Throughout the year 1794 the rupture of relations with Holland loomed through the troubled atmosphere, and early in 1795 it became an accomplished fact. Town after town declared for the French. Pichegru’s cavalry, careering over the frozen waters of the Texel, captured the Dutch fleet; the English troops retreated; the Batavian Republic was proclaimed; the resources of Holland were added to those of France, and another outlet for the Continental mails must be found, Helvoetsluis being henceforth closed against us as rigidly as any port in France itself. In this emergency the British Post-Office naturally looked to Hamburg, with which ancient city it had been in alliance for many generations. The mails were despatched to Cuxhaven, and were there landed and despatched _via_ Hamburg into the interior without obstruction for more than three years. A great frost set in, however, during December, 1798, and before Christmas the severity of the weather had already produced serious difficulties for the Post-Office. The mails began to arrive at very irregular intervals; and each Packet as she reached Yarmouth brought fresh reports of the alarming speed with which ice was forming not only in the Elbe, but even beyond the estuary of the river, so as in a great degree to threaten interruption of all access to the coast. Meantime the frost grew daily more severe. On the 28th December four Hamburg mails were due, and London had been without trustworthy news from the Continent for the best part of a fortnight. Such an interruption of the regular course of post would have been serious enough at any time; and if commerce only had been injured by it, would have called for the promptest remedy possible. But far greater interests were at stake than those of Threadneedle Street and Mincing Lane. Political events were occurring on the Continent of which intelligence reached London all too slowly at the best of times; and it was quite possible that in the bags lying idle in the Hamburg Post-Office there might be despatches containing news which, whether for good or evil, touched the very existence of the country. The forethought of the directors of the Hamburg Office had provided to some extent for such a contingency as had now occurred. They had established an agent on the island of Heligoland, whose instructions were to receive the mails whenever the Packets were unable to reach Cuxhaven, and to use any means suggested by his experience for forwarding them to their destination. It was scarcely likely that officials in London could quicken this agent’s apprehension of the urgency of the situation, or suggest any expedient which he had left untried; and yet the uneasiness both in Downing Street and the City was rising to such a pitch that it was resolved to send an energetic officer to attempt both these tasks.