When parliament met on January 21, 1794, the opposition was able to taunt the government with the feebleness and failure of the military operations of the past year. An amendment to the address recommending proposals of peace was moved in both houses. In the lords it was supported only by 12 against 97 votes, the Duke of Bedford and Lords Lansdowne, Stanhope, and Lauderdale as usual being conspicuous in opposition to the ministry. In the commons, Fox urged that the cruel acts of the jacobin government should not prevent England from negotiating with it, to which Pitt replied that no dependence could be placed on the existing French government, and that "any alternative was preferable to making peace with France upon the system of its present rulers". The address was carried by 277 to 59. Votes were passed for 60,000 regular troops and a naval force of 85,000 men. Weak as the opposition was, it lost no opportunity. Some Hessian troops sent to join a British force arrived off the Isle of Wight before the expedition was ready, and were landed for a short time to prevent them from suffering from sickness. The opposition maintained that this was a violation of the bill of rights and the act of settlement. It was easily shown that the law had not been violated and that the course pursued was not irregular, and both lords and commons declined to allow that the matter called for an act of indemnity. Compared with the trifling nature of the occurrence, the fuss made over it by the opposition can only be explained by a desire to impede the government in the performance of its duty at a time of national danger. An invasion was threatened. The defence of England, Grenville said, would best be secured by her "water-guard". It was further provided for by raising volunteers. Dundas wrote to the lord-lieutenants of counties, recommending subscriptions towards the expenses of the movement. Fox and Sheridan declared that this recommendation was illegal. Their contention that it was a demand for "benevolences" was absurd. Yet a request by the government for money, not addressed to the house of commons, seems contrary to the spirit of the constitution. Nor did the safety of the state, which would outweigh all such considerations, require the step. But the matter was of no practical importance and the action of the government was approved by parliament.
As Frederick William was evidently withdrawing from the war, Malmesbury was sent to Berlin, late in 1793, to persuade him to continue it. He would not do so at his own expense, and it was proposed that the allies should pay him to keep 100,000 men in the field. Thugut objected; Austria could not pay her share and it would be better for Europe and for Austria that the king should stay in Prussia than lead so large an army to the Rhine.[248] This upset the arrangement. England wanted a strong force on the frontier of the Austrian Netherlands, and at last, on April 19, a treaty was signed by which Frederick William agreed to furnish 62,400 men to act with the armies of Great Britain and Holland "wherever it shall be judged most suitable to the interests of the two maritime powers," all conquests being at their disposal, on consideration of £50,000 a month, and £300,000 at the beginning, and £100,000 at the end of the campaign, with bread and forage money. Of these sums £400,000 was to be paid by Holland and the rest by England. Mack, the Austrian quartermaster-general, came to London and laid a plan of campaign before the ministers. It was decided that the Austrian and British armies should widen the breach made in the line of French fortresses, should march on Cambrai and then perhaps on Paris, supported by an advance of the Prussians from the Moselle, under Möllendorf, who had succeeded Brunswick in command. Prompted by Mack, who was then generally believed to be a strategist of supreme skill, the ministers expressed dissatisfaction with Coburg, and as difficulties arose with respect to the command,[249] the emperor took the ostensible command himself and came to Brussels on April 2.
ENGLAND'S ALLIES.
The campaign opened well. The allies invested Landrecies, and an attempt to turn the British position at Cateau was repulsed by a brilliant charge of the 15th light dragoons; a more serious effort to raise the siege failed, and Landrecies capitulated on the 30th. The Austrians under Clairfait, however, were defeated at Mouscron. York marched to Tournai and the allies attempted by a series of combined movements to cut off the French in West Flanders from their communications with Lille. Their plan was wrecked by their utter defeat at Tourcoing on May 16, where the British suffered heavily. The French attacked the camp near Tournai on the 23rd with the object of forcing the line of the Scheldt, but were foiled, and the British infantry highly distinguished themselves by their gallant recapture of the post at Pont-à-chin. Prussian help was urgently needed for the protection of the Netherlands, and, though paid for by English gold, was not forthcoming. A formidable insurrection broke out in Poland, and Frederick William marched to quell it, ordering Möllendorf to confine himself to the defence of the empire. Malmesbury and Cornwallis went to Mainz and urged Möllendorf to proceed to Flanders; nothing would move him. The emperor was more anxious about his interests in Poland than the defence of the Netherlands, and returned to Vienna. On June 26, Coburg was defeated by Jourdan at Fleurus and rapidly retired on Waterloo. On July 11, the French entered Brussels. The Austrians retreated to the Meuse, and York's corps to Malines where it was joined by 7,000 men under Lord Moira, who had landed at Ostend on June 26. Disgusted at the supineness of the Austrians, who were leaving the British and Dutch to their fate, the English government insisted that Coburg should be superseded.[250] They urged the emperor to make an effort to reconquer the Netherlands. Thugut replied that Austria had no money, that the Netherlands were more important to England and Holland than to the emperor, who did not get £200 a year from them, and that the Prussian subsidy ought to be transferred to Austria, or a large loan guaranteed.[251] Austria was set on her interests in Poland, and it is scarcely too much to say that she virtually betrayed the common cause.
