FIRST OVERTURES OF PEACE TO FRANCE. 
39 
itself those in close touch with the government appreciated that a 
tendency to peace was growing in the ministry. Auckland, who at 
this very time was in constant communication with Pitt upon the 
details of the great financial showing that was to awe the French gov¬ 
ernment, published in October, 1795, a carefully written pamphlet 
stating the arguments in favor of peace. Auckland in private was 
always an advocate of peace, but was essentially a party man and far too 
careful of his own political interests ever to venture an open struggle 
against the prevailing current of opinion. Burke regarded Auckland’s 
pamphlet as an indication of a change in the intentions of the ministry, 
and was accordingly bitter and despondent.* 
But if Pitt was hopeful that the time had arrived when a satisfactory 
peace might be concluded, Grenville was far from that opinion. There/, 
was no disagreement between the two' metr as™ to the advisability of 
that peace, if it could be secured upon the extreme terms demanded 
by the English government. The difference was rather one of tem¬ 
perament and of judgment. Pitt eagerly hoped for peace ; Grenville 
had- no-hope, but was willing to try the e xperim ent. Pitt would gladly 
have accepted the Directorate as a satisfactory government in France, 
though he was not sure of its permanence ; Grenville would grudgingly 
have tolerated it. Pitt regarded the influence of peace proposals on 
home politics as of secondary importance ; Grenville considered this 
the essential benefit of the negotiation. When in December the King’s 
message had requested a Parliamentary vote in favor of opening nego¬ 
tiations with France, Grenville had hastened to allay the fears of 
Austria, and to instruct English agents that the vote in question 
meant no more than that England recognized in France a government 
with which it was possible to treat, if so desired.f Eater, when it was 
determined to despatch the note to Barthelemy, Grenville wrote to the 
King that personally he was strongly in favor of the proposal, and that 
it ‘ ‘ could not but produce the most advantageous effects both at home 
and abroad. If it should, in the result, produce from France such an 
answer as it seems most reasonable to expect, from what is known of 
the views and dispositions of the present rulers there, it would, as Eord 
Grenville hopes, give additional energy and animation to the public 
mind here, and would probably lead to much discontent and demur in 
France. ’ ’ { Grenville added that if France should really prove amenable 
to reason, he would also be grateful. 
* Auckland sent his pamphlet to Burke, who replied October 30, 1795. Burke’s 
Works, V, 355. 
f Grenville to Wickham, Dec. 25, 1795. Wickham, I, 227. Stahremberg to 
Grenville, Dec., 1795. Dropmore, III, 165. 
t Jan. 30, 1796. Ibid., 169. 
