impolitic expedition to Copenhagen eventually added Denmark to the list of our most determined enemies, among whom, after the peace of Tilsit, we numbered Austria, Russia, Prussia, and the Ottoman Porte.

Early in the year 1807, it seems that the British Cabinet had adopted the resolution of compelling Denmark to declare against France; and for this purpose a naval and military armament, consisting of about. 25,000 men, and a fleet of nearly thirty sail of the line, with other vessels, to the number of ninety pendants, were some months in preparation.

It was not till the 14th of August, 1807, that the British fleet unexpectedly appeared between Elsineur and Helsingborg on the other side. A division of the fleet, under Commodore Keats, had been previously detached to the Great Belt, with instructions to allow no military force whatever to enter Zealand; and, from the manner in which his vessels were stationed, the communica tion between Zealand, the adjacent Isle of Funen, and the main land of Holstein, Sleswig, and Jutland, was cut off. The British army followed the main body of the fleet to

the Sound, Lord Cathcart being commander in chief of the land forces, and Admiral Gambier commanded the fleet.

But as negociation was to be tried previous to hostilities, Mr. Jackson, who had resided several years at Berlin, as envoy from this country, was selected, and repairing to Copenhagen, he was instructed to use every argument in his power to bring the Prince Regent to terms of friendly accommodation; or, in plain terms, to induce him to consent to the delivery of the Danish fleet into the possession of the British Admiral, under the most solemn stipulation that it should be restored at the conclusion of the war between this country and France. Proposals thus degrading being rejected, the army landed without opposition on the morning of the 16th of August, and on the evening of the 2d of September the British land batteries and the bomb and mortar vessels opened such a tremendous fire upon the city of Copenhagen, that a general conflagration was thought to have taken place.

On the night of the 3d, our fire was slackened; but on the 4th it was resumed with so much vigour and effect, that the next

morning a trumpeter appeared at the British out-posts, with a letter, proposing a truce." On the 8th of September a capitulation was signed, and the British army took possession of the citadel, dock-yards, and batteries. The Danish vessels captured being rigged with the utmost dispatch, the whole fleet was safe in the British ports before the end of October. After the capitulation had been signed by both parties, Mr. Jackson made a fresh attempt to negociate with the prince of Denmark, as did also a Mr. Merry, but with neither would the Danish government hold the least communication. These attempts, however, sufficiently prove that the authors and advisers of this extraordinary expedition indulged in the unparalleled weakness of believing, that the conciliation of the Danes was still possible, notwithstanding what had happened.

Among the various apologies made for what was called the immorality of the Danish expedition on the part of England, it was alleged, that the court of Denmark had a secret understanding with France. But that this was far from being founded is proved from the circumstance, that while

scarcely a single cannon was mounted on the ramparts of Copenhagen, nearly the whole of the Danish forces, about thirty thousand men, were collected in Holstein, at least to make a show of defending their continental possessions, or protecting their commerce, and which conduct had some time before occasioned the French Emperor, when the deputies that waited upon him from Hamburgh made some allusion to the Danish sovereign, to say, "Let that little prince take care of himself." Still, whether the Danes would not have been ultimately induced to declare themselves on the part of France, can scarcely admit of a doubt.

But though the allies of France upon the continent were exposed to the predatory incursions of England, the French gave the ton; and in the kingdom of Westphalia in particular, the government and civil employments were administered exclusively by Frenchmen, and even the Napoleon code established in its courts. To such an excess was this complaisance carried, that in one of the numbers of the Westphalian Moniteur the French are called "La noblesse du genre humain," the nobility of the human

race. For the purpose also of restraining and excluding English commerce, French troops now first began to line the whole coast of Holland, the borders of the Elbe, &c. Even the Dutch fishing-boats were ordered not to put to sea without having in each a soldier to watch their proceedings; but as Louis Bonaparte had not nerve sufficient to carry these severe measures into execution, he was eventually compelled to abdicate his crown and kingdom.

In Bavaria, as well as Westphalia, the population able to bear arms were organized into national guards, and drilled and trained with the greatest diligence and activity.

The treaty of Tilsit was scarcely concluded, before the French Emperor is said to have resolved upon availing himself of circumstances for the subjugation of Spain and Portugal. On the 31st of October, 1807, all the members of the different councils of state being assembled, a declaration by the king of Spain was read, of a discovery that his son, the prince of Asturias, had formed a conspiracy for dethroning him. He had been surprized, it is said, in his own apartments with the cyphers of his corres