Hanover, and of the north of Germany. 2. The establishment of the independence of the republics of Holland and Switzerland. 3. The re-establishment of the King of Sardinia in Piedmont, with as large an augmentation of territory as circumstances will admit. 4. The future security of the kingdom of Naples, and the complete evacuation of Italy, including the island of Elba, by the French forces. 5. The introduction of an order of things into Europe which may effectually guarantee the security and independence of the different states, and present a solid barrier against future usurpations. To enable the different powers who may accede to the coalition to bring forward the forces respectively required of them, England engages to furnish subsidies, in the proportion of £1,250,000 sterling for every 100,000 of regular troops sent into the field." Russians; and, in the event of success, | hundred thousand men; and the obher frontier was to be advanced to the jects of the league are declared to beAdda, and she was to obtain Salzburg" 1. The evacuation of the country of and the Brisgau. But nothing was done under this treaty; and it is only very recently it has been brought to light. The rapid advances of Napoleon in Italy, however, at length roused the indignation of the Austrian nobility. M. Winzingerode, the Russian ambassador, daily found the cabinet more inclined to adopt his views as to the necessity of a general and combined effort to arrest the common danger; and at length the force of general opinion became so great, that it produced a change in the cabinet, and total alteration in the external policy of government. The illustrious president of the council, M. Cobentzel, who had long been at the head of the pacific party, resigned, and was succeeded by Count Baillet Latour; and Prince Schwartzenberg received the situation of vice-president of the Aulic Council. This change was decisive; the war party was now predominant; and it was only a question of time and expedience when hostilities should be 'commenced. 49. Russia and England, more removed from the danger, and therefore more independent in their resolutions, had proceeded considerably farther in the formation of a coalition. On the 11th April a treaty was signed at St Petersburg, which regulated the terms and the objects of the contracting parties, and the forces they were respectively to employ in carrying these into execution. The preamble set forth, "As the state of suffering in which Europe is placed demands immediate remedy, their majesties have mutually determined to consult upon the means of putting a stop thereto, without waiting for fresh encroachments on the part of the French government. They have agreed, in consequence, to employ the most speedy and efficacious means to form a general league of the states of Europe, and to engage them to accede to the present concert." The forces to be employed, independent of those furnished by England, were fixed at five * See THIERS, v. 355. 50. By separate articles, signed between England and Russia only, it was agreed that the objects of the alliance should be attempted as soon as 400,000 men could be ready for active service; of which Austria was expected to furnish 250,000, Russia 115,000, and the remaining 35,000 were to be supplied by Hanover, Sardinia, and Naples. By another separate article, Russia engaged to march forthwith an army of 60,000 men to the frontiers of Austria, and 80,000 to those of Prussia, "to be able to co-operate with the said courts in the proportions established by the treaty, and to support them respectively, in case they should be attacked by France;" and that, independently of the 115,000 men to be engaged in active operations, the Emperor of Russia should keep bodies of reserve and of observation upon his frontiers. The advantages of the treaty, so far as subsidies were concerned, were to be extended to Austria and Sweden, if in the course of the year 1805 they brought their forces into action; the Emperor of Russia agreed, if necessary, to bring 180,000 men into the field, on the same conditions as to supplies as the original 115,000; and the contracting parties | on that of Russia, these difficulties were bound themselves to make common overcome, and the cordial co-operation cause against any power which should unite with France in the contest which was approaching. Finally, a separate article of great importance settled the ultimate objects of the coalition, and the intentions of the Allies in regard to the states which they might rescue from the dominion of France, in a manner alike consistent with good faith, justice, and moderation.* 51. Notwithstanding the definite terms of this treaty, considerable difficulty existed, and delay was incurred, in arranging the terms of the Austrian co-operation. Not that the cabinet of Vienna was backward in their disposition to promote the objects of the coalition, but that the deplorable state of their finances rendered it impossible for them to bring any considerable forces into the field till they had received large subsidies from Great Britain, and that it was highly inexpedient to commence hostilities till these had arrived, as the exposed situation of their territories rendered it certain that they would be the first objects of attack. In the end, however, by the indefatigable efforts of Mr Pitt on the part of England, and M. Novosiltzoff * "The Emperor and King being disposed to form an energetic concert, with