484 Ibid. Letter of 12th December 1786.

485 Ibid.

486 Pitt MSS., 333.

487 This letter of 6th June has no date of the year, and it has been bound up in vol. 28064 of the Add. MSS. in the British Museum for the year 1789 of the Auckland MSS. Internal evidence shows that the year should be 1786.

488 Their memorial, dated 22nd February 1786, is from the London silk trade (B.M. Add. MSS., 34420). It states that “no alteration or modification whatsoever, short of the present prohibition of all foreign wrought silks, can ensure the silk trade to this country.”

489 Pitt MSS., 110.

490 “Pitt-Rutland Corresp.,” 158; “Beaufort Papers” (Hist. MSS. Commission), 353.

491 Pitt MSS., 110. Eden to Pitt, 23rd August.

492 Ibid. Pitt to Eden, 12th September.

493 “F. O.,” France, 20. For further details see my article in the “Eng. Hist. Rev.” for October 1908.

494 “Parl. Hist.,” xxvi, 233–54; “Auckland Corresp.,” i, 495–515; Martens, “Traités,” iv, 155–80.

495 Pitt MSS., 169.

496 “F. O.,” France, 18.

497 “Auckland Journals,” i, 392, 6th October 1786.

498 “Dropmore P.,” i, 274.

499 “Auckland Journals,” i, 404.

500 “Auckland Journals,” i, 404; “Parl. Hist.,” xxvi, 342–78.

501 Ibid., 392, 394.

502 Ibid., 397, 398, 402, 424, 595. Mr. J. L. le B. Hammond in his able work, “Charles James Fox” (1903), defends his hero on the ground that monarchical France was the enemy of England.

503 Pitt MSS., 110. Eden to Pitt, 13th April 1786.

504 “F. O.,” France, 18.

505 “F. O.,” France, 18. Hailes to Carmarthen, 25th October 1786. The Duke of Dorset thought very little of Hailes, but Hailes’s despatches show far more knowledge of France than the Duke’s.

506 Flammermont, op. cit., 125.

507 See summaries of both in Butenval, op. cit., chs. xv, xvi.

508 Arthur Young’s “Travels in France” (Bohn edit., 1889), 8, 9, 69, 107, 284.

509 Levasseur, “Hist. des Classes ouvrières,” ii, 776.

510 This is the judgement of R. Stourm, “Les Finances de l’Ancien Régime et de la Révolution,” 59.

511 “Cambridge Mod. Hist.,” viii, 74.

512 “Auckland Journals,” i, 127. Pitt to Eden, 10th June 1786.

513 Martens, “Traites,” iv, 196–223. For these negotiations with Spain and Russia, see Salomon’s “Pitt,” 237–44. A little later Pitt started commercial negotiations with Prussia and Holland, but nothing came of them. It is clear, however, that he sought to revise the whole of our commercial relations.

514 The contributions of the Provinces to the needs of the Union show their respective resources. Out of every 100 florins of federal revenue, Holland contributed 57¾, Friesland 11½, Zealand 9, Groningen 5¾, Utrecht 5¾, Guelderland 5½, Overyssel 3½, Drent 1.

515 For details see Luckwaldt, op. cit. On a similar plan, Harris had written to Carmarthen on 3rd January 1786 that the idea of France keeping the Stadholder in his position and England then aiding him is so monstrous that Frederick “must think us mere novices in politicks” (B.M. Add. MSS., 28061).

516 B.M. Add. MSS., 28061 and 28062. Dalrymple to Carmarthen, 20th October 1786, 23rd January 1787.

517 “F. O.,” Prussia, 11. So Luckwaldt, op. cit., 52–7.

518 B.M. Add. MSS., 28061. See, too, “Malmesbury Diaries,” ii, 212, for Carmarthen’s view. “I never desire a connexion with Prussia unless Russia, and of course, Denmark, are included.”

519 All the despatches of this time serve to refute the statement of Lecky (v, 80) that the accession of Frederick William “greatly changed the situation” for the Princess of Orange.

520 Wittichen, op. cit., 63–5.

521 “F. O.,” Prussia, 11. Dalrymple to Carmarthen, 21st April 1787.

522 B.M. Add. MSS, 28060.

523 “F. O.,” France, 18.

524 Pitt MSS., 110.

525 Bouillé, “Mems.,” ch. i.

526 Grenville during his mission to The Hague in August 1787 got an inkling of the wider scheme described above, as appears in his phrase “One’s mind at once runs to Trincomale.” So late as August 1788 Pitt was nervous about the fate of that port. See his letter to Grenville as to the rumour of 800 French troops sailing thither (“Dropmore P.,” ii, 280, 353).

