Germany from the Earliest Period Vol. 4
by
Wolfgang Menzel, Trans. Mrs. George Horrocks
Part 2 out of 8
surprised the French avant-garde under Bernadotte, which he compelled
to retire. At Amberg, he encountered Jourdan, whom he completely
routed, A.D. 1796. The French retreated through the city, on the other
side of which they formed an immense square against the imperial
cavalry under Wernek; it was broken on the third charge, and a
terrible slaughter took place, three thousand of the French being
killed and one thousand taken prisoner. The peasantry had already
flown to arms, and assisted in cutting down the fugitives. Jourdan
again made a stand at Wurzburg, where Wernek stormed his batteries at
the head of his grenadiers and a complete rout ensued, September 3.
The French lost six thousand dead and two thousand prisoners. The
peasantry rose _en masse_, and hunted down the fugitives.[10] On the
Upper Rhone, Dr. Roeder placed himself at the head of the peasantry,
but, encountering a superior French corps at Mellrichstadt, was
defeated and killed. The French suffered most in the Spessart, called
by them, on that account, La petite Vendee. The peasantry were here
headed by an aged forester named Philip Witt, and, protected by their
forests, exterminated numbers of the flying foe. The imperial troops
were also unremitting in their pursuit, again defeated Bernadotte at
Aschaffenburg and chased Jourdan through Nassau across the Rhine.
Marceau, who had vainly besieged Mayence, again made stand at
Allerheim, where he was defeated and killed.[11]
Moreau, completely deceived by the archduke, had, meanwhile, remained
in Bavaria. After defeating General Latour at Lechhausen, instead of
setting off in pursuit of the archduke and to Jourdan's aid, he was,
as the archduke had foreseen, attracted by the prospect of gaining a
rich booty, in an opposite direction, toward Munich. Bavaria submitted
to the French, paid ten millions, and ceded twenty of the most
valuable pictures belonging to the Dusseldorf and Munich galleries.
The news of Jourdan's defeat now compelled Moreau to beat a rapid
retreat in order to avoid being cut off by the victorious archduke.
Latour set off vigorously in pursuit, came up with him at Ulm and
again at Ravensberg, but was both times repulsed, owing to his
numerical inferiority. A similar fate awaited the still smaller
imperial corps led against the French by Nauendorf at Rothweil and by
Petrosch at Villingen, and Moreau led the main body of his army in
safety through the deep narrow gorges of the Hollenthal in the Black
Forest to Freiburg in the Breisgau, where he came upon the archduke,
who, amid the acclamations of the armed peasantry (by whom the
retreating French[12] were, as in the Spessart, continually harassed
in their passage through the Black Forest), had hurried, but too late,
to his encounter. Moreau had already sent two divisions of his army,
under Ferino and Desaix, across the Rhine at Huningen and Breisach,
and covered their retreat with the third by taking up a strong
position at Schliesgen, not far from Freiburg, whence, after braving a
first attack, he escaped during the night to Huningen. This retreat,
in which he had saved his army with comparatively little loss, excited
general admiration, but in Italy there was a young man who scornfully
exclaimed, "It was, after all, merely a retreat!"
[Footnote 1: The following trait proves the complete stagnation of
chivalric feeling in the army. Szekuli, colonel of the Prussian
hussars, condemned several patriotic ladies, belonging to the highest
Polish families at Znawrazlaw, to be placed beneath the gallows, in
momentary expectation of death, until it, at length, pleased him to
grant a reprieve, couched in the most offensive and indecent terms.]
[Footnote 2: A most disgraceful treaty. William's enemies, the
fugitive patriots, had promised the French, in return for their aid,
sixty million florins of the spoil of their country. William, upon
this, promised to pay to France a subsidy of eighty millions, in order
to guarantee the security of his frontier, but was instantly outbid by
the base and self-denominated patriots, who offered to France a
hundred million florins in order to induce her to invade their
country.]
[Footnote 3: Von Berlepsch, the councillor of administration, proposed
to the Calemberg diet to declare their neutrality in defiance of
England, and, in case of necessity, to place "the Calemberg Nation"
under the protection of France.--Havemomn.]
