nds, as well as the French stations in
India. The only British gains, after nine years of warfare, fruitful
in naval triumphs, but entailing an addition of L290,000,000 to the
National Debt, were the islands of Trinidad and the Dutch possessions
in Ceylon. And yet in the six months spent in negotiations the general
course of events had been favourable to the northern Power. What then
had been lacking? Certainly not valour to her warriors, nor good
fortune to her flag; but merely brain power to her rulers. They had
little of that foresight, skill, and intellectual courage, without
which even the exploits of a Nelson are of little permanent effect.

Reserving for treatment in the next chapter the questions arising from
these preliminaries and the resulting Peace of Amiens, we turn now to
consider their bearing on Bonaparte's position as First Consul. The
return of peace after an exhausting war is always welcome; yet the
patriotic Briton who saw the National Debt more than doubled, with no
adequate gain in land or influence, could not but contrast the
difference in the fortunes of France. That Power had now gained the
Rhine boundary; her troops garrisoned the fortresses of Holland and
Northern Italy; her chief dictated his will to German princelings and
to the once free Switzers; while the Court of Madrid, nay, the
Eternal City herself, obeyed his behests. And all this prodigious
expansion had been accomplished at little apparent cost to France
herself; for the victors' bill had been very largely met out of the
resources of the conquered territories. It is true that her nobles and
clergy had suffered fearful losses in lands and treasure, while her
trading classes had cruelly felt the headlong fall in value of her
paper notes: but in a land endowed with a bounteous soil and climate
such losses are soon repaired, and the signature of the peace with
England left France comparatively prosperous. In October the First
Consul also concluded peace with Russia, and came to a friendly
understanding with the Czar on Italian affairs and the question of
indemnities for the dispossessed German Princes.[175]

Bonaparte now strove to extend the colonies and commerce of France, a
topic to which we shall return later on, and to develop her internal
resources. The chief roads were repaired, and ceased to be in the
miserable condition in which the abolition of the _corvees_ in 1789
had left them: canals were dug to connect the chief river