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436

NEW GRAND ALLIANCE-NAPOLEON AT BOULOGNE.

[1804.

1741. The ministerial majority was only 42, there being 493 members present at the division.* The Session, however, would soon come to a close. On the 31st of July, the prorogation took place. There was a curious incident which the Speaker has recorded. The king read the Speech with great animation, but accidentally turned over two leaves together, and so emitted about one fourth of his intended Speech. Mr. Abbot adds, with a slight touch of sarcasm, "the transition was not incoherent, and it escaped some of the cabinet who had heard it before the king delivered it." The king's printer did not turn over two leaves. The Speech went forth with this significant paragraph: "I entertain the animating hope that the benefit to be derived from our successful exertions will not be confined within ourselves, but that by their example and their consequences, they may lead to the establishment of such a system in Europe as may rescue it from the precarious state to which it is reduced, and may finally raise an effectual barrier against the unbounded schemes of aggrandizement and ambition which threaten every independent nation that yet remains on the continent." The "effectual barrier" evidently contemplated a new Grand Alliance-" a system in Europe" which should take Great Britain out of her isolation, and give new occupation to the enemy who had vowed her destruction. Wilberforce, after the prorogation, had discovered in Pitt "a greater willingness to subsidize," of which policy he disapproves: "Pitt is the most upright political character I ever knew or heard of; but with all public men it is extremely dangerous for a country that they should be under a temptation to fight it out-to try their fortune again after having been unsuccessful in a former war."+

The 16th of August was the birthday of Napoleon. On that day the emperor was at Boulogne, seated on a magnificent throne, with the dignitaries of his empire, his marshals and his ministers, grouped around him, and before him the mighty army of a hundred thousand men destined for the conquest of England. The spot where this spectacle was exhibited is marked by a column which every Englishman may see-and not without his own national pride-when he is passing the Channel. There Napoleon distributed the crosses of the Legion of Honour to a chosen band; ever and anon raising his telescope to gaze upon a division of his flotilla exchanging a cannonade with an English squadron. He looked upon the white cliffs of Albion as Caligula had looked. Unlike Caligula, he had a people who did not despise his "lofty throne," and he has found historians who are prostrate before the grandeur of this empty pageantry. If the press had been free in France, the wits would have laughed at this rivalry of the tinsel magnificence of the Theatre. The English journals did laugh. "The British Press," says Thiers, "insulting and arrogant as the whole press is in a free country, ridiculed Napoleon and his preparations; but it was the ridicule of a mocker who trembles whilst he appears to laugh."§ The emperor proceeded to Aix-laChapelle, and thence to Mayence, to receive the homage of the petty princes of Germany. He returned to St. Cloud on the 12th of October. He had looked upon England; he had heard his legions swear that they would shed

* Colchester's "Diary," vol. i. p. 520.

+"Life," vol. iii. p. 206.

For a parallel between Caligula and Napoleon at Boulogne, see ante, vol. i. p. 17. § "Le Consulat et l'Empire," tome v. p. 197.

1805.]

CORONATION OF NAPOLEON-LETTER TO THE KING.

437

their blood on that chalky shore to make him master of the world; yet he would let the autumn pass without taking the leap of ten leagues across that bewildering sea. "Providence," says M. Thiers, "which had in reserve for him such abundance of glory, had not permitted him to give this eclat to his coronation. There remained to him another mode to dazzle men's minds-to make the Pope descend for an instant from the pontifical throne, to come to Paris to bless the emperor's sceptre and his crown." A very different sort of victory; a triumph like that over "the poor beetle that we tread upon.” The sovereign pontiff made many objections. They were overcome by the man who acknowledged no will but his own. The Pope must come at once; so that the emperor might proceed in December to the conquest of England. On the 2nd of December the Coronation took place in the metropolitan church of Notre Dame. The Pope anointed the Emperor and the Empress with the sacred oil. The crown, the sceptre, the mantle, and the sword were on the altar. The Pope lifted the crown; but Napoleon, snatching the diadem, modelled after the crown of Charlemagne, out of the hands of the Holy Father, placed it upon his own head; and then he crowned the Empress, who knelt before him. Still no invasion of England. "The cry is still they come."-But they did not come; and in the social meetings of that Christmas, the sturdy Anglo-Saxon race joined in many a chorus. of "Come if you dare," "The tight little island," and "The land, boys, we live in."

