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NELSON'S ATTACK ON COPENHAGEN.

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the extension of the line by the three ships." The mistakes of the pilots led to the disasters of the Bellona and Russell; for they had said that the water shoaled on the larboard shore. Nelson came next to these ships, in the Elephant. He repaired the error, and led all the vessels astern of him safely on the starboard side. By half-past eleven the action had become general. Nine ships of the line only could take part in it. Captain Riou, with six frigates and sloops, was to assist in the attack of the ships at the mouth of the harbour. Admiral Parker, when the cannonade had lasted three hours, gave the signal for discontinuing the engagement. Nelson put his glass to his blind eye, and said that he could not see the signal-"Nail my signal for close action to the mast." Poor Riou saw the admiral's signal, and was killed as he hauled off from the tremendous fire to which he was exposed. About two the firing ceased along nearly the whole of the Danish line. At this time Nelson sent a flag of truce to the Crown Prince of Denmark, with a letter, which he would "This is no not seal with a wafer, but called for wax and a candle, saying, time to appear hurried and informal :" "Vice-admiral lord Nelson has The line been commanded to spare Denmark when she no longer resists. of defence which covers her shores has struck to the British flag; but if the firing is continued on the part of Denmark, he must set on fire all the prizes he has taken, without having the power of saving the brave men who have so nobly defended them." The firing having ceased entirely, Nelson lost not a moment in endeavouring to get out of his dangerous position amongst the shoals. "We cut our cables and ran out," writes Fremantle. "The ships were so crippled they would not steer. The Elephant and Defiance both ran on shore. We ran on shore, and the Monarch." There were six sail of the line and a frigate fast on shore before the batteries ceased firing. The Danish adjutant-general went to the flag-ship to negotiate for terms, and it was agreed that there should be a suspension of hostilities for four-and-twenty hours. During the night the boats of sir Hyde Parker's division were employed in getting the grounded ships afloat, and in bringing out the prizes. The next day Nelson went on shore as arranged, for an interview with the Crown Prince. After a negotiation, which lasted five days, an armistice for fourteen weeks was agreed upon. The Danish prisoners and the wounded were sent on shore; to be credited to the account of Great Britain in the event of renewed hostilities. The prizes, with the exception of one sixty-four, were burned. The stores found in the captured vessels enabled our fleet to be refitted. Nelson went off to the Baltic to look for the Russians; but a sudden event had changed the temper of the Court of St. Petersburgh. The suspension of the interchange of Russian products with British manufactures had been fatal to the interests of the Russian proprietors of the soil. When they remonstrated, Paul threatened them with Siberia. Exile after exile was hurried away; the prisons were filled; executions were frequent; till the greatest and most powerful of the aristocracy began to think that their own safety could only be secured by the death of their tyrant. On the night of the 23rd of March, the conspirators, by virtue of their military rank, obtained admission to the

Nelson's Dispatch.

palace; and the czar was murdered in his bed-room. The death of Paul broke up the adhesion of Russia to the Northern Treaty of Armed Neutrality; Sweden made no hostile demonstrations; and the armistice with Denmark was followed up by a general Convention in which all the disputes were adjusted.

The French army in Egypt, under the command of Kléber, had contended with varying success against the Turks, under the command of the Grand Vizier, assisted by an English fleet, commanded by sir Sidney Smith. On the 14th of June, 1800, Kléber, the most able of the French generals, was assassinated at Cairo by a fanatic; and the command fell to general Menou. On the 2nd of March, the English fleet, under Abercromby, anchored in the bay of Aboukir. It was two o'clock on the morning of the 8th of March before a debarkation could be attempted. Five thousand five hundred troops first left their transports, and proceeded towards the castle of Aboukir and the sand-hills where the French were posted. The sailors steadily rowed on; the soldiers sat unmoved; whilst showers of ball fell amongst them and all around them. The shore was reached almost simultaneously by all the boats; the men jumped out into the surf, and were quickly charging up the sand-hills. A second party landed in the same style; and then a third. The French retired; but our gallant fellows had five hundred killed or wounded. During the day Abercromby completed the landing of the remaining divisions of his army. The castle of Aboukir was invested, and on the 12th the British general advanced. On the 13th a severe action took place, in which our loss was considerable. On the 19th the main armies of the two nations were in strong positions near Alexandria. Their numbers were nearly equal. Early in the morning of the 21st the French infantry under Lanusse commenced an attack on the British lines. Lanusse was driven back, and was killed. Various were the changes of fortune through this fight, which began at daybreak and lasted till ten of the forenoon. At length Menou retreated. Early in the day Abercromby received a wound which proved mortal. The command did not fall into the hands of one destitute of vigour. General Hutchinson was reinforced; the Turks under the Grand Vizier advanced through the desert. They were assisted by experienced English officers. On the 20th of May, Hutchinson, on the left bank of the Nile, invested Cairo, which had been strongly fortified by Kléber and Menou. The Grand Vizier was in force on the opposite bank. The Indian army under general Baird was daily expected to arrive from Bombay. Belliard, who commanded at Cairo, proposed to capitulate. It was agreed that the French troops should be conveyed home with their arms, baggage, and ten pieces of artillery. Many of the objects of

