ad of being detached from the
French alliance, the Porte was thrown into its arms and became more
embittered than ever against Russia. It was soon involved in a serious
conflict with that country--for the possession of Wallachia and
Moldavia--only to be deserted again by France under the compact made at
Tilsit. The expedition to Egypt, planned in combination with the
expedition to the Dardanelles, ended in a still worse disaster. Though
General Fraser, its commander, was able to surprise Alexandria on March
30, he awaited in vain the expected news of Duckworth's success; he
proceeded to attack Rosetta with as little generalship as Whitelocke had
shown at Buenos Ayres, and encountered a similar repulse. An attempt to
besiege the town met with no better fortune: the British troops
submitted to a capitulation, evacuated Egypt, and sailed for Sicily in
September, 1807. In an imperial manifesto addressed to the French nation
at the end of this year, the British failures at Buenos Ayres,
Constantinople, and Alexandria were paraded, together with our alleged
crime against the rights of nations at Copenhagen.

In the early months of 1808 the continental system was extended by the
establishment of French administration at Rome, and the annexation of
the eastern ports of the Papal States to the kingdom of Italy. On
February 18 of the same year Austria under French pressure adopted the
system. Sweden and Turkey were now the only continental countries left
outside it, but the retention of Sicily by the Bourbon king rendered it
easy for British commerce to enter Italy through that island. The
irritation of neutrals increased as the area of commercial exclusion
widened, but the United States were now the only neutral power of any
consequence. After April 17 Napoleon took the high-handed step of
confiscating all American shipping in his ports. In spite of this
aggression, the president and congress of the United States continued to
favour France against Great Britain. The story of the commercial warfare
between Great Britain and the United States will be related more fully
hereafter. For the present, it is sufficient to mention that an act,
placing an embargo on foreign vessels in American ports, was passed by
congress on December 22, 1807, and another on March 1, 1809, forbidding
commercial intercourse with Great Britain and France and the colonies
occupied by them.

Meanwhile Great Britain continued to enforce her maritime rights,