[Footnote 4: "Wherever these locusts appear, everything, men, cattle,
food, property, etc., is carried off. These thieves seize everything
convertible into money. Nothing is safe from them. At Cologne, they
filled a church with coffee and sugar. At Aix-la-Chapelle, they
carried off the finest pictures of Rubens and Van Dyck, the pillars
from the altar, and the marble-slab from the tomb of Charlemagne, all
of which they sold to some Dutch Jews."--_Posselt's Annals of 1796_.
At Cologne, the nuns were instantly emancipated from their vows, and
one of the youngest and most beautiful afterward gained great
notoriety as a barmaid at an inn. This scandalous story is related by
Klebe in his Travels on the Rhine. In Bonn, Gleich, a man who had
formerly been a priest, placed himself at the head of the French
rabble and planted trees of liberty. He also gave to the world a
decade, as he termed his publication.--_Mueller_, _History of Bonn_.
"The French proclaimed war against the palaces and peace to the huts,
but no hut was too mean to escape the rapacity of these birds of prey.
The first-fruits of liberty was the pillage of every corner."--
_Schwaben's History of Siegburg_. The brothers Boisseree'e afterward
collected a good many of the church pictures, at that period carried
away from Cologne and more particularly from the Lower Rhine. They now
adorn Munich and form the best collection of old German paintings now
existing.]
[Footnote 5: "Had Wuertemberg possessed but six thousand well-organized
troops, the position on the Roszbuhl might have been maintained, and
the country have been saved. The millions since paid by Wuertemberg,
and which she may still have to pay, would have been spared."--
_Appendix to the History of the Campaign of 1796._]
[Footnote 6: The duke, Charles, had, in 1791, visited Paris, donned
the national cockade, and bribed Mirabeau with a large sum of money to
induce the French government to purchase Muempelgard from him. The
French, however, were quite as well aware as the duke that they would
ere long possess it gratis.]
[Footnote 7: Moreau generously allowed all his prisoners, who, as
ex-nobles, were destined to the guillotine, to escape.]
[Footnote 8: Armbruster's "Register of French Crime" contains as
follows: "Here and there, in the neighboring towns, there were
certainly symptoms of an extremely favorable disposition toward the
French, which would ill deserve a place in the annals of German
patriotism and of German good sense. This disposition was fortunately
far from general. The appearance of the French in their real
character, and the barbarous excesses and heavy contributions by which
they rendered the people sensible of their presence, speedily effected
their conversion." The French, it is true, neither murdered the
inhabitants nor burned the villages as they had during the previous
century in the Pfalz, but they pillaged the country to a greater
extent, shamefully abused the women, and desecrated the churches.
Their license and the art with which they extorted the last penny from
the wretched people surpassed all belief. "Not satisfied with robbing
the churches, they especially gloried in giving utterance to the most
fearful blasphemies, in destroying and profaning the altars, in
overthrowing the statues of saints, in treading the host beneath their
feet or casting it to dogs.--At the village of Berg in Weingarten,
they set up in the holy of holies the image of the devil, which they
had taken from the representation of the temptation of the Saviour in
the wilderness. In the village of Boos, they roasted a crucifix before
a fire."--_Vide Hurter's Memorabilia, concerning the French allies in
Swabia, who attempted to found an Alemannic Republic. Schaffhausen,
1840_. Moreau reduced them to silence by declaring, "I have no need of
a revolution to the rear of my army."]
[Footnote 9: Notwithstanding Jourdan's proclamation, promising
protection to all private property, Wuerzburg, Schweinfurt, Bamberg,
etc., were completely pillaged. The young girls fled in hundreds to
the woods. The churches were shamelessly desecrated. When mercy in
God's name was demanded, the plunderers replied, "God! we are God!"
They would dance at night-time around a bowl of burning brandy, whose
blue flames they called their etre supreme.--_The French in Franconia,
by Count Soden._]
[Footnote 10: "They deemed the assassination of a foreigner a
meritorious work."--_Ephemeridae of 1797._ "The peasantry, roused to
fury by the disorderly and cruel French, whose excesses exceeded all
belief, did not even extend mercy to the wounded; and the French, with
equal barbarity, set whole villages on fire."--_Appendix to the
Campaign of 1796_].
[Footnote 11: When scarcely in his twenty-seventh year. He was one of
the most distinguished heroes of the Revolution, and as remarkable for
his generosity to his weaker foes as for his moral and chivalric
principles. The Archduke Charles sent his private physicians to attend
upon him, and, on the occasion of his burial, fired a salvo
simultaneously with that of the French stationed on the opposite bank
of the Rhine.--_Mussinan_.]
