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

The general opinion both in London and Madrid was that war must ensue.

Godoy kept a close watch upon Bute, who took a mansion in Madrid on a

long lease in order to lull that Court into security. It was of the

highest importance to avert or delay a rupture with Spain; for the

condition of the British West Indies was most critical. The French,

having recovered Guadeloupe and St. Lucia, despatched thence emissaries

to fire the slaves in the British islands with the hope of gaining

liberty and equality. The peril became acute in Jamaica. There about 500

negroes had escaped to the mountains, especially in Trelawny and

Charlestown Counties, and by night carried out murderous raids against

the planters and their dependents. So fiendish were the atrocities of

these Maroons, that the authorities in that island applied to the

Spaniards in Cuba for one hundred bloodhounds and twenty huntsmen in

order to track the Maroons to their fastnesses. This device proved

successful; the murderers were by degrees hunted down, and were

transported to British North America, £25,000 being voted by the Jamaica

Assembly for settling them there.

Nevertheless the use of bloodhounds, which placed Britons on a level

with the Spanish crusaders, aroused general disgust. Attempts were made

in the House of Commons by General Macleod, Sheridan, and Courtenay to

represent the Maroons as men worthily struggling for liberty. Dundas,

while pruning these sprays of rhetoric, declared that Ministers would

thereafter prohibit the use of bloodhounds. These troubles with the

slaves prejudiced Parliament against any change in their condition. In

vain did Francis, in one of the last speeches of an acrid but not

discreditable career, press for the amelioration of their lot. At the

outset he showed the bitterness of his enmity to Pitt by charging him

with the betrayal of the cause which, in his oration of 2nd April 1792,

he had irradiated with the beatific vision of a regenerated and blissful

Africa. Why, he asked, did not the Minister resign office after his

failure to realize his heart's desire? He then charged him with

insincerity on the whole question, and urged the House to be content

with alleviating the condition of the slaves by giving them the

rudiments of education and some rights of property, above all by

securing the sanctity of their marriages. Fox followed with a speech

aimed more against Pitt than the slave-owners. The Prime Minister then

replied. Ignoring the charges of his opponents, he pointed out that the

proposed improvements were utterly inadequate to remedy the ills of the

negroes so long as Parliament allowed shiploads of these unhappy

creatures to be cast into the West Indies every year. What was needed,

he said, was the abolition of that hateful traffic, indeed of the whole

system of slavery. For himself, he still hoped that Parliament would

adopt those measures, which alone could be effective. Wilberforce was

absent through illness. Francis, having elicited in the main mere

personalities, not declarations of principle, withdrew his motion.

The lapse of the question of Abolition in the years 1795-6 was a public

misfortune; for the slaves, despairing of justice from England, turned

to France. For the good of the cause they murdered men, women, or

children, with equal indifference; and, when hunted down, died with the

cry _Vive la République_. Here was our chief difficulty in the West

Indies. Owing to the refusal of Parliament to limit the supply of slaves

or to alleviate their condition, we had to deal with myriads of blacks,

exasperated by their former hardships, hoping everything from France,

and able to support climatic changes which dealt havoc to the raw

English levies. In truth, the success of the West India expeditions

depended on other factors besides military and medical skill. It turned

on political and humanitarian motives that were scouted at Westminster.

The French Jacobins stole many a march on the English governing classes;

and in declaring the negro to be an equal of the white man they nearly

wrecked Britain's possessions in the West Indies.

For a great negro leader had now appeared. Toussaint l'Ouverture, though

probably not of pure negro blood, was born at Breda in the north of

Hayti in 1746. His mental gifts were formidable; and when sharpened by

education and by long contact with whites, they enabled him to play upon

the elemental passions of his kindred, to organize them, to lead them to

the fight, to cure their wounds, and to overawe their discontent. A

barbarian in his outbursts of passion, and a European in organizing

power, he became a zealot in the Republican cause. A quarrel with

another masterful negro, Jean François, forced him for a time to retire

into the Spanish part of San Domingo; but he soon returned, and proved

to be our most formidable enemy.

The position in Hayti at the close of 1795 was somewhat as follows. The

Republicans and their coloured allies, often helped by the Spaniards,

held or ravaged the greater part of the territory which the French

Royalists had invited us to possess. Their hopeful forecasts had led

Pitt and Dundas to send far too few troops for what proved to be an

increasingly difficult enterprise; and at this time British authority

extended scarcely beyond the reach of the garrisons. The French

Royalists had not given the help which Malouet and Charmilly had led our

Ministers to expect.[389] And on the other hand, Victor Hugues, the

Republican leader, managed to spread revolt in St. Vincent, Grenada, and

Dominica. In this critical state of things, the Cabinet decided to

accord to Major-General Williamson, Governor of Hayti, a long furlough,

and to place in supreme command a man of great resourcefulness and power

of character.

Sir Ralph Abercromby was at this time sixty-one years of age; but in

zeal and ardour he excelled nearly all the junior officers. His

toughness and energy had invested with dignity even the disastrous

retreat from Holland early in the year. He was not a great commander;

for he lacked both soundness and firmness of judgement, and he had no

grasp of the principles of strategy; but he restored the discipline and

prestige of the British army; and in him Moore and Wellesley hailed the

dawn of a brighter era. "The best man and the best soldier who has

appeared amongst us this war," was Moore's comment after Abercromby's

glorious death near Alexandria.[390] Pitt has often been charged with

lack of judgement in selecting commanders. Let it be remembered, then,

that he sent Abercromby to the post of difficulty and danger.

