In order to found the difpofition of the people in the more inland diftricts, and to reconnoitre the pofition of the republican forces, the count d'Hervilly, who acted fo generous and heroic a part on the tenth of Auguft, 1792,* much refpecled in England, and who had a principal command in this expedition, put himself at the head of fome 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 peninfula of Quiberon.

The republican commanders, to improve this advantage, raised three redoubts, to guard the paffage to the main land. The British troops, the emigrants that had been railed and formed into regiments in England, 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 thefe redoubts. They marched against them in the night of the fifteenth of July, and carried two; but, on their approaching the third, a masked battery took them in flank with fuch execution, that they were unabled to proceed, and retreated with all poflible speed, purfued by the republicans, who probably would have deftroyed or taken the whole of this body, had not fome British fhips, anchored near the hore, compelled them, by a vigorous fire, to retreat in their turn. The difafter of this day occafioned violent wranglings among the emi

grant officers, who reciprocally charged each other with want of conduct. Thofe privates who had enlifted from the French prifons in England, much more from a defire of recovering perfonal liberty, than inclination to the fervice they were going upon, took this opportunity to communicate their fentiments to each other; and great numbers of them deferted, and carried to the French quarter intelligence of the fituation of the emigrants.

In confequence 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 emi grants. He availed himself of a dark and tempeftuous night, the twentieth of July, for the execution of his purpofe. Having obtained the watch-word, the republican troops were conducted by the deferters through the concealed ways and pafles, with which thefe were acquainted, and entered the fort undifcovered. Here they found the gunners afleep; they immediately extinguifhed their matches, and feized their powder, and the lanthorn, by the hoifting of which a fignal was to have been made to the fquadron in the road. Surprised in this manner, the garrifon was thrown into a confufion, from which it could not recover. Many, if not moft, of the emigrant foldiers immediately laid down their arms, and cried out, Live the Republic. Two whole regiments of them, after difarming fome of their officers, and maffacring, it is faid, 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 fo refolute a defence, Lat, to fpare the effufion of blood, Hoche agreed to receive their fubElon as prifoners of war, if the convention affented to that condition.

This was truly a difaftrous event. The forces in the camp and the fort, amounted to about ten thoufnd men, moft of whom were cither killed or taken. Among the Etter was the count Sombreuil, a Yag gentleman highly beloved and eemed in England, and whofe fate was deeply lamented. He was tried, with many other emigrant offers, who were fentenced to death, as traitors to their country, and fhot at Vannes, on the fifth of Auguft. The number of fufferers was one hundred and eighty-feven. The bishop of Dol, who accompanied the expedition with his clergy, fuffered, together with them, in the

like manner.

lying on the coaft of Poitou, and defended by near twenty thoufand men, who, by an eafy communica tion with the land, could receive hourly fupplies. It was more fuccefsful in the attack of the ifland, Ifle Dieu, which, after being reduced, was put in a pofture of defence. Small as this acquifition might appear, it contributed to keep the contiguous coaft in a fiate of fufpenfe, refpecting the intentions of the British minifiry, and occafioned the republican government to flation very confiderable forces in all the adjoining parts. This was the more requifite, that, had a communication been opened between the Britifh fquadron and the royalifts on fhore, the fupport of money and military ftores, which were the objects they had moft in view, would alone have enabled them to maintain an obftinate refiftance, by the encou ragement it would have held out

to thofe numbers who readily would have joined them, had they been fure of a comfortable fubfiftance.

During thefe tranfactions, the French were occupied in confirming their authority in Holland, and in making a variety of arrangements, beneficial to their interefis. The Dutch military was fettled on a plan more conformable to the republican fyftem. A body of twentyfive thoufand French were added to the army of the feven provinces, and maintained at their expence. An organization of their navy was diligently formed; and, in thort, all civil, military, and naval departments placed on the moft advantageous footing, for the deigns of the French. Thele arrangements perfectly correfponded 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 cenfured as too fevere. The fums levied by the French in money, and in requifitions of all species of neceffaries, were computed, in the courfe of this year, at more than four millions fterling, without including the loffes of the inhabitants by plunder, and extortions of divers forts. The grievance of which they principally complained, was the obligation impofed on the trades people and fhopkeepers, to take from the French officers and foldiers a ftated quantity of affignats; the value of which being next to nothing, the acceptance of them in payment, however low they might be rated, was always a certain lofs.

Since the time of the Romans, the fyftem 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 fubfiftance. The French had now renewed that deftructive fyftem. Contributions had been occafionally levied by all the belligerent powers in Europe; but not carried to fo enormous an extent as they now conftantly were by the victorious armies of France. Not content with the acquifition of territories, and the taxes to be drawn from them, according to the rates already fettled by their antecedent poffeffors, they drew from them whatever could poflibly be procured, by every kind of exaction. In this light, the numerous conquefts, made by France, were viewed by its rulers as means of fupport; and the moft was made of them for that effential purpose. Exclufively of the immenfe booty becoming their own, as the lawful

prize of war, they caft a fcrutinifing eye on the circumftances of thofe who fubmitted to their power. Thus it was, that, in the campaign of 1794, the fums they obtained, by the feizures of every kind they were perpetually making, either of hoftile flores, merchandife accumulated for the ufe of armies, or by levying enormous contributions, were fufficient to maintain their numerous armies, and proved an easement of the highest importance to their finances. Without these adventitious refources, they would not have been adequate to that vigorous profecution of the war, on which, they were confcious, their all depended. During the space of about twelve months, the plunder of the magazines and ftore-houfes belonging to the allied armies in the Fle mith provinces, the British accumu lations efpecially, together with the immenfe quantities of hard fpecie collected from the Auftrian Netherlands, fupported the immenfe numbers of French daily pouring into that country. The reduction of Holland effected the fame object, in 1795.