[Footnote 12: The peasants of the Artenau and the Kinzigthal were
commanded by a wealthy farmer, named John Baader. Besides several
French generals, Hausmann, the commissary of the government, who
accompanied Moreau's army, was taken prisoner.--_Mussinan, History of
the French War of 1796_ etc. A decree, published on the 18th of
September by Frederick Eugene, Duke of Wuertemberg, in which he
prohibited his subjects from taking part in the pursuit of the French,
is worthy of remark.]
CCL. Bonaparte
This youth was Napoleon Bonaparte, the son of a lawyer in the island
of Corsica, a man of military genius, who, when a mere lieutenant, had
raised the siege of Toulon, had afterward served the Directory by
dispersing the old Jacobins with his artillery in the streets of
Paris, and had been intrusted with the command of the army in Italy.
Talents, that under a monarchy would have been doomed to obscurity,
were, under the French republic, called into notice, and men of
decided genius could, amid the general competition, alone attain to
power or retain the reins of government.
Bonaparte was the first to take the field. In the April of 1796, he
pushed across the Alps and attacked the Austrians. Beaulieu, a good
general, but too old for service (he was then seventy-two, Napoleon
but twenty-seven), had incautiously extended his lines too far, in
order to preserve a communication with the English fleet in the
Mediterranean. Bonaparte defeated his scattered forces at Montenotte
and Millesimo, between the 10th and 15th of April, and, turning
sharply upon the equally scattered Sardinian force, beat it in several
engagements, the principal of which took place at Mondovi, between the
19th and 22d of April. An armistice was concluded with Sardinia, and
Beaulieu, who vainly attempted to defend the Po, was defeated on the
7th and 8th of May, at Fombio. The bridge over the Adda at Lodi, three
hundred paces in length, extremely narrow and to all appearance
impregnable, defended by his lieutenant Sebottendorf, was carried by
storm, and, on the 15th of May, Bonaparte entered Milan. Beaulieu took
up a position behind the Mincio, notwithstanding which, Bonaparte
carried the again ill-defended bridge at Borghetto by storm. While in
this part of the country, he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner by
a party of skirmishers, and was compelled to fly half-naked, with but
one foot booted, from his night quarters at St. Georgio.
Beaulieu now withdrew into the Tyrol. Sardinia made peace, and terms
were offered by the pope and by Naples. Leghorn was garrisoned with
French troops; all the English goods lying in this harbor, to the
value of twelve million pounds, were confiscated. The strongly
fortified city of Mantua, defended by the Austrians under their
gallant leader, Canto d'Irles, was besieged by Bonaparte. A fresh body
of Austrian troops under Wurmser crossed the mountains to their
relief; but Wurmser, instead of advancing with his whole force,
incautiously pressed forward with thirty-two thousand men through the
valley of the Adige, while Quosdanowich led eighteen thousand along
the western shore of the Lake of Garda. Bonaparte instantly perceived
his advantage, and, attacking the latter, defeated him on the 3d of
August, at Lonato. Wurmser had entered Mantua unopposed on the 1st,
but, setting out in search of the enemy, was unexpectedly attacked, on
the 5th of August, by the whole of Bonaparte's forces at Castiglione,
and compelled, like Quosdanowich, to seek shelter in the Tyrol. This
senseless mode of attack had been planned by Weirotter, a colonel
belonging to the general staff. Wurmser now received reinforcements,
and Laner, the general of the engineers, was intrusted with the
projection of a better plan. He again weakened the army by dividing
his forces. In the beginning of September, Davidowich penetrated with
twenty thousand men through the valley of the Adige and was defeated
at Roveredo, and Wurmser, who had, meanwhile, advanced with an army of
twenty-six thousand men through the valley of the Brenta, met with a
similar fate at Bassano. He, nevertheless, escaped the pursuit of the
victorious French by making a circuit, and threw himself by a forced
march into Mantua, where he was, however, unable to make a lengthy
resistance, the city being over-populated and provisions scarce. A
fresh army of twenty-eight thousand men, under Alvinzi, sent to his
relief[1] through the valley of the Brenta, was attacked in a strong
position at Arcole, on the river Alpon. Two dams protected the bank
and a narrow bridge, which was, on the 15th of November, vainly
stormed by the French, although General Augereau and Bonaparte, with
the colors in his hand, led the attack. On the following day, Alvinzi
foolishly crossed the bridge and took up an exposed position, in which
he was beaten, and, on the third day, he retreated. Davidowich,
meanwhile, again advanced from the Tyrol and gained an advantage at
Rivoli, but was also forced to retreat before Bonaparte. Wurmser, when
too late, made a sally, which was, consequently, useless. The campaign
was, nevertheless, for the fifth time, renewed. Alvinzi collected
reinforcements and again pushed forward into the valley of the Adige,
but speedily lost courage and suffered a fearful defeat, in which
twenty thousand of his men were taken prisoners, on the 14th and 15th
of January, A.D. 1797, at Rivoli. Provera, on whom he had relied for
assistance from Padua, was cut off and taken prisoner with his entire
corps. Wurmser capitulated at Mantua with twenty-one thousand men.
