134 



ANNUAL REGISTER 1805. 



dit; to facilitate a loan, the acqui- 

 sition of money, purchases, or cn- 

 terprizes, then we shall know iiovv 

 far the dispositions of the enemy are 

 implacable and obstinate ; we shall 

 have to banish all hope from a dan- 

 gerous lure, and trust- -ivithout re- 

 serve to the goodness of our cause, 

 to the justice of Providence, and to 

 the genius of the emperor." 



Corresponding with the tone and 

 temperof those angry ebullitions, the 

 French oflicial gazette at the same 

 time j^ublished the speech of the king 

 of England to his parliament, with 

 a comment upon each paragraph, 

 indicative of the same sentiments 

 as had pervaded the orations, to 

 which we have above adverted. The 

 ■wi-oleof these manifestos, for they 

 can be considered in no other light 

 than as such, concluded with general 

 denunciations of vengeance against 

 the shores of Britain, which were 

 threatened with immediate and ir- 

 resistable invasion, and against its 

 government, whose very existence 

 •was menaced by the exhaustion 

 wliich the country must endure from 

 a continuance of the present for- 

 midable posture of France, for ten 

 years to come ! 



But whatever were the views of 

 the French emperor, in having thus 

 extended the olive branch, and his 

 holding out to Europe that it was 

 possible it might yet be accepted, it 

 is certain, that no means were left 

 unattempted by him, which could 

 increase and consolidate his power, 

 or annoy that enemy who could 

 alone check his career, and put 

 bounds to his ambition. His flotilla, 

 destined for the invasion of Eng- 

 land, was hourly augmenting, and 

 becoming more concentrated at 

 Boulogne, the common place of 

 rendezvous- However watchful 



port, 

 com- 

 year, 



and intrepid the conduct of the Bri- 

 tish cruizcrs, it was found impossi- 

 ble, with crery exertion of the most 

 consummate skill and bravery, to 

 ])revent smalldivisions of the French 

 gun boats from stealing along the 

 coasts, protected as well by their 

 small draught of water, as by the 

 powerful batteries, erected wherc- 

 ever an opportune situation pre- 

 sented itself from forming a June- 

 tion at the above-named 

 and their numbers, at the 

 mencement of the present 

 were truly formidable. The ar- 

 my, destined for the same purpose, 

 and encamped on the heights com- 

 manding the town and harbour of 

 Boulogne, had now increased to up- 

 wards ot one hundred thousand men, 

 perfectly disciplined, under the 

 command of the best officers of 

 France, and constantly exercised in 

 embarking and rc-landing in and 

 from the flotilla, with a view of 

 perfecting them in the great object 

 of their destination. And the eyes 

 of all Europe were directed towards 

 the preparations for an achievement, 

 on the event of which the fate not 

 only of the two countries was at 

 issue, but that also of the whole 

 moral and political M'orld. 



We have already seen that Spain 

 had been compelled, in consequence 

 of her dependant situationon France, 

 to become a party to the war with 

 Great Britain. In order to render 

 this measure the morp available to 

 his purposes of crippling the resour- 

 ces and ruining the finances of Eng- 

 land, Bonaparte now determined 

 upon a series of bold manoeuvres, by 

 which, in uniting the naval strength 

 of his ally to that of France, he 

 hoped to strike a blow, in various 

 parts of the world, at one and 

 the saeae moment; and directed not 



only 



