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INTERESTS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 481was of service to the BritishBut the expeditionto Egyptcontinental policy in another respect.At the time it wasset on foot, the spiritand courage of the continental powerswere at a low ebb. The haughty tone assumed by theFrench at Rastadt had plenipotentiaries dispirited and humiliated, as well as exasperated them. A new war was considered inevitable ;but all seemed afraid to strike the firstblow. Exactly at this crisis, and in this dispositionof affairs,the glorious victoiy of the Nile was achieved by Nelson. 1This however did not immediately affect the relations of thecontinental powers, thoughit had an indirect influence uponthem. This humiliation of the haughty raised the courageof the oppressed ;their confidence in England was revived ;her exhortations and offers were listened to with more attention, and what perhapsis almost without a parallelinhistory, the effects of this victory were much greater in amoral than in a military point of view. The relations ofFrance with Austria were already greatlydisturbed. A newwar was felt at Vienna to be inevitable. That country wasonly looking about for allies ;negotiationswith Russia hadalready been quietly going on during the interval of repose ;it could not therefore be difficult for to find EnglandanItopening. was still more easy at Naples, where the personal influence of the ambassador, or rather of his consort,Lady Hamilton, determined the queen,and through her thecourt, and even excited them to a precipitate rupture, theconsequences of which were the occupation of Naples andthe flightof the king and the court to Sicily.But a new connecting link in the chain of British continental policy was formed in Russia. The connexions withCatharine, as well as their inefficacy, have been noticedabove. She had retired from the stage,*and had made roomfor her son and successor^Paul. this periodis not onlyhighly interesting as respects the British continental policy,but to the whole state-system of Europe. With it commences the active participation of Russia in the affairs ofthe West, which Catharine had always studiously avoided.And itmight be foreseen that this could not easily be againwithdrawn, whatever change mighttake placein the character and policy of the reigning prince.A power of the1August 1st, 1798.2 i*NOT. 16th, 1796.