den into the field on the royalist side.
In the excited state of men's minds, an act so annoying as that of armed
mediation would have widened the circle of war; and, as we have seen, it
was the belief of Pitt and Grenville, in August-September 1792, that the
continental war might probably end from the inability of the combatants
to continue it. No one at that time foresaw the easy conquest of Savoy
and the Low Countries by the French troops. In one of the few references
to foreign affairs in Pitt's letters of the month following, we find him
stating that if France conquers and keeps Savoy, a new situation will
arise.[190] But he remained passive while the French drove the Sardinian
troops from Savoy; and his whole conduct at this time moved Burke to
indignation, if not despair. So late as 6th November Grenville expressed
to Auckland his firm belief in the policy of strict neutrality.[191]

What was it, then, that blighted these hopes? The answer must be that
the French victory of Jemappes (6th November) and the phenomenally easy
conquest of the Austrian Netherlands speedily brought about a new and
most threatening situation. It has been usual to say, with Goethe, that
Valmy was the birth of a new age. Far more truly may we say so of
Jemappes and its immediate results. That decisive triumph and the
welcome accorded by the liberated Belgians opened up vistas of
beneficent triumph that set the brain of France in a whirl. Hence the
decrees of 16th November-15th December, which tear to pieces the old
diplomacy, and apply to astonished Europe the gospel of Rousseau. In
place of musty treaties there will be Social Contracts; instead of
States there will be nations that will speak straight to one another's
heart. They do speak: English Radical Clubs speak to the heart of
France, the Convention; and Gregoire, President of that body, makes
answer that if the rulers of England threaten the delegates and their
comrades, Frenchmen will cross the Straits and fly to their help--"Come,
generous Britons," he cries, "let us all confederate for the welfare of
Humanity."[192] In the new age, then, political life will be a series of
_tableaux_ from the gospel of Rousseau. To the true believer there can
be no compromise. Relics of old-world customs, such as the closing of
the Scheldt by the Dutch, must vanish. Here, as elsewhere, Nature will
infallibly guide men aright.

It was the application of these principles to our ally, the Dutch
Rep