126 FIRST LORD DE SAUMAREZ, ETC. 



there arose a military power capable of sufficient exertion and 

 keyed up to the necessary pitch of determination to establish 

 a firm root of resistance to Napoleon, which was to blossom 

 forth in 1813 in the great war of Liberation. 



The stages by which the coalition was built up followed 

 one another quickly in the Spring and early Summer of 181 2. 

 On March 24th a treaty of alliance had already been signed 

 between Russia and Sweden, whereby the latter country once 

 more pledged herself to take part in a coalition against 

 Napoleon. The difficulty of Finland was surmounted with 

 characteristic ease by the Tsar, who simply offered the whole 

 territory of Norway in exchange. That it was not his to 

 give seems to have troubled his otherwise sensitive conscience 

 not at all; and it must be confessed that it appeared to affect 

 the British Government little more. This practically brought 

 the coalition into existence. The formal Peace was signed 

 at Orebro on July 1 8th between England, Russia and 

 Sweden. 



Saumarez was in the Baltic again the following year, 

 and it was there that he heard the news of the retreat from 

 Moscow. It was fitting that he should hear of his triumph 

 on the scene of his labours, but his work was concluded in 

 1812, and in 1813 he was superseded in the Baltic command. 

 It had ceased to be of primary importance and he was no 

 longer needed there. 



It was the peace of Orebro that marked the real triumph 

 of the British naval policy of 18 10-18 12 in the Baltic. 

 Saumarez's diplomatic handling of the pseudo-enmity of 

 Sweden, and of what had lately become the purely formal 

 hostility of Russia had at last reaped its reward. "Had 

 you fired one shot at us when we went to war with you," wrote 

 the Swedish minister to Saumarez, "all had been ended and 

 Europe had been enslaved." Bernadotte's present of a 

 diamond-hilted sword was perhaps a less explicit way of 

 expressing the same idea. That this was no momentary ex- 

 pression of gratitude in the hour of relief, but that it was 

 the considered judgment of the Swedish Government has 

 been doubly shewn by the subsequent action of the Swedes. 

 In 1835, Bernadotte, now Charles XIV., presented a magni- 

 ficent portrait of himself to Saumarez with the inscription, 

 "Charles XIV. John to James Lord de Saumarez in the name 

 of the Swedish people, 1811&1812." In 1910 the Swedish 

 Government sent two warships to Guernsey to place a wreath 

 on the Delancey monument to Saumarez. Attached to it 

 were two ribbons. On one was written the statement of the 

 Admiral: "Nothing could shake my confidence in the 

 Swedes/' On the other was written, "A tribute of admira- 



