England's progress, 1793-1921
***** v^* , o » \/ 1 •lilr* > v ••••- /•cr *°* °o. voV* 'oK' v^O* ' %• 4>v t* A*^ W .vsflfek \/ •<**• >bV* & ^'- "^.^ V> »V^ -J a*v<v v^V v™V v*™V ' ENGLAND'S PROGRESS 1793-1921 B. W. ARNOLD, Jr., A.M., Ph.D. Professor of History Randolph-Macon Woman's College BOSTON RICHARD G. BADGER THE GORHAM PRESS Copyright, 1922, by Richard G. Badger All Rights Reserved Made in the United States of America Press of J. J. Little & Ives Company, New York, U. S. A. DEC .18 72 ©C1A692445 To MY WIFE PREFACE This brief survey of England's Progress during the past century is based on secondary sources. A list of the books used is given at the end of the compilation, and indebtedness to their authors is hereby acknowledged. References are given at the close of each chapter. The hope is entertained that the reading of this sketch may lead some at least to look in the larger volumes for fuller light on the subjects treated here. B. W. Arnold, Jr. Lynchburg, Va. June 8, 1922. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Eighteenth Century England .... 9 II. England and the French Revolution, 1793- 1815 22 III. Era of Reaction and Repression, 181 5-1 821 33 IV. Strengthening Liberalism and Parliamen- tary Reform, 1821-1832 49 V. Progressive Legislation, 1 833-1 845 ... 64 VI. Foreign Policy under Palmerston ... 85 VII. The Ministry of Russell, 1 865-1 866 . . 97 VIII. The Derby-Disraeli Ministry, 1866- 1868 . 104 IX. The First Ministry of Gladstone, 1 868-1874 115 X. Disraeli's Second Ministry, 1874-1880 . . 136 XL Gladstone's Second Ministry, i 880-1 885 . 145 XII. Salisbury's First Ministry, 1 885-1 886, and Gladstone's Third Ministry, February- July, 1886 161 XIII. Salisbury's Second Ministry, 1 886-1 892, and Gladstone's Fourth Ministry, 1 892-1 894 167 XIV. The Ministries of Rosebery (i 894-1 895), Salisbury (1895-1902) and Balfour (1902- 1905) 182 5 6 Contents CHAPTER PAGB XV. The Ministries of Campbell-Bannerman (1906-1908) AND OF ASQUITH UP TO 1914 . 20O XVI. Causes of the World War , 224 XVII. England's Entrance into and Share in the Great War. Asquith, 1914-1916. Lloyd George, 1916-1921 236 XVIII. Legislative By-Products of the War and Recent Tendencies 254 Bibliography 265 Index 267 ENGLAND'S PROGRESS ENGLAND'S PROGRESS CHAPTER I EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND Students of this period, though differing in their esti- mate of the age as a whole, some making most of its brighter, others of its darker features, still are well agreed in their interpretations of several phases of its life. The century was certainly marked by a display of strong intellectual vigor. The Age of Anne, 1702-17 14, has been called the Augustan age of English literature.1 Pope, Swift, Addison and Defoe knew how to make their pens useful to the politicians who had patronage to dis- tribute. The Government in Anne's time, as in the time of the Caesars, took pride in lavishing lucrative ap- pointments and honors upon men of letters. In the "Spectator," the "Tattler," the "Guardian," and the "Craftsman" may be recognized the earlier forms of the modern magazine, newspaper and political pamphlet. There appeared in this century the famous essayist, Samuel Johnson; the play-writers Goldsmith, Sheridan, Foote, and Howe; the novelists Henry Fielding, Smol- lett, Samuel Richardson, Fanny Burney, and Maria Edge- worth; the poets Edward Young and James Thomson, the author of "Rule Britannia"; the noted lyricist and 9 io England's Progress satirist, Robert Burns; the hymn-writers Watts, Wesley, Fletcher and Toplady; the moral and political philoso- phers Samuel Clarke, Joseph Butler, Locke, Paley, Jer- emy Bentham and Blackstone; the classical scholar Richard Bentley; the scientists John Ray, the zoologist, Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen, Joseph Black, the chemist of quantitative analysis fame, and Edmund Halley who first calculated the comet's orbit; the actors Garrick, Macklin, and Kemble; the economists Adam Smith, Tucker, and Malthus; the historians David Hume and Gibbons; the architects William Chambers, Wyatt, and Robert Taylor; the genius William Hogarth, whose engravings and paintings enable one to see the London life of his day; the painters of historical pic- tures West, Barry, and Copley; the famous portrait and landscape painters Reynolds, Gainsborough, Rom- ney, Wilson and Barrett; the inventors Kay who devised the flying-shuttle, Hargreaves the "Spinning Jenny," Arkwright the "spinning frame," Crompton the "spin- ning mule" which combined the principles of former machines, Cartwright the power loom, James Watt the steam-engine, and Josiah Wedgwood, who devised a new superior earthenware well suited for busts, medallions, and cameos, as well as for pottery. In the latter part of the century the English theatre was encouraged and elevated, the Encyclopaedia Britannica completed, cir- culating libraries first established, book-clubs formed among the more fashionable classes, and a children's literature produced. 