Germany from the Earliest Period Part 5

[Footnote 15: Vide Graf's History of Muhlhausen.]

CCLII. The Second Coalition

Prussia looked calmly on, with a view of increasing her power by peace while other states ruined themselves by war, and of offering her arbitration at a moment when she could turn their mutual losses to advantage. Austria, exposed to immediate danger by the occupation of Switzerland by the French, remained less tranquil and hastily formed a fresh coalition with England and Russia. Catherine II. had expired, 1796. Her son, Paul I., cherished the most ambitious views. His election as grand-master of the Maltese order dispersed by Napoleon had furnished him with a sort of right of interference in the affairs of the Levant and of Italy. On the 1st of March, 1799, the Ionian Islands, Corfu, etc., were occupied by Russian troops, and a Russian army, under the terrible Suwarow, moved, in conjunction with the troops of Austria, upon Italy. The project of the Russian czar was, by securing his footing on the Mediterranean and at the same time encircling Turkey, to attack Constantinople on both sides, on the earliest opportunity. Austria was merely to serve as a blind tool for the attainment of his schemes. Mack was despatched to Naples for the purpose of bringing about a general rising in Southern Italy against the French, and England lavished gold. The absence of Bonaparte probably inspired several of the allied generals with greater courage, not the French, but he, being the object of their dread. The conduct of the French at Rastadt had revolted every German and had justly raised their most implacable hatred, which burst forth during a popular tumult at Vienna, when the tricolor, floating from the palace of General Bernadotte, the French amba.s.sador, was torn down and burned. The infamous a.s.sa.s.sination of the French amba.s.sadors at Rastadt also took place during this agitated period. Bonnier, Roberjot, and Jean de Bry quitted Rastadt on the breaking out of war, and were attacked and cut to pieces by some Austrian hussars in a wood close to the city gate. Jean de Bry alone escaped, although dangerously wounded, with his life. This atrocious act was generally believed to have been committed through private revenge, or, what is far more probable, for the purpose of discovering by the papers of the amba.s.sadors the truth of the reports at that time in circulation concerning the existence of a conspiracy and projects for the establishment of republics throughout Germany. The real motive was, however, not long ago,[1] unveiled. Austria had revived her ancient projects against Bavaria, and, as early as 1798, had treated with the French Directory for the possession of that electorate in return for her toleration of the occupatign of Switzerland by the troops of the republic. The venerable elector, Charles Theodore, who had been already persuaded to cede Bavaria and to content himself with Franconia, dying suddenly of apoplexy while at the card-table, was succeeded by his cousin, Maximilian Joseph of Pfalz-Zweibrucken, from whom, on account of his numerous family, no voluntary cession was to be expected either for the present or future. Thugut and Lehr-bach, the rulers of the Viennese cabinet, in the hope of compromising and excluding him, as a traitor to the empire, from the Bavarian succession, by the production of proofs of his being the secret ally of France, hastily resolved upon the a.s.sa.s.sination of the French amba.s.sadors at Rastadt, on the bare supposition of their having in their possession doc.u.ments in the handwriting of the elector. None were, however, discovered, the French envoys having either taken the precaution of destroying them or of committing them to the safe-keeping of the Prussian amba.s.sador. This crime was, as Hormayr observes, at the same time, a political blunder. This horrible act was perpetrated on the 28th of April, 1799.

The campaign had, a month anterior to this event, been opened by the French, who had attacked the Austrians in their still scattered positions. Disunion prevailed as usual in the Austrian military council. The Archduke Charles proposed the invasion of France from the side of Swabia. The occupation of Switzerland by the troops of Austria was, nevertheless, resolved upon, and General Auffenberg, accordingly, entered the Grisons. The French instantly perceived and hastened to antic.i.p.ate the designs of the Austrian cabinet. Auffenberg was defeated by Ma.s.sena on the St. Luciensteig and expelled the Grisons, while Hotze on the Vorarlberg and Bellegarde in the Tyrol looked calmly on at the head of fifteen thousand men. The simultaneous invasion of Swabia by Jourdan now induced the military council at Vienna to accede to the proposal formerly made by the Archduke Charles, who was despatched with the main body of the army to Swabia, where, on the 25th of March, 1799, he gained a complete victory over Jourdan at Ostrach and Stockach.[2] The Grisons were retaken in May by Hotze, and, in June, the archduke joining him, Ma.s.sena was defeated at Zurich, and the steep pa.s.ses of Mont St. Gothard were occupied by Haddik. Ma.s.sena was, however, notwithstanding the immense numerical superiority of the archduke's forces, which could easily have driven him far into France, allowed to remain undisturbed at Bremgarten. The French, under Scherer, in Italy, had, meanwhile, been defeated, in April, by Kray, at Magnano. This success was followed by the arrival of Melas from Vienna, of Bellegarde from the Tyrol, and lastly, by that of the Russian vanguard under Suwarow, who took the chief command and beat the whole of the French forces in Italy; Moreau, at Ca.s.sano and Marengo, in May; Macdonald, on his advance from Lower Italy, on the Trebbia, in June; and finally, Joubert, in the great battle of Novi, in which Joubert was killed, August the 15th, 1799. Dissensions now broke out among the victors. A fourth of the forces in Italy belonged to Austria, merely one-fifth to Russia; the Austrians, consequently, imagined that the war was merely carried on on their account. The Austrian forces were, against Suwarow's advice, divided, for the purpose of reducing Mantua and Alessandria and of occupying Tuscany. The king of Sardinia, whom Suwarow desired to restore to his throne, was forbidden to enter his states by the Austrians, who intended to retain possession of them for some time longer. The whole of Italy, as far as Ancona and Genoa, was now freed from the French, whom the Italians, embittered by their predatory habits, had aided to expel, and Suwarow received orders to join his forces with those under Korsakow, who was then on the Upper Rhine with thirty thousand men.

