400 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1806. 
Germany, who had joined with 
Prussia in the war, none were 
treated with clemency or indulgence 
by the French emperor, except the 
elector of Saxony and the princes 
of the house of Saxe. By a treaty 
signed at Posen on the 11th of 
December the elector was de- 
clared king of Saxony, and he 
and the other princes of the house of 
Saxe were admitted into the con- 
federation of the Rhine, and re- 
ceived under that denomination 
among the new vassals of the 
French empire. ‘The dukes of 
Saxe Weimar and Saxe Goth: were 
‘in the number of princes, who con- 
sented to hold their dominions upon 
these terms. 
From Pete and Hanover Mor- 
tier proceeded to Hamburgh, which 
he entered without opposition on 
the 19th of November, and next 
day he issued an order for the 
sequestration of all English produce 
and manufactures found in the city, 
whether belonging to English sub- 
jects or to other persons. State. 
ments were demanded from the 
merchants and bankers, of the 
English manufactures or funds 
arising from the sale of English 
manufactures in their possession ; 
domiciliary visits were threatened 
te enforce compliance; and those 
who gave false returns, were me- 
naced with summary punishment by 
martial Jaw. To strike greater 
terror, the English merchants at 
Hamburgh were put under arrest, 
-and though afterwards yeleased on 
their parole, they were placed under 
a guard of soldiers, and threatened 
to be sent to Verdun. These acts 
of violence brought less profit to 
the French, than they did harm to 
the Hamburghers. The trade of 
Hamburgh was annihilated, while 
the amount of English property and 
manufactures confiscated was incon- 
siderable. Before the armed force 
sent to Cuxhaven to stop the Eng- 
lish vessels at the mouth of the 
river, arrived at that place, the 
merchantmen apprised of their 
danger had made their escape The 
seizure of Hamburgh had been long 
foreseen, and though the French’ 
minister in that city persisted to 
the .Jast in his declarations that 
its neutrality would be respected, 
little credit had been given to his 
assurances. The fate of Leipzig 
had been a warning to the mer- 
chants of Hamburgh. No exertions 
had been spared by the factors and 
commercial agents of the English, 
in disposing of their goods and 
winding up their concerns before 
the arrival of Mortier and his — 
army; 80 that, after all, the most 
valuable prize from this expedition 
proved to be the corn found in 
the magazines of Hamburgh, great 
quantities of which were sent to 
Berlin, where apprehensions of 
famine began to be entertained. 
But the order for confiscating 
English property at Hamburgh, 
and the rigorous though ineffectual 
measures taken to enforce it, were 
not insulated acts of violence and 
rapacity, but parts of an extensive 
plan for excluding the produce of 
English industry from the conti- 
nent, which the French emperor, 
in his present intoxication of suc. 
cess, vainly imagined he had power 
to accomplish. This new system 
of warfare he promulgated at . 
Berlin on the 20th of November, in 
a decree interdicting all commerce 
and correspondenee, direct or indi- 
rect, between the British dominions 
and the countries subject to his 
controul. By this decree the Bri- 
tish 
