...oleon, made the act a pretext, in 1806, for employing against France a measure calculated to starve the empire. By Orders in Council (May 16) the whole coast of Europe from the Elbe, in Germany, to Brest, in France , a distance of about 800 miles, was declared to be in a state of blockade, when, at the same time, the British navy could not spare vessels enough from other fields of service to enforce the blockade...