and passed off on our Government as a Russian. All that I can say is that he was a clever, smart lad. I met him in Paris in 1818 (lieutenant de viissau), when he laughed at the trick that had been played, and told me several more Russian midshipmen in our service were young Frenchmen. This was done by some of the Emperor Alexander's official servants, when it was the policy of Russia, after the fatal battle of Austerlitz, in December, 1805, to endeavour to please Napoleon.” 1

2

In December, 1804, it was announced that "a new class of officers, to be called Sub-Lieutenants, are to be appointed, selected from Midshipmen who have served their time. They are to receive half-pay." The innovation, due to the initiative of Earl St. Vincent, did not, however, take root in the Navy, and the new rank quickly languished and disappeared, not to be revived until half a century later.

The uniform of executive officers remained until 1812 as it had been settled in 1795; but on January 22nd, 1805, a uniform was established for medical officers; and on June 29th, 1807, uniforms were also established for Masters and for Pursers. In 1812 the white facings of the period anterior to 1795 were temporarily re-introduced; and an alteration was made in the uniform button, which Mates and Midshipmen, as well as their superiors, were directed to wear. The new button bore a crown above the anchor on it. Commanders as well as Captains were at the same time allowed to wear two epaulettes, those of the Commanders being plain, those of Captains of less than three years' standing bearing a silver anchor, and those of Captains of three years' standing and upwards having a silver crown above a silver anchor. The Lieutenants were given a single epaulette, to be worn on the right shoulder. There was no further change until 1825.

Still there was no uniform for seamen, although there was a customary dress, consisting of white trousers, a blue jacket, and a tarpaulin hat. These clothes could be drawn, with others, from the purser's stores. In most ships, however, any decent clothes were allowed to be worn. Straw hats became common from about 1802; petticoats, which had been common at sea since the days of Elizabeth, were occasionally worn until 1820, and perhaps later. They were of either tarpaulin or canvas, and reached to the knee. Purser's slops were, of course, of a recognised pattern; and Captains had power to make any man who was ragged draw them, provided that the value did not exceed two months' pay. Some Captains, however, elected to supply part of their ship's companies-especially their 1 Personal Narrative,' p. 71. 2 Nav. Chron., 1804, ii. 510.

own boat's crews-with a uniform of their own designing, made at their own cost; and, when they did so, the dresses were sometimes both expensive and excentric. The pigtail remained on the lower-deck for some time after it had disappeared from the quarterdeck, where, as early as 1805, it had begun to be the exception rather than the rule, particularly among young officers. The men, as has, indeed, always been their habit, were excessively fond of making decorative additions to their new clothes, if they were permitted to do so; and pipings of silk or canvas in the seams of jackets, braid trimmings, rows of bright buttons, and gaudy hat ribbons, with or without a name or motto on them, were much in favour at, and in the ten years subsequent to, the time of Trafalgar. Lower-deck dandies also wore black neckties, and white socks or stockings, and had their trousers cut particularly tight round the hips and particularly loose round the ankles.

The month of August, 1804, saw the establishment of the Royal Marine Artillery. Three companies of artillery, one for each of the then existing divisions, were ordered to be formed for service afloat, the officers and men to receive additional pay. But the officers of the new corps were not then separated from the general Marine list, nor were they promoted except in turn with the others. Moreover, on attaining the rank of Major, they lost their appointments in the artillery.

By an Admiralty Warrant of August 15th, 1805, a fourth division of Royal Marines was established. The older divisions had their headquarters at Chatham, Portsmouth, and Plymouth respectively. The new division had its seat at Woolwich. During Lord Mulgrave's administration additional second Colonels-Commandant were appointed to each of these, every division thenceforward having two; and forage allowance for one horse was granted to LieutenantColonels, Majors, and Adjutants.

On November 21st, 1806, provoked by Great Britain's wellproved superiority at sea, and by the single-minded manner in which she used her sea-power for the confusion of his plans, Napoleon issued the famous Berlin Decrees, which, like the decrees which he subsequently issued from Milan and from the Tuileries, were intended to destroy Britain by destroying her commerce. The important articles of the Berlin Decrees were as follows:

1. The British Islands are declared to be in a state of blockade.

2. All commerce and all correspondence with the British Isles are prohibited.

3. The letters or packets which are addressed to England or to Englishmen, or which are written in the English language, shall not be forwarded by the posts, and shall be seized.

4. Every individual who is an English subject, no matter what his condition, who may be found in the countries occupied by our troops, or those of our allies, shall be made prisoner of war.

5. Every warehouse, every commodity, every article of property, no matter of what sort, belonging to an English subject, shall be declared good prize.

