<*> 
34S L O N 
pictures, caricatures, poems, verfes, &c. which had been 
published fmce the 24th of February, when the allies be¬ 
came poffeffed of the city. He did not appear to confider 
the place, as thefe papers defcribe it, “a well-ftored hive 
of war,” filled with a citizen-foldiery, and having on its 
ramparts upwards of 200 pieces of cannon : but, with that 
hatred of the liberty of the prefs which charadterifed Na¬ 
poleon, and which, of courfe, his fatellites imitated, he con¬ 
templated Hamburg as an immenfe depot of inflammatory 
and feditious publications; inflammatory, becaufe they 
were calculated to excite a fpirit of refiifance throughout 
Germany; and feditious, becaufe, having that efledl, they 
tended to deftroy the power of his mafter. A proclamation 
of Davouft’s, publiflied foon after, impofed an extraordinary 
contribution of 48 millions of franks on the citizens of 
Hamburg, as a punifhment for their condudl during the 
abfence of the French from that city. The proclamation 
is dated the 7th of June, and the firft inftalment on the 
contribution was to be paid on the iath. The whole was 
divided into fix inftalments, the left of which was to be 
paid on the 12th of July. The firft three inftalments 
were to be paid in money; but for the three laft bills 
would be accepted, payable at Paris at three months date. 
The proclamation particularly diredls the contribution to 
be levied on thofe perfens who had fubferibed to the pa¬ 
triotic levies, or otherwise diftinguifhed themfelves againft 
the French fince the 24th of February. 
The re-capture of Hamburg was mentioned in the 
French papers in very exulting terms; and it was farcaf- 
tical-ly obferved, that the duke of Cambridge, (meaning 
Cumberland) and the duke of Brunfwick arrived in time 
to give eclat to the fuccefs of the French. Hamburg 
was ordered to be made a flrong place ; and another for- 
trefs to be conftrudled at the mouth of the Havel, in or¬ 
der to complete the defence of the Elbe.—It was Hated 
alfo, that all the Danifh troops in Holftein had been placed 
by the king of Denmark under the orders of-Davoult, and 
that prince^Chriftian had proceeded to Norway, where he 
•would place himfelf at the head of an army, and enter 
Sweden. 
A mod fanguinary decree was iffued at Hamburg on 
the 24th of July, by marffial Davouft, under the title of 
“ An Amnefty for the Adis of Rebellion, Infurreclion, and 
Defertion, committed up to that date in the Thirty-fecond 
Military Divifion.” From this are excepted certain per- 
fons by name, of whom the aft contains a lift ; alio all 
perfons guilty of adls of violence, attacks, and indivi¬ 
dual murders, plunders, thefts, and other ex cedes, even 
although originating in the infurrection ; an^l all thofe 
who have abfented themfelves, and fiiali not return before 
the 5th of Auguft—all which perfons, thus excepted, are 
declared enemies of the ftate, and banifhed for ever, and 
their property eonfifeated.— Now, the fecond clals of of¬ 
fences, though it affedts to relate to private crimes, is fo 
vaguely deferibed, that there is fcarcely an ad of violence 
or infurredlion which may not be brought within it; and, 
as for the third, the rime allowed for return was fo Ihort, 
that the parties, if at any confiderable diftance, could not 
avail themfelves of it: as,for inftance, thofe Hamburghers 
who may have fought refuge in England could not by 
poflibility take the benefit of the ad, tor it was not known 
here until two days after its expiration. It was, there¬ 
fore, an infult to common fenfe, and a mockery of mercy, 
to call this an Ad of Amnefty. It was, in fad, a cruel 
meafure of prgfcription—an outlawry againft all the loyal 
and patriotic people of Hamburg, and an expedient to 
raife money by the confifcation of their property. The 
moft compulfory means were alio retorted to for extend¬ 
ing and ftrerigthening the fortifications; neither age nor 
lex was fpared ; neither rank nor charader was refpeded ; 
nor was it permitted to the weak and feeble to avail them- 
lelves of wealth to procure a fubltitute.—In this cruel 
and oppreffive decree, fathers, mothers, and guardians, 
were rendered refponfible in penalties for the ads of their 
children and wards, though wholly out of their powers 
D O N. 
for the want of malts, women were dragged to work at 
the fortifications, at the rate of three women for two men, 
and twenty boys were made to f'upply the place of ten men. 
