feated the French under general Menou, the enemy losing nearly four thousand in killed and wounded, the British about half the number; but their able general received a wound in the thigh, of which he shortly after died. General Hutchinson, who succeeded to the command, instead of besieging Alexandria, advanced against Cairo, in concert with the Turkish forces under the grand vizir and the capitan-pasha. General Belliard, who commanded in that city, surrendered on honourable terms, and the combined army, now joined by an Anglo-Indian force of seven thousand five hundred men, advanced to lay siege to Alexandria. Menou, after making a defence for some days, accepted the terms granted to Belliard, and Egypt was thus cleared of the French and restored to the Porte.

Buonaparte, who had now routed the Austrians both in Italy and Germany, and compelled them to sue for peace, was making vast preparations for the invasion of England, who on her part adopted the most energetic measures for defence; and such was the military ardour shown by the people, that in addition to a force of from three to four hundred thousand men by sea and land paid by the nation, the whole kingdom was filled with corps of volunteers, ready to encounter the victors of Marengo and Hohenlinden in defence of their liberties and properties. But peace was necessary to the French ruler, and after much negotiation a treaty was signed at Amiens (Mar. 25, 1802), England agreeing to restore all her conquests except Trinidad and the Dutch settlements in Ceylon. The war had largely increased the national debt, and it had greatly deranged the internal relations of the country; every one therefore rejoiced at the prospect of tranquillity.

CHAPTER VI.

GEORGE III. (CONCLUDED).

1802-1837.

War renewed. Battle of Trafalgar.-Whig ministry.-Seizure of the Danish fleet.-Peninsular war.-Battle of Vimiero;-of Coruña ;-of Talavera.— Expedition to Walcheren.-Lines of Torres Vedras.-Battle of Albuera ;— of Salamanca;-of Vittoria, Orthes, and Toulouse.-War with the United States. Battle of Waterloo.-State of the country.-George IV. and Catholic Emancipation.-William IV.; the Reform Bill.-Victoria.-Concluding observations.

THE peace of Amiens, as might easily have been foreseen, and as Mr. Windham did foresee, proved to be nothing more than a truce. Buonaparte, who soon transferred the whole power of the state to himself, went on extending his influence over the continent, and preparing the way for the universal dominion at which he even then seems to have aimed. The English government, aware of his object, hesitated at restoring Malta to the Knights of St. John, in this offending against the letter of the treaty of Amiens; and discussion having proved useless, the minister of England left Paris (Mar. 12, 1803), and orders were issued for seizing the ships of France in the British ports. Buonaparte retaliated by detaining all the British subjects who were in France at the time. The war was now renewed; of the justice of it on the part of England few pretended to doubt, and all the national energies were put forth to sustain it.

The Addington administration was too feeble to direct the nation in this great crisis, and after holding the reins with an unsteady hand for a twelvemonth longer, they threw them up (May 12, 1804), and Mr. Pitt resumed his proper station. The duke of Portland, lords Eldon, Hawkesbury, and Castlereagh, and some other members of the for

mer cabinet remained in office; lords Melville, Harrowby, and Camden came in with Mr. Pitt; Messrs. Huskisson and Sturges Bourne became secretaries to the treasury, and Mr. Canning treasurer of the navy.

On the 18th of May Napoleon Buonaparte caused himself to be declared emperor of the French, and at his summons the pope came to Paris and crowned him in the cathedral of Nôtre Dame (Dec. 2).

The new emperor appears to have had serious intentions of invading England. His plan is said to have been to distract the attention of the British government by sending out his fleets in various directions, and while the British navy was scattered in pursuit of them, they were to re-assemble and aid the passage of the large army which he had collected on the coast.