The archduke might, even without this fresh reinforcement, have already annihilated Ma.s.sena had he not remained during three months, from June to August, in a state of complete inactivity; at the very moment of Suwarow's expected arrival he allowed the important pa.s.ses of the St. Gothard to be again carried by a coup de main by the French under General Lecourbe, who drove the Austrians from the Simplon, the Furca, the Grimsel, and the Devil's bridge. The archduke, after an unsuccessful attempt to push across the Aar at Dettingen, suddenly quitted the scene of war and advanced down the Rhine for the purpose of supporting the English expedition under the Duke of York against Holland. This unexpected turn in affairs proceeded from Vienna. The Viennese cabinet was jealous of Russia. Suwarow played the master in Italy, favored Sardinia at the expense of the house of Habsburg, and deprived the Austrians of the laurels and of the advantages they had won. The archduke, accordingly, received orders to remain inactive, to abandon the Russians, and finally to withdraw to the north; by this movement Suwarow's triumphant progress was checked, he was compelled to cross the Alps to the aid of Korsakow, and to involve himself in a mountain warfare ill-suited to the habits of his soldiery.[3]

Korsakow, whom Bavaria had been bribed with Russian gold to furnish with a corps one thousand strong, was solely supported by Kray and Hotze with twenty thousand men. Ma.s.sena, taking advantage of the departure of the archduke and the non-arrival of Suwarow, crossed the Limmat at Dietikon and shut Korsakow, who had imprudently stationed himself with his whole army in Zurich, so closely in, that, after an engagement that lasted two days, from the 15th to the 17th of September, the Russian general was compelled to abandon his artillery and to force his way through the enemy. Ten thousand men were all that escaped.[4] Hotze, who had advanced from the Grisons to Schwyz to Suwarow's rencounter, was, at the same time, defeated and killed at Schannis. Suwarow, although aware that the road across the St. Gothard was blocked by the lake of the four cantons, on which there were no boats, had the folly to attempt the pa.s.sage. In Airolo, he was obstinately opposed by the French under Lecourbe, and, although Schweikowski contrived to turn this strong position by scaling the pathless rocks, numbers of the men were, owing to Suwarow's impatience, sacrificed before it. On the 24th of September, 1799, he at length climbed the St. Gothard, and a b.l.o.o.d.y engagement, in which the French were worsted, took place on the Oberalpsee. Lecourbe blew up the Devil's bridge, but, leaving the Urnerloch open, the Russians pushed through that rocky gorge, and, das.h.i.+ng through the foaming Reuss, scaled the opposite rocks and drove the French from their position behind the Devil's bridge. Altorf on the lake was reached in safety by the Russian general, who was compelled, owing to the want of boats, to seek his way through the valleys of Shachen and Muotta, across the almost impa.s.sable rocks, to Schwyz. The heavy rains rendered the undertaking still more arduous; the Russians, owing to the badness of the road, speedily became barefoot; the provisions were also exhausted. In this wretched state they reached Muotta on the 29th of September and learned the discouraging news of Korsakow's defeat.

Ma.s.sena had already set off in the hope of cutting off Suwarow, but had missed his way. He reached Altorf, where he joined Lecourbe on the 29th, when Suwarow was already at Muotta, whence Ma.s.sena found on his arrival he had again retired across the Bragelberg, through the Klonthal. He was opposed on the lake of Klonthal by Molitor, who was, however, forced to retire by Auffenberg, who had joined Suwarow at Altorf and formed his advanced guard, Rosen, at the same time, beating off Ma.s.sena with the rear-guard, taking five cannons and one thousand of his men prisoners. On the 1st of October, Suwarow entered Glarus, where he rested until the 4th, when he crossed the Panixer mountains through snow two feet deep to the valley of the Rhine, which he reached on the 10th, after losing the whole of his beasts of burden and two hundred of his men down the precipices; and here ended his extraordinary march, which had cost him the whole of his artillery, almost all his horses, and a third of his men.

The archduke had, meanwhile, tarried on the Rhine, where he had taken Philippsburg and Mannheim, but had been unable to prevent the defeat of the English expedition under the Duke of York by General Brune at Bergen, on the 19th of September. The archduke now, for the first time, made a retrograde movement, and approached Korsakow and Suwarow.

