BOOK IV. THE tide of Russian victory had rolled on from Moscow to the Niemen; and while the CHAP. XXII. armies of France had sunk under its overwhelming influence, the Emperor Napoleon had re1813 paired to Paris to create new armies, with the determination to try once more the fortune of war. This extraordinary man was now to be seen in a new character. He, who had always hitherto detailed victories the most splendid, and who had, in no ambiguous language, held himself out as superior to all the casualties of war, was, for the first time, obliged to confess, in the face of his legislative body, that the charm of invincibility was dissolved; that a heavy calamity had fallen upon his army; that he had experienced great losses-losses so terrible that they would have broken his heart, if, in these great circumstances, he could have been accessible to any other sentiments than those of the interest, the glory, and the future prosperity of his people. The frowns of fortune had altered his situation, but they had not changed his language. He still spoke of peace, but he prepared for war. Peace was his desire; it was necessary to the world; but he would never make any but an honourable peace, and one conformable to the interests and grandeur of his empire. The misfortunes produced by the hoar frosts had indeed manifested themselves in all their extent; but the solidity of an empire, founded upon the efforts and love of fifty millions of citizens, and upon the territorial resources of one of the finest countries in the world, was not to be shaken by them. The magnitude of those resources it was the business of his minister of the interior to develope; and in the annual exposé, presented by that officer in the month of February, it was stated, that since the commencement of the revolution the

population of Old France had increased from twenty-six to forty-two millions of souls; that the annual value of the agricultural produce of France amounted to 5,031,000,000 livres; that their manufactures of silk, wool, metal, glass, porcelain, &c. had swelled to 1,300,000,000 livres; and that their exports were estimated at 383,000,000, and their imports at 257,000,000, livres. By this commerce, France was enabled to keep nine hundred thousand men under arms; to maintain one hundred thousand sailors; to keep one hundred ships of the line, and as many frigates, complete or building; and to expend every year from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty millions in public works.

What effect the speech of Napoleon and the exposition of his minister had in rallying the drooping spirits of the French people it is difficult to ascertain; for such were the restrictions of the press, that public feelings and sentiments were never permitted to transpire, except when they were flattering or favourable to the plans and views of the government. Here lies the wide distinction between a free and a despotic government-under both the people can offer the tribute of adulation on the altar of power; but the privilege of freely canvassing, and even of publicly censuring, the conduct of governors, exists only in free states, and every infringement of that invaluable right is a step towards arbitrary sway. That the military resources of France were still formidable, may be collected from the fact, that by a senatús consultum, promulgated on the 11th of January, a levy of fresh troops, to the amount of three hundred and fifty thousand, was placed at the disposal of the minister of war; and so potent was the operation of the laws of conscription, that a few weeks only were necessary to carry into effect this

sweeping edict. The conscripts, which consisted of a larger proportion than usual of boys, and included numbers of men beyond the appointed age of military service, were marched off in succession to Germany, to join, or rather to constitute the grand French army. The active energies of the French government were kept, in the early months of the present year, in the most vigorous exercise, and by the unremitting assiduity of every branch of the public service, a large numerical force was collected in the beginning of April on the banks of the Elbe; though that force was of a very different description from the veteran army that Bonaparte had, about the same period in the last year, marched against Russia. His cavalry and artillery in particular were extremely inferior; and it was on these two branches, especially on the artillery, that he had been accustomed to depend for his victories.

Before Bonaparte left Paris, to place himself at the head of his army, he effected a reconciliation with Pope Pius VII. who was now at Fontainebleau, and the distractions of the Gallican church were healed by a concordat, signed between his holiness and the emperor, on the 25th of January. The manner in which the pope had been treated had produced a strong sensation in France, and though Bonaparte might disregard these feelings during the full tide of victory, he now felt that they were no longer to be treated with contempt; he therefore proposed to restore to the pope the territories of the church, and to reinstate him in his former dignity. These proposals were accepted; and "the holy Father, in consideration of the actual state of the church, and the confidence with which the emperor had inspired him," agreed to abrogate the decree of excommunication fulminated against Napoleon, to legalize his marriage with the Austrian Archduchess, and to give the canonical investiture to the persons appointed to the French bishoprics.

The formation of a provisional government was the next object that engaged the attention of the French Emperor previously to his departure for Germany. The empress was accordingly declared regent during his absence; and the King of Rome was nominated, in a more solemn manner than hitherto, successor to the Napoleon throne. Having thus taken what he conceived to be all due precautions, and sent on before him an immense body of troops, Bonaparte closed the session of the legislative body in a speech full of his usual confidence, and in which the French nation were led to cherish the hope, that the laurels which had been. blighted by the inhospitable climate of the Beresina, would

revive, and put forth their wonted luxuriancy, BOOK IV. on the genial banks of the Elbe.

