trenched camp near Fort Penthièvre. Here the royalist troops were shut up by the forces of Hoche; and while in this situation an open rupture took place between the emigrants and Chouans. Desertions became frequent, no new royalist troops arrived, and nothing was heard of the forces that had been promised from Jersey, the Elbe, and the English coast. But had all these forces arrived simultaneously it would have been to no purpose, as Hoche and Canclaux had collected such immense forces, and had cast up such strong intrenchments on the heights of St. Barbe, which commanded the sandy isthmus of La Falaise, that no hope could be entertained of dislodging them. On the 15th of July the English convoy arrived with some royalist troops from the mouth of the Elbe, under the Count de Sombreuill; but their total number did not exeeed 1100 men, which did not make up for the recent losses by desertion. Yet, encouraged by their arrival, before they had well landed, Puissaye detached Vauban with 12,000 Chouans to make a diversion on the right of Hoche's camp, to effect a junction with some other insurgents, said to have been gathered behind the heights of St. Barbe; while Puissaye himself marched from the narrow promontory, crossed the sandy desert, and boldly attacked the republicans in front. But all their efforts were fruitless: after some desperate fighting the royalists once more were compelled to retreat to their intrenched camp on the isthmus of La Falaise. There was treachery in that camp. In Puissaye's army there were Frenchmen who had enrolled in it merely for the chance of escaping from England, and these now settled with the republicans, to desert and put them in possession of Fort Penthièvre. This dark deed was done on the dark and stormy night of the 20th of July, when a detachment of republican grenadiers having approached near to the spot, some of these sham royalists who were on guard betrayed the fort, and assisted in slaughtering their own comrades. All was lost; the storm prevented the British fleet from approaching the coast; hundreds perished in the waves, and thousands by the sword of their own countrymen. Early on the morning of the 21st, the British frigates worked up to the south-east point of the peninsula, and received on board, by means of boats, about 2500 men; the rest were made prisoners or perished, and nearly all the arms and uniforms, with the ammunition and stores, were left behind for the benefit of the republicans. Those royalists who were taken prisoners were all marched off to Vannes, where a sort of military tribunal condemned the Count de Sombreuill, the Bishop of Dôl, and all the officers and gentlemen taken; and these being all shot, the common men enrolled themselves in the republican army. The broken remains of this expedition were landed in the isle of Houat, where they were soon afterwards joined by 2500 men from England, who gained possession of the Isle d'Yeu; but at the close of this year the English troops were re-embarked, and both ships and men returned to England.

In the meantime, as soon as Canclaux weakened his army to strengthen that of Hoche, and crush the royalist expedition at Quiberon Bay, Charette resumed the offensive, and had gained several advantages over the republicans. He looked eagerly for the promised arrival of Count d'Artois; and on the 10th of October the count disembarked at Isle d'Yeu. While here a place of rendezvous was appointed, and Charette, fully assured that the prince would land at the port of La Tranche, united his forces, dispersed some republican detachments, and cut his way to within a day's march of the appointed place. But Charette was doomed to be disappointed; the count's aide-de-camp here met him, with the intelligence that his highness had changed his mind, and would choose a more opportune moment and a better place for landing. The Count d'Artois returned to England; and from this time the affairs of the royalists in the western provinces rapidly

declined. The efforts of the Chouans and Vendeans were, indeed, confined to a species of guerilla warfare, which, as will be seen, was completely extinguished in the following year, by the republicans under Hoche. On discovering the determination of the Count d'Artois the brave Charette saw the extent of his fate. "My friends," he exclaimed to those around him, "we are lost; this is my death sentence! To-day I have fifteen thousand troops around me, to-morrow I shall not have three hundred." Charette fell back immediately from the coast; and he soon had the mortification of seeing his troops dispersing, and his enemies gathering around him on all sides. Such was his situation at the close of this year.

ARMIES ON THE RHINE.

