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

Among them Spain was not the least slothful and exacting. After the

quarrels between Langara and Hood at Toulon, the despatches from Madrid

to London were full of complaints. Now it was the detention of Danish

vessels carrying naval stores, ostensibly for Cadiz, but in reality, as

we asserted, for Rochefort. Now it was the seizure and condemnation of a

Spanish merchantman, the "Sant' Iago," on a somewhat similar charge.

England had equal cause for annoyance. The embers of the quarrel of 1790

were once more fanned to a flame by Spanish officials. Captain

Vancouver, of H.M.S. "Discovery," while on a voyage to survey the island

which now bears his name, had his ship and crew detained and ill-treated

at Monterey Bay by the Governor of California. The Court of St. James

warmly protested against this conduct as contrary to the Nootka Sound

Convention of 1790; and thereby inflamed that still open wound. Valdez,

Minister of Marine, the only rival of Godoy, now openly avowed his

hostility to England. Early in February 1795, in a conference with the

King, he hotly denounced British designs in Corsica and Hayti.

Thenceforth there was no hope of securing the co-operation of the

Spanish fleet for the blockade of Toulon and other duties too exacting

for Admiral Hotham's squadron. On 11th February Godoy handed to Jackson,

our _chargé d'affaires_, a state paper containing the assurance that

Spain desired to continue the struggle against France; but "if His

Christian Majesty finds another road less dangerous than that which he

follows, he will take it with the dignity becoming his rank; he will

exhaust the means he may have till he shall obtain the welfare of his

people; but he will not look on their annihilation with indifference, if

those who have a similar interest vary the mode of pursuing it." In

plain language this meant that, as Prussia was then treating with

France, Spain would follow her example when she thought fit.[385]

Thereafter the Spanish Ministers either manifested sullen reserve or

indulged in petulant complaints respecting the "Sant' Iago," Corsica,

and Hayti. The conduct of the Marquis del Campo at London was equally

sinister; his despatches represented the policy and conduct of England

in the darkest colours. In the hope of softening these asperities Pitt

and Grenville decided to send the Earl of Bute to Madrid in place of

Jackson, who desired to escape from the insolences of that capital. Thus

by one of the subtle ironies of history, the son of Chatham despatched

to the Court of Madrid the son of the man who thwarted Chatham's aims

respecting that same Power. Bute's instructions (dated 5th April) bade

him humour that Court, but none the less look out for any signs of a

Franco-Spanish compact, and discover at what place in the Spanish

colonies a blow might be dealt with most effect.

On 13th April, after receiving news of a Spanish success in Catalonia,

Grenville urged Bute to re-awaken Castilian pride by holding out the

prospect of gains beyond the Pyrenees, and expressed the hope that Spain

might renew her treaty with England, promising also to consider her

claims to parts of the north-west of Hayti. These hopes were futile.

Early in that year France and Spain began to draw close together. The

more moderate Republicans, Sieyès, Boissy d'Anglas, and Cambacérès, let

it be known that France would offer moderate terms. Barthélemy, the able

French envoy in Switzerland, furthered these plans, which came near to

fulfilment when Prussia signed with France the Treaty of Basle (5th

April 1795). Charles IV was only waiting for some excuse to follow suit.

As a relative of Louis XVI, he scrupled to take the lead; but he was

ready to follow the lead of Prussia. The sacrifices demanded of him in

March 1795 were considerable, viz., the province of Guipuzcoa and San

Domingo. But Bourgoing, the special envoy to Madrid, offered a prize

which far counterbalanced these losses. He held out to Godoy the bait

which in the more skilful hands of Napoleon was destined to catch both

him and his credulous master. Portugal was to be theirs if they made

common cause with France. Acting together, the two Latin nations would

overwhelm this "province of England," and together they would chase the

British from the Mediterranean. That Portugal had loyally supported

Spain in the monarchist cause mattered little. In place of the costly

war of principle, Godoy sought to substitute an effort with limited

liability, effective partnership, and enormous profits. He knew not that

in entering on this broad and easy path, he assured the ruin of Spain

and the ultimate loss of her colonial empire.

In this secret chaffering Pitt and Grenville were worsted as inevitably

as in the similar case of the Partition of Poland. The Power that cries

"hands off" to abettors of robbery needs to have overwhelming force at

its back; but both here and on the banks of the Vistula England was

helpless. There was no Court of Appeal. Christendom had vanished amidst

the schemes of the monarchs in the East, and under the stabs of

regicides in the West. Thus, while the champions of monarchy were

sharing the last spoils of Poland, France succeeded in detaching Spain

from the royalist league by inciting her to the plunder of Portugal.

Few moves have been more mean and cowardly; though the conduct of the

Court of Madrid in this matter touches far deeper depths of infamy. For

its present position was far from hopeless. With the help of the British

fleet the progress of the French troops towards Bilbao might have been

stayed. Affairs in Catalonia wore a hopeful aspect. England offered to

recognize the Spanish conquests in Hayti and to press for further

indemnities from France at the general peace. But all representations

were in vain. Godoy brushed them aside in order to compass the ruin of

the House of Braganza. On this enterprise he concentrated all his

faculties. He inveighed against the invasion of Hayti by British troops.

