[242] See further details on this subject, and on the duties of neutrals, together with an examination of the Orders of Council, [infra ch. viii.]
[243] Vide ‘Annual Register,’ 1796, p. 308.
[244] Vide the American despatch quoting the French minister’s despatch of the 29th of Sept., 1795. This famine was subsequently noticed by Bonaparte in his speech to Cambacérès on receiving the news of the Peace of Amiens.
[245] Alison, iii. p. 28.
[246] See various details on these matters in the correspondence between Lord Hawkesbury and Mr. Rufus King, quoted in Mr. Alex. Baring’s pamphlet, pp. 39, 41, 53; and ‘Rights of War as to Neutrals,’ in Wheaton’s ‘Elements of International Law,’ vol. II. ch. iii. pp. 132-260; and in Furneaux, ‘Treaties of Peace since that of Westphalia,’ 8vo, Lond., 1817.
[247] On the 18th January, 1798, the French Directory issued a decree declaring: “that all ships having for their cargoes, in whole or in part, any English merchandise shall be held good prize, whoever is the proprietor of such merchandise, which should be held contraband from the single circumstance of its coming from England, or any of its foreign settlements; that the harbours of France shall be shut against all ships having touched at England except in cases of distress; and that neutral sailors found on board English vessels should be put to death”!—Ann. Reg. 1800, 54, 55.
[248] The fleets of the Confederacy were as follows: Spain and Holland united possessed eighty ships fully equipped. Sweden had twenty-eight, Russia thirty-five, Denmark twenty-three, making a total of one hundred and sixty-six ships of the line: a force that would have been infinitely superior to the British navy, but that the efficiency of her vessels and armaments far surpassed those of the Confederacy. Austria alone was then in amity with Great Britain.
[249] Alison, iv. p. 529.
[250] M. Thiers, in his ‘Consulate and the Empire,’ book xi. vol. iii., relates this remarkable anecdote, and adds that “Cambacérès, with his usual sagacity, had touched upon the difficulty which at a subsequent period was again to embroil the two nations.” And see [ante, p. 294].
[251] The preliminaries of peace were signed at Amiens October 1, 1801, and the definite Treaty March 27, 1802. See also Alison, iv., pp. 604-624.