IRISH REBELLION AND NAVAL SUPREMACY.In spite of Duncan's victory the French directors were set on an invasion of England. All their vague designs for the extension of French supremacy led up to the ruin of the power which they recognised as their most formidable enemy. From the Adriatic to the North sea a vast republic was to furnish the armies of France with recruits. Europe was to be united in a coalition against England. The Mediterranean was to be a French lake. Every port was to be shut against England's ships; England's commerce was to be destroyed and her pride humbled. A quicker means of bringing her into subjection seemed possible. On a foggy night an army might be carried across the Channel unobserved by her fleet. What a Norman duke had done might be done by a mighty republic, and the English crown might be lost in a second battle of Hastings. The victors would march on London, and be received as deliverers by a people groaning under the oppression of "that monster Pitt". They failed to understand that Pitt had the nation at his back, and that even the most violent whigs would resist to the death an invasion of their country. They formed an "army of England," and appointed Bonaparte to command it. On his return to Paris in December, 1797, he set himself to prepare for the invasion. Transports for over 24,000 men were soon ready at Boulogne, Ambleteuse, Calais, and Dunkirk, and boat-builders were hard at work. In February he made a tour of the coast from Etaples to Ostend and heard what sailors said about the scheme. On the 23rd he told the directors that France could not gain supremacy by sea for some years, and that without that no operation could be more hazardous than an invasion of England, that a surprise was possible only in the long winter nights, and that their naval preparations were too backward for such an attempt to be made that year.[281] He turned to other projects of conquest which might lead to the destruction of England's commerce in the east and of her power in India. For some while longer he ostensibly devoted himself to preparations for invasion. The "army of England," which in April numbered 56,000 men, was quartered in the towns of the north, and every port from Havre to the Texel was crowded with transports. But by that time the army had lost its commander and the great scheme was definitely abandoned. Nevertheless, the directors determined to be ready if an opportunity for invasion should occur, and maritime preparations were continued. In May a flotilla from Havre attacked the islands of St. Marcouf, which had been seized by Sir Sidney Smith in 1795, and was beaten back by the little garrison. Equally feeble efforts were made by England to check the preparations for invasion. On tidings that the transports built at Flushing were to be conveyed to Ostend by canal in order to avoid the British fleet, a force of 1,200 men was sent to destroy the sluices of the Bruges canal. They landed near Ostend and blew up the great sluice. A storm prevented them from re-embarking and, after a smart engagement, they were all taken prisoners. If the thing was worth doing, a sufficient force should have been sent to do it.

The threatened invasion rallied the nation to the support of the government. Though Fox and the other seceders had ceased to attend parliament, they kept up an agitation against the ministry. Fox's birthday, January 24, was celebrated by a public dinner. The Duke of Norfolk in proposing his health said that Washington began the war of independence with only 2,000 men, yet America was free; he saw that number before him, let them apply his words. He afterwards called on the company to drink "our sovereign's health, the majesty of the people". Considered in connexion with the circumstances of the time his words were in the highest degree seditious. The government, strong in the support of the nation, took up the silly and insolent challenge, and the duke was deprived of his lord-lieutenancy and the command of his militia regiment. In May, Fox repeated the toast at a meeting of the whig club. The ministers discussed what notice should be taken of his offence. It is not pleasant to find Pitt considering whether he might be led on to utter similar words in parliament and be sent to the Tower for the rest of the session. With all his greatness Pitt lacked the generosity which was a redeeming trait in Fox's character. The anxieties of the past year, combined with his unfortunate failing, had shaken his health and his temper had suffered. It was finally decided that Fox should be removed from the privy council, and the king struck his name out of the council book with his own hand.

The belief that the country was in danger evoked patriotic enthusiasm, and £2,300,000 was subscribed to augment the produce of the triple assessment. Pitt's supplementary budget announced a further loan of £3,000,000 and imposed fresh taxes. Chiefly as a means of supporting credit he brought forward a scheme for the commutation of the land tax. For many years the tax had been granted at four shillings in the pound; he proposed to make it perpetual at that rate, to enable landowners to redeem it, and to apply their payments to the reduction of debt. The bill, though opposed in both houses on the plea that it was unfair to the landed interest, was carried by large majorities. The alien act and the suspension of habeas corpus were revived, for with the enemy threatening the country disloyalty was intolerable. With a view to the organisation of defence the government was empowered to ascertain the number of men who were prepared to take up arms in case of invasion, to instruct each as to what he should do, and to arrange for the removal of helpless persons, cattle, and other property from the coast.It was a time of overwhelming anxiety to the ministers, for, in addition to the expected invasion, they had to meet rebellion in Ireland. With so great a strain upon him, Pitt was unable to bear with patience the attempts of Tierney, the leader of the non-seceding section of the opposition, to thwart his measures. On May 25 he brought in a bill to abrogate certain exemptions from naval service, and asked the house to pass it through all its stages in one day. Tierney objected, and Pitt accused him of desiring to obstruct the defence of the country. The speaker ruled that the imputation was unparliamentary. Pitt repeated his words, haughtily declaring that he would "neither retract from nor explain them". The next day Tierney sent him a challenge. They met on Sunday afternoon, the 27th, on Putney heath, Pitt accompanied by his friend Dudley Ryder, afterwards Lord Harrowby, the paymaster of the forces, and Tierney by Colonel Walpole. Two shots were exchanged on each side without effect, Pitt firing his second shot into the air. Honour was then declared to be satisfied. Wilberforce, in common with many other religious people, was much shocked, and gave notice of a motion against duelling by members of the house, but was persuaded to withdraw it, for Pitt threatened to resign if it was carried. The king expressed his disapproval, telling Pitt with characteristic good sense that a public man should remember his duty to his country before what was due to himself. Not until that generation had well-nigh passed away was duelling virtually extinguished by the condemnation of society. In contrast to the lack of moral perception on that point stands the quickening of the public conscience with reference to the slave trade. Wilberforce again brought in his annual motion for its abolition. It was seconded by Pitt and vigorously supported by Fox, who pertinently asked why the minister did not use his majority to accomplish the end he professed to desire. It was lost only by four votes. The rest of the session was largely taken up by the affairs of Ireland.

