Battle of Trafalgar. Death of of Villeneuve, and at last found him off Cape Trafalgar. In the battle, Nelson, employing the same plan as Rodney had used against De Grasse, and Duncan against the Dutch at Camperdown, formed his vessels in two columns at right angles to the enemy's line, and, sailing upon them in this way, he broke their line in two places and threw them into confusion. The manœuvre was completely successful; the whole of the French and Spanish fleet was either sunk, captured, or forced to take refuge in Cadiz, where the French vessels fell into our hands at a later time. Unfortunately, Nelson, whose brilliant uniform made him a mark for the enemy's balls, was killed by a rifle-shot. Happily, death did not come to him till his work was complete. Trafalgar had finished what the victories of the 1st of June, St. Vincent, and the Nile had begun. The English fleets were now supreme on every ocean, England and her colonies were safe from invasion, and her merchants could traffic in security on every sea. Had the coalition been as successful on land, Napoleon's career might have ended in 1805; but unfortunately the Austrians and Russians were utterly defeated at the battle of Austerlitz, and this disaster destroyed all hope of concluding the war at present. Soon after Austerlitz Pitt died, worn out by anxiety and hard work. It has been said that Austerlitz killed him; but he was too great a man for that. Except for the battle of Trafalgar, his ministry had been unfortunate. His best friend, Lord Melville, had been impeached in Parliament and forced to resign, in consequence of some irregularities which had been found in the accounts of the navy. His health was utterly failing him, and in January, 1806, just after the news of Austerlitz reached England, he died. Though Pitt did not live to defeat Napoleon, he had filled his countrymen with the determination not to be beaten. His last public speech concluded with the sentence, "England has saved herself by her exertions, and the rest of Europe will be saved by her example." Disaster at Death of Pitt. The ministry Pitt's place was taken by a coalition ministry, under Lord Grenville and Fox, in which an attempt was made to unite the ablest men of all parties, and for this reason it was called the ministry of "All the Talents." of "All the Talents." Death of Fox. Its leaders hoped to make a satisfactory peace with Napoleon, and to carry on the progressive measures which had been checked by the French Revolution. In the first of these hopes they were disappointed. Fox, who when in opposition had always thrown the blame of the war on the English government, now found too late that Napoleon was the real offender; with the best intentions he opened negotiations with the emperor, but found him quite impracticable, and he had hardly been convinced of his mistake, when he followed his great rival, Pitt, to the grave, in 1806. At home, however, government was more successful, and before he died, Fox had the satisfaction of helping to pass a resolution condemning the slave trade, on which an act, passed in 1807, for its abolition was founded. Hitherto the efforts of Wilberforce and his friends, though they had the good will of Pitt, had been foiled by the House of Lords. Resolution condemning the slave trade. Battle of Abroad, the great event of the year 1806 was the battle of Jena, in which the Prussians, who had selfishly refused to help Austria and Russia in 1805, and so had been mainly responsible for their ruin, were completely crushed, and for some years the Prussian monarchy could hardly be said to be independent. After Jena, Napoleon issued his famous Berlin Decrees, by which he forbade France and all Berlin decrees. her allies to trade with England, and declared all English ports to be in a state of blockade. By this means he hoped, though he had no navy, to strike a heavy blow at English trade, on which he knew that our strength depended. In return England issued Napoleon's The Orders in Council. the Orders in Council, by which she forbade any trade to be carried on with French ports, or with ports occupied by French troops. The Berlin Decrees did not do England much harm, as Napoleon had no means of enforcing them; but the English, having the command of the sea, were able to effectively blockade the Mediterranean, the Baltic, and the French ports, and practically to sweep from the sea the commerce of France and her allies. Unfortunately, the enforcement of the Orders made us the enemies of neutral states, such as Sweden, Denmark, and the United States, who wished to trade with France, and led to quarrels which soon involved us in war with the United States. The Duke of Portland becomes Prime Minister. In 1807, besides