In 1803, Great Britain, provoked by the restlessness of Buonaparte’s ambition, again declared war against France. The First Consul answered this declaration by imprisoning about ten thousand English subjects, who were travelling in his dominions. He also seized the Electorate of Hanover, and made vast preparations for invading England. Early in 1804, the Royalist and Jacobin parties again endangered his life. Amongst the conspirators were Pichegru and Moreau; the latter, however, was not privy to any design of assassination. These plots also proved abortive, and, in crushing them, Buonaparte increased the stability of his power. He established a special commission for the trial of all persons suspected of political crimes, without resorting to the ordinary courts of judicature. He believed, or affected to believe, that the recent plots were promoted by the Bourbons and the British ministers, and resolved to retaliate. By his orders the Duc d’Enghien was carried off, in March, 1804, from the neutral state of Baden, and, after an informal trial, put to death. He seized the British minister at Hamburgh, and confined him for a short period in the Temple. Captain Wright, a British naval officer, was also confined in the Temple, upon pretext that his ship had been captured while in the service of the Bourbon conspirators: he was said to have been murdered in prison; but there is no proof of this improbable crime. It was asserted that Pichegru perished in the same way. In December, 1804, the First Consul assumed the titles of Napoleon, Emperor of the French and King of Italy. The Pope assisted in the ceremony of his coronation at Notre Dame: but Napoleon placed the crown on his own and his consort’s head with his own hand. In like manner, in May, 1805, he crowned himself King of Italy at Milan. In this year, Austria, Russia, and Sweden formed an alliance with England against France. In the same year, October 21, the naval power of France was destroyed by the battle of Trafalgar. But on the other hand, in a single campaign, which was concluded, December 2, by the battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon overthrew the fabric of the German empire, and obliged the other members of the coalition to separate from England and sue for peace. He then associated Bavaria, Wirtemberg, the Grand Duchy of Berg, and several smaller German states, under the title of the Confederation of the Rhine, of which he constituted himself Protector, receiving in return the services of about sixty thousand soldiers. Venice was added to the kingdom of Italy; while Joseph and Louis Buonaparte were appointed respectively kings of Naples and Holland. At the conclusion of this war Napoleon created a new order of nobility; many of whom bore foreign titles, and received extended grants in the territories recently conquered by France. He was now surrounded by men of the most opposite character and principles, yet all so well chosen for aptitude to their