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WILLIAM PITT AND THE GREAT WAR
WILLIAM PITT AND THE GREAT WAR
BY J. HOLLAND ROSE, Litt.D. England and France have held in their hands the fate of the world, especially that of European civilization. How much harm we have done one another: how much good we might have done!— Napoleon to Colonel Wilks, 20th April 1816 . LONDON G. BELL AND SONS, LTD. 1911 CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. PREFACE In the former volume, entitled "William Pitt and National Revival," I sought to trace the career of Pitt the Younger up
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CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
ROYALISTS AND RADICALS [1] Détruire l'anarchie française, c'est se préparer une gloire immortelle. — Catharine II , 1791. The pretended Rights of Man, which have made this havoc, cannot be the rights of the people. For to be a people and to have these rights are incompatible. The one supposes the presence, the other the absence, of a state of civil society.— Burke , Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs . A constitution is the property of a nation and not of those who exercise the Government.— T.
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CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
BEFORE THE STORM I find it to be a very general notion, at least in the Assembly, that if France can preserve a neutrality with England, she will be able to cope with all the rest of Europe united.— Gower to Grenville , 22nd April 1792 . Indirect evidence as to the intentions of a statesman is often more convincing than his official assertions. The world always suspects the latter; and many politicians have found it expedient to adopt the ironical device practised frequently with success by Bism
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CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
PEACE OR WAR? It seems absolutely impossible to hesitate as to supporting our Ally [Holland] in case of necessity, and the explicit declaration of our sentiments is the most likely way to prevent the case occurring.— Pitt to Lord Stafford , 13th November 1792 . One of the first requisites for the study of a period whose outlines are well known, is to bar out the insidious notion that the course of events was inevitable. Nine persons out of ten have recourse to that easy but fallacious way of exp
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CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
THE RUPTURE WITH FRANCE La guerre aux rois était la conséquence naturelle du procès fait au roi de France; la propagande conquérante devait être liée au régicide.— Sorel. The opening of Parliament on 13th December 1792 took place amidst circumstances that were depressing to friends of peace. Affairs were gyrating in a vicious circle. Diplomacy, as we have seen, had come to a deadlock; but more threatening even than the dispute between Pitt and Lebrun were the rising passions of the two peoples.
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CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
THE FLEMISH CAMPAIGN (1793) The war is not only unavoidable, but, under the circumstances of the case, absolutely necessary to the existence of Great Britain and Europe.— Pitt , Speech of 11th March, 1793 . In this chapter and the following , dealing with phases of the Great War, the narrative may seem at times to diverge far from the life of Pitt. But, in truth, his career now depended upon the issue of this gigantic strife. Therefore an account merely of his domestic concerns, of the debates a
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CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
TOULON Delay leads impotent and snail-paced beggary: Then fiery expedition be my wing, Jove's Mercury, and herald for a King. — Shakespeare , King Richard III , act iv, sc. 3. The enterprise destined to develop into the occupation of Toulon arose out of the negotiations for alliance with Austria, Sardinia, and Naples. By the first of these England pledged herself to send a considerable fleet into the Mediterranean, as an effective help to the military operations then going on in the Maritime Alp
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CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VII
THE BRITISH JACOBINS The much better way doubtless will be, in this wavering condition of our affairs, to defer the changing or circumscribing of our Senate more than may be done with ease till the Commonwealth be thoroughly settled in peace and safety.— Milton , A Free Commonwealth . But cease, ye fleecing Senators Your country to undo, Or know, we British sans-culottes Hereafter may fleece you. Thelwall , A Shearing Song . The outbreak of hostilities often tends to embitter the strife of parti
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CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER VIII
PITT AND THE ALLIES (1794–5) The main object of His Majesty is the keeping together by influence and weight this great Confederation by which alone the designs of France can be resisted, and which, if left to itself, would be too likely to fall to pieces from the jarring interests of the Powers engaged in it.— Grenville to Malmesbury , 21st April 1794 . The disgraceful failure of every military operation His Prussian Majesty has undertaken since the year 1791 has destroyed the reputation of the
