rance.
Grenville informed the Dutch that England was arming, and called on them
to arm also. Pitt still hoped for peace, and suggested to a French envoy
that his government should give him assurances through an authorised
agent with respect to the safety of Holland and the decree of November
19. The executive council would only treat through Chauvelin, who was
offensive.[235] On the 27th he demanded whether England was to be
reckoned neutral or an enemy of France; he protested that the decree did
not apply to England, and that no attack would be made on Holland, but
said that France would not give way as to the Scheldt, and threatened
that if the ministers decided on war, they would find the nation against
them. Already a decree of the convention passed on the 15th had ordained
that all states occupied by French armies should virtually be subject to
France, and should contribute to the support of the French troops. The
war of "liberation" had become a war of conquest.[236] Grenville replied
to Chauvelin on the 31st to the effect that the protestations of the
executive council were belied by its conduct, that England could not
consent that France should annul treaties at her pleasure, or be
indifferent to her assumption of sovereignty over the Netherlands, and
that if she desired England's friendship, she should abandon her views
of aggression and cease to insult or disturb other governments.[237]

[Sidenote: _DISRUPTION OF THE WHIG PARTY._]

During the first days of the session Pitt was absent; he had at the
king's earnest wish accepted the valuable sinecure office of warden of
the Cinque Ports, and was not yet re-elected. In moving an amendment to
the address on the 14th Fox made a violent attack on the government. At
that critical time when England's welfare demanded that party enmities
should yield before the importance of union against sedition at home and
aggression abroad, he did not scruple to declare that the government had
wilfully exaggerated domestic disturbances, in order to establish a
system of oppression more intolerable than "the horrors of the
inquisition of Spain," and implied that the ministers were hostile to
France merely because France was, as he jeeringly said, "an unanointed
republic". Windham and other whigs voted against him, and his amendment
was rejected by 290 to 50. He returned to the charge, but spoke more
moderately, on the next day and again on the next, with a motion for
sending an amb