THE THIRD COALITION  

AFTER the Peace of Amiens the attention of Bonaparte was directed to the consolidation of his own power. With this view he began to restore in his own favour the absolutism of the ancient régime, and to banish the traces of the Revolution by re-establishing a courtly etiquette, introducing substitutes for the ancient distinctions of rank, and restoring the observances and ceremonies of religion. In March, 1802, twenty of the more turbulent members of the tribunate were ejected by the Senate, and the number of the tribunate reduced to eighty. The Legislative body also underwent a purification. The Revolution of 16th Thermidor, an X (August 2nd, 1802), when Bonaparte was named Consul for life by the pretended suffrages of the people, established as absolute a despotism as any that France had yet experienced. The electors were now to be appointed for life, and the First Consul could increase their number. The Senate, the mere creatures of Bonaparte, were invested with power to alter the institutions of the State, and to dissolve the Tribunate and Legislative Body. The Council of State was recognized as a constituted authority, and its number was increased. The Tribunate underwent a second reduction to the number of fifty, by the elimination of thirty more of its boldest members. A sort of hierarchy was established among the tribunals by the appointment of a Court of Cassation, with power to censure and even suspend the inferior judges; while the whole were subordinate to the Minister of Justice.

Along with liberty, such as it had been, Bonaparte sought also to abolish equality. A sort of new order of nobility was of established by the institution of a Legion of Honour (May 19th, 1802), destined to confer pecuniary rewards and marks of distinction on those who had signalized themselves by their civil or military services. The Legion was to consist of about 7,000 men, divided into cohorts and dispersed in different parts of France. The cohorts contained privates, subaltern and higher officers, with salaries varying according to rank from between 200 and 300 francs to 5,000. This law was very strongly opposed. It passed the Legislature only by a small majority, and was very unpopular out of doors. Those first decorated with the insignia of the Order received them with a sort of derisive contempt; but the Order ultimately became a powerful means of attaching men to Bonaparte’s service. Among other instruments of despotism may be mentioned a law for a conscription, which placed 120,000 recruits at the disposal of the First Consul’s military ambition.

The Concordat arranged with Pope Pius VII in the previous year was adopted by the Legislature April 8th, 1802. By this act nine archbishoprics, and forty-one bishoprics, with chapters, were reestablished in France. The salary of an archbishop was fixed at 15,000 francs; of a bishop at 10,000; of a cure of the first class, 1,500; of the second class, 1,000. The liberties of the Gallican Church were defined in seventy-seven articles, which were to form the only Ecclesiastical Code recognized by the French tribunals. Protestant worship was also admitted, and regulated by forty-four articles. The observance of Sunday and of the four grand festivals was restored; and the Government ceased to employ the system of decades, the first step towards the abandonment of the Republican calendar. The completion of the Concordat was celebrated with great pomp at Notre Dame. The First Consul and his suite proceeded thither in the royal carriages, amid salvos of artillery, and with all the etiquette of monarchy. The pliant Pius VII displayed his gratitude to Talleyrand, the ex-Bishop of Autun, by a brief of June 29th, releasing him from all ecclesiastical censures, authorizing him to wear a secular dress, and to take upon himself the conduct of secular affairs. Under this authority Talleyrand soon afterwards married.

It would be unjust not to mention that, along with his acts of despotism, Bonaparte introduced many excellent alterations and reforms, by protecting religion, encouraging the arts and sciences, and by setting an example of social propriety and the virtues of domestic life. He applied his attention to the development of manufactures and commerce, and to the construction of canals, roads, ports, bridges, and other public works. He promoted education by establishing in the different communes primary and secondary schools, as well as special schools and lyceums supported at the public expense. He took a personal share in the labours of the committees which had been appointed to draw up new codes of civil and criminal law. He performed an act of policy as well as justice by granting a general amnesty to all emigrants (except about 1,000 attached to the person of the Pretender, Louis XVIII) who should return to France be­fore September 23rd. The list of emigrants formed nine volumes, and presented a total of near 150,000 names. Large quantities of them were already in France, but after this invitation they returned in great numbers; and in a few years many of the former courtiers of Versailles might be observed worshipping the new idol who had established himself in the palace of the Bourbons. Returned emigrants were to remain ten years under the surveillance of the Government. They could not reclaim such property as had been disposed of by the Republic; but, with certain exceptions, what still remained in the hands of the State was to be restored to them.

The reduction of St. Domingo added another laurel to the First Consul’s wreath. That island had long been in a state of rebellion, which the maritime inferiority of the French prevented them from quelling. Under the conduct of Toussaint l'Ouverture, a man who, though born in the condition of a common negro slave, possessed great intelligence and many admirable qualities, the negroes of St. Domingo, after subduing the Spanish portion of that island, had, in July, 1801, constituted it and some adjacent islands into a separate colony, decreed a constitution and the perpetual abolition of slavery, and appointed Toussaint l'Ouverture to be their governor. After the signing of the preliminary treaty with England, Bonaparte dispatched a fleet to the West Indies, with a considerable land force under Le Clerc; which, in a few months, chiefly through the rivalry and disunion which prevailed among the negroes, succeeded in reducing them to obedience. Christophe, the relative and lieutenant of Toussaint, was the first to surrender, and in May, 1802, Toussaint himself tendered his submission. He was allowed to retire to his estate; but, in the month of June, he was treacherously seized, and carried to France; and was imprisoned in the Castle of Joux, in Normandy.

With regard to foreign affairs, Bonaparte, partly by diplomacy, partly by fresh aggressions, continued after the Peace of Amiens to extend and confirm the influence of France upon the Continent. By the former of these methods he intervened in the affairs of Germany, and succeeded in overturning some of the fundamental principles of the Empire, and in rendering it less able to resist his future attacks; an object, however, in which he could not have succeeded but for the jealousies and quarrels, the shortsighted ambition, and the selfish policy, of Austria and Prussia.

The Peace of Lunéville had been concluded by the Emperor Francis II, not only for his Austrian dominions, but also for the German body; it had been ratified by the Electors, Princes, and States of the Empire; and it remained to indemnify, under the seventh article of the treaty, the Princes who had been deprived of their possessions by the cession of the left bank of the Rhine, as well as the Grand Duke of Tuscany and the Duke of Modena, who had been driven from their Italian dominions. The Empire had consented at the Congress of Rastadt to the cession of the left bank of the Rhine, and had admitted the principle that the Princes dispossessed by this cession should be compensated by the secularization of ecclesiastical domains, which now remained to be carried out. Francis was invited to conduct the settlement of the Empire by a decree of the Diet of Ratisbon, April 30th, 1801. The participation of France in this matter was not then anticipated. No such participation had been stipulated in the Treaty of Lunéville, though it had been in the secret articles of Campo Formio. Had the Emperor immediately complied with the requisition of the Diet, the affair might have been arranged without French intervention, but the Cabinet of Vienna adopted the fatal policy of delay. Thugut had now retired from the Ministry, and had been succeeded by Count Franz Colloredo; but the affairs of Austria were in reality directed by the Vice-Chancellor, Count Cobenzl. Francis himself appears to have suggested the interference of France, with the intention, probably, of anticipating Prussia and Bavaria in such an appeal. Nothing could have been more ill-advised than this step. It failed in conciliating the First Consul, who, throughout the negotiations, took a decided part against Austria.

