Mr, Christopher Hobhouse's biography of Fox; Messrs. Macmillan for an -extract from the late Sir John Fortescue's History of the British Army ; the executors of the late Sir Henry Newbolt for a stanza from the poem Admirals All reprinted from Sir Henry Newbolt's Poems New and Old, published by Messrs. John Murray.
CHAPTER ONE
Freedoms Own Island
" Our good ol d island now possesses an accumulation of prosperity beyond any example in the history of the world." Lo rd Auckland to Lord Grenville, 3r d July, 1792 .
" Good and evil will grow up in the world together* and
they who complain, in peace , of the insolence of the popu lace, must remember that their insolence in peace is
bravery in war." ' Dr. Johnson .
A little before it grew light on a cold February morning in 1793, a crowd began to gather on the parade ground at Whitehall. Against the seventeenth-century facade of the Treasury and the grey classic stone of Kent's Horse Guards, the first battalions of the three regiments of Foot Guards were drawn up in long lines of scarlet and white. At seven o'clock precisely, a cortege of officers appeared riding down the Mall from the direction of Buckingham House. At their head was King George III of England with his two elder sons, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York.
Mounted on a white charger, in General's uniform, the little, erects blue-eyed man who represented in his person the idea of England rode down the lines. Then the men marched past in companies, moving in slow time. Two thousand strong, they swung out of Storey's Gate and crossing Westminster Bridge took the road .to Greenwich j the King and the officers of his staff riding for a time after them and the Queen and the Princesses following in carriages. All the way through the southern suburbs the troops were accompanied by a vast, enthusiastic crowd, who so overwhelmed the rearguard with embraces and loyal potations that many fell by the way and had to finish their jour ney in carts. Next day they em barked under the royal eye fo r Holland in overcrowded, unseaworthy transports, wi thout stores, medical appliances or reserves of ammunition. So the first expeditionary force of the longest war in Britain's history passed beyond seas.
No man living could have guessed its duration. Before it was to end at Waterloo the youngest survivor of those who sailed that day was to be in his forties. The nature and purpose of the struggle were to change out of all recognition; those who were Britain's allies were to become vassals of her terrible adversary and to be aligned against her, and yet more than once, fired by her example, to shake off their chains and range themselves again by her side against the tyrant. Once, for a short while, Britain herself, victor on her chosen element the sea but wearied by the unending conflict, was to temporise with a momentarily exhausted foe, only to renew the fight within a few months when the faith reposed in despotic power had been violated. Only one thing was to remain constant: the dogged resolution of the British people and their leaders to restore the rule of law in Europe, and to go on till they had done so. But on that cold February day nothing of this could be foreseen.
To the island State, which with scarcely half France's pop ulation took up her gage of battl e, had come during the past century the most astonishing prosperity. Divided a century before by violent political and religious controversies which on more than one occasion had degenerated into civil strife, she had achieved enduring unity with the Revolution of 1688. This had placed a Dutchman and later a dynasty of German princes on the throne, but had given the real direction of the kingdom to the greater owners of land. Wiser than the Stuarts they had overthrown, they exercised power by shunning its outward forms. They governed in the King's name and legislated thr ough an assembly of country gentl emen, lawyers and
CHAPTER ONE
Freedoms Own Island
" Our good ol d island now possesses an accumulation of prosperity beyond any example in the history of the world." Lo rd Auckland to Lord Grenville, 3r d July, 1792 .
" Good and evil will grow up in the world together* and
they who complain, in peace , of the insolence of the popu lace, must remember that their insolence in peace is
bravery in war." ' Dr. Johnson .
A little before it grew light on a cold February morning in 1793, a crowd began to gather on the parade ground at Whitehall. Against the seventeenth-century facade of the Treasury and the grey classic stone of Kent's Horse Guards, the first battalions of the three regiments of Foot Guards were drawn up in long lines of scarlet and white. At seven o'clock precisely, a cortege of officers appeared riding down the Mall from the direction of Buckingham House. At their head was King George III of England with his two elder sons, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York.
Mounted on a white charger, in General's uniform, the little, erects blue-eyed man who represented in his person the idea of England rode down the lines. Then the men marched past in companies, moving in slow time. Two thousand strong, they swung out of Storey's Gate and crossing Westminster Bridge took the road .to Greenwich j the King and the officers of his staff riding for a time after them and the Queen and the Princesses following in carriages. All the way through the southern suburbs the troops were accompanied by a vast, enthusiastic crowd, who so overwhelmed the rearguard with embraces and loyal potations that many fell by the way and had to finish their jour ney in carts. Next day they em barked under the royal eye fo r Holland in overcrowded, unseaworthy transports, wi thout stores, medical appliances or reserves of ammunition. So the first expeditionary force of the longest war in Britain's history passed beyond seas.
No man living could have guessed its duration. Before it was to end at Waterloo the youngest survivor of those who sailed that day was to be in his forties. The nature and purpose of the struggle were to change out of all recognition; those who were Britain's allies were to become vassals of her terrible adversary and to be aligned against her, and yet more than once, fired by her example, to shake off their chains and range themselves again by her side against the tyrant. Once, for a short while, Britain herself, victor on her chosen element the sea but wearied by the unending conflict, was to temporise with a momentarily exhausted foe, only to renew the fight within a few months when the faith reposed in despotic power had been violated. Only one thing was to remain constant: the dogged resolution of the British people and their leaders to restore the rule of law in Europe, and to go on till they had done so. But on that cold February day nothing of this could be foreseen.
To the island State, which with scarcely half France's pop ulation took up her gage of battl e, had come during the past century the most astonishing prosperity. Divided a century before by violent political and religious controversies which on more than one occasion had degenerated into civil strife, she had achieved enduring unity with the Revolution of 1688. This had placed a Dutchman and later a dynasty of German princes on the throne, but had given the real direction of the kingdom to the greater owners of land. Wiser than the Stuarts they had overthrown, they exercised power by shunning its outward forms. They governed in the King's name and legislated thr ough an assembly of country gentl emen, lawyers and
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