The different leaders, however, merely reproached each other, and the czar, perceiving his project frustrated, suddenly recalled his troops and the campaign came to a close. The archduke's rearguard was defeated in a succession of petty skirmishes at Heidelberg and on the Neckar by the French, who again pressed forward.[5] These disasters were counterbalanced by the splendid victory gained by Melas in Italy, at Savigliano, over Championnet, who attempted to save Genoa.

Austria was no sooner deprived in Suwarow of the most efficient of her allies than she was attacked by her most dangerous foe. Bonaparte returned from Egypt. The news of the great disasters of the French in Italy no sooner arrived, than he abandoned his army and hastened, completely unattended, to France, through the midst of the English fleet, then stationed in the Mediterranean. His arrival in Paris was instantly followed by his public nomination as generalissimo. He alone had the power of restoring victory to the standard of the republic.

The ill success of his rivals had greatly increased his popularity; he had become indispensable to his countrymen. His power was alone obnoxious to the weak government, which, aided by the soldiery, he dissolved on the 9th of November (the 18th Brumaire, by the modern French calendar); he then bestowed a new const.i.tution upon France and placed himself, under the t.i.tle of First Consul, at the head of the republic.

In the following year, 1800, Bonaparte made preparations for a fresh campaign against Austria, under circ.u.mstances similar to those of the first. But this time he was more rapid in his movements and performed more astonis.h.i.+ng feats. Suddenly crossing the St. Bernard, he fell upon the Austrian flank. Genoa, garrisoned by Ma.s.sena, had just been forced by famine to capitulate. Ten days afterward, on the 14th of June, Bonaparte gained such a decisive victory over Melas, the Austrian general, at Marengo,[6] that he and the remainder of his army capitulated on the ensuing day. The whole of Italy fell once more into the hands of the French. Moreau had, at the same time, invaded Germany and defeated the Austrians under Kray in several engagements, princ.i.p.ally at Stockach and Moskirch,[7] and again at Biberach and Hochstadt, laid Swabia and Bavaria under contribution, and taken Ratisbon, the seat of the diet. An armistice, negotiated by Kray, was not recognized by the emperor, and he was replaced in his command by the Archduke John (not Charles), who was, on the 3d of December, totally routed by Moreau's manoeuvres during a violent snowstorm, at Hohenlinden. A second Austrian army, despatched into Italy, was also defeated by Brune on the Mincio. These disasters once more inclined Austria to peace, which was concluded at Luneville, on the 9th of February, 1801. The Archduke Charles seized this opportunity to propose the most beneficial reforms in the war administration, but was again treated with contempt. In the ensuing year, 1802, England also concluded peace at Amiens.

The whole of the left bank of the Rhine was, on this occasion, ceded to the French republic. The petty republics, formerly established by France in Italy, Switzerland, and Holland, were also renewed and were recognized by the allied powers. The Cisalpine republic was enlarged by the possessions of the grandduke of Tuscany and of the duke of Modena, to whom compensation in Germany was guaranteed. Suwarow's victories had, in the autumn of 1799, rendered a conclave, on the death of the captive pope, Pius VI., in France, possible, for the purpose of electing his successor, Pius VII., who was acknowledged as such by Bonaparte, whose favor he purchased by expressing his approbation of the seizure of the property of the church during the French Revolution, and by declaring his readiness to agree to the secularization of church property, already determined upon, in Germany.

The Helvetian Directory fell, like that of France, and was replaced by an administrative council, composed of seven members, in 1800. The upholders of ancient cantonal liberty, now known under the denomination of Federalists, gained the upper hand, and Aloys Reding, who had, shortly before, been denounced as a rebel, became Landammann of Switzerland. Bonaparte even invited him to Paris in order to settle with him the future fate of Switzerland. Reding, however, showing an unexpected degree of firmness, and, unmoved by either promises or threats, obstinately refusing to permit the annexation of Valais to France, Bonaparte withdrew his support and again favored the Helvetlers. Dolder and Savari, who had long been the creatures of France, failing in their election, were seated by Verninac, the French amba.s.sador, in the senate of the Helvetian republic, and Reding, who was at that moment absent, was divested of his office as Landammann.

Reding protested against this arbitrary conduct and convoked a federal diet to Schwyz.

Andermatt, general of the Helvetian republic, attempted to seize Zurich, which had joined the federalists, but was compelled to withdraw, covered with disgrace. An army of federalists under General Bachmann repulsed the Helvetlers in every direction and drove them, together with the French envoys, across the frontier. Bonaparte, upon this, sent a body of thirty to forty thousand men, under Ney, into Switzerland, which met with no opposition, the federalists being desirous of avoiding useless bloodshed and being already acquainted with Bonaparte's secret projects. He would not tolerate opposition on their part, like that of Reding: he had resolved upon getting possession of Valais at any price, on account of the road across the Simplon, so important to him as affording the nearest communication between Paris and Milan: in all other points, he perfectly coincided with the federalists and was willing to grant its ancient independence to every canton in Switzerland, where disunion and petty feuds placed the country the more securely in his hands. With feigned commiseration for the inept.i.tude of the Swiss to settle their own disputes, he invited deputies belonging to the various factions and cantons to Paris, lectured them like schoolboys, and compelled them by the Act of Mediation, under his intervention, to give a new const.i.tution to Switzerland. Valais was annexed to France in exchange for the Austrian Frickthal. Nineteen cantons were created.[8] Each canton again administered its internal affairs. Bonaparte was never weary of painting the happy lot of petty states and the delights of petty citizens.h.i.+p. "But ye are too weak, too helpless, to defend yourselves; cast yourselves therefore into the arms of France, ready to protect you while, free from taxation, and from the burdensome maintenance of an army, ye dwell free and independent in your native vales." The Swiss, although no longer to have a national army, were, nevertheless, compelled to furnish a contingent of eighteen thousand men to that of France, and, while deluded by the idea of their freedom from taxation, the fifteen millions of French _bons_ given in exchange for the numerous Swiss loans were cas.h.i.+ered by Bonaparte, under pretext of the Swiss having been already sufficiently paid by their deliverance from their enemies by the French.[9] The real Swiss patriots implored the German powers to protect their country, the bulwark of Germany against France; but Austria was too much weakened by her own losses, and Prussia handed the letters addressed to her from Switzerland over to the First Consul.

