entered by the French in triumph on the 20th of October, the day on which the English fleet was seeking that of France and Spain, and but the one before the battle of Trafalgar. In the dismay and consternation produced by the misfortunes of Austria, in the mind of the British public, it may easily be conceived how timely the intelligence of the glorious victory obtained over the enemy by Lord Nelson's fleet must have been, and its value can only be appreciated by its being put in opposition with the former calamitous event. It at once made the scale of war even, and put England on a level in point of successes with her boastful antagonist, brilliant as his conquests had been.

The action of Trafalgar had scarcely terminated before a tremendous gale of wind arose, which not only placed the captured ships but also the captors in a most dangerous situation. Both had suffered severely, and were in no condition to combat the extremity of weather, to which they were now to be exposed. In fact, the wind increased to such a degree, that the whole fleet were most perilously circumstanced: many dismasted, all shattered, and in thirteen fathoms water, off the shoals of Cape Trafalgar. In this dangerous state, the skill and experience of Admiral Collingwood, now commanding, and whose conduct during the action was supereminently conspicuous, were put to the utmost test, but to which, under very difficult circumstances, he was found fully equal. On the 22d the weather was still unfavorable, but not such as prevented the possibility of securing the prizes, which were towed off to the westward, and rendezvoused round the Royal Sovereign, herself in tow by the Neptune: but on the following day the gale increased, and the sea run so high, that many of the captured ships broke from the tow rope and drifted in shore. Towards the afternoon the remnant of the combined fleet, ten sail of the line, who had not been much engaged, pushed out from Cadiz, in the hope of attacking with advantage the damaged and scattered English ships. In this attempt, however, he was completely frustrated by the determined countenance of Admiral Collingwood, who, collecting a force of the least injured of his fleet, not only protected his own disabled vessels, but was enabled to take possession of one of the enemy's, the El Rayo. Admiral Gravina's own ship, the Prince of Asturias, being dismasted by the violence of the gale, he returned to port ineffectually.

On the 24th and 25th the gale still continued at so tremendous a rate, that Admiral Collingwood, despairing of being able to carry them into a British port, issued his orders that the captured French and Spanish ships should be destroyed. This difficult and dangerous service was executed with the same zeal and perseverance as had been

1805.

shewn in the day of battle, although it must have BOOK VI. been a severe mortification to the gallant captors, to see thus wrested from them the trophies of CHAP. X. their victory. Accordingly, five of the enemy's ships were sunk and burnt by the victors, amongst which was the Santissima Trinidada, of 140 guns, the largest and finest ship of war ever built; nine were entirely wrecked, on different parts of the adjacent coast, by the violence of the gale, many with their whole crews on board. L'Achille, a French seventy-four, blew up during the actions and four (three Spanish and one French seventyfour-gun ships) were, by the almost incredible. efforts of activity and skill of the British officers and seamen, carried safe into Gibraltar. The Santa Anna, and nine more of the enemy's vessels, got into Cadiz, some of which had struck, but were abandoned from the violence of the weather, but in the most wretched state, three only being considered serviceable, the other seven mere wrecks!

It will be recollected that Admiral Dumanoir, with four sail of the line, escaped towards the southward, towards the close of the action; their respite from sharing the fate of their companions was, however, but of short duration. On the night of the 2d of November, cruizing off Ferrol with four ships of the line and three frigates, Rearadmiral Sir Richard Strachan fell in with what he thought the Rochefort squadron, but which in fact were the fugitives, to whom he immediately gave chace, and which he pursued that night, and the whole of the next day. At day-light, on the morning of the 4th, the Santa Margarita and Phoenix frigates, who had outsailed the ships of the line, most gallantly begun the action, by firing upon the enemy's rear, and considerably retarded their flight. A little before noon, the English line-of-battle ships being well up, and the French admiral finding an action unavoidable, it soon after became close and general, and continued nearly three hours and a half, the enemy fighting with the greatest resolution and obstinacy, when their four ships struck, but not until they were quite unmanageable. They proved to be the Formidable, of eighty guns, Admiral Dumanoir, and the Duguai Trouin, Mont Blanc, and Scipion, of seventy-four guns each, on board of all of which the slaughter had been very great, their admiral wounded, and one of their captains killed: the loss on board the English ships was comparetively trifling.

