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BONAPAKTE. NAPOLEON I. 



BONAPARTE. NAPOLEON I. 



7'.U 



of Eylau was fought between the two grand armies. General Bening- 

 sen commanded the Russians. The French made repeated and furious 

 attacks on the Russian infantry, which stood like walls of brass, and 

 the assailants were at last obliged to desist The battle lasted till 

 near ten o'clock at night. The loss on both sides was dreadful ; it 

 has never been correctly ascertained, but has been roughly estimated 

 at 50,000 men. After the battle Napoleon withdrew again to the line 

 of the Vistula, and Beningsen retired towards Konigaberg. There 

 was no more fighting between the two armies for more than three 

 months after. The French meantime besieged Danzig, which was 

 defended by the Prussian General Kalkreut, and surrendered at the 

 end of May 1807. Napoleon having now reinforced his army to 

 200,000 men, advanced again towards the Russians. On the 13th of 

 June the battle of Friedlaud took place, in which, after an obstinate 

 struggle, the Russians were at last worsted, and driven beyond the 

 river Aller. They did not lose however either cannon or baggage, and 

 they effected their retreat upon Tilsit near the Russian frontiers. 



As Bonaparte and Alexander both wished for peace, an armistice 

 was made, and a personal interview took place between the two 

 emperors on a raft in the middle of the river Niemen on the 25th of 

 June. The two sovereigns after this took up their residence in the 

 town of Tilsit, where the treaty of peace was finally signed. The 

 King of Prussia was restored to about one-half of his former terri- 

 tories, as far as the Elbe. The duchy of Warsaw was given to the 

 Elector of Saxony, who was made a king, and became the faithful 

 ally of Napoleon. The principal Prussian fortresses and sea-port 

 towns were to remain in the hands of the French till the general 

 peace. Russia made no sacrifices ; on the contrary, she obtained a part 

 of Prussian Poland. But there were secret articles to the treaty, by 

 which France allowed Russia to take Finland from Sweden, and 

 Russia, on her part, promised to close her ports against British vessels. 

 On the 9th of July Napoleon left Tilsit to return to Paris, where he 

 received the usual tribute of servile addresses and fulsome flattery. 

 On the 19th of August a Senatus Consultum suppressed the Tribuuate, 

 the only remains of a national deliberative body in France. It had 

 been previously reduced to one-half of its original number. Three 

 committees of administration, of legislation, and of finances, taken 

 from the legislative body, discussed the projects of law in lieu of the 

 Tribunate. 



Having stripped the elector of Hesse Cassel of his dominions, under 

 the plea that he had not joined him in the war against Prussia, as well 

 as the Duke of Brunswick of his, on the ground that the duke had 

 joined Prussia against him, Napoleon created out of these and other 

 districts the kingdom of Westphalia, 18th of August, and gave it to 

 his brother Jerome, who took up his residence at Cassel. Soon after, 

 the prince regent of Portugal having refused to enforce the Berlin 

 decree against England, Napoleon sent Junot with 30,000 men across 

 Spain to take possession of Portugal. At the same time he published 

 in the ' Monitur ' that " the house of Braganza had ceased to reign in 

 Europe." Junot entered Lisbon without opposition, November 30th, 

 1807, the prince regent and his court having just before embarked for 

 Brazil. In December of the same year, Napoleon having gone to 

 Milan, sent for the queen of Etruria and her son, and signified to her 

 that she must resign Tuscany, which was immediately occupied by 

 French troops; and in the following June (1808) Tuscany was formally 

 annexed, not to the kingdom of Italy, but to the French empire, of 

 which it formed three new departments. The queen was promised a 

 compensation in Portugal, which she never obtained. On the 17th of 

 December 1807, Napoleon issued from Milan a decree by which all 

 merchant vessels which should submit to the British orders in council 

 were declared to be lawful prizes by the French. In the following year 

 (1808) a number of American vessels were seized and confiscated in 

 the French and Italian ports. The pope was next to feel Napoleon's 

 displeasure. The French troops had for some time occupied Aucona 

 and Civita Vecchia, in order to keep away the English and the 

 Russians ; but Napoleon now insisted on the pope declaring war 

 against England. The pope answered that he was a sovereign of 

 peace, and could not declare war against any Christian power. 

 Napoleon said that as the successor of Charlemagne he was emperor 

 of the west, king of Italy, and suzerain of the pope; that the English 

 were heretics, and therefore enemies of the Holy See ; and that the 

 donation of Charlemagne had been made to defend the holy church 

 against its enemies : that if the pope did not comply with his wishes 

 he, Napoleon, would take back Charlemagne's grant. We cannot go 

 further here into the long and vexatious correspondence and con- 

 troversy between Napoleon and the court of Rome, which were carried 

 on for several years, and which form an interesting episode in the 

 general history of those times. ('Compeudio Storico su Pio VII.,' 

 Milano, 1824; Botta, ' Storia d'ltalia;' Coppi, 'Annali d'ltalia,' and 

 ' Memorie Storiche del Cardinal Pacca.') By a decree of the 2nd of 

 April 1808, Napoleou annexed the Marches or Adriatic provinces of 

 the Koman state to his kingdom of Italy. There were other points of 

 dispute between the pope and Napoleon on matters concerning the 

 Concordat with the kingdom of Italy. (See a mild and well-written 

 letter of the viceroy, Eugene Beauharnois, to Pius VII. on this subject 

 in the ' Amministrazione del Regno d'ltalia.') About the same time 

 (February 1808) a French force under General Miollis entered Rome, 

 occupied the Castle St. Angelo, and began to do military duty in that 



city. The general took the papal troops under his own command. 

