hauvelin reported these facts to his Government along with the
assurance that the Cabinet had definitely resolved on neutrality. How he
came to know of that decision is a mystery; and it is scarcely less odd
that a copy of his despatch reporting it should be in the Pitt
Papers.[73] On the whole, then, France had good reason to be satisfied
with Pitt. Austria, on the other hand, disliked his conduct. Kaunitz,
with his usual acerbity, gave out that England was secretly hostile to
the House of Hapsburg; and Keith, finding his position increasingly
awkward, begged for his recall.

The first sign of friction between England and France arose out of the
King's proclamation against seditious writings, which we noticed in the
last chapter. Chauvelin complained of some of its phrases, and stated
that France waged war for national safety, not for aggrandizement.
Grenville thereupon loftily remarked that Chauvelin had no right to
express an opinion on a question which concerned solely the King's
Government and Parliament. The British reply irritated by its curt
correctness.

Equally unfortunate were some incidents in the ensuing debates on this
topic. Some members emphasized their loyalty by adverting tartly to the
connections of Thomas Paine and English reformers with the French
Jacobins. On 31st May the Duke of Richmond charged that writer with
being an emissary from abroad, because he had advised the destruction of
the British navy.[74] There is no such passage in the "Rights of Man";
and the Duke must have read with the distorting lens of fear or hatred
the suggestion that, if England, France, and the United States were
allied, a very small navy would be needed, costing not more than half a
million a year.[75] But this incident is typical of the prejudice that
was growing against France. Grenville in the same debate declared that
the Corresponding Societies avowed their connection with foreign clubs
and were engaged in circulating pamphlets. The conclusion was obvious,
that close relations with France must be avoided. As to the feeling of
the Royal Family, it was manifested in an effusively loyal speech by the
Prince of Wales, his first speech at Westminster. In it he marked his
entire severance from Fox on this question.

Grenville's complaisance to the French envoys was perhaps little more
than a blind to mask his contempt for them and their principles. On 19th
June he wrote to Auckland respecting the "ignorance and absurdi