During this campaign Moreau commanded the army of the north, encamped in Holland; Jourdan that of the Sambre and Meuse, stationed near Cologne; and Pichegru that of the Rhine, cantoned from Mayence to Strasburg. The contending armies were separated by the Rhine, from the Alps to the sea, at the commencement of the year; and nothing was done on either side till the end of June. At that time the old Austrian general, Bender, who, on the retreat and dissolution of the grand army of the coalition, threw himself into Luxembourg, was reduced by the republicans to capitulate; himself and numerous garrison being allowed to retire to Germany, upon condition or not serving against the French till exchanged. With the exception of Mayence, the republicans were now masters of the whole left bank of the Rhine, and of the estuaries through which the Rhine flows into the North Sea, from Holland to Strasburg. After the conquest of Holland, as before related, Pichegru undertook the reduction of Mayence, which was occupied by imperial and Austrian troops; and, as preparatory steps, he crossed the Rhine, captured Dusseldorf, and occupied Manheim. At this time Wurmser, one of the most active and skilful Austrian generals, was advancing with a good army to effect a junction with Clairfait, succour Mayence, and drive the French from the left bank of the Rhine. Pichegru endeavoured to prevent this junction by detaching a division against him; but Wurmser drove this division back with great loss to Manheim. Soon after this Pichegru was joined by Jourdan; crossing the Rhine he established himself on the right bank, opposite the town, to cover the siege and assist in it. But at this period the balance of fortune suddenly turned in favour of the Austrians. Being reinforced by 15,000 Hungarians, General Clairfait made a rapid and skilful advance, took Jourdan by surprise, obliged him to decamp hastily, and leave part of his artillery behind him, and harrassed him during the whole of his route to Dusseldorf, and there compelled him to re-cross the Rhine. Clairfait now threw a considerable part of his army across the Rhine into Mayence, in spite of the French lines drawn around it; and on the 29th of October he took those lines, which had cost the French a year's labour to construct, by storm; the republicans were driven from them with a terrible loss, and their battering train, with most of their field-pieces, were captured. About the same time Wurmser gained the bridge of the Necker, and drove Pichegru within the walls of Manheim. Pichegru, having strengthened the garri son, soon after quitted Manheim, re-crossed the Rhine, and effected a junction with Jourdan. During the month of November, Manheim, with a garrison of 9000 men, capitulated to Wurmser, who then formed a junction with Clairfait, and the two quickly recovered the whole of the Palatinate, and of the country between the Rhine and the Moselle. The Austrian generals formed a project of penetrating once more into Lux embourg; but their movements were slow, and Jourdan and Pichegru advanced along the Rhine by forced marches, and kept them in check. Several obstinate

encounters took place; but the winter was fast approaching, and as both imperialists and republicans were exhausted by the campaign, it was deemed expedient to agree to an armistice, which was not to be broken on either side without ten days' notice, and during which, each were to remain in the same position they then occupied.

AFFAIRS AT PARIS.

