806 
ently punished by their acquisitions, 
and by being reduced to a state of 
vassalage, as harsh and degrading as 
their former relations were honour. 
able, they deserve not to be treated 
by Germany with the utmost rigour. 
Perhaps, when the magnanimous 
nation, to which they formerly be- 
longed arises around them on every 
side to contend for their indepen. 
dence, they may listen to the voice 
of gratitude and honour, and, at 
Jeast, abhor their chains, wheu 
they find they must be stained with 
the blood of their brethren. 
It was not enough that these de- 
spotic acts were immediately injuri- 
ous to Prussia. The emperor of 
France was intent on rendering 
them sensible to the person of the 
king in all his allied states. The 
existence of the prince of Orange 
was under the common guarantee of 
the two powers ; for the king had ac- 
knowledged the political changes in 
Holland only under this condition. 
For several years this prince had 
expected that the claims, secured by 
the mutual stipulations of Prussia 
and France, should be satisfied. 
The Batavian republic had been 
willing to enter into an accommoda- 
tion, but the emperor Napoleon 
forbad it. Neither the recollection 
of this circumstance, nor the consi- 
deration of the ties of blood which 
united his majesty to the prince, 
nor the declaration, twenty times 
repeated, that the king could not 
desert the rights of his brother-in- 
Jaw, could prevent bis being added 
to theheap of victims. He was the 
first who was deprived of his pater- 
nal property. Eight days before, 
he had received ‘from the emperor 
a letter, condoling with him, in the 
customary forms, on the death of 
his father, and wishing him joy on 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1806. 
his undisturbed succession tg the 
states of his house. None of these 
circumstances are unimportant 5 
each throws a light on the whole. 
Cleves had been allotted to prince 
Murat. Scarcely become a sove- 
reign, he wished likewise to be a 
conqueror.—His troops took pos- 
session of the abbies of Essen, Wer- 
den, and Klten, under the pretext 
that they appertained to the duchy 
of Cleves, though they were entirely 
territories newly acquired, and there 
was not the shadow of a connection 
between them and the ceded pro- 
vince. Great labour was employed, 
in vain, to give even acolour to this 
outrage. 
Wesel was to belong to the new 
duke, not to the emperor Napoleon. 
‘The king had never resolved to give 
up the Jast fortress on the Rhine 
into the power of France.—With. 
out a word by way of explanation, 
Wesel was annexed to a French de- 
partment. 
The existing state of the Austrian 
monarchy, and of the Porte, had 
been mutually guaranteed. The 
empcror Napoleon certainly wished 
that Prussia should be bound by 
this guarantee ; for in his hands it 
was an instrument which he might 
employ as suited his politics, a pre- 
text for demanding sacrifices in a 
contest which his ambition might 
occasion.— He himself, however, 
did not observe it longer than it 
contributed to his interest. Ragusa, 
though under the protection of the 
Porte, was taken possession of by 
his troops. Gradiska and Aquileia 
were wrested from Austria, under 
nearly the same pretexts which had 
been employed when thé’ French 
seized the three abbeys, 
In all political proceedings it was 
naturally taken for granted, ig 
the 
