had thrown the King of Prussia, the Duke of Brunswick and Count Haugwitz into a state of profound alarm for the safety of North Germany. When the conference at Seltze terminated without result, war between Austria and France seemed to be inevitable. And during the Duke of Brunswick's visit to Potsdam in September for the military reviews, he and Haugwitz succeeded in persuading Frederick William that the course of events might soon enable him, without much risk, to take a bolder line for the assertion of Prussian interests. In order to pave the way for the movement contemplated, they had recourse to the resident minister of Russia, Count Panin. The Duke cautiously inquired of Panin whether in the negotiations for a coalition, the question of new territorial arrangements at the conclusion of peace had been considered. Haugwitz opened his mind more freely in several unofficial conversations. The only object, he said, that could induce Prussia, in the absence of direct provocation from France, to depart from an attitude of neutrality, was the expulsion of French troops from Holland. But even for this object, Prussia would not move until hostilities had actually begun between Austria and France. "It remains to know," he invariably concluded, "what price England attaches to this work; what help she would give to facilitate it." Panin enclosed a note of these remarks in a letter to Count Woronzow, dated October 18, for the consideration of Lord Grenville. Following close on Panin's letter we have a scheme of operations in Holland for the restoration of the Prince of Orange by the combined action of Great Britain and Prussia, drawn up by the Duke of Brunswick. This plan, dated October 22, is prefaced by a declaration that Prussia would not abandon its system of neutrality until Austria and her allies had declared war against France; and then only as intervening for the restoration of general peace, on terms previously agreed on by England, Prussia, Russia and Austria.1 It did not, however, suit British purposes in the existing posture of affairs to enter into any separate engagement with Prussia. Lord Grenville wrote to Count Woronzow on November 2 that it was only by joining to form a Quadruple Alliance that Prussia could derive benefit from the £2,000,000, which was all Great Britain had to give to foreign powers. But he used the information

supplied by Panin in drafting new proposals which Sir Charles Whitworth was instructed in a most secret letter, dated November 16, to submit to the Czar.1

A continental war being now imminent, these instructions ran, the King of Prussia showed an inclination to intervene, but not till after hostilities had begun, for the purpose of expelling the French from Holland. England would aid him in this work to the utmost of her power. He wished, however, to have the general aims of the coalition, and the particular aims of each member of it, ascertained and agreed on beforehand. The British Government therefore requested the Czar to formulate the articles of a Quadruple Alliance, and present them in a complete shape for acceptance at Vienna and Berlin. Grenville suggested as leading provisions of this treaty, the reduction of France to her limits before the Revolution; the independence of Switzerland; union of Holland and Belgium under the Prince of Orange; the restoration of the kingdom of Sardinia and of Germanic integrity. Austria should, he thought, be content with the recovery of Lombardy, and the King of Prussia should be asked to state what acquisitions he had in view. The co-operation of Austria and Prussia could only be secured by the Czar guaranteeing to each the observance by the other of the conditions agreed upon; and the British Government would send a special envoy to Germany to support his proposals. Before, however, this communication reached the Czar, news received at Berlin that Austria had opened fresh negotiations with France, through the mediation of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and had stopped the Russian army advancing to aid her, checked a growing inclination in the King of Prussia to quit the safe ground of neutrality.

British interests at Constantinople had been hitherto so insignificant as only to require a diplomatic mission of the lowest rank. But Turkey's quarrel with France and alliance with England opened such a prospect of political influence, and expanded trade to the Levant, that in November Lord Grenville sent Lord Elgin, at his own request, as British Minister to the Sublime Porte, with the rank and appointments he had held at Berlin. Some weeks later Sir Sidney Smith, after many objections had been overcome, started for the Turkish capital in

1 Page 377.

order to concert operations with the Porte and M. Tomara, the Russian resident minister, before proceeding to take command of a naval squadron then blockading the Nile. His letters to Grenville in January-March, 1799, contain interesting accounts of his reception by the Sultan and other incidents arising out of his mission to the East.1 Colonel Koehler's departure was delayed still longer, partly by obstruction at the Horse Guards,2 and partly by sanguine anticipations, nourished by rumours of Bonaparte's death, of the ruin of the French expedition. Dundas wrote to Grenville on December 13 to remonstrate against the folly of accepting mere conjecture for ascertained fact. His letter announced an intention of sending Colonel Maitland to Suez to report on the feasibility of despatching British troops from India to Egypt by the Red Sea; a project afterwards accomplished with splendid results.

