THE AGE WE LIVE CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY, Peace of Luneville-League of Armed Neutrality-Battle of Copenhagen - Battle of Aboukir—Surrender of Alexandria — Peace of Amiens-Bonaparte Elected First Consul for Life-England's Ultimatum-War Proclaimed against France-Preparations for War-Trafalgar - Napoleon assumes the title of Emperor-Austerlitz-Peace of TilsitAttempt to ruin British Commerce-Boinbardment of Copenhagen-Surrender of Danish fleet-Blockade of European ports-Louis Bonaparte made King of Holland; Jerome, of Hanover, and Hesse Cassel-Abdication of Charles IV.-Joseph Bonaparte made King of Spain-Surrender of a French Army at Baylen-Defeat of Junot at Vimiera-Retreat of Sir John Moore-Corunna-Talavera-Wagram-Failure of Expedition against AntwerpBusaco-Fuentes d'Onore-Albuera-Capture of Ciudad Rodrigo — Badajoz― Salamanca-France declares War against Russia-Moscow-Napoleon's Disastrous Retreat-Vittoria-St. Sebastian-Bayonne-Toulouse-LeipsicCapitulation of Paris-Napoleon exiled to Elba-His Escape and Restoration-Quatre Bras-Waterloo--March of the Allied Armies into Paris-Ainerican War-Invasion of Canada-Peace Proclaimed. THE war which France, on the overthrow of | had now no foe to contend with on the her monarchical system, had waged for the purpose of 'liberating the peoples' of the Continent, and compelling them by force to adopt her republican institutions, came to a close at the end of the eighteenth century; and the Peace of Luneville left Bonaparte her real ruler, under the title of First Consul, and at liberty to devote his whole energies to a decisive struggle for supremacy with Great Britain, on which his mind had for some time been set. His first step was to enter into a league of 'Armed Neutrality,' as it was called, with the northern powers, Russia, Denmark, and Sweden, which would give him the command of their fleets to dispute Britain's naval supremacy. Deprived of the command of the seas, his hated rival would, he believed, be easily invaded and conquered by his veteran troops, who VOL. I. Continent. But the promptitude of the British ministry averted the impending danger. On the first of April, 1801, a fleet of eighteen men-of-war, commanded by Nelson, forced the passage of the Sound, appeared before Copenhagen, and at once attacked the city and the formidable fleet by which it was covered. After a desperate resistance on the part of the Danes six line-of-battle ships and eight praams were taken, and the Crown Prince was forced to conclude an armistice, engaging to suspend all proceedings under the Treaty of Armed Neutrality which Denmark had entered into with Sweden and Russia. The murder of the Russian emperor Paul, which took place nine days before the battle of Copenhagen, at once put an end to the Confederacy of the North. This triumph of 1 the British arms and policy was speedily came over in multitudes to England, and followed by the overthrow of Bonaparte's were cordially welcomed by all classes of scheme for an attack on India through the people. But it soon became evident Egypt. An army of 15,000 men, under Sir Ralph Abercrombie, was despatched to that country, which was still held by a powerful force under General Menou. A battle took place at Aboukir, on the 21st of March, and after a fierce and sanguinary contest victory declared in favour of the British, though saddened by the death of their gallant general. This conflict decided the fate of Egypt. Alexandria and Cairo, into which the French troops had withdrawn, were immediately invested. The latter surrendered about the end of June. Alexandria held out till the 2nd of September, and the French rule over Egypt was brought to a final close. Bonaparte was bitterly mortified at this failure of his long-cherished scheme; but he saw clearly that the continuance of the war in such circumstances would only serve to extend and strengthen the resources of his adversary, and at the close of 1801 he entered into negotiations for peace. His overtures were promptly accepted by the British Government, and in March, 1802, the Peace of Amiens, as it was called, was concluded between Great Britain and the three allied powers of France, Spain, and Holland. France agreed to withdraw its troops from the territories of Rome and Naples, and to leave to themselves the republics it had established in Holland, Switzerland, and Piedmont. Britain on her part consented to restore all her conquests, with the exception of Ceylon and Trinidad, to acknowledge the Ionian Islands as a free republic, and to make over Malta to its old masters the Knights of St. John. Portugal was to be maintained in its integrity, and the Ottoman Porte was to recover possession of Egypt. The close of the protracted struggle with France gave great satisfaction to the British nation, and large numbers hastened to visit a country from which they had been so long excluded. On the other hand, Frenchmen that the First Consul had agreed to the The Russian forces offered a stubborn resistance to the invader, especially at Eylau; but the decisive victory of the French at Friedland in the summer of 1807 brought the Czar to consent to the Peace of Tilsit. Their first step was to establish a close | stood his arms. blockade of the ports of France, so as to prevent the egress of any hostile armament, and the admission of foreign goods into that country. Bonaparte, on the other hand, seized and mercilessly plundered Hanover, and formed a camp of 100,000 men at Boulogne for the invasion of England. He collected a flotilla of flatbottomed boats for the conveyance of his troops across the Channel, and devised a scheme for dividing the British fleet and uniting his own ships with the Spanish navy in order to crush the squadron which blockaded the French ports, and thus to allow the armament that he had collected to cross unmolested to the English coast. Let us be masters of the Channel for six hours,' he said, 'and we are masters of the world.' But this could not be gained. The battle of Trafalgar (21st of October, 1805), in which the great English admiral, Nelson, was killed, annihilated the French and Spanish navies, vindicated the supremacy of Britain at sea, and secured her from all danger of a French invasion. Meanwhile, a new coalition had been formed between Russia, Austria, Naples, and Sweden, to wrest Italy and the Low Countries from Napoleon, who had now assumed the rank of Emperor of France; and