CHAPTER LXIV.

TILSIT AND THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM

 

 

WHILST Napoleon was at Posen he concluded a peace with Frederick Augustus, Elector of Saxony, who had only by compulsion taken up arms against the French. By this treaty, signed December 11th, 1806, the Elector was created King of Saxony, and agreed to enter into the Confederation of the Rhine.

The French were now to encounter a new enemy. The Russian army 0f about 73,000 foot and 16,000 horse, under the command-in-chief of Field-marshal Kamenskoï, had entered Prussian Poland about the middle of November. Several affairs occurred between the French and Russians before the end of the year, and especially a double battle at Pultusk and Grolymin, December 26th. Both sides claimed the victory, which seems, however, really to have been in favor of the French. At all events Kamenskoï now resigned the command, and Benningsen, who succeeded him, found it necessary to retire upon his reserves at Lomza. These affairs, however, in which the French suffered very severely, were attended by no important results, although Napoleon, in his mendacious bulletins, claimed the most decisive advantages. Both armies then went into winter quarters for a few weeks; but operations were resumed before the end of January, 1807. Bennigsen advanced with the view of raising the blockade of the Prussian fortresses on the Lower Vistula; a movement which produced a series of indecisive combats. The most important of these was the battle of Eylau.

 

The real state of the case may be best inferred from Napoleon’s acts. After the battle of Eylau he sent General Bertrand to Benningsen with pacific overtures; but the Russian general replied, “that his master had not sent him to negotiate, but to fight”. Bertrand then repaired to the King of Prussia, at Memel, with a letter from Napoleon proposing a separate peace; but received an evasive answer. Active operations in the field were not resumed till towards the end of May, though the sieges of the Prussian fortresses went on. In this interval the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia concluded the Convention of Bartenstein, April 26th, 1807, which was in fact, when it was now too late, the revival of Pitt’s plan in 1805 for a general European coalition against France. This Convention shows to what an extent the battle of Eylau had revived the hopes of Alexander and Frederick William. Great Britain acceded to the Convention, and in June Canning, then Foreign Secretary, signed a treaty with Prussia, granting a subsidy of a million sterling; but the Peace of Tilsit, which ensued soon after, prevented this treaty from taking effect. On April 29th, Napoleon made another attempt at negotiation with the King of Prussia, but without success.

Dantzic capitulated, May 24th, to Marshal Lefebvre, who was rewarded with the title of Duke of Dantzic. The surrender of this place having liberated 30,000 French troops, and Napoleon having also obtained large reinforcements from other quarters, offensive operations were resumed; and in the first half of June, several actions, of more or less importance, occurred between the French and Russian armies. On the 14th was fought the battle of Friedland, a town on the Alle. Bennigsen had repulsed Lannes and Mortier, and towards midday his army was disbanding, when, in the afternoon, Napoleon in person, with his guards, and the corps of Ney and Victor, came up, and inflicted an immense loss on the unprepared Russians. The result of this battle was the occupation, by Soult, of Konigsberg, the capital of Prussia, June 16th. After the battle of Friedland, Lestocq had marched out with the garrison, and joined the combined Russian and Prussian army, which crossed the Niemen at Tilsit on the night of June 18th. Napoleon entered Tilsit on the following day.

The Russians now made proposals for a suspension of arms, to which Napoleon consented, June 21st, on condition that it should be employed in negotiating a peace. The King of Prussia had thus no alternative but to submit to the conditions of the conqueror, and, on the 25th, another armistice was signed between the Prussians and French. The fortresses of Colberg, Graudenz, and Pillau, and a few in Silesia, had not yet been reduced, and it was agreed that matters should remain as they were till the peace.

On the 25th of June took place the celebrated interview between Alexander and Napoleon, on a raft, moored in the middle of the Niemen. The reconciliation of the two Emperors is said to have been founded on mutual hatred of England. Alexander conceived that he had some just causes of complaint against the English Government. The Whig Ministry, which held office during the struggle between France and the two Northern Powers, had refused, and in no very civil terms, Alexander’s application to them, to guarantee a Russian loan of six millions sterling, or to make a diversion, by landing troops in the North of Europe, in Holland, or on the coasts of France. But, at all events, Alexander’s hatred of England was not very profound or lasting; for, notwithstanding the Peace of Tilsit, and the invectives which, to please Napoleon, he uttered against the English, one of his officers proceeded to London to reassure the Cabinet of St. James’s, and testify his admiration. The Whigs, indeed, had then gone out of office, and Canning had replaced Lord Howick (afterwards Earl Grey) in the Foreign Office.

Peace of Tilsit, 1807

A second interview between the two Emperors took place on the Niemen, June 26th, at which the King of Prussia was also present. Negotiations for a peace were now begun; Tilsit was declared neutral, and that obscure little town was enlivened by the presence of three Sovereigns. The Queen of Prussia had also come thither, hoping, perhaps, to mollify the victor by her beauty. But, at the same time, she forgot not her dignity, which seems to have offended the conqueror. Alexander and Napoleon lived together a fortnight in the closest intimacy, settling between them the partition of the world. The arrangements for peace, thus discussed between the principals, instead of their diplomatic agents, though these were also present, were soon brought to a termination. The Peace of Tilsit, between France and Russia, was concluded July 7th, and ratified on the 9th. Napoleon accepted the mediation of Alexander for a peace with England; the Emperor of Russia recognized Joseph Bonaparte as King of Naples, Louis Bonaparte as King of Holland, the Confederation of the Rhine, and the states and titles of the different Sovereigns composing it; also, the new Kingdom of Westphalia, to be erected in favour of Jerome Bonaparte. As a war was then raging between Russia and Turkey, Alexander consented to accept the mediation of France between the two Empires, and to withdraw his troops from Moldavia and Wallachia, which they had occupied.

The treaty also regulated the affairs of Prussia (Art. 4-9). Talleyrand at first proposed that Prussia should be blotted out from the European system, and it appears to have been only at the intercession of the Russian Emperor that Frede­rick William III was allowed to preserve his crown. He was, however, deprived of nearly half his Kingdom. He was compelled to renounce all his possessions between the Elbe and the Rhine; to cede the Circle of Cottbus in Lusatia to the King of Saxony; and to abandon all his Polish posses­sions, including Dantzic, with the exception of Warmia, or Ermeland, and a part of the district of Netze. All the rest of Prussian Poland, with the title of Grand Duchy of Warsaw, was to be transferred to the King of Saxony. To connect his possessions, the King of Saxony was to have a military road through the Prussian territories; a stipulation evidently made in the interests of France. Thus a new Sovereign and a constitution, drawn up in a few hours by Talleyrand, agreeably to the interests of Napoleon and the Emperor of Russia, were all that the Poles obtained by their rebellion. The new Duchy was, however, designed as a standing menace against Russia; as a centre whence, in case of need, rebellion might be spread into the other provinces of Poland. Dantzic, with a territory of ten leagues in circum­ference, was to be restored to its ancient independence, under the protection of Prussia and Saxony. The province in East Prussia, called the department of Bialystok, was made over to Russia. The treaty between Prussia and France, signed July 9th, was little more than a repetition and ratification of the conditions in the Russian treaty. Frederick William recognized the Kingdom of Westphalia, formed out of the provinces ceded by himself, and those of other States, as Hesse-Cassel, the Duchy of Brunswick, etc., which were in the possession of Napoleon. All the Prussian ports were to be shut against the English. No English vessel was to be admitted into them, no Prussian vessel was to sail for England.