The melancholy business, commenced by the empire at the congress of Rastadt, and which had been broken off by the outbreak of war, had now to be recommenced. Fresh compensations had been rendered necessary by the robberies committed upon the Italian princes. The church property no longer sufficed to satisfy all demands, and fresh seizures had become requisite. A committee of the diet was intrusted with the settlement of the question of compensation, which was decided on the 25th of February, 1803, by a decree of the imperial diet. All the great powers of Germany had not suffered; all had not, consequently, a right to demand compensation, but, in order to appease their jealousy, all were to receive a portion of the booty. The three spiritual electorates, Mayence, Treves, and Cologne, were abolished, their position on the other side of the Rhine including them within the French territory. The archbishop of Mayence alone retained his dignity, and was transferred to Ratisbon. The whole of the imperial free cities were moreover deprived of their privileges, six alone excepted, Lubeck, Hamburg,[10] Bremen, Frankfort, Augsburg, and Nuremberg. The unsecularized bishoprics and abbeys were abolished. The petty princes, counts and barons, and the Teutonic order, were still allowed to exist, in order ere long to be included in the general ruin.

Prussia retained the bishoprics of Hildesheim and Paderborn, a part of Munster, numerous abbeys and imperial free towns in Westphalia and Thuringia, more particularly Erfurt. Bavaria had ever suffered on the conclusion of peace between France and Austria; in 1797, she had ceded the Rhenish Pfalz to France and a province on the Inn to Austria; by the treaty of Luneville she had been, moreover, compelled to raze the fortress of Ingolstadt.[11] The inclination for French innovations displayed by the reigning duke, Maximilian Joseph, who surrounded himself with the old Illuminati, caused her, on this occasion, by Bonaparte's aid, to be richly compensated by the annexation of the bishoprics of Bamberg, Wurzburg, Augsburg, and Freisingen, with several small towns, etc.; all the monasteries were abolished. Bavaria had formerly supported the inst.i.tutions of the ancient church of Rome more firmly than Austria, where reforms had already been begun in the church by Joseph II. Hanover received Osnabruck; Baden, the portion of the Pfalz on this side the Rhine, the greatest part of the bishoprics of Constance, Basel, Strasburg, and Spires, also on this side the Rhine; Wurtemberg, both Hesses (Ca.s.sel and Darmstadt); and Na.s.sau, all the lands in the vicinity formerly belonging to the bishopric of Mayence, to imperial free towns and petty lords.h.i.+ps. Ferdinand, grandduke of Tuscany, younger brother to the emperor Francis II., was compelled to relinquish his hereditary possessions in Italy,[12] and received in exchange Salzburg, Eichstadt, and Pa.s.sau. Ferdinand, duke of Modena, uncle to the emperor Francis II. and younger brother to the emperors Leopold II. and Joseph II., also resigned his duchy,[13] for which he received the Breisgau in exchange. William V., hereditary stadtholder of Holland, who had been expelled his states, also received, on this occasion, in compensation for his son of like name (he was himself already far advanced in years), the rich abbey of Fulda, which was created the princ.i.p.ality of Orange-Fulda.[14] The electoral dignity was at the same time bestowed upon the Archduke Ferdinand, the Landgrave of Hesse-Ca.s.sel, the duke of Wurtemberg, and the Margrave of Baden.

Submission, although painful, produced no opposition. The power of the imperial free cities had long pa.s.sed away,[15] and the spiritual princes no longer wielded the sword. The manner in which the officers of the princes took possession, the insolence with which they treated the subject people, the fraud and embezzlement that were openly practiced, are merely excusable on account of the fact that Germany was, notwithstanding the peace, still in a state of war. The decree of the imperial diet can scarcely be regarded as the ignominious close of a good old time, but rather as a violent but beneficial incisure in an old and rankling sore. With the petty states, a ma.s.s of vanity and pedantry disappeared on the one side, pusillanimity and servility on the other; the ideas of the subjects of a large state have naturally a wider range; the monasteries, those dens of superst.i.tion, the petty princely residences, those hotbeds of French vice and degeneracy, the imperial free towns, those abodes of petty burgher prejudice, no longer existed. The extension of the limits of the states rendered the gradual introduction of a better administration, the laying of roads, the foundation of public inst.i.tutions of every description, and social improvement, possible. The example of France, the ever-renewed warfare, and the conscriptions, created, moreover, a martial spirit among the people, which, although far removed from patriotism, might still, when compared with the spirit formerly pervading the imperial army, be regarded as a first step from effeminacy, cowardice, and sloth, toward true, unflinching, manly courage.

