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62

NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE WITH FRANCE. CH. XXXVII.

of the Chancellor of the Exchequer included a loan of three millions and a half. But at the very moment when this further advance was proposed by the weary and despondent minister to a reluctant House of Commons, Austria had made her peace with the triumphant Republic. The supplementary budget was introduced on the 26th of April. In the previous week, the Emperor had signed the preliminaries of Leoben, by which Savoy and the Netherlands were ceded to France, and Lombardy was to form the centre of a cluster of states to be called the Cisalpine Republic.

Supplementary

loan.

The supplementary loan was eighteen millions, which was afterwards reduced by the amount of the subsidy destined for the Emperor. Pitt announced, that he had been forced to borrow this money on hard terms; the bonus and interest being nearly eight and a half per cent. It was not disputed that the loan was necessary, nor was it suggested from any quarter that the money could have been procured at an easier rate; but the House was very uneasy at the vast and increasing expenditure. Nor were the country gentlemen indifferent to the significant remark of Mr. Fox, that the public debt would soon be equal to the whole rental of the country. They found a fitting occasion for wreaking their ill-humour on the occasion of a strange proposition which the minister, at the instigation of the moneyed interest, was induced reluctantly to make. The loan of eighteen millions raised by open subscription before Christmas had been vaunted as the 'Loyalty Loan,' although it is certain that every subscriber, in addition to his patriotic motive, was actuated by a strong opinion that he was making a good investment of his money. But the scarcity of specie which ensued, and the announcement of a new loan, had so depreciated the 'loyalty' stock, that a demand was raised for indemnity to those public

1797.

CLAIMS OF SUBSCRIBERS TO THE LOAN.

63

spirited persons who, according to their own account, had come forward with no other intent than to relieve the exigencies of the State. Pitt had so far committed himself to the cant which had designated this speculation as a pure ebullition of public spirit, that he was unable to resist the importunity of the subscribers, or rather of the combination of bankers, into whose hands many of these securities had passed. The indemnity claimed was fifteen shillings per cent. Long annuity; but the minister dared not undertake to propose more than half that amount. And even

this proposal he did not attempt to found on any legal or equitable claim, but simply on an appeal to the generosity of the House. The House, however, was not in an indulgent mood. The motion was received with anger and derision from all sides. Mr. Dent, a subscriber to the loan, was the first to rise and disclaim all participation in this impudent and hypocritical pretence. He said that the claimants were merely speculators, who ought to abide by their bargain; and he asked if the balance had been on the other side, whether the public would have received, or would have expected to receive, the difference? There was no answer to this argument; and Pitt saw his supporters, in great numbers, quit their seats and walk out of the House. A small majority of the committee affirmed the resolution; but, on the report, it was carried by a majority of one in a bare House. Nothing more, of course, was heard of this unprecedented and discreditable proposal.

Ministry.

Motions for peace and for the removal of the ministers, as the great obstacle to the Motions for a conclusion of peace, were made in both change of Houses. But if the Opposition really shared in the belief which prevailed among the partisans of the French revolution, both at home and abroad, that the war had been caused by Pitt, and

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PITT'S SINCERE DESIRE FOR PEACE. CH. XXXVII.

was continued by his influence, they were wholly mistaken. It is no longer questioned, that he found himself forced into war, contrary to his expectations and his wishes. It is true, that the same want of sagacity which led him to the belief, that the distraction of their domestic affairs would render the French incapable of carrying on foreign' war, likewise persuaded him that the exhaustion of their resources must certainly, within a limited period, bring the war to a successful termination. But the latter delusion was now dissipated like the former; and so great was Pitt's desire for peace, that in availing himself of the opportunity for renewing the proposal to treat, which the treaty with the Emperor seemed to afford, he declared, with questionable prudence, that no punctilio or formal difficulty should be suffered to prevent or interrupt the negotiations. The Emperor having given up the point upon which the British Government had felt bound in honour to insist in the recent treaty at Paris-the restoration of the Austrian Netherlands-the main obstacle to an arrangement seemed to have been removed. There was, however, a strong difference of opinion in the Cabinet, as to the expediency of renewing an attempt which had ended a few months before in ignominious failure. Lord Grenville and Mr. Windham were decidedly averse to making an overture which they believed would only result in subjecting the King's Government to further humiliation. But Pitt was resolved; and it became Grenville's duty, as Secretary of State, to make the proposal to the French minister. Delacroix, on the part of the Directory, professed the utmost alacrity to treat; and Lisle was fixed upon as a convenient place for the negotiation. But, with this preliminary interchange of notes, the amity of the correspondence ceased. When it was announced that Lord Malmesbury would be again accredited, Delacroix rudely replied, that another choice would

1797.

CONFERENCE AT LISLE.

65

have been more acceptable; and desired that the frequent communication, by courier, between the plenipotentiary and his court, which he said had prevented the recent negotiations from coming to a successful issue, should not be repeated. This impertinence Grenville retorted, by an intimation that the remark upon the appointment of Lord Malmesbury was unworthy of notice; that the plenipotentiary would despatch as many couriers as he thought proper; and that the motives and circumstances which led to the rupture of the late negotiations being known to all Europe, it would not be conducive to a discussion with a pacific object, that the recollection of these circumstances should be revived.

missioners.

The Directory deputed three persons of note to conduct the negotiations at Lisle. At the French comhead of the commission was Letourneur, some time a member of the Directory himself, Admiral Pleville le Pelley, and Maret, already well known in the diplomacy of the Revolution.

French.

The Commissioners were civil; but it was manifest, from their instructions, that the rulers of Divisions France were prompted by a spirit very amongst the different from that which urged the advances of the British Government. The people of France were divided on the question of continuing the war. Those who inclined to peace from a desire of repose, of relief from the burden of taxation, and from republican jealousy of military influence, formed a numerous body. On the other hand, the ambitious few and the restless multitude, the children of the Revolution, who were unable or unwilling to adopt the habits of peace and order, were eager for a continuance of the war. These parties were severally represented in the Directory; and, at this moment, a struggle for the ascendency was going on between the five potentates at the Tuileries.

The British plenipotentiary proposed, as a formal

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PROPOSITIONS OF THE

CH. XXXVII.

preliminary, to negotiate on the basis of former treaties. He offered to restore all the territory taken from the French during the war; retaining as conquests the island of Trinidad and the Cape of Good Hope, the former possessions of Spain and Holland respectively. The French ministers declared themselves incompetent to discuss these propositions, simple and obvious as they were, without instructions from Paris; and, in the meantime, they brought forward for discussion three points, the adjustment of which they stated to be an essential preliminary to further negotiations. These points were, first, the renunciation of the title of King of France, which had for centuries formed part of the style of the Crown of Great Britain; secondly, a restitution of the ships taken at Toulon, or an equivalent for them; thirdly, a discharge of any claim or mortgage upon the territory of the Netherlands, which the British Government might retain as a security for loans made to the Emperor. These strange propositions seem to have been advanced for the purpose of evading the real points in dispute, and were so considered by Lord Malmesbury. In vain, therefore, did he urge, with regard to the first point, that a similar objection, when mentioned, had been disposed of by a saving clause in every former treaty of peace between the two countries; that the second demand was so arrogant and unreasonable, that, if insisted on, it must interpose a serious obstacle to the progress of negotiation; and that the question involved in the proposition lastly stated was one which properly formed part of the treaty between the Emperor and the French Republic. The Commissioners only replied, that their instructions were positive. But as these points, which the French Commissioners themselves described as insulated, were not tendered, and could not be received by way of answer to the proposals which had been formally communicated by

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