ands, thinned by disease and by the hardships
of retreat, re-embarked for England.

[Sidenote: Howe's victory.]

In one quarter only had the fortune of war gone against the French
republic. The victories of Rodney at the close of the strife with
America had concentrated English interest on the fleet. Even during the
peace, while the army was sacrificed to financial distress, great
efforts were made to preserve the efficiency of the navy; and the recent
alarms of war with Russia and Spain had ended in raising it to a
strength which it had never reached before. But France was as eager as
England herself to dispute the sovereignty of the seas, and almost
equal attention had been bestowed on the navy which crowded the great
harbours of Toulon and Brest. In force as in number of ships it was
equal in effective strength to that of England; and both nations looked
with hope to the issue of a contest at sea. No battle marked the first
year of the war; but, as it ended, the revolt of Toulon gave a fatal
wound to the naval strength of France in the almost total destruction of
her Mediterranean fleet. That of the Channel however remained unhurt;
and it was this which Lord Howe at last encountered, off Brest in 1794,
in the battle which is known by the name of the day on which it was
fought--The "First of June." The number of ships on either side was
nearly the same, and the battle was one of sheer hard fighting, unmarked
by any display of naval skill. But the result was a decisive victory for
England, and the French admiral, weakened by a loss of seven vessels and
three thousand men, again took refuge in Brest.

[Sidenote: Break-up of the Coalition.]

The success of Lord Howe did somewhat to counteract the discouragement
which sprang from the general aspect of the war. At the opening of 1795
the coalition finally gave way. Holland had been detached from it by
Pichegru's conquest, and the Batavian republic which he set up there was
now an ally of France. In the spring Prussia bought peace at Basle by
the cession of her possessions west of the Rhine. Peace with Spain
followed in the summer, while Sweden and the Protestant cantons of
Switzerland recognized the republic. These terrible blows were hardly
met by the success of the Austrian army in relieving Maintz, or by the
colonial acquisitions of England. The latter indeed were far from being
inconsiderable. Most of the West-Indian Islands which had been held by
France now fell i