Frederick William III, in a proclamation dated at Memel, July 24th, took a farewell of the subjects of whom he had been deprived, with the exception of the Poles who had risen against him. The sacrifices imposed upon him were severe, the humiliation deep but far from undeserved. Prussia had prepared her own ruin by the shortsighted policy which she had pursued during the last two years. Nevertheless, Napoleon’s treatment of Prussia was a great political mistake. He should either by his generosity have made her a firm friend, or have deprived her of the power of ever avenging her humiliation.

The burdens imposed upon Prussia were not confined to those named in the treaty. The French generals and administrators compelled Frederick William to pay 140,000,000 francs; to deliver up, by way of securing the payment, the fortresses of Glogau, Cüstrin, and Stettin, and to support in them, at his own expense, a French corps of 10,000 men. He was also obliged to undertake that, during the next ten years, he would not keep on foot more than 42,000 regular troops. To the treaties were annexed certain separate and secret articles of great importance, stipulating that the Bocca di Cattaro should be transferred to the French troops; that the Ionian Isles should be possessed by Napoleon; that Alexander should recognize Joseph Bonaparte as King of the Two Sicilies—he had already recognized him as King of Naples—so soon as the Neapolitan Bourbons should be com­pensated with the Balearic Isles or the Island of Candia. Prussia engaged to make common cause with France, if England should not, by December 1st, 1807, consent to an honorable peace and one conformable to the true principles of maritime law.

A secret treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, was also concluded between France and Russia. Those Powers agreed in all circumstances to employ their arms together. The alliance was to be particularly applicable to Great Britain and Turkey; but, first of all, Russia was to mediate with the former Power, France with the latter. If England refused Russian mediation, or if, having accepted it, she did not, by November 1st, consent to conclude a peace, recognizing the perfect independence of all flags, and restoring to France and her allies the conquests she had made since 1805, then Russia was to notify to the English Government that she would make common cause with France. If the English Cabinet did not give a satisfactory answer by December 1st, then France and Russia were to summon the Courts of Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Lisbon to shut their ports against the English, and declare war against them. Austria was to be urged to adopt the same resolution. If England accepted the conditions offered, then Hanover was to be restored in compensation for the French, Dutch, and Spanish colonies. In like manner, if the Porte refused to listen to French mediation, then France was to make common cause with Russia.

The following arrangements were also made between Alex­ander and Napoleon: in case Sweden and Portugal should refuse to comply with that article of the treaty of alliance calling upon them to shut their ports against England, then Russia was to take Finland in compensation for the war she would have to wage against Sweden; whilst Napoleon would come to an understanding with Spain about Portugal, and would send a French army to Lisbon. If the two Powers should make war upon Turkey in consequence of her refusal of French mediation, then Russia was to have Moldavia, Wallachia, and Bulgaria as far as the left bank of the Maritza; but in no case would Russia be allowed to possess Constantinople. Bosnia and Serbia were to be assigned to Austria; while France was to take Albania, Epirus, the Peloponnesus, Attica, and Thessaly, or the maritime pro­vinces. An expedition against the English possessions in India was also discussed; but on this subject no decisive stipulations were made.

Domination of Napoleon.

By the events just related, Napoleon appeared to have established an absolute domination over the Continent. Russia, the only Power at all capable of counterbalancing his designs, had agreed to participate in them. Prussia was reduced to the condition of a second-rate Power, and Austria had also been weakened and discouraged. The greater part of Germany was subjected to France by means of the Con­federation of the Rhine and the Kingdom of Westphalia. French Princes ruled in Italy and Holland. The other Con­tinental States were incapable of any effective resistance. England alone still proudly raised her head among the subjugated nations, holding out to them the hope of eventual deliverance, and bidding defiance to all the power of the tyrant. Whilst he was enjoying his triumphs, an order of the British Government had declared all the ports of the French Empire blockaded, from Brest to the Elbe (May 16th, 1806). It was evident that either he or England must perish. With this conviction, Napoleon resorted to what has been called the Continental System; which, as England was mistress of the seas, was, in fact, nothing less than a prohibition of all commerce, and a struggle with nature herself, in which he could not but eventually succumb. It was to carry out this system that, in spite of the protests of his Senate, and the public voice of France, which called for peace, he refused to set bounds to his conquests, and proceeded to occupy with his armies the coasts of the Baltic and the North Sea.

Napoleon’s first step towards the Continental System was the celebrated Berlin Decree, of November 21st, 1806. By this Decree the British Isles were declared in a state of blockade; all commerce and correspondence with them were forbidden; all letters addressed to Englishmen, or written in English, were to be seized; every British subject, of what­ever state or condition, who should be found in countries occupied by the French troops, was to be made a prisoner of war; all merchandize coming from England, or her colonies, or belonging to an Englishman, was to be confiscated, and all trading in such merchandize was prohibited; no vessels coming directly from England, or the English colonies, or which had visited them after the publication of this Decree, were to be received in any port.

Such were the main features of this extraordinary manifesto, which was nothing less than the proscription of England from the pale of European society, so far, at least, as the power of Napoleon should extend. It was followed up during the remainder of his reign by other decrees of a like kind. Thus a Decree, dated Warsaw, January 25th, 1807, ordered the confiscation of all English or colonial mer­chandise seized in the Hanse Towns. The Decree of Fontainebleau, of October 19th, 1810, carried the system to its highest pitch. It ordained that all English manufactures that should now, or in future, be found in France, in Holland, in the Grand Duchy of Berg, in the Hanse Towns, and generally, in Germany, from the Main to the Sea, in the Kingdom of Italy, in the Illyrian Provinces, in the Kingdom of Naples, in the Spanish provinces occupied by the French troops, or in any towns within their reach, should be publicly burnt. The Princes of the Rhenish Confederation hastened, with a base subserviency, to execute this commercial auto-da-fé, at the expense of their own merchants; and, as Frank­furt manifested some reluctance, French troops were sent thither to carry out the will of the despot.

