The Decrees of Berlin--Napoleon renews the campaign--Warsaw
taken--Enthusiasm of the Poles--Retreat of the Russians--Battle of
Pultusk--The French go into winter quarters--Battle of
Preuss-Eylau--Taking of Dantzick--Battle of
Friedland--Armistice--Expeditions of the English to Calabria,
Constantinople, Egypt, and Buenos Ayres--Peace of Tilsit.
Napoleon had achieved the total humiliation of the Prussian monarchy in
a campaign of a week's duration: yet severe as the exertions of his army
had been, and splendid his success, and late as the season was now
advanced, there ensued no pause of inaction: the Emperor himself
remained but a few days in Berlin.
This brief residence, however, was distinguished by the issue of the
famous _decrees of Berlin_; those extraordinary edicts by which
Buonaparte hoped to sap the foundations of the power of England--the one
power which he had no means of assailing by his apparently irresistible
arms.
Napoleon declared the British Islands to be in a state of blockade: any
intercourse with that country was henceforth to be a crime; all her
citizens found in any country in alliance with France to be prisoners;
every article of English produce or manufacture, wherever discovered, to
be confiscated. In a word, wherever France had power, the slightest
communication with England was henceforth to be treason against the
majesty of Napoleon; and every coast of Europe was to be lined with new
armies of _douaniers_ and _gens-d'armes_, for the purpose of carrying
into effect what he called "the continental system."
He had long meditated the organisation of this system, and embraced, as
a favourable opportunity for its promulgation, the moment which saw him
at length predominant in the North of Germany, and thus, in effect,
master of the whole coasts of Europe from the mouth of the Oder round to
the Adriatic Gulf. The system, however, could not be carried into
effect, because from long habit the manufactured goods and colonial
produce of Britain had come to be necessaries of life among every
civilised people of the world; and consequently every private citizen
found his own domestic comforts invaded by the decree, which avowedly
aimed only at the revenues of the English crown. Every man, therefore,
was under continual temptation, each in his own sphere and method, to
violate the decrees of Berlin. The custom-house officers were exposed to
bribes which their virtue could not resist. Even the most attached of
Napoleon's own functionaries connived at the universal spirit of
evasion--his brothers themselves, in their respective dominions, could
not help sympathising with their subjects, and winking at the methods of
relief to which they were led by necessity, the mother of invention. The
severe police, however, which was formed everywhere as a necessary part
of the machinery for carrying these edicts into execution--the insolence
of the innumerable spies and informers whom they set in motion--and the
actual deprivation of usual comforts, in so far as it existed--all these
circumstances conspired to render the name of the Berlin decrees odious
throughout Europe and in France itself. It may be added that the
original conception of Napoleon was grounded on a mistaken opinion, to
which, however, he always clung--namely, that England derives all her
strength from her foreign commerce. Great as that commerce was, and
great as, in spite of him, it continued to be, it never was anything but
a trifle when compared with the internal traffic and resources of Great
Britain--a country not less distinguished above other nations for its
agricultural industry, than for its commercial.
Napoleon received at Berlin a deputation of his Senate, sent from Paris
to congratulate him on the successes of his campaign. To them he
announced these celebrated decrees: he made them the bearers of the
trophies of his recent victories, and, moreover, of a demand for the
immediate levying of 80,000 men, being the _first_ conscription for the
year 1808--that for the year 1807 having been already anticipated. The
subservient Senate recorded and granted whatever their master pleased to
dictate; but the cost of human life which Napoleon's ambition demanded
had begun, ere this time, to be seriously thought of in France. He,
meanwhile, prepared, without further delay, to extinguish the feeble
spark of resistance which still lingered in a few garrisons of the
Prussian Monarchy, beyond the Oder: and to meet, before they could
reach the soil of Germany, those Russian legions which were now
advancing, too late, to the assistance of Frederick William. That
unfortunate Prince sent Lucchesini to Berlin, to open, if possible, a
negotiation with the victorious occupant of his capital and palace; but
Buonaparte demanded Dantzick, and two other fortified towns, as the
price of even the briefest armistice; and the Italian envoy returned to
inform the King, that no hope remained for him except in the arrival of
the Russians.
