in the Dutch to twice that number, They were the choicest of their seamen. The vast diminution of their commercial shipping had enabled them to select, out of the numerous hands dismissed from the merchant service, the very best only that offered. The circumstance which may be said to have laid the foundation of this victory, and which does equal honour to the courage and skill of admiral Duncan, was, his running his fleet between the enemy and a lee shore: a step which, we be lieve, no other admiral had ever dared to take before, in similar circumstances. The admiral's judgement, in closing the contest in proper time, and in extricating his fleet and prizes from so difficult a situation, was equal to his boldness in hazarding so decisive a measure. The battle was fought so near the shore that every manoeuvre might be distinctly seen; and the whole coast, for many miles, was crouded with thousands of spectators, who had the mortification of observing the entire destruction of their fleet, without the possibility of affording it any relief. This splendid victory was warded by the most general and lively joy, admiration and gratitude, from the king on the throne to the very beggar in the street. His merit, it was observed, was in proportion to the difficulties he was forced to encounter. His perse verance had been tried in a cold climate, on a stormy sea, and in a contest with a hardy, rugged, and resolute people. But there was another circumstance that endeared admiral Duncan to all men, and prepared them to participate in his fortune. He was not only a brave and skilful officer, but a modest, religious, and good man, and had, lately, had occasion to signalize all these qualities, as shall, by and by, be related. This proved a victory of the most acknowledged importance to Great Britain. It extinguished, at once, all the remaining hopes of the French to make that impressive attempt upon Ireland, from which they had conceived such expectations. Nor was it Ireland alone on which they had built the most decisive projects. England was no less a part, if it was not, in fact, the principal object in their view, under the avowed plan of carrying their arms into the sister kingdom. What renders this surmise, which was, in truth, the opinion of many, at this time, not in the least improbable, a pamphlet had been written in France, under the auspices of the directory, and published by their orders, which had been, during the summer, circulated with uncommon industry. It was an address to the French nation at large, inviting, and exhorting. it to revenge upon the English. "England, the directory said, was the richest country in the world, and they would give it up to the French to be plundered by them. You shall march, said the address, to the capital of that haughty nation; you shall seize the immense heaps of gold in the bank of London; the prodigious wealth contained in their shops, their warehouses, and their magazines; the riches contained in their gilded palaces and their stately mansions; the accumulations of public and private property; the treasures, in short, of every species that are to be found in that opulent country, and you will return to [H 3] France France loaded with the spoils of the English." This curious address concluded by assuring them, that whatever they took should be their own, and that government would require no participation in the plunder of England. They should be supplied with arms and ammunition for this great undertaking, and with vessels to carry them over. Once landed, they would soon find the way to London, and their prowess would atchieve all the rest. This publication, which made much noise at the time, was very acceptable to the mass of the people, whose hatred to the English has always been notorious, and numbers had actually resolved to join an expedition of this nature; but the sober-minded strongly condemned a proclamation, for such it was in reality, calling upon men to enter into so frantic an undertaking, as that of one nation rising in a body to plunder another, divided from it by the sea, guarded by fleets that had vanquished their own, and destroyed all their commerce, and that was, at the same time, fuller of resolute and disciplined men than they had shipping enough to bring over, had the project, held out to them, existed in the real contemplation of their rulers. But there was another scheme, on foot at this time, which, though by the intelligent world esteemed impracticable, did not, however, carry the appearance of such extravagance as the former. This was to collect as large an army as they could provide ships to transport to this country, and to invade it at several places They did not seem to apprehend much obstruction to the landing of this army, when dis tributed into various parts, every one of which, being considerable, would require an adequate force to oppose it. They dwelt, also, with particular confidence, on the superior experience, and soldiership of the men that would be employed in an enterprize of such importance, and on the ignorance in practical war of the English soldiery, whose native courage was not superior to that of the French, while their total unacquaintance with the reality of those scenes, in the representation of which they might excel, did not en: title them to a comparison with ve terans. Such were the ideas of the many individuals in France, that looked for. ward to an attempt of this nature, with no small degree of confidence. The government itself, whether of their opinion, or with a view to create an alarm in this country, formally gave them countenance. Numerous forces were collected, on which was bestowed the appellation of the army of England. It was put under the command of Buonaparte; and, it was not doubted, that the fame of this conqueror of Italy would strike the English with terror, as it had done so many others, and that the same success would attend him which he had constantly met with, in all his enterprizes. It was, therefore, a great mortification to the directory, to see their principal design rendered abortive. The means of executing it, were now taken out of their hands, as, without a maritime force, it were vain to attempt an attack of England. They had certainly incurred a large expence in preparations. The troops assembled in various parts of the republic, avowedly for the same predicament in which they represented the English, very few of their troops, at that time, having ever seen actual service. They