), 130-42.

[451] Sir J. Sinclair, "Hist. of the Public Revenue," ii, 143.

[452] Pitt MSS., 272; "Parl. Hist.," xxxii, 1517; Gilbart, "History ...
of Banking" (ed. by E. Sykes), i, 46. On 25th February 1797 Pitt wrote a
memorandum (Pitt MSS., 102), stating that the crisis was due to the too
great circulation of paper notes by banks having limited resources.
Their stoppage affected larger Houses and paralysed trade. He had wanted
to meet the City men, who met on the 22nd to discuss the situation, but
failed to agree on any remedy. Finally they agreed to meet at the
Mansion House to discuss the issue of Exchequer Bills. Coutts, on 19th
March 1797, informed Pitt that gambling in the Prince of Wales'
Debentures, which exceeded L432,000, ruined the market for ordinary
securities (Pitt MSS., 126). Sinclair had vainly urged Pitt to compel
bankers to find and exhibit securities for the paper notes which they
issued ("Corresp. of Sir J. Sinclair," i, 87).

[453] H. F. B. Wheeler and A. M. Broadley, "Napoleon and the Invasion of
England," ch. ii, have proved this.

[454] "Parl. Hist.," xxxiii, 473-516; "Hist. of the Mutiny at Spithead
and the Nore" (Lond. 1842), 61-2; "Dropmore P.," iii, 323.

[455] Pitt MSS., 102. Lord Mornington deemed the surrender to the seamen
destructive of all discipline in the future ("Buckingham P.," i, 373).

[456] Holland, i, 84-91.

[457] "H. O.," Geo. III (Domestic), 137.

[458] "Report of the Comm. of Secrecy" (1799), 23; App., v, vi.

[459] From Mr. Broadley's MSS.

[460] Pitt MSS., 189. See, too, "Life of Wilberforce," ii, 217; Windham
("Diary," 363) saw Williams on and after 13th May.

[461] J. Corbett, "England in the Seven Years' War," i, 191.

CHAPTER XV

NATIONAL REVIVAL

A common feeling of danger has produced a common spirit of
exertion, and we have cheerfully come forward with a surrender
of part of our property, not merely for recovering ourselves,
but for the general recovery of mankind.--PITT, _Speech of 3rd
December 1798_.

The desire of Pitt for peace with France led him in the autumn of 1796
to renew more formally the overtures which he had instituted early in
that year. His first offer was repelled in so insolent a way that the
King expressed annoyance at its renewal being deemed necessary to call
forth the spirit of the British lion. Pitt, however, despatched Lord
Malmesbury on a special mission to Paris; and the slowness of hi