nt. That a
French fleet should have been able to leave Brest, remain five days on
the Irish coast, and return without being attacked by the channel fleet
caused great alarm in England, and was due to Bridport's slackness. The
Irish of all classes behaved with exemplary loyalty; the country people
afforded every assistance in their power to the troops at Bandon, and no
symptom of disaffection appeared in Dublin. It was evident that many who
had joined the disloyal societies had been driven to do so by fear, and
that the catholics as a body were not as yet ready to revolt.[268]
Either merely to harass England, or to prove the feasibility of a more
serious invasion, two frigates and two other vessels were despatched
from Brest in February with about 1,200 men, half of them convicts.
After destroying some merchantmen in the Bristol channel, they anchored
in Fishguard bay. The troops landed on the 23rd, and were, it is said,
much alarmed through mistaking a body of Welshwomen in their red cloaks
and beaver hats for soldiers. The next day Lord Cawdor, captain of the
Pembrokeshire yeomanry, appeared with a force of local troops and
country folk, and they at once surrendered. The two frigates which
brought them were captured on their way back to Brest.

[Sidenote: _SUSPENSION OF CASH PAYMENTS._]

The expenses of the war, loans and subsidies to foreign princes, and
bills drawn by British agents abroad caused a continual drain of specie
from the bank of England. By 1795 the exchange became unfavourable, and
since then the drain had been enormous. Pitt anticipated taxes and
borrowed heavily. Believing that an invasion was imminent, many small
tradesmen and others were eager to turn their property into cash; a run
on country banks set in, and some failed. The bank of England was
pressed for gold. On Saturday, February 25, the floating debt owed to it
by government was about L7,500,000, and its stock of coin and bullion,
which in 1794 was over L8,500,000, was reduced to L1,272,000; and a
sharp run was expected on Monday. The bank itself, and the private banks
which depended on it, were threatened with immediate stoppage, and the
consequences to the country would have been disastrous. The directors
applied to Pitt. He called the king to London; a privy council was held
on Sunday, and an order was issued suspending cash payments at the bank
until the will of parliament was expressed. The leading merchants and
bankers at once declared