The spring of 1797 had scarcely commenced when Bonaparte was already
pushing across the Alps toward Vienna. Hoche, at the same time, again
attacked the Lower and Moreau the Upper Rhine. Bonaparte, the nearest
and most dangerous foe, was opposed by the archduke, whose army,
composed of the remains of Alvinzi's disbanded and discouraged troops,
called forth the observation from Bonaparte, "Hitherto I have defeated
armies without generals, now I am about to attack a general without an
army!" A battle took place at Tarvis, amid the highest mountains,
whence it was afterward known as "the battle above the clouds." The
archduke, with a handful of Hungarian hussars, valiantly defended the
pass against sixteen thousand French under Massena, nor turned to fly
until eight only of his men remained. Generals Bayalich and Ocskay,
instead of supporting him, had yielded. The archduke again collected
five thousand men around him at Glogau and opposed the advance of the
immensely superior French force until two hundred and fifty of his men
alone remained. The conqueror of Italy rapidly advanced through Styria
upon Vienna. Another French corps under Joubert had penetrated into
the Tyrol, but had been so vigorously assailed at Spinges by the brave
peasantry[2] as to be forced to retire upon Bonaparte's main body,
with which he came up at Villach, after losing between six and eight
thousand men during his retreat through the Pusterthal. The rashness
with which Bonaparte, leaving the Alps to his rear and regardless of
his distance from France, penetrated into the enemy's country, had
placed him in a position affording every facility for the Austrians,
by a bold and vigorous stroke, to cut him off and take him prisoner.
They had garrisoned Trieste and Fiume on the Adriatic and formed an
alliance with the republic of Venice, at that time well supplied with
men, arms, and gold. A great insurrection of the peasantry, infuriated
by the pillage of the French troops, had broken out at Bergamo. The
gallant Tyrolese, headed by Count Lehrbach, and the Hungarians, had
risen en masse. The victorious troops of the Archduke Charles were en
route from the Rhine, and Mack had armed the Viennese and the
inhabitants of the thickly-populated neighborhood of the metropolis.
Bonaparte was lost should the archduke's plan of operations meet with
the approbation of the Viennese cabinet, and, perfectly aware of the
fact, he made proposals of peace under pretence of sparing unnecessary
bloodshed. The imperial court, stupefied by the late discomfiture in
Italy, instead of regarding the proposals of the wily Frenchman as a
confession of embarrassment, and of assailing him with redoubled
vigor, acceded to them, and, on the 18th of April, Count Cobenzl,
Thugut's successor, concluded the preliminaries of peace at Leoben, by
which the French, besides being liberated from their dangerous
position, were recognized as victors. The negotiations of peace were
continued at the chateau of Campo Formio, where the Austrians somewhat
regained courage, and Count Cobenzl[3] even ventured to refuse some of
the articles proposed. Bonaparte, irritated by opposition, dashed a
valuable cup, the gift of the Russian empress, violently to the
ground, exclaiming, "You wish for war? Well! you shall have it, and
your monarchy shall be shattered like that cup." The armistice was not
interrupted. Hostilities were even suspended on the Rhine. The
archduke had, before quitting that river, gained the _tetes de pont_
of Strasburg (Kehl) and of Huningen, besides completely clearing the
right bank of the Rhine of the enemy. The whole of these advantages
were again lost on his recall to take the field against Napoleon. The
Saxon troops, which had, up to this period, steadily sided with
Austria, were recalled by the elector. Swabia, Franconia, and Bavaria
were intent upon making peace with France. Baron von Fahnenberg, the
imperial envoy at Ratisbon, bitterly reproached the Protestant estates
for their evident inclination to follow the example of Prussia by
siding with the French and betraying their fatherland to their common
foe, but, on applying more particularly for aid to the spiritual
princes, who were exposed to the greatest danger, he found them
equally lukewarm. Each and all refused to furnish troops or to pay a
war tax. The imperial troops were, consequently, compelled to enforce
their maintenance, and naturally became the objects of popular hatred.
