duties of his office. The principles, however, which he had laid down, seemed to have regulated the conduct of the British cabinet throughout the discussions. An attention not only to the interests but to the wishes of Russia, a firm determination to listen to no measure that could give her umbrage or suspicion, and a strong desire to preserve Sicily, amounting nearly to a resolution not to abandon it, were, on the part of Great Britain, the most prominent features of the latter, as they had been of the early part of the negotiation. Lord Lauderdale was not authorized" to sign any treaty except provisionally, such treaty not to have its full effect until peace should be concluded between Russia and France;" but he was at the same time instructed," to impart to the French plenipotentiaries the conditions upon which Russia, (according to the full and perfect knowledge his Britannic ma jesty had of the intentions of that court), would be willing to negotiate with the French government; to reduce them into the form of a treaty in the event of their being agreed to on both sides; and to insert an article in the provisional treaty between Great Britain and France, by which his Britannic majesty should engage to employ his mediation for the purpose of obtaining the accession of his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias to the said treaty."

It seemed that M. Talleyrand felt little or no objection to the above-described form of proceeding; but, notwithstanding the conciliating tone adopted by that minister, the official note in which the promised acquiescence of the emperor was signified, breathed a very different spirit. It contained much irrevalent and offensive matter; it was conceived in the language of remonstrance and reproach, and barely conveyed a reluctant consent to the proposal of Lord Lauderdale. It was manifest from this circumstance, as well as from other passages of the correspondence, that the impatience of Bonaparte would have brought the negotiation to an abrupt and violent conclusion, but for the frequent and wise interposition of his ministers, who, sometimes by address, and sometimes by representation, contrived to soften the tone and moderate the language of their official communications. The English negotiator, in his reply to the abovementioned paper, though he took as much notice of the offensive topics introduced into it as was

essential to the maintenance of his own dignity, BOOK VII. very judiciously combined it with the personal assurances of M. Talleyrand, and considered it CHAP. V. as amounting to a full admission of his propo1806. sal. But, on the renewal of the conferences, it did not appear that France was disposed to relax in any one of her pretensions. In the meanwhile Bonaparte had left Paris for the army on the Rhine, and one of the plenipotentiaries (General Clarke,) as well as M. Talleyrand accompanied him on his journey. M. Champagny, who remained to conduct the negotiation, was neither authorized to relinquish the claims of Joseph upon Sicily, nor to acquiesce in such an arrangement as would have satisfied the court of St. Petersburgh. Petersburgh. The negotiation was therefore at an end, and Lord Lauderdale peremptorily insisted on his passports. In the last conference M. Champagny, though he had previously doubted his powers of hearing Lord Lauderdale upon the subject of Russia (notwithstanding the assurances contained in the public note and con versations of M. Talleyrand) offered to cede the full sovereignty of Corfu to that power.. This was rejected as insufficient, which led to the erro-neous opinion that the negotiation was broken off solely because Great Britain insisted on the cession of Dalmatia to Russia.

The obvious policy of France, when she de spaired of any separate peace with Great Britain, was to induce her to admit in the project of a treaty such terms as she foresaw would alienate the affections, and shake the confidence of her. ally the Emperor of Russia. The honorable determination of the British cabinet, and the firm but temperate conduct of the negotiator defeated this design, and his earnest and pe remptory demand of passports was at length granted, though they were accompanied with a note evidently composed under the immediate direction of Bonaparte. This paper insinuated that the principles of Mr. Fox had been abans doned by his colleagues and successors; that a departure from the basis laid down by him had thrown the first obstacle in the way of pacification, and that to the loss of that great man alone was to be ascribed the further continuance of the calamities of war. To these charges Lord. Lauderdale delivered a spirited, manly, and convincing reply.