the sole view of insuring to Europe a solid and lasting peace, founded upon the principles of justice, equity, and the law of nations, are aware of the necessity of a mutual understanding at this time with regard to those principles on which they will act as soon as the events of the war may render it necessary. These principles are, in no degree to control public opinion in France, or in any other countries where the combined armies may carry on their operations, with respect to the form of government which it may be proper to adopt; nor to appropriate to themselves, till a peace should be concluded, any of the conquests made by one or other of the belligerent parties; to take possession of the towns and territories which may be wrested from the common enemy, in the name of the country or state to which they of right belong; and in all other cases in the name of all the mem bers of the league; and, finally, to assemble at the termination of the war a general congress, to discuss and fix the provisions of the law of nations on a more definite basis than has been possible heretofore, and to insure their observance by a federative system founded upon the situation of the different states of Europe."-Parl. Deb. vi. App. 6, 7. of Austria to the alliance was obtained. The Austrian minister at St Petersburg, Count Stadion, forcibly represented the dilapidated state of the Imperial finances, and insisted on a subsidy of £3,000,000, one-half to be immediately paid, in order to bring the troops into the field, and the other by monthly instalments after the campaign had commenced. These terms were at length agreed to by the British ambassador, it being stipulated that the Emperor of Austria should forthwith embody a force of not less than three hundred and twenty thousand men, and that the advance to be made by Great Britain, under the name of première mise en campagne, or preliminary payment, should be made on this calculation. On the same day a treaty was concluded between Russia and Austria; and active negotiations ensued between the Aulic Council and the Russian war-minister relative to the measures to be pursued in the prosecution of their joint hostilities. 52. Much less difficulty was experienced in arranging the terms of an alliance, offensive and defensive, with Sweden, which had already, by the treaty of 3d December 1804, evinced a desire to range itself under the banners of England. By a convention, concluded at Helsingborg on the 31st August 1805, it was provided that England should pay monthly £1800 for every 1000 men who co-operated in the Stralsund was taken at 4000 men, who common cause; and as the garrison of were not included in the subsidy, the periodical payment for them amounted to £7200. By a subsequent convention, signed at Bekcagsog, 3d October 1805, the number of Swedish troops to be employed in Pomerania was fixed at 12,000 men, for whom England was to pay at the rate of £12, 10s. per annum for each man, besides five months' subsidy in advance, as outfit for the campaign, and £50,000 to put Stralsund in a respectable state of defence. Thus, by the effects of the incessant advances of Napoleon towards universal dominion, and the genius and in fluence of Mr Pitt, were the discordant elements of European strength again arrayed, notwithstanding the terror inspired by former defeats, in a firm coalition against France, and a force was assembled amply sufficient, as the event has proved, to have accomplished the deliverance of Europe, if ignorance or infatuation had not misdirected them when in the field. Diplomacy had done its part; War was now required to complete the undertaking. Mr Pitt might then have said with Wallace, when he had assembled the Scottish peers and the forces of his country in the war of independence on the field of Falkirk-" Now, gallants! I have brought you to the ring: dance as you may. that recent events had too clearly demonstrated that the acquisitions of France were out of all proportion to those of the other powers a fact of which the necessity of a general coalition to form a barrier against its ambition afforded the clearest evidence.* 54. Notwithstanding all the efforts of Britain and Russia, however, it was found impossible to overcome the leaning of Prussia towards the French interest. The real secret of this partiality was, not any insensibility to the dangers to be apprehended to the independence of Germany from the power of France, on the part of the cabinet of Berlin, or its able director Baron Hardenberg, but the effect of the glittering prize *The real points in dispute between France 53. It was still, however, a great ob- and Russia will be better understood from ject, if possible, to engage Prussia in the following extract from the Moniteur at the alliance; and, for this purpose, M. this period, than it can be from the reserved Novosiltzoff was despatched to Berlin, have France and Russia to embroil them? and formai style of diplomatic notes. "What and the successive annexations of Ge- Perfectly independent of each other, they noa, Parma, and Placentia, to France, are impotent to inflict evil, but all-powerful gave him great advantages in the to communicate benefits. If the Emperor of France exercises a great influence in Italy, representations which he made as the Czar exercises a still greater over Turkey to the necessity of opposing a bar- and Persia. If the cabinet of Russia pretends rier to its future progress. Fearful of to have a right