On October 8th, 1801, the Diet appointed a Deputation of eight members, with unlimited powers to settle the question of indemnification and its collateral issues. These plenipotentiaries were the delegates of the Electors of Mainz, Bohemia (the Emperor), Saxony, Brandenburg (King of Prussia), Bavaria, of the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, of the Duke of Würtemberg, and the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel. But the Cabinet of Vienna suffered the matter to remain in abeyance another ten months; during which Bonaparte had made peace with England, and had concluded with the Emperor Alexander the Convention already mentioned for their joint action in the affairs of Germany, and, indeed, of the whole world. Alexander, who was connected by ties of relationship with several of the German Princes, was anxious to take a part in the settlement of Germany; a proceeding also conformable to the policy of his grandmother, Catharine II, who, in the Peace of Teschen, had exhibited herself as protectress of the Empire. Alexander’s interview with Frederick William III at Memel, in June, 1802, which produced a personal friendship between those two Sovereigns, was an incident calculated to have an injurious effect upon the interests of Austria.

The Emperor Francis, finding that nothing was to be gained by delay, at length called the Deputation together, August 2nd, 1802. But France and Russia had now taken the matter into their own hands. Early in 1802 Paris had become the center of negotiations respecting the affairs of Germany. As Austria and Prussia treated there respecting their particular indemnifications, it is more excusable that the minor German Princes should have adopted the same method. The result of these negotiations was five treaties: namely, two between France and Prussia, May 23rd, 1802; one between France and Bavaria, May 24th; one between France and Russia, June 3rd; and one between France and Würtemberg, June 20th. Most of these treaties were secret. It is unnecessary here to state the substance of them; their effects will appear in the final settlement of the Empire. By one of the treaties with France, the King of Prussia guaranteed all the arrangements made by the First Consul in Italy; namely, the existence of the Italian Republic, of the Kingdom of Etruria, and of the annexation of Piedmont to France, which we shall have to mention further on. The second treaty with Prussia concerned the House of Nassau. When the Peace of Amiens was signed, France entered into an engagement with the Batavian Republic, that the compensation for the House of Nassau stipulated by that treaty should not be at the expense of the Dutch. By the treaty between France and Prussia, May 23rd, it was agreed that the Prince of Nassau-Orange-Dillenburg-Diez should receive compensation in Germany; but he was to renounce for himself and his heirs the dignity of Stadholder, and all his estates and domains in the Batavian Republic. In consequence of these treaties, Prussia and Bavaria proceeded to occupy the districts assigned to them, before the Deputation of the Empire which was to sanction the occupation had even assembled. Austria, however, anticipated Bavaria in occupy­ing the town of Passau, which the Emperor claimed for his brother the Grand Duke of Tuscany; and Austrian troops also took possession of the Archbishopric of Salzburg. The Imperial authority convoking the Deputation purported that they were to arrange the questions arising out of the 5th and 7th Articles of the Treaty of Lunéville, with the Emperor’s plenipotentiary, and in conjunction with the French Government. During the Emperor’s delay, France and Russia had drawn up a scheme of indemnification; their Ministers, M. Laforest and M. de Klüpffell, attended the sittings of the Deputation as mediators; and before the opening of the conferences they handed in the scheme alluded to, with the intimation that it was the will of the Emperor of Russia and of the First Consul that it should not be altered, and that the Deputation must abstain from delay in settling this matter beyond the two months allowed to them. The Deputation did not literally comply with these injunctions. Their Recess was not completed till February 25th, 1803; and though in all matters which concerned the policy of the French and Russian Governments they observed the course dictated to them, they were allowed more liberty in such questions as regarded only the internal affairs of Germany.

The Emperor, for the cession of Ortenau to the Duke of Modena, received from the hands of France and Russia, Trent and Brixen, two bishoprics situated in his own dominions. The Breisgau and Ortenau were made over to the Duke of Modena in compensation for his Italian dominions. The Emperor’s brother, Ferdinand, Grand Duke of Tuscany, received on the same account the Archbishopric of Salzburg, Berchtsgaden, and parts of the Bishoprics of Passau and Eichstadt, with the title of Elector of Salzburg. Prussia obtained the lion’s share in this partition of spoils. By the cession of her dominions on the left bank of the Rhine she had lost part of the Duchy of Cleves, the principality of Moeurs, the Duchy of Geldern, with two or three more places, and the tolls of the Rhine and Meuse. These territories were computed at 48 German square miles, containing 137,000 inhabitants, with an estimated revenue of 1,400,000 florins. In lieu of them she received the Bishoprics of Hildesheim and Paderborn, part of the Bishopric of Munster, the Eichfeld with Trefurt, Erfurt, Untergleichen, Mühlhausen, Nordhausen, Goslar, Herforden, Quedlinburg, Elten, Essen, Werden, and Kappenberg; in all 221 square miles, with 526,000 i­habitants, and a revenue of 3,800,000 florins. Bavaria, which had lost in the Palatinate and in the Duchies of Jülich and Zwei-Brücken, in Alsace, etc., 220 square miles, with a popu­lation of 780,000 souls, and a revenue of 5,870,000 florins, received instead the Bishoprics of Wurzburg, Bamberg, Augsburg, Freysing, Passau, with numerous abbeys and other places, reckoned at 268 square miles, containing 792,000 in­habitants, and producing a revenue of 6,178,000 florins. The Margrave of Baden, the Duke of Würtemberg, the two branches of the House of Hesse (Cassel and Darmstadt) also received, through the favour of the French and Russian Governments, large accessions of territory. The first of these Princes, in particular, was compensated more than sixfold for his territorial losses, and his revenues were doubled. The Prince of Nassau-Orange obtained the Bishoprics of Fulda and Corvey, the Imperial city of Dortmund, the abbey of Weingarten, and other places. The other branches of the House of Nassau also received compensations, and George III, as Elector of Hanover and Brunswick-Lüneburg, for certain rights and pretensions which he lost, received the Bishopric of Osnabrück. By the new arrangement, two of the three spiritual Electors, those of Cologne and Treves, vanished entirely from the German system. The Elector of Mainz, Charles von Dalberg, Archchancellor of the Empire, who had courted the First Consul with success, was alone spared. The Archiepiscopal seat of Mainz was transferred to the cathedral church of Ratisbon, and was endowed, as to its temporalities, with the principalities of Aschaffenburg and Ratisbon, with a revenue of one million florins. Pope Pius VII affected to shut his eyes to the secularization of ecclesiastical property, and the suppression of convents throughout Germany; though he made an attempt at the Congress of Vienna to obtain a reversal of these acts, but without success. The number of Electors was more than made up by the elevation to that dignity of the Duke of Würtemberg, the Margrave of Baden, the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, and of the Grand Duke of Tuscany as Elector of Salzburg. Of the forty-five free cities of the Empire, only six now remained, those of Frank­furt, Augsburg, Lübeck, Bremen, Hamburg, and Nuremberg. Four had fallen to the share of France; namely, Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle, Worms, and Spires. These changes were merely the prelude to the final overthrow of the Holy Roman Empire.