This year witnessed the close of the empire of the Jacobins. When the reign of terror was overthrown, there still remained two parties in Paris to contend for superiority; that of the committees of Jacobins, which endeavoured to retain the remnant of their power, and that of the Thermidorians. The Jacobins were still formidable enemies: for four days after the death of Robespierre they resumed the sittings of their club; and as they possessed a strong hold on the feelings of the populace, the Thermidorians saw that it was necessary to rouse themselves into action. For a long time, however, they found themselves compelled to proceed with great caution against their antagonists; and had they not been supported by the Jeunesse Dorée, it is probable that the Jacobins would have been more than a match for them. These young men, after several encounters, attacked the club at one of its sittings and dispersed them; and then the commissioners of the convention put a seal on its papers, by which its existence, and with it the union of the democratic party, was destroyed. It was immediately after this victory over the club of Jacobins that the monster Carrier was executed; and the convention was soon able to effect more humane designs, and to abridge the power of the revolutionary tribunals. Gradually it proceeded to abolish unconstitutional measures; and at length, strengthened by the increasing force of public opinion, which appears to have undergone considerable re-action, it ventured on the impeachment of Billaud de Varennes, Collot d'Herbois, Barrère, and Vadier. These were arrested on the 2nd of March; but their arrest alarmed the other leaders of the Jacobins, and they prepared to avert the storm gathering over them. Their plan was to rouse the populace; and their design was aided by a famine which then prevailed, and by the extreme depreciation of assignats, which threatened the whole population with ruin. The revolt was organized in the fauxbourgs, and it broke out on the 1st of April. The cry of the insurgents was "Bread; the constitution of 1783, and the freedom of the patriots." Uttering this cry a crowd rushed into the hall of the convention. Everything indicated the approach of a crisis, and the Jacobins were recovering their former audacity, when, on a sudden, a large body of the Jeunesse Dorée entered the hall under Pichegru, and the power of the insurgents was restrained. The convention now proceeded to energetic measures; the accused leaders were condemned to transportation, and seven of the Jacobin members were arrested, and sent to the castle of Ham, in Picardy. But the malcontents were not yet tranquillized; they organized, indeed, a more formidable insurrection. This broke out on the 1st Prairial, or the 20th of May, when the populace of the fauxbourgs, amounting to 30,000, again surrounded the hall of the convention. This time they committed mischief; the hall was broken open, the deputy Ferand killed, and his head put upon a pike. Boissy d'Anglas, who was president, for a long time braved the violence of the mob; but he was finally compelled to quit the chair. Vernier took it when he retired, and several decrees, demanded by the populace, were then passed, These decrees were the liberation and recall of the deputies lately transported and arrested, the restoration of arms to the fauxbourgs, the arrest of emigrants and Parisian journalists, the re-establishment of the communes and sections, and the suspension of the existing committees of government, which were to be superseded by a sovereign commission. On obtaining

these demands, many of the insurgents retired; and soon after the hall of convention was surrounded by the armed sections, who, after a brief struggle, obtained possession of it. Those deputies who had fled now returned, and annulled the decrees so recently passed by the minority, and ordered the arrest of some of their colleagues. The storm lasted several days; but finally the convention forced the fauxbourgs to submit; some leaders and six deputies of the "Mountain" were put to death, and the dominion of the populace was destroyed. Similar scenes were also witnessed in the provinces; everywhere the Jacobins were hunted down, and those who had practised or even favoured terrorism, were massacred. The mischief they had brought upon others, by a righteous retribution, returned upon their own heads. After their fury had subsided, and their enemies were destroyed or subdued, the Thermidorians, or the convention, proceeded to form a new constitution, widely differing from the institutions of 1793. A commission of eleven had previously been appointed to consider this subject, and the decision they arrived at was, that two chambers were necessary: one called the lower chamber, which was to consist of five hundred members; and the other denominated the upper chamber, which was to consist of half their number. Both of these were to be elected by the people, and there were to be five directors, chosen by the two councils, one of whom was to go out of office every year. The convention saw that their fate was sealed, for all France had become weary of their sway; and therefore this directorial constitution was forthwith voted. A display of public opinion, however, was fatal to its establishment. At this time the middle class, fearing the return of ochlocracy, and the noblest patriots of 1789 and 1791, had become re-inclined to monarchy; and finding themselves the majority of the sections of Paris, they looked forward to the elections with exultation. This alarmed the members of the convention; and in order to avert the danger which might arise to themselves, they decreed that two two-thirds of the members should be reelected, and that the convention itself should make choice of those members. But this dictatorial act met with stern opposition from the sections; with one voice they declaimed against it, and petitions and remonstrances were poured in from them to the convention. The reply made to the sections by the convention was by bringing the army to its aid; and thus supported, the new constitution and decrees were declared law. Civil war was now inevitable. The sections rose in arms to the number of 40,000 men, and prepared to resist the convention. Thus menaced, the convention assembled several thousand regular troops, and they also formed out of the republicans a battalion on whom they could depend in the contest against the royalists. The command of these forces was given to Napoleon Buonaparte, who, for his exploits at Toulon, had been appointed brigadier-general of the army in Italy. The decisive contest took place on the 5th of October, when Buonaparte, by his artillery, swept the ranks of the armed sections at every point, so that they were soon utterly routed. In one brief hour two thousand perished; and some arrests and executions confirmed the victory. By it the convention was enabled to form the two-thirds of the councils from their own body, as proposed; and having effected this, on the 26th of October, it declared its session terminated. It commenced and ended its career in blood.