Unfortunately, delays multiplied at Spithead. Though the Cabinet

withdrew the marrow of the Vendean expedition, yet not enough troops

were available to complete Abercromby's muster; and when the men were

ready, the ordnance and transports were not at hand. What Department and

what officials were answerable for this scandalous state of things it is

hard to say. Buckingham, who had several correspondents at Portsmouth,

suspected Abercromby of shiftlessness. However that may be, the autumn

wore away amidst recriminations and growing discontent. When the fleet

at last put to sea, it encountered a terrible storm off Portland;

several transports were dashed to pieces on that point; while others in

the van were flung back on to the Chesil Beach or the shore near

Bridport (18th November). The horrors of the scene were heightened by

the brutality of the coast population, which rushed on the spoil in

utter disregard of the wretches struggling in the waves. The rest of the

convoy put back to Spithead; and not till the spring of 1796 did

Abercromby reach Jamaica. Dundas had instructed him first to recover St.

Lucia and Guadeloupe, whence Victor Hugues had flung forth the brands of

revolt. Ultimately the flames shrivelled up the colonies of France; but,

for the present, they were more formidable than her fleets and armies.

It was therefore sound policy to strike at those two islands. In a

"secret" despatch of 4th November, Dundas also warned Major-General

Forbes closely to watch the Spaniards in San Domingo, and, though not

attacking their posts, yet to support the French Royalists with arms and

money in case they desired to do so.

Among those who sailed from Portsmouth early in 1796 was Colonel

(afterwards Sir John) Moore.[391] He found the West India service most

unpopular. Yet the energy of Abercromby and Moore brought about the

surrender of that almost impregnable fortress, Morne Fortunée, in St.

Lucia. Moore was left as governor of the island, but with a garrison

insufficient to complete the subjection of the fanatical blacks. General

Whyte found the conquest of the Dutch settlement of Demerara a far

easier task than its retention. Abercromby then relieved St. Vincent and

strengthened the defences of Grenada, that island having been recaptured

by General Nicols. Abercromby and his comrades thus saved those

possessions from the most imminent danger. His services were almost as

great in the quarters as on the field. He adapted the cumbrous uniform

to the needs of the tropics, and, by abolishing parades and drills in

the noontide heats, and improving the sanitary conditions of the camps,

sought to stay the ravages of disease, of which the carelessness or

stupidity of officials had been the most potent ally. On 21st April 1796

Sheridan moved for a return of the troops who had succumbed to disease

in the West Indies. He asserted that several of them, on landing, were

without shoes and stockings, that hospitals crowded with sick were

without medicines or bandages, and that in one case a hundred patients

had to spend the night on the bare beach. Dundas's reply was virtually

an admission of the truth of these charges.

The declaration of war by Spain in the autumn of 1796 brought about a

new situation. The Republicans and their black allies regularly took

refuge and found their supplies in the central parts of San Domingo now

ceded to France; but when the British sought to follow and attack them

there, they were assured that it was neutral territory. The British

Government warmly protested against this duplicity. Either the island

was Spanish, or it was French. If the former, then Toussaint and his men

had no right to retreat thither. If the latter, the British could attack

them. In point of fact, plans for the transfer of San Domingo to France

were at that time dragging slowly along at Madrid: and when the French

General, Rom, failed to bend that Court to his terms, he departed for

the island under the convoy of a Spanish squadron. This incident was

typical of the recent policy of Madrid. In every possible way it

favoured France. Early in 1796 seven French warships underwent extensive

repairs in the royal dockyard at Cadiz. Merry, secretary of legation at

Madrid, further reported numerous seizures of British merchantmen by

French privateers which brought them into Spanish harbours. Twelve ships

were thus brought into Alicante in the winter of 1795-6; and English

merchants could get no redress for these seizures. French privateers

also fitted out at Trinidad to act against Grenada and Tobago.[392]

Provocations were not all on one side. Early in 1796, three Spanish West

Indiamen were overhauled by two English frigates and taken to Bermuda,

in the belief that war had broken out. They were, however, at once

released. Godoy protested angrily against this indignity, and early in

March hinted that Spain's neutrality would cease on the establishment of

a French Government. Two months later Bute found that Spain was seeking

to form a Quadruple Alliance, namely, with France, Denmark, and Sweden,

a scheme which Ehrenthal, the Swedish envoy, warmly furthered. The news

of Bonaparte's victories in Italy and of the financial troubles in

England evidently puffed up Godoy with the hope of playing the part of

an Alberoni for the humiliation of England; and in 1796 Spain had better

prospects of worsting the islanders than in 1718 when they had the

alliance of France, Austria, and Holland. In truth, no period was more

favourable for a revival of the Latin races than the years 1796-7, when

England was in dire straits, when Austria succumbed under the blows of

Bonaparte, and the Dutch, Danes, and Swedes opposed the British Power.

With singleness of purpose and honesty in their administrations, France,

Spain, and their Allies should have wrecked the lifework of the two

Pitts.

The British Ministers felt the gravity of the situation. In view of the

collapse of the Austrian Power in Lombardy, Pitt wrote to Grenville on

28th June in unusually despondent terms, that it was hopeless to expect

Austria to prolong the war after the present campaign. We should be left

alone to confront France and Holland, "probably joined by Spain, and

perhaps favoured more or less openly by the Northern Powers."[393]

Accordingly we must see to our home defences, and also consider the

possibility of a general peace. Grenville therefore urged Bute to seek

by all methods compatible with his dignity "to preserve the good

understanding of the two countries." In fact, Pitt and his colleagues

now decided to bring about a general pacification;