1813

While the note of preparation thus re. CHAP. XXII. sounded through all the departments of France, the Russian government, determined to complete the work so auspiciously begun, called forth new and extensive levies, and invited the other powers of Europe to rally round the standard of national independence. In conformity with this policy, it was ordered that a general levy should take place throughout the empire, of eight men for every five hundred, and that the levy should commence in each government within two weeks, and end within a month from the publication of the order. The arm of the giant, said the Emperor Alexander, is broken, but his destructive strength must be prevented from reviving; and his power over the nations who serve him out of terror, taken away. Russia, extensive, rich, and pacific, sought no conquests-wished not to dispose of thrones. She desired tranquillity for herself, and for all. Peace and independence were her objects. These his majesty offered, together with assistance to every people, who, being at present obliged to oppose him, should abandon the cause of Napoleon, in order to pursue their real interests. Ages might elapse before an opportunity equally favourable would again present itself; and it would be an abuse of the goodness of providence, not to take advantage of this crisis to accomplish the great work of the equilibrium of Europe, and thereby to insure public tranquillity, and individual happiness. To Prussia in particular this invitation to take advantage of the fortunate opening which the Russian arms had produced was addressed. It was the wish of his imperial majesty to put an end to her calamities--to demonstrate to her

king the friendship which he preserves for him and to restore the monarchy of Frederick to its glory and extent. Under the hope that his Prussian Majesty would be animated by the sentiments which this frank declaration ought to produce, positive orders were given to the Russian armies, on their entrance into the Prussian provinces, to avoid every thing that could betray a spirit of hostility, and to endeavour to soften, as far as a state of war would permit, the evils which, for a short time, must result from their occupation.

Such were the invitations held out by Russia to induce the states of Europe to declare against France; and these invitations were not unavailing. It has been seen that the Prussian General D'Yorck, at the conclusion of the last campaign, withdrew his whole force from the French army under Marshal Macdonald, and concluded a convention with the Russians,* by

us; raise the standard of insurrection against foreign oppressors, and be free. Your sovereign is in the power of foreigners, deprived of the freedom of determination, deploring the steps which a treacherous policy forced him to take. We shall no more attribute them to him, than we shall cause you to suffer for them. The friend of German independence will by us be considered as our brother; the weak minded wanderer we will lead with tenderness into the right road; but the dishonourable, despicable tool of foreign tyranny, we will pursue to the utmost rigour, as an enemy to our common country."

Prussia now became a camp; the friends of French politics were banished from the cabinet, and the generals distinguished by their resolute opposition to French influence, were invested with new and effectual powers. The whole country between the Elbe and the Oder was divided into four military districts, under the command of L'Estocq, Tauenzien, Massenbach, and Gotzen; the militia was called out; the landsturm, or levy-en-masse, was ordered; volunteers enrolled themselves on all sides, and the national enthusiasm was universally directed to one object. Commerce, like politics, underwent an entire change in Prussia; on the 20th of March, the continental system was abolished, a new tarif was promulgated for the importation of goods into Prussia, and all French merchandise was prohibited. The French troops having quitted Berlin, the Russian General Czernicheff arrived in that city; and on the 11th of March Count Wittgenstein made his public entry into the capital, where he was hailed with enthusiasm.

The accession of Prussia, the treaty formed between Great Britain and Sweden, and the great armaments now preparing in the north of Germany, swelled the power of Russia into a formidable confederacy. The fidelity of all the foreign troops in the French service became suspected by Bonaparte; and with a much lower proportion of sagacity than he possessed, it might already be perceived that they would avail themselves of the first favourable opportunity to desert his standard. In these circumstances it was judged necessary to make an addition even to the immense preparations which he had already contemplated. Ninety thousand men of the conscription of 1814, who had been originally destined for the reserve, were now rendered disposable, and ninety thousand more were raised by a sort of retrospective conscription. The cities and municipalities were invited to

1813

equip new corps of cavalry, to replace that part BOOK IV. of the army which had entirely perished during the Russian campaign; and as these raw levies CHAP XXII could not be led at once against the enemy, every resource which experience and ingenuity could suggest, was exhausted to confer on them that discipline in which they were deficient. Officers were procured, either by drafts from Spain, or by selecting the subalterns of the regiments which had escaped from Russia; and a large camp was formed upon the Maine, where the preparation of the young soldiers for the field could be carried on without danger of interruption from the approach of the enemy.

