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FIRST LOIitJ DE SAUMAREZ, ETC. 12^ 



tion and gratitude to the memory of Vice-Admiral Lord de 

 Saumarez, Commander-in-Chief in the Baltic, 1 808-181 2." 

 The British similarly honoured him, and in 1831 he was 

 raised to the peerage, the first time that honour had been con- 

 ferred on a Guernsey man. 



Although in many histories the name of Saumarez meets 

 but a passing mention or is entirely ignored, this view of his 

 services is by no means hyperbolical. For it cannot be dis- 

 puted that the entry of Russia into the war led to the down- 

 fall of Napoleon. And Russia had been largely won over 

 to the Allies by the policy of Saumarez and his fleet in 181 1 

 and 18 1 2. It was in his effort to combat the attempt of the 

 British to ruin his economic system in the Baltic that 

 Napoleon was misguided into challenging the Tsar. It was 

 in his determination not to carry out his last and most im- 

 possible demands in this single respect that the Tsar finally 

 challenged Napoleon. In their exchange of ultimata before 

 the outbreak of hostilities other demands and counter- 

 demands multiply and diminish, vanish and re-appear, the 

 one count which is always stated is the refusal to bar all 

 sea-borne traffic, English or neutral, from Russian ports. 

 The true cause of the Moscow campaign was the refusal of 

 the Tsar to deprive himself of the trade advantages which 

 were secured to him by the presence of Saumarez in the 

 Baltic. 