Milan Decree, 1807

France justified these measures as just reprisals against the English maritime system, and especially the paper blockade before mentioned, of May 16th, 1806. That order had been issued during the ministry of Fox, on the occasion of the occupation of Hanover by Prussia. Negotiations were then going on between England and France; the latter Power did not complain of it at the time, and, as we have seen, the blockade was partly revoked in September. Great Britain retaliated for Bonaparte’s measures by an order in Council of November 11th, 1807, which declared all the ports of France, and of countries in alliance with her, as well as all ports and places in Europe whence the British flag was excluded, as well as all ports and places in colonies belonging to her enemies, to be subject to the same restrictions as if they were actually blockaded. Vessels bound for such ports were to be visited by the English cruisers at an appointed station in Great Britain, and were to be subject to a tax, to be regulated by the British Legislature. It was in consequence of this order that Napoleon published his Milan Decree, December 17th, 1807; by which every vessel submitting to the English regulations was declared denationalized, and lawful prize. All vessels, of whatsoever nation, coming from, or going to, ports in England, or the English colonies, or countries occupied by English troops, were to be liable to capture. Napoleon, however, after some vain attempts to substitute indigenous products for those of the colonies, and, at the same time, with the view of raising a revenue, some­what modified his system. By the Decree of Trianon, August 5th, 1810, completed by that of September 12th, colonial productions, such as tea, sugar, cotton, coffee, etc., instead of being prohibited, were subjected to an ad valorem duty of fifty per cent. He also adopted the method of licenses, by which speculators were permitted to import a certain quantity of colonial goods, on condition of exporting their value in certain fixed sorts of French manufactures. These licenses he afterwards sold.

Such were the main features of the Continental System. The design of it, which was the ruin of England, of course totally failed. English commerce found outlets in other quarters of the globe, and also still to a considerable extent in Europe. The system was, in reality, a blockade, not of England, but of the Continental States. Russia, which had so readily accepted the plans of Napoleon, found the value of the rouble sink rapidly from three francs to one, and was one of the first nations to rise against the System.

The Peace of Tilsit was immediately followed by a rupture between England and Denmark. The Danes had hitherto succeeded in maintaining their neutrality; but now the tide of war had rolled up to their very frontiers, and it was evident that a neutral policy would not much longer be possible. Compelled to choose between France and Eng­land, it was evident from her antecedent policy that Denmark would decide for France. Napoleon had three motives for desiring possession of Denmark: it would enable him to close her ports against the English, to attack Sweden by an invasion from Zealand, to seize the Danish fleet and employ it against England. There could not be a reasonable doubt that the policy pursued by the First Consul and the Emperor Paul I in 1801 would be renewed—that Denmark and Sweden would be called upon to declare war against England, and to shut the Sound against her. But the Cabinet of St. James’s had good grounds for something more than mere suspicion. A French bulletin, published after the battle of Friedland, had announced that the Continental blockade would very soon become effectual. When the Berlin Decree was communicated to the Danish Court, it was requested to withdraw its troops from Holstein, and to shut its ports against English and Swedish commerce. Besides these overt indications, the English Government had got possession of the Secret Treaties of Tilsit, which recorded the designs against Den­mark and the Danish fleet. These designs they resolved to anticipate. No time was to be lost. Holstein was already menaced by the French; the winter was approaching, when any expedition to the Baltic would become impossible. Fortunately an armament was in readiness which had been prepared for the assistance of the Swedes and Prussians, and which was instantly diverted to meet the emergency. Part of it, under Lord Cathcart, had already arrived at the Isle of Rügen; and an additional force of 25 sail of the line, 9 frigates, a number of smaller vessels of war, and 377 transports, having on board 27,000 troops, was dispatched to Copenhagen, July 27th. These were to be joined by the force at Rügen, when Lord Cathcart was to take the command in chief. Under him served Sir Arthur Wellesley, afterwards Lord Wellington. The fleet was commanded by Admiral Gambier and Commodore Keats. At the same time Sir F. Jackson was dispatched to Copenhagen to propose to the Danish Government that their fleet should be carried to England and kept there till the peace, when it was to be restored in the same condition in which it had been found. To the Crown Prince, who ruled during the incompetence of his father, Christian VII, were offered an alliance with Great Britain, a guarantee of all the Danish possessions, and even an augmentation of territory; in a word, the fleet, the armies, and the treasure of Great Britain were placed at his disposal to protect him against present danger and shelter him from future injury. But the Crown Prince peremptorily refused to listen to these proposals. The British troops were in consequence landed; Copenhagen was twice summoned to surrender, and General Peymann, the commandant, having refused to comply, a bombardment by sea and land was commenced, September 2nd, with such terrible effect that on the 5th the town capitulated. It was stipulated that the Danish fleet and naval stores should be surrendered; in consequence of which condition eighteen ships of the line, fifteen frigates, six brigs, with a number of sloops and gun-goats, were carried to England: also upwards of 2,000 guns and an immense quantity of naval stores, a considerable part of which is said to have belonged to the French Government.

This high-handed act can be justified only by necessity. The violation of the independence of a peaceful nation was calculated to produce a sympathy for it; and it is not surprising that the proceeding of the English Ministry, though far outdone by many of Bonaparte’s acts, should have been loudly denounced, not only on the Continent but also by many persons in England. But whoever shall calmly weigh the exigencies of the moment, the position of England in that portentous struggle, the importance of the Danish fleet, not only from its intrinsic force but also from its position at the entrance of the Baltic, the moral certainty that it would be seized and used against us, the fact that the French were already threatening the Danish frontier, the knowledge that Russia would be a voluntary, Sweden a forced enemy of England, and that the fleet of Portugal was also to be seized and employed like that of Denmark, will perhaps admit that the prompt and vigorous act of the British Government was both justified by the circumstances and of the greatest utility to the country. Of this nothing can be a stronger proof than the fury of Napoleon on learning that he had been anticipated.

