GRENVIEEE’S SECOND OVERTURE TO PRUSSIA. 
53 
ment and knowing him to be an obstinate opponent of peace, showed 
plainly that he regarded Pitt as solely responsible for what was, to the 
King’s mind, a dishonorable policy.* * * § BucKihgliam^tated openly to 
Grenville that he preferred an honorable war to a dishonorable peace and C 
hoped Hammond would not arrive in time to enter upon negotiations.f 
In reply, Grenville exhibited his own despondent attitude. ‘ ‘ I hardly 
know,” he wrote, “how to tell myself, under these circumstances, what 
I wish about Hammond’s mission, because the panic here is so dis- ; 
graceful that the country will not allow us to do them justice.” X 
Hammond’s instructions as first drawn up had looked toward the 
intervention of Russia as a mediator in proposing negotiations for a 
general peace. If on arriving at Vienna he found that time was lack¬ 
ing to secure such mediation, he was first to strive for a general armis¬ 
tice, if possible ; but if this failed also, he was given full powers, in 
conjunction with Morton Kden, to sign a definitive peace.§ Appar¬ 
ently there was at first no suspicion in the English Cabinet that Ham¬ 
mond might find peace already concluded on his arrival at Vienna, 
but shortly after he had left England the belief arose that such an 
event was possible, and supplementary instructions were hurried after 
him, directing him, in case he found that Austria had signed a sepa¬ 
rate peace with France, to proceed to Berlin and there accept an offer 
previously made to act as mediator in a general peace. He was also 
to notify Russia of this act and ask her joint mediation with the court 
of Berlin, stating as England’s reason for the step that the chief ob¬ 
stacle to the acceptance of the Prussian offer had now been removed 
by Austria’s signature of a separate treaty of peace. || 
On April 18, the very day this despatch was written, before Ham¬ 
mond had landed at Cuxhaven even, the Preliminaries of Eeoben had 
been signed, and peace between Austria and France was an accom¬ 
plished fact. Hammond went on to Vienna, but once there made no 
attempt to bring England into the peace, and did not disclose to Thugut 
his supplementary instructions for the court at Berlin4 In the mean¬ 
time Grenville had recovered somewhat from his first depression and 
was striving to create a revulsion of opinion in the government. Thugut 
at first refused to disclose to his late ally the terms of Eeoben, and 
* Stanhope, III, Appendix, pp. mff. Several letters between George III and 
Pitt. The King speaks also of the “ reluctance ” of a portion of the Cabinet, 
f April 13 and May 4, 1797. Dropmore, III, 313, 317. 
X April 28, 1797. Court a, 7 id Cabinets , II, 376. 
§ Despatch to Morton Eden, April 11, 1797. Records, Austria, 49. 
1 Despatch to Hammond, No. 5, April 18, 1797. Ibid. 
r Hammond to Grenville, May 9, 1797. Dropmore, III, 322. 
