CHAP. IV.]

FOREIGN TRAVEL.

73

ment of intellect and sentiment, more wanted then than it is now easy to conceive. The elderly people of our time can scarcely believe now that they ever thought and felt as they were brought up to think and feel about foreigners and their respective countries, and about art and literature, and every subject on which we have now for above thirty years freely communicated with continental nations. We find, in the letters and diaries of fifty years ago, complacent notices of the good effects looked for from the new fancy of the opulent classes for seeing the beauties of our own island. "Am I too sanguine," writes Francis Horner in 1800, or am I even correct, in fancying that some good effects may result from a fashion which carries the Edinburgh citizen to the Lakes of Westmoreland, and brings the London citizen to the Falls of the Clyde?"1 1 After the peace, the “fashion grew more earnest.2 On the day of the proclamation of peace, April 29th, official notice was given at the ports of the kingdom, that his Majesty's license was no longer necessary to enable British subjects to go to the countries of the Continent. By September, the number of English in Paris had risen to 12,000; and greatly was the public press scandalized at the fact, and at being compelled to admit it; so ashamed were the insular moralists of the day at the curiosity of their countrymen which could lead them into the midst of the profanity and indecency of foreign capitals. Such were the notions of the stay-at-home people of fifty years since; and the 12,000 tourists were, for some time after their return, regarded with mingled envy, admiration, and fear, as having ventured upon a very pleasant act of moral rashness. When some, lingering too long, to enjoy a little more, were caught like the moth in the candle, they were less pitied than blamed, as scorched moths are wont to be. When war broke out again, and they were made prisoners in France, the virtuous at home said it served them right for having left their country, which contained everything that was good, and gone to look at whatever was naughty. But the people at home were presently the better for the travels of those who got back safely. They saw those who had seen Rome, and could tell what it was to approach the Eternal City. They heard from those who had been no further than Paris of the statues and pictures which had been brought there from Italy, and of the new ideas to which the study of them had given rise. Short as was the peace, all who lived among the educated classes in London, and in the chief provincial towns, felt as if some ventilation of English intelligence had taken place; as if some warm breeze from a sunnier climate had entered, to whiff away for the hour some fogs of insular prejudice, and enable the children of the soil to catch a 1 Memoirs, i. p. 120. 2 Annual Register, 1802, p. 396.

74

FOREBODINGS OF WAR.

[Book I.

far glimpse of those Alpine summits of art which they could not approach, and must presently lose sight of again.

Dissolution of Parliament.

Parliament was dissolved at the end of June, in order that the utmost freshness might be imparted to public transactions on the incoming of a new period.1 The royal Speech breathed confidence in the national resources, emphatic approbation of the parliament which had sat for two sessions, and recommendations to cultivate the advantages of peace. Mr. Pitt was, in his private conversation, as sanguine as ever; saying to Lord Malmesbury," that "we had a revenue equal to all Europe, a navy superior to all Europe, and a commerce as great as that of all Europe, and, he added, laughingly, to make us quite gentlemen, a debt as large as that of all Europe; and that if with these means we acted wisely, with a just mixture of spirit and forbearance, and could protract" (defer) "the evil of war for a few years, war would be an evil much less felt." Men were, however, beginning already to doubt the spirit" with which our affairs would be conducted; and to feel that France was requiring a "forbearance" which no fear of the "evil of war" could long sustain. There was so large an infusion of new members into the Commons no less than 184

that no one could be sure what the temper of the House would prove to be; but, at the close of the elections, the funds were low, and an acknowledged apprehensiveness was abroad, Doubts and which boded the renewal of war. Confidence was not troubles. improved by the Premier's declaration, on the 24th of November, in the debate on the Address, that the large armaments twice prepared within a few months were not owing to any danger of a rupture with France, but only "as a means of security, best calculated to preserve the blessings of peace."

