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BONAPARTE. NAPOLEON I 



BONAPARTE. NAPOLEON I. 



On the 23rd of September 1S05 Bonaparte went in state to the 

 mate, where he delivered a speech in his peculiar style of oratory on 

 the occasion of the war. By constantly throwing all the blame of the 

 war upon the English, by continually representing them as a sort of 

 taoarnation of the evil principle ever intent on the ruin of France, 

 Bonaparte succeeded, in a country where great ignorance prevailed 

 on political subjects, and where the press was sure not to con- 

 tradict him, to create that spirit of bitter and deep animosity against 

 England which continued to exist long after his death. It is curious 

 to read the ' Moniteur' of those times, and to see the extravagant 

 assertions and charges against England with which its columns are 

 filled. (' Recueil de docreta, ordonnances, traites da paiz, manifestos, 

 proclamations, discours, Ac., de Napoleon Bonaparte et des membres 

 du Qouvernement Francais depuis le 18 brumaire an 8 [Nuvembre 

 1799), jusqu' a 1'annee 1812 inclusivement, extraita du Moniteur,' 

 4 voli. Svo, 1813, a very useful book of reference.) In one instance 

 tho Kngliah were gravely accused of having thrown bales of infected 

 cotton on the coast of France in 1804, in order to introduce the 

 plague into that country; and tho 'Moniteur' (the official journal) 

 added, " the English cannot conquer us by the sword, they assail us 

 with the plague;" and strange to say, this absurd story was revived in 

 the ' Memoirs of Marshal Ney,' published at Paris in 1832. 



Napoleon repaired to Mains, where be took the command of the 

 grand army, a name which was afterwards always applied to the army 

 while he commanded in person. He also began in this campaign to 

 issue regular bulletins of the events of the war. Coloured as these 

 documents generally are (Bourienne, in his account of the Egyptian 

 war, shows the process by which Napoleon used to frame them), they 

 till constitute a series of important historical papers. 



We cannot enter into the details of the campaign of 1805, and we 

 must refer our readers to the professional statements of military men 

 of both sides who were in it, such as Stutterheim's ' Campaign of 

 Austerlitz ;' Rapp's ' Memoirs,' ftc. Suffice it to say that General 

 Mack allowed himself to be surrounded at TJIm, and then surrendered, 

 on the 17th of October, without fighting, with more than 20,000 men, 

 all his staff, artillery, 4c. The other Austrian divisions being now 

 scattered about could make no effectual resistance, and the French 

 entered Vienna on the 13th of November. The Russian army had by 

 this time assembled in Moravia, under the Emperor Alexander in 

 person. Being joined by some Austrian divisions it amounted to about 

 80,000 men. Napoleon told his soldiers that they were now going to 

 meet a new enemy, "who had been brought from the ends of tho 

 world by the gold of England." Alluding to the high character borne 

 by the Rus*ian infantry, he added : " This contest is of much import- 

 ance to the honour of the French infantry. The question must be 

 BOW finally settled whether the French infantry be the first or the 

 second in Europe." The treat battle of Austerlitz was fought on the 

 2nd of December, 1805. The two armies were nearly equal in number. 

 The Russians, confident of success, extended their line too much. 

 Bonaparte broke through it and separated their divisions, which, after 

 a stout resistance, especially on the part of the Russian Guards, were 

 routed in detail The loss of the allies was tremendous; thousands 

 wrre drowned in the frozen lakes in the rear of their position. The 

 Emperor of Austria had an interview with Napoleon the day after, and 

 an armistice was concluded, by which the remaining Russian troops 

 were allowed to retire to their own country. Peace between Austria 

 and France was signed at Preeburg on the 26th of December. Austria 

 gave up the Venetian provinces and Dalmatia to the kingdom of 

 Italy, Tyrol to the elector of Bavaria, and other districts, besides a 

 contribution of one hundred millions of francs. This war, which was 

 to have checked the preponderance of Napoleon in Italy, lea that 

 country entirely at his disposal, and established bis influence over a 

 great pan of Germany, where, having raised the electors of Bavaria 

 and Wurtemberg to the rank of kings, he placed himself at the head 

 of all the smaller states, which he formed into the confederation of 

 the Uhine under his protection. The old German empire was thus 

 dissolved. Boon after, the Emperor Francis formally renounced his 

 title of Emperor of Germany, and assumed the title of Francis L, 

 emperor of Austria and of bis other hereditary states. 



It most be observed that the position of Napoleon after the battle 

 of Austerlitz in the heart of Moravia, the winter having set in, and 

 he far from the frontiers of France and from his reinforcements and 

 'applies, the Russians, who were expecting reinforcement", in his front, 

 Prussia wavering on his flank, Bohemia untouched, the Archduke 

 (rlsis *"d ^e Hungarian insurrection in his rear, was extremely 

 critical, bad he chosen to protract the war. This of course induced 

 him to grant Austria better terms than what she appeared to have a 

 right to, on a mere superficisl view of the condition of the two powers. 

 The Austrian empire wn not overthrown because Vienna was in the 

 power of the invader. But Napoleon calculated on the habits and 

 the fears of the Emperor Francis, and on his affection for the citizens 

 of Vienna; and he was not mistaken on this occasion. 



The King of Naples, breaking his recent treaty with France, had 

 Bowed a Russian and English army to land in his dominions, where 

 they remained useless during the great struggle that was going forward 

 in Germany. Napoleon sent an army to Naples in February 1806; 



Ferdinand took refuge in Sicily. A decree of Napoleon, 

 Mi** 180, appointed his brother Joseph king of Naples and of Sicily. 



