Reg." (1792), 190-3; Ernouf, "Maret," 94-8.

[132] "F. O.," Holland, 41; B.M. Add. MSS., 34446. Grenville to
Auckland, 4th December.

[133] "F. O.," Holland, 42. Auckland to Grenville, 7th and 8th December
1792. See, too, Miles, "Correspondence," i, 382; Sorel, iii, 224.

[134] Sorel, iii, 204, 224.

[135] Vivenot, ii, 393.

[136] Sorel, iii, 225, 226.

[137] Miles, "Corresp.," i, 388, 389.

CHAPTER IV

THE RUPTURE WITH FRANCE

La guerre aux rois etait la consequence naturelle du proces fait
au roi de France; la propagande conquerante devait etre liee au
regicide.--SOREL.

The opening of Parliament on 13th December 1792 took place amidst
circumstances that were depressing to friends of peace. Affairs were
gyrating in a vicious circle. Diplomacy, as we have seen, had come to a
deadlock; but more threatening even than the dispute between Pitt and
Lebrun were the rising passions of the two peoples. The republican
ferment at Paris had worked all the more strongly since 20th November,
the date of the discovery of the iron chest containing proofs of the
anti-national intrigues of the King and Queen. Hence the decree (3rd
December) for the trial of Louis XVI at the bar of the Convention with
its inevitable sequel, the heating of royalist passion in all
neighbouring lands. It is one of the many mishaps of the revolutionary
movement that its enthusiasm finally aroused an opposite enthusiasm, its
fury begot fury, and thus set in a series of cyclones which scarcely
spent their force even at Waterloo.

An essentially philosophic movement at the outset, the French Revolution
was now guided by demagogues and adventurers, whose only hope of keeping
erect lay in constant and convulsive efforts forwards. Worst symptom of
all, its armies already bade fair to play the part of the Praetorians of
the later Roman Empire. Nothing is more singular at this time than the
fear of the troops. Amidst the distress prevalent at Paris, much
apprehension was felt at the return of the armies of Custine and
Dumouriez. In part, of course, this uneasiness arose from a suspicion
that these men, especially the latter, might take up the _role_ of Monk
and save Louis. But a member of the French Convention assured Miles that
the disbanding of those tumultuary forces would bring on a social
crisis.

War, [he wrote on 9th December] is to a certain extent
inevitable, not so much for the purpose of opening the Sch