There, as we have already seen, religious animosity strengthened the party of rebellion. Its leaders also took advantage of agrarian and other grievances to allure the peasantry. The catholic peasants were little moved by the questions which weighed with their more educated neighbours and with the dwellers in towns. They were not enamoured of the republican sentiments which appealed to the Ulster presbyterians, and did not care a straw about parliamentary reform for its own sake, nor for catholic emancipation. Their motives were more personal. They were poor and oppressed. The national parliament, though it refused to grant political reforms, had done much to improve the condition of the country by subsidies for promoting manufactures, fisheries, and canals, and by bounties on exported corn. The financial position of Ireland was bettered, but the lot of the peasantry grew worse. Corn bounties and the high prices of war time caused a rise in the value of land. Holdings were subdivided, and, as the agricultural population was large, were eagerly taken at high rents. The tenants could not make a living, especially as they were ignorant and generally thriftless. The chief cause of their discontent was the system of tithe which pressed heavily on the small cultivators. They believed that a reformed parliament would rid them of that intolerable burden. Finding that reform was withheld, they readily listened to men who bade them look for relief to France, where tithe had been abolished. High rents, exacted by the agents of absentee landlords or by middle-men, who rented large tracts of land and sublet them in small holdings, were another though lesser grievance from which they hoped to be delivered by revolution. Sentiment urged them in the same direction. Proud and sensitive they resented the dominance of an alien race; they held the wrongs of their forefathers in remembrance, and looked back with mournful longing to the age, invested by their poetic imagination with glory and happiness, when Ireland was yet unconquered. The United Irishmen told them that a fresh conquest would be attempted, that the Orangemen, encouraged by government, designed to rob them of their land and destroy them. They looked to France for protection and were ready to take up arms against the crown.

The government was determined to nip rebellion in the bud, and struck first at conspiracy in Ulster, where it was mainly engineered by protestant leaders. In the spring of 1797 the province was almost in open revolt. Martial law was proclaimed, and on May 18 soldiers were empowered to act without authority from a civil magistrate. An active search was made for arms. It was carried out mainly by yeomanry and militia, for the regular troops were few and mostly stationed in towns. The catholic districts were ruthlessly harried. A fierce resistance was made. Many outrages were committed by the soldiers, specially by a Welsh regiment of mounted fencibles, the Ancient Britons. Houses were burned and peasants were slaughtered. Crowds were imprisoned without process of law and many were sent off to serve in the fleet. These severities which lasted for several months crushed the life out of the conspiracy in Ulster. The government was justified in using force to suppress rebellion, but it was lamentable that the work should have been entrusted to troops which were little better than banditti. An earnest attempt was made to restrain them by Sir Ralph Abercromby, who succeeded Lord Carhampton as commander-in-chief in November. He issued an order declaring that the army was in a state of "licentiousness," and forbidding soldiers to act without the civil authority. This order was contrary to the proclamation of May 18, and gave great offence to the party of repression in the Irish government headed by Lord Clare, and to the British ministry. A proclamation of March 30, 1798, re-established martial law; Abercromby resigned his command, and was succeeded by General Lake.

The British government upheld the Irish ministers. Early in 1797 the Prince of Wales wished the king and Pitt to send him to Ireland as lord-lieutenant to carry out a policy of concession. If he had been wholly different from what he was, such a step, though it would not perhaps have averted the coming rebellion, would have probably rendered it less formidable by detaching some of the leaders of the conspiracy. The prince was not a man to be trusted, and his offer was refused. The internal affairs of Ireland were not under English direction; the ministers knew nothing of them except through reports from the castle and left them to the Irish government. Addresses in favour of conciliation were moved in the lords by the prince's friend, Lord Moira, an Ulster magnate, and in the commons by Fox. They were resisted as attacks on the government and were rejected. Moira laid the excesses of the soldiers before the lords in November and again in February, 1798. The government refused to credit his accounts, or to interfere with the measures taken by the Irish ministers to suppress rebellion.The progress of the conspiracy was reported by informers, of whom there was no lack. Great preparations were, as we have seen, made in France for a possible invasion of England; the United Irishmen expected that the French would land in Ireland in the spring, and an organised army was ready to co-operate with them, under the command of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. The conspiracy was directed by a committee in Dublin. One of its leaders, Arthur O'Connor, a priest named O'Coighly, and three more were arrested at Margate while on their way to France to make further arrangements. O'Coighly was hanged for treason. Fox, Sheridan, and other members of the opposition bore witness to O'Connor's character, and he and the rest were acquitted. He was arrested on another charge and was sent to Dublin. After the rebellion he, in common with the other political prisoners, gave evidence as to the conspiracy, and they were eventually released. No government is worthy of the name that sits still and allows conspiracy to ripen unchecked. The Irish government did not do so. It adopted measures of repression which wrecked the plans of the conspirators and caused secret conspiracy to break prematurely into open rebellion. It was thus enabled to put an end to a prolonged state of danger before it could be augmented by the anticipated foreign invasion. It struck swiftly at the heads of the conspiracy. In pursuance of information from an officer of the rebel army named Reynolds, fifteen of them were arrested together in Dublin on March 12. Fitzgerald escaped for the time. A reward of £1,000 was offered for his detection, and in May his hiding-place was betrayed. He made a desperate resistance, mortally wounded one of the officers sent to take him, and was himself wounded in the arm. He was conveyed to prison, where he died on June 4.