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CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER IX
THE WEST INDIES Unfortunately, the war was carried on on the old principle of almost undivided attention to what was termed British interests—that is, looking to and preferring the protection of trade and the capture of the enemy's colonial establishments rather than to the objects which had involved Great Britain in the contest with France.— Colonel Thomas Graham's Diary . If we try to picture the course of the war as mapped out by Pitt, it would probably have appeared somewhat as follows. Grea
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CHAPTER X
CHAPTER X
SPAIN AND HAYTI Are not Martinique, Mole St. Nicholas, and the Cape of Good Hope most important conquests?— Pitt , Speech of 9th December 1795 . More than once it has happened that, after a time of national revival, Spain has fallen under the dominion of a ruler led by wrongheaded counsellors and intriguing favourites. Such was the case in the year 1788. Charles III, who then passed away, had restored the finances, the prosperity, the navy, and the prestige of that land. But his successor, Charl
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CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XI
THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE: CORSICA: QUIBERON The French Jacobins early laid stress on the weakness of the British Empire. An official report issued in January 1793 at Paris advocated a close alliance with Tippoo Sahib, the Raja of Mysore, and recommended that the French force sent to assist him should threaten or secure the Dutch possessions at the Cape of Good Hope, and in Java and Ceylon. "There," it continued, "you would meet only with men enervated by luxury, soft beings that would tremble befor
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CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XII
PITT AS WAR MINISTER (1793–8) Si vous affaiblissez vos moyens en partageant vos forces, si vous rompez en Italie l'unité de la pensée militaire, je vous le dis avec douleur, vous aurez perdu la plus belle occasion d'imposer des lois à l'Italie.... La guerre est comme le gouvernement, c'est une affaire de tact.— Napoleon , Letters of 14th May 1796 . In estimating the services of Pitt as War Minister during the first phases of the conflict we must remember that the ambition of his life was to be a
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CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIII
DEARTH AND DISCONTENT The Waste Land Bill will turn the tide of our affairs and enable us to bear without difficulty the increased burdens of the war.— Sinclair to Pitt , 13th March 1796 . On 29th October 1795 occurred an event unparalleled within the memory of Englishmen then living. An immense crowd, filling the Mall, broke into loud hissing and hooting when George III left Buckingham House in the state carriage to proceed to Westminster for the opening of Parliament. The tumult reached its cl
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CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XIV
THE YEARS OF STRAIN (1796–7) Torn as we are by faction, without an army, without money, trusting entirely to a navy whom we may not be able to pay, and on whose loyalty, even if we can, no firm reliance is to be placed, how are we to get out of this cursed war without a Revolution?— Cornwallis to Ross , 15th December 1797 . The year 1797, which opened with events portending the overthrow of Austria and the financial collapse of England, brought a passing gleam of sunshine into the gray life of P
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CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XV
NATIONAL REVIVAL A common feeling of danger has produced a common spirit of exertion, and we have cheerfully come forward with a surrender of part of our property, not merely for recovering ourselves, but for the general recovery of mankind.— Pitt , Speech of 3rd December 1798 . The desire of Pitt for peace with France led him in the autumn of 1796 to renew more formally the overtures which he had instituted early in that year. His first offer was repelled in so insolent a way that the King expr
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CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVI
THE IRISH REBELLION The dark destiny of Ireland, as usual, triumphed.— T. Moore , Mems. of Lord Edward Fitzgerald . Various orders of minds ascribe the Irish Rebellion of 1798 to widely different causes. The ethnologist sees in it the incompatibility of Celt and Saxon. To the geographer it may yield proofs of Nature's design to make Ireland a nation. If approached from the religious standpoint, it will be set down either to Jesuits or to the great schism of Luther. The historian or jurist may tr
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CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVII
THE SECOND COALITION To reduce France within her ancient limits is an object of evident and pressing interest to the future tranquillity and independence of Europe.— Foreign Office Despatch of 16th November 1798 . It is difficult to realize that the independence of Europe was endangered by the French Republic. We associate the ascendancy of France in Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Holland with the personality of Napoleon; and by contrasting him with the pygmies who strutted on the stage
