72 THE INFLUENCE OF GRENVILLE ON PITT’S FOREIGN POLICY. 
With the disappearance of the probability of peace, new overtures 
were made to Russia and received from her.* * * § The death of Frederick 
William II and the accession of a new monarch in Berlin created tem¬ 
porary hopes of a change in Prussian sentiment.! Even Austria hinted 
/at a renewal of alliance with England. J In other and more positive 
ways the English position was greatly improved. The naval mutiny 
was over, and Duncan’s victory off Camperdown, October n, had re¬ 
vived the confidence of England in her warfare at sea. New French 
attempts on Ireland and risings in England itself had alike proved 
abortive. The crop prospects were unusually favorable. The very 
reaction from the first wave of panic tended to arouse the nation and 
to restore its vigor. It needed but some aggressive act of the French 
government to create that unanimity of English opinion for which 
Grenville hoped, and this France did not long delay to supply. In 
January, 1798, the government of Holland was remodeled to suit the 
new conditions in France ; in February the Papal States were attacked, 
while in April occurred the most irritating blow of all and the one 
least possible of defense by the partisans of peace, when France over¬ 
threw the ancient constitution of Switzerland and practically incorpo¬ 
rated that country within her own frontiers. At the same time the 
opposition in Parliament lost its vigor and cohesion. Fox and Sheri¬ 
dan, who had been absenting themselves from Parliament for some 
months past, and thus protesting against the “arbitrary conduct of 
the government,” resumed their seats in December, 1797, for the pur¬ 
pose of attacking Pitt’s new tax scheme, but found their arguments 
considered unpatriotic in the light of these new French aggressions. 
On April 22 Sheridan, moved thereto by the attack upon Switzerland, 
came forward in a brilliant speech, in which he acknowledged that 
\ the defense of. England must now take precedence over every other 
question, pos/more slowly an d much later reached the sam e decision. 
For the moment there "was no essential opposition to Pitt’s govern¬ 
ment. Parliament and nation alike were united by a wave of patriotic 
enthusiasm for war.§ 
After April, 1798, the policy of the English government was, as Pitt 
in his speech of November 10, 1797, had himself asserted, fixed in the 
* Woronzow to Grenville, Nov. 10 and Dec. 12, 1797. Dropmore, III, 391, 403. 
t George III to Grenville, Dec. 23, 1797, and Grenville to George III, Dec. 29, 
1797. Ibid., 405, 407. 
X Woronzow to Grenville, Nov. 17, 1797, and Grenville to George III, Dec. 29, 
1797 . Ibid., 395, 407. 
§ Even Miles thought war now justifiable, writing to Nicholls on April 10, 1798, 
“France leaves us no alternative between ruinous dishonorable concession and 
eternal warfare.” Miles, II, 293. 