"His Britannic Majesty," he said, "ought to have abstained from any

interference with the island of San Domingo, upon the whole of which His

Christian Majesty had a well-founded claim; or, if any enterprize was

undertaken there by Great Britain, it should have been in the way of

auxiliary to Spain in order to restore to her her ancient possessions in

the West Indies." On other occasions he moaned over the heavy expenses

of the war, the misery of the people, and the impossibility of resisting

the superior power of France. But his chief theme was Hayti, and he

finally suggested that the British acquisitions in that island should

be held in trust for Louis XVII. He was not a little ruffled by the

reply that they belonged of right to George III, who would keep them as

compensation for the expenses of the war. Another significant fact was

the removal of a fine corps of French _émigrés_, some 3,300 strong, from

the northern provinces to Cadiz, on their way to the West Indies.

At the time of the arrival of Bute at that port (25th May), Fortune

vouchsafed a few gleams of hope to the Allies. Spanish pride having

kicked against the French demands, especially that of the province of

Guipuzcoa, Bourgoing's mission proved fruitless. The diplomatic

situation also improved. In February 1795, as we have seen, Catharine II

of Russia signed a defensive treaty with Great Britain, to which Austria

acceeded on 20th May. Thus did Pitt replace the outworn Triple Alliance

with Prussia and Holland by a more powerful confederacy. With these

bright prospects in view, and animated by the hope of rousing Western

France from Quiberon, Pitt had a right to expect some measure of

fortitude even in the Court of Madrid.[386] But Godoy remained obdurate.

On 11th June, in his first interview with Bute, he said he had no faith

in Russia; the vacillations of Austria were notorious; and Pitt was said

to be about to send Eden to Paris to sue for peace. As for Spain, she

was hard pressed; French and American emissaries had stirred up strife

in her colonies; and affairs were most "ticklish" in San Domingo. His

Government had therefore sought for a composition (not a definite peace)

with France. In fact, the war as a whole had failed, for whereas the

Allies had set themselves to crush French principles, they had succeeded

merely in uniting the French people in one common cause. On 11th July he

promised to recall the Anglophobe Governor of San Domingo; but he

declared the island to be in so distracted a state that both Spaniards

and British would probably be expelled. He then complained that somehow

England always got the better of Spain; witness Nootka Sound, Hayti, and

Corsica. In spite of Bute's assurance that he came to end these

jealousies, Godoy continued to drift on the tide of events. "No plan is

prepared," wrote Bute on 11th July, "no measures are taken. The accident

of the day seems to determine everything, and happy do the Ministers

feel when the day is passed." He therefore advised that Godoy should be

bribed.

The advice came too late. Already the favourite had instructed Don

Domingo d'Yriarte, his envoy to the now extinct Polish Republic, to

confer with Barthélemy, the French Ambassador at Basle. The actions of

Yriarte, of course, depended on the secret behests of Godoy. On 2nd July

Godoy informed him that peace was the only means of thwarting the

efforts of the bad counsellors of the Crown; and four days later he

wrote:

    Every day makes peace more necessary. There is no hope of

    restoring affairs in Navarre. Cowardice has unnerved our army

    and the French will dictate their terms to us.... I fear that

    their claims will be excessive, and condescension is our only

    resource if we are to succeed in saving ourselves even in part.

    Your Lordship need not take alarm at the rigour of the terms of

    peace; listen to them, accept them, and forward them to me,

    saying to yourself that perhaps they will not be so fatal as the

    results of a delay in the negotiation might be.[387]

Yriarte, a nervous valetudinarian, eagerly accepted this despicable

advice. Already one of his secretaries had allowed Barthélemy to see an

almost equally base effusion from Godoy; so that the French ambassador

on 21st July informed the Committee of Public Safety that the game was

in their hands. This was the case. Yriarte, after receiving two packets

from Madrid, hastily sought a nocturnal interview with Barthélemy by the

help of a dark lantern. The French ambassador received him with some

surprise, especially on hearing that he came to sign a treaty of peace

on terms not yet known at Paris. When the Spaniard insisted on signing

at once, Barthélemy examined the conditions, and finding them highly

favourable to France, consulted his secretaries, with the result that he

finally decided to conclude the affair.

Thus came about the Peace of Basle (22nd July 1795). Spain now waived

her former demands, the restoration of religious worship in France, and

French aid in the recovery of Gibraltar. The French, however, now agreed

to restore all the districts held by their troops in the North of Spain,

while the Court of Madrid ceded San Domingo. Spain also made peace with

the Dutch or Batavian Republic, and offered to mediate between France

and Portugal, Naples, Sardinia, and Parma.[388] Such were the chief

clauses of this astonishing compact. It dealt a deadly blow to Pitt. For

at the very time when he was building up a formidable league and rousing

Brittany against the Republic, Spain seceded from the monarchist cause,

and by surrendering San Domingo to France, doomed to failure his costly

efforts in Hayti. Further, as will appear in Chapter XI, by setting free

large numbers of the French troops at the Pyrenees, she greatly enhanced

the difficulties of the expedition of General Doyle to the coast of la

Vendée. Worst of all, it soon appeared that Godoy was bent on reviving

the policy of the Family Compact, making common cause even with the

murderers of Louis XVI in order to thwart England's expansion oversea.

Bute therefore warned our Government to prepare to strike a blow at

once, before the Spanish fleet should be ready to help the French either

in Corsica or Hayti. These precautions proved, for the present at least,

to be unnecessary. The degradation of the Court and populace of Madrid

may be measured by the joy with which the news of that inglorious peace

was received. The Queen, fearful that the failures in the war would lead

to the fall of her paramour, procured the speedy ratification of the

Treaty of Basle and decorated him with the title Prince of the Peace.

On hearing of the defection of Spain, Pitt at once took steps to guard

Hayti against a treacherous attack by detaching the greater part of the

British force then preparing to help the French Royalists of