In order to sound the disposition of the people in the more inland districts, and to reconnoitre the position of the republican forces, the count d'Hervilly, who acted so generous and heroic a part on the tenth of August, 1792*, much respected in England, and who had a principal command in his expedition, put himself at the head of some thousands of the Chouans, and endeavoured to penetrate into the country; but, on the approach of a few hundreds of the republicans, they threw down their arms and fled. This obliged him to retire within the intrenchments that had been thrown up on the peninsula of Quiberon,

The republican commanders, to improve this advantage, raised three redoubts, to guard the passage to the main land, The British troops, the emigrants that had been raised and formed into regiments in Eng. land, and the Chouans that had joined them, amounted altogether to ten or twelve thousand men. Five thousand of them were selected to make an attack on these redoubts, They marched against them in the night of the fifteenth of July, and carried two; but, on their approaching the third, a masked bat tery took them in flank with such execution, that they were unable to proceed, and retreated with all possible speed, pursued by the republicans, who probably would have destroyed or taken the whole of this body, had not some British ships, anchored near the shore, compelled them, by a vigorous fire, to retreat in their turn. The dis aster of this day occasioned vio, lent wranglings among the emi

grant officers, who reciprocally charged each other with want of conduct. Those privates who had enlisted from the French prisons in England, much more from a desire of

recovering personal liberty, than inclination to the service they were going upon, took this opportunity to communicate their sentiments to each other; and great numbers of them deserted, and carried to the French quarter intelligence of the situation of the emigrants.

In consequence of the information he had received, general Hoche, who was at the head of the republican forces, formed a plan for the attack of both the fort and the camp occupied by the emigrants. He availed himself of a dark and tempestuous night, the twentieth of July, for the execution of his purpose. Having obtained the watch-word, the republican troops were conducted by the deserters through the concealed ways and passes, with which these were acquainted, and entered the fort undiscovered. Here they found the gunners asleep; they immediately extinguished their matches, and seized their powder, and the lanthorn, by the hoisting of which a signal was to have been made to the squadron in the road. Surprised in this manner, the garrison was thrown into a confusion, from which it could not recover. Many, if not most, of the emigrant soldiers immediately laid down their arms, and cried out, Live the Republic, Two whole regiments ofthem, after disarming some oftheir officers, and massacring, it is said, others, went over to the republicans, The count de Sombreuil, at the head of a body of

emigrants,

emigrants, who were warmly attached to him, made so resolute a defence that, to spare the cffusion of blood, Hoche agreed to receive their submission as prisoners of war, if the convention assented to that condition.

This was truly a disastrous event. The forces in the camp and the fort, amounted to about ten thousand men, most of whom were either killed or taken. Among the latter was the count Sombreuil, a young gentleman highly beloved and esteemed in England, and whose fate was deeply lamented. He was tried, with many other emigrant officers, who were sentenced to death, as traitors to their country, and shot at Vannes, on the fifth of August. The number of sufferers was one hundred and eighty-seven. The bishop of Dol, who accompa. nied the expedition with his clergy, suffered, together with them, in the like manner.

The booty that fell into the hands of the victors was prodigious. Clothing, accoutrements, and war. like necessaries of all kinds, for an army of forty thousand men, had been unfortunately landed, in hope of their being conveyed to the numerous royalists that wanted them. Complaints of the gross est mismanagement were made in England against those French emigrants who had been entrusted with the conduct of the expedi

tion.

Notwithstanding the heavy dis. appointment, the hopes of being able, through perseverance, to make an impression upon the enemy, induced the British government to continue the squadron on the coast of France. It made a fruitless at tempt on the island of Noirmoutier,

lying on the coast of Poitou, and defended by near twenty thousand men, who, by an easy communica tion with the land, could receive hourly supplies. It was more suc cessful in the attack of the island, Isle Dieu, which, after being reduced, was put in a posture of defence. Small as this acquisition might ap pear, it contributed to keep the contiguous coast in a state of suspense, respecting the intentions of the British ministry, and occasioned the republican government to sta. tion very considerable forces in all the adjoining parts. This was the more requisite, as, had a commus nication been opened between the British squadron and the royalists on shore, the support of money and military stores, which were the objects they had most in view, would alone have enabled them to maintain an obstinate resistance, by the encou ragement it would have held out to those numbers who readily would have joined them, had they been sure of a comfortable subsistence.

