486 LAMENTABLE RESULTS-GENERAL WHITELOCK. [1807. the street opposite to it, and march through its particular street, till it reached the last square near the river Plata. In this progress the troops were to advance with unloaded muskets, two corporals marching at the head of each column with tools to break open the doors of the barricaded houses. The doors would not yield; the windows and roofs were crowded with the hostile population; and a terrible fire mowed down the advancing soldiers. Trenches had been dug in the streets; and cannon planted there swept away hundreds with grape shot. Auchmuty, in spite of these obstacles, made himself master of the Plaza de Toros, a strong post; and another place of strength had been taken, when the action was ended at nightfall. Two thousand five hundred British had been killed and wounded, or were prisoners. General Linieres, the commander in the city, addressed a letter next morning to general Whitelock, offering to give up the prisoners, and those made in the previous year, if he would desist from further attack, and withdraw the British forces from La Plata. Monte Video was of course to be surrendered. Whitelock agreed to these degrading terms; returned home with a whole skin; ran great risk of being torn to pieces by the English populace, who nicknamed him general Whitefeather; was tried by court-martial, and was declared "totally unfit and unworthy to serve his majesty in any military 1807.] NEW PARLIAMENT-BATTLE OF FRIEDLAND. 487 influence which, in those days, rendered a minister, unless he were resolved to maintain his responsible authority, the slave of court favouritism and of base jobs. From these influences the country would not readily have escaped unless a man had arisen, to prescribe his own will to courts and ministers,— to achieve success by the invincible force of his own sagacity, and yet to keep within the bounds of duty. The new Parliament assembled on the 22nd of June. On the 26th, upon an Amendment to the Address, the strength of parties was tested in the fullest house ever recorded. Of 505 members present, not counting the Speaker and four tellers upon the division, 356 voted with the government. The Royal Speech, delivered by Commissioners, referred to the disappointment of the efforts of his majesty's squadron in the Sea of Marmora, and to the losses sustained by our gallant troops in Egypt. Nevertheless, his majesty had thought it right to adopt such measures as might enable him, in concert with his ally the emperor of Russia, to take advantage of any favourable opportunity of bringing the hostilities in which they are engaged against the Sublime Porte to a conclusion. His majesty's endeavours had been most anxiously employed for the purpose of drawing closer the ties by which he is connected with the powers of the continent, and of assisting the efforts of those powers against the ambition and oppression of France. Four days after this speech had been delivered, came the news of the battle of Friedland. The efforts of the powers of the continent were at an end. Prussia was crouching at the victor's feet; Russia was scheming with him to divide the empire of the world, and they were taking sweet counsel together for the destruction of Great Britain. According to the agreeable arrangement of these potentates, the hostilities against the Sublime Porte were to be brought to a conclusion by Alexander and Napoleon dividing the Turkish empire-Alexander becoming Emperor of the East, as Napoleon was to be Emperor of the West. After the great battle of Eylau the Allied armies and the French armies remained for several months inactive. Reinforcements were necessary to each, for repairing the terrible destruction of that day when the falling snow covered thousands of the dead and dying. Napoleon had proposed peace to Alexander, but Alexander refused the proffered terms. He expected aid from England; but the succour did not come in time. The Russians determined to act for themselves. Early in June they attacked the French lines, and were repelled. A great encounter then took place at Heilsberg; and on the 14th of June a general battle was fought at Friedland, which broke the Russian spirit, terminated the campaign, and made the two emperors, for a season, the dearest of friends. Eight days after the victory, which was won on the anniversary of the battle of Marengo, an armistice was concluded, and Napoleon addressed a proclamation to his army from his camp at Tilsit. "From the banks of the Vistula we have arrived on the banks of the Niemen with the rapidity of the eagle. You will return to France, covered with laurels, after having obtained a glorious peace which bears a guarantee for its duration. It is time that our country should live in repose under shelter from the malign influence of England." That shelter was to be found in the new friendship of Alexander-of Alexander, who, only a few days previous, had written to George III., "that there was no salvation to himself 490 THE DANISH FLEET-EXPEDITION TO COPENHAGEN. [1807. generally believed to be the genuine revelations of a notable intriguer,contain the following passage: "About this time it was that we learned the success of the attack upon Copenhagen by the English; which was the first derangement of the secret stipulations of Tilsit, by virtue of which the Danish fleet was to be placed at the disposal of France. Since the death of Paul I., I never saw Napoleon give himself up to such violent transports of passion. That which astonished him most in that vigorous coup-de-main was the promptitude with which the English ministry took their resolution."* Bonaparte suspected Talleyrand, says Fouché. According to another autho rity, some humbler person was the medium of communication to the British government. Mr. Stapleton, private secretary to Mr. Canning, says, that an individual was concealed behind a curtain of the tent on the raft, and heard Napoleon propose to Alexander, and Alexander consent to the proposition, that the French should take possession of the fleet of Denmark.