occasion on which a King opposed his Ministry successfully. Since that time, the sovereign has always complied with the will of Parliament. The government has been chiefly carried on by the Ministry, and they always resign if the votes in the House of Commons are so strongly against their measures that there is reason to believe that the greater part of the people do not approve of their manner of conducting the government.

10. Pitt resigned his office, and Lord Sidmouth came in. A peace was made with the French called the Peace of Amiens. Numbers of people hurried to see France in its changed state, and to behold the famous General Bonaparte, who was now at the head of affairs there, and was called First Consul. But it had been part of the treaty that all conquests on each side should be restored. The French did not give up theirs, and so the English would not quit the little isle of Malta, which they had recovered from the French, and which properly belonged to the Knights of St. John. On this, Bonaparte raged against the English Ambassador, drove him away, and made prisoners all the peaceable English travellers, a shameful act, never equalled before or since amongst civilised nations; 10,000 were kept in captivity for eleven years, that is, from 1803 to 1814.

11. The preparations for invading England went on in earnest, and Boulogne Harbour was full of flat-bottomed boats in which the French were to land; and medals were actually made in Paris, to

be given after the victory, with the false inscription, 'Struck in London.' Pitt returned to office, and Nelson watched closely in the Channel, and so successful was his defence of the coasts that no Frenchman set foot in England save as a prisoner.

12. The French meantime made Napoleon their Emperor, and he allied himself with Spain, which had a fine fleet of large three-decked ships, so that he hoped to be a match for the English. The two fleets joined in Cadiz bay, and numbered forty-six ships, their masts looking, as Admiral Collingwood said, as thick as trees in a wood. Then, on the 21st of October 1805, off Cape Trafalgar, Lord Nelson attacked them with forty ships. No English captain can go wrong who lays himself alongside of an enemy's ship,' he said, and his signal was, 'England expects every man to do his duty.'

13. The great crescent in which the enemy was drawn up was soon broken, their defeat was complete, but in the midst of the fight a shot from a man in the rigging of a French ship struck Nelson in the spine, and he fell on the deck of his flag-ship, the Victory. He lived long enough to hear the cheers of his men as each enemy's ship struck, nineteen in all being taken, and so many others sunk, that the French had only nine large ships left, the Spaniards only fifteen. Both admirals were made prisoners; the Spaniard was dangerously wounded, and the Frenchman killed himself.

THE BATTLE OF THE BALTIC.

189

14. After this greatest of our naval victories there was no more fear of a French invasion, and Britain remained alone ruler of the seas. The worst danger was thus over before, in 1806, Pitt died, worn out with care and anxiety, and in the course of the same year Fox also died.

Persons: Admiral Nelson-Napoleon Bonaparte-Sultan Tippoo Sahib-Sir Sidney Smith-Sir Ralph AbercrombieThe Emperor Paul of Russia-William Pitt-Lord Sidmouth.

Dates: Battle of the Nile, 1798—Union of Great Britain and Ireland, 1800-Battle of Trafalgar, 1805-Deaths of Pitt and Fox, 1806.

XLII. THE BATTLE OF THE BALTIC.

(Copenhagen.)

OF Nelson and the North

Sing the glorious day's renown,
When in battle fierce came forth

All the might of Denmark's crown,
And her arms along the deep proudly shone.
By each gun the lighted brand,

In a bold, determined hand,
And the Prince1 of all the land
Led them on.

Like leviathans 2 afloat

Lay their bulwarks on the brine,

While the sign of battle flew

On the lofty British line;

'Prince, the Crown Prince of Denmark commanded the Danes. 2 Leviathans, great whales.

It was an April morn by the chime.
As they drifted on their path,
There was silence deep as death,
And the boldest held his breath
For a time.

But the might of England flushed
To anticipate the scene,

And her van the fleeter rushed

O'er the deadly space between.

'Hearts of oak!' our captain cried, when each gun,

From its adamantine1 lips,

Spread a death shade round the ships,
Like the hurricane eclipse

Of the sun.

Again! again! again!

And the havoc did not slack,

Till a feeble cheer the Dane

For our cheering sent us back;

Their shots along the deep slowly boom,
Then ceased, and all is wail,
As they strike the shattered sail,
Or in conflagration2 pale

Light the gloom.

Out spake the victor then,

As he hailed them o'er the wave,

1 Adamantine properly means hard as loadstone.
2 Conflagration, a great fire.