The government having crushed the head of rebellion in Ulster, proceeded to combat it in the midland and southern counties, where it was distinctly a catholic movement. Officers were ordered to enforce disarmament by summary methods; martial law was established, and they were enjoined to distribute their troops at free quarters where arms were supposed to be concealed. Scenes of cruelty sickening to contemplate followed. As soon as a district was proclaimed, troops took up free quarters in it, burned every house where a weapon was discovered, shot men without trial of any kind, put many to cruel torture either on suspicion of concealing arms or to extort evidence, and excited the bitterest feelings of revenge by outrages on women, cutting the petticoats from the backs of girls who showed any sign of sympathy with rebellion, such as wearing, it might be accidentally, a green ribbon. Men were commonly tortured by floggings of fearful severity, or by half-hanging. In imitation of the French republicans, the rebel party cut their hair short, and it was a pastime with the soldiers to torture "croppies" by fixing a covering lined with hot pitch, a "pitch-cap," on their heads, which could not be removed without tearing the scalp. More than one man died under the lash, and one from fear of the torture. No name is more closely associated with these horrors than that of Thomas Judkin Fitzgerald, high-sheriff of Tipperary. Resolute, courageous, and energetic, he united with some fine qualities a violent temper and an insensibility to human suffering. Conspiracy was rife in Tipperary, and he was determined to stamp it out. One instance of his cruelties will suffice. A teacher of French named Wright was suspected of treason, and a note of a harmless kind, written in French, was found on him. Fitzgerald, who could not read it, brutally assaulted him, declared that he would have him first flogged and then shot; and failing to obtain a confession from him, caused him to receive 150 severe lashes and had him put in prison, where he lay for some days with his wounds uncared for. After the rebellion Wright sued him, and obtained £500 damages. Fitzgerald's severity and the courage with which he acted were effectual; Tipperary remained quiet. The government paid Wright's damages, and Fitzgerald's services were rewarded with a baronetcy.The conspirators intended to wait for a French invasion. Their organisation was deranged by the arrests of March 12. A plan was made for seizing the castle and occupying Dublin. The city was proclaimed and violent measures of repression were adopted. A new rebel executive was broken up by the arrest of two brothers named Sheares, who were eventually hanged as traitors. An outbreak of rebellion was certain; it was forced on prematurely by drastic measures of repression. Though nothing can excuse the barbarities perpetrated under the shield of so-called martial law, severe repression was certainly necessary. Without it the conspiracy would have continued to grow, and a rebellion coincident with a foreign invasion would have been in the highest degree dangerous. The rebels lost their leaders; their movements were paralysed in some districts and crippled in others; they saw no hope except in an immediate outbreak, and were driven to it by intolerable severities. So far the system pursued by the government was successful. Yet in some districts the terror and rage it excited stimulated rebellion, and when rebellion broke out led to horrible reprisals. The rising began on an appointed day, May 23. Attacks were made on the garrisons at Naas, Clane, and other places in Kildare. Nearly everywhere they were repulsed with heavy loss, the catholics among the militia and yeomanry behaving with perfect loyalty. It was a sanguinary struggle. The rebels surprised a detachment of the North Cork militia by night, and slaughtered them, killing many of them in their beds. The troops gave little quarter; rebels taken in arms were commonly flogged, shot, or hanged without trial. The citizens of Dublin, where the rebels had been thoroughly cowed by floggings and hangings, were zealous in preparing to defend their city. On the south-west small bodies of troops routed the rebels with heavy loss at Carlow and Hacketstown. The communications of Dublin were secured on the north by a loyalist victory at Tara, where, on the 26th, about 400 yeomanry and fencibles defeated ten times their number of rebels, and on the west by another victory. By the 31st the rebels in Meath, Kildare, and Carlow had lost all heart.

By that time rebellion had broken out in the county of Wexford. There it soon took the form of a religious war, though the catholic troops remained faithful to their colours. There were only 600 regular troops and militia in the county, the loyalist force being composed chiefly of yeomanry, who were generally protestants. With and without the approval of the magistrates, they had begun to practise the usual methods of enforcing disarmament, burning houses and flogging and half-hanging suspected persons, and though these severities had not as yet been practised so widely as in some other districts, they excited violent terror and resentment. Led by a priest, Father John Murphy, whose house or chapel had been burnt, the rebels defeated a small number of militia at Oulart, and attacked Enniscorthy with a force of about 7,000 men. There and elsewhere they drove horses and cattle in front of them to disorder the ranks of their opponents. After a stout defence the survivors of the little garrison fled to Wexford, whither the loyal inhabitants of the neighbourhood were flocking for protection. The rebel army, swelled to the number of 15,000, advanced on the town. An attempt to relieve it having failed, the garrison made terms and evacuated the place, which was occupied by the enemy on the 30th. The rebels chose Bagenal Harvey, a protestant gentleman and one of the United Irishmen, as commander-in-chief, and leaving a garrison in Wexford, established a camp on Vinegar hill. Hoping to penetrate into Carlow and join the rebels there and in Wicklow and Kildare, they detached 5,000 men to take Newtownbarry. Colonel L'Estrange, who commanded there, retreated with the garrison, and the rebels rushed into the place. He was soon persuaded to return, surprised them as they were pillaging, and routed them with the loss of only two men.

