ia, R.O.

[248] Eden to Grenville, Jan. 29 and Feb. 15, 1794, MS. Austria, R.O.

[249] Grenville to Eden, Feb. 18, and Eden to Grenville, March 11, 1794,
MS. Austria, R.O.; Grenville to King, Feb. 16, _Dropmore Papers_, ii.,
505.

[250] Grenville to Spencer, July 19, 1794, MS. Austria, R.O.

[251] Spencer and J. Grenville to Grenville, Aug. 12 and Oct. 1, 1794,
MS. Austria, R.O.

[252] Pitt to George III., Oct. 11 and Nov. 23, 1794 (rough drafts),
MSS. Pitt Papers, 101; George III. to Pitt, Nov. 19, in Stanhope's _Life
of Pitt_, ii., App. xxi. The drafts of Pitt's letters escaped Lord
Stanhope's notice.

[253] "Log of the _Brunswick_," _Great Sea Fights_, i., 102, ed. Admiral
T. S. Jackson.

[254] Pitt to George III., Dec. 8, 1794. MS. Pitt Papers, 101.

[255] Lecky, _History_, vi., 513.

[256] W. W. Tone, _Life of T. W. Tone_, i., 111-18.

[257] Grenville to T. Grenville, Sept. 15 and Oct. 15, 1794, _Court and
Cabinets_, ii., 301,312.

[258] Add. MS., 33,118, ff. 268-78 (Pelham Papers), dated March, 1795,
and _First Letter of Fitzwilliam to Earl of Carlisle_, p. 19, Dublin,
1795.

[259] _Second Letter of Fitzwilliam to Carlisle_, pp. 12, 13, 2nd ed.,
1795.

[260] That it was largely a question of "men" with Pitt was held by
Pelham, the chief secretary, 1795-97 (Pelham to Portland, March 22,
1795, Add. MS., 33, 113), as well as by Fitzwilliam (_Second Letter to
Carlisle_, pp. 4, 24) and Burke (_Life of Grattan_, iv., 202).

[261] Stanhope, _Life of Pitt_, ii., App. xiii.-xiv.

[262] _Auckland Corr._, iii., 303-5; Add. MS., 33,118, f. 283.

[263] For full treatment of this crisis see Lecky, _Hist._, vii., 1-98.

CHAPTER XVIII.

ENGLAND'S DARKEST DAYS.

Before parliament met on December 30, 1794, a change in the public
affairs of France encouraged hopes of peace in England. The fall of
Robespierre and the end of the Terror on July 28 (10th Thermidor) were
followed by a reaction; the revolutionary committees lost their
dictatorial power, the convention regained its supremacy, and the
jacobin club was closed. This reaction, combined with the success of the
French arms in the Netherlands and Holland, the decay of the coalition,
the burdens entailed by the war, and the conviction that the republican
government would gain in stability by foreign opposition, led some of
Pitt's followers to desire an attempt at negotiation. The king's speech