XXI. evident, that, though France might defeat the land CHAP. forces of Europe, England would acquire the dominion of the waves. 1796. The hostilities carried on by the naval and military forces of Great Britain in the West and East Successes of Indies, were attended with the most decisive suc- in the West the English cess. Indies. The island of Granada, which had long been and East in a state of revolt, yielded to the perseverance and ability of General Nicols: St Lucie was reduced in May by General Abercromby, and Essequibo and Demerara by General White, while the French could only set off against these losses the destruction of the merchandise and shipping at Newfoundland by Admiral Richery. In the Indian seas, the successes of the British were still more important. A Dutch squadron of three ships of the line, three frigates, and many vessels of inferior size, having on board 2000 land troops, destined to retake the Cape Aug. 1796. of Good Hope, was captured by Admiral Elphinstone in the Bay of Saldanha, while the Batavian settlements of Ceylon, the Malaccas, and Cochin, with ' Ann. Reg. the important harbour of Trincomalee, were early in Jom. ix. taken possession of by the British forces.' These important successes, particularly the reduction of the Cape, Ceylon, and the Malaccas, diffused General the most general joy through the British nation. It these sucwas justly observed, that the former was a half-way- in England. house to India, and indispensable to the mighty empire which we had acquired in the plains of Hindostan, while the latter secured the emporium of the China trade, and opened up the vast commerce of the Indian Archipelago. The attention of the people, by these great acquisitions, began to be turned towards the probable result and final issue of the war: they looked to the conquests of the Bri the year 1796, 194. cesses diffuse XXI. 1796. CHAP. tish at sea as likely to counterbalance the conquests of the Republicans at land: they observed that Rhodes long maintained a doubtful contest with Rome after its land forces had subdued Spain, Carthage, and part of Gaul; and that in a similar contest Great Britain would have incomparably greater chances of success than the Grecian commonwealth, from the superior internal strength which the population of its own islands afforded, and the far more extensive commerce which enriched it from every quarter of the globe. "Athens," said Xenophon, "would have prevailed over Lacedemon, if Attica had been an island inaccessible save by water to the land forces of its opponent ;" and it was impossible not to see that nature had given that advantage to the European, which she had denied to the Grecian maritime power. The formation of a great colonial empire, embracing all the quarters of the globe, held together and united by the naval power of England, and enriching the parent state by their commerce, and the market they would open for its manufactures, began to engage the thoughts not only of 1 Ann. Reg. statesmen, but of practical men, and the Cape and Ceylon to be spoken of as acquisitions which should never be abandoned.' 1796, 195. Jom. ix. 241. St Domingo still continued in the distracted and Continued unfortunate state into which it had been thrown by deplorable the visionary dreams of the French Republicans, and Domingo. the frightful flames of a servile war which had been state of St. lighted up by their extravagant philanthropists. All the efforts, both of the French and English, to restore any thing like order to its furious and savage population, proved unsuccessful. The latter had never been in sufficient force to make any serious impression on its numerous and frantic inhabitants; and XXI. 1796. the former were hardly able to retain a scanty foot- CHAP. ing in the northern part of the island, without attempting to regain the splendid and prosperous colony which they had lost. The blacks, taught by experience, perfectly acquainted with the country, and comparatively inaccessible to its deadly climate, maintained a successful contest with European forces, who melted away more rapidly under its fatal evening gales, than either by the ravages of famine or the sword of the enemy. Toussaint had already risen to eminence in the command of these desultory forces, and was taken into the French service with the division he had organized, in the vain attempt to reestablish the sinking authority of the Republican commissioners.1 1 Ann. Reg. 193. Jom. 1796, 192, 230, 240. alliance Spain. Notwithstanding the disastrous state of her principal colony, and the great losses which she had sustained in her maritime possessions, Great Britain showed herself disposed during this year to make great sacrifices to France to obtain a general peace. In truth, notwithstanding her naval successes, the si- Treaty of tuation of England, from the disasters of her allies, between had become sufficiently alarming. Spain, detached France and by the treaty of Bâle from all connexion with the Allies, had lately fallen under the Republican influence, and given way to that jealousy of the British naval power, which is so easily excited among the European states. The Directory, artfully improving these advantages, had fanned the Spanish discontents into a flame, by holding out the hopes of some acquisitions in Italy, won by the sword of Napoleon, in case they joined the Republican alliance. Influenced by these considerations, the Spaniards fell into the snare, from which they were destined in future to experience such disastrous effects, and on the 19th XXI. 1796. fonso. CHAP. August concluded a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, with France, on the footing of the family 19th Aug. compact. By this treaty, the powers mutually guaAt St Ilde- ranteed to each other their dominions both in the Old and the New World, and engaged to assist each other, in case of attack, with 24,000 land troops, thirty ships of the line, and six frigates. This was followed, in the beginning of October, by a formal declaration of war on the part of Spain against Great Britain. Thus England, which had commenced the war with so many confederates, saw herself not only deprived of all her maritime allies, but the whole coasts of Europe, from the Texel to Gibraltar, arrayed in fierce hostility against her.1 * 2d Oct. 1 Th. viii. 351, 352. Ann. Reg. 1797, 2. 