Affairs of Switzerland

Bonaparte's interference in the affairs of Switzerland, though totally unjustifiable, since the independence of that country and the right to form its own government had been guaranteed by the Peace of Lunéville, was not, however, so tyrannical and injurious as some of his other steps of the same kind. After the establishment of the Helvetic Republic, two political parties had grown up in Switzerland, called Unionists and Federalists. The Unionists were for establishing a central government, and merging the aristocratic towns and democratic cantons in one common system of political and civil equality. The Federalists, on the contrary, who formed the much larger portion of the nation, thinking it impossible to unite under one form of government many small bodies of people differing in their language, their customs, and their religion, were for maintaining the ancient system of separate governments with a federal Diet. Through the influence of the French party, however, which favoured the Unionists, an Extraordinary Assembly of forty-eight Notables from all the cantons was convened at Bern, April 17th, 1802, and a central Government proclaimed May 20th. To confirm this change they even ventured to appeal to universal suffrage; and though their plan was condemned by a large majority, yet, as a great part of the people had not voted, they, with shameless audacity, took their silence for consent, and proclaimed the establishment of the new constitution. But the ancient cantons, led by the Landamman and patriot, Aloys Reding, flew to arms, and prepared to overthrow the new Government by force. At this juncture Bonaparte withdrew the French troops from Switzerland, with the view probably of bringing the two parties into collision, and thus obtaining a plausible pretence for interfering. Under the influence of Reding a congress of the ancient cantons now assembled at Schwytz, declared their independence, and their determination to establish a constitution suited to their wants; but at the same time they expressed their willingness to come to an arrangement with the central Government; and Reding communicated what had been done to the First Consul, with whom he had had an interview in the previous December, and who, he had reason to think, would not disapprove of their proceedings. The insurrection spread to several other cantons; the peasantry took up arms, the Helvetic Government, after applying to Bonaparte for aid, which was at first refused, was driven from Bern, and compelled to retire to Lausanne, and the Federal Diet was reestablished. But the Helvetic Government was soon afterwards restored by a proclamation of Bonaparte, dated at St. Cloud, September 30th, 1802. The ancient cantons, led by Reding, prepared to resist; but Ney having entered Switzerland with a large force, the Diet, after protesting against this violence, declared itself dissolved. Ney caused Reding, Herzel, and some other leaders to be arrested. Reding was imprisoned at Aarburg, and subsequently in the castle of Chillon. Deputies from both parties were now invited to Paris, and after considerable discussion, the First Consul arranged their differences by an Act of Mediation, February 19th, 1803. The Constitution thus established was perhaps as good as the circumstances would admit. The different Cantons, which, by the erection of six new ones, namely, Aargau, St. Gall, the Grison Leagues, the Tessin, Turgovia, and Leman, or Pays de Vaud, had been increased to nineteen, were placed under governments more or less democratic or aristocratic, agreeably to their ancient customs. A Federal Diet was appointed to meet in alternate years at Freiburg, Bern, Soleure, Basle, Zurich, and Lucerne, which thus became in turn directorial cantons. The Avoyer, or Burgomaster, of each of these cantons became, during its directorial year, Landamman of Switzerland; in which capacity he presided over the Diet, communicated with foreign ministers, etc. On September 27th, 1803, a new defensive alliance was concluded between France and Switzerland. This treaty was m0re favorable to the Swiss than the alliance of 1798, which was offensive as well as defensive, thus involving them in all French wars. By the new treaty it was agreed that the French should have in their service 16,000 Swiss. Ney, however, compelled the Swiss to purchase these advantages by delivering up their arms and paying 625,000 francs for costs; nor did he depart with his army till the treaty had been arranged according to Bonaparte’s wishes.

Bonaparte annexes Piedmont

A more flagrant act of the First Consul’s at this time was the annexation of Piedmont. Although that country was reconquered by the Austro-Russian army in 1799, the King of Sardinia had not been restored when, by the battle of Marengo, it came again into the possession of the French. Bonaparte then united part of it to the Cisalpine Republic, and promised to erect the rest into a separate State; but he afterwards changed his mind; and by a decree of April 20th, 1801, ordered that Piedmont should form a military division of France under an Administrator-General. Such was its state at the time of the Peace of Amiens. The English Cabinet in that treaty had taken no notice of the affairs of the King of Sardinia, Tuscany, Parma, Holland, and Switzerland. The Emperor of Russia, however, in the Convention with the First Consul of October 11th, 1801, had stipulated an indemnification for Charles Emanuel IV, a condition which he had renewed in ratifying the Treaty of Paris of June 3rd, 1802. The English Ministers were probably not ignorant of this engagement; and by trusting to it for justice towards the King of Sardinia, passed him over in silence rather than recognize or discuss the other proceedings of France in Northern Italy. But Charles Emanuel, disgusted with the injustice and insults to which he was exposed, having abdicated his throne in favour of his brother Victor Emanuel, Duke of Aosta, June 4th, 1802, Bonaparte, in spite of his agreement with Russia, caused that part of Piedmont which had not been united to the Italian Republic to be annexed to France, as the twenty-seventh Military Department, by a formal Senatus-Consulte. A little after, October 11th, on the death of Ferdinand de Bourbon, Duke of Parma, father of the King of Etruria, that Duchy was also seized by the rapacious French Republic. The isle of Elba had also been united to France by a Senatus-Consulte of August 26th.

Besides these aggressions Bonaparte had given Holland a new constitution, November, 1801, by which the Batavian Government, in imitation of the French Consulate of 1800, became almost aristocratic. The legislative body was now composed of no more than thirty-three members; and the Republic at length received, in the person of Schimmelpenninck, a sort of chief like the President of the United States, who, with the title of Grand Pensionary, was invested with a more extensive authority than the House of Orange had ever enjoyed; a first step towards that Monarchy which it was destined soon to become.

These proceedings, which so plainly showed the aggressive France and ambition of the First Consul, could not be regarded with indifference in England; and, unfortunately, there were many other causes of complaint, on both sides, which revealed to all reflecting persons that the peace between Great Britain and France could not be long preserved. After the conclusion of the preliminaries, but before the definitive treaty of peace was signed, Bonaparte had displayed his feelings towards England by causing the “Fame” packet, bound to Jersey, but driven into Cherbourg by stress of weather, to be confiscated, agreeably to a law passed by the Con­vention in the time of Robespierre. Many other instances of the same kind occurred, and all explanations and remonstrances were disregarded or rejected. Bonaparte also re­fused to restore three English vessels captured in India after the peace. English commerce was prohibited through French influence in Holland, Spain, and Italy, and English property sequestrated during the war was still retained, although restitution had been made of all French property agreeably to the treaty. The irritation on both sides was kept alive by scurrilous articles published in newspapers and pamphlets. Some of the French emigrants, as well as English writers, abused the liberty of the press in England to make unwarrantable attacks upon the First Consul and his policy; and a Frenchman named Peltier even recommended the assassination of Bonaparte. When the First Consul complained of these attacks, the English Ministry truly replied that they had no power to suppress them, except by civil action; and a suit was actually instituted against Peltier. On the other hand, libels upon English statesmen were published with impunity in the French journals, with the connivance of the Government; the most virulent of them appeared in the Moniteur, the official organ of the Government, and some of them are known to have proceeded from Bonaparte himself. Another cause of complaint on the part of England was the employment of French spies, under the guise of commercial agents, in several of the chief ports of the Empire.

The relations between France and England had become so unsatisfactory that already on opening the session, November 23rd, 1802, George III had given intimation that the duration of the peace could hardly be relied on. Addington still endeavored to conciliate matters, though the prevalent opinion in England appeared to be adverse to the maintenance of the peace. This feeling was vastly strengthened by the official publication in the Moniteur (January 30th, 1803) of Colonel Sebastiani’s Report of his mission to Egypt. The French agent, though his mission was disguised under the pretence of commercial interests, spoke openly of his intrigues with the Egyptian Pashas and Sheiks, reported his examination of the fortifications and defenses of the country, gave an estimate of the material and moral force of the Turkish army, and expressed an opinion that 6,000 Frenchmen would suffice for the conquest of Egypt. The only inference which could be drawn from all this was that the views of the First Consul were still directed towards the occupation of that country. Sebastiani, on his return, visited Djezzar Pasha at Acre, whose friendship he endeavored to obtain. He also proceeded to the Ionian Islands, and announced, as the result of his observations and conduct, that they were ready to declare for France at the shortest notice.

