tiation under the most favourable of all auspices-mutual esteem on the part of the powers engaged in it. 74. The basis proposed by Mr Fox was, that the "two parties should assume it as a principle, that the peace was to be honourable to themselves and their respective allies.”—“Our interests," said Talleyrand, "are easily reconciled, from this alone, that they are distinct. You are the masters of the sea. Your maritime forces equal those of all the kingdoms of the earth put together. We are a great Continental power; but other nations have as great armies on foot as ourselves. If, in addition to being omnipotent on the ocean from your own strength, you desire to acquire a preponderance on the Continent, by means of alliances, peace is not possible." Talleyrand strongly urged the English minister to lay all the allies on either side out of view, and conclude a separate accom 73. The rapid succession of more important events left no time for the advance of the fresh negotiations thus pointed at by the cabinet of St Petersburg. All eyes in Europe were turned to the conferences between France and England, which had been long in dependence at Paris; and the turn which they were now taking left little hope that hostilities, in every quarter, could be brought to a termination. This celebrated negotiation took its rise from a fortuitous circumstance equally creditable to the government of both powers. An abandoned exile, in a private audience with Mr Fox, in February, had proposed to that minister to assassinate Napoleon. Either penetrating the design of this wretch, who had once been an agent of the police in Paris, or inspired by a generous desire to prevent the perpetration of so atrocious an offence, the English minister, after having at first dismissed him from his presence, had the assassin appre-modation; but in this design he was hended, and sent information to M. Talleyrand of the proposal. This upright proceeding led to a courteous reply from that minister, in which, after expressing his satisfaction at the new turn which the war had taken, which he regarded as a presage of what he might expect from a cabinet of which he fondly measured the sentiments according to those of Mr Fox, "one of the men who seem expressly made to feel the really grand and beautiful in all things," he repeated that passage, in the exposition of the state of the 75. The next step in the negotiation empire by the Minister of the Interior, was to fix the basis on which the inwherein Napoleon declared that he terests and honour of England and would always be ready to renew con- France themselves were to be adjusted. ferences with England on the basis of To ascertain this important point in a the treaty of Amiens. Mr Fox replied manner more satisfactory than could that he was inspired with the same sen- be done by the slow interchange of timents; and thus commenced a nego-written communications, M. Talley unsuccessful. Mr Fox insisted, with the English travellers whom Napoleon rand sent for Lord Yarmouth, one of had detained a prisoner ever since the rupture of the peace of Amiens, and proposed to him the basis on which France was willing to enter into an accommodation. These were the restitution of Hanover, which, after great difficulty, Napoleon was brought to agree to-although he had only a few months before ceded it to Prussiaand the retention of Sicily by England or its allies; the recognition of the Emperor of France by England, and the guaranteeing of the integrity of the Ottoman dominions by France. These terms Lord Yarmouth justly considered as equivalent to the establishment of the principle of uti possidetis, and stated them as such in his communication made the same day to Mr Fox on the subject. further mentioned that the Emperor had received reports from his brother, and the general officers under his command, stating that Naples could not be held without Sicily, and the probability they saw of gaining possession of that island; that the restitution of Hanover for the honour of the British crown, the retention of Malta for the honour of the navy, and of the Cape of Good Hope for the interests of commerce, should be sufficient inducements to 76. At the time when the proposals the cabinet of St James's to enter into were made by the French government, the negotiation; that if a confidential no accommodation had been effected communication had been made three with Russia; and it was an object of months before, the questions both of the highest importance to induce Great Holland and Naples might have been Britain, on any terms, to accede to the arranged in the manner most satisfacbasis of a negotiation. But when the tory to Great Britain; but that now, next communication from Talleyrand when their dominions had been settled was made, circumstances had entirely on the Emperor's brothers, any abanchanged. D'Oubril had expressed his donment of any portion of them would willingness to sign a separate peace in be "considered by the Emperor as a behalf of Russia, and Napoleon was retrograde measure, equivalent to an resolved