vain effort to relieve the Prussian garrison, was tolerably severe, her first-lieutenant (James Edward Eastman) and "nearly half” her crew being wounded by the incessant fire of musketry poured upon them. The mizenmast of the Sally was also shot through, her rigging and sails much cut, and upwards of 1000 musket-shot lodged in her hull. The loss on the part of the French, according to information received a day or two afterwards, amounted to upwards of 400 in killed and wounded.

On the 24th, the French, having completed their works, began bombarding the city, and on the 29th attempted to carry it by storm, but were repulsed. On the 16th of May the British 18-gun ship-sloop Dauntless, Captain Christopher Strachey, made a gallant but unsuccessful attempt to supply the garrison with 600 barrels of gunpowder. Having a favourable wind, the Dauntless ran up the river with studding-sails set, firing on the enemy as she passed: but the wind, either from shifting or from an unexpected bend of the river, became unfavourable, and, the ship broke round off. The Channel being too narrow for the Dauntless to work in, and the fire of the enemy under such circumstances too heavy to be resisted, Captain Strachey ran his ship upon the Holme within half musket-shot of the French batteries, and surrendered. On the 21st a capitulation was proposed and on the 27th the garrison of Dantzic, reduced from 16,000 to 9000 men, marched out of the fortress with the honours of war. On the 14th of June the battle of Friedland was fought; on the 25th an armistice was agreed upon between France and Russia at Tilsit; and on the 7th and 9th of July, at the same place, treaties were concluded between France, Russia, and Prussia.

That the French emperor had not, in the mean time, wholly neglected strengthening his marine, a glance at his naval means at the conclusion of that treaty will show. In the ports of Brest, Lorient, Rochefort, Ferrol, Vigo, Cadiz, Carthagena, and Toulon, were upwards of 45 French and Spanish sail of the line ready for sea, or nearly so, exclusive of three French sail of the line in the West Indies and America. Buonaparte flattered himself that he should soon have also at his disposal nine Portuguese sail of the line in the Tagus, and five Russian in the Mediterranean. These 62 sail, even while lying in port, would occupy the attention of an equal number of British ships; and every division that escaped to sea would, in all probability, be pursued by at least two squadrons of equal force. Moreover it was requisite to have an adequate British force in the colonies,

east and west, to be ready to act, in case an enemy's fleet should suddenly make its appearance. Hence, a great portion of the British navy was fully employed in the southern, eastern, and western seas: we have still to show what force might be opposed to the remainder in the northern sea.

In the port of Flushing, and at Anvers, or Antwerp, as more usually called, were three Dutch and eight new French sail of the line, ready for sea, or fitting with the utmost expedition. All these were 74s, built from Dutch models; two, the Charlemagne and Commerce-de-Lyon, were launched on the 8th of April, 1807; two others, the Anversois, and Illustre, on the 7th of June; and the remaining four, the Audacieux, Duguesclin, César, and Thésée, in the latter end of that month and beginning of July. Two other 74s, the Albanais and Dalmate, were on the stocks, getting ready with the utmost expedition. In the Texel were also three Dutch sail of the line, making a total of 14.

But these ships were not all. The French emperor, who, besides his grand army in the neighbourhood of Tilsit, had one of 70,000 men on the confines of Swedish Pomerania, and meditated sending another to occupy the Danish monarch's newlyacquired territory of Holstein, flattered himself with obtaining, either by fair means or by foul, the 11 sail of the line belonging to Sweden, and the 16 belonging to Denmark. There is also good ground for believing, that one of the secret articles of the treaty of Tilsit placed at the conqueror's temporary disposal the 19 or 20 fine new ships, which the Emperor of Russia had ready for sea, or nearly so, in the ports of Revel and Cronstadt.

Here would have been a confederate French, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, and Russian fleet of 60 sail of the line in the North and Baltic seas. Admitting the plan to have been realized to only half the extent in the alleged contemplation of Napoleon, 30 sail of the line and a proportionate number of transports could have conveyed a powerful army to Ireland; and the French emperor not only possessed a powerful army ready to act, but had reason to expect that he should soon have leisure personally to direct its energies towards the fulfilment of an oft-repeated threat, the humiliation of the most constant, the most formidable, and the most dreaded of his enemies.

In this state of things England naturally kept a watchful eye upon naval affairs in the north. A reliance upon the firmness and continued friendship of the King of Sweden induced her to send some troops, chiefly Germans, to his assistance; but, by the time the first division of these had landed in Rugen and

Stralsund, the aspect of affairs in this quarter had materially changed, and the Swedish monarch was compelled at length to retire, with the remnant of his army, to the last-named fortress. It was during the long and friendly discussion between the emperors on the Niemen, preparatory to the peace of Tilsit, that England became apprised of the confederacy that was forming against her in the north; and it was then, or soon after, that she learnt that the weakness of Denmark was a second time to operate as her excuse for favouring the views of France, by shutting up the Sound against British commerce and navigation, and lending the Copenhagen fleet to assist in the attempt to subjugate a power whose friendship it was at all times the interest of both Denmark and Russia to cultivate.

