[66] 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 



1813. 



after ineffectually attempting to 

 destroy the flotilla. The important 

 town of Breda, the capital of Dutch 

 Flanders, was about this time taken 

 possession of by 300 of Benken- 

 dorff's Cossacks, who, appearing 

 before it, and giving out thai they 

 were the advanced guard of 10,000 

 Russians, so much intimidated the 

 garrison, that they marched out; 

 but before the evacuation was com- 

 pleted, 600 of them are said to 

 have been made prisoners by the 

 small band of assailants. The French 

 afterwards made an attempt in 

 force to recover the place before it 

 wasadequately garrisoned, but were 

 repulsed. On the 7th the town 

 of Zirickzee, on the island of 

 Schowen, was delivered from the 

 French by the assistance of a force 

 sent from his Majesty's ship Ho- 

 ratio ; and the rest of the island was 

 afterwards evacuated by them, as 

 was also the neighbouring island 

 of Tholen. At this time almost 

 the whole of the Seven Provinces 

 were cleared of the enemy, with 

 the exception of a few fortified 

 places. 



The consultations of the grand 

 assembly of allied sovereigns at 

 FVankfort produced a declaration 

 in their name, dated the 1st of 

 December, in which they lay open, 

 in the face of the world, the views 

 and determinations guiding their 

 conduct in the present contest. 

 They affirm, that they do not make 

 war upon France, but against that 

 preponderance haughtily announc- 

 ed and long exercised by the em- 

 peror Napoleon be\ ond the limits 

 of his empire ; that the first use 

 they made of victory was, to offer 

 him peace upon conditions founded 

 on the independence of the French 

 ^Bjpire as well as on that of the 



other States of Europe ; that thejf 

 desire that France may be great, 

 powerful, and happy, its power 

 being one of the foundations of the 

 social edifice of Europe, and that 

 they confirm to the French empire 

 an extent of territory which France 

 under her kings never knew ; that 

 wishing also to be free, tranquil, 

 and happy themselves, they desire 

 a state of peace which by a just 

 equilibrium of strength may pre- 

 serve their people from the cala- 

 mities which have overwhelmed 

 Europe for the last twenty years, 

 and that they will not lay down 

 their arms till they have obtained 

 this beneficial result (See State 

 Papers). The moderate and liberal 

 tone of this declaration was pleas- 

 ing to all the friends of peace and 

 humanity; and though it did not 

 bind the allied potentates to spe- 

 cific proposals, yet it pledged them 

 to such general conditions as the 

 French nation, if not its ruler, 

 ought to be well satisfied with. 

 On the other side, Napoleon, on 

 December 19th, in a speech before 

 the legislative body, after some 

 declarations of his own wishes for 

 peace, informs them that he had 

 entered into negociations with the 

 allied powers, and had adhered 

 to their prehminary bases, but that 

 new delays, not to be ascribed to 

 France, had deferred the expected 

 congress at Mauheim. On his 

 part (he says) there is no obstacle 

 to the re-establishment of peace ; 

 but he intimates that it must be on 

 terms consistent with honour ; and 

 he acquaints them that he has or- 

 dered all the original documents 

 to be laid before them. Upon 

 what difference of interprets' 

 tion of the " preliminarj' bases" 

 further negociations were bus- 



