colours to the Imperieuse, the Ville de Varsovie and Aquilon soon after yielded to the concentric fire of the other frigates, and were burned as soon as the prisoners were removed; and the Tonnerre was set on fire by her own crew, and blew up. So general was the consternation on the part of the enemy, that another French seventyfour, the Tourville, was abandoned by its crew, and might have been taken possession of by an English boat's crew, which, unaware of its condition, accidentally came very near. The Indienne frigate was also burned by the French. The other ships, however, though seriously injured, and two of them rendered unserviceable by being thrown ashore in the tempestuous gale, were by great efforts got afloat during the high tides which followed the strong westerly wind that prevailed during the action, and warped into safe anchorage in the upper part of the Charente. of the House of Commons were moved to Lord Gambier, he would oppose it in parliament. The result was, that Admiral Harvey was brought to a court-martial for the words he had uttered, cashiered, and dismissed the service, though he was shortly after restored for his gallantry at Trafalgar, with the general approbation of the navy. Lord Gambier, after a protracted trial, was acquitted by his courtmartial, and afterwards received the thanks of both houses of parliament, as well as Lord Cochrane and the other officers and men employed on the occasion. 27. Napoleon's opinion on this matter was decided. "Cochrane," said he, "not only could have destroyed the whole French ships, but he might and would have taken them out, had the English admiral supported him as he ought to have done; for, in consequence of the signal made by the French admiral for every one to shift for himself, they became panic-struck, and cut their cables. Their dread of the fireships was so great, that they actually threw their powder overboard, so that they could have offered very little resistance. Fear deprived the French captains of their senses. Had Cochrane been supported, he would have taken every one of the ships." Impressed with these ideas, the French Emperor brought the officers of his lost vessels to trial; and Lafond, the captain of the Calcutta, was condemned and executed, and two others were sentenced to imprisonment. 26. Lord Cochrane was deservedly made a Knight of the Bath for the admirable skill and coolness exhibited by him on this trying occasion; and there cannot be a doubt, when the French accounts are compared with the English, that, if he had had the command of the fleet, the whole enemy's ships would have been destroyed. Such as it was, the success was almost equal to that of Lord Howe in those seas fifteen years before, and it would have thrown the nation into transports of joy at the commencement of the war. But Lord Nelson had spoiled the English for anything less than complete success; and murmurs soon began to spread against Lord Gambier for not having in a more energetic manner supported Lord Cochrane on that occasion. These were soon mate-votion to his country, he was, perhaps, rially increased by the strong charges openly advanced against the commander-in-chief by Admiral Harvey, the second in command, one of the bravest captains of Trafalgar, who burned with desire to signalise himself against the enemy, and had expressed his opinion on the occasion perhaps with more frankness than discretion. Lord Cochrane also intimated, that if the thanks | 28. Lord Cochrane was, after the death of Nelson, the greatest naval commander of that age of glory. Equal to his great predecessor in personal gallantry, enthusiastic ardour, and de his superior in original genius, inventive power, and inexhaustible resources. The skill and indefatigable perseverance with which, during the Spanish war, when in command only of his own frigate, he alarmed and distracted the whole coast from Toulon to Barcelona, has never been surpassed; with the crew of a frigate, which did not exceed three hundred and fifty men, he kept ten thousand of the enemy constantly | the doubtful ascendancy of democratic occupied. It was his misfortune to fervour. But in a free country no deed arrive at manhood and high command of injustice, whether popular or minonly towards the close of the war, isterial, can permanently blast a noble when the enemy's fleets had disappear- character. With the changes of time, ed from the ocean, and the glorious the power which had oppressed Engopportunities of its earlier years had land's greatest existing naval hero passed away more truly than Alex- passed away: another generation sucander the Great, he might have wept ceeded, to which his exploits were an that there no longer remained a world object of admiration, his weaknesses to conquer. His coolness in danger of forgiveness, his wrongs of commiswas almost unparalleled even in the eration. One of the most deservedly English navy, and in the days of Nel- popular acts of the new ministry, which son and Collingwood;* and his men succeeded to the helm after the overhad such confidence in his judgment throw of the Tory administration, was and resources, that they would have to restore him to the rank and the followed wherever he led, even to the honours of which he had been decannon's mouth. Unhappily for him- prived; and there remains now, to self and his country, he engaged with the historian, only the grateful duty little discretion when ashore in party of lending his humble efforts to aid politics; he stood forth as a prominent in rescuing from unmerited obloquy opponent of government on various oc- the victim of aristocratic, as he has casions, on which he unnecessarily put frequently done those of popular inhimself forward in contests with which justice.t he had no concern; while his strong inventive turn led him, when unemployed, to connect himself with some transactions with which his heroic qualities had no affinity. 