rted that this
undignified scene was got up with calm premeditation, and that the
ferocity of passion on the occasion was a mere piece of acting. Lord
Whitworth, however, was an excellent judge of men and manners, and he
never doubted that the haughty soldier yielded to the uncontrollable
vehemence of wrath. The cautious Talleyrand made various efforts to
explain away the intemperate words of his master; but they, and the tone
in which they had been uttered, went far to increase the jealousy and
animosity of the English government and nation, and to revive or confirm
the suspicion with which the other powers of Europe had had but too much
reason to regard the career of revolutionary France.

On the 18th of May Great Britain declared war. Orders had previously
been given for seizing French shipping wherever it could be found, and
it is said that 200 vessels, containing property to the amount of three
millions sterling, had been laid hold of accordingly, ere the
proclamation of hostilities reached Paris. Whether the practice of thus
unceremoniously seizing private property, under such circumstances, be
right on abstract principle, or wrong, there can be no doubt that the
custom had been long established, acted upon by England on all similar
occasions, and of course considered, after the lapse of ages, and the
acquiescence of innumerable treaties, as part and parcel of the European
system of warfare. This was not denied by Napoleon; but he saw the
opportunity, and determined to profit by it, of exciting the jealousy of
other governments, by reclaiming against the exercise, on the part of
England, of a species of assault which England, from her maritime
predominance, has more temptations and better means to adopt than any
other power. He resolved, therefore, to retaliate by a wholly
unprecedented outrage. The very night that the resolution of the cabinet
of St. James's reached Paris, orders were given for arresting the
persons of all English subjects residing or travelling within the
dominion of France.

Not less than 10,000 persons, chiefly of course of the higher classes of
society, thus found themselves condemned to captivity in a hostile land.
Had Napoleon adopted less violent measures, his reclamations against the
English government might have been favourably attended to throughout
Europe. But this despotic and unparalleled infliction of exile and
misery on a host of innocent private individuals, was productive of far