STATE 
with France. Lucca was very near 
ssharing the same fate. Only a few 
months before had the emperor, ona 
solemn occasion—an occasion which 
imposed very important duties upon 
him—declared, before his people 
and before all Kurope, that he 
wished not to extend the limits of 
his territory. Besides, France was 
bound, by a treaty with Russia, 
to put the king of Sardinia in ‘pos- 
session of indemnities in Italy. In- 
stead of fulfilling that obligation, 
_ she made herself mistress of every 
object whieh could have been ser- 
viceable towards that indemnifica- 
tion. 
Portugal wished to maintain her 
neutrality, but Portugal was com- 
pelled to purchase, by gold, the de- 
_ ceitful security of a few moments. 
The Porte, who had not forgot- 
ten the invasion of Syria and Egypt, 
was the only power remaining in 
Europe, which had not been sub- 
_ jected to the arbitrary proceedings 
t 
_ pression. 
of France. 
But to these acts of violence, a 
_ system of abuse and injury remained 
A journal, which | 
still to beadded. 
proclaimed itself the voice of go- 
_ vernment, was chosen as a chro- 
nicle of the attacks incessantly made 
upon every crowned head. 
Prussia could be no stranger to 
any of those general acts of op- 
Many of them were 
nearly connected with her substan- 
tial interests; especially as the wis- 
4 dom of that system which considers 
_ the states of Europe as members of 
_ the same family, calls upon each of 
‘ 
them for the defence of all; and 
_ that the unbounded aggrandizement 
_ of one state exposed the rest to dan- 
- ger, was sufficiently manifest to ex- 
t 
perience. 
Still it is most essentially neces. 
Vor. XLVIII. 
PAPERS. 
sary, to represent in what manner 
the conduét of France was calcu- 
lated to operate in its immediate re- 
lation to Prussia. 
It were superfluous to enumerate 
all the good offices rendered to Na. 
poleon by Prussia. Prussia was the 
first power that acknowledged him. 
No promises, no menaces had been 
able to shake the king’s neutrality. 
every thing that the duty of a good 
neighbour could prescribe, was most 
amply afforded during a period of 
six years, Prussia esteemed a vas 
liant nation, which also had learned, 
on its part, to respect Prussia both 
in war and peace; and she did jus- 
tice to the genius of its chief. But 
the, remembrance of these times is 
no longer retained by Napoleon. 
Prussia had permitted the territory 
of Hanover to be invaded. In this 
she had countenanced an act of in. 
justice ; therefore was it her first 
view to remedy it. She offered her- 
self for it instead of England, under 
the condition that the latter should 
cede it. It must, however, at least 
be recollected, that thus a boundary 
was prescribed to France, which she 
should not pass. Napoleon so- 
lemnly pledged himself not to com- 
promise the neutrality of the north- 
ern states; to exercise no violence 
towards any of them; and, in par- 
ticular, not to increase the number 
of troops in the electorate of Hano- 
ver. 
Scarcely had he agreed to these 
stipulations, than he broke them. 
Every one is acquainted with the 
violent manner in which sir George 
Rumbold was seized; every one 
knows that the Hanse Towns were 
laid under contribution, under the 
appellation of loans, not by any 
means for their interest, but exactly 
in the same manner as if France had 
3F been 
801 
