LI. 1793. cal reason practicability and expediency of peace at this pe riod of vic tory to the confede rates, CHAP. put to the effusion of blood; and that France would at this time have been under a regular and established government, and Europe would have been at peace. It is difficult to say Hypotheti- with any degree of probability, what would have been ings on the the result in a very problematical question, of an experiment that never was tried. The probable success of such an attempt proceeded upon an assumption that either the French were not originally the aggressors; or, if the beginners of the war, were from recent discomfiture tired of its continuance. Perhaps if the offer had been made, in their present circumstances they might have received it with delight; and for a time have continued pacific; but afterwards might have resumed invasion, when the confederation was broken. But it belongs not to history to state possible, or even probable consequences, which might flow from measures that were not adopted. If as some able statesmen argued, the hour of victory was the hour of offering peace, the confederates against France were of a totally different opinion. They conceived France to have been the aggressor; to have manifested views of ambitious aggrandizement; that it was the policy of her neighbours to prevent her encroachments, and in her present condition to reduce her strength so as effectually to prevent the future accomplishment of her projects; that therefore they ought now to press upon her in her weakened state. On this view they regulated their policy, and formed the plan of the rest of the campaign. A congress was held at Antwerp, wherein representatives attended from the several powers that formed the combination, which had now been joined by Spain and Naples. At this congress were present the prince of Saxe Cobourg, counts Metternich, Starenberg, and Mercy d'Argenteau, with the Prussian, Spanish, and Neapolitan envoys. It was determined that the fortresses on the frontiers of France should be invested by the armies of the confederates, that the enemy's coasts should be beset on every side by the fleets of the maritime powers, and that every encouragement and practicable assistance should be afforded to the royalists within France. A second proclamation was now published by n New Annual Register, 1793. LI. 1793. the prince of Saxe Cobourg, annulling the first, and de- CHAP. claring a design of keeping whatever places he should capture, for the indemnification of his sovereign. Dumourier, when he was informed of this change in the imperial system of military operations, declared to the prince de Cobourg, that he could not with honour serve against France. Receiving a passport, he therefore retired into Germany. By the plan of operations concerted for attacking the frontiers of France, the British, Dutch, Austrian, and Prussian troops were to press on the Netherlands; an army of Prussians and other Germans from the Rhine. Joined to the confederate armies were great bodies of emigrants, commanded by the princes of the blood, and other refugees of high rank and distinction. The chief part of the exiles was attached to the army of the Netherlands; and on all sides dispositions were made for invading the French dominions. o He first came over into Britain, but was desired by ministers to quit the kingdom and in his visit nothing passed of any historical importance. See Annual Register, 1793. CHAP. LII. Overtures of the French government for peace with Britain.-Le Brun the minister proposes to send an ambassador to England.-Letters containing his propositions are delivered to lord Grenville-but receive no answer. Alarming state of France-at war with all her neighbours. -Intestine war in La Vendee.-The victorious allies invade the French dominions.-Battle at St. Amand between the allies and the French.-The duke of York and the British troops take a share in the action.-British soldiers supremely excellent in close fight-in spite of French numbers and artillery by the bayonet decide the fate of the day. Battle of Famars and the defeat of the French. Blockade and surrender of Conde.-Siege of Valenciennes-strength of the fortress-operations-taken after a siege of six weeks.-Successes on the Rhine. -Mentz taken by the Prussian army.-France torn by dissentions.-Mountain excite a clamour against the Brissotines.-Establishment of the revolutionary tribunal.-Brissotines, with distinguished speculative ability, deficient in practical talents.-Mountain superior in decision and daring atrocity.-Brissot, Roland, and their supporters, seized and committed to prison.-— Robespierre and his associates become rulers of France. -System of terror reigns.-Constitution of 1793.Singular absurdity and anarchy.-Committees of public and general safety.-Combination in the south for overthrowing the frightful tyranny.—Toulon puts itself under the protection of lord Hood and the British fleet.Comprehensive and efficacious malignity of the governing junto.