Lord Whitworth, the English Ambassador at Paris, urged this Report, and several other alleged grievances, on the notice of the French Government. Among these were the annexation of Piedmont and the interference in the affairs of Switzerland.

The French Government, on their side, had several grievances to allege. We cannot, indeed, place in this category the First Consul’s demand that the Princes of the House of Bourbon, actually in England, should be recommended to proceed to Warsaw, the residence of the head of their family; and that such Frenchmen as continued to wear the orders and decorations belonging to the ancient Government of France should be directed to quit the British territories. But the First Consul, ignoring his own aggressions, complained that Egypt was still occupied by the English troops though the French had evacuated that country more than fifteen months; that the Cape of Good Hope had not been restored to the Dutch, nor Malta to the Order of St. John, though the conditions for the restoration of that island had been fulfilled by the arrival of the Neapolitan garrison, and by the election of a Grand Master. All these, though justifiable under the circumstances, were infractions of the Treaty of Amiens. The first two grievances were indeed removed before the discussions between France and England were concluded. Egypt was evacuated by the British troops, March 17th, 1803, in order to avoid a rupture with Russia; and the Cape of Good Hope was restored to the Batavian Republic, February 21st. Malta, however, was still retained —a circumstance which afforded France a reason for declaring war.

War between England and France, 1808

The war, however, was commenced by England. George III sent a message to Parliament, March 8th, calling on them to enable him to adopt the measures necessary for supporting the honor of the Crown and the interests of the country, which were endangered by extensive preparations in the ports of France and Holland. Lord Whitworth had several angry and unsatisfactory interviews with Bonaparte and Talleyrand. On March 1st, the First Consul, in one of those fits of blustering rage which he often assumed, insulted the English Ambassador by his violence before the diplomatic circle at the Tuileries. He is even said to have menaced Lord Whitworth with his cane; and the Ambassador laid his hand on his sword with the determination of using it had he been struck. These angry negotiations were terminated in May by a rupture. On the 10th of that month Lord Whitworth delivered the ultimatum of his Government, viz., that the King of Great Britain should retain possession of Malta for at least ten years, after which it should be abandoned to the inhabitants and recognized as an independent State; that France should not oppose the cession by the King of the Two Sicilies of the Isle of Lampedula to Great Britain, as a naval station; that the territory of the Batavian Republic should be evacuated by the French troops within a month after the conclusion of a convention; that Great Britain should recognize the King of Etruria, and the Italian and Ligurian Republics; that Switzerland should be evacuated by the French troops; that a suitable territorial provision in Italy should be assigned to the King of Sardinia. The First Consul had consented that Malta should be held either by Austria, Russia, or Prussia, the three Powers that had guaranteed its independence; but this proposition was not acceptable to the English Cabinet. The English ultimatum was refused; Lord Whitworth quitted Paris, May 12th, and General Andreossi, the French Ambassador, was at the same time dismissed from London.

On May 16th, an embargo was placed on all French and Dutch vessels in English harbors, and on the 18th appeared the English declaration of war. Bonaparte, at the same time, not only laid an embargo on English vessels, but also caused all English travellers in France, from the age of eighteen to sixty years, to be arrested on the pretext that they should serve as hostages for all Frenchmen that might be captured by the English on board French vessels navigating in ignorance of the rupture of the peace. In order to entrap them Bonaparte had caused to be inserted in the Argus newspaper of May 10th, a paragraph in which the English who should remain in France after the departure of their ambassador were assured of protection. By this tyrannical act some thousands of British subjects were, contrary to international law, detained at Verdun till the peace, separated from their families and friends, their homes and business. The English Government offered the Batavian Republic to respect its neutrality if the French troops were withdrawn from its territory. The Batavian Government solicited the First Consul to consent to this step; the only reply was an order for the arrest of all the English in Holland. This was executed, June 9th, and on the same day, Mr. Liston, the British Minister, left the Hague. Thus the Batavian Republic became a belligerent, with the certain prospect of the loss of its colonies. A French army of 7,000 men had entered Holland at the end of March. General Mortier took the command of it in May, entered the county of Bentheim, under the sovereignty of George III as elector of Brunswick, on the 26th of that month, and continued his march towards Osnabrück and the Hanoverian Electorate. This invasion was a manifest violation of the neutrality of the Empire, as well as of inter­national law; but the Empire, weakened by intestine divisions, dared not to take any notice of the insult. The Hanoverian Government entered into a convention, at Suhlingen, with General Mortier, June 3rd, by which the French troops were to occupy the Electorate; the Hanoverian troops were to retire beyond the Elbe, and not to bear arms against France or her allies during the present war. Hanover was treated as a conquered country; the French general was to make what alterations he pleased in its administration; the French army was to be maintained, clothed, and mounted at its expense, and all its revenues were to be at the disposal of the French Government. On June 14th, Mortier committed a second violation of Imperial rights, by causing, without the slightest pretext whatsoever, Cuxhaven and Ritzebütel to be occupied by his troops, places which belonged to the city of Hamburg. Talleyrand, in a note to Lord Hawkesbury, June 10th, announced that Hanover had been seized as a pledge for the evacuation of Malta; proposed to exchange the Hanoverian army against French prisoners, and stated that if the Convention of Suhlingen was not ratified Hanover would be treated with all the rigour of war. Lord Hawkesbury having replied that the King of Great Britain refused to identify himself in that capacity with the Elector of Hanover, and that he was resolved to appeal to the Empire, Mortier declared the Convention of Suhlingen null, and compelled Field-Marshal Walmoden, the Hanoverian commander, to sign a capitulation, July 5th, by which he agreed to sur­render all his arms, artillery, and horses, and to disband his troops. Mortier then took possession of the Duchy of Lüneburg; and thus the whole Electorate, with a popula­tion of a million souls, became the prey of the French. In vain the Hanoverian Minister appealed to the Empire for aid, not a voice replied; in fact, the Empire no longer existed except in name. Masters of the Elbe, the French refused to allow any English merchandise to pass. Eng­land replied by blockading the mouths of the Elbe and Weser, causing a total stagnation of the commerce of North Germany.

The Emperor of Russia now offered his mediation on the base that the French should evacuate Holland, Switzerland, and all Italy, except Piedmont, and that the King of Sardinia should receive a sufficient indemnification; he also offered to occupy Malta for a certain period. The First Consul declined these conditions, and from this moment a coldness sprang up between the Cabinets of Paris and St. Petersburg. The King of Prussia also failed in an attempt to procure the evacuation of Hanover by the French.

The rupture between France and Great Britain entitled Bonaparte to demand the aid of Spain, agreeably to the Treaty of Alliance of August 15th, 1796. But Spain had been alienated from the First Consul by the cession which she had been compelled to make of Trinidad, and by the sale of Louisiana to the United States of America. It will be remembered that at the peace of 1763, France had, by a secret treaty, ceded Louisiana to Spain; and that, after the battle of Marengo, Bonaparte had recovered that possession for France, by the secret treaty of San Ildefonso, as one of the considerations for making the infant Duke of Parma King of Etruria. But, though it does not appear in the treaty, Spain, in subsequent negotiations, made it a condition of the cession that she should have the preference in case France, in her turn, should be disposed to cede Louisiana. The French Government had not taken regular possession of it when the war with England broke out; and Bonaparte hastened to sell that Province to the Americans, who had already cast their eyes upon it, with the view both of preventing the English from ravishing it from him, and of procuring funds to carry on the war. By a convention with Mr. Munroe and Mr. Livingston, the American Ministers at Paris, Bonaparte disposed of Louisiana to the United States for the net sum of sixty million francs.

