The French government made great exertions to put their navy on a respectable footing; but all their efforts on the ocean led only to disaster. On the 28th of February their commander, Rear-Admiral Pierre Martin, sailed out of the harbour of Toulon with fifteen sail of the line, six frigates, and three corvettes, having positive orders to engage the English fleet under Vice-Admiral Hotham, if he met it, and to drive the English out of Corsica. At that time the Mediterranean fleet under Hotham, which consisted of thirteen sail of the line, four frigates, and two sloops, with two or three Neapolitan ships, was at Leghorn; and the enemy succeeded in capturing the Berwick, of seventy-four guns, which found itself suddenly surrounded by the enemy. On discovering the intentions of the enemy, Admiral Hotham instantly unmoored and went in search of them. The two fleets came in sight of each other on the 12th of March, between Corsica and Genoa, and a partial engagement ensued, in which two French ships of the line, the Ca Ira and the Censeur, fell into the hands of the British, principally through the skill and courage of Nelson, who commanded the Agamemnon. This action saved Corsica for the time; but the victory was incomplete; and soon after, the arrival of six ships of the line at Toulon from Brest gave the French a decided superiority as regards numbers of ships. Had they known how to have used it, they might have made themselves masters of the Mediterranean; for the British navy, though manned by brave sailors, was not in a condition to withstand a superior force. On this subject, Southey remarks:—“The British navy had been much neglected during Lord Chatham’s administration at the admiralty; and it did not for some time feel the beneficial effects of his removal. Lord Hood had gone home to represent the real state of affairs, and solicit reinforcements adequate to the exigencies of the times, and the importance of the scene of action; but that fatal error of under-proportioning the force to the service, that ruinous economy which, by sparing a little, renders all that is spent useless, infected the British councils; and Lord Hood, not being able to obtain such reinforcements as he knew were necessary, resigned.” For three long months the Mediterranean fleet was left in its state of inferiority; but at length, on the 13th of June, it was joined by eleven sail of the line and several frigates. Since the recent battle the French admiral had avoided an encounter, although superior in force; but he now shunned it more cautiously than ever. Hotham, however, got sight of the French fleet near Cape Roux; and in a chase which he gave it, succeeded in capturing the Alcide; the rest of the ships got safely into Frejas Bay. These were the chief events on the ocean during this year; except by Nelson, who was detached on some coast service, scarcely another gun was fired in the Mediterranean. Many encounters of detached ships took place, generally to the advantage of the English; but the only other action which occurred was between the Channel fleet, of fourteen sail of the line, under Admiral Lord Bridport, and a part of the Brest fleet, consisting of twelve ships of the line and eleven frigates, under Vice-Admiral Villaret. In this action three French ships were taken; the rest fled for protection to their own port and their own land batteries. In the West Indies the English cruizers and squadrons were not so successful; all their vigilance was not sufficient to foil the daring projects of Victor Hugues. The French, indeed, recovered the whole of Guadaloupe, attacked with success the fort of Tiburon, in St. Domingo; and made themselves masters of St. Lucia; Grenada, Dominico, and St. Vincent’s were with difficulty preserved. But in these victories the French revolutionists were aided by the negro population. Victor Hugues flew from island to island, preaching liberty and equality to the negroes and all people of colour, and a crusade against the English and French royalists; and it was chiefly by this means that, the French were victorious. The African slave learned to adopt the tri-colour flag and the red cap of liberty, and the British were either butchered, or forced to flee from the re-captured islands. Under the same auspices, the Maroons, of Jamaica, likewise commenced a sanguinary conflict with the English, and did not lay down their arms till they were nearly exterminated; those who escaped the slaughter consented to be removed to Canada, where a portion of land was allotted to them.
FRENCH OPERATIONS IN HOLLAND, ETC.
