liberate choice, by all the orders of the state, of Bernadotte, to the exclusion of all the royal family from the succession to the crown, was an indelible stain on the Swedish nation; and above all, on his uncle, the Duke of Suderinania.

So much for the Swedes. For the Danes, they were employed with great activity in fitting out frigates and gun-boats for annoying our trade in the Baltic. The Danish nation seemed to have returned to their old trade of piracy, which they pursued with great courage as well as assiduity, and no small

Mighty preparations were made this year by King Joachim Murat for an invasion of Sicily. In the beginning of July he had collected 37,000 troops on the Calabrian coast, opposite to the island, and 208 gun-boats, and 700 boats of other descriptions. The troops were practised daily in embarkation and debarkation; and Murat declared that it was his intention to be at Palermo on the 15th of August. And he issued a proclamation to the Sicilians, announcing that he was coming over with 40,000 brave French troops, to drive away the English. While Sicily was thus threatened, it was very discouraging to the English to find the backwardness of the court to assist in the general defence. The people were all very well disposed towards the British troops, and attached to the common cause of Sicily and Great Britain. Nothing indeed could be more natural than an alliance between Britain and Sicily, situate at the opposite extremities of the

French empire. But the people of Sicily frequently asked our officers, what was to become of them if they should be exposed to the re seatment of the French, and then abandoned? Sir John Stuart, with his little army, was left alone, either to take the best measures for resistance, or to secure his retreat. The general did not hesitate to make his option. All our troops were drawn together; gunboats fringed the coast; batteries rose as by magic; fifteen thousand British troops, distributed in proper places, but ali on a line of casy and rapid communication, were opposed to the threatened invasion of 40,000. The Neapo litan army was encamped on the heights above the castle of Scylla, and the gun-boats and small craft anchored under cover of beavy batteries, which constantly threw shot and shells into the English quarters in Sicily. Sir John Stuart's army was encamped all along the Straits from Messina to the Faro Point, a distance of ten miles. Four line of battle ships, with some frigates and sloops, were moored within the Faro. Daily skirmishes took place between the Sicilian flotilla prepared by Sir John Stuart, and that of King Murat. And as the sea between Sicily and that part of the continent where the French army was posted, is scarcely, where narrowest, two miles,, the beauty of the scene was admirable; particularly at night, when showers of shells and red-hot balls flew through the air with very little actual damage to the combatants on either side. It was more like an enter tainment at Vauxhall than a scourge ef

of war. The alarm of an invasion was soon dissipated. By repeated attacks on the French flotilla, great numbers of the vessels were destroyed, taken, or dispersed. A debarkation of about 3500 men, Corsicans and Neapolitans, was effected, September 18th, near the Faro. Of these, not being supported by any other corps, 900 were taken prisoners by two of our regiments, commanded by Major-General Campbell. The rest made their escape to their gun-vessels. On the 3d of October, King Murat proclaimed to his soldiers, "that the expedition to Sicily was adjourned. The object of the Emperor in menacing that island had been fulfilled: the problem had been solved. It had been proved, that the enemy's flotillas could not obstruct the passage, and that Sicily might be conquered whenever it should be seriously intended."

An obstinate contest was carried on between the Turks and the Russians in Bulgaria. Several bloody battles were fought, but none of them decisive. The number of Russian troops engaged was computed at 200,000; that of the Turks, in garrisons and in the field, at 300,000. The Russians took Widdin, Cristow, Georgivo, and other places of inferior importance on the Danube. But their progress was arrested at Rudschuck, Schumla, and Warna. At the first two of these places the conflict appears to have been very sanguinary-both parties claimed victory; but both ultimately admitted that they were dearly bought, by the necessity they were under of suspending

their operations until they should receive reinforcements. The Turks were driven from the town of Rudschuck, but not from the fortress.

The Ottoman government was far from being deficient either in activity or enterprise. They sent a fleet into the Black Sea, to prevent the Russians from receiving any communication through that channel. Demonstrations were made of attacking the Crimea, in order to oblige the Russians to divide their forces, and thus create a diversion in favour of the Grand Vizier at Schumla. The Russians continued to concentrate their corps, with the intention, it was supposed, of marching into Romania. The Grand Vizier, therefore, leaving a part of his troops in the entrenched camp at Schumla, retreated with the remainder over the Bukanian mountains in good order and without molestation, in order to take post between the Russians and Adrianople. The Grand Seignior, having issued a proclamation calling on all faithful Mussulmen to support the cause of Mahomed, and displayed the standard of the prophet, advanced with a body of troops to David Bashaw, two miles from Constantinople, where he established his head quarters, and whither all his ministers and other troops followed him. The troops proceeded to join the Grand Vizier. The Sulian returned to his capital. While the grand Turkish army passed the winter undisturbed in their winter quarters, the fleet lay in the harbour of Constantinople.

