GRENVILLE PLANS TO RECOVER PRUSSIAN AID. 
43 
in the spring of 1796 to force France to yield her claim to the left 
bank of the Rhine and had gone so far as to form an army of observa¬ 
tion in Westphalia, but she had no serious intention of breaking with 
France.* * * § Grenville was ignorant of Prussia’s real purposes, and on 
receipt of an encouraging letter from Elgin he determined to risk an 
offer to the court of Berlin, though he was by no means confident of 
its success.f 
This new combination and the proposed means of accomplishing it 
originated entirely with Grenville. Pitt was not unwilling to make 
the experiment, but he did not count upon its success, and his real 
conviction was that England would soon be deserted by her allies in 
the contest with France. On June 23 he wrote to Grenville: 
“I can conceive no objection in the mind of any of our colleagues 
to see whether the arrangement to which you have pointed can be 
made acceptable both to Austria and Prussia. But though I think it 
should be tried, I do not flatter myself with much chance of success.” J 
In the course of the following month the reports of English agents 
abroad strengthened Grenville in his determination to apply to Prussia. 
Bentinck furnished still further evidence in support of his idea that the 
court of Berlin w^as preparing to intervene in Holland. § Wickham 
announced the complete collapse of the system of “partial insurrec¬ 
tions” in France, and foresaw that he w T ould soon be forced to leave 
Switzerland.|| Elgin reported the strong impression made at Berlin 
by the arguments of Gouverneur Morris, and experienced himself a 
more friendly intercourse with the Prussian ministers.^ Morris,** who 
*Svbel, IV, 239-246. Koch, IV, 385. 
f Grenville to Buckingham, Aug. 14, 1796. Court and Cabinets , II, 348. 
jDropmore, III, 214. 
§ Bentinck to Grenville, July 5, 1796. Ibid., 217. 
|| Wickham to Grenville, July 19. 1796. Ibid., 223. 
Elgin to Grenville, July 28, 1796. Ibid., 225. 
** Morris had come to London in June, 1795, and almost immediately gained the 
ear of Grenville, to whom he outlined his vast ideas of continental combinations 
against France. In June, 1796, he journeyed to the continent, ostensibly going to 
Switzerland, but in reality traveling to various courts in the interests of England. 
He did not know the exact terms to be offered, but was aware of their general char¬ 
acter, and in a sense acted as an advance agent for England. Grenville and Morris 
agreed that the latter’s best line of argument was to show that Prussia was doomed 
to destruction if France was permitted to dictate terms of peace to Europe, and to 
exhibit Prussia’s material advantage in an alliance with England and Austria. 
Grenville wrote of Morris, August 23, 1796 : “Great use may, however, I believe 
be made of him there [at Berlin]. * * • • His leanings are all favourable to us, 
and you are not ignorant how much they may be improved by attention and a 
proper degree of confidence.’’ Ibid., 238. The letters between Grenville and 
Morris given in Dropmore are duplicates of those given in Morris’s Diary and in 
Jared Sparks’s Life of Gouverneur Mcn'ris. The latter book includes two letters 
not given elsewhere, the first of which is important, as it contains Grenville’s sug¬ 
gestions to Morris as to what he should urge at Berlin. Sparks, III, 89. 
