from office; and Mr. Addington quitted the speaker's chair to become first lord of the treasury. Other changes, likewise, occurred; that is to say, lord Grenville, lord chancellor Thurlow, earl Spencer, Mr. Dundas, and Mr. Windham, resigned; while lord Eldon, earl St. Vincent, lord Hawkesbury, and lord Pelham, took their places. But the changes were, for a time, rather of men than of measures; for Mr. Addington continued to prosecute the war with vigour, while his domestic policy appeared to differ in few respects from that which his predecessor had sanctioned. It is true that his military efforts were rather defensive than offensive. Deserted, indeed, by all her continental allies,-for even Portugal was by this time won over,-England could only act against the enemies' fleets, which were attacked and beaten wherever they showed themselves, till the very harbours scarce afforded them asylum. Thus, on the 6th of July, off the coast of Spain, sir James Saumarez fell in with a combined French and Spanish squadron, which he chased till the 12th, and then totally defeated. In like manner, Lord Nelson kept the whole line of coast in alarm, while, day after day, he threatened a flotilla at Boulogne, which the French had collected with the avowed design of transporting an army into England. But such successes, tarnished as they were by the misconduct of sir James Pulteney, before Ferrol, could not reconcile the people to their burdens, aggravated as these began to be by the pressure of famine, the unavoidable result of a scanty harvest, and the interruption of foreign commerce. The consequence was, that both within and without the houses of parliament, a cry was raised for peace; and Mr. Addington, though little confident of the wisdom of the procedure, gave way.

On the 25th of March, 1802, the negotiations which had for some time been carried on at Amiens, came

to a close. England restored all her conquests, with the exception of Ceylon and Trinidad; France was permitted to retain hers, including Holland, Belgium, and the greater part of Italy; and a stipulation being agreed to, that Malta should be given up to the knights of St. John, the sound of war ceased to be heard throughout Europe.

182

CHAPTER VII.

RESULTS OF THE TREATY OF AMIENS.STATE OF ST. DOMINGO.-CONSPIRACIES AGAINST THE FIRST CONSUL DUKE D'ENGHIEN SHOT.-NAPOLEON CROWNED EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH.-WAR WITH FRANCE.-FRENCH FLO. TILLA.-BATTLE OF AUSTERLITZ, OF TRAFALGAR.DEATH OF MR. PITT.-MR. FOX; HIS DEATH.-LORD GRENVILLE'S ADMINISTRATION.-GOES OUT ON THE CATHOLIC QUESTION.-UNSUCCESSFUL MILITARY EFFORTS. DUKE OF PORTLAND'S ADMINISTRATION.—CAPTURE OF THE DANISH FLEET.

THE relative positions of France and England, at the period of the ratification of the treaty of Amiens, led every prudent person to anticipate that the peace would not be lasting. England came forth from the struggle with a reputation untarnished, it is true, but with a heavy pressure upon her financial means, without any addition to her territorial resources. France, on the other hand, had enlarged herself in every direction; for in Italy, not less than towards the north, her influence was as paramount as if the Italian Republic had been formally united to her own. But above all, her energies were wielded by a man who gave, day by day, new proofs that if, in one sense, he deserved to be called the child of the revolution, in another he was destined to be its master. Buonaparte began at once to restore order and consistency both to the government and the social system of France. He caused himself to be elected first consul; in the beginning for five years, eventually for life; and obtaining, at the same time, authority to nominate his successor, he became, to all intents and purposes, the founder of a new dynasty. He then published a decree of amnesty, which did more to put an end to civil strife, than all the victories of Haxo, or the cruelty of Robespierre. Then followed

a formal restoration of the Roman Catholic religion, a re-appointment of bishops and priests, under the sanction of the pope, and a renewed sanctification of the Lord's day, and the great festivals of the Church; and though last, not least in the estimation of a people so vain as those with whom he had to deal, the institution of a Legion of Honour. By means of that order of merit into which persons of all professions were admissible, but which had its distinctions of rank according to the degree of celebrity to which the initiated had attained, the first consul paved the way for a return to the aristocratic system, to which the French had never ceased to be attached. In one word, the visionary projects of visionary men were everywhere scouted; and by rapid strides France was brought back to the condition in which she stood under the most despotic of her ancient princes.

There had been terrible commotions in the island of St. Domingo,-one of the few of her West India colonies that remained to France, where revolutionary principles were early taught with a reckless zeal, which led, as might have been anticipated, to a general rising among the negroes. The struggle began in 1791; and continued till the end of the century, at which period slavery was abolished, and blacks and whites were declared to possess equal rights and privileges. So long as his hands were occupied with affairs nearer home, Buonaparte could not spare time to think of St. Domingo; but now that there was peace in Europe, he listened to the suggestions of the merchants interested in the trade, and resolved to reduce the island by force of arms. With this view he sent his brother-in-law, Le Clerc, at the head of forty thousand men, across the Atlantic; and a fierce war began, during the progress of which the atrocities perpetrated on both sides almost exceed belief. But again the negroes prevailed. Le Clerc perished of disease; his soldiers fell victims to

climate and the sword; and St. Domingo remained, as it continues to this day, a solitary independent negro settlement, in the midst of an archipelago of white masters and black servants. But greater events were already impending, of the causes that led to which, I must give an account.

It will be borne in mind that Malta, which had been occupied by Buonaparte, while proceeding to Egypt, fell to a detachment from sir Ralph Abercrombie's army; and that it remained ever after in possession of the English One of the articles of the treaty of Amiens stipulated, that the island should be restored to the knights of St. John, a military order which began during the Crusades, and derived its revenues from provinces in Spain, Portugal, and other zealously popish countries. But it had, of course, been expected, on the part of England, that the knights should be rendered independent; in other words, that they should continue to enjoy the rents of those estates, which alone enabled them to exist as a distinct body amid the powers of Europe. Buonaparte, on the other hand, who ceased not to look towards the east, entertained very different ideas. He caused the Spanish government to sequester the priories, provoked Portugal into a similar proceeding, and then complained because England hesitated to give up the key of the Mediterranean to a body incapable of maintaining it for a single day. Then, again, the English troops who had lingered in Egypt after the expulsion of Menou, were hindered, by accidental causes, from evacuating Alexandria so soon as had been agreed upon. Buonaparte began in August, 1802, to complain bitterly of these infractions of the treaty; while certain libels on his person and character, in which the English newspapers indulged, excited in him a feeling of rancour such as he took no pains either to stifle or conceal. He demanded that such proceedings should be put a stop to,-that the