t show that he longed for his
recall. In that of 16th November 1796 he concluded with the significant
remark that he looked forward to the time when they would once more live
as country gentlemen in Kent. Pitt had the same longing; but he never
wrote a line expressing a desire to leave the tiller at the height of
the storm. Obviously Camden was weary of his work. Fear seems to have
been the motive which prompted his proclamation of martial law in
several counties and the offer of an amnesty to all who would surrender
their arms before Midsummer 1797. Those enactments, together with the
brutal methods of General Lake and the soldiery in Ulster and Leinster,
crushed revolt for the present but kindled a flame of resentment which
burst forth a year later. As the danger increased, so did the severities
of the Protestant Yeomanry and Militia. Thus, fear begot rage, and rage
intensified fear and its offspring, violence. The United Irishmen had
their revenge. In the summer of 1797 their two delegates, Lewins and
McNevin, did their utmost to defeat the efforts of Pitt to bring about
peace with France; and the former had the promise of the Director,
Barras, that France would never sheathe the sword until Ireland was
free.[488]

Again Camden begged Pitt to seek the first opportunity of freeing him
from his duties in order to disentangle his private affairs which were
in much confusion, the excess of expenditure over income at Dublin being
a further cause of embarrassment. In fact nothing but a sense of public
duty, in view of a hostile invasion, kept him at his post. So far from
the truth are those who, without knowledge of the inner motives of
statesmen, accuse them of delight in cruelty and of intriguing to
provoke a revolt.

Early in the year 1798 the hopes of malcontents centred in the naval
preparations progressing at Brest and Toulon.[489] Bonaparte also seemed
about to deal a blow at London. In February he surveyed the flotilla at
Dunkirk and neighbouring ports; and the hearts of English Jacobins beat
high at the thought of his landing in Kent or Sussex. The London
Corresponding Society, after a time of suspended animation, had now
become a revolutionary body. On 30th January its new secretaries,
Crossfield and Thomas Evans, issued an encouraging address to the United
Irishmen. Somewhat later Evans and Binns formed a society, the United
Englishmen, which imposed on its members an oath to learn the use of
arms, its constit