It remains to express my debt to those who
have helped me: to Milton Waldm
an, Henry Ne
wnham and H. J. Massingham, who
have placed at my disposal their k
nowledge and judgment of books;
to Lord Queenborough, who has
given valuable criticism, and
whose gallant grandfather and great
-uncle figure; in these pages;
to Eric Gillett, who has gen
erously given me leave to quote
from the unpublished MS.,
Autobiography of Elizabeth Ham;
to
Colonel Alfred Burne, to whom I owe a
soldier's scholarship as well
as two brilliant studies of the Helder campaign in the
Army Quarterly
and
Fighting Forces;
and to Fra
ncis McMurtrie, who has checked
my imperfect pages by his own immense maritime lore, largely,
I believe, in the hours of fire-watching: an activity which
afforded in the still hours of the n
ight part bf the inspiration of
this book. Without their help
, and that of my wife who typed
it, my work could not have been completed in so difficult
a time.
As my aim has been to present not new facts but old ones focused in the light of present experience, I have, on account of the paper shortage, omitted both bibliography and appendix of references, contenting myself with occasional footnotes. A list follows ©f abbreviations used m these.
Arthur
Bryant.
June, 1942.
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Add MSS.—Additional MSS., British Museum. Alison—Sir A. Alison,
History of Europe
(1849 ed.). Ann. Reg—Annual Register.
Bamford.—
Dear Miss Heber
(ed. F. Bamford), 1936.
Bonner Smith.—D. Bonner Smith,
The Naval Mutinies of
1797;
Mariner's Mirror,
XXL B.M.—British Museum.
Bunbury.—Sir H. Bunbu
ry,
Narrative
of Certain Passages in the late War with F
rance,
1852.
Calvert.—
The Journals and Correspondence of Sir Harry Calvert
(ed.
Verney), 1853.
C.H.B.E.—
Cambridge History of the British Empire,
Vol II, 1940. Cockburn.—H. Cockburn,
Memorials of His Time,
18
56. Colchester.—
Diary and Correspondence of Charles Abbot, Lord Colchester,
1861.
Collingwood.—
A Selection from the
Correspondence of Vice-Admiral
Lord Collingwood,
1828.
C.J.—
-Commons' Journals.
Cornwallis.—
Correspondence of Charles, First Marquis Comwallis
(ed. C. Ross), 1859.
Crabb Robinson.—
Diary of Henry Crabb Robinson,
1869. D'Arblay.—
The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay.
Dropmore.—
Historical Manuscript Commission,
Report on the
Manuscripts of J. B. Fortescue, Esq., preserved at Dropmore.
Dyott.—
Diary of William Dyott
(ed. R. W. Jeff
erey), 1907. Eden.—Sir F. Eden,
State of the Poor,
1797.
Espriella.—(R. Southey.)
Letters from , England by Don Manuel
Alvarez Espriella,
1807.
Farington.—
The Farington Diary,
1922-6.
Fortescue.—Hon Sir J. Fortescue,
History of the British Army,
IV., 1906.
Friend, The-
S
.
T. Coleridge,
The Friend
(1890 ed.). Fremantle.—E. A. Fremantle,
England in the Nineteenth Century,
1929..
Frischauer.—P. Frischauer,
England's Years of Danger,
1938.
Gardner.—
Recollections of James Anthony Gardner
(ed. Sir R. V.
Hamilton and
K. Laughton, Navy Records Society), 1906. Ham: MS.-—
MS. Autobiography of Elizabeth Ham.
H
annah More.—
Memoirs of the Life of Mrs. Hannah More
(ed
W. Roberts), 1836.
Hester Stanhope.—
The Memoirs of Lady Hester Stanhope,
1845.
H.M.C.—Historical Manuscripts Commission.
James.—James, W.,
Naval History,
1837.
Jomini.—Baron A. H. de Jomini,
Histoire des Guerres de la Revolution,
Paris, 1824.
Lecky.—Lecky,
History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century,
1892 ed.
Lennox.—
Life and Letters of Lady Sarah Lennox
(ed. Countess of
Ilchester and Lord Stavordale), 1901.
Lloyd's Evenin
g
Post.—Lloyd's Evening Post and British Chronicle
1798.
Long.—W. H. Long,
Naval Yarns,
1899.
Lynedoch.—A. M. Delavoye,
Life of Lord Lynedoch,
1899.
MacRitchie.—W. MacRitchie,
Diary of a Tour through Great
Britain,
1795.
Madelin.—L. Madelin,
The French Revolution,
1916.
Mahan, Nelson.—A. T. Mahan,
Life of Nelson,
1899.
Mahan, Sea Power.—A. T. Mahan,
The Influence of Sea Power upon
t
he French Revolution and Empire
1892.
Malmesbury.—
Diaries of the First Earl
of
Malmesbury,
1845. Manwaring and Dobre
e.—C. E.
