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Prince, whose plans would not allow him to divide his forces, and who was now, through the failure of the négociations between the allies and Denmark, become a declared enemy of that kingdom, found himself under the necessity of recalling these troops. The The protection of Hamburg was therefore abandoned; and on May 30th, General Tettenborne, with all the military, evacuated it, and 5000 Danes with 1500 French, under the command of General Bruyere, made their entry unopposed. A patriotic citizen, Mr. Von Hess, addressed the Burgher guard, of which he had been appointed commander, in a last order of the day, conceived in terms worthy of a noble mind feeling the misfortunes of his native country, and yielding to present circumstances, without despairing for the future. "The events of the war (says he) call the Russian army to more decisive successes. A dark concatenation of impenetrable misunderstandings compels the sons of the north, who were destined to our assistance, to witness our fate, if not with indifference, at least without doing any thing to avert it." In conclusion, he requests his fellow-citizens to reserve to other times that ardent feeling of hatred to the despotism which again threatens their desolated town, and to remove their persons to places where they may await the moment of the overthrow of tyranny. The loss of Hamburg was severely felt by the 'allies both in a military and a commercial view; and it seems difficult to justify, if not the final desertion of its defence, at least some of the previous measures which only added to its calamities.

Although Napoleon had asto. nished all Europe with the efforts he had been able to make after the destruction of his veteran armies in the Russian campaign, and by his successes had retrieved in a great measure that military re nown which he had been in danger of losing, yet he must have been sensible that his advance from the Saale to the Oder was a series of hard-fought battles, in which his best troops were gradually melting away; and that the further he proceeded, the more distant be was from his supplies, whilst the allies were getting into the heart of theirs. Additional conquests could no longer form a part of his plan; and he was to consider how he should retain the advantages he had gained, and his predominance in the system of Europe, against which he saw new confederacies rising. Encouraged, therefore, by the Austrian cabinet, which was now in a state of apparent neutrality, he transmitted to the Emperor Alexander proposals for an armistice, preparatory to a congress for a general peace to be holden at Prague. A cessation of hostilities in consequence took place on the first of June, and the armistice was ratified on the 4th. Its articles minutely described the line of demarkation between the belligerent powers during the continuance of the armistice, and appointed a number of regulations with relation to the besieged towns, and other circumstances. The line on each side proceeded from the frontiers of Bohemia, on different tracks, to the Oder, and thence to the Elbe, down to its mouth, leaving a neutral territory between them, not to be occupied by the

troops

troops on either side; and in this space Breslau was comprized. All Saxcny, Dessau, and the small states surrounding the princes of the confederation of the Rhine, were left to be occupied by the French army, and all Prussia by the allied army, and the Prussian territories in Saxony were to be neutral. The term of the armistice was fixed to the 20th of July; and hostilities were not to recommence without six days' notice.

It may be interesting to record a proof given at this period of the confidence with which the French ruler looked forward to the security of his widely extended empire. From the field of battle of Wurtchen, he issued the following decree. "A monument shall be erected on Mount Cenis. Upon

the front, looking towards Paris, shall be inscribed the names of all our cantons of departments on this side the Alps. Upon the front, looking towards Milan, shall be inscribed the names of all our cantons of departments beyond the Alps, and of our kingdom of Italy. On the most conspicuous part of the monument shall be engraved the following inscription: The Emperor Napoleon, upon the field of battle of Wurtchen, ordered the erection of this monument as a proof of his gratitude to his people of France and Italy; and to transmit to the most distant posterity the remembrance of that celebrated epoch, when, in three months, 1,200,000 men ran to arms to insure the integrity of the empire, and of his allies."

CHAPTER

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Armistice prolonged.-Congress at Prague.-Hostilitics resumed.-. Austrian Declaration of War against France.-Crown-Prince of Sweden at the Head of the combined Army of the North of Germany. Advances to Berlin.-Interview of the Sovereigns at Prague.-Their Plans, Action between Blucher and the French on the Bober.-French driven back to Dresden.-Attack of the Allies on that city.-Their retreat into Bohemia.-Defeat of Vandamme.-Blucher's Defeat of Macdonald-Silesia freed from the Enemy.-Crown-Prince's Advance.-Victory at Juterboch.-Davoust's Retreat from Mecklenburg. -Actions in Bohemia.—Allies assemble round Leipzic.-Cassel taken and retaken.-Bremen recovered.-Napoleon quits Dresden,-Alliance between Austria and Bavaria.-Blucher's Victory near Leipzic.Grand Attack upon Leipzic and its Capture.-Retreat of the French Army-Action with General Wrede at Hanau.-Napoleon arrives with his Army at Mentz.

DURING the armistice Napo- Germany resounded with prepara

leon took up his residence chiefly at Dresden, where he employed himself in reviewing the reinforcements of troops that were frequently arriving from France, and in occasional visits to the fortified places in the vicinity, which were diligently strengthened, and put in the best possible state of defence. Negociations proceeded but slowly, and a convention was signed at Neumarkt for the prolongation of the armistice to the 10th of August. The members of the proposed congress assembled at Prague, who were, on the part of the French Emperor, the Count de Narbonne and Caulincourt; of the Emperor of Russia, the privy-councillor D'Anstett; of the King of Prussia, Baron Humbolt; of the Emperor of Austria, the Count Metternich. Meantime all

tions for the renewal of war. The King of Prussia published a decree for a levy en-masse in his dominions, for its internal defence, whilst its regular army should be employed in concert with that of the other allies. But it was to Austria that the public attention was chiefly directed, where the great augmentation of the forces, and the warlike measures of different kinds, announced designs of higher purpose than merely maintaining a posture of neutrality. Towards the end of July the troops of the line quitted Vienna, and the burgher guard performed duty in the city and suburbs. Levies were carried on through all the hereditary dominions; the arsenals were filled with artillery and ammunition, and an extensive enrolment or insurrection was organized in

Hungary.

