the ministry of "all the talents"—fox informs napoleon of a supposed scheme for his assassination—futile negotiations for peace—windham's army bills—resolutions against the slave trade passed—inquiry into the conduct of the princess of wales—british expeditions: stuart in calabria—battle of maida—continued resistance of the neapolitans—recapture of the cape of good hope—expedition to buenos ayres—naval successes: victories of duckworth, warren, and hood—cochrane's daredevilry—napoleon's subject kingdoms—prussia makes complaints—napoleon prepares for war—murder of palm—isolation of prussia—imbecility of their plan of campaign—battle of jena—napoleon in berlin—he seizes brunswick—complete subjugation of germany—settlement of germany—the berlin decrees—napoleon rouses the poles—campaign against benningsen—death of fox—ministerial changes—votes in supply—an administrative scandal—abolition of the slave trade—measures of roman catholic relief—dismissal of the grenville ministry—the duke of portland's cabinet—hostile motions in parliament—the general election—irish coercion bills—failure of the expeditions planned by the late ministry: buenos ayres—the expedition to the dardanelles—expedition to alexandria—attack on rosetta—withdrawal of the expedition—war between russia and turkey—secret articles of the treaty of tilsit—bombardment of copenhagen and capture of the danish fleet—seizure of heligoland—the campaign in europe—battle of eylau—benningsen's retreat—napoleon on the vistula—fall of dantzic—battle of friedland—alexander resolves to make peace—the meeting on the niemen—treaty of tilsit.

pitt dead, there remained a difficulty of no ordinary kind in the construction of a new cabinet. various persons were applied to to fill the arduous post of prime minister, who all declined, knowing the powerful opposition which would be arrayed against them by coalescing parties. amongst these were lord hawkesbury, sidmouth, and the marquis wellesley, who had just returned from india. there was nothing for it, then, but to endeavour to diminish the opposition of all parties by bringing in some of all parties, and hence the construction of the ministry of "all the talents." grenville assumed the helm as first lord of the treasury, and, of course, brought in fox, notwithstanding the repugnance of the king. fox became secretary for foreign affairs—fox, who had so long and so vehemently condemned the whole of pitt's foreign policy. sidmouth, though refusing the responsibility of the premiership, accepted the office of privy seal; lord fitzwilliam became lord president of the council; grey, now lord howick, first lord of the admiralty; lord moira, master-general of the ordnance; lord spencer, secretary of state for the home department; windham, secretary for the colonies; lord henry petty, chancellor of the exchequer; erskine, lord chancellor; and sir gilbert elliot, now made lord minto, president of the board of control. sheridan was not placed in the cabinet, because he had not been found staunch to any party, and because, in his daily drunken fits, he was likely to disclose state secrets—as if, said he, there were any secrets to be disclosed. lord auckland was made president of the board of trade, and lord temple vice-president. temple, also, was made joint paymaster of the forces with lord john townshend, and general fitzpatrick secretary at war. in the law departments, lord ellenborough, the chief justice of the king's bench, had, though quite out of rule, a seat in the cabinet; pigott became attorney-general, sir samuel romilly solicitor-general. the duke of bedford was enabled to gratify his dependents by being appointed lord-lieutenant of ireland. such was the ministry of "all the talents," amongst whom, however, did not appear canning, who had more talent than three-fourths of them. it was clear that such a ministry could not long hold together. there were scarcely two of them who did not cherish the most irreconcilable views. fox, at the instigation of francis, was desirous to call in question the proceedings of lord wellesley in india, and lord grenville was as resolute against it. windham, grenville, fox, and sidmouth held, every one of them, different notions of foreign policy. fox and some others were advocates of catholic emancipation; sidmouth was utterly averse from it. then, how were so many heads to find comfortable berths for their followers?

fox had now to attempt that accommodation with buonaparte which, he had so long contended, was by no means difficult. an opportunity was immediately offered him for opening communications with the french government. a frenchman, calling himself guillet de la gevrillière, made his way secretly into england, and solicited an interview with fox on a matter of high importance. fox granted it, and was indignant at discovering that it was a proposal to assassinate napoleon. fox ordered the man to be detained, and wrote at once to talleyrand, informing him of the fact, and expressing his abhorrence of it. talleyrand replied, complimenting fox on the[517] nobleness of his principles, and expressing the admiration of the emperor of it. "tell him," said buonaparte, as reported by talleyrand, "that in this act i recognise the principles of honour and virtue in mr. fox;" and he added that the emperor desired him to say, that whatever turn affairs might now take, whether this useless war, as he termed it, might be put an end to or not, he was perfectly confident that there was a new spirit in the british cabinet, and that fox would alone follow principles of beauty and true greatness. these empty compliments made no way towards such a negotiation as a real burst of gratitude might have introduced, especially when accompanied by such confidence as buonaparte avowed in fox's sentiments; and shrewd men suspected that gevrillière had most likely been dispatched by napoleon himself, through fouché, to test the reality of fox's formerly asserted indignation that pitt, or any british minister, could be suspected of plans of assassination against the french emperor.

talleyrand. (after the portrait by gerard.)

[see larger version]

still, fox took the opportunity to sound the french government as to the possibility of peace. in a correspondence with talleyrand he said that britain would be willing to treat on reasonable terms, the first condition of which was that the emperor alexander should be admitted to the treaty. this was at once refused; yet fox did not give up the attempt, and at length the french government proposed that a british ambassador should go to paris, to endeavour to arrange the principles of an agreement. fox complied. before a british plenipotentiary was[518] permitted to proceed to paris, the great points of the negotiation should have been brought forward, and it should have been seen whether there was a probability of agreeing. it should have been understood whether buonaparte was disposed to surrender naples again, which britain demanded; to require the retirement of the prussians from hanover, even if nothing was said of holland and switzerland. to send a plenipotentiary without having ascertained these points was simply to enable buonaparte to boast that he had sought to conciliate, and that british rapacity and ambition rendered all his overtures useless. this was exactly what occurred. lord yarmouth, late marquis of hertford, who had been residing for years in france as one of buonaparte's détenus at the peace of amiens, was first sent. lord yarmouth arrived in paris towards the end of may, and though it had been settled that the negotiations should, for the present, remain secret, the french had taken care to make every court in europe well acquainted with the fact. then one of the very first demands—having got the ambassador there—was for the recognition, not only of buonaparte as emperor, but also of all his family as princes and princesses of the blood. next they came to the surrender of naples, but talleyrand assured lord yarmouth that the emperor, so far from giving up naples, or any part of italy, must have sicily, which was in possession of the british, because joseph buonaparte, now made king of naples, declared that it could not be held without sicily. france, talleyrand said, would consent to britain holding malta, the cape of good hope, which we had taken again, and would not only restore hanover to us, but also allow us to seize on the hanse towns and hamburg! we were in fact, to be permitted to set up for marauders, like themselves, and invade neutral states, and appropriate them; but, as for naples or sicily being restored, that was impossible. lord yarmouth also demanded that dalmatia, istria, and albania should be restored, the last to the turks, whose empire should regain its entirety. these points were equally resisted. meanwhile, prussia had taken the alarm about hanover, and russia, fearful of our treating without her, sent to paris count d'oubril. talleyrand managed to excite jealousies between the british and russian envoys, to such a degree, that d'oubril quitted paris hastily, and returned to st. petersburg. instead of peace, the elements of new heartburnings and wars every day developed themselves. finding that lord yarmouth did not succeed. fox sent over the earl of lauderdale, but he got on no better. buonaparte insisted that sicily should be given up to naples, and a little mock monarchy should be created for ferdinand, the ex-king, in the balearic isles, which were to be taken unceremoniously from spain. lord lauderdale, after a month's waste of words, demanded his passports, and returned; and fox had now had ample proof that no peace was to be effected with napoleon, except upon the terms of leaving the continent to his dictation.

in parliament, business was brought almost to a stand by the neutralising influences of the partisans of "all the talents." excepting on one or two points, no great majority could be obtained on any question. there was an attempt to censure the introduction of lord ellenborough, as chief justice of the king's bench, into the cabinet. it was contended that it was contrary to the principle, if not the letter, of the constitution; that, besides a judge having enough to do on the bench, he would have to sit as a judge on such appeals to the privy council which might be made thither against his own decisions; that, moreover, lord ellenborough had suddenly changed the whole principles of his life for the sake of advancement, and in the practice of his court had, by the most rude and insolent language, never hesitated to carry causes in favour of the government and against the popular liberties. on the part of government it was argued that, both in queen anne's reign and in that of george ii., the chief justices had had a place in the cabinet; and the subject was evaded by carrying the previous question.

windham, on the 3rd of april, proposed his plan for the improvement of the army. till this time enlistments had been for life, which gave men a strong aversion to enter it, and made it the resort chiefly of such as were entrapped in drink, or were the offscouring of society, who became soldiers to enjoy an idle life and often to escape hanging for their desperate crimes. he said that we could not have recourse to conscription in this country, and to get men, and especially a better class of men, we must limit the term of service and increase the pay. to prepare the way for his contemplated regulations, he first moved for the repeal of pitt's additional force bill. this was strongly opposed by castlereagh and canning, who contended that nothing could be better or more flourishing than the condition of the army; and that the repeal of pitt's bill was only meant to cast a slur on his memory. notwithstanding this,[519] the bill was repealed by a majority, in the commons, of two hundred and thirty-five against one hundred and nineteen, and in the lords by a majority of ninety-seven against forty. windham then moved for a clause in the annual mutiny bill, on the 30th of may, for limiting the terms of service. in the infantry, these terms were divided into three, of seven years each; and in the cavalry and artillery three also, the first of ten, the second of six, and the third of five years. at the end of any one of these terms, the soldier could demand his discharge, but his privileges and pensions were to be increased according to the length of his service. notwithstanding active opposition, the clause was adopted and inserted. he then followed this success by a series of bills: one for training a certain number of persons liable to be drawn from the militia, not exceeding two hundred thousand; a bill suspending the ballot for the militia for england for two years, except so far as should be necessary to supply vacancies in any corps fallen below its quota; a bill, called the chelsea hospital bill, to secure to disabled or discharged soldiers their rightful pensions; a bill for augmenting the pay of infantry officers of the regular line; and one for settling the relative rank of officers of troops of the line, militia, and yeomanry. to these bills, which were all passed, was added a vote for the increased pay of sergeants, corporals, and privates of the line, and an augmentation of the chelsea pensions, and the pensions of officers' widows. lord howick moved that the same benefits should be extended to the officers, petty officers, and seamen of the navy, and to the greenwich pensioners, which was carried. these were, undoubtedly, most substantial measures of justice to the two services; and the results of them soon became apparent enough in their beneficial effects on the condition of the army and navy.

the best feature of "all the talents" was the sincerity with which they went into the endeavours to suppress the slave trade. pitt had always stood by wilberforce and the abolitionists, to a certain degree, and had made some of his ablest speeches on this topic; but beyond speaking, he had done little practically to bring his supporters to the necessary tone on the subject. the present ministry, though comprising several members decidedly hostile to abolition, and other mere lukewarm friends, went with much more spirit into the question, and lord henry petty had canvassed the university of cambridge, and made many friends of the measure there. the royal family were decided opponents to the abolition of the slave trade. the ministry, therefore, deserved praise for their support of wilberforce and the abolitionists. clarkson and the society of friends had been working indefatigably out of doors to great purpose, and it was now deemed possible to make a preparatory assault on the trade. on the 1st of january the attorney-general brought in a bill to prohibit the exportation of slaves from any of the british colonies. this, though it permitted the direct transport of slaves from africa to those colonies, or to foreign colonies, cut off the convenience of making our islands dep?ts for this trade; and pitt had already, by an order in council, prevented the introduction of slaves into the colonies conquered by us during the war. wilberforce was so elated by the carrying of the attorney-general's bill that he wanted to follow it up by one prohibiting the trade altogether; but fox and grenville declared that this was not yet practicable. but on the 10th of april they permitted wilberforce to move an address to the king, requesting him to use his influence with foreign powers for putting down this traffic; and this being carried, fox moved, in the commons, a resolution that the house considered the african slave trade to be contrary to the principles of justice, humanity, and sound policy, and would, with all practicable expedition, proceed to take effectual measures for its abolition, in such manner and at such period as should seem advisable. this, too, was carried by a hundred and fifteen against fourteen. this was a great step, for it pledged the house of commons to the declaration that the trade was indefensible, and ought to be put an end to. still more, to prevent that rush for securing slaves which the fear of the suppression of the trade, at no distant date, might occasion, a bill was also passed, prohibiting the employment of any vessel in that trade which had not trafficked in it previous to the 1st of august, 1806, or been contracted for before june 10th, 1806. this act was limited to two years, and, in spite of its benevolent intention, had one serious drawback—that of causing the vessels employed to be still more crowded, and therefore more fatal to the slaves.

