WE, taking into Our most serious Consideration the just and necessary War in which We are engaged, and putting Our Trust in Almighty God that He will graciously bless Our Arms, both by Sea and Land, have resolved, and do, by and with the Advice of Our Privy Council, hereby command, That a public Day of Fasting and Humiliation be observed throughout those Parts of Our United Kingdom called England and Ireland, on Wednesday the Nineteenth Day of October next, that so both We and Our People may humble Ourselves before Almighty God, in order to obtain Pardon of Our Sins, and in the most devout and solemn Manner send up Our Prayers and Supplications to the Divine Majesty, for averting those heavy Judgments which Our manifold Provocations have most justly deserved; and for imploring His Blessing and Assistance on Our Arms for the Restoration of peace, and Prosperity to Us and Our Dominions: And We do strictly charge and command, that the said Publick Fast be reverently and devoutly observed by all Our loving Subjects in England and Ireland, as they tender the Favour of Almighty God, and would avoid His Wrath and Indignation; and upon Pain of such Punishment as We may justly inflict on all such as contemn and neglect the Performance of so religious and necessary a Duty: And for the better and more orderly solemnizing the same, We have given Directions to the Most Reverend the Archbishops, and the Right Reverend the Bishops of England and Ireland, to compose a Form of Prayer suitable to this Occasion, to be used in all Churches, Chapels, and Places of Publick Worship, and to take Care the same be timely dispersed throughout their respective Dioceses.

Given at Our Court at Saint James’s, the Fourteenth Day of September One thousand eight hundred and three, in the Forty-third Year of Our Reign.

GOD SAVE THE KING

NAPOLEON was the kind of immense historical presence whose personality and policies were bound to capture the imagination of Jews, no matter how they were affected by his career. French preachers spoke of him in their sermons with an adulation transcending the conventional compliments paid to monarchs in the modern period. He is ‘God's chosen’; some indeed used language of clear messianic resonance.