In the camp on Vinegar hill priests were dominant; mass was said every morning, and the fury of the people was excited by violent sermons. Protestants were brought in from the surrounding country, and all who did not receive "protections" from the priests were butchered, sometimes with ghastly cruelty. Though the priests often interfered to save the captives, it is probable that at least 400 were slain in the camp.[282] The prime object of the rebel leaders was to establish communication with other counties. Their plans were ruined by lack of discipline and organisation, as well as by the extraordinary gallantry of the loyalist troops. After some fighting a detachment of rebels took Gorey in the north of the county. Instead of pressing on into Wicklow, they remained there feasting and plundering the neighbourhood. At the same time a large body under Harvey marched on New Ross, with the object of opening communication with Kilkenny and Waterford, where they believed that thousands were ready to rise in arms.[283] The town was attacked at daybreak on June 5, and was defended by General Johnston and about 1,600 men against thousands of rebels. Again and again the garrison, beaten back for a time by sheer weight of numbers, rallied and steadily faced the enemy. Lord Mountjoy was killed as he led a charge of militia. The rebels fought desperately, but as a mere mob. After a fierce struggle of ten hours they turned and fled through the burning town. No quarter was given. At least 2,000 of them were slain. The loss on the loyalist side was 230. During the battle some rebels fled to Scullabogue House, where their army had left 224 prisoners, nearly all protestants, under a strong guard. They declared that the day was lost, that the garrison were slaughtering the catholics, and that Harvey had ordered that the prisoners should be killed. Thirty-seven were massacred at the hall door, and 184, including some women and children, were shut into a barn and burned to death. Out of the whole number only three escaped.

After his defeat at New Ross, Harvey, who tried in vain to check the savagery of his followers, was deposed from his command, and was succeeded by a priest named Philip Roche. The rebels at Gorey had been wasting their time. They were largely reinforced, and on the 9th some 10,000 men attacked Arklow. Its capture would have thrown open the road to Dublin. The garrison under General Needham numbered about 1,500, and had some cannon. Mainly owing to the splendid courage of the Durham fencibles they defeated the rebels, who were much discouraged by the fall of one of their priests, for they believed that he and some of their other priestly leaders could not be harmed by shot or sword. Their defeat decided the issue of the rebellion. It was almost confined to Leinster. Connaught remained quiet, and it scarcely touched Munster. In Ulster, the chief seat of the conspiracy, there were only two outbreaks, in Antrim and Down, which were easily suppressed. Severity had nipped rebellion in the bud. Nor was this the only reason for the comparative inaction of the province. The presbyterians, whose republican sympathies had led them to look to France and seek the support of the catholics against England, found France fail them again and again; and they were bitterly incensed against the catholics on hearing how in Wexford they made the rebellion a religious war and were torturing and massacring the protestants. Nor were French politics any longer such as to allure republicans, for France was rapidly tending towards military rule, and was bringing the republics she had founded into subjection to herself. Before long Ulster became, as it has since remained, thoroughly loyal to the crown.

The rebellion was defeated by the gallantry of the Irish loyalists and the few English troops which supported them. No help had as yet been sent from England. Decisive as the battle of Arklow proved to be, the Irish ministers believed that the rebellion was still likely to grow, and wrote urgently for reinforcements. Five regiments were despatched, and several militia regiments volunteered for service in Ireland. The crown could not accept their offer without the consent of parliament. The opposition in the commons raised objections, and were defeated by a large majority. On the 21st Lake, at the head of an army of over 13,000 men, attacked the rebels on Vinegar hill. After a short resistance they fled in confusion. Enniscorthy was taken, and the royal army marched on Wexford. When the rebels occupied Wexford on May 30, they behaved with comparative moderation. There was some pillaging, but few acts of violence were committed. Many protestants were imprisoned, and the rest were confined to their houses and lived in mortal terror, for the lower class of catholics showed a savage spirit which was only kept in check by their leaders. It broke out on June 20, when nearly all the armed rebels had marched out against the royal forces. Infuriated by the news of disasters, the mob, under the leadership of a ruffian named Dixon and his equally savage wife, slaughtered ninety-seven of the prisoners. The next day the rebels offered to surrender the town on terms. They believed that their offer was accepted, and surrendered before they heard that Lake refused it. The rebel leaders and all found guilty of murder were executed. Philip Roche and, in spite of his humane exertions, Harvey were among the number. The remains of the rebellion were stamped out with fearful severity. Many excesses were committed. Every execution was hailed with exultation by the victorious party. Cornwallis, who had succeeded Camden as lord-lieutenant in June, was disgusted with their bloodthirsty and vengeful spirit. Seconded by the chancellor, he obtained from parliament an act of general indemnity with special exceptions, and did all in his power to restrain the ferocity of the troops.