[Footnote 1: Scenes during the War of Liberation.]

[Footnote 2: Jourdan might easily have been annihilated during his retreat by the imperial cavalry, twenty-seven thousand strong, had his strength and position been better known to his pursuers.]

[Footnote 3: Scenes during the War of Liberation.]

[Footnote 4: The celebrated Lavater was, on this occasion, mortally wounded by a French soldier. The people of Zurich were heavily mulcted by Ma.s.sena for having aided the Austrians to the utmost in their power. Zschokke, who was at that time in the pay of France, wrote against the "Imperialism" of the Swiss. Vide Haller and Landolt's Life by Hess.]

[Footnote 5: Concerning the wretched provision for the Austrian army, the embezzlement of the supplies, the bad management of the magazines and hospitals, see "Representation of the Causes of the Disasters suffered by the Austrians," etc. 1802.]

[Footnote 6: The contest lasted the whole day: the French already gave way on every side, when Desaix led the French centre with such fury to the charge that the Austrians, surprised by the suddenness of the movement, were driven back and thrown into confusion, and the French, rallying at that moment, made another furious onset and tore the victory from their grasp.]

[Footnote 7: The impregnable fortress of Hohentwiel, formerly so gallantly defended by Widerhold, was surrendered without a blow by the cowardly commandant, Bilfinger. Rotenburg on the Tauber, on the contrary, wiped off the disgrace with which she had covered herself during the thirty years' war. A small French skirmis.h.i.+ng party demanded a contribution from this city; the council yielded, but the citizens drove off the enemy with pitchforks.]

[Footnote 8: The ancient ones, Berne, Zurich, Basel, Solothurn, Freiburg, Lucerne, Schaffhausen; the re-established ones, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug, Glarus, Appenzell, St. Gall (instead of Waldstatten, Linth, and Santis), Valais (instead of Leman), Aargau, Constance, Grisons, Tessin (instead of Lugano and Bellinzona). The Bernese Oberland again fell to Berne. The amba.s.sador, attempting to preserve its independence, was asked by Napoleon: "Where do you take your cattle, your cheese, etc.?" "a Berne," was the reply. "Whence do you get your grain, cloth, iron, etc.?" "De Berne." "Well," continued Napoleon, "de Berne, a Berne, you consequently belong to Berne."--The Bernese were highly delighted at the restoration of their independence, and the re-erection of the ancient arms of Berne became a joyous fete. A gigantic black bear that was painted on the broad walls of the castle of Trachselwald was visible far down the valley.]

[Footnote 9: Murald, in his life of Reinhard, records an instance of shameless fraud, the attempt made during a farewell banquet at Paris to cozen the Swiss deputies out of a million. After plying them well with wine, an altered doc.u.ment was offered them for signature; Reinhard, the only one who perceived the fraud, frustrated the scheme.]

[Footnote 10: Hamburg was, however, compelled to pay to the French 1,700,000 marcs banco, and to allow Rumbold, the English agent, to be arrested by them within the city walls.]

[Footnote 11: The university had been removed, in 1800, to Landshut.]

[Footnote 12: Bonaparte transformed them into a kingdom of Etruria, which he bestowed upon a Spanish prince, Louis of Parma, who shortly afterward died and his kingdom was annexed to France.]

[Footnote 13: He was son-in-law to Hercules, the last duke of Modena, who still lived, but had resigned his claims in his favor. This duke expired in 1805.]

[Footnote 14: Which he speedily lost by rejoining Napoleon's adversaries. Adalbert von Harstall, the last princely abbot of Fulda, was an extremely n.o.ble character; he is almost the only one among the princes who remained firmly by his subjects when all the rest fled and abandoned theirs to the French. After the edict of secularization he remained firmly at his post until compelled to resign it by the Prussian soldiery.]

[Footnote 15: The citizens of Esalingen were shortly before at law with their magistrate on account of his nepotism and tyranny without being able to get a decision from the supreme court of judicature.-- Quedlinburg had also not long before sent envoys to Vienna with heavy complaints of the insolence of the magistrate, and the envoys had been sent home without a reply being vouchsafed and were threatened with the house of correction in case they ventured to return. Vide Hess's Flight through Germany, 1793.--Wimpfen also carried on a suit against its magistrate. In 1784, imperial decrees were issued against the aristocracy of Ulm. In 1786, the people of Aix-la-Chapelle rose against their magistrate. Nuremberg repeatedly demanded the production of the public accounts from the aristocratic town-council. The people of Hildesheim also revolted against their council. Vide Schlozer, State Archives.]

