ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the views of government ministers and King George III on their reasons for going to war against revolutionary France, the nature of the conflict, their objectives, the conditions necessary for concluding peace and the terms achieved by Britain in its eventual settlement in 1802. The British government remained carefully neutral for over three years after the outbreak of the Revolution, before tension began to build up dangerously between the two states in the autumn of 1792. William Pitt and William Grenville believed that the French were trying to force them to choose between declaring war and abandoning their Dutch ally and their own security. Pitt's administration tended to be governed in foreign affairs by two main principles: on the one hand, an inclination towards seclusion from European affairs and, on the other, a concern to safeguard British security by seeking to maintain stability in Europe, or 'the balance of power'.
