BRITAIN. 



6S9 



In defence of the policy of tlie orders, it v. 

 that we should reooce the enemy by di.tr, 

 dun his system of blockade, and to permit tin- ' 

 oss of our colonial produce and mamilacn 

 Tin' continent, it was said, would not calmly sub- 

 mit to such privations as the want of tea, sugar, to- 

 bacco, cotton, and foreign medicines. Bonaparte 

 would at last be compelled, by the murmurs of fitly 

 millions of human beings, languishing for luxuries to 

 which they had been habituated, to abandon his ex- 

 cluding system. It is strange to observe, that at the 

 moment when ministers were pleading ior this proba- 

 bility, they were avowedly encouraging the smug- 

 gling trade between Britain and France ; a trade 

 which, as far as it could succeed, exactly supplied 

 the enemy with those luxuries, for the loss of which 

 we expected the continent to mutiny against Us ty- 

 rant. 



In opening the budget of 1808, the chancellor of 

 the exchequer stated the supplies which had been 

 voted to be L. 4-8,653, 170, from which was to be 

 deducted the proportion furnished by Ireland, v ; /. 

 L. 5,713,601, which would leave a sum to be di-lr.iyccl 

 by Britain of L. 42,933,601. The ways and means 

 amounted to L. 4-3,076,000. The loan fur England 

 and Ireland was ten millions and a half, of which ight 

 wire for the use of this country. The whole sum was 

 to be founded in the 4 per cents, and the contractors 

 for every L. 100 advanced to the public were to re- 

 ceive L. 118 : 3 : 6, so that the public paid for every 

 L. 100 capital L.4 : 14- : 6J interest. In conse- 

 quence of the loan of ten millions and a half, there 

 was a capital of debt created to the amount of 

 L. 12, 108,375, from which, after deducing a pro- 

 portion of two seventeenths tor Ireland, making 

 L,. 2.95 i, 375, there would remain as a permanent 

 butthen upon Great Britain L..9, !54,0(!0, and an 

 annual charge for interest of L. 475, 536. 



Among the changes in military arrangement pro- 

 duced by the new ministry, was that of substituting 

 a local militia for the unregimented levy of 200,000 

 men from the whole population, of which the late 

 ministry had determined on calling out and training 

 to arms. This 1 cal militia was to be balloted for in 

 the different counties, in proportion to the deficiency 

 of volunteers in each, between 18 and 31 years of 

 age ; nor were exemptions to be made but at a very 

 high fine. The officers were to possess the same re- 

 quisites as to property as those of the existing militia, 

 except in one instance, namely, that whoever had held 

 the rank of a field officer in the army, might hold the 

 same rank in the militia, without such qualification. 

 Volunteer corps might, if they chose, transfer them- 

 selves, with the approbation of his majesty, into this 

 local militia. The period of service during the year 

 was to be 28 days, exclusive of the days for assem- 

 bling, marching, &c. for which pay was to be allow- 

 ed. The expence was calculated not to exceed the 

 present volunteer establishment. It would not ex- 

 ceed four pounds per man for the year. Having a 

 regimental force of 400,000 men, in addition to th~e 

 regular army of 200,000, which might, if occasion 

 required, be augmented to 250,000, the empire 

 might be considered as secure. 



Beaten and overawed by the armies of France, the 

 Emperor Alexander sought refuge from the disgrace 



TOL. IV. PART II. 



"." ', 



nitting to Bin to be his Britain. 



cordial silly ; and pretending I v - ' 



win Ir npiiii >n of thi- true interests of Europe, '" 



with his recent conquer* r in a plan for its j, 

 Almost immediately after the capture of Copenhagen, RUKM d. 

 he declared war upland; complainin i war 



she had harassed the Russian trade ; that she had **' 

 refused his proffered mediation for a peace with k"i{ lau< *- 

 France; that in th<- l;<;e V.MT again- 1 1" ranee, a war 

 instigated by Ir had promoted only her own 



selfish ends, and had sent out expeditions to Naples, 

 Buenos Ay res, Sicily, and Egjpt j finally, that she 

 had seized upon the Danish fleet. Austria and Pru- 

 ere also obliged t-> declare war against English 

 commerce, though they had the decency not to ac- 

 company their declaration with a complaining ma- 

 nifesto, 



The treaty of Tilsit was hardly concluded, when Bonaparte 

 Bonaparte turned his views to the West, and resolved reolve to 

 on the subjugation of Portugal and Spain. Perhaps ul >jugate 

 it was his tii st design not to overthrow the thrones of 

 these kingdoms, but, under the veil of alliance and 

 union, to reduce them to the same abject dependence 

 as the confederations of the Rhine, Holland, and 

 Switzerland. With this view he hrfd called the 

 flower of the Spanish troops to serve in his late san- 

 guinary campaigns in Germany and Poland. Through 

 his ambassador, Beauharnois, at the court of Madrid, 

 he fomented discord in the royal family of Spain, 

 that he might assume to himself the arbitration of 

 their differences. The French ambassador suggested 

 to Ferdinand, Prince of Asturias, the idea of inter- 

 marrying with a princess related to the Emperor Na- 

 poleon. The anxiety of the prince of Asturias to 

 avoid an union with another lady, selected for him by 

 his greatest enemies at court, induced him to ac- 

 quiesce in the proposition of Beauharnois, with the 

 reservation, that it was to meet with the approbation 

 of his royal parents ; and he wrote a letter, signify- 

 ing his wishes to the French emperor. This clan- 

 destine communication, and other circumstances art- 

 fully prepared, gave colour to an accusation insidi- 

 ously prepared against the innocent prince. A few 

 days after he wrote the letter to Beauharnois, he was 

 arrested and confined in the monastery of St Law- 

 rence. On the 31st of October, all the members of 

 the different councils of state being assembled, a de- 

 claration by the king was read to them, stating a dis- 

 covery that the prince of Asturias had formed a con- 

 spiracy for dethroning his father. He had been sur- 

 prised, it was said, in his own apartments, with 

 the cyphers of his correspondence, which were laid 

 before the council of Castile, with instructions for 

 them to investigate the whole matter. The whole 

 Spanish nation instantly suspected, that the pretended 

 conspiracy was an infamous calumny, fabricated by 

 Godoy, the Prince of Peace, and Bonaparte, for the 

 purpose of removing the only obstacle which then 

 opposed their designs. The imprisonment of the 

 Prince of Asturias, and the decree against his person, 

 produced an effect quite contrary to the expectations 

 of the favourite Godoy, who now receded in fear, 

 and pretended to moderate a reconciliation between 

 the royal parents and their son. He dictated peni- 

 tential letters from Ferdinand to both the king and 

 the queen, and made the Prince of Asturias sign 

 4- s 



