HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



[75 



sliiiTS of the Hamburghcrs in his 

 ports. The French government, 

 incensed at the surrender, ordered a 

 similar embargo, and denounced 

 against the petty state farther ven- 

 geance. The burgomasters sent to 

 IJuonaparte, about the middle of 

 December, a submissive and cring- 

 ing letter of apology, excuse, and 

 congratulation. They had submitted 

 the matter, they said, to the decision 

 of the king of Prussia, incapacity of 

 chief director of the circle of Lower 

 Saxony, and as a guarantee of the 

 neutrality of the North of Ger- 

 raanj\ His majesty persisted in 

 leaving it undecided. — Their ruin, 

 and utter annihilation, they said, 

 would have been the inevitable con- 

 sequence, had they attempted a 

 vain resistance. The only means 

 left for escaping this destruction, 

 was, to confide in the generosity of 

 the French nation. They presumed 

 to hope that the chief consul, having 

 maturely weighed the merits of 

 their cause, would not hesitate to 

 suspend the severe measures which 

 the directory liad adopted, and or- 

 dered to be enforced against their 

 town ; and they concluded, with 

 praying, that he would be pleased 

 to accept the homage of their pro- 

 found respect. 



It is the sad lot of human kind, 

 that, in large states, the bulk 

 of the people possess little or no 

 share of political power ; and that 

 small ones do not enjoy political in- 

 dependence. 



To theletterof the Hamburghers, 

 so like those of the small refractory 

 states, reduced to obedience to the 



Roman republic, Buonaparte gave 

 the following answer, dated the thir- 

 tieth of December, 1799: "We 

 have received your letter, gentle- 

 men. It is no justification of your 

 conduct. It is by virtue and courage 

 that states are preserved : coward- 

 ice and vice prove their ruin. You 

 have violated the laws of hospita- 

 lity ; such a violation would not 

 have taken place among the barba- 

 rian hordes of the desert. Your 

 fellow-citizens will impute it to 

 you as an eternal reproach. 



" The two unfortunate men, 

 whom you have given up, will die 

 illustrious ; but their blood wiU be 

 a source of greater evils to their 

 persecutors than could be brought 

 upon them by a whole ai-rny." But 

 Buonaparte, himself, recognized 

 the validity of the plea of weak- 

 ness, urged by the burgomaster of 

 Hamburgh, when he imperiously 

 ordered the senate to arrest the 

 editors of the paper called the 

 Censeur, printed at Hamburgh, 

 and circulated through all the 

 north of Germany. This poper 

 made repeated and continual at- 

 tacks on the French government, 

 with the most unbounded freedom. 

 One Burgoyne, citizen Burgoyne, 

 as he called himself, on the twenty- 

 first of July demanded, in the 

 name of his government, the ap- 

 prehension of the editors. Mes- 

 sieurs Berlin and Mesmot, who 

 were arrested accordingly by the 

 magistrate presiding over the 

 police of the city, taken into cus- 

 tody, and seals put upon their 

 papers. 



