As long as Sweden remained friendly, the admiral's duties, though
weighty, did not differ materially from those usual to his profession;
but when she was unwillingly forced into a declaration of war by
Napoleon, his task became more complicated and more delicate. The
British minister having to leave, Saumarez succeeded to a diplomatic
situation, in which the problem was to support the interests and dignity
of his own nation, without transforming the formal war into actual
hostilities, and substituting imbitterment for the secret good will of
the Swedish government and people, who, in common with the Russian
nobles and subjects, were alienated by the imperious and merciless
exactions of the French demands. The secret aim of Great Britain was so
to nourish this ill-will towards France, and so to avoid causes of
offence by herself, as to convert covert hostility into open antagonism,
and thus to reverse the political and military combinations of Europe.
In the absence of regular accredited diplomatic representatives,
Saumarez became at once the exponent and the minister of this vital
policy. He had to avoid quarrels, and yet at the same time to restrain
Sweden from acts of injury to which she was constantly impelled by the
Emperor, whose purpose naturally was exactly the opposite of his; and
who sought further to estrange all people from Great Britain.

In the performance of this task Saumarez's success was not only
complete, but peculiarly his own. His temper was at times severely
tried, but it never got beyond his control. He repressed injury, and
demanded satisfaction for it, when committed; but, relying with good
reason on the motives of the Swedish government, he contrived to secure
redress without resorting to force, which, however understood by
statesmen, would enrage the peoples he had to conciliate. After the
ordeal was over, and Russia was at war with France, a leading Swedish
statesman wrote to him: "You have been the guardian angel of my country;
by your wise, temperate, and loyal conduct, you have been the first
cause of the plans which have been formed against the demon of the
continent.... Once more I must tell you, that _you_ were the first cause
that Russia had dared to make war against France; had you fired one
shot when we declared war against England, all had been ended and Europe
would have been enslaved." Saumarez, an extremely religious man, may
have reflected that "he who ruleth his spirit is greate