s
in France availed themselves of the irritation caused by the Declaration
of Pillnitz to revive the cry for a war which, as they hoped, would give
strength to the throne. The more violent revolutionists, or Jacobins, on
the other hand, abandoned their advocacy of peace. Under the influence
of the "Girondists," the deputies from the south of France, whose aim
was a republic, and who saw in a great national struggle a means of
overthrowing the monarchy, they decided, in spite of the opposition of
their leader, Robespierre, on a contest with the Emperor. Both parties
united to demand the breaking up of an army which the emigrant princes
had formed on the Rhine; and though Leopold before his death assented to
this demand, France declared war against his successor, Francis, in
April 1792.

CHAPTER IV

ENGLAND AND REVOLUTIONARY FRANCE

1792-1801

[Sidenote: England and the Revolutionists.]

That the war with Germany would widen into a vast European struggle, a
struggle in which the peoples would rise against their oppressors, and
the freedom which France had won diffuse itself over the world, no
French revolutionist doubted for an hour. Nor did they doubt that in
this struggle England would join them. It was from England that they had
drawn those principles of political and social liberty which they
believed themselves to be putting into practice. It was to England that
they looked above all for approbation and sympathy, and on the aid of
England that they confidently counted in their struggle with a despotic
and priest-ridden Europe. Absorbed in the mighty events about them, and
utterly ignorant of the real set of English feeling or the real meaning
of Pitt's policy, they were astonished and indignant at his firm refusal
of their alliance and his resolve to stand apart from the struggle. It
was in vain that Pitt strove to allay this irritation by demanding only
that Holland should remain untouched, and promising neutrality even
though Belgium should be occupied by a French army, or that he
strengthened these pledges by a reduction of military forces, and by
bringing forward in 1792 a peace-budget which rested on a large
remission of taxation. To the revolutionists at Paris the attitude of
England remained unintelligible and irritating. Instead of the aid they
had counted on, they found but a cold neutrality. In place of the
sympathy on which they reckoned, they saw, now that they looked coolly
across the Chan