29. In consequence of these unhappy indiscretions and connections, he was, towards the close of the war, brought to trial before the court of King's Bench, for a hoax practised for jobbing purposes on the Stock Exchange, and, under the direction of Lord Ellenborough, convicted and sentenced to imprisonment and an ignominious punishment, the worst part of which the better feeling of government led them to remit. The result was, that the hero of Basque Roads was dismissed the navy, bereft of his honours, and driven into the service of the South American republics, where his exploits, of the most extraordinary and romantic character, powerfully contributed to destroy the last relics of the Spanish empire in that quarter, and establish * In Basque Roads, a seaman, sitting by Lord Cochrane's side in the boat, was killed by a cannon-shot from one of the French vessels, when in the act of looking through a telescope at the enemy's fleet. Without saying a word, or averting his eye, Cochrane took the instrument out of the dead man's hand, and completed the observation. 30. The defeat and blockade of the French squadron in Basque Roads was quickly felt in the capture of the French West India Islands, to relieve which was the object of its ill-fated sortie from Brest harbour. A British expedition sailed from Jamaica, and appear + Lord Cochrane was tried for alleged accession to the Stock Exchange hoax, before borough, and, being convicted, was sentenced a most able and powerful judge, Lord Ellento imprisonment and the pillory. There can be no doubt that the evidence tending to connect him with the facts charged was of a very strong, though chiefly of a circumstantial kind, and the judge was constrained to exhibit the case in an unfavourable light against the accused to the jury. Yet the author, after hearing Lord Cochrane deliver his defence in the House of Commons, on July 7, 1814, has never entertained a doubt of his innocence; and, even if the facts charged had been distinctly brought home to him, it was surely a most unwarrantable stretch to sentence to the degrading punishment of the pillory so heroic a character, especially for a proceeding involving no or since, made the object of punishment. moral turpitude, and rarely, if ever, before This part of the sentence was immediately and most properly remitted by government; but the result of the trial hung heavy on the hero of Basque Roads in this country for twenty years afterwards. In 1847 he was, from the general sense now entertained of the injustice he had undergone, restored to his rank in the navy and to the honours of the Bath, with the unanimous approval of the nation. views for the prosecution of the maritime contest were essentially wound up with the extension of his naval power in the Archipelago. By giving Great Britain a permanent footing in the neighbourhood of Greece, and the command of Corfu, the finest harbour and strongest fortress in the Adriatic, it powerfully contributed in the end to counterbalance the influence of the cabinet of St Petersburg in that quarter, and may be regarded as the first step in a series of events linked together by a chain of necessary though unperceived connection-the Greek Re ed off Martinique in the end of January. The landing was effected without any resistance; and the enemy having been defeated in a general action some days after, they were shut up in Fort Bourbon, the principal stronghold in the island, which shortly after surrendered at discretion, with three thousand men. This was followed, some months afterwards, by a successful descent on the colony and fortress of St Domingo, which, with two battalions of infantry, were taken by General Carmichael. Cayenne was also reduced; so that, as Cuba and the other Spanish settlements in those lati-volution-the battle of Navarino-the tudes were now allied colonies, the French flag was entirely excluded from the West Indies. prostration of Turkey-the establishment of a Christian government in Greece-the subjugation of Persia by 31. The Isle of France in the Indian Russia-and the rapid extension of ocean was at the same time strictly Muscovite influence in Khorassan, blockaded, and, it was foreseen, must These events are destined, to all huere long capitulate; the Isle of Bour- man appearance, in their ultimate conbon surrendered on the 21st Septem- sequences, to roll back to the East the ber; the French settlement on the tide of civilised conquest-array the Senegal river, on the western coast of powers of the West in fearful