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ation and a free government, to which a great majority of its subjects were firmly attached, to have strengthened her navy and remained on the defensive, whether, upon a supposition of a strong disposition to revolt in great numbers dispersed throughout the kingdom, this might not have been repressed by more rational means than by embarking in a continental war for that purpose, whether good policy required that we should relinquish our neutrality and become the champions of powers which, from their natural and political circumstances, were much more interested in opposing the principles and designs of the French government than ourselves, are questions left to be decided by the reader's own judgment.

In forming our opinion respecting the justness of our cause we shall be assisted by reflecting on some events and transactions which preceded the commencement of the war.-In proof of the pacific disposition of the British government, before it had experienced extreme provocation from that of France, we have the words of the emperor Leopold to the marquis de Bouillé, after the conferences at Pilnitz. After speaking of the invitation given to Spain, Russia, England, and the principal states of Italy, to unite with him and the king of Prussia, "I am assured," said he, " of the "co-operation of all these powers, with exception to England, which is "resolved to preserve the most strict neutrality."-As a further testimony of the same disposition, his majesty, so lately as the commencement of the present year, in his address to the two houses of parliament, proposed a reduction of the naval and military establishments.-Monsieur de Segur's reflections on the conduct of Great Britain at this period is so far correspondent with this representation of her intentions, as it supposes an inclination to neutrality, though he ascribes it to motives inimical to France: England," says he, "who desired the prolongation of the misfortunes, "and the total destruction of the commerce of France, would not, at first, "either prevent the war by her mediation, as Chauvelin, the French minister, proposed to her, nor join in it, as she was urged by the coalition. Inter"nal anarchy and external war, by exhausting France, without any expence to the cabinet of St. James's, would accomplish the wishes of the British ministry.”—“ In all events, by feeding the fire which was just kindled,

66

h Mem, de Bouillé. ap. Marsh. 36.

"the

"the certain exhaustion of the French, and the fall of her navy, would

i

avenge the English for the revolution in America." -A yet stronger proof that this crown had not, by any overt act, discovered an hostile disposition towards France, till after the dreadful events of the tenth of august in this year, we have in the words of Brissot himself, who acknowledged, at that time, "that England had observed the most strict neutrality " in respect to her, till, what he calls, that immortal day." And further, the national convention admitted that England had persevered in this line of conduct till the beginning of the ensuing year.

Great Britain had, indeed, more than negative merit to plead in its conduct towards France; it had the merit of the most generous friendship, in return for the injury that state had done her by being the chief instrument in depriving the British crown of its American colonies. When the negroes of St. Domingo were in a state of insurrection, when Blanchelande, the governor, was in extreme distress, and the planters would gladly have passed into the hands of the English to save them from impending ruin, lord Effingham, governor of Jamaica, in compliance with Blanchelande's request, immediately dispatched two frigates laden with things necessary for their support. The words with which the president closed his address of thanks, as given by Mr. B. Edwards who was present, are deserving of notice: "we will avail ourselves of your benevolence; but the days you "preserve to us will not be sufficient to manifest our gratitude: our children shall keep it in remembrance. Regenerated France, unapprized that "such calamities might befall us, has taken no measures to protect us against their effects. With what admiration will she learn, that without your assistance we should no longer exist as a dependency to any nation."That France, though regenerated, had not yet learned to be grateful, appeared from her behaviour on this occasion. For when the British ambassador at Paris, in the month of november 1791, as a testimony of his sovereign's amity towards that state, notified his approbation of lord Effingham's conduct, after some debates in the national assembly respecting this notification, a motion was coldly passed, "that its thanks should be given, neither to the British government, nor to the governor of Jamaica, but to the British nation."-This was not the only testimony of amity

66

66

i Hist. of Fred. William. 2. 226. * Moniteur ap. Marsh. 75.

shewn

1 Edwards, ap. Marsh. 47. 50.

1792

1792

shewn by this crown to regenerated France. When Lewis, in the late
autumn, wrote letters to the different courts of Europe, informing them
of his acceptance of the new constitution, his Britannic majesty, far from
expressing himself dissatisfied at this event, immediately returned an answer
in terms of great respect."-Nor did his majesty discontinue his demon-
strations of amity towards France even after that state had declared war
against the king of Hungary and Bohemia. When Chauvelin notified this
to the court of London, and demanded, that, conformably with the treaty
of 1786, his majesty should prohibit his subjects from committing hostili-
ties against the French ships, he instantly complied, by issuing a proclama-
tion to that effect." And so well satisfied was the French government with
this conduct on the part of Great Britain, that Chauvelin was instructed +
to assure his majesty of the sense which the French king entertained
"of
"the friendly dispositions, and of the sentiments of humanity, of justice,
"and of peace, which are so clearly manifested in his answer. It was
not till after the outrages of the tenth of august and the subsequent
dethronement of Lewis the Sixteenth, that the earl of Gower, the English
ambassador, was recalled from France. This act of state which, however
warranted by the distracted situation of that country, where there was no
settled government to which he could, with assurance, address himself, was
condemned as precipitate by some, who thought that he might have been
well employed in an endeavour to save the life of that unfortunate mo-
narch, in whose cause the German powers had invaded France, by opening
a negotiation for peace. It was not till after the dreadful atrocities of the
second of September and the establishment of a republic in France that
the English government departed from its prudent system of neutrality, and
began to make preparations for war.

