1804.] CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE FIRST CONSUL-THE DUC D'ENGHIEN. 433 minister in a foreign country is obliged, by the nature of his office, and the duties of his situation, to abstain from all communication with the disaffected of the country where he is accredited, as well as from every act injurious to the interests of that country; but he is not subject to the same restraints with respect to countries with which his sovereign is at war.' This is very doubtful morality. When lord Hawkesbury said that "belligerent powers have an acknowledged right to avail themselves of all discontents that may exist in countries with which they may be at war," he did not very logically close his argument by reproaching the French for their encouragement of Irish rebels. The murder of the duc d'Enghien, the only son of the duc de Bourbon, and grandson of the prince de Condé, quickly followed the discovery of what French writers call the Anglo-Bourbon conspiracy. He was residing in the State of Baden; was carried off to France by a troop of horse which had crossed the Rhine in the night; was conducted to Paris on the 20th of March, heavily fettered; was hurried to the Castle of Vincennes, and was subjected the same night to an examination by a military commission, who sentenced him to death. He was shot before dawn, in the ditch of the castle, by the light of torches. His murder produced a profound sensation throughout all civilized countries. Thiers has a few epigrammatic sentences on the conduct of Bonaparte in this hateful transaction. "The sage Consul had suddenly become a madman. He was the injured man who breathes only vengeance; he was the victorious man voluntarily braving the enemies that he is sure to conquer. The better to defy his adversaries, and to satisfy his ambition at the same time as his anger, he put the imperial crown upon his head."+

434

ABSTRACT OF A LIST OF SUCH YEOMANRY AND VOLUNTEER CORPS AS AND PLACED ON THE ESTABLISHMENT IN

HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED

GREAT

BRITAIN.

Parties opposed to Mr. Pitt's government-Indications of a new Grand Alliance-Napoleon and the army at Boulogne-Coronation of Napoleon-His letter to the king-Addington joins the ministry-War with Spain-Charges against Lord Melville-His impeachmentTreaty with Russia-Annexation of Genoa-Nelson's chase after the French and Spanish fleets-Sir Robert Calder's naval action-Napoleon's anxiety at Boulogne-He breaks up the camp-March into Germany-Surrender of the Austrian army at Ulm-Nelson takes the command of the fleet off Cadiz-Victory of Trafalgar-Death of Nelson-His Funeral -French enter Vienna-Austerlitz-Peace of Presburg-Pitt's failing health-Death of Pitt.

WHEN Mr. Pitt returned to power in May, 1804, he did not enter the House of Commons with his old confidence in an overwhelming majority. There were three parties who were either wholly or partially opposed to the government. The Addington party was sore and was capricious. The Grenville party was disgusted at the acceptance of office by Pitt, without having stoutly resisted the king's system of exclusion. The Fox party was systematically opposed to the war-policy which had been pursued since 1793. The ministry could only absolutely command about 230 votes; and it would be beaten whenever the three neutral or opposition parties coalesced.* There was a great trial of strength on the 18th of June, in the largest House since

436

NEW GRAND ALLIANCE-NAPOLEON AT BOULOGNE.

[1804.

1741. The ministerial majority was only 42, there being 493 members present at the division.* The Session, however, would soon come to a close. On the 31st of July, the prorogation took place. There was a curious incident which the Speaker has recorded. The king read the Speech with great animation, but accidentally turned over two leaves together, and so emitted about one fourth of his intended Speech. Mr. Abbot adds, with a slight touch of sarcasm, "the transition was not incoherent, and it escaped some of the cabinet who had heard it before the king delivered it." The king's printer did not turn over two leaves. The Speech went forth with this significant paragraph: "I entertain the animating hope that the benefit to be derived from our successful exertions will not be confined within ourselves, but that by their example and their consequences, they may lead to the establishment of such a system in Europe as may rescue it from the precarious state to which it is reduced, and may finally raise an effectual barrier against the unbounded schemes of aggrandizement and ambition which threaten every inde pendent nation that yet remains on the continent." The "effectual barrier" evidently contemplated a new Grand Alliance-" a system in Europe" which should take Great Britain out of her isolation, and give new occupation to the enemy who had vowed her destruction. Wilberforce, after the proroga tion, had discovered in Pitt "a greater willingness to subsidize," of which policy he disapproves: "Pitt is the most upright political character I ever knew or heard of; but with all public men it is extremely dangerous for a country that they should be under a temptation to fight it out-to try their fortune again after having been unsuccessful in a former war."†