6. The trade in English commodities is prohibited; and every article which belongs to England, or is the produce of her manufactures and colonies, is declared good prize.

7. One half of the proceeds of the confiscation of the articles, property, and goods, declared good prize by the preceding articles, will be employed to indemnify the merchants for the losses which they suffer by the seizure of trading vessels by English cruisers.

8. No ship which comes direct from England or the English colonies, or has been there after the publication of the present decree, shall be admitted into any harbour.

9. Every ship which trades with a false declaration in contravention of the above principles, shall be seized, and the ship and cargo confiscated as if they were English property.

As the influence of Napoleon increased upon the Continent, so did the boycott, which was thus established, spread; but it is upon the whole astonishing how little harm was directly done to Great Britain by the decrees. British goods, thanks to the activity of smugglers, still found their way to France and to all parts of Europe, in spite of Napoleon; and, while the Continent had to pay very heavily for them, the British producers and manufacturers managed to retain many of their markets. But, as a reply to the Emperor's decrees, Great Britain was obliged, by various Orders in Council, to prohibit all trade by neutrals with France, unless the vessels carrying on such trade should first enter a British port and there pay a stipulated duty on her cargo. And the effect of the Decrees on the one hand, and of the Orders on the other, was to so greatly injure and irritate neutrals, as to be in a very large measure responsible for the outbreak, in 1812, of war between Great Britain, the most powerful of the maritime belligerents, and the United States, the most interested of the neutral nations. Over and over again it was prophesied in Parliament and elsewhere that, by annoying America, the Orders would hurt Great Britain more than they hurt France; but the British Government stood firm and enforced the retaliatory measures even after the United States, in 1809, passed an Act prohibiting all intercourse either with France or with Great Britain, pending revocation, modification, or nonenforcement of the objectionable edicts. It is true that, in 1809, a treaty for reviving amity and commerce between the United

States and Great Britain was actually signed; but the proceedings of Mr. Erskine, who, as British Minister at Washington, had signed. it, were disavowed by the Government in London; and the tension was allowed steadily to increase, until, at the beginning of 1812, it became abundantly evident that if the situation were suffered to grow any worse, war must promptly result. Early in the session of that year a motion was made for the repeal of the obnoxious Orders in Council, and it was purposed to address the Regent, praying him to suspend or annul them; but, on the strength of Lord Castlereagh's intimation that a conciliatory proposition was about to be made to America, the motion was withdrawn. Accordingly, there appeared in the Gazette a declaration revoking the Orders in Council, so far as they applied to United States' vessels, but adding that if, after the notification of the revocation to the government at Washington, the Americans did not also revoke their interdicts against British commerce, the British revocation should be null and void. Unhappily the concession was made too late. Ere America knew of it, the two countries were already actually at war.

In spite of the stress of continuous hostilities, trade prospered enormously between 1803 and 1815. In 1803, British trade was represented by the following figures 1

1

There was thus, during the war, an increase in the imports of £16,310,007, and in the exports of £23,730,371.

1Commons' Journals,' lix., App. 584 and 608.

2 Ib., lxxi., App. 801; lxx., App. 709.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XXXVIII.

LIST OF FLAG-OFFICERS PROMOTED FROM THE RESUMPTION OF THE WAR IN 1803 TO THE GENERAL PEACE IN 1815. (In continuation of the List in Vol. IV., pp. 192–195.)

Sir William Henry Douglas (1), Bart..
Thomas Wells (1).

Sir Edward Pellew, Bart. (Viscount
Exmouth, 1814, K.C.B. 1815)

Isaac Coffin (Bart. 1804)

John Aylmer (1)

Samuel Osborn

10-4-1756 7-4-1782
1742 12-4-1782
15-4-1782
30-4-1782

19-4-1757 31-5-1782

16-5-1759 13-6-1782

28-11-1782 23-4-1804 9-11-1805 28-4-1808 25-10-1809 31-7-1810 4-12-1813 12-8-1819
15-12-1782 23-4-1804 9-11-1805 28-4-1808 25-10-1809 31-7-1810 4-12-1813 12-8-1819 27-5-1825
22-4-1758 17-12-1782 23-4-1804 9-11-1805 28-4-1808 25-10-1809 31-7-1810 4-12-1813 12-8-1819 27-5-1825
1-1-1783 23-4-1804 9-11-1805

1-3-1783 9-11-1805 28-4-1808,25-10-1809 31-7-1810 12-8-1812 4-6-1814 19-7-1821 22-7-1830 10-1-1837

1 Prefixed Inglis to his family name of Cochrane, 1815.

2 Sentenced by C.-M. of 9-5-1814 to remain on half-pay, and to be included in no further promotion.