CHAPTER IX. STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE WAR, AND CAUSES WHICH CHAP. 1792. 1. "A 'A REVOLUTION in France," says Napoleon, "is always, sooner or later, followed by a Revolution in Europe." Placed in the centre of modern civilisation, this great country has, in every age, communicated the citement in impulse of its own changes to the adjoining states. It Europe in consequence was not to be expected that so important an event as French Re- the French Revolution, rousing as it did the passions of Great ex of the volution. one, and exciting the apprehensions of another portion of mankind, all the world over, should long remain an object of passive observation to the adjoining states. It addressed itself to the hopes and prejudices of the great body of the people in every country, and, exciting their ill-smothered indignation against their superiors, superadded to the sense of real injuries the more powerful stimulus of revolutionary ambition. A ferment, accordingly, immediately began to spread through the neighbouring kingdoms; extravagant hopes were formed; chimerical anticipations indulged; and the labouring classes, inflated by the rapid elevation of their brethren in France, deemed the time approaching when the distinctions of society were to cease, and the miseries of poverty to expire, amidst the universal dominion of the people. The rise of this terrible spirit, destined to convulse the globe, excited the utmost alarm in all the IX. 1792. European monarchies. From it sprang the bloody wars CHAP. of the French Revolution, undertaken to crush the evil, but which at first tended only to extend its devastation by ingrafting on the energy of democratic ambition the power of military conquest. With them began a new series of strifes; they terminated the contests of kings among each other, and commenced that of one social principle against another. Wars, thenceforward, became the result of conflicting opinions rather than of contending interests, and the jealousies of sovereigns amongst each other were forgotten in the vehement animosities of their subjects. They assumed a less interested but more terrible character; the passions which were roused brought whole nations into the field, and the strife which ensued involved everything which was most dear to all classes of society. Great Britain, Austria, Russia, and Prussia were the most powerful monarchies, apart from France, that then existed in Europe; and some account of them is indispensable before entering on the events which led to the war. 2. extent of the If we consider the geographical extent and physical resources of Great Britain, nothing in the whole annals Superficial of mankind appears more extraordinary than the vast British Isles. and durable impression that country has made in human affairs. Including Ireland, the British Islands comprise only 91,000 geographical or 122,000 square English miles. This extent is little more than half of the area of France, not more than a third of that of Austria, and scarce a thirteenth of that of Russia in Europe alone.* A large part of this diminutive territory is -See MALTE-Brun, vi. 638; v. 726: iii. 197, 198; and iv. 257. IX. 1792. CHAP. sterile and unproductive. In Scotland alone, the mountain wastes, a very small part of which are alone improvable, extend over fourteen millions of acres, being nearly fourfifths of that whole country. The wastes in Great Britain and Ireland cover no less than 30,871,000 acres, being about three-sevenths of the entire territory, which contains 77,000,000 acres. Of the part which is under cultivation, not 20,000,000 acres in both islands are under the plough, the meadows and pasturage which cover so vast an extent of England being above 27,000,000. Thus the arable land which furnishes the staple of subsistence to the population of the British Islands, which is now about 27,000,000 souls, is under 20,000,000 acres, or three-fourths of an acre to each. This is after taking into view the grain that is absorbed in maintaining horses and cattle; an astonishing fact, ter's Prog. when the large proportion of the produce of arable land tion, i. 177. which is consumed in brewing and distillation is taken into consideration.1* 1 Malte Brun, iv. 257. Por of the Na 3. General aspect of Islands. The aspect of nature is very various in the different parts of the British Islands. In the south of England, the British and in the level parts of Ireland, the earth is fertile, the climate temperate. Vegetation, unaided, springs up in rich luxuriance, and huge trees, the sure mark of a prolific soil, adorn and give variety to the landscape. A range of mountains, almost uninterrupted by plains, runs along the whole western parts of Great Britain, and forms suc *The following table exhibits the several proportions of arable land, meadow, and waste, in the United Kingdom at this time (1843). IX. 1792. cessively the western and southern Highlands of Scotland, CHAP. the mountains of Cumberland and Wales, and the high grounds of Devonshire. Another ridge of inferior height, and often rather a series of elevated plateaus than a range of hills, runs parallel to the former, and, with few interruptions, intersects from north to south the whole of the island. It forms successively the green hills and grassy dells of Southern Scotland, the dark and shapeless swells of Stanmore and Ingleborough, and the romantic slopes of Derbyshire. But this ridge does not extend to the south of the Thames; its vast moors and dark heaths are confined to the northern parts of the island; to the south of that river the hills are gentle, fertility general, and the wide expanse of arable land spreads out into level plains, rivalling those of Lombardy and Flanders in extent and fertility. Great 4. The chief rivers of Great Britain, accordingly, from this inclination of the ground, flow from the high grounds Rivers of in the centre of the island to the sea on either side. Of Britain. these the principal are the Thames, which, after stealing past the spires and domes of Oxford, flows through green meadows to that mighty capital, the modern Babylon, where nearly all the commerce of the world has found its emporium; the Severn, which winds through beauteous vales and flowering orchards, to the great mercantile outlet of Bristol; the Mersey, which beholds at its estuary the whole commerce of England and America accumulated in a single harbour; the Tyne and the Humber, which, meandering to the eastward through the rich plains of Yorkshire and Durham, float in their bosoms, where they join the sea, the vast coasting navy of England. Nor are the rivers of Scotland less noted by the efforts of industry and the magic of song. The Clyde, after descending over cataracts inferior only to that of Schaffhausen in sublimity, flows through luxuriant beauty to the vast commercial city of Glasgow, and issues to the sea beneath the noble mountains of Arran; the Forth, 1792. CHAP. separating, as it were, the island into two parts, opens IX. into the beautiful estuary that bears its name, and gives life to the matchless landscape of Edinburgh; the Tay, long fed by mountain torrents, and winding through Highland glens, at length issues into the plains by the magnificent gorge of Dunkeld, and washes successively the rich fields of Perthshire and the rising harbour of Dundee; the Dee, flowing in a sequestered valley between lofty mountains, meanders far amidst pine forests, till it joins the sea beside the crowded harbour and indefatigable industry of Aberdeen; and the Tweed, albeit never losing its pastoral character, nor mingling with the busy scenes of men, has yet acquired deathless renown, for it first inspired the genius, and now flows past the grave of Scott. 5. General aspect of The soil and climate of Scotland, even where it is susceptible of cultivation, is incomparably less favoured Scotland. by nature than that of the southern parts of the island. The level portions of the country are few and narrow, generally spreading little more than a few miles on either side of the numerous streams and rivers which descend from its hills and elevated moors. The intermediate districts, covered with heath or rushes, variously elevated from three to fifteen hundred feet above the sea, are in great part incapable of profitable cultivation; and even after the efforts of husbandry have been applied to them, constant industry and no small expenditure of capital are required to prevent them from being overrun by their original vegetation, and becoming again the abode of the moorfowl and the plover. In the Highlands, which cover four-fifths of the region beyond the Forth, nature has stamped a character upon the country which must remain for ever the same. All the efforts of man there appear as nothing amidst the gloomy immensity of the mountains, or the dark shades of the forests; and the eloquent description by Gibbon of Caledonia in the days of the Romans, is there still applicable, at least to |