ments and practice of the maritime States. But her policy was well grounded. By weakening the British navy, she hoped to remove a powerful obstacle to her own ambitious projects, and by committing the two Baltic provinces, Sweden and Denmark, to a quarrel with England, she was sure to place them in a state of absolute dependence on herself.
The second armed neutrality took place at a conjunction of affairs apparently equally favourable to such a combination. The success of France against Austria, and the desertion by Russia of the allies, the Emperor Paul becoming fascinated by Napoleon's genius, were events likely to check the public spirit of England, and to incline it to compromise its own rights. But such was by no means the actual result. Never did the spirit of the country rise higher than in 1800. Pitt, Grenville, and all the statesmen of the day, repudiated the principles of the coalition and defied its