Although the result of this last action was such as might be expected from the force under the English admiral, and his well-known skill and gallantry; he having, besides an exact parity of strength in line-of-battle ships with the enemy, four frigates in company, still it was a very grateful, as well as an advantageous capture, to the British public; for those four fine ships of the line

1805.

BOOK VI. were carried safe into port, and, with the other four, carried into Gibraltar, after the action off TraCHAP. X. falgar, to which may be added the two taken by Sir Robert Calder; which, in the aggregate, made an important addition of ten sail of line-of-battle ships, none under seventy-four guns, to the navy of Great Britain; besides the falling of those vessels (which had fled, having sustained but slight injury in the battle of Trafalgar) into the hands of the English, accounted, most satisfactorily, for the whole of that vast armament, of which three alone remained to the enemy, that could be considered serviceable, and the destruction of which was achieved without the loss of a single ship on the part of the British navy, a success unparalleled, and which must always be ascribed to the special intervention of Providence.

The remains of Lord Nelson were publicly interred in the cathedral church of St. Paul. The covering of his lordship's exterior coffin, which was considered as the most elegant and superb ever seen in Europe, was of fine black velvet, with treble rows of double gilt nails, the whole finely enriched with gold matt, enclosed and chased. The head-piece represented a monument supported by eagles, the emblem of victory, with the portrait of the deceased hero, in bass relief, surmounted by an urn, containing his ashes, over which reclined the figure of Grief. At the base were seen the British lion, with one of his paws laid on the Gallic cock, sphinxes, and other trophies, intended to commemorate the glorious victory which the gallant admiral obtained on the shores of Egypt, and to indicate that he might fairly claim the sovereignty of the ocean. Next was a viscount's coronet, the reward of his lordship's services to his king and country. The breast-plate of gold, thirteen inches by nine, with the following inscription:

Member of the Ottoman Order of the Crescent; and

Knight Grand Commander of the Order of St. Joachim. Born September 29, 1758. After a series of transcendent and heroic services, this gallant Admiral fell gloriously, in the moment of a brilliant and decisive Victory over the combined Fleets of France and Spain, off Cape Trafalgar, on the 21st of October, 1805.

Lower down was the first crest which his majesty granted him after the battle of Cape St. Vincent, where Lord Nelson boarded and took the San Josef, the motto "Faith and Works." The last ornament on the lid was an Egyptian weeping figure (a cast from the antique) wrapped up in drapery, with the face hidden, emblematical of grief. On the left side of the coffin, next to the head, was the British lion with the union flag, the supporter of England, as also that of Lord Nelson's arms. Lower down, about the shoulder, on the same side, was a display of the insignia of the most honorable military Order of the Bath, with the motto "Tria juncta in uno." Directly in the centre, on the same side, was a beautiful composition of Britannia and Neptune riding triumphant on the ocean, drawn by seahorses, and led by Fame; while Neptune was pointing to a shield, which bore this motto, " Viro immortali." Next was the Order of St. Ferdinand, which Lord Nelson received of the King of Naples, with the motto, "Fide a merito." The last ornament, towards the feet, on this side, was a crocodile, allusive to the battle of the Nile.

