early losses. In September
1797 the French Directory made the unpardonable mistake of compelling
her to prepare for a war to the knife. Thenceforth the hesitations of
Pitt, which had weakened his war policy in 1795-6, vanished; and he now
stood forth as the inspirer of his countrymen in a contest on behalf of
their national existence and the future independence of Europe.

FOOTNOTES:

[462] "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 259-368; "Dropmore P.," iii, 239-42,
256, 287, 290.

[463] Pitt MSS., 102. See Stanhope, iii, App., for the letters of the
King and Pitt; "Dropmore P.," iii, 310 _et seq._; also C. Ballot, "Les
Negociations de Lille," for an excellent account of these overtures and
the European situation.

[464] See Pitt's letter of 16th June to the King and new letters of
Grenville in "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies"; "Windham's Diary," 368;
C. Ballot, _op. cit._, ch. v and App.; Luckwaldt (_vice_ Huffer)
"Quellen," pt ii, 153, 161, 176, 183.

[465] On 1st August 1797 Wilberforce wrote to Pitt a letter (the last
part of which is quoted in Chapter XX of my former volume) urging him,
even if the negotiation failed, to declare on what terms he would resume
it. In Mr. Broadley's library is a letter of Lord Shelburne to
Vergennes, dated 13th November 1782, which makes it clear that Pitt in
1782-3 was wholly against the surrender or the exchange of Gibraltar.

[466] Ballot, _op. cit._, 302, who corrects Thiers, Sorel, and Sciout on
several points.

[467] "Dropmore P.," iii, 377, 380-2; "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 590.

[468] "Parl. Hist.," xxxiii, 1076; "The Early Married Life of Lady
Stanley," 149.

[469] Pitt MSS., 193. Mr. Abbott, afterwards Lord Colchester, differed
from his patron, the Duke of Leeds, on this question. See "Lord
Colchester's Diaries," i, 124-31.

[470] B.M. Add. MSS., 34454.

[471] "Parl. Hist.," xxxiii, 1434-54, 1481; "Mems. of Sir John
Sinclair," i, 310, 311.

[472] Addington's description (Pellew, "Sidmouth," i, 206) fixes the
spot. Mr. A. Hawkes, in an article in the "Wimbledon Annual" for 1904,
places it in front of the house called "Scio," but it must be the deeper
hollow towards Kingston Vale. Caricatures of the time wrongly place the
duel on the high ground near the windmill. A wag chalked on Abershaw's
gibbet a figure of the two duellers, Tierney saying: "As well fire at
the devil's darning-needle."

[473] Pretyman MSS.; "Dropmore P.," iv, 222.

[474] The hero is probably Robert Ad