'Tis true that during the reigns of George I and George II, 17 14-1760, and especially under Robert Wal- pole's administration which covers most of this period, "knights of the pen" were not favored by the Govern- Eighteenth Century England n ment so much as in the reign of Anne; and since the read- ing public was not large, owing in part to the fact that books as yet were costly, authors did not prosper. But nevertheless, writers multiplied — minor bards, pam- phleteers, and reviewers. They prepared sermons for lazy and incompetent parsons;2 they translated and an- notated classical works for bookdealers; they wrote pre- faces, prologues, dedications for books, computed in- dexes and almanacs, and contributed poems, advertise- ments, and puffs to the papers. The literary output was plentiful, though much of it was inferior in quality, many of the novels of the circulating libraries being mere trash full of maudlin sentimentality and of sexual improprie- ties, revolting to a sound moral sense. The age was militant and combative in spirit, full of action. Throughout well nigh the entire period the English naval or military forces were engaged in war- fare with some foreign power. The public purse was being constantly drained for military enterprises, need- less or wise; reports of brilliant victories and glorious actions by land or sea were frequent, warming the na- tion's blood and exalting martial pride; wars and rumors of wars filled the public mind. In 1703 the English army under Marlborough with Austria's aid was at- tempting to wrest the Spanish dominions from Philip. In 1704 the French and Bavarians were beaten by Marl- borough at Blenheim, and in the same year Gibraltar was captured, and the city of Barcelona in Spain taken. "Marlborough defeated in 1706 Villeroi at Ramil- lies in Belgium, in 1708 Marshall Vendome at Oude- narde on the Scheldt, and in 1709 Villars at Malplaquet in Flanders." 3 In 17 18 and again in 1739 England was at war with Spain. In 1742 the nation became involved in 12 England* s Progress the War of the Austrian Succession, and in 1743 at Det- tingen defeated the French and Bavarians. In 1756 was commenced the seven-year struggle, in which England won Canada from the French, and laid the foundation of the British Empire in India. In 1757 Robert Clive recaptured Calcutta and won the battle of Plassey. In 1 76 1 Sir Eyre Coote destroyed the French power in India by capturing Pondicherry, and in Quiberon Bay was gained an important victory over the French navy. In 1762 England was victorious in a war with Spain. From 1776 to 1782 England was at war with the Ameri- can colonies. From 1790 to 1792 there were conflicts in Hindustan, and in 1799 was terminated the war in the Carnatic. In 1794 the English took from the French Toulon, Corsica and several of the West India Islands. In 1798 Admiral Nelson destroyed the French fleet in Aboukir Bay and checked Napoleon who was bent upon gaining Egypt and winning India. England had frequently to meet attempts at invasion during this century. In 17 15 the Stuart heir to the throne made a futile attempt to gain the crown, and a quarter of a century later the Young Pretender made an abortive effort. A Spanish fleet bent upon the invasion of England was defeated in 1797. Rumors of formid- able invasions by France were frequent; in 1756, 1759, 1779, 1782, 1783, 1796 and 1798. With military en- gagements so frequent, enemies so numerous, and dan- gers so imminent it is not surprising to find that martial zeal and the fighting spirit were strongly developed in the nation as a whole. The practice of duelling, "the reigning curse of the age," grew in part out of this high-strung combative spirit. In the latter part of the century, 1 760-1 800, Eighteenth Century England 13 were recorded for England alone fifty-three duels. The Right Hon. Wm. Pitt, the Earl of Lonsdale, Lord Townshend, the famous John Wilkes and Lord Byron were leading public men who fought in duels. Sociability, pleasure-seeking and conviviality were char- acteristic features of the life of the 18th century. It was computed that in London alone even in the earlier years of the eighteenth century there were about two thousand coffee-houses, and in their frequenters was represented every class, business and profession known to the country. The coffee-house was a long room, par- titioned off into rows and rows of boxes, separated by a central aisle, which were filled day and night with guests of different sorts and conditions, sipping a cup of coffee or tea, reading the journals and periodicals, writing let- ters and above all else discussing politics. Clubs were numberless, and of every conceivable nature and pur- pose, ranging from Sir Joshua Reynolds' Literary Club, where men like Samuel Johnson and Edmund Burke met for serious discussion of subjects in science, art, and literature, to the fraternities for amusement and ban- queting, such as "The Nonsense Club" and the "No Pay No Liquor Club." Excessive drinking and reckless gambling 4 were widely prevalent. Persons of both sexes and of all ages from fifteen to eighty had the vicious habit, some parties assembling to spend whole nights in games of chance; and among the rich and high-born the stakes were high. Charles Fox lost at cards 12,000 pounds one night, and 12,000 more the next afternoon; a lady lost one night "3,000 guineas at loo." The state patronized lotteries in order to raise revenue for the crown; and thus had some share in infecting the nation with the spirit of reckless speculation and stock-jobbery. 