For two years the political relations between France and Sweden had been in a state bordering on hostility. So early as the month of October, 1810, Bonaparte had menaced Sweden with hostility. That country, he said, had engaged by treaty to break off all engagements and communications with England, while a Swedish minister was suffered to remain in London, and an English agent in Stockholm. The small islands of Sweden had served as magazines in the winter season for English merchandise, and the vessels of that nation had openly carried colonial produce into Germany. This, he said, was not to be endured. There were no longer any neutrals: England acknowledged none, nor could he acknowledge them any longer, maritime peace must be had at any price. Sweden must now take her choice; cannon must be fired on the English which approached her coast; their merchandise in Sweden must be confiscated, or she must have open war with France. The decision must be immediate; and if, within five days from the official notification of this determination at the court of Stockholm, the king had not resolved to be at war with England, Sweden should have war with France and all her allies.*

A

BOOK IV. cided in favour of the captors.

These proceedings were soon after followed by the seizure CHAP. XXII. of Swedish Pomerania and the Isle of Rugen 1813 by French troops, who did not hesitate to arrest the public functionaries, and after disarming two Swedish regiments, to send them as prisoners of war into France. Against these accumulated wrongs Sweden continued to remonstrate; but her complaints were disregarded; and at length, finding all her efforts to maintain a neutral attitude unavailing, the court of Stockholm concluded a peace with Great Britain on the 18th of July, 1812, which was ratified on the 16th of the following month. In the beginning of the year 1813, war between Sweden and France had become inevitable, and on the 3d of March, a treaty was entered into between the courts of London and Stockholm, by which Sweden bound herself to employ a corps of thirty thousand men, under the command of the crown prince, against the common enemy; to act with the troops which were to be furnished by Russia and Prussia; and to grant to Great Britain for twenty years the right of entrepôt in the ports of Gottenburg, Carlsham, and Stralsund. In return for which Great Britain acceded to the engagements already subsisting between Sweden and Russia, and bound herself not to oppose the annexation of Norway to Sweden, but to afford the necessary naval co-operation, should the King of Denmark refuse to accede to the grand alliance. The British government further agreed to grant Sweden a subsidy of one million sterling for the service of the campaign of the year, and to cede to her the possession of the island of Guadaloupe, in the West Indies. This treaty gave rise to much discussion in England, both in and out of parliament, and that feature of the treaty in particular which guaranteed to Sweden the kingdom of Norway, received, as it deserved, very general reprobation.

The situation of Denmark, when the affairs of Bonaparte began to assume an unfavourable appearance, was critical and perplexing. The attack of the English on Copenhagen, in the year 1807, still rankled in the heart of the Danish sovereign, and it is highly probable that in this feeling a large proportion of his subjects sympathised with him. But on the other hand, the misery they had suffered on account of the war with England, and the danger to which they now stood exposed, when France could no longer stretch out to them the hand of protection, induced the Danish government to dispatch Count Bernstorff to London, to propose terms of accommodation. Unhappily, the treaty with Sweden, so recently entered into, interposed a formidable obstacle to the re-establishment of the relations of peace, and the Danish minister

returned to Copenhagen without having effected the object of his mission.

Thus it will be perceived, that at the opening of the campaign in 1813, Great Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Sweden, were leagued against France. England indeed could afford little military aid in Germany; but she was fighting the cause of the allies in Spain; and, as usual, she was liberal in her pecuniary assistance. The Emperor Alexander, at the same time, put forth all his might; and all the resources of his extensive, but unwieldy, empire were cheerfully devoted by him to the cause in which he had so ardently embarked. Prussia, greatly exhausted by the exactions and contri-butions drawn from her by France, could not bring into the field very numerous armies; but her soldiers were animated by the best spirit; her generals were experienced, and not only incorruptible, but inflamed by a deep hatred against Bonaparte; while her peasantry were eager to rise in defence of their sovereign and their country. The crown prince had landed an army in Pomerania, composed of most excellent troops, brought into a high state of discipline under his own immediate inspection, feeling towards their commander the most profound respect, and reposing in him the most implicit confidence. The designs of Austria had not yet developed themselves. The family alliance seemed to forbid the expectation that Francis would take any decisive part against his son-inlaw, though it was clear, from the faint and reluctant co-operation afforded by Austria in the Russian campaign, that the gigantic power of France, in the hands of its present ruler, was not viewed with perfect complacency at the court of Vienna. For some time it was doubtful whether Bonaparte, in the German campaign which he was about to commence, would have the assistance of Murat, and his Neapolitan troops; since it was well known, that the King of Naples, soon after Napoleon had left the shattered remnant of his army in Russia to his care, withdrew in disgust from its command, and freely censured the inordinate ambition to which so many lives had been sacrificed. Murat, however, probably perceiving that his own power and that of Bonaparte must stand and fall together, at length consented to repair to Germany, and to take the command of the cavalry force collected for that campaign.

The Russians, animated by the hope that they should be joined by the people of Germany, as soon as they were freed from the dread and presence of the French, conceived it to be their policy to spread themselves as much as possible over the northern parts of that empire; and in the early part of the year, their light troops