The rebellion left Ireland burdened with debt. Throughout wide districts the land lay waste, houses were in ashes, the peasants homeless and starving. Old racial and religious hatreds were revived and were strengthened a thousandfold by the barbarities perpetrated by both parties. If Ireland was ever to be at peace, if Celts and Saxons, catholics and protestants, were ever to dwell together as one people, it could only be by her acceptance of the control of a single imperial parliament. A legislative union had long been contemplated by Pitt and by other English statesmen. That Pitt deliberately planned and fostered the rebellion, as Irishmen have actually asserted, in order to carry out a union is a charge so monstrous as scarcely to demand serious refutation. It is enough to say that he would certainly not have chosen to have Ireland in rebellion at a time so critical for England as the spring of 1798. That the policy of the government both in England and Ireland, which certainly conduced to the rebellion, was to some extent swayed by the desire for union is probable.[284] That is quite another matter. The rebellion made union absolutely necessary, and while the rebels were still in arms, Pitt began to prepare for it. The history of the union must be deferred to our next chapter.

The rebels' hopes of help from France were bitterly disappointed. A serious invasion was impossible without command of the sea; only small expeditions could be sent out by stealth. On June 16 certain Irish conspirators represented that if a small expedition landed on the north-west coast the independence of Ireland might be secured. The directors determined to send one immediately.[285] It was long delayed, for the navy was in disorder. At last, on August 6, when the rebellion was over, and Ireland was full of troops, General Humbert sailed from Rochelle with eighty-two officers and 1,017 men, together with supplies and arms for the natives, in three frigates under the command of Captain Savary. The ships took a long route to avoid the British fleet, and did not arrive in Killala bay until the 20th. Killala, which had a garrison of only 200 men, was occupied, and Ballina was taken. The French were joined by a large number of Irish, delighted at receiving arms, clothes, and food. Many of these recruits deserted, carrying away their guns, and those who remained were of little use. General Hutchinson, who commanded in Connaught, advanced against the invaders. He was joined by Lake, and their forces amounted to over 5,000 men. Lake posted a detachment to guard Castlebar. Humbert avoided it by crossing the mountains, and on the 27th, after a march of fifteen hours engaged the British, though vastly inferior to them in number. The militia were seized with panic, and though the artillery behaved well, the army was utterly routed and fled in disorder leaving nine guns in the enemy's hands.After this shameful rout, called "the race of Castlebar," Cornwallis took the command in person at the head of a large army, and reached the neighbourhood of Castlebar on September 4. Early on that day Humbert left Castlebar to march on Sligo, for he heard that there were few troops in the counties of Sligo and Leitrim. He probably intended to maintain himself near the sea in order to meet reinforcements from France, and is said to have hoped to reach Dublin by a circuit to the north-east. Wild as this hope seems, it was encouraged by the news of insurrectionary movements. On reaching Colooney he was met by Colonel Vereker with a small force from Sligo, which he defeated after a smart engagement. He abruptly changed his course and marched to the south-east, either because he believed that Vereker's force was the vanguard of an army, or because he hoped to take advantage of a rebellion which had broken out in Granard, and of disaffection in Longford and Westmeath, and to reach Dublin through those counties.[286] On the 9th Lake attacked him with an overwhelming force at Ballinamuck, near Granard; Cornwallis was marching on his rear, and after a short resistance the French surrendered themselves prisoners. They then numbered ninety-six officers and 748 men. No terms were granted to their Irish allies of whom 500 are said to have been slain. The adventure, gallantry, and achievements of Humbert's little band form a notable episode in the military history of France. Their conduct was worthy of their country, for they committed no excesses. Killala was retaken from the rebels with great slaughter and the rebellion in Connaught was soon at an end.The expedition under General Hardy, which was to have sailed to support Humbert, was prevented from leaving Brest by the British fleet. From Dunkirk a brig got away on September 4, carrying Napper Tandy and some other United Irishmen, a few soldiers, and stores. Tandy persuaded the French that he was a man of importance in Ireland, and that if he appeared there the people would rise in arms; so the French made him a general, and gave him command of this little expedition. He reached the island of Aran, in Donegal, on the 16th, and heard of Humbert's failure. No one paid any heed to him. He read the letters in the post office, hoisted a green flag, got very drunk, and was carried back to the brig eight hours after landing. The brig sailed to the coast of Norway to avoid capture. Finally Tandy and some of his friends took refuge in Hamburg. The city delivered them up to the English and thereby incurred the wrath of Bonaparte. They were sentenced to death but were not executed, and Tandy was allowed to go to France, where he ended his days.

At last, on September 16th, Hardy succeeded in sailing out from the Raz with 4,000 troops for the relief of Humbert. They were carried in the Hoche (80) and nine smaller ships, under Admiral Bompard. The French took a wide course and arrived off Lough Swilly on October 10. They were met the next day by Sir John Warren with three ships of the line and five frigates. The French, who fought well, were overpowered. The Hoche and three of their frigates surrendered, and three more of their vessels were caught during the next few days. Only two frigates and a sloop returned to Brest. On the Hoche was Wolfe Tone, who had embarked as a French officer. He was tried by court-martial in Dublin and sentenced to be hanged. His request that he might die a soldier's death was refused; he cut his throat and died in prison. Of all the promoters of the rebellion he was, perhaps, the most talented, and was excelled by none either in courage or in whole-hearted devotion to the cause of Irish independence. One more attempt at invasion was made by Savary, who after landing Humbert's force had returned to France. Ignorant of the fate of Humbert's expedition, he sailed from Rochelle on October 12 with three frigates and a corvette, carrying 1,090 troops, and appeared off Killala on the 27th. There he heard of the failure of both Humbert and Bompard. He set sail again and was so hotly chased by some British ships that he threw guns, stores, and ammunition overboard.[287] His ships got away, though with some damage, and returned to Rochelle. So ended the French attempts on Ireland. If in the height of the rebellion a small expedition had succeeded, as Humbert did, in evading the British fleet and had landed in Ireland, it might have prolonged the struggle, but could not have changed its issue. Disorganisation and unreadiness prevented France from seizing the opportunity of doing even so much as that. In the face of England's superiority at sea the despatch of any large force would have ended in signal disaster. Independently of the risk of capture at sea, the little secret expeditions to which France was reduced were a mere waste of money.

