from the
rather untrustworthy return of 1813, may be reckoned at about six and
a half millions. The prodigious growth of the English-speaking people
had not as yet fully commenced either in the motherland, the United
States, or in the small and struggling settlements of Canada and
Australia. Its future expansion was to be assured by industrial and
social causes, and by the events considered in this and in subsequent
chapters. It was a small people that had for several months faced with
undaunted front the gigantic power of Bonaparte and that of the Armed
Neutrals.

This population of less than 18,000,000 souls, of which nearly
one-third openly resented the Act of Union recently imposed on
Ireland, was burdened by a National Debt which amounted to
L537,000,000, and entailed a yearly charge of more than L20,000,000
sterling. In the years of war with revolutionary France the annual
expenditure had risen from L19,859,000 (for 1792) to the total of
L61,329,000, which necessitated an income tax of 10 per cent. on all
incomes of L200 and upwards. Yet, despite party feuds, the nation was
never stronger, and its fleets had never won more brilliant and solid
triumphs. The chief naval historian of France admits that we had
captured no fewer than 50 ships of the line, and had lost to our
enemies only five, thereby raising the strength of our fighting line
to 189, while that of France had sunk to 47.[181] The prowess of Sir
Arthur Wellesley was also beginning to revive in India the ancient
lustre of the British arms; but the events of 1802-3 were to show that
our industrial enterprise, and the exploits of our sailors and
soldiers, were by themselves of little avail when matched in a
diplomatic contest against the vast resources of France and the
embodied might of a Napoleon.

Men and institutions were everywhere receiving the imprint of his
will. France was as wax under his genius. The sovereigns of Spain,
Italy, and Germany obeyed his _fiat_. Even the stubborn Dutch bent
before him. On the plea of defeating Orange intrigues, he imposed a
new constitution on the Batavian Republic whose independence he had
agreed to respect. Its Directory was now replaced by a Regency which
relieved the deputies of the people of all responsibility. A
_plebiscite_ showed 52,000 votes against, and 16,000 for, the new
_regime_; but, as 350,000 had not voted, their silence was taken for
consent, and Bonaparte's will became law (September, 1801).

We