On the 6th of June following be appointed by another decree his 

 brother Louis king of Holland, thus transforming by a stroke of the 

 pen the BaUvian republic into a kingdom dependent on France. His 

 brother-in-law, Murat, was made grand-duke of Berg. 



During his victorious progress in Germany, Napoleon received the 

 news of the total destruction of the French and Spanish fleets by 

 Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar, on the 21st of October 1805. His 

 peevish remark on the occasion is said to have been " I cannot be 

 everywhere; " and he threw all the blame on his unfortunate admiral, 

 Villeneuve, who soon after killed himself. From this time Napoleon 

 renounced his plans of invading England, and he applied himself to 

 destroy all English trade and correspondence with the continent. 

 Charles Fox, who had succeeded Pitt as minister, was known to be 

 favourable to peace. Negotiations accordingly were entered into by 

 Napoleon, on the basis of the ' uti poasidetis.' Lord Yarmouth, and 

 afterwards Lord Lauderdale, were the English negotiators. Napoleon 

 however required that Sicily should be given up to Joseph Bonaparte. 

 But Sicily had never been conquered by the French, it had been 

 throughout the war the ally of England, and, owing to that alliance, 

 its sovereign had lost his continental dominions of Naples. To have 

 bartered away Sicily to France would have been, on the part of 

 England, an act of bod faith equal to if not worse than the former 

 barter of Venice by the French. The English minister refused, and 

 Fox dying soon after, the negotiations broke off. 



The conduct of 1'rus-ia had been one of tergiversation. Napoleon 

 knew that she had felt the wish, without having the resolution, to 

 strike a blow while he was engaged in Moravia against the Russians. 

 To keep her in good humour ho had given Hanover up to her, which 

 Prussia, though at peace with the King of England, scrupled not to 

 accept She moreover shut her ports against British vessels. Bona- 

 parte, after having settled his affairs with Austria, altered his tone 

 towards Prussia. The 'Mouiteiir* began to talk of Prussia as a 

 secondary power, which assumed a tone that its extent and position 

 did not warrant. In his negociatious with Lord Lauderdale, Napoleon 

 had offered to restore Hanover to the King of England. The con- 

 federation of the Rhine extended round a great part of the Prussian 

 frontiers. The Prussian minister at Paris, Von Kuobeladorf, in a note 

 which he delivered to Talleyrand on the 1st of October, 1806, said 

 truly, " that tho king his master saw around his territories nona but 

 French soldiers or vassals of France, ready to march at her beck." 

 The note demanded that the French troops should evacuate the 

 territory of Germany. Napoleon answered in a tone of sneer and 

 defiance, saying that " to provoke the enmity of France was as sense- 

 less a course as to pretend to withstand the waves of the ocean." 

 The King of Prussia issued a long manifesto from his head-quarters at 

 Erfurt on the 9th of October 1806, in which he recapitulated the 

 long series of Napoleon's encroachments, which all the world was 

 acquainted with, but which the King of Prussia seemed now to dis- 

 cover for the first time. Napoleon was speedily in the field ; ho 

 attacked the Prussians first, and this time he hod ou his side a large 

 superiority of numbers, added to his superiority of tactics. The 

 double battle of Auerstadt and Jena (16th of October) decided tho 

 campaign. The Prussian troops fought bravely, but their generals 

 committed the same error as the Austrian generals had committed 

 before, of extending too much their line of alterations. The conse- 

 quences of the Prussian defeat were most disastrous. Most of their 

 divisions were surrounded and obliged to lay down their arms. 

 Almost all their strong fortresses Magdeburg, Spandau, Kustrin, 

 Stettin, Hameln, surrendered without firing a shut. Tho work uf tho 

 great Frederic's whole life crumbled to pieces in a few weeks. Blucher 

 and Loatocq were the only officers who kept some regiments together, 

 with which they made a gallant stand in the northern provinces. 



Bonaparte entered Berlin on the 21st of October. He dispatched 

 Mortier to occupy Hamburg, and seize all English property th- n-. 

 On the 21st of November 1806, Napoleon issued his well kuowu Berlin 

 decree against British commerce. " Tho British islands were to be 

 considered as in a state of blockade by all the continent All corres- 

 pondence or trade with England was forbidden under most severe 

 penalties. All articles of Eugb'sh manufacture or produce of the 

 British colonies were considered as contraband. Property of every 

 kind belonging to British subject', wherever found, was declared 

 lawful prize. All letters to and from England to be detained mid 

 opened at tho post-offices." The English government retaliated by its 

 orders in council, 1 1 th of November 1807. 



Meantime tho King of Prussia had fled to Konigsberg, and the 

 Russian armies advanced to the Vistula : the French occupied Warsaw. 

 French agents had previously penetrated into Russian 1'ulaud, and 

 had spread a report that Kosciusko was at Napoleon's head-quarters. 

 Napoleon had invited Koeciusko, who was then living in Switzerland, 

 to come, but that single-minded patriot, mistrusting the views of the 

 conqueror, declined the invitation. 



Napoleon received at his head-quarters at Posen numerous addresses 

 from various parts of Poland, entreating him to restore that country 

 to its independence. His answers were cold and cautious. He l>-r.in 

 his winter campaign against the Russians by the battle of Pultiuk 

 (28th of December), in which the French experiencing a eovcre check 

 retired towards the Vistula. The month of January 1807 passed 

 without any engagements, but on the 8th of February the great battle 