Bonaparte sailed from Toulon on May 19, intending to take Malta, conquer Egypt, despoil England of her power and commerce in the east, and gain for France exclusive possession of the Red sea. He had with him 35,000 troops, and a fleet, which finally amounted to thirteen ships of the line, fourteen frigates, and a vast number of smaller vessels, under the subordinate command of Admiral Brueys. Malta was surrendered by the knights of St. John. Bonaparte took Alexandria on July 2, and defeated the Mamelukes in the battle of the Pyramids on the 21st. Lower Egypt was conquered. As the port of Alexandria was unsuitable for his fleet, Brueys stationed it in Abukir bay, near the Rosetta mouth of the Nile, in order to guard the rear of the army. So far Bonaparte's schemes were successful. But they had been formed without taking the British navy into account. Nelson again entered the Mediterranean. Acting on orders from the admiralty, St. Vincent sent him thither, and by June 7 he was in command of thirteen ships of seventy-four, and the Leander of fifty guns. He at once began a long search for the French fleet, in which he was hindered through lack of frigates to do scouting work. He anchored off Naples on the 17th, and believing that the enemy would attack Sicily, passed through the straits of Messina, and sailed along the east of the island. He was off Alexandria on the 28th, two days before the French arrived there, then he searched the Levant, and returned to Sicily for supplies on July 19. On the 25th he put to sea again, sailed along the coast of the Morea, and finally on August 1 discovered the enemy in Abukir bay. The French fleet was anchored in line on the western side of the bay, with wide shoals between it and the shore. It was sheltered by Abukir (now Nelson's) island and its rocks, and its leading ship was pretty close to the shoal off the island. It was composed of thirteen ships of the line and four frigates, and was much superior to Nelson's in the size of the ships and weight of metal. Some of the ships, however, were worn out, and many of their crews were not seamen.

Though Troubridge's ship, the Culloden, and two others were not with the main body, Nelson would not delay his attack, and at 5.30 P.M. formed his line of battle, the wind being N.N.W. and blowing down the French line. Very skilfully the British ships were taken round the island and the shoals. They then swept round, and steering to the south-west headed for the French van about 6.30, led by the Goliath under Captain Foley. Near as the leading French ship, the Guerrier (74), was to the shoal, Foley passed across her bows, and engaged the next ship, the ConquÉrant (74), on the inshore side. Hood followed with the Zealous, and anchored by the Guerrier, and three more engaged on the enemy's port side, Nelson's ship, the Vanguard, and the two next attacking on the outside. Eight British ships set on the five of the French van, the two others engaged two Frenchmen of much larger size in the centre, and one of them, the Bellerophon, was dismasted and drifted off. Later two of the missing ships of Nelson's squadron and the Leander came into action; the Culloden having struck on a rock off the island, remained aground. By that time the French van was crushed, and the battle raged round the centre. Brueys fell, and soon afterwards his ship, the Orient (120), caught fire. Her assailants poured so fierce a storm of shot upon her that her crew could not get the fire under. The summer night was lightened by the sheet of flame which wrapped her from the water-line to the mast-heads. The fire reached her magazine, and the great ship blew up with a terrific explosion. During the fight Nelson was badly wounded in the forehead. He was soon on deck again, and sent boats to pick up the survivors of the crew of the Orient. The British victory was completed in the morning, and never was victory so complete. Of seventeen French ships two were burnt besides the Orient, one sank, nine were taken, and only two ships of the line and two frigates escaped.[288] Great was the rejoicing in England at the news of the battle of the Nile. Nelson was raised to the peerage as Baron Nelson of the Nile and Burnham Thorpe; other honours were conferred on him both at home and by foreign sovereigns, and parliament voted him a pension of £2,000 a year for two lives.

The king's speech on November 20 described the victory as foiling an enterprise against the most valuable interests of the British empire, and as likely to lead other powers to combine for the general deliverance of Europe. Let us trace its effects under these two headings. Bonaparte's conquest of Egypt was designed to be a step towards the overthrow of British power and commerce in the east. He found himself shut up in his conquest. Great ideas presented themselves to him. He would take Constantinople, and conquer Europe by a flank attack. He would be a second Alexander, and after another Issos would drive the English from India. Already French envoys were inciting TipÚ SultÁn to war. From the shores of the Red sea Bonaparte wrote to bid him expect his army. The letter was seized by a British ship. Nelson's victory encouraged the sultan, Selim III., the nominal lord of Egypt, to declare war. A Turkish army and fleet were assembled at Rhodes, and another army in Syria. Bonaparte did not wait to be attacked in Egypt. The conquest of Syria would deprive the British fleet of its source of supplies in the Levant, and would open the way to a conquest either of Constantinople or Delhi.[289] On February 15, 1799, he captured El Arish, and on March 6 took Jaffa by storm. Then with an army weakened by disease and fighting, he marched on Acre. There he again had to meet a British sea-captain.

