CHAP. IV.] PREPARING FOR WAR. 83 At the anniversary dinners of public charities "Tyrtæan songs' were sung, which intoxicated the company more than their wine. Princes of the Blood, lawyers from the Inns, bankers, and country gentlemen, as well as tradesmen, entered themselves as Volunteers, and drilled indefatigably, twice or oftener in the day. The subscribers to Lloyd's instituted a fund for the relief of the wounded, the solace of the maimed and bereaved, and the reward of the eminently brave. The merchants, bankers, and traders of London issued a Declaration, written by Mackintosh, which stirred up a fine spirit in the country. They declared that the coming contest was a struggle for national existence; for civilization against brute force; for all that Englishmen hold dear against all that they most hate; and they pledged themselves to exert all their powers to rouse the country to its defence, and to be ready with their services of every sort, on every occasion. The walls were placarded with speeches from King John and Henry V., and even Rolla's speech, signed by Sheridan. The stories of the invasion of Greece by Persia, of Holland by Louis XIV., and of England by Philip of Spain, were told from end to end of the country, and the memory of Queen Elizabeth became the enthusiasm of the day. In the London ale-houses, the police spies declared the spirit was good; and along the coast, the inhabitants showed themselves to be awake and devoted. At such a time, the people at each point of the coast are certain that theirs is the spot on which the descent will be made; and the play of passions and prejudices is seen to great advantage during a period like the summer of 1803. In some cities near the coast, the Pittites were in alarming doubt about the Foxites. As even Foxites had domestic affections, to them was appointed the task of arranging for the removal of the women and children, on the first signal of the approach of the French. They were to number wagons, and bespeak horses, and appoint places of meeting, and maintain clear roads, while the loyal kept watch on the cliffs, and drilled, and set guards on the cathedrals, lest the Dissenters should take the opportunity to burn them down. An English nunnery in Dorsetshire 1 was searched by a clerical Justice of the peace and his neighbors, in July, in the expectation of finding hidden there, not only arms and ammunition, but a brother of Napoleon. The foreigner was looked for in every closet, and corner of the cellar. The abbess reminded the Justice that, while the sisters were Catholics, they were Englishwomen, as averse to foreign invasion as their neighbors. The very accidents of the time show the spirit of the time. In practising street-firing with cartridge, a volunteer wounds his officer. The Law Association, in Temple Gardens, charging with the bayonet, 1 1 Annual Register, 1803, p. 418. 84 THE PRINCE OF WALES. [Book I. stumble, and one bayonet breaks in the ground, and another pierces a coat. A gentleman kills himself, and knocks down others, by firing a musket with six cartridges in it. The fashions of the time smack of war. The drill-dress of the University students is immortalized in the chronicles of the year, blue jacket, black gaiters, and all. The reviews and presentations. of colors were a fine spectacle, that summer and autumn. The most animating was the Royal review of the Volunteers in Hyde Park in October; and a nobler spectacle can hardly have been seen in our country, for a thousand years. It was wholly unlike an ordinary military review. The sovereign here met his armed citizens of London, to see how fit they were for the defence of their homes and their national institutions. The old King conducted himself with sobriety and dignity, and looked kingly on his charger. The Duke of York, the Commander-in-Chief, met him on the ground; and the Queen and her other children attended him. All the houses within view were crowded to the chimney-tops. Amidst the sunshine, and the martial music, and the cheers of the crowd, there was a deep solemnity pervading the whole celebration. Such incidents as have been related show how great was the support on which the Minister might rely. The eldest of the princes was not present at the great review: he had gone down to Brighton to avoid it; but he was of Wales. not therefore inactive. The Prince of Wales had begged to be a volunteer, or to have high military rank, like his brothers, fearing that, as colonel of his regiment, he should be placed far from the scene of conflict, if the country should be actually invaded. But it was not thought fit that the heir apparent should be subjected to danger, in a post which could as well be filled by any other man. He was in a sore and irritable state of mind; and he strove, or pretended, to ascribe his irritation to this. But he had enough besides to make him miserable. His father had, in February, sent down a message to parliament, to desire them to consider the subject of the debts of the Prince of Wales. No delicacy was used about the matter. It was understood that Mr. Addington was using this method of buying off the Prince's claim for the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall during his minority: a claim which was sanctioned by the opinion of the Crown lawyers. The project now was to add 60,000l. a year to his income for three years, to liquidate his debts; but no guaranty was proposed by which he might be prevented from squandering money as he had always hitherto done; and there was not even any security for the restoration of his establishment, which he had broken up, on a plea of necessity, while he was as lavish as ever on his private pleasures. The exposure of his debts before parliament was most humiliating to himself, while nothing was The Prince CHAP. IV.] THE ENGLISH IN FRANCE. arranged which could make it final and effectual. 85 When the Royal Message of the 8th of March called upon parliament to occupy themselves with the war, the Prince desired that the subject of his affairs should be dropped; but it was soon resumed, and his annuity bill was passed.1 It did not leave him in any humor to meet his parents, unless compelled; and it is hard to say which is most painful to read about-the cruel harshness and insulting manners of the father towards his son, at the very moment that he could be sentimental towards his adulatory minister, or the heartless levity and profligate courses of the son, who made it his pleasure to expose to the public the harshness under which he suffered. In July, the militia force amounted to 173,000 men; and the deficiency was in officers to command them. The minister proposed, in addition to all the forces actually in existence, the formation of an army of reserve, amounting to 50,000 men; and this was presently agreed to. There was little that the parliament and people of England would not have agreed to at this moment, under the provocation of Napoleon's treat- The English ment of the English in France.2 His first act was to in France. order the detention, as prisoners of war, of all