were designed for its protection
especially around Hythe and Dymchurch. At the latter place were sluices
for flooding the marsh. Criticisms have fallen freely upon Pitt's canal,
the report gaining currency that it was intended for the conveyance of
military stores. Its true purpose was to isolate the most vulnerable
part of the coast and to form a barrier which would at least delay an
invader until reinforcements arrived. In its original condition it was
an excellent first line of defence of South Kent; and, unless the French
flotilla brought over pontoons, it formed a barrier not easily
penetrable, which fully justified its comparatively small cost.

The same remarks apply to the martello towers. The responsibility for
them rests mainly with Colonel Twiss and Captain Ford, who in the summer
of 1803 recommended their construction at exposed points of the shore,
at a cost of about L3,000 apiece. The experience of our troops in
Corsica showed that such towers, even when held by small garrisons,
could hold at bay a greatly superior force.[694] The towers were begun
soon afterwards; but those in Pevensey Bay were not undertaken till
1805-6. The first points to be defended were those nearest to France.

In the winter of 1804-5 there was need to strengthen the coast defences;
for the declaration of war by Spain placed the whole of the coast line
from the Texel to Toulon at Napoleon's disposal for shipbuilding. There
seemed therefore every prospect of our being finally overwhelmed at sea,
a consummation which the French Emperor might have ensured had he
refrained from irritating the monarchs of Russia and Austria.
Fortunately for England, his nature was too restless and domineering to
admit of the necessary concentration of effort on the naval problem; and
that besetting sin, megalomania, marred prospects which then seemed
easily realizable. Playing with coolness and patience, he had the game
in his hands in 1804, when as yet there was little prospect of an
Anglo-Russian alliance.

An offensive alliance of Spain with France was the natural result of the
treaty of 1796 between the two Powers. In vain did the luxurious
Charles IV and his pampered minion, Godoy, Prince of the Peace, seek to
evade their obligations. Under threat of a French invasion they gave way
and agreed to pay 72,000,000 francs a year into the French exchequer,
and to force the hand of Portugal. That little Power purchased immunity
for a time by paying an a