During these transactions, the French were occupied in confirming their authority in Holland, and in making a variety of arrangements, beneficial to their interests. The Dutch military was settled on a plan more conformable to the re. publican system. A body of twentyfive thousand French were added to the army of the seven provinces, and maintained at their expence. An organization of their navy was diligently formed; and, in short, all civil, military, and naval departments placed on the most advanta geous footing, for the designs of the French. These arrangements perfectly corresponded with the views of the republican party in Holland; but the proceedings of France, in [F4].

relation

relation to pecuniary affairs, were by many of this party warmly censured as too severe. The sums levied by the French in money, and in requisitions of all species of necessaries, were computed in the course of this year, at more than four millions sterling, without including the losses of the inhabitants by plunder, and extortions of divers sorts. The grievance of which they principally complained, was the obligation im. posed on the trades people and shopkeepers, to take from the French officers and soldiers a stated quantity of assignats; the value of which being next to nothing, the acceptance of them in payment, however low they might be rated, was al ways a certain loss.

Since the time of the Romans, the system of maintaining armies at the expence of the conquered, was hardly known but to barbarous nations, which, indeed, ravaged countries and plundered the inhabitants, for the very purposes of subsistence. The French had now renewed that destructive system. Contributions had been occasionally levied by all the belligerent powers in Europe; but not carried to so enormous an extent as they now constantly were by the victorious armies of France. Not content with the acquisition of territories, and the taxes to be drawn from them, according to rates already settled by their antecedent possessors, they drew from them whatever could possibly be procured by every kind of exaction. In this light, the numerous conquests, made by France, were viewed by its rulers as means of support, and the most was made of them for that essential purpose. Ex. clusively of the immense booty be. coming their own as the lawful

prize of war, they cast a scrutinising eye on the circumstances of those who submitted to their power. Thus it was, that, in the campaign of 1794, the sums they obtained by the seizures of every kind they were perpetually making, either of hostile stores, merchandize accumulated for the use of armies, or by levying enormous contributions, were sufficient to maintain their numerous armies, and proved an easement of the highest importance to their finances. Without these adventitious resources, they would not have been adequate to that vigorous prosecution of the war, on which, they were conscious, their all depended. During the space of about twelve months, the plunder of the magazines and store-houses belonging to the allied armies in the Fle mish provinces, the British accumu. lations especially, together with the immense quantities of hard specie collected from the Austrian Nether lands, supported the immense num. bers of French daily pouring into that country. The reduction of Holland effected the same object in 1795.

Flushed with so many advantages, they doubted not to see as prospe. rous a termination of the campaign of 1795 as of the preceding. The spirits of the national convention were so elated, that they spoke of their enemies as destined to be shortly subdued by their armies. They had no less than eight on foot in the conquered dominions of the coalesced powers, besides those that were on foot in France, to support or recruit them if necessary. Pichegru, now become the terror of the low countries, commanded in both Belgium and Holland. His assistant conqueror, Jourdan, was stationed

along

along the Maese; general Moreau towards the banks of the Rhine; Scherer and Marceau occupied the frontiers of Spain; Kellerman was posted on the Alps; and Canclava and Hoche on the coasts of the Channel, and the Bay of Biscay. These were all names of great cele. brity among the French, who flattered themselves, that no European armies or generals could be brought into competition with their own; and that ere long the French republic would not only be universally acknowledged, but would give laws to all the adjacent nations.

