activity, and the propaganda was carried on with amazing insolence.
Deputations from these societies appeared before the national convention
with congratulatory addresses and were received with effusion. The
constitutional society, for example, hoped that Frenchmen would soon
have to congratulate an English national convention, and the president
in reply expressed his belief that France would soon hail England as a
sister-republic. Emissaries from the French ministry promoted sedition
both in England and in Ireland, and their reports led their employers to
believe that England, Scotland, and Ireland were ripe for revolt.[234]
It was an absurd mistake. Yet though the number of revolutionists was
still comparatively small, the propaganda caused much uneasiness.
Thousands of French refugees were landing in England, mostly priests and
members of the aristocracy, many of them completely destitute.
Subscriptions were raised for their relief, and Burke and others exerted
themselves nobly in their behalf. This large immigration made it easy
for French spies and revolutionary agents to carry on their work
undetected. Its progress was helped forward by discontent among the
lower class. The harvest was bad and the price of wheat rose, trade was
depressed, and there was much distress, specially in the manufacturing
districts. Riots broke out at Carlisle, Leeds, Yarmouth, Shields, Leith,
Perth, and Dundee, and in some cases were connected with revolutionary
sentiments. At Dundee cries were raised of "No excise, no king," and a
tree of liberty was planted. On November 19 the convention openly
asserted its right to overthrow the government of other countries by
decreeing that France would help, and would instruct her generals to
help, all peoples that desired freedom; and an order was given that
translations of this decree should be distributed in all countries. The
decree was an invitation to the subjects of every state in Europe to
revolt, and the propaganda which it authorised was a gross insult to the
British government and nation.

The danger of Holland and the activity of revolutionists at home
convinced the ministry that it was time to take measures of defence. On
December 1 a part of the militia was embodied, and parliament was
summoned for the 13th; the Tower was fortified, naval preparations were
set on foot, a squadron was ordered to the mouth of the Scheldt, and an
order of council prohibited the exportation of grain to F