In the mean time, the war was carried on, on the continent, by the allied powers formerly engaged, with various success. The French, under Dumourier, en tered the Dutch territory on the 17th of February, and Bieda, the fort of Klundert, and Gertruydenburgh, sur rendered to their arms ; but at the city of Williamstadt they first received a check. The English troops under the Duke of York having debarked in Holland, entered Williamstadt ; and this circumstance,.pith other con curring events, turned the tide of fortune in favour of the allies. The successes of the Imperial com manders, Clairfait and Cobourg, were at first equally illustrious. The latter obliging 1\ liranda to raise the siege of Maestricht, repassed the Maese, and defeated Dumourier, in two severe encounters at Neer winde and at Fer de Louvain. The French now re treated from Belgium, pursued by the vengeance of the inhabitants. The defection of Dumourier left the French army in a state of imminent peril, from which the geni us and courage of Dampierrc, with difficulty, recovered it. But that enterprizing commander, advancing from his camp at Famars, attacked the allies at Quivcrain, where he was defeated with the loss of 4000 men, and where he himself fell in the action. In this engage ment, the English and Hanoverians turned the fortune of the day : the Coldstream guards were particularly dis tinguished by charging the foremost lines of the French. By this success, the allies were enabled to besiege Va lenciennes, which surrendered on the 25th of July. Mentz and Cornlk, about the same time, capitulated to the confederates. \Vhile so important a mass of the allied forces kept together, nothing could withstand their efforts ; but unhappily they divided, entertaining different views of aggrandizement. The British, under the Duke of York, forming a distinct army with the Dutch and Hessians, opened the trenches before Dun kirk on the 24th of August. The works were carried on, though with trivial effect, till the sixth of Septem ber, when the covering army, commanded by the Hano verian Field Marshal Freytag, was unexpectedly at tacked and defeated by the French General Houchard ; a successful sortie was at the same time made by the garrison, and the besieging army was compelled to re treat with the loss of all its heavy artillery. On her own element, Britain began the war with success. Tobago was captured by a British squadron under Admiral La Forey. The settlements of Fort Jeremic, and Cape St Nichola Mole in St Domingo, also surrendered to our arms. The small islands of Miquelon and St Pierre be came an easy prey to our arms ; and, in the East Indies, we became masters of Pondicherry, Fort Mahie, and other settlements of the French on the Malabar and Coromandel coasts. A fallacious hope, for a short time, shone upon the affairs o1' the allies, that the internal dis tractions of the French would afford them effective par tizans in restoring the monarchy. After the fall of the Girondinc, (the less ferocious faction of the republicans,) and the ascendency of the terrorists, some of the pro scribed deputies fled from Paris, and raised the standard of insurrection in the provinces. In the south, a most formidable fcederation against the Jacobins was framed by the three cities of Marseilles, Lyons, and Toulon. Lord Hood was at that time cruizing in the Meditera nean, and with him the people of Toulon and the French Admiral Trugoff negotiated to surrender the town and the shipping. His Lordship took possesion of both in the name of Louis XVII. solemnly engaging to assist in restoring the constitution of 1789. The siege of this place was immediately commenced by a large army of the republicans, with all the advantages of having the adjacent country subjected, although not devoted, to their cause. General O'Hara, who had reinforced the garrison with troops from Gibraltar, was wounded and made prisoner in a sortie, the neighbouring forts were carried by the enemy, and the town was bombarded and found untenable. Thousands of the inhabitants who crowded to the shore, were taken on board the English ships ; but many more thousands were necessarily aban doned to the cruel vengeance of their countrymen. Of 15 French ships of the line which had surrendered to lord Hood, only three were brought oil'.
