temporary fplendour, ultimately fide of the Rhine, into which they wrought their ruin, and introduced had, with much difficulty, found a new order of affairs into the dif- means to penetrate, and from which tracted and fluctuating common- they had been, after much fruitless wealth. toil and unfuccefsful efforts, compelled to retire with very confider The clofe of the year 1795 was not fo favourable to the French as that of the preceding; they had projected at its commencement to follow up their fucceffes in Holland, by carrying their victorious arms into the heart of Germany; but a variety of obftructions had either prevented or fruftrated their defigns. At home the violence of the many factions, open or concealed, ftood perpetually in the way of government, and impaired its propofed energies. Abroad the remaining parts of the coalition against France, though foiled in their repeated attempts, ftill preferved their fpirit, and determination to perfift at all hazards in carrying on the war. The principal fcene of action had been on the banks of the Rhine. Here it had been generally expected, that after the fubjugation of the feven United Provinces, the French would have met with no confiderable oppofition; but though difpirited, as well as weakened, by the fevering of fo material a limb from the great body of the confederacy, it till found fufficient refources to make head against the French, in a country where the geerality of the inhabitants, though didatisfied at their rulers, were not to imprudent as to prefer a foreign to a domeftic yoke, and would not fail to co-operate in oppofing a French invation. To this difpofition of an incomparable majority of the inhabitants of Germany was, in a great measure, due the little progrets of the French in thofe provinces of the empire on the right able loffes. The failure of the French in their expedition into Germany; their expulfion from every poft they had occupied on the eaftern banks of the Rhine; their retreat across that river; the purfuit of their difcomfited army into the borders of France; and the feveral defeats they experienced, were circumftances fo little hoped for at the commencement of this year's military operations in thofe parts that they proportionably revived the fpirit of their enemies, and infufed a degree of confidence into them, to which they had been firangers, fince the difafters of the preceding campaign. But, notwithstanding their ill fuccefs on the Rhine, the French maintained a decided fuperiority in every other quarter. Europe feemed to ftand at bay, and to wait with anxiety the terinination of a quarrel that had produced fo many ftupendous events. The diffolution of the confederacy, by the fecellion of Pruffia and Spain, was far from being confidered as complete: the principal members, Great Britain and Auftria were held fully competent, though not to the purpofe of fubduing, yet fill to that of repreffing the French; and this was viewed as the only object, at which they ought, in prudence, in the prefent fituation of their affairs, to aim. now During the courfe of the campaign, the government in France had entertained fome ideas tending to a general pacification; but the [B2] lofti leftinefs of their pretenfions, dictated by the pride of their nation, was fo apparent, that Europe was not furprifed that they were only mentioned tranfiently in their occafional difcourfes on that fubject. The inveteracy of the ruling party to England fubfifted almoft as violently as ever. The French beheld, with that rancour which attends an unfecefsful rivalfhip, the improbability of their ever attaining to an equality with the English at fea. It greatly.mortified their pride, that all the European nations fhould unanimoufly afcribe a decided fupe riority in naval tactics to the English, and reprefent thofe as no lefs invincible on the ocean, than the French had hitherto been at land; with this difference, however, to the dif advantage of the latter, that it would prove a much cafier talk to overcome them at land than the others at fea. Other caufes of difatisfaction militated against the ruling party in France. The royalists, however depreffed, were not difpirited: their numbers, though inferior to thofe of the republicans, were immenfe; they maintained a clofe correfpondence with each other, and cemented their reciprocal connections with all thofe acts of friendship and kindnefs that bind men fo ftrongly together, when fuffering from the fame caufes, and acting from the fame motives. The vigilance of the republican government found conftant employment in obviating the dangers that threatened it from the indefatigable activity of thofe irreconcilable anragonifts, who, though furrounded with continual obfervers of all their motions, neglected no opportunity 8 to further their defigns, and boldly encountered every rifk of being detected in their profecution. Enraged at thefe domeftic enemies, the predominant party was perpetually occupied