to take advantage of this cir- abdication." Lord Yarmouth continued cumstance to exact more favourable to insist, in terms of Mr Fox's instrucconditions than he had at first agreed tions, for the basis of uti possidetis as to from the British government. When the one originally proposed by France, pressed, therefore, by Lord Yarmouth and to which Great Britain was resolvto adhere to the principle of uti possi-ed to adhere; that it was alone on the detis, and in particular to agree to the faith of this basis, more especially as King of Naples retaining Sicily, he re-applied to Sicily, that the conferences plied, that though the sentiments of the Emperor in favour of peace had undergone no alteration, yet that some changes had taken place, the possibility of which he had hinted at when I last saw him," alluding to the readiness of Russia to treat separately; and 66 were continued; that any tergiversation or cavil, therefore, on that capital article would be considered as a breach of the principle of the negotiation in its most essential part; that full powers were now communicated to him to conduct it; but that the possession of Sicily was a sine quâ non, with"I inquired," said Lord Yarmouth, "wheout which it was useless to continue ther the possession of Sicily would be demanded, it having been so said. 'You are in pos- the conferences. Talleyrand upon this session of it,' he replied-we do not ask it from offered the Hanse Towns as an equivayou; if you were not in possession, it would lent to the King of Naples for the loss much augment the difficulties.' Considering this to be very positive, both from the words of that island: and when this was reand the manner of delivering them, I conceiv-fused, to give Dalmatia, Albania, and ed it would be improper to make further questions. We ask nothing of you (nous ne vous demandons rien), amounting to an admission of uti possidetis, as applicable to his Majesty's conquests. Talleyrand concluded with these words: The sentiments of France are completely changed: the bitterness which cha racterised the commencement of this war no longer exists. And what we desire most, is to live on good terms with a power so vast as that of Great Britain.""-LORD YARMOUTH'S Communication, No. 12; Parl. Deb. viii. 110. Ragusa as an indemnity to his Sicilian majesty: looking out thus, according to the usual system of Napoleon, in every direction for indemnities at the expense of minor neutral states, rather than surrender one foot of his own acquisitions. of France from the basis of the nego77. This clear departure on the side tiation originally laid down by its own minister, and open avowal of the prin- | cation. But the demands of France ciple that neutral and weaker powers did not rise in the manner that might were to be despoiled in order to recon- have been expected after so great an cile the pretensions of the greater bel- advantage: she was still willing to alligerents, augured but ill for its ulti- low Great Britain to retain Malta, the mate success; and the notes which Cape, and her acquisitions in India, were interchanged gradually assumed and to restore Hanover: full powers a more angry character; but the con- were given to Lord Yarmouth, which ferences were still continued for a con- were exchanged with those of General siderable time. Mr Fox, with the firm- Clark. Specific retention of Sicily by ness which became a British minister, the King of Naples was no longer ininvariably insisted that Sicily should be sisted for, it being agreed by Great retained by the King of England, and Britain that an adequate equivalent, if enjoined on Lord Yarmouth to demand provided by lawful means, should be his passports if this was not acceded accepted. Napoleon continued to urge to. The changes in Germany conse- the acquisition of the Hanse Towns, quent on the Confederation of the either by Prussia, as a compensation Rhine were admitted by Talleyrand, for Hanover, or by his Sicilian majesty: but offered to be modified, if peace and held out the menace that, by not with Great Britain was concluded. Mr acceding to such an arrangement, the Fox refused to be any party to the invasion of Portugal would be renderproject of despoiling Turkey and Ra- ed inevitable, for which an army was gusa, independent and neutral states, already assembled at Bayonne. Nay, to provide an equivalent for the aban- he even hinted at ulterior views in redonment of Sicily; but threw out a gard to the Spanish peninsula, which hope that by the cession of part of the the resistance of England would cause Venetian States, with the city of Ve- to be developed, as similar ones had nice, from the kingdom of Italy to the been in Holland and Naples. But, reKing of Naples, an accommodation gardless of these threats, Mr Fox firmmight be listened to. To this, as ly insisted for the original basis of uti making the proposed equivalent come possidetis, as the only one which could from his own allies, Napoleon would be admitted; and as matters appeared by no means consent. Advices were as far as ever from an adjustment, received at Paris that an army of thirty Lord Lauderdale was sent to Paris thousand men had been assembled at with full powers to treat from the Bayonne. All the officers in that capi- British government. tal belonging to corps in Germany re- 79. Under the auspices of this able ceived orders instantly to join their nobleman, the negotiation was protractrespective regiments, and the approach-ed two months longer without leading ing signature of a separate treaty between France and Russia, in which the cession of Sicily in exchange for the Balearic Isles, taken from Spain, was a principal article, came to the knowledge of the British plenipotentiary. 