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 apprized 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 gun-brigs, set sail from Yarmouth roads:

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