Piqued by these transactions, the Spanish Government attempted to elude their obligations towards France; while the First Consul, on his side, evinced a determination to enforce their discharge. An army of 30,000 men, under Augereau, was assembled in the neighborhood of Bayonne, and Spain also increased her forces in the Pyrenees. An understanding was, however, effected, and a convention signed at Paris, October 19th, 1803. Bonaparte preferred the Spaniards’ money to their vessels or their troops; it suited him that Spain should remain neutral, as he could then make use of her ports, and enjoy her commerce without risking the loss of her colonies, which might prove an obstacle in concluding a peace. By this convention Spain engaged to pay to France six million francs a month during the war, of which, however, two millions were to be retained on account of expenses in repairing and provisioning French ships in Spanish harbors, etc. France was to recognize the neutrality of Spain, and also of Portugal, that Power engaging to pay one million a month of the stipulated subsidy. The sums payable by Spain under this treaty are computed at more than double the amount of her engagements under that of San Ildefonso. Her refusal to communicate it to the Cabinet of London produced a war with Great Britain. The Regent of Portugal, after some resistance, was at length also compelled by the threats of Bonaparte to purchase his neutrality by the payment of twelve millions, or, according to some, sixteen millions a year (December 23rd, 1803).

Preparations for an in­vasion of England.

Among the first steps of Bonaparte after the breaking out of the war was the reoccupation of Naples. The troops which had been withdrawn had been kept on the frontiers of the Italian Republic and the Roman States, and towards the end of June they were again marched to the south under the command of General Gouvion St. Cyr. The feeble Government of Naples submitted to all the conditions exacted. But the First Consul's chief care seemed to be directed to an invasion of England. A great quantity of flat-boats was assembled in all the ports of the Channel and the North Sea; a numerous army, called, by anticipation, the “Army of England”, under Victor, Ney, Davoust, and Soult, was cantoned between the Texel and the mouth of the Seine, and was frequently visited by Bonaparte. In England a spirit of patriotism was aroused. By August 10th 300,000 volunteers are said to have enrolled themselves. All the male popula­tion of the kingdom, from seventeen years of age to fifty-five, were divided into classes to be successively armed and exercised. The militia consisted of 84,000 men; the troops of the line of 96,000; and there were besides 25,000 troops destined for service at sea. The English fleet numbered 469 ships of war, and the coasts were guarded by a flotilla of 800 vessels. Attempts were made to destroy the vessels in the French harbors, and Havre, Granville, Dieppe, and Boulogne were bombarded, but with little result. The colonial operations of the English were more successful. The French and Dutch colonies of St. Lucie, St. Pierre, and Miquelon, Tobago, Demerara, Essequibo, and Berbice were captured in a few months; General Rochambeau surrendered Cape Town in St. Domingo to Admiral Duckworth, November 30th, and all the French part of that island remained in the power of the negroes.

The year 1804 opened with a conspiracy for the overthrow Conspiracy of Bonaparte and the restoration of the Bourbons. The chief persons concerned in it in France were George Cadoudal, son of a miller in the Morbihan, and one of the most determined of the Chouans; General Pichegru, who had escaped from Guiana; General Moreau, and some members of the Polignac family. The plot was discovered. Moreau was apprehended, February 15th; Pichegru on the 28th; George Cadoudal on March 9th. Several other conspirators were also arrested. It is said that Bonaparte was to have been seized by about 1,200 Chouans, Vendeans, and other royalists, dressed in the uniform of the National Guard; Moreau was to have addressed the troops of the line, with whom he was very popular; the Duc d'Enghien, grandson of the Prince de Condé, was then to be summoned to Paris; and it was ex­pected that the Bourbons would be proclaimed without much resistance. For this plot George Cadoudal and eighteen of his accomplices were executed. Pichegru was found strangled in his prison. In his prosecution of this affair Bonaparte compelled the Electors of Bavaria, Hesse-Cassel, and Baden to dismiss the English Ministers from their Courts; caused Wagstaff, an English Cabinet-messenger, to be stopped near Lübeck and robbed of his dispatches, and Sir George Rumbold, the English Minister at Hamburg, who was also impli­cated, to be seized on neutral ground and brought to Paris, where he would certainly have been shot by a military commission had not the King of Prussia interceded in his behalf. Austria, which Power had greatly increased her forces in Tyrol and Swabia, was also suspected of being concerned in the plot. Napoleon, by threats of invasion, compelled the Emperor to reduce his armaments.

Murder of the Due d'Enghien, 1804.

The discovery of this conspiracy made the First Consul more popular, and served to strengthen his grasp of power. This popularity was, however, lost among all right-thinking people, and especially in foreign countries, by an atrocious crime which Bonaparte soon afterwards committed. The First Consul, not content with that dignity, had now resolved to seat himself on the throne of the Bourbons. He had even had the audacity to demand from Louis XVIII the cession in his favour of the rights of the House of Bourbon to the throne of France. The asserted complicity of the Due d'Enghien in the plot of Cadoudal, which appears to have had no foundation in truth, afforded him a pretext to get rid of one of the members of that House. The Duke was residing at Ettenheim, in the neutral territory of Baden, when Bonaparte, in violation of international law and the rights of the Empire, caused him to be seized on the night of March 15th, by a party of gens d'armes and to be carried to the Castle of Vincennes, where, after a sort of mock trial, he was shot in the fosse of the fortress, March 21st.

Numerous indications had gradually prepared the minds of men for the assumption of the crown by Napoleon. The Court of the Tuileries had put on all the aspect of royalty. Prefects of the Palace had been appointed to do its honors; when the First Consul drove out his carriage was attended by an escort of cavalry with drawn sabres. The press had been subjected to a rigid censorship, while the journal which was supposed to convey the ideas of Bonaparte advocated the restoration of the monarchical principle, and incessantly attacked the philosophers, whose writings had contributed to the Revolution. The clergy gained fresh credit and power; even the Jesuits had ventured to reappear, under the name of pères de la foi. George Cadoudal’s plot hastened Bonaparte’s last step towards absolutism. Men anxiously contemplated what would be the fate of France, if deprived of the firm hand which ruled it, and plunged again into anarchy. All who surrounded Bonaparte, his family, his friends, his ministers, urged him to establish his dynasty, and render it hereditary. At the instigation of Fouché, the servile Senate addressed the First Consul, and vaguely demanded institutions which should destroy the hopes of conspirators, by assuring the existence of the Government beyond the lifetime of its head. Bonaparte, with well-acted surprise, assured the deputation, with equal vagueness, that he would consider the subject in the course of the year.

The deliberation of the legislative bodies on this subject was little more than a solemn farce. Bonaparte had half a million bayonets at his back. It was given out that he would visit all the camps, from Brest to Hanover; the soldiers, no doubt, would salute him Emperor, and their choice would be confirmed by the acclamations of the people. It was the interest of the Legislature to anticipate what it could not oppose. There was, however, more opposition in the Council of State than was pleasing to Bonaparte. He had hoped for unanimity; but seven members out of twenty-seven boldly supported, for the last time, the principles of Republicanism. The Tribunate was more compliant. On May 3rd it voted, almost unanimously, an hereditary Empire. Carnot alone ventured to raise his voice against it. In a vigorous discourse he deplored the fall of the Republic, the ruin of liberty, and the reestablishment of monarchical institutions. Bonaparte had invited the Senate to declare their opinion. His message was immediately taken into consideration; and he was desired to assume the Empire with only four dissentient votes—those of Sieyès, Volney, Grégoire, and Lanjuinais. The Senatus-Consulte for regulating the new Empire, which had been drawn up by Bonaparte himself after several conferences with various members of the Legislature, was immediately passed, May 18th, 1804; and, on the same day, the Senate proceeded to St. Cloud, to present to the First Consul the Act which declared him Emperor.