Napoleon held in his hands the means of opening his campaign with those
allies of Prussia, under circumstances involving his enemy in a new, and
probably endless train of difficulties. The Partition of Poland--that
great political crime, for which every power that had a part in it has
since been severely, though none of them adequately punished--had left
the population of what had once been a great and powerful kingdom, in a
state of discontent and irritation, of which, had Napoleon been willing
to make full use of it, the fruits might have been more dangerous for
the Czar than any campaign against any foreign enemy. The French Emperor
had but to announce distinctly that his purpose was the restoration of
Poland as an independent state, and the whole mass, of an eminently
gallant and warlike population would have risen instantly at his call.
But Buonaparte was withheld from resorting to this effectual means of
annoyance by various considerations; of which the chief were these:
first, he could not emancipate Poland without depriving Austria of a
rich and important province, and consequently provoking her once more
into the field: and secondly, he foresaw that the Russian Emperor, if
threatened with the destruction of his Polish territory and authority,
would urge the war in a very different manner from that which he was
likely to adopt while acting only as the ally of Prussia. In a word,
Napoleon was well aware of the extent of the Czar's resources, and had
no wish at this time to give a character of irremediable bitterness to
their quarrel.
Though, however, he for these and other reasons refrained from openly
appealing in his own person to the Poles as a nation, Buonaparte had no
scruple about permitting others to tamper, in his behalf, with the
justly indignant feelings of the people. Some of the heroic leaders of
the Poles, in the struggles for their expiring independence, had long
been exiles in France--not a few of them had taken service in her
armies. These men were allowed, and encouraged, to address themselves to
the body of their countrymen, in language which could hardly fail to
draw eager and enthusiastic recruits to the French standard, and
increase mightily the perplexities of the Russian counsels. Nor did
Napoleon scruple to authorise the circulation of an appeal of like
tendency, bearing _falsely_[56] the venerated signature of Kosciusko.
"Dear countrymen and friends," said the forgery, "arise! the Great
Nation is before you--Napoleon expects, and Kosciusko calls on you. We
are under the AEgis of the Monarch who vanquishes difficulties as if by
miracles, and the re-animation of Poland is too glorious an achievement
not to have been reserved for him by the Eternal." Dombrowski and
Wibichi, two Polish officers in Buonaparte's own army, sent forward from
Berlin, on the 8th of the same month, a proclamation, which commenced in
these words:--"Poles! Napoleon, the Great, the Invincible, enters Poland
with an army of 300,000 men. Without wishing to fathom the mystery of
his views, let us strive to merit his magnanimity. _I will see_ (he has
said to us) _whether you deserve to be a nation._ Poles! it depends then
on yourselves to exert a national spirit, and possess a country. Your
avenger, your restorer is here. Crowd from all quarters to his presence,
as children in tears hasten to behold a succouring father. Present to
him your hearts, your arms. Rise to a man, and prove that you do not
grudge your blood to your country!" Lastly, in one of Napoleon's own
bulletins, the following ominous sentences were permitted to
appear:--"Shall the Polish throne be re-established, and shall the Great
Nation secure for it respect and independence? Shall she recall it to
life from the grave? God only, who directs all human affairs, can
resolve this great mystery!" These appeals produced various eager
addresses from Poland--and Buonaparte prepared to visit that country,
though not as her liberator.
Before re-opening the great campaign, Buonaparte received the submission
and explanation of the Elector of Saxony, who truly stated that Prussia
had forced him to take part in the war. The apology was accepted, and
from this time the Elector adhered to the League of the Rhine, and was a
faithful ally of Napoleon. The Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel had worse
fortune. The answer to all his applications was, that he had ceased to
reign. What use the Conqueror designed to make of the territories thus
confiscated, we shall presently see. The Saxon army, and that of
Hesse-Cassel, were both, however, at his disposal, and they both
accordingly were marched forwards, and blended with the forces occupying
Prussia.
The French, having invested Glogau, Breslau, and Graudentz, and left
detachments to urge these sieges, moved towards the Polish frontier.
