1794.] CORSICA-SIEGE OF BASTIA. thoughts to a more advantageous prospect than a hearty and honest fulfilment of his engagements would have afforded. He advanced into Poland at the head of forty thousand men; and was boldly met by Kosciusko with a force not Kosciusko was obliged to retreat towards one third of that number. Warsaw; but he effectually covered that capital for two months. Austria now considered it expedient to take a hand in this royal game, which promised great gains to those who made their stakes in time. Whilst she was bargaining for loans and subsidies with England, and leaving the duke of York to bear the brunt of the French attacks in the Netherlands, she marched an army into Little Poland. On the 10th of October, in an unsuccessful battle As he fell, against the Russians under Suwaroff, Kosciusko was wounded. The struggle was continued for a little he exclaimed "Finis Poloniæ." while, and then Warsaw capitulated; after Suwaroff had put to the sword twenty thousand wretched inhabitants of the suburb of Praga,-a massacre as horrid as that of Ismaïl, which, four years before, had signalized the triumph of this semi-barbarian. There was one achievement of this year, memorable as an example of British daring; though it was a success without any permanent advantages. At the commencement of the French Revolution, the island of Corsica had been recognized as a department of France. But Paoli, who had been many years an exile from his country, returned; and finally organized a revolt against the French authorities. He entered into communication with lord Hood, after the evacuation of Toulon; and it was determined that the republican occupiers of Fiorenzo should be besieged. Troops were landed; and the French, being unable to maintain the post, concentrated their forces at Bastia. The British general, Dundas, thought the place too strong to be taken, without a reinforcement. Horatio Nelson, one of lord Hood's captains, said he would be ready to attack it with five hundred men, and the crew of his own ship, the Agamemnon. With his usual firm reliance upon the bravery and endurance of his sailors, and unbounded confidence in his own. Nelson effected for his admiral the reduction of this strong place powers, without the help of general Dundas, taking the command of the soldiers, seamen, and marines. Four thousand troops capitulated to a force not exceeding twelve hundred men. Corsica, for a short period, was annexed to Great Britain. The people had a free Constitution offered to them; and they testified their desire to be under British protection. It was an union of very short duration, for it had no natural principles of cohesion. Corsica very soon came again under the dominion of France; and certainly this island, with its fierce and ignorant population, was not a possession that would have been easy to retain under a system of regulated liberty, even if it had been worth retaining for any higher object than the assertion of national pride. Accessions to the Ministry-Opening of the Session-Mr. Canning-Opposition to the Address by Mr. Wilberforce-Acquittal of Warren Hastings-Marriage of the Prince of WalesSession closed-Expedition to Quiberon-Insurrections in Paris-Revolt of the Sections suppressed by Bonaparte-Opening of Parliament-Attack upon the king-Coercive policy of the Government-Dread of Mr. Fox of approaching absolutism-Bonaparte chief of the army of Italy-Territorial divisions of Italy-Bonaparte's first Italian CampaignAustrian successes in Germany-Lord Malmesbury negociates for peace, at Paris-Death of the Empress Catherine II.-Retirement of Washington-French fleet in Bantry Bay. BEFORE the meeting of parliament on the 30th of December, 1794, the ministry of Mr. Pitt had received some important accessions from that section of the Whig party which had already given him their support in debates and in divisions. The duke of Portland was appointed third Secretary of State; Mr. Windham, Secretary at War; and earl Spencer, First Lord of the Admiralty. Earl Fitzwilliam went to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant, in December; but he was recalled in the following March. Whatever was the amount of national gloom at the prospect of the war, there was one man who never lost heart or hope. The royal speech on the 30th of December was the anticipation of the sentiments, which William Pitt would again and again utter in majestic periods, to which his disciples would listen with unfeigned admiration. Disappointments and reverses were acknowledged, but security was only to be found in firmness and perseverance. 1794.] OPENING OF THE SESSION-MR. CANNING. 