the ministry were now involved in a transaction which produced them a plentiful crop of unpopularity. the country was already highly disappointed by the character of the financial measures, and now saw them engaged in an attempt to gratify the domestic resentments of the prince of wales. we have already alluded to the[520] disreputable circumstances attending his marriage with the princess caroline of brunswick. after little more than a year's cohabitation they separated, but not before a daughter was born. so long as the pitt administration continued, all offensive measures of a public nature were warded from the unfortunate princess. the king had always been her decided protector; but now the whigs came in, who had ever been in alliance with the prince of wales, and that exemplary gentleman conceived hopes that he might rid himself of her. the public had been for some time scandalised by disputes between the prince and princess as to a proper separate allowance for her, and concerning the prince's endeavours to deprive her of the company of her own child; but, as he had not succeeded in taking away the infant, rumours were soon industriously spread that the princess, at blackheath, was leading a very disreputable life. all that they could gather up or construe to the princess's disadvantage was duly communicated to the duke of sussex, and by the duke to his brother, the prince. in 1805 they had supplied their employer or employers with a most startling story of the princess's having been delivered of a son, whom she was openly keeping in her house, under pretence that it was the child of a poor woman of the name of austin, which she had adopted. immediate steps were taken privately to get up a case. on the 24th of may lord chancellor erskine read the written statements to the king, who decided that a private inquiry should take place; that the house of lord grenville should be selected as the proper scene, and that lords erskine, spencer, grenville, and ellenborough should undertake the inquiry and report to him upon it. this meeting and inquiry took place, accordingly, on the 1st of june. romilly attended. the servants were examined, and appear, according to romilly's diary, to have uniformly given the most favourable testimony to the conduct of the princess. further: the reputed mother of the child, sophia austin, was examined, and proved that the child was veritably her own; had been born at the brownlow street hospital on the 11th of july, 1802, and had been taken to the princess's house on the 15th of november, adopted by her, and had remained there ever since. "the result," says romilly, "was a perfect conviction on my mind, and, i believe, on the minds of the four lords, that the child was the child of sophia austin." this affair of the princess of wales was not terminated till the end of january, 1807. when the report was laid before the king, he referred it to the cabinet, and they advised him to send a written message to the princess, acquitting her of the main charge, but observing that he saw in the depositions of the witnesses, and even in her own letter to him, defending her conduct, evidence of a deportment unbecoming her station. the odium excited against the ministry by these un-english proceedings was intense, especially amongst women, all over the country.

the british during this year were engaged in a variety of enterprises, and in very different and distant parts of the world, with a success as various. the most remarkable undertaking was the defence of lower calabria, which showed what might be effected by british soldiers, if employed in sufficient numbers, and under able commanders. we have already sketched the attempt by a small russian army and a smaller british one to support ferdinand of naples in his kingdom against the french. as general st. cyr came back upon them, followed by massena, with altogether sixty thousand men, the seven thousand of british and russians were obliged to retreat, the russians embarking for corfu, and the british crossing over into sicily, whither the neapolitan court had fled, taking up its residence at palermo.

in calabria, the two sons of ferdinand of naples, prince francis and prince leopold, in conjunction with general damas, held a force of fourteen thousand men, and endeavoured to arouse the mountaineers, and repel the advance of the french; but regnier was dispatched against them, with a force of ten thousand, and soon defeated and dispersed the neapolitans, making himself master of all the country, except the towns and fortresses of maratea, amantea, and scylla. after three days of a bloody contest, regnier took maratea, and gave it up to the soldiery. these atrocities aroused the mountaineers to such fury, that they beset and harassed the french on their march to amantea like so many demons. their progress was arrested: amantea stoutly resisted; scylla, though taken, was invested by enraged neapolitans and peasantry, and reggio was again wrested from them. at this crisis arrived sir john stuart in sicily, to reinforce and take the command of the british troops, and, at the earnest entreaty of the queen, sir john crossed into calabria.

[521]

by permission of the corporation of liverpool. reproduced by andre & sleigh, la., bushey. herts.

the death of nelson, 1805.

from the picture by daniel maclise r.a., in the walker art gallery.

[see larger version]

sir john landed in calabria on the 1st of july, in the gulf of santa euphemia, not far from nicastro, and advanced to seek regnier. he had not quite five thousand troops with him, all infantry, and a third of these corsicans, sicilians, and other foreigners in british pay. regnier had started for naples with ten thousand men, but some of these were lost, and others stationed to occupy different posts. on the 3rd of july sir john stuart learned that regnier was near maida, about ten miles from sir john's landing-place. leaving a detachment to guard the stores, sir john, on the 4th, marched forward, under a burning sun, to come up with him. he found regnier drawn up in a strong position on a woody slope below the village of maida, flanked by a thick, scrubby wood on each hand, and having in front the river amato, at this season of the year perfectly fordable. the position was formidable, and, had regnier kept it, it must have tried the british severely to dislodge him, especially as they had no cavalry; but regnier, probably honestly of opinion that the british need only be encountered to be beaten, descended from his vantage ground into the plain. one reason might be, that his cavalry could better avail him there; another, that, after his boasts, lebrun, the commissioner of buonaparte, who always, in the old jacobin style, had such a person in the field to watch the conduct of his generals, would be ready to condemn him if he showed any delay when engaged with so despised an enemy. the two armies approached each other about nine o'clock in the morning. they fired two or three rounds at each other, and then advanced with fixed bayonets. the officer commanding the british advance column, seeing that the men were oppressed by the blankets which they carried at their backs in that sultry weather, commanded a halt a little before they closed, and ordered them to let their blankets go. the french, seeing this momentary halt, were confirmed in their general's opinion of the cowardice of the british, and rushed on with loud cheers. they were bronzed and bearded veterans; the british, who composed the advance column, were chiefly young and beardless youths; and an officer present informed sir walter scott, that, as he glanced first on the grim-looking french, and then at the smooth, young faces of the british, he could not help feeling a momentary anxiety. but no sooner were the british freed from their blankets than they dashed forward with loud hurrahs; and the french, who, since the battle of austerlitz, had boasted that no soldiers in europe could stand against them in a charge of bayonets, were, in their turn, staggered. some few stood firmly to cross bayonets with the foe, but the greater part fell back. the french officers rushed along their lines to encourage their men, but in vain; nothing could urge them to the points of the british bayonets. the hills around were crowded with the calabrians, anxious spectators of the fight. when the british halted, they raised loud exclamations of dismay, believing they were about to fly, but the next moment they saw them springing forward with shouts and the french waver, turn, and fly. the first light infantry—a crack french regiment—were the first to break and run for the hills. but it was too late; the british were at their backs, and pursued them with a terrible slaughter. regnier's left thus routed by our right, he rode furiously about, bringing all the force he could muster on our left, but there the result was just the same: the french scarcely stayed to feel the bayonets, but fled in headlong confusion. the british took all the forts along the coasts, and drove the french into upper calabria, where they were joined, near cassano, by massena, with a powerful army. but the british force was not strong enough to do more than it had done. malaria also began to decimate his troops, and sir john stuart returned, in august, to sicily, carrying with him a great quantity of stores and artillery, which the french had prepared for the reduction of calabria. the chief benefit of the battle of maida was to show that the british troops, in proper quantities, were able to drive the french before them, but that, in the small numbers usually sent on expeditions, they were merely wasted. the battle of alexandria, and now that of maida, demonstrated that, if britain would continue to fight on the continent, she must prepare to do it with a sufficient force; and the after campaigns of portugal and spain, and the conclusive battle of waterloo, were the results of this public conviction. at the same time, the brilliant episode of maida had wonderfully encouraged the neapolitans and calabrians. joseph buonaparte, the french intruded king, was once or twice on the very point of flying to the army in upper calabria, and many of his counsellors strongly advised it. massena advised joseph to remain, and assured him that he would soon reduce the whole kingdom to obedience to him. but, in fact, it took massena and his successors five years to accomplish the subjugation, with the sacrifice of one hundred thousand men.

another successful expedition this year was one against the cape of good hope. this settlement, so desirable for britain, with her indian possessions, had been yielded up by the addington administration, at the peace of amiens, most[522] imprudently. a body of five thousand men was dispatched for its recovery, under sir david baird, in a fleet commanded by sir home popham. they arrived in january, and the dutch soldiers fled at the first attack. retiring into the interior, general beresford was dispatched after them, whereupon they surrendered, on condition that they should be sent to holland without being deemed prisoners of war.

had sir home popham been satisfied with this well-executed piece of service, he would have merited honour; but, this being done, he suggested to sir david baird that an expedition might be made with advantage against the spanish colonies in south america. it was reported—not truly, as it turned out—that these colonies were as poorly defended as they were wealthy. sir david was weak enough to fall into the scheme, and, without any authority from home, as it would appear, for so important a proceeding, he permitted general beresford to sail in sir home's squadron with a part of his forces. the fleet touched at st. helena, and took in a few more soldiers, but the whole body did not then amount to more than sixteen hundred. with this contemptible handful of men, the british squadron entered the river la plata, and landed the troops, on the 24th of june, at a short distance from buenos ayres. the few spanish troops in the city were easily routed, and the place capitulated on the 27th, and beresford entered and took up his quarters there. but he was not long left at peace. the spaniards discovering, as a matter of course, the insignificance of the force which had thus rashly surprised the city, collected in sufficient numbers to make prisoners of them all. a french officer in the spanish service, m. liniers, landed with a thousand men from monte video and sacramento, and, being joined by the troops of the neighbourhood which had been repulsed by beresford, appeared before the city on the 10th of july, and summoned the british to surrender. this was the signal for the inhabitants to rise en masse and fall on them. they were prevented from escaping to their ships by the badness of the weather, and were assailed from the windows and doors, and exposed to a general attack in the great square, and were compelled to yield, on condition of being allowed to re-embark; but no sooner had they laid down their arms, than liniers, who probably looked on them as no better than filibusters, treated them as such, and marched them up the country, where they were rigorously treated. four hundred of them had perished in this mad attempt. meanwhile, sir home popham had sent home upwards of a million of dollars, reserving two hundred and five thousand for the pay of the army. there were great rejoicings in london at the news, and at the receipt of the specie. popham, in his despatches, represented himself as having conquered a great colony, and opened up a wonderful mart for our manufactures; and the ministry, delighted at the receipt of the dollars, though they had, on first hearing of the scheme, sent out orders to stop the squadron, now, on the 20th of september, issued an order in council declaring buenos ayres and its dependencies open to our trade. long before this order could have reached america the whole scene was reversed. sir home popham had, indeed, blockaded the river la plata, and had attempted to bombard monte video, but his ships could not get near enough. in october reinforcements arrived from the cape and from england, but not in sufficient strength to enable him to do anything decisive. he therefore contented himself with landing troops at maldonado, and drove the spaniards from the isle of gorriti, where he lay to, and waited for greater reinforcements.

during this year buonaparte made another attempt to recover the mastery of st. domingo. dessalines was now emperor, having a court full of black nobles and marshals, an exact parody of napoleon's. a french squadron, under admiral lessigues, consisting of five ships of the line, two frigates, and a corvette, managed to escape the british fleets, and, on the 20th of january, to anchor in the road of st. domingo. they had just landed a body of troops, when sir john duckworth made his appearance with seven sail-of-the-line and four frigates. lessigues slipped his cables, and endeavoured to get out to sea, but the wind did not favour him; sir john duckworth came up with him, and, on the 6th of february, attacked and defeated him. though sir john had the superiority in number of vessels, the french vessels were, some of them, much larger ones; and one, the imperial, was reckoned the largest and finest ship of their navy—a huge three-decker, of three thousand three hundred tons, and a hundred and thirty guns. yet, in three hours, sir john had captured three of the french line of battle ships; the other two ran on the rocks, and were wrecked. one of these was the gigantic imperial. nearly the whole of her crew perished, five hundred being killed and wounded before she struck. one of these frigates which escaped was afterwards captured by a british sloop of war in a very battered condition from a storm, in addition to the fight.

