The Washington herald., 1914-04-26

feel the consular rage. Woe to them
who do not respect their treaties" he
warned Whitworth. They shall be re-
sponsible to all Europe" The Ambas'
| sadOr now remained silent, seeing that
Napoleon was too agitated TO make il
| advisable TO prolong the conversation,
and the First Consul left the room, re-
peating as he went. Woe TO them who
do not respect their treaties!
| AS the door closed. it closed upon the
peace of Amiens and the peace Of the
world Thus began. in the spring OF 1913.
the titanic war which was 10 draw into
its vortex all the nations, until the battle
line should stretch from Moscow to De-
| troit, and end only at Waterloo In 1915.
The Great War Began.
After a few more weeks of wranglinG
| the British government presented its
| ultimatum. demanding everything, and
] being refused, Of course. Lord Whit
| worth called for his passports: As tbs
his flag on the Victory, England thun'
dered a declaration of war. threw a cor
don of blockading ships across every
French harbor, and her navy-"those
ravening wolves of the sea-" Napoleon
called them-once more prowled the wa
tiers in quest of its familiar prey. the
ships of France.
fiict before she was ready. She had
only half as many fighting ships as her
enemy. and most of those were at once
caught and sealed up in the blockaded
ports.
Unable to seize British vessels Napo-
leon seized British subjects. The English
had fiOcked to France in time of peace,
eager to enjoy Paris after their long eN-
clusion from its pleasures in ten years
war, and there were probably 1000 of
them in the country. when the First
Consul ordered all between eighteen and
sixty arrested and held as prisoners of
war. Il am resolved he Instructed
JunOt. the military governor OF the cap
ital, that in the Obscurest theater or
the lowest restaurant in Paris not an
Englishman shall this night be seen"
England had signalized the opening OF
hostilities by instantly closing against
France the gateways to the sea Napo,
leon retaliated by closing the principal
doors OF Europe to the British and Brit
ish trade. Dispatching an army into
Hanover, whose crown still belonged to
try and its port of Bremen. Boldly in
vadiRg the adjoining territory belonging
to the free city of Hamburg, he next
possessed himself OF the port of Cux-
dom of Naples, which was under English
influence, and overthrow the Bourbon
monarchy there. Spain and Portugal
were the sworn allies of France.
Within three months after the outbreak
of the war Napoleon was the master of
the coast of Europe from the boundary
of Denmark to the toe OF Italy, and the
British flag was banned at every port
The harbors of France proper were shut
to the ships of any nation whatever that
so much as touched at British port.
The Napoleon OF Finance.
The trade of all Europe was Frustrated
as if by a stroke of paralysis and an cpl
demic of bankruptcy ran through the ma
tons. To arrest the financial panic in
Paris the First Consul became for a time
q Napoleon of finance
When he came to power he had found
"rentes." or the national securities. SELL
ing for L. francs. and he had seen them
rise to 81 as the confidence and prosperity
of the country rose. He rightly regarded
their price as the barometer Of Frances
hopes and fears. and he took measures to
keep it from falling as the atmosphere
grew heavy with rumors OF war.
His stormy interview with the British
Ambassador was hardly over that Sunday
afternoon when he ordered his agents to
be sure to maintain the price OF rentes
on the exchange the next day. The battle
ragged on the floor of the bourse for
week, with Napoleon commanding the
bulls against the bears, whom he de-
nounced as public enemies and as paid
agents Of England. which many of them
really were. He was as determined to win
this market campaign as II It had been a
military campaign.