itt and the French Revolution]

Pitt was not himself eager to see England dragged into the European
quarrel with France. But it was not easy for a minister who loved
popularity, and who very sincerely believed his presence at the head of
affairs to be essential to the welfare of the State, to avoid being
involved in the controversy. The result of the unsuccessful coalition
had been to increase the crimes that marked the course of the French
Revolution, and seemingly to justify the fierce indignation of Burke.
The country that had {301} been profoundly impressed by Burke's eloquence
was profoundly shocked by the horrors that lost nothing of their
magnitude in the reports that crossed the Channel. The country was
flooded with fugitives from France, emigrants who presented in themselves
moving pictures of the sufferings of those who were opposed to the
Revolution, and who were not slow to express their sense of the ruin that
had fallen upon their country. King George's native shrewdness and
native narrowness of mind had made him from the first an active opponent
of the Revolution. He declared that if a stop were not put to French
principles there would not be a king left in Europe in a few years. To
him, whose business above all things it had been to be king, the prospect
was unlovely and alarming. The fear that he felt for his office was
shared in varying degree by all those who felt that they would have much
to lose if the example set by France came to be followed in England. The
Church and the aristocracy, with all wealthy and vested interests, were
naturally ranked to resist by all means the spread of the new doctrines.
There were a few noblemen who, like Lord Stanhope and Lord Lauderdale,
professed themselves to be champions of the French Revolution; there were
some statesmen among the Opposition who were either sympathizers with the
Revolution or asserters of the doctrine that it was no part of England's
duty to interfere with the way in which another nation chose to govern
herself. But the strength of public opinion was against these, as it was
against the minister who was as eager as any Englishman living to remain
on good terms with France.

Pitt from the first had looked with a favorable eye upon the changes that
were taking place across the Channel. To maintain a friendship with
France was a radical part of his policy. Friendship with France was
essential in his mind in order to combat the aggrandizem