he Third Coalition. The small
British contingents in Germany and southern Italy hastened back to
their transports. It was only later, when France was approaching
exhaustion, that British forces in the Spanish peninsula and elsewhere
took a conspicuous part in the Continental war.

_The Continental System_

England's real offensive strength lay not in her armies but in
her grip on Europe's intercourse with the rest of the world. And
on the other hand, the only blow that Napoleon could still strike
at his chief enemy was to shut her from the markets of Europe--to
"defeat the sea by the land." This was the aim of his Continental
System. It meant a test of endurance--whether he could force France
and the rest of Europe to undergo the tremendous strain of commercial
isolation for a sufficient period to reduce England to ruin.

The Continental System came into being with Napoleon's famous Berlin
Decree of November, 1806, which, declaring a "paper" blockade of the
British Isles, put all trade with England under the ban. Under this
decree and later supplementary measures, goods of British origin,
whatever their subsequent ownership, were confiscated or destroyed
wherever French agents could lay hands on them; and neutral vessels
were seized and condemned for entering British ports, accepting
British convoy, or even submitting to British search.

England's chief retaliatory measure was the Orders in Council of
November, 1807. Her object in these orders and later modifications
was not to cut off trade with the Continent, but to control it to
her own profit and the injury of the enemy--in short, "no trade
except through England." The orders aimed to compel the aid of
neutrals by excluding neutral ships from the Continent unless they
should first enter British ports, pay British dues, and (as would
be an inevitable consequence) give covert assistance in carrying
on British trade.

The Continental System reached its greatest efficiency during the
apogee of Napoleon's power in 1809 and 1810. To check forbidden
traffic, which continued on an enormous scale, he annexed Holland
to his empire, and threw a triple cordon of French troops along
Germany's sea frontier. As a result, in the critical year of 1811
goods piled up in British warehouses, factories closed, bankruptcies
doubled, and her financial system tottered.[1] But to bar the tide
of commerce at every port from Trieste to Riga was like trying
to stem the sea. At each leak