14 England's Progress The collapse of the notorious South Sea Company of 1720, that had secured from the government a charter for exclusive privileges for trading with the Spanish American possessions in return for relieving the state of certain big debts, was a national calamity inflicting heavy losses on both the government and the people. The company was typical of many another get-rich-quick concern founded on unsound business and financial prin- ciples whose shares of stock promoters were selling in Exchange Alley to the gullible public crazed with the fever of speculation. To drink heavily seems to have been good form, the amount of intoxicating liquors one could hold and still "keep his legs" being regarded as a rude test of manliness.5 The royal princes, the nobility, the members of Parliament, the gentry, and the ladies of fashion worshipped Bacchus to the tune of three to six bottles at a sitting, and the professional, business and laboring classes were not far behind in their devoted libations. Copious and constant were the streams of champagne, rum, wine, beer, ale, gin and many another intoxicant pouring in tavern, inn and public-house. In 1752 the Bishop of Gloucester wrote "Those accursed spirituous liquors which, to the shame of our Govern- ment, are so easily to be had, and in such quantities drunk, have changed the very nature of our people. And they will, if continued to be drunk, destroy the very race of the people themselves." 6 In 1750 the average con- sumption per head was six times what it is today. The drinking habit must account in a degree for the coarse, violent and brutal manners of the period. The age lacked refinement. The profanity of the men of fashion, the oaths of the gentler sex, the obscenity of the popular novels, the immodesty of the theatrical per- Eighteenth Century England 15 formances, the stupid practical jokes played, the vul- garity of general conversation, all attest the rudeness of the times. The treatment of criminals and the char- acter of the amusements and pastimes of the common people, such as bull-fights, bear-baiting, cock-fights, and encounters in the prize ring between women as well as men, bear like testimony. The treatment of criminals was extremely inhumane. The worst offenders were sometimes pressed to death with heavy weights, or were quartered, strangled or burnt. The "hanging matches" were public spectacles drawing great crowds who made holiday out of the occa- sion. And the hangings were frequent. To pick a pocket of even a few pennies, to steal from a dwelling house a handful of shillings, to steal a sheep, or to take cloth from a bleaching ground, were capital offenses. When Robert Peel in the next century undertook the reform of the criminal code he found that there were 223 offenses — many of quite minor turpitude — declared to be felonies punishable with death. To become in- volved in debt or to fall behind in payment of rent was often punished by imprisonment and to go to jail was to run the risk of being starved, or bitten by rats in some fetid dungeon or of catching some loathsome, contagious disease, such as smallpox or jail-fever. The fearful con- ditions of the English jails were revealed to the world by John Howard.7 From the time he was appointed High Sheriff of Bedford in 1773 until his death in 1790 he devoted his life to the one subject, prison reform. The abuses he found were numerous: no regular allowance of food or of bedding, no sewers, no fireplaces, no infir- maries, no proper ventilation, no sufficient supply of water for drinking or washing. He computed that every year 1 6 England's Progress jail-fever carried away more people than the gallows. The prisons were not only hotbeds of disease but also schools of vice ; for in them no discrimination was made on account of age, sex, or character but all alike, men and women, boys and girls, first offenders and old hard- ened criminals, debtors and felons were crowded to- gether, a condition resulting in general and thorough contamination. In some places the jails belonged to private individuals, who would extort what they could from prisoners and the prisoners' friends. In country jails which were not strongly built heavy chains, iron collars with spikes and heavy iron bars were sometimes used to secure the inmates. Such was the case in 1768 in the jail of Ely which belonged to the bishop. In the out-of-the-way districts several relics of barbarism lin- gered, such as the pruning-knife for cutting off a culprit's ears, a kind of scissors for slitting his nostrils, an "iron for searing the wounds," the "tumbril" and the "brank" or "gossip's bridle." The "ducking-stool" and the pil- lory were employed as means of correction, and to the whipping post were sent women as well as men offenders. In 1 7 16 was the last judicial execution for witchcraft in England but fifteen years later there was a case of try- ing a witch by the mediaeval method of water ordeal. Lunacy was considered and punished as crime. The pris- oner at the bar often suffered injustice by