Two of the very few references to public matters which occur in Jane Austen’s letters are made concerning Sir John Moore and his army.
“December 27, 1808.—The St. Albans perhaps may soon be off to help bring home what may remain by this time of our poor army, whose state seems dreadfully critical.” “I am sorry to find that Sir J. Moore has a mother living, but, though a very heroic son, he might not be a very necessary one to her happiness. Deacon Morrel may be more to Mrs. Morrel. I wish Sir John had united something of the Christian with the hero in his death. Thank heaven, we have no one to care for particularly among the troops, no one, in fact, nearer to us than Sir John himself. Colonel Maitland is safe and well; his mother and sisters were of course anxious about him, but there is no entering much into the solicitudes of that family.”
It was in November of 1808 that Mrs. Edward Austen, the ‘Elizabeth’ of the letters, died. Great grief was evidently felt by all her husband’s family. Jane’s letters at the time are full of love and sympathy. Cassandra was staying with her brother, and Frank got a few days’ extra leave in order to go there, about a month after the death.
Jane writes to tell his plans.
“November 21.
“Your letter, my dear Cassandra, obliges me to write immediately, that you may have the earliest notice of Frank’s intending, if possible, to go to Godmersham exactly at the time now fixed for your visit to Goodnestone. He resolved almost directly on the receipt of your former letter to try for an extension of his leave of absence, that he might be able to go down to you for two days, but charged me not to give you any notice of it, on account of the uncertainty of success. Now, however, I must give it, and now perhaps he may be giving it himself; for I am just in the hateful predicament of being obliged to write what I know will somehow or other be of no use. He meant to ask for five days more, and if they were granted to go down by Thursday’s night mail, and spend Friday and Saturday with you; and he considered his chance of success by no means bad. I hope it will take place as he planned, and that your arrangements with Goodnestone may admit of suitable alteration.”
During Francis Austen’s commands of the Leopard, Canopus, and St. Albans, covering the eventful years of the Boulogne blockade, and of Trafalgar, and up to 1810, Charles Austen was serving on the North American station in command of the Indian sloop. The work to be done on the coast of the United States was both arduous and thankless. It consisted mainly in the enforcement of the right of search for deserters, and the curtailment of the American carrying trade, so far as it was considered illicit.
British war policy had made it necessary to forbid trading by neutrals between European countries under the sway of Napoleon, and their dependencies in other parts of the world. American ingenuity succeeded in evading this prohibition by arranging for the discharge and reshipment of cargoes at some United States port, en route. The ship would load originally at a West Indian port with goods for Europe, then sail to a harbour in Massachusetts (for example), where the cargo was warehoused, and the vessel repaired. When ready for sea, the captain got the same cargo on board again, and departed for the designated market on this side of the Atlantic. No wonder that American vessels were so frequently spoken by the Canopus and the St. Albans, for in 1806 and the following years nearly all the carrying trade was done under the Stars and Stripes. American shipmasters were able to pay very high wages, and desertions from British men-of-war were frequent. Our cruisers had to take strong measures in face of this growing evil, and finally an American frigate was boarded, and several of the crew forcibly removed as deserters. Such action was possible only on account of the great strength of the British naval force, a practical blockade of the United States ports being enforced along the whole Atlantic seaboard. This had been done in consequence of decisions of the Admiralty Court against some of the reshipments, which were held by the Judges to be evasions of the actual blockades of hostile ports. The state of tension gradually became acute, but both Governments were so loth to fight that negotiations were on foot for several years before the President of the United States declared war in 1812. In 1809 a settlement seemed to have been reached, and a fleet of six hundred American traders had already got to sea, when it was discovered that the treaty could not be ratified. It was indeed almost impossible for England to alter her policy as regards neutral traders, or to abandon the right of search for deserters, so long as every resource was necessary in the struggle against Napoleon.
Captain Mahan, writing on the “Continental System,” puts the matter in a nutshell when he says: “The neutral carrier, pocketing his pride, offered his services to either (combatant) for pay, and the other then regarded him as taking part in the hostilities.”
In 1808 the Indian, Charles Austen’s ship, captured La Jeune Estelle, a small privateer, but the work on the North American station was unprofitable as regards prize-money. In 1810 Charles gained post rank as captain of the Swiftsure, flagship to Sir John Warren. The great event of these years for him was his marriage in 1807 with Fanny Palmer, daughter of the Attorney-General of Bermuda.