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.

During this year the public mind was in such an agitated state, arising chiefly from the dearness of bread and general scarcity of provision, and from the successes of the French, which made the war to some extent unpopular, that ministers convoked parliament for an unusually early day. It met on the 29th of October; and as the king was going down to the house

of lords to open the session, he was surrounded by a numerous mob, who with loud voices demanded peace, cheap bread, and Pitt's dismissal. Some voices assumed a menacing tone; and when the state-coach came opposite to the ordnance-office, then in St. Margaretstreet, a bullet, supposed to have been discharged from an air-gun, passed through the window. His majesty behaved on this occasion with all his natural coolness and intrepidity; on arriving at the house of lords he merely said to the chancellor, "My lord, I have been shot at." A number of persons were immediately arrested, and carried for examination into the Duke of Portland's office; and, waiting the result of these examinations, no business was done for some hours. At length, having previously moved that strangers should withdraw, Lord Westmoreland related in a formal manner the insult and outrage with which the king had been treated; adding that his majesty, and those who were with him, were of opinion that the bullet had been discharged from an air-gun, from a bow-window of a house adjoining the ordnance-office, with a view to assassinate the king. The rage of the populace was not yet exhausted. On his return his majesty was again assaulted and insulted; stones were thrown at him, and there was a good deal of hooting and shouting, and loud cries of "Bread," "Peace," and "No Pitt! " But while one part of the mob thus assailed him, another part cheered and applauded him, and a detachment of horse-guards, which arrived as he was passing through the park, presently dispersed the m all. So gross an outrage as this had not been offered to any other monarch of Great Britain since the days of Charles the First. A reward of £1,000 was offered, to be paid on conviction of any person concerned in the assault; and one Kidd Wake, a journeyman printer, was convicted, and sentenced to five years' imprisonment in Gloucester goal. But his majesty received much consolation from the assurances of loyalty to his person contained in the numerous addresses which were presented to him from all parts of the kingdom.

His majesty's speech on this occasion made the most of the check which the French had received from the Austrians on the Rhine. It said likewise, that the ruin of their commerce, the diminution of their maritime power, and the unparalleled embarrassments of the French, induced them to exhibit some desire for peace, and gave assurance that any disposition on their part to negociate for a general peace, on just and suitable terms, would be met, on the part of his majesty, with a full desire to give it speedy effect. At the same time the king recommended energy, in order to meet the possible continuance of the war, and the improvement of our naval superiority. An amendment, prcposed by Fox, to the address was negatived.

BILL TO PREVENT SEDITIOUS MEETINGS,

ETC.

On the 6th of November Lord Grenville introduced a bill in the house of lords "for the safety and preservation of his majesty's person and government against treasonable and seditious practices and attempts." On the same day a bill was introduced into the commons by Pitt "for the prevention of seditious meetings." These bills, which went to restrict the right of the people to assemble for petitioning the crown and the legislature, and for discussing political subjects, and which were therefore almost sufficient to provoke and create the evils they were intended to prevent, met with a warm opposition in all their stages and in both houses; but they were carried by very Large majorities. Many members at this time connected a meeting which had taken place in June, in Copenhagen-fields, with the outrages offered to his majesty; while others were of opinion that the unchecked harangues of demagogues were calculated to