collision Africa, had fallen into the hands of in Central Asia-and prepare, in the the English; and preparations were hostile efforts of European ambition, making on a great scale for an attack that general regeneration of the troon Batavia, and the important island pical regions, which, for mysterious of Java in the Indian archipelago. purposes, Providence has hitherto preThus, in every direction, the last dis- vented from taking place by the deso tant settlements of Napoleon were fall-lating sway of Mahometan power. ing into the hands of the British; and, at the time when the triumphant conclusion of the Austrian war seemed to give him the undisputed command of continental Europe, the maritime superiority of England was producing its natural results, in the successive acquisition of the whole colonies of the globe. 32. Important success also attended the British arms, both by sea and land, in the Mediterranean. A powerful naval expedition was despatched in autumn, by Lord Collingwood, with sixteen hundred land troops on board, who, after a slight resistance, made themselves masters of the seven islands of Zante, Cephalonia, Corfu, &c., which were permanently placed under the protection and sway of Great Britain. The importance of this acquisition was not at that period perceived; but it was instantly felt by Napoleon, whose 33. In conformity with the earnest desire expressed by the Austrian government, that a diversion of considerable magnitude should be attempted on the coast of Italy, an expedition was prepared in the Sicilian harbours in the course of this summer, to menace the coast of Naples. As usual, however, the British government were so tardy in their operations, that not only was ample time given to the enemy to prepare for his defence at the menaced points, but it was utterly impossible that the attempt could have any beneficial effect on the vital line of operations in the valley of the Danube. The fleet, having no less than fifteen thousand troops, half British, and half Sicilian, on board, did not set sail from Palermo till the beginning of June; that is to say, more than a month after the Archduke John had retired from Italy, and the theatre of contest between him and Eugene Beau- mediately chased by Lord Collingwood, harnais had been transferred to the who blockaded that port; and, after Hungarian plains. It at first met a hard pursuit, the ships of war were with considerable success. The island forced to separate from the convoy, of Ischia, which forms so conspicuous and three ships of the line and one an object in the bay of Naples, was frigate driven ashore, where they were assaulted and carried by the British burned by their crews, to prevent them troops: Procida was next taken, close from falling into the hands of the to the shore, with a flotilla of forty British. Meanwhile the transports, gun-boats, fifteen hundred prisoners, under convoy of a frigate and some and a hundred pieces of cannon; while smaller armed ships, in all eleven vesa detachment of the English forces, sels, having taken refuge in the bay of landing in the straits of Messina, took Rosas, under protection of the powerpossession of the castle of Scylla and ful castle and batteries there, deemed the chain of fortified posts opposite to themselves beyond the reach of attack. Sicily. These advantages had at first In that situation, however, they were the effect of spreading a great alarm assailed by a detachment of the Britalong the Neapolitan coast, and occa- ish fleet, under the orders of Captain sioning the recall of a considerable Hallowell, who at once formed the darbody of men whom Murat had detach- ing resolution of cutting out the whole ed to the support of the Viceroy; but with the boats of the ships under his they led to no other or more durable command. The arrangements for this result. This powerful British force, purpose, made with the judgment and nearly as large as that which gained foresight which might have been exthe battle of Vimeira, and which, if pected from that distinguished hero of landed and skilfully brought into ac- the Nile, were carried into effect by tion, would probably have overthrown Lieutenant Tailour with a spirit and the whole army of Naples, was shortly resolution above all praise. In sight after withdrawn without attempting of the fleet, the boats stretched out, anything farther, by the instructions the crews being at the highest point of government, who intended this only of animation, filling the air with their as a diversion; and the fortified posts cheers: and rapidly advancing under at Scylla, after being several times a very heavy fire from the armed ships taken and retaken, were at length aban- and batteries, carried the whole vessels doned to the enemy. This expedition, in the most gallant style, and either from its tardy appearance and incon- burned or brought away them all. siderable exploits, could hardly be said Brilliant, however, as these naval opeto have contributed much to aid the rations were, they had no decisive effect common cause; but, from the alarm on the issue of the war. The mariwhich it diffused through the Italian time contest was already decided: at peninsula, it had a powerful effect in Trafalgar the dominion of the seas had accelerating the ecclesiastical revolu- finally passed to the British flag. It tion which has already been noticed, was at land that the real struggle now and may be regarded as the immediate lay; it was for the deliverance of other cause of the arrest of the Pope, which nations that England now fought; it in its ultimate effects produced such was on the soldiers of Wellington that important results. the eyes of the world were turned. 