Nelson, who was in the Mediterranean (1805), learning that the Toulon fleet under Villeneuve was at sea, went everywhere in search of it, but to no purpose. Villeneuve got into Cadiz, where he was joined by the Spanish admiral Gravina, and the united fleet of eighteen sail of the line with frigates put to sea; Nelson pursued them with ten sail of the line. Having searched for them without effect in the West Indies, he returned to Gibraltar; he then sought for them in the Bay of Biscay, and off the northwest coast of Ireland. On his return to Portsmouth, he at length received certain intelligence. Sir Robert Calder, who with fifteen sail of the line, was on the look-out for the combined fleet, fell in with it (July 22) sixty leagues west of Cape Finisterre. Though it consisted of twenty-seven sail of the line, he boldly attacked it and succeeded in capturing two ships. The hostile fleets then remained in sight for four days, after which Villeneuve retired to Ferrol. For this gallant action sir R. Calder was brought to a courtmartial, and severely reprimanded!

Villeneuve having taken out the squadron which was at Ferrol, proceeded to Cadiz; he was followed thither by a British fleet under Nelson, who took his station fifty miles

1806.]

DEATH OF PITT.

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to the west of that port, using every precaution to conceal his arrival and the number of his ships. The French admiral, who had received orders to put to sea immediately, came out of Cadiz (Sept. 19) with thirty-three sail of the line and five large frigates; Nelson, whose force was twenty-seven sail of the line and four frigates, kept out of view lest the enemy should put back. On the 21st Oct. the two fleets came to action off Cape Trafalgar. Villeneuve formed his line of battle in a double crescent; the British fleet bore down in two columns, one led by Nelson in the Victory, the other by admiral Collingwood in the Royal Sovereign. Nelson's last signal was 'England expects every man to do his duty.' He wore that day the stars of all the orders with which he had been invested, and he seems to have had a presentiment of his fate.

Our limits, if we were inclined to give them, would not admit of the details of this greatest of naval conflicts. Suffice it to say, that the victory of the English was glorious, nineteen sail of the line becoming their prizes, and one having blown up; but their joy was clouded by the death of their illustrious leader. He was shot in the shoulder by a ball from the mizen-top of the Redoubtable, and he breathed his last at the close of the action, saying, 'Thank God, I have done my duty.'

This was one of the most important victories for England that was ever achieved. It annihilated the French navy, and put an end to all Napoleon's projects of invasion. Nelson's brother was made an earl, with a pension of 6000l. a year, and 100,000l. for the purchase of an estate; Collingwood was raised to the peerage; gold medals, etc. were bestowed on the other officers.

Mr. Pitt did not long survive this great triumph of his administration. His health had long been declining, and he expired early in the following year (Jan. 23, 1806), in the forty-seventh year of his age. He was buried at the public expense in Westminster-abbey, and parliament

granted 40,000l. for the payment of his debts. His death dissolved the cabinet. The king, in spite of his antipathy to Mr. Fox, was obliged to apply to lord Grenville to form a ministry which he knew must include that statesman. Lord Grenville became first lord of the treasury, Addington (now lord Sidmouth) privy-seal, lord Erskine chancellor, Grey (now lord Howick) first lord of the admiralty, earl Spencer, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Windham the three secretaries, lord Henry Petty chancellor of the exchequer, etc. The change effected extended to the lowest officers, and the whigs now seemed to think themselves secure of a long lease of power.

Mr. Fox lost no time in endeavouring to negotiate a peace, but he soon found how much easier it is as a leader of opposition to declaim against war, than as a minister to effect a peace with an ambitious and encroaching enemy. In justice to Mr. Fox it must be stated, that he scorned to sacrifice a particle of the national honour even for that peace which he loved so much. He did not live to know the termination of his ineffectual negotiation. He died (Sept. 13), in his fifty-ninth year, worn out by the fury of the parliamentary warfare, and he reposes side by side with his great rival in the Abbey.

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The two great men now removed from the political arena where they so long had contended for superiority, were, as their fathers had been, younger sons. In private life the character of Pitt was the more pure, that of Fox the more amiable. "He is," said Burke after their quarrel, a man made to be loved." His manners were most simple, his heart most benevolent, his love of peace was no affectation, it was a genuine feeling. Pitt too loved peace, but war was forced on him; he too felt for the wrongs of the negro and the degradation of the catholic, though he would not hazard his power by making the redress of them cabinet-questions, and hence his sincerity has been doubted.

Pitt's private fortune was always most moderate, that of