William Pitt and the Great War by John Holland Rose (e book reader for pc .TXT) 📖

the Council,

and Castlereagh Minister at War, Harrowby re-entering the Cabinet as

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

 

As the prospect of further taxation was calculated to depress Pitt's

supporters and inspirit the Opposition, he proceeded to Weymouth in the

middle of September to lay before the King an important proposal. The

formation of a truly national Administration being more than ever

essential, he besought George to admit certain members of the parties of

Fox and Grenville, especially in order to facilitate the passing of the

next Budget. The Monarch, however, was obdurate, asserting that Pitt had

done well in the past session and would probably fare better still in

the next. On 22nd September he repeated these statements to Rose, whom

he called to him on the esplanade, and was quite unconvinced by his

arguments that in the present state of parties the Budget could scarcely

be passed, and that, if Pitt chanced to be laid up with a fit of gout

for two or three weeks, there would be an end of the Administration. The

King would not hear of any change, and proved more intractable on this

topic than in the year before, during his stay at Cuffnells.[728] In

fact, in Rose's manuscript is a statement, prudently omitted from the

published Diaries, that George, on returning to his residence at

Weymouth, declared his resolve rather to risk a civil war than to admit

Fox into his councils.[729] Thus ended Pitt's last effort to form a

national Administration fitted to cope with the gigantic power of

Napoleon.

 

It is difficult to realize the multiplicity of the cares which pressed

upon Pitt. Rose feared that he would soon succumb to the burden; for,

apart from the defence of a weak Government against a strong Opposition,

Pitt transacted very much of the business of the War Office and Foreign

Office, besides assisting the Admiralty and the Commander-in-Chief. No

one in Europe, with the exception of Napoleon, worked so hard; and Pitt,

besides being ten years older than the Emperor, had far less physical

strength. We may judge, then, of the effect produced by a life such as

Lady Hester Stanhope described in a passage of more than usual

credibility: "Ah doctor," she said in her Lebanon days, "what a life was

his! Roused from sleep (for he was a good sleeper) with a despatch from

Lord Melville; then down to Windsor; then, if he had half an hour to

spare, trying to swallow something; Mr. Adams with a paper, Mr. Long

with another; then Mr. Rose: then, with a little bottle of cordial

confection in his pocket, off to the House until three or four in the

morning; then home to a hot supper for two or three hours more, to talk

over what was to be done next day:--and wine, and wine. Scarcely up next

morning, when 'tat-tat-tat,' twenty or thirty people one after another,

and the horses walking before the door from two till sunset, waiting for

him. It was enough to kill a man--it was murder."[730]

 

One who knew Pitt well gave wise advice to his secretary, William Dacre

Adams. "Attend to your meals regularly even if you sit up or rise the

earlier for it to get through the business. I have often been told that

half Mr. Pitt's complaints were originally brought on by fasting too

long and indeed only eating when he found it convenient, which ruined

the tone of his stomach."[731] These statements explain the reason for

the collapse of Pitt's strength late in the year. Hester's concluding

remark is somewhat hysterical, but it is nearer the truth than the

charge that Pitt was greedy of power. He killed himself by persistent

overwork on behalf of a nation which did not understand him, and in the

service of a Monarch who refused to allow him to strengthen his

Administration.

 

It is impossible now to feel one's way along all the threads which Pitt

held in his hands. But occasionally a chance reference reveals his

connection with designs of vast moment. The following is a case in

point. Castlereagh wrote to him, probably on 20th August 1805, in terms

which show that Pitt took a leading part in one of the decisions bearing

on the fate of the naval campaign which culminated at Trafalgar. The

daring and wisdom of his naval policy in 1805 has lately been fully

vindicated.[732] But the following letter throws new light on the

complex problem which arose after the indecisive success gained by

Admiral Calder over Villeneuve's French and Spanish fleets off Cape

Finisterre on 22nd July, and while the subsequent movements of those

fleets were not yet definitely known. Baird's expedition at Cork was

destined for the reduction of the Cape (ever Pitt's pre-occupation) so

soon as the way was fairly safe.

 

                                Downing St _Tuesday_ 3 P.M.[733]

 

    MY DEAR SIR,

 

    I have just seen Lord Hawkesbury and Lord Barham, Adml

    Cornwallis having anticipated your intentions by detaching 20

    sail of the line off Ferrol, and the wind being now favourable,

    it appears to us that no time should be lost in ordering Sir D.

