France was not prepared to encounter so many enemies. Administrative
confusion had been heightened by the triumph of the Jacobins. Servan was
succeeded as minister of war by Pache who was incapable and dishonest.
The army of Dumouriez was left in such want that it dwindled rapidly.
The commissioners of the Convention plundered the Netherlands with so
little remorse that the people became bitterly hostile. The attempt to
enforce a revolution of the French sort on the Catholic and conservative
Belgians drove them to fury. By every unfair means the commissioners
extorted the semblance of a popular vote in favour of incorporation, and
France annexed the Netherlands. This was the last outrage. When a new
Austrian army under the prince of Coburg entered the country, Dumouriez,
who had invaded Holland, was unable to defend Belgium. On the 18th of
March he was defeated at Neerwinden, and a few days later he was driven
back to the frontier. Alike on public and personal grounds Dumouriez was
the enemy of the government. Trusting in his influence over the army he
resolved to lead it against the Convention, and, in order to secure his
rear, he negotiated with the enemy. But he could make no impression on
his soldiers, and deserted to the Austrians. Events followed a similar
course in the Rhine valley. There also the French wore out the goodwill
at first shown to them. They summoned a convention and obtained a vote
for incorporation with France. But they were unable to hold their ground
on the approach of a Prussian army. By April they had lost the country
with the exception of Mainz, which was invested. France thus lay open to
invasion from the east and the north. The Convention decreed a levy of
300,000 men.
Rising in La Vendee.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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