"her the right of breaking treaties "at pleasure, by appropriating "Malta, England will then have "arrived at pacific sentiments."Envy and hatred have but their day."

Here closes our account of the affairs of France, during 1804. To avoid repetition, we have abstained

from interrupting the thread of this portion of our narrative, by notic ing the few unimportant military events of the year. Those operations, having been exclusively di rected against the British possessions, have already found their place in the preceding chapters.

CHAP

ous acts of intrigue and interference, to which their weak governments but too much exposed them. We have seen, however, that, unawed by such immensity of power, the magnanimity of Russia did not slumber. In pressing for the execution of a treaty, which had for its objects the guarantee of the independence of Naples, and that of procuring an indemnity to the king of Sardinia for the loss of his dominions, he had at once increased the bitter enmity of the French ruler, and acquired the confidence and admiration of whatever yet remained independent in Europe, who saw, in this generous and noble conduct, a principle of action, which might, at a future moment, check the strides towards universal monarchy of the restless Corsican. The fruits of the line of conduct which the emperor Alexander had thus chosen, were perceptible in some uneasy movements on the part of France, and were not unuseful to the cause of England, as it occasioned the removal to Italy of many of those battalions, which stationed at Boulogne, were to form a part of the invading army destined to conquer Great-Britain.

At the commencement of the present year, Austria appeared actively employed in repairing the losses which her armies had sustained in the late war, and in placing her military establishments on the best possible footing. The Germanic empire had, at this period, been for some time agitated in consequence of some very arbitrary measures resorted to by the elector of Bavaria, to oppress the equestrian order in his territories in Franconia, acquir.

ed by the indemnities. That body, considering itself under the immediate protection of the head of the Empire, appealed to the emperor of Germany, who immediately interfered, and sent a most dignified and energetic remonstrance, in the capacity of its supreme chief, to the court of Munich; and also, at the same time, assured the equestrian order of his support, by ulterior means, against the elector. There coull be little doubt but that, in this proceeding, the elector had either been secretly stimulated by France, or else had relied, with confidence, on the support of that power in any aggressive project he might form, which should tend to the diminution of the influence of Austria; but, to his utter disap'pointment and mortification, a short period had only elapsed, after the delivery of the imperial declaration in favour of the order, when the French embassador to the Bavarian government expressed the displeasure of the first consul, at the conduct of the elector towards the head of the German empire; which, of course, terminated the affair. In the whole of this transaction, as well as upon the seizure of Oberhaus, by the Bavarian troops, which occurred the year before, Austria evinced a suficient share of energy and decision, to convince France, that her spirit was not so broken, nor her consequence at so low an ebb, as to allow herself to be insulted with impunity. Bonaparte had, in these instances, certainly endeavoured to ascertain how far that power would bear the attempt to diminish her weight and consequence in the Germanic body, without hav

ing recourse to the chances of war in their vindication. The result of the experiment served to convince him, that there was a line of aggression which he must not pass, so long as he should think it prudent to continue at peace with Austria.

The perpetration of the murder of the duke D'Enghien ;-the tragical and much-lamented fate of that unfortunate prince ;-the coldblooded malice of the monster by whose command it was executed ;— and the shameful violation of the law of nations, and of the rights of the German empire, by which it was attended;-made the deepest impression on every sovereign, and on every feeling mind, in Europe; but on none more than that of Alexander, the youthful and amiable sovereign of Russia. From the moment of the emperor's accession to his vast dominions, his whole soul had been devoted to the happiness of his own subjects, and to the guarding the peace and tranquillity of the other nations of the world. The object of all his public acts, appears to have been the healing up those wounds which Europe had received In the long war by which she had been desolated, and to secure the independence of such of her states as had survived that terrible contest. It is true, that, on the question of the German indemnities, he had co-operated with France, but as it should seem his motives were merely to bring that complicated question to a speedydecision, that the harmony of the empire might be restored, and that no pretence should remain for disturbing its tranquillity in future. The violation of the German territory, therefore, necessarily gave him much pain on every account,

both as he was its solemn guarantee, and as being an attack upon a country, which, so long as it could protect its own independence, must form the most powerful bulwark to Russia, against the immeasureable ambition, and revolutionary projects of France.

But, however deeply Alexander must have felt, as a sovereign, at this outrage, perhaps even the consequences to which it manifestly led, did not weigh more upon his mind, than the moral turpitude of the crime by which it was produced. Not contented, therefore, with causing his embassador at Paris to remonstrate in the strongest manner upon the subject (the consequences of which we have already stated in our review of French affairs) he presented, by his minister at Ratisbon, a formal note to the diet of the empire there assembled, inviting the states to unite their endeavours with his, to take such steps and measures as their insulted country and dignity required at their hands; and called upon them, in the first instance, to join with him in requiring ample satisfaction from the French government for what had passed, and the assurances of that power, that no such insult should again be offered to the Germanic body. Great additional solemnity was given to the representations and remonstrances of the court of Russia upon this occasion, by its not only having put itself into deep mourning, but by ordering all its ministers, at foreign courts, to do the same, in memory of the tragical fate of the duke D'Enghien; a step which the French government affected to consider a direct insult, inasmuch as it silently, but forcibly, expressed the respect and attachment

attachment of the Russian emperor for the blood royal of France, and that he considered the execution which had taken place, as a barbarous, unqualified murder!

It was evident, from the line which the emperor of Russia had taken, that he wished to commit the German powers into such expressions of resentment against France for her late conduct, as might lead eventually to a renewal of hostilities, or, at least, if she submitted to the propositions that were made, that her weight in Europe might be lessened by this timely check to her insolence and tyranny. But, in these views, he was ill seconded by the greater of these states: and the lesser were inadequate to any measures of such weight and consequence. The king of Prussia, whose influence in the north of Germany was decisive, had evidently attached himself so closely to the views and politics of Bonaparte, that little hope remain ed of his being induced, upon any principle of general polity, to give up the narrow selfish system he had adopted, or act with spirit for the general weal of Europe. The same principle of action applied, in a greater or less degree, to those states who were immediately attached to him. In answer, therefore, to the Russian note presented to the diet, the representatives of Branden burgh, and of Baden,s expressed their hope," that the first consul would, of himself, be inclined to give such a full and satisfactory explanation on the subject as might entirely correspond to the expectation of his majesty the emperor of Russia." The great majority of the other states of the German einpire, conscious of the insult offer.

ed and injury sustained, yet, fearful of the renewal of hostilities, in which they must risk much, and from which they could not hope to derive any advantage (the seat of war too, probably, in their own territories) preserved an inflexible silence. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising, that the votes of Hanover and Pomerania should alone coincide with the sentiments. of the imperial note. That of the former state, at the same time, reminded the diet, that a still greater violation of the treaty of Luneville, and the independence of the enpire, had been committed by the unjustifiable seizure and continued occupation of the dominions of the king of Great-Britain in Germany. That of his Swedish majesty, as duke of Pomerania, was still stronger, in expressing his abhorrence of the conduct of France, which he considered as doubly injurious to himself, both as being an estate of the German empire, and in his sovereign capacity a guarantee of the treaty of Westphalia. There was little chance of these sentiments having any effect upon the determination of their co-estates; and, indeed, they were delivered under circumstances widely different from those under which the majority of the latter were situa- ' ted. The elector of Hanover, whose dominions were already over-run by, and in possession of, the French, ran no risk in dictating such an instrument in London, and causing his minister to deliver it at Ratisbon; while the king of Sweden, whose territories, save a narrow slip in Germany, were separated from France by the Baltic, had little to fear from her resentment, were he to express his sense of her conduct,