CCLIII. Fall of the Holy Roman-Germanic Empire

A great change had, meanwhile, taken place in France. The republic existed merely in name. The first consul, Bonaparte, already possessed regal power. The world beheld with astonishment a nation that had so lately and so virulently persecuted royalty, so dearly bought and so strictly enforced its boasted liberty, suddenly forget its triumph and restore monarchy. Liberty had ceased to be in vogue, and had yielded to a general desire for the acquisition of fame. The equality enforced by liberty was offensive to individual vanity, and the love of gain and luxury opposed republican poverty. Fame and wealth were alone to be procured by war and conquest. France was to be enriched by the plunder of her neighbors. Bonaparte, moreover, promoted the prosperity and dignity of the country by the establishment of manufactures, public inst.i.tutions, and excellent laws. The awe with which he inspired his subjects insured their obedience; he was universally feared and reverenced. In whatever age this extraordinary man had lived, he must have taken the lead and have reduced nations to submission. Even his adversaries, even those he most deeply injured, owned his influence. His presence converted the wisdom of the statesman, the knowledge of the most experienced general, into folly and ignorance; the bravest armies fled panic-struck before his eagles; the proudest sovereigns of Europe bowed their crowned heads before the little hat of the Corsican. He was long regarded as a new savior, sent to impart happiness to his people, and, as though by magic, bent the blind and pliant ma.s.s to his will. But philanthropy, Christian wisdom, the virtues of the Prince of peace, were not his. If he bestowed excellent laws upon his people, it was merely with the view of increasing the power of the state for military purposes. He was ever possessed and tormented by the demon of war.

On the 18th of May, 1804, Bonaparte abolished the French republic and was elected hereditary emperor of France. On the 2d of December, he was solemnly anointed and crowned by the pope, Pius VII., who visited Paris for that purpose. The ceremonies used at the coronation of Charlemagne were revived on this occasion. On the 15th of March, 1805, he abolished the Ligurian and Cisalpine republics, and set the ancient iron crown of Lombardy on his head, with his own hand, as king of Italy. He made a distinction between _la France_ and _l'empire_, the latter of which was, by conquest, to be gradually extended over the whole of Europe, and to be raised by him above that of Germany, in the same manner that the western Roman-Germanic empire had formerly been raised by Charlemagne above the eastern Byzantine one.

The erection of France into an empire was viewed with distrust by Austria, whose displeasure had been, moreover, roused by the arbitrary conduct of Napoleon in Italy. Fresh disputes had also arisen between him and England; he had occupied the whole of Hanover, which Wallmoden's[1] army had been powerless to defend, with his troops, and violated the Baden territory by the seizure of the unfortunate Duc d'Enghien, a prince of the house of Bourbon, who was carried into France and there shot. Prussia offered no interference, in the hope of receiving Hanover in reward for her neutrality.[2] Austria, on her part, formed a third coalition with England, Russia, and Sweden.[3]

Austria acted, undeniably, on this occasion, with impolitic haste; she ought rather to have waited until Prussia and public opinion throughout Germany had been ranged on her side, as sooner or later must have been the case, by the brutal encroachments of Napoleon.

Austria, unaided by Prussia, could scarcely dream of success.[4] But England, at that time fearful of Napoleon's landing on her coast, lavished her all-persuasive gold.

The Archduke Ferdinand was placed at the head of the Austrian troops in Germany; the Archduke Charles, of those in Italy. Ferdinand commanded the main body and was guided by Mack, who, without awaiting the arrival of the Russians, advanced as far as Ulm, pushed a corps, under Jellachich, forward to Lindau, and left the whole of his right flank exposed. He, nevertheless, looked upon Napoleon's defeat and the invasion of France by his troops as close at hand. He was in ill-health and highly irritable. Napoleon, in order to move with greater celerity, sent a part of his troops by carriage through Strasburg, declared to the Margrave of Baden, the duke of Wurtemberg, and the elector of Bavaria, his intention not to recognize them as neutral powers, that they must be either against him or with him, and made them such brilliant promises (they were, moreover, actuated by distrust of Austria), that they ranged themselves on his side.

Napoleon instantly sent orders to General Bernadotte, who was at that time stationed in Hanover, to cross the neutral Prussian territory of Ans.p.a.ch,[5] without demanding the permission of Prussia, to Mack's rear, in order to form a junction with the Bavarian troops. Other corps were at the same time directed by circuitous routes upon the flanks of the Austrian army, which was attacked at Memmingen by Soult, and was cut off to the north by Ney, who carried the bridge of Elchingen[6] by storm. Mack had drawn his troops together, but had, notwithstanding the entreaties of his generals, refused to attack the separate French corps before they could unite and surround him. The Archduke Ferdinand alone succeeded in fighting his way with a part of the cavalry through the enemy.[7] Mack lost his senses and capitulated on the 17th of October, 1805. With him fell sixty thousand Austrians, the elite of the army, into the hands of the enemy. Napoleon could scarcely spare a sufficient number of men to escort this enormous crowd of prisoners to France. Wernek's corps, which had already been cut off, was also compelled to yield itself prisoner at Trochtelfingen, not far from Heidenheim.