There appeared, in 1810, in the Turkish government an unusual

degree

degree of vigour. Pressed as the Divan were by the Russians, they yet sent troops to Syria against the powerful sect of the Waughabites, who had renounced all fealty and obedience to the eldest son of the prophet. The Waughabites betook themselves to piracy, as well as rapine and conquest on land. In April, 1810, an expedition was fitted out to the Persian Gulph against the Waughabite pirates, by the English government at Bombay.

War was carried on between the Turks and Servians with various success. But the advantage, on the whole, was greatly on the side of the Servians.

The infatuation of the Turks and Russians in continuing a bloody war against each other, in 1810, would scarcely appear credible to posterity, if there were not similar instances of infatuation in history, both ancient and modern. Their whole faculties seemed to be absorbed in mutual hostility and rage. They seem never so much as once to have bestowed a serious thought on the tremendous power that hovered over them, ready to pounce on one or both, whenever sufficiently debilitated by their mad conflicts. But the party most blameable, and the maddest too, was, beyond a doubt, the Russians.

CHAP.

N our last volume *, a general sketch was given of the relations between Great Britain and the United states of America, about the middle of the year 1809. But it may, perhaps, be expected that some account should be given of the circumstances, and means, by which so extraordinary a transaction as that between the British resident and the American government was brought about.

A treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, was concluded by the British and American plenipotentiaries, in December 1806. The British government readily acquiesced in it; but it was rejected by the American president. Towards the close of 1808, it was known that the choice of a new president to succeed Mr. Jefferson had fallen upon Mr. Maddison. A non-intercourse act, in respect of Great Britain and France, was substituted soon after for a general embargo; by the operation of which the American commerce, and the revenue dependent on it, had been nearly annihilated. But, in case of either France or Eng

Hist. Eur. p 288.

land revoking its nostile edicts, the trade suspended might be renewed with the nation so doing.

In this alteration of circumstances, and the spontaneous declaration of the new government of their wish to come to a right understanding with England, our resident minister in † America, thought he saw an opportunity of effecting what several preceding negociators had not been able to accomplish. He represented to his court, what he was perfectly convinced of himself, that the new president would bring with him to his high office very different sentiments from those which were known to animate Mr Jefferson; that Mr. Maddison could not be accused of having a bias towards France; that he was, on the contrary, an admirer of the British constitution, in general well disposed towards our nation, and entirely free from any enmity to its general prosperity. The communications made to him by the president, and other leading members of the American government, Mr. Erskine believed to proceed "from

an

an unfeigned desire that they might produce, if possible, an adjustment of their differences with Great Britain, so as to enable the government and the nation to extricate themselves from the, very distressing dilemma in which they were involved." Messrs. Smith and Gallatin, who were considered as the confidential ministers or agents of the president, spoke with great freedom and apparent openness, as of their own knowledge of the views of the American government, of the general means to be employed for their attainment, and even of the precise manner in which their designs were to be carried into execution. Mr Gallatin said, that he knew that it was intended by the United States "to abandon the attempt to carry on a trade with the colonies of belligerents in time of war, which was not allowed in time of peace." The president expressly said, that the United States would at once side with that power which should discontinue its aggressions. On the whole, the conversations of the American ministers were admirably calculated to work upon a mind eager to be the instrument of conciliation between the two countries. Accordingly our envoy made a separate report to his government of what had been said to him, though unofficially, by the president's two agents. Mr. Maddison spoke with more caution than his ministers. He dealt more in general observation, except upon one topic, which he appears to have wished particularly to impress on Mr. Erskine's mind, viz. the probability of the United States going to war with both England and France, although he did not

attempt to disguise the difficulties of that alternative. On all other points, those especially which related to the concessions to be made to Great Britain, in return for those required of her, there was a remarkable obscurity in his language. As to the sincerity of his sentiments, and the reality of his professed views, he gave no other pledge than an observation of the obvious advantages, that would result from an adjustment of differences, to both countries.

To the reports made by Mr. Erskine, it is proper to add, that the American minister in London had told the Secretary of State that there would be no objection to the capture, by British cruizers, of American vessels that should attempt to trade with France, notwithstanding the prohibition, which, on the revocation of the orders in council, would remain in force against that country.

1

Whatever might have been the sincerity of these communications from the Americans, they met with an immediate and serious attention from the British ministers, who seem to have been anxious to catch at every opportunity, however visionary, on which to ground the hope of a change of policy in America. Accordingly two sepa rate sets of instructions were sent to Mr. Erskine: the first on the affair of the Chesapeak, in which the terms of satisfaction and concession which were to be agreed to by his majesty, and those which were to be required in return, were distinctly specified. But it was also proposed to wave on both sides, the retrospective concessions, as the means of avoiding fruitless controversy, and to restore the

men