the arrangements made by Pitt before his resignation were crowned with success. After a long siege, Malta surrendered in 1800, and on March 8, 1801, an expedition under Sir Ralph Abercromby landed in Egypt to drive out the French army which had been left there by Bonaparte. Abercromby

was killed, but his troops, after a series of successful operations, finally reduced Alexandria to surrender on August 30, when it was agreed that the whole of the French army should evacuate Egypt. The Egyptian campaign was memorable, as showing, for the first time since the French Revolution, that British soldiers were still capable of defeating the French.

24. The Northern Confederacy and the Battle of Copenhagen. 1801. In the North the British Government was no less successful. A Northern Confederacy had been formed between Russia, Sweden and Denmark which, though it did not declare itself directly hostile to England, was intended to resist, as in the days of

Royal arms from 1816 to 1837: the Hanoverian scutcheon surmounted by a royal crown.

the American War, the pretensions of British ships to search neutral vessels in order to take out of them French goods (see p. 792). The Government sent a fleet to break up the confederacy, but

1801

NELSON IN THE BALTIC

845

appointed Nelson only second in command under Sir Hyde Parker, who was of no note as a sailor. Parker sent Nelson to attack Copenhagen. On April 2, Nelson opened fire upon the heavy batteries which defended the city. After the battle had raged for some time, Parker, believing Nelson to be in danger of defeat, hoisted a signal ordering him to draw off. Nelson, who some years before had lost the sight of an eye in action, put his telescope to his blind eye, and, declaring that he could not see the signal of recall, kept his own signal for close action flying. In the end the Danish batteries were silenced. Nelson sent ashore the wounded

Greathead's lifeboat, 1803: from the European Magazine.

Danes, and when he landed was received with shouts by the people in appreciation of his kindness to the sufferers. Nelson assured the Crown Prince, who acted as Regent in his father's place, that he wished to treat the Danes as the brothers of the English, and an armistice was concluded. Not long afterwards, the war in the North came to an end through the murder of the Tzar Paul. His son and successor, Alexander I., made on June 17 a treaty with England, in which he and his allies abandoned their claim that the neutral flag should protect enemies' goods, thus admitting the right of search claimed by the British Government.

25. The Treaty of Amiens. 1802.-Negotiations with France were in the meanwhile pushed rapidly forward. Preliminaries of peace were signed in London on October 1, 1801, and a definitive treaty at Amiens on March 28, 1802. Great Britain abandoned all her conquests beyond the seas except Ceylon and Trinidad, and agreed to restore Malta to the Knights, if its possession by them were guaranteed by the great powers. 'It was a peace which,' as Sheridan, the wit of the Opposition, declared, 'everybody would be glad of, but which nobody would be proud of.' The broad fact of the situation was that France was strong enough to retain her conquests in Europe; and that the enthusiasm which would alone enable those who had suffered from her aggression to wrest

her gains from her was entirely lacking both in England and on the Continent. Pitt may have been right in holding that England ought not to allow France to possess herself of the Netherlands; but he had totally failed in preventing her from doing it, and in 1802 there did not appear to be the remotest chance that he or any other minister would succeed better in the future. In Parliament and out of Parliament the peace was welcomed with joy. George III., when the preliminaries of peace were signed in 1801, had taken the opportunity to abandon the empty title of king of France, which had been borne by his predecessors since the time of Edward III., and to omit the French lilies from the royal arms (see p. 844).

26. Rupture of the Treaty of Amiens. 1803.-The Treaty of Amiens had scarcely been signed before the English Ministers began

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to fear that Bonaparte was about to employ the time of peace merely to strengthen himself for further attacks upon their own and other countries. He annexed Piedmont and occupied Switzerland. It is probable, however, that these things would have been passed over in England, if the Ministry had not conceived suspicions that he intended to re-occupy Egypt. They therefore refused to give up Malta to the Knights as they were bound by the treaty to do, first on the ground that no guarantee of its independence could be obtained from the great Powers (see p. 846), and then on the ground that, whatever they might be bound to by treaty, they needed Malta as a security against the danger of a French conquest of Egypt. Bonaparte claimed the execution of the treaty, and on one occasion used most violent language to Lord Whitworth, the English ambassador. He was himself irritated, not merely on the subject of Malta, but because the English Ministers refused to suppress without trial the virulent attacks on himself which were published by the French refugees in England. One of these, named Peltier, was indeed convicted of libel by a jury, but he escaped punishment because France and England were again at war before judgment was pronounced against him. As no com promise about Malta acceptable to both sides could be found, war was recommenced before the end of May 1803.

27. The last Months of the Addington Ministry. 1803-1804. On the outbreak of hostilities, Bonaparte gave reasonable offence to the British nation by throwing into prison about 10,000 British travellers, though it had always been the custom to give time to such persons to leave the country after a declaration of war. As he had no other war on his hands than that with Great Britain, he seized Hanover and assembled a large army at Boulogne to invade England. At once a volunteer army stepped forward to aid the regular army in the defence of the country. From one end of the country to the other some 300,000 volunteers of all classes were busily drilling. Public opinion soon demanded a stronger ministry than the existing one. On May 10, 1804, Addington resigned. General opinion called for Pitt as Prime Minister at the head of a ministry taken from both parties, so that all disposable talent might be employed in the defence of the nation. The King insisted that Pitt should promise never to support Catholic Emancipation, and should exclude Fox from the new ministry. Fox at once consented to be passed over, but Lord Grenville refused to join if Fox was excluded. "I will teach that proud man," said Pitt, "that I can do without him," and on May 18 Pitt again became Prime Minister, though with but a poor staff of ministers to support him.