Napoleon, while following up his success with his customary rapidity and advancing with his main body straight upon Vienna, despatched Ney into the Tyrol, where the peasantry, headed by the Archduke John, made a heroic defence. The advanced guard of the French, composed of the Bavarians under Deroy, were defeated at the Strub pa.s.s, but, notwithstanding this disaster, Ney carried the Schaarnitz by storm and reached Innsbruck. The Archduke John was compelled to retire into Carinthia in order to form a junction with his brother Charles, who, after beating Ma.s.sena at Caldiero, had been necessitated by Mack's defeat to hasten from Italy for the purpose of covering Austria. Two corps, left in the hurry of retreat too far westward, were cut off and taken prisoner, that under Prince Rohan at Castellfranco, after having found its way from Meran into the Venetian territory, and that under Jellachich on the Lake of Constance; Kinsky's and Wartenleben's cavalry threw themselves boldly into Swabia and Franconia, seized the couriers and convoys to the French rear, and escaped unhurt to Bohemia.

Davoust had, in the meanwhile, invaded Styria and defeated a corps under Meerveldt at Mariazell. In November, Napoleon had reached Vienna, neither Linz nor any other point having been fortified by the Austrians. The great Russian army under Kutusow appeared at this conjuncture in Moravia. The czar, Alexander I., accompanied it in person, and the emperor, Francis II., joined him with his remaining forces. A b.l.o.o.d.y engagement took place between Kutusow and the French at Durrenstein on the Danube, but, on the loss of Vienna, the Russians retired to Moravia. The sovereigns of Austria and Russia loudly called upon Prussia to renounce her alliance with France, and, in this decisive moment, to aid in the annihilation of a foe, for whose false friends.h.i.+p she would one day dearly pay. The violation of the Prussian territory by Bernadotte had furnished the Prussian king with a pretext for suddenly declaring against Napoleon. The Prussian army was also in full force. The British and the Hanoverian legion had landed at Bremen and twenty thousand Russians on Rugen; ten thousand Swedes entered Hanover; electoral Hesse was also ready for action. The king of Prussia, nevertheless, merely confined himself to threats, in the hope of selling his neutrality to Napoleon for Hanover, and deceived the coalition.[8] The emperor Alexander visited Berlin in person for the purpose of rousing Prussia to war, but had no sooner returned to Austria in order to rejoin his army than Count Haugwitz, the Prussian minister, was despatched to Napoleon's camp with express instructions not to declare war. The famous battle, in which the three emperors of Christendom were present, took place, meanwhile, at Austerlitz, not far from Brunn, on the 2d of December, 1805, and terminated in one of Napoleon's most glorious victories.[9] This battle decided the policy of Prussia, and Haugwitz confirmed her alliance with France by a treaty, by which Prussia ceded Cleves, Ans.p.a.ch, and Neufchatel to France in exchange for Hanover.[10] This treaty was published with a precipitation equalling that with which it had been concluded, and seven hundred Prussian vessels, whose captains were ignorant of the event, were seized by the enraged English either in British harbors or on the sea. The peace concluded by Austria, on the 26th of December, at Presburg, was purchased by her at an enormous sacrifice. Napoleon had, in the opening of the campaign, when pressing onward toward Austria, compelled Charles Frederick, elector of Baden,[11] Frederick, elector of Wurtemberg, and Maximilian Joseph, elector of Bavaria (in whose mind the memory of the a.s.sa.s.sination of the amba.s.sadors at Rastadt, the loss of Wa.s.serburg, the demolition of Ingolstadt, etc., still rankled), to enter into his alliance; to which they remained zealously true on account of the immense private advantages thereby gained by them, and of the dread of being deprived by the haughty victor of the whole of their possessions on the first symptom of opposition on their part. Napoleon, with a view of binding them still more closely to his interests by motives of grat.i.tude, gave them on the present occasion an ample share in the booty. Bavaria was erected into a kingdom,[12] and received, from Prussia, Ans.p.a.ch and Baireuth; from Austria, the whole of the Tyrol, Vorarlberg and Lindau, the Margraviate of Burgau, the dioceses of Pa.s.sau, Eichstadt, Trent, and Brixen, besides several petty lords.h.i.+ps. Wurtemberg was raised to a monarchy and enriched with the bordering Austrian lords.h.i.+ps in Swabia.

Baden was rewarded with the Breisgau, the Ortenau, Constance, and the t.i.tle of grandduke. Venice was included by Napoleon in his kingdom of Italy, and, for all these losses, Austria was merely indemnified by the possession of Salzburg. Ferdinand, elector of Salzburg, the former grandduke of Tuscany, was transferred to Wurzburg. Ferdinand of Modena lost the whole of his possessions.

The imperial crown, so well maintained by Napoleon, now shone with redoubled l.u.s.tre. The petty republics and the provinces dependent upon the French empire were erected into kingdoms and princ.i.p.alities and bestowed upon his relatives and favorites. His brother Joseph was created king of Naples; his brother Louis, king of Holland; his stepson Eugene Beauharnais, viceroy of Italy; his brother-in-law Murat, formerly a common horse-soldier, now his best general of cavalry, grandduke of Berg; his first adjutant, Berthier, prince of Neufchatel; his uncle, Cardinal Fesch, was nominated successor to the elector of Mayence, then resident at Ratisbon. In order to remove the stigma attached to him as a parvenu, Napoleon also began to form matrimonial alliances between his family and the most ancient houses of Europe. His handsome stepson, Eugene, married the Princess Augusta, daughter to the king of Bavaria; his brother Jerome, Catherine, daughter to the king of Wurtemberg; and his niece, Stephanie, Charles, hereditary prince of Baden. All the new princes were va.s.sals of the emperor Napoleon, and, by a family decree, subject to his supremacy.