 The pope remained in his palace with the mere shadow of a civil 

 power, which he had no means to enforce. 



We now come to another and most important transaction of Napo- 

 leon's reign, the invasion of Spain. Spain was the humble and 

 submissive ally of Napoleon : her navy, her army, her treasures were 

 at his disposal. She was at war with Great Britain ; she had allowed 

 a free passage to the French troops through her territory to Portugal. 

 Other French divisions had entered Spain as friends in the beginning 

 of 1808, and seized by stratagem the fortresses of St. Sebastian, 

 Pamplona, and Barcelona. At the same time the internal administra- 

 tion of Spain was carried on in a most corrupt and profligate manner. 

 Charles IV., his queen, and the favourite Godoy, had completely dis- 

 gusted the Spaniards. An insurrectional movement took place at 

 Aranjuez, 20th of March, and Ferdinand, the heir to the crown, who 

 was a favourite with the people, was proclaimed king, and Charles was 

 induced to abdicate. Napoleon founded upon this a pretence for 

 interfering. He invited father, mother, son, and favourite to Bayoune, 

 where he himself repaired in April. Charles and his queen went 

 readily Ferdinand hesitated ; but Napoleon sent Savary, who with 

 many asseverations of his master's honourable and friendly intentions 

 towards him, gradually decoyed the weak prince from stage to stage 

 until he was fairly out of the Spanish territory. A scene of duplicity 

 and dishonesty, of indecent and unnatural recriminations now took 

 place between Napoleon, the old king, the queen, and her son, which 

 for moral turpitude has no parallel in history. Charles resumed his 

 character of king, stigmatised Ferdinand as a rebellious son, the queen 

 joined in reviling and disgracing him at the expense of her own and 

 her husband's honour, and Ferdinand, overwhelmed by insults and 

 threats, renounced his claim to the throne of Spain on the 6th of May. 

 Charles likewise resigned all his rights " in favour of his friend and 

 ally the emperor of the French." Napoleou now issued a decree, ap- 

 pointing " his dearly-beloved brother Joseph Napoleou, king of Naples 

 and Sicily, to the crowns of Spain and the Indies." By a subsequent 

 decree, 15th of July, he appointed "his dearly-beloved cousin, Joachim 

 Murat, grand-duke of Berg, to the throne of Naples and Sicily, which 

 remained vacant by the accession of Joseph Napoleon to the kingdoms 

 of Spain and the Indies." Both these curious documents are signed 

 Napoleon, and countersigned by the minister secretary of state, 

 Maret. 



The memorable events which resulted from these nefarious trans- 

 actions, the occupation of Madrid by Murat, the revolt and subsequent 

 massacre of the people of that city on the 2nd of May, the insurrection 

 which broke out simultaneously in all parts of the Peninsula against 

 the invaders the heroic though often unfortunate resistance of the 

 Spaniards the atrocities committed by the French troops, and the 

 cruel retaliations by the Spanish guerrillas the long murderous war 

 of seven years, from 1808 till 1814, in which the British army acted a 

 conspicuous part all these may be read in the numerous works 

 written expressly on the subject of the Peninsular war. For the 

 military transactions see Colonel Napier, General Foy, and Major 

 Vacani, and the 'Annals of the Peninsular Campaigns,' by Captain 

 Hamilton. For the Spanish view of the subject see Count Toreno, 

 ' Historia del Levantamiento, Guerra, y Revolucion do Espafia,' Madr> J, 

 1835 ; and Canga Arguelles, ' Observacioues eobre las Historias de 

 Southey, Londonderry, Clarke, y Napier.' For a general, historical, 

 and political view of Spain during that period, see Southey's ' History 

 of the Peninsular War,' and compare Thiers, ' Histoire du Consulat 

 et de 1'Empire.' But the work that gives perhaps the best insight iuto 

 the feelings and conduct of the Spaniards in the various provinces 

 throughout that memorable struggle, is the ' Histoire de la Revolution 

 d'Espagje,' by Colonel Schepeler, a Prussian officer, who was himself 

 ia the Spanish service during the whole time. 



During the seven years of the Peninsular war, 600,000 Frenchmen 

 entered Spain at different times by the two great roads of Bayoune 

 and Perpignan. There returned into France at various times about 

 250,000. The other 350,000 did not return. Making full deduction 

 for those who remained prisoners in the hands of the Spaniards and 

 English, and were afterwards set free at the peace of 1814, the number 

 who perished during that war cannot be estimated at less than 250,000, 

 if it does not approach rather 300,000. (Schepeler and Foy.) The loss 

 of the Spaniards, soldiers and peasants, who were destroyed in detail on 

 almost every spot in the peninsula, cannot be calculated, but it must 

 have been greater than that of the French. 



In 1808 Napoleon re-established titles of nobility in France. 

 Lefebvre, who had taken Danzig during the previous year, was the 

 first duke that he 9reated. Many others, both military and civilians, 

 received titles from towns in Italy and Germany, with an income 

 charged upon the revenues or national domains of the conquered 

 countries. Both the titles and the incomes attached to them were 

 made hereditary. 



In September 1808 Napoleon repaired to Erfurt to hold conferences 

 with the emperor Alexander. The subject of these conferences re- 

 mained a secret, but it would seem that the question of Turkey was 

 agitated. Napoleon says that the principal obstacle to a partition of 

 that country was Constantinople. It seems however that he con- 

 sented to Russia encroaching on the frontier provinces of Turkey, as 

 the Russian troops invaded Moldavia and Wallachia soon after the 