527 “Dropmore P.,” ii, 251–5.

528 Ibid., 267, 268; “Leeds Memoranda,” 117.

529 Pitt MSS., 151.

530 “Malmesbury Diaries,” ii, 299. “I am certain if we begin to roar, France will shrink before us” (Harris to Carmarthen, 5th May). See, too, Wittichen, 67.

531 “Malmesbury Diaries,” ii, 303–6.

532 “F. O.,” Holland, 14.

533 “F. O.,” Prussia, 11. Ewart to Carmarthen, 19th and 22nd May 1787.

534 “F. O.,” Holland, 14. Harris to Carmarthen, 1st June.

535 “Malmesbury Diaries,” ii, 322.

536 “Auckland Journals,” i, 521; Oscar Browning, “The Flight to Varennes and other Essays,” 163.

537 “Malmesbury Diaries,” ii, 329.

538 “F. O.,” Prussia, 11. Ewart to Carmarthen, 6th June 1787. Ewart was now chargé d’affaires at Berlin, Dalrymple having gone home on furlough. He did not return, and Ewart became ambassador in August 1788.

539 Ibid. Ewart’s note of 30th June.

540 “F. O.,” Holland, 15.

541 “F. O.,” Holland, 15; “F. O.,” Prussia, 11.

542 Luckwaldt, op. cit., 66, 67.

543 Wittichen (78, 79) holds that Frederick William’s hesitation came from concern about the Fürstenbund or the hope that France would join in a peaceful mediation in Holland.

544 Lusi’s report of 17th July 1787. Luckwaldt, op. cit., 68.

545 “F. O.,” Prussia, 11. Carmarthen to Ewart, 17th July. There is nothing in this despatch which warrants the statement of the editor of the “Malmesbury Diaries” (ii, 339 n.) that we then offered Prussia armed support if France attacked her, and promised to make a demonstration with forty ships of the line. That was not proposed until the middle of September, in reply to French threats.

546 “F. O.,” Austria, 14. Keith on 3rd August stated that the Emperor was friendly to us, but he was the ally of France, though he would not act with her in the Dutch Question.

547 “F. O.,” Prussia, 11. Carmarthen to Ewart, 27th July.

548 Wittichen, 81, shows that Wilhelmina herself worked hard to dissuade her brother from a mediation conjointly with France.

549 “F. O.,” France, 25. Eden to Carmarthen, 4th August 1787.

550 Ibid., 8th August.

551 “F. O.,” France, 25.

552 “Auckland Journals,” i, 520. Lord Loughborough, in a letter of 13th October 1787 to Lord Carlisle stated that Grenville’s mission was not due to distrust of Harris (“Carlisle P.,” 652). But this seems to me very doubtful in view of the letters between Pitt and Grenville.

553 “Dropmore P.,” iii, 408–15. For the missions of Grenville to The Hague and Paris, see my article in the “Eng. Hist. Rev.” for April 1909.

554 Pitt MSS., 102.

555 “F. O.,” France, 25. Eden to Carmarthen, 16th August 1787.

556 Ibid. Carmarthen to Eden, 24th August.

557 Pitt MSS., 102; and “Cornwallis Corresp.,” i, 333–7.

558 “Malmesbury Diaries,” ii, 371.

559 “Méms. du Comte de Portes,” (1904), 92.

560 “Auckland Journals,” i, 234, 259.

561 B.M. Add. MSS., 28061.

562 “Dropmore P.,” iii, 418.

563 “F. O.,” France, 25, 26. Eden to Carmarthen, 29th August and 11th September.

564 The feuds in his Ministry, and his consistently peaceful attitude, seem to absolve him from the charge of duplicity. French troops, disguised as Free Corps, were afterwards captured in Holland and had on them orders and instructions written by de Ségur, the French War Minister, who resigned in August 1787 (“Auckland Journals,” i, 259). It seems probable therefore that some Ministers egged on the French agents and the Patriots, while Montmorin strove to hold them in check. Louis XVI also used his influence to prevent a war with Prussia, which he disliked (see Garden, “Traités,” v, 85 n.). The appointment of Loménie de Brienne to a kind of dictatorship seems also to have made for peace; it coincides with the resolve, formed about 20th August (see Barral de Montferrat, op. cit., 214), to recall Vérac from The Hague; and on 31st August Montmorin signed with Eden a convention for ending irritating disputes in East Indian affairs. I have no space to go into that question; but it had been reported (e.g., by Eden on 9th November 1786, Pitt MSS., 110) that the French were about to gain control over Dutch East India ports. Rumours to that effect had embittered the contest in Holland, and they were laid to rest by that convention.

