THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. (_continued_).
The Ministry of "All the Talents"--Fox informs Napoleon of a
supposed Scheme for his Assassination--Futile Negotiations for
Peace--Windham's Army Bills--Resolutions against the Slave Trade
passed--Inquiry into the Conduct of the Princess of Wales--British
Expeditions: Stuart in Calabria--Battle of Maida--Continued
Resistance of the Neapolitans--Recapture of the Cape of Good
Hope--Expedition to Buenos Ayres--Naval Successes: Victories of
Duckworth, Warren, and Hood--Cochrane's Daredevilry--Napoleon's
subject Kingdoms--Prussia makes Complaints--Napoleon prepares
for War--Murder of Palm--Isolation of Prussia--Imbecility of
their Plan of Campaign--Battle of Jena--Napoleon in Berlin--He
seizes Brunswick--Complete Subjugation of Germany--Settlement of
Germany--The Berlin Decrees--Napoleon rouses the Poles--Campaign
against Benningsen--Death of Fox--Ministerial Changes--Votes
in Supply--An Administrative Scandal--Abolition of the Slave
Trade--Measures of Roman Catholic Relief--Dismissal of the
Grenville Ministry--The Duke of Portland's Cabinet--Hostile Motions
in Parliament--The General Election--Irish Coercion Bills--Failure
of the Expeditions planned by the late Ministry: Buenos Ayres--The
Expedition to the Dardanelles--Expedition to Alexandria--Attack
on Rosetta--Withdrawal of the Expedition--War between Russia and
Turkey--Secret Articles of the Treaty of Tilsit--Bombardment
of Copenhagen and Capture of the Danish Fleet--Seizure of
Heligoland--The Campaign in Europe--Battle of Eylau--Benningsen's
Retreat--Napoleon on the Vistula--Fall of Dantzic--Battle of
Friedland--Alexander resolves to make Peace--The Meeting on the
Niemen--Treaty of Tilsit.
Pitt dead, there remained a difficulty of no ordinary kind in the
construction of a new Cabinet. Various persons were applied to to fill
the arduous post of prime minister, who all declined, knowing the
powerful opposition which would be arrayed against them by coalescing
parties. Amongst these were Lord Hawkesbury, Sidmouth, and the Marquis
Wellesley, who had just returned from India. There was nothing for
it, then, but to endeavour to diminish the opposition of all parties
by bringing in some of all parties, and hence the construction of the
Ministry of "All the Talents." Grenville assumed the helm as First Lord
of the Treasury, and, of course, brought in Fox, notwithstanding the
repugnance of the king. Fox became Secretary for Foreign Affairs--Fox,
who had so long and so vehemently condemned the whole of Pitt's
foreign policy. Sidmouth, though refusing the responsibility of the
Premiership, accepted the office of Privy Seal; Lord Fitzwilliam became
Lord President of the Council; Grey, now Lord Howick, First Lord of the
Admiralty; Lord Moira, Master-General of the Ordnance; Lord Spencer,
Secretary of State for the Home Department; Windham, Secretary for the
Colonies; Lord Henry Petty, Chancellor of the Exchequer; Erskine, Lord
Chancellor; and Sir Gilbert Elliot, now made Lord Minto, President of
the Board of Control. Sheridan was not placed in the Cabinet, because
he had not been found staunch to any party, and because, in his daily
drunken fits, he was likely to disclose State secrets--as if, said
he, there were any secrets to be disclosed. Lord Auckland was made
President of the Board of Trade, and Lord Temple Vice-President.
Temple, also, was made joint Paymaster of the Forces with Lord John
Townshend, and General Fitzpatrick Secretary at War. In the law
departments, Lord Ellenborough, the Chief Justice of the King's Bench,
had, though quite out of rule, a seat in the Cabinet; Pigott became
Attorney-General, Sir Samuel Romilly Solicitor-General. The Duke of
Bedford was enabled to gratify his dependents by being appointed
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Such was the Ministry of "All the Talents,"
amongst whom, however, did not appear Canning, who had more talent than
three-fourths of them. It was clear that such a Ministry could not long
hold together. There were scarcely two of them who did not cherish
the most irreconcilable views. Fox, at the instigation of Francis,
was desirous to call in question the proceedings of Lord Wellesley
in India, and Lord Grenville was as resolute against it. Windham,
Grenville, Fox, and Sidmouth held, every one of them, different notions
of foreign policy. Fox and some others were advocates of Catholic
emancipation; Sidmouth was utterly averse from it. Then, how were so
many heads to find comfortable berths for their followers?
Fox had now to attempt that accommodation with Buonaparte which, he
had so long contended, was by no means difficult. An opportunity was
immediately offered him for opening communications with the French
Government. A Frenchman, calling himself Guillet de la Gevrillière,
made his way secretly into England, and solicited an interview with Fox
on a matter of high importance. Fox granted it, and was indignant at
discovering that it was a proposal to assassinate Napoleon. Fox ordered
the man to be detained, and wrote at once to Talleyrand, informing
him of the fact, and expressing his abhorrence of it. Talleyrand
replied, complimenting Fox on the nobleness of his principles, and
expressing the admiration of the Emperor of it. "Tell him," said
Buonaparte, as reported by Talleyrand, "that in this act I recognise
the principles of honour and virtue in Mr. Fox;" and he added that
the Emperor desired him to say, that whatever turn affairs might now
take, whether this useless war, as he termed it, might be put an end
to or not, he was perfectly confident that there was a new spirit in
the British Cabinet, and that Fox would alone follow principles of
beauty and true greatness. These empty compliments made no way towards
such a negotiation as a real burst of gratitude might have introduced,
especially when accompanied by such confidence as Buonaparte avowed in
Fox's sentiments; and shrewd men suspected that Gevrillière had most
likely been dispatched by Napoleon himself, through Fouché, to test
the reality of Fox's formerly asserted indignation that Pitt, or any
British Minister, could be suspected of plans of assassination against
the French Emperor.
