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 The Career oj Napoleon Bonaparte 459 neighbors can maintain it, but I shall regard it as an advantage if they force me to take up my arms again before they are rusted." i On another occasion, in 1804, Napoleon said, "There will be no rest in Europe until it is under a single chief an emperor who shall have kings for officers, who shall distribute kingdoms to his lieutenants." This was his ideal, which he now found himself in a situation to carry out with marvelous exactness. 807. England's Opposition to Napoleon. There were many reasons why the peace with England (concluded at Amiens in March, 1802) should be speedily broken, especially as the First Consul was not averse to a renewal of the war. The obvious in- tention of Napoleon to bring as much of Europe under his control as he could, and the imposition of high duties on English goods in those territories that he already controlled, filled commercial and industrial England with apprehension. The English people longed for peace, but peace appeared only to offer an opportunity to the Corsican usurper to ruin England by a continuous war upon her commerce. This was the secret of England's persistence. All the other European powers concluded peace with Napoleon at some time during his reign. England alone did not lay down her arms a second time until the emperor of the French was a prisoner. 808. Renewal of War with England. In 1803 war was re- newed between France and England. 1 Napoleon declared the whole coast of western Europe from Holland to southern Italy blockaded against all English ships. He collected an army at Boulogne, just across the Channel from England, which filled the English with fear lest he might succeed in invading their country. He did not make the attempt, however, for the transportation of a large body of troops on flatboats would have been very hazardous. 809. The War of 1805 and its Results. Meanwhile a number of the European states, including this time Russia as well as 1 At this time an event of great importance for the United States took place. The vast Louisiana territory, which France had ceded to Spain at the end of the Seven Years' War forty years before ( 677), had been returned to France when the peace of 1 80 1 was concluded. Now Napoleon, finding himself in need of funds, decided to sell the region to the United States. In this way an extensive region was taken away from European control and later developed into a series of states forming an essential part of the great American republic.