William Pitt and the Great War by John Holland Rose (book club reads txt) 📕

rolls out the words to Lady Hester Stanhope, as she welcomes him in the

hall of Bowling Green House, after his last journey to his home on

Putney Heath.[761] The words probably fell from him on some occasion.

But at the risk of incurring the charge of pedantry, I must point out

that the news of Austerlitz did not come on him as one overwhelming

shock: it filtered through by degrees. As we have seen, he wrote to

Harrowby on 21st December, stating that reports from Berlin and other

quarters represented the sequel to the battle as a great success for the

Russians. It appears that Thornton, our envoy at Hamburg, wrote as

follows on 13th December to Mulgrave: "From everything I can learn (for

the details are even yet far from being circumstantial and decisive) the

tide of success had completely turned in favour of the Russian and

Austrian armies, tho', as the conflict still continued to the 4th and

perhaps to the 5th, it could not be positively said on which side the

victory had been declared. The certain intelligence cannot now be long

delayed."[762]

Castlereagh also, writing to Pitt on 19th December, assured him that he

had heard similar news through various channels, and therefore cherished

high hopes that something good had happened.[763] Mulgrave, who was then

also at Bath along with Bathurst, Hawkesbury, and Canning, shared these

hopes. Despite the first reports of Austerlitz, which were promptly

contradicted, the Ministerial circle at Bath had no want of diversion.

On 12th December Mulgrave sent to Pitt a short poem on Trafalgar for his

correction, and Pitt touched up a few lines. On 21st December Mulgrave

wrote to him: "I send you Woronzow [Vorontzoff] and Ward, _faute de

mieux_. I was rejoiced to find you were gone out in your carriage when I

called at your home after church. As Bathurst, Canning, and the gout

have left you, I hope you will be able to return to the mess to-morrow."

This does not imply that Pitt was living the life of an invalid, or was

kept to so strict a diet as during his sojourn at Bath three years

before.

Equally hopeful was the estimate of Canning. He spent a week with Pitt

at Bath, and, after leaving him shortly before Christmas, informed a

friend that Pitt was "recovering from a fit of the gout, which has done

him abundance of good, and puts off the time of his driving after old

Frere--I trust to an incalculable distance.... There wants only an

official confirmation of all the good news (that has reached us through

every possible channel except those of Office) to complete it."[764]

Canning, we may note here, had discussed with Pitt his projected

poem--"Ulm and Trafalgar" (which bore the motto "Look here, upon this

picture, and on that"). It began:

    While Austria's yielded armies, vainly brave,

    Moved, in sad pomp, by Danube's blood-stained wave

and ended with a noble acclaim to Nelson:

    Thou, bravest, gentlest Spirit, fare thee well.

On the first line Canning plumed himself until he remembered the warning

of an old tutor at Magdalen, that when anything in your verses pleased

you very much, it was best to strike it out. Canning referred the phrase

"yielded armies" to Pitt, who probably found relief from his cares in

touching up the poem.[765] That Christmastide, then, was a time of

anxiety, but not of settled gloom. There is no sign that Pitt or his

colleagues felt the position to be desperate until the end of the year.

On Christmas Day Castlereagh wrote from Downing Street to Pitt: "I am

sorry to add to your materials for criticism and speculation. I send you

Cooke's 'Courant,' There is intelligence in the City from Amsterdam of

the 21st. Nothing official known here of an _armistice_. You have

received from Lord B[arham?] every information from that quarter."[766]

Indeed, the hopefulness of Ministers now involved them in greater

difficulties. Building on Prussia's promises, they decided early in

December to order the despatch of strong reinforcements to the British

corps then on the point of entering Hanover.[767] In all, as many as

65,000 British and King's Germans were to be sent--the largest force

that had ever set sail from these shores, a fact which testifies to the

ardour of Pitt's desires for the liberation of Hanover and Holland. Even

the immediate results of this decision were disastrous. Sixty-seven

transports, forthwith setting sail, encountered a terrible storm, which

flung three of them on the enemy's coast, while one sank with all hands

on the Goodwins. Such was the purport of the news sent by Castlereagh to

Pitt at Bath on 19th December. He added that, in spite of these losses,

"the little Cabinet of five" (with Lord Barham in attendance) decided to

order all the remaining transports to sail, so that Prussia might be

encouraged to "throw her strength to the southward. We have acted for

the best, and I hope you and your companions will approve."[768] Pitt,

of course, did approve, not knowing that while England was encountering

heavy risks in order to effect the liberation of North Germany, her

Allies had come to terms with Napoleon.

At last, on 29th December, definite news concerning the armistice of 4th

December reached London. It must have chilled the hearts of the boldest.

For, trusting in the continued exertions of the Allies, England had sent

to North Germany as many as 257 transports, and of these 8 were now

known to be lost, involving the death of 664 men, and the capture of

about 1,000 on the enemies' coasts. All this effort and loss of life now

appeared to be useless, in view of the vacillating conduct of Prussia.

Only with her good will could the British troops, with the Russian and

Swedish contingents, hope to conquer Holland. If she declared against

us, the whole force would be in jeopardy. Such were the tidings which

Castlereagh bore with him to Pitt at the end of the year.[769] Not a

line survives respecting that mournful interview; but we can picture the

deathly look coming over Pitt's emaciated features as he now for the

first time faced the prospect of the dissolution of the mighty league

which he had toiled to construct. Probably it was this shock to the

system which brought on a second attack of the gout, accompanied with

great weakness and distaste for food.[770]

Nevertheless he clung to the hope that Prussia would stand firm. On 3rd

January 1806 further news reached him from the Austrian and Prussian

Governments. The Austrian despatches represented Austerlitz as a

repulse, but not a disaster, and the armistice as a device for enabling

Prussia to prepare her blow at Napoleon's flank or rear. On 5th January

Mulgrave found in the despatches from Berlin grounds for believing that

that Court might under certain conditions assist the two Emperors in

Moravia and the British force in Hanover. On the morrow he wrote to Pitt

in emphatic terms, urging him to offer to Prussia the Dutch Republic.