After his distinguished service at Toulon, and some later employment, Sir Sidney Smith, in 1795, was appointed to the command of some small vessels with which he did much damage to the enemy off the Norman coast. He was taken prisoner in 1796 and kept in France for eighteen months. He escaped in 1798 with the help of a royalist officer of engineers, Colonel PhÉlypeaux, was sent to Constantinople as joint-plenipotentiary with his brother, and, Nelson being at Naples, became senior naval officer in the Levant. Acre, as the best harbour on the Syrian coast, was specially important to British maritime supremacy in those waters. So long as it remained uncaptured, Bonaparte could not advance, for the door would be left open to an attack on his rear. If he took the place, he believed that Syria would rise against Djezzar, its Turkish ruler. The fortifications were weak, but Nelson's victory deprived him of the power of investing it by sea. Smith sent his friend, PhÉlypeaux, in the Theseus (74) to teach the Turks how to strengthen the place, and followed himself in the Tigre (74). On March 18 he intercepted a French flotilla with the artillery, ammunition, and stores on which Bonaparte depended for the siege. They were brought into Acre; the French were left only with field-pieces, and it was not until April 25 that they could bring up heavy guns from Jaffa. Much fierce fighting took place between the Turks and the French; and the British ships kept up a constant fire on the French in their lines and whenever they advanced to attack. Smith, who was given to vapouring, was offended by some communication from Bonaparte, and sent him a challenge to which Bonaparte replied that he would fight when the English sent a Marlborough to meet him.

Bonaparte's victory over the Turks at Mount Tabor seemed a great step towards conquest. All depended on the fate of Acre. At last on May 7 the Turkish fleet from Rhodes hove in sight. It was becalmed, and the French made a desperate attempt to storm the place before the reinforcements could arrive. They effected a lodgment, but Smith landed his seamen who helped to drive them out with their pikes, and they fell back with heavy loss. On the 20th Bonaparte raised the siege which had cost him nearly 5,000 men by war and sickness. Smith received the thanks of parliament and a pension of £1,000 a year. Though vainglorious and arrogant, he conducted the defence of Acre with sound judgment as well as with energy and courage. By weary marches through the desert, Bonaparte led his army back to Egypt, where he defeated an invasion of Turks. Smith sent him a bundle of newspapers, and from them he received tidings which determined him to leave his army and return to France. Before we enter on the European events which chiefly led to his return, let us see how the ruin of his plan of eastern conquest, the fruit of Nelson's victory, affected the British rule in India.By reducing the resources of TipÚ in 1792 Cornwallis believed that he was establishing a balance of power in India which would enable the English to adopt a policy of nonintervention. This policy was pursued both by him and his successor, Sir John Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth. It was defeated through the revival of French influence. The nizÁm put his army under French officers who held a large part of his territories and paid their troops out of their revenues. Daulat RÁo Sindhia, the strongest of the MarÁthÁ lords, also employed French officers and was inclined to help TipÚ rather than the English. From neither of these powers, which were in alliance with the company in Cornwallis's war with TipÚ, could any help be expected in a fresh struggle with him; and as in 1797 TipÚ proposed an alliance with France against the English, a struggle could not be far off. In October of that year Pitt's friend, Lord Mornington, was appointed governor-general. On the day that he reached Madras, in April, 1798, TipÚ received a French force from Mauritius. Mornington at once persuaded the nizÁm to enter into a subsidiary treaty by which he agreed to dismiss his French officers and to form a close alliance with the company. The Frenchmen were made prisoners and his army was placed under British officers. Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt encouraged TipÚ in his hostility, for he expected that a French army would shortly appear in India. This hope was frustrated by Nelson's victory. Nevertheless, he believed that the time would come when he would be able to co-operate with a French invasion; he tried to play a waiting game, and evaded the British attempts at pacification. Mornington determined to put an end to his subterfuges, and, in February, 1799, ordered an invasion of Mysore under General Harris, the governor of Madras. Harris's army was joined by the army of the nizÁm, and, on March 27, routed TipÚ at Malvalli, the left wing of the British, which consisted mainly of the nizÁm's contingent, being under the command of Mornington's brother, Sir Arthur Wellesley, afterwards Duke of Wellington. Seringapatam was taken by storm and TipÚ was slain. Mornington, who was created Marquis Wellesley, partitioned Mysore, set up a youthful rÁjÁ, and placed him under British protection.

While Nelson's victory enabled Englishmen to uphold the power and interests of their country in the east, it led also to a second coalition against France. Already mistress of the Batavian, Cisalpine, and Ligurian republics, France occupied Rome in February, 1798, drove out Pius VI., and founded a Roman republic. In August, the Helvetic republic, established partly by intrigue and partly by force, in place of the Swiss confederation, became her dependent ally. The German empire was hopelessly divided, Piedmont was in process of annexation, Naples was threatened. Yet the power of France was not so great as it seemed. Among the peoples of the new republics many resented the destruction of their old independent governments. Pitt poured money from the secret service funds into the hands of agents, who in every country of Europe recruited for the interest of England. He seems generally to have received a good return, except in Holland, where the democratic party remained strong. In other lands the rising feeling against France was of no small importance in the coming struggle.