Whether this determination was sanctioned by the maxims of justice we shall be better enabled to judge by attending to the preceding conduct of France. The French government, it must be acknowledged, had requested the mediation of this crown in effecting a peace between it and the allied powers of Austria and Prussia. And notwithstanding it had no claim to

† P

such a friendly office, yet it was the opinion of many that good policy, and
a sincere desire of serving the French king, recommended our acceptance
of a commission the probable result of which was, either that we should
have accomplished a peace which would have raised Lewis from his present
degraded state, or should have manifested to all the world the disingenuous-
ness of the French republican partisans, and have strengthened the alliance
against them. That they were disingenuous, that it was a prevailing senti-
ment among them, that the success of their designs depended on war, we may
fairly deduce from the transactions of the convention, as well as the language
of several of its leading members.-So early as the close of the late year,
Brissot declared in the assembly, "that war was a real benefit to the nation,
" and that the only evil they had to dread was the not having war." This
sentiment was fully explained by Isnard, a few days after, when he an-
nounced to the assembly "that war was about to be kindled; war," said
he, " which is indispensible to the completion of the revolution."—
Peace," said Roland, then minister of the interior," is out of the ques-
tion; we have 300,000 men in arms; we must make them march as far
as their legs will carry them, or they will return and cut our throats.".
But it was not merely war on which they were so resolutely bent; it was
war with royalty, the destruction of which the now ascendant republican,
"It was
or jacobin, party contemplated as the road to immortal honour.
"the abolition of royalty which I had in view," said Brissot, "when I
provoked the declaration of war."

And that the republican partisans had views of hostility towards Great Britain in particular, long before that crown had offended them by the recal of its ambassador, and even immediately after its friendly offices in the West Indies, appears from this circumstance--that, at the beginning of this year, when Great Britain was reducing her military and naval establishments, Lameth delivered a report to the national assembly, in the name of the committee for naval affairs, importing "that about 80,000 sailors would be necessary to man the vessels now at the disposition of the state, and which "the honour of the nation, as well as the interests of its commerce, does "not permit us to reduce."-Agreeably to this report we are informed, by

1792

March 18.

1 L. Tolendal. ap. Marsh. 1. 127.

Marsh, 1. 150.

Idem. 1. 129.

t Idem. 1. 77

1792

by a subsequent one from the marine minister, that, so early as september the twenty-second, twenty-one ships of the line, thirty frigates, ten ships armed en flute, and forty-two smaller vessels of war, were actually at sea, and that thirty-four ships of the line, in addition to these, were in a state to be commissioned, that nineteen more were capable of being refitted, and that seven were building. These preparations could not be intended to act against the powers with which France was at present at war. And that the object of them was hostile to Great Britain and her ally, the Dutch states, was evinced soon after by the resolution of the executive council relative to the Scheldt. † For whatever were the merits of the treaties by which the Flemings were deprived of the advantages of a free navigation of that river, the forcible opening of it, in defiance of treaties made for the benefit of Holland, and guaranteed by Great Britain, must be considered as hostile to these powers.

Correspondent with these inimical intentions was the friendly intercourse subsisting between the republican partisans in Great Britain and France.The addresses of the English malecontent societies, which had before been directed to the jacobin society in Faris, were, after the revolution of the tenth of august, received by the convention itself; and every possible encouragement was given the addressers to rebel against the government. -After the celebrated decree of the nineteenth of november, offering fraternity and assistance to revolters, the bands of amity were drawn still closer between them. What is liberty? What are our rights," said an address from the united English societies; "Frenchmen, you are already "free, and Britons are preparing to become so." To which the president of the convention replied, "Citizens of the world! principles are waging war against tyranny, which will fall under the blows of philosophy.— Royalty in Europe is either destroyed, or on the point of perishing on "the ruins of feudality: and the declaration of rights, placed by the side of "thrones, is a devouring fire which will consume them. Worthy repub"licans! congratulate yourselves on thinking that the festival you have "celebrated in honour of the French revolution is the prelude to the fes"tival of nations."-Many other expressions of the same kind might be cited :

+ November 16.

V

Marsh. 189. from Moniteur.

x

Moniteur. ap. Marsh. 1. 207.