317 Everything showed the rapid decay of the enemy's resources, and the instability of every part of their system. The United Provinces had entered into negociations for peace, but no established government could derive real security from such negociations. Forces were to be augmented; large additional burdens were to be imposed; and operations for another campaign. were to be concerted with such of the powers of Europe as were impressed with the same sense of the necessity for vigour and exertion. In the House of Commons, on that 30th of December, the speeches of two of the members excited more attention than even the stately harangue of the prime minister himself. George Canning, who had taken his seat in the previous session, seconded the motion for the Address. He had spoken three times during the session which preceded, and had been reproved for a slight exercise of his sarcastic power, being described by sir Philip Francis as "the young gentleman who had just escaped from his school and his classics, and was not yet conversant in the laws and constitution of his country." Sheridan had somewhat rashly proclaimed to the House at the end of 1792, when Mr. Jenkinson (afterwards earl of Liverpool) made his first speech on the side of the Government, that his own party was about to receive a great accession in the companion and friend of the young orator who had then distinguished himself. Canning disappointed the hopes of Sheridan, and became the most devoted as well as the most able supporter of Pitt. Of his adhesion to the great minister's policy, there is a wild story told by sir Walter Scott: "Canning's conversion from popular opinions was strangely brought round. While he was studying in the Temple, and rather entertaining revolutionary opinions, Godwin sent to say that he was coming to breakfast with him, to speak on a subject of the highest importance. Canning knew little of him, but received his visit, and learned to his astonishment, that in expectation of a new order of things, the English Jacobins designed to place him, Canning, at the head of their revolution. He was much struck, and asked time to think what course he should take; and having thought the matter over, he went to Mr. Pitt, and made the anti-Jacobin confession of faith." Scott tells this story upon the authority of sir W. Knighton.* A more improbable story was never told. That Godwin, a man of ripe age; singularly cautious in his actions, however bold were his political theories; studiously keeping aloof from all the Societies of that troubled time,-should have made this extraordinary proposal to a lad, whose abilities might have been exhibited in some British Forum, but were only known to the general world by his clever papers in "The Microcosm"; † moreover that Pitt should at once have gladly snatched the young democrat out of the dangerous embraces of the English Jacobins, to become his own bosom friend and companion in power-this is indeed a pretty romance, but one which we may leave for any historical value to the adornment of an eloquent biographer.‡ Canning's uncompromising speech on the 30th of December, 1794, for a vigorous continuance of the war, excited the admiration of the ministerial "Diary," April 17, 1828. Published in 1787, in which year Cauning, at the age of seventeen and a half, was entered at Christchurch, Oxford. See Robert Bell's "Life of Canning," p. 85. 318 OPPOSITION OF MR. WILBERFORCE. [1794. party, but it had an effect little anticipated by the minister. It called up Wilberforce, to move an Amendment to the Address-Wilberforce, the warmest and most disinterested friend of Pitt. The conscientious man had a hard struggle to bring his mind to oppose the statesman whom he loved and revered. But he became convinced that his duty lay in recommending an attempt to negociate with the French republic for peace on equitable terms. Pitt felt this difference very acutely. "There were but two events in the public life of Mr. Pitt, which were able to disturb his sleep-the mutiny at the Nore, and the first open opposition of Mr. Wilberforce." The natures of the two friends were too genial to allow of a permanent rupture. Pitt showed no resentment. The more violent of the ministerial party looked upon the unexpected opposition as something not much short of treason. "When I first went to the levee," says Wilberforce, "after moving my Amendment, the king cut me." But Wilberforce was not shaken by the taunts of the warlike party in the government, or by the frowns of the sovereign. He subsequently brought forward a specific motion to recom mend overtures for peace, which, of course, was rejected by a large majority. He argued with Pitt in the old confidence of friendship, that he was under a delusion in his abiding belief that "the French were in a gulf of bankruptcy, and that he could almost calculate the time by which their resources would be consumed." At Wilberforce's own table a clever Frenchman had said, "I should like to know who was Chancellor of the Exchequer to Attila."