[Illustration: TALLEYRAND. (_After the Portrait by Gerard._)]
Still, Fox took the opportunity to sound the French Government as to
the possibility of peace. In a correspondence with Talleyrand he said
that Britain would be willing to treat on reasonable terms, the first
condition of which was that the Emperor Alexander should be admitted
to the treaty. This was at once refused; yet Fox did not give up the
attempt, and at length the French Government proposed that a British
ambassador should go to Paris, to endeavour to arrange the principles
of an agreement. Fox complied. Before a British plenipotentiary was
permitted to proceed to Paris, the great points of the negotiation
should have been brought forward, and it should have been seen whether
there was a probability of agreeing. It should have been understood
whether Buonaparte was disposed to surrender Naples again, which
Britain demanded; to require the retirement of the Prussians from
Hanover, even if nothing was said of Holland and Switzerland. To send a
plenipotentiary without having ascertained these points was simply to
enable Buonaparte to boast that he had sought to conciliate, and that
British rapacity and ambition rendered all his overtures useless. This
was exactly what occurred. Lord Yarmouth, late Marquis of Hertford,
who had been residing for years in France as one of Buonaparte's
_détenus_ at the Peace of Amiens, was first sent. Lord Yarmouth arrived
in Paris towards the end of May, and though it had been settled that
the negotiations should, for the present, remain secret, the French
had taken care to make every Court in Europe well acquainted with the
fact. Then one of the very first demands--having got the ambassador
there--was for the recognition, not only of Buonaparte as emperor,
but also of all his family as princes and princesses of the blood.
Next they came to the surrender of Naples, but Talleyrand assured Lord
Yarmouth that the Emperor, so far from giving up Naples, or any part
of Italy, must have Sicily, which was in possession of the British,
because Joseph Buonaparte, now made King of Naples, declared that
it could not be held without Sicily. France, Talleyrand said, would
consent to Britain holding Malta, the Cape of Good Hope, which we
had taken again, and would not only restore Hanover to us, but also
allow us to seize on the Hanse Towns and Hamburg! We were in fact,
to be permitted to set up for marauders, like themselves, and invade
neutral States, and appropriate them; but, as for Naples or Sicily
being restored, that was impossible. Lord Yarmouth also demanded
that Dalmatia, Istria, and Albania should be restored, the last to
the Turks, whose empire should regain its entirety. These points
were equally resisted. Meanwhile, Prussia had taken the alarm about
Hanover, and Russia, fearful of our treating without her, sent to Paris
Count d'Oubril. Talleyrand managed to excite jealousies between the
British and Russian envoys, to such a degree, that d'Oubril quitted
Paris hastily, and returned to St. Petersburg. Instead of peace, the
elements of new heartburnings and wars every day developed themselves.
Finding that Lord Yarmouth did not succeed. Fox sent over the Earl
of Lauderdale, but he got on no better. Buonaparte insisted that
Sicily should be given up to Naples, and a little mock monarchy should
be created for Ferdinand, the ex-king, in the Balearic Isles, which
were to be taken unceremoniously from Spain. Lord Lauderdale, after a
month's waste of words, demanded his passports, and returned; and Fox
had now had ample proof that no peace was to be effected with Napoleon,
except upon the terms of leaving the Continent to his dictation.
In Parliament, business was brought almost to a stand by the
neutralising influences of the partisans of "All the Talents."
Excepting on one or two points, no great majority could be obtained on
any question. There was an attempt to censure the introduction of Lord
Ellenborough, as Chief Justice of the King's Bench, into the Cabinet.
It was contended that it was contrary to the principle, if not the
letter, of the Constitution; that, besides a judge having enough to do
on the Bench, he would have to sit as a judge on such appeals to the
Privy Council which might be made thither against his own decisions;
that, moreover, Lord Ellenborough had suddenly changed the whole
principles of his life for the sake of advancement, and in the practice
of his court had, by the most rude and insolent language, never
hesitated to carry causes in favour of the Government and against the
popular liberties. On the part of Government it was argued that, both
in Queen Anne's reign and in that of George II., the Chief Justices had
had a place in the Cabinet; and the subject was evaded by carrying the
previous question.
Windham, on the 3rd of April, proposed his plan for the improvement
of the army. Till this time enlistments had been for life, which gave
men a strong aversion to enter it, and made it the resort chiefly of
such as were entrapped in drink, or were the offscouring of society,
who became soldiers to enjoy an idle life and often to escape hanging
for their desperate crimes. He said that we could not have recourse to
conscription in this country, and to get men, and especially a better
class of men, we must limit the term of service and increase the pay.
To prepare the way for his contemplated regulations, he first moved
for the repeal of Pitt's Additional Force Bill. This was strongly
opposed by Castlereagh and Canning, who contended that nothing could
be better or more flourishing than the condition of the army; and
that the repeal of Pitt's Bill was only meant to cast a slur on his
memory. Notwithstanding this, the Bill was repealed by a majority,
in the Commons, of two hundred and thirty-five against one hundred
and nineteen, and in the Lords by a majority of ninety-seven against
forty. Windham then moved for a clause in the annual Mutiny Bill, on
the 30th of May, for limiting the terms of service. In the infantry,
these terms were divided into three, of seven years each; and in
the cavalry and artillery three also, the first of ten, the second
of six, and the third of five years. At the end of any one of these
terms, the soldier could demand his discharge, but his privileges and
pensions were to be increased according to the length of his service.
Notwithstanding active opposition, the clause was adopted and inserted.
He then followed this success by a series of Bills: one for training
a certain number of persons liable to be drawn from the militia, not
exceeding two hundred thousand; a Bill suspending the ballot for the
militia for England for two years, except so far as should be necessary
to supply vacancies in any corps fallen below its quota; a Bill, called
the Chelsea Hospital Bill, to secure to disabled or discharged soldiers
their rightful pensions; a Bill for augmenting the pay of infantry
officers of the regular line; and one for settling the relative rank
of officers of troops of the line, militia, and yeomanry. To these
Bills, which were all passed, was added a vote for the increased pay of
sergeants, corporals, and privates of the line, and an augmentation of
the Chelsea pensions, and the pensions of officers' widows. Lord Howick
moved that the same benefits should be extended to the officers, petty
officers, and seamen of the navy, and to the Greenwich pensioners,
which was carried. These were, undoubtedly, most substantial measures
of justice to the two services; and the results of them soon became
apparent enough in their beneficial effects on the condition of the
army and navy.