Settlement of the French Empire.

By this Act the Imperial dignity was declared hereditary in Napoleon’s male issue, by order of primogeniture. He might adopt the sons or grandsons of his brothers, in case he had himself no male issue at the time of the adoption; but the right of adoption was forbidden to his successors and their descendants. In default of heirs of Napoleon the Imperial dignity was to devolve to his brother Joseph and his descendants; in their default on his brother Louis and his descendants. Napoleon had excluded his brothers Lucien and Jerome from the succession, in consequence of their having contracted marriages of which he disapproved; but he had promised to restore their rights if they would dismiss their wives. The Council of State was instituted as an integral part and superior authority of the Empire. The fifty tribunes were suffered to remain for the present, as well as the Legislative Body of 300 members, who no longer represented the opinions and will of the nation. The salaries of the senators and tribunes were considerably augmented. Several new Imperial dignities were created. The Consul Cambacérès was appointed Arch-Chancellor, the Consul Lebrun, Arch-Treasurer, Prince Joseph Bonaparte, Grand Elector, and Prince Louis, Constable. Eighteen of Napoleon’s most distinguished generals were made Marshals of the Empire, viz., Berthier, Murat, Moncey, Jourdan, Massena, Augereau, Bernadotte, Soult, Brune, Lannes, Mortier, Ney, Davoust, Bessieres,Kellermann, Lefebvre, Perignon, Serrurier. Nearly all these men had been born in a very humble rank. Moreau, the greatest of Bonaparte’s generals, as great perhaps as Bonaparte himself, though not so fortunate, but as timid a politician as he was a brave soldier, was now languishing in prison. The new Emperor of the French endeavored to persuade the judges to condemn Moreau to death, in order that he might have the glory of pardoning him; but the majority of them were too courageous to obey. Moreau was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. Napoleon, dreading a military insurrection in Moreau’s favour, offered him facilities of escape, of which he would not avail himself. Eventually a sort of composition was made with him, by which he consented to proceed, by way of Spain, to the United States.

The Emperor Napoleon I deemed two things still wanting to the confirmation of his new dignity—its ratification by the French people and its consecration by the Pope. As he had been already elected Consul for life, the question put to the people regarded not his elevation to the Imperial title, but whether the Crown should be hereditary in his family. To this question 3,521,675 voters out of 3,580,000 are said to have replied in the affirmative. Negotiations were entered into with Pope Pius VII to induce him to come to Paris and celebrate the coronation of the new Charlemagne. The Pontiff consented, in the hope of obtaining important advantages for the Romish Church; including the restitution, perhaps, of Bologna, Ferrara, and Ravenna. The ceremony took place at Notre Dame, December 2nd, 1804. But the Pope was allowed only to anoint Napoleon and his Empress, to bless their robes and insignia, to lead the Imperial couple to their throne, and to conclude the solemnity with a prayer. Although Cardinal Fesch had promised Pius that he should crown the Emperor, Napoleon with his own hand put the crown on his own head and on that of Josephine. The endeavors of Pius to recover the Legations proved also abortive.

With the exception of England, the only voice raised against the violence and aggressions of Napoleon came from the North. The Emperor Alexander alone ventured to remonstrate, as one of the guarantees of the Treaty of Lunéville, against the occupation of Hanover and Naples, and the closing of the Weser and the Elbe, as hurtful to the Hanseatic towns and German Principalities, of which he declared himself the protector. Napoleon replied by treating Markoff, the Russian Ambassador, with studied indignity. After the murder of the Duc d'Enghien, d'Oubril, the Russian chargé d'affaires at Paris (Markoff having been recalled) was instructed to express the Emperor’s surprise and grief at that event, and at the violation of the territory of Baden. The Russian Minister at Ratisbon also handed in to the Diet, May 6th, 1804, a note in which the Empire was called upon in the most forcible manner to remonstrate with the French Government against the violation of its territory by an act of unparalleled violence. On the 12th of the same month d'Oubril delivered to the French Government an official note to the same effect.

Talleyrand, in reply, denied the right of Russia to interfere, and accused the Cabinet of St. Petersburg of meditating a fresh Coalition, and the renewal of the war. The chargé d'affaires was reprimanded by his Court for accepting his note; and on July 12th he delivered the Russian ultimatum: that the French troops should evacuate the Kingdom of Naples; that the French Government should immediately establish, in concert with Russia, a basis for regulating the affairs of Italy; that it should engage to indemnify the King of Sardinia without delay; that it should at once withdraw its troops from the North of Germany, and engage strictly to respect the neutrality of the German Confederation. Talleyrand replied in a haughty note dictated to him by Napoleon from Boulogne, in which the Russian demands were evaded; and the Russian Minister, after answering with dignity and moderation, and recapitulating all the complaints of his Sovereign against France, quitted Paris with all the Legation. The Emperor Alexander manifested his indignation at the murder of the Duc d'Enghien by causing a monument to be erected to his memory in the principal church of St. Petersburg, with a Latin inscription purporting that “he had been cruelly murdered by the Corsican brute”.

Sweden alone joined Russia in these remonstrances and complaints. Gustavus IV was in the dominions of the Elector of Baden when the crime against d'Enghien was committed almost under his eyes. The Swedish minister at Paris presented a note against that violation of the German territory, May 14th. A violent attack upon the King of Sweden, published in the French official journal, the Moniteur, determined Gustavus to recall his Legation from Paris. The French chargé d'affaires at Stockholm was informed, in a note of September 7th, that all diplomatic intercourse must cease between the two countries. The German Sovereigns displayed their usual subservience to Napoleon. The King of Prussia was silent about the fate of d'Enghien and the violation of the German territory till May, 1806. He had hastened to recognize Napoleon as Emperor of the French; whereupon Louis XVIII retired from Warsaw to the Russian town of Grodno. Here he employed himself in drawing up a protest against Napoleon’s usurpation; but Alexander would not suffer such an act in his dominions, and the French King, or, as he was now called, “the Pretender”, embarked for Sweden, and published his protest at Calmar. The Emperor Francis II had winked at the murder of the Duke of Enghien. The Austrian ambassador at Paris, Count Philip Cobenzl, had declared in the presence of the First Consul that there were circumstances which obliged a government to take measures for its safety which other governments should abstain from judging. In fact, Austria herself had some­times resorted to such “measures”. When the Emperor Alexander brought the subject before the Diet Austria joined Prussia in obtaining its suppression.

Francis II did not recognize Napoleon’s new title without some stipulations in favour of himself. As his own dignity of Roman Emperor was elective, it might one day happen, through Protestant and foreign influence, that the House of Austria might be deprived of it, when the reigning Prince, being only Archduke of Austria and King of Bohemia and Hungary, would find himself inferior in rank to the Emperors of France and Russia. It was therefore decided by the Cabinet of Vienna that Francis should immediately assume the title of hereditary Emperor of Austria; and negotiations were entered into with Napoleon for the reciprocal acknowledgment of the new titles. Napoleon insisted upon being first recognized; and when that had been done Francis proclaimed himself hereditary Emperor of Austria, August 11th, 1804.