[523]

another french fleet, under admiral willaumez, left brest at the same time with that of lessigues, bound for the cape of good hope, to assist the dutch troops in defending it. the british, however, having taken it before his arrival, he went cruising about and picking up such stray british merchantmen as he could meet with between the continents of africa and south america. he then stood away for the west indies, hoping to be able to destroy the british shipping in the ports of barbadoes. failing in that, he made for martinique, which was still in the possession of the french. willaumez had but six sail of the line, and the english admirals, sir john borlase warren, who had the same number and a frigate, and sir richard strachan, who had seven sail of the line and two frigates, were in eager quest of him. meanwhile, willaumez was attacked by a terrible tempest, and then chased by strachan in the chesapeake. of his six ships of the line he took home only two, and was obliged to burn the british merchantmen that he had taken.

another admiral was still less fortunate. this was linois, who had been beaten off in his attack on a british fleet of india merchantmen, in the straits of malacca, some time before, and who had been cruising far and wide in pursuit of british prizes, whilst a number of english commanders were eagerly hunting after him. he was now returning home, when, in sight of the port of brest, with only two of his ships remaining, sir john warren stood in his way, and compelled him to surrender both of them.

in september commodore sir samuel hood captured five frigates, which issued from rochefort, laden with troops, stores, arms, and ammunition for the french forts in the west indies. but the most daring feats of bravery were performed by captain lord cochrane, afterwards lord dundonald. early in this year he sent a number of boats up the gironde, not far from bordeaux, to endeavour to seize two large brig corvettes, the nearest of which lay twenty miles up the river, protected by two heavy land batteries. the sailors successfully brought away the first vessel, having only three men wounded in the affair; the other corvette lay much higher up the river, but, hearing the firing, it fell down to the assistance of its companion vessel; but the british seamen beat it back, and carried away their prize in the face of crowds of armed militia, and greater crowds of people along the shores. whilst this daring action was in progress lord cochrane was not idle. he attacked with his single frigate one sixteen-gun and two twenty-gun corvettes, and drove them on shore. he then proceeded to aix, to reconnoitre a strong fleet anchored in the roads, under cover of strong batteries. his little frigate, the pallas, a twelve-pounder of thirty-two guns, was attacked by a forty-four-gun frigate and three big corvettes, but they were compelled to retire without driving him from his station. he then landed part of the crew of the pallas, who destroyed some signal-posts which gave notice of all the movements of the british cruisers. one of these signal-posts was defended, but in vain, by a hundred french militia. he next attacked a battery of three thirty-six pounders, and a garrison of fifty men, spiked the guns, blew up the magazine, and flung the shot and shells into the sea. the frigate minerva, of forty-four guns, and three corvettes, then ran out of harbour with studding-sails and royals set, and commenced a simultaneous attack on the pallas; but cochrane soon reduced the minerva almost to a wreck, and was on the point of boarding her when two other frigates hastened to her aid, and the pallas, considerably damaged herself, was obliged to haul off. such were the audacious doings of the british men-of-war in every quarter of the world, and in these lord cochrane stood always conspicuous for his unparalleled daring and adroitness.

the victory of napoleon over austria had wonderfully increased his influence with those german states which formed the confederation of the rhine. bavaria, würtemberg, hesse-darmstadt, and other of the small princes, especially those on the right bank of that river, were more than ever bound to him, and were prepared to follow him in any wars that he might make against other countries, or even their own fatherland. whilst some of them received crowns for their unnatural subserviency, several smaller princes were sunk into the condition of mere nobles. the military contingents which he exacted from them amounted to sixty thousand men, and these he soon had in a state of discipline and efficiency very different to that which they exhibited under the old german federation. under napoleon they behaved as well as any of his troops, showing that they needed only leaders of activity and talent to make good soldiers of them. thus france superseded austria in its influence over all the south-west of germany. nor did he stop here. he had created dukes and princes, and resolved also to create kings. these were to be his brothers, who were to be placed on half the thrones of europe, and set there as vassal monarchs doing homage and service to him, the[524] great emperor of france. he expected them to be the obedient servants of france, or, rather, of himself, and not of the countries they were ostensibly set to govern. he began by making his brother joseph king of naples in march, and in june he made his brother louis king of holland. he told them that they must never forget that their first duty was to france and to himself. he intended to make his brother jerome king of westphalia; but jerome had married a miss paterson, the daughter of an american merchant, and he must have this marriage broken, and a royal one arranged, before he could admit him to this regal honour: he must also wrest part of this territory from prussia. his sister pauline, widow of general leclerc, who perished in st. domingo, he had now married to the roman prince borghese, and he gave her the italian duchy of guastalla. murat, who had married another sister, he made grand duke of berg and cleve, and marshal berthier he made prince of neuchatel. these territories, taken from prussia, bavaria, and switzerland, he conferred, with all their rights and privileges, on these generals. the duchy of parma he conferred on cambacérès, and piacenza on general lebrun.

prussia, which had remained inactive whilst buonaparte was winning over bavaria and würtemberg to his interests, and while he was crushing austria, now that she stood alone took the alarm, and complained that the french troops on the rhine and in the hanse towns, which, by the treaty of pressburg, ought to have been withdrawn from germany, remained. the queen of prussia and prince louis, the king's cousin, were extremely anti-gallic. they had long tried to arouse the king to resist the french influence in germany, to coalesce with austria while it was time, and to remove haugwitz from the ministry, who was greatly inclined towards france. the emperor alexander professed himself ready to unite in this resistance to france, and frederick william began now to listen to these counsels. he withdrew his minister, lucchesini, from paris, and sent general knobelsdorff in his place. on the 1st of october knobelsdorff presented to talleyrand a long memorial, demanding that the french troops should re-cross the rhine immediately, in compliance with the treaty of pressburg; that france should desist from throwing obstacles in the way of the promotion of a league in north germany, comprehending all the states not included in the confederation of the rhine; and that the fortress of wesel and those abbeys which murat, since becoming grand duke of berg and cleve, had seized and attached to his territory, should be restored.

such language was certain to irritate, in no ordinary degree, the full-blown pride of buonaparte. it is probable that he was only too desirous of finding a cause of quarrel with prussia. he longed to avenge himself on her for keeping him in a state of tantalising uncertainty during his austrian campaign; and he wished to bring the whole of germany under his dominion. he replied, through talleyrand, that prussia had no right to demand from him that he should withdraw his troops from friendly states, and that they should remain there as long as he pleased. in fact, he was already watching the movements of prussia. he was well aware of the negotiations with russia, he had full information of the man?uvring of troops, and that the queen of prussia, in the uniform of the regiment called by her name, had been at reviews of the army, encouraging the soldiers by her words. he had, weeks before, assembled his principal marshals—soult, murat, augereau, and bernadotte—in paris, and, with them, sketched the plan of the campaign against prussia. four days before knobelsdorff presented the king of prussia's letter to talleyrand napoleon had quitted paris, and was on the rhine, directing the march of his forces there, and calling for the contingents from the princes of the rhenish confederation; nay, so forward were his measures, that his army in germany, under berthier, stretched from baden to düsseldorf, and from frankfort-on-the-main to nuremberg. at the same time he commenced a series of the bitterest attacks on prussia in the moniteur and other papers under his control, and of the vilest and most unmanly attacks on the character of the queen of prussia, a most interesting and amiable woman, whose only crime was her patriotism.

but buonaparte did not content himself with stabs at the reputation of his enemies—he resorted to his old practices of assassination. the booksellers of germany, ignoring the dominance of buonaparte in their country, though he had completely silenced the press in france, dared to publish pamphlets and articles against the french invasion and french rule in germany. buonaparte ordered berthier to seize a number of these publishers, and try them by court-martial, on the plea that they excited the inhabitants to rise and massacre his soldiers. amongst the booksellers thus arrested was john philip palm, of nuremberg. the charge against him was that he had published a pamphlet entitled, "l'allemagne dans[525] son profond abaissement." this production was attributed to m. gentz, a writer who was most damaging to the influence of buonaparte, and palm was offered his pardon if he would give up the author. he refused. nuremberg, though occupied by french soldiers, was under the protection of prussia, which was, just now, no protection at all. palm was carried off to braunau, in austria. this place was still occupied by buonaparte, in direct violation of the treaty of pressburg; so that buonaparte, in the seizure and trial of palm, was guilty of the breach of almost every international and civil law; for, had palm been the citizen of a french city, his offence being a mere libel did not make him responsible to a military tribunal. the french colonels condemned him to be shot, and the sentence was immediately executed on the 26th of august. the indignation and odium which this atrocious act excited, not only throughout germany, but throughout the civilised world, caused buonaparte, with his usual disregard of truth, to say that the officers had done all this without any orders from him, but out of their own too officious zeal.

the queen of prussia reviewing the army. (see p. 524.)

[see larger version]

on the 9th of october the king of prussia issued a manifesto from his headquarters at erfurt, calling attention to the continual aggressions of france—those aggressions which prussia had so long watched in profound apathy, and which, by timely union with austria and russia, might have been checked. but prussia had, by her mean conduct, now stripped herself of all sympathy and all co-operation. she would have been very glad indeed of the money of great britain, but she had so far favoured the very aggressions of buonaparte of which she now complained as to receive hanover from him, and could not even now find it in her heart to surrender it, and make a powerful friend by that act of justice. the emperor of russia was willing to co-operate, but prussia had made her hostile manifestations before alexander could approach with his army. in reply to the intimations of prussia, that she would be glad of the support of britain, lord morpeth was sent to berlin; but the language of the prussian ministry was still of the most selfish and impolitic character, and lucchesini told lord morpeth that the fate of[526] hanover must depend on the event of the coming war. with such a power no union could take place, and in this isolated and pitiable condition prussia was left to try her strength with napoleon. as for that ambitious soldier, he desired nothing so much as this encounter with prussia; he saw in it the only obstacle to his complete dominion over germany, and he was confident that he should scatter her armies at the first shock.

the prussian people, however, on their part, were clamorous for war; they still prided themselves on the victories of frederick, called the great, and the students and the young nobles were full of bravado. but, unfortunately, they had not generals like frederick to place at the head of their armies, and their military system was entirely obsolete. the duke of brunswick, who, in his youth, had shown much bravery in the seven years' war, but who had been most unfortunate in his invasion of france, in 1792, was now, in his seventy-second year, placed in chief command, to compete with napoleon. nothing could exceed the folly of his plan of the campaign. the whole force of prussia, including its auxiliaries, amounted only to about one hundred and fifty thousand men. of these the saxons, who had reluctantly united with prussia, and had only been forced into co-operation by the prussians marching into their country, and, in a manner, compelling them, were worse than lukewarm in the cause; they were ready at any moment to join the french. besides these, and the troops of hesse-cassel, they had not an ally except the distant russians. on the other hand, napoleon had a considerably superior army of his own in advance, and he had immense forces behind the rhine, for he had anticipated a whole year's conscription. he had, moreover, his flanks protected by his friendly confederates of the rhine, ready to come forward, if necessary. in these circumstances, prussia's policy ought to have been to delay action, by negotiation or otherwise, till the russians could come up, and then to have concentrated her troops so as to resist, by their momentum, the onset of the confident and battle-practised french. but, so far from taking these precautions, the duke of brunswick rushed forward at once into franconia, into the very face of buonaparte, and long before he could have the assistance of russia. instead of concentrating his forces, brunswick had stretched them out over a line of ninety miles in length. he and the king had their headquarters at weimar; their left, under prince hohenlohe, was at schleitz, and their right extended as far as mühlhausen. the prussians, in fact, appeared rather to be occupying cantonments than drawn into military position for a great contest. besides they had in front of them the thuringian forest, behind which napoleon could man?uvre as he pleased.

