.

If we try to picture the course of the war as mapped out by Pitt, it
would probably have appeared somewhat as follows. Great Britain, after
lending to the Dutch a few regiments as a protection against the
threatened raid of Dumouriez, withdraws them, leaving the Dutch and the
subsidized German corps to guard the rear of the legions of Prussia and
Austria during their conquering march to Paris. England, in the
meantime, harasses the coasts of France, thereby compelling her to
detain considerable forces at the important points, and further cripples
her by sweeping her fleets and merchantmen from the sea and seizing her
colonies.

In short, Pitt's conception of the true function of Great Britain in a
continental war was based on that of his father, who accorded
comparatively little military aid to Frederick the Great even in his
direst need, but helped him indirectly by subsidies and by naval
expeditions that stalemated no small portion of the French army. If
Chatham's tactics succeeded when Prussia was striving against France,
Austria, and Russia, how much more might Pitt hope to win a speedy
triumph over anarchic France during her struggle with Austria, Prussia,
Spain, Naples, Sardinia, and Holland? He expected, and he had a right to
expect, that these States would need British money, not British troops,
while the Sea Power restricted its operations to a "minor offensive"
along the seaboards of France and her colonies. Pitt's efforts in this
direction were constantly thwarted by the drain of men to Flanders; but
his letters to Murray, Chief of Staff to the Duke of York, evince his
anxiety to strike at Toulon and the West Indies, and not merely to
lighten the military duties of Austria and Prussia on the French
borders.[363] It would be tedious to recount his various attempts to
prepare an expedition for the West Indies.[364] Of more interest are the
requests for protection which he received from the French colonists of
Hayti, the western part of the great island of San Domingo.

As appeared in Chapter XX of the former volume, the decrees of the
National Assembly of Paris fired the negroes of the French West Indies
with the resolve to claim the liberty and equality now recklessly
promised by the mother-land. The white settlers, on the contrary, having
recently acquired autonomous rights, disputed the legality of that
levelling legislation, and rejected all authority but that of Louis XVI.
Amidst the ensuing strife