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 The Career of Napoleon Bonaparte 463 England commercially and industrially, since there was obviously no likelihood of subduing her by arms. 817. The Berlin Decree and the " Paper " Blockade. In May, 1806, England had declared the coast from the Elbe to Brest to be blockaded. Napoleon re- plied to this with the Ber- lin decree (November 21, 1806), in which he pro- claimed it a monstrous abuse of the right for Eng- land to declare great stretches of coast in a state of blockade which her whole fleet would be unable to enforce. He retaliated with a " paper" 1 blockade of the British Isles, which forbade all commerce with them. Letters or packages directed to England or to an Englishman or written in the English language were not to be permitted to pass through the mails in the countries he con- trolled. Every English sub- ject in countries occupied by French troops or in the territory of Napoleon's NELSON'S COLUMN, TRAFALGAR SQUARE, LONDON The English regard Nelson as the man who safeguarded their liberty by the victo- ries of the fleet. Nelson was killed at Tra- falgar and buried with great ceremony in the crypt of St. Paul's, under the very cen- ter of the dome. Some years later "Tra- falgar Square" was laid out at the point where the street leading to the Parliament buildings joins a chief business street the Strand and a gigantic column to Nelson erected, surmounted by a statue of the admiral. In the distance one can see the towers of the Parliament buildings 1 That is, a blockade which includes too long a stretch of coast to permit the ships at the disposal of the power proclaiming the blockade really to enforce it.