reason of the facts that the laws defining crimes and penalties were most inconsistent and confusing; and that too much dis- cretion and power in determining punishment lay with the justices who as a class were woefully ignorant of the body of the law and whose decisions were sometimes determined by bribes. An evil of the later years of the century was the un- Eighteenth Century England 1 7 restricted employment of children in factories and mines. The children in the workhouses and in the charitable institutions were hired out to the managers of the fac- tories and were worked from 12 to 16 hours a day. Many thousands of small boys and girls were put under heartless masters whose sole purpose was to make money and who drove them in their work to the utmost limit of endurance. Falling to sleep at their work from over- fatigue, the children were often caught in the machinery and maimed for life. Destitute and dissolute parents were ready for small sums of money to enslave for years their offspring. The physical and moral injuries attend- ing such a system of labor must have at all times been patent enough to any thoughtful observer, but the cen- tury closed before the fate of the children of the poor touched the heart of the nation. The establishment of the public schools in which they may be found to-day belongs to the nineteenth century. Another class of human beings for whose "welfare no man cared" were the thousands of negro slaves, man- acled and packed away in the close holds of vessels, being carried to the Spanish, French, and English colonists. From 1676 to 1776 it has been computed that about three millions of Africans were shipped to America, and that a quarter of a million more perished on the voyage over. The English slave trade had begun as early as 1562 when John Hawkins carried 300 negroes from Sierra Leone to Hispaniola.8 The nefarious traffic was defended partly on the ground that the negroes would be better off in America than in Africa, that they were exchanging savagery for civilization, heathenism for Christianity. What supported the trade so long was the enormous profits yielded. To the conservative 1 8 England's Progress and practical mind of the eighteenth century a branch of commerce so lucrative and so long established ap- peared as a Messing pure and simple, an indispensable support of the British navy. The age was materialistic and uninformed with the spirit of idealism. Reforms and innovations were feared, the sentiment "What is is right" prolonging the days of many an abuse. The political world was notoriously corrupt. It was a time of factions, cliques, and intense partisanship when tierce jealousies were rite and con- tests were tilled with violence and acrimony. Numerous sinecures and lavish patronage were bestowed for ad- vancing party interests and bribing at elections was uni- versally practiced. George III maintained a corruption fund of many thousand pounds with which to buy the borough seats in Parliament. Carousing, street-fighting, breaking of heads, burning of polling-stations, and smashing windows were not unusual features of a hotly contested election. Among the aristocracy, cynicism, selfishness, expedi- ency and skepticism ruled, while in all orders laxity of morals and disregard of religious principles prominently appeared. In high society conjugal infidelity and dis- soluteness were openly countenanced. In the royal fam- ily were several conspicuous scandals, and among the parliamentary leaders were some who practiced open concubinage. The life of the church was decadent: it lacked faith and gave no message of compelling power. Sermons were cold, formal, literary disquisitions want- ing in heart, fervor, and prophetic fire. Enthusiasm was purposely avoided as dangerous and wrong. One min- ister exhorts against "over-shooting ourselves even in the pursuits of virtues. Whether zeal or moderation be Eighteenth Century England 19 the point we aim at, let us keep fire out of one and frost out of the other." Miss Wedgewood says, "Those words are the motto of the Church of the eighteenth cen- tury.' 9 The Methodist and Evangelical movements, with their earnest proclamation of the necessity of con- version, of justification by faith, and of taking the Bible as the rule of life, came not until in the later years of the century and as a reaction against the earlier low state of religion and morals. In the Anglican Church of the eighteenth century the political views held and one's party or personal con- nections rather than piety or fitness of character for office usually determined the appointments to the more important ecclesiastical dignities. The bishops often con- verted their offices into sinecures not residing in their dioceses and resting content with occasional hurried visi- tations, and the administration at appointed times of the rites of confirmation and ordination. Since many pa- rochial endowments and the salaries yielded were small, there arose too the evil of holding several benefices by one and the same incumbent. The "tenure of a bishopric was not considered incompatible with the tenure of a deanery, a canonry, or a prebendal stall," 10 the church dignitary drawing the incomes from several