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

and surely no part of Carlyle's epic sinks so low as that in which he

seeks to compare that loathsome butchery with the bloodshed of a

battlefield.[90] No such special pleading was attempted by leaders of

thought of that period. On 10th September Romilly, a friend of human

progress, wrote to Dumont: "How could we ever be so deceived in the

character of the French nation as to think them capable of liberty?...

One might as well think of establishing a republic of tigers in some

forest of Africa." To which the collaborator of Mirabeau replied: "Let

us burn all our books; let us cease to think and dream of the best

system of legislation, since men make so diabolical a use of every truth

and every principle."[91] These feelings were general among Frenchmen.

Buzot stated that the loss of morality, with all its attendant evils,

dated from the September massacres.

It seems strange that the democratic cause made headway in England after

this fell event. Probably its details were but dimly known to the poor,

who were at this time the victims of a bad harvest and severe dearth.

The months of September and October were marked by heavy and persistent

rains. The Marquis of Buckingham on 23rd September wrote at Stowe to his

brother, Lord Grenville, that he was living amidst a vortex of mud,

clay, and water such as was never known before--the result of six weeks

of unsettled weather, which must impair the harvest and increase the

difficulty of maintaining order.[92] Certainly the stars in their

courses fought against the _ancien régime_. The rains which made a

receptive seed-bed for the writings of Paine also hampered the progress

of Brunswick towards the Argonne, crowded his hospitals with invalids,

and in part induced that inglorious retreat. As the storms lasted far

into the autumn, disaffection increased apace.

The results serve to enliven the dull tones of our Home Office archives.

There one reads of bread riots and meal riots so far back as May 1792,

in which stalls are overturned and despoiled; also of more persistent

agitation in the factory towns of the North. Liverpool leads off with a

dock-strike that is with difficulty ended. Then the colliers of Wigan

stop work and seek to persuade all their comrades to follow their

example. Most threatening of all is the situation at Manchester and

Sheffield. There, in addition to disorder among the townsfolk,

disaffection gains ground among the troops sent to keep order. This

again is traceable to the dearness of food, for which the scanty pay of

the trooper by no means suffices. Here, then, is the opportunity for the

apostle of discontent judiciously to offer a cheap edition of the

"Rights of Man," on which fare the troop becomes half-mutinous and sends

in a petition for higher pay. This the perplexed authorities do not

grant, but build barracks, a proceeding eyed askance by publicans and

patriots as the beginning of military rule.[93]

The South of England, too, is beset by fears of a novel kind. After the

overthrow of the French monarchy on 10th August fugitives from France

come fast to the coasts of Kent and Sussex. The flights become thicker

day by day up to the end of that fell month of September. Orthodox

priests, always in disguise, form the bulk of the new arrivals. As many

as 700 of them land at Eastbourne, and strain the hospitality of that

little town. About as many reach Portsmouth and Gosport, to the

perplexity of the authorities. When assured that they are staunch

royalists and not apostles of Revolution, the commander allots shelter

in the barracks at Forton, where for the present they exist on two pence

a day each. Plymouth, which receives fewer of them, frowns on the

newcomers as politically suspect and economically ruinous. The mayor

assures Dundas that, if more priests arrive, or are sent there, they

will be driven away by the townsfolk for fear of dearth of corn. In

Jersey the food question eclipses all others; for 2,000 priests (so it

is said) land there, until all ideas of hospitality are cast to the

winds and the refugees are threatened with expulsion. Only in the vast

obscurantism of London is there safety for these exiles. A subscription

list is started on their behalf; the King offers the royal house at

Winchester for the overplus at Portsmouth: and by degrees the scared

throngs huddle down into the dire poverty and uneasy rest that are to be

their lot for many a year.[94]

Strange adventures befell many of the French nobles in their escape. The

Duc de Liancourt, commanding the troops at Rouen, was fain to flee to

the coast, hire a deckless craft, and conceal himself under faggots. In

that manner he put to sea and finally made the opposite coast at

Hastings. There, still nervous, he made his way to the nearest inn, and,

to proclaim his insularity, called for porter. The beverage was too much

for him, and he retired to his room in a state of unconscious passivity.

On his awaking, the strange surroundings seemed those of a French

lock-up; but as he crept down to make his escape, the mugs caught his

eye; and their brightness convinced him that he was in England. Such

was his story, told to the family at Bury, where Fanny Burney was

staying. Several of the wealthier French refugees settled at Richmond,

and there found Horace Walpole as charmer and friend. But the most

distinguished group was that at Juniper Hall, near Dorking where finally

Mme. de Staël and Talleyrand enlivened the dull days and long drives

with unfailing stores of wit. We shall later on make the acquaintance of

the French _émigrés_ in a more active and bellicose mood.

Such, then, was the mental condition of our folk. Depressed by rain and

dear food, beset by stories of plotters from Paris, or harrowed by the

tales of misery of the French _émigrés_, Britons came to look on France

as a land peopled by demons, who sought to involve other lands in the

ruin to which they had reduced their own. In this state of nervousness

and excitement little was needed to bring about a furious reaction on

behalf of Church and King.

