recovery of Holland.

Another essential point was Switzerland. Like a bastion frowning over
converging valleys, that Alpine tract dominates the basins of the Po,
the Inn, the Upper Rhine, and the Upper Rhone. He who holds it, if
strong and resolute, can determine the fortunes of North Italy, Eastern
France, South Germany, and the West of the Hapsburg domains. Further, by
closing the passes over the Alps he can derange the commerce of Europe;
and the sturdy mountaineers will either overbear the plain-dwellers, or
will serve as mercenaries in their forces. Accordingly Switzerland, like
her Asiatic counterpart, Afghanistan, has either controlled her
neighbours, or has been fought for by them. As commerce-controller,
provider of troops, and warden of the passes, she holds a most important
position. Fortunate it is that the Swiss have loved freedom, or money,
more than dominion. For so soon as a great State possesses their land,
the Balance of Power becomes a fiction.

Pitt evinced sure insight in his resolve to free the Switzers from the
Jacobin yoke. To it the men of the Forest Cantons succumbed only after
desperate struggles, which inspired Wordsworth with one of the noblest
of his sonnets. There is no sign that Pitt set much store on winning
over the public opinion of Europe by siding with the oppressed against
the oppressor, as his disciple, Canning, did during the Spanish National
Rising; but help from the Swiss was certainly hoped for. So early as
August 1798 Pitt proposed to allot L500,000 for assistance to them, and,
but for the delays at St. Petersburg and Vienna, the Allies might have
rescued that brave people before it fell beneath the weight of numbers.
Even in March 1799, when the rising against the French had scarcely
begun, he set apart L31,000 per month for the purpose of equipping a
corps of 20,000 Swiss. On 15th March, after hearing of the outbreak of
war on the Rhine, Grenville urged that the Russian force subsidized by
England should march towards Switzerland, now that Prussia's doubtful
behaviour prevented a conquest of Holland by land. He also insisted that
this addition to the allied forces destined for Switzerland must not be
allowed to lessen the number of Austrians operating there.[513]

The Court of Vienna at once saw in the subsidized Russian army a tool
useful for its own plans, and requested that it should serve with the
Austrians in Swabia. The answer to this singular request can be
imagine