General Bennigsen, with a considerable Russian army, had advanced to
overawe the dissatisfied population, and was now at Warsaw. But the
march of the French van, under Murat, soon alarmed him in these
quarters. After some skirmishes of little moment the Russians retired
behind the Vistula, and Murat took possession of the Polish metropolis
on the 28th of November. On the 25th Napoleon himself had reached Posen,
and found himself surrounded by a population in a high state of
excitement and enthusiasm. The ancient national dress reappeared: hope
and exultation beamed in every countenance; the old nobles, quitting the
solitary castles in which they had been lamenting over the downfall of
Poland, crowded the levees of the Victor, and addressed him in language
which recalled the half-oriental character and manners of their nation.
"We adore you," said the Palatine of Gnesna, "and with confidence repose
in you all our hopes, as upon him who raises empires and destroys them,
and humbles the proud--the regenerator of our country, the legislator of
the universe." "Already," said the President of the Council of Justice,
"already our country is saved, for we adore in your person the most just
and the most profound Solon. We commit our fate into your hands, and
implore the protection of the most august Caesar."
Having largely recruited his armies with brave Poles, who fancied him
both a Solon and Caesar, Napoleon now moved forwards. General Bennigsen
found himself under the necessity of abandoning first the line of the
Vistula, and then that of the Bug, and, the French still advancing in
numbers not to be resisted by his division, at length threw himself
behind the river Wkra, where Kaminskoy, the Russian commander-in-chief,
and three other divisions of the army, had by this time taken their
ground. On the 23rd of December Napoleon reached and crossed the Wkra,
and Kaminskoy ordered his whole army to fall back upon the line of the
Niemen. Bennigsen accordingly retired towards Pultusk, Galitzin upon
Golymin, both followed by great bodies of the French, and both
sustaining with imperturbable patience and gallantry the severity of a
march through probably the very worst roads in Europe, and of frequent
skirmishes with their pursuers. But the minor divisions of D'Anrep and
Bexhouden retreated without keeping up the requisite communications with
either Bennigsen or Galitzin, and consequently suffered considerably,
though the matter was grossly exaggerated in the French bulletins.
Bennigsen, in spite of Kaminskoy's orders to retreat at all hazards,
made a stand, and a most gallant one at Pultusk. Having his left in that
town, and his right on a wood, the general conceived his position to be
too favourable for speedy abandonment, and on the 26th of December
expected the onset of Lannes, Davoust, and the imperial guard of France.
They charged with their usual impetuosity, and drove the Russian right
wing, under General Barclay de Tolly, out of the wood; but Bennigsen
skilfully availed himself of this occurrence; by his orders Barclay de
Tolly retired much further than was necessary for his own safety, and
the French, advancing unguardedly, found themselves confronted on very
unfavourable ground with the Russian main body, which had now been
arranged on a new line of battle, and of a battery of 120 guns, placed
so as to command their march with terrible efficacy. The result was that
the Russians lost 5000 in killed and wounded, the French 8000--one of
their wounded being Marshal Lannes himself; and the French drew back
from the hardly contested field with such haste, that all next day the
advancing Cossacks sought in vain for their rear-guard. On the same day,
and with nearly as much success, Prince Galitzin halted also, and
awaited and repelled his pursuers at Golymin; and had either Bennigsen
or Galitzin been supported by the other divisions which were doing
nothing within a few miles of their respective marches, these events
might have been improved so as to involve the French army in great and
immediate perplexity. But in truth, the total want of plan and
combination on the part of Kaminskoy was by this time apparent to the
veriest tyro in his camp. Symptoms of actual insanity appeared shortly
afterwards, and the chief command was transferred, with universal
approbation, to Bennigsen.
The affairs of Pultusk and Golymin, however, were productive of
excellent effects. They raised to a high pitch the spirits of the
Russian soldiery; and they afforded Napoleon such a specimen of the
character of his new enemy, that instead of pursuing the campaign, as he
had announced in his bulletins, he thought fit to retire, and place his
troops in winter quarters. He himself took up his residence at Warsaw,
and the army occupied cantonments in various towns to the eastward.