The deputies who had been fent to intercede with Bo¬ 
naparte, to reduce the demand made for military purpofes 
on this opprefled city, were wholly unfuccefsful. They 
were told by Napoleon, that their dijlcyalty during the ab¬ 
fence of the French troops entitled them neither to favour 
nor compaffion. 
Count Hogendorp, governor of Hamburg, iffued, on 
the 18th of Auguft, an infamous order, in which it was 
declared, that, as the place muff be confidered in a ftate 
of fiege, more than four perfons flopping to fpeak toge¬ 
ther in the ftreet were to be deemed an unlawful mob; 
and, if they did not difperfe inftar.tly, were to be taken 
up and fhot. Circulators of difqnieting intelligence were 
to be tried by a military commiffion. No citizen, in cafe 
of a difpute with a foldier, was to revenge his own wrongs; 
and, in cafe of violence, when the latter was on duty, was 
to be fhot. The decree contains a ftill more atrocious 
and unmanly denunciation againft the female fex;^ which, 
however, is of too indelicate a nature for our pages. 
There was little profpedt that the ariniftice would lead 
to peace. Each party was making great efforts to increafe 
its ftrength, and to be in a condition to act with vigour 
and effedl on the firft notification of a renewal of hoftilities. 
Ruffia, befides augmenting her forces at head-quarters, 
was railing an army of referve, and eltablifning magazines 
on her weftern frontier; Pruflia continued to raife troops* 
and organizeherpopulation; England fent troops,artillery, 
and llores, to the Baltic ; the crown-prince of Sweden, fub- 
fidized by England, began to invite the Germans to fw.ell 
the legions forming under his protection; and France; in 
addition to the affiflance fhe derived from her tributaries 
and vaflals, had recourse to another extraordinary method 
to increafe her levies : the national guards and the guards 
of honour (the former, like our militia regiments, raifed 
for limited fervice, and the latter for mere local parade) 
were excited to make an offer to join the French armies; 
and this loon became general throughout the empire. 
The armiftice, and the negotiations at Prague for peace, 
had been entered into more peculiarly under the media¬ 
tion of the emperor of Aultria, the ally and the father-in- 
law of Bonaparte. Yet thefe negotiations lingered only 
about twenty days beyond the time appointed ; for, on the 
10th of Auguft, the end of the armiftice was declared; 
and, on the lame day, another event, which gave an entire 
new turn to the affairs of Germany, took place. The long 1 
fufpenfe in which Europe had been kept relating to the 
future line of conduct which Auftria would adopt was put 
an end to ; and the declaration of this important power 
for the caufe of the allies inclined the balance at once in 
in their favour. On the 13th in the morning, the whole 
of the Aultrian army, which had been long kept in the 
beft order and difeipline, was put in motiorf: head-quar¬ 
ters were removed to Prague, to which place the emperor 
of Ruffia, the king of Pruflia, and lord Cathcart, were gone. 
And thus the victories of Lutzen, of Bautzen, and of 
Wurtfchen, eventually led, not to a peace advantageous 
and honourable to Napoleon’s power and name, but to 
hoftilities on a larger lcale; a fcale embracing all Europe. 
They' acquired him no frelh fupporter, but added to the 
lift of his enemies a power bound to him clofely by the 
ties of blood, and yet compelled, by his unrelenting am¬ 
bition, to rend them afunder; a power curtailed indeed in 
territory, and weakened in population, by the dilafters of 
former wars, but entering into the preient with renovated 
means, and a fpirit that added to their efficiency.—-The 
following is the eftimuted force of the allies at this time: 
Auflrian army in Bohemia 150,000 
Ruffian and Prufiian army in Silefia - - 200,000 
Army of the North of Germany, confifting 
chiefly of Swedes, and Pruflians - - 127,000 
477,000 
.The 