On the 2nd of January, 1805, Napoleon addressed a letter to the king of England, beginning, "Called to the throne of France by Providence, and by the suffrages of the senate, the people, and the army, my first sentiment is a wish for peace." There was much commonplace in this epistle, and some good sense. "Your nation is at the highest point of prosperity; what can it hope from war? To form a coalition with some powers of the continent? The continent will remain tranquil: a coalition can only increase the preponderance and continental greatness of France." The Secretary for Foreign Affairs answered, in the name of the king, that it was impossible for him to reply to this overture till his majesty had communicated with the powers of the continent, and particularly with the emperor of Russia. With an unusual candour the historian of the Empire considers this letter of Napoleon too palpably designed to affect moderation, and to seize an occasion to address the king of England as from monarch to monarch.* When the Imperial Parliament met, this letter to "Monsieur mon frère" was alluded to in the royal speech; but no debate was raised, as on the letter of the First Consul in 1800. All felt that the profession of a desire for peace was a mere form of words, which the writer scarcely expected to deceive.

Mr. Pitt had strengthened himself before the meeting of parliament on the 15th of January, by a reconciliation with Mr. Addington. The party of the ex-minister, small as it was, and by no means popular in its exclusive pretensions to be called "the king's friends," was yet able to turn the scale upon any nicely balanced question. Addington was raised to the peerage as viscount Sidmouth, and was appointed President of the Council. "So far" writes Francis Horner, "as I had opportunities of observing the first impres

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438

ADDINGTON JOINS PITT-WAR WITH SPAIN.

[1805.

sion of it, it was strongly disapproved by Pitt's intelligent admirers, and lowered him a little in the city."* The royal Speech announced that war had been declared by Spain against this country. The causes of the war formed the subject of the first important debate of this Session. It was a complicated question; and one in which the British government was, upon the face of it, open to very serious blame. No one could doubt that Spain was in reality the vassal of France; that reinforcements for the French fleets at Toulon and Ferrol had been allowed to pass through Spain; that the court of Madrid was arming vessels of war in various ports; and that whilst these measures were the continual subjects of remonstrance by the British chargé d'affaires the Spanish government refused all satisfactory explanation. All this was perfectly clear; but the remonstrances of Mr. Addington's ministry had been so mild, and his acceptance of excuses so very ready, that the Spanish government could scarcely have been prepared for an act of vigour which appeared somewhat opposed to international law. The precautions of Mr. Pitt's government were chiefly directed to "the possible consequences of the safe arrival of the expected American treasure-ships in the Spanish ports ;an event which has more than once, in former times, become the epoch of the termination of discussions, and of the commencement of hostility, on the part of Spain."+ What the first William Pitt proposed to do in 1761 the second William Pitt did in 1804.‡ On the 5th of October, captain Moore, in the command of four English frigates, met with a Spanish squadron of four frigates proceeding to Cadiz. He told the Spanish admiral that he had orders to detain these vessels, and that it was his earnest wish to execute his orders without bloodshed. The Spaniard would not yield; an engagement ensued, in which one of the Spanish ships blew up; the other three were taken, with an immense amount of treasure. There was mismanagement in not sending a force sufficiently large to compel the Spanish commander to surrender without loss of honour. The bullion was meant for France, under a treaty by which Spain engaged to pay a large subsidy instead of furnishing France with troops and sailors. The cruel necessity of warfare might be some plea for this measure of precaution. The affair was badly managed, and the resistance which rendered a fight necessary gave the act the character of an unjust aggression, instead of a wise measure of self-defence. The British government, a year before, had given notice to Spain that if her armaments were not discontinued, no declaration of war would be made beyond what had been made in repeated remonstrances. The Spanish government in its final manifesto did not hesitate to assert that it had always contemplated war with Great Britain since France had declared war. Upon this question Mr. Pitt had large majorities in both Houses. He had a majority of 207 in the Commons. Napoleon was indignant at the loss of his subsidy, and immediately applied himself to render Spain an effectual cooperator in hostilities against England. On the 4th of January, admiral Gravina, the Spanish ambassador at Paris, signed a convention which specified the proportions of forces which each power was to furnish in a naval war. Spain engaged to prepare thirty-two ships of the line.

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1805.]

CHARGES AGAINST LORD MELVILLE-IMPEACHMENT.

439

Mr. Pitt came triumphantly out of the discussion on the Spanish war. To one so proud and so sensitive,—so elevated himself above the slightest suspicion of corrupt dealings with the public money, and so confiding in his official friendships,-no mortification during his public life could have been equal to that which he endured when the "Tenth Report of the Commissioners of Naval Inquiry" was laid upon the table of the House of Commons, and ordered to be printed on the 13th of February. That Report deeply implicated lord Melville, now First Lord of the Admiralty, when, as Mr. Dundas, he filled the office of Treasurer of the Navy before the dissolution of the Pitt ministry in 1801. The Report alleged that the sums standing in the name of the Treasurer of the Navy at the Bank of England had been less than the unappropriated balances; that Mr. Trotter, the paymaster, had admitted that Mr. Dundas had permitted him to withdraw money from the Bank and lodge it in the hands of private bankers; that Mr. Trotter had also admitted that, under the direction of Mr. Dundas, he had laid out 10,0001. or 20,000l. for his use and benefit, without considering whether such sums came from public or private balances; and that lord Melville had declared to the Commissioners that he could not say what had been done with some of these sums, without disclosing delicate and confidential transactions of government, which his duty to the public must restrain him from revealing.*