But General Bennigsen, having proved at Pultusk what Russian troops
could do when under a determined commander, no sooner found himself at
the head of an army of nearly 100,000 men, than he resolved to disturb
the French in their quarters, and at all events give them such
occupation as might enable the King of Prussia to revictual Konigsberg,
where the few troops, gathered round that unfortunate sovereign, were
already beginning to suffer many privations. With this view Bennigsen
advanced as far as Mohrungen, where the French sustained considerable
damage in a skirmish, and from whence his Cossacks spread themselves
abroad over the country--creating such confusion, that the leaguer of
Konigsberg being for the moment relaxed, the Prussian garrison received
welcome supplies of all kinds, and Napoleon himself perceived the
necessity of breaking up his cantonments, and once more concentrating
the army for active war.
His design was to occupy Willensberg, to the rear of the great Russian
camp at Mohrungen; thus cutting off the new enemy's communications with
his own means of resource, in the same manner which had proved so fatal
to the Austrians at Ulm, and the Prussians at Jena. But Bennigsen,
having learned the plan from an intercepted despatch, immediately
countermarched his army with masterly skill, and thus involved Napoleon
in a long series of manoeuvres, not to be executed in such a country at
that dismal season without the extremity of hardship. The Russians
themselves, inured as they were to northern climates, and incapable of
even dreaming that a soldier could seek safety in flight, were reduced
to the border of frenzy by the privations of these long marches. Their
commissariat was wretched: the soldiers had often no food, except such
frozen roots as they could dig out of the ground; and, tortured with
toil and famine, they at length demanded battle so vehemently, that,
against his own judgment, General Bennigsen consented to grant the
prayer. He selected the town of Preuss-Eylau, and a strong position
behind it, as his field of battle; and--after two skirmishes, one at
Landsberg, the other nearer the chosen ground, in the former of which
the French, in the latter the Russians, had the advantage,--the whole
army reached Preuss-Eylau on the 7th of February.
In the confusion of so great a movement, a division designed by
Bennigsen to occupy the town itself, misunderstood the order, and
evacuated it at the approach of the enemy's van. The French took
possession of the place accordingly, and--General Bennigsen commanding
it to be regained, as soon as he learned the mistake that had
occurred--the whole day was spent in severe fighting within the town,
which was taken and retaken several times, and at the fall of night
remained in the hands of the French. On either side the loss had been
very great, and Napoleon coming up in person, perceived that the contest
must needs be renewed at daybreak. The night was clear, and he could
trace the enemy's line darkening the whole of an admirably selected
position, between which and the dearly contested town, a level space
covered with snow, and two or three small frozen lakes, glittered in the
mingled light of an unclouded moon and innumerable watch-fires.
The great battle of PREUSS-EYLAU was fought on the 8th of February. At
dawn of day the French charged at two different points in strong
columns, and were unable to shake the iron steadiness of the infantry,
while the Russian horse, and especially the Cossacks under their gallant
Hetman Platoff, made fearful execution on each division, as successively
they drew back from their vain attempt. A fierce storm arose at mid-day:
the snow drifted right in the eyes of the Russians; the village of
Serpallen, on their left, caught fire, and the smoke also rolled dense
upon them. Davoust skilfully availed himself of the opportunity, and
turned their flank so rapidly, that Serpallen was lost, and the left
wing compelled to wheel backwards so as to form almost at right angles
with the rest of the line. The Prussian corps of L'Estocq, a small but
determined fragment of the campaign of Jena, appeared at this critical
moment in the rear of the Russian left; and, charging with such
gallantry as had in former times been expected from the soldiery of the
Great Frederick, drove back Davoust and restored the Russian line. The
action continued for many hours along the whole line--the French
attacked boldly, the Russians driving them back with unfailing
resolution. Ney, and a fresh division, at length came up, and succeeded
in occupying the village of Schloditten, on the road to Konigsberg. To
regain this, and thereby recover the means of communicating with the
King of Prussia, was deemed necessary; and it was carried accordingly at
the point of the bayonet. This was at ten o'clock at night. So ended the
longest and by far the severest battle in which Buonaparte had as yet
been engaged. The French are supposed to have had 90,000 men under arms
at its commencement; the Russians not more than 60,000. After fourteen
hours of fighting, either army occupied the same position as in the
morning. Twelve of Napoleon's eagles were in the hands of Bennigsen, and
the field between was covered with 50,000 corpses, of whom at least half
were French.
