on's
Recollections_, i, 180.

The two protagonists now stood face to face--Napoleon, Emperor of the
French, President of the Italian Republic, Mediator of the Swiss
Republic, controller of Holland, absolute ruler of a great military
Empire; Pitt, the Prime Minister of an obstinate and at times half-crazy
King, dependent on a weak Cabinet, a disordered Exchequer, a Navy
weakened by ill-timed economies, and land forces whose martial ardour
ill made up for lack of organization, equipment, and training. Before
the outbreak of war in May 1803, Napoleon had summed up the situation in
the words--"Forty-five millions of people must prevail over sixteen
millions." And now after a year of hostilities his position was far
stronger. In Hanover the French troops were profitably installed on the
Elector's domains. Soult's corps occupied the Neapolitan realm, thus
threatening Malta, the Ionian Isles, the Morea, and Egypt. The recent
restitution of several colonial conquests by England not only damaged
her trade, but enabled her enemy to stir up trouble in India. There,
thanks to Wellesley's dramatic victory at Assaye, the Union Jack waved
in triumph; but at other points Napoleon might hope to gain the long
contested race for Empire.

So convinced was Pitt of the need of fighting out the quarrel thrust
upon us by Napoleon's aggressions, that he waved aside an offer of
Livingston, American envoy at Paris, to effect a reconciliation. During
a brief visit to London, Livingston sent proposals to this effect
through Whitworth, who declined to meet a man hitherto remarkable for a
strong anti-British bias; and Pitt approved this repulse.[680]
Nevertheless, on 5th June Livingston, accompanied by Fox and Grey,
called on Pitt at Downing Street; but his proposals proved to be merely
the outcome of informal conversations with Joseph Bonaparte, who was
known to be far more peacefully inclined than his brother. Joseph's
notions were that Malta should perhaps be garrisoned by Russians, and
must in any case be relinquished by England; that France should withdraw
her troops from the Dutch and Swiss Republics, the status of which was
not defined.[681] Pitt set little store by these shadowy proposals,
doubtless seeing in them a way of discovering whether England was
concerting a league against France.

Already, in spite of many obstacles, he was taking the first steps in
that direction. An initial difficulty lay in the mental aberrations of
the