army occupied Switzerland. The
temperate protests of the English Government were answered by demands
for the expulsion of the French exiles who had been living in England
ever since the Revolution, and for its surrender of Malta, which was
retained till some security could be devised against a fresh seizure of
the island by the French fleet. Meanwhile huge armaments were preparing
in the French ports; and a new activity was seen in those of Spain. Not
for a moment indeed had Buonaparte relinquished his design of attacking
Britain. He had made peace because peace would serve his purpose, both
in strengthening the tranquillity of the Continent, which was essential
to his success in any campaign across the Channel, and in giving him
time to replace by a new combination the maritime schemes which had
broken down. Beaten as it had been, the Spanish fleet was still
powerful; and a union with the French fleet which the First Consul was
forming might still enable it to dispute the command of the sea. All
that he wished for was time; and time was what the Peace gave him. But
delay was as dangerous to England, now that it discerned his plans, as
it was profitable to France; and in May 1803 the British Government
anticipated his attack by a declaration of war.

[Sidenote: The Camp at Boulogne.]

The breach only quickened Buonaparte's resolve to attack his enemy at
home. The difficulties in his way he set contemptuously aside; "Fifteen
millions of people," he said, in allusion to the disproportion between
the population of England and France, "must give way to forty millions";
and the invasion was planned on a gigantic scale. A camp of one hundred
thousand men was formed at Boulogne, and a host of flat-bottomed boats
gathered for their conveyance across the Channel. The peril of the
nation forced Addington from office and recalled Pitt to power. His
health was broken, and as the days went by his appearance became so
haggard and depressed that it was plain death was drawing near. But
dying as he really was, the nation clung to him with all its old faith.
He was still the representative of national union; and he proposed to
include Fox and the leading Whigs in his new ministry, but he was foiled
by the bigotry of the king; and the refusal of Lord Grenville and of
Windham to take office without Fox, as well as the loss of his post at a
later time by his ablest supporter, Dundas, left him almost alone. But
lonely as he was, he faced