wer which seemed able to resist his arms. On
the 14th of October 1806 a decisive victory at Jena laid North Germany
at the Emperor's feet. From Berlin Napoleon marched into the heart of
Poland to bring to terms the last opponent now left him on the
Continent; and though checked in the winter by the stubborn defence of
the Russian forces on the field of Eylau, in the summer of 1807 a
decisive victory at Friedland brought the Czar to consent to the Peace
of Tilsit.

[Sidenote: The Continental System.]

The Peace of Tilsit marked an overthrow for the time of that European
settlement and balance of power which had been established five years
before by the Peace of Luneville. The change in his policy had been to a
great extent forced on Napoleon; for the league of 1805 had shown that
his plan of such a Continental peace as would suffer him to concentrate
his whole strength on an invasion of Britain was certain to be foiled by
the fears of the Continental states; and that an unquestioned supremacy
over Europe was a first condition in the struggle with his great rival.
Even with such a supremacy, indeed, his plans for a descent on Britain
itself, or for winning the command of the sea which was the necessary
preliminary to such a descent, still remained impracticable. The battle
of Trafalgar had settled the question of an invasion of England; and a
thousand victories on land would not make him master, even for "six
hours," of the "silver streak" of sea that barred his path. But Napoleon
was far from abandoning his struggle against Britain; on the contrary,
he saw in his mastery of Europe the means of giving fresh force and
effectiveness to his attack in a quarter where his foe was still
vulnerable. It was her wealth that had raised up that European coalition
against him which had forced him to break up his camp at Boulogne; and
in his mastery of Europe he saw the means of striking at her wealth. His
earlier attempt at the enforcement of a "Continental System" had broken
down with the failure of the Northern League; but he now saw a yet more
effective means of realising his dream. It was this gigantic project
which revealed itself as soon as Jena had laid Prussia at his feet.
Napoleon was able to find a pretext for his new attack in England's own
action. By a violent stretch of her rights as a combatant she had
declared the whole coast occupied by France and its allies, from Dantzig
to Trieste, to be in a state of blockade. It