It Was In
That Spirit Of Pugnacity That He Stretched A Large Muscular Hand Over The
Whole Map Of Australia, And Defied His Foes To Touch It.
Before the great
struggle it would have been quite possible to think of colonising schemes
in the southern hemisphere without seriously contemplating the danger of
collision with the British.
But the end of the Napoleonic wars left the
power and prestige of Great Britain upon the sea unchallengeable, and her
possessions out of Europe were placed beyond assail. This position was
fairly established before Napoleon could have made any serious attempt to
annoy or injure the English settlement in Australia. Traced back to
decisive causes, the ownership of Australia was determined on October 21,
1805, when the planks of the Victory were reddened with the life-blood of
Nelson.
The remaining points to be considered are the following.
The Treaty of Amiens was negotiated and signed in 1801 and 1802, while
Baudin's expedition was at sea. Had Napoleon desired to secure a slice of
Australia for the French, here was his opportunity to proclaim what he
wanted. Had he done so, we can have no reasonable doubt that he would
have found the British Government compliant. His Majesty's Ministers were
in a concessionary mood. By that treaty Great Britain surrendered all her
maritime conquests of recent wars, except Trinidad and Ceylon. She gave
up the Cape, Demerara, Berbice, Essequibo, Surinam, Martinique,
Guadeloupe, Minorca, and Malta.* (* Cambridge Modern History 9 75 et seq;
Brodrick and Fotheringham, Political History of England 11 9 et seq.) She
was eagerly desirous for peace.
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