of that treaty. It was also more than probable that the question of the rights of neutrals would be mentioned, especially if the Northern Powers became parties to the negotiation.
After the peace of Teschen in 1779, Austria, anxious to regain the prestige she had lost on the question of the Bavarian succession, had joined Russia in various attempts at mediating between the belligerent powers. These attempts were renewed in 1780 and 1781, but without result. The Court of Vienna was too intimately bound to that of Paris by family ties, and too much bent on aggressive projects against the Turkish Empire, to care to negotiate with much spirit between the belligerents. The ill-regulated mind of the Empress Catherine was indeed anxious to make the voice of Russia heard in every quarter of the globe; but except as regarded her own aggrandizement in the East, she had no definite ideas, and her plans varied with the varying influence of the favourites who surrounded her throne. Frederic the Great continued to regard England with the aversion which he had constantly exhibited towards her ever since the peace of 1763, and was inclined to cultivate good relations with France through fear of Austria. The refusal by England of any mediation in which the revolted Colonies should be included, had finally alienated her from the Continental Powers and left her bereft of every friend and ally.
It was the opinion of Fox, in keeping with the recent traditions of British diplomacy, that the chief object of the Court of London should be to form alliances with the Northern Powers, and to seek the mediation in our favour of the Empress Catherine with Holland.[1] He considered France the "natural enemy of England," as he plainly stated as late as 1787 in the debates on the Commercial Treaty with France. The opinion of Shelburne was
- ↑ Fox to Harris, June 29th, 1782, and Correspondence of C. J. Fox, i. 331-333. Diary of the Earl of Malmesbury y i. 455. Bentham in 1789 makes the following note of a conversation with Lord Lansdowne on the above subject. "Lord Lansdowne in order to gain the Empress was for offering to accede to the Armed Neutrality, but conditionally—on condition of her mediating in our favour with Holland. Fox carried it against him in the Cabinet to have the offer unconditional. … Fox to gain credit with the Empress gave her to understand what had passed on that occasion in the Cabinet. (Bentham, Works, x. 214.)
