accused Pitt
unjustly when they said that he went to war from the motive of
ambition. He was guiltless of that capital charge. But he did less
than he might have done to prevent it, perceiving too clearly the
benefit that would accrue. And he is open to the grave reproach that
he went over to the absolute Powers and associated England with them
at the moment of the Second Partition, and applied to France the
principles on which they acted against Poland. When the Prince of
Coburg held his first conference with his allies in Belgium, he
declared that Austria renounced all ideas of conquest. The English at
once protested. They made known that they desired to annex as much
territory as possible, in order to make the enemy less formidable. Our
envoy was Lord Auckland, a man of moderate opinions, who had always
advised his government to come to terms with the Republic. He exhorted
Coburg not to rest until he had secured a satisfactory line of
frontier, as England was going to appropriate Dunkirk and the
Colonies, and meant to keep them. George III., on April 27, uttered
the same sentiments. France, he said, must be greatly circumscribed
before we can talk of any means of treating with that dangerous and
faithless nation. In February Grenville definitely proposed
dismemberment, offering the frontier fortresses and the whole of
Alsace and Lorraine to Austria. It was the English who impressed on
the operations, that were to follow, the character of a selfish and
sordid rapacity.

The island kingdom alone had nothing to fear, for she had the rest of
the maritime Powers on her side, and the preponderance of the naval
forces was decisive. The French began the war with 76 line-of-battle
ships. England had 115, with 8718 guns to 6002. In weight of metal
the difference was not so great, for the English guns threw 89,000
lbs. and the French 74,000. But England had the Spanish fleet, of 56
ships-of-the-line, and the Dutch with 49--the Spaniards well built,
but badly manned; the Dutch constructed for shallow waters, but with
superior crews. To these must be added Portugal, which followed
England, and Naples, whose king was a Bourbon, brother to the king of
Spain. Therefore, in weight of metal, which is the first thing, next
to brains, we were at least 2 to 1; and in the number of ships 3 to 1,
or about 230 to 76. That is the reason why the insular statesmen went
to war, if not with greater enterprise and energy, yet with more
determin