holdings, though having most of the work done by some under- paid subordinate. The ignorance of the masses in this age appears in their credulity and superstition. They believed in div- ination, astrology, ghosts, the "royal touch" for heal- ing and in the use of surgery and charms. Life was nar- row and provincial, lacking in intellectual intercourse, travel and exchange from district to district. The roads in winter were horrible. Unpaved, insecure from attacks 20 England's Progress of highwaymen, and at times impassable in places they prohibited much intercommunication. The farmers, humble cottagers, artisans and laborers spent their years, as was the wont of their fathers before them, in agri- cultural toil or specific trades, their visiting confined mainly to the church and ale-house. And the travels of the country squires, except for the few who got into Parliament, were usually limited to attendance on elec- tions and courts at the county seat. The reading public in the rural sections was confined to the squirearchy who took newspapers. For the great majority of the coun- try folk the peddlers and wayfarers were the news bringers. The lack of general education is attested by the fact that out of "12,000 parishes there were 3500 without the vestige of a school." Even in the early years of the next century London had as many as 120,- 000 illiterate children, and "in Manchester and Salford nearly 10,000 marriages were recorded in which neither party could sign their names." "England and Wales," says Mathieson, "were unquestionably the least and worst educated countries in Protestant Europe." ll Yet notwithstanding the darker features of its life, England during the century made several notable strides forward. It instituted the Cabinet, and introduced party government. It established the new Hanoverian line of rulers, demonstrating that kings rule by parliamentary and national support, not by divine right.12 It became mistress of the sea and won empire in India. In the dis- covery of Australia was found a land that proved ere long the seat of a great federation of states. It effected a just union with Scotland. It experienced the industrial revolution, agriculture yielding primacy to manufacture and commerce. It was victorious over France both in Eighteenth Century England 21 Europe and America, though losing at Yorktown to the colonists assisted by the French fleet. REFERENCES 1. Sydney: England and the English in the Eighteenth Cen- tury, Vol. 2, p. 113. 2. Sydney: Vol. 2, p. 117. 3. Sydney: Vol. 1, p. 327-328. 4. Sydney: Vol. 1, p. 245. 5. Lecky: Vol. 7, p. 187. 6. Sydney: Vol. 1, p. 62, 63. 7. Lecky: Vol. 7, p. 327. 8. Lecky: Vol. 2, p. 242. 9. Fitchett: Wesley and His Century, p. 144. 10. Sydney: Vol. 2, p. 332. 11. Mathieson: England in Transition (1 789-1 832). 12. Lecky: Vol. 7, p. 381. CHAPTER II ENGLAND AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 1793-1815 The events of the earlier part of the French Revolu- tion elicited general approval rather than alarm in Eng- land. Sympathy was felt for a downtrodden people who were trying to win liberty and constitutional govern- ment.1 That France, the old enemy, should be weak- ened by civil discord meant too, it was thought, that England, tor a time at least, need fear no war from that quarter and could therefore follow with safety a peace policy and lighten the people's taxes. The fall of the Bastille was declared by Fox, "the greatest and best event that had happened in the world." Fox was a champion of the liberty-loving in revolt, and though grieved at the violence and bloodshed of the French revolution he re- joiced in its success. He deplored its methods but ad- mired its spirit, rightly believing that its basal principles were good.2 It was natural to have sympathy and ad- miration for the French democrats: for in 1789 there existed in England grave social economic and constitu- tional evils needing correction, just as was the case in France. Hoping to effect reform, men of republican views in England and the political dissenters generally largely under French influence formed several revolu- tionary societies. The "Friends of the People" society had a membership of the highest respectability and influ- ence, including many members of Parliament such as 22 England and the French Revolution 23 Russell, Grey and Sheridan. The "London Correspond- ence Society," first formed as a secret order, numbered between 6000 and 7000 members. The "Society of Con- stitutional Information" consisted of the more advanced and thorough-going among educated men of radical views. In many towns clubs were formed "avowedly affiliated to the democratic clubs in Trance." Among prominent enthusiastic admirers of the French Revolu- tion were Price, Paine and Mackintosh.'' But enthusiasm in England for the French Revolution did not long con- tinue. As the movement progressed, exhibiting soon its violent, anarchic spirit, subverting law and order, over- turning throne and altar, and revealing its intention to propagate its ideas in other countries, English public opinion changed, and, influenced by the views of Edmund Burke, became eventually heartily opposed to the revolu- tion. Revolution, and