Wellington, soldier and statesman, and the revival of the military power of England . s-sessed a strong and well-equipped fleet, which couldbe made available should it pass into the hands of ourenemies. Canning, when made aware of the secretarticles of Tilsit, determined to keep this armamentout of Napoleons clutches ; a formidable expeditionwas sent from England to demand a surrender ofthe Danish fleet, to be held as a pledge until peaceshould have been made; Lord Cathcart was at thehead of a land force of 27,000 men ; Wellesley andhis old comrade, Baird, were in command of two ofits division
Wellington, soldier and statesman, and the revival of the military power of England . s-sessed a strong and well-equipped fleet, which couldbe made available should it pass into the hands of ourenemies. Canning, when made aware of the secretarticles of Tilsit, determined to keep this armamentout of Napoleons clutches ; a formidable expeditionwas sent from England to demand a surrender ofthe Danish fleet, to be held as a pledge until peaceshould have been made; Lord Cathcart was at thehead of a land force of 27,000 men ; Wellesley andhis old comrade, Baird, were in command of two ofits divisions. The Crown Prince of Denmark indig-nantly refused to accept terms which he deemed anaffront, and which nothing could justify but a mostgrave crisis ; Copenhagen was invested by land andby sea ; the result was never for a moment fought a successful action at Roskilde,easily defeating levies of armed peasants. There isnothing remarkable in his conduct, except that, withthe humanity which was one of his qualities, hewished to save Copenhagen from bombardment, and. NAPOLEON IN HIS STUDY.(From a steel engraving.) Ireland— Copenhagen— Vimiero 51 to compel a capitulation by cutting off its , however, adopted the sterner course; aconsiderable part of the city was destroyed ; theDanes found it impossible to hold out; their fleetwas in a few days on its way to England. Napoleon, meanwhile, had been straining everynerve to shut England out from trade with the Con-tinent, and to strike a mortal blow at his one re-maining enemy. British merchandise was seizedalong an immense seaboard; British subjects wereimprisoned on different pretexts; an attempt wasmade to raise a Chinese Wall against England infive-sixths of Europe. At the same time he madestrenuous efforts to increase his naval power ; squad-rons were sent into the Mediterranean to threatenSicily to be annexed to Josephs kingdom ofNaples; from Dantzic and Riga to Trieste, allaround the Contine
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