THE RESUETS OF GRENVILLE’S VICTORY. 
71 
THE RESULTS OF GRENVILLE’S VICTORY. 
Malmesbury’s estimate of the changed sentiment of the English 
nation was not a mistaken one. The resume of the Lille negotiations, 
drawn up by Grenville and presented to Parliament November 3, was 
received with favor,* * * § and the government now bent all its energies 
toward preparation for a continuance of the war with France. An 
address to the throne, November 8, pledged the British nation to unre¬ 
mitting hostility to the expansion of French power, and in the attend¬ 
ant debate Grenville stood forward as the great champion of patriotic 
England. His speech f contained no word of regret for the failure of 
peace negotiations ; he rejoiced, rather, that now at last all men must 
see the desperate determination of France to overthrow the constitu¬ 
tion and law of England. Pitt’s speech in the Commons on Novem¬ 
ber 10 was much less vigorous ; but while “ lamenting and deploring ” 
the failure to secure peace, he acknowledged that he had gone too far 
in his original offer to France and explicitly stated that he could not 
now regard that peace as honorable which involved a retrocession 
of all that England had acquired. J The address to the throne was 
passed in both houses without division § and was soon followed by the 
preparation of measures intended to arouse the inherent patriotism 
of the people, to appeal to the nation in fact as France had appealed 
to its people, but on different lines and for a different purpose. The 
organization of the volunteer forces was the first step which was taken 
in this direction, and its great popularity furnished excellent proof 
of the political wisdom of Grenville’s stubborn opposition to peace. 
In his own department Grenville resumed his customary activity in 
diplomatic correspondence, interest in which had lagged during the 
negotiations at Lille. 
* Pari. Hist., XXXIII, 906-962. This resume contained most of the official 
despatches and correspondence relating to Lille, but omitted all mention of the 
part played by Maret. 
t Ibid., 979. 
%Ibid., 987-1025. Pitt was disturbed and chagrined by a preceding speech by 
Earl Temple, Buckingham’s son and Grenville’s nephew, who, posing as an inde¬ 
pendent, rejoiced that the negotiation had been broken off, and approved “ of 
those measures which have been taken, when we were in the scrape, to extricate 
us from it ” (p. 995). This had importance solely because of Temple’s relationship 
with Grenville, and Pitt devoted a good part of his own speech to denying that any 
such measures had been taken. 
§ Fox and Sheridan were still absenting themselves from Parliament. 
