The danger of Holland and the activity of revolutionists at home convinced the ministry that it was time to take measures of defence. On December 1 a part of the militia was embodied, and parliament was summoned for the 13th; the Tower was fortified, naval preparations were set on foot, a squadron was ordered to the mouth of the Scheldt, and an order of council prohibited the exportation of grain to France. Grenville informed the Dutch that England was arming, and called on them to arm also. Pitt still hoped for peace, and suggested to a French envoy that his government should give him assurances through an authorised agent with respect to the safety of Holland and the decree of November 19. The executive council would only treat through Chauvelin, who was offensive.[235] On the 27th he demanded whether England was to be reckoned neutral or an enemy of France; he protested that the decree did not apply to England, and that no attack would be made on Holland, but said that France would not give way as to the Scheldt, and threatened that if the ministers decided on war, they would find the nation against them. Already a decree of the convention passed on the 15th had ordained that all states occupied by French armies should virtually be subject to France, and should contribute to the support of the French troops. The war of "liberation" had become a war of conquest.[236] Grenville replied to Chauvelin on the 31st to the effect that the protestations of the executive council were belied by its conduct, that England could not consent that France should annul treaties at her pleasure, or be indifferent to her assumption of sovereignty over the Netherlands, and that if she desired England's friendship, she should abandon her views of aggression and cease to insult or disturb other governments.[237]
DISRUPTION OF THE WHIG PARTY.
During the first days of the session Pitt was absent; he had at the king's earnest wish accepted the valuable sinecure office of warden of the Cinque Ports, and was not yet re-elected. In moving an amendment to the address on the 14th Fox made a violent attack on the government. At that critical time when England's welfare demanded that party enmities should yield before the importance of union against sedition at home and aggression abroad, he did not scruple to declare that the government had wilfully exaggerated domestic disturbances, in order to establish a system of oppression more intolerable than "the horrors of the inquisition of Spain," and implied that the ministers were hostile to France merely because France was, as he jeeringly said, "an unanointed republic". Windham and other whigs voted against him, and his amendment was rejected by 290 to 50. He returned to the charge, but spoke more moderately, on the next day and again on the next, with a motion for sending an ambassador to Paris, which was negatived without a division. The disruption of the whig party was obvious; Portland, Fitzwilliam, Spencer, Carlisle, and Loughborough in the lords, and in the commons Windham, Elliot, and many more voted with the government, and Burke took his seat on the treasury bench. Loughborough received the great seal on January 28, 1793, but the rest as yet gave the ministers independent support. An addition of 9,000 men to the naval force and increased army estimates were voted unanimously, Fox declaring his approval on the ground that the position of foreign affairs demanded them. An alien bill was also carried, subjecting foreign immigrants to police regulations and empowering the secretary of state to expel them. This bill was opposed in the lords by Lansdowne, and in the commons by Fox and Grey. In the course of an almost frenzied speech in support of it, Burke threw a dagger on the floor of the house, a specimen, he said, of three thousand which, he was informed on excellent authority, had been ordered in Birmingham by an English revolutionist.
Chauvelin, whose credentials as "minister plenipotentiary of the French republic" were not accepted by the English court protested against the alien bill and the prohibition of the export of grain, and declared that France considered the treaty of commerce of 1786 broken and annulled. The two measures excited the indignation of the convention; the speedy downfall of England was triumphantly predicted; 3,000,000 Irishmen were ready to revolt, and India would shake off the British rule as soon as the French appeared in Asia. The executive council was pressed to demand the repeal of both measures, and a satisfactory explanation of the English military preparations, and orders were given for the immediate armament of a fleet. While the French ministers were already preparing for a descent on England,[238] and France was reducing the Austrian Netherlands to a merely municipal status, the contemplated invasion of Holland was delayed by the condition of the French army; and negotiations with England were carried on. Believing that if the English people were assured with respect to the Netherlands and the intention of France not to interfere in their domestic concerns, they would declare against the government in case of a war, the French foreign minister protested that the occupation of the Netherlands was merely temporary, that France looked forward to Belgian independence, and that the decree of November 19 only applied to a case where the general will of the people was expressed. The opening of the Scheldt was defended as authorised by the law of nature. This paper, which was a kind of ultimatum, did not withdraw the claim to propagate republicanism in other states or to annul the treaty rights of England's allies, and put no definite limit to the occupation of the Austrian Netherlands. Grenville returned a haughty answer. War was almost certain. The execution of the French king on the 21st hastened the end. The tidings were received in London with universal grief and indignation; the theatres were closed, and not the court alone, but all who could afford it, wore mourning. As the king drove through the streets, cries were raised of "War with France!" Chauvelin was ordered to quit the kingdom in eight days, and left at once. On February 1 France declared war on England and Holland. In common with the nation at large, George welcomed the declaration of war; the "insolence" of France irritated him, and the execution of the French king was an insult and a menace to every crowned head in Europe; yet the order of the king in council for Chauvelin's departure was of course given on the advice of the ministers.[239]
WAR WITH FRANCE.