On the 19th of July, and not before, Great Britain came to the determination to demand of Denmark the temporary possession of her fleet, and, in case of refusal, to deliver it up on a solemn pledge to restore it entire at the conclusion of a general peace, to take it by force of arms. Owing to the lateness of the season, and the necessity of fulfilling the object of the expedition before the winter months put a stop to operations in the Baltic, the utmost despatch was required. As a proof that it was used, on the 26th of July Admiral James Gambier, with the principal division of the fleet, consisting of the following 17 ships of the line, exclusive of 21 frigates, sloops, bomb-vessels, and gunbrigs, set sail from Yarmouth roads :

On the 1st of August, in the evening, when off the Wingobeacon, at the entrance of Gottenberg, Commodore Keats, with the Ganges, Vanguard, Orion, and Nassau, also the 38-gun frigate Sibylle, Captain Clotworthy Upton, 36-gun frigates Franchise, Captain Charles Dashwood, and Nymphe, Captain Conway Shipley, and 10 brigs, parted company by signal, and steered for the passage of the Great Belt, in order to cut off any supplies of Danish troops that might attempt to cross from Holstein to Zealand. On the 3rd, in the forenoon, having previously ascertained that no opposition would be offered to the passage of the fleet into the Sound, the British admiral interchanged salutes with the castle of Cronberg, and shortly afterwards anchored in the road of Elsineur, where was lying the Danish 32-gun frigate Frederickscoarn. On the 5th, in the morning, the 74-gun ship Superb, Captain Daniel M'Leod, joined the expedition, and on the morning of the 6th weighed and made sail after the Vanguard and squadron, to receive the broad pendant of her old commander.

On the 7th the Inflexible and Leyden 64s, Captains Joshua Rowley Watson and William Cumberland, with a large convoy of transports arrived; also Rear-admiral William Essington, with the 74-gun ships Minotaur, Captain Charles John Moore Mansfield, and Valiant, Captain James Young. On the 8th and 9th the Mars and Defence, 74s, Captains William Lukin and Charles Ekins, joined, the first with a convoy of transports. On the 12th, in the morning, the 32-gun frigate Africaine, Captain Richard Raggett, arrived from Put bay in the island of Rugen, having on board Lieutenant-general Lord Cathcart, the commander-in-chief of the land-forces to be employed. Lord Cathcart had sailed from England in the same frigate on the 5th of July, and had anchored on the 16th in Put bay. His lordship and suite there disembarked, and proceeded to the neighbouring fortress of Stralsund.

By the time the transports from Rugen had joined, and a few others, under the 64-gun ship Agamemnon, Captain Jonas Rose, from England, the expedition consisted of 25 sail of the line, and upwards of 40 frigates, sloops, bomb-vessels, and gun-brigs; making a total of about 65 vessels of war, exclusive of 377 transports, measuring 78,420 tons, and conveying about 27,000 troops, more than half of them Germans in British pay.

It appears that Mr. Jackson, the British plenipotentiary to the court of Denmark, had his first interview with the crown prince at Kiel in Holstein. To the former's demand on the sub

ject of the Danish fleet, the latter returned such a reply as might be expected,' and, despatching an estafette to Copenhagen, with orders to put the city in the best possible state of defence, proceeded thither himself. On the 10th, in the evening, the courier reached Copenhagen, and early on the following morning the work of preparation began. At noon the prince arrived, and by his presence gave an additional impetus to the exertions of his subjects. On the 12th his Danish majesty quitted Copenhagen for Colding in Jutland, leaving the defence of the city to the care of Major-general Peiman. The regular force at this time in the city and suburbs of Copenhagen, of which the population, in the preceding March, was estimated at upwards of 100,000 souls, has been variously stated at from 3000 to 10,000 men; but the account that appears to be the most worthy of credit makes the number, including an organized militia force of 2000 men, 5510. These were exclusive of sailors, and of 3600 armed citizens; so that the whole force, regular and irregular, amounted probably to 12,000 men. The main Danish army, of more than double that amount, was encamped in Holstein.

The sea-defence of the port consisted of the Trekronen pilebattery, situated at the distance of 2000 yards, in a north-east by north direction from the entrance of the harbour (which runs like a canal through the centre of the town), and mounting 68 guns besides mortars, a pile-battery in advance of the citadel, mounting 36 guns and nine mortars, the citadel itself mounting 20 guns and three or four mortars, and the holm or arsenal battery, mounting 50 guns and 12 mortars; total 174 guns and 25 mortars, the guns long 36 and 24 pounders (Danish), and the mortars the largest in use.

There were also around the Trekronen and in front of the harbour, the blockship Mars, of 64 guns, and the prame St. Thomas, of 22, also three 20-gun prames (24-pounders), two floating batteries, and from 25 to 30 gun-boats, each of the latter mounting two heavy long-guns. The fleet in the arsenal consisted of 16 sail of the line and 21 frigates and sloops afloat, but not in a serviceable state, besides three 74-gun ships on the stocks, one nearly finished. Two sail of the line, the Prindts-ChristianFrederic 74, Captain Jessen, and Princessen-Louisa-Augusta 64, Captain Sneedorf, lay in ports of Norway; the one at Christiansand, the other at Fredickswaern.

1 No official account was published of the result of this interview, and, of the private accounts, scarcely two agree.