perceiving the fatal separation of the prussians from each other, and from their supplies at naumburg, he determined to cut their army in two, and then to cut off and seize their magazines at this place. he therefore ordered the french right wing, under soult and ney, to march upon hof, while the centre, under bernadotte and davoust, with the guard commanded by murat, advanced on saalburg and schleitz. the left wing, under augereau, proceeded towards saalfeld and coburg. naumburg was seized, and its magazines committed to the flames, and this, at the same moment that it ruined their resources, apprised them that the french were in their rear; and, still worse, were between them and magdeburg, which should have been their rallying-point. to endeavour to make some reparation of their error, and to recover naumburg, the duke of brunswick marched in that direction, but too late. davoust was in possession of the place, and had given the magazine to the flames, and he then marched out against brunswick, who was coming with sixty thousand men, though he had only about half that number. brunswick, by activity, might have seized the strong defile of koesen; but he was so slow that davoust forced it open and occupied it. on the evening of the 13th of october the duke was posted on the heights of auerstadt, and might have retained that strong position, but he did not know that davoust was so near; for the scout department seemed as much neglected as other precautions. accordingly, the next morning, descending from the heights to pursue his march, his advanced line suddenly came upon that of davoust in the midst of a thick fog, near the village of hassen-haussen. the battle continued from eight in the morning till eleven, when the duke of brunswick was struck in the face by a grape-shot, and blinded of both eyes. this, and the severe slaughter suffered by the prussians, now made them give way. the king of prussia, obliged to assume the command himself, at this moment received the discouraging news that general hohenlohe was engaged at jena on the same day (october 14) with the main army, against buonaparte himself. resolving to make one great effort to retrieve his fortunes, he ordered a general charge to be made along the whole[527] french line. it failed; the prussians were beaten off, and there was a total rout. the prussians fled towards weimar, where were the headquarters of their army, only to meet the fugitives of hohenlohe, whose forces at the battle of jena were very inferior to those of the french, and whose defeat there was a foregone conclusion.

napoleon marched triumphantly forwards towards berlin. in leipzic he confiscated british merchandise to the value of about three millions sterling. he entered berlin on the 27th of october. as he traversed the field of rossbach, where frederick the great had annihilated a french army, he ordered his soldiers to destroy the small column that commemorated that event. he took up his residence in the palace of the king of prussia at berlin. the wounded and blind duke of brunswick entreated of the conqueror that his hereditary state of brunswick might be left him, but buonaparte refused in harsh and insulting terms. moreover, he ordered his troops to march on that territory and town, and the dying duke was compelled to be carried away on a litter by men hired for the purpose, for all his officers and domestics had deserted him. buonaparte had a particular pleasure in persecuting this unhappy man, because he was brother-in-law to george iii. and father-in-law to the heir to the british crown; but he also wanted his dukedom to add to the kingdom of westphalia, which he was planning for his brother jerome. the duke's son requested of buonaparte leave to lay his body in the tomb of his ancestors, but the ruthless tyrant refused this petition with the same savage bluntness, and the young duke vowed eternal vengeance, and, if he did not quite live to discharge his oath, his black brunswickers did it at waterloo.

the strong towns and fortresses of prussia were all surrendered with as much rapidity as the army had been dispersed. they were, for the most part, commanded by imbecile or cowardly old villains; nay, there is every reason to believe that, in many instances, they sold the places to the french, and were paid their traitor fees out of the military chests of the respective fortresses. whilst these events were so rapidly progressing, louis buonaparte, the new king of holland, with an army of french and dutch, had overrun, with scarcely any opposition, westphalia, hanover, emden, and east friesland. the unfortunate king of prussia, who had seen his kingdom vanish like a dream, had fled to k?nigsberg, where he was defended by the gallant lestog, and awaited the hoped-for junction of the russians marching to his aid. gustavus adolphus, of sweden, forgetting the slighted advice which he had offered to prussia to unite with austria, opened stralsund and riga to the fugitive prussians.

having put prussia under his feet, buonaparte proceeded to settle the fate of her allies, saxony and hesse-cassel. saxony, which had been forced into hostilities against france by prussia, was at once admitted by buonaparte to his alliance. he raised the prince to the dignity of king, and introduced him as a member of the confederacy of the rhine. the small states of saxe-weimar and saxe-gotha were admitted to his alliance on the same terms of vassalage; but hesse-cassel was wanted to make part of the new kingdom of westphalia, and, though it had not taken up arms at all, buonaparte declared that it had been secretly hostile to france, and that the house of hesse-cassel had ceased to reign. louis buonaparte had seized it, made it over to the keeping of general mortier, and then marched back to holland. mortier then proceeded to re-occupy hanover, which he did in the middle of november, and then marched to hamburg. he was in hopes of seizing a large quantity of british goods, as he had done at leipzic, but in this he was disappointed, for the hamburg merchants, being warned by the fate of leipzic, had made haste, disposed of all their british articles, and ordered no fresh ones. buonaparte, in his vexation, ordered mortier to seize the money in the banks; but bourrienne wrote to him, showing him the folly of such a step, and he refrained.

but his great measure, at this period, was the blow aimed at the commerce of britain, and comprised in his celebrated berlin decrees, promulgated on the 21st of november. he had subjugated nearly the whole of the european continent. spain, portugal, italy to the south of france, belgium, holland, germany, and prussia to the north, with nearly the whole seaboard of europe, were under his hand and his armies. he had found that he could not invade england; her fleet had risen triumphant, his own fleet had disappeared like a vapour at trafalgar. as, therefore, he could not reach her soil, he determined to destroy her by destroying her commerce, on which he imagined not merely her prosperity but her very existence depended. as he was master of nearly all continental europe, he supposed it as easy for him to exclude by his fiat the merchandise of britain, as to put down old dynasties and set up new ones. he had yet to[528] learn that commerce has a conquering power greater than that either of martial genius or of arms.

napoleon at rossbach. (see p. 527.)

[see larger version]

these were his first decrees:—i. the british isles were declared in a state of blockade. ii. all commerce and correspondence with britain was forbidden. all british letters were to be seized in the post-houses. iii. every englishman, of whatever rank or quality, found in france, or the countries allied with her, was declared a prisoner of war. iv. all merchandise or property of any kind belonging to british subjects was declared lawful prize. v. all articles of british manufacture, and articles produced in her colonies, were, in like manner, declared contraband and lawful prize. vi. half of the produce of the above confiscations was to be employed in the relief of those merchants whose vessels had been captured by british cruisers. vii. all vessels coming from britain or british colonies were to be refused admission into any harbour in or connected with france. these decrees were to be binding wherever french power extended, but they had no effect in checking the commerce of britain; the distress to continental merchants, however, and the exasperation of the people deprived of british manufactures, grew immediately acute. bourrienne says that the fiscal tyranny thus created became intolerable. at the same time, the desire of revenue induced buonaparte to allow his decrees to be infringed by the payment of exorbitant licences for the import of british goods. french goods, also, were lauded with incredible impudence, though they were bought only to be thrown into the sea. hamburg, bordeaux, nantes, and other continental ports solicited, by petitions and deputations, some relaxation of the system, to prevent universal ruin. they declared that general bankruptcy must ensue if it were continued. "be it so," replied buonaparte, arrogantly; "the more insolvency on the continent, the more ruin in england." as they could not bend buonaparte, merchants, douaniers, magistrates, prefects, generals, all combined in one system of fraudulent papers, bills of lading or certificates, by which british goods were admitted and circulated under other names for sufficient bribes. the only mischief which his embargo did was to the nations of the continent, especially holland, belgium, germany, and to himself; for his rigour in this respect was one of the things which drove the whole of europe to abominate his tyranny, and rejoice in his eventual fall.

[529]

reproduced by andré & sleigh, ld., bushey, herts.

crippled but unconquered, 1805.

from the picture by w. l. wyllie, r.a.

breaking into the midst of the enemy's lines, the "belleisle" was surrounded on all sides.... raked fore and aft and thundered at from all quarters, every mast and spar of the gallant "seventy-four" was shot away, her hull knocked almost to pieces, and the decks cumbered with dead and dying. still the unequal fight went on, till at last the "swiftsure," bursting through the mêlée, passed close under the stern of the battered wreck, giving three hearty cheers when a union jack was waved from a pike to show that, though crippled the "belleisle" was still unconquered.—an incident at trafalgar.

[see larger version]

murat (king of naples). (after the portrait by gerard.)

[see larger version]

the emperor of russia was now fast advancing towards the vistula in support of prussia, and the contest appeared likely to take place in poland; and buonaparte, with his usual hollow adroitness, held out delusive hopes to the poles of his restoring their unity and independence, in order to call them into universal action against russia and prussia. amongst the most distinguished of these was the general dombrowski. buonaparte sent for him to headquarters, and employed him to raise regiments of his countrymen. by such lures he obtained a considerable number of such men; but his grand scheme was to obtain the presence and the sanction of the great and popular patriot, kosciusko. if he were to appear and call to arms, all poland would believe in its destinies, and rise. kosciusko was living in honourable poverty near fontainebleau, and buonaparte had made many attempts to engage him in his service, as he had done dombrowski; but kosciusko saw too thoroughly the character of the man. he pleaded the state of his wounds and of his health as incapacitating him for the fatigues of war, but he privately made no secret amongst his friends that he regarded napoleon as a mere selfish conqueror, who would only use poland as a tool to enslave other nations, never to enfranchise herself. in vain did buonaparte now urge him to come forward and fight for his country; he steadfastly declined; but buonaparte resolved to have the influence of his name, by means true or false. he sent him a proclamation to the poles, requesting[530] him to put his name to it. the patriot refused, at the risk of being driven from france; but buonaparte, without ceremony, fixed his name to the address, and published it on the 1st of november. it declared that kosciusko was coming himself to lead his countrymen to freedom. the effect was instantaneous; all poland was on fire, and, before the cheat could be discovered, dombrowski had organised four good polish regiments.

napoleon now called up his auxiliary forces from saxony, würtemberg, bavaria, and from all the confederation of the rhine, as well as new battalions from france, and advanced against the russians. in the first place, the french, who had completed the subjugation of the prussian states east of the oder, pushed forward towards poland, to attack the russian general, benningsen, who advanced to warsaw, and occupied it in conjunction with the prussians. benningsen, however, finding the prussians few and dispirited, fell back beyond the vistula, and murat, at the head of the french vanguard, entered warsaw on the 28th of november. he was soon after joined there by buonaparte, and warsaw being put into a state of defence, the french army advanced to the vistula and the bug, in spite of the lateness of the season. benningsen again retreated behind the wkra, where he united his forces with those of generals buxhowden and kaminskoi. kaminskoi took the supreme command. when napoleon arrived at the wkra on the 23rd of december, he formed his army into three divisions, and forced the passages of the river. kaminskoi fell back behind the niemen, and the french pursued him, committing some injury on him. this trifling advantage napoleon converted, in his bulletins to paris, into the rout and general defeat of the russians. it was true that the russians were destitute of stores, having applied to britain for money, and obtained only eighty thousand pounds. they fought, therefore, under great disadvantages, against an army furnished with everything. notwithstanding, benningsen, who was by far the most vigorous of their generals—for kaminskoi was fast falling into lunacy—posted himself strongly behind pultusk, his right led by barclay de tolly, and his left by ostermann. kaminskoi ordered benningsen to retreat, but he refused, and stood his ground. at first tolly was driven back by lannes and davoust, but benningsen converted this disadvantage into a ruse, ordering tolly to continue his retreat, till the french were drawn on, so that he could bring down his left wing on them. this he did with such effect that he killed and wounded nearly eight thousand of them, having, however, himself five thousand killed and wounded. lannes and five other generals were amongst the wounded. the french seized the opportunity of darkness to retreat with such speed, that the next morning not a trace of them could be seen near pultusk. prince galitzin fought another division of the french the same day at golynim, and with the same success. had benningsen had the chief command, and brought down the whole united russian army on napoleon, the victory must have been most decisive; as it was, it taught the french that they had different troops to prussians or austrians to contend with. they drew off, and went into winter quarters at warsaw and the towns to the eastward. the chief command of the russian army was now conferred on benningsen, and so far from buonaparte having, as he boasted, brought the war to a close with the year, we shall find benningsen, at the head of ninety thousand men, soon forcing him into a winter campaign.