to affix limits to the power of the strife which was approaching, and France, without doubt it is equally disposed to allow the Emperor of the French to preapprehensive of being cast down from scribe the bounds which it is not to pass. the position which she occupied in the Russia has partitioned Poland: it is but fair shock of such enormous powers, Prus-left bank of the Rhine. It has seized upon that France should have Belgium and the sia made the most energetic efforts to the Crimea, the Caucasus, and the northern avert the collision, and, for this pur- provinces of Persia; can it deny that the pose, the cabinet of Berlin despatched right of self-preservation gives France a title. M. Zastroff, aide-de-camp to the King, wish a general congress in Europe? Let to demand an equivalent in Europe? Do you to St Petersburg. Under the media- every power begin by restoring the contion of Prussia, a negotiation between quests which it has made during the last the courts of Russia and France took fifty years. Let them re-establish Poland, restore Venice to its Senate, Trinidad to place, which for three months averted Spain, Ceylon to Holland, the Crimea to the the commencement of hostilities, but Porte, the Caucasus and Georgia to Persia, led to no other result. Neither party the kingdom of Mysore to the sons of Tippoo was sincere in the desire for an accom- Saib, and the Mahratta states to their lawful owners, and then the other powers may have modation; and if either had, the pre- some title to insist that France shall retire tensions of the opposite powers were within her ancient limits. It is the fashion too much at variance to render a paci- to speak of the ambition of France. Had she chosen to preserve her conquests, the half of fication possible. France was reso- Austria, the Venetian states, the states of lutely determined to abandon none of Holland and Switzerland, and the kingdom its acquisitions on the Continent, al- of Naples, would have been in her possession. The limits of France are in reality the leging as a reason that they were ne- Adige and the Rhine. Has it passed either cessary to form a counterpoise to the of these limits? Had it fixed on the Salza vast increase of territory gained by and the Drave, it would not have exceeded Russia in the East, by Austria in Italy, the bounds of its conquests." It is not difand by England in India; and the Em-ficult to trace the hand of Napoleon in these able remarks.-Moniteur, 18th July 1805; and peror Alexander replied, with reason, Dumas, xii. 96, 97. to conclude its terms, and arrived there on the 1st September. Subsequent unforeseen events prevented the treaty being signed, and saved Prussia from this last act of cupidity and infatuation; but in the meanwhile the precious moments were lost. The French forces were enabled to pour in irresistible multitudes, through the Prussian dominions, upon the devoted host at Ulm; and the battle of Austerlitz overthrew the independence of Germany, and exposed Prussia, unaided, to the mortal strokes of the French Emperor. By such combinations of selfishness and folly was Napoleon aided in his project of elevating France to supreme authority in Europe, and for such wretched objects was that sincere alliance of all its powers long prevented, which would at any time have opposed an effectual barrier to his progress! which her ministers had long coveted | enemy at the expense of England. in the electorate of Hanover. The Duroc was forthwith sent from Paris Prussian government could never divest itself of the idea that, by preserving a dubious neutrality, and reserving their interposition for the decisive moment, they might without danger add that important acquisition to their dominions. In effect, Napoleon, well aware of this secret bias, withdrew, in the close of July, twelve thousand men from the Hanoverian states; and the Prussian ministers then dropped hints as to "the revival of the King's wishes as to Hanover," and at length openly broached the project of taking provisional possession of that electorate, as the union of the Continental dominions of his Britannic Majesty to Prussia is of such consequence to that monarchy, that it can never relinquish the prospect of gaining such an acquisition, provided it can be done without compromising the character of his Majesty." There was the real obstacle. King of Prussia, notwithstanding all the immediate advantages of the acqui-poleon in the event of such an alliance, the sition, was stung with the secret reproaches of conscience at the idea of thus appropriating the possessions of a friendly power, at the very moment when that power was making such efforts, without the idea of selfish recompense, for the deliverance of Europe. 