In the "Court Calendar," prepared for the coming year, Napoleon was, for the first time, found in the list of the sovereigns of Europe; and it was stated that he "began to reign began to reign" on the 15th of December, 1799. As he was jealously watching public opinion in England in relation to himself, this was probably gratifying to him; but his wrath against our press, and his expression of it, were now rising to a point which seemed to render "forbearance "scarcely possible. In August, the " Moniteur" had begun a series of articles against the English press with which Napoleon soon implicated himself. Before the end of the month, he had forbidden the circulation of English newspapers in France, and had sent the police to all cafés and reading-rooms, to seize such copies as they could find. In November, just while Mr. Addington was assuring parliament and the country 1 Annual Register, 1802, p. 605. 2 Diaries, iv. p. 151. 8 Annual Register, 1802, p. 467. 5 Ibid. p. 440.

5

4 Ibid. p. 471.

CHAP. IV.]

WEAKNESS OF THE PREMIER.

75

Weakness of

mier.

that there was no danger of a rupture with France, the Government journal was assuring the world that, as regarded England, "France would remain in the attitude in which the Athenians placed Minerva, her helmet on her head, and her lance in her hand." The First Consul had some advantages over Great Britain, and he made the most of them. The Knights of St. John could not manage their affairs at Malta, nor provide a garrison out of their reduced numbers; and the British garrison was not withdrawn at the end of three months from the conclusion of peace, as agreed in the Amiens Treaty, because the real rights of the Order of Malta were not yet ascertained; and if the English withdrew, the French would immediately enter. Again, the British government interfered with French aggression upon Switzerland; — interfered abortively; and thus invited insult. Again, the exiles of the old régime were received and comforted in England; and by his complaints about this, it would appear that Napoleon was really afraid of them. While all this bluster was going on, the Prime Minis- the Preter in London was showing himself so weak that men felt that a crisis must be approaching. He exhibited a Budget which made his supporters ashamed, as soon as its errors were pointed out. He was delighted at the accession of Mr. Sheridan to his party, while that unprincipled wit was "quizzing" him daily, everywhere except when offering adulation in tête-à-têtes; and, at the same time, Mr. Addington could with difficulty be made to see that he had lost the support of Mr. Pitt, without which his administration must presently appear as incapable as himself. By this time, the whole powerful coterie of Mr. Pitt's friends, including the Duke of York, were engaged in "the game," as Mr. Canning called it, of restoring Pitt to office, as the only hope of saving the country, whenever that war should break out which they perceived to be inevitable. Single incidents may characterize statesmanship as thoroughly as a course of policy; and we meet with one at this time which manifests Mr. Addington's mind, and justifies the disgust of his opponents, quite as effectually as the Amiens treaty itself. While he was exhibiting a dishonest budget, and sympathizing with the bur dened people, and coaxing them to bear new taxes by promises of a peace which he could not preserve, he conferred a sinecure of nearly 30007. a year on his own son, then a boy at school. As for the way in which it was done, it was thus. Mr. Addington's tutor, Dr. Goodenough, appears preeminent in adulation among a set of singularly obsequious correspondents of the Prime Minister. During this year, the Prime Minister made his obsequious tutor Dean of Rochester.1 The sentimental letter

1 Life of Lord Sidmouth, i. p. 498.

76

FRENCH DEMANDS.—PELTIER.

[BOOK I. of thanks which the new Dean wrote ends thus: "Excuse me for adding one other word. I understand that Colonel Barré, Clerk of the Pells, is in a very precarious state. I hope you will have the fortitude to nominate Harry to be his successor. This was a kind of fortitude that was not out of Mr. Addington's reach. As his biographer tells us, "Mr. Addington did nominate his son to the vacant clerkship." Master Harry, then at Winchester school, became an office-holder to the amount of nearly 3000l. a year; and alas! Mr. Pitt is found "rejoicing most sincerely" that the Pells are so disposed of.