on the 13th of september charles james fox died at chiswick house, the residence of the duke of devonshire. he had been for a considerable time suffering from dropsy, and had got as far as chiswick, in the hope of gathering strength enough to reach st. anne's hill, near chertsey, his own house. but his days were numbered. he was only fifty-eight years of age. during his illness his colleagues and so-called friends, with that strange coldness and selfishness which always distinguished the whigs, with very few exceptions, never went near him. those honourable exceptions were the duke of devonshire, who had offered him his house, the prince of wales, his nephew, lord holland, his niece, miss fox, and his old friend, general fitzpatrick. still, fox was not deserted by humbler and less known friends. lords grenville and howick, his colleagues, rarely went near him, and all the ministry were too busy anticipating and preparing for the changes which his decease must make. when this event took place there was a great shifting about, but only one new member of the cabinet was admitted, lord holland, and only one resigned, the earl fitzwilliam. lord howick took fox's department, that of foreign affairs; lord holland became privy seal; grenville, first lord of the admiralty; and tierney, president of the board of control. sidmouth, afterwards so prominent in tory cabinets, still sat in this medley one as president of the council, and lord minto[531] was gratified by the governor-generalship of india. as parliament was not sitting at the time of fox's death, ministers ordered his interment in westminster abbey, and he was carried thither on the 10th of october, the twenty-sixth anniversary of his election for westminster, and laid almost close to the monument of chatham, and within a few inches of the grave of his old rival, pitt.

parliament was suddenly dissolved by the all the talents ministry, in the hope of acquiring a better majority, but this hope was not brilliantly realised. the new parliament assembled on the 19th of december, and, as all now saw that war must go on, both houses prepared themselves for large votes of supply. according to windham's statement, we had 125,631 regulars in the army, of whom 79,158 were employed in defending our west india islands, 25,000 in india, and upwards of 21,000 foreigners in our pay. besides this, for home defence we had 94,000 militia and fencibles, and 200,000 volunteers; so that altogether we had 419,000 men under arms. it was, therefore, contended, and with reason, that as we had so deeply engaged ourselves in fighting for our allies on the continent, with such a force we might have sent 20,000, with good effect, to unite with alexander of russia against buonaparte, and not have let him be repulsed for want of both men and money. this, indeed, was the disgrace of all the talents, that they put the country to the expense of an enormous war establishment, and did no real service with it. the supplies, however, were freely voted. there were granted, for the navy, ￡17,400,337; for the regular army, ￡11,305,387; for militia, fencibles, volunteers, etc., ￡4,203,327; ordnance, ￡3,321,216. the number of sailors, including 32,000 marines, was fixed at 130,000.

the manner in which a great deal of these vast sums, so freely voted, was spent, was, at this very moment, staring the public most fully in the face, through the military inquiry set on foot under the administration of pitt, and continued under the present ministry. it appeared that one davison, being made treasurer of the ordnance by pitt, had been in the habit of drawing large sums from the treasury long before they were wanted, and had generally from three million to four million pounds of the national funds in his hands to trade with, of which the country lost the interest! nor was this all: there had been an understanding between himself, delauny, the barrackmaster-general, and greenwood, the army agent. all these gentlemen helped themselves largely to the public money, and their accounts were full of misstatements and overcharges. those of delauny were yet only partly gone through, but there was a charge of ninety thousand pounds already against him for fraudulent entries and impositions. as for davison, there was found to be an arrangement between him and delauny, by which, as a contractor, he was to receive of delauny two-and-a-half per cent. on beds, sheets, blankets, towels, candles, beer, forage, etc., which he furnished for barrack use. besides this, he was to supply the coals as a merchant. having always several millions of the country's money in hand, he bought up the articles, got his profit, and then his commission, without any outlay of his own. lord archibald hamilton gave notice of a motion for the prosecution of davison at common law, but ministers said they had put the matter into the proper hands, and that davison had been summoned to deliver up all his accounts that they might be examined, and measures taken to recover any amount due by him to the treasury. but lord henry petty talked as though it was not certain that there were sufficient proofs of his guilt to convict him. the attorney-general, however, was ordered to prosecute in the court of king's bench, but the decision did not take place till april, 1809, more than two years afterwards, and then only the miserable sum of eighteen thousand one hundred and eighty-three pounds had been recovered, and davison was condemned to twenty-one months' imprisonment in newgate.

but the great glory of this session was not the exposure of davison and his fellow thieves, but the stop put to the operations of a much larger class of rascals. the death of fox had been a sad blow to wilberforce and the abolitionists, who had calculated on his carrying the prohibition of the slave trade; but lord grenville and his cabinet seemed to have made up their minds to have the fame of achieving the grand object of so many years' exertion for the suppression of the african slave trade. wilberforce, to his inconceivable joy, discovered that spencer perceval, the leader of the opposition, and his party were willing to co-operate for this purpose. the king and royal family alone remained as adverse to the abolition of slavery as they were to the emancipation of the catholics. the abolitionists, however, had so imbued the country with the sense of the barbarity and iniquity of the traffic, that royal prejudice could no longer swamp the measure, nor aristocratic apathy delay it. lord grenville brought in a bill for the purpose into[532] the peers on the 2nd of january, 1807: the 12th was fixed for the second reading. before this took place, counsel was heard at the bar of the house against the measure, who repeated all the terrible prognostics of ruin to the west indies and to britain from the abolition, with which the planters and proprietors of the west indies, the merchants and slave captains of liverpool and bristol, had so often endeavoured to alarm the nation. the emptiness of these bugbears had, however, been now too fully exposed to the people by the lectures, speeches, and pamphlets of the abolition society, and wilberforce had all along merely to use the arguments in parliament with which they had abundantly furnished him. lord grenville now introduced the second reading by an elaborate speech, in which he condensed and summed up these arguments. he was warmly supported by the duke of gloucester—a liberal exception to his family—by lords king, selkirk, rosslyn, northesk, holland, suffolk, moira, and the bishops of durham, london, and others. the dukes of clarence and sussex as zealously opposed him, as well as lords sidmouth, eldon, ellenborough, hawkesbury, st. vincent, and many others. the second reading was carried, after a debate which continued till five o'clock in the morning, by one hundred against thirty-six. the third reading was also carried with equal ease, and the bill was brought down to the commons on the 10th of february. lord howick proposed its reading in an eloquent speech, and it was opposed, with the usual prediction of ruin, by mr. george hibbert, captain herbert, and general gascoyne, who said the nation was carried away by sentimental cant, the result of an enormous agitation by the quakers and saints. the first reading, however, passed without a division, and the second on the 24th of february, by two hundred and eighty-three against sixteen. the house gave three cheers. seeing the large majority, and that the bill was safe, lord grenville recommended wilberforce to strengthen it by inserting the penalties, which he did; but they left a great advantage to the slave merchants by allowing them to clear out their vessels from great britain by the 1st of may, and gave them time to deliver their human cargoes in the west indies till the 1st of january, 1808—a liberty which was sure to create a great sending out of vessels for the last occasion, and a fearful crowding of them. however, the accursed trade was now doomed, as far as british merchants could go, though it was soon found that it was not so easy to suppress it. when it was seen that the bill must pass, lords eldon, hawkesbury, and castlereagh, who had hitherto opposed it, declared themselves in favour of it. it was carried in both houses by large majorities, and received the royal sanction on the 25th of march. so easily was the bill passed, at last, that lord percy, the day after it had left the commons, moved in that house for leave to bring in a bill for the gradual emancipation of the slaves; but this being deemed premature, and calculated to injure the operation of the bill for the abolition of the trade, and to create dangerous excitement in the west indies, the motion was discouraged, and so was dropped.

the grenville ministry was approaching its extinction. it had done a great work in the abolition of the slave trade, but there was another species of abolition which they were disposed to further which was not quite so acceptable. they had supported wilberforce and his party in their measure for the negroes, but wilberforce and his friends were by no means willing to support them in liberating the catholics from their disabilities. grenville and fox had made no particular stipulation, on taking office, to prosecute the catholic claims, but they were deeply pledged to this by their speeches of many years. it was, therefore, highly honourable of them, though very impolitic, to endeavour to do something, at least, to show their sincerity. though the king was obstinately opposed to any relaxation of the restraints on this class of his subjects, yet the fox and grenville ministry had introduced a milder and more generous treatment of the catholics in ireland. the duke of bedford, as lord-lieutenant, had discouraged the rampant spirit of orangeism, and admitted catholics to peace and patronage. he had abandoned the dragooning system, and had managed to settle some disturbances which broke out in the autumn of 1806, without even proclaiming martial law. these measures had won the cordial attachment of the catholics both in ireland and england, but, in the same proportion, had exasperated the church and war party against them in both countries. their adding another three-and-a-half per cent. to the income and property taxes had still further embittered these parties, and the antagonism to them was every day becoming stronger. yet they resolved, in spite of all this, to make an attempt to do some justice to the catholics. they managed to carry an additional grant to the college of maynooth, and on the 4th of march, when this grant was debated, wilberforce, though[533] wanting the support of ministers for his slave trade bill, made a violent speech against all concessions to the catholics. he declared the protestant church the only true one, and, therefore, the only one which ought to be supported. "he did not profess," he said, "to entertain large and liberal views on religious subjects; he was not, like buonaparte, an honorary member of all religions." undeterred by these tokens of resistance, lord howick, the very next day, moved for leave to bring in a bill to enable catholics to hold commissions in the army and navy on taking a particular oath. he said that it was a strange anomaly that catholics in ireland could hold such commissions since 1793, and attain to any rank except that of commander-in-chief, of master-general of the ordnance, or of general of the staff, yet, should these regiments be ordered to this country, they were, by law, disqualified for service. a clause had already been added to the mutiny bill to remove the anomaly. he proposed to do away with this extraordinary state of things, and enable his majesty, at his pleasure—for it only amounted to that, after all—to open the ranks of the army and navy to all subjects, without distinction, in great britain as well as ireland.

charing cross, london, in 1795.

[see larger version]

no sooner was this motion made than spencer perceval rose to oppose it. sidmouth worked upon the king's feelings by sending in his resignation, and the duke of portland had offered to form a ministry in accordance with the king's feelings. the bill was, notwithstanding, brought in, read a first time, and the second reading fixed for the 12th of march. but now it was found that the king, who had previously received the ministerial proposal without any comment, seeing his way clear with another ministry, refused even his qualified consent to the prosecution of the measure. the ministers postponed the second reading to the 18th, promising an after-statement of their reasons. but their reasons were already well known in both houses of parliament through the private communications of the embryo cabinet. on the 25th of march there were motions made in both houses for an adjournment: this was to allow the new ministry to be announced in the interval. in the lords, earl grenville seized the opportunity to make some observations in defence of the conduct of his cabinet during its possession[534] of office. he said they had entered it with the determination to carry these important measures, if possible: the sinking fund, the abolition of the slave trade, and the relief of the catholics. he was happy to say that they had carried two of them; and though they had found the resistance in a certain quarter too strong for them to carry the third, they conceived that never did the circumstances of the times point out more clearly the sound policy of granting it. france had wonderfully extended her power on the continent; peace between her and the nations she had subdued would probably lead buonaparte to concentrate his warlike efforts on this country. what so wise, then, as to have ireland attached to us by benefits? with these views, the king, he said, had been induced to allow ministers to make communications to the catholics of ireland through the lord-lieutenant, which he had seemed to approve; yet when these communications as to the intended concessions had been made, his majesty had been induced to retract his assent to them. ministers had then endeavoured to modify the bill so as to meet his majesty's views; but, not succeeding, they had dropped the bill altogether, reserving only, in self-justification, a right to make a minute on the private proceedings of the cabinet, expressing their liberty to bring this subject again to the royal notice, as circumstances might seem to require; but now his majesty had called upon them to enter into a written obligation never again to introduce the subject to his notice, or to bring forward a measure of that kind. this, he said, was more than could be expected of any ministers of any independence whatever. the point was, of course, of some constitutional importance, but there was much truth in sheridan's remark: "i have often heard of people knocking out their brains against a wall, but never before knew of anyone building a wall expressly for the purpose."

