conduct which it proposed to take in the
future respecting France.[194] As outlined in the despatch of 29th
December to Whitworth, it formed the basis of a practicable compromise.
If it could be stated confidentially to Russia, Austria, and Prussia,
why not to France? Probably the objections of George III to the faintest
sign of recognition of the French Republic[195] account for the fact
that these enlightened intentions remained, down to the year 1800,
secret except to those Powers. But statesmen err when they bury their
good intentions in the secrecy of archives and allow public opinion to
sympathize with the enemy. Here was Pitt's most serious blunder. At the
outset of the struggle, and throughout its course, he scorned those
tactful arts and melodramatic ways which win over waverers and inspire
the fainthearted. Here he showed himself not a son of Chatham, but a
Grenville. The results of this frigidity were disastrous. All Frenchmen
and many Britons believed that he went out of his way to assail a
peaceful Republic in order to crush liberty abroad and at home. History
has exposed the falseness of the slander; but a statesman ought not to
owe his vindication to research in archives. He needs whole-hearted
support in the present more than justification by students.

In this respect Pitt showed less of worldly wisdom than the journalists
and barristers who leaped to power at Paris. Their chief source of
strength lay in skilful appeals to popular passion. In reality their
case was untenable before any calm and judicial tribunal. But the France
of that age was anything but calm and judicial. It lived on enthusiasm
and sensation; and the Girondins and Jacobins fed it almost to
repletion. Unfortunately Danton, the only man who combined strength with
some insight into statecraft, was away in Belgium while the crisis
developed; and the conduct of affairs rested mainly with Lebrun and his
envoy Chauvelin. It is only fair to remember that they were thirty and
twenty-seven years of age respectively, and had had just four months and
eight months of official experience. In such a case pity must blend with
censure. The frightful loss of experienced men and the giddy preference
for new-comers were among the most fatal characteristics of the
revolutionary movement. Needing natures that were able, yet
self-restrained, bold, but cautiously bold, it now found as leaders
calculating fanatics like Robespierre, headstrong orators and
wi