Egyptian art, collected by the French, were to be surrendered. Menou, who was at Alexandria, refused at first to accept the conditions for himself, but he yielded to the presence of a British force on the 27th of August. In that autumn Egypt was cleared of the French, and was restored to the dominion of the Sultan.

At this period there were negotiations for peace with France proceeding in London with great secrecy. M. Otto, a French Protestant, of some experience in diplomacy, had been in London since 1799. In August,

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TREATY OF AMIENS.

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1800, he was authorized by the First Consul to negotiate for peace. This negotiation was broken off. To the weak government of Addington, M. Otto could apply with more hope of success. He was in indirect communication with the first minister in May; his visits to lord Hawkesbury were frequent during the summer. In August, Bonaparte was threatening invasion. The French armies were, for the most part, at home, eager for employment. A hundred thousand men were to come over in a flotilla of gun-brigs, or rafts-flat vessels of about 200 tons, armed each with four or eight heavy guns. Such a flotilla was collected at Boulogne. Nelson was sent in August to attack this flotilla, to cut it out of the harbour. He failed. "The First Consul," says Thiers, "in seeing what were the first acts of Menou, had judged the campaign lost, and he was desirous, before the dénouement that he foretold, to have a treaty signed at London." The Preliminary Articles of Peace between the United Kingdom and the French Republic were signed at London, on the first of October, by lord Hawkesbury and M. Otto. Plenipotentiaries were to be named on each side, who should repair to Amiens, for the purpose of concluding a Definitive Treaty of Peace, in concert with the allies of the contracting parties.

The burst of popular enthusiasm at the news of Peace was, naturally, somewhat extravagant. There were illuminations in London for two nights. The rejoicings throughout the country were equally demonstrative of natural gladness that the war was at an end, no matter how. The king was not pleased with the peace. He said to lord Malmesbury, "Do you know what I call the Peace ?-an experimental Peace, for it is nothing else. But it was unavoidable." The marquis Cornwallis was appointed as plenipotentiary to conduct the negotiations at Amiens. He arrived in Paris on the 7th of November. He had two audiences of the First Consul; and then went to Amiens, to negotiate with Lucien Bonaparte. New demands were set up by the French, although they had originally professed to adhere to the preliminary treaty. At the end of January, Cornwallis had lost confidence in the negotiations terminating happily. Bonaparte had gone to Lyons, and had there accepted, from the deputies of the Cisalpine Republic, the Presidency of those States-in other words, the sovereignty. Nevertheless, the English government desired to conclude the peace, "it it can be obtained on terms consistent with our honour." The Definitive Treaty was signed on the 27th of March, without any material variation from the Preliminaries. The question of Malta, upon which the war was ostensibly renewed, was left in a very ambiguous position. There was no ambiguity about Great Britain surrendering all the conquests she had made in the war, except Ceylon, taken from the Dutch, and Trinidad, taken from the Spaniards. The French were to evacuate Naples and the Papal States. Egypt was to be restored to the Sultan. The Republic of the Seven Ionian Islands was to be recognized. The integrity of Portugal was guaranteed. The French retained all that they had acquired in Europe by the war.

CHAPTER LVI.