565 See the MSS. of P. V. Smith in the “Beaufort P.” (Hist. MSS. Commission) 357, for the parts of Pitt’s letter of 8th September, omitted, very strangely, by the editor of the “Auckland Journals” (i, 191–2), also ibid., i, 198.

566 Luckwaldt, 71.

567 “F. O.,” Holland, 17.

568 “F. O.,” Prussia, 11. Carmarthen to Ewart, 24th August.

569 Luckwaldt, 80 n., here corrects one of many mis-statements in P. de Witt’s “Une Invasion prussienne en Hollande,” 285, that the Prussians were ready to march by 20th July.

570 Hertzberg, “Recueil des Traités,” ii, 428–30; “F. O.,” Prussia, 12. Ewart to Carmarthen, 4th and 8th September.

571 Ibid. 8th September.

572 “The prevailing opinion of this Court is the Emperor will ... sacrifice his alliance with Russia to that of 1756 [with France]” (Ewart to Keith, 11th September 1787. B.M. Add. MSS., 35539).

573 Wittichen, 92–4; also ibid., 97, for the Anglo-Prussian Convention of 2nd October.

574 “Auckland Journals,” i, 192.

575 Ibid., 195.

576 “F. O.,” France, 26. Eden to Carmarthen, 11th and 13th September.

577 The original, in Pitt’s handwriting, is in “F. O.,” Russia, 15, dated 21st September, and inscribed “To all the King’s Ministers abroad except Paris and The Hague.”

578 “Dropmore P.,” iii, 426–36; E. D. Adams, op. cit., 6, 7; “Buckingham P.,” i, 326–31.

579 Ibid. Eden to Carmarthen, 20th September.

580 “Dropmore P.,” iii, 435; “Méms. de Dedem de Gelder,” 7.

581 Ibid., iii, 435.

582 “F. O.,” Holland, 19. Carmarthen to Harris, 12th October; “Auckland Journals,” i, 234.

583 B.M. Add. MSS., 29475.

584 “F. O.,” Austria, 14. Keith to Carmarthen, 24th October 1787. On 14th November Joseph II informed Keith that he thoroughly approved of the Dutch settlement.

585 “Auckland Journals,” i, 217, 221.

586 Ibid., 227, 228.

587 Ibid., 255–8; “Ann. Reg.” (1787), 283.

588 “Auckland Journals,” i, 264.

589 Ibid., 263.

590 B.M. Add. MSS., 28063. Harris to Pitt, 22nd February 1788.

591 Martens, iv, 372–7; Garden, v, 89–92.

592 “F. O.,” Prussia, 12. Ewart to Carmarthen, 27th September 1787.

593 Pitt MSS., 119.

594 Pitt MSS., 119. Carmarthen to Ewart, 2nd December 1787. Fraser, our envoy at St. Petersburg, reported on 1st November that Austria was proposing there a Triple Alliance, but it was coolly received (“F. O.,” Russia, 15).

595 Ibid. Carmarthen to Ewart, 26th December.

596 See Ewart’s masterly Memorandum in “Dropmore P.,” ii, 44–9.

597 Luckwaldt, 100 et seq. Ewart found out the secret instructions issued to Dietz, and forwarded them to London on 8th April. They show that Prussia sought by all means to encourage the Turks, but laid her plans so as to get an indemnity in land in case Austria gained land in the south-east.

598 “F. O.,” Prussia, 13. Ewart to Carmarthen, 15th March 1788.

599 Ibid. Ewart to Carmarthen, 15th January 1788. Lecky (v, 232) assigns the first rumours of Prussian indemnities in land to January 1789; but Ewart reported the beginnings of Hertzberg’s plan in January 1788.

600 Ibid. Carmarthen to Ewart, 2nd April.

601 See his letter of 24th November 1787 to Dietz at Constantinople in Häusser, “Deutsche Geschichte,” i, 225–6.

602 “F. O.,” Prussia, 13. Carmarthen to Ewart, 14th May 1788.

603 Ibid. Ewart to Carmarthen, 27th and 31st May 1788; Wittichen, ch. xx.

604 B.M. Add. MSS., 28063.

605 “Malmesbury Diaries,” ii, 421.

