BRITAIN. 



Brit.iin. 



vacn.ition 

 ' Naples. 



1806. 



Utempt 

 poii Cala- 



atlle of 



laida. 



Bonaparte at liberty to t-i! 



of Naple;. He 



from his head quarters at '. 



' 



Itch had 

 landed in th:it 1. 



AuHrians in I,omb,irdy ; 



and the king of the t o Sicilies had evinced a deter- 

 mination to support their operations. Btit the catas- 

 trophe of the allies in Germany, proved too lite the 

 futility of the euterpri 'ml the dreadful 



threat of Boinparte iv.iehed liis Sicilian majesty, 

 when a courier arrived from the Emperor Ale.: 

 recalling the Russians to Corfu. Tl;.- r. ti.-at of the 

 English followed as a necessary consequence. Sir 

 .James Craig, their comm.i : y determined to 



retreat to Sicily, wiiliout waiting for the arm il of 

 the enemy ; and the king and queen of Naples, thus 

 abandoned to their fate, sought refuge, as before, at 

 Palermo. After the evacuation of Naples, Sir. James 

 Craig established his head quarters at Messina, as 

 the station best adapt'-d for protecting Sicily from 

 invasion; while Sir Sidney Smith, with a squadron of 

 five ships of the line, and a force of frigates and gun- 

 boats, protected it by sea ; insuh-'d the territory of 

 the new sovereign of Naples, (Joseph Bonaparte,) and 

 took possession of the island of Capri. In April 

 1806, the command of the troops in Sicily devolved 

 on General Stuart, who, for his services, was reward- 

 ed with the red ribband, from the bad health of Sir 

 James Craig, who returned to England. It was of 

 the utmost consequence that Sicily should be preser- 

 ved from the power of France ; and it was, therefore, 

 with difficulty that General Stuart agreed to dimi- 

 nish his small force, by co-operating; with the schemes 

 of the court of Palermo, for exciting insurrections on 

 the coast of Calabria ; but prompted, at last, by ac- 

 counts of the favourable disposition of the Calabri- 

 ans, and hoping to destroy the resources of the ene- 

 my for invading Sicily, he consented to land a part 

 of his army on the continent, and make trial of the 

 loyalty of the people to their former sovereign. 



Four thousand eight hundred effective men were 

 landed on the morning of the let of July, in the 

 Gulf of St Euphemia, near the northern frontiers of 

 lower Calabria. The British commander's procla- 

 mation, inviting the inhabitants to his standard, at- 

 tracted so few, that he was hesitating whether to re- 

 imbark his troops, when he learned that General Reg- 

 nier, with a French army nearly equal to his own, 

 was .encamped at Maida, about 10 miles distant. 

 Understanding also that the enemy expected rein- 

 forcements, he determined to anticipate their arrival, 

 and advanced, next morning, to attack Regnier. 

 The two armies were separated by a plain, from four 

 to six miles in breadth, extending from sea to sea, 

 and bounded on the north and south by chains of 

 mountains. Regnier occupied a strong position, which 

 he abandoned in the confidence of superior numbers, 

 and in contempt of the British troops, and advanced 

 with seven thousand men to charge them on the 

 plain. The British, only four thousand eight hun- 

 dred strong, were surprized, but not dismayed at the 

 numbers of their antagonist?, and advanced with ala- 

 crity. Regnier had taught his men to believe, that 

 they would fly on the first charge a presumption 

 VOL. IV. PART n. 



which was quick i astmiiih 



they saw the rank* <>: . -v ' 



pidly to meet t 



the right of ti ^g, bod, 



r the bayonet. 



An the French came on, their line grew uneren, 

 ; 'art nt it ! -ome distance, another ven- 



tnri;.g nearly to ci ts with our men ; but, 



on the point of contact, they turned and fled. They 

 wrr.- overtaken with immens r, and their 



left whig tutdlly routed. On rny 



i (In to retrieve the day ; but were also 

 lied by tb.- steadiness of :, ft, and 



their cavalry being tlirm-,i into disorder, in an at- 

 t to turn the English fl.mk, by a fire from the 

 20th regiment, which landed dun. ; ;' 

 came up at this critical juncture, they abund . 

 field with precipitation, leaving in prisoners, wound- 

 ed, and killed, not less than -tOOO men. 



1'iiiliant as the victory of Maida was, it contribu- 

 ted only to the glory of the national arms, and in no 

 way to the recovery of Calabria. The capture of 

 Gaeta by the French, more than counterbalanced 

 effects on the affairs of Italy. The mass of Cala- 

 bria, who had risen, and were still disposed to rise 

 upon the troops of Joseph Bonaparte, might protract 

 a desultory warfare, till Masscna approached to over- 

 whelm them ; but their insurrections were so evident- 

 ly inadequate to offer a permanent resistance t the 

 conqueror, that the British commander wisely return- 

 ed to Sicily; and the subsequent solicitations of the 

 court of Palermo to succour them with British forces, 

 were refused, as inconsistent with the superior object 

 of defending Sicily. In their zeal for insurrection- 

 ary movements, the deposed king and queen of Na- 

 ples were little, disposed to consider the calamities 

 which they occasioned. But it was abhorrent to the 

 humane breasts of their British all't s, that bloodshed 

 and misery should be continued for no better pur- 

 pose than to gratify a fallen court with the occasion- 

 al punishment of its enemies, inflicted by outlaws and 

 banditti ; for, by such characters, the Neapolitan 

 mass were, in general, conducted. 



Such an action as that of Trafalgar was not to be Proceed- 

 yearly expected ; but the British navy maintained its ings of the 

 accustomed superiority in 1806. In the West In- British 

 dies, Sir Thomas Duckworth captured three French " cets 

 ships of the line, and drove ashore and burnt two 

 others, a portio , of the fleet which had escaped from 

 Brest. The French admiral Linois, who had long in- 

 fested our commerce in the Ea.--t, was intercepted on 

 his return by Sir John Borlase Warren, and brought 

 to England, with an eighty gun ship, and a forty gun 

 frigate. 



Prussia found no safety in humiliation. She disco- AiTr 

 vered that .Bonaparte, who had compelled her to hos- Pr 

 tilities with Sweden, had engaged to Russia, to pre- 

 vent her from depriving the king ot of 

 his German territories ; and alter guaranteeing to her 

 the posse; '~n of Hanover, that she was negotiating 

 with England on the basis of restoring that electo- 

 rate. After selling her honour, she had been de- 

 frauded of the price. Indignation at the treach- 

 ery and impatience of the insolence of Bonaparte, at 

 last decided her councils to hazard the die of war. 

 Information was no sooner communicated to the Enjr- 



4R 