Either leader claimed the victory; Bennigsen exhibiting as proof of his
success the twelve eagles which his army, admitted to be inferior in
numbers, bore off the field: Buonaparte, that he kept possession of the
field, while the enemy retired, the very night after the battle, from
Eylau towards Konigsberg. It was, in truth, a drawn battle; and to have
found an equal was sufficient bitterness to Napoleon. The Russian
general-in-chief had retreated, in opposition to the opinion of most of
his council, out of anxiety for the personal safety of the King of
Prussia at Konigsberg, and desire to recruit his army ere another great
action should be hazarded. The French, triumphant as was the language of
their bulletins, made no effort to pursue. Bennigsen conducted his army
in perfect order to Konigsberg, and the Cossacks issuing from that city
continued for more than a week to waste the country according to their
pleasure, without any show of opposition from the French. But the best
proof how severely Napoleon had felt the struggle of Preuss-Eylau, is to
be found in a communication which he made to Frederick William, on the
13th of February, five days after the battle, offering him, in effect,
the complete, or nearly complete restoration of his dominions, provided
he would accept of a separate peace: with the king's answer; namely,
that it was impossible for him to enter on any treaty unless the Czar
were a party in it. Finally, on the 19th of February, Napoleon left
Eylau, and retreated with his whole army on the Vistula; satisfied that
it would be fatal rashness to engage in another campaign in Poland,
while several fortified towns, and, above all, Dantzick, held out in his
rear; and determined to have possession of these places, and to summon
new forces from France, ere he should again meet in the field such an
enemy as the Russian had proved to be.
Dantzick was defended with the more desperate resolution, because it was
expected that, as soon as the season permitted, an English fleet and
army would certainly be sent to its relief. But the besiegers having a
prodigious superiority of numbers, and conducting the siege with every
advantage of skill, the place was at length compelled to surrender, on
the 7th of May; after which event, Napoleon's extraordinary exertions in
hurrying supplies from France, Switzerland and the Rhine country, and
the addition of the division of 25,000, which had captured Dantzick,
enabled him to take the field again at the head of not less than 280,000
men. The Russian general also had done what was in his power to recruit
his army during this interval; but his utmost zeal could effect no more
than bringing his muster up again to its original point--90,000; the
chief blame lying, as it was alleged, with the coldness of the English
cabinet, who, instead of lavishing gold on the Emperor of Russia, as had
been done in other similar cases, were with difficulty persuaded to
grant him at this critical time, so small a supply as L80,000. Russia
has men to any amount at her command; but the poverty of the national
purse renders it at all times very difficult for her to maintain a large
army in a distant contest.
Bennigsen, nevertheless, was the first to reappear in the field. In the
beginning of June he attacked Ney's division stationed at Gustadt, and
pursued them to Deppen, where, on the 8th, a smart action took place,
and Napoleon arrived in person to support his troops. The Russians were
then forced to retire towards Heilsberg, where they halted, and
maintained their position, during a whole day, in the face of an enemy
prodigiously superior in numbers. The carnage on both sides was fearful;
and Bennigsen, continuing his retreat, placed the river Aller between
him and Napoleon.
The French Emperor now exerted all his art to draw the Russian into a
general action: the resistance he had met with had surprised and enraged
him, and he was eager to overpower and extinguish Bennigsen before
further supplies of these hardy Muscovities should come up to swell his
ranks. The Russian general was on the eastern bank of the Aller,
opposite to the town of Friedland, when Buonaparte once more came up
with him on the 13th of June. There was a long and narrow wooden bridge
over the river, close by, which might have been destroyed if not
defended; and Napoleon's object was to induce Bennigsen, instead of
abiding by his position, to abandon its advantages, pass over to the
western bank, and accept battle with the town and river in his rear. His
crafty management outwitted the Russian, who, being persuaded that the
troops which appeared in front of him were only a small division of the
French army, was tempted to send some regiments over the river for the
purpose of chastising them. The French, sometimes retreating, and then
again returning to the combat, the Russians were by degrees induced to
cross in greater numbers; until at length Bennigsen found himself and
his whole army on the western bank, with the town and bridge in their
rear--thus completely entrapped in the snare laid for him by his enemy.
