THE situation of Great Britain, at the beginning of the year 1808, was more extraordinary than any that is exhibited in the history of former times. After a war, which, with the short interval of the peace of Amiens, had continued fifteen years, and, at the commencement of which all Europe had been leagued with her against France, her last reliance upon the continental governments had failed, and all Europe (Sweden alone excepted,) was so humbled, that it was manifest the few states which still preserved a semblance of neutrality, would soon be compelled into a confederacy with France against her. The French military force, and the English navy, two the most tremendous powers that had ever yet existed, were opposed to each other without the possibility of coming in conflict. Masters, as the French were, of the continent, all thoughts of

attacking them by land were at an end, and neither they nor their allies dared show their flag upon the sea. We, therefore, could not in any way lessen the power of the enemy, neither could they subdue, nor in any way weaken us. The threat of invasion had long been laid aside; that it had been seriously intended by Buonaparte, at the recommencement of hostilities, is beyond a doubt; but the spirit with which all England flew to arms at the menace, had in timidated him, and his gun-boats were left to rot in the harbour of Boulogne. Secured against this bugbear, by its confessed abandonment, by our fleets, and still more by our internal strength, we were carrying on the war, equally without fear and without hope.

The state of cur home politics was not less remarkable. For the first

VOL. I. PART I,

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time, we were under an administration without a name; its ostensible head, the duke of Portland, was a man who never appeared in parliament, and who was never either spoken or thought of by the public. The other members held their place, less by their own strength, than by the weakness of their opponents. Of all administrations, indeed, that of "All the Talents," as it was denominated, had been the most unpopular. The two parties of which it was composed had been for many years engaged, not merely in opposition, but in absolute enmity and hatred of each other; and their coalescence was like the combination of two chemical substances, each having a distinct character of its own, which, when they meet, and are neutralized, is lost in both. The Grenville party suffered least by this union; for it had less to lose, and had made the fewest concessions of principle. The peace of Amiens had placed the talents of Lord Grenville in a stronger light than they had ever before been seen in: the same prophetic foresight which Mr Fox had displayed when the first unhappy war was undertaken, he had manifested at its fallacious termination, and that too with a feeling of national honour which all his opponents seemed in some degree to have laid aside. In another point, also, his character stood higher than that of Mr Pitt; for, both of them equally favouring and being equally pledged to the measure of Catholic Emancipation, he had refused to abandon that measure as the means of coming into power, when Mr Pitt thought proper to concede it. Lord Grenville, therefore, on his re-entering into administration, was looked to with confidence, by those who expected great

benefits to result from this Emanci pation, as it was pompously termed ; by the remains of that once numerous portion of the people, who, having formerly been duped by the Anti-Jacobin alarmists, regarded the old minority as the most dangerous enemies of their country, and relied upon him, as their security against them; and by that wiser class, who, however they had differed concerning the justice and necessity of the last war, were convinced that the present was unavoidable; and that England had no other danger to apprehend, than that of being entrapped into a deceitful peace. To the Catholics, and to a vigorous prosecution of the war, so long as war was essential to the safety and honour of the nation, Lord Grenville and his friends were pledged; to these points, and to these only. With the Foxites it was otherwise: their leader was bound, as strongly as professions could bind him, to obtain the repeal of the Test Act; and, with the same reason, a reform in the representation of the people was expected from Lord Howick. It was expected, and justly expected, from these statesmen, now they were in power, that each should effect the measure which he had so often and so strenuously brought forward when in opposition; and from the whole party, the removal, or, at least, the modification, of the income-tax was looked for, which they had formerly resisted as so inquisitorial in its principle, so iniquitous in its proportions, and so oppressive in its operation. The promises of men in place have long been considered as proverbially worthless; the professions of those who are out of place are no better. Upon the death of Mr Pitt, the government fell, as it were by inheritance, to his opponents.

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was playing an ambitious game, of which Hanover, and perhaps Holland, with an imperial crown, would have been the prize. A memorable lesson was afforded to posterity in that disastrous battle, when a single day sufficed for the overthrow of a power, which it had taken a century of violent and iniquitous policy to build up. But, with the Baltic open to our fleets, we might have assisted Russia; an English force might have relieved Dantzic; an English army might have been present at Fultusk and at Eylau, and would probably have rendered either of those battles a decisive victory over the French; an English army might have drawn off part of the strength of France from Russia, and either by such a diversion, or by its presence, have changed the fortune of the day at Friedland. But, instead of exerting the resources of Great Britain now, when, for the first time, the popular opinion upon the continent was in our favour; when the writings of enlightened men had succeeded in exciting against the French that feeling, upon which, at the commencement of the war, their strength was founded; and when Buonaparte, throwing off the mask, had manifested himself to all Europe, by the murder of Palm, for the bloody and insolent tyrant that he is; instead of taking advantage of these circumstances, and the spirit of resistance which had arisen, our ministry stood aloof from the contest, leaving the continental powers to fight their own battles, as if their victory was not to be our gain, and their defeat our loss. This timorous policy explained what were the con

cessions which the Grenville party had made to their colleagues; and the nation perceived, when it was too late, that the good which either party might have produced by acting wholly upon its own principles, was not to be expected from a coalition which had paralysed both.

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The parliamentary conduct of the Foxites disappointed still more poignantly those who had fixed their hopes upon them. Catholic Emancipation was adjourned till a more convenient season; the dissenters looked in vain to Mr Fox for the repeal of the Test Act; and Lord Howick, so many years the foremost advocate for a reform in the representation, had now discovered that it was not the general wish of the people of England. The income-tax, instead of being more equally proportioned, was doubled; and the full impost of ten per cent., which Mr Pitt, with sufficient rigour, had made commence with incomes of two hundred a-year, was levied upon those of one. Cruel and iniquitous as this tax was in the highest degree, the most oppressive to which a free people has ever submitted, it was made as vexatious as possible, by compelling those persons, whose little incomes were below the standard of taxation, to pay their full proportion, which they were afterwards to recover by producing proper testimonials; thus subjecting them to certain trouble, probable inconvenience, and not unlikely loss, from their ignorance how to apply for restitution, and the difficulty and expence of taking a journey to obtain it. * Such, indeed, were the first proceedings of this