the king now announced to ministers his fixed resolve to call in another cabinet, though the whigs had endeavoured to keep office by dropping the bill, and on the 25th of march they delivered to the king their seals of office. erskine alone retained his for a week, that he might pronounce his decrees on the chancery suits which had been heard by him; and two days before he parted with the seal, he took the opportunity to make his son-in-law, edmund morris, a master in chancery. this was regarded as a most singular act, erskine being no longer bona fide chancellor, but only holding the seal for a few days after the resignation of his colleagues, to complete necessary business. the house adjourned to the 8th of april, and before this day arrived the new appointments were announced. they were—the duke of portland, first lord of the treasury; lord hawkesbury, secretary of the home department; canning, secretary for foreign affairs; lord castlereagh, secretary for war and the colonies; the earl of chatham, master of the ordnance; spencer perceval, chancellor and under-treasurer of the exchequer; lord camden, lord president of the council; lord bathurst, president of the board of trade, with george rose as vice-president; the earl of westmoreland, keeper of the privy seal; lord eldon, lord chancellor; and the duke of richmond, lord-lieutenant of ireland. as the duke of portland's health was bad, the real prime minister was mr. perceval.

before the re-assembling of parliament the new ministers had done all in their power to arouse a "no popery!" cry in the country, because they intended to advise a dissolution of parliament—although this had only sat four months—in order to bring in a more anti-catholic and anti-reform body. on the 9th of april, the day following the meeting of parliament, mr. brand moved a resolution, that it was contrary to the first duties of the confidential advisers of the crown to bind themselves by any pledge to refrain from offering the king such counsel as might seem necessary to the welfare of the kingdom. the new ministers, who had entered office without any such pledge being demanded, for their sentiments were too well known to the king, yet, seeing that this resolution was the first of a series intended to end in a vote of want of confidence in them, at once opposed it, and threw it out by two hundred and fifty-eight to two hundred and twenty-six. the marquis of stafford made a similar motion in the lords, and sidmouth now spoke and voted against his late colleagues, to whom he must have been throughout opposed on all points; but the strangest thing must have been to hear erskine, whilst supporting the motion, avowing his great repugnance to the catholics, as people holding a gross superstition, the result of the darkness of former ages, and declaring that he never thought of encouraging them, but rather that they might feel inconvenience, though suffering no injustice; as if this were possible; for if they suffer no injustice they could feel no inconvenience. and this, after assuring the king that he would never again enjoy peace if he dismissed his ministers for[535] desiring to encourage them! the marquis of stafford's motion was rejected by a hundred and seventy-one against ninety.

parliament was prorogued on the 27th of april, for the avowed purpose of a dissolution; and in the speech by commission, ministers stated that it was necessary the people should be appealed to as soon as possible, whilst the effect of "the late unfortunate and uncalled-for agitation was on their minds." immediate preparations were made for a most determined contest. money was spent on both sides most prodigally, but the new ministers had the greater command of it—their opponents said, out of the king's privy purse. but whether that were so or not, on the system then in vogue, of ministers in different departments drawing even millions from the treasury long before they were legitimately wanted, they could have no lack of means of corruption; and this corruption, in bribery and in purchasing of seats, never had been carried further than on this occasion. it was calculated that it would cost wilberforce eighteen thousand pounds to get in again, and this sum was at once subscribed by his friends. tierney offered ten thousand pounds for two seats, and could not get them. romilly, who was utterly averse from this corruption, was compelled to give two thousand pounds for a seat for the borough of horsham, and then only obtained it through favour of the duke of norfolk. seats, romilly says, might have been expected to be cheap after a parliament of only four months' duration, but quite the contrary; never had they reached such a price before. five and six thousand pounds was a common sum given, without any stipulation as to the chance of a short parliament. the animus which was excited in the public mind against the catholics by the incoming ministers, for party purposes, was terrible. the society for the promotion of christian knowledge and other religious associations took the lead in the outcry. the catholics of england, alarmed at the violence of the sensation stirred up against them, and fearing a repetition of the gordon riots, published an address to their fellow-countrymen, protesting their entire loyalty to the crown and constitution. henry erskine, lord erskine's brother, wittily said, that if lord george gordon were but alive, instead of being in newgate he would be in the cabinet. the ministers found that they had obtained a powerful majority by these means, and when parliament met, on the 22nd of june, they were enabled to reject an amendment to the address by a hundred and sixty against sixty-seven in the lords, and by three hundred and fifty against a hundred and fifty-five in the commons. one of the very first things which the ministers did was to reverse the mild system of the late cabinet in ireland, and to restore the old régime of coercion. a bill was brought into the commons by sir arthur wellesley, now again secretary to the lord-lieutenant, giving authority to the latter functionary to proclaim counties in a state of insurrection, and to prohibit any person from being out of his house between sunset and sunrise, under severe penalties. then followed another bill, compelling all persons to register what arms they had, and authorising, on the part of the magistracy, domiciliary visits in search of arms. education of the people, both there and in england, was discouraged. a bill for establishing a school in every parish in england, introduced by whitbread, was allowed to pass the commons, but was thrown out in the lords. parliament was then prorogued on the 14th of august.

the foreign expeditions planned by the grenville ministry were, this year, attended by disgraceful results, and the news of their failure arrived in time to enable the new ministry to throw additional odium upon their foes. the news of the seizure of buenos ayres by sir home popham and general beresford had induced the late cabinet to overlook the irregular manner in which their enterprise had been undertaken. they sent out admiral sir c. stirling to supersede sir home popham, who was to be brought before a court-martial, but he took out with him a fresh body of troops, under general auchmuty. these troops landed at monte video on the 18th of january, and, after a sharp contest against six thousand spaniards, and the loss of five hundred and sixty british killed and wounded, the place was taken on the 2nd of february. soon afterwards general whitelocke arrived with orders to assume supreme command and to recapture buenos ayres, which the inhabitants had succeeded in recovering. whitelocke reached monte video towards the end of may, and found the british army, with what he brought, amounting to nearly twelve thousand men, in fine condition. with such a force buenos ayres would have soon been reduced by a man of tolerable military ability. but whitelocke seems to have taken no measures to enable his troops to carry the place by a sudden and brilliant assault. it was not till the 3rd of july that he managed to join major-general gore, who had taken possession of a commanding elevation[536] overlooking the city. the hope of success lay in the rapidity with which the assault was made: all this was now lost. the rain poured in torrents, and the men had no shelter, and were half starved. all this time the spaniards had been putting the city into a state of defence. still, on the morning of the 5th of july the order was issued to storm. the troops advanced in three columns from different sides of the town, headed severally by generals auchmuty, lumley, and craufurd. whitelocke said that it could be of no use to delay the advance towards the centre of the town by attacking the enemy under cover of their houses; it could only occasion the greater slaughter. the command, therefore, was to dash forward with unloaded muskets, trusting alone to the bayonet. much blame was cast on whitelocke for this order, but there seems strong reason in it, considering the wholly uncovered condition of the troops against a covered enemy, and that the only chance was for each division to force its way as rapidly as possible to certain buildings where they could ensconce themselves, and from whence they could direct an attack of shot and shells on the spaniards. general auchmuty, accordingly, rushed on against every obstacle to the great square—plaza de toros, or square of bulls—took thirty-two cannon, a large quantity of ammunition, and six hundred prisoners. other regiments of his division succeeded in getting possession of the church and convent of santa catalina, and of the residencia, a commanding post; lumley and craufurd were not so fortunate. the 88th was compelled to yield; and the 36th, greatly reduced, and joined by the 5th—which had taken the convent of santa catalina—made their way to sir samuel auchmuty's position in the plaza de toros, dispersing a body of eight hundred spaniards on their way and taking two guns. craufurd's division capitulated at four o'clock in the afternoon. in the evening whitelocke resolved to come to terms. the conditions of the treaty were—that general whitelocke's army, with its arms, equipage, and stores, was to be conveyed across the la plata to monte video; his troops were to be supplied with food; and that at the end of two months the british were to surrender monte video, and retire from the country. such was the humiliating result of the attempt on buenos ayres. nothing could exceed the fury of all classes at home against whitelocke on the arrival of the news of this disgraceful defeat. it was reported that he had made the men take their flints out of their guns before sending them into the murderous streets of buenos ayres; and had he arrived with his despatches, his life would not have been safe for an hour. there was a general belief that the court was protecting him from punishment; and, in truth, the delays interposed between him and a court-martial appeared to warrant this. it was not till the 28th of january, 1808, that he was brought before such a court at chelsea hospital, when he was condemned to be cashiered, as wholly unfit and unworthy to serve his majesty in any military capacity whatever.

the british fleet passing through the dardanelles. (see p. 538.)

[see larger version]

another expedition, planned by the grenville ministry, produced no favourable result. this was to constantinople. buonaparte had sent thither the artful sebastiani, and general andreossi, to destroy british influence, and to engage the sultan in war with russia, so as to act as a most effectual diversion of the russian forces, whilst he himself was occupied with the czar in the north. the french agents had completely succeeded in their plans against russia. the sultan assumed an attitude which compelled alexander to keep a strong army on the lower danube, thus weakening his force against napoleon, and distracting his attention. there appeared every probability that british influence would be equally swamped in turkey by the french, and it was determined to send a naval squadron to constantinople to overawe the sultan selim, and to compel the removal of the french intriguants. had this expedition been committed to such a man as sir sidney smith, there is little doubt but that it would have been entirely successful; but it was altogether most miserably mismanaged, and therefore failed. to have been effectual it should have been sudden. there should have been no previous negotiation about it; the ships should have appeared off constantinople, and then and there the ambassador should have stated his terms and have insisted on them. instead of this, our ambassador, mr. arbuthnot, commenced his negotiations for the strengthening of the british alliance in conjunction with russia, and for the restriction of the french influence. but, excepting britain, russia had no advocates with the porte, which had already declared war. the victories of buonaparte now in austria and prussia gave the french great éclat with the turks, and sebastiani made the utmost of this advantage. he was zealously supported by spain and holland. in the midst of these negotiations, admiral louis appeared off constantinople with one ship of the line and one frigate. had it[537] been a whole fleet, the effect would have been decisive. as it was, there was immediately a rumour that a great british fleet was on the way, and accordingly the turks were in a hurry to strengthen their fortifications, and make every arrangement for defence. they were ably assisted in these measures by sebastiani, andreossi, and a number of french engineer officers. on the 10th of february sir john duckworth appeared off the dardanelles, and, joining his squadron with that of admiral louis, the british fleet now consisted of eight line-of-battle ships, two frigates, and two bombs. but on the 14th the ajax, one of the men-of-war, took fire, and blew up, killing two hundred and fifty of the people on board. they had then to wait till the 19th for a breeze that would carry them through the strait. the british ships passed the batteries under a brisk fire, without replying, and on the 20th of february sir john duckworth came to anchor off prince's islands, opposite to constantinople, and at about ten miles' distance. now was the time to have struck an effectual terror by demanding the immediate dismissal of the french, and to have begun storming the town unless the demand was at once complied with. the whole population was in an astounding panic, expecting every moment the commencement of the bombardment; and the sultan sent ismail bey to request sebastiani and his suite to quit constantinople without delay. but sebastiani replied that there was no cause of alarm from the british, he was perfectly indifferent to their presence, and that, as he was under the protection of the porte, he should not quit constantinople without an express order from the sultan. had sir sidney smith been in command, sebastiani would soon have received this order, for he would have quickened the sultan's movements by some shot and shells sent into the seraglio; but duckworth was made of much more phlegmatic stuff. the wind on the 21st was fair, and the whole fleet expected the order to put across and commence bombarding the city. instead of that, however, sir john sent a fresh message and menace. as this received no answer, and yet was followed by no prompt action, the[538] turks at once took heart, went on fortifying and planting batteries, and continued to amuse sir john from day to day with hopes of treating, employing the time only to make their defences, under the supervision of sebastiani and the french engineers, the more perfect. it is almost impossible to imagine a british admiral so besotted as to continue this course for ten days; yet this was precisely what sir john duckworth did, and that in spite of the orders of admiral collingwood. by this time every possible point of defence had its batteries, soldiers had poured into constantinople, and every male inhabitant was armed, and foaming with fury at the british. on the morning of the 1st of march sir john weighed anchor to return from his ignominious, abortive mission. the wind was fair for him, but his return was now not so easy a matter. whilst he had been wasting his time before constantinople, turkish engineers, who had studied under the french, had been sent down to the dardanelles with two hundred well-trained cannoneers. numbers of troops had been collected on each side of the strait, and the batteries were supplied with enormous cannons, capable of carrying granite balls of seven or eight hundred pounds' weight. towards nightfall he dropped down towards the strait, and the next day cast anchor before passing the castles and batteries, that he might sail through by daylight, when the enemy could best see him. on the morning of the 3rd he accordingly sailed through the strait, and was sharply assailed by the cannon of the forts and batteries, the stone shot doing some of his ships damage, and the loss of men being twenty-nine killed and a hundred and forty wounded. the object of the expedition failed, and the only resource was to keep the turkish fleet blockaded.