The best feature of "All the Talents" was the sincerity with which
they went into the endeavours to suppress the Slave Trade. Pitt had
always stood by Wilberforce and the abolitionists, to a certain degree,
and had made some of his ablest speeches on this topic; but beyond
speaking, he had done little practically to bring his supporters to the
necessary tone on the subject. The present Ministry, though comprising
several members decidedly hostile to abolition, and other mere lukewarm
friends, went with much more spirit into the question, and Lord Henry
Petty had canvassed the University of Cambridge, and made many friends
of the measure there. The Royal Family were decided opponents to the
abolition of the Slave Trade. The Ministry, therefore, deserved praise
for their support of Wilberforce and the abolitionists. Clarkson and
the Society of Friends had been working indefatigably out of doors to
great purpose, and it was now deemed possible to make a preparatory
assault on the trade. On the 1st of January the Attorney-General
brought in a Bill to prohibit the exportation of slaves from any of
the British colonies. This, though it permitted the direct transport
of slaves from Africa to those colonies, or to foreign colonies, cut
off the convenience of making our islands depôts for this trade; and
Pitt had already, by an Order in Council, prevented the introduction of
slaves into the colonies conquered by us during the war. Wilberforce
was so elated by the carrying of the Attorney-General's Bill that he
wanted to follow it up by one prohibiting the trade altogether; but
Fox and Grenville declared that this was not yet practicable. But on
the 10th of April they permitted Wilberforce to move an address to
the king, requesting him to use his influence with Foreign Powers for
putting down this traffic; and this being carried, Fox moved, in the
Commons, a resolution that the House considered the African Slave
Trade to be contrary to the principles of justice, humanity, and sound
policy, and would, with all practicable expedition, proceed to take
effectual measures for its abolition, in such manner and at such period
as should seem advisable. This, too, was carried by a hundred and
fifteen against fourteen. This was a great step, for it pledged the
House of Commons to the declaration that the trade was indefensible,
and ought to be put an end to. Still more, to prevent that rush for
securing slaves which the fear of the suppression of the trade, at no
distant date, might occasion, a Bill was also passed, prohibiting the
employment of any vessel in that trade which had not trafficked in it
previous to the 1st of August, 1806, or been contracted for before June
10th, 1806. This Act was limited to two years, and, in spite of its
benevolent intention, had one serious drawback--that of causing the
vessels employed to be still more crowded, and therefore more fatal to
the slaves.
The Ministry were now involved in a transaction which produced them
a plentiful crop of unpopularity. The country was already highly
disappointed by the character of the financial measures, and now saw
them engaged in an attempt to gratify the domestic resentments of
the Prince of Wales. We have already alluded to the disreputable
circumstances attending his marriage with the Princess Caroline
of Brunswick. After little more than a year's cohabitation they
separated, but not before a daughter was born. So long as the Pitt
Administration continued, all offensive measures of a public nature
were warded from the unfortunate princess. The king had always been
her decided protector; but now the Whigs came in, who had ever been
in alliance with the Prince of Wales, and that exemplary gentleman
conceived hopes that he might rid himself of her. The public had been
for some time scandalised by disputes between the prince and princess
as to a proper separate allowance for her, and concerning the prince's
endeavours to deprive her of the company of her own child; but, as
he had not succeeded in taking away the infant, rumours were soon
industriously spread that the princess, at Blackheath, was leading
a very disreputable life. All that they could gather up or construe
to the princess's disadvantage was duly communicated to the Duke of
Sussex, and by the duke to his brother, the prince. In 1805 they had
supplied their employer or employers with a most startling story of the
princess's having been delivered of a son, whom she was openly keeping
in her house, under pretence that it was the child of a poor woman of
the name of Austin, which she had adopted. Immediate steps were taken
privately to get up a case. On the 24th of May Lord Chancellor Erskine
read the written statements to the king, who decided that a private
inquiry should take place; that the house of Lord Grenville should
be selected as the proper scene, and that Lords Erskine, Spencer,
Grenville, and Ellenborough should undertake the inquiry and report
to him upon it. This meeting and inquiry took place, accordingly, on
the 1st of June. Romilly attended. The servants were examined, and
appear, according to Romilly's diary, to have uniformly given the most
favourable testimony to the conduct of the princess. Further: the
reputed mother of the child, Sophia Austin, was examined, and proved
that the child was veritably her own; had been born at the Brownlow
Street Hospital on the 11th of July, 1802, and had been taken to the
princess's house on the 15th of November, adopted by her, and had
remained there ever since. "The result," says Romilly, "was a perfect
conviction on my mind, and, I believe, on the minds of the four
lords, that the child was the child of Sophia Austin." This affair
of the Princess of Wales was not terminated till the end of January,
1807. When the report was laid before the king, he referred it to
the Cabinet, and they advised him to send a written message to the
princess, acquitting her of the main charge, but observing that he saw
in the depositions of the witnesses, and even in her own letter to him,
defending her conduct, evidence of a deportment unbecoming her station.
The odium excited against the Ministry by these un-English proceedings
was intense, especially amongst women, all over the country.
The British during this year were engaged in a variety of enterprises,
and in very different and distant parts of the world, with a success
as various. The most remarkable undertaking was the defence of Lower
Calabria, which showed what might be effected by British soldiers, if
employed in sufficient numbers, and under able commanders. We have
already sketched the attempt by a small Russian army and a smaller
British one to support Ferdinand of Naples in his kingdom against the
French. As General St. Cyr came back upon them, followed by Massena,
with altogether sixty thousand men, the seven thousand of British and
Russians were obliged to retreat, the Russians embarking for Corfu, and
the British crossing over into Sicily, whither the Neapolitan Court had
fled, taking up its residence at Palermo.
In Calabria, the two sons of Ferdinand of Naples, Prince Francis and
Prince Leopold, in conjunction with General Damas, held a force of
fourteen thousand men, and endeavoured to arouse the mountaineers, and
repel the advance of the French; but Regnier was dispatched against
them, with a force of ten thousand, and soon defeated and dispersed the
Neapolitans, making himself master of all the country, except the towns
and fortresses of Maratea, Amantea, and Scylla. After three days of a
bloody contest, Regnier took Maratea, and gave it up to the soldiery.
These atrocities aroused the mountaineers to such fury, that they beset
and harassed the French on their march to Amantea like so many demons.
Their progress was arrested: Amantea stoutly resisted; Scylla, though
taken, was invested by enraged Neapolitans and peasantry, and Reggio
was again wrested from them. At this crisis arrived Sir John Stuart in
Sicily, to reinforce and take the command of the British troops, and,
at the earnest entreaty of the queen, Sir John crossed into Calabria.
[Illustration: _By permission of the Corporation of Liverpool._
_Reproduced by Andre & Sleigh, La., Bushey. Herts._
THE DEATH OF NELSON, 1805.
FROM THE PICTURE BY DANIEL MACLISE R.A., IN THE WALKER ART GALLERY.]
Sir John landed in Calabria on the 1st of July, in the Gulf of Santa
Euphemia, not far from Nicastro, and advanced to seek Regnier. He had
not quite five thousand troops with him, all infantry, and a third
of these Corsicans, Sicilians, and other foreigners in British pay.
