as repugnant to the law of nations, as it was inconsistent. with the dictates of humanity. Every seisure of their property was an act of lawless rapine; every sacrifice of life was an act of murder, not what is termed, in law, justifiable homicide. The invaders pretended, that they wished to civilise the natives: but their wild revolutionary doctrines, and their licentious tyranny, tended rather to brutalise than refine them.

A great armament sailed from Toulon in the spring, and soon arrived off Malta. An island so well fortified might have withstood every attempt for its reduction : but the arts of corruption had been employed among the knights; and the grand master capitulated after a short farce of resistance. Sailing to Egypt by the way of Candia, and thus eluding the British squadron which had been detached in quest of him, Bonapartè reached the coast in safety; and the army, landing at Marabout, marched to Alexandria. The town was weakly garrisoned but the janisaries, assisted by many of the inhabitan s, defended the forts and ramparts with some degree of spirit, and killed about one hundred and fifty of the French. Being unable, however, to exclude the invaders, they ceased to resist. The enemy burned some mosques to which the people had fled for refuge, and made furious havock with the sword and bayonet: even women and children were massacred by the revolutionary monsters. Advancing toward Grand Cairo, after losing many of his men by hunger and thirst, the French general routed the Mamelouks, and enforced the surrender of the capital, which he soon organised on the Gallic model.

The earl of St. Vincent (late sir John Jervis) had detached three ships of the line and two frigates to watch the motions of the French. Nelson, who was selected for this service, had no instructions with regard to his

particular course, nor any satisfactory intelligence of the destination of the enemy's armament. Being reinforced in the Mediterranean with ten sail of the line and a ship of fifty guns, he continued his search, keeping his squadron in constant readiness for action. In the bay of Naples, he was informed that the French had sailed to Malta. He therefore steered toward that island but learned in his way that they had left it. He then hastened to the Egyptian coast, and surveyed Alexandria, without finding a French ship in the harbour. Sailing back to Sicily, he procured various supplies before he renewed his search. To the Morea he now directed his course; and hearing that the French had steered to the south-east from Candia, he returned to Alexandria, and, to his great joy, descried the fleet which he wished to engage.

He had adjusted various plans of attack, adapted to different circumstances, and, in many conferences, had impressed them on the minds of all the captains of the fleet. Applying his previous speculations to the present case, they could act without farther instructions; and they approached the foe with full confidence of victory.

M. Brueys had moored the French fleet in the bay of Aboukir, near one of the mouths of the Nile, in a strong and compact line of battle, near the shore. He had thirteen large ships and four frigates, flanked by gun-boats, and supported by an island-battery. Animated rather than discouraged by the obstacles which such a position presented, the rear-admiral (on the 1st of August) commenced an attack at sun-set, and soon broke the hostile line. After two hours of conflict, a considerable progress in point of capture was made by the English, whose joy, however, was damped by the apprehension of losing their commander. Having received a

wound in the head, he was obliged to quit the deck; and it was feared that the wound was mortal; but it did not prove so dangerous as to prevent him from re-appearing, when a fire was observed in L'Orient, the lar gest ship of the enemy, which at length blew up. The horror of this scene produced a short pause: the firing was then renewed until three o'clock in the morning, when two sail of the line and two frigates made their escape. Nine ships, from 74 to 80 guns, were captured: one was burned, beside the flag-ship; a frigate was burned, and one sunk. The loss of lives, on the part of the enemy, probably exceeded two thousand: the admiral was one of the number. On the side of the victors, the killed and wounded, by the official account, were eight hundred and ninety-five.

By this splendid success, the reputation of Nelson was elevated beyond that of every contemporary naval commander. He displayed cool intrepidity, sagacity, and circumspection; and he evinced his humanity by saving as many of the crew of the French admiral's burning ship as were within the reach of possible preservation. Honors and rewards were lavished upon him. He was ennobled by his sovereign; pensioned by the parliaments of Great-Britain and Ireland; liberally recompensed by the India company; gratified with presents from the czar, the kings of Naples and Sardinia; and complimented by the grand signor with a diamond ornament in the form of a plume, taken from one of the imperial turbans—a mark of extraordinary respect from the commander of the faithful to the devout professor of a religion detested by the Moslems.

The French consoled themselves for this ill success by reflecting on the advantages which they derived from the augmentation of their continental power. They not only subverted the pope's temporal sovereignty, and

organised a republic at Rome, but triumphed, by artifice and by arms, over the independence of Switzerland, and, having previously revolutionised Genoa, deprived the Sardinian monarch of the principality of Piedmont.

The British influence in the Mediterranean was, in the mean time, augmented by the acquisition of an important island. Commodore Duckworth sailed to . Minorca, and general Stuart landed with a small army. Some of the fortifications on the coast were abandoned by the terrified enemy: the town of Mahon was seised; and even the garrison of Ciudadella, the capital of the island, had not the spirit to defend a strong post.

Elate with the success of Nelson, and inspired with a renovation of hope, the British minister roused the zeal of the Russian and Turkish potentates, earnestly exhorted the king of Prussia to take arms against the common enemy, and courted the emperor of Germany to a renewal of the war. With the first of these princes, a provisional treaty was negotiated, importing that, as soon as the court of Berlin should consent to take an active part in the war, the czar would furnish forty-five thousand men, to act with the Prussian troops in such a manner as might be deemed most adviseable by the two sovereigns of those forces and by his Britannic majesty; and that pecuniary aid should be sent from England to the Russian prince, on the commencement of the march of his army, and for each month of service.

The royal speech to the parliament expressed the alacrity of joy and the animation of hope: but the cool and prudent part of the nation, however pleased with the signal triumph of Nelson and his gallant associates, disapproved the idea of a new coalition, and wished that the war might be merely defensive, if an honorable

peace could not be obtained. The magnanimity of the emperor Paul, and the vigor of the Porte, though emblazoned by the eloquence of the minister, did not promise that effect which he pretended to foresee-the deliverance of Europe. It was not to be expected that such allies would cordially unite, or that their vigor would be durably efficacious.

In the debate upon the address, the peers heard a remarkable speech from the marquis of Lansdown. He lamented that a victory which might be rendered subservient to the promotion of peace, was adduced as a reason for the continuance of hostilities, and for another confederacy upon the old model. Such a combination, he said, must be fruitless. If princes were so mercenary that they would not act without subsidies from this country,-if they would not renounce all views of rapine and aggrandisement, discard the meanness of jealousy and intrigue, and pursue the direct course of honest and upright policy,-no benefit would result from treaties of ostensible alliance. What degree of confidence could be reposed in the Prussian or the Austrian court? Could it be supposed that Russia, being equally ambitious, would act more honorably, or that the Porte would zealously co-operate with its inveterate enemies in the cause of social order? Even if the Turks were inclined to crush the French, their government had not the means of vigorous attack, being almost incapable of external operations or of domestic defence. This disjointed combination would only serve to furnish the enemy with opportunities of triumph. No league would be effectual, unless it should be more general, more conscientious and disinterested. If we could not frame an association of this kind, it would be better to rest upon our arms, than prosecute an offensive war with selfish, rapacious, and faithless allies. It had been