The Danish Government having rejected all proposals of accommodation, England declared war against Denmark, November 4th, 1807. The capitulation of Copenhagen was, however, faithfully observed, and the English troops evacuated that city and the Island of Zealand towards the end of October. The war between Denmark and England lasted till the Peace of Kiel, January 14th, 1814. The Danes immediately lost their colonies of St. Thomas and St. Croix; nor were they able to make reprisals, though they entered into an alliance with France by the Treaty of Fontainebleau, October 31st, 1807. They published, however, some virulent edicts against England; by one of which, dated at Rendsborg, November 6th, 1807, all correspondence with that country was to be punished with death. By the Treaty of Fontainebleau, 30,000 French, under Bernadotte, were to invade Sweden from Denmark. The Peace of Tilsit had left Sweden still at war with France. Even after the overthrow of Prussia, Gustavus was still dreaming about the restoration of the Bourbons! Napoleon, on his side, deplored the war with Sweden. He had offered neutrality for Swedish Pomerania, and when on its rejection Marshal Mortier occupied that province, he was instructed to do the Swedes as little harm as possible. Early in February, 1807, Mortier had laid siege to Stralsund, which was occupied by General Essen, with 15,000 Swedes. Mortier having withdrawn the greater part of his troops from before Stralsund in order to press the siege of Colberg, Essen seized the occasion to make a sortie, defeated the French and drove them beyond the Peene (April 1st); upon which Mortier re­turned from Colberg and defeated the Swedes at Belling. But in conformity with Napoleon’s instructions to spare the Swedes, he concluded with Essen the armistice of Schlatkow, April 18th, 1807. Hostilities were not to recommence without ten day’s notice on either side; and during the armistice no troops were to be landed at Stralsund, nor in the Isle of Rügen, nor at any point of Swedish Pomerania. An additional article of April 29th extended the notice to thirty days, but the King of Sweden never ratified it. Gustavus IV was at this time negotiating with the King of Prussia respecting the means of a joint attack upon the French; and by the Convention of Bartenstein, April 20th, 1807, it was agreed that a Prussian corps should join the Swedes in Rügen, for the purpose of driving the French from Pomerania. After ratifying this Convention at Malmo, Gustavus IV suddenly embarked and arrived at Stralsund, May 12th, with a corps of French Royalists: and Blucher, in pursuance of the Con­vention of Bartenstein, also entered Stralsund with a Prussian corps.

England’s policy to Sweden

The King of Sweden had been very dissatisfied with the conduct of England under Lord Grenville’s administration. Large promises had been made, but nothing done, though the forces of the country, which might have been better employed nearer home, had been dissipated by distant and abortive expeditions to Buenos Ayres, Egypt, and other places. But towards the end of March, 1807, Lord Grenville had been succeeded as First Lord of the Treasury by the Duke of Portland, with Canning for Foreign Secretary, Lord Castlereagh as Secretary-at-War, and Mr. Perceval as Chancellor of the Ex­chequer. The new Ministry adopted a more vigorous line of foreign policy. The expedition to Rügen, under Lord Cathcart, was resolved on; and, after some negotiation, a Convention with Sweden to that effect was signed at London, June 17th, by which, however, Great Britain reserved the power of employing her troops in Pomerania for other purposes. About the same time, a new treaty of subsidies was also concluded with Sweden, on condition that her army should be increased; and another with Prussia, June 27th. These steps were rendered abortive by the battle of Friedland and the Peace of Tilsit. Gustavus IV, in ignorance of those events, and inspired with a blind confidence by the presence of the British and Prussian troops, denounced the Armistice of Schlatkow, July 3rd, and declaring that he had not recognized the additional article of April 29th, fixed the 13th of July for the recommencement of hostilities.

Meanwhile the French army on the coasts of the Baltic and North Sea had been reinforced and placed under the command of Marshal Brune. Among the reinforcements were 15,000 Spaniards under the command of the Marquis de la Romana, dispatched by Charles IV as a pledge of his fidelity. Only a few days after the rupture of the armistice, Gustavus was informed by the King of Prussia of the Peace of Tilsit: Blucher and his troops were in consequence withdrawn from the Swedish army, and Lord Cathcart and his division were, as before related, transferred to Zealand. Gustavus now evacuated Stralsund, in order to spare it a bombardment; that place was entered by Brune, August 20th, and the Swedes were also compelled ultimately to abandon Rügen by a Convention of September 7th.

Agreeably to the Peace of Tilsit, the Emperor of Russia offered to the British Cabinet his mediation for a peace with France; which was accepted, but on condition that the Emperor should communicate the secret articles of that peace and frankly explain his views. The bombardment of Copenhagen had aggravated the resentment which Alexander felt towards England for the refusal of a loan. He declined to make the communication desired; and in a declaration of November 7th, 1807, broke off all communication with Great Britain. The English Ministry, in a counter-declaration of December 18th, intimated that they were not ignorant of the nature of the secret engagements to which Russia had been forced to subscribe at Tilsit, but had hoped that, upon consideration of them, the Emperor might have been induced to withdraw himself from them. They showed, indeed, their knowledge of the secret articles by reproaching the Emperor with abandoning to France the Ionian Republic, whose inde­pendence he had solemnly guaranteed. They declined to exculpate themselves respecting the Danish expedition; it was not for those who were parties to the secret arrangements of Tilsit to demand satisfaction for a measure which those arrangements had occasioned. They concluded with express­ing their determination to maintain their principles of mari­time law against any Confederation whatsoever; which were become of incalculable importance at an epoch when the maritime power of Great Britain was the sole existing defence against the unceasing usurpations of France.

Thus began the war between Great Britain and Russia, which lasted nearly five years. From the position of the two countries, it was productive of but few military events, though it occasioned great privation and distress in the Russian Empire, and was highly unpopular among its inhabitants. Austria was also drawn into the Continental System by the influence and example of the Emperor Alexander. Summoned after the Peace of Tilsit to enter into that league, she called upon Great Britain to enter into negotiations with France for a peace; and on the refusal of the English Cabinet, principally on the ground that no bases of negotiation were laid down, the Austrian Minister took his departure from London in January, 1808. The evacuation of Braunau by the French was the reward of this base subserviency. Thus England was deserted by her faithless allies; she, instead of France, became the object of a European Coalition. Her commerce was excluded from the ports of Russia, Prussia, Denmark, Germany, Holland, France, Italy, and Dalmatia. In the North, Sweden alone endeavored to preserve herself from the Continental System; but her efforts involved her in a war to which we shall presently advert. The Turks showed more good sense and more fidelity to their engagements than most of the Christian Powers. Their ports remained open to all friendly nations, and the commerce between London and Hamburg was conducted through Constantinople! Yet the Porte had only recently emerged from a war with England.

France and Turkey. War England-Turkey, 1807

The conquest of Egypt had roused the indignation of the Turks; and Napoleon’s expulsion had excited their contempt. The Porte had, indeed, concluded a peace with Bonaparte as First Consul in June, 1802; but it refused to acknowledge him as Emperor of the French and King of Italy. But the battle of Austerlitz, and the rupture between France and Russia, conveyed at once a strong idea of the military power of the French, and of the utility of their alliance to the Porte. Reciprocal embassies were sent early in 1806, and the Porte consented to give Napoleon the title of Padisha, or Emperor. In the summer of that year, General Sebastiani was dispatched to Constantinople, with instructions to incite Sultan Selim III against the English and Russians, and to place at his disposal all the resources of France. Sebastiani denounced the perfidy of Russia in keeping possession of the Ionian Islands; he insinuated that the French army in Dalmatia would act for or against the Turks according to circumstances; and in a note of September 16th, 1806, he called upon the Porte to close the Bosphorus against all Russian and English ships of war and transports. At his instance, the Sultan deposed the Princes Moruzzi and Ypsilanti, the Hospodars of Moldavia and Wallachia, who were attached to Russian interests, and appointed in their places Suzzo and Callimachi, the devoted partisans of France. The Porte was moved to this anti-Russian policy by some causes of complaint which she had against that nation. Questions of maritime right had arisen between the two countries; and the Porte also accused Russia of supporting an insurrection in Serbia, conducted by George Petrowitsch, which had assumed a very formidable character.

