England accordingly insisted upon seizing enemy’s merchandise wherever it could be found, maintaining the principle that contraband of war included naval and military stores, indeed everything which could give succour to an enemy; and, though she admitted that ports ought to be considered in a state of blockade only when it was unsafe to enter them, she repudiated utterly the pretended right claimed by the neutral powers, that no vessel under convoy could be searched. “If,” exclaimed Mr. Pitt, “we subscribe to the doctrines laid down by the neutral powers, a small armed sloop would suffice to convoy the trade of the whole world. England would lose her own trade, and could not take any steps against the trade of her enemies. She could no longer prevent Spain from receiving the precious metals of the New World, nor preclude France from obtaining the naval munitions of war supplied by the North. Rather than thus sacrifice our naval greatness at the shrine of Russia, it were better to envelop ourselves in our own flag, and proudly find our grave in the deep, than admit the validity of such principles in the maritime code of civilised nations.”[247] [Sidenote: Nelson sent to the Sound, 1801.] [Sidenote: Bombardment of Copenhagen.] Although Mr. Pitt had retired about ten days from office when he delivered those opinions, his successors made prodigious efforts to maintain the policy he had so long pursued. Nelson, who had already gained immortal fame by the battle of the Nile (August 1st, 1798), was despatched, second in command to Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, to the Sound, with the double object of overawing Denmark and of preventing the junction of the fleets of the coalitionists. The details of Nelson’s extraordinary exploit are too well known to be here recapitulated. Practically assuming the chief command, he, amid the difficult navigation of the shoals which protect Copenhagen, bombarded the three Crown batteries of the Danes (April 2nd, 1801), attacked their fleet with signal success, and, when their determined resistance placed his squadron in the extremity of danger, and Admiral Sir Hyde Parker made the signal to discontinue the action, placing the glass to his blind eye, he exclaimed, “I really do not see Parker’s signal for leaving off action.”