That little State (he urged) could not again be independent, save in

circumstances now scarcely imaginable, much less realizable. Further,

the Stadholder having very tamely accepted the domain of Fulda as an

indemnity, we need feel no qualms for the House of Nassau; and, as

Prussia was influenced solely by territorial greed, and Hanover was out

of the question, she might well acquire the Dutch Netherlands, which

would link her to British interests.[771] Again we have to admit

ignorance of Pitt's opinion on this degrading proposal. Certainly it

never took definite shape.[772] Though willing to assign to Prussia the

Belgic Netherlands, he laid great stress on the independence of the

Dutch Netherlands, which indeed was the corner-stone of his foreign

policy. Moreover, to barter away an unoffending little State was to

repeat the international crimes of the partitions of Poland and Venetia.

We may be sure that that proud and just spirit would rather have

perished than stoop to such ignominy.

In effect, he fell a victim to his resolve never to barter away the

patrimony of George III. We now know that Prussia's policy at this

crisis turned mainly on the acquisition of Hanover. Her envoy, Haugwitz,

whom she sent to Napoleon's headquarters charged with the offer of

Prussia's armed mediation on behalf of Europe, had on 15th December

signed with him the humiliating Convention of Schönbrunn, whereby

Prussia agreed to make certain cessions of territory on condition of

acquiring Hanover. About Christmastide Frederick William decided to

close with this offer, which involved the expulsion of the Anglo-Russian

force from the Electorate. Premonitory signs of this change of front

were soon visible at Berlin. Indeed, the trend of Prussian policy during

the last decade prepared the British Ministry for the ruin of their

hopes. Pitt must have been racked with anxiety lest Prussia should doff

the lion's skin and don that of the jackal; for he alone knew of the

nervous breakdown of Harrowby.

Perhaps it was the hope of helping on that negotiation from Downing

Street, added to the verdict of Sir Walter Farquhar that the Bath waters

were now of no avail, which induced him on 9th January to set out on his

homeward journey. He was believed to be in better health than at the

time of his arrival; such at least was the announcement of the "Bath

Herald" on the 11th; and his hopeful outlook appears in a curious detail

which afterwards came to light. In order to beguile the tedium of the

journey he had taken out from a circulating library in Bath the

following works, each in two volumes, "The Secret History of the Court

of Petersburg," and Schiller's "History of the Thirty Years' War."[773]

A man who believes death to be near does not undertake a study of the

manifold intrigues of Catharine II, or of the Thirty Years' War. He also

had the prospect of seeing the liveliest and most devoted of friends,

Canning, at his country home, South Hill, Bracknell, in Windsor Forest.

Canning sent the invitation on the 5th, and it was accepted on the 8th

in terms which implied a sojourn of some days. He offered to accompany

him from Bath, if he felt strong enough to converse on the way; but Pitt

declined this offer, and it is doubtful whether he stayed at South Hill;

for Malmesbury declares that he had to remain a long time in bed at

Reading. On the other hand the Bishop of Lincoln declared that the

journey took only two days, and that at its close Pitt showed no very

marked signs of fatigue. Lady Hester Stanhope, however, was shocked by

his wasted appearance on reaching his home, Bowling Green House, on

Putney Heath.

Some eighteen months earlier he had leased that residence. It stands on

the (old) Portsmouth Road, and had earlier been an inn frequented by

lovers of that game and patrons of cockfighting. After enlargement it

had been converted into a gentleman's abode which well suited the modest

requirements of Pitt and of his niece, Lady Hester Stanhope.[774] There,

not far from the scenes of his youthful frolics with Wilberforce, and

only a quarter of a mile from the dell where he fought the duel with

Tierney, he found solace from the ever-increasing cares of state. In

those last months Hester felt for him feelings akin to adoration.

    [Illustration: BOWLING GREEN HOUSE, PUTNEY HEATH. (From a pencil

    sketch by Elsie H. Rose)]

On the morrow, Sunday, their circle was enlarged by the arrival of his

old friend and counsellor, Bishop Tomline, who was shocked at the change

which had taken place in him since he left for Bath. The physicians,

Farquhar, Reynolds, and Baillie, however, saw no cause for alarm, the

only disquieting symptoms being intense weakness and dislike of animal

food. There is a forcibly significant phrase in a recent letter of

George Rose to Tomline, that he dreaded the effect on the invalid of an

excessive use of medicines.[775] Evidently Rose believed the digestive

organs to be impaired by this habit. Pitt's daily potations of port wine

for many years past must further have told against recovery. Whether

Farquhar and his colleagues cut off medicine and sought to build up that

emaciated frame is uncertain. All that we know is that they prescribed

complete quiet, and therefore requested the bishop to open all Pitt's

letters so as to preclude all chance of excitement.

On 12th January, Pitt wrote an affectionate letter to the Marquis

Wellesley, welcoming him on his return from his memorable Vice-royalty

in India. He begged him to come to Bowling Green House at the earliest

opportunity. The letter closes with these remarkable words: "I am

recovering rather slowly from a series of stomach complaints, followed

by severe attacks of gout, but I believe I am now in the way of real

amendment."[776] The Bishop also describes him as gaining ground until

Monday the 13th. On that day he went out in his coach in the morning,

but in the evening