Regnier had started for Naples with ten thousand men, but some of these
were lost, and others stationed to occupy different posts. On the 3rd
of July Sir John Stuart learned that Regnier was near Maida, about ten
miles from Sir John's landing-place. Leaving a detachment to guard the
stores, Sir John, on the 4th, marched forward, under a burning sun,
to come up with him. He found Regnier drawn up in a strong position
on a woody slope below the village of Maida, flanked by a thick,
scrubby wood on each hand, and having in front the river Amato, at this
season of the year perfectly fordable. The position was formidable,
and, had Regnier kept it, it must have tried the British severely to
dislodge him, especially as they had no cavalry; but Regnier, probably
honestly of opinion that the British need only be encountered to be
beaten, descended from his vantage ground into the plain. One reason
might be, that his cavalry could better avail him there; another,
that, after his boasts, Lebrun, the Commissioner of Buonaparte, who
always, in the old Jacobin style, had such a person in the field to
watch the conduct of his generals, would be ready to condemn him if
he showed any delay when engaged with so despised an enemy. The two
armies approached each other about nine o'clock in the morning. They
fired two or three rounds at each other, and then advanced with fixed
bayonets. The officer commanding the British advance column, seeing
that the men were oppressed by the blankets which they carried at
their backs in that sultry weather, commanded a halt a little before
they closed, and ordered them to let their blankets go. The French,
seeing this momentary halt, were confirmed in their general's opinion
of the cowardice of the British, and rushed on with loud cheers.
They were bronzed and bearded veterans; the British, who composed
the advance column, were chiefly young and beardless youths; and an
officer present informed Sir Walter Scott, that, as he glanced first
on the grim-looking French, and then at the smooth, young faces of
the British, he could not help feeling a momentary anxiety. But no
sooner were the British freed from their blankets than they dashed
forward with loud hurrahs; and the French, who, since the battle of
Austerlitz, had boasted that no soldiers in Europe could stand against
them in a charge of bayonets, were, in their turn, staggered. Some
few stood firmly to cross bayonets with the foe, but the greater part
fell back. The French officers rushed along their lines to encourage
their men, but in vain; nothing could urge them to the points of the
British bayonets. The hills around were crowded with the Calabrians,
anxious spectators of the fight. When the British halted, they raised
loud exclamations of dismay, believing they were about to fly, but
the next moment they saw them springing forward with shouts and the
French waver, turn, and fly. The First Light Infantry--a crack French
regiment--were the first to break and run for the hills. But it was
too late; the British were at their backs, and pursued them with a
terrible slaughter. Regnier's left thus routed by our right, he rode
furiously about, bringing all the force he could muster on our left,
but there the result was just the same: the French scarcely stayed to
feel the bayonets, but fled in headlong confusion. The British took all
the forts along the coasts, and drove the French into Upper Calabria,
where they were joined, near Cassano, by Massena, with a powerful army.
But the British force was not strong enough to do more than it had
done. Malaria also began to decimate his troops, and Sir John Stuart
returned, in August, to Sicily, carrying with him a great quantity of
stores and artillery, which the French had prepared for the reduction
of Calabria. The chief benefit of the battle of Maida was to show
that the British troops, in proper quantities, were able to drive the
French before them, but that, in the small numbers usually sent on
expeditions, they were merely wasted. The battle of Alexandria, and now
that of Maida, demonstrated that, if Britain would continue to fight on
the Continent, she must prepare to do it with a sufficient force; and
the after campaigns of Portugal and Spain, and the conclusive battle
of Waterloo, were the results of this public conviction. At the same
time, the brilliant episode of Maida had wonderfully encouraged the
Neapolitans and Calabrians. Joseph Buonaparte, the French intruded
king, was once or twice on the very point of flying to the army in
Upper Calabria, and many of his counsellors strongly advised it.
Massena advised Joseph to remain, and assured him that he would soon
reduce the whole kingdom to obedience to him. But, in fact, it took
Massena and his successors five years to accomplish the subjugation,
with the sacrifice of one hundred thousand men.
Another successful expedition this year was one against the Cape of
Good Hope. This settlement, so desirable for Britain, with her Indian
possessions, had been yielded up by the Addington Administration, at
the Peace of Amiens, most imprudently. A body of five thousand men
was dispatched for its recovery, under Sir David Baird, in a fleet
commanded by Sir Home Popham. They arrived in January, and the Dutch
soldiers fled at the first attack. Retiring into the interior, General
Beresford was dispatched after them, whereupon they surrendered, on
condition that they should be sent to Holland without being deemed
prisoners of war.
Had Sir Home Popham been satisfied with this well-executed piece
of service, he would have merited honour; but, this being done, he
suggested to Sir David Baird that an expedition might be made with
advantage against the Spanish colonies in South America. It was
reported--not truly, as it turned out--that these colonies were as
poorly defended as they were wealthy. Sir David was weak enough to fall
into the scheme, and, without any authority from home, as it would
appear, for so important a proceeding, he permitted General Beresford
to sail in Sir Home's squadron with a part of his forces. The fleet
touched at St. Helena, and took in a few more soldiers, but the whole
body did not then amount to more than sixteen hundred. With this
contemptible handful of men, the British squadron entered the river La
Plata, and landed the troops, on the 24th of June, at a short distance
from Buenos Ayres. The few Spanish troops in the city were easily
routed, and the place capitulated on the 27th, and Beresford entered
and took up his quarters there. But he was not long left at peace.
The Spaniards discovering, as a matter of course, the insignificance
of the force which had thus rashly surprised the city, collected in
sufficient numbers to make prisoners of them all. A French officer
in the Spanish service, M. Liniers, landed with a thousand men from
Monte Video and Sacramento, and, being joined by the troops of the
neighbourhood which had been repulsed by Beresford, appeared before
the city on the 10th of July, and summoned the British to surrender.
This was the signal for the inhabitants to rise _en masse_ and fall on
them. They were prevented from escaping to their ships by the badness
of the weather, and were assailed from the windows and doors, and
exposed to a general attack in the great square, and were compelled to
yield, on condition of being allowed to re-embark; but no sooner had
they laid down their arms, than Liniers, who probably looked on them
as no better than filibusters, treated them as such, and marched them
up the country, where they were rigorously treated. Four hundred of
them had perished in this mad attempt. Meanwhile, Sir Home Popham had
sent home upwards of a million of dollars, reserving two hundred and
five thousand for the pay of the army. There were great rejoicings in
London at the news, and at the receipt of the specie. Popham, in his
despatches, represented himself as having conquered a great colony,
and opened up a wonderful mart for our manufactures; and the Ministry,
delighted at the receipt of the dollars, though they had, on first
hearing of the scheme, sent out orders to stop the squadron, now, on
the 20th of September, issued an Order in Council declaring Buenos
Ayres and its dependencies open to our trade. Long before this order
could have reached America the whole scene was reversed. Sir Home
Popham had, indeed, blockaded the river La Plata, and had attempted
to bombard Monte Video, but his ships could not get near enough. In
October reinforcements arrived from the Cape and from England, but
not in sufficient strength to enable him to do anything decisive. He
therefore contented himself with landing troops at Maldonado, and drove
the Spaniards from the isle of Gorriti, where he lay to, and waited for
greater reinforcements.
