took place on the other ships, and the

fleet remained in the hands of the sailors from the 7th to the 11th

of May, when Lord Howe arrived with an Act of Parliament, granting

all their demands. Howe, who was old and infirm, persuaded them to

prepare a petition for a full pardon. They, however, accompanied this

petition by an assurance that they would not serve again under the

tyrannical officers whom they had put on shore; and this was conceded.

Admiral Colpoys was included in this list of officers proscribed by

their oppressed men, along with four captains, twenty-nine lieutenants,

seventeen masters' mates, twenty-five midshipmen, five captains of

marines, three lieutenants, four surgeons, and thirteen petty officers

of marines. The whole being arranged on the 15th of May, the red flag

was struck; and the deputies waited on Lord Howe to express their

obligations to him for his kind services on behalf of the oppressed

seamen. His lordship gave them luncheon, and then was escorted by

them, along with Lady Howe, on board the fleet. On their return, they

carried Lord Howe on their shoulders to the Governor's House. Sir Roger

Curtis's squadron had just come in from a cruise, and on learning what

had passed, declared themselves ready to support the rest of the fleet;

but the news which Howe had brought at once satisfied them, and all

eagerly prepared to set sail, and demonstrate their loyal zeal by an

encounter with the Brest fleet.

But the fleet at Sheerness, which sympathised with that at Portsmouth,

did not think fit to accept the terms which had satisfied the seamen

of Portsmouth. They were incited by a sailor, named Richard Parker,

to stand for fresh demands, which were not likely to meet with the

sympathy of either sailors or landsmen, being of a political character

and including a revision of the Articles of War. On the 20th of May,

the ships at the Nore, and others belonging to the North Sea fleet,

appointed delegates, and sent in their demands, in imitation of the

Portsmouth men. The Admiralty flatly rejected their petition. On the

23rd of May the mutineers hoisted the red flag; and all the ships of

war lying near Sheerness dropped down to the Nore. On the 29th, a

committee from the Board of Admiralty went down to Sheerness, to try to

bring them to reason, but failed. The mutineers then drew their ships

in a line across the Thames, cutting off all traffic between the sea

and London. On this, the Government proceeded to pull up the buoys at

the mouth of the river, to erect batteries along the shores for firing

red-hot balls; and a proclamation was issued declaring the fleet in

a state of rebellion, and prohibiting all intercourse with it. This

soon brought some of the mutineers to their senses. They knew that

every class of people was against them. On the 4th of June, the king's

birthday, a royal salute was fired from the whole fleet, as a token of

loyalty; the red flag was pulled down on every ship but the _Sandwich_,

on board of which was Parker, and all the gay flags usual on such

occasions were displayed. Several of the ships now began to drop away

from the rest, and put themselves under protection of the guns of

Sheerness. On the 13th of June the crew of the _Sandwich_ followed this

example, and delivered up the great agitator, Richard Parker, who was

tried, and hanged at the yard-arm of that ship on the 30th. Some others

of the delegates were executed, and others imprisoned in the hulks; and

thus terminated this mutiny, as disgraceful to the sailors as that at

Portsmouth was reasonable and honourable.

[Illustration: THE MUTINY AT SPITHEAD: HAULING DOWN THE RED FLAG ON THE

"ROYAL GEORGE." (_See p._ 456.)]

Early in this year Admiral Sir John Jervis fell in with the great

Spanish fleet, which was intended to co-operate with the French in the

invasion of Ireland, and defeated it. Nelson had predicted that the

Spanish fleet would not take much destroying. Admiral de Langara had

had a fortunate escape in the Mediterranean, in venturing to Corsica.

He had now been superseded by Don Juan de Cordova, and Jervis, on

the 14th of February, met with him off Cape St. Vincent. Cordova

had twenty-seven sail of the line, Jervis only fifteen; but he had

Nelson in his fleet, which more than counterbalanced the inequality of

numbers; and the discipline on board the Spanish ships was far below

that of the British. Nelson broke through the Spanish line, and chiefly

by his exertions and manœuvres four of the largest vessels were taken,

including one of one hundred and twelve guns. The rest escaped into

Cadiz, and there the British blockaded them. The news of this brilliant

victory arrived in London when the public was greatly dispirited by

the exhausted state of the Bank of England, and helped to revive

confidence. Sir John Jervis was made Earl of St. Vincent, and Nelson,

the real hero, a Knight of the Bath.

A still more signal victory was won by Admiral Duncan in the autumn.

On the 11th of October, the Admiral, who had been watching the Dutch

fleet in the Texel, found that during a storm it had stolen out, and

was on its way to join the French fleet at Brest. There were eleven

sail of the line, and four fifty-six gun ships, commanded by Admiral

de Winter. Duncan had sixteen sail of the line. Notwithstanding our

superiority of numbers, the Dutch fought with their accustomed valour,

but Duncan ran his ships between them and the dangerous coast, to

prevent their regaining the Texel, and so battered them that they were

compelled to strike. Eight sail of the line, two fifty-six gun ships,

and two frigates remained in our hands; but the Dutch had stood it

out so stoutly, that the vessels were few of them capable of being

again made serviceable. The loss in killed and wounded on both sides

was great. Duncan was elevated to the peerage for this victory of

Camperdown, and the danger of immediate invasion was at an end.