On the 8th of April, Mr. Whitbread brought forward a motion of censure upon lord Melville. Mr. Pitt moved the previous question, not with the desire of defending or justifying the conduct alleged by the Commissioners in, their Report, but with the view that a Select Committee should be appointed to inquire into the case, and receive explanations if any could be given. At four o'clock in the morning the House divided, 216 to 216. The Speaker gave the casting vote for the motion of Mr. Whitbread. Lord Fitzharris, the son of lord Malmesbury, made the following interesting record in his note-book of 1806: "I sat wedged close to Pitt himself the night when we were 216 to 216; and the Speaker, Abbot, (after looking as white as a sheet, and pausing for ten minutes,) gave the casting vote against us. Pitt immediately put on the little cocked hat that he was in the habit of wearing when dressed for the evening, and jammed it deeply over his forehead, and I distinctly saw the tears trickling down his cheeks. We had overheard one or two, such as Colonel Wardle (of notorious memory), say, they would see how Billy looked after it. A few young ardent followers of Pitt, with myself, locked their arms together, and formed a circle, in which he moved, I believe unconsciously, out of the House; and neither the colonel nor his friends could approach him."+

On the 10th of April, Mr. Pitt announced lord Melville's resignation. On the 6th of May he informed the House that he had thought it his duty to advise his majesty to erase lord Melville's name from the Council. On the 27th of May, Mr. Whitbread gave notice of moving an impeachment against lord Melville. On the 11th of June, lord Melville, at the bar of the House of Commons, spoke for more than two hours in defence of his con

*See Report in Hansard, vol. iii. col. 1147 to 1211.
+ Malmesbury, "Diaries," &c. vol. iv. p. 355.

440

TREATY WITH RUSSIA-ANNEXATION OF GENOA.

[1805.

duct, declaring that with regard to two sums, amounting to 21,000l., being "entrusted with the confidential management of the king's interests in Scotland, he had applied the money in a way which no consideration should induce him to reveal.” *

On the 12th of June, Mr. Whitbread's motion for impeachment was rejected by a majority of 77, in a House of 467 members. On the 25th of June, upon the motion of Mr. Leycester, it was determined to proceed against lord Melville by impeachment, the majority being 23 in a House of 309 members. On the 26th, Mr. Whitbread carried up the impeachment to the bar of the House of Lords; and a Bill was rapidly passed which provided for the continuance of proceedings on the impeachment, under a prorogation or a dissolution of Parliament. On the 12th of July, the Parliament was prorogued by Commission. A week before the prorogation lord Sidmouth had resigned. He had taken part against lord Melville; and there were other differences which could not be reconciled. Under ordinary circumstances Mr. Pitt would have felt his tenure of power considerably shaken by this defection, when he should have to meet the House of Commons in another Session. His health was impaired, but his spirit was unbroken. He was looking forward to the results of a policy which would place his country in a position of security, and in the success of which his own pre-eminence could not be assailed, even by Fox and Grenville, much less by so feeble a rival as Sidmouth. On the 21st of June, Mr. Pitt had received a confiding vote of the House of Commons, "that a sum not exceeding 3,500,000l. be granted to his majesty, to enable his majesty to enter into such engagements, and to take such measures, as the exigency of affairs may require."

On the 11th of April a treaty had been signed between Great Britain and Russia, by which each power agreed to unite in the endeavour to form a general league of the States of Europe, for resisting the encroachments of France. Austria hesitated about joining the Alliance; and would not agree to proceed to hostilities till negotiations with France had been attempted and had failed. Napoleon manifested no disposition to relax his system of aggrandizement, or to exhibit any respect for the independence of nations. The delusion of a Cisalpine Republic was at an end when, on the 26th of May, he was crowned King of Italy in the cathedral of Milan. He had told his Senate, when he addressed them on the 17th of March, in explanation of his design to assume the sovereignty of Italy as a separate kingdom, that "the genius of evil would search in vain for pretexts to plunge the continent again in war. What has been united to our empire will remain united. No new province will be incorporated with it." On the 4th of June, the Doge of Genoa, with a deputation of the Senate, came to Milan, to supplicate the Emperor of the French to deign to unite to his empire the Ligurian Republic, in which Genoa was comprised, and to grant them the happiness to be his subjects. It would have been cruel to have been deaf to so pleasant a petition. England only would care about this trifling annexation. What could Austria and Russia care about Genoa? He would soon resolve in London all European questions. He would not hesitate about the danger of offering new provocations, and of giving

"Diary of Lord Colchester," vol. ii. p. 8.

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