his advice to the English was to have nothing whatever to do with the French Constitution. The conservative views of Burke in time prevailed also with the English government. The prime minister, the younger Pitt, at first thinking it probable that the 24 England's Progress political turmoil of France would issue finally in estab- lishing a constitutional monarchy approximating Eng- land's in character, had determined to follow a neutral policy and not to interfere at all with French internal affairs. He was interested in domestic reforms, and hoped for at least fifteen years of peace in which to carry out his cherished plans of economy and retrench- ment. He looked toward reducing the public debt, light- ening the taxes, abolishing the slave trade and liberaliz- ing the constitution. In August, 179 1, he refused to join the European powers in offering concerted action against France, and in the spring of 1792 he submitted a budget framed entirely upon a peace basis. But the turn of events soon forced Pitt to abandon the position of non-intervention. No sooner had the Ja- cobins gotten in control of Paris and succeeded in repel- ling the Austrians and Prussians, than it was made clear that the French would not be content with righting their own institutions, but believed they had a mission to per- form in righting the governments of other peoples as well. On November 19, 1792, they issued a famous de- cree "promising fraternity to all nations desirous of liberty." Letters, pamphlets and secret agents were des- patched from France into other states to stir up political discontent and the spirit of revolt. As a result, in Eng- land a royal proclamation was issued May 21, 1792, against seditious writings, and an Alien Bill was passed January 4, 1793, requiring "foreigners to state the object of their visit to England, to enter their names on a reg- ister, and to have passports" for moving from place to place. To guard against further riots, some of which had occurred that seemed to have been incited by emis- saries of the Jacobins, the government in December, England and the French Revolution 25 1792, called out the militia.6 Pitt soon realized that war would come. He noted that the revolutionists were issuing orders to disregard all treaty obligations, and to open the navigation of the Scheldt, which treaty guar- antees by France and other countries had closed, the opening of which could not but bring France directly into opposition both to Holland and to England; that they appropriated Savoy and Nice; and that they occupied Belgium. France was assuming the right of setting treaties at naught, and was subverting the political sys- tem of Europe. As the "shores of the low countries had always been recognized as a vital part of the English de- fence," 7 Pitt could not consent to their occupation by the French and remonstrated.. The French then declared war on England and Holland, February 1, 1793. Only ten days earlier, on January 21, the execution of Louis XVI had occurred and this event mightily stirred popu- lar hatred and passion. From 1793 to 18 15 warfare between England and France was almost constant. After the fall of Robes- pierre and the Jacobins, the National Democratic Con- vention gave way, October, 1795, to the rule of the Directory, an executive committee of five members, sup- ported by two legislative bodies. The Directory in turn gave way November 10, 1799 to the authority of Na- poleon, who, supported by the army, made himself First Consul and then Emperor, and was virtually dictator in France until his overthrow in 18 15. Under all these different governments France remained hostile to Eng- land. It is true there were three attempts on the part of Pitt to negotiate peace, in 1795, 1796, and in 1797, but on account of France's success at arms they were unavailing. The Peace of Amiens, made with Napoleon 26 England's Progress March 27, 1802, was only a truce, for during the four- teen months' cessation of active hostilities both powers were busy strengthening themselves for approaching con- flicts. England contended hard and long in maintaining the fundamental principles of her foreign policy, all of which were fiercely assailed. These principles are ( 1 ) "guarding the security of the country from invasion by maintaining sea-supremacy; (2) keeping the coasts of the Netherlands in friendly hands"; (3) protecting her colonies; (4) holding India; (5) retaining control of the Meditteranean; and (6) preserving the European Balance of Power by preventing France or any other state from getting an overwhelming predominance on the Continent. The course pursued by the French, especially under Na- poleon, was in direct opposition to all these principles.8 Napoleon undertook, like Charles the Great, to subju- gate all Europe. Like Alexander the Great, he sought to establish an Eastern Empire in India. He sought to invade England, to rob her of her supremacy in the Meditteranean, to destroy her commerce, to take her colonies, and so to weaken her that she should not be able to thwart his plans for universal empire. But thwart him England did : by hard fought battles on land and sea, by building great coalitions of allies against him, and by