On the 14th of June, under circumstances thus disadvantageous, the
Russian general was compelled to accept battle. His army occupied open
ground; the intricate and narrow streets of the town of Friedland, and
the bridge behind it, appeared to be his only means of retreat in case
of misadventure; and in front, and on either flank, extended those woods
which had covered Buonaparte's stratagems of the preceding day, and
which now afforded complete shelter to the Imperial army--the means of
attacking from whatever point they might select--and of retiring with
safety as often as it might be found advisable.
The battle commenced at ten in the morning, and the Russians stood their
ground with unbroken resolution until between four and five in the
evening; sustaining numberless charges of foot and horse, and exposed
all the while to a murderous cannonade. At length Napoleon put himself
at the head of the French line, and commanded a general assault of all
arms, which was executed with overpowering effect. Having lost full
12,000 men, General Bennigsen was at last compelled to attempt a
retreat; the French poured after him into the town: the first Russian
division which forced the passage of the river destroyed the bridge
behind them in their terror; and the rest of the army escaped by means
of deep and dangerous fords, which, desperate as the resource they
afforded was, had been discovered only in the moment of necessity.
Nevertheless such were the coolness and determination of the Russians,
that they saved all their baggage, and lost only seventeen cannon; and
such was the impression which their obstinate valour left on the enemy,
that their retreat towards the Niemen was performed without any show of
molestation.
The results of the battle of Friedland were, however, as great as could
have been expected from any victory. On the retreat of Bennigsen towards
the Niemen, the unfortunate King of Prussia, evacuating Konigsberg,
where he now perceived it must be impossible to maintain himself, sought
a last and precarious shelter in the seaport of Memel; and the Emperor
Alexander, overawed by the genius of Napoleon, which had triumphed over
troops more resolute than had ever before opposed him, and alarmed for
the consequence of some decisive measure towards the re-organisation of
the Poles as a nation, began to think seriously of peace. Buonaparte, on
his part also, had many reasons for being anxious to bring hostilities
to a close. The Swedish king was in Pomerania, besieging Stralsund, and
hourly expecting reinforcements from England, which might have ended in
a formidable diversion in the rear of the French army. Schill, an able
partizan, was in arms in Prussia, where the general discontent was such,
that nothing by opportunity seemed wanting for a national insurrection
against the conquerors. The further advance of the French towards the
north could hardly have failed to afford such an opportunity. Neither
could this be executed, to all appearance, without involving the
necessity of proclaiming the independence of Poland; thereby giving a
character of mortal rancour to the war with Russia, and, in all
likelihood, calling Austria once more into the field. Under such
circumstances the minds of Napoleon and Alexander were equally disposed
towards negotiation: General Bennigsen sent, on the 21st of June, to
demand an armistice; and to this proposal the victor of Friedland
yielded immediate assent.
In truth over and above the parsimony of the court of St. James in
regard to subsidies, the recent conduct of the war on the part of
England had been so ill-judged, and on the whole so unfortunate, that
the Czar might be excused for desiring to escape from that alliance.
Almost the only occasion on which the character of the British arms had
been gloriously maintained, was the battle of Maida, in Calabria, fought
July the 4th, 1806--when Sir John Stuart and 7000 English soldiers
encountered a superior French force under General Regnier, and drove
them from the field with great loss. This was one of those rare
occasions on which French and English troops have actually crossed
bayonets--the steadiness of the latter inspired the former with panic,
and they fled in confusion. But this occurrence, except for its moral
influence on the English soldiery, was of small importance. General
Stuart had been sent to support the Calabrian peasantry in an
insurrection against Joseph Buonaparte; the insurgents were on the whole
unable to stand their ground against the regular army of the intrusive
king; and the English, soon after their fruitless victory, altogether
withdrew. The British had, indeed, taken possession of Curacao, and of
the Cape of Good Hope (this last an acquisition of the highest moment to
the Indian empire); but on the whole the ill success of our measures had
been answerable to the narrow and shallow system of policy in which they
originated--the system of frittering away blood and gold upon detached
objects, instead of rallying the whole resources of the empire around
some one great leader for some one great purpose. The British
expeditions of this period to the Turkish dominions and to Spanish
America were especially distinguished for narrowness of design,
imbecility of execution, and consequent misadventure.