Britain, as usual, had to furnish the sinews of war. But the incapacity of the Austrian general, Mack, and the promptitude and military skill of Napoleon, speedily brought the coalition to ruin: 30,000 men under Mack were compelled to surrender at Ulm three days before the battle of Trafalgar, and the road to Vienna was thus laid open to the enemy. On the 2nd of December the combined armies of Austria and Russia were defeated at Austerlitz, and Austria was obliged, in consequence, to sue for peace and abandon her allies. A few months later Napoleon fastened a quarrel on Prussia, and annihilated her army at Jena on the 14th of October, 1806. He then marched into Poland, to assail the last opponent on the Continent that still with Having now established an unquestioned. supremacy over the states of continental Europe, Napoleon resumed his struggle against Britain with increased hopes of success. His first step was to renew the Continental System,' which had broken down with the failure of the Northern League. On the 21st of November, 1806, he issued from Berlin a decree which placed the British Islands in a state of blockade, prohibited all commerce or communication with them, declared all English goods found in France, or in the territories of her allies, liable to confiscation, and closed their harbours not only against vessels coming from Great Britain, but against all that had touched at her ports. It was soon seen that Napoleon, with all the immense resources at his command, was utterly unable to enforce this decree. He had not a single ship to carry it out; and though he stationed an army of inspectors along the coast to guard against any attempt to introduce British manufactures, their vigilance was completely baffled by the daring and energetic efforts made by the smugglers to land their contraband goods in France itself. The Dutch were naturally unwilling to aid in enforcing measures which were ruining their own trade; while the Russian and Prussian officials were induced by liberal bribes to connive at the violation of the Berlin decrees. The harsh and cruel measures to which Napoleon had recourse in the vain hope of ruining British trade and commerce, roused a strong feeling of indignation against him throughout the Continent. No severity was spared against those in whose possession any articles of British manufacture, or that had even touched British hands, were found. The possession of English goods was, indeed, treated as a capital crime. In the great | sixteen sail of the line. These combined trading towns a system of permanent ter- naval armaments, he confidently expected, rorism was put in force against the would enable him to overthrow the naval merchants. Soldiers ransacked their supremacy of Britain, and to obtain the comhouses; their letters were opened, and mand of the 'silver streak' of the sea, which spies dogged their steps.' The inhabitants formed the main defence of the country. of the entire Continent were subjected The British ministry had been secretly made through this impolitic and oppressive sys- acquainted with this design, and foiled it by tem to galling privations, which they bitterly prompt and decisive, though not justifiable, resented. 'The French were themselves action. A powerful armament of twentycompelled to extract sugar from beetroot, seven sail of the line and 20,000 troops, and to substitute chicory for coffee. The fitted out ostensibly against Flushing and Germans, less favoured by nature and less Antwerp, was directed in July, 1807, to rapid in adaptation, thirsted and sulked. proceed to the Sound and to demand the Even in such torpid communities as Saxony, delivery of the Danish fleet into the hands political discontent was at length engendered of Britain under a solemn pledge that it by bodily discomfort. Men who were proof would be restored at the end of the war. against all the patriotic exultation of Stein On the refusal of the Danish court to agree and Fichte felt that there must be something to this demand, Copenhagen was invested wrong in a system which sent up the price of by sea and land, and after a fortnight spent coffee to five shillings a pound, and reduced in preparations, the city was bombarded for the tobacconist to exclusive dependence two days. The Danes, finding that further upon the market-gardener.' To crown all, resistance was hopeless, agreed to surrender even the French emperor himself found it their whole fleet, which, with a great mass impossible to dispense with the productions of naval stores, was immediately conveyed of his hated rival, and was compelled by to England. 'the pressure of facts' to neutralize his own decree by granting an immense number of licenses. It is asserted on good authority that the French army which marched to Eylau was clad in great coats made at Leeds, and shod with shoes made at Northampton. This bold though reckless and indefensible proceeding was followed up by the issue, in November, 1807, of fresh Orders in Council, which declared the whole coast of France and its allies in a state of blockade, and all vessels bound for their harbours as liable to seizure, unless they had touched at a British port. The French emperor retaliated by issuing another decree at Milan in December, declaring every vessel of whatever nation, coming from or bound to Britain or any British colony, to have forfeited its character as a neutral, and to be held subject to seizure. Napoleon was not satisfied to carry on his contest with Britain merely by his commercial system; he was still bent on an attempt to land a French army on her shores. He had secured the friendship of the Russian Czar by promising to assist him in the conquest of Turkey; and Alexander at this time not only enforced The failure of his attempts to destroy the Berlin decrees as far as possible through- the trade and commerce of Britain made out his vast dominions, but compelled Napoleon only the more resolute in carrying Sweden, the one ally that Britain still out his gigantic scheme of a union of the retained on the Continent, to renounce her whole continent of Europe against his great alliance. The fleets of Russia and Sweden rival. He changed the republic of Holland were thus virtually at the disposal of into a monarchy, and conferred its crown Napoleon, who counted on securing in on his brother Louis. He transformed the addition the Danish fleet, consisting of electorates of Hanover and Hesse Cassel |