s, the chief colonies, especially Hayti, were
menaced by that most horrible of all commotions, a servile revolt, when,
most opportunely, help arrived from Jamaica. The contrast between the
timely succour of England and the reckless iconoclasm of Paris struck
the imagination of the French settlers, and the Assembly of Hayti
forthwith drew up a declaration, setting forth the illegality of the
French decrees, the miseries resulting from them, and the resolve of the
colonists to sever a connection absolutely fatal to their welfare.
Citing the example of the United States fifteen years before, and
recounting the misdeeds of the mother country, they proclaimed to the
world the justice of the act of severance.

A copy of this declaration, signed by de Cadusey on 27th September 1791,
was sent forthwith to Pitt, with a request for the protection of Great
Britain. He received it at Burton Pynsent on 27th October.[365] One of
the chief delegates from Hayti was de Charmilly, who on 14th November
sought an interview with Pitt, and a fortnight later wrote to him,
earnestly begging the help of the only nation which could avert ruin
from those islands. France, he declared, had passed a decree of blood
against her own colonies and was powerless to stop its effects. The
National Assembly, having by its annexation of Avignon recognized the
right of that papal district to belong to whom it would, Hayti of equal
right now voted for union with England. He further advised that its
ports should remain open to all nations, a course of action which would
herald the dawn of commercial and political freedom among the Spanish
colonies of the New World.[366] These alluring prospects failed to
entice Pitt from the strict neutrality to which he had pledged himself.
So far was he from desiring to profit by the misfortunes of France, as
the French princes first, and after them the Jacobins, maliciously
asserted.

Once more the deputies of France flung the torch of discord across the
Atlantic. By their decree of 4th April 1792 they declared absolute
equality of rights between whites, half-castes, and blacks, and sent out
commissioners to enforce this anarchic fiat. They forthwith took the
side of the rebels, who in Toussaint l'Ouverture found a leader of
terrible force of will. Martinique and Guadeloupe and the smaller
islands were also a prey to civil war. In sheer desperation the planters
and merchants of Guadeloupe sent over a delegate, Curt, to appe