Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/277



Great Britain, 1792—War with France, Feb. 1, 1793—Commercial panic—Government lends assistance—High price of corn—Bounties granted on its importation—Declaration of Russia, 1780—Confederacy renewed when Bonaparte had risen to power—Capture of merchant vessels—Do "free ships make free goods?"—Neutral nations repudiate the English views—Their views respecting blockades—Right of search—Chief doctrines of the neutrals—Mr. Pitt stands firm, and is supported by Mr. Fox—Defence of the English principles—Nelson sent to the Sound, 1801—Bombardment of Copenhagen—Peace of Amiens, and its terms—Bonaparte's opinion of free trade—Sequestration of English property in France not raised—All claims remain unanswered—Restraint on commerce—French spies sent to England to examine her ports, &c.—Aggrandisement of Bonaparte—Irritation in England—Bonaparte's interview with Lord Whitworth—The English ministers try to gain time—Excitement in England—The King's message—The invasion of England determined on—War declared, May 18, 1803—Joy of the shipowners—Preparations in England for defence—Captures of French merchantmen—Effect of the war on shipping—Complaints of English shipowners—Hardships of the pressing system—Apprentices—Suggestions to secure the Mediterranean trade, and to encourage emigration to Canada—Value of the Canadian trade.

Notwithstanding numerous predictions that the merchant shipping of Great Britain would be, to a great extent, supplanted by her now formidable rivals on the other side of the Atlantic, England possessed, in 1792, six hundred thousand tons of shipping, more than she had at the commencement of the American