During this year Buonaparte made another attempt to recover the mastery
of St. Domingo. Dessalines was now emperor, having a court full of
black nobles and marshals, an exact parody of Napoleon's. A French
squadron, under Admiral Lessigues, consisting of five ships of the
line, two frigates, and a corvette, managed to escape the British
fleets, and, on the 20th of January, to anchor in the road of St.
Domingo. They had just landed a body of troops, when Sir John Duckworth
made his appearance with seven sail-of-the-line and four frigates.
Lessigues slipped his cables, and endeavoured to get out to sea, but
the wind did not favour him; Sir John Duckworth came up with him, and,
on the 6th of February, attacked and defeated him. Though Sir John had
the superiority in number of vessels, the French vessels were, some
of them, much larger ones; and one, the _Imperial_, was reckoned the
largest and finest ship of their navy--a huge three-decker, of three
thousand three hundred tons, and a hundred and thirty guns. Yet, in
three hours, Sir John had captured three of the French line of battle
ships; the other two ran on the rocks, and were wrecked. One of these
was the gigantic _Imperial_. Nearly the whole of her crew perished,
five hundred being killed and wounded before she struck. One of these
frigates which escaped was afterwards captured by a British sloop of
war in a very battered condition from a storm, in addition to the
fight.
Another French fleet, under Admiral Willaumez, left Brest at the same
time with that of Lessigues, bound for the Cape of Good Hope, to assist
the Dutch troops in defending it. The British, however, having taken
it before his arrival, he went cruising about and picking up such
stray British merchantmen as he could meet with between the continents
of Africa and South America. He then stood away for the West Indies,
hoping to be able to destroy the British shipping in the ports of
Barbadoes. Failing in that, he made for Martinique, which was still in
the possession of the French. Willaumez had but six sail of the line,
and the English admirals, Sir John Borlase Warren, who had the same
number and a frigate, and Sir Richard Strachan, who had seven sail
of the line and two frigates, were in eager quest of him. Meanwhile,
Willaumez was attacked by a terrible tempest, and then chased by
Strachan in the _Chesapeake_. Of his six ships of the line he took home
only two, and was obliged to burn the British merchantmen that he had
taken.
Another admiral was still less fortunate. This was Linois, who had been
beaten off in his attack on a British fleet of India merchantmen, in
the Straits of Malacca, some time before, and who had been cruising
far and wide in pursuit of British prizes, whilst a number of English
commanders were eagerly hunting after him. He was now returning home,
when, in sight of the port of Brest, with only two of his ships
remaining, Sir John Warren stood in his way, and compelled him to
surrender both of them.
In September Commodore Sir Samuel Hood captured five frigates, which
issued from Rochefort, laden with troops, stores, arms, and ammunition
for the French forts in the West Indies. But the most daring feats
of bravery were performed by Captain Lord Cochrane, afterwards Lord
Dundonald. Early in this year he sent a number of boats up the Gironde,
not far from Bordeaux, to endeavour to seize two large brig corvettes,
the nearest of which lay twenty miles up the river, protected by two
heavy land batteries. The sailors successfully brought away the first
vessel, having only three men wounded in the affair; the other corvette
lay much higher up the river, but, hearing the firing, it fell down
to the assistance of its companion vessel; but the British seamen
beat it back, and carried away their prize in the face of crowds of
armed militia, and greater crowds of people along the shores. Whilst
this daring action was in progress Lord Cochrane was not idle. He
attacked with his single frigate one sixteen-gun and two twenty-gun
corvettes, and drove them on shore. He then proceeded to Aix, to
reconnoitre a strong fleet anchored in the roads, under cover of
strong batteries. His little frigate, the _Pallas_, a twelve-pounder
of thirty-two guns, was attacked by a forty-four-gun frigate and three
big corvettes, but they were compelled to retire without driving him
from his station. He then landed part of the crew of the _Pallas_, who
destroyed some signal-posts which gave notice of all the movements of
the British cruisers. One of these signal-posts was defended, but in
vain, by a hundred French militia. He next attacked a battery of three
thirty-six pounders, and a garrison of fifty men, spiked the guns,
blew up the magazine, and flung the shot and shells into the sea. The
frigate _Minerva_, of forty-four guns, and three corvettes, then ran
out of harbour with studding-sails and royals set, and commenced a
simultaneous attack on the _Pallas_; but Cochrane soon reduced the
_Minerva_ almost to a wreck, and was on the point of boarding her when
two other frigates hastened to her aid, and the _Pallas_, considerably
damaged herself, was obliged to haul off. Such were the audacious
doings of the British men-of-war in every quarter of the world, and
in these Lord Cochrane stood always conspicuous for his unparalleled
daring and adroitness.
The victory of Napoleon over Austria had wonderfully increased his
influence with those German States which formed the Confederation of
the Rhine. Bavaria, Würtemberg, Hesse-Darmstadt, and other of the
small princes, especially those on the right bank of that river, were
more than ever bound to him, and were prepared to follow him in any
wars that he might make against other countries, or even their own
fatherland. Whilst some of them received crowns for their unnatural
subserviency, several smaller princes were sunk into the condition
of mere nobles. The military contingents which he exacted from them
amounted to sixty thousand men, and these he soon had in a state of
discipline and efficiency very different to that which they exhibited
under the old German federation. Under Napoleon they behaved as well as
any of his troops, showing that they needed only leaders of activity
and talent to make good soldiers of them. Thus France superseded
Austria in its influence over all the south-west of Germany. Nor did
he stop here. He had created dukes and princes, and resolved also to
create kings. These were to be his brothers, who were to be placed on
half the thrones of Europe, and set there as vassal monarchs doing
homage and service to him, the great emperor of France. He expected
them to be the obedient servants of France, or, rather, of himself,
and not of the countries they were ostensibly set to govern. He began
by making his brother Joseph King of Naples in March, and in June he
made his brother Louis King of Holland. He told them that they must
never forget that their first duty was to France and to himself. He
intended to make his brother Jerome King of Westphalia; but Jerome had
married a Miss Paterson, the daughter of an American merchant, and he
must have this marriage broken, and a royal one arranged, before he
could admit him to this regal honour: he must also wrest part of this
territory from Prussia. His sister Pauline, widow of General Leclerc,
who perished in St. Domingo, he had now married to the Roman Prince
Borghese, and he gave her the Italian duchy of Guastalla. Murat, who
had married another sister, he made Grand Duke of Berg and Cleve,
and Marshal Berthier he made Prince of Neuchâtel. These territories,
taken from Prussia, Bavaria, and Switzerland, he conferred, with all
their rights and privileges, on these generals. The duchy of Parma he
conferred on Cambacérès, and Piacenza on General Lebrun.
