CHAP. formed. At the first intelligence of the revolt of XIII. Lyons, Kellerman assembled eight thousand men, 1793. and a small train of artillery to observe the place. 29th July. But this was totally insufficient even to maintain its ground before the armed population of the city, which soon amounted to thirty thousand men. A military chest was formed; a paper currency, guaranteed by the principal merchants, issued; cannon, in great numbers, cast at a foundery within the walls; and fortifications, under the direction of an able engineer, erected upon all the beautiful heights which encircle the city. The troops of the Republicans, though daily increasing, were for long unable to make head against forces so considerable, supported by the ardour of a numerous and enthusiastic population. During the whole of August, accordingly, and the beginning of September, the siege made little progress, and the batteries of the besiegers were scarcely armed. The besieged, meanwhile, made proposals for an accommodation; but the Commissaries for the Convention returned for answer, "Rebels! first show yourselves worthy of pardon, by acknowledging your crime; lay down your arms; deliver up the keys of your city, and deserve the clemency of the Convention, by a sincere repentance." But the inhabitants, well aware of the consequence of such submission, returned for answer, 186, 187. "Conduct so atrocious as yours proves what we have 311. Ann. to expect from your clemency; we shall firmly await Reg.xxxiii. your arrival; and you will never capture the city but iv. 68, 71. by marching over ruins and piles of dead."1 1 Jom. iv. Th. v. 310, 406. Toul. No sooner were the Convention informed of the entrance of the English into Toulon, than they redoubled in their ardour for the subjugation of Lyons. They indignantly rejected the advice of several of XIII. prevents such a number of forces by land and sea CHAP. from being kept up as are necessary for the common safety of the kingdom. The consequence is, when a 1793. war breaks out, new levies are half-formed and half. disciplined, squadrons at sea are half-manned, and the officers mere novices in their business. Ignorance, unskilfulness, and confusion, are unavoidable for a time, the necessary result of which is some defeat received, some stain or dishonour cast upon the arms of Britain. Thus the nation is involved in expenses ten times as great, and made to raise forces. twenty times as numerous as were complained of before; till peace is made, and schemes of ruinous economy are again called for by a new set of patriots. Thus the patriotic farce goes round, ending in real tragedy to the nation and mankind." It seems' Tucker's Essays, i. hopeless to expect that this popular cry for costly 72. economy will ever cease in pacific periods, because, even with the recent proof of its ruinous effect at the commencement of the Revolutionary war, we have seen it so fiercely raised for the reduction of the noble force which brought it to a glorious termination. It seems the melancholy fate of each successive generation to be instructed by its own and never by its predecessors' errors; and perhaps it is a law of nature, that such causes should, at stated periods, prostrate the strength of free states, and prevent that progressive growth of their power, which might otherwise sink the emulation of independent kingdoms in the slumber of universal dominion. grasping at But although this blind popular passion for pacific reduction may be the principal cause of the serious The selfish disasters which, in every age of English history, office by have attended the first years of hostilities, yet it is the aristonot the only one; and it is in vain for any one class cracy. CHAP. XIII. The ravages of the bombardment, however, increased the sufferings of the inhabitants, without 1793. diminishing their means of defence. But soon after, Dreadful the incessant assaults of the Republicans made them of the in- master of the heights of St Croix, which commanded habitants. the city from a nearer position; and about the same sufferings time, the reinforcements which arrived from the southern departments, now thoroughly roused by the efforts of the Convention, enabled the besiegers to cut off all communication between the inhabitants and the country on which they had hitherto depended for provisions. Before the end of September fifty thousand men were assembled before the walls; and, notwithstanding the most rigid economy in the distribution of food, the pangs of want began to be severely felt. Shortly after, the garrison of Valenciennes arrived, and by their skill in the management of artillery, gave a fatal preponderance to the besieging force, while Couthon came up with twenty-five thousand rude mountaineers from the quarter of Auvergne. The hopes of the inhabitants had been chiefly rested on a diversion from the side of Savoy, where the Piedmontese troops were slowly assembling for offensive operations. But these expectations were Sept 30. cruelly disappointed. After a feeble irruption into the valley of St Jean de Maurienne, and some ephemeral success, the Sardinian army was driven back in disgrace over Mount Cenis, having failed in taking advantage of an opportunity more favourable for the establishment of the Royalist party in the south of France than was ever again to recur. coupled with the pressure of famine, This disaster, now severely Yet, though deserted by all the world, and assailed by a force which at length amounted to above sixty thousand XIII. during the whole of the American contest, during the CHAP. first four years of the Revolutionary contest, and in the dreadful campaign of Affghanistaun in 1840, may 1793. all be traced to the combined operation of these causes. education respect. Nor is the English system of education and government without an important, and what often Defects of proves a disastrous influence on the national fortunes English in the commencement, and sometimes through the in the same whole course, of hostilities. No provision is made, in schools or colleges, in general instruction, either for teaching our future statesmen any thing connected with their department in the direction of war, or qualifying our future generals to understand the principles or practices of their profession. Young men too often enter the houses of Lords and Commons perfectly initiated in the loves of Dido and Æneas, of Mars and Venus; able to construe Eschylus and write hexameter verses; perhaps skilled in forensic debate and happy in parliamentary allusions; but as ignorant of the means by which success is to be attained, or disaster averted in war, as the child unborn. Youths are moved from school into the army, able indeed to ride and shoot, and they are soon taught the simple details of military discipline; but for any thing like military study or knowledge, you must, in general, ascend to the higher officers in the service, to whom they have been taught by experience. Statesmen are raised to the supreme direction of affairs often from talent in speaking, or readi ness in reply, rather than any practical knowledge they possess, either of the civil or military duties with the direction of which they are entrusted. Power in debate is the one thing needful; and in that noble art the British statesmen are unrivalled XIII. CHAP. in modern times. But power in debate is not statesman-like wisdom; it is often acquired by habits 1793. little conducive to it; and it differs as much from the able direction of a war or a campaign, as the skill in a tournament of Amadis de Gaul or Palmerin of England, does from the consummate genius of Wellington or Napoleon. Hence the numerous opportunities of bringing the war to a successful termination which were lost in 1793, from want of military talent and combination in the British government. And to those who reflect on these circumstances, and their illustration in the woful mismanagement which that campaign exhibits, even when the mighty genius of Pitt was in the direction' of affairs, and on the constant examples of similar ignorance of the first principles of warlike combination in government, which every period of our history has exhibited it will probably occur as the most decisive proof of the virtue and energy which free institu tions develop in a community, when duly regulated by aristocratic power, that, despite such obstacles, the British empire has unceasingly advanced, and now attained an eminence unrivaled since the time when the Roman legions, directed by wisdom and led by valour, conquered the world. |