At Naples the presence of Nelson's fleet had thrown the direction of affairs into the hands of the war party, led by the Queen. General Mack taking advantage of the enfeebled and dispersed state of the French army in the ecclesiastical States, crossed the border in November, at the head 40,000 men, and occupied Rome. The enemy, hastily concentrating under Generals Championnet and Macdonald, drove back the Neapolitans to the line of the Volturno. Though this position was very strong, Mack, losing heart, gave it up on ignominious conditions, and had to fly to the French camp from the fury of his troops. The King and Queen of the Two Sicilies embarked by night on Nelson's flagship, and were carried over to Sicily. The Neapolitan army disbanded. The lazzaroni defended Naples with splendid valour; but though they saved the city from being plundered, they could not save the monarchy; and Naples became the capital of the Parthenopian Republic. Austria, in spite of the Czar's remonstrances, looked on while the Kings of Sardinia and the Two Sicilies were stripped of all their Italian dominions. Baron Thugut, not being as yet ready for war, would not allow his hand to be forced.

On December 30 the Czar replied to Lord Grenville's last proposals. He had spared no effort, he said, to form a strong

Pages 437, 443, 476, 480, 491.

2 George Canning to Lord Grenville, November, 1798. Page 356.

$ Page 413.

4 Page 427.

coalition against France. (1) By offering to mediate between Great Britain and Austria. He still hoped the British Government would not reject his friendly suggestions for an accommodation of its differences with the Emperor, whose aid could not be dispensed with. (2) By sending an army to support the King of Naples. (3) By asking the King of Prussia to join in forming a Quadruple Alliance, on the following conditions. That, in consideration of his acting against the French in Holland, he should have the aid of 45,000 Russian infantry, besides cavalry and artillery, for the support of which force Great Britain would advance £900,000, namely £225,000 for preparation and the remainder at the rate of £37,000 a month; that Holland and Belgium should be united under the rule of the Prince of Orange; that the King should be at liberty to enlarge his dominions by acquisitions from France. Austria had consented to these last articles. For the rest, the Czar approved generally of the territorial settlement recommended by Lord Grenville, but would not limit the Emperor to the recovery of Lombardy lest he should find it more for his interest to come to terms with France. The Pope also, he said, must be restored. He had pressed Austria to defer hostilities no longer; and he declared himself ready to take any further step for the advancement of their common aims the British Government might suggest.

Lord Grenville had already despatched his brother, Mr. Thomas Grenville, as Minister Plenipotentiary to Berlin to support the Russian proposals. But this mission was much impeded by contrary winds, and weather of extraordinary severity. At a first attempt in December to reach Cuxhaven, Mr. Grenville found the German coast completely ice-bound, and the ship, after beating about for nine days on a stormy sea, returned to Yarmouth. A second voyage in the beginning of February proved still more perilous. Floating blocks of ice, swept down the current of the Elbe, caught the vessel and wrecked it on a sand-bank. The passengers and crew made their way over a frozen sea to the little island of Nework; and thence, by walking for six hours, in intense frost, through water which gradually rose above their waists, reached Cuxhaven with little loss of life. Mr. Grenville managed to save most of his official papers, but

1 Thomas Grenville to Lord Grenville, December 29. Page 426.

recovered none of his personal effects for some weeks afterwards.1 When he arrived at Berlin on February 17, the Czar's proposals were still under the consideration of the Prussian Government; Count Panin having orders to quit that capital if they were not accepted. Count Haugwitz and Count Finchenstein, feebly sustained by the Duke of Brunswick, supported them against the opposition of the King's family and the majority of his advisers, of his personal scruples, and of national sentiment. It will be remembered that they carried Prussia much farther and faster on the road to hostilities with France, than Frederick William had consented to go in the overtures made to the British Government through Count Panin. They meant a repudiation by Prussia of the treaty of Basle, without any preliminary explanation with the French Directory; and concert with Austria for the indefinite aggrandizement of that power, Prussia's rival and natural enemy in Germany. During the struggle of parties Haugwitz's supremacy in the department of foreign affairs had been severely shaken. When it became known that he inclined towards a breach with France, the peace party, headed by Prince Henry, which had hitherto given him his staunchest adherents, conspired to overthrow him. A charge of encouraging the patriotic aspirations of Poland brought against Prince Radzivill, who had married into the Royal family of Prussia, afforded a pretext to the Prince's relatives for accusing Haugwitz of misconduct in office. Count Schulemberg also, an old and able antagonist, whom Haugwitz had supplanted in the post of Foreign Secretary by advocating peace when Schulemberg advocated war, now turned his successful tactics against himself. Haugwitz, however, found no difficulty in exculpating himself to the King; but though still able to rely on his sovereign's favour, the unsteady sympathy of the Duke of Brunswick, and the fear inspired by the Czar, as sustaining forces, he had forfeited the confidence of powerful classes. And the equivocal conduct of the Austrian Government, which had abandoned the Kings of Sardinia and Naples to their fate, and had renewed secret negotiations with the French Directory through the Minister of the Cisalpine Republic at Vienna, while openly urging the King of Prussia to

1 Thomas Grenville to Lord Grenville, December 29, 1798; January 27. February 3, 7, 19, 23, 1799.

2 Thomas Grenville to Lord Grenville, February 28, 1799.

3 Prince of Orange to Lord Grenville, December 7 and 10, 1798.