CONTINENTAL SYSTEM CONTORNIAT1. 



433 



tish. The reasons assigned for this decree were, that 

 Britain did not acknowledge the international law 

 accepted by civilized nations, but treated every in- 

 dividual belonging to the country of the enemy as if 

 found in arms ; made even the crews of merchantmen 

 prisoners of war ; extended the right of conquest over 

 merchantmen and private property, and the right of 

 blockade over places and harbours not fortified ; over 

 the mouths of rivers ; nay, over whole coasts and 

 countries. But many of these measures had always 

 been taken, in maritime wars, even by France her- 

 self, as long as she had the means. One great rea- 

 son for this and all the subsequent decrees of Napo- 

 leon was, that he considered Britain his inveterate 

 enemy, and the enemy of the political doctrines which 

 took their rise from the revolution. He often used 

 to say, " Je nefais pas ce que je veux, mats ce gueje 

 peux. Ces Anglais meforcent a vivre aujour lej'our." 



Britain immediately directed reprisals against the 

 Berlin decree, first by an order in council of Jan. 7, 

 1807, by which all neutral vessels were prohibited to 

 sail from one port to another belonging to France, 

 or one of her allies, or to a nation so much under her 

 control that British vessels could not have inter- 

 course with it. Every neutral vessel which should 

 violate this order was to be confiscated, with her 

 cargo. A second decree of Nov. 11, 1807, was 

 much more oppressive to commerce. By this, all 

 harbours and places of France and her allies, in Eu- 

 rope and the colonies, as likewise every country with 

 which Britain was at war, and from which the Bri- 

 tish flag was excluded, were subjected to the same 

 restrictions as if they were closely blockaded ; all 

 commerce in the manufactures and productions of 

 such countries was prohibited, and vessels engaged 

 in such commerce were to be confiscated, as also all 

 those vessels whose certificates showed that they 

 were built in the enemy's country. Another order 

 in council declared the sale of vessels, by the enemy, 

 to neutrals, unlawful, and the intended transfer of 

 property void. 



Hardly were these orders promulgated, when 

 France made counter reprisals. By a decree of 

 Milan of Dec. 17, 1807, aggravated by a decree of the 

 Tuileries, Jan. 11, 1808, every vessel, of whatsoever 

 flag, which had been searched by a British vessel, 

 and consented to be sent to Britain, or had paid any 

 duty whatever to Britain, was to be declared dena- 

 tionalized, and to have become British property ; and, 

 in every case, such denationalized vessel, as also 

 those which had broken the blockade declared 

 against the Ionian islands, or had sailed from a 

 British harbour or British colony, or those of a 

 country occupied by the British, or which were 

 destined to any such ports, were declared good prize. 

 In order the more effectually to annihilate the 

 British commerce, the tariff of Trianon, respecting 

 colonial goods, was proclaimed Aug. 3, 1810. 

 This was extended by another decree of Sept. 12 

 of the same year, and both were followed by the de- 

 cree of Fontainebleau, Oct. 18 of the same year, 

 directing the burning of all British goods. These 

 decrees were to be executed, with more or fewer 

 modifications, in all countries connected with France. 

 The consequence was, that the price of colonial 

 goods rose enormously ; a regular smuggling trade 

 was carried on at different points ; for instance, at 

 Heligoland, which was sometimes so crowded with 

 persons concerned in this business, that a ducat 

 was paid for a barrel to sleep in ; thousands of sub- 

 stitutes for colonial goods, particularly for coffee 

 and sugar, were invented (which presented the 

 remarkable psychological fact, that people would 

 drink the decoction of any stuff, which resembled 

 coffee in colour, though it had not the slightest resem- 



blance in taste ; so powerful is imagination), and a 

 variety of manufactures grew up on the continent, 

 which were the germs of very extensive and flourish- 

 ing branches of industry. 



As the holy alliance (a league as obnoxious as its 

 name is arrogant) is composed of European conti- 

 nental powers, and as a chief object of this coalition 

 is the destruction of liberal institutions by the exer- 

 cise of the droit d'intervention armee (see Congress, 

 towards the end), a policy very different from that 

 of the British, when Canning was at the head of 

 foreign affairs, this continental policy has sometimes 

 been called the continental system. 



CONTINGENT ; the name often given to the 

 quota of troops which is to be furnished by each 

 member of a number of states composing a confede 

 ration. By the terms of the confederation of the 

 Rhine, each of the states of which it consisted was 

 to furnish one man for every 150 inhabitants. The 

 proportion has been increased in the German con- 

 federation, and amounts, at the lowest rate (the 

 simplum), to one man for every 100 souls. The 

 whole confederation amounting to 30,095,054, the 

 army of the confederates, at the lowest ratio, called 

 simplum, contains over 300,000 troops, divided into 

 ten corps d'armee, of which Prussia and Austria 

 furnish each three, Bavaria one, and the remaining 

 states three. The quotas of men and money were 

 assigned for a term of five years, according to the 

 population of the different states at the time when the 

 union was formed, and remain unaltered to the pre- 

 sent time. Such an army has never yet been called 

 together, and, should it ever be, the German con- 

 federation, in this case, would show how impotent 

 and fragile is its whole constitution. 



CONTORNIATI; ancient medals which have 

 occupied the attention of antiquarians for a long- 

 time, and, on account of their rarity, are highly 

 esteemed in. cabinets. They are formed of a thin 

 plate of metal (not of two different sorts, as is often 

 supposed), with a flat impression. They differ from 

 other ancient coins, by having a furrow upon both 

 their sides, where the others have a wreath of pearls. 

 These hollowed lines (hi Italian, contorno) may have 

 occasioned their name. Another characteristic of 

 genuine contorniati is a cipher composed of the 

 letters EP or PE, of which no satisfactory explana- 

 tion has, as yet, been discovered, together with nu- 

 merous impressed characters, and a great number of 

 palm branches, the cavities of which are often filled 

 with silver. They are also added by a second hand, 

 and thereby are essentially distinguished from the 

 monograms, so called in the language of the mint. 

 They resemble the signa incusa (contremarques) on 

 the Roman medals. All the contorniati are of 

 bronze, and equal in size to the large bronze 

 coins called medaglioncini by the Italian collec- 

 tors. Their form is various, their workmanship 

 rude, and their inscriptions are frequently different 

 from the usual curial style upon the ancient coins. 

 From these circumstances, we may conclude that 

 they did not belong to the age of the Roman empe- 

 rors whose images they bear, but to a later one. 

 Eckel, in his masterly treatise on the contorniati, 

 follows the opinion of Morelli and Mahudel, who 

 consider them to have been made from the reign of 

 Constantine the Great to that of Valentinian. It 

 has been ascertained that they were not struck by 

 public authority ; and the ancients have transmitted 

 no account of their destination, which must, there- 

 fore, be left to conjecture. The frequent represen- 

 tations of race-grounds, palms, men shouting to the 

 charioteers, and even the images of the emperors 

 Nero and Trajan, &c., upon them, make it probable 

 that they were intended for the frequenters of the 

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