On the 10th of February, 1797, the French made a descent on the Welsh

coast, which created much alarm at the time, and no less speculation

as to its meaning. Four armed vessels, containing about fourteen

hundred men, had appeared in the Bristol Channel, off Ilfracombe, in

north Devon. They did not attempt to land there, but stood over to the

Welsh coast, and landed in a bay near Fishguard. They were commanded

by General Tate, and commenced marching inland, and the whole country

was in alarm. Lord Cawdor marched against them with three thousand men,

including a considerable body of militia, and they at once laid down

their arms and surrendered without a shot. Many were the conjectures

as to the object of this descent, and historians have much puzzled

themselves about a matter which appears plain enough. The men looked

ragged and wild, more like felons than soldiers, and were apparently

not unwilling to be made prisoners. They were, no doubt, a part of the

great Brest fleet meant for Ireland, which had been driven about by the

tempests ever since they quitted that port on the 17th of December, and

were only too glad to set foot on any land at all, and probably were

by this time so famished and bewildered that they did not know whether

they were in England or Ireland. Many of their comrades of the same

unfortunate expedition never did see land again.

The opening of the campaign on the Rhine in 1797 restored the positions

of the French. On the lower part of the river, Hoche, who now commanded

them, defeated General Kray; on the upper Rhine Moreau retook the

fortress of Kehl, opposite to Strasburg; and such was the alarm of

Austria that she began to make overtures of peace. The fortunes of her

army in Italy made these overtures more zealous; Alvinzi was defeated

at Rivoli on the 14th of January, and Provera soon after surrendered

with four thousand men, and Wurmser capitulated at Mantua. The Archduke

Charles was now sent into Italy with another army, but it was an

army composed of the ruins of those of Beaulieu, Alvinzi, Wurmser,

and Davidowich, whilst it was opposed by the victorious troops of

Buonaparte, now supported by a reinforcement of twenty thousand men

under Bernadotte. The archduke, hampered by the orders of the Aulic

Council in Vienna, suffered some severe defeats on the Tagliamento

in March, and retreated into Styria, whither he was followed by

Buonaparte. But the danger of a rising in his rear, where the Austrian

General Laudon was again collecting numerous forces, induced Buonaparte

to listen to the Austrian terms for peace. The preliminaries were

signed on the 18th of April at Leoben, and Buonaparte, to bind the

Emperor to the French cause, and completely to break his alliance

with Britain, proposed to hand over to the Austrians the territory

of Venice. This being effected, Buonaparte hurried back to seize and

bind the promised victim. He took a severe vengeance on the people

of Verona, who had risen against the French in his absence, and then

marched to Genoa, where, under pretence of supporting the people in

their demands for a Republic, he put down the Doge and Senate, set

up a democratical provisional government, seized on all the ships,

docks, arsenal, and stores--in fact, took full possession. All further

pretence of regard for the neutrality of Genoa was abandoned.

On the 17th of October the peace between France and Austria was

definitively signed at Campo Formio. To France Austria ceded Belgium,

the left bank of the Rhine, including Mayence, the Ionian islands, and

the Venetian possessions in Albania, both of which really belonged to

Venice. Venice itself, and its territory as far as the Adige, with

Istria and Venetian Dalmatia on the other side of the Adriatic, were

made over to Austria without ceremony. The Milan and Mantuan states

were given up by Austria, with Modena, Massa, Carrara; and the papal

provinces of Bologna, Ferrara, Ravenna, and the rest of them, as far

as the Rubicon, were included in a new so-called Cisalpine Republic

belonging to France. Tuscany, Parma, Rome, and Naples were still called

Italian, but were as much, Naples excepted, in the power of France as

the rest. In fact, except Venetia, which Austria secured, all Italy

except Naples was subjected to the French, and the regular process of

democratising was going on, in the latter kingdom, for an early seizure.

Before the conclusion of this treaty Pitt had made another effort to

obtain peace with France. The fact that one ally, Austria, was engaged

in separate negotiations gave him a fair excuse, and Lord Malmesbury

was once more sent to negotiate. He went to Lille, presented his plan

of a treaty, and at first all went well. Britain promised to restore

all her conquests with the exception of Ceylon, the Cape of Good Hope,

and Trinidad. But the Directory suffered the negotiations to drag on,

and when intestine struggles in France had been terminated in the

triumph of the Republican party on the 18th Fructidor (September 4),

the negotiations were suddenly broken off on the ground that Malmesbury

had not full authority. Once more the war party in France had gained

the day, and the weary contest was resumed.

[Illustration: THE DOGE'S PALACE, VENICE.]