All belonged to the great empire. Switzerland was also included, and but one step more was wanting to complete the incorporation of half the German empire with that of France.

On the 12th of July, 1806, sixteen princes of Western Germany concluded, under Napoleon's direction, a treaty, according to which they separated themselves from the German empire and founded the so-called Rhenish Alliance, which it was their intention to render subject to the supremacy of the emperor of the French.[13] On the 1st of August, Napoleon declared that he no longer recognized the empire of Germany! No one ventured to oppose his omnipotent voice. On the 6th of August, 1806, the emperor, Francis II., abdicated the imperial crown of Germany and announced the dissolution of the empire in a touching address, full of calm dignity and sorrow. The last of the German emperors had shown himself, throughout the contest, worthy of his great ancestors, and had, almost alone, sacrificed all in order to preserve the honor of Germany, until, abandoned by the greater part of the German princes, he was compelled to yield to a power superior to his. The fall of the empire that had stood the storms of a thousand years, was, however, not without dignity. A meaner hand might have levelled the decayed fabric with the dust, but fate, that seemed to honor even the faded majesty of the ancient Caesars, selected Napoleon as the executioner of her decrees. The standard of Charlemagne, the greatest hero of the first Christian age, was to be profaned by no hand save that of the greatest hero of modern times.

Ancient names, long venerated, now disappeared. The holy Roman-German emperor was converted into an emperor of Austria, the electors into kings or granddukes, all of whom enjoyed unlimited sovereign power and were free from subjection to the supremacy of the emperor. Every bond of union was dissolved with the diet of the empire and with the imperial chamber. The barons and counts of the empire and the petty princes were mediatized; the princes of Hohenlohe, Oettingen, Schwarzenberg, Thurn and Taxis, the Truchsess von Waldburg, Furstenberg, Fugger, Leiningen, Lowenstein, Solms, Hesse-Homburg, Wied-Runkel, and Orange-Fulda became subject to the neighboring Rhenish confederated princes. Of the remaining six imperial free cities, Augsburg and Nuremberg fell to Bavaria; Frankfort, under the t.i.tle of grandduchy, to the ancient elector of Mayence, who was again transferred thither from Ratisbon. The ancient Hanse towns, Hamburg, Lubeck and Bremen, alone retained their freedom.

The Rhenish confederation now began its wretched existence. It was established on the basis of the Helvetian republic. The sixteen confederated princes were to be completely independent and to exercise sovereign power over the internal affairs of their states, like the Swiss cantons, but were, in all foreign affairs, dependent upon Napoleon as their protector.[14] The whole Rhenish confederation became a part of the French empire. The federal a.s.sembly was to sit at Frankfort, and Dalberg, the former elector of Mayence, now grandduke of Frankfort, was nominated by Napoleon, under the t.i.tle of Prince Primate, president. Napoleon's uncle, and afterward his stepson, Eugene Beauharnais, were his destined successors, by which means the control was placed entirely in the hands of France. To this confederation there belonged two kings, those of Bavaria and Wurtemberg, five granddukes, those of Frankfort, Wurzburg, Baden, Darmstadt, and Berg, and ten princes, two of Na.s.sau, two of Hohenzollern, two of Salm, besides those of Aremberg, Isenburg, Lichtenstein and Leyen. Every trace of the ancient free const.i.tution of Germany, her provincial Estates, was studiously annihilated. The Wurtemberg Estates, with a spirit worthy of their ancient fame, alone made an energetic protest, by which they merely succeeded in saving their honor, the king, Frederick, dissolving them by force and closing their chamber.[15] An absolute, despotic form of government, similar to that existing in France under Napoleon, was established in all the confederated states. The murder of the unfortunate bookseller, Palm of Nuremberg, who was, on the 25th of August, 1806, shot by Napoleon's order, at Braunau, for n.o.bly refusing to give up the author of a patriotic work published by him, directed against the rule of France, and ent.i.tled, "Germany in her deepest Degradation," furnished convincing proof, were any wanting, of Napoleon's supremacy.

[Footnote 1: He capitulated at Suhlingen on honorable terms, but was deceived by Mortier, the French general, and Napoleon took advantage of a clause not to recognize all the terms of capitulation. The Hanoverian troops, whom it was intended to force to an unconditional surrender to the French, sailed secretly and in separate divisions to England, where they were formed into the German Legion.]

[Footnote 2: England offered the Netherlands instead of Hanover to Prussia; to this Russia, however, refused to accede. Prussia listened to both sides, and acted with such duplicity that Austria was led, by the false hope of being seconded by her, to a too early declaration of war.--_Scenes during the War of liberation._]