1. The Napoleonic Empire. 1804. There was scarcely an Englishman living in 1804 who did not regard Napoleon as a wicked and unprincipled villain whom it was the duty of every honest man to resist to the death. This conception of his character was certainly not without foundation. He had no notion of allowing moral scruples to interfere with his designs, and whenever his personal interests were concerned he knew no rule except that of his own will. Having nearly been the victim of an attempt at assassination by a party of Royalists, he avenged himself by kidnapping the Duke of Enghien on the neutral territory of Baden and having him shot, simply because he was a kinsman of the Bourbon Princes, the brothers of the late King. In his dealings with foreign states he took whatever seemed good to him to take, and his seizure of Piedmont was but the forerunner of other annexations. Yet, regardless of morality as he was, Napoleon was not more regardless of it than the statesmen who had partitioned Poland, and he had at least an intellectual preference for good government. He gave to France an excellent administration, and also gave his sanction to the code of law drawn up by the jurists of the Republic, which was now to be known as the Code Napoleon. He also took care that there should be good justice in his courts between man and man. Hence, exasperating as his annexations were to the great sovereigns of Europe, they were not popular grievances. A country annexed to France, or even merely brought, as most of the German

states now were, under the influence of France, found its gain in being better governed. On May 18 Napoleon was declared here

ditary Emperor of the French. His power was neither more nor less absolute than it had been before.

The King in the House of Lords, 1804: from Modern London.

1804-1805

THE ARMY AT BOULOGNE

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2. A Threatened Invasion. 1804-1805.-Neither the French Revolution nor the French Empire was to be resisted by governments acting without a popular force behind them; and in 1804 it was only in England that the government had a popular force behind it, and could therefore oppose to Napoleon a national resistance. Every day that saw a French army encamped at Boulogne strengthened that resistance. Napoleon was, indeed, so certain of success that he ordered the preparation of a medal falsely stating itself to have been struck in London, as if the conquest of England had been already effected. Strong as Pitt became in the country, he was weak in Parliament. Before the end of 1804 he was reconciled to Addington, who entered the ministry as Viscount Sidmouth. On April 6 a vote was carried which led to the impeachment, on a charge of peculation, of his old friend

Napoleon's medal struck to commemorate the invasion of England: from a cast in the British Museum.

Henry Dundas, now Lord Melville and First Lord of the Admiralty. Ultimately Melville was acquitted, and there is no reason to think that he was guilty of more than neglect of the forms needed for guarding against embezzlement ; but Melville's necessary resignation was a sad blow to Pitt.

3. The Trafalgar Campaign. 1805.-Napoleon's plan for the invasion of England was most skilful. He was aware that boats laden with troops could not cross the Channel unless their passage could be guarded against British ships of war, but as the king of Spain was now on his side against England, he had three fleets at his disposal, two French ones at Toulon and Brest, and a Spanish one at Cadiz. He thought that, though not one of these was separately a match for a British fleet, yet that the three combined would at least be strong enough to hold the Channel

Hyde Park on Sunday, A.D. 1804: from Modern London

1805

THE DEATH OF NELSON

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long enough to enable him to get his army across. Consequently, the Toulon fleet, escaping by his orders from that port, made its way to Cadiz, and picking up the Spanish fleet there, sailed along with it to the West Indies. As Napoleon expected, Nelson, who commanded the British Mediterranean fleet, sailed to the West Indies in pursuit of the French and Spanish fleets. Whilst Nelson was searching for them, they, in accordance with Napoleon's

instructions, were already on their way back to Europe, where they were to drive off the British squadron blockading Brest, and then, combining with the French fleet which had been shut up there, to make their way up the Channel and hold the Straits of Dover in irresistible force in Nelson's absence. Part of Napoleon's expectation was fulfilled. Nelson indeed sailed to the West Indies with thirteen ships after the enemy's fleet, which numbered