but sir john duckworth was to play a leading part in a still more abortive enterprise. there was a rumour that buonaparte had promised the grand turk to aid him in recovering the provinces which russia had reft from turkey on the danube, in the crimea, and around the black sea, on condition that egypt was given up to him. to prevent this, an expedition was fitted out to seize on this country. between four and five thousand men were sent from our army in sicily, under major-general mackenzie frazer. they embarked on the 5th of may, and anchored off alexandria on the 16th. the following morning general frazer summoned the town to surrender, but the governor of the viceroy mehemet ali replied that he would defend the place to the last man. on that day and the following a thousand soldiers and about sixty sailors were landed, and, moving forward, carried the advanced works with trifling loss. some of the transports which had parted company on the voyage now arrived, the rest of the troops were landed; and, having secured the castle of aboukir, frazer marched on alexandria, taking the forts of caffarelli and cretin on the way. on the 22nd sir john duckworth arrived with his squadron; the british army expected to hear that he had taken constantinople, and his ill news created a just gloom amongst both officers and men. the people of alexandria appeared friendly; but the place was, or seemed to be, destitute of provisions; and the transports had been so badly supplied that the men were nearly starved before they got there. the alexandrians assured general frazer that, in order to obtain provisions, he must take possession of rosetta and rahmanieh. frazer, therefore, with the concurrence of sir john duckworth, dispatched major-general wauchope and brigadier-general mead to rosetta, with one thousand two hundred men. the troops were entangled in the streets and shot down. a subsequent effort was made to besiege rosetta in form. the troops reached rosetta on the 9th of april, and posted themselves on the heights above it. they summoned the town formally to surrender, and received an answer of defiance. instead of proceeding to bombard the town at once, major-general stewart waited for the arrival of a body of mamelukes. the mamelukes had been in deadly civil strife with mehemet ali, and had promised to co-operate with the british; and this was one of the causes which led the british government to imagine that they could make themselves masters of egypt with so minute a force. but the mamelukes did not appear. whilst waiting for them, colonel macleod was sent to occupy the village of el hammed, to keep open the way for the expected succour; but mehemet ali had mustered a great force at cairo, which kept back the mamelukes; and, at the same time, he was reinforcing both rosetta, and rahmanieh. instead of the mamelukes, therefore, on the morning of the 22nd of april a fleet of vessels was seen descending the nile, carrying a strong egyptian force. orders were sent to recall colonel macleod from el hammed; but too late; his detachment was surrounded and completely cut off. the besieging force—scattered over a wide area, instead of being in a compact body—were attacked by overwhelming[539] numbers; and, having no entrenched camp, were compelled to fight their way back to alexandria as well as they could. when stewart arrived there he had lost one half of his men. mehemet ali, in proportion as he saw the british force diminished, augmented his own. he collected and posted a vast army between cairo and alexandria, and then the alexandrians threw off the mask and joined their countrymen in cutting off the supplies of the british, and murdering them on every possible occasion at their outposts. frazer held out, in the vain hope of aid from the mamelukes or from home, till the 22nd of august, when, surrounded by the swarming hosts of mehemet ali, and his supplies all exhausted, he sent out a flag of truce, offering to retire on condition that all the british prisoners taken at rosetta, at el hammed, and elsewhere, should be delivered up to him. this was accepted, and on the 23rd of september the ill-fated remains of this army were re-embarked and returned to sicily.

thus was destroyed in egypt all the prestige of the battles of alexandria and aboukir bay. the consequence of these two badly-planned and worse-executed expeditions was the declaration of war against britain by the porte, the seizure of all british property in the turkish dominions, and the formation of a close alliance between turkey and france. but the triumph over the british had not relieved the turks of the russians. admiral siniavin still blockaded the dardanelles, and another russian squadron, issuing from the black sea, blockaded the mouth of the bosphorus. the turks came boldly out of the dardanelles and attacked siniavin on the 22nd of may and on the 22nd of june; but on both occasions they lost several ships, and were expecting heavier inflictions from the russians, when they were suddenly relieved of their presence by the news of the treaty of tilsit, which had been contracted between alexander of russia and buonaparte. alexander, by this, ceased to be the ally, and became the enemy of britain. it was necessary, therefore, for siniavin to make all speed for the baltic before war could be declared between the two nations, after which his return would be hopeless. the russian admiral, however, before quitting the mediterranean, had the pleasure of taking possession of corfu, which buonaparte had made over to alexander.

one of the events of the early part of this year was the capture of the dutch island of cura?oa, by a squadron under captain brisbane; but by far the most prominent naval transaction of the year was the seizure of the danish fleet off copenhagen—a proceeding which occasioned severe censures on britain by buonaparte and the continental nations under his domination. the opposition at home were equally violent in the outcry against this act, as in open violation of the laws of nations, denmark then being nominally at peace with us. but, though nominally at peace, denmark was at heart greatly embittered against us by our bombardment of its capital in 1801, and it was quite disposed to fall in with and obey the views of napoleon, who was now master of all germany, at peace with russia through the treaty of tilsit, and, therefore, able any day to overrun denmark. buonaparte was enforcing his system of the exclusion of britain from all the ports of the continent, and it was inevitable that he would compel denmark to comply with this system. but there was another matter. denmark had a considerable fleet and admirable seamen, and he might employ the fleet greatly to our damage, probably in endeavouring to realise his long-cherished scheme of the invasion of england; at the least, in interrupting her commerce and capturing her merchantmen. the british ministers were privately informed that buonaparte intended to make himself master of this fleet, and they knew that there were private articles in the treaty of tilsit between russia and france, by which he contemplated great changes in the north, in which denmark was believed to be involved. upon these grounds alone the british government was justified, by the clearest expressions of international law, in taking time by the forelock, and possessing themselves of the fleet to be turned against them; not to appropriate it, but to hold it in pledge till peace. grotius is decisive on this point:—"i may, without considering whether it is manifest or not, take possession of that which belongs to another man, if i have reason to apprehend any evil to myself from his holding it. i cannot make myself master or proprietor of it, the property having nothing to do with the end which i propose; but i can keep possession of the thing seized till my safety be sufficiently provided for." this view would fully have justified the british government, had nothing further ever become known. but subsequent research in the foreign office of france has placed these matters in their true light. the treaty of tilsit contains secret articles by which alexander was permitted by napoleon to appropriate finland, and napoleon was authorised by alexander[540] to enter denmark, and take possession of the danish fleet, to employ against us at sea. these secret articles were revealed to the british government. no man at this time was so indignant as alexander of russia at our thus assailing a power not actually at war. he issued a manifesto against britain, denouncing the transaction as one which, for infamy, had no parallel in history, he himself being in the act of doing the same thing on a far larger scale, and without that sufficient cause which britain could show, and without any intention of making restitution. we only seized a fleet that was on the point of being used against us, and which was to be returned at the end of the war; the horrified czar invaded sweden, while at peace, and, without any declaration of war, usurped a whole country—finland, larger than great britain. russia, in fact, had brought denmark into this destructive dilemma by its insidious policy; but, having seized finland, in five years more it committed a still greater robbery on denmark than it had done on sweden, by contracting with bernadotte to wrest norway from denmark, and give it to sweden.

departure of the british troops from alexandria. (see p. 539.)

[see larger version]

for the reasons here stated, early in the summer a powerful fleet was fitted out with the utmost dispatch and secrecy by the new ministry, and sent to the baltic. the fleet consisted of twenty-five sail of the line, more than forty frigates, sloops, bomb-vessels, and gun-brigs, with three hundred and seventy-seven transports to convey over twenty-seven thousand troops from stralsund, a great part of which were germans in british pay. admiral gambier commanded the fleet, and lord cathcart the army, having second in command sir arthur wellesley. on the 1st of august the british fleet was off the entrance of gothenburg, and admiral gambier sent commodore keats into the great belt to cut off any passage from holstein for the defence of copenhagen. admiral gambier himself entered the sound, passed the castles without any attack from them, and anchored in elsinore roads. by the 9th of august the whole fleet and the transports were collected there, and mr. jackson, who had been many years british envoy in the north of germany, and knew most of the danish ministers, was dispatched to kiel, in holstein, where the crown prince lay with an army of from twenty[541] thousand to thirty thousand men, to endeavour to induce him to enter into an alliance with great britain, and to deliver the fleet to its keeping till the peace, stating the necessity that the british commanders would otherwise be under of taking possession of it by force. the crown prince, though the british had made it impossible to cross over and defend the fleet, received the overture with the utmost indignation. mr. jackson returned to admiral gambier, and the crown prince sent a messenger to order copenhagen to be put into a state of defence. but there was scarcely a gun upon the walls, and the population only numbered, excluding the sailors, some thirteen thousand men, inclusive of five thousand five hundred volunteers and militia. on the 17th several danish gunboats came out of the harbour, fired at some of our transports coming from stralsund, burnt an english vessel, and attacked the pickets of lord cathcart's army. these vessels were driven back again by bombshells, and that evening admiral gambier took up a nearer station north-east of the crown battery, the trekroner. he then proceeded to surround the whole of the island of zealand, on which copenhagen stands, with our vessels. the division of the army landed at wedbeck having now marched up, was joined by other divisions, and proceeded to entrench themselves in the suburbs of copenhagen. they were attacked by the gunboats, but, on the 27th, they had covered themselves by a good battery, and they then turned their cannon on the gunboats, and soon compelled them to draw off. on the 29th sir arthur wellesley marched to ki?ge, against a body of danish troops that had strongly fortified themselves there in order to assail the besiegers, and he quickly routed them. the danish troops then made several dashing sorties from copenhagen, while their gunboats and floating batteries attacked our advanced vessels, and managed, by a ball from the trekroner, to blow up one of our transports. the french had now arrived at stralsund, and keats was sent to blockade that port, to hinder them from crossing over into zealand; nothing but the extreme rapidity of the movements of the british prevented a powerful army of french from being already in copenhagen for its defence.

heligoland.

