But the impropriety of discussing the question in this place should not prevent us from declaring that there never was a greater abuse of force than in the second attack of England on the comparatively feeble State of Denmark, in 1807. It is only fair to say that a large body of English subjects condemned it then, and condemn it now; and it is the English ministry of that day which must bear the blame, in the eyes of succeeding generations. In the treaty of Tilsit (1807), France and Russia were put upon a most intimate and friendly footing; and Russia undertook to act as mediator between France and England, for the conclusion of a peace, at least as regarded maritime operations. In accordance with his engagements, the Emperor Alexander addressed a note to the English government; but his overtures were very coldly received. Castlereagh, Canning and Percival, the inheritors of Pitt’s policy, and of his hatred of the French (but not of his great abilities), saw their power and influence upon the Continent of Europe decreasing, while Napoleon’s was growing. They, therefore, determined upon an expedition of magnitude, which, while it would occupy the minds of the people at home, and thereby disconcert the plans of the opposition, would renew the terror in which their arms had been held abroad. The plan was to renew the attack upon Denmark, as in 1801, but the operations were to be carried out in an even more thorough and ruthless manner. Denmark had joined the new coalition against England, and Napoleon was at the bottom of it; but no declaration of war was made by England against Denmark, and that small kingdom, not suspecting any such design at that moment, was to see all the horrors of war suddenly let loose upon her. Her sole wrong, in the eyes of the British Cabinet, was the possession of a navy, still of some strength, which might be used by the coalition against England. Denmark was, at the time, observing a strict neutrality, and, although forced to acquiesce in the condition of things consequent upon Napoleon’s occupation of northern Europe, had not joined in the Continental blockade. Mistrusting France even more than England, she had sent most of her army into Holstein, with a view to causing the French to respect her frontier. The best policy of England, under the circumstances, would have been to keep on terms with Denmark, and if there was any pressure to be exercised to make her take sides in the great events then transpiring, to leave the odium of such a measure upon Napoleon. But the British Cabinet resolved to secure the Danish fleet, at all hazards, and so put it out of the power of that nation or of Napoleon ever to use it against England.