66 The 55. The struggles of conscience, however, became daily weaker. The King at length put the question to his ministers, Can I, without violating the rules of morality, without being held up in history as a prince destitute of faith, depart, for the acquisition of Hanover, from the character which I have hitherto maintained?" The woman that deliberates is lost. It was easy to see in what such contests between duty and interest would terminate. Before the middle of August, the Prussian cabinet intimated to the French minister at Berlin their willingness to conclude a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, with the French government, on the footing of the annexation of Hanover to their dominions. Napoleon eagerly closed with so advantageous an offer, and joyfully agreed to rid himself of a dangerous * *The Prussian ministers having demanded a frank statement of the intentions of Na following note was presented by the French minister to Baron Hardenberg: "The peace of the Continent will be the fruit of the alliance between France and Prussia. It will be enough for this purpose for Prussia to say, that she makes common cause with France to change the present state of Italy. What in any war which may have for its object danger can Prussia fear, when the Emperor engages to support it with eighty thousand men against the Russians-when it will have den, the Emperor engaging to obtain for the for auxiliaries Saxony, Hesse, Bavaria, BaKing the possession of Hanover, while his allies will only be called on to guarantee the present state of Italy? The Emperor offers dition; and the King may judge from that Hanover, absolutely and without any conwhether or not he is disposed to be generous towards his German allies." The Prussian gratitude that the King has received the prominister replied:-"It is with the most lively position made by the intervention of the French minister. He experiences the greatest the electorate of Hanover for a guarantee of the satisfaction at the proposal made to exchange present state of Italy, in order to avert a war on the Continent, and lead towards peace with England. His Majesty is desirous to lished, as well as that of Holland, and the see the independence of Switzerland estabpart of Italy not allowed by Prussia to France. If on these subjects his Imperial Majesty will explain himself in a positive manner, the King will enter with pleasure into the details necessary for a definitive arrangement."BIGNON, iv. 271, 272. 57. The army which Napoleon had now assembled for this great enterprise was one of the most formidable, in point of numerical strength, and be 56. Threatening as was the present | Emperor was in the highest spirits, as state of the Continent, Napoleon was well he might, at the splendid appearnot one whit diverted by it from his ance of his troops, and was confident projected descent upon Great Britain. of success the moment the fleet apOn the contrary, it only furnished an peared, which he hourly expected. To additional reason for pushing the pre- Admiral Decrès he wrote on the 4th parations for that great undertaking August-"The English do not know with additional vigour; he being well what awaits them. If we are masters aware that if England was destroyed, of the Channel for two hours, England the Continental coalition would soon has lived its time." To Cambacérès he fall to pieces, and that a blow struck on said at the same time, who was reprethe banks of the Thames would more senting the preparations of Austriaeffectually attain this object than one "A few days will suffice to cross the either in the basin of the Danube, or strait, and when the sea is passed, the on the shores of the Vistula. For this coalition is struck at the heart. The purpose, in the midst of the splendid arm of Austria is struck down, the pageants in Italy, on which their mag- moment London is taken. Trust to nificence had caused the eyes of all me and my activity: I will astonish Europe to be fixed, the Emperor, ac- the world by the grandeur and rapidity companied by Josephine, set out late of my strokes." on the evening of the 8th July from Turin, and travelled with such extraordinary rapidity, that, outstripping all his escorts, he reached Fontainebleau on the morning of the 11th, having ac-yond all question the most perfect in complished the journey of above five hundred miles in less than sixty hours. Cambacérès and all his ministers were there, with full details of the armament both by land and sea. Scarcely had he completed the necessary examination, when, devoured with anxiety for the return of the combined fleet from the West Indies, which he daily expected, he continued his journey to the coast, there to peril his crown and life on the most gigantic undertaking ever projeeted by man since the invasion of Greece by the arms of Xerxes. For this purpose, shortly after his return from Italy, he repaired to the camp at Boulogne, there to inspect in person the vast military force arrayed on the shores of the Channel, and to direct the distant movements of the fleets, by which he hoped to obtain, for a time at least, the mastery of the seas, and the means of safely disembarking that mighty host within a few days' march of London. Shortly after his arrival, he reviewed 100,000 men on the sands of Boulogne. The line was three leagues long; never had he seen himself at the head of such a force, and rarely, if ever, had the world seen so splendid a military spectacle. The-DUMAS, xii.; Tables, 1, 2, 3, fronting p. 304. point of military organisation, which had ever been brought together since the days of the Roman legions.* It amounted to 114,000 effective combatants, the total on the rolls being 132,000; 432 pieces of cannon, and 14,654 horses, * The composition of this vast armament around Boulogne was as follows: it is one of the most curious records of the age of Na poleon : Infantry, Cannoneers, Total, Gun-boats, 76,798 11,640 3,780 8,780 17,476 113,474 1,339 954 Which would carry (men), 161,215 Guns mounted on armed Horses, Fusils (spare), Cartridges, Flints, 6,059 3,500 7,394 32,837 13,000,000 1,268,400 Biscuits (rations), 1,434,800 Bottles of brandy, 236,230 30,375 Tools, Loads of hay, Do. oats, . |