ster. The whole enterprise was unwarrantable, unless the Orange
party was about to rise; but on this subject Ministers were deceived.
The Prince of Orange and his son assured them that it was necessary even
to hold back the loyalists until armed help appeared, so eager were they
to expel the French.[524] Not a sign of this eagerness appeared.

Undaunted by this failure, which Sheridan wittily called nibbling at the
French rind, Pitt sought to utilize the Russian force withdrawn from
Holland for the projected blow at Brest. It was therefore taken to the
Channel Islands, greatly to the hurt of the inhabitants. Pitt and
Grenville also concerted plans with the Austrian Court, which, chastened
by the disasters in Switzerland, now displayed less truculence. It
agreed to repay the loan of May 1797, to restore Piedmont to the House
of Savoy, and to give back to France any provinces conquered in the war,
on condition of the re-establishment of monarchy. Thus, a friendly
understanding was at last arrived at; and on 24th December 1799
Grenville empowered Minto to prepare a treaty, adding that on the first
opportunity the French Government should be informed of this engagement.

The occasion occurred at once. Bonaparte, having become master of France
by the _coup d'etat_ of Brumaire (10th November), wrote on Christmas Day
to Francis II and George III proposing terms of peace. The statesmanlike
tone of that offer has been deservedly admired; but his motives in
making it do not concern us here.[525] Suffice it to say that Pitt and
Thugut saw in it a clever device for sundering the Anglo-Austrian
compact. As appears from a letter of Canning, Pitt looked on the new
Consular Government as a make-shift. Writing early in December to
Canning, Pitt stated that the new French constitution might prove to be
of a moderate American kind. To this Canning answered on the 7th that it
might perhaps last long enough to admit of Bonaparte sending off a
courier to London and receiving the reply if he were kicked back. Or
more probably, France would fall under a military despotism, "of the
actual and manifest instability of which you seem to entertain no
doubt." In answer to Pitt's statement "that we ought not to commit
ourselves by any declaration that the restoration of royalty is the
_sine qua non_ condition of peace," Canning advised him to issue a
declaration "that you would treat with a monarchy; that to the monarchy
restored to its rightful owne