Had all the Powers threatened by Napoleon at once come forward and acted with vigour, these ends might, even now, have been attained.  But Austria merely renewed her offers of mediation, a well-meaning but hopeless proposal.  England, a prey to official incapacity, joined the league, promised help in men and money, and did little or nothing except send fruitless expeditions to Alexandria and the Dardanelles with the aim of forcing the Turks to a peace with Russia.  In Sicily we held our own against Joseph’s generals, but had no men to spare for a diversion against Marmont’s forces in Dalmatia, which Alexander urged.  Still less could we send from our own shores any force for the effective aid of Prussia.  Though we had made peace with that Power, and ordinary prudence might have dictated the taking of steps to save the coast fortresses, Danzig and Colberg, from the French besiegers, yet our efforts were limited to the despatch of a few cruisers to the former stronghold.  Even more urgent was the need of rescuing Stralsund, the chief fortress of Swedish Pomerania.  Such an expedition clearly offered great possibilities with the minimum of risk.  From the Isle of Ruegen Mortier’s corps could be attacked; and when Stralsund was freed, a dash on Stettin, then weakly held by the French, promised an easy success that would raise the whole of North Germany in Napoleon’s rear.[126]

But arguments were thrown away upon the Grenville Ministry, which clung to its old plan of doing nothing and of doing it expensively.  The Foreign Secretary, Lord Howick, replied that the allies must not expect any considerable aid from our land forces.  Considering that the Income or War Tax of 2s. in the L had yielded close on L20,000,000, and that the army numbered 192,000 men (exclusive of those in India), this declaration did not shed lustre on the Ministry of all the Talents.  That bankrupt Cabinet, however, was dismissed by George III. in March, 1807, because it declined to waive the question of Catholic Emancipation, and its place was filled by the Duke of Portland, with Canning as Foreign Minister.  Soon it was seen that Pitt’s cloak had fallen on worthy shoulders, and a new vigour began to inspirit our foreign policy.  Yet the bad results of frittering away our forces on distant expeditions could not be wiped out at once.  In fact, our military expert, Lord Cathcart, reported that only some 12,000 men could at present be spared for service in the Baltic; and, as it would be beneath our dignity to send so small a force, it would be better to keep it at home ready to menace any part of the French coast.  As to Stralsund, he thought that plan was more feasible, but that, even there, the allies would not make head against Mortier’s corps.[127]

This is a specimen of the reasoning that was fast rendering Britain contemptible alike to friends and foes.  It is not surprising that such timorous selfishness should have at last moved the Czar to say to our envoy:  “Act where you please, provided that you act at all."[128] In the end the new Ministry did venture to act:  it engaged to send 20,000 men to the succour of Stralsund; but, with the fatality that then dogged our steps, that decision was formed on June the 17th, three days after the Coalition was shattered by the mighty blow of Friedland.