England and Spain.

The breach of Russia and Sweden with France offered the elements of a new coalition, which Pitt, who had returned to power in May, 1804, on the resignation of Addington, made it a principal object of his policy to establish. But before that could be effected another enemy had entered the lists against England. The Treaty of San Ildefonso, between France and Spain, confirmed, though modified, by that of October 19th, 1803, being offensive, or, as the publicists call it, a partnership of war, would justify Great Britain in treating Spain as an enemy. But there remained the question of policy. Negotiations were entered into with the Cabinet of Madrid, with the view of inducing it to remain neutral. But, meanwhile, it was discovered in September, 1804, that large naval expeditions, consisting of French vessels, were pre­paring in the ports of Ferrol, Cadiz, and Carthagena; and as Spain was not at war with any other country the only inference could be that they were destined against England. Orders were consequently given for a strict blockade of Ferrol, and British commanders were enjoined to stop and bring into port all Spanish vessels laden with warlike stores.

In consequence of the orders issued by the English Government, Captain Moore, with a squadron of four English frigates, captured, October 5th, near Cape St. Mary’s, three Spanish frigates from La Plata, having on board about £240,000 sterling in money, and many valuable effects. Another frigate blew up, and sunk with all her crew. The English Government declared this treasure sequestrated, by way of securing English merchants having credits in Spain. In spite of this affair attempts were made to preserve neutrality with Spain; but as the Cabinet of Madrid would not explain the nature of its engagements with France, and of the preparations in its ports, Mr. Frere, the English Minister, quitted Madrid, November 7th. Orders were given to com­mence hostilities against Great Britain towards the end of that month: a Spanish manifesto appeared December 12th, and was answered by Great Britain, January 25th, 1805.

The warlike operations of the year 1804, which were only maritime, were not of much importance. In Europe they were confined to Napoleon’s preparations for invading England, and the attempts of the English to frustrate them. The French and Dutch coasts were observed by Lord Cornwallis and Sir Sidney Smith, while Nelson blockaded Toulon and Genoa and observed the other ports of the Mediterranean. The French flotilla having been collected in large numbers in Boulogne harbor, an attempt was made early in October, under the conduct of Lord Keith, to destroy it by means of fire-ships, and by machines called catamarans, consisting of copper vessels filled with combustibles, which were to be stealthily affixed in the darkness of night to the bottoms of the enemy’s vessels, and exploded by means of clock-work. But this scheme utterly failed. In the West Indies, the important Dutch colony of Surinam was reduced by Commodore Hood and General Green, April 29th. In the East, Admiral Linois, with a small French squadron, infested English commerce from his station in the Isle of France.

Meanwhile Napoleon was sensible that Pitt was preparing against him another coalition, although as yet he had no positive proof of the concert between the Cabinets of London, Vienna, and St. Petersburg. By way of counterpoise he endeavored to effect an intimate alliance with the King of Prussia; and he tempted Frederick William III, but without success, by offering to support him in extending his dominions and assuming the title of Emperor. The substitution of Hardenberg for Haugwitz at this time in the Cabinet of Berlin, effected through the influence of the Queen, was adverse to Napoleon’s policy. The King of Prussia was also courted at this juncture by the Emperor Alexander. We have already alluded to the friendship which had sprung up between those two Monarchs, and the occupation of Hanover by the French had served to draw it closer. Frederick William, alarmed by that step, and by the arming of the Swedes, which threatened to render North Germany the theatre of war, entered into a secret convention with the Emperor Alexander, May 24th, 1804, which stipulated that if the number of the French troops in the Hanoverian Electorate should be increased beyond 30,000, or if any other German State should be invaded, they should unite their arms against France, and the Emperor, in this case, put all the forces of his Empire at the disposal of Prussia. But Frederick William III was desirous of preserving both the peace of Europe and his own neutrality; and in order to heal the misunderstanding which had grown up between France and Russia he offered his mediation. He proposed a plan which, though accepted with some reservation by Napoleon, was at once rejected by Alexander. The latter Sovereign demanded the entire fulfillment by France of the Convention of October 11th, 1801, and especially with regard to the affairs of Italy. His insisting on a point which, while it did not much concern himself, was of vital importance to Austria, confirmed Napo­leon in his suspicions of a secret understanding between Austria and Russia. Francis had, in fact, concluded with Alexander a secret convention, November 6th, 1804, which was to have the same effect for the south of Europe as the convention with Prussia for the north. If France committed new usurpations in Italy, extended her occupation in Naples beyond the Gulf of Taranto, effected further annexations in Italy, or threatened Egypt or any part of the Turkish Empire, Austria was to resist with an army of 150,000 men. For this service, if the allied arms were successful, Austria was to have the district as far as the Adda and the Po; the Dukes of Tuscany and Modena were to be restored to their do­minions, and Salzburg and the Breisgau, thus vacated, were to revert to the Emperor. The House of Savoy was to be re­established in Piedmont, Genoa, and the Milanese.

Although Napoleon had no certain knowledge of this treaty, observation had convinced him that the Continental peace could not much longer be preserved. Under this apprehension he had addressed a letter to “his brother”, King George III, January 2nd, 1805, conceived in much the same style as a former one; in which he invoked a peace in the name of “humanity and reason”. Lord Mulgrave, now Foreign Secretary, in his answer of January 14th, addressed to Talleyrand, observed that nothing could be done except in concert with the Continental Powers, and particularly Russia. The speech of George III on opening Parliament the following day, was couched in terms which showed little hope of a pacification. But if any doubt existed, it must have been removed a few days after (February 18th) by Pitt’s motion for a grant of five millions for Continental purposes.

The English Ministry, in fact, doubted not of their ability to establish a formidable coalition against France. A treaty was first concluded with Gustavus IV of Sweden, December 3rd, 1804, by which Great Britain engaged to pay that Sovereign £80,000 for the defence of Stralsund, Gustavus permitting that place, or the Isle of Rügen, to be a depôt for a Hanoverian corps which the King of Great Britain proposed to form : also that Stralsund should be an entrepôt for British merchandise and manufactures. The French Government having obtained knowledge of this treaty, employed the King of Prussia to threaten Sweden; whereupon Gustavus appealed to the Emperor of Russia, with whom he had concluded an intimate alliance, January 14, 1805, with the ex­pressed view “of maintaining the balance between the Powers of Europe, and guaranteeing the independence of Germany”. At the instance of Alexander, Frederick William III desisted from his threats against Sweden; but a coldness sprang up; the Prussian Minister quitted Stockholm, May 29th, 1805, and all communication between the two Powers entirely ceased.

But the true foundation of the Third Coalition was laid in a communication from the British Government to M. Novosiltzof, the Russian Ambassador at London, January 19th, 1805. The genius of Pitt had planned a scheme of warfare on a scale worthy of England, of the adversary with whom she had to cope, and of the vast European interests at stake. The objects of this gigantic project were—1. To wrest from the domination of France the countries which she had subjugated since the commencement of the Revolution, and to reduce her within her previous limits; 2. To make such arrangements with regard to these countries as might insure their peace and welfare, and at the same time render them barriers against the future aggressions of France; 3. To conclude, after the restoration of peace, a convention and guarantee for the mutual surety of the different Powers, and to establish in Europe a general system of public law. The English Cabinet felt that it was impossible to carry out these views, as a whole, without the cooperation of Austria and Prussia. Of the aid of the latter Power little hope was entertained; and the want of it, as Pitt had apprehended, caused the failure of the Coalition. In fact, had a Prussian army operated on the left wing of the French in the campaign of 1805, it would in all probability have been impossible for Napoleon to advance into the Austrian dominions. Both Prussia and Austria were to be induced to join the league by holding out to them the hope, in case of success, of some material rewards for their cooperation. Prussia was to have the territories wrested from France on the left bank of the Rhine, while Austria was to be rewarded with an extension of her dominions in Italy, and by the reestablishment of the Grand Duke of Tuscany and the Duke of Modena in that country; when the districts which had been assigned to those Princes in Germany, by way of compensation, would revert to Austria.