-Robespierre and his band abolish christianity--publicly and nationally abjure the Supreme Being-proscribe genius, destroy commerce, confiscate remaining property-debase every kind of excellence --attempt to level all civil, political, and moral distinctions. The pressure of the war facilitates their atrocities.-Forced loans-requisitions.--Bold scheme of the war minister to raise the nation in mass.-, -Effi cacy of this system-confounds all calculations of the allied powers-overcomes the insurgents of La Vendee forces the British to seek safety by evacuating Toulon.-Netherlands. Activity and progress of the duke of York and the British troops.-Victory at Lincennes invests Dunkirk with reasonable hopes of success. LIL Overtures for peace channel: Le by Le French es to send ABOUT the time that Dumourier engaged in a CHAP. negotiation with Cobourg for the reestablishment of monarchy, the existing government of France made an 1793. attempt to procure the restoration of peace. The proposals were conveyed through a very unusual Brun, the French minister, employed Mr. James Mat- Brun, the thews, an Englishman of whom he had no knowledge but minister. what Matthews gave himself, to carry to London two letters addressed to lord Grenville, and a third to Mr. John Salter, attorney, then a vestry clerk to the parish, since a notary public in Penny's Fields, Poplar, recommended by Matthews, requesting him to deliver the two letters to the British secretary. The purport of the first He propowas, that the French republic desired to terminate all an ambasdifferences with Great Britain, and that he demanded a Britain. passport for a person to repair from France to Britain for that purpose. The second mentioned Mr. Marat as the person who was to be deputed, and claimed a safe conduct for him and his necessary attendants. Mr. Salter accepted the commission, as he had probably agreed with Matthews; and on the 26th of April 1793, delivered the Letters two letters to lord Grenville, at his office, Whitehall. The letters procured no attention, and produced no effect: ered to they never, like other overtures for negotiation, were the ville, but subjects of parliamentary discussion; and the literary answer. notice which they excited was inconsiderable. The partisans of war regarded the uncommonness of the agency as a sufficient reason for overlooking the propositions." Dated at Paris, April 2d, 1793, and delivered to lord Grenville 26th April 1793. See State Papers. r See Otridge's Annual Register for 1793; a volume which, having evidently taken a side, I prize less as an authority than any of the other volumes of the same work, which loyally and patriotically supporting our constitution, record and estimate measures with the dignified impartiality of authentic history. sador to from him are deliv lord Gren receive no LII. 1793. Circum stances and fers of con ciliation. CHAP. The votaries of peace did not view the advances in that light, but from their general and cursory account, appear to have thought the transaction of little importance, and are totally unacquainted with the causes and circumstances of a mode of conveyance so different from the established etiquettes of diplomatic communication. The real history of this mission the kind information of Mr. David Williams has enabled me to lay before the reader. THE literary celebrity of Mr. Williams, and the use history of which the French reformers had made of his Letters these prof-on political liberty," induced the Girondists to invite him to France, that he might assist them in the formation of a constitution.t Brissot, whom he describes as an honest but a weak man, he had known in England, had corresponded with him, and warned him of the danger which he was incurring by his violence. Repairing to Paris, he became intimate with Condorcet, Roland, and other political leaders of the times. He continued to admonish them of the evils which they would encounter, unless they could moderate the licentiousness of the populace, and suppress the faction of the jacobins. He saw the wildness and extravagance of the Girondists themselves, and strongly represented to Brissot the impracticability and madness of rousing and uniting the nation by war. He powerfully inculcated the necessity of peace and moderation, to the welfare of the people, and the security of any constitution which might be formed for that purpose: he particularly recommended the maintenance of peace with England, and strongly reprobated the prosecution and death of the king, as giving the populace a taste of blood. Eager as the Brissotines were for war, yet they were conscious that France was not prepared for hostilities with England: patriotic policy sometimes overcame revolutionary fury, and then they would listen to the pacific counsels of Mr. Williams. When the discussions between Mr. Chauvelin and lord Grenville were evidently tending to hostility, they asked Mr. Williams to undertake a mission to the British court, in order to effect an accommodation. Regarding such an office as, 9 See Belsham's History, vol. v. p. 47. t See Madame Roland's Appeal, and Public Characters for 1798, p. 472. |