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INTERESTS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 469direction of it entirely in their own hands. The plan ofevery campaign had to be jointly concerted ;the continentalpowers moreover had each naturally their several intereststo be regarded*A mere minister of state is not capable, assuch, of being unconditionally the soul of a large confederacy.It is only when the statesman and general are combined, asin Marlborough and William III., that this can occur. Thewish of the minister was to arm, if possible, all Europeagainst France. But it was not in his power to accomplishthis on a systematic plan,much less to give a permanentand systematicdirection to the confederacy.We must bear this in mind while considering the campaigns of 1793 and 1794. The first was successful Inconsequence of the battle of Neerwinden, the French armieswere compelled to evacuate Belgium.This gave Englandan opportunityof taking an active partin the war on thecontinent. An English-Hanoverian army united itself withthe Austrian in the Netherlands, and these provinces became again what they had often been before, the bridge between two allied powers. Even the republic of the UnitedNetherlands, now covered by the allied armies, appeared asa participatorin the common field of battle. But the posture of affairs underwent a change in the following year.The system of terrorism established in France, which leftsecurity only in the armies, drove every one to arms capableof bearing them. Her preponderating power, and the newsystem of warfare which spared no men, decided the question: in the autumn of 1794, Belgium was againin thehands of the French. More severe reverses were soon tofollow. An intense frost covered the rivers, the naturalbulwarks of Holland, with a sheet of ice. The defence ofthe republic was impossible.The house of fledOrangetoEngland ; and the patriot partyin expectation of a goldenfuturity received their new friends with open arms. 1This conquest of the republic had a double effect on thecontinental policyof England. In the first place it put anend to the direct of participation England in the war on thecontinent, inasmuch as she had now no field of action onwhich her armies could enter. Henceforward therefore shewas obligedto confine her participation1In January, 1795.in the continental