The first device, on the right side of the coffin, at the head, was the sphynx, the emblem of Egypt. Corresponding with the Order of the Bath, on the opposite side, was the Order of the Great Crescent, which was transmitted to the noble admiral by the Grand Seignior, after the glorious battle of the Nile. In the centre, on the right hand, were again Britannia and Neptune riding triumphant on the ocean, drawn by sea-horses, &c. as on the opposite side. Lower down, corresponding with the Order of St. Ferdinand, on the opposite side, was the Order of St. Joachim, transmitted to Lord Nelson by the Emperor Paul, as Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, with the motto, "Junxit - Amicos Amor." The last ornament on the right-hand side, towards the foot, was a dolphin, the noblest fish of the sea, and formerly claimed by the heir of France. The device, at the head end of the coffin, was composed of naval and military trophies, with Lord Nelson's arms on a shield. That at the foot end was also a composition of naval and military trophies.

At the commencement of the year 1806, the situation of Europe was unexampled in history. Two rival nations had acquired, not merely a decided preponderance, but an absolute and uncontroled dominion, the one over the seas, the other over the land. If the battle of Austerlitz had confirmed the military superiority of France over other nations, and left her without a rival on the continent, the victory of Trafalgar had no less decisively established the naval superiority of England, and crowned all her former victories on the ocean. The accumulated fruits of four years persevering labour and painful industry, on the part of France and her dependencies, to form and collect a navy fit to cope with the maritime forces of England, had been swept away and annihilated in a single action. The importance of such a victory, at such a crisis, to England, cannot be easily exaggerated, or over-rated. For, it was not merely that the high-formed expectations of France from her newly-repaired marine, in which she had so weakly indulged and prematurely exulted, at the beginning of the campaign, were thus abruptly and thoroughly frustrated; or that her projects of invading the British islands, under the protection of a powerful fleet, were again defeated: nor was it even that the most splendid victory had, on this occasion, been won by England, that was ever gained at sea; or, that the greatest number of vessels, of first-rate magnitude, had, in this action, been taken and destroyed, that ever rewarded a conqueror in any naval combat. But, the great and incalculable advantage to England, was the universal conviction arising from this victory, that, in the skill, bravery, and discipline of her naval forces, she was so incomparably superior to her enemies, that all their future efforts to contend with her for the empire of the seas, must be as unavailing as their past endeavours had been fruitless. It was clear, that if the contest for pre-eminence between the rive! nations were to be decided solely on the ocean, England

CHAP. I.

1806.

had nothing to fear from the conflict. It was BOOK VH. manifest, that if England could not be invaded without her enemies obtaining a temporary superiority, at least, at sea, the period of her invasion was still distant. If the trident of Neptune be really the sceptre of the world, England was now its undoubted mistress. The maritime trade of all nations was at her mercy, and subject, in many respects, to her controul.

That Bonaparte, after the reuewal of hostilities, was animated by the most implacable hatred against England, and that he thenceforward considered her government as the eternal enemy of his peace and repose, cannot well be doubted; but why he chose to begin the war with such ostentatious threats of invasion, such insolent denunciations of vengeance, is a point not easy to decide. It might have been merely to give vent to his own spleen, or to spirit up his people to a new war, that he used such impolitic, such unbecoming language towards his enemy. He might have acted from a deeper, though mistaken cal culation, and supposed, that if he could terrify the English nation with the sound of his preparations, their government would yield to his terms; and, indeed, the publicity which he affected to give, at this time, to all his plans and operations, seemed to countenance such a conjecture. He might, possibly, have under-rated the difficulties of invasion, and seriously intended, at first, to carry his menaces into effect. But, if his object in these measures was to obtain peace by intimidation, never was his sagacity more in fault. The English were exasperated, not intimidated by his threats, and the little confidence which they reposed, at that time, in the vigour of their own government, served only to call forth, in brighter colours, their zeal and ardour in defence of their country.

At this critical period there was no efficient government in England. It has been mentioned in the last chapter of the preceding book, that:

I

1806.

age.

Mr. Pitt was the second son of the truly illustrious statesman and celebrated minister William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, by Lady Hester Grenville. He was born at Hayes, in Kent, May 28, 1759; the year in which his father's triumphant and successful administration was at its zenith. From six years old he was wholly under the tuition of Mr. Wilson, and was entered at Pembroke college, Cambridge, when not quite fourteen, at which early period he was well acquainted with mathematics and the branches of natural philosophy, besides being a superior classic. When at the university, Mr. Pitt of course came under the then tutors of his college, Dr. Turner, (Dean of Norwich,) and Dr. Prettyman, (Bishop of Lincoln.)

