mediate invasion of the United Provinces,
balanced each other for a time. By renunciation, the moderate or
Girondin party would have triumphed. The Jacobins, who drew all the
consequences of theories, and who were eager to restore the finances
with the spoils of the opulent Dutchmen, carried their purpose when
they voted the death of the king. That event added what was wanting to
make the excitement and exasperation of England boil over. Down to the
month of January the government continued ready to treat on condition
that France restored her conquests, and several emissaries had been
received. The most trustworthy of these was Maret, afterwards Duke of
Bassano. On the 28th of January Talleyrand, who was living in
retirement at Leatherhead, informed ministers that Maret was again on
the way to herald the approach of Dumouriez himself, whose presence in
London, on a friendly mission, would have been tantamount to the
abandonment of the Dutch project. But Maret came too late, and
Dumouriez on his journey to the coast was overtaken by instructions
that Amsterdam, not London, was his destination.

The news from Paris reached London on the evening of the 23rd, and the
audience at the theatre insisted that the performance should be
stopped. There was to be a drawing-room next day. The drawing-room was
countermanded. A Council was summoned, and there a momentous decision
was registered. Grenville had refused to recognise the official
character of the French envoy, Chauvelin. He had informed him that he
was subject to the Alien Act. On the 24th he sent him his passports,
with orders to leave the country. Upon that Dumouriez was recalled. On
the 29th Chauvelin arrived at Paris, and told his story. And it was
then, February 1, that the Convention declared war against England.
With less violent counsels in London, and with patience to listen to
Dumouriez, the outbreak of the war might have been postponed. But
nothing that England was able to offer could have made up to France
for the sacrifice of the fleet and the treasure of Holland.

Our ministers may have been wanting in many qualities of negotiators,
and the dismissal of Chauvelin laid on them a responsibility that was
easy to avoid. They could not for long have averted hostilities. It is
possible that Fox might have succeeded, for Fox was able to understand
the world of new ideas which underlay the policy of France; but the
country was in no temper to follow the Whigs. They