a proof of what it could do. It is curious also that when Bell offered
his paddle-boat to the Admiralty it was refused, though Nelson is said
to have spoken in its favour. The official mind is everywhere hostile
to new inventions; and Marmont suggestively remarks that Bonaparte's
training as an artillerist, and his experience of the inconvenience
and expense resulting from the adoption of changes in that arm, had no
slight influence in setting him against all innovations.

But, to resume our description of the Boulogne flotilla, it may be of
interest to give some hitherto unpublished details about the
flat-bottomed boats, and then to pass in brief review Napoleon's plans
for assuring a temporary command of the Channel.

It is clear that he at first relied almost solely on the flotilla.
After one of his visits to Boulogne, he wrote on November 23rd, 1803,
to Admiral Gantheaume that he would soon have on the northern coast
1,300 flat-bottomed boats able to carry 100,000 men, while the Dutch
flotilla would transport 60,000. "Do you think it will take us to the
English coast? Eight hours of darkness which favour us would decide
the fate of the universe." There is no mention of any convoying fleet:
the First Consul evidently believed that the flotilla could beat off
any attack at sea. This letter offers a signal proof of his inability,
at least at that time, to understand the risks of naval warfare. But
though his precise and logical mind seems then to have been incapable
of fully realizing the conditions of war on the fickle, troublous, and
tide-swept Channel, his admirals urgently warned him against trusting
to shallow, flat-bottomed boats to beat the enemy out at sea; for
though these _praams_ in their coasting trips repelled the attacks of
British cruisers, which dared not come into shallow waters, it did not
follow that they would have the same success in mid-Channel, far away
from coast defences and amidst choppy waves that must render the guns
of keelless boats wellnigh useless.[320]

The present writer, after going through the reports of our admiral
stationed in the Downs, is convinced that our seamen felt a supreme
contempt for the flat-bottomed boats when at sea. After the capture of
one of them, by an English gun-brig, Admiral Montagu reported,
November 23rd, 1803:

"It is impossible to suppose for an instant that anything
effective can be produced by such miserable tools, equally
ill-calculated fo