7. But when the new machines for spinning cotton were first set a-going, the uselessness of fighting against their employment was not understood. The hungry workers only knew that the bread was taken out of their mouths by the new machines, and therefore they regarded the inventors—poor men for the most part like themselves—as the enemies of their fellow-workers. Their anger often blazed forth into open violence; machines were smashed and mills wrecked. Baulked in one place, the inventors set up their machines in another, and it was soon found that the bulk of the trade followed the machines.
8. Whatever may have been the effect that the new machines had upon the happiness and well-being of the old hand-workers, it is certain that the country at large gained immensely in wealth. And it was soon to stand in need of every penny it could get. For in 1793 began "the great French war," which ended only with the victory at Waterloo in 1815, a war lasting, with two short intervals, two and twenty years, and so costly that it left us with a National Debt amounting to £880,000,000. That England was able to raise such a huge sum was due in no small measure to the cotton-mill and steam-engine. England, indeed, might well place the statues of Arkwright and Watt side by side with those of Nelson and Wellington; for had it not been for the wealth which the former created, there would have been no well-equipped fleets and armies for the latter to command.
9. Another great source of wealth, during the war itself, was the immense share which England gained of the carrying trade of the world, owing to the security which her merchantmen enjoyed in consequence of the victories of her fleets. While her mines, her looms, her steam-engines were giving her the principal share in the manufacture of goods, ships flying the British flag spread her own products through the world and carried to every part of it the products of other countries. England, in fact, was at once the workshop of European manufactures and the ocean-carrier of its commerce.
1. "The great French War," which began, as we have said, in 1793 and lasted almost two and twenty years, ended triumphantly for the British at Waterloo; but whilst the war continued, it was a great drain on England's resources, and a great strain on her powers of endurance. The war had not long gone on, when it became evident that a great military genius had arisen among the French in the person of Napoleon Bonaparte, and that in Horatio Nelson the British had an equally great leader in fighting on the seas.
2. Nelson seems to have been sent into the world to frustrate the proud schemes of Napoleon, though one fought only on land and the other at sea. Nelson's name only appears in our annals between 1793 and 1805, but his career lasted long enough for the fulfilment of his mission, which was to sweep the French war-ships from the sea, and thus save his country from invasion, and its colonies from capture. Such horror and alarm had the French caused by the torrent of blood they had shed in shearing off the heads of their sovereigns and nobles, and by the triumphant tramp of their armies over the neighbouring states, that Nelson only expressed the general feeling of Europe when he said, "Down, down with the French, ought to be posted up in the council-room of every country in the world."
3. Nelson first drew the eyes of the whole world upon himself, in 1798, by his famous victory of the Nile. Napoleon Bonaparte had sailed from Toulon with 30,000 troops on board 400 transports, escorted by a fleet of thirteen men-of-war. Nelson who was sent in pursuit with a squadron, also numbering thirteen ships-of-the-line, found the transports empty in the harbour of Alexandria, and the French fleet anchored in the Bay of Aboukir.
4. Imagine thirteen great battle-ships drawn up in a single line parallel with the shore, but on account of the shallow water three miles from it, with the Orient, the French flag-ship, in the centre. The ship in the van, at one end of the line, was anchored so close to an island, which stands at the western entrance to the Bay, that no one in the French fleet imagined that there was room for a ship to pass in between them. But as Nelson said, "Where a French ship can swing, an English ship can either sail or anchor."
5. Ship for ship, the French had a decided advantage in the number and size of their guns. Nelson, however, took care not to engage the whole line, but brought the whole weight of his guns to bear upon a part only. This he was able to do by sailing between the French van and the island, five of his ships taking up their stations on the inner side of the enemy's line, and the rest on the outer side. Thus the French van and centre were caught between two fires, whilst the rear ships, being at anchor to leeward, were unable to come to the rescue of their distressed sisters.
6. It was already dusk when the first broadside was fired. Not a moment had been lost in getting into action. Three of Nelson's ships were miles off when the battle began. It was so dark when the Culloden arrived that it struck on a shoal and there lay useless right through the battle. The other two, warned by her fate, reached the scene of action in safety. They came just in time to take the place of the Bellerophon, which was retiring maimed and disabled after a combat of more than an hour with the Orient, the largest ship afloat. The two new-comers, placing themselves on either side of this monster, made up for delay by the rapidity of their fire.