Prussia, which had remained inactive whilst Buonaparte was winning over
Bavaria and Würtemberg to his interests, and while he was crushing
Austria, now that she stood alone took the alarm, and complained that
the French troops on the Rhine and in the Hanse Towns, which, by
the Treaty of Pressburg, ought to have been withdrawn from Germany,
remained. The Queen of Prussia and Prince Louis, the king's cousin,
were extremely anti-Gallic. They had long tried to arouse the king to
resist the French influence in Germany, to coalesce with Austria while
it was time, and to remove Haugwitz from the Ministry, who was greatly
inclined towards France. The Emperor Alexander professed himself ready
to unite in this resistance to France, and Frederick William began now
to listen to these counsels. He withdrew his minister, Lucchesini,
from Paris, and sent General Knobelsdorff in his place. On the 1st of
October Knobelsdorff presented to Talleyrand a long memorial, demanding
that the French troops should re-cross the Rhine immediately, in
compliance with the Treaty of Pressburg; that France should desist from
throwing obstacles in the way of the promotion of a league in North
Germany, comprehending all the States not included in the Confederation
of the Rhine; and that the fortress of Wesel and those abbeys which
Murat, since becoming Grand Duke of Berg and Cleve, had seized and
attached to his territory, should be restored.
Such language was certain to irritate, in no ordinary degree, the
full-blown pride of Buonaparte. It is probable that he was only
too desirous of finding a cause of quarrel with Prussia. He longed
to avenge himself on her for keeping him in a state of tantalising
uncertainty during his Austrian campaign; and he wished to bring the
whole of Germany under his dominion. He replied, through Talleyrand,
that Prussia had no right to demand from him that he should withdraw
his troops from friendly States, and that they should remain there as
long as he pleased. In fact, he was already watching the movements of
Prussia. He was well aware of the negotiations with Russia, he had full
information of the manœuvring of troops, and that the Queen of Prussia,
in the uniform of the regiment called by her name, had been at reviews
of the army, encouraging the soldiers by her words. He had, weeks
before, assembled his principal marshals--Soult, Murat, Augereau, and
Bernadotte--in Paris, and, with them, sketched the plan of the campaign
against Prussia. Four days before Knobelsdorff presented the King of
Prussia's letter to Talleyrand Napoleon had quitted Paris, and was on
the Rhine, directing the march of his forces there, and calling for
the contingents from the princes of the Rhenish Confederation; nay, so
forward were his measures, that his army in Germany, under Berthier,
stretched from Baden to Düsseldorf, and from Frankfort-on-the-Main to
Nuremberg. At the same time he commenced a series of the bitterest
attacks on Prussia in the _Moniteur_ and other papers under his
control, and of the vilest and most unmanly attacks on the character of
the Queen of Prussia, a most interesting and amiable woman, whose only
crime was her patriotism.
But Buonaparte did not content himself with stabs at the reputation of
his enemies--he resorted to his old practices of assassination. The
booksellers of Germany, ignoring the dominance of Buonaparte in their
country, though he had completely silenced the press in France, dared
to publish pamphlets and articles against the French invasion and
French rule in Germany. Buonaparte ordered Berthier to seize a number
of these publishers, and try them by court-martial, on the plea that
they excited the inhabitants to rise and massacre his soldiers. Amongst
the booksellers thus arrested was John Philip Palm, of Nuremberg. The
charge against him was that he had published a pamphlet entitled,
"_L'Allemagne dans_ _son profond abaissement._" This production was
attributed to M. Gentz, a writer who was most damaging to the influence
of Buonaparte, and Palm was offered his pardon if he would give up the
author. He refused. Nuremberg, though occupied by French soldiers, was
under the protection of Prussia, which was, just now, no protection at
all. Palm was carried off to Braunau, in Austria. This place was still
occupied by Buonaparte, in direct violation of the Treaty of Pressburg;
so that Buonaparte, in the seizure and trial of Palm, was guilty of
the breach of almost every international and civil law; for, had Palm
been the citizen of a French city, his offence being a mere libel did
not make him responsible to a military tribunal. The French colonels
condemned him to be shot, and the sentence was immediately executed
on the 26th of August. The indignation and odium which this atrocious
act excited, not only throughout Germany, but throughout the civilised
world, caused Buonaparte, with his usual disregard of truth, to say
that the officers had done all this without any orders from him, but
out of their own too officious zeal.
[Illustration: THE QUEEN OF PRUSSIA REVIEWING THE ARMY. (_See p._ 524.)]
On the 9th of October the King of Prussia issued a manifesto from his
headquarters at Erfurt, calling attention to the continual aggressions
of France--those aggressions which Prussia had so long watched in
profound apathy, and which, by timely union with Austria and Russia,
might have been checked. But Prussia had, by her mean conduct, now
stripped herself of all sympathy and all co-operation. She would have
been very glad indeed of the money of Great Britain, but she had so far
favoured the very aggressions of Buonaparte of which she now complained
as to receive Hanover from him, and could not even now find it in
her heart to surrender it, and make a powerful friend by that act of
justice. The Emperor of Russia was willing to co-operate, but Prussia
had made her hostile manifestations before Alexander could approach
with his army. In reply to the intimations of Prussia, that she would
be glad of the support of Britain, Lord Morpeth was sent to Berlin; but
the language of the Prussian Ministry was still of the most selfish
and impolitic character, and Lucchesini told Lord Morpeth that the
fate of Hanover must depend on the event of the coming war. With such
a Power no union could take place, and in this isolated and pitiable
condition Prussia was left to try her strength with Napoleon. As for
that ambitious soldier, he desired nothing so much as this encounter
with Prussia; he saw in it the only obstacle to his complete dominion
over Germany, and he was confident that he should scatter her armies at
the first shock.
The Prussian people, however, on their part, were clamorous for war;
they still prided themselves on the victories of Frederick, called the
Great, and the students and the young nobles were full of bravado. But,
unfortunately, they had not generals like Frederick to place at the
head of their armies, and their military system was entirely obsolete.