Paul, the Russian tsar, was deeply offended by the capture of Malta, for he had a romantic predilection for the order of St. John, of which he constituted himself the protector. The eastward advance of the French seemed to threaten the spread of republicanism to his dominions and the revival of trouble in Poland. Encouraged by Nelson's victory, he incited the Porte to declare war on France, sent ships to act with the British and Portuguese squadrons in the Mediterranean, and formed a defensive alliance with the Turks to which England acceded.[290] He tried in vain to induce the courts of Berlin and Vienna to combine against France, and appears to have made a secret treaty with Austria concerning the passage of troops, for some 60,000 Russians were soon marching towards the Danube.[291] Pitt eagerly took advantage of the tsar's disposition. Grenville promised a subsidy if the tsar would enter on the war as a principal,[292] and on November 16 bade Sir Charles Whitworth, the British ambassador at St. Petersburg, propose a coalition between England, Russia, Austria, and Prussia to support Naples, re-establish Austria in Italy, drive the French from Holland, the Belgian Netherlands, Switzerland, and Savoy, and join the Netherlands to Holland to form a strong barrier state.[293] Frederick William III., who succeeded his father in 1797, would not be moved from his neutrality. Russia was only waiting for the arrangement of a subsidy. With Austria there were difficulties. The emperor, disgusted with the greediness of France, was fully determined on war, but wanted a loan of £2,000,000. As England had lost by former transactions with Austria, Pitt would make no further promise until existing obligations had been fulfilled.[294] Besides, the imperial minister Thugut was anxious for delay; he hoped that the directory would be crushed by its own difficulties, and in any case was unwilling to move without the co-operation of Prussia, or before Russia could enter on the campaign. He had formed a defensive alliance between Austria and the Two Sicilies, or Naples, on May 19, but declared that Austria would only support Naples if France was the aggressor, and would give no help if Naples began the war.[295]

His plans were disconcerted by the action of Ferdinand IV. of Naples. After the battle of the Nile the British fleet in the Mediterranean was broken up and employed in different directions. Nelson himself sailed to Naples, was received as its deliverer, and was ensnared by the charms of Emma, the wife of Sir William Hamilton, the British minister. She was a woman of low birth, and in her youth had entered on an immoral life. Though grown stout she was still beautiful, and her considerable natural talents had been improved by Charles Greville, under whose protection she had lived. He passed her over to Hamilton, who married her in 1791. Queen Maria Caroline made a favourite of her, and used her for political ends, for the queen was anxious for British help against the French and the Neapolitan republicans. Under court and female influences, Nelson, who had been ordered to protect Naples, came to consider its fortunes as of the first importance. The queen, far bolder and more energetic than her husband, was bent on war. Mack, the Austrian strategist, took command of the army, and by Nelson's advice Ferdinand declared war on France. Nelson assisted the operations by carrying troops to Leghorn. Ferdinand entered Rome in triumph on November 29. His triumph was short-lived; the Neapolitans were routed by the French, and Naples was threatened. On December 23 the king and queen and their court took refuge on board Nelson's ship, the Vanguard, and her companions, and Nelson conveyed them to Palermo and remained with them there. The French occupied Naples and the Parthenopean republic was established on the mainland of the Two Sicilies. Among other operations in the Mediterranean a small British force took Minorca from the Spaniards in November without the loss of a man, and British and Portuguese ships blockaded Valetta and compelled the surrender of Gozo. In order to avoid offending the tsar, or exciting the jealousy of the Austrian or Neapolitan courts, England renounced all desire for conquest either as regards Malta, where she proposed that the knights should be re-established, or the Adriatic, where Turkish and Russian ships were attacking the French in the former possessions of Venice.[296]

The ill-advised action of Ferdinand of Naples, for which Nelson was largely responsible, caused some embarrassment to the English government, and Grenville anxiously assured Thugut that England was not responsible for it.[297] At the same time it hastened the formation of the second coalition. A treaty of close alliance with Naples was signed by Russia on November 29, and another by the Porte on December 23, to which Great Britain acceded on January 2.[298] England further made a treaty with Russia on December 29 by which the tsar agreed to furnish 45,000 men to act against France in co-operation with Prussia, and England promised a subsidy of £225,000 for initial expenses and £75,000 a month afterwards. Thomas Grenville was sent to Berlin to act with Count Panin in persuading Frederick William to join the coalition. The king refused; the treaty with Russia was modified by a mutual agreement that the Russian troops should be employed as seemed most advantageous to both powers, and the English government suggested that they should act with the Austrians in Switzerland.[299] Austria was soon forced to abandon her temporising policy. A corps of 25,000 Russians was encamped on the Danube. France demanded their expulsion from Austrian territory, and that, as Thugut said, meant war.[300] On February 28 Jourdan crossed the Rhine with 40,000 men. The second coalition of which England was the soul was a direct result of the battle of the Nile.England was successful alike in arms and diplomacy. She had crushed a long-threatened rebellion and had been unharmed by attempts at invasion. Her fleet had vindicated her naval supremacy in the Mediterranean; Bonaparte's great design against her commerce and power in the east had utterly failed, and she had succeeded for the second time in forming a coalition against the common enemy. Though she was burdened with taxation and debt, and suffering from the evils of a prolonged war, her commerce was increasing and sedition was virtually extinct. In one quarter only is an almost insignificant failure to be recorded. The attempt to conquer San Domingo with insufficient forces, in which the government had persevered since 1793, was abandoned. Animated by republican sentiments, the negroes raised a large army under a former slave, Toussaint l'Ouverture. The small British force at Port-au-Prince could make no head against them, and was withdrawn in 1798. France shortly afterwards withdrew her forces, and Toussaint remained virtually master of the island. England's failure entailed no real loss. She acknowledged the neutrality of San Domingo, and Toussaint opened its ports to her commerce and prevented France from using them for privateering purposes.

[281] DesbriÈre, Projets de DÉbarquement, i., 387-90.