M
anwaring and B. Dobre
e,
The
Floating Republic,
1935.
Martin.—
Journals and Letters of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Thomas Byam
Martin
(Navy Records Society, ed. Sir R. V. Hamilton),
1900-2.
Mathieson.—W. L. Mathieson
England in Transition,
1920. Minto.—
Life and Letters of Sir Gilbert
Elliot, First Earlof
Minto, 1S74
Moore.—
Diary of Sir John Moore
(ed. Sir F. Maurice), 1904. Morris.—Gouverneur Morris,
A Diary of the French Revolution,
1939.
Nicolas.—
Despatches and Letters of Lord Nelson
(ed. Nicolas), 1844-6.
Park. Hist.—Parliamentary History.
Pitt and the Great War.
.
Holland Rose,
William Pitt and the Great War,
1911.
Reflections.
—E. Burke.,
Reflections on the Revolution in France
(Works, 1867 ed.).
Rochefoucauld.—
A Frenchman in England
(ed. J. Marchand), 1933.
Rose.—
The Diaries and Correspondence of the Right Honourable
George Rose,
1860.
Spencer Papers.—
The Spencer Papers
(Navy Records Society), Vols.
Ill & IV, 1924.
Stanhope.—Earl Stanhope,
Life
of
William Pitt,
1862.
Times
—The Times,
Torrington.—
The Torrington Diaries
(ed. C. R Andrews), 1934-8.
War Speeches.—The War Speeches of William Pitt the Younger
(ed. R. Coupl
and), 1940.
Wheeler & Broad
ley.—H. F. B. Wheeler and A.
Broadley,
Napoleon and the Invasion of England,
1908.
Windham Papers,—
The Windham Papers,
1913.
Woodforde.—J. Woodforde,
Diary o
f a Country Parson
(
ed. j. D.
Beresford), 1924-31.
Wynne
Diaries.
—The Wynne Diaries
(ed. A. Fremantle
), 1935-40.
PUBLISHERS' NOTE.
For kind permission to use certain copyright extracts the Publishers are indebted to :
Messrs. Constable for an extract froth Mr, Christopher Hobhouse's biography of
Fox;
Messrs. Macmillan for an -extract from the late Sir John Fortescue's
History of the British Army
; the executors of the late Sir Henry Newbolt for a stanza from the poem
Admirals All
reprinted from Sir Henry Newbolt's
Poems New and Old,
published by Messrs. John Murray.
CHAPTER
ONE
Freedoms Own Island
" Our good ol
d island now possesses an accumulation of prosperity beyond any example in the history of the world."
Lo
rd Auckland to Lord Grenville, 3r
d July,
1792
.
" Good and evil will grow up in the world together* and
they who complain, in peace
, of the insolence of the popu
lace, must remember that their insolence in peace is
bravery in war."
'
Dr. Johnson
.
A
little
before it grew light on a cold February morning in
1793, a crowd began to gather on the parade ground at Whitehall. Against the seventeenth-century facade of the Treasury and the grey classic stone of Kent's Horse Guards, the first battalions of the three regiments of Foot Guards were drawn up in long lines of scarlet and white. At seven o'clock precisely, a cortege of officers appeared riding down the Mall from the direction of Buckingham House. At their head was King George III of England with his two elder sons, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York.
Mounted on a white charger, in General's uniform, the little, erects blue-eyed man who represented in his person the idea of England rode down the lines. Then the men marched past in companies, moving in slow time. Two thousand strong, they swung out of Storey's Gate and crossing Westminster Bridge took the road .to Greenwich j the King and the officers of his staff riding for a time after them and the Queen and the Princesses following in carriages. All the way through the southern suburbs the troops were accompanied by a vast, enthusiastic crowd, who so overwhelmed the rearguard with embraces and loyal potations that many fell by the way and had to finish their jour
ney in carts. Next day they em
barked under the royal eye fo
r Holland in overcrowded, unseaworthy transports, wi
thout stores, medical appliances or reserves of ammunition. So the first expeditionary force of the longest war in Britain's history passed beyond seas.
No man living could have guessed
its duration. Before it was to
end at Waterloo the youngest survivor of those who sailed that day was to be in his forties. The nature and purpose of the struggle were to change out of all recognition; those who were Britain's allies were to become vassals of her terrible adversary and to be aligned against her, and yet more than once, fired by her example, to shake off their chains and range themselves again by her side against the tyrant. Once, for a short while, Britain herself, victor on her chosen element the sea but wearied
by the unending conflict, was to
temporise with a momentarily exhausted foe, only to renew the fight within a few months when the faith reposed in despotic power had been violated. Only one thing was to remain constant: the dogged resolution of the British people and their leaders to restore the rule of law in Europe, and to go on till they had done so. But on that cold February day nothing of this could be foreseen.