On the assumption of the Imperial dignity by Napoleon, the Ottoman
Porte, dazzled by the apparently irresistible splendour of his fate,
sent an embassy to congratulate him; and in effect the ancient alliance
between France and Turkey was re-established. Napoleon consequently had
little difficulty in procuring from Constantinople a declaration of war
against Russia, the great hereditary enemy of the Turk, at the time when
he was about to encounter the armies of the Czar in Poland. The
Dardanelles were shut against Russian vessels; and the English
government, considering this as sufficient evidence that the Grand
Seignior was attaching himself to the Antibritannic Confederacy,
despatched a squadron of ships under Admiral Duckworth, in February,
1807, with orders to force the passage of the Dardanelles, present
themselves before Constantinople, and demand from the Porte the custody
_pro tempore_ of all her ships of war. The Turks negotiated for a week
upon this proposal, but in the meantime increased and manned their
fortifications, under the direction of French engineers, with such
skill, that the English admiral began to be seriously alarmed for his
own safety; and at length, on the 1st of March, effected his retreat
through the Straits with considerable loss--this disgrace being the only
result of his expedition. On the 20th of the same month (of March, 1807)
another English expedition under General Fraser, having sailed from
Sicily to Egypt, took possession of Alexandria. But every subsequent
step they took proved unfortunate: after severe loss the English were
compelled to enter into a convention with the Turks, and wholly evacuate
Egypt on the 20th of September.
In January, 1807, an English expedition landed near Montevideo, and
carried that city by assault. Sir Home Popham, the admiral, was
recalled, and tried by a court-martial, on the ground that he had
undertaken this warfare without due authority; but he escaped with a
reprimand, and new reinforcements were sent out, first under General
Crawford, and secondly under General Whitelocke. The last-named officer
invested Buenos Ayres, and commanded a general assault of that town on
the 5th of July; on which occasion, notwithstanding the excellent
behaviour of the soldiery, he was repulsed with a loss of 2000 killed,
wounded, and prisoners; and reduced to such extremity, that he was soon
afterwards glad to enter into a convention, and wholly withdraw the
armament. The timid and incompetent Whitelocke was tried and cashiered.
Some of these disasters were unknown at the time when Bennigsen demanded
an armistice; but the general ill success of the British expeditions was
notorious, and produced without doubt a very serious impression on the
mind of Alexander.
The armistice was ratified on the 23rd of June, and on the 25th the
Emperors of France and Russia met personally, each accompanied by a few
attendants, on a raft moored on the river Niemen, near the town of
Tilsit. The sovereigns embraced each other, and retiring under a canopy
had a long conversation, to which no one was a witness. At its
termination the appearances of mutual goodwill and confidence were
marked: immediately afterwards the town of Tilsit was neutralised, and
the two Emperors established their courts there, and lived together, in
the midst of the lately hostile armies, more like old friends who had
met on a party of pleasure, than enemies and rivals attempting by
diplomatic means the arrangement of differences which had for years been
deluging Europe with blood. Whatever flatteries could be suggested by
the consummate genius and mature experience of Napoleon, were lavished,
and produced their natural effects, on the mind of a young autocrat, of
great ambition, and as great vanity. The intercourse of the Emperors
assumed by degrees the appearance of a brotherlike intimacy. They spent
their mornings in reviewing each other's troops, or in unattended rides;
their evenings seemed to be devoted to the pleasures of the table, the
spectacle, music, dancing and gallantry. Meanwhile the terms of a future
alliance were in effect discussed, and settled much more rapidly than
could have been expected from any of the usual apparatus of diplomatic
negotiation.
The unfortunate King of Prussia was invited to appear at Tilsit; but,
complying with this invitation, was admitted to no share of the intimacy
of Napoleon. The conqueror studiously, and on every occasion, marked the
difference between his sentiments respecting this prince and the young
and powerful sovereign, for whose sake alone any shadow of royalty was
to be conceded to the fallen house of Brandenburg. The beautiful and
fascinating queen also arrived at Tilsit; but she was treated even more
coldly and harshly than her husband. Involuntary tears rushed from her
eyes as she submitted to the contemptuous civilities of Napoleon. His
behaviour to this admirable person rekindled with new fervour the wrath
and hatred of every Prussian bosom; and her death, following soon
afterwards, and universally attributed to the cruel laceration which all
her feelings as a woman and a queen had undergone, was treasured as a
last injury, demanding, at whatever hazard, a terrible expiation.
