o be redressed in obedience
to a higher law.

The successful convulsion in France led to a convulsion in Europe; and
the Convention which, in the first illusions of victory, promised
brotherhood to populations striking for freedom, was impolitic, but
was not illogical. In truth the Jacobins only transplanted for the use
of oppressed Europeans a precedent created by the Monarchy in favour
of Americans who were not oppressed. Nobody imagined that the new
system of international relations could be carried into effect without
resistance or sacrifice, but the enthusiasts of liberty, true or
false, might well account it worth all that it must cost, even if the
price was to be twenty years of war. This new dogma is the real cause
of the breach with England, which did such harm to France. Intelligent
Jacobins, like Danton and Carnot, saw the danger of abandoning policy
for the sake of principle. They strove to interpret the menacing
declaration, until it became innocuous, and they put forward the
natural frontier in its stead. But it was the very essence of the
revolutionary spirit, and could not be denied.

England had remained aloof from Pilnitz and the expedition under
Brunswick, but began to be unfriendly after the 10th of August. Lord
Gower did not at once cease to be ambassador, and drew his salary to
the end of the year. But as he was accredited to the king, he was
recalled when the king went to prison, and no solicitude was shown to
make the step less offensive. Chauvelin was not acknowledged. He was
not admitted to present his new credentials, and his requests for
audience were received with coldness. Pitt and Grenville were not
conciliatory. They were so dignified that they were haughty, and when
they were haughty they were insolent. The conquest of Belgium, the
opening of the Scheldt for navigation, and the trial of the king,
roused a bitter feeling in England, and ministers, in the course of
December, felt that they would be safe if they went along with it. The
opening of the Scheldt was not resisted by the Dutch, and gave England
no valid plea. But France was threatening Holland, and if out of
English hatred to the Republic, to republican principles of foreign
policy, to the annexation of the Netherlands, war was really
inevitable, it was important to get possession at once of the Dutch
resources by sea and land.

The idea of conciliating England by renouncing conquest, and the idea
of defying England by the im