From the earliest expansion of his hopeful talents, he stood forth as ordained by destiny as well as birth-right, to fill the station and emulate the talents of Chatham. If he was not born an erator, be was earlier trained to oratory than any statesman of the age. In watching over the bright progress of his studies, and anticipating his future fame, his father was not deceived by parental partiality. Even when a boy, his talents for declamation were so prompt and ambitious, that when Lord Chatham one day heard of his tutor's intention to take him along with his elder brother to hear the debates in the house of lords, he forbade him, saying to the tutor, "You may take the eldest, but I will not allow William to go; for I am sure that he would rise up and speak if he beard any thing that did not agree with his opinion."

After the usual course of study in the University of Cambridge, he was entered a student of Lincoln's-inn, and made so rapid a progress in his legal studies, as to be soon called to the bar with every prospect of success. It is said, that he once or twice went upon the western circuit, and appeared as junior counsel in several causes. He was, however, destined to fill a more important station in the government of his country, than is usually obtained through the channel of the law. At the general election, 1780, he was nominated by some of the most respectable persons in Cambridge, as a candidate to represent that university; but, notwithstanding the high character he had obtained there, he found very few to second his pretensions. In the following year, however, he was returned for the borough of Appleby, by the interest of Sir J. Lowther. Ön taking his seat in the house of commons, he en

listed himself on the side of the party which had constantly opposed the minister, Lord North, and the American war, and which regarded him with a degree of veneration; recognizing in his person the genius of his illustrious father revived, and acting, as it were, in him. His first speech was in favor of Mr. Burke's bill; and one of the first acts in which he took the lead in that house was extremely well calculated to increase his popularity. This was his motion for a committee, to consult upon the most effectual means to accomplish a more equal representation of the people in parliament. His propositions were, indeed, rejected; but he continued to repeat and renew them from time to time; and thus kept up the public attention to this great object, which was consequently more generally canvassed than it ever had been before.

On the death of the Marquis of Rockingham, the old whig party fell into a state of disunion, nearly bordering upon dissolution. Lord Shelburne became the first lord of the treasury, assisted by Mr. Pitt, who astonished the country, and indeed all Europe, by the phoenomenon of a chancellor of the exchequer at the age of twenty-three. He began his career with a pre maturity of talent which has no example, and, in a time of difficulty which required the most deter. mined resolution, the utmost vigour of exertion, and a mind of the most potent grasp and unbounded comprehension; he not only possessed them all, but applied them, with incomparable energy and effect, to the advantage of his country.

His popularity, at this period, effectually screened him from every charge which his youth and inexperience might justly have warranted, and which were strongly urged against him by the adverse party. The situation of the country was extremely critical. The American war had become generally odious; and all hearts panted for a cessation of hostilities. This object was, therefore, the first consideration with the new ministry.

The combined powers had recently experienced great humiliations, and consequently the opportu nity was not to be lost. A general peace accordingly took place; but the terms of it were reprobated by a considerable part of the nation. On this occasion Mr. Pitt delivered a most masterly defence of himself and his colleagues, which produced a corresponding, though not successful effect. The administration, of which he was one of the most distinguished members, was, therefore, short-lived. On its dissolution, the young states man withdrew into retirement, and afterwards went abroad for some time, visiting Italy and se veral of the German courts.

On the coalition-ministry coming into place, Mr. Mansfield's seat for the university became vacant, by accepting the offiee of solicitor-gene

ral, and Mr. Pitt determined to oppose him: with this view he went down to Cambridge; but he was not supported by the heads and senior members; one almost threw the door in his face, and wondered at the impudence of the young man, thus to come down and disturb the peace of the university; though the assurance of support from several independent masters of arts kept alive the scanty hopes of future success. A few months, however, changed the scene; the coalition-ministry was thrown out; he repaired, in triumph, to the university, was received with open arms, carried his election by means of a considerable majority, and was able also, by his influence, to make Lord Euston his colleague.