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CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XVIII
THE UNION I am determined not to submit to the insertion of any clause that shall make the exclusion of the Catholics a fundamental part of the Union, as I am fully convinced that, until the Catholics are admitted into a general participation of rights (which, when incorporated with the British Government, they cannot abuse) there will be no peace or safety in Ireland.— Cornwallis to Ross , 30th September 1798 . The fairest method of dealing with the Act of Union of the British and Irish Parliam
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CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XIX
THE UNION (continued) "We must consider it as a measure of great national policy, the object of which is effectually to counteract the restless machinations of an inveterate enemy, who has uniformly and anxiously endeavoured to effect a separation between the two countries."— Pitt , Speech on the Union, 21st April, 1800 . On 22nd January 1799 the long talked-of Act of Union was pointedly referred to in the King's Speech read out to the Irish Parliament. The Speech was adopted by the House of Lor
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CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XX
RESIGNATION It is well known that no quiet could subsist in a country where there is not a Church Establishment.— George III to Addington , 29th January 1801 . On 25th September 1800 Pitt wrote to the Lord Chancellor, Loughborough, then in attendance on the King at Weymouth, requesting his presence at a Cabinet meeting in order to discuss the Catholic Question and proposals respecting tithes and a provision for the Catholic and Dissenting clergy. Five days later he explained to his colleagues th
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CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXI
PITT AND HIS FRIENDS (1794–1805) Nothing could be more playful, and at the same time more instructive, than Pitt's conversation on a variety of topics while sitting in the library at Cirencester. You never would have guessed that the man before you was Prime Minister of the country, and one of the greatest that ever filled that situation. His style and manner were quite those of an accomplished idler.—"Malmesbury Diaries," iv, 34. The conflict of parties and interests is apt to thin the circle o
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CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXII
ADDINGTON OR PITT? Once more doth Pitt deem the land crying loud to him— Frail though and spent, and an hungered for restfulness Once more responds he, dead fervours to energize Aims to concentre, slack efforts to bind. Thomas Hardy , The Dynasts , Act i, sc. 3. On 30th January 1803 there appeared in the "Moniteur" the official Report of Colonel Sebastiani, Napoleon's envoy to the Levant. So threatening were its terms respecting the situation in Egypt and Corfu, that the Addington Ministry at on
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CHAPTER XXIII
CHAPTER XXIII
PITT AND NAPOLEON I made a mistake about England, in trying to conquer it. The English are a brave nation. I have always said that there are only two nations, the English and the French; and I made the French.— Napoleon to Macnamara (1814), Lord Broughton's Recollections , i, 180. The two protagonists now stood face to face—Napoleon, Emperor of the French, President of the Italian Republic, Mediator of the Swiss Republic, controller of Holland, absolute ruler of a great military Empire; Pitt, th
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CHAPTER XXIV
CHAPTER XXIV
THE LAST STRUGGLE Heavens! What has Prussia to answer for! For nothing less, in my mind, than every calamity which has befallen Europe for more than ten years.— General Paget to Sir Arthur Paget , 24th January 1806 . The opening moves in the great game between Pitt and Napoleon were divided with a curious evenness. As we have seen, the French Emperor's defiant annexation of Genoa obliterated the anger of the Czar at Pitt's insistence on the retention of Malta; and if Pitt's high-handed conduct f
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EPILOGUE
EPILOGUE
Now is the stately column broke The beacon-light is quench'd in smoke, The trumpet's silver sound is still The warder silent on the hill. Scott , Marmion . This noble epitaph to the memory of Pitt conveys an impression alike of heroic endeavour and of irretrievable failure. It is the Funeral March of Chopin, not of Handel, and it echoes the feeling of the time. An impenetrable darkness hung over England. Ulm, Austerlitz, the armistice, and the desertion of the Allies by Prussia were successive w
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STATISTICS OF THE YEARS 1792–1801
STATISTICS OF THE YEARS 1792–1801
N.B. —The figures under the heading "money borrowed" are taken from the official statistics presented by the Rt. Hon. George Rose, "Brief Examination into the Increase of the Revenue, Commerce and Navigation of Great Britain" (London, 1806), p. 16. The total statistics are given in round numbers....
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