abolishing the slave trade, the ministers brought forward a measure for allowing Roman Catholics to hold the higher commissions in the army, as they already might the lower; but this revived all the old hostility of the king, and they were obliged to withdraw it. As they refused to bind themselves not to bring forward the subject again, they were dismissed. Their place was taken by the Duke of Portland, who as a young man had been premier of the coalition formed by Fox and North, and in 1794, frightened by the French Revolution, had led a great secession of moderate Whigs into Pitt's camp. Portland was now both a Tory and also an opponent of the claims of the Catholics, and his administration was formed on these principles. The chief members were Perceval, Chancellor of the Exchequer; Canning, Foreign Secretary; Lord Castlereagh, War and Colonial Secretary; Huskisson, Secretary to the Treasury. As it was thought that new ministers must have given a definite promise to the king not to revive the claims of the Catholics, a motion was introduced "that ministers ought not to bind themselves by any pledge as to what advice they shall give the king;" but it was lost. Soon afterwards Parliament was dissolved, and the electors showed their sympathy with what George had done by returning a large anti-Catholic majority. Naval operations. Since the failure of Fox's negotiations the war had been going on as before; but the English had not been engaged in any operations Continuation of great magnitude. In 1806 General Stuart, who of the war. with a small English force was defending Sicily against the French, landed in Calabria, and defeated the French general, Regnier, in the battle of Maida. In 1807 it was learnt that the French had again formed the design of seizing the Danish fleet, so an expedition was sent against Copenhagen, which bombarded the city, captured the fleet, and also took the island of Heligoland, which forms a convenient station for a fleet, watching the mouth of the Elbe. In pursuance of our usual colonial policy, we again seized the Cape of Good Hope in 1806, and in 1807 expeditions were sent against the Spanish colonies of BuenosAyres and Monte Video. These expeditions were failures. Monte Video was captured; but General Whitelocke, who commanded at Buenos-Ayres, managed to entangle his troops in the streets, and finally was forced to surrender and to give up Monte Video, as the price of freedom. Three years later, in 1810, we took from the French the island of Mauritius, which we still hold. the battle of Napoleon's plan for the conquest of Portugal. Designs Meanwhile Napoleon, though he had been nearly defeated by the Russians at the battle of Eylau, had routed them at Friedland. This victory led to the treaty of Tilsit, by which Russia joined France against England. By this time Napoleon had extended his system of excluding English goods to every important European country except Portugal, and his next step was, in alliance with Spain, to form a plan for conquering that country, which he hated as England's firm ally, and partitioning it. Accordingly, a French army under Junot invaded Portugal, and forced the royal family to take refuge in their colony of Brazil. Napoleon's plan, however, now began to unfold itself; for, under pretence of supporting Junot, he managed to place French troops in command of all the important military posts in the north of Spain. Unfortunately, the King of Spain and his eldest son were at variance. Napoleon contrived to induce each of them to give up his claim, and he then forced the Spanish grandees, whom he summoned to Bayonne, to choose his elder brother, Joseph Buonaparte, whom Napoleon had already made King of Naples, to be their sovereign. French troops then escorted Joseph to Madrid, and took possession of the Spanish towns; but before long a rebellion broke out, in which the Spanish army took part. A French army was forced to surrender at Baylen ; and in 1808 Joseph abandoned Madrid, and all Spain, except that part which lay close to the Pyrenees, was evacuated. on Spain. Expedition This successful insurrection, which had gained the first great success which had been won over the French on land since the beginning of the war, and which had been gained, not by kings and their armies, but by an insurrection of the people, roused the enthusiasm of Europe; and Canning immediately despatched an expedition under Sir Arthur Wellesley, the victor of Assaye, to attack Junot, who was now completely cut off from France, and force him to surrender. Wellesley landed at Mondego Bay, north of Lisbon, and marched down the coast, defeating on his road a small force of French at Roriça. While encamped on the sea coast at Vimeira, Junot marched out |