f resistance is yet in our hands.
For the success of their unfounded claims would not only give rise to
new pretensions, but would give them additional influence."[116] Pitt's
views were the same, though he stated them more firmly and not as an
alarmist. On 9th December he wrote to the Earl of Westmorland, Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland, that the gross disregard of treaties shown of
late by France, her encouragement of the spirit of revolt in all lands,
and her public reception of addresses from English societies, "full of
treasonable sentiments," compelled the Government, though very
reluctantly, to add to the armed forces. He added these words: "I am
clear that the circumstances require vigour and decision both at home
and abroad. And the spirit of the country seems within these last ten
days to have taken so favourable a turn that I think we may look with
great confidence to the event."[117] Thus Pitt and Grenville equally
felt the need of firmness in resisting the French decrees, partly
because of their aggressive and illegal nature, but also because
surrender would inflate the spirits of British malcontents.

Current events served to strengthen this opinion. France had hitherto
won all the points of the game by sheer audacity. Everywhere she had
attacked, and everywhere she had found unexpected weakness. Custine's
army had extorted a forced loan from Frankfurt. Dumouriez was
threatening Aix-la-Chapelle on the east, and the Dutch on the north. The
spirit which animated the French Foreign Office appears in the letter
which Lebrun, its chief, wrote to Dumouriez on 22nd November: "To the
glory of having freed the Belgian Catholics, I hope you will join that
of delivering their Batavian brothers from the yoke of the
Stadholder."[118] There can be no doubt that the general laid his plans
for that purpose, though he also sent pacific overtures to Auckland at
The Hague.[119]

To crown the indignation of royalists, there came the tidings that on
3rd December the French Convention decreed the trial of Louis XVI for
high treason against the nation. The news aroused furious resentment;
but it is noteworthy that Pitt and Grenville rarely, if ever, referred
to this event; and that, before it was known, they had declared the
impossibility of avoiding a rupture with the French Government if it
persisted in adhering to the November decrees. On this question the
final court of appeal is the despatches and letters of our Ministers. An