The dismissal of the Hospodars was contrary to a convention between Russia and the Porte, of September 24th, 1802, by which it had been agreed that those Princes should be appointed for seven years; and in case they should commit any offence, their conduct was to be submitted, before dis­missal, to the Russian Court. The Porte was summoned to observe her stipulations with respect to Moldavia and Wallachia; to restore order in the latter province, which had been disturbed; to permit the passage of the Dardanelles by Russian ships of war, and to renew its alliance with England. But previously to the delivery of this note, and although the Hospodars had been restored, the Russian General Michelson, had entered Moldavia, surprised Choczin, occupied Jassy, blockaded Bender, and advanced towards the Danube. On December 23rd, 1806, a battle took place at Groda, in which the Turks were defeated, and, on the 27th, Michelson entered Bucharest in Wallachia. On the 31st, the Porte formally declared war against Russia, and, a few days after, notified to foreign Powers that the Bosphorus was closed.

After the Turkish declaration of war, Russia demanded the aid of England. This was an embarrassing demand. But Whig Ministry accepted it, nay, though Turkey was an ancient ally, determined to attempt the seizure of part of her dominions. On January 25th, 1807, Sir C. Arbuthnot, the English ambassador at Constantinople, accused the Porte of partiality for France, demanded the expulsion of the French ambassador, and threatened an expedition against Constantinople. The Reis Effendi having denied these accusations, and refused the satisfaction demanded, Sir C. Arbuthnot, accom­panied by all the English merchants, went on board the Endymion frigate, and joined the English squadron off Tenedos. Admiral Sir John Duckworth was summoned with his squadron from Cadiz; and on February 19th he forced the passage of the Dardanelles with nine ships of the line, three frigates, and several fire ships, and seized and burnt a Turkish squadron at Gallipoli. His appearance before Constantinople filled that city with consternation. He demanded the immediate dismissal of the French ambassador; the renewal of the alliance with England and Russia; free passage of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles for Russian ships of war; the surrender of the Turkish navy, to be kept in an English port till the peace. But he suffered himself to be amused with negotiations, whilst the Turks, directed by Sebastiani and other French officers, put Constantinople into so formidable a posture of defence that he found it prudent to accelerate his retreat; which was effected, not without some loss, March 3rd. After this failure, Duckworth, proceeded to Malta and enbarked 5,000 troops for a coup de main upon Egypt; a force wholly inadequate for such a purpose. Alexandria, indeed, was taken, but two attempts on Rosetta failed. The English held Alexandria till September 22nd, when they were attacked by Mahommed Ali Pasha, and forced to capitulate.

Meanwhile a revolution had occurred at Constantinople. Sultan Selim III, an excellent Prince, had become unpopular by introducing some reforms, and especially by attempting to substitute regular troops, after the European fashion, in place of the Janissaries. These latter, incited by the Ulemas and led by the Mufti in person, rose in insurrection, deposed Selim, May 30th, 1807, and placed upon the throne his nephew, Mustapha IV, son of the Sultan Abdul Hamed, who, at the time of his father’s death, was too young to ascend the throne.

The Russians had carried on the war without much vigour. The only important action on shore was the defeat of Yussuf Pasha by General Groudowitsch, on the river Aspatschai, June 18th. At sea, the Turkish fleet under Said Ali was completely defeated off Lemnos by the Russian admiral Siniavin, July 1st. By the Peace of Tilsit, Russia agreed to evacuate Moldavia and Vallachia, and an armistice was concluded at Slobosia, August 24th, 1807. The English ambassador, Sir Arthur Paget, had acquainted the Porte with the secret articles of Tilsit, and the abandonment of their interests by Napoleon, who had induced them to take up arms, but whom they now beheld the intimate ally of their ancient and most dangerous enemy. These occurrences tended to reconcile the Porte with England. In spite of the hostilities which had occurred, there had been no declaration of war between the two countries, and at length a treaty was effected, January 5th, 1809. The treaty between Charles II and Mahomet IV in 1675, which was very favorable to England, was taken as the basis of it. The navigation of the Black Sea, accorded to the English in 1799, was also confirmed, but no ships of war were to pass the Dardanelles. The armistice between Russia and Turkey was prolonged till 1809, when a fresh war broke out between those Powers.

The war between Russia and Sweden was an immediate result of the Peace of Tilsit. The adherence of Gustavus IV to a cause which the Emperor Alexander had repudiated produced a breach between them. Hostilities were brought on by the Emperor in a most artful manner. His long silence, his feigned irresolution, his affected scruples, the pacific and friendly language of his ministers, were all calculated to deceive Gustavus, and lull him into a false security. After the bombardment of Copenhagen, Alexander summoned the King of Sweden, whose sister he had married, to revert, like himself, to the principles of the Armed Neutrality. Gustavus replied, November 13th, 1807, that the neutrality of the Baltic was out of the question, so long as the French had a preponderance upon its coasts, and called upon the Emperor to engage the French to withdraw their troops from those quarters. As the Emperor persisted in his demand, Gustavus applied to England for aid; and on February 8th, 1808, a treaty of subsidies was concluded at Stockholm, by which the English Government agreed to pay the Swedes £100,000 sterling a month, for twelve months, to commence from the previous January; Gustavus, on his side, undertaking to keep up a respectable force, and especially at sea. The Emperor of Russia delivered a last declaration to the Court of Stockholm, February 22nd, 1808; but before any reply could be made, a Russian army, under Buxhovden, passed the Kymené, and entered Finland. At the news of this invasion, which had not been preceded by any declaration of war, Gustavus, against the law of nations, caused M. Alopeus, the Russian Ambassador at Stockholm, to be arrested, March 3rd. When the Emperor Alexander received intelligence of this act he declared to the Foreign Ministers at his court that he should not make reprisals for this breach of international law; but he notified that henceforth he should regard Swedish Finland as annexed to his Empire. On the other hand the King of Sweden sought to compensate himself for the injury inflicted upon him by Russia by invading Norway, belonging to Denmark, and diverted for that purpose 20,000 men, who might have sufficed to hold the Russians in check. The Danes, agreeably to the treaty with France already mentioned, had undertaken to conquer the Swedish province of Schonen. The Emperor had detached from the grand army for that purpose 14,000 Spaniards under La Romana; these were united in Funen with 15,000 Danes, the whole under the command of Bernadotte, Prince of Ponte Corvo. The Danes declared war against Sweden February 29, 1808.