34. A maritime operation, attended with more decisive results, took place in autumn, in the bay of Genoa. A detachment of the Toulon fleet having put to sea, with a view to carry succours to the French troops in the bay of Rosas, which were cut off by the Spaniards from direct communication with their own country, they were im 35. After the retreat of the English to Corunna, and the fall of Madrid, affairs in the Peninsula appeared wellnigh desperate. In Portugal there was only a corps of eight thousand British soldiers, chiefly in and around Lisbon, upon whom any reliance could be placed. For though about six thou Granada, and Valencia, they were as yet too ill-disciplined and remote from the scene of action to be capable of affording any efficient support to regular troops in the earlier periods of the campaign. And though, in Catalonia, there were at least fifty thousand brave men in possession of Gerona, Rosas, Tarragona, Tortosa, Lerida, and a strong central range of mountains, yet they were fully occupied with the invaders in their own bounds, and without either seeking succour from, or being able to afford succour to the neighbouring provinces, resolutely maintained on their own hills an inde pendent hostility. The patriot forces numbered in all scarcely a hundred and twenty thousand men, scattered over the whole extent of the Peninsula, without either any means of uniting with each other, any central authority to which they all yielded obedience, or any common object to which they could simultaneously be applied. At Madrid, Joseph reigned with the apparent consent of the nation. Registers having been opened for the inscription of the names of those who were favourable to his government, no less than twentyeight thousand heads of families in a few days enrolled themselves; and deputations from the municipal council, the council of the Indies, and all the incorporations, waited upon him at Valladolid, to entreat that he would return to the capital and reassume the royal functions, with which he at length complied. sand men, under Silviera, lay in the | in that city after the fall of Madrid. northern provinces, and the Lusitanian As to the new levies in Andalusia, legion, of half that amount, on the north-eastern frontier, under the able guidance of the gallant Sir R. Wilson, yet the composition of the forces of which these detachments consisted, recently embodied and not yet fully disciplined, was not such as to inspire any confidence as to their ability to contend with regular soldiers, or defend the country in the event of a fresh invasion. Their small numerical amount compelled Cradock, in the first instance, to concentrate his forces, which he did at Passa d'Arcos, close to the mouth of the Tagus, where he might be in a situation to embark with safety, if a serious invasion should be attempted. These dispositions, however, naturally spread the belief that the English were going to abandon the country, as they had done Galicia; and tumults broke out in various quarters arising from the dread of this anticipated desertion. Towards the end of February, however, the arrival of six thousand men from England, under Sherbrooke and Mackenzie, having augmented Cradock's force to fourteen thousand, he was enabled to take a position in advance, covering the capital, at Saccavino, which soon, by reviving confidence, had the effect of removing the public apprehensions. 36. Affairs in Spain were still more unpromising. The army of Blake, which had suffered so severely at Espinosa and Reynosa, had dwindled away to eight or nine thousand ragged and half-starved troops, without either stores or artillery, who with difficulty maintained themselves in the Galician mountains: the remains of the soldiers of Aragon, about twenty thousand strong, had thrown themselves into Saragossa, where they were preparing to undergo a fresh siege. Castanos' men, who had come up from Andalusia, joined to some who had escaped from Somo-Sierra and Madrid, in all twenty-five thousand strong, were in La Mancha, and had their headquarters at Toledo; while ten or twelve thousand disorganised levies at Badajoz formed a sort of guard for the Central Junta, who had established themselves 37. On the other hand, the forces of Napoleon were much more formidable, both from the position which they occupied, and the number and quality of the troops of which they were composed. Instead of being spread out, like the English and Spanish hosts. round an immense circumference, without any means of communicating with or supporting each other, they were massed together in the central parts of the kingdom, and possessed the inestimable advantage of an interior and comparatively short line of communication. The total French force in the Penin |