78. The conclusion of the separate peace between Russia and France on the day following these communications, did not, of course, lessen the expectations of the latter power, though it removed all difficulty arising from the condition to which Great Britain had uniformly adhered, of making the cabinet of St Petersburg a party, either directly or in substance, to the pacifi to any satisfactory result. The English minister continued incessantly to demand a return to the principle of uti possidetis as the foundation of the negotiation; and the French cabinet as uniformly eluded or refused the demand, and insisted for the evacuation of Sicily by the English troops, and its surrender to Joseph, and the abandonment of all the maritime conquests of the war, with the exception of the Cape of Good Hope, by Great Britain. Lord Lauderdale in consequence repeatedly demanded his passports, and the negotiation appeared on the point of terminating, when intelligence was received in London of the refusal of the Emperor of Russia to ratify the treaty signed by M. d'Oubril. This important event made no alteration in the proposals of Great Britain, further than an announcement that any treaty now concluded must be with the concurrence of Russia; but it considerably lowered those of Napoleon, and Talleyrand announced that France "would make great concessions for the purpose of obtaining peace." These were afterwards explained to be the restoration of Hanover to Great Britain; the confirmation of its possession of Malta; the cession of the Cape, Tobago, and Pondicherry to its empire; and the grant of the Balearic Isles, with an annuity from Spain, in lieu of Sicily, as a compensation to the King of Naples. To these terms the English cabinet would by no means accede; and as there was no longer any appearance of an accommodation, Lord Lauderdale demanded and obtained his passports, nine days after Napoleon had set out from Paris to take the command of the army destined to act against Prussia. 80. Thus this negotiation, begun under such favourable auspices, both with England and Russia, broke off with both powers on the subject of the possession of Sicily and of the mouths of the Cattaro. Apparently these were very inconsiderable objects to revive so dreadful a contest, and bring the armies of the south and north of Europe to Eylau and Friedland; but in reality the secret ends which the hostile powers had in view, in contending for these distant possessions, were more considerable than might be at first imagined. It was not merely as an appanage of the crown of Naples that Napoleon so obstinately insisted on Sicily for his brother; it was as the greatest island in the Mediterranean, as opening the way to the command of that inland sea, and clearing the route to Egypt and the Indies, that it became a paramount object of desire. It was not an obscure harbour on the coast of the Adriatic which brought the colossal empires of France and Russia into collision; it was a settlement on the skirts of Turkey, it was the establishment of a French military station within sight of the Crescent, which was the secret matter of ambition to the one party, and jealousy to the other. Thus, while Sicily and Cattaro were the ostensible causes of difference, India and Constantinople were the real objects in the view of the parties; and the negotiation broke off upon those eternal subjects of contention between England, Russia, and France-the empire of the seas, and the dominion of continental Europe. 81. The intelligence of the refusal of Alexander to ratify d'Oubril's treaty with France excited an extraordinary transport at Berlin, which was much heightened when shortly after it became evident that the negotiations at Paris for an accommodation with Great Britain were not likely to prove successful. The war party became irresistible: a sense of national degradation had reached every heart; the Queen was daily to be seen on horseback at the head of her regiment in the streets of Berlin. The enthusiasm was universal; but in the guards and officers of that distinguished corps it rose to a pitch approaching to frenzy. In proportion to the force with which the bow had long been bent one way, was the violence with which it now rebounded to the other. Wiser heads, however, saw little ground for rational confidence in this uncontrolled ebullition of popular effervescence; and even the heroic Prince Louis let fall some expressions indicating that he hoped for more efficient support in the field than the declaimers of the capital.