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494 RISE OF THE CONTINENTALwill discover, when their official reports shall at some futuretime be intrusted to a second Coxe. 1England thus becamein the fullest sense of the word, the centre of the third confederacy against the domination of France, as RussiaAustria, and Sweden, entered into a treaty of alliance withher, upon conditions of receiving certain subsidies ;unfortunately, the wavering policy of Prussia placed the sameobstacles in the wayas had occurred before. The disastrousissue of the campaign of 1805, which, after the battle ofAusterlitz, was followed by the peace of Presburg, 2 rentasunder the alliance with Austria ;that with Russia wasprolonged in little more than in form ;that with Swedenwas rather more trouble than profit; and new relations withPrussia soon followed, which led to war, or at least to awarlike attitude.Pitt was destined to live just long enough to see hishopes and his plans frustrated. Intelligence of all thesemisfortunes, for which the recent victory at Trafalgar (21stOctober) could not compensate, reached him while yet onhave distressedhis death-bed. 3 However deeply thismayhim, he had still two grounds of consolation left. FirstThe consciousness that his life had been devoted to a goodand just cause ;and next to that, the certainty that his principles would survive ip, the school of statesmen which hehimself had formed. 4 But dismal as were the prospectswhen his eye closed in death, they became still darker soonafter his departure and it;became of the greater importance that his principles died not with him.A most striking proof of this was afforded by the administration which succeeded, and which wished to follow a different line of policy. This was a coalition ministry ;that isto say, one formed of men of opposite parties and professingdifferent principles ;a ministry which can hardly ever suc-JOn the internal relations of the court of Vienna, at that time, and theEnglish ambassador, Lord Paget, some interesting information will be foundin the treatise, Die Franzosen in Wem, 1805, in Europeische Annalen, 1809,st 6, the authenticity of which, however, we cannot vouch for, as we are unacquainted with the sources from which they are derived,2December 26, 1805.3His death, the 23rd January, 1806, happened on the same day of themonth as that on which he had taken his seat in the House of Commonstwenty-five years before.4 A Portland, Liverpool, Sidmouth, Canning, Perceval, Castlereagh,