The 16th of August was the birthday of Napoleon. On that day the emperor was at Boulogne, seated on a magnificent throne, with the dignitaries of his empire, his marshals and his ministers, grouped around him, and before him the mighty army of a hundred thousand men destined for the conquest of England. The spot where this spectacle was exhibited is marked by a column which every Englishman may see-and not without his own national pride-when he is passing the Channel. There Napoleon distributed the crosses of the Legion of Honour to a chosen band; ever and anon raising his telescope to gaze upon a division of his flotilla exchanging a cannonade with an English squadron. He looked upon the white cliffs of Albion as Caligula had looked. Unlike Caligula, he had a people who did not despise his "lofty throne," and he has found historians who are prostrate before the grandeur of this empty pageantry. If the press had been free in France, the wits would have laughed at this rivalry of the tinsel magnificence of the Theatre. The English journals did laugh. "The British Press," says Thiers, "insulting and arrogant as the whole press is in a free country, ridiculed Napoleon and his preparations; but it was the ridicule of a mocker who trembles whilst he appears to laugh."§ The emperor proceeded to Aix-laChapelle, and thence to Mayence, to receive the homage of the petty princes of Germany. He returned to St. Cloud on the 12th of October. He had looked upon England; he had heard his legions swear that they would shed

+ Life," vol. iii. p. 206.

For a parallel between Caligula and Napoleon at Boulogne, see ante, vol. i. p. 17. § "Le Consulat et l'Empire," tome v. p. 197.

1805.]

CORONATION OF NAPOLEON-LETTER TO THE KING.

437

their blood on that chalky shore to make him master of the world; yet he would let the autumn pass without taking the leap of ten leagues across that bewildering sea. "Providence," says M. Thiers, "which had in reserve for him such abundance of glory, had not permitted him to give this eclat to his coronation. There remained to him another mode to dazzle men's minds-to make the Pope descend for an instant from the pontifical throne, to come to Paris to bless the emperor's sceptre and his crown." A very different sort of victory; a triumph like that over "the poor beetle that we tread upon." The sovereign pontiff made many objections. They were overcome by the man who acknowledged no will but his own. The Pope must come at once; so that the emperor might proceed in December to the conquest of England. On the 2nd of December the Coronation took place in the metropolitan church of Notre Dame. The Pope anointed the Emperor and the Empress with the sacred oil. The crown, the sceptre, the mantle, and the sword were on the altar. The Pope lifted the crown; but Napoleon, snatching the diadem, modelled after the crown of Charlemagne, out of the hands of the Holy Father, placed it upon his own head; and then he crowned the Empress, who knelt before him. Still no invasion of England. "The cry is still they come."-But they did not come; and in the social meetings of that Christmas, the sturdy Anglo-Saxon race joined in many a chorus. of "Come if you dare," "The tight little island," and "The land, boys, we live in."

On the 2nd of January, 1805, Napoleon addressed a letter to the king of England, beginning, "Called to the throne of France by Providence, and by the suffrages of the senate, the people, and the army, my first sentiment is a wish for peace." There was much commonplace in this epistle, and some good sense. "Your nation is at the highest point of prosperity; what can it hope from war? To form a coalition with some powers of the continent? The continent will remain tranquil: a coalition can only increase the preponderance and continental greatness of France." The Secretary for Foreign. Affairs answered, in the name of the king, that it was impossible for him to reply to this overture till his majesty had communicated with the powers of the continent, and particularly with the emperor of Russia. With an unusual candour the historian of the Empire considers this letter of Napoleon too palpably designed to affect moderation, and to seize an occasion to address the king of England as from monarch to monarch. When the Imperial Parliament met, this letter to "Monsieur mon frère" was alluded to in the royal speech; but no debate was raised, as on the letter of the First Consul in 1800. All felt that the profession of a desire for peace was a mere form of words, which the writer scarcely expected to deceive.

Mr. Pitt had strengthened himself before the meeting of parliament on the 15th of January, by a reconciliation with Mr. Addington. The party of the ex-minister, small as it was, and by no means popular in its exclusive pretensions to be called "the king's friends," was yet able to turn the scale upon any nicely balanced question. Addington was raised to the peerage as viscount Sidmouth, and was appointed President of the Council. "So far" writes Francis Horner, "as I had opportunities of observing the first impres

Thiers, tome v. p. 274.