* Lucchesini, who had so long conducted the Prussian diplomacy at the French capital, sent despatches to his government full of acrimonious complaints of the cabinet of the Tuileries, which either by accident or design fell into the hands of the French police, and were laid before Napoleon. He instantly demanded the recall of the ob * He repeated with emphasis the lines of the poet Gleims, in allusion to the warlike bards of Berlin : "Sie singen laut im hohen chor Vom Tod, fürs Vaterland uns vor: noxious minister, who left Paris early | in September, and was succeeded by Knobelsdorf, whose mission was mainly to protract matters, that the cabinet of Berlin might complete its preparations, and if possible gain time for the distant succours of Russia to arrive on the Elbe. But as the troops on both sides were hastening to the scene of action, and it was evident of how much importance it was that the strength of Russia should be thrown into the scale before a decisive conflict took place, Napoleon easily penetrated their design, and resolved himself to commence hostilities. His forces were so great that they might well inspire confidence in the issue of the contest. He had four hundred and fifty thousand men on foot, of whom a hundred and fifty thousand were in the interior, and a hundred and seventy thousand with the Grand Army in the centre of Germany, besides fifty thousand in Lombardy. Thirty thousand horse, and ten thousand artillerymen, formed part of the force with which he would first commence operations. His troops for some weeks past had been rapidly defiling from Braunau, the Inn, and the Necker, towards the banks of the Elbe, and one hundred thousand men were approaching the Thuringian Forest. He set out, therefore, from Paris to put himself at their head on the night of the 26th September, conveyed the Guard by post to Mayence, and was already far advanced on his journey to the theatre of war, when the Prussian ultimatum was delivered at Paris by M. Knobelsdorf. Its conditions were-1st, That the French troops should forthwith evacuate Germany, commencing their retreat from the day when the King of Prussia might receive the answer of the Emperor, and continuing it without interruption. 2d, That the districts on the Wesel should be detached from the French empire. 3d, That no obstacles should be thrown in the way of the formation of a counter-league in the north of Germany. No stronger proof of the infatuation which had seized the cabinet of Berlin can be desired than the fact of their having, in the presence of Napoleon and the Grand Army, and without any present aid either from Russia, Austria, or England, proposed terms suitable rather to the day after the rout of Rosbach than the eve of the battle of Jena. 82. The public mind was at this period violently excited in Germany against the French, not merely by their prolonged stay beyond the Rhine, and the enormous expenses with which it was attended, but by a cruel and illegal murder committed by orders of Napoleon on a citizen of one of the free cities of the empire, who had sold a work hostile to his interests. Palm, a tradesman in Nuremberg, had been instrumental with many other booksellers in circulating the celebrated pamphlet by Gentz, already mentioned, in which the principle of resistance to French aggression was strongly inculcated, and another by Arndt, entitled "The Spirit of the Age," of a similar tendency, but in neither of which was any recommendation of assassination or illegal measures held forth. The others were fortunate enough to make their escape; but Palm was seized by the French soldiers, dragged before a military commission of French officers assembled by the Emperor's orders at Braunau, and there sentenced to be shot, which inhuman decree was immediately carried into execution, without his being so much as allowed to enter on his defence.* This atrocious *The judgment of the military commission convicting Palm, and sentencing him to death, bore in its preamble :-"Considering that wherever there is an army, the first and most pressing duty of its chief is to watch over its preservation; that the circulation of writings tending to revolt and assassination that of nations; that nothing is more urgent menaces not only the safety of the army, but than to arrest the progress of such doctrines, subversive alike of the law of nations and the respect due to crowned heads; injurious to the word, subversive of all order and subordinapeople committed to their government: in a tion-declares unanimously, that the authors, printers, publishers, and distributors of libels bearing such a character, should be conished with death.' sidered as guilty of high treason, and punSuch were the doctrines in which the frenzy of the French Revolution, which began by proclaiming war to the which opened by an invitation to the people palace and peace to the cottage, the contest of all countries to throw off the yoke of |