An occasion suddenly offered for bringing Mr. Pitt forward once more on the great theatre of politics, as a candidate for fame and power. The British dominions in India had long been in an alarming situation, and it was generally admitted that an immediate remedy was indispensably necessary to preserve them. With this view, Mr. Fox, then secretary of state, formed, digested, and brought forward his famous India bill, which he carried through its several stages with a high hand.

The coalition-ministry, composed of such an heterogeneous mixture, notwithstanding their majority in the house of commons, were generally obnoxious to the nation; and this measure was particularly offensive to the great body whom it immediately affected. Lord North and his new allies were accordingly dismissed; and Mr. Pitt, the new premier, was assisted by the advice of Lord Thurlow, as keeper of the great seal, arrangements which, at that time, were however only considered as temporary.

He now astonished the commercial and political world, by his own India Bill! He had the mortification to find the majority of the house of commons against him; and he was placed in the peculiar situation of a minister acting with a minority, and that too in opposition to the strongest conflux of talents ever combined against any administration. He, however, remained firm in his seat amidst a general confusion; and though the house had petitioned his majesty to dismiss him and his coadjutors, the young premier ventured to inform the representatives of the nation, that their petition could not be complied with!

This struggle between the commons and the crown was of the greatest importance; but the people at large were of opinion, that the former encroached upon the regal prerogative; on the question being, in a manner, thrown into their hands, by a dissolution of parliament, a new one was returned, which changed the majority and preserved the premier in his office.

The commercial treaty with France was a

bold scheme, and evinced deep political and BOOK VII. mercantile knowledge.

1806.

The union also of the two sister kingdoms, CHAP. I. Great Britain and Ireland, formed one of the most important epochs in Mr. Pitt's administration. They who consider this union as beneficial to the empire, venerate the author of so grand a scheme; and even they who disapprove of the measure, must admire the talents aud perseverance displayed in its execution. The Irish union is still farther memorable, as connected with Mr. Pitt's resignation.

One of the most critical circumstances in the annals of Mr. Pitt's administration, was the period when the regal powers were, in a manner, unhappily suspended, and all the wisdom of the legislature was required to form a regency. It was a crisis not only novel, but of extreme magnitude, as likely to become the precedent for future times; no such incident having, till then, occurred in the annals of English history. Some statesmen would have worshipped the rising sun; Mr. Pitt, however, pursued a different course, and, without seeking popularity, deservedly acquired it.

When the revolution took place in France, the situation of the prime minister of this kingdom became once more extremely critical. A new mode of action, a new scheme of politics, was to be devised, and adapted to the circumstances of the day. If any merit be due to boldness of invention, to vigour of execution, to wide extension of plans, and to firmness and perseverance of conduct, certainly the administration of that day had an undoubted claim to public gratitude, however unsuccessful their councils and plans proved.

Mr. Pitt's eloquence, if it possessed not all the vehemence of Mr. Fox's, nor all the splendour of Mr. Burke's, was more perfect in its kind than the eloquence of either of those orators. Upon great occasions it was lofty, powerful, and commanding; it was equally calculated to animate the heart and delight the ear. Many of his speeches upon the revolution are models of reasoning, as well as of eloquence. It was at times astonishing, instantaneous, and electricthe hearer seemed transported-the applause was often tumultuous. A more perfect command of language, a more judicious selection of phrases and epithets, no man ever possessed. It appeared sometimes as if his language had too much of elegance-yet it was always unstudied-there was not to be perceived, as in other orators, any painful effort or artifice; his language was perfectly natural to him, and whether in opening a subject or in reply, his diction was equally elegant. The arrangement of his matter was another admirable quality he possessed; nothing was involved; nothing confused; nothing crowded in