The follies of English democrats helped on this reaction. Whispers went

about of strange and threatening orders of arms at Birmingham. A

correspondent at the midland capital informed Dundas at the end of

September that a Dr. Maxwell, of York, had ordered 20,000 daggers, which

were to be 12 inches in the blade and 5 1/4 inches in the handle. The

informant convinced the manufacturer that he must apprise the Home

Secretary of this order and send him a specimen of the weapon. Probably

it was the same which Burke melodramatically cast down on the floor of

the House of Commons during his speech of 28th December. The dimensions

exactly tally with those named by the biographer of Lord Eldon, who

retained that dagger, though Bland Burges also put in a claim to have

possessed it. The scepticism which one feels about this prodigious order

of daggers, which others give as 3,000, is somewhat lessened by finding

another letter, of 2nd October 1792, addressed to Dundas by James

Maxwell of York, who stated that he highly disapproved of the "French"

opinions of his younger brother (specimens of whose letters he

enclosed), and had just given him £500 so as to dissuade him from going

to Manchester to stir up discontent there.[95] This unbrotherly conduct

condemns the elder Maxwell, but his information to some extent

corroborated that which came from Birmingham. The whole affair may have

been merely a device to frighten Ministers; but report says that Pitt

took it seriously and ascribed to him the singular statement that

Ministers soon might not have a hand to act with or a tongue to speak

with.[96]

Certainly there was a good deal of discontent in the manufacturing

towns, but it is not easy to say whether it resulted more from dear food

or from political reasons. At Stockport a new club styled "The Friends

of universal Peace and the Rights of Man," issued and circulated a

manifesto asserting their right to inquire into political affairs:

    It is our labour that supports monarchy, aristocracy, and the

    priesthood.... We are not the "swinish multitude" that Mr. Burke

    speaks of. A majority of the House of Commons is returned by

    less than 6,000 voters; whereas, if the representation were

    equal (and we sincerely hope that it shortly will be), nearly

    that number will elect every single member. Not one-twentieth

    part of the commoners of Great Britain are electors.... We have

    a National Debt of more than £270,000,000, and pay £17,000,000 a

    year in taxes. More than one fourth of our incomes goes in

    taxes.[97]

The Radical clubs also showed a desire to pry into foreign affairs;

witness the following letter from Thomas Hardy to Dr. Adams, Secretary

of the London Society for Constitutional Information:

                  No. 9 Piccadilly (London), _Sept. 21 1792_.[98]

    The London Corresponding Society having taken the resolution of

    transmitting to the French National Convention an address ... to

    assure that suffering nation that we sympathize with them in

    their misfortunes; that we view their exertions with admiration;

    that we wish to give them all such contenance [_sic_] and

    support as individuals unsupported and oppressed themselves can

    afford; and that, should those in power here dare (in violation

    of the nation's pledged faith of neutrality and in opposition to

    the well-known sentiments of the people at large) to join the

    German band of despots united against Liberty, we disclaim all

    concurrence therein, and will to a man exert every justifiable

    means for counteracting their machinations against the freedom

    and happiness of mankind.

    I am ordered by the Committee to acquaint the Society for

    Constitutional Information therewith, in order to be favoured

    with their opinions thereon, and in hopes that, if they approve

    the idea and recommend its adoption to the different societies,

    the publication of such a respectable number of _real_ names

    will greatly check the hostile measures which might otherwise be

    put in execution.

On 5th October the Society for Constitutional Information agreed to the

plan, and ordered the drafting of a joint address to the French

Convention. By this time the news of the successful stand of the French

troops against the Allies at Valmy and the subsequent retreat of the

latter greatly encouraged the English democrats; and a more militant

tone appears in their addresses. Thus in that meeting of 5th October a

letter was read from Joel Barlow containing these sentences: "A great

Revolution in the management of the affairs of nations is doubtless soon

to be expected through all Europe; and in the progress of mankind

towards this attainment it is greatly to be desired that the convictions

to be acquired from rational discussion should precede and preclude

those which must result from physical exertion."

Why "precede and preclude"? The two expressions are incompatible. It

seems that some more moderate member must have added the latter word as

a sop to the authorities. In any case the last words of the sentence

were clearly intended as a threat. On 26th October, John Frost being in

the chair, the same Society framed the following resolution:

    That the Secretary do procure correct copies of the Manifesto

    published by the late General Burgoyne while in America, of the

    first Manifesto lately published by the Duke of Brunswick in

    France, of the last Royal Proclamation against writings and

    meetings in England, and of the Emperor's recent proclamation at

    Brussels on the same subject; in order that these four pieces

    may be printed fairly together on one sheet of paper, and be

    transmitted by this Society to all the associated Societies in

    Great Britain.[99]

It was then resolved to publish this resolution in the "Argus," "Morning

Chronicle,"[100] "Star," "Morning Post," "English Chronicle," "World,"

and "Courier." These papers supported the democratic cause. In order to

counteract their influence Pitt and his colleagues about this time

helped to start two newspapers, "The Sun" and "The True Briton," the

advent of which was much resented by Mr. Walter of "The Times," after

his support of the Government.[101] Apparently these papers were of a

more popular type, and heralded the advent of a cheap and sensational

royalism. Sheridan wittily advised that the motto of "The Sun" should

be, not merely the beginning, but the whole of the passage:

                         Solem quis dicere falsum

    Audeat? Ille etiam caecos instare tumultus

    Saepe monet, fraudemque, et operta tumescere bella.[102]

The combined address from several patriotic (_i.e._ reform) societies,

arranged for by Thomas Hardy, was not read at the bar of the French

Convention until 7th November. It set forth that the five thousand

signatories indignantly stepped forth to rescue their country from the

opprobrium thrown upon it