furnishing millions of pounds of subsidies for supporting the armies of the allies. In five different years, 1793, 1798, 1805, 1813, 1814-15, France found herself opposed by a new coalition of allies, England being the chief builder and factor in all of them. Great Britain lacked a well-equipped army at the first, and con- sequently the plan she pursued against France was to England and the French Revolution 27 assist the allies with her navy and with money. Eng- land's maritime power could inflict great injury on the enemy by destroying her commerce, blockading her ports, and taking her colonies. But to bring France, a Con- tinental power, to terms land battles had to be fought, and since the powers of Europe would fight her if Eng- land would help to pay their troops, England determined to furnish the funds and put their armies in the field. The subsidizing was on a tremendous scale. In the nine years succeeding 1792 England's public debt was raised 336,- 000,000 pounds for subsidizing and military purposes. In 1793 the Island Kingdom was furnishing subsidies to Russia, Sardinia, Spain, Naples, Prussia, Austria, Por- tugal and Tuscany. England was able to raise the money because British credit was good; because King, Lords, Commons and people were united in purpose; because the security and strength of their government insured social order and encouraged business; because there was steady growth in trade, manufactures, and commerce; because markets for British products were multiplied, safe trade with which was possible on account of the ubiquitous English navy. The mutinies in the navy in 1797 at Spithead and at the Nore, due to low wages, to an unfair system of pensions and promotion, to desire for a larger share of prize money, and to dissatisfaction with certain officers, were handled firmly, yet with sympathy for the sailors. Since the trouble resulted in the removal of abuses which had cursed the naval service for years, an increasing loy- alty was produced. Later in this same year, 1797, when a Dutch fleet was gathered across the channel near Cam- perdown to assist France in a contemplated invasion of England, Holland having been led into alliance with* 28 England's Progress France, these same crews, so lately in rebellion, showed their patriotism, by rushing on the Dutch fleet with their old time valour and gaining a grand victory.9 England reaped big gains from the alliance of Hol- land with France, for that made the Dutch colonial pos- session open to attack. Great Britain had soon taken their rich settlements in Ceylon, and on the Malabar coast: the Cape; and the Moluccas. While England suffered an occasional loss in the West Indies and was troubled here and in other portions of her colonial em- pire by insurrections stirred up by French agents, on the whole England's colonies remained faithful, as did India. The rebellion in Ireland in 1798, largely incited by the French, was successfully put down and resulted in a corporate union between Great Britain and Ireland. Later victories against France were due in no small part to the many brave Irishmen in the ranks of the army. While England experienced a total loss of commerce with France, Holland and the Belgian Netherlands, this injury was more than counterbalanced by an increase of commerce with Germany, Russia and the United States. British money was what held together the enemies of France when offering a united opposition; and without those subsidies, the French army might have conquered all Europe. Napoleon's hostility to England was unceasing. Three notable, though futile, attempts he made to de- stroy her. First, when a general under the Directory in 1798 he sought to ruin Great Britain by blocking her way to India through Egypt and Turkey. He landed an army in Egypt and had no difficulty in getting control of this country, but his progress toward India was blocked at Acre, in Syria, by Sydney Smith where Bona- England and the French Revolution 29 parte lost nearly 5000 men, and his navy was destroyed by Nelson in Aboukir Bay. His second plan was to in- vade England, which he attempted in 1805. He gath- ered an army of 150,000 men at Boulogne, which forces he hoped to get across the English Channel by means of the combined fleets of Spain and France and the use of a number of specially built transports. His plan was to have the scattered ships of the French fleet that were shut up in various harbors of France break the blockade, and with the Spanish fleet make for the West Indies with the hope of having the British fleet under Nelson fol- low them. They were then to turn back, escaping Net- son, make a dash for the English channel, and hold it long enough to allow Napoleon's transports to get their troops across to the island. Part of the plan worked well, for Nelson pursued to the Indies and the French fleet under Admiral Villeneuve eluded him, getting back safely to the Spanish coast. But there was delay at Cadiz for two months by Villeneuve and when he did move out Nelson, who had meantime learned of the manoeuvre, was back, met him in Trafalgar Bay and de- stroyed his entire fleet. Nelson lost his life in the bat- tle, but the victory forever defeated Napoleon's plan of invading England. His third scheme was to humble England by destroy- ing her commerce and industry. In 1806 when his alli- ance with Russia and his victories over neighboring states had given him virtual control of almost the entire sea-board of Europe, he instituted his so-called "Conti- nental System" by issuing decrees from Berlin "declaring the British Isles in a state of blockade, forbidding all commerce between Great Britain and her colonies and the territories occupied by France or her allies, and 30 England's Progress ordering the confiscation of all British merchandise wherever found." 