William Pitt the Younger by William Hague

Author:William Hague
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307430274
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2007-12-18T05:00:00+00:00

Part Three

SEVENTEEN

A Tutorial in War

“The more monstrous and terrible the system has become, the greater is the probability that it will be speedily overthrown. From the nature of the mind of man, and the necessary progress of human a fairs, it is impossible that such a system can be of long duration; and surely no event can be looked for more desirable than a destruction of that system, which at present exists to the misery of France, and the terror of Europe.”

WILLIAM PITT, 21 JANUARY 17941

“I particularly represented to Mr. Pitt that . . . by undertaking too much He would do nothing well.”

THE DUKE OF RICHMOND2

THE EVENT WHICH took place in France on 21 January 1793 was almost beyond the imagination of those who had known the power of French Kings, the splendour of their courts, and the absolutism of their rule. On that day, shortly after ten o’clock in the morning, Louis XVI laid his head on the block beneath the guillotine. Moments later the exultant crowds cheered the execution of their King. This was the unequivocal answer of the French Revolution to the enmity of the imperial powers of Europe. A reprieve had been rejected in the ruling convention by 380 votes to 310, Danton later declaiming: “Let us fling down to the Kings the head of a King.”3 The rulers of the other nations of Europe were aghast. For them, this act, “the foulest and most atrocious deed,”4 in Pitt’s words, represented the overthrow of all law and authority. The execution of Louis XVI symbolised the confidence and zeal of the revolutionaries: it defied the monarchies of Europe to do their worst.

Pitt’s horror at Louis XVI’s death was no doubt genuine, but that was not what was causing him to prepare for war that January. For Pitt, the coming conflict was not about monarchists against republicans or the internal affairs of France, but was necessitated by the French assault on the balance of power in Europe in general and on the security of the Low Countries in particular. Of course these factors were intimately connected: the Revolution had created foreign hostility which in turn fuelled both the paranoia and the determination of the revolutionaries—France must take the war to its enemies and ensure that those who would impose a monarchy in Paris would find their own monarchies overthrown. This in turn directly challenged the strategic interests of countries which otherwise preferred to stay aloof, particularly Holland and Britain.

Yet Pitt in early 1793 did his utmost to keep these factors distinct. He was not seeking to overturn the Revolution, but to safeguard the British national interest. As war loomed, he called on France to renounce “all ideas of aggrandizement” and to “confine herself within her own territories.”5 Months after it broke out he was happy to confirm that “if sufficient security and reparation could be had for this country,” he could “allow their government to remain even upon its present footing.”6 To Pitt, it was important to be clear that the reason for war was British security and not French royalty.

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