1808	War between Russia and England	11

the early part of August a body of British troops, under Lieutenant-general Sir Arthur Wellesley, landed on the coast ; on the 21st the celebrated battle of Vimeira was fought ; on the 22d Lieutenant-general Sir Hew Dalrymple arrived, and took the command of the British forces ; and on the 30th was concluded the famous convention of Cintra, so discreditable to the victorious party.

By the second and third articles it was stipulated, that the French troops should not be considered as prisoners of war, and that, on their arrival in France, whither they were to be conveyed at the expense of the British government, they should be at liberty to serve again. With respect to the Russian squadron, consisting, as already stated, of nine sail of the line and one frigate, * a convention, concluded between Sir Charles Cotton and Vice-admiral Seniavin, placed the ships, as a deposit, in the hands of his Britannic Majesty, to be held until six months after the conclusion of peace between Russia and England ; and the Russian vice-admiral, his officers, seamen, and marines, without any condition or stipulation whatever, were to be conveyed to Russia at England's expense.

The close alliance, cemented between France and Russia by the treaty of Tilsit, naturally suspended all friendly relations between the latter and Great Britain. If Russia, in the course of the three months that succeeded that treaty, made no public avowal of her sentiments, it was because the fleets and troops of England were then in the Baltic or in the inlets to it. No sooner had Admiral Gambier and General Lord Cathcart quitted the Sound, and the season become so far advanced as to prevent the British navy from operating in the Baltic, than Alexander spoke aloud the language of defiance. The emperor's declaration, which issued at St.-Petersburg on the 31st of October, was received in London on the 3d of December, and replied to on the 18th by a counter-declaration, clearly, forcibly, and elegantly drawn up ; a state-paper, indeed, that might serve all future cabinets for a model. � On the same day reprisals were ordered against Russian ships, vessels, and goods ; but the time of the year prevented the immediate undertaking of any active measures.

As the firm ally of England, Sweden necessarily became involved in war with her two neighbours, Denmark and Russia. The first, happily for Sweden, having only two line-of-battle ships, a 74 and a 64, and some armed Indiamen, brigs of war, and gun-boats, was without a navy to molest her ; but the second possessed a fleet, already in ports of the Baltic, and of far greater strength than any that Gustavus could send to sea. For instance, the Russian Baltic fleet, according to the official

See vol. iv., pp. 315,    318   .

� See the New Annual Register for the year 1807, p. 298.

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