The admiralty commissioners, after contesting the just demands of the men, had yielded to a dangerous point by removing officers at the dictation of mutineers. Their vacillation encouraged the idea that mutiny paid, and mutiny accordingly spread. On the 12th it broke out in the ships lying at the Little Nore with reinforcements for the North sea fleet. These ships contained a large number of London roughs and some disaffected Irishmen. Unlike the mutiny at Spithead, it was a violent and criminal movement. It was directed by Richard Parker, a seaman of some education on board the Sandwich (90), who is said to have entered the navy as a midshipman, to have been dismissed his ship for immorality, and as mate to have been broken for insubordination; he had been imprisoned for debt at Perth, and had volunteered for the navy in order to obtain his release. Delegates were chosen; the red flag was hoisted, and the officers were deprived of command. From the first an element of weakness existed in the movement, for the men were not unanimous; two loyal frigates were forced to join the mutiny, and there was a loyal minority on the others. The squadron moved out to the Great Nore, and the mutineers paraded Sheerness with a red flag. Lord Spencer and his colleagues went down to Sheerness and had an interview with the delegates; they failed to persuade them to return to their duty, and Parker treated them with insolence. Besides the demands made by the channel fleet, which were already granted, the mutineers required that no officer that had been removed from his ship should again be employed in her without the consent of the ship's company, and that the articles of war should be revised. Demands of that kind, of course, could not be discussed. The first sign of weakness in the movement appeared on the 29th; the two loyal frigates left the squadron and, though fired on by the rest, made good their escape. The mutineers, however, soon received an accession of strength which encouraged them to proceed to further acts of rebellion.
The mutiny spread to Duncan's fleet then in Yarmouth Roads. The men knew that the Dutch fleet was preparing for an invasion of the kingdom, and they left the way open. All the ships, save Duncan's flagship and one other, deserted him and joined the mutineers at the Nore. Nevertheless, the stouthearted admiral sailed with his two ships to his station off the Texel, determined if the Dutch came out to fight them. While there he concealed his weakness from the enemy by making signals as though his fleet lay in the offing. England was in imminent danger, and Count Vorontsov (Woronzow), the tsar's ambassador, directed the Russian squadron, then at Yarmouth and under orders for home, to delay its departure and join Duncan until he could be reinforced from Spithead, the greatest service, wrote Grenville, that England has ever received from any nation.[274] Happily, the Dutch fleet was not ready to put to sea. The mutinous crews attempted to intimidate the government by blockading the Thames, and trading vessels were stopped at the entrance of the river. Some officers were ill-treated. Farmhouses on the coast were sacked. The country was greatly alarmed, and the 3 per cents. fell to a trifle over 48. The government acted with vigour; the garrison at Sheerness was strongly reinforced; furnaces for heating shot were made ready in the forts on the Thames; gunboats were fitted out, and the buoys at the mouth of the river were taken up to prevent the escape of the mutineers. In response to a royal message, parliament passed bills on June 3 and 6 providing that incitement to mutiny should be punishable with the highest penalties of misdemeanour, and that intercourse with the mutinous ships should be a capital felony.
NAVAL DISCIPLINE RESTORED.
The mutineers "ordered" captain Lord Northesk, who was virtually imprisoned on his ship, to go to London and lay their demands before the king. An official answer was returned requiring unconditional surrender. They grew uneasy, and their doubts of success were increased by addresses sent from the seamen of the channel fleet, severely reprobating their conduct. Cut off from communication with the shore and without hope of support from the channel fleet, they soon lost heart altogether. Parker became unpopular. Ship after ship either left the squadron or signalled a return to obedience, and finally, on the 14th, the crew of the Sandwich brought her under the battery at Sheerness, and surrendered Parker. He was tried by a court-martial, and hanged at the yard-arm of his ship. About forty were condemned to death, and some others were flogged. The government was inclined to mercy, for the bulk of the men had been deluded by Parker and other scoundrels; only fourteen seamen and four marines were executed; the other condemned men were pardoned by the king after the next great naval victory.
A mutinous spirit appeared in other divisions of the navy. The squadron at the Cape was brought to order by Lord Macartney, the governor, who threatened to sink the ship most forward in the movement by bombarding her from the shore. One of the ships off Cadiz began a mutiny; St. Vincent, a rigid disciplinarian, though, as the men knew, careful for their welfare, was equal to the occasion; the ringleader was sentenced by a court-martial, and St. Vincent surrounded the ship with gunboats, and forced the crew to hang him themselves, and that on a Sunday morning, which, being against all precedent, deeply impressed the sailors. Convinced that the idleness attending a long blockade was bad for discipline, he kept his ships employed as much as possible, and, in July, detached a squadron under Nelson to attack Santa Cruz. The attack was unsuccessful, and cost Nelson his right arm. England never passed through darker days than those of the mutinies.[275] The lessons they teach are that a country which neglects the legitimate grievances of its defenders pursues a course not less perilous than shabby; and that mutinous conduct of every kind should at once be met with exemplary severity. Neither impressment nor flogging was included in the seamen's grievances, but they complained of unjust treatment by officers. Since 1797 their condition steadily though slowly improved, and they were treated both by their officers and the admiralty with more of the consideration to which their splendid services entitled them. To Nelson the health and contentment of his seamen were always matters of care and pride.
NEGOTIATIONS AT LILLE.