The session of parliament of 1794 was opened on the 21st of January. As the avowed object of the war had been the deliverance of our allies, and security for our selves, the ministry were called upon, by their opponents, to explain why they had suffered a period of time to pass over, when the arms of the allies were every where victorious, without endeavouring to profit by success, and to restore the blessings of peace. " The present war, (said his grace the duke of Grafton, in seconding a motion of the marquis of Lansdown, for addressing his majesty to make a pacific attempt,) was undefined in its principle and object. It was a war of extermination, which, if continued upon the present principles, would convert France into a great military school ; it would rouse her utmost enthusiasm, and ultimately shake the prosperity and safety of these kingdoms." To these almost prophetic predictions, and to other views and arguments, strongly urged during this session by Mr Fox and Mr 'Whitbread, the answer of ministers was in substance : That though security was the object of the war, they would not bind themselves to define the circumstances which might be allowed to constitute that security ; that the war held out every probable hope of success ; that France was on the eve of bankruptcy, and could not long resist the allied powers ; and finally-, that, with a seditious faction at home, and a foreign ene my, bent on subverting our monarchy, we could not ex pect refuge from danger, even in peace, nor were peace itself desirable and safe, could we treat with such men as the present governors of France. The public in
general received implicitly those views of success in the war. They listened to the descriptions which mi nisters gave of the dangerous conspiracy hatched by the reforming societies. Parliament was induced to suspend the habeas corpus act ; and twelve of the reforming leaders were arrested for high treason. Of these, John Horne Tooke was the only man of the smallest political distinction. Hardy, a shoemaker ; Thelwall, an itinerant lecturer ; Holcroft, a play-writer ; and others of less note, were his associates. They were indicted at the Old Bailey. It was sought to be proved, that the asso ciations in question had armed themselves against the government ; but it was only proved, that a few of the individuals had procured some pikes to defend them selves against the mobs at places where they held their meeting. Hardy was first tried ; and after a trial of nine days, acquitted. Never was a verdict considered as more important to public liberty; and the eloquence of Erskine never brought more reputation to himself, or on the legal profession, than on this occasion The verdict in Hardy's case clearly predicted the acquittal of the other reformers.
Some of the late members of opposition, who had left their party on the breaking out of the war, were this year admitted to a share in the administration. Earl Fitzwilliam was appointed president of the council ; earl Spencer, lord privy seal ; the duke of Portland, third secretary of state ; and Mr Windham, secretary at war. By a subsequent change, lord Spencer was ap pointed to the head of the admiralty, and lord Fitzwilliam was made viceroy of Ireland.
The military and naval force voted for the service of the year, amounted to 250,000, including 35,000 fo reigners. A great augmentation of the militia, and of the volunteer fencible corps, took place ; and the doubt ful expedient was resorted to, of soliciting voluntary subscriptions by a formal letter, written by the secretary of state to the lords lieutenants of the counties. A treaty was concluded with the king of Sardinia, by which that monarch received a subsidy of 200,0001. a year from this country ; and it was agreed, that his Britannic majesty should not conclude a peace with France, without the restoration of the conquered territories of Sardinia be ing made a preliminary. By another treaty, his Prussian majesty was to maintain 62,000 men, on condition of receiving from Britain 150,0001.* a month, besides 400,000/. when his army should be put in motion, and 100,0001. on their return. But the direction and com mand of these costly auxiliaries was still to be vested in his Prussian majesty. On the 9th of April, his ma jesty the emperor of Germany arrived at Brussels, to take the supreme command of the allied forces. On the 16th, he reviewed them on the heights above Cateau. The following day the allies proceeded to invest Lan dreci, which fell into the hands of prince Cobourg after a siege of no long duration. But to balance the success, Pichegru drove the army of Clairfait from Moucron, and the republicans got possession of Alenin and Court ray. In June, the French, under Jourdan, having pass ed the Sombre, and laid siege to Charleroi, the prince of Cobourg risked a general attack. The scene of the important battle which ensued was at Fleurus, memora ble for the total defeat of the allies. Charleroi and Brus sels thus fell, without resistance, into the hands of the French. This was but the prelude to a succession of victories on the side of the enemy. Ypres, the key of West Flanders, ielded to Moreau. The duke of York had fatally separated from the confederates, and station ed himself at Tournay, which he found untenable, and retreated in the direction of Antwerp. When the fate of the Netherlands had been thus decided, a body of 10,000 men under lord Moira, which landed at Ostend, with reached the British army ; but the tide of the war was too strongly turned, to be affected by so small a reinforcement. Ostend, Ghent, Mons, Oude narde, and Neuport, fell in rapid succession into the hands of the republicans, and the whole line of the al lies, from Antwerp to Namur, became broken and de fenceless. The Stadtholder in vain called on his states to support him by a general levy disaffection or apathy every where prevailed. Slays alone made a brave re sistance. in the mean time, the strong towns in the French territory, which the allies still possessed, being now completely insulated, quickly reverted to their for mer possessors. The army of the duke of York retreat ed in August to Breda, and quickly after to Bois le Duc. Pursued by Pichegru at the head of 80,000 men, they next retreated across the Alaese, took a fresh position near Grave, and at the beginning of October encamped under the walls of Nimeguen. At the latter end of the month they crossed the Waal, leaving a corps to protect Nimeguen ; but the town was evacuated on the 7th of Novembor, with great loss and confusion. During these events, the arms of the republic were equally success ful in all directions. Clairfah, after successive defeats, was obliged to cross the Rhine at Cologne, and the im perial troops were pursued to the river side by their con querors. On the side of Spain and Italy, the French ar mies shared similar triumphs, and victory, to use the language of Barrere, was in a state of permanence.