in holding out every fpecies of menace and terror to reprefs and difcourage them; but neither threats nor invitations availed. Actuated by hatred and refentment the royalifts confidered themselves as equally juftified, by confcience and intereft, in their determination to feize every occafion of refifting the established powers, holding them as ufurpers, with whom no meafures ought to be kept, and whom they were bound to oppofe, whenever there appeared the least likelihood of doing it to any effect. Such was the fituation of France at this period, deeply convulfed at home, and though in poffeffion of many extenfive countries, yet, fearful that having acquired, and retaining them only by the right of the fword, they might lofe them through the fame means: an event, which, confidering the viciffitudes of war, was not more improbable than the aftonifhing fucceffes that had attended their arms against all likeli hood and expectation. While the people in France were diftra&ted with thefe internal divifions, thofe of England were agitated little lefs with inceffant differences and difputes on the propriety of continuing a war, which had occafioned fuch loftes of men and expence of treafure, without producing those effects which had fo repeatedly been reprefented as infallible. Nothing had been omitted to procure fuccefs: every minifterial demand had been granted, every meafure acceeded to; but the object proposed remained remained unaccomplished, and as far out of the reach of all reafonable expectation, as at the first moment of its being attempted All parties feemed, at this period, to unite in the like ftrain of reafoning. Numbers of thofe who had warmly elpouted the caufe of the minifter, thought that a fufficient trial had been made of the various fchemes he had brought forward, in order to compel the French to revert to their former situation; and that, having failed, prudence enjoined him to defift, and to leave the re-eftablishment of the French monarchy to a future period, and more aufpicious opportunities. That party, which had oppofed the war from its very commencement, were loud in their reprobation of its continuance, and reproached minifters with a total want of forefight, in not feeming to have apprehended the difficulties they would have to contend with, and, with equal inability, to encounter the. As the events of the war countenanced thefe reproaches, the public joined in them, and the government was thought very reprehenfible in perfifiing again reiterated experience, in a conteft that threatened to waite the ftrength of the nation ineffectually, and the aim of which, were it attained, would not prove an indemnification for its coft. Ideas of this nature were now generally predominant, and became, at laft, fo prevalent, not only among the multitude, which had long been fwayed by them, but among the moze reputable ciaffes, that a variety of affociations were formed, and meetings held, for the avowed purpole of petitioning the legiflature in favour of peace. The city of Lon don led the way, and, in a commonhall, the votes, for a petition, were four thoufand, and only one hundred against it. The terms in which it was conceived were extremely pointed. None of the ends propofed by the war, (to ufe the words of the petition) had either been, or appeared likely to be, obtained, although it had been carried on at an unprecedented expence to this country, and had already produced an alarming increafe of the national debt, augmented by fubfidies, paid to allies, who had notorioufly violated their folemn engagements, and rendered no adequate fervice for large fums actually received by them, and wrung from the credulity of the generous and induftrious inhabitants of this ifland." It concluded by expreffing a firm and de cided conviction, that the principle on which the war appeared to be carried on, neither was, nor could be, effential to the liberty, the glory, or the profperity, of the British empire. Other addreffes, in a fimilar ftyle, were refolved on in feveral of the principal cities in the kingdom. The adherents to miniftry endeavoured, on the other hand, to procure counter petitions: but thefe were faint and languid in comparifon to the former; thofe who framed them, did not venture to fpeak in juftification of the war; they went no farther than to leave to minitters the choice of their own time for pacific negociations. A circumftance that had greatly indifpofed the mercantile and trading claffes against miniftry, was, the refufal to permit the Dutch people of property, to depofit their money and effects in England, without pay[B3] ing ing the cuftomary duties. Had this This refufal, on the part of the British adminiftration, was generally deemed a very unfeafonable overfight. It threw into the hands of the French an immenfe quantity of money and wealth of every denomination, which might evidently have centered in England, together with its owners. This would, in a very confiderable