They certainly had nothing to apprehend, at this juncture, from the combined strength of all Europe. Had they followed the advice of their wisest politicians, and brought their schemes of revenge and punish. ment on their enemies, as they expressed themselves, within a moderate compass, they might have attained a situation of security, from which it would have been highly difficult, if not impracticable, to remove them. But unexpected success wrought that effect on the minds of their rulers, which it so seldom fails to work upon most men. They resolved, it seems, to strain their acquired powers to the utmost, in order to carry their vast projects into execution. They still kept on foot armies, the total of which amounted to more than a million, exclusively of more than two hun. dred thousand civil officers. To maintain these multitudes, the conquered countries to the north of France, underwent the severest oppression, and were stripped of what ever the rapacity of their ambitious masters could deprive them. The circulation of assignats was compell. ed; the price was fixed on all the

the

necessaries demanded; and fabrica tions in metal of all kinds were seized for public use. To these treasures from abroad, their calculations added at home, besides the standing taxes, the prodigious list of estates sentenced to confiscation, and the immense value of moveable property for sale, together estimated at three thousand millions of livres, with the vast sums annually expected from the forced loan, levied upon every individual, proportionably to his income. But great as these resources appeared, they did not answer the exigencies of the state. The credit of the assignats declined so rapidly, in the course of the present, as well as the preceding year, that, at the close of 1795, they were fallen one thousand below par. Such was the distress for money, that, in the course of this year, French government emitted twenty thousand millions of livres in notes, in addition to ten thousand millions already fabricated since the revolu tion. Other demands pressed, at the same time, upon government, exclusively of those required by state. necessities. The population of France, formerly its strength and glory, while supported by arts and commerce, was now become a famished multitude, dependent on government for a daily allowance of food. The sums expended for their maintenance, amounted to near four millions sterling annually. So heavy an incumbrance on the public, had induced some persons to insinuate the propriety of dismiss. ing all supernumerary individuals from the capital, to which the resort of the poor was become greater than ever, on account of this allowance. But, on mature consideration, it was found safer to submit to this in

conveniency,.

conveniency, distressing as it was, than to run the danger of an insur.. rection from people who certainly would not have tamely submitted to a deprivation of whatever was considered as their due. So great indeed was become the wretched. ness of the inhabitants in some of the countries subdued by France, that it was judged equally requisite to relieve their wants by the donation of necessaries. In order, at the same time, to conciliate the inferior classes, the weight of the taxes was carefully thrown on the people of property, and repartitioned among these with the strictest regard to the proportion of their income.

In the midst of every discourage. ment, arising from the shattered state of their finances, the French determined to venture another campaign, for the final humiliation of their enemies, as they said, and to bring them to such terms as would completely disable them from re. newing any attempt against the liberty of France. The secession of Prussia, the inactivity of the Ger. man princes in the common de. fence of the empire, and the treaty they were negotiating with Spain, accelerated their motions in the Netherlands, where they opened the operations of the campaign on that side, by pressing the siege, or rather the blockade, of the strong town of Luxemburgh. General Bender, the governor, was at the head of a strong garrison, no less than ten thousand men. He was an officer of great bravery and experi. ence, and it was thought the French would not have been able to master it. It might, it has been said, have held out longer; but the certainty that no succours could approach it, and the inutility of delaying a sur

render, which must probably take place at last, determined the gover-. nor to capitulate, in order to avoid the neediess loss of lives. He was, with his garrison, permitted to retire to Germany, on condition of not serving against France till regularly exchanged. The reduction of this fortress happened on the se. venth of June.

The French had only one place more to reduce, in order to compass that object, which was to crown their military operations. This was, to make a conquest of the strong and important city of Mentz, by the acquisition of which they would regain the ancient boundary between Germany and Gaul, the river Rhine. This, they often said, was the extremest limit of their ambition. When once obtained, they would give up all ideas of extending their dominions beyond it. But a project of this kind involved so many dange rous consequences to the adjacent powers, that necessity alone would compel them to submit to it. The very countries which, in such case, they proposed to annex to France, would form with it an empire completely destructive of the balance of power. And it was not clear that the inhabitants of these countries would willingly become a portion of France, especially since the revolution, that had wrought such a change in the minds and character of the French. But these had now contracted so high an opinion of their national dignity, that they were fully persuaded the people in the proximity of France would think it both honourable and advantageous to be admitted to an incorporation.

But the situation of Mentz was itself a protection against the at.

tempts