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 mismanage ment 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. 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. Upon 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 10,000l. 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. 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 3,500,0007. 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. 1805.] NELSON'S CHASE AFTER THE COMBINED FLEET. 441 new pretexts for decrying the ambition of France. He would not hesitate. Genoa should be annexed, and should lend the aid of her ships and sailors to the French marine.* From the prorogation in July till the end of October, there had never been such suspense and anxiety in England since the May of 1588, when the Spanish Armada had sailed down the Tagus, and an agent of Elizabeth's Council had written home that he judged they would soon be in the English quarters, "so that the lightning and the thunder-clap will be both in a moment." On the 19th of July the British fleet was at anchor in the bay of Gibraltar. On the 20th, Nelson writes in his Diary, "I went on shore for the first time since June 16, 1803, and, from having my foot out of the Victory, two years wanting ten days." What duty had occupied the great admiral during this period? The duty of long watching and waiting; of pursuing the enemy without any certain knowledge of his destination, from one end of the Mediterranean to the other, and then to the West Indies. He had been appointed to the chief command of the fleet in the Mediterranean at the breaking out of the war, and had sailed from Spithead on the 20th of May. On the 1st of August, 1801, he wrote a very remarkable letter to the Lord Mayor of London, which gave the British people a better notion of the man than the speech of Alderman Curtis in the Common Council. Nelson acknowledged the honour of the Resolutions, "thanking me, as commanding the fleet blockading Toulon. . . . . . I beg to inform your lordship that the port of Toulon has never been blockaded by me; quite the reverse. Every opportunity has been offered the enemy to put to sea; for it is there that we hope to realize the hopes and expectations of our country, and I trust that they will not be disappointed." On the 18th of January, 1805, the Toulon fleet came out. Nelson was at anchor off the coast of Sardinia. The weather was stormy. He could hear nothing of the French fleet; and he sailed away for Egypt. He returned; and at Malta found that the French fleet, having been dispersed in a gale, had put back for Toulon. On the 4th of April, he learnt that the French fleet, under admiral Villeneuve, had again put to sea on the 31st of March. They were joined by the Spanish fleet at Cadiz, having four thousand five hundred. troops on board. The combined fleet numbered twenty sail of the line and ten frigates. Nelson had ten sail of the line, and three frigates. He had guessed their destination, and wrote accordingly to the Admiralty. Pitt, with a patriotic exultation, told the Speaker on the 6th of June that Nelson in his letters received that day said, "he was sailing after the combined fleet to the West Indies, and if he did not find them there he would follow them to the Antipodes." § The Toulon fleet had the start of Nelson more than a month. He was at Barbadoes on the 4th of June; but he was again deceived by false intelligence. The combined fleet had appeared before several West India islands Martinique, Granada, Antigua; but they had not ventured to stop. They fled back to Europe, with Nelson after them. On the 3rd of May there was in London a "great alarm for the West Indies." || Two months Ante, vol. iii. p. 220. *See Thiers, tom. v. p. 384. Ibid., vol. i. p. 555. VOL. VII. GG 442 SIR ROBERT CALDER'S NAVAL ACTION. [1805. later it was known that Nelson had saved the West Indies. But he was baffled in his great hope of encountering the French and Spaniards. That exploit was reserved for sir Robert Calder, who, with fifteen line of battle ships, fell in with them, sixty leagues west of Cape Finisterre, on the 22nd of July. After an engagement of four hours, the English admiral captured two Spanish ships, an eighty-four and a seventy-four. The French and Spanish fleet got into Cadiz a month after the action. The British people were indignant that Calder had not done more. He was tried in December by Court Martial, and was reprimanded "for error of judgment." Nelson had traversed the Bay of Biscay, and had sought the enemy on the northwest coast of Ireland, in the belief that the combined fleet was about to make a descent there. He then thought that it was his duty to reinforce the Channel Fleet, and he joined admiral Cornwallis off Ushant. The course of the French and Spaniards was still unknown. Nelson, worn out with the fatigue and anxiety of his chase of the enemy, went home in the Victory. At Portsmouth he learnt of the action of the 22nd of July. The encounter with admiral Calder had been sufficient to disturb the plans of Napoleon for the invasion of England. Villeneuve did not hazard a nearer approach to the English Channel than Ferrol and Corunna. He then altered his course, steering southward; and was safe in Cadiz on the 20th of August. In that port six Spanish ships of the line had been previously at anchor. Collingwood was at hand with four sail of the line; and on the 21st he was reconnoitring the port in which thirty-five French and Spanish sail of the line lay ready for sea. The British squadron cruising off Cadiz was reinforced in August and September. The French admiral had little prospect of obeying his orders to bring his fleet fresh and entire into the British Channel. On the 3rd of August, Napoleon was again at Boulogne. The next day he reviewed the infantry of this great Army of England. In one line of battle were drawn up a hundred thousand men-a line which occupied more than three leagues, reaching from Cap Alpreck to Cap Grisnez. He inspected bis flotilla, now all united in the four ports of Ambleteuse, Wimereux, Boulogne, and Etaples. The whole force, ready to embark, comprised a hundred and thirty-two thousand men, and fifteen thousand horses, with nearly six hundred pieces of artillery. There were, moreover, twenty-four thousand troops on the Texel, ready to embark, under the command of Marmont. To prepare the Army of England for their great adventure, the troops were brought down to the beach, where the gun-boats were lying to receive them. Every man had his appointed boat and his appointed place. Again, and again, men and horses were embarked and disembarked. It was found that an hour and a quarter was sufficient to get on board the right wing of the army, consisting of twenty-six thousand men, under the command of Davoust; and it was estimated that in two hours after the order had been given, the whole of this mighty force might be out of its harbours. But there was no protecting fleet of men-of-war in the Channel. Where were Villeneuve and Gravina? Where was Ganteaume, with the Brest squadron ? Napoleon had no doubt that these fleets would unite, with a force sufficient to give battle to the British commanders. Let him once be assured that they were at hand, and not an hour should be lost in making the attempt that |