But a yet more dangerous era awaited the land. The navy, which had saved us from invasion, mutinied; the gold of the country followed her subsidies; the Bank of England ceased to pay her notes in specie; the power of France increased; Austria only remained to check the republic on the Continent; and Lodi witnessed a defeat which paralyzed the Imperial power. The passage of the Alps followed; and, within thirty miles of his capital, humiliating terms were dictated to the Emperor of Austria. England now stood alone against France. An invasion was threatened; but it stirred a spirit of resistance which will long remain a memorable passage in English history. Every village had its volunteers, every corporation its company; and, whatever their defects may have been in the eyes of military science, there was scarcely a man who would not have marched to certain death to preserve the freedom inherited from his fathers. Song and sermon alike inspirited them; night after night watch-fires were prepared on the lonely hills of the country; and the slightest sound or symptom of invasion would have called forth its devoted sons and servants. These things are greatly to the praise of our countrymen; and the following list of subsidies, up to 1801, will prove it was no trifle with which they contended, when they strained every power to meet the financial difficulties of the time:— Prussia 1794 £1,223,891 10_s._ 6_d._ Sardinia, 1793 to 1796 500,000 0 0 Emperor, 1795 and 1796 6,220,000 0 0 Ditto 1797 700,000 0 0 Portugal 1797 247,205 0 0 Ditto 1798 120,013 13 0 Russia 1799 825,000 0 0 Emperor and Elector of Bavaria 500,000 0 0 Emperor 1,066,666 13 4 Russia 545,494 0 0 Bavaria 501,017 6 0 Emperor 150,000 0 0 —————————— £12,599,288 2 10