The Duke of Brunswick, who, in his youth, had shown much bravery in the
Seven Years' War, but who had been most unfortunate in his invasion of
France, in 1792, was now, in his seventy-second year, placed in chief
command, to compete with Napoleon. Nothing could exceed the folly of
his plan of the campaign. The whole force of Prussia, including its
auxiliaries, amounted only to about one hundred and fifty thousand men.
Of these the Saxons, who had reluctantly united with Prussia, and had
only been forced into co-operation by the Prussians marching into their
country, and, in a manner, compelling them, were worse than lukewarm in
the cause; they were ready at any moment to join the French. Besides
these, and the troops of Hesse-Cassel, they had not an ally except
the distant Russians. On the other hand, Napoleon had a considerably
superior army of his own in advance, and he had immense forces behind
the Rhine, for he had anticipated a whole year's conscription. He had,
moreover, his flanks protected by his friendly confederates of the
Rhine, ready to come forward, if necessary. In these circumstances,
Prussia's policy ought to have been to delay action, by negotiation
or otherwise, till the Russians could come up, and then to have
concentrated her troops so as to resist, by their momentum, the onset
of the confident and battle-practised French. But, so far from taking
these precautions, the Duke of Brunswick rushed forward at once into
Franconia, into the very face of Buonaparte, and long before he could
have the assistance of Russia. Instead of concentrating his forces,
Brunswick had stretched them out over a line of ninety miles in length.
He and the king had their headquarters at Weimar; their left, under
Prince Hohenlohe, was at Schleitz, and their right extended as far as
Mühlhausen. The Prussians, in fact, appeared rather to be occupying
cantonments than drawn into military position for a great contest.
Besides they had in front of them the Thuringian Forest, behind which
Napoleon could manœuvre as he pleased.
Perceiving the fatal separation of the Prussians from each other, and
from their supplies at Naumburg, he determined to cut their army in
two, and then to cut off and seize their magazines at this place. He
therefore ordered the French right wing, under Soult and Ney, to march
upon Hof, while the centre, under Bernadotte and Davoust, with the
guard commanded by Murat, advanced on Saalburg and Schleitz. The left
wing, under Augereau, proceeded towards Saalfeld and Coburg. Naumburg
was seized, and its magazines committed to the flames, and this, at
the same moment that it ruined their resources, apprised them that the
French were in their rear; and, still worse, were between them and
Magdeburg, which should have been their rallying-point. To endeavour
to make some reparation of their error, and to recover Naumburg, the
Duke of Brunswick marched in that direction, but too late. Davoust was
in possession of the place, and had given the magazine to the flames,
and he then marched out against Brunswick, who was coming with sixty
thousand men, though he had only about half that number. Brunswick, by
activity, might have seized the strong defile of Koesen; but he was so
slow that Davoust forced it open and occupied it. On the evening of
the 13th of October the duke was posted on the heights of Auerstadt,
and might have retained that strong position, but he did not know that
Davoust was so near; for the scout department seemed as much neglected
as other precautions. Accordingly, the next morning, descending from
the heights to pursue his march, his advanced line suddenly came
upon that of Davoust in the midst of a thick fog, near the village
of Hassen-Haussen. The battle continued from eight in the morning
till eleven, when the Duke of Brunswick was struck in the face by a
grape-shot, and blinded of both eyes. This, and the severe slaughter
suffered by the Prussians, now made them give way. The King of Prussia,
obliged to assume the command himself, at this moment received the
discouraging news that General Hohenlohe was engaged at Jena on the
same day (October 14) with the main army, against Buonaparte himself.
Resolving to make one great effort to retrieve his fortunes, he
ordered a general charge to be made along the whole French line. It
failed; the Prussians were beaten off, and there was a total rout. The
Prussians fled towards Weimar, where were the headquarters of their
army, only to meet the fugitives of Hohenlohe, whose forces at the
battle of Jena were very inferior to those of the French, and whose
defeat there was a foregone conclusion.
Napoleon marched triumphantly forwards towards Berlin. In Leipzic he
confiscated British merchandise to the value of about three millions
sterling. He entered Berlin on the 27th of October. As he traversed
the field of Rossbach, where Frederick the Great had annihilated a
French army, he ordered his soldiers to destroy the small column that
commemorated that event. He took up his residence in the palace of the
King of Prussia at Berlin. The wounded and blind Duke of Brunswick
entreated of the conqueror that his hereditary State of Brunswick might
be left him, but Buonaparte refused in harsh and insulting terms.
Moreover, he ordered his troops to march on that territory and town,
and the dying duke was compelled to be carried away on a litter by men
hired for the purpose, for all his officers and domestics had deserted
him. Buonaparte had a particular pleasure in persecuting this unhappy
man, because he was brother-in-law to George III. and father-in-law to
the heir to the British Crown; but he also wanted his dukedom to add
to the kingdom of Westphalia, which he was planning for his brother
Jerome. The duke's son requested of Buonaparte leave to lay his body
in the tomb of his ancestors, but the ruthless tyrant refused this
petition with the same savage bluntness, and the young duke vowed
eternal vengeance, and, if he did not quite live to discharge his oath,
his black Brunswickers did it at Waterloo.
The strong towns and fortresses of Prussia were all surrendered with as
much rapidity as the army had been dispersed. They were, for the most
part, commanded by imbecile or cowardly old villains; nay, there is
every reason to believe that, in many instances, they sold the places
to the French, and were paid their traitor fees out of the military
chests of the respective fortresses. Whilst these events were so
rapidly progressing, Louis Buonaparte, the new King of Holland, with an
army of French and Dutch, had overrun, with scarcely any opposition,
Westphalia, Hanover, Emden, and East Friesland. The unfortunate King
of Prussia, who had seen his kingdom vanish like a dream, had fled to
Königsberg, where he was defended by the gallant Lestog, and awaited
the hoped-for junction of the Russians marching to his aid. Gustavus
Adolphus, of Sweden, forgetting the slighted advice which he had
offered to Prussia to unite with Austria, opened Stralsund and Riga to
the fugitive Prussians.
Having put Prussia under his feet, Buonaparte proceeded to settle the
fate of her allies, Saxony and Hesse-Cassel. Saxony, which had been
forced into hostilities against France by Prussia, was at once admitted
by Buonaparte to his alliance. He raised the prince to the dignity of
king, and introduced him as a member of the Confederacy of the Rhine.
