adopting provisionally measures of just retaliation against the commerce and navigation of Prussia," on account of acts of direct hos tility, deliberately pursued against him, which left him no alternative." After stating concisely the particu, lars of the conduct of Prussia, which called for these proceedings, the message concluded by saying, that his majesty "had no doubt of the full support of his parliament, in vindicating the honour of the British flag, and the freedom of the British navigation; and that he would look with anxious expectation to that moment, when a more dignified and enlightened policy, on the part of Prussia, should remove every impediment to the renewal of peace and friendship with a power, with whom his majesty had no other cause of difference than that now created by these hostile acts."

This message having been taken into consideration by the two houses of parliament on the 23d of April, addresses of thanks were voted ananimously in return. Mr. Fox in his speech gave an historical account of the transactions, which had led to the rupture with Prussia, and made some severe comments on the conduct of that power, which he described " as the union of every thing that was contemptible in servility, with every thing that was odious in rapacity. Other nations had been obliged to make cessions to France; but none of them had, like Prussia, been reduced to that lowest state of degradation, to consent to become the ministers of the injustice and rapacity of a master." In answer to the plea set up by

VOL. XLVIII.

Prussia, that the emperor Napo leon having obtained Hanover: by right of conquest,, the rightful porsession of it had passed to Prussia," he observed, that ❝ no example: could be found in all the histories of war, and no mention had ever been made by the writers on the law of nations, of any power having a right to receive as a present, a country occupied during a war by one of the belligerent powers, but not ceded by the other." After exposing the futility of this pretended right, Mr. Fox proceeded next to repro batc "the principle, which had been lately adopted in Europe, of transferring the subjects of one prince to another, in the way of equivalents, and under the pretext of convenience and mutual accommodation. The wildest schemes," he remarked, "that were ever before broached, would not go so far to shake the foundations of all established government as this new prac tice. There must be, in every nation, a certain attachment of the people to its form of government, without which no nation can subsist. This principle, then, of transferring the subjects of one prince to another, strikes at the foundation of every government, and the exist ence of every nation." Mr. Fox concluded with stating, that "there could be no doubt but that the shut ting the ports of Prussia to British vessels was alone most clearly and unquestionably an act of hostility against this country."

A declaration was also issued by his majesty, in his capacity of elector of Hanover, recapitulating instances of the perfidy,

insincerity,

assuming next the character of a mediator, after having concluded a secret treaty of alliance with the coalesced powers and obtained the promise of a subsidy from England; and lastly pretending to negotiate for the neutrality of Hanover, while meditating with unexampled perfidy to appropriate that country to herself. We are now to behold her, enraged at the disappointment of her ambitious projects, impatient of the contempt with which she is treated, and goaded on by the universal indignation of her subjects, seeking to retrieve her honour and character by resistance to France, but without wisdom or foresight in her plans, and constant to the last in her dissimulation.

It is probable, that Bonaparte never thoroughly forgave the court of Berlin, for the danger to which he was exposed, by the vacillation and momentary change of its politi. cal system after the affair of Anspach; but while he stood in awe of its power, and had reason to fear the consequences of its hostility, he continued to be lavish of assurances of friendship, and flattered and amused its ministers with protesta. tions of regard and professions of moderation. The journey which Haugwitz took to Paris, opened the eyes even of that minister to the sincerity and value of these declarations; but the first public act of the cabinet of St. Cloud, which gave serious offence and alarm to the court of Berlin, was the investiture of Murat with the dutchies of Berg and Cleves.* Berg had belonged to the king of Bavaria, as count Pala tine of the Rhine, and been ceded to France in exchange for the Prussian

provinces of Anspach and Bayreuth in Franconia. Cleves, which had been already dismembered by the extension of the French empire to the banks of the Rhine, was one of the three provinces given up by Prussia for Hanover. Various speculations had been formed with regard to the destination of these provinces, when they fell into the hands of France, but the general sentiment in Germany was that of surprize and indignation, when they were given to Murat, a foreigner, a soldier of fortune, and the brotherin-law of Bonaparte. There seemed to be no end to the encroachments of France, nor reliance on her most solemn and reiterated declarations, that the Rhine should be the boundary of her empire. To Prussia, in particular the establishment of Murat in the midst of her Westphalian provinces, was far from being acceptable; and very soon she began to experience the inconvenience of such a neighbour. Possession was taken in his name of the abbeys of Werden, Essen and Elten, on pretence that they belonged to the dutchy of Cleves, without respect. ing the prior occupation or claims of Prussia; and Wesel, though on the German side of the Rhine, was annexed to a French department, and strongly fortified.