Campaign on Norway

The campaign in Norway, without any marked success on either side, turned on the whole to the advantage of the Danes; the Swedes were driven out, and the Danes in their turn invaded Sweden. In Schonen, Gustavus, instead of keeping on the defensive, meditated an expedition against Copenhagen, and he had, therefore, assembled a considerable body of troops in that Province. He was assisted by an English army of 12,000 men, under Sir John Moore, as well as an English fleet under Admiral Saumarez (May, 1808). The English Government, however, aware of the eccentric character of the King of Sweden, had placed some restrictions on the employment of these forces. The troops were principally intended for the defence of Gothenburg, and they were by no means to undertake an expedition into Zealand; but as Gustavus did not relish these restrictions, the troops were not permitted to land. Gustavus proposed to Sir John Moore, first an expedition to Russian Finland, and then to Norway, neither of which was deemed feasible by the English general; and as the disembarkation of the troops continued to be forbidden, Sir John Moore, after notice to that effect, returned to England with the fleet, July 3rd. The presence of the English, however, as well as the Swedish troops in Schonen, had compelled Bernadotte to abandon his project of an invasion, and had filled Copenhagen with the terror of another bombardment. Bernadotte’s army, too, was weakened by the desertion of La Romana, who contrived to retire in August with 8,000 of his men.

The war in Finland produced more decisive results. The Russian general, Buxhovden, entered Abo, the capital of the of Grand-duchy, March 23rd, 1807, and burnt the fleet there. The important place of Sveaborg surrendered on the 6th, with ninety-four vessels. The Russian admiral, Bodiskov, captured Gothland and the Aland Isles. But these reverses were in part retrieved. The Swedish general, Klingspor, seconded by the patriotic devotion of the Finns, marching from Uléaborg about the middle of May with 17,000 men, drove the Russians from East Bothnia. The Swedes, assisted by the English fleet, compelled the Russians to evacuate Gothland and the Aland Isles. Admiral Saumarez defeated the Russian fleet, and kept it blockaded several months in Baltischport, till the approach of winter forced him to leave the Baltic. But these successes were not lasting. The Russians, under Kamenskoï, having received considerable reinforcements, again drove back the Swedes, and successively took possession of Lappfiord, Christianstadt, Wasa, and the two Carlebys. Gamla (old) Carleby was entered September 24th. The Swedes were also repulsed in some descents in South Finland. Klingspor obtained from General Buxhovden a suspension of arms, September 29th; but the Emperor Alexander refused to recognize it, and proclaimed the union of Finland with Russia. A fresh armistice, more favorable to the Russians, was signed at Olkioki, November 19th, 1808, by which the Swedes agreed to evacuate the whole province of Uléaborg, and the Russians were allowed to occupy both banks of the Kemi, at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia.

Gustavus IV concluded with Great Britain a treaty of subsidies, March 1st, 1809, by which he was to receive £1,200,000. But this was the last political act of his life. The expensive and disastrous campaign of 1808 had excited great discontent, especially among the soldiery; and as Gustavus had increased it by attributing the recent misfortunes to his Guards, the officers of that regiment, and some generals and nobles, entered into a conspiracy to dethrone him, and marched upon Stockholm. Field-Marshal Klingspor, General Adlercreuz, and other officers, arrested Gustavus in his apartments on the night of March 12th, 1809. On the 14th Duke Charles undertook the Regency; the King was conducted to Drottingholm, and on the 29th he signed his abdication. The States thanked the Duke for undertaking the Regency, as well as the conspirators for an act which had saved the country from ruin. Gustavus was ultimately permitted to quit the Kingdom. A committee was appointed to make some alterations in the constitution; the chief feature of which was the establishment of a Council of State, consisting of nine members, responsible to the nation, who were to decide upon important matters. The executive power was left to the King. The Regent accepted the crown on these conditions, and was proclaimed as Charles XIII, June 5th.

Hostilities had commenced in 1809 with balanced success, but negotiations were opened by the new King, and a treaty of peace was signed at Friederichshamn, September 17th. Charles XIII promised to adhere to the Continental System, but made an exception in favour of salt and colonial productions. Finland with the Aland Isles, and part of West Bothnia, were ceded to Russia. Napoleon, however, would not recognize the exceptions stipulated in the treaty, though absolutely necessary to the comfort and welfare of the Swedish people; and, in order to make peace with France, Charles was obliged to abandon them. The war declared against Napoleon by Gustavus IV, October 31st, 1805, was terminated by the Treaty of Paris, January 6th, 1810.2 Napoleon restored Swedish Pomerania and the Principality of Rügen. Peace between Sweden and Denmark was signed at Jonkop- ing, December 10th, 1809.3 The treaty contains no article of importance.

Napoleon supreme

It has been seen that by the secret arrangements at Tilsit, Portugal also was to be compelled into the Continental System. Napoleon, after that peace, had returned to Paris, July 29th, 1807, and was saluted with the servile flattery of all the public bodies. The Tribunate was entirely suppressed, August 19th, and at the same time the Legislative Body was modified. Nobody under forty years of age was henceforth to be a member of that Assembly. But the Emperor’s views were chiefly directed to the execution of his Continental plans. By an Imperial Decree of August 18th, Hesse-Cassel, Brunswick, Fulda, the greater part of Hanover, and other districts were annexed to the Kingdom of Westphalia, which, till Jerome should assume the crown, was placed under the administration of a Regency. Napoleon next turned his views towards Portugal. But, in order to reach that country, he determined to use the arm of Spain.

