,192 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



attachment of the Russian emperor 

 for the blood royal of France, and 

 that he considered the execution 

 ■\vliicli had taken place, as a Iwrba- 

 reus, unqualified murder ! 



It was evident, from the line 

 ■which the emperor of Russia liad 

 taken, that he wished to commit 

 the German powers into sucli ex- 

 pressions 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 Eu- 

 rope might be lessened by this 

 timely check to her insolence and 

 tyranny. But, in these views, iie 

 •was ill seconded by the greater of 

 these states: and the lesser were in- 

 adequate to any measures of such 

 weight and consequence. The king 

 of Prussia, Avhose influence in the 

 north of Germany was decisive, 

 bad evidently attached himself so 

 closely to the views and politics of 

 Bonaparte, thai little hope remaia- 

 ed of his being induced, upon any 

 principle of general polity, to give 

 tip the narrow selfish system he had 

 adopted, or aft with spirit for the 

 general weal of Jsurope. The same 

 principle- of aftion 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, expressed 

 their hope, " that the first consul 

 would, of himself, be inclined to 

 give such a full and satisfadtory ex- 

 planation on the subject as might 

 entirely correspond to the expecta- 

 tion of his majesty the emperor of 

 Russia." The great majority of 

 the other states of the German em- 

 pire, conscious of the insult ofl'er- 



ed and injury sustained, yet, fear, 

 ful 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 Q\c sentiments 

 of the imperial note. That of the 

 former state, at the same time, re- 

 minded the diet, that a still greater 

 violation of the treaty of Luueville, 

 and the independence of the em- 

 pire, 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 abhor- 

 rence of the conda(5;^ of France, 

 which he considered as doub'y in- 

 jurious to himself, both as being an 

 estate of the German empire, and 

 in his sovereign capacity a gua- 

 rantee of the treaty of West phalia* 

 There was little chance of these 

 sentiments having any effc<5l upon 

 the determination of their co-es- 

 tates ; and, indeed, they were de- 

 livered under circumstances widely 

 different from those under which 

 the majority of the latter were situa- 

 ted. The ele(5tor of Hanover, whose 

 dominions were already over-run 

 by, and in possession of, the French, 

 ran no risk in dictating such an in- 

 strument in London, and causing 

 his minister to deliver it at Ratis- 

 bon ; 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, Avere he 

 to cxpi-css his sense of her conduft) 



ia 



