Peace had scarcely been proclaimed when the note of war was again heard in the distance; when a little cloud in the horizon betokened the rising of another furious storm. In the month of December the French government had sent a naval force, under General Le Clerc, for the purpose of recovering St. Domingo and Guadaloupe from the revolted negroes; and the English government sent Admiral Mitchell with seven sail of the line to watch his motions. But England had more cogent reasons for displeasure in the following year. At that time the interference and intrigues of the first consul were manifested in various parts of Europe. Thus, in the month of March, he presided over a meeting at which a treaty was signed with the Cisalpine republic, preparatory to his assuming the iron crown, in imitation of Charlemagne; and he not only procured the cession of Louisiana, but the duchy of Parma, from Spain. Disputes likewise having arisen respecting the formation of a new constitution in Switzerland, and the mediation of the first consul being solicited, the diet was dissolved by his troops, the Swiss patriots were arrested, and the independence of the country annihilated by the power on which it relied for protection. In the course of the year, moreover, Piedmont was turned into a provincial appendage to France; and in October the Spanish king, at the suggestion of the French government, annexed all the property of the Maltese knights in his dominion to his royal domains, by which act the treaty of Amiens was to a certain degree violated. All these events were indications of a future rupture; and another grand provocative to the rupture was the fierce and systematic hostility displayed by Napoleon against the commerce of Great Britain. Instead of being allowed, through the return of peace, to flow into its old channels, it was still more impeded in France and in the countries where the French held sway than it had been during the war. Every month, or week, indeed, the first consul made some new encroachment or advanced some new claim; while on the other hand he pretended to bind England to the strict observance of every article in the treaty of Amiens which was against her, and insisted on the immediate evacuation of Malta, the Cape of Good Hope, and of every place she had agreed to restore. It was, in truth, fully manifested, before the close of the year, that the treaty of Amiens was an experiment that had signally failed, and that recourse, at no distant day, would be again had to the sword to decide the contest for superiority between the two countries of France and England.
Nor was the conduct of Napoleon in Paris less indicative of war; ambition being conspicuous in every movement. Some of his measures were prudent and salutary, but many of them were unprincipled, unjust, and even criminal. His aim was to be the despot and sole ruler of France; not to be the venerated head of a great and free people. His first act exhibited the despot in lively characters. This was to put the press in chains: Fouche, with an army of “Arguses and police servants, mastered the domain of thought itself;” and when conspiracies arose from this arbitrary measure, then the executioner was called in to do his fearful work. At the same time Napoleon established special tribunals throughout the kingdom, composed of judges of his own appointment. His despotism extended itself to the civil code, and even to religion and the church. By his fiat, there was to be but one liturgy and one catechism in all France! During this year, indeed, Napoleon was approaching his object at a rapid pace. He already ventured to attack the idol of the revolutionary French, the fundamental principle of the revolution, that of equality, by proposing and carrying a law for the creation of a legion of honour—that is, for establishing a new nobility in the place of that which the revolutionists had destroyed, from the one end of France to the other. Public opinion declared loudly against this institution, but Napoleon was sufficiently strong to defy public opinion. Nay, about the same time, soon after the peace of Amiens, Chabot proposed that a signal national acknowledgment should be made to him, and he was created consul for life. The throne was, therefore, visibly rising over the grave of the republic—one step more, and Napoleon would be sitting thereon in all the pride and pomp of Imperial majesty. That step, as will be hereafter seen, was taken boldly and successfully. France again submitted to the rule of one man, a man whose little finger proved to be thicker than the loins of the monarchs of the house of Bourbon.
MEETING OF THE NEW PARLIAMENT.
The newly returned parliament met on the 16th of November. The speech from the throne seemed to intimate that the renewal of war was probable, by his majesty saying, “that notwithstanding his desire for peace, it was impossible for him to lose sight of that system of policy by which the interests of other states were connected with our own welfare; and by which he was obliged not to be indifferent to any material change in the relative condition and strength of the European powers.” His majesty also recommended the adoption of all those means of security which were best calculated to preserve the blessings of peace. The responsive addresses, both in the lords and commons, were carried without a division; Fox at the same time expressing a hope, that ministers would not be influenced by those politicians who would rush into a war without necessity.
Augmentations both of the navy and of the army were proposed by ministers a few days after the commencement of the session: 50,000 seamen were voted, and 128,000 men for the army. On this occasion, Sheridan, who was fast falling away from the Foxite party, made a notable patriotic speech, declaring that the time had arrived when it was necessary for England to adopt vigorous measures of defence. He concluded his speech in the following language: “I wish Buonaparte not to mistake the cause of the people’s joy; he should know, that if he commits any act of aggression against them, they are ready to enter singly into the contest, rather than suffer any attack on their honour and independence, I shall proceed no further; I perfectly agree with my honourable friend, that war ought to be avoided, though he does not agree with me on the means best calculated to produce that effect. From any opinion which he may express, I never differ but with the greatest reluctance; for him my affection, my esteem, and my attachment are unbounded; and they will only end with death; but I think an important lesson is to be learned from the arrogance of Buonaparte. He says, he is an instrument in the hands of Providence, an envoy of God; he says, he is an instrument in the hands of Providence, to restore Switzerland to happiness, and to elevate Italy to splendour and importance. Sir, I think he is an instrument in the hands of Providence to make the English love their constitution better, to cling to it with more fondness, to hang round it with truer tenderness. Every man feels, when he returns from France, that he is coming from a dungeon, to enjoy the light and life of British independence. Whatever abuses exist we shall look with pride and pleasure on the substantial blessings we still enjoy. I believe, also, that he is an instrument in the hands of Providence to make us more liberal in our political differences, and to render us determined, with one hand and heart, to oppose any aggression there may be made on us. If that aggression be made, my honourable friend will, I am sure, agree with me, that we ought to meet it with a spirit worthy of these islands; that we ought to meet it with a conviction of the truth of this assertion—that the country which has achieved such greatness, has no retreat in littleness; that, if we should be content to abandon everything, we should find no safety in poverty, no security in abject submission; finally, that we ought to meet it with a firm determination to perish in the same grave with the honour and independence of our country.”
On the 21st of December, a bill was passed for appointing commissioners to inquire into frauds and abuses in the several naval departments, and for the better conducting the business of those departments. No other business of importance was transacted before the Christmas recess.
TRIAL OF COLONEL DESPARD.
A.D. 1803