It must appear to our modern ideas scarcely possible to exaggerate the inconvenience and distress proceeding from this long stoppage of political and commercial intercourse with the Continent. Such an event occurring at the present day would assuredly bring down to the ground many an old business house, and even shake the foundations of public credit. But our ancestors traded before the days of speedy answers and quick transactions. They were well used to the loss or long delay of letters, and had adjusted their affairs to the conditions of their time. The loss to them, therefore, cannot be measured by what it would impose on us; yet, after making all allowances, it remained very severe, and caused great anxiety to the Government. As January sped away, bringing with it no change for the better, various suggestions were laid before the Postmaster General by persons who conceived themselves qualified to advise. Among these the most curious was considered to be one for the use of balloons. Great merriment was made in Lombard Street over this idea. It was brought before Lord Auckland in a jocular report, and he, minuting the case in the same spirit, professed his readiness to appoint the inventor of the notion to the post of “Controller of Balloons,” on the usual conditions of personal service, and of being paid after the return voyage. The project seems to us less mad than Lord Auckland thought it; but few men would have been found a century ago to whom the possibilities of ballooning had revealed themselves. However, whilst one suggestion was being rejected after another, it was certainly desirable to do something, if only to avoid the reproach of inertness; and the receipt of letters of advice from several Greenland merchants in the city seemed to offer ideas which were worth pursuing. These merchants pointed out that it would be easy to collect a number of sailors who were accustomed to find themselves entangled in the ice, and whom experience had taught how to make the best of such a situation. A few such men were hastily brought together, and added to the crews of two of the Packets, each of which was also provided with an ice-boat. At Heligoland preparations were made for more carefully organized attempts to reach the mainland. All these designs were, however, formed too late, for while they were still being perfected, the thaw came, the ice broke up, and the postal communication fell back into its normal course. So great a difficulty does not seem to have been caused by frost on any other occasion. But the time was drawing near when the will of one man was to erect and hold against English ships a barrier more impenetrable than that of winter, and during those years of doubt and of anxiety, the experience gained by the Post-Office in 1798 and 1799 was turned to good account. CHAPTER VII. THE SECOND FRENCH WAR.