But a deeper and more sensible injury awaited the Prussian government. While Laforest, the French resident at Berlin, was urging its ministers to persist in the measures they had adopted for retaining Hanover, Lucchesini discovered at Paris, that the French government had offered to the king of Great Britain, the complete restitution of

his electoral dominions. Thus, after the sacrifice of her honour and reputation, Prussia saw herself, on the eve of a general peace, about to be deprived of the reward, for which she had consented to act a part, so mean, treacherous and unworthy, without an opportunity of retrieving her character or of bettering her condition by resistance. Fortunately, as she then thought, the negotiation for peace between France and Russia, after preliminaries had been signed at Paris, was broken off by the refusal of the court of St. Petersburg, to ratify the treaty concluded by its negotiator. But this event, while it opened to Prussia the prospect of assistance, in case she should be driven to a war with France, disclosed to her farther proofs of the secret enmity of the cabinet of St. Cloud, and of its readiness to abandon her interests. She was informed by Russia, that during the negotiation at Paris, distinct hints had been given to the Russian negotiator, that if his court was desirous of annexing any part of Polish Prussia to its dominions, no opposition would be made to such a project on the part of France.

Two other causes, contributed materially to the determination of Prussia to commence hostilities against France; the one, by its effect on the public mind; the other, on account of the injury done to herself.

The occupation of Cattaro by the Russians had served as a pretext to the French emperor, not only for retaining possession of Braunau in the hereditary states of Austria after the term stipulated for its surrender by the peace of Presburg,

but for keeping on foot an immense army in Germany, which he maintained at the expence of the free towns and states of Suabia and Franconia. The presence of so large an army on its frontiers excited the jealousy and awakened the fears of the Prussian government. To overawe Prussia rather than to recover Cattaro seemed to be the object of assembling so great a force in that quarter, and when, troops were collected in Westphalia, that suspicion was converted into certainty. Complaints were ad. dressed from every quarter to Berlin, of the severity of the French contributions, and of the insufferable burthen of supporting their armies. The barbarous murder of Palm, a bookseller of Nuremberg, who was arrested in that imperial city by order of the French government, hurried to Braunau and there tried and executed* under authority of a court marshal, for an alleged libel on the French emperor, excited universal indignation, and roused every pen in Germany to call down vengeance on such atrocious, unwarrantable acts. All eyes were turned to Prussia, imploring assistance and relief, while the bitterest reproaches were uttered against that selfish, temporizing policy, which had subjected Germany to such calamities and disgrace. The popu lar feeling at Berlin, in the court, in the army, among the burghers, was loudly and unequivocally expressed against the base, unprincipled, truckling policy of the govern ment, since it had been directed by Haugwitz, Lombard, and other partizans of France. The surprize and indignation, which the scandalous

traffic

traffic of the Prussian provinces for Hanover had excited at first, subsequent events had not allayed. Every day had brought the news of some fresh encroachment on the part of France, of some new insult or mortification to Prussia. The young officers, inflamed with military ardor, were eager to distinguish themselves against the conquerors of Austria. The old generals, who recollected the glorious days of Frederic II. forgot their age and infirmities, as well as the immense changes since that time both in France and Prussia, and joined in the cry for war. Prince Lewis of Prussia, who had a few years before been called the Prussian duke of Orleans, took the lead in inspiring these sentiments, and diffusing them among the young men of his rank. The queen, young, beautiful and amiable, listening to her indignation at the atrocities, usurpations and insults of France, and jealous of her husband's honour and reputation, joined in the same cause. The ministers, weak and unprincipled, hated and despised, were unable to resist the torrent, which hurried the Prussian monarchy to destruction.

These ministers, as dèstitute of wisdom as of probity, as incapable of profiting by experience as of acting a fair or honourable part, had, in the mean time, been engaged in another criminal negotiation with Bonaparte, and had been again outwitted by his superior craft and artifice. The peace of Presburg had left the forms of the Germanic constitution entire, and from some of the articles of that treaty it appears doubtful, whether the

French emperor entertained thoughts" at that time of the speedy subversion, to which it was afterwards condemned. The residence of his troops in Germany, occasioned by the unlucky affair of Cattaro, probably suggested, and the prospect of peace with Russia certainly matured, a design suitable to his restless mind, of destroying what remained of that ancient structure, and of erecting in its room a new confederation of princes, at the head of which he should himself be placed. This project seems to have been already conceived in the beginning of June, and early in July the details of the plan were settled; but it was resolved not to publish them, in case peace could be obtained.* On the 10th of that month the Russian plenipotentiary, D'Oubril, had his first conference with general Clarke, who was appointed to negotiate with him on the part of France. The true character of the Russian minister was soon discovered. No obstacle, it was foreseen, would be opposed by him to the new arrangements proposed in Germany. The plan of confederation was, therefore, definitively settled without delay, and signed on the 17th of July by princes and ministers, who were scarce allowed time to read the deed to which they affixed their signatures. +

The members of this confedera tion were the emperor of the French, the kings of Bavaria and Wirtemberg, the archbishop of Ratisbon, the elector of Baden, the duke of Berg, the landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt, the princes of Nassau-Weilburg, and Nassau-Usingen, of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, and Hohen

zollern.