Since the erection of the Kingdom of Etruria in 1801, in favour of the son-in-law of Charles IV, an apparent harmony had existed between that Sovereign and France. But the compulsory alliance was entirely in favour of the French. Napoleon, measuring his demands only by the contempt which he felt for Spain, treated her rather as a vassal than an ally. Thus she had been compelled to abandon her claim upon Louisiana, to pay a tribute of 72 million francs, to lend her navy for the purposes of France, to see it almost annihilated by the English at Trafalgar: all this without any prospect of advantage, but on the contrary, with the certainty of having her colonies taken from her and her commerce destroyed. The Royal family, besides these grievances common to the whole nation, had others peculiar to themselves. Charles IV had seen his brother Ferdinand hurled from the throne of Naples, and had been compelled to recognize Joseph Bonaparte as his successor. The hostility manifested by Napoleon towards all the Bourbons,—the murder of the Duc d'Enghien,—afforded little hope that the Spanish branch of that house would escape overthrow when the occasion should present itself. It was also known to the Court of Madrid that Napoleon had contemplated bestowing portions of the Spanish territory on others. Thus, in the negotiations for a peace with England, he had offered to cede the Spanish colony of Puerto Rico. He had also proposed to give the Balearic Islands to the Neapolitan Bourbons, as an indemnity for Sicily, to be ceded to his brother Joseph, and to burden Spain with a large annuity payable to the same family. These considerations awakened in the Court of Madrid a desire to throw off the French yoke; and a resolution to that effect appears to have been taken about June, 1806. Secret negotiations were opened with England and Russia, and Portugal also appears to have been in the plot. The Spanish Government promised to declare against France, as soon as she should be engaged with the Northern Powers. The Prince of the Peace, sometimes under pretense of a war with Portugal, sometimes of an attack upon Gibraltar, began to raise troops, and on the 5th October appeared a proclamation calling the whole nation to arms. Nine days later Prussia was overthrown at Jena and Auerstadt! The news of that event overwhelmed the Court of Madrid with consternation. The Prince of the Peace sought to excuse himself with the French Ambassador. The sudden suspension of the armaments was explained by various pretexts; the state of the finances, the lack of public spirit, the reluctance of the King to attack Portugal. Napoleon, for the present, dissembled his resentment. He demanded, however, a force of infantry, cavalry, and artillery to join the army of observation in Hanover. He also inured that a Spanish squadron of six ships of the line at Carthagena should proceed to Toulon. He sent into Spain 25,000 Prussians captured at Jena. Finally, he communicated to the Spanish Govern­ment the Berlin Decree, and desired that it should be put into immediate execution in all the ports of Spain. It was in consequence of these demands that the Spanish force under the Marquis de la Romana, already mentioned, proceeded to the north of Europe.

Napoleon had learned that he could no longer trust the Spaniards, and he secretly resolved to overthrow the Bourbon dynasty in Spain, to render that country another satellite of France. But such an enterprise was not to be lightly undertaken. An open attack might awaken the patriotism of a brave nation; and Napoleon, therefore, determined to use perfidy. He resolved, first to use Spain for the destruction of Portugal, and then to overwhelm her. A French army, intended both to conquer Portugal and to overawe Spain, had been assembled near Bayonne early in 1807. The Prince of the Peace was gained by promises, and in July the Court of Madrid was called upon to join France in summoning the Portuguese Government to shut their ports against the English. In case of refusal, France and Spain were to declare war against Portugal, and a combined French and Spanish army was to march upon Lisbon. The Regent of Portugal had married a daughter of the Spanish Sovereigns; but they had no alternative but to submit. On the 12th of August, the Spanish and French ambassadors at Lisbon jointly signified to the Regent that if by September 1st, 1807, he had not de­clared war against England, dismissed the English ambassador, and recalled his own from London, arrested as hostages all the English in Portugal, confiscated all property belonging to that nation, and united his squadrons with those of France and Spain, he would find himself at war with those countries. At the same time the French and Spanish forces began to move towards the frontiers of Portugal.

The Regent Don John, naturally irresolute, had recently betrayed symptoms of the same mental weakness which had so long afflicted his mother; and the Ministers had even deliberated whether they should not transfer the Regency to the hands of his wife. The first impulse of the Regent was to fly to the Brazils. He then endeavored to appease the French Emperor by submission. He promised to declare war against England, to shut his ports against her, to put his fleet at the disposal of France. Such concessions ought to have satisfied Napoleon, had he not had ulterior designs. But he had resolved on the ruin both of Portugal and Spain. He insisted on the fulfillment of all the proposed conditions, including the arrest of the English, and the confiscation of their properties. Upon the Regent’s refusal, the French Ambassador, M. de Reyneval, demanded his passports, and Don John, by the advice of his Ministers, prepared to quit Portugal. The English established in that country had been secretly informed of the danger which menaced them, and more than three hundred families embarked, carrying with them a large proportion of the circulating medium of the country. At the same time five ships of the line and other vessels were rapidly equipped to convey the royal family to Brazil, and the aid of England was invoked in the undertaking.

The resolution was neither unnecessary nor premature. Two secret conventions between France and Spain were signed at Fontainebleau, October 27th, 1807, for the division and occupation of Portugal. The kingdom was to be divided into three portions. The Province of Entre Douro and Minho, with the title of North Lusitania, was destined for the young King of Etruria, who was to cede his Italian Kingdom to France. The Algarves and the Province of Alemtejo were to be given to the Prince of the Peace, with the title of Prince of the Algarves. These two States were to be under the protectorate of the King of Spain; and if issue of their Sovereigns, both male and female, should become extinct, then the right of investiture devolved to his Catholic Majesty; but on condition that these Principalities should not be united with the crown of Spain nor with each other. The rest of Portugal, comprising the provinces of Beira, Tras-os-Montes, and Estremadura, were to be sequestered in the hands of France till the general peace; when they were to be restored to the House of Braganza, on condition that England should agree to return to the King of Spain, Gibraltar, Trinidad, and the other Spanish possessions which she had conquered during the war. The Portuguese colonies were to be divided between France and Spain. Napoleon guaranteed Charles IV his European possessions, and the title of “Emperor of the Two Americas”, to be assumed at the general peace, or, at latest, within three years. Such were the baits with which Charles was to be lured on to his ruin.

Napoleon did not await the signature of the treaties to act against Portugal. General Junot, with the army of invasion, crossed the Bidasoa, October 18th, and advanced with rapid marches on Salamanca. At the same time three Spanish divisions were put in motion, two of which were to take possession of the Provinces assigned to the King of Etruria and the Prince of the Peace; while the third was to join the French at Alcantara, and in conjunction with them to march upon Lisbon. A second French army of 40,000 men, assembled at Bayonne, was also to enter Portugal in case the English should threaten an attack. By a treaty of October 22nd, England secretly authorized the Portuguese Regent ostensibly to separate his cause from hers, and to shut against her his ports and markets; but only on condition that France and Spain should declare themselves satisfied. The Regent accordingly declared war against England, recalled his ambassador from London, sequestered all English property still remaining in Portugal; and, in virtue of this apparent submission, demanded that the advance of the French troops should be arrested. But Napoleon, persuaded that the Regent was deceiving him, directed Junot to precipitate his march.

Don John, irresolute to the last, had vainly attempted to appease Napoleon by proposing a marriage between the Prince of Beira, his son, and the daughter of the Grand Duke of Berg, and by offering a considerable subsidy. Sir Sidney Smith, with an English fleet, arrived at the mouth of the Tagus, and declared that river blockaded, November 22nd. Sir John Moore, who was proceeding from Sicily to the Baltic with a corps of 10,000 men, destined to aid the King of Sweden, was also ordered to wait at Lisbon, and in case of need to support Sir Sidney Smith. These forces were intended to facilitate the escape of the Portuguese Royal Family, if it was really their intention to fly; or, if they were playing false, to treat Portugal as an enemy. Another reason for their appearance was the presence of the Russian Admiral, Siniavin, who had put into the Tagus with a fleet of nine ships of the line, two frigates, and more than 6,000 troops, on his return from the Mediterranean to the Baltic. A notice from Junot that he had arrived at Abrantes, within four days’ march of Lisbon, at length put an end to the irresolution of the Regent. On the same day that he received this news, Sir S. Smith forwarded to the unfortunate Prince the Moniteur of November 13th, in which appeared the following notice: “The Prince Regent of Portugal is deprived of his throne. The fall of the House of Braganza will be a fresh proof that the ruin of those who attach themselves to the English is inevitable”.