Flufhed with fo many advantages, they doubted not to fee as profperous a termination of the campaign of 1795, as of the preceding. The fpirits of the national convention were fo elated, that they fpoke of their enemies as deftined to be shortly fubdued by their armies. They had no lefs than eight on foot in the conquered dominions of the coalefced powers, befides thofe that were on foot in France, to fupport or recruit them if neceflary. Pichegru, now become the terror of the low countries, commanded in both Belgium and Holland. His affiftant conqueror, Jourdan, was ftationed

along

along the Maefe; general Moreau towards the banks of the Rhine; Scherer and Marceau occupied the frontiers of Spain; Kellerman was pofted on the Alps; and Canclava and Hoche on the coafts of the Channel, and the Bay of Biscay. Thefe were all names of great celebrity among the French, who flattered themfelves, 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 univerfally acknowledged, but would give laws to all the adjacent nations.

They certainly had nothing to apprehend, at this juncture, from the combined ftrength of all Europe. Had they followed the advice of their wifeft politicians, and brought their schemes of revenge and punithment on their enemies, as they expreffed themselves, within a moderate compass, they might have attained a fituation of fecurity, from which it would have been highly difficult, if not impracticable, to remove them. But unexpected fuccefs wrought that effect on the minds of their rulers, which it fo feldom fails to work upon moft men, They refolved, it feems, to ftrain their acquired powers to the utmoft, in order to carry their vaft projects into execution. They fill kept on foot armies, the total of which amounted to more than a million, exclufively of more than two hundred thoufand civil officers. To maintain thefe multitudes, the conquered countries to the north of France, underwent the fevereft oppreffion, and were stripped of whatever the rapacity of their ambitious mafters could deprive them. The circulation of affignats was compelled; the price was fixed on all the

neceffaries demanded; and fabrications in metal of all kinds were feized for public ufe. To these treafures from abroad, their calculations added at home, befides the standing taxes, the prodigious lift of eftates fentenced to confifcation, and the immenfe value of moveable property for fale, together estimated at three thousand millions of livres, with the vaft fums annually expected from the forced loan, levied upon every individual, porportionably to his income. But great as thefe refources appeared, they did not anfwer the exigencies of the ftate. The credit of the affignats declined fo rapidly, in the courfe of the prefent, as well as the preceding year, that, at the clofe of 1795, they were fallen one thoufand below par. Such was the diftrefs for money, that, in the courfe of this year, the French government emitted twenty thoufand millions of livres in notes, in addition to ten thousand millions already fabricated fince the revolution. Other demands preffed, at the fame time, upon government, exclufively of thofe required by ftate neceffities. The population of France, formerly its ftrength and glory, while fupported by arts and commerce, was now become a famifhed multitude, dependant on government for a daily allowance of food. The fums expended for their maintenance, amounted to near four millions fterling annually. So heavy an incumbrance on the public had induced fome perfons to infinuate the propriety of difmiffing all fupernumerary individuals from the capital, to which the refort of the poor was become greater than ever, on account of this allowance. But, on mature confideration, it was found fafer to fubmit to this inconveniency

conveniency, diftreffing as it was, than to run the danger of an infurrection from people who certainly would not have tamely fubmitted to a deprivation of whatever was confidered as their due. So great indeed was become the wretched nefs of the inhabitants in fome of the countries fubdued by France, that it was judged equally requifite, to relieve their wants, by the donation of neceffaries. In order, at the fame time, to conciliate the inferior claffes, the weight of the taxes was carefully thrown on the people of property, and repartitioned among thefe with the ftricteft regard to the proportion of their income. In the midft of every difcouragement, arifing from the flattered fate of their finances, the French determined to venture another campaign, for the final humiliation of of their enemies, as they faid, and to bring them to fuch terms as would completely difable them from renewing any attempt against the liberty of France. The feceffion of Pruffa, the inactivity of the German princes in the common defence 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 fide, by preffing the fiege, or rather the blockade, of the strong town of Luxemburgh. General Bender, the governor, was at the head of a strong garrifon, no lefs than ten thousand men. He was an officer of great bravery and experience, and it was thought the French would not have been able to mafter it. It might, it has been faid, have held out longer; but the certainty that no fuccours could approach it, and the inntility of delaying a fur

render, which muft probably take place at laft, determined the gover nor to capitulate, in order to avoid the needlefs lofs of lives. He was, with his garrifon, permifted to re tire to Germany, on condition of not ferving against France till regularly exchanged. The reduction of this fortrefs happened on the feventh of June.

The French had only one place more to reduce, in order to compa's that object, which was to crown their military operations. This was, to make a conqueft of the strong and important city of Mentz, by the acquifition of which they would regain the ancient boundary between Germany and Gaul, the river Rhine, This, they often faid, was the ex tremift 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 to many dange rous confqeuences to the adjacent powers, that neceffity alone would ever compel them to fubmit to it. The very countries which, in fuch cafe, they propofed to annex to France, would form with it an empire completely deftructive of the balance of power. And it was not clear that the inhabitants of thefe countries would willingly become a portion of France, especially fince the revolution, that had wrought fuch a change in the minds and cha racter of the French. But thefe had now contracted fo high an opinion of their national dignity, that they were fully perfuaded the people in the proximity of France would think it both honourable and advantageous to be admitted to an incorportion.

But the fituation of Mentz was itfelf a protection against the at

tempts