These negotiations were brought to an end by the success of the French arms in Germany. The Austrians retreated across the Rhine in October, and England was not going to pay for the defence of the empire. The useless subsidy to Prussia was stopped on the 17th, and Möllendorf withdrew his army across the Rhine. Meanwhile York's army had fallen back on the line of Dutch fortresses; it was driven across the Meuse, was forced to retreat from Nimeguen, and encamped behind the Waal. Dissatisfied with his generalship, Pitt, as early as October 11, represented to the king that the division of command between him and the Prince of Orange was mischievous, and suggested that some experienced general should be sent out. George, who was deeply attached to his son, seems to have put the suggestion aside, for on November 23, Pitt wrote again insisting on the duke's recall. The king, though "very much hurt" was forced to yield and the command-in-chief devolved on General Walmoden.[252] York had shown himself a gallant soldier and had already proved his capacity as a military administrator, but he was not equal to the command of an army in the field.
The first attempt of the French on the line of the Waal was smartly repulsed by Sir David Dundas on January 4, 1795, but they crossed in large force a week later, and the British fell back. The line of the Lek was abandoned and the province of Utrecht evacuated. As the French advanced, their party among the Dutch gathered strength; the stadholder fled to England, the Dutch troops separated from the British, Amsterdam received the invaders, and on the 30th the Dutch fleet, which lay frozen up in the Texel, was captured by French cavalry. Meanwhile the British suffered terribly from the severe cold; and their sick and wounded were often exposed to ill-treatment by the people. The government decided to withdraw the army and bring it back by Bremen. It retreated across the Yssel and by the end of February evacuated the United Provinces and entered Westphalia by way of Enschede. Westphalia was held by Möllendorf's army, and the British troops, worn out by sickness and privations, were embarked at Bremen on April 12.
DEFECTIONS FROM THE COALITION.
By the end of 1794 the French were everywhere victorious on land. They were masters of the Netherlands and were over-running Holland; they held all the country to the left of the Rhine except Mainz and Luxemburg; a victorious French army wintered in Catalonia; the passes of the maritime Alps were opened, and the Piedmontese were driven back from Mont Cenis and the Little St. Bernard. The states-general proclaimed the establishment of the Batavian republic, and a treaty with France signed on May 16 placed the Dutch in a position of virtual dependence. Frederick William, anxious to forward his interests in Poland, had abandoned the war, and was turning towards peace with France. The spoliation of Poland, which exercised so deadly an effect on the fortunes of the coalition, was completed in January, 1795, when Russia divided the remainder of the country between herself, Austria, and Prussia by an arrangement confirmed by treaties later in the year. The coalition suffered from further defections. The Grand-duke of Tuscany, who was compelled by Hood's fleet to break off intercourse with the republic in the summer of 1793, was restored to his former state of neutrality by a treaty with France. Spain also was deserting the coalition. Godoy, the lover of the queen of Charles IV., who controlled the policy of the court, opened negotiations with France before the end of 1794. Among the questions which retarded their progress was the fate of the Spanish king's young kinsman, the dauphin, or Louis XVII. Death released the poor boy from his misery in June. The French entered Vittoria and were preparing for the siege of Pampeluna. Their successes hastened matters; the treaty with France was concluded on July 22, 1795, and the minion Godoy was saluted as "Prince of the Peace". Pitt's coalition was well-nigh ruined.
While the year 1794 saw the hopes of England frustrated on the continent, she was victorious at sea. Acting on overtures from Paoli, Hood attacked the French in Corsica, and sent Nelson to blockade Bastia, which was surrendered on May 22. Calvi was besieged by a military force under General Stuart and by Nelson, who lost his right eye there. Its capitulation, on August 10, completed the conquest of the island. In the West Indies a squadron under Sir John Jervis and troops commanded by Sir Charles, afterwards the first Earl Grey, compelled the surrender of Martinique, St. Lucia, and Guadaloupe with Mariegalante. Port-au-Prince and harbours important to the Jamaica trade were also taken in the French part of San Domingo. But the British force was insufficient for all that it had to do in the West Indies. French troops landed in Guadaloupe during the absence of Jervis and Grey, were welcomed by a large part of the creole population, and after a long struggle forced the British to evacuate the island.
THE GLORIOUS FIRST OF JUNE.