ABSTRACT
The Austrians' disappointment turned to anger when it also emerged that the British were sabotaging their other attempts to enlarge the anti-French coalition. In his capacity as Elector of Hanover, George III declared his own principality neutral and helped to keep the other north German princes out of the war too. When Brissot began his campaign for war in the autumn of 1791, he was careful to exclude Great Britain from his field of fire. Every incident of unrest in Great Britain and Ireland, every expression of opposition, was puffed up out of all proportion. To return to Edmund Burke image, the grasshoppers' chinks were amplified and the cattle were ignored. As late as the end of October 1792, Lebrun was still hoping for an alliance with Great Britain. The rapid conquest of Belgium, and the knowledge that the United Provinces would drop into their laps like the rotten plum it was, put paid to that scheme.