† That Talleyrand should have betrayed the counsels of his master, at the height of his power, is just as improbable as that any "rash, intruding fool" should have been the rat behind the arras, whilst Bessières and Duroc, Benningsen and Ouwarrow, were watching on either side of the pavilion on the Niemen. Without the knowledge of any special provision that the Danish fleet was to be placed at the disposal of France, the general agreement of the treaty that Denmark and other powers should be compelled to join Russia and France, in a war against England, was sufficient to render a measure of hostility towards Denmark justifiable upon the great principle of self-defence. "No expedition was ever better planned, or better executed, and none ever occasioned more clamour." ‡ On the 12th of August, Mr. Jackson, an envoy from England, arrived in Copenhagen, to demand the delivery of the Danish fleet to lord Gambier, the British admiral, who was in the Sound with twenty-seven sail of the line, and many smaller vessels, in company with a fleet of transports, conveying twenty-seven thousand land-troops. The demand of Mr. Jackson was accompanied with an assurance that the fleet should be taken care of in British ports, and restored upon the conclusion of peace with France and Russia. The Crown Prince of Denmark indignantly refused; and prepared for defence. The British land forces were commanded by lord Cathcart, the command of the reserve being entrusted to sir Arthur Wellesley. He had been called from his civil duty as Secretary for Ireland, to take this military duty. The troops were landed on Zealand on the 16th. They were not opposed; and they closely invested Copenhagen on the land side, erecting powerful batteries. Numerous bomb-vessels were ready also to pour their fire from the sea upon the devoted city. Congreve-rockets were there to be tried for the first time. Sir Arthur Wellesley, with his customary moderation, would have preferred "an establishment upon Amag, as a more certain mode of forcing a capitulation than a bombardment. . ... I think it behoves us to do as little mischief to the town as possible, and to adopt any mode of reducing it, rather than bombardment."§ The bombardment did take * Quoted in Mr. Robert Bell's "Life of Canning," p. 237. Stapleton, "George Canning and his Times," p. 125 (1859). Malmesbury, "Diaries," vol. iv. p. 399. § "Supplementary Despatches," vol. vi. p. 9-Letter to Lord Hawkesbury, August 28. 1807.] BOMBARDMENT-SURRENDER OF THE FLEET. 491 place; in spite of one more effort for averting it, by a proclamation on the part of the British commanders that they would withdraw their forces, if the fleet were surrendered as a deposit to be restored at the close of the war. The Crown Prince replied by a proclamation which was a declaration of war, and by ordering the seizure of all British ships and property. The bombardment was commenced with fatal vigour, and continued for four days. The conflagration of the city, and the sufferings of the inhabitants, were amongst those occurrences of the war which are most painful to look back upon. The Danish navy and arsenal were surrendered on the 8th of September. Sir Arthur Wellesley was appointed to conduct the negotiation. He writes on the day on which he concluded the settlement with the Danish commissioners, "I have only to observe upon the instrument, that it contains the absolute and unconditional cession of the fleet and naval stores, and gives us the possession of those military points which are necessary in order to enable us to equip and carry away the vessels. This was all that we wanted; and in everything else I did all in my power to conciliate the Danes."* His wise conclusion was not acceptable to violent politicians, who wanted some further evidences of our power. Enough had been done for our own safety; too much had been done to satisfy the honest, but not very politic, indignation of those who felt like Francis Horner. He had "endeavoured for awhile to view it as one of the extreme cases of that necessity which has no law;" but he turned aside from "the intricacies of state expediency to the daylight of common justice and old rules." + The state expediency is now held to have been justly paramount. "Supplementary Despatches," vol. vi. p. 21-Letter to Lord Hawkesbury, Sept. 8. К к? Isolation of Great Britain-Hostility of Europe-Bonaparte's Continental System-His plans for becoming master of the Peninsula-French invasion of Portugal-The Regent of Portugal flies to the Brazils-Charles IV. of Spain abdicates-He, and Ferdinand his son, entrapped by Napoleon at Bayonne-Insurrection at Madrid-The Spanish Juntas ask the aid of England-Sympathy of the English people-Sir Arthur Wellesley sent with troops to Portugal-Successes of the Spaniards-Zaragoza-Victory of Wellesley at VimieroConvention of Cintra-Sir John Moore marches into Spain-Napoleon takes the command of his army in Spain-Moore's retreat-Battle of Corunna-Death of Sir John MooreSufferings of his army-National gloom-Charges against the duke of York-Parliamentary inquiry-The Duke resigns-Lord Cochrane's enterprise in Aix Roads-Austria declares war against France-Sir Arthur Wellesley takes the command at LisbonPassage of the Douro. Intelligence of important events. THE Royal Speech, delivered by Commissioners, on the opening of the Session of Parliament on the 21st of January, 1808, was of greater length, and bore upon more important points of Foreign Affairs, than any similar document during the most stirring years since 1793. The view of our posi tion with relation to the rest of the world was not cheering. Britain seemed to have reached that extremity of isolation which the Roman poet described, and which the French emperor desired to establish as a political fact. The treaty of Tilsit, said the Speech, confirmed the influence and control of France over the powers of the continent; and it was the intention of the enemy to combine those powers in one general confederacy against this kingdom. For |