CHAP. II. your not making this signal a refusal, and shall renew my operations at my own convenience.' The fleet awaited the issue of this message in anxious expectation. Three hours elapsed before the three shots, fired in succession, announced the Dey's unconditional assent to the British ultimatum. On the first day of September Exmouth had the satisfaction of acquainting his Government with the liberation of all the slaves in the city of Algiers, and the restitution of the money paid since the commencement of the year by the Neapolitan and Sardinian Governments for the redemption of slaves. Chronologically the expedition to Algiers took place within the period with which this history is concerned. But the bombardment of Algiers forms rather the sequel of the period of war which desolated Europe from 1792 to 1815 than the prelude to the period of peace which was won by the crowning victory of Waterloo. Algiers would never have been permitted to exist as the pest and scourge of the civilised world, if the great nations of Europe had not been more intent on their own quarrels than on preserving the seas from the rapacity of piratical marauders. When peace was signed it was no longer possible to allow the states of Barbary to continue their lawless depredations; and the nation which was virtually mistress of the seas was compelled for its own credit to put down the robbers by which the ocean highways were infested. Exmouth's expedition was then unavoidable; but the manner in which it was undertaken, and the courage and promptitude with which it was carried out, afford remarkable proofs of the strength of the British navy and of the hardihood of British sailors. Algiers had the reputation of extraordinary strength, yet Exmouth had had the courage to attack it with a force which even men accustomed to the deeds of the British navy conceived inadequate. His courage was justified by the result. It was on the 23rd of May that the outrage at Bona was committed: on the 27th of August it was signally avenged. In the ninety-five days, which intervened between these two dates, the news of the outrage had been brought to England; the expedition under Exmouth had been determined on; its organisation had been completed; it had sailed and accomplished its object. Rarely before had a signal insult been so swiftly avenged. The world understood from the blow that Britain could strike swiftly and strike hard. A new leaf was added to the wreath with which her arms were already crowned; a new chapter was added to the history of the British navy. In one other particular, moreover, the expedition to Algiers gained fresh honours for this country. Britain was, in one sense, the nation which had the least interest in terminating the lawless ravages of the states of Barbary. Her strength on the seas had won for her standard a respect which the Algerine corsairs paid to the flag of no other power. The pirates of Africa inflicted less injury on her commerce than on the trade of other nations. Yet Britain voluntarily undertook the work which other countries were still more interested in performing. She recognised that her position, as mistress of the seas, made it her duty to maintain the police of the ocean; and at her own charge, without solicitation, without recompense, she hurled her fleet against the strongest of Mussulman fortresses. The loss which she sustained was considerable; but it was trifling when it was weighed against the consequences of the achievement. 128 men were killed and 690 wounded on board the British fleet; the Dutch lost 13 killed and 52 wounded. Every death on the field of battle is a subject for regret. It is but poor comfort to those who mourn to assure them that their mourning is shared by only a few others. But it is impossible to deny that the sacrifice of 150 lives was only a light price to pay for the permanent delivery of CHAP. II. CHAP. II. the Mediterranean from the scourge of piracy. Every British life lost at Algiers won the immediate liberation of twenty Christian slaves, and spared in future years other Christians from the horrors of slavery. Nor, amidst the congratulations which followed the victory, was it possible to avoid satisfaction at the circumstances under which it had been achieved. The cause of Christianity had again united the British and the Dutch; and the flags of Britain and Holland had shared the dangers of the battle and the glories of the victory. Situation, religion, tradition, and taste pointed to a firm alliance between Holland and England. Both of them were placed on the north-western frontier of Europe. Both of them had accepted the tenets of the Reformed faith. Both of them had stood in arms to resist the ambition of Catholic Spain. England had on one memorable occasion obtained a king from Holland. The Dutch and English shared between them the carrying trade of Europe. Yet, though Holland and England had so many grounds for close alliance, England and Holland had too frequently been engaged in warfare with each other. The keen rivalry, which had animated the fleets of Blake and Van Tromp, was recollected by the sailors of the Batavian republic. Holland ranged herself on the side of France; and the Dutch and English again contended for the mastery of the seas. The expedition to Algiers had the merit of effacing the recollections of the long war. The glorious success, gained by the Dutch and English combined fleets, obliterated the traditions of Camperdown and Walcheren.1 There was one other point in which the expedition to Algiers was important. It was a new mark of the increasing prostration of the Mussulman power. The Mahometans had for centuries been expelled from Western 1 Ann. Reg. 1816; Hist. pp. 97-105; Chron. pp. 230-243. Alison's Hist. of Europe, vol. i. pp. 136-155. Osler's Life of Lord Exmouth, pp. 294–325. Europe; but they were still formidable in the Western CHAP. II. CHAP. Rise of England and Engduring the lishmen reign of George CHAPTER III. AN attempt has been made in the preceding chapters to trace the material and moral progress of the British people during the reign of George III.; and to describe the condition of society in England at the termination of the great war. In the course of this description the reader must have observed the influence which a few great men had exercised on the progress of the empire. Rodney, Howe, Duncan, and Nelson had made their country mistress of the seas. Wellington had won respect for her arms in every European nation. But the brilliant exploits of Britain's admirals, the ability of her great general, the capacity of her statesmen were attended with less momentous consequences than the discoveries of her inventors and the works of her engineers. The inventions of Hargreaves and Arkwright, of Crompton and Cartwright, of Watt and Davy made a more beneficial and a more enduring impression on the world than the triumphs of Nelson and Wellington or the policy of Pitt. The spinning jenny and the safety lamp have been used by millions who would have been unable to have fixed the date of Waterloo or Trafalgar. Thousands of persons are acquainted with the details of a steam-engine who would be puzzled to give an intelligible account of the career of Pitt. No previous period in British history had ever witnessed such varied scenes as the reign of George III. No previous period had ever produced so many great men in so many different callings. The lives of these men closely affected the future of their fellow-countrymen, and exerted |