156 ANNUAL REGISTER, The violation of the Prussian territory of Anspach by the French troops under Bernadotte took place on the 3d of October; on the 17th of the same month Ulm capitulated; and on the 3d of November, a convention was signed at Potzdam, by which the king of Prussia agreed to offer his mediation between France and the allies, for "the restoration of a general peace on a permanent footing;'* and in case his propositions were rejected, he engaged after receiving a promise of subsidies from England to declare war against France. In this interval various events had marked the displeasure of the court of Berlin at the violation of its territory, and shewn how materially that affair had changed its politics, and given them a "turn hostile to France and favourable to the allies. A proclamation had assured the subjects of Prussia in Franconia, that their sovereign was taking measures to obtain satisfaction and security for the unexpected and forcible violation of his neu trality: and an angry note had been delivered by baron Hardenberg to the French mission at Berlin, in 1806. answer to their justification of that transaction; expressing the surprise and indignation of his Prussian majesty at such an outrage having been committed in his territories, after the exemplary fidelity, with which he had kept his engagements to France, and the advantages which she had derived from his firmness; declaring, that he now considered himself absolved by her conduct from all past engagements, and that he would henceforward direct his efforts to the reestablishment of peace on a solid basis; and concluding with an intimation, that in the mean time he found himself compelled to order his armies to occupy positions necessary for the protection of his states. In addition to this menacing language, the Prussian army was put in motion; the permission of marching through the Prussian territories, which had been so long withheld from the Russians, was no longer denied ; the emperor Alexander was received at Potzdam with every demonstration of confidence and cordiality; and the French ambassador, marshal Duroc, who had been sent to make reparation for the affair of Anspach, was suffered to depart from Berlin without accomplishing the object of his mission. We e presume not to give an opinion of the wisdom of the court of Berlin in thus departing from the policy, which had hitherto directed its conduct; but, we are confident, that having manifested so unequivo cally its inclination to favour the allies, it ought not, in the present * Memorial of baron Hardenberg to Lord Harrowby, Dec. 22, 1805. † Declaration of his Britannic majesty as elector of Hanover, April 20, 1806. Note transmitted by baron Hardenberg to marshal Duroc and M. Laforest, Berlin, Oct. 14, 1805. critical eritical situation of their affairs, to have delayed an instant longer than was necessary for collecting its forces, to commence hostilities against the French. Instead of such prompt and vigorous measures, with that irresolution and indecision of character, which is the surest mark of incapacity for great affairs, the advisers of his Prussian majesty negociated, when they should have acted, and chose for their negociator a man without firmness, capacity or resources, slow and dilatory in business, narrowand perplexed in his understanding, of a character at once liable to the impressions of fear, and open to the insinuations of flattery, and of opinions diametrically opposite to the system, which he was now sent to enforce. Haugwitz repaired to the head quarters of the French army, and had an audience of Bonaparte on the 28th of November, at which the latter manifested a disposition to accept the Prussian mediation, but annexed conditions to his assent, which the king of Prussia could not admit. While the negociation was thus protracted, the battle of Austerlitz was fought, the armistice concluded, and the coalition dissolved. The Prussian troops had taken the field and begun their march to the scene of action, when the news of the armistice stopped their progress. Unwilling to embark alone in a contest with a victorious army, elated with its double triumph over the soldiers of Austria and Russia, the court of Berlin had again recourse to negociation. Majorgeneral von Pfuhl was dispatched to the French head quarters, with instructions to signify, that Prussia was now ready to accept the propositions which she had formerly rejected, and with orders to add, "that his Prussian majesty would consider the occupation of Hanover by French troops, as an act of hostility."