would not surely have the vanity to think, the English their inferiors in bodily strength and activity, nor possessed of iess aptitude to acquire the knowledge of military discipline and tactics. this purpose, formed a total of little less than one hundredthousand men, and every appearance indicated, that nothing but a conviction of the unsurmountable difficulties attending it would put a stop to the undertaking. The directory saw these; but, unwilling to discourge the multitude, by acknowledging that the two great victories, gained by admirals Jervis and Duncan, had But setting these particular conwholly disconcerted their projects, siderations aside, Europe was thothey still continued to wear the roughly persuaded, that unless France semblance of a determination to per- could recover a greater degree or sist, at all hazards, in a fixed resolve maritime strength, than that to which to try the strength of the English, it was now reduced, all its attempts in England itself. Such were the to invade this country would either words of the directory, and of their be frustrated, or, in the issue of a supporters, both in and out of the debarkation, terminate in the defeat councils. Arguments, for the pro- and capture of those troops that bability of success, were copiously might venture to land, either fadrawn from the sources of ancient voured by the casualties of weather, and modern history: but they af- or by the absence of those numerous forded nothing convincing to judi- ships of war that guarded the British cious observers: as the resemblances coast, but of which the vigilance of times and circumstances were far could not, in the nature of things, from apposite, no strict inferences extend to every accessible part. could be drawn, and only conjec- These landings, in the mean time, tures formed, according, as usual, could only succeed through stealth; with the wishes of those who made the moment they were effected, them. The warmth of the French the ships of war and transports, in describing the multifarious means must, of necessity, make off with they would employ to compass the the utmost precipitation, lest they great point of landing, was contrast- should be discovered and captured; ed with the coolness of the Euglish, a fate which they would hardly in allowing its feasibility, but in ever escape. Thus cut off from urging, at the same time, the pro- communication, and supplies, their bability, or rather, the certainty of troops, ashore, could not fail to unno force being put on shore, that dergo a similar destiny, would not have to encounter one much greater, and better provided. The circumstance of being inexperienced, so much insisted on by the French, was held frivolous by the English, when they recollected how well the French themselves bad behaved, in the campaign of 1792, notwithstanding that they were in It was, therefore, with great reason, that the public, in Great Britain, testified their exultation at the triumphs obtained by the British navy, and expressed their contempt for the endeavours of the French to lessen their importance, and to magnify their own capacity, to exe cute their designs against this coun [H4] try. try, in defiance of its naval superiority. To the sense of the nation, and the universal applause bestowed upon admiral Duncan for the eminent service rendered to it by his great victory, on the eleventh of October, the government added that remuneration which he so amply deserved. He was raised to the dignity of the peerage, and the title of viscount Camperdown conferred upon him, from that town on the Dutch shore, in sight of which the fleet of the Batavian republic had received so signal a defeat. The people of the Seven Provinces now experienced, more than ever, the calamities brought upon them by their junction with France, or rather by their subjection to that ambitious power, which they had been rightly forewarned would compel them to become the instruments of its views, as soon as they should be so unfortunate as to be obliged to depend on its good faith and protection. CHAP. CHAP. VIII. Meeting of Parliament.-His Majesty's Speech.-Debates on the Address in the House of Lords.-And in the House of Commons.- French Invasion threatened.-Measures proposed by the Minister, for the Defence of the Country.-Debates thereon in both Houses of Parliament. Bills for augmenting the Militia, Army, and Navy, passed into Law's, -Bill passed into a Law for raising a Militia in Scotland. O N the sixth of October, 1796. his Britannic majesty addressed a new parliament on the state of the nation, in both its external and internal relations, and the correspondent measures of his government. He told them, that he had omitted no endeavours for setting on foot negociations to restore peace to Europe, and to secure, for the future, the general tranquillity. But nothing, he observed, could contribute so effectually to this end, as to manifest that we possess, both the determination and resources to oppose with encreased activity and energy, the farther efforts with which we may have to contend. This was peculiarly necessary at a moment when the enemy had openly manifested the intention of attempting a descent on these kingdoms. The flourishing state and prosperous exertions of the navy were next noticed, and our military operations in the East and West Indies, which had been highly honourable to the British arms. Speaking of the fortune of the war on the continent, his majesty took an opportunity, with the most perfect propriety, to pay a public tribute of praise to the archduke Charles, under whose auspicious conduct such a turn had lately been given to the course of the war, as might inspire a well-grounded confidence, that the final result of the campaign would prove more disastrous to the enemy than its commencement and progress, for a time, were favourable to their hopes. With regard to the apparently hostile dispositions and conduct of the court of Madrid, the final result of these was yet uncertain. His majesty proceeded to notice the flourishing state of the commerce, manufactures, and revenue of this country; the prospect of returning plenty; the repression of anarchy and confusion; and the continuance of the public tranquillity. An address to his majesty, in answer to the speech from the throne, was moved by the Earl of Bathurst, who, after customary apologies for himself, and some observations on the importance of the subject on which he was about to offer a motion to their lordships, |