The Treaty of Tilsit, to which, as the document itself bore testimony,
the King of Prussia was admitted as a party solely by reason of
Napoleon's "esteem for the Emperor of Russia," was ratified on the 7th
July. Napoleon restored, by this act, to Frederick William, Ancient
Prussia, and the French conquests in Upper Saxony--the King agreeing to
adopt "the continental system," in other words, to be henceforth the
vassal of the conqueror. The Polish provinces of Prussia were erected
into a separate principality, styled "the Grand Duchy of Warsaw," and
bestowed on the Elector of Saxony; with the exception, however, of some
territories assigned to Russia, and of Dantzick, which was declared a
free city, to be garrisoned by French troops until the ratification of a
maritime peace. The Prussian dominions in Lower Saxony and on the Rhine,
with Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, and various other small states, formed a new
kingdom of Westphalia, of which Jerome Buonaparte, Napoleon's youngest
brother, was recognised as King; Jerome having at length made his peace
with his brother by repudiating his wife, an American lady of the name
of Patterson, and consenting to a new alliance, more consonant with the
views of the Emperor, with a daughter of the King of Wirtemberg. The
Elector of Saxony was recognised as another _King_ of Napoleon's
creation; Joseph Buonaparte as King of Naples; and Louis, of Holland.
Finally, Russia accepted the mediation of France for a peace with
Turkey, and France that of Russia for a peace with England.
Such were the public articles of the peace of Tilsit; but it contained
secret articles besides; and of these the English government were, ere
long, fortunate enough to ascertain the import.
The British cabinet had undergone a complete change in March, 1807--the
management of affairs passing from the friends and heirs of Mr. Fox into
the hands of Mr. Perceval and other statesmen of the school of Pitt. The
unhappy conduct of the war had rendered the preceding government
eminently unpopular; and the measures of the new one assumed from the
beginning a character of greater energy. But the orders which had been
given must be fulfilled; and the councils of 1806 bequeathed a fatal
legacy in the disastrous expeditions of 1807. Lord Granville Leveson
Gower[57] (the minister at St. Petersburg) was ere this time prepared to
offer to the Czar such subsidies as he had in vain expected when
preparing for the campaign of Poland; but it was too late to retrieve
the error of the preceding cabinet; and the English ambassador, being
unable to break off the negotiations at Tilsit, was compelled to bestow
all his efforts on penetrating the secrets of the compact wherein they
ended.
The result of his exertions was the complete assurance of the government
of St. James's, that the Emperor of Russia had adopted the alliance of
Napoleon to an extent far beyond what appeared on the face of the treaty
of the 7th July; that he had agreed not only to lay English commerce, in
case his mediation for a peace should fail, under the same ban with that
of the decrees of Berlin, but to place himself at the head of a general
confederation of the Northern Maritime Powers against the naval
supremacy of England--in other words, resign his own fleets, with those
of Denmark, to the service of Napoleon. In requital of this obligation
the French Emperor unquestionably agreed to permit the Czar to conquer
Finland from Sweden--thereby adding immeasurably to the security of St.
Petersburg. On the other hand it is almost as impossible to doubt that
Alexander pledged himself not to interfere with those ambitious designs
as to the Spanish Peninsula, which Napoleon was ere long to develop, and
which were destined ultimately to work his ruin.
In a word, there seems to be little doubt that Napoleon broached at
Tilsit the dazzling scheme of dividing the European world virtually
between the two great monarchs of France and Russia: and that the Czar,
provided he were willing to look on, while his Imperial brother of the
West subjected Spain, Portugal and England to his yoke, was induced to
count on equal forbearance, whatever schemes he might venture on for his
own aggrandisement, at the expense of the smaller states of the North of
Europe, and, above all, of the Ottoman Porte.
[Footnote 56: Kosciusko himself subsequently disavowed any knowledge of
the production.]
[Footnote 57: Afterwards first Earl Granville.]