* But, previously to the arrival of von Pfuhl at the place of his destination, Haugwitz had signed a definitive treaty at Vienna,+ by which Prussia, from being the friend and ally of the coalesced powers, and almost the open and declared enemy of France, became the ally of the latter, the guarantee of her conquests in Germany, and her associate in the spoils of the vanquished and baffled coalition. How this extraordinary change was brought about, is yet unexplained. We have yet to learn, whether Haugwitz was gained by flattery, or terrified by threats into so scandalous an abandonment of the trust reposed in him. We have been merely told, that "the French emperor proposed to him a treaty in which was stipulated, on the one side, a mutual guarantee of pos sessions, the inviolability of the Turkish territory, and the ratification of whatever should be concluded at Presburg; and, on the other, the annexation of Hanover to Prussia, in return for the cession of three provinces ;" and that treaty to that effect was signed by * Hardenberg's note to lord Harrowby, Dec, 22. answer to the observations of the Moniteur of March 21st, dated Berlin, April 8, 1806. Prussian manifesto, Erfurt, Oct,9, 1806. count count Haugwitz at Vienna, on the 15th of December. That is, while the Prussian cabinet enjoyed the confidence of the courts of St. Petersburg and St. James's, in consequence of the most solemn engagements to support their cause, and had thereby acquired the entire and absolute disposal of the Russian troops in Germany, and an equally sure though less direct influence over the movements of the British and Swedish armies in Hanover, besides ssurances of a powerful assistance by pecuniary supplies from England in the event of being driven to a war with France; a Prussian minister, who had been sent to Vienna for the purpose of securing by negocia. tion the neutrality of the north of Germany, concluded there a secret treaty with the enemy of Russia and England, by which his master obtained in exchange for three of his provinces, the electoral dominions of his ally, the king of England. The infamy of this transaction belonged exclusively, in the first instance, to count Haugwitz; but it was shared by the other members of the Prussian cabinet, when they adopted and acted upon his treaty. It required more regard for honour and respect for justice than were to be found at Berlin, to reject so tempting a bait as the acquisition of Hanover. They, who were most indignant at the perfidy of the means, were not indifferent to the value of the result, nor secretly displeased, that an addition was made to the Prussian monarchy, of such importance as the electoral dominions of the king of England. A sense of shame and fear of censure prevented them from consenting at once to an unconditional ratifica tion of the treaty, or public disclosure of its contents. But, they discovered, that the king, their master, "might reconcile his wishes with his principles, by accepting the proposed exchange, on condi tion that the completion of it should be deferred till a general peace, and that the consent of his majesty the king of Great Britain should be obtained;" and they determined, at whatever price it might be purchased, that the French army should not return to Hanover."+ In conformity with these views, the treaty of Vienna was sent back to France with alterations; and under pretence of securing the electorate of Hanover from the calamities of another ruinous war, the troops of the allies were withdrawn from it, and replaced by Prussians. To the English minister at Berlin it was said, that arrangements concluded with France for ensuring the tranquillity of Han. over, "" stipulated expressly the committing of that country to the exclusive guard of the Prussian troops, and to the administration of the king, until the conclusion of a peace between England and France;" and the assertion, that till the conclusion of a general peace, Hanover would be wholly occupied and governed by Prussia,' was repeated in the proclamation of his Prussian majesty on taking possession of the electorate; § but not a word was said of his ulterior de. sign of annexing it to the Prussian * The three Prussian provinces ceded by this memorable treaty, were Anspach and Bayreuth, in Franconia, Cleves, in Westphalia, and Neufchatel and Valengin, in Switzerland. † Prussian manifesto, Erfurt, Oct. 9, 1806. Hardenberg's note to W. Jackson, Jan. 26, 1895, § Jan. 27. monarchy, monarchy, in exchange for territo ries ceded to France. Wesel; and on the 21st, the French troops were withdrawn from Hameln, the only place in the electorate of Hanover, which they had continued to occupy. On the 28th of March, a proclamation was issued by count Schulenburg in the name of the king of Prussia, ordering "the ports of the German ocean, and the rivers which empty themselves in it, to be shut against British shipping and trade, in the same manner as when Hanover was occupied by French troops;" and on the 1st of April, a patent appeared under the authority of the same monarch, annexing formally the electorate of Hanover to his other dominions, on pretence that, belonging to the emperor Napoleon by right of conquest," it had been transferred to Prussia" in consideration of the cession of three of her provinces