In this wretched manner was the empire defended! The petty imperial
corps on the Rhine were, meanwhile, compelled to retreat before an
enemy vastly their superior in number. Wernek, attempting with merely
twenty-two thousand men to obstruct the advance of an army of
sixty-five thousand French under Hoche, was defeated at Neuwied and
deprived of his command.[4] Sztarray, who charged seven times at the
head of his men, was also beaten by Moreau at Kehl and Diersheim. At
this conjuncture, the armistice of Leoben was published.
A peace, based on the terms proposed at Leoben, was formally concluded
at Campo Formio, October 17, 1797. The triumph of the French republic
was confirmed, and ancient Europe received a new form. The object for
which the sovereigns of France had for centuries vainly striven was
won by the monarchless nation; France gained the preponderance in
Europe. Italy and the whole of the left bank of the Rhine were
abandoned to her arbitrary rule, and this fearful loss, far from
acting as a warning to Germany and promoting her unity, merely
increased her internal dissensions and offered to the French republic
an opportunity for intervention, of which it took advantage for
purposes of gain and pillage.
The principal object of the policy of Bonaparte and of the French
Directory, at that period, was, by rousing the ancient feelings of
enmity between Austria and Prussia, to eternalize the disunion between
those two monarchies. Bonaparte, after effectuating the peace by means
of terror, loaded Austria with flattery. He flattered her religious
feelings by the moderation of his conduct in Italy toward the pope,
notwithstanding the disapprobation manifested by the genuine French
republicans, and her interests by the offer of Venice in compensation
for the loss of the Netherlands, and, making a slight side-movement
against that once powerful and still wealthy republic, reduced it at
the first blow, nay, by mere threats, to submission; so deeply was the
ancient aristocracy here also fallen. The cession of Venice to the
emperor was displeasing to the French republicans. They were, however,
pacified by the delivery of Lafayette, who had been still detained a
prisoner in Austria after the treaty of Basel. Napoleon said in
vindication of his policy, "I have merely lent Venice to the emperor,
he will not keep her long." He, moreover, gratified Austria by the
extension of her western frontier, so long the object of her ambition,
by the possession of the archbishopric of Salzburg and of a part of
Bavaria with the town of Wasserburg.[5] The sole object of these
concessions was provisionally to dispose Austria in favor of
France,[6] and to render Prussia's ancient jealousy of Austria
implacable.[7] Hence the secret articles of peace by which France and
Austria bound themselves not to grant any compensation to Prussia.
Prussia was on her part, however, resolved not to be the loser, and,
in the summer of 1797, took forcible possession of the imperial free
town of Nuremberg, notwithstanding her declaration made just three
years previously through Count Soden to the Franconian circle, "that
the king had never harbored the design of seeking a compensation at
the expense of the empire, whose constitution had ever been sacred in
his eyes!" and to the empire, "He deemed it beneath his dignity to
refute the reports concerning Prussia's schemes of aggrandizement,
oppression, and secularization." Prussia also extended her possessions
in Franconia[8] and Westphalia, and Hesse-Cassel imitated her example
by the seizure of a part of Schaumburg-Lippe. The diet energetically
remonstrated, but in vain. Pamphlets spoke of the Prussian reunion-
chambers opened by Hardenberg in Franconia. An attempt was, however,
made to console the circle of Franconia by depicturing the far worse
sufferings of that of Swabia under the imperial contributions. The
petty Estates of the empire stumbled, under these circumstances, upon
the unfortunate idea "that the intercession of the Russian court
should be requested for the maintenance of the integrity of the German
empire and for that of her constitution"; the intercession of the
Russian court, which had so lately annihilated Poland!
