adiness of the latter inspired the former with panic,
and they fled in confusion. But this occurrence, except for its moral
influence on the English soldiery, was of small importance. General
Stuart had been sent to support the Calabrian peasantry in an
insurrection against Joseph Buonaparte; the insurgents were on the whole
unable to stand their ground against the regular army of the intrusive
king; and the English, soon after their fruitless victory, altogether
withdrew. The British had, indeed, taken possession of Curacao, and of
the Cape of Good Hope (this last an acquisition of the highest moment to
the Indian empire); but on the whole the ill success of our measures had
been answerable to the narrow and shallow system of policy in which they
originated--the system of frittering away blood and gold upon detached
objects, instead of rallying the whole resources of the empire around
some one great leader for some one great purpose. The British
expeditions of this period to the Turkish dominions and to Spanish
America were especially distinguished for narrowness of design,
imbecility of execution, and consequent misadventure.

On the assumption of the Imperial dignity by Napoleon, the Ottoman
Porte, dazzled by the apparently irresistible splendour of his fate,
sent an embassy to congratulate him; and in effect the ancient alliance
between France and Turkey was re-established. Napoleon consequently had
little difficulty in procuring from Constantinople a declaration of war
against Russia, the great hereditary enemy of the Turk, at the time when
he was about to encounter the armies of the Czar in Poland. The
Dardanelles were shut against Russian vessels; and the English
government, considering this as sufficient evidence that the Grand
Seignior was attaching himself to the Antibritannic Confederacy,
despatched a squadron of ships under Admiral Duckworth, in February,
1807, with orders to force the passage of the Dardanelles, present
themselves before Constantinople, and demand from the Porte the custody
_pro tempore_ of all her ships of war. The Turks negotiated for a week
upon this proposal, but in the meantime increased and manned their
fortifications, under the direction of French engineers, with such
skill, that the English admiral began to be seriously alarmed for his
own safety; and at length, on the 1st of March, effected his retreat
through the Straits with considerable loss--this disgrace being the only
result