All doubt was now removed. Liberty and a throne in Brazil were preferable to a compulsory abdication, and perhaps imprisonment in France. The Royal family embarked November 27th, amid the regret and lamentations of the people. For the first time since sixteen years the afflicted Queen Maria I quitted her palace of Mafra to abandon her native land. Most of the great families and rich merchants of the kingdom accompanied their Sovereigns in their exile, to the number, it is said, of more than 15,000 persons. The royal fleet, escorted by some English ships of the line, arrived at Rio de Janeiro, January 18th, 1808.

Junot entered Lisbon, November 30th, 1807, with only about 1,500 men, a great part of his army having been left far in the rear, through the difficulties of the march. The people were filled with contempt on beholding this small force, composed, for the most part, of young conscripts; and an attempt was made at insurrection, but was put down by the promptitude and decision of Junot. That general was appointed by Napoleon Governor-General of the Kingdom, which he ruled in the most tyrannical and oppressive manner. The Spanish armies invaded with equal success the provinces assigned to the King of Etruria and the Prince of the Peace, but were not suffered to retain them. Maria Louisa, Queen Dowager of Etruria, who acted as Regent for her minor son, Charles Louis, resigned the Government in December, 1807, and set off for Spain; when Tuscany was immediately occupied by the French. By the conquest of Portugal was completed the establishment of the Continental System in Southern Europe, to which Pope Pius VII had already acceded for the States of the Church.

Napoleon and Pius VII

Pius VII had several reasons to be dissatisfied with Napoleon’s conduct. Although, contrary to the advice of many of his Cardinals, he had proceeded to Paris to crown the Emperor, he had received no benefit from that act. So far from procuring the restoration of the Legations, a plan had even been formed by some of the French Ministers, while Pius was in France, to secularize the territories which he still held in Italy, to annex them to the Italian Kingdom, and to detain him in France, where he was to exercise his papal functions. Napoleon did not indeed sanction this pro­ject, but he treated the Holy Father with marked disrespect. Although the period had been fixed for his return to Rome, he was kept some time in France. Pius, on his side, seized every occasion to display his resentment. He refused Napoleon’s application to him to dissolve the marriage contracted by Jerome Bonaparte in America with Miss Patterson, a Protestant. In the war of 1805, Pius had showed himself a decided partisan of the Coalition; had opposed Cardinal Fesch’s demand that the Pontifical Government should estab­lish a military cordon on its Neapolitan frontier to prevent the irruption of the allies; nay, had even declared that if the Russians made an attempt on Civita Vecchia he should not oppose them. After the Peace of Pressburg Napoleon gave vent to his anger. He addressed a letter to the Pope from Munich, January 7th, 1806. On February 13th, he wrote to him from Paris in still harsher terms, and instructed Cardinal Fesch to demand the immediate expulsion of all Russians, English, Swedes, and Sardinians from the Pontifical States, and the shutting of all the Papal ports against the enemies of France. Pius at first declined to comply with these demands. Sensible, however, of the danger to which he exposed himself, he privately engaged the English, Russian, and Sardinian Ministers to leave Rome. He also hinted that he should not object to see a French garrison in Civita Vecchia, and General Duhesme in consequence took military occupation of that place. But Napoleon was not to be so conciliated. His violence towards the Pontiff was redoubled. Pius gave fresh offence, when Joseph Bonaparte was made King of Naples, by reviving the Papal claim of investiture with regard to that crown, and from this time Napoleon appears to have determined upon the eventual seizure of the Pope’s temporal dominions. He immediately adopted some violent measures. He proceeded to fill up some Venetian bishoprics without asking the sanction of the Pope. He demanded the expulsion from Rome of certain leaders of bands who had formerly fought against France. He also seized the Principalities of Benevento and Ponte Corvo, which, though situate in the Kingdom of Naples, belonged to the Holy See, and presented the first to Talleyrand, the second to Bernadotte.

To all these blows Pius VII opposed the most unbending resistance. He had conceived that the persecution of the Church would infallibly reanimate the fervor of religious faith, and he gradually resigned himself to the idea of deprivation, flight, even death itself, in that holy cause. After the battle of Friedland, Alquier, the French ambassador at Rome, attempted to persuade the Pontiff to reconcile himself with Napoleon before it was too late, by recognizing the King of Naples, joining the offensive and defensive league of the Italian States, and adopting the Continental System. But Napoleon had now determined on annexing all Italy to his Empire, as he had stipulated with Alexander at Tilsit. He was willing, indeed, at first, to leave Rome and its territory to the Pope; who, however, was to be deprived of the Duchy of Urbino, the March of Ancona, and Macerata, the richest provinces of the Holy See, and the chief sources of the Papal revenue. An order for the occupation of these provinces was issued, September 29th.

The advance of the French troops had been already announced, when a treaty, concluded at Paris by Cardinal Bayanne, the Papal plenipotentiary, in which all Napoleon’s demands had been conceded, arrived at Rome. Pius rejected it with indignation, as an attack upon the independence, dignity, and spiritual rights of the Head of the Church; and in these views he was supported by the Consistory. He wrote with his own hand to Cardinal Bayanne, to disavow all that he had done, and to cancel the powers with which he had been entrusted. Nothing could be more agreeable to Napoleon’s views than this rupture of the negotiations. General Miollis being immediately instructed to occupy Rome, appeared at the head of his troops before the Porta del Popolo, on the morning of February 2nd, 1808, marched unopposed to the Castle of St. Angelo, and received on the first summons the keys of that fortress. Resistance would, indeed, have been useless. The Pope contented himself with a protest against the entry of the French, in which he proclaimed his inability to prevent it, and exhorted his subjects to imitate his resignation. All the Italian cardinals and bishops, the Pope’s chief advisers, were compelled to leave Rome, and General Miollis was directed to assume the government of the States of the Church. Pius ventured to launch against Napoleon the feeble thunders of a comminatory brief of excommunication (March 27th, 1808). The French Emperor replied by a decree of April 2nd, annexing, by virtue of his right as successor of Charlemagne, the provinces of Urbino, Ancona, Macerata, and Camerino to the Kingdom of Italy.

 

 

CHAPTER LXV.

RISINGS IN SPAIN AND AUSTRIA