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HISTORY OF EUROPE. 159 
monarchy, in exchange for territo- 
ries ceded to France. 
This reserve in taking possession of 
‘Hanover, was far from being ac- 
ceptable to the court of St. Cloud. 
The alterations, which Prussia had 
_ proposed in the treaty of Vienna, 
were rejected with disdain; and 
the ireaty itself, because it had not 
received a simple and unconiitional 
ratification, was declared to be an- 
nulled. Haugwitz hurried to Paris, 
flattering himself that the personal 
_ consideration, in which he was held 
by Bonaparte, would remove every 
difficulty. But, after having becn 
made to wait some days for an au- 
dience, he was undeceived at his first 
interview. Nor did he quit Paris, till 
he had signed a new treaty, by 
which Prussia became bound, not 
enly to perpetrate an undisguised 
act of injustice, by annexing Han- 
ever to her dominions; but, to com- 
mit an act of decided hostility against 
England, by excinding the British 
flag from the ports of that electo- 
rate. Such was the violence and 
inconsistence of Bonaparte’s con- 
duct, that in the very act of com- 
pelling Prussia to accept of the so- 
vereignty of Hanover, he inter- 
fered with the exercise of her so- 
vereignty in that country, in so im- 
portant a point as the right of mak. 
ing peace or war. Ilis will, how- 
ever, was no longer disputed. The 
treaty of Paris was signed, ratified, 
and carried into immediate execu. 
tion. On the 15th of February it 
was signed; onthe 24th, Berna- 
dotte took possession of Anspach 
and Bayreuth for the king of Ba- 
varia, to whom these provinces were 
transferred by France; on the 18th 
of March the Prussians evacuated 
# 
Wesel; and on the 2ist. the French 
troops were withdrawn frem Hames 
eln, the ouly place in the electo- 
rate of Hanover, which they had 
continued to occupy. On the 28th 
of March, a proclamation was is- 
sued by count Schulenburg in the 
name of the king of Prussia, order- 
ing ‘* the ports of the German 
ocean, and the rivers which empty 
themselves in it, to be shut against 
British shipping and trade, in the 
same manner as when Hanover was 
occupied by French troops;’’ and 
on the Ist of April, a patent ap. 
peared under the authority of the 
same monarch, annexing formally 
the electorate of Hanover to his 
other dominions, on pretence that, 
belonging to the emperor Napoleon 
‘6 by right of conquest,” it had 
been transferred to Prussia ¢ in 
consideration of the cession of three 
of her provinces to France.” 
The conduct of the Prussians, 
when they took possession of Han- 
over, in assuming -to themselves the 
civil as well as military administra- 
tion of the country, had excited a 
suspicion in the Hanoverian regen. 
cy of their secret intentions, and 
occasioned a profest from count 
Munster against this proceeding, as 
‘* contrary to the rights of his so- 
vereign, and as ameasure, of which 
his majesty, so far from giving his 
consent to it, highly disapprov- 
ed.”* No regard being had to 
this protest, nor to the remonstrance 
accompanying it, that ‘*if the oc- 
cupation of Hanover by a Prussian 
force was inevilable, it should take 
place under such stipnlations as 
were least injurious to the rights of 
his majesty, and least severe upon 
the unhappy inhabitants,” Mr. Fox 
* Proclamation of count Muuster, Hanover, Feb. 3, 1806. 
took 
