the English
Parliament, proclaimed to be the forerunner of certain ruin.
That system, when we wished to renounce it, had already
penetrated our habits; it had, so to say, weakened our arms and
paralyzed our self-reliance. Too often did our squadrons leave
port with a special mission to fulfil, and with the intention of
avoiding the enemy; to fall in with him was at once a piece of
bad luck. It was thus that our ships went into action; they
submitted to it instead of forcing it.... Fortune would have
hesitated longer between the two fleets, and not have borne in
the end so heavily against ours, if Brueys, meeting Nelson half
way, could have gone out to fight him. This fettered and timid
war, which Villaret and Martin had carried on, had lasted long,
thanks to the circumspection of some English admirals and the
traditions of the old tactics. It was with these traditions that
the battle of the Nile had broken; the hour for decisive action
had come."[13]

Some years later came Trafalgar, and again the government of France
took up a new policy with the navy. The author last quoted speaks
again:--

"The emperor, whose eagle glance traced plans of campaign for
his fleets as for his armies, was wearied by these unexpected
reverses. He turned his eyes from the one field of battle in
which fortune was faithless to him, and decided to pursue
England elsewhere than upon the seas; he undertook to rebuild
his navy, but without giving it any part in the struggle which
became more furious than ever.... Nevertheless, far from
slackening, the activity of our dock-yards redoubled. Every year
ships-of-the-line were either laid down or added to the fleet.
Venice and Genoa, under his control, saw their old splendors
rise again, and from the shores of the Elbe to the head of the
Adriatic all the ports of the continent emulously seconded the
creative thought of the emperor. Numerous squadrons were
assembled in the Scheldt, in Brest Roads, and in Toulon.... But
to the end the emperor refused to give this navy, full of ardor
and self-reliance, an opportunity to measure its strength with
the enemy.... Cast down by constant reverses, he had kept up our
armed ships only to oblige our enemies to blockades whose
enormous cost must end by exhausting their finances."

When the empire fell, France had one hund