    Baird to sail. As Ld H. and Ld B. seem to entertain no doubt

    of your approving of this step, I shall send the orders without

    delay. I shall remain in town tonight and be at your disposal as

    best suits your engagements.

 

                                            Ever yours,

                                                     CASTLEREAGH.

 

The most interesting words in this letter are "your intentions." They

seem to imply that the plan of detaching part of Admiral Cornwallis's

fleet off Brest to the assistance of Calder off the North West of Spain

was originally Pitt's own, not Lord Barham's, as has been hitherto

supposed. They must not be pressed too much; for the advice of Barham,

First Lord of the Admiralty, must have been paramount. Nevertheless the

proposal was evidently Pitt's as well as Barham's. The fact that

Cornwallis anticipated it bespeaks the resolve alike of Ministers and

the admiral at all costs to stop Villeneuve off Finisterre and prevent

the naval concentration in French waters on which Napoleon laid so much

stress. The success of the British counter-stroke is well known.

Villeneuve, having been roughly handled by Calder, put into Ferrol, and

finally, a prey to discouragement, made off for Cadiz, thus upsetting

Napoleon's scheme for the invasion of England. In due course Nelson

returned to England for a brief time of rest at "dear, dear Merton," and

then set off on his last cruise. Before his departure he had an

interview with Pitt at Downing Street--the only occasion, I believe, on

which they met--and found in the ante-room Sir Arthur Wellesley, just

returned from India. At the end of the interview Pitt flattered the

great seaman by an act of attention which he thus described: "Mr. Pitt

paid me a compliment, which, I believe, he would not have paid to a

Prince of the Blood. When I rose to go, he left the room with me and

attended me to the carriage." By attentions such as these Chatham was

wont to stimulate the patriotism of our warriors; and on this occasion

his son played an equally inspiriting part. Imagination strives to

picture the scene, especially when England's greatest statesman and

greatest seaman passed through the ante-room where stood the future

victor of Waterloo.[734]

 

Never again were those three heroes to meet. Nelson departed for

Trafalgar. Pitt resumed the work which was wearing him to death, nerved,

however, by the consciousness that the despatch of Nelson to the

Mediterranean would foil Napoleon's project of making that sea a French

lake, "the principal aim of my policy" as he declared it to be. In that

quarter, then, Pitt won a decisive victory which was destined to save

not only that sea, but the Continent from the domination of France.

Whether a glimpse of the future course of events opened out to the

wearied gaze of the statesman we know not. All we know is that in

mid-December, when the "Victory" lay jury-masted and wind-bound for

three days off Walmer Castle, the Lord Warden was at Bath, in hope of

gaining health and strength for a struggle which concerned him even more

nearly than that in the Mediterranean, namely, the liberation of North

Germany and the Dutch Netherlands from the Napoleonic yoke.

 

FOOTNOTES

 

[680] Pitt MSS., 102. Pitt to Whitworth, 28th May 1804; G. Rose,

"Diaries," ii, 136. See, too, Rose, "Despatches relating to the ...

Third Coalition," 27.

 

[681] Stanhope, iv, 199-201.

 

[682] Czartoryski, "Memoirs," ii, 35.

 

[683] "Creevey Papers," i, 28.

 

[684] Pretyman MSS.

 

[685] Rose, "Despatches relating to the ... Third Coalition" (Royal

Hist. Soc., 1904), 14-19; also Rose, "Napoleonic Studies," 364-6, for

the tentative Russian overture of November 1803.

 

[686] Rose and Broadley, "Dumouriez and the Defence of England against

Napoleon," 260.

 

[687] Fortescue, v, 204-13. Half of the fine went to the overseers of

the parish, who were bound under penalties to provide a parochial

substitute.

 

[688] Fortescue, v, 239, 240.

 

[689] "Creevey Papers," i, 29.

 

[690] Pitt MSS., 157.

 

[691] Pretyman MSS. See "Ann. Reg." (1805) for the failure at Boulogne

on 3rd October 1804.

 

[692] See Desbrière, "Projets ... de Débarquement, etc.," vol. v; J.

Corbett, "The Campaign of Trafalgar," chs. ii, iii, ix.