The small states of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Gotha were admitted to his
alliance on the same terms of vassalage; but Hesse-Cassel was wanted
to make part of the new kingdom of Westphalia, and, though it had not
taken up arms at all, Buonaparte declared that it had been secretly
hostile to France, and that the house of Hesse-Cassel had ceased to
reign. Louis Buonaparte had seized it, made it over to the keeping
of General Mortier, and then marched back to Holland. Mortier then
proceeded to re-occupy Hanover, which he did in the middle of November,
and then marched to Hamburg. He was in hopes of seizing a large
quantity of British goods, as he had done at Leipzic, but in this he
was disappointed, for the Hamburg merchants, being warned by the fate
of Leipzic, had made haste, disposed of all their British articles, and
ordered no fresh ones. Buonaparte, in his vexation, ordered Mortier to
seize the money in the banks; but Bourrienne wrote to him, showing him
the folly of such a step, and he refrained.
But his great measure, at this period, was the blow aimed at the
commerce of Britain, and comprised in his celebrated Berlin Decrees,
promulgated on the 21st of November. He had subjugated nearly the
whole of the European Continent. Spain, Portugal, Italy to the south
of France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Prussia to the north, with
nearly the whole seaboard of Europe, were under his hand and his
armies. He had found that he could not invade England; her fleet had
risen triumphant, his own fleet had disappeared like a vapour at
Trafalgar. As, therefore, he could not reach her soil, he determined
to destroy her by destroying her commerce, on which he imagined not
merely her prosperity but her very existence depended. As he was master
of nearly all Continental Europe, he supposed it as easy for him to
exclude by his fiat the merchandise of Britain, as to put down old
dynasties and set up new ones. He had yet to learn that commerce has a
conquering power greater than that either of martial genius or of arms.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON AT ROSSBACH. (_See p._ 527.)]
These were his first decrees:--I. The British Isles were declared in a
state of blockade. II. All commerce and correspondence with Britain was
forbidden. All British letters were to be seized in the post-houses.
III. Every Englishman, of whatever rank or quality, found in France,
or the countries allied with her, was declared a prisoner of war. IV.
All merchandise or property of any kind belonging to British subjects
was declared lawful prize. V. All articles of British manufacture,
and articles produced in her colonies, were, in like manner, declared
contraband and lawful prize. VI. Half of the produce of the above
confiscations was to be employed in the relief of those merchants whose
vessels had been captured by British cruisers. VII. All vessels coming
from Britain or British colonies were to be refused admission into any
harbour in or connected with France. These decrees were to be binding
wherever French power extended, but they had no effect in checking the
commerce of Britain; the distress to Continental merchants, however,
and the exasperation of the people deprived of British manufactures,
grew immediately acute. Bourrienne says that the fiscal tyranny thus
created became intolerable. At the same time, the desire of revenue
induced Buonaparte to allow his decrees to be infringed by the payment
of exorbitant licences for the import of British goods. French goods,
also, were lauded with incredible impudence, though they were bought
only to be thrown into the sea. Hamburg, Bordeaux, Nantes, and other
Continental ports solicited, by petitions and deputations, some
relaxation of the system, to prevent universal ruin. They declared that
general bankruptcy must ensue if it were continued. "Be it so," replied
Buonaparte, arrogantly; "the more insolvency on the Continent, the
more ruin in England." As they could not bend Buonaparte, merchants,
douaniers, magistrates, prefects, generals, all combined in one system
of fraudulent papers, bills of lading or certificates, by which British
goods were admitted and circulated under other names for sufficient
bribes. The only mischief which his embargo did was to the nations of
the Continent, especially Holland, Belgium, Germany, and to himself;
for his rigour in this respect was one of the things which drove the
whole of Europe to abominate his tyranny, and rejoice in his eventual
fall.
[Illustration:
_Reproduced by André & Sleigh, Ld., Bushey, Herts._
CRIPPLED BUT UNCONQUERED, 1805.
FROM THE PICTURE BY W. L. WYLLIE, R.A.
BREAKING INTO THE MIDST OF THE ENEMY'S LINES, THE "BELLEISLE"
WAS SURROUNDED ON ALL SIDES.... RAKED FORE AND AFT AND THUNDERED
AT FROM ALL QUARTERS, EVERY MAST AND SPAR OF THE GALLANT
"SEVENTY-FOUR" WAS SHOT AWAY, HER HULL KNOCKED ALMOST TO PIECES,
AND THE DECKS CUMBERED WITH DEAD AND DYING. STILL THE UNEQUAL
FIGHT WENT ON, TILL AT LAST THE "SWIFTSURE," BURSTING THROUGH THE
MÊLÉE, PASSED CLOSE UNDER THE STERN OF THE BATTERED WRECK, GIVING
THREE HEARTY CHEERS WHEN A UNION JACK WAS WAVED FROM A PIKE TO SHOW
THAT, THOUGH CRIPPLED THE "BELLEISLE" WAS STILL UNCONQUERED.--_An
Incident at Trafalgar._
]
[Illustration: MURAT (KING OF NAPLES). (_After the Portrait by
Gerard._)]
The Emperor of Russia was now fast advancing towards the Vistula in
support of Prussia, and the contest appeared likely to take place
in Poland; and Buonaparte, with his usual hollow adroitness, held
out delusive hopes to the Poles of his restoring their unity and
independence, in order to call them into universal action against
Russia and Prussia. Amongst the most distinguished of these was the
General Dombrowski. Buonaparte sent for him to headquarters, and
employed him to raise regiments of his countrymen. By such lures he
obtained a considerable number of such men; but his grand scheme was to
obtain the presence and the sanction of the great and popular patriot,
Kosciusko. If he were to appear and call to arms, all Poland would
believe in its destinies, and rise. Kosciusko was living in honourable
poverty near Fontainebleau, and Buonaparte had made many attempts to
engage him in his service, as he had done Dombrowski; but Kosciusko saw
too thoroughly the character of the man. He pleaded the state of his
wounds and of his health as incapacitating him for the fatigues of war,
but he privately made no secret amongst his friends that he regarded
Napoleon as a mere selfish conqueror, who would only use Poland as a
tool to enslave other nations, never to enfranchise herself. In vain
did Buonaparte now urge him to come forward and fight for his country;
he steadfastly declined; but Buonaparte resolved to have the influence
of his name, by means true or false. He sent him a proclamation to the
Poles, requesting him to put his name to it. The patriot refused, at
the risk of being driven from France; but Buonaparte, without ceremony,
fixed his name to the address, and published it on the 1st of November.
It declared that Kosciusko was coming himself to lead his countrymen
to freedom. The effect was instantaneous; all Poland was on fire, and,
before the cheat could be discovered, Dombrowski had organised four
good Polish regiments.