at that moment only four ships of the line and three frigates; but with this inferior force he gallantly pursued the enemy, in order to watch his motions and check any enterprizes he might meditate. No sooner had the French admiral collected the whole of his squadron at Martinique, than he put again to sea, and steered to the north, followed at a distance by Cochrane, who, though he avoided an engagement, hovered in sight of the enemy's squadron, to prevent him making any attempt on the ports or shipping of the English islands. In passing St. Thomas's the French slackened sail for the English, as if desirous of coming to action, but Cochrane, considering the inferiority of his force, the French having been joined by another ship of the line and three frigates after they left Martinique, declined fighting, and satisfied with having traced the course of the enemy to Porto Rico, returned to Tortola, leaving two frigates to watch their motions. It was fortunate for the French admiral that he lost so little time at Martinique: for, on the 12th of July, Sir John Borlase Warren arrived at Barbadoes with six sail of the line, which had been dispatched from England with unexampled promptitude, on the first surmise of the French having re-passed the line and directed their course to the West Indies. Another squadron, under Sir Richard Strachan, had been previously sent out to cruise for them; and when news arrived of their escape from the West Indies, a third squadron, under Sir Thomas Louis, put to sea to intercept their return; besides which, blockading squadrons watched all the principal ports of the Continent, into which they could attempt to enter.

So many provident and well-combined precautions must have been followed by the capture of the French squadron, if it had ventured on returning to Europe, or had the ships of which it was composed, continued cruizing together at sea. But the French admiral, seeing all his plans frustrated by the vigilance and activity of his enemies, determined on consulting the individual safety of his ships by dispersing them in different directions. The Veteran of 74 guns, commanded by Jerome Bonaparte, seemed to have been the first that separated from the rest of the squadron, and to have been the most fortunate in its voyage home. On the 16th of August, as this vessel was about three hundred leagues west of Brest, to the northward of the Azores, it fell in with the homeward-bound Quebec fleet, under the convoy of the Champion frigate, and took and destroyed six vessels laden with timber, and other valuable articles; and on the 26th of the same month, after having been chased by an English man of war, it reached in safety the coast of Brittany, and got into the small harbour of Concarneau, under the protection of batteries, where, though the vessel

was stranded, the stores and guns were saved, BOOK VIE. and the captain and crew got on shore.

1806.

After the separation of Jerome from the admi- CHAP. VI. ral, which took place in the gulph of Florida, the rest of the squadron encountered a tremendous gale of wind, August 18, in which they suffered most severely. The admiral's ship, the Foudroyant, of eighty-four guns, reached the Havannah under jury-masts, after an action with the Anson frigate of forty guns, which drove her for protection under the batteries of the Moro Castle, Sept. 15. The Impeteux, after having lost her masts, bowsprit, and rudder in the storm, and being otherwise damaged, was standing in for the Chesapeake under jury-masts, when she was descried by three of the vessels of Sir Richard Stra chan's squadron, and having taken ground as she attempted to escape, was there burned by the boats of the Melampus, and her crew made prisoners, Sept. 14. Two other seventy-fours, which got into the Chesapeake, after having been greatly damaged in the storm, were eventually destroyed by the English on the American coast, while the Cassant, which was supposed to have foundered at sea, arrived at Brest in the middle of October.

The French admiral Linois, who had so long wandered about the Indian seas, unmolested and unattacked, and carried on with success a predatory and most destructive war against the British commerce in the east, was this year intercepted, in his return to France with his plunder, by Sir John Borlase Warren, March 13, and brought to England, with the Marengo of eighty guns, and the Belle Poule of forty guns, being the only two ships under his command.

Five large frigates and two corvettes, with troops on board for the West Indies, having escaped from Rochefort, were next day met at sea by a British squadron under Sir Samuel Hood, Sept. 25, and after a running fight of several hours, four of the five frigates were compelled to strike. The loss of the English in this action amounted to nine killed and thirty-two wounded; but their gallant commander received a severe wound in the right arm, which rendered the amputation of the limb necessary.

It would be in vain to recapitulate all the individual instances of courage, enterprise, and skill exerted by the British navy in the various actions in which it was engaged during the present year. The capture of the Pomona frigate on the coast of Cuba, August 23, though defended by a strong castle and a formidable line of gun-boats, all of which were destroyed by the two English frigates, the Arethusa and Anson, engaged in this enterprise; the action between the French frigate the Salamander of forty-four guns, supported by batteries and troops provided with musketry and field-pieces on shore, and the English

1806

BOOK VII. ship the Constance, of twenty-four guns, assisted by a sloop of war and a gun-brig, in which both CRAP. VI. vessels were stranded and lost, though not till after the Frenchman had been compelled to strike his colours, and been taken possession of by the English; and the boldness and intrepidity displayed in numerous actions, in which vessels were cut out from under the protection of batteries, or in other circumstances unfavorable for attack, reflected honor on those who succeeded in such hazardous enterprises, and added, if possible, to the glory of the body, by the individuals of which they were achieved. The enemy, whose enfeebled squadrons were reduced to marauding expeditions, in which, when detected, they had recourse rarely to resistance, more frequently to flight, saw with rage and disappointment his ports blockaded by Britain's triumphant squadrons, and the ocean covered with her vessels, armed and unarmed.

