In the negotiations with Russia, however, Pitt sustained a signal rebuff. Pitt considered that it was for the interest of the maritime powers to prevent Russia from establishing a naval force in the Black Sea (Parl Hist. xxix. 996), and agreed with Prussia to insist on Catherine's restitution of Oczakow and its district. The fleet was prepared for service, an ultimatum to the empress was despatched, and on 28 March 1791 Pitt moved an address pledging the commons to defray the expenses of the 'Russian armament,' The address was carried by 228 to 135 ; but the arguments of the opposition were strong, the prospect of the war was unpopular, and Pitt, finding that persistence in the line of the status quo would risk the existence of the government, gave way, and Russia retained Oczakow. He was deeply mortified, his reputation at home and abroad suffered, and the alliance with Prussia was relaxed.
The revolution in France soon involved more perplexing considerations. Pitt had viewed the outbreak of 1789 as a domestic quarrel, which did not concern him, and into which he was resolved not to be drawn. To Elliot, who was in unofficial communication with Mirabeau, he wrote in October 1790 that England would preserve a scrupulous neutrality in the struggle of French political parties (Stanhope, ii. 38, 48, 59 ; Lecky, v. 559), and Burke was convinced that it was impossible to move him from that position (Burke, Correspondence, iii. 343, 347). In February 1792 no thought of war had entered his head. Having on the 17th shown a surplus of 400,000l., he repealed taxes amounting to 223,000l., reduced the vote for seamen by two thousand men, declared that the Hessian subsidy would not be renewed, and, speaking of the sinking fund, said that in fifteen years twenty-five millions of debt would be paid off. Nor was it, he said, presumptuous to name fifteen years ; for 'there never was a time when, from the situation of Europe, we might more reasonably expect fifteen years of peace than we may at the present moment' (Parl. Hist. xxix. 816-37). In the autumn, however, the situation changed. In August the French court to which the English ambassador was accredited had ceased to exist, and he was recalled from Paris. France had already declared war on Austria and Prussia, and in September conquered Savoy and Nice. In November Holland was threatened, and treaty rights set at naught by the opening of the Scheldt. Pitt recognised that England was bound by the treaty of 1788 to maintain the rights and independence of Holland (Rose, i. 114). Maret, a French envoy, found Pitt eager to preserve peace as late as 2 Dec. (Ernouf, Maret, Due de Bassano, pp. 94-8), but resolved never to consent to the opening of the Scheldt (Parl. Hist. xxx. 253 sq.)
Meanwhile French republican agents, and especially the insolent envoy Chauvelin, were busy in England. Societies were formed in London and Edinburgh to propagate revolutionary doctrines. Their members were in constant communication with Paris. Seditious publications were widely distributed among British soldiers and sailors, and riots were raised. The government issued a proclamation against seditious writings ; on Pitt's advice the militia was partially called out, and he supported the alien bill, a police measure rendered necessary by the crowd of French immigrants (Parl. Hist. xxx. 229-38). Chauvelin, who had no recognised diplomatic position, made himself personally obnoxious to Pitt, who refused to see him, and, when the news of the king's murder reached England, he was ordered to leave the kingdom. On 30 Jan. 1793 the French agent Maret, who was acceptable to Pitt, revisited London in an informal capacity. Pitt voted in the cabinet to receive him, but Lord Hawkesbury, in the king's name and his own, opposed his reception. The majority supported Hawkesbury (Ernouf, p. 126). The time for diplomatic intervention was then past. On 1 Feb. Pitt gave a masterly exposition of the provocations which the English government had received from France (Parl. Hist. xxx. 270 sq.), and on the same day France declared war against England. In the House of Commons Fox and his small party alone contested Pitt's prudence at this crisis, and throughout the continuance of the war pursued him and his policy with unremitting hostility. In 1794 the government was strengthened by the accession of the Duke of Portland, Lords Spencer and Fitzwilliam, and Windh'am, leading whigs who were in favour of a strenuous prosecution of the war. When asked whether he did not fear that these new allies might outvote him in the cabinet, Pitt replied that he had no such fear, for 'he placed much reliance on his new colleagues, and still more on himself' (Life of Sidmouth, i. 121).
Pitt believed that the finances of France would soon be exhausted, and that the war would therefore be short (Parl. Hist. xxxi. 1043-5; Life of Wilberforce, ii. 10, 92, 332). On this assumption he determined to meet the war expenses mainly by loans, so as to avoid a great increase of taxation and the danger of thereby checking commercial development. On 11 March 1793 he announced a continuance of some temporary taxes, and