The Emperor Alexander entered heartily and readily into the English scheme, and on April 11,1805, a treaty of alliance was concluded at St. Petersburg. The general object of the contracting Powers in this treaty of concert was stated to be, to form a general league of the European States, so that a force of 500,000 effective men should be collected, independently of those furnished by the King of Great Britain. The more specific ends to be obtained were: the evacuation by the French of Hanover and North Germany; the establishment of the independence of Holland and Switzerland; the restoration of the King of Sardinia in Piedmont, with as large a territory as circumstances might permit; the evacua­tion of Italy, and the future safety of the Kingdom of Naples; the establishment of such an order of things in Europe as might effectually guarantee the safety and independence of the different States, and present a solid barrier against further usurpations. Great Britain engaged to contribute to the common efforts with her land and sea forces, by providing transports, and by paying subsidies at the rate of £1,250,000 sterling for every 100,000 regular troops furnished. For this purpose Pitt had demanded five millions from Parliament, afterwards, on the refusal of Prussia to join the league, reduced to three-and-a-half millions. No peace was to be made without the consent of all the parties to the league. The most remarkable conditions of the articles are: that active operations should commence when a force of 400,000 men was assembled; of which 250,000 were to be furnished by Austria, 115,000 by Russia, besides levies in Albania, etc.; and the rest were to be composed of Hanoverians, Neapolitans, Sardinians, etc. Certain general principles of justice and international law were to be recognized in the mode of proceeding. Thus neither France nor other countries were to be coerced with regard to their internal government; no con­quests were to be appropriated before the peace; at the conclusion of the war a general Congress was to be assembled to fix with more precision the principles of the Law of Nations, and to insure their observation by a federative system formed with reference to the situation of the different European States.

The principles laid down by Pitt in these negotiations with Russia were, after ten more years of war, ultimately carried out in their main outlines in 1814; and the shade of the great English Minister may be said to have presided over the deliberations of Vienna. Austria did not deem it politic at once to join the league. There could, however, be no doubt of her ultimate cooperation, and she was consulted respecting the plan of the campaign. The King of Prussia resisted alike the enticements and the menaces of Russia. His situation at this time offered the greatest opportunities, though accompanied, no doubt, with dangers. Courted by both sides, he might probably have aggrandized himself by joining either, or if he preferred the dictates of equity to those of ambition, he might, as an armed mediator, have compelled a peace. But Frederick William III inherited no portion of the spirit of the great Frederick. He followed none of these courses. He thought only of securing his neutrality, and adopted the apparently safe, but, as it proved, fatal policy of doing nothing.

Napoleon King of Italy, 1805.

While the storm was thus gathering over Napoleon’s head he was ardently pursuing his ambitious schemes. On March 15th, 1805, a deputation of the Italian Republic, which he had summoned from Milan, offered to him the crown of Italy. On March 18th he declared to the French Senate that he had accepted the Lombard crown. He set off for Milan early in May, and was received in that city “with incredible transports of joy and enthusiasm”. On May 26th he crowned himself with the iron crown of the old Lombard Kings; pronouncing at the same time the accustomed words, to which the circumstances of the time gave an additionally solemn and formidable character:  “God gave it to me; woe to him who touches it”.

Napoleon ruled Italy with a rod of iron. Making no allowance for habits and customs, he enforced in Lombardy the same regulations which he had made for France; nay, he even caused the Code Napoleon to be literally translated into Italian, and ordered it to be adopted and executed; a thing utterly impossible, as many of its provisions referred to customs which existed not in Italy. Napoleon alone convoked and adjourned the Legislative Assembly, ordered all public works, appointed to all civil and military employments. A small State of four million souls, which had been less taxed than any other in Europe, was compelled to pay him near seventy-seven million francs, besides twenty-five millions for the support of a French army in Italy; to which, also, it was compelled to furnish conscripts. These oppressions naturally engendered a spirit of revolt. The little town of Crespino having betrayed some Austrian tendencies, Napoleon placed it under martial law, doubled its contributions, and increased the rigour of its penal code. Before Napoleon left Milan, Genoa and the Ligurian Republic were incorporated with France, June 3rd, 1805. This was the fourth Republic which, contrary to the Treaty of Lunéville, he kept under his domination or subjected to his crown. The Duchies of Parma and Piacenza, which, together with Guastalla, had been already seized, were declared dependencies of the French Empire by an Imperial decree of July 21st The Principality of Piombino was bestowed on Napoleon’s sister Eliza, wife of the Senator Bacciocchi, but on conditions which retained it under the Emperor’s suzerainty: and the little State was increased by the addition of the Republic of Lucca.

Napoleon, the better to conceal his designs upon England, had remained at Milan till late in the summer; when, thinking the time come that Villeneuve might join him with the French fleet to cover the invasion, he quitted Milan secretly, and traversing the Alps and France with the greatest celerity, suddenly appeared in the camp at Boulogne on the night of August 2nd. The army of invasion numbered 167,000 well-disciplined troops. But Napoleon found it not so easy to direct the operations of a fleet as the manoeuvres of an army. Villeneuve, escaping from the blockade of Toulon, and accom­panied by the Spanish Admiral Gravina from Cadiz, had proceeded in April to the West Indies in order to deceive Nelson and the other English Admirals as to his real inten­tions. But on his return to Europe he was encountered off Cape Finisterre by the English fleet under Sir Robert Calder. An action ensued, July 22nd, in which the English captured two Spanish line-of-battle ships. On the following day the hostile fleets were still in sight, but neither seemed disposed to renew the combat, although the French Admiral bore up several times in order of battle; after which he proceeded to Ferrol. In spite of the imperative instructions of Napoleon to proceed immediately to the English Channel, Villeneuve consumed eleven days in revictualling at Ferrol. He at length came out, August 13th; but the English fleet being reported, retreated to Cadiz with thirty-three sail of the line; where he was blockaded by Sir R. Calder, now joined by Collingwood, with twenty-five. Thus vanished all Napoleon's hopes of commanding the Channel. Meanwhile the hostile intentions of Austria had become apparent, and Napoleon was compelled to abandon his scheme of invading England, to turn against another enemy. Francis I, who had long been increasing his forces in Italy and Germany, formally acceded, August 9th, 1805, to the Anglo-Russian treaty of April 11th, and thus completed the formation of the Third Coalition. After some negotiation the English Cabinet had agreed to pay Austria a subsidy of three millions for the year 1805, and four millions for every subsequent year that the war might last. On August 28th appeared an ordinance putting the Austrian army on a war footing. Nevertheless Francis, who offered his mediation with England and Russia, still continued in September to assure the French Government of his pacific intentions. The Austrian Cabinet wanted to gain time to complete their preparations; but their notes soon assumed a tone which Napoleon could only regard as a declaration of war.

The influence of sea power upon the French revolution and empire, 1793-1812 (Vol.1)

The influence of sea power upon the French revolution and empire, 1793-1812 (Vol.2)

CHAPTER LXIII.

AUSTERLITZ AND JENA