[see larger version]

[542]

on the 1st of september the british commander made a formal demand for the surrender of the fleet. the danish general requested time to communicate this demand to the crown prince, but the vicinity of the french would not permit this, and the next day, the land batteries on one side, and our bomb-vessels on the other, began to fling shells into the town. the wooden buildings were soon in flames, but the danes replied with their accustomed bravery to our fire, and the conflict became terrible. the bombardment of the british continued without cessation all day and all night till the morning of the 3rd. it was then stopped for an interval, to give an opportunity for a proposal of surrender; but, none coming, the bombardment was renewed with terrible fury. in all directions the city was in a blaze; the steeple of the chief church, which was of wood, was a column of fire, and in this condition was knocked to pieces by the tempest of shot and shells, its fragments being scattered, as the means of fresh ignition, far around. a huge timber-yard taking fire added greatly to the conflagration. the fire-engines, which the danes had plied bravely, were all knocked to pieces, and, to prevent the utter destruction of the city, on the evening of the 5th the danish governor issued a flag of truce, and requested an armistice of twenty-four hours. lord cathcart replied that, in the circumstances, no delay could be permitted, and that therefore no armistice could take place, except accompanied by the surrender of the fleet. this was then complied with, and sir arthur wellesley, sir home popham, and lieutenant-colonel george murray went on shore to settle the terms of the capitulation. this was completed by the morning of the 7th, signed, and ratified. the british were to be put at once in possession of the citadel and all the ships and maritime stores, and, within six weeks, or as much earlier as possible, they were to remove these and evacuate the citadel and the isle of zealand. all other property was to be respected, and everything done in order and harmony; prisoners were to be mutually exchanged, and britons seized in consequence of the proclamation to be restored. the whole of these measures were completed within the time specified, and seventeen ships of the line, eleven frigates, and twenty-five gunboats became the prize of the british.

on the 21st of october the british fleet sailed from copenhagen roads; at helsingfors the fleet was saluted by the king of sweden, who invited the admirals to breakfast; and, by the end of the month, was anchored in yarmouth roads safely, with all its captives. fresh offers of alliance with denmark were made before leaving, accompanied with promises of restoration, but were indignantly refused by the crown prince; and no sooner were the british gone, than the danes converted their trading-vessels into armed ones, and commenced a raid amongst the british merchants, now in the baltic, for the protection of which some men-of-war ought to have been left. the crown prince, now thrown completely into the arms of the french, made a declaration of war against britain, and the british government issued an order for reprisals on the ships, colonies, and property of the danes. they also seized on the island of heligoland, a mere desolate rock, but, lying at the mouth of the elbe, and only twenty-five miles from the mouths of the weser and the eider, it was of the greatest importance, during the war, as a safe rendezvous for our men-of-war, and as a dep?t for our merchandise, ready to slip into any of the neighbouring rivers, and thus, by smugglers, to be circulated all over the continent, in spite of buonaparte's embargo. it served also to remind the people of those regions, that, though buonaparte ruled paramount on land, there was a power on the sea that yet set him and all his endeavours at defiance.

the military transactions of the continent this year had been of the most remarkable kind. buonaparte, after his repulse at pultusk, had retired to warsaw, which he entered on the first day of the year 1807. he calculated on remaining there till the return of spring. but benningsen, the russian general, was determined to interrupt this pleasant sojourn. he had an army of eighty thousand or ninety thousand men, with a very bad commissariat, and equally badly defended from the severity of the winter. the king of prussia was cooped up in k?nigsberg, with an army of a very few thousand men, and his situation was every day rendered more critical by the approach of the divisions of ney and bernadotte, whom the treacherous surrender of the prussian fortresses by their commanders had set at liberty. but benningsen hastened to relieve the king of prussia at k?nigsberg; his cossacks spread themselves over the country with great adroitness, surprising the french convoys of provisions. more cossacks were streaming down to their support out of the wintry wilds of russia, and the french were forced from their pleasant quarters[543] in warsaw, to preserve the means of their existence. buonaparte, alarmed at these advances, determined to turn out and force the russians eastward, towards the vistula, as he had forced the prussians at jena with their rear turned to the rhine. to take the russians thus in the rear, he ordered bernadotte to engage the attention of benningsen on the right whilst he made this man?uvre on the left. but benningsen, fortunately, learned their stratagem, by the seizure of the young french officer who was carrying buonaparte's dispatches to bernadotte. benningsen was therefore enabled to defeat buonaparte's object. he concentrated his troops on preuss-eylau, where he determined to risk a battle. but he was not allowed to occupy this position without several brisk encounters, in which the russians lost upwards of three thousand men. the battle of eylau took place on the 7th of february. it was such a check as buonaparte had never yet experienced. he had been beaten at every point; augereau's division was nearly destroyed; that of davoust, nearly twenty thousand in number, had been repulsed by a much inferior body of prussians. fifty thousand men are said to have been killed and wounded, of whom thirty thousand were french. twelve eagles had been captured, and remained trophies in the hands of the russians.

had benningsen had a good commissariat, the doom of the french was certain. the army, famishing and in rags, was still eager to push their advantage the next day, and the french, if compelled to retreat, as there was every prospect, must have fallen into utter demoralisation, and the war would have been soon at an end. but benningsen, sensible that there was an utter lack of provision for his army, and that his ammunition was nearly exhausted, hesitated to proceed to a second action with an army reduced twenty thousand in number, and thus to risk being cut off from k?nigsberg, endangering the person of the king of prussia; and so the extreme caution, or rather, perhaps, the necessities of the russian general, were the rescue of buonaparte. benningsen resolved to retreat upon k?nigsberg.

the russians began their retreat, but some of them not till daylight, and then marched close past eylau, in the very face of the french, who were, probably, as much astonished as pleased at the spectacle. benningsen could scarcely have known the extent of the french losses, when he decided to retire. but buonaparte, notwithstanding that he claimed the victory, was glad now to offer a suspension of hostilities to the king of prussia, with a view to a separate peace, hinting that he might be induced to waive most of the advantages derived from the fields of jena and auerst?dt, and restore the bulk of his dominions. frederick william, however great the temptation, refused to treat independently of his ally, the czar. on this, buonaparte, so far from pursuing the russians, as he would have done had he been in a capacity for it, remained eight days inactive at eylau, and then retreated on the vistula, followed and harassed all the way by swarms of cossacks. on this benningsen advanced, and occupied the country as fast as the french evacuated it. the emperor alexander could soon have raised another host of men, but he was destitute of money and arms. he therefore applied to britain for a loan, which the talents thought fit to decline. this, at such a crisis, was unwise. it is certain that it filled alexander with disgust and resentment, and led to his negotiations with buonaparte at tilsit. soon after this the conservative or portland ministry came in, and supplies of muskets and five hundred thousand pounds were sent, but these were, in fact, thrown away, for they did not arrive till the czar had made up his mind to treat with napoleon.

on his return to the vistula, buonaparte displayed an unusual caution. he seemed to feel that his advance into poland had been premature, whilst prussia was in possession of dantzic, whence, as soon as the thaw set in, he was open to dangerous operations in his rear, from the arrival of a british army. he therefore determined to have possession of that post before undertaking further designs. the place was invested by general lefebvre, and capitulated at the end of may. buonaparte all this time was marching up fresh troops to fill up the ravages made in his army. the russians, after a drawn battle near heilsberg on the 10th of june, then crossed the aller, and placed that as a barrier between them and the french, in order that they might avoid the arrival of a reinforcement of thirty thousand men who were on the march.

thus occupying the right bank of the aller, and the french the left, or western side, the russians advanced to friedland, not many miles from eylau. at friedland was a long wooden bridge crossing the aller, and there, on the 13th of june, buonaparte, by a stratagem, succeeded in drawing part of the russians over the bridge by showing only oudinot's division, which had been severely handled at the battle of heilsberg. the[544] temptation was too great. benningsen forgot his usual caution, and allowed a division of his army to cross and attack oudinot. oudinot retired fighting, and thus induced more of the russians to follow, till, finding his troops hotly pressed, benningsen marched his whole force over, and then napoleon showed his entire army. benningsen saw that he was entrapped, and must fight, under great disadvantages, with an enfeebled army, and in an open space, where they were surrounded by a dense host of french, who could cover themselves amid woods and hills, and pour in a tempest of cannon-balls on the exposed russians. it was the anniversary of the battle of marengo, and buonaparte believed the day one of his fortunate ones. benningsen was obliged to reduce his number by sending six thousand men to defend and keep open the bridge of allerburg, some miles lower down the aller, and which kept open his chance of union with l'estocq and his prussians. notwithstanding all these disadvantages, benningsen fought desperately. the battle continued from ten o'clock in the morning till four o'clock in the afternoon, when buonaparte brought up his full force in person for one of those terrible and overwhelming shocks by which he generally terminated a doubtful contest. there was such a simultaneous roar of musketry and cavalry as seemed enough to sweep away the russians like chaff. the batteries poured down upon them a rain of no less than three thousand ball and five hundred grape-shot charges; yet the russians did not flinch till they had at least twelve thousand killed and wounded. it was then determined to retreat across the river, and, two fords having been found, the czar's imperial guard charged the troops of ney with the bayonet, and kept them at bay till the army was over. the transit was marvellous in its success. all their cannon, except seventeen, were saved, and all their baggage.

as at eylau, so at friedland, napoleon made no attempt to follow the russians. but the battle, nevertheless, produced important consequences. the king of prussia did not think himself safe at k?nigsberg, and he evacuated it; and the unhappy queen prepared, with her children, to fly to riga. the russians retreated to tilsit, and there alexander made up his mind to negotiate with napoleon. he was far from being in a condition to despair; gustavus, the king of sweden, was at the head of a considerable army at stralsund; a british expedition was daily expected in the baltic; the spirit of resistance was reawakening in prussia; schill, the gallant partisan leader, was again on horseback, with a numerous body of men, gathered in various quarters; and hesse, hanover, brunswick, and other german provinces were prompt for revolt on the least occasion of encouragement. buonaparte felt the peril of crossing the niemen, and advancing into the vast deserts of russia, with these dangerous elements in his rear. besides, his presence was necessary in france. he had been absent from it nearly a year; he had drawn heavily on its resources, and a too long-continued strain without his personal influence might produce fatal consequences. to leave his army in the north was to leave it to certain defeat, and with the danger of having all germany again in arms. these circumstances, well weighed by a man of genius and determination, would have induced him to make a resolute stand, and to draw his enemy into those wilds where he afterwards ruined himself, or to wear him out by delay. alexander, however, had not the necessary qualities for such a policy of procrastination. he was now depressed by the sufferings of his army, and indignant against britain.

accordingly, benningsen communicated alexander's willingness for peace, on the 21st of june, and the armistice was ratified on the 23rd. buonaparte determined then, as on most occasions, to settle the treaty, not by diplomatists, but personally, with the czar. a raft was prepared and anchored in the middle of the niemen, and on the morning of the 25th of june, 1807, the two emperors met on that raft, and embraced, amid the shouts of the two armies arranged on each bank. the two emperors retired to a seat placed for them on the raft, and remained in conversation two hours, during which time their attendants remained at a distance. the town of tilsit was declared neutral ground, and became a scene of festivities, in which the russian, french, and even prussian officers, who had been so long drenching the northern snows with each other's blood, vied in courtesies towards each other. amongst them the two emperors appeared as sworn brothers, relaxing into gaiety and airs of gallantry, like two young fashionables. on the 28th the king of prussia arrived, and was treated with a marked difference. he was bluntly informed, that whatever part of his territories were restored would be solely at the solicitation of the emperor of russia.

[545]

the treaty of tilsit. (see p. 544.)

[see larger version]

by the terms of the treaty of tilsit, prussian poland was taken away, but not to be incorporated with a restored poland, as buonaparte had delusively allowed the poles to hope. no; a restored poland was incompatible with a treaty of peace with russia, or the continuance of it with austria. it was handed over to the duke of saxony, now elevated to the title of the king of saxony and duke of the grand duchy of warsaw—the name which prussian poland assumed. the duped polish patriots cursed buonaparte bitterly in secret. alexander, with all his assumed sympathy for his fallen cousins of prussia, came in for a slice of the spoil, nominally to cover the expenses of the war. dantzic, with a certain surrounding district, was recognised as a free city, under the protection of prussia and saxony; but buonaparte took care to stipulate for the retention of a garrison there till the conclusion of a general peace, so as to stop out any british armament or influence. to oblige the emperor of russia, he allowed the dukes of saxe-coburg, oldenburg, mecklenburg-schwerin, who were the czar's relations, to retain possession of their territories; but he returned to prussia only about one-half of the provinces which he had seized, reducing her very much to the limits in which frederick the great had found her before his usurpations. she surrendered her provinces between the rhine and the elbe, which, together with hesse, brunswick, and part of hanover, were formed into the kingdom of westphalia and given to jerome buonaparte. she was saddled by a crushing war indemnity, and had to leave berlin and the chief fortresses in the hands of the french until the debt was paid. in the articles of the treaty which were made public, alexander paid a nominal courtesy to his ally, great britain, by offering to mediate between her and france, if the offer were accepted within a month; but amongst the secret articles of the treaty was one binding the czar to shut his ports against all british vessels, if this offer were rejected. this was a sacrifice demanded of alexander, as great britain was russia's best customer, taking nearly all her raw or exported produce. in return for this, and for alexander's connivance at, or assistance in, buonaparte's intention of seizing on spain and portugal, for the taking of malta and gibraltar, and the expulsion of the british from the mediterranean, alexander was to invade and[546] annex finland, the territory of sweden, and, giving up his designs on moldavia and wallachia, for which he was now waging an unprovoked war, he was to be allowed to conquer the rest of turkey, the ally of napoleon, and establish himself in the long-coveted constantinople. thus these two august robbers shared kingdoms at their own sweet will and pleasure. turkey and finland they regarded as properly russian provinces, and spain, portugal, malta, gibraltar, and, eventually, britain, as provinces of france.