Britain. 



1794. 



Proceed. 

 ings of the 

 hostile ;ir- 



Battle of 

 Fleurus. 



Progress of 

 the French 

 arms. 



662 



ham, Secretary at War. By a subsequent change, 

 Lord Spenser was appointed to the head of the ad- 

 ' miralty, and Lord FitzwiOiam was made viceroy of 

 1 reland. 



The military and naval force voted for the service 

 of the year, amounted to 250,000, including 35,000 

 foreigners. A great augmentation of the militia, and 

 of the volunteer fencible corps, took place ; and the 

 doubtful expedient was resorted to, of soliciting vo- 

 luntary subscriptions by a formal letter, written by 

 the Secretary of State to the Lords Lieutenants 

 of the counties. A treaty was concluded with the 

 king of Sardinia, by which that monarch received 

 a subsidy of 200,000 a year from this coun- 

 try; and it was agreed, that his Britannic ma- 

 jesty should not conclude a peace with France, with- 

 out the restoration of the conquered territories of 

 Sardinia being made a preliminary. By another trea- 

 ty, his Prussian majesty was to maintain 62,000 men, 

 on condition of receiving from Britain L. 150,000 + 

 a month, besides L. 4-00,000 when his army should 

 be put in motion, and L. 100,000 on their return. 

 But the direction and command of these costly aux- 

 iliaries was still to be vested in his Prussian majes. 

 ty. On the 9th of April, his majesty the empe- 

 ror of Germany arrived at Brussels, to take the su- 

 preme command of the allied forces. On the 16th, 

 he reviewed them on the heights above Cateau. 

 The following day the allies proceeded to invest Lan- 

 dreci, which fell into the hands of Prince Cobourg 

 after a siege of no long duration. But to balance 

 the success, Pichegru drove the army of Clairfait 

 from Moucron, and the republicans got possession 

 of Memn and Courtray. In June, the French, under 

 Jourdan, having passed the Sombre, and laid siege to 

 Charleroi, the Prince of Cobourg risked a general 

 attack. The scene of the important battle which 

 ensued was at Fleurus, memorable for the total de- 

 feat of the allies. Charleroi and Brussels thus fell, 

 without resistance, into the hands of the French. 

 This was but the prelude to a succession of victories 

 on the side of the enemy. Ypre s, the key of West 

 Flanders, yielded to Moreau. The Duke of York 

 had fatally separated from the confederates, and sta- 

 tioned himself at Tournay, which he soon found un- 

 tenable, and retreated in the direction of Antwerp. 

 When the fate of the Netherlands had been thus de- 

 cided, a body of 10,000 men under Lord Muira, 

 which landed at Ostend, with difficulty reached the 

 British army; but the tide of the war was too strong- 

 ly turned, to be affected by so small a reinforcement. 

 Ostend, Ghent, Mons, Oudenarde, and Neuport, fell 

 in rapid succession into the hinds of the republicans, 

 and the whole line of the allies, from Antwerp to 

 Namur, became broken and defenceless. The Stadt- 

 holder in vain called on his states to support him by 

 a general levy : disaffection or apathy every where 

 prevailed. Sluys alone made a brave resistance. In 

 the mean time, the strong towns in the French terri- 

 tory, which the allies still possessed, being now com- 

 pletely insulated, quickly reverted to their former 

 possessors. The army of the Duke of York retreat- 

 ed in August to Breda, and quickly after to Bois ].- 

 Due. Pursued by Pichegru at the head of 80,000 

 men, they next retreated across the Maese, took a fresh 

 position near Grave, and at the beginning of October 



BRITAIN. 



encamped under the walls of Nimegucn. At the lat- 

 ter end of the month they crossed the Waal, leavin^ 

 a corps to protect Nimeguen ; but the town was eva- 

 cuated on the 7th of November, with great loss and 

 confusion. During these events, the arms of the re- 

 public were equally successful in all directions; 

 Clairfait, after succession: defeats, was obliged to 

 cross the Rhine at Cologne, and the imperial 

 troops were pursued to the river side by their con- 

 querors. On the side of Spain and Italy, the French 

 armies shared similar triumphs, and victory, to use the 

 language of Barrcrc, was in a state of permanence. 

 Amidst these disasters by land, it was some conso- 

 lation that our navy, supported and even exceeded its 

 former glory. By this naval superiority, we were 

 enabled tocapture the islands of Martinique, St Lucia, 

 and Guadaloupc, although the last of these conquests 

 was soon after recovered by the French. In Febru- 

 ary, the island of Corsica, where a great proportion 

 of the inhabitants, under their ancient chief Paoli, 

 were in arms against the French convention, was vi- 

 sited by Lord Hood's squadron, and, in a short time, 

 the whole island submitted to the English and their 

 Corsican adherents. In June, the representatives of 

 the whole nation assembled at Corsica ; voted the 

 union of the island with the British crown; and a 

 constitutional act was framed, almost exactly similar 

 to the French model of 1791. Sir Gilbert Elliot 

 (since Lord Minto,) assumed the power and title of 

 viceroy. 



In the month of May, the French Brest fleet un- 

 der admiral Villaret, anxious fer the fate of a large 

 convoy from America, ventured to put to sea; though 

 it was known that Lord Howe, with an equal force, 

 was cruizing off the harbour to intercept it. Early 

 on the 28th of May, the grand fleets of the two na- 

 tions came in view of each other, and on the first of 

 June, after Lord Howe had, by a series of masterly 

 manoeuvres, gained the weather gage, they came to 

 a close and desperate conflict. After suffering im- 

 mense carnage, the French admiral crowded off, and 

 was followed by all the ships in a condition to carry- 

 sail Six remained in possession of the British ; but 

 the French consoled themselves with reflecting, that 

 they had saved a convoy of 160 merchant men, va- 

 lued at many millions. 



The brilliant successes of France by land, had, by 

 this time, rendered most of the neighbouring powers 

 disposed to acknowledge her new government, and 

 some of them even to court her alliance. The Grand 

 Duke of Tuscany, at the beginning of 1795, desert- 

 ed the coalition. Prussia having received our subsi- 

 dy, which she applied to accomplish the infamoua 

 partition of Poland, soon followed the same conduct, 

 concluded a treaty with the French, and mediated a 

 peace between the republic and the Landgrave of 

 Hesse Cassel. Yet amidst all these unpromising 

 events, the speech from the throne, at the opening of 

 the next session of parliament, exhorted a strenuous 

 continuation of the war ; and every motion advanced 

 by the opposers of the war, was negatived by triumph- 

 ant majorities. In these debates, however, several ac- 

 customed supportersofthe minister, sided with the pa- 

 cific party in the commons ; and Mr Wilberforce, an- 

 nouncing a total change in his views of the necessity of 

 the contest, took the lead in proposing a negotiation. 



Brit; 



GEOIU 

 179 



Acliie' 

 ments 

 the Ui 

 navy. 



Surrer 

 of Coi 



Victo 

 over 

 Freuc 

 by Lo 

 Howe 



Severa 

 the all 

 desert 

 coaliti 

 II 



t The nates general of Holland were to pay 400,000 of this as their proportion. 