10 Of course Great Britain retaliated, "declaring the ports of France and her allies in a state of blockade and neutral vessels trading between them law- ful prize." In this commercial struggle, a sort of duel by starva- tion, England, in possessing a colonial trade of consid- erable importance, had the advantage over France. The loyalty of her people too would bear sacrifice in order to gain victory over the hated Napoleon. In conquered Europe, popular sentiment was against the Emperor. The peoples of the different states under his rule could see no good or right in this plan for personal, selfish aggrandizement at the cost of so much suffering to them- selves; and as business slackened, ports closed, factories shut down, and commerce ceased, bringing unemploy- ment, poverty, distress and hunger the people began to curse the Berlin Decrees and their author. Here we see the beginning of Napoleon's ruin. Attempting to force Portugal against her will to join the Continental System, he overran the state, captured Lisbon, and then with basest ingratitude for former assistance rendered, deposed the Spanish monarch, Charles IV, and made his own brother Joseph king. Both of these acts thoroughly incensed the people of the whole Spanish Peninsula, and led to their furnishing in 1808 a safe entrance for the English army of 18,000 troops under Wellington. In 1 8 10 Russia, encouraged by England, withdrew from Na- poleon's Continental System. In 18 12 came the disas- trous Moscow Campaign when the French Emperor on retreating left on the frozen plains of Russia an army of half a million men. Seeing his power now was broken, all his foes took heart, and in 18 13 the Fourth Great England and the French Revolution 31 Coalition of Prussia, Austria, Sweden, England and Rus- sia was formed, whose combined armies overwhelmed him at Leipsic in a three days' battle, October 16-18. In this battle Napoleon lost in killed and wounded 50,000 out of 250,000 of his command. This defeat caused his first abdication and his retirement to Elba. On his es- caping from Elba, dispossessing the restored Louis XVIII and seizing again imperial power in Paris, the Fifth Great Coalition of Great Britain, Russia, Austria and Prussia was formed, 18 14, and their united strength achieved his final overthrow at the Battle of Waterloo June 18, 18 15. In this famous battle, the British under command of the Duke of Wellington lost 13,000, the Prussians under Bliicher 7,000, and Napoleon lost, if prisoners be included, 37,000 men, over half his army, and also the whole of his artillery, ammunition, baggage wagons, and military train. The Emperor fled to the capital, abdicated a second time, and then surrendered himself to the commander of a British war-ship the Bel- lerophon. He was exiled to St. Helena, an isolated rocky island belonging to Great Britain off the coast of Africa, where he remained until his death in 1821. After Napoleon's first abdication, the Allies had re- stored Louis XVIII to the throne of France, made a peace treaty with him, May 30, 18 14, and had assem- bled a great international congress at Vienna for deter- mining a general peace settlement for all Europe. There were diplomats and princes from many states, but what was done at the conference was decided by the Five Great Powers, Russia, Prussia, Austria, England and France. The congress continued from September, 18 14, to June, 18 1 5, their final agreement, the Treaty of Vienna, being signed June 9, 18 15, only a few days be- 32 England's Progress fore the Battle of Waterloo. After this battle, a sec- ond treaty was made with France, November 20, 18 15. The settlement required that the nation should pay a war indemnity of 28,000,000 pounds, that she should support an army of occupation for five years, and that the Bourbon Louis XVIII should occupy the throne. His territories were reduced to the old lines existing be- fore war opened in 1792. England received not incon- siderable gains. While Java was returned to the Dutch, she kept Heligoland, Tobago, St. Lucia, Ceylon, and Cape Colony in South Africa, and her position in the Mediterranean was strengthened by the retention of Malta. REFERENCES i. Bright: History of England, Vol. 1689-1837, p. 1160. 2. Harrison: International Policy of Great Britain, p. 59. 3. Lecky: Vol. 6, p. 433. 4. Hunt and Poole: Political History of England, Vol. 10, p. 308. 5. Lecky: Vol. 6, p. 403. 6. Bright: Vol. 1689-1839, P- 1168. 7. Burrows: History of Foreign Policy of Great Britain, p. 170. 8. Burrows: History of Foreign Policy of Great Britain, p. 171-174. 9. Hunt and Poole: Vol. 10, p. 378. 