Four ships of the line were taken from the enemy during the present year, and seven destroyed or rendered useless.. Thirteen frigates were taken and one destroyed; and from thirty to forty schooners, corvettes and national brigs, besides a great number of privateers, were taken or destroyed. To counterbalance these successes, the only loss sustained by his majesty's navy was that of the Athenienne, of sixty-four guns, which, with its captain and 300 of the crew, perished unhappily in its way to Sicily, by striking on some hidden rocks in the Mediterranean; and that of the Constance, stranded on the coast of France, with its prize the Salamander. Two transports, with troops on board for Gibraltar, were taken early in the year by the French squadron under Admiral Villaumez; but the troops were afterwards retaken by Sir Home Popham, with the frigate into which they had been put. The most valuable prize taken by the enemy was the Warren Hastings East Indiaman, which, after a long and well-contested action, was compelled to strike, June 21, to the Piedmontese, a French frigate of forty-four guns, and was afterwards carried into Mauritius. Some damage was done early in the year, by a French squadron, on the coast of Africa, to the vessels engaged in the slave-trade; and several ships, employed in the Greenland and Newfoundland fisheries, were taken and destroyed by the Guerriere French frigate of fifty guns, which, however, was afterwards taken in its way home, July 19, by the Blanche, after a sharp action, near the Ferroe islands.

An expedition against the Cape of Good Hope had sailed from England in the autumn of the preceding year, which reached Table Bay, January 4. The force destined for this conquest consisted of about 5000 land-troops, under Sir Da vid Baird, with a proportional naval force, commanded by Sir Home Popham. The town sur

rendered on the 10th. Sir Home Popham having persuaded Sir David Baird to grant him a small body of troops under General Beresford, steered for the Rio Plata, and arrived at the mouth of that river in the beginning of June. Having got to Buenos Ayres, by the help of rafts and boats, (for the bridge had been burnt by the enemy), General Beresford entered that city on the 27th, which had been previously abandoned by the viceroy, who fled to Cordova.

When intelligence reached government of Sir Home Popham's unauthorised departure from the Cape, and meditated invasion of South America, orders were instantly dispatched to recal him home, and put a stop to his expedition. These orders were too late to prevent his enterprise; and when the news of his success arrived, the strong objections to his plan were drowned in the universal joy at the fortunate result of his opera

tions.

The settlement, however, was soon again in the hands of the enemy. The Spaniards had been taken by surprise, and beaten by a handful of men, because attacked where they were unpre pared for resistance; but no sooner had they recovered from their panic, and discovered the smallness of the number of their opponents, than, ashamed of their defeat, they began to concert measures to expel their invaders. Emissaries. from Buenos Ayres excited the country people to arms, and an insurrection was organized in the heart of the city, under the eye of the English commander-in-chief, which seems to have escaped his vigilance, till it had arrived at maturity, and was ripe for action. Liniers, a French colonel in the Spanish service, crossed the river in a fog, August 4, unobserved by the English cruizers, and landed at Conchas, above Buenos Ayres, bringing with him about 1000 men from Monte Video and Sacramento. Eacouraged by this reinforcement, the armed levies from the country, which had been defeated by General Beresford in a sally, advanced again to the city and summoned the castle to surrender, August 10. The whole inhabitants of the town were now in arms, and the danger appeared so imminent, that the English had determined to evacuate the place and retire to their ships; but they were prevented by the state of the weather, and after a desperate action on the 12th in the streets and great square of the town, in which they were attacked with incredible fury, and severely annoyed by a destructive fire from the windows and balconies of the houses, they were compelled to lay down their arms.

The loss of the British army in the action of the 12th, amounted to 165 killed, wounded, and missing, besides 1300 made prisoners.

On the 13th of September died the Right Hon Charles James Fox, at Chiswick House, the seat