+ During this session the resistance to the policy of the Government was very ineffectual. The Habeas Corpus Suspension Act was continued. A loan of four millions to the emperor was voted. The trial of Warren Hastings, which had dragged on for seven years, then came to an end, the Lord Chancellor declaring him, upon the votes of the peers, to be acquitted of all the charges of impeachment brought against him. The great domestic event of the year was the marriage of the prince of Wales-an event whose unhappy consequences were not to be measured solely by the miseries and disgraces of the ill-assorted pair themselves. Lord Malmesbury-who was about to return home from his mission at Berlin, where he had unsuccessfully struggled against the selfish dishonour of the Prussian court-was commanded by George III. to proceed to Brunswick, to demand the princess Caroline in marriage for the prince of Wales. The Diary of lord Malmesbury is indeed a most instructive revelation of the dangers that might have been expected from an alliance forced on for state reasons-an alliance between a reckless voluptuary, anxious only to have his debts paid by the nation on the occasion of his marriage, and a giddy, coarse, ill-educated woman, who was dazzled with the glittering prospect of quitting a petty principality to intermarry with the heir-apparent of one of the most splendid of European crowns. Lord Malmesbury had his instructions from the king himself, "with no discretionary power to give advice or information to his majesty or the government on the principal subject of this mission." He saw the princess, "vastly happy with her future expectations." A mes Ibid., p. 92. Macaulay has paraphrased the Frenchman's mot, see ante, p. 211. 1 1795.] MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. 319 senger from England "brings the prince's picture, and a letter from him to me, urging me vehemently to set out with the princess Caroline immediately." The duke of Brunswick told the ambassador that his daughter was not silly -(Elle n'est pas bête)-but that she wanted judgment-had been brought up severely, which was quite necessary. The father saw the trouble that was in store "he dreaded the prince's habits." The poor princess said to Malmesbury, "I am determined never to appear jealous. I know the prince is leger, and am prepared on this point." The sagacious ambassador very soon perceived the impending danger. He regretted the apparent facility of the princess's character-her want of reflection and substance-" with a steady man she would do vastly well, but with one of a different description there were great risks." He came to the conclusion that "she has no governing powers, although her mind is physically strong." Malmesbury did his duty in offering her advice and sometimes remonstrance-especially "on the toilette, on cleanliness, and on delicacy in speaking "-strange subjects of discussion with a lady who might be queen of England. The destined bride and the ambassador set out at last for the court of St. James's. On the 5th of April their arrival was notified to the king and the prince of Wales. The princess was introduced to the prince, who came alone to receive her. She attempted to kneel, as she was instructed. "He raised her gracefully enough, and embraced her; said barely one word; turned round; retired to a distant part of the apartment, and, calling me to him, said, 'Harris, I am not well; pray get me a glass of brandy.'" Harris recommended a glass of water, and the prince, exclaiming "No," with an oath, rushed away to the queen. Well might Caroline of Brunswick be "in a state of astonishment," and inquire, "is the prince always like that?" The marriage took place on the 8th. Parliament voted a large income, but determined that out of this income the prince's debts should be paid without a separate grant.* On the prorogation of Parliament on the 27th of June, the royal speech expressed a hope, derived from "the internal situation of the enemy," "that the present circumstances of France may, in their effects, hasten the return of such a state of order and regular government as may be capable of maintaining the accustomed relations of amity and peace with other powers." Fox interpreted this sentence as indicating the views of that party in the Cabinet who could anticipate no "state of order and regular government" but in the return of the Bourbons to power. He describes these expressions as "that foolish paragraph in the king's speech at the prorogation, in which they made him foretell the restoration of monarchy in France."+ There were "other powers" whose prudence or whose fears led them to preserve or to seek "amity and peace" with the Republic. The United States had preserved peace both with France and England, chiefly through the firmness and moderation of Washington. Prussia had made peace with France on the 5th of April. Spain, at this very time, was negociating for peace, and a treaty was ratified in less than a month after this prorogation of Parliament. But on the very day that the royal speech pointed, as Fox believed, to a return to the old order of things as the only security for peace, a landing |