It has been seen that when the Duke of York returned to London, he left the command of the British troops to Count Walmoden, and that Walmoden was attacked by the French army on the Waal, under Pichegru. It became evident that nothing but a hasty retreat could save the British army from destruction; and, after spiking their guns, and destroying all the ammunition they could not carry away, on the 16th of January they retired towards Leek. In his retreat Walmoden was pursued by Pichegru; but Walmoden, after sustaining several assaults, and after a march of nearly two months through countries inimical to the British, finally reached the mouth of the Elbe, when the Duke of York’s army embarked at Bremen for England. Throughout their whole route it was manifest that the population of Holland were, in the main, revolutionists; in every Dutch town and village through which they passed, the majority of the inhabitants looked upon them as the original cause of the calamities inflicted upon their country, and took every opportunity of insulting them in their misery and adding to their sufferings. Now that the British were departed the feelings of the Dutch were manifested in a clearer light. Before this, our ally, the stadtholder, and his son, the hereditary Prince of Orange, had fled for refuge to England, so that the democrats, which everywhere abounded, had no check in a display of their principles. Those of Amsterdam planted the tree of liberty in the chief places of the city, mounted the French cockade, and gave an enthusiastic reception to Pichegru. Utrecht, Rotterdam, Haerlam, Leyden, Flushing, Middlebourg, and Bergen-op-Zoom, one of the strongest fortresses in the world—these all fell into the hands of the French, either by conquest or by treachery. The States-general, indeed, or as many of them as chose to assemble at the Hague, issued proclamations, calling upon the people to admit the friendly troops of the republic; so that scarcely one of the many fortresses which studded the country, made more than a show of resistance. Many of them had opened their gates to the republican troops of France before the Duke of York left the country, and those which remained in the occupation of the Dutch, or of German troops in the pay of the stadtholder, for the most part now followed their example. Holland fraternised with France. A requisition of clothes and provisions for the use of the republican army, to the amount of one million and a half sterling, cooled the ardour of the thrifty Dutchmen for a moment; but it soon returned, on considering the blessings they were to obtain for their money. They were flattered by a convocation of a representative assembly, on the principles of equality and liberty: an assembly which abolished the hereditary stadtholderate, with all the forms of the preceding constitution, published the declaration of the rights of man, reversed the sentences passed in a previous year against democrats, and recalled all those who had been exiled for their democratical principles. On discovering this movement in Holland, the English government immediately laid an embargo upon all Dutch ships and goods in the ports of Great Britain, Ireland, and our colonies; and the ministry soon took into consideration the important subject of the Dutch colonies. An expedition was sent out on the 14th of July, under Vice-Admiral Sir G. Keith Elphinstone and Major-General Craig, who took possession of the Cape of Good Hope. Instructions were also sent to our naval and military commanders in the East Indies, to prepare for the reduction and occupation of the Dutch settlements in that part of the world; and about the close of the year all the places which the Dutch held in Ceylon, with Malacca, Cochin, Chinsura, Amboyna, and Banda, fell into the hands of the British. Other plans were also arranged for the seizure of the Dutch colonies in the West Indies, and on the coast of South America. Holland was, therefore, now reckoned among the enemies of England.
GEORGE III. 1795-1796
TREATIES BETWEEN FRANCE AND PRUSSIA, ETC.
Although the King of Prussia had been the first of all the coalition to assail republican France, yet, in the spring of this year, he concluded a separate treaty with its democratic rulers. This treaty was settled at Basle on the fifth of April; and by it the king ceded to France all the Prussian territory on the left bank of the Rhine, and France restored to Prussia the territories that her armies had overrun on the right bank of that river. Both the contracting parties pledged themselves not to grant a passage to the enemies of the other through their territories; and all prisoners taken respectively since the war commenced were restored. All the commercial communications and relations between France and the Prussian states were re-established by this treaty on the same footing upon which they stood before the war. At a later date, on the 17th of May, a supplementary treaty was concluded at Basle, for the purpose of establishing a line of demarcation and neutrality, in order to remove the war from all the north of Germany. One link cf the chain being thus broken, others soon snapped asunder. In the early part of this year the French met with great success over the Spanish troops, and again threatened to advance even to the gates of Madrid. Dismayed and discouraged, and, moreover, urged on by a strong French party, Godoy, the prime minister, humbly sued for peace. This was granted at the price of that part of the island of Saint Domingo which the Spaniards had possessed since the time of Columbus; and the proud monarchy of Spain with its Bourbon monarch, recognised the French republic, and engaged to a reciprocity of friendship and good understanding. As a testimony of amity to his Catholic majesty, the French government agreed to accept his mediation in favour of the King of Portugal, his relatives and allies, the King of Naples, the Infanta Duke of Parma, the King of Sardinia, and the other states of Italy; and to accept his good offices in favour of other belligerent powers that should apply to him in order to enter into negociations with the French government. This example of the kings of Prussia and Spain was followed by the Grand Duke of Tuscany; and even George III., in his quality of Elector of Hanover, though he remained the most active member of the confederacy in his capacity of King of Great Britain, ordered a treaty of peace to be signed, as far as related to the electorate, as did also the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel. Moreover, the court of Sweden, and the Protestant cantons of Switzerland, recognised the French republic, as well as its dependency the Batavian republic, that is, the United States of Holland.