never be put in competition with ours, ship for ship, or anything approaching to it. There is an account of a successful sortie from Mantua, in which the French have lost fifteen hundred men; but I do not yet know the particulars, the despatches being gone to Weymouth. The Archduke is at Donawert, or at least looking to that position, which is a strong one, if his army was not dispirited. The reinforcement sent to Italy has hitherto operated very fatally upon the campaign. It remains to be seen what effect it will produce against Buonaparte's army. But it is evidently too late to prevent the plunder of Italy—the great object of that expedition. Ever, my dear brother, Most truly and affectionately yours, G. Pray let me remind you of the sheep; though just now my pastures look rather brown, and will, I fear, give them a bad impression of the fare which they will have. LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM. MY DEAREST BROTHER, Sept. 24th, 1796. We have again a report, which seems worthy of credit, of an action at Montauban, on the 14th, previous to Jourdan's crossing the Rhine, at Neuwied, in which he was totally defeated, and lost all his cannon, &c. This seems to accord so well with dates and places, that I have little doubt of the truth. It therefore only remains to see what will become of Moreau. If he is dispatched, and that quickly, there will be time and means to make Buonaparte suffer severely for his late advanced move. On the whole, the situation is, to be sure, very much improved within these few weeks, but there is still enough for serious alarm. The Directory has sent us the most insolent answer that can be conceived; but as the substance of it is in some degree ambiguous with respect to the main question of granting or refusing the passport, it has been thought better not to leave a loop-hole or pretence to them, or their adherents here, to lay upon us the breaking the business off. Another note is therefore to be sent to-day, by a flag of truce from Dover, in which the demand of the passport is renewed in such terms as seem most likely to bring that point to a distinct issue, ay or no. In other times, this last step would have been not only superfluous, but humiliating; in the present moment, the object of unanimity here in the great body of the country, with respect to the large sacrifices they will be called upon to make, is paramount to every other consideration. I am extremely anxious to find that the plan in question may appear practicable. The advantages of it would be infinite. The nature of the efforts which were making in England to sustain the war may be partially inferred from the following letter. Lord Grenville, it will be seen, notes with a mark of admiration a subscription of £100,000 from the Duke of Bedford. The circumstance was singular and significant, the Duke of Bedford having all along taken a leading part in the House of Lords in opposition to hostilities, and in calling for votes of censure and opprobrium upon the Ministry. He had been the chief mover of all those resolutions that protested against the expenditure to which the country had been put for the maintenance of the war, and now he was one of the largest of the voluntary subscribers to a fund for its continuance. LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM. MY DEAREST BROTHER, Dropmore, Dec. 2nd, 1796. I have been followed here to-night by a letter, to mention that above twelve millions are already subscribed to the loan, and that it may very probably be full to-morrow, so that I had no time to lose in doing what of course the public will expect from me. I have therefore desired that £10,000 may be subscribed tomorrow in my name; and I imagine that by getting Coutts to advance the two first payments, and transferring the stock, at whatever loss, the moment it is transferable, I shall be able me tirer d'affaire, better than I had hoped. It was my intention to have written to you to-morrow, to let you know what other persons in your sort of situation and class had done; but what I have now heard, makes me think that I ought to send to you without delay, in order that you may know how the thing stands, and of course afterwards judge for yourself whether to do anything, and what. The only names that have been mentioned to me, except among my colleagues, are the Duke of Bridgewater and the Duke of Bedford! each £100,000, and Lord Romney and Lord Carrington each £40,000, besides £100,000, which the house of Smith and Co. subscribe as bankers. Lord Spencer, Lord Liverpool, Pitt and Dundas, subscribe £10,000, as I have done; the two last will, I believe, have still more difficulty in finding it than I shall. You will, of course, not imagine that by sending to you in this manner, I have the least idea of saying or suggesting to you to do anything but what may have occurred to yourself, but I thought you would naturally expect to hear these particulars from me. Other news I have none. There was a report yesterday that Kehl was surprised by the Austrians, but I could not trace it to any certain source. God bless you, my dear brother. The time had now arrived when the English Cabinet believed that an attempt might be made to negotiate for peace, without compromising its honour. In the preceding March, the ambassador to the Helvetic States had been authorized to inquire of the Government of France, through the medium of their representative, whether they were disposed to entertain such a negotiation. The answer was so unsatisfactory, laying down as a peremptory condition the retention of all those conquests which, during the course of the war, had been annexed to the republic, that nothing more was then done in the matter. The subject was resumed in September, and, the Directory having signified their readiness to grant passports to any persons who should be furnished with full powers and official papers, Lord Malmesbury was appointed as plenipotentiary on the part of His Britannic Majesty to treat for peace with the French Republic. On the 22nd of October his Lordship announced to M. de la Croix, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, his arrival in Paris in that capacity. The negotiations occupied nearly two months, and the main point of difficulty turned upon the Netherlands, Lord Malmesbury, who acted strictly on his instructions, making the restoration of the Netherlands a sine quá non, and M. de la Croix repeatedly stating that this difficulty was one which could not be overcome. The negotiations had arrived at that stage which made this insuperable difficulty perfectly clear and unmistakeable on both sides, when Mr. Talbot, a gentleman connected with Lord Malmesbury's embassy, addressed the following letter to Lord Buckingham. No allusion will be found in it to the pending negotiations, which were of too delicate and important a nature to be touched upon in a private letter; but it is very curious and interesting, as presenting a picture of the state of France at that period. MR. TALBOT TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM. MY LORD, Paris, Dec. 18th, 1796. Your Lordship, I trust, is aware of my motives for not having written to you since I left England; I shall, therefore, make no apologies for my neglect; but I must beg leave to assure your Lordship that I am, notwithstanding the urgency of my reasons, so much ashamed of the omission, that I now feel much embarrassed in taking up my pen. The only letters I have hitherto sent to England have been to Lord Grenville, in answer to those he has done me the honour to write; and to Mr. B. Taylor, his secretary, for some articles which I stood in need of. Your Lordship has without doubt received much better accounts of the appearance and state of things in this country than it is in my power to communicate; however, I will attempt a description of what has struck me as worthy of notice, and rely upon your kind indulgence for my errors. Our first entrance into France was certainly not attended with the reception which might have been expected, under the particular circumstances in which we came. It is true a good many people of all sorts were upon the quay at Calais when we arrived, but they showed no signs of joy or any other feeling more than the arrival of an indifferent vessel would have occasioned; and very shortly after we had landed, and VOL. II. A A |