meafure, have compenfated for the lofs of Holland to the confederacy, and amply indemnified Great Britain, by the prodigi ous acceffion of real property that muft have been the neceffary confequence of the emigrations of rich individuals from the United Provinces. Another overfight, no lefs real, though lefs noticed, was an article in a treaty which had been agreed on with the American States, by which their trade to the British islands in the West Indies was reftricted to veffels of an inferior fize. This, inftead of diminishing their commerce thither, tended rather to encreafe it, by adding to their number of feamen: whether in large, or in fmall veffels, this commerce was fo profitable to them, that whatever obftacles were thrown in their way, would quickly be overcome by their industry and activity: the profits of trade would be more divided, but the number of hands employed in it would produce the double confequence, both of gradually extending it, and of augmenting the number of American feamen. Thele various confiderations contributed materially to difplease the generality of people. The burthens of the war were fo heavy, and fuch multitudes felt their weight, that difcontents and murmurs abounded every where. The different motives affigned, at different epochs of the war, for its continuance, were alfo highly prejudicial to minifters, as they led many to think that the real motive was purposedly kept out of fight, and was of too invidious a nature to be frankly acknowledged. Ideas of this nature were now univerfally current among the dif approvers of the war, and were afferted and circulated by them with confiderable effect. But that circumftance which was the most un fortunate fortunate and alarming, in the midft of this general dillatisfaction, was, that it had arifen, in many, to fuch a degree of rancour at the authors and abettors of the war, that the attachment, which men naturally feel for their country, and its concerns, had given way to fentiments of the most violent hatred and hoftility to government. It was no longer a fimple difapprobation of the war; it was a fervent defire that it might terminate to the difadvantage of this country, and that the French might prevail againft the English. So extraordinary and unnatural an antipathy arofe, however, from other caules besides the war with France: the perfuafion that no reforms would take place in the government, while it was able to maintain its ground against France, prompted the determined advocates of thefe reforms, to exprefs, with marked anxiety, their withes for the fuccefs of this inveterate enemy to England. They feemed unconscious, or heedlefs, of the confequences that must neceffarily follow, were the French to fucceed in their defigns against this country, to that extent witch they had projected, and which the generality of their well-wifhers in England appeared to defire with no lefs fervour than themselves. But the animofities, produced by internal divifions, had, in truth, taken fuch unhappy poffeffion of moft men, that thole who fought to reconcile them to moderation, became equally odious to both parties: no medium was allowed; whoever deplored the war, as pregnant with calamities that might have been avoided, was reputed a foe to his country; whoever pronounced it juft, and neceffary, was deemed a confpirator against its liberty, and an abettor of arbitrary power. In this unfortunate difpofition of mind the nation continued during the whole year 1795. The fummer, in particular, was marked by a variety of tumults and riots. These were occafioned by the methods practifed in the enlifting of men for the army: what with the general averfenefs of the common people to the war; what with the iniquity of the practice itfelf, thofe who were concerned in it became fuch objects of execration to the multitude, that their perfons and dwellings were equally expofed to its refentment and fury. Several houfes, either tenanted, or made ufe of, by those who are vulgarly known by the appellation of crimps, were demolifhed, or ftripped of their furniture, and the owners put in danger of their lives. So great was the rage of the populace, that it was not without fome difficulty thofe riots were fuppreffed by the foldiery. Several of thofe who had been active in these disturbances were executed; but the public highly difapproved the condemnation, to death, of individuals, guilty of no other offence than giving way to a fudden impulfe of indignation at the violence offered to their fellow fubjects. Such was the temper of the commonalty, previous to the meeting of parliament, about the clofe of October, 1795. A fermentation of the most alarming kind feemed to pervade the whole mafs of the people. The various affociations of individuals, united for the purpose of obtaining a parliamentary reform, were, at this period, peculiarly noticed for their boldness and activity! That which was known by the name of the corresponding fo[B4] ciety, |