5th Oct. 1796. * Many grounds of complaint were assigned in the Spanish manifesto on this occasion; but they met with a decisive refutation from the British cabinet, in an able state paper, drawn by Mr Canning. It was urged by the Spanish court, that the conduct of the English during the war, but especially at the siege of Toulon, and in the expedition of Toulon, had determined the cabinet of Madrid to make peace with France as soon as it could be done with safety to the monarchy; that the bad faith of the English government farther appeared in the treaty of 19th Nov. 1794, concluded, without regard to the rights of Spain, with the United States, in the injustice with which they seized the St Jago, at first taken by the French, but afterwards retaken by the English, which, by the subsisting convention, ought to have been restored, and in the intercepting of ammunition for the Spanish squadrons; that the crews of her ships had frequently landed on the coast of Chili, and carried on a contraband trade, as well as reconnoitered these valuable possessions, and had evinced a clear intention of seizing part of the Spanish colonial territories, by sending a considerable force to the Antilles and St Domingo, and her recent acquisition of the Dutch settlement of Demerara; that frequent insults and acts of violence had been committed by the English cruisers upon Spanish vessels in the Mediterranean; that the Spanish territory had been violated by descents of English ships on the coast of Galicia and at Trinidad; and, finally, that the majesty of Spain had been insulted by the decrees of a court in London, authorizing the arrest of its ambassador for a small sum. " By all these insults," it concluded, "equally deep and unparalleled, that nation has proved to the universe, that she recognises no other laws, than the aggrandizement of her com XXI. Impressed with these dangers, and desirous also of CHAP. disarming the numerous and powerful party in Great 1796. 1 Ann. Reg. merce, and by her despotism, which has exhausted our patience and mo- xxxviii. deration, has rendered a declaration of war unavoidable." 196. State To this manifesto, the acrimonious style of which too clearly betrayed Papers. the quarter from which it had proceeded, it was replied by the British government, that "the unprovoked declaration of war on the part of Spain had at length compelled the King of England to take measures to assert the dignity of his crown; that a simple reference to the Spanish declaration, and a bare enumeration of the frivolous charges which it contains, must be sufficient to satisfy every reasonable and impartial person that no part of the conduct of Great Britain towards Spain has afforded the smallest ground of complaint. The acts of hostility attributed to England, consist either of matters perfectly innocent, or of imputed opinions and intentions, of which no proof is adduced, nor effect alleged, or of complaints of the misconduct of unauthorized individuals, concerning which his Majesty has always professed his willingness to institute enquiry, and grant redress, where it was really due. The charge of misconduct on the part of the British admiral at Toulon is unprecedented and absurd, and this is perhaps the first instance that it has been imputed as a crime to one of the commanding officers of two powers, acting in alliance, and making a common cause in war, that he did more than his proportion of mischief to the common enemy. The treaty with America did nothing more than what every independent power has a right to do, or than his Spanish Majesty has since that time himself done; and inflicted no injury whatever on the subjects of that monarchy. The claims of all parties in regard to the condemnation of the St Jago, captured by his Majesty's forces, were fully heard before the only competent tribunal, and one whose impartiality is above all suspicion. The alleged misconduct of some merchant ships in landing their crews on the coasts of Chili and Peru forms no legitimate ground of complaint against the British government; and even if some irregularities had been committed, they might have been punished on the spot or the courts of London were always ready to receive and redress complaints of that description. "In regard to the expedition to St Domingo and Demerara, with all the regard which he feels to the rights of neutral powers, it is a new and unheard of extension of neutral rights which is to be restricted by no limits, and is to attach not to the territories of a neutral power itself, but to whatever may once have belonged to it, and to whatever may be situated in its neighbourhood, though in the actual possession of an enemy. The complaint in regard to St Domingo is peculiarly unfortu- · nate, as the cession of part of that island by the recent treaty from Spain to France, is a breach of that solemn treaty under which alone the crown of Spain holds any part of its American possessions. Such an |