606 The secret articles are in Ranke’s “Fürstenbund,” ii, 358; for the published treaties of 13th June and 13th August see Martens, iv, 382–5, 390–3; for the negotiations, Luckwaldt, 114–16, Salomon, “Pitt,” 344–51. The accounts of these important events given by Tomline, Stanhope, and Lecky are brief and unsatisfactory.

607 So Wittichen, 148.

608 “Records of Stirring Times,” 58, by the authoress of “Old Days in Diplomacy.”

609 Certain letters of the Earl of Liverpool recently sold in London show that there was an open breach between King and Queen in 1804, and that Pitt helped to patch it up.

610 Huish, “Mems. of George IV,” i, 60–2.

611 H. Walpole’s “Last Journals,” ii, 480–1.

612 Fox does not seem to have introduced the prince into bad company. See Jesse, ii, 367–9, and Huish, i, 122–4.

613 “Malmesbury Diaries,” ii, 125.

614 Pitt MSS., 228.

615 “Malmesbury Diaries,” ii, 129–31.

616 Pitt MSS., 105.

617 W. H. Wilkins, “Mrs. Fitzherbert and George IV,” i, 81–105.

618 Ibid., i, 135–7; Langdale, “Mems. of Mrs. Fitzherbert,” 127–8, 141, 142; Jesse, ii, 512, 513.

619 Pitt MSS., 122. Sir Carnaby is Sir Carnaby Haggerston, who married Frances, the youngest sister of Mrs. Fitzherbert (née Smythe). Her mother was a daughter of John Errington of the Northumberland family of that name. His brother was the confidante of the Prince, as described above.

620 W. H. Wilkins, op. cit., i, 97.

621 Wraxall, iv, 306.

622 “Parl. Hist.,” xxv, 1348–56; Wraxall, iv, 304–6.

623 Pitt MSS., 103. For other references see the King’s letters to Pitt in “Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies.”

624 The King altered this to “written message.”

625 Pitt MSS., 105.

626 W. H. Wilkins, op. cit., i, 161.

627 This letter refutes the statement of Huish (op. cit., i, 169) that Pitt was as pertinacious as the King in refusing to help the Prince.

628 “Dropmore P.,” i, 362.

629 Major-General Smith, M.P., was twice unseated for bribery. His nickname was “Hyder Ali.”

630 “Cornwallis Corresp.,” i, 374, 375. Payne was a confidential friend of the Prince, who made him Comptroller of his Household and Lord Warden of the Stanneries in Cornwall.

631 “Buckingham P.” i, 363, 364.

In the Pitt MSS., 228, is a Memorandum, endorsed January 1794, entitled “Heads of a Plan for a new Arrangement of the Prince of Wales’s Affairs.” It states that his debts then amounted to £412,511 5s. 8d. he owed £60,000 to Mr. Coutts the banker (Pitt’s banker); and he might at any time be called on to pay as much as £170,000. It would be difficult to induce Parliament to pay any part of these debts. Moreover, such a demand “would afford a fresh topic of declamation to those who already use the expenses of Royalty as an engine to operate upon weak minds in order to effectuate their ultimate purpose, the overthrow of everything dignified, everything sacred, everything valuable and respectable in social life.” The anonymous compiler therefore suggests the raising of a loan at 3½ per cent., so as to cover the “urgent” debts amounting to £349,511. Creditors would probably consent to the “defalcation” of 20 per cent. from what was owed them and be content with 3½ per cent. interest on the remainder.

A Mr. W. Fitzwilliam, of 45, Sloane Street, in May 1795 suggested a lottery for raising £2,100,000, of which £650,000 should go to the discharge of the Prince’s debts, £1,000,000 to the archbishops for the forming of a fund for raising the stipend of every clergyman to £100 a year; £100,000 to be reserved as prizes in the lottery; and £50,000 to be set apart for expenses.

632 “Buckingham P.,” i, 361; Wraxall, iv, 458; v, 77–9.

633 “Dropmore P.,” i, 353. Grenville replied on 1st September that he thought the frequent changes in France would undermine her power and so check “that sort of intrigue and restlessness which keeps us in hot water even while we are most confident of the impossibility of any serious effect from their schemes.” He then suggests an agreement as to the forces to be kept by the two Powers in the East (Pitt MSS., 140).

634 G. Rose, “Diaries,” i, 86. The date of this interview is probably between 10th and 24th October 1788.