 

[693] "Kentish Gazette," 26th October 1804. Apparently Moore agreed to

the scheme, despite his opinion quoted above. For information on this

topic I am indebted to Lieutenant-Colonel Fynmore of Sandgate. In the

manoeuvres of 1910 regiments were told off to extemporize means of

crossing the canal in the quickest and most effective way.

 

[694] "W. O.," 76; "Diary of Sir J. Moore," ii, 71-4.

 

[695] Pretyman MSS.

 

[696] Harrowby MSS.

 

[697] Mahan, ii, ch. xv, _ad fin._; "Ann. Reg." (1804), 555; "Mems. of

P. Ward," i, ch. vii. For the subsequent plan of Ministers to attack

Ferrol, from which Moore dissuaded them, see "Diary of Sir J. Moore,"

ii, ch. xxi.

 

[698] Harrowby MSS.

 

[699] Rose, "Third Coalition," 32, 53, 61, 65, 67, 71, 75.

 

[700] Harrowby MSS.

 

[701] Lefebvre, "Cabinets de l'Europe," ii, 33.

 

[702] Pretyman MSS.

 

[703] Stanhope, iv, 244-8.

 

[704] See the letter in "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies."

 

[705] "H. O." Ireland (Corresp.), 99.

 

[706] "Mems. of Fox," iv, 45, 68, 72, 75.

 

[707] See an interesting account by Dr. Hunt, "Transactions of the Royal

Hist. Soc." (1908), pp. 7-16.

 

[708] Hansard, iv, 1013-22, 1060.

 

[709] Hansard, iv, 255-325; "Life of Wilberforce," iii, 219-23;

"Malmesbury Diaries," iv, 338, 347; "Lord Colchester's Diaries," i,

544-9.

 

[710] Chevening MSS.

 

[711] "Trial of Lord Melville" (1806), 256-9, 370, 378.

 

[712] "Creevey Papers," i, 34.

 

[713] "Barham Papers" (Navy Records Society), iii; Corbett, "Trafalgar

Campaign," 70-2; Stanhope, iv, 287; Pellew, ii 356-64.

 

[714] Czartoryski, "Mems.," ii, ch. vii.

 

[715] "F. O.," Prussia, 70; Rose, "Napoleonic Studies," 54-8; Rose,

"Napoleon," ii, 54.

 

[716] Garden, "Traités," viii, 317-23; Alison, App. to ch. xxxix.

 

[717] Toreno ("War of Independence in Spain," vol. i, _ad fin._) had the

story from Alava, who connected it with the arrival of the news of Ulm,

on 2nd November. Pitt said: "All is not lost if I can succeed in raising

up a national war in Europe, and this must have its commencement in

Spain." But Malmesbury ("Diaries," iv, 340), who was present, does not

name the incident, and states that Pitt disbelieved the news (see ch.

xxiv).

 

[718] Pretyman MSS.

 

[719] Rose, "Third Coalition," 25, 32, 44, 61, 66, 73, 76, 87, 97, etc.;

Mr. Julian Corbett, "The Trafalgar Campaign," chs. i, ii. For a critique

on Pitt's Mediterranean plans, see Bunbury's "Great War with France,"

183-95.

 

[720] Rose, "Third Coalition," 127-30.

 

[721] Czartoryski, "Mems.," ii, 74-6.

 

[722] Czartoryski, "Mems.," ii, 78; Rose, "Third Coalition," 155-64.

 

[723] _Ibid._, 232; Ulmann, "Russisch-preussische Politik"; Hansing,

"Hardenberg und die dritte Coalition."

 

[724] "Paget Papers," ii, 186; Sir G. Jackson, "Diaries," i, 304,

458-60; Rose, "Third Coalition," 180.

 

[725] "Lettres inédites de Napoléon," i, 50.

 

[726] Rose, "Third Coalition," 279-82. On 9th August Austria allied

herself to Russia.

 

[727] For a time her action was unknown at London; and Pitt and Mulgrave

outlined a plan of campaign turning largely on the liberation of South

and Central Italy. See Mr. Corbett, "Trafalgar Campaign," App. B.

 

[728] G. Rose, "Diaries," ii, 198-200.

 

[729] Pretyman MSS.

 

[730] "Lady Hester Stanhope's Mems.," ii, 63.

 

[731] Chevening MSS. See, too, G. Rose, "Diaries," ii, 235, as to Pitt's

reliance on "cordial medicines."

 

[732] By Mr. Julian Corbett, "The Campaign