Ar the prorogation of Parliament on the 28th of June, Mr. Speaker Abbot, in addressing the king, said, “We now indulge the flattering hope that we may cultivate the arts of peace." The country generally did not indulge that hope. The people began "at last to apprehend that neither credit, satisfaction, nor even security, had been attained by the treaty of Amiens." Two months only had passed since the conclusion of that treaty, when Bonaparte found grounds of offence in paragraphs against him which continued to appear in the English papers. More serious cause of offence had been given on his part. Very soon after the conclusion of the peace, the First Consul had sent an army to Berne. In September, Piedmont had been formally annexed to the French territory. The First Consul had stipulated with the Batavian Republic, that he would withdraw the French auxiliary troops on the conclusion of the definitive treaty. At the end of October the British minister at the Hague reported that 11,000 French soldiers were halted on the Dutch frontiers, and that their pay and maintenance were demanded from the Batavian government. Whilst the negotiations at Amiens were proceeding, the French government was preparing an expedition upon the largest scale for the destruction of the government in St. Domingo, where, after a long struggle, the military genius and the political sagacity of Toussaint L'Ouverture had succeeded in establishing the civil and military dominion of free negroes, of which government he was the undisputed head-exercising a strict but just sway which allowed the agriculture and commerce of the great island to attain some degree of their ancient prosperity. Toussaint had manifested his confidence in the French by sending his children to be educated in Paris. A fleet of nearly a hundred and forty vessels, with twenty-one thousand troops, sailed from France on the 14th of December, 1801. Toussaint resisted for some time, knowing that the object of the French was to re-establish slavery, as they had done in Guadaloupe. Some of his generals were won over by the generals of Bonaparte, on receiving promises of honours and rewards, and Toussaint was finally compelled to submit. He retired to his farm in the mountains, where he remained for two months. But, being invited to a conference with the French generals, he left his retreat, was arrested, and with his wife and children was taken on board a vessel of war and carried to Brest. He was finally immured in the castle of Joux, near Besançon ; was subjected to the most frightful severities; and died there on the 27th of April, 1803.

The government of Mr. Addington had made some feeble remonstrances against the restless ambition of Bonaparte, who had now become Consul for life, with power to choose his successor. "A more absolute despotism," writes Romilly from Paris in September, "than that which now exists here, France never experienced." When the session of the new parliament was opened on the 23rd of November, the king's Speech

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recommended that the means of security for preserving peace should be adopted. These means were represented by a vote for 129,000 land forces, and 50,000 seamen and marines. The necessity for an additional military establishment was supported by the statement that France had a total regular force of 427,000 men, and altogether had at command 929,000 meu. The vote for additional seamen was urged as an imperious necessity, required on account of "a large armament being fitted out in the ports of a rival nation."

In the Moniteur of the 30th of January, 1803, Bonaparte published a Report of colonel Sebastiani, who had been sent by him to explore Egypt and Syria. This report betrayed views of hostile aggrandizement as regarded Great Britain, and, in consequence, the Cabinet directed lord Whitworth, our ambassador, to declare that until a full and unequivocal explanation was given, the fulfilment of the article of the treaty of Amiens respecting Malta could not be expected. Lord Whitworth had an audience of Bonaparte on the 18th of February, who harangued the ambassador for two hours, on the bad feeling shown towards him by England, and finally declared that he would not provoke war, but that he had an army of 400,000 men, with which he would attack us at home, command the expedition himself, run all risks, and sacrifice army after army till he succeeded. Within a day or two of this memorable interview, another cause of offence was blown by the winds over the straits of Dover. One of the French papers published in London, L'Ambigu, conducted by M. Peltier, a royalist emigrant, contained many bitter reproaches and insinuations against Bonaparte. The First Consul required that Peltier should be banished, but he was told that the law alone could give him redress. He then demanded the prosecution of Peltier by the attorney-general for “a libel on a friendly government." Mr. Perceval opened the case for the crown; Mr. Mackintosh defended Peltier. The jury returned a verdict for the crown. But the triumph of the First Consul in this impartial verdict of an English jury against an unscrupulous writer, must have been a small compensation for the surpassing eloquence of the English advocate, which was in reality the manifesto of the nation.

On the 8th of March, a Royal Message was delivered to Parliament, for calling out the militia, "in consequence of the preparations carrying on in the ports of France and Holland, whilst important discussions are subsisting between his majesty and the French government." On the 13th, an extraordinary scene between Bonaparte and the British ambassador took place at the Court of the Tuileries, in the presence of two hundred persons, including the foreign ministers. "Why armaments?" asked Bonaparte. "Against whom are these measures of precaution? I have not a ship of the line in the ports of France. But if you desire to arm, I also will arm; if you will fight, I will fight. You may destroy France, but you cannot intimidate her." There were two months more of diplo macy, but this scene at the Tuileries was the beginning of the end. The first orders that bore upon his design to carry into England one of the armies that had conquered Europe, date from the day when the First Consul first heard of the Message to Parliament of the king of England. On the 18th of May, the Declaration of War, and the various documents