Pitt, seeing England destitute of efficient allies, threatened with invasion, short of money, burdened with debt and taxation, with public credit at a low ebb, and with her fleets in mutiny, was set on peace, if it could be had on reasonable terms. He was encouraged by the state of parties in France, for in May the moderates or royalists who desired to put an end to the war gained a majority in the legislative councils. On June 1 the government proposed a negotiation for preliminaries of a peace which should be definitely arranged at a future congress. The proposal was rejected by the directors, who would not allow any concert between Great Britain and Austria, or any discussion of the general interests of Europe, and insisted that England should negotiate for a definite and separate peace. Grenville considered that this would be humiliating to England, and would have resigned rather than consent to it if he had not felt it his duty not to embarrass the government. The king heartily agreed with him, and so did Lord Liverpool (Hawkesbury) and Windham.[276] Pitt was too strong for them, and Malmesbury was sent to meet the French commissioners at Lille. He had scarcely arrived there when Burke, who by voice and pen had so long warned England to have no peace with France, died on July 9. Here, wrote Canning, "there is but one event, but that is an event for the world—Burke is dead". One of the five French directors was a constitutional royalist, another, Carnot, was inclined to that side, the other three were jacobins. A struggle was impending between this jacobin triumvirate and the majority in the councils. The success of Malmesbury's mission depended on its issue. England's need of peace may be gauged by Pitt's offers of the recognition of the French sovereignty over Belgium, Luxemburg, Savoy, and Nice, of the cession of all her conquests from France, Spain, and Holland, except Trinidad and the Cape, and of an exchange for Ceylon. In the discussions of the cabinet Grenville opposed Pitt's pacific policy, and as he found that the contents of Malmesbury's despatches became known out of doors, and that Pitt was enabled to support his opinions by the opinions of others, he arranged that Malmesbury's specially secret communications should be withheld from his colleagues generally, and they were only seen by himself, Pitt, and Canning,[277] the under-secretary for foreign affairs. Difficulties were raised by the French as to the royal style "King of Great Britain and France," the restitution of, or an equivalent for, the ships taken or destroyed at Toulon, and the retention of any conquests from the Dutch.
The negotiations were prolonged, for Malmesbury hoped that the majority in the councils would prove stronger than the triumvirate, and the triumvirs would not break them off before they had secured their position. During their progress Portugal, England's sole remaining ally, made a separate peace. A coup d'état was effected by the army on September 4 (18th Fructidor); the royalist and moderate deputies were condemned to transportation, two new directors were chosen, and the jacobin, or war party, was established in power. New commissioners were sent to Lille, and on the 14th Malmesbury was asked if he would agree to the restitution of every conquest made from France and her allies. He replied that that was beyond his powers, and was ordered to depart in twenty-four hours. After this abrupt termination of Malmesbury's mission the former friendly and confidential relations between Pitt and Grenville were fully restored. The coup d'état baffled Pitt's efforts. It was followed by the conclusion of a definite peace between France and the emperor, which destroyed all hope of a concert between Great Britain and Austria. After the preliminaries of Leoben, Bonaparte declared war on Venice, procured the overthrow of its ancient constitution, and established a new municipality. By the treaty of Campo Formio, concluded October 17, he betrayed the Venetians by handing over their city to Austria, along with Istria, Dalmatia, and the Venetian terra firma as far west as the Adige, while France took the Ionian islands for herself. The emperor resigned the Belgic provinces, and by a secret article promised to use his influence in the empire to secure to France the left bank of the Rhine. The directors looked forward to an invasion of England. While her navy was engaged with the fleets of Spain and Holland, a French force was to cross the channel and march on London; Ireland would revolt; England would accept a democracy, and Tipú would destroy her power in India.[278]
The futility of their arrogant hopes was already exhibited. Another invasion of Ireland was planned in the spring. A Dutch fleet was to carry over a land force, and was to be followed by Hoche and the Brest fleet. The United Irishmen eagerly expected a French invasion. Though the Dutch fleet was not ready until the crisis of the mutinies was over, Duncan's force was still small. Week after week the wind prevented the Dutch from leaving the Texel. Provisions ran short, and Duncan's fleet was again in force. The great opportunity had passed by. Fresh plans were made for descents on Ireland and Scotland in concert with a French expedition; but the hopes of the United Irishmen received a further blow in the death of Hoche. At last, on October 6, the Dutch fleet left the Texel.
Duncan received the news at Yarmouth on the 9th, and on the 11th came up with the enemy off Camperdown. In number of ships the fleets were about equal, but the British were the stronger. Duncan attacked in two divisions, broke through the Dutch line in two places and engaged to leeward, cutting them off from their coast. He signalled for each ship to engage its opponent, as in Howe's action of the First of June. Mistakes led to a concentration of force on the Dutch rear, which had good results.[279] The Dutch fought with splendid courage, and the carnage on both sides was terrible. Nine Dutch ships, including the Vrijheid (74), the flagship of their admiral, De Winter, were taken. The shattered remainder of their fleet put back into the Texel. The British admiral was created Viscount Duncan of Camperdown, and received a pension of £3,000 a year. The victory was of incalculable importance. Three fleets threatened the kingdom, and Camperdown, as Grenville said, broke the right wing of the invasion.[280] It raised the spirits of the nation. Won by the fleet so lately in mutiny, it proved that England could again, as of old, rely on the loyalty of her navy. It reasserted her supremacy at sea, which, in spite of the victories of Howe and Jervis, seemed weakened by the evacuation of the Mediterranean and the mutinies. Supreme at sea, she carried the trade of the world. Since the great drop of 1793 her commerce had increased year by year until it again declined in 1797. From that year, fostered by the demands of war and fed by the activity of British manufactures, it increased with extraordinary rapidity.