Pitt had striven long and earnestly to avoid war. It was finally forced upon him. Grossly as the government was provoked by French attempts to spread republicanism in the king's dominions, that alone would not have forced him into war; the great mass of the English people was thoroughly loyal, and the resources of government were sufficient to deal with sedition. But England was bound in honour to defend the rights of the Dutch, and her own security demanded that she should withstand the French designs of aggrandisement. Burke would have had war declared on France as an enemy of God and mankind, because she trampled on institutions which he regarded as sacred in themselves and essential to the well-being of society. The feelings of the nation were excited by the excesses of the revolution, until the crowning act of the king's execution called forth a demand for war; and as the war went on hatred of French principles made Englishmen willing to bear the heavy burdens it entailed. But in the great decision Pitt was unmoved by sentiments such as these. Unlike the rulers of Austria and Prussia, the government was not embarking on a war either of principles or ambition, not on a crusade against republicanism nor, in its inception, a struggle for extended dominions; its object was to maintain the honour and the security of England. The opening of the Scheldt by France was a far more serious matter for England than if Leopold II. had succeeded in his attempt to carry out the same measure; for France was a great maritime power and entertained schemes of boundless ambition. That she contemplated the annexation of the Austrian Netherlands and the conquest of Holland was certain, and if she became mistress of the Netherlands and Holland, and had Antwerp as a station for her fleet, the security of England would be at an end.
Security could only be attained either by war or by an alliance with the republic, which would have been repugnant to the nation, would have made England partner in unjustifiable aggressions, and would have betrayed the interests of Europe to France. While it may be urged that the haughty tone adopted by Grenville during the last few weeks of peace irritated France, and that the dismissal of Chauvelin put an end to further attempts at reconciliation, it will scarcely be denied that the government was justified in refusing to prolong useless communications, and that it acted wisely in taking a decided step when the country was thoroughly prepared to support its decision. Having to choose between war and all that an alliance with France would have entailed, England chose war, and took her stand in the breach which France made in the political system, true to herself and finally the saviour of Europe.
The violent opposition of Fox seems to have proceeded from mixed causes. That he sincerely loved liberty must be allowed, but he was less attracted by the constitutional liberty of Burke's devotion, which like some stately building grows towards completeness as each successive generation enters into and carries on the labours of its predecessors, than by the cause of liberty, whether truly or falsely so called, in revolt. Unbridled in his own life, he loved resistance to authority. And he was one of those, in England unfortunately there are always such, who rate the cause they love above their country's cause. It was so with him during the American war. When he would describe how much an event pleased him he wrote, "no public event, not excepting Saratoga and Yorktown, ever gave me so much delight". It was so during the war with France. His opposition, however, also proceeded from hatred to the government.[240] Abhorred by the king and rejected by the country, he resented his exclusion from office by opposing the government at a time when Englishmen should have sunk all party differences in the face of their country's peril. He ascribed the measures taken to repress sedition and defeat the French propaganda as attempts at tyranny. While he acknowledged that the opening of the Scheldt was a casus belli, he spoke of it as a matter which England could well afford to overlook, and he represented the action of the government as unfair to France and as the result of monarchical prejudice. As the war went on his unpatriotic feelings were constantly displayed in a most offensive manner. His conduct broke up the whig party. England was entering on a period of fearful conflict; happy at least in that the confidence of the nation was given to a statesman whose one absorbing care was for the welfare of his country.
FOOTNOTES:
[229] Political Memoranda of the Duke of Leeds, pp. 150-52; Lecky, Hist., v., 222-99.