to France." This reserve in taking possession of Hanover, was far from being acceptable to the court of St. Cloud. The alterations, which Prussia had proposed in the treaty of Vienna, were rejected with disdain; and the treaty itself, because it had not received a simple and unconditional ratification, was declared to be annulled. Haugwitz hurried to Paris, flattering himself that the personal consideration, in which he was held by Bonaparte, would remove every difficulty. But, after having been made to wait some days for an audience, he was undeceived at his first interview. Nor did he quit Paris, till he had signed a new treaty, by which Prussia became bound, not only to perpetrate an undisguised act of injustice, by annexing Hanover to her dominions; but, to commit an act of decided hostility against England, by excluding the British flag from the ports of that electorate. Such was the violence and inconsistence of Bonaparte's conduct, that in the very act of compelling Prussia to accept of the sovereignty of Hanover, he interfered with the exercise of her sovereignty in that country, in so im-contrary to the rights of his soportant a point as the right of making peace or war. His will, how ever, was no longer disputed. The treaty of Paris was signed, ratified, and carried into immediate execution. On the 15th of February it was signed; on the 24th, Bernadotte took possession of Anspach and Bayreuth for the king of Bavaria, to whom these provinces were transferred by France; on the 18th of March the Prussians evacuated The conduct of the Prussians, when they took possession of Hanover, in assuming to themselves the civil as well as military administra tion of the country, had excited a suspicion in the Hanoverian regency of their secret intentions, and occasioned a protest from count Munster against this proceeding, as vereign, and as a measure, of which his majesty, so far from giving his consent to it, highly disapproved."* No regard being had to this protest, nor to the remonstrance accompanying it, that "if the occupation of Hanover by a Prussian force was inevitable, it should take place under such stipulations as were least injurious to the rights of his majesty, and least severe upon the unhappy inhabitants," Mr. Fox *Proclamation of count Munster, Hanover, Feb. 3, 1806. took took occasion to express, in an official note, to baron Jacobi, the Prussian minister in London," the great anxiety felt by his majesty, at the manner in which possession had been taken of the electorate of Hanover ;" and to desire him explicitly to inform his court," that no convenience of political arrange ment, much less any offer of equivalent or indemnity would ever induce his majesty so far to forget, what was due to his own legitimate rights, as well as to the exemplary fidelity and attachment of his Hanoverian subjects, as to consent to the alienation of the electorate."*But this note, which at an earlier period, might have deterred the court of Berlin from the violent and outrageous course, on which it had entered, arrived too late to produce any change in its determinations. The three provinces were already given up to France, and engagements had been formed to execute the other articles of the treaty of Paris, from which the Prussian government durst not recede. ultimately feel, to resist a system destructive of all legitimate possession. But, when instead of receiving assurances conformable to this just expectation, his majesty was informed that the determination had been taken of excluding, by force, the vessels and commodities of Great Britain from ports and countries under the lawful domini. on, or forcible controul of Prussia ; it was impossible for his majesty longer to delay to act, without neglecting the first duty, which he owed to his people. The dignity of his crown, and the interests of his subjects, equally forbad his acquiescing in this open and unprovoked aggression." No sooner, there fore, had intelligence reached London of the actual exclusion of British shipping from the Elbe, and of the determination of Prussia to shut all the ports of the German ocean against the British flag, than measures of retaliation were adopted.Notice was given to the ministers of neutral powers, that the neces sary means had been taken for the blockade of the rivers Ems, Weser, Elbe, and Trave. A general embargo was laid on all Prussian vessels in the harbours of Great Britain and Ireland; and this order was afterwards extended to all vessels belonging to the rivers Elbe, Weser, and Ems, vessels under the Danish flag only excepted. || The English mission at Berlin was re called; and a message from his majesty was presented to both houses of parliament, stating "the necessity, in which his majesty found himself, of withdrawing his minis, ter from the court of Berlin, and of *Note from Mr. Fox to baron Jacobi Kloert, March 17. † April 8. + April 5. April 16. -- ¶ April 21. adopting |