Hungary. On the other side, Bavaria took the alarm, and levied additional forces, besides placing its fortresses in the best condition. At length the armistice terminated withont having produced the effect of opening a road to peace; and Barclay de Tolly, now commander-in-chief of the allied army, announced from his headquarters at Reichenbach to the French general, the Prince of Neufchatel, the re-commencement of hostilities on August 17th. On the 11th Count Metternich delivered to the Count de Narbonne at Prague a declaration of war by Austria against France. This important document, styled a manifesto, began with adverting to the part which Austria had been compelled to take in the wars that for twenty years past had desolated Europe, during which his Imperial Majesty's only object had been selfpreservation, and the maintenance of the social system, without any views of conquest or aggrandizement. He then took notice of the cession of his provinces on the Adriatic, which was the result of the war of 1809, and which would have been a still more sensible blow, had not at the same time the whole continent been closed by a general destructive system probibiting all commercial intercourse. Convinced of the impossibility in the existing state of Europe of any improvement in its political condition from the exertions of individual powers, and that a peace of some continuance was necessary for the restoration of his own and the neighbouring states, he made a sacritice of what was dearest to his heart, and "exalted above all common scruples,"

consented to an alliance which might incline the stronger, and victorious party to a course of moderation and justice; an effect which he had the more reason to expect, as at that time the Emperor Napoleon had attained that point at which the preservation of his conquests was a more natural obs ject than a struggle after new possessions. In 1810, however, he resolved to unite a considerable portion of the north of Gere many, with the free cities of Hamburg. Bremen, and Lubeck, to the mass of the French empire, with out any other pretext than that the war with England required it. The manifesto proceeds to make a number of observations on the effects of this usurpation, particularly on the alarm it might justly excite in Prussia and Russia, and consi. ders it decisive of a future rupture between Russia and France. It then touches, in the way of apology, upon the part Austria had been obliged to take in the war with Russia, and on the events of that war. Its result was a confederacy which presented a point of union to the neighbouring states; and in all parts of Germany the desires of the people anticipated the proceedings of their governments. The Austrian cabinet, as far back as December, took steps to dispose the French emperor to peaceful policy, but to all its advances the answer was that he would listen to no proposals of peace that should violate the integrity of the French empire, in the French sense of the word. This was the more mortifying to Austria, as it placed her invitations to peace, made with the consent of France, to other courts, in a false and disadvantageous

advantageous light; and when a minister was sent to London to invite England to share in a nego. ciation for peace, the British ministry replied, "that they could not believe that Austria still entertained hopes of peace, when the Emperor Napoleon at the same time expressed sentiments which could only tend to the perpetuation of war." It now became evident that either by negociation or by force of arms a new state of things must be effected. Austria made preparations for war, which even Napoleon acknowledged to be necessary. The actions which brought on the retreat of the allies, and the armistice, rendered it still more impossible for the Emperor of Austria to remain an inactive spectator. The state of the Prussian monarchy, in particular, attracted his attention, its restoration being the first step towards that of the political system of Europe. As early as the month of April Napoleon had suggested to the Austrian cabinet that he regarded the dissolution of that monarchy as a natural consequence of its defection from France, and that it now only depended on Austria to add the most. flourishing of its provinces to her own state, a sufficient indication that no means were to be neglected to save that power either by negociation or arms. The manifesto then takes notice of the congress of Prague, which, when first proposed by Napoleon, was perfectly unknown to the Austrian cabinet, which became acquainted with it only by the medium of the public papers. It states the reasons for the Emperor's concurrence in this project, and his acceptar ee of the VOL. LV..

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office of mediator, with the protraction of the armistice. Another i attempt for including the British government in the negociation is. then mentioned, to which Napoleon at first gave his approbation, but after various delays, finally re- • fused to grant passports to the persons who were to proceed through « France to England for the purpose. Other circumstances are then mentioned to shew that France was disinclined to take any serious atep to facilitate a treaty. At length, "the congress was at an end, and the resolution which Austria had to form was previously determined, by the progress of the negociation, : by the actual conviction of the impossibility of peace, by the no longer doubtful point of view in which his Majesty examined the great question in dispute, by the principles and intentions of the allies, wherein the Emperor recog-: nised his own, and finally, by the former positive declarations, which left no room for misconception."

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Such was the general substance of this state paper, in which, i though ably drawn up, may be dis- · cerned the difficulty of conciliating the past measures of a temporising policy, with the principles of justice, and regard to the public good, which are represented as having dictated so important a change. It is manifest, however, that, as iu the case of Prussia, the new prospects opened of freeing the European continent from an overwhelming power, wielded by iusatiable ambition, were the real motives which induced Austria to: desert her connection with France, and join the allies; and if an apo logy were necessary for this con[K]

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