lead the people into excesses; and therefore ministers met with more thai. usual support in these measures. Beyond this, little was done in parliament before the recess, except the voting of supplies and receiving information relative to the failure of the last year's crop. The number of seamen voted was 110,000, and the number of land-forces 207,000; and a loan of twenty millions and a half, including a vote of credit, was granted. On the 8th of December, a message from the king was delivered to both houses, announcing, not only the regular formation of a government in France, but a readiness to meet any disposition for pacific negociations, and to give them full effect. His majesty expressed a hope, that the spirit and determination of parliament, added to the recent successes of the Austrian arms, and to the continued and growing embarrassments of the enemy, might speedily conduce to the attainment of this object. Motions were afterwards made in both houses for addresses in reply to his majesty's message; and, in the debates, opposition argued that the recent changes in the French government rendered that nation no more fit to be treated with now, than it had been at any period of the revolution. The addresses, however, were carried in both houses by large majorities; and thus a delusive hope was held out to the people that the war was about to be terminated. Yet, had they reflected upon the temper of parliament, they could scarcely have entertained such a hope; for motions made by opposition for addresses requesting the king to open negociations with the French government, were sternly objected to by ministers, and negatived. It was left for the French to make the first advances for peace, and they were not sufficiently humbled to take such a step; so war continued.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Grey's Motion for Peace, &c.-Pitt's Financial Measures-Prorogation of Parliament-Negociations of Peace-Military Affairs on the Continent Surrender of Corsica and the 'sle of Elba-Dutch Artempt to retake the Cape of Good Hope-French Expedition to irelandDisputes between France and America-Meeting of ParliamentPitt's Financial Statement--Mission of Lord Malmesbury to ParisStoppage of Cash-payments at the Bank-Meeting in the FleetsGrey's Motion for Reform, &c.-French Descent on Wales Battle of Cape St. Vincent Battle of Camperdown-The Blockade of Cadiz, &c. War on the Continent-Internal History of France- Meeting of Parliament.

GREY'S MOTION FOR PEACE, ETC.

A. D. 1796.

money, in flagrant violation of various acts of parliament, and of presenting false accounts, calculated to mislead the judgment of the house. The order of the day was likewise carried against this motion, by a majority of two hundred and nine to thirty-eight. On the 10th of May an address to the king was moved in the upper house by the Earl of Guildford, and in the lower house by Mr. Fox, declaring that the duty incumbent on parliament no longer permitted them to dissemble their deliberate opinion, that the distress, difficulty, and peril, to which this country was then subjected, had arisen from the misconduct of the king's ministers and was likely to increase as long as the same principles which had hitherto guided these ministers should continue to prevail in the councils of Great Britain. Fox enlarged much on "that most fatal of all the innumerable errors of ministers," their rushing into a ruinous and unnecessary war, instead of mediating between France and the allied powers. He contended that his majesty, by undertaking the office of mediator, would have added lustre to the national character, and have placed Britain in the exalted situation of arbitress of the world. On the other hand, Pitt insisted that the king could not have interposed his mediation without incurring the hazard of involving himself in a war with that power which should have refused his terms. Pitt enlarged on the danger arising to all Europe from the revolutionary decree of the 19th of November, and the insult offered to this country in particular, in the encouragement given to the seditious and treasonable addresses presented to the convention. He contended, that while negociations were pending, war was actually declared by France, and that France, and not England, was therefore the aggressor. This nation, he said, had no alternative; and he asked if the house, after a war of three years, which they had sanctioned by repeated votes and declarations, would now acknowledge themselves in a delusion? whether they would submit to the humiliation and degradation of falsely arraigning themselves, and of passing on their own acts a sentence of condemnation? Pitt said that it was a war of which the necessity and policy were manifest: and that if the country should at any time suffer a reverse of fortune, he should still exhort them to surmount all difficulties by perseverance, until they could obtain safe and honourable conditions of peace. On the other hand, he added, if success should attend our arms, the prospect of obtaining further advantages should not be relinquished by a premature readiness to make peace. These arguments were deemed conclusive: the motions both of Fox and Lord Guildford were lost by immense majorities.