the English then in the country, between the ages of eighteen and sixty. The exasperation caused by this cruel measure was all that he could have expected or desired. Many were the young men thus doomed to lose, in wearing expectation or despair, twelve of the best years of their lives, cut off from family, profession, marriage, citizenship, — everything that young men most value. Many were the parents separated for twelve long years from the young creatures at home, whom they had left for a mere pleasure-trip; and many were the gray-haired fathers and mothers at home who went down to the grave during those twelve years without another sight of the son or daughter who was pining in some small provincial town in France, without natural occupation, and wellnigh without hope. In June, the English in Rouen were removed to the neighborhood of Amiens; those in Calais to Lisle; those at Brussels to Valenciennes. Before the month was out, all the English in Italy and Switzerland, in addition to those in Holland, were made prisoners. How many the whole amounted to does not appear to have been ascertained; but it was believed at the time that there were 11,000 in France, and 1300 in Holland. The first pretence was that these travellers were detained as hostages for the prizes which Napoleon accused us of taking before the regular declaration of war; but when proposals were made for an exchange, he sent a savage answer that he would keep 4 3 2 Ibid. p. 391. 86 LOSS OF HANOVER. [BOOK I. his prisoners till the end of the war. It is difficult to conceive how there could be two opinions about the nature of the man after this act. First naval over. The naval captures of which Napoleon complained, as made prior to a declaration of war, were of two merchantcaptures. ships taken by English frigates; and we find notices of such being brought into port on the 25th of May. Whether they were captured before the 18th, there is no record that we can find. Nelson was at sea, on his way to the Mediterranean, two days before the declaration; and on the 23d, Admiral Cornwallis sent home news of the first capture of a vessel of war, off Ushant, bearing a crew of ninety-two men, who fought with great bravery. In a few days a frigate was taken; and another frigate, a brig of war, and some smaller vessels, in the course of June. On the sea, our successes seemed a matter of course; but meantime a blow was struck at Great Britain, and especially at her sovereign, which proved that the national exasperation against France was even yet capable of increase. On the breaking out of the war, George III. issued a proclamation, as Elector of Hanover, declaring to Germany that the Germanic states had nothLoss of Han- ing to fear in regard to the new hostilities, as he was entering into war as King of Great Britain, and not as Elector of Hanover. Whatever military preparations were going forward in Hanover were merely of a defensive character. Napoleon, however, set such defence at defiance. On the 13th of June, news arrived of the total surrender of Hanover to the French. The palace, which the King had lately repaired and furnished for the Duke of Cambridge, at an expense of 50,000l., was tenanted by General Mortier. The Hanoverians had entered into a convention with the French,1 by which the regency was set aside, the French cavalry was to be remounted and equipped, and the army reclothed, at the expense of the electorate; all magazines, arms, artillery, and defences were given up to the invaders; all public property, which was made to include the effects of the King of England, was given up; and the Hanoverian army was to retire behind the Elbe. This was disastrous news to begin with; but it was not the kind of trouble which affected the King's mind. A Council being called on the occasion, he came to town to attend it; and there is no doubt that he did, as his ministers said, “receive the tidings of the loss of Hanover with great magnanimity, and a real kingliness of mind.” Yet he was, at the same time, irritated and harsh with more than one member of his own family. Messages and interviews were proceeding, in the midst of the turmoil of the new war,3 to prevent 1 Annual Register, 1803, p. 394. 2 Malmesbury Diaries, iv. p. 276. 8 Ibid. p. 264. 2 CHAP. IV.] ADDINGTON POLICY UNKNOWN. 87 the Duchess of York from sitting at the same table with Mrs. Fitzherbert at a ball; and the Duke of Kent was in disgrace with his father almost as deep as that of his eldest brother. Now, on the surrender of Hanover, the Duke of Cambridge returned home in a few days, his occupation abroad being gone.1 Government resolved to declare the Elbe and the Weser, and all the ports of Western Germany, in a state of blockade, as the French had now command over all the intermediate rivers. It was calculated that this would annoy and injure Napoleon effectually, as it would cause the ruin of foreign merchants trading from the whole series of ports. English merchants would suffer deeply; but it was calculated that English capital and stock would hold out longer than those of foreign merchants. Thus was the sickening process of private ruin, as a check to public aggression, entered upon, before war had been declared a month. The Hanoverian army was not suffered to remain in its position on the further bank of the Elbe. As the King of England refused to ratify the so-called convention of the 3d of June, the French general, Mortier, was instructed to make the army prisoners of war, and send them into France. The Hanoverian general, Walmoden, could do nothing - the apparatus of war being all in the enemy's hands. He capitulated; and his troops laid down their arms, and returned to their homes, on parole not to serve against France or her allies till regularly exchanged. Mortier wrote home that "General Walmoden signed the capitulation with an afflicted heart; "2 and that it was "difficult to paint the situation of the fine regiment of the King of England's guards at dismounting." 3 Thus far, no intimation had been given of Mr. Addington's proposed European policy; or whether he had any British polsuch policy at all. On the 12th of June, we find the icy. old diplomatist, Lord Malmesbury, talking over matters with one of the ministers, Lord Pelham, and recurring to the Pitt policy of "settling Europe" by balancing her powers, if Russia could be induced to offer her intervention. One improvement on the Pitt policy was suggested by his friend. "If," he says, "the general plan of arranging Europe was accepted, or seriously wished for, we must make up our minds to give money,-large subsidies; but I would give them only after the work was done as taskwork; not as we had done hitherto, always beforehand." The reply of the minister was that Addington was "not yet up to this." And yet the government had had to lay before parliament an account of the subsidies furnished by England to the European Powers during the late war, amounting to upwards of 1 Malmesbury Diaries, iv. p. 278. 2 Annual Register, 1803, p. 287. 3 Diaries, iv. p. 276. 4 Annual Register, 1801. Chron. 146. 4 |