1

Mr. Addington was wont to say in after-years that the ink was scarcely dry, after the signature of the treaty of Amiens, when discontents arose which perilled the new peace. On the 24th of May, M. Otto told Lord Glenbervie 1 that if the English press were not controlled from censuring Napoleon, there must be a war to the death and in the course of the summer,2 six requiFrench sitions were formally made to the British government, requisitions. the purport of which was that the press must be controlled; the royal emigrants sent to Warsaw; the island of Jersey cleared of persons disaffected to the French government, and all Frenchmen dismissed from Great Britain who wore the decorations of the old monarchy. The reply was, that the press was free in England; and that if any of the emigrants broke the laws, they should be punished; but that otherwise they could not be molested. The government, however, used its influence in remonstrance with the editors of newspapers which were abusive of the French. Cobbett was pointed out by name by Napoleon, as a libeller who must be punished; and Peltier, a royalist emigrant, who had published some incentives to the assassination of the French ruler, or prophecies which might at such Peltier. a crisis be fairly regarded as incentives. M. Peltier's object was to use his knowledge of the tools of Napoleon, and his great political and literary experience, in laying bare the character and policy of Napoleon; and he began, in the summer of 1802, a journal, the first number of which occasioned the demand for his punishment. He was prosecuted by the Attorney-General, and defended by Sir James Mackintosh, in a speech which was translated into nearly all the languages of Europe, and universally considered one of the most prodigious efforts of oratory ever listened to in any age. The Attorney-General, Mr. Perceval, declared in Court, that he could hardly hope for an impartial decision from a jury whose faculties had been so roused, dazzled, and charmed; and it remains a matter of surprise, and not less of satisfaction, that amidst the popular prejudice against 2 Ibid. p. 154.

1 Life of Lord Sidmouth, ii. p. 153.

3 Life of Mackintosh, i. p. 182.

CHAP. IV.]

FRANCE AGGRESSIVE.

77

Napoleon, the popular sympathy with the emigrants, and the English enthusiasm for the liberty of the press, the jury should have seen their duty in this case. M. Peltier was found guilty; but the Attorney-General did not call for judgment on the instant. War was then at the close of February - imminent; and the matter was dropped. M. Peltier was regarded as a martyr, and, as far as public opinion went, was rather rewarded than punished in England. He was wont to say that he was tried in England and punished in France. His property was confiscated by the Consular agents;1 and his only near relations, his aged father and his sister, died at Nantes, through terror at his trial.

66

By this time, the merchants of Great Britain were thoroughly disgusted with France. Not only had Napoleon pre- French agvented all commercial intercourse between the nations gressions. throughout the year, but he had begun to confiscate English merchant-vessels, driven by stress of weather into his ports. By this time, too, the Minister's mind was made up as to the impossibility of avoiding war. His biographer tells us that his desire through life was to be "peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated;" but that in October, even his sanguine mind was not wholly divested of anxiety." His own account of the matter was (in a conversation with Lord Malmesbury on the 19th of February),2 that his intention had been to bear all obloquy at home, all taunts about being too forbearing, in the certainty that France would presently fill the cup of offence to overflowing; and that thus Great Britain would enter upon the new war with a single mind and a resolute heart. He had passed over all acts of mere petulance and vulgar spite, and had waited till insult was coupled with hostility, or with hostile declarations, before he moved. That time he felt to be now come.

It was indeed. Napoleon had published a Report of an official agent of his, Sebastiani, who had explored the Levant, striving as he went to rouse the Mediterranean States to a desertion of England and an alliance with France. He reported of the British force at Alexandria, and of the means of attack and defence there; and his employer put forth this statement in the " Moniteur," his own paper, while complaining of the insults of the English press towards himself. Our Ambassador at Paris, Lord Whitworth, desired an explanation; and the reception of his demand by the First Consul and his Minister was characteristic. M. Talleyrand smiled at the youthful ardor, military predilections, and intemperate patriotism of Sebastiani, declared " upon his honor" 3 that Sebastiani's mission was a purely commercial

1 Annual Register, 1803, p. 231.

2 Malmesbury Diaries, iv. pp. 213, 214.

3 Ibid. p. 200.