BOOK of a system so different from that which had XIX. ration of the duke of ans. been adopted with such glorious success by the duke of Marlborough and prince Eugene. The Fatal sepa- British army, conducted by the duke of York, York from immediately decamped; and, on the 18th of the Austri- August, arrived in the vicinity of Menin, where some severe contests took place, and the post of tion at Lin- Lincelles, lost by the Dutch, was recovered at the point of the bayonet, with a signal display of spirit and intrepidity, by the English, though very inferior in force, led on by general sir John Lake. Brilliant ac celles. Duke of York forms Dunkirk. Moving, with little resistance, towards Dunthe siege of kirk, the trenches were opened before that fort`ress on the 24th; and the duke of York, having entertained a secret correspondence with the governor-general, O'Moran, flattered himself with obtaining speedy possession of the place. On the other side, general Clairfait invested the town of Quesnoy; and the prince of Cobourg, who commanded the covering army, having defeated a body of troops which had been sent for its relief, the place surrendered on the 11th of September. With these achievements the successes of the allies may be said to have terminated; and Quesnoy was the extreme point of the progress made in the course of this memorable cam XIX. paign by the combined powers against France. BOOK We must now once more change the scene, and revert to the state of affairs in England. 1793. overture of peace. It is a fact most memorable in the history of Ineffectual this eventful period, that, on the 2d of April, France for M. Le Brun, minister of foreign affairs in France, addressed a letter to lord Grenville, stating that the French republic was desirous to terminate all its differences with Great Britain and to end a war dreadful to humanity, and requesting a passport for a person vested with full powers for that purpose to the court of London; and, in a separate letter, he named M. Maret as the proposed plenipotentiary of France, if this intimation produced the desired effect. The first letter was delivered to lord Grenville by Mr. John Salter, notary-public, who formally attested the receipt of it from M. Le Brun. To this most important advance on the part of the French government the British ministry, obstinate in their errors, paid not the least attention. From this early concession it is probable that the French perceived their mistake in supposing (as they had, indeed, a good right to do, from the tenor of the existing treaty of 1786) that the dismission of the ambassador Chauvelin was intended by the court of London as a declaration of war; whereas it subsequently appeared, from the secret negotiation which Mr. XIX. 1793. BOOK Pitt was at the same time carrying on with general Dumouriez, that this famous dismission was a mere act of pride and passion, and by no means of deliberate and premeditated policy. It is even not improbable that, in the unreflecting precipitation of the moment, the second article of the treaty of 1786 was not at all adverted to by politicians of such a description as now composed the British cabinet *. But the hopes * Article 11. Extract. "For the future security of commerce and friendship between the subjects of their said majesties, and to the end that this good correspondence may be preserved from all interruption and disturbance, it is concluded and agreed that if at any time there should arise any misunderstanding, breach of friendship, or rupture, between the crowns of their majesties, which GOD forbid, (which RUPTURE shall not be deemed to exist until the recalling, or sending home of the respective ambassadors and ministers,) the subjects of each of the two parties, residing in the dominions of the other, shall have the privilege of remaining and continuing their trade therein, without any manner of disturbance, so long as they behave peaceably, and commit no offence against the laws and ordinances, &c." The plain and unavoidable implication of the remarkable clause included in the parenthesis is, that the act of sending away an ambassador is an act of violence and hostility, and such as of itself shall be deemed to constitute a RUPTURE. As the treaty in question was never pretended to suffer any change in its operation, or abatement of its force, in conse quence of the deposition of the most christian king, it is obvious that the executive power actually existing in that country, must be understood to represent the crown and majesty of France. XIX. of the enemies of France were at this period BOOK high and sanguine; and although the French executive government unquestionably would not 1793. have made any such overture in the present circumstances, had they not been previously determined to give ample satisfaction to England, whose friendship and support must have been of the utmost consequence to the reigning party, and as a prelude to other concessions, the obnoxious decree of November (1792) had been recently rescinded by the convention, this consideration had no weight with the British ministry, who would not even deign, in this second paroxysm of blind presumption, to hearken to what M. Maret had to propose. Sardinia. Far from feeling the slightest inclination to Treaty with encourage an overture so consonant to the dictates of policy and humanity, a treaty was about this time concluded with the king of Sardinia, by which England bound herself not only "to furnish to his Sardinian majesty a subsidy of 200,000l. per annum, to be paid three months in advance," which was an article of trivial moment, but also “not to conclude a peace with the enemy without comprehending in it the entire restitution of all the dominions belonging to this monarch previous to the commencement of the war;" although it had never been pretended that it was incumbent upon Great Britain to BOOK enter into the war against France for any such XIX. ~preposterous purpose. 1793. On the re-assembling of parliament after the Unparallel- Easter-recess, the attention of the legislature was ed number ruptcies in London. of bank- forcibly attracted by the unparelleled number and extent of the bankruptcies which had taken place since the commencement of the war, as the first blessed fruits of it, and the almost total stagnation and paralysis of commercial credit. A select committee was immediately appointed to report their opinion to the house on the best means of applying a remedy to this tremendous. evil, which originated, as there was good reason to believe, in the alarm occasioned by the invasion of Holland. The report of the committee stated, "that it will be advisable to issue Exchequer-bills, to the amount of five millions, to commissioners nominated for the purpose, for the assistance and accommodation of such mercantile persons as may apply, and who shall give proper security for the sums that may be advanced on interest, for a time to be limited." This mode of relief, dangerous in its ultimate tendency and liability of abuse, was found extremely beneficial in its immediate operation, and the tide of commerce soon returned to its accustomed channel. Commercial credit re &tored. Parliament ary investigation of On the 25th of April Mr. Sheridan called the attention of the house to the late extraordinary |