PITT'S FINANCIAL MEASURES.

In the course of this session two budgets were produced, and two loans contracted, amounting in the whole to £25,000,000. The total supplies granted for the year were £13,821,430. In order to meet the expenditure many taxes were augmented, as those on wine, spirits, tea, coffee, silk, fruit, tobacco, salt, horses, dogs, hats, and legacies to collateral relatives; the assessed taxes were also increased by ten per cent.

PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT.

This session, in which little appears to have been done, terminated on the 19th of May. In his speech from the throne his majesty expressed the happy effects experienced from the provisions adopted for suppressing sedition, and restraining the progress of principles subversive of all established government; and the highest approbation of the uniform wisdom, temper, and firmness which had appeared in all their proceedings since their first meeting. A few days afterwards parliament was dissolved.

NEGOCIATIONS FOR PEACE.

In the course of the debate on Fox's motion for an address to the crown, it was stated by ministers that Mr. Wickham, our envoy to the Swiss cantons, had already had some communication with Barthelemy, the French negociator in chief, and they urged that these communications were quite sufficient to induce the republic to treat, if it really had any pacific intention. Opposition, however, urged that Mr. Wickham had not done enough to conciliate the French; and thus urged on, Pitt considered himself obliged to continue the overtures which had been made. Mr. Wickham asked Barthelemy whether the directory were desirous to negociate with Great Britain and her allies on moderate and honourable conditions, and would agree to a meeting of a congress for this purpose. Barthelemy replied, that the directory sincerely desired peace, but that they would insist on keeping Belgium, or all the Austrian dominions in the Low Countries, as they had been annexed to the French republic by a constitutional decree that could not be revoked. It was, however, as clear as the sun at noonday that the directory did not desire peace at all; or that, if they did, it would be on terms that could not be accepted. At this very time they were not only meditating a blow at the commerce of England, by preventing the admission of English goods into any port of France and Belgium, and into any of the French dependencies, but they were fostering and entertaining a number of Irish revolutionists at Paris, and were contemplating a grand expedition to Ireland, in order to co-operate with the rebellious there, and to convert that country, as they had done Holland, Belgium, &c., into a French dependency. Yet, though it was manifest that the French directory had no desire for peace, in the autumn of this year, Pitt was induced to renew his overtures. Government applied for passports for an ambassador to go to Paris; and Lord Malmesbury arrived there on the 22nd of October. But all negociation for peace was vain. It lasted for several weeks; and then, the directors having required Lord Malmesbury to define what compensation would be demanded for the restoration of the French colonies, and to state all his demands within four and twenty hours, his lordship replied that their requisition precluded all further negociation; and on the next day his lordship was told that he must quit Paris within forty-eight hours.

In the meantime Pitt had prepared for a vigorous prosecution of the war. In order to confirm the cabinet in the warlike disposition displayed, to rouse the national spirit for renewed exertions, and to point out the dishonour of forming treaties with men notorious for their bad faith, in the course of this summer Mr. Burke published his celebrated "Letters on a Regicide Peace." These letters, and the two others that splendid efforts of his mind. In them he took a differwere published after his death, are among the most ent view of the war from Pitt; he thought that it would be both violent and protracted. At the same time he did not despair of the final result, provided only a check could be given to that despondence which had seized upon many minds, and which the opposition were inculcating and promoting. It was his opinion that it was essential to success to disclaim all partition of the soil of France, to distinguish between the government and the nation, and to declare against the Jacobins, as distinct from the people; that France ought to be at tacked in her own territory, and, in the first instance, by a British army sent into the Vendée; that it was impolitic to employ troops and fleets in reducing West Indian islands while the French armies were overrunning the Continent; and that England, with a force of nearly 300,000 men, with a navy of 500 ships of war, might make an irresistible impression on any part of the French territory. This was the last effort which Burke made to stem the onward torrent of the