Shortly after this, A.D. 1797, Frederick William II., who had, on his
accession to the throne, found seventy-two millions of dollars in the
treasury, expired, leaving twenty-eight millions of debts. His son,
Frederick William III., placed the Countess Lichtenau under arrest,
banished Wollner, and abolished the unpopular monopoly in tobacco, but
retained his father's ministers and continued the alliance, so
pregnant with mischief, with France.--This monarch, well-meaning and
destined to the severest trials, educated by a peevish valetudinarian
and ignorant of affairs, was first taught by bitter experience the
utter incapacity of the men at that time at the head of the
government, and after, as will be seen, completely reforming the
court, the government, and the army, surrounded himself with men, who
gloriously delivered Prussia and Germany from all the miseries and
avenged all the disgrace, which it is the historian's sad office to
record.
Austria, as Prussia had already done by the treaty of Basel, also
sacrificed, by the peace of Campo Formio, the whole of the left bank
of the Rhine and abandoned it to France, the loss thereby suffered by
the Estates of the empire being indemnified by the secularization of
the ecclesiastical property in the interior of Germany and by the
prospect of the seizure of the imperial free towns. Mayence was ceded
without a blow to France. Holland was forgotten. The English, under
pretext of opposing France, destroyed, A.D. 1797, the last Dutch
fleet, in the Texel, though not without a heroic and determined
resistance on the part of the admirals de Winter and Reintjes, both of
whom were severely wounded, and the latter died in captivity in
England. Holland was formed into a Batavian, Genoa into a Ligurian,
Milan with the Valtelline (from which the Grisons was severed) into a
Cisalpine, republic. Intrigues were, moreover, set on foot for the
formation of a Roman and Neapolitan republic in Italy and of a Rhenish
and Swabian one in Germany, all of which were to be subordinate to the
mother republic in France. The proclamation of a still-born Cisrhenish
republic (it not having as yet been constituted when it was swallowed
up in the great French republic), in the masterless Lower Rhenish
provinces in the territory of Treves, Aix-la-Chapelle, and Cologne,
under the influence of the French Jacobins and soldiery, was, however,
all that could at first be done openly.
The hauteur with which Bonaparte, backed by his devoted soldiery, had
treated the republicans, and the contempt manifested by him toward the
citizens, had not failed to rouse the jealous suspicions of the
Directory, the envy of the less successful generals, and the hatred of
the old friends of liberty, by whom he was already designated as a
tyrant. The republican party was still possessed of considerable
power, and the majority of the French troops under Moreau, Jourdan,
Bernadotte, etc., were still ready to shed their blood in the cause of
liberty. Bonaparte, compelled to veil his ambitious projects, judged
it more politic, after sowing the seed of discord at Campo Formio, to
withdraw a while, in order to await the ripening of the plot and to
return to reap the result. He, accordingly, went meantime, A.D. 1798,
with a small but well-picked army to Egypt, for the ostensible purpose
of opening a route overland to India, the sea-passage having been
closed against France by the British, but, in reality, for the purpose
of awaiting there a turn in continental affairs, and, moreover, by his
victories over the Turks in the ancient land of fable to add to the
wonder it was ever his object to inspire. On his way thither he seized
the island of Malta and compelled Baron Hompesch, the grand-master of
the order of the Knights of Malta, to resign his dignity, the fortress
being betrayed into his hands by the French knights.
At Rastadt, near Baden, where the compensation mentioned in the treaty
of Campo Formio was to be taken into consideration, the terrified
Estates of the empire assembled for the purpose of suing the French
ambassadors for the lenity they had not met with at the hands of
Austria and Prussia.--The events that took place at Rastadt are of a
description little calculated to flatter the patriotic feelings of the
German historian. The soul of the congress was Charles Maurice
Talleyrand-Perigord, at one time a bishop, at the present period
minister of the French republic. His colloquy with the German
ambassadors resembled that of the fox with the geese, and he attuned
their discords with truly diabolical art. While holding Austria and
Prussia apart, instigating them one against the other, flattering both
with the friendship of the republic and with the prospect of a rich
booty by the secularization of the ecclesiastical lands, he encouraged
some of the petty states with the hope of aggrandizement by an
alliance with France,[9] and, with cruel contempt, allowed others a
while to gasp for life before consigning them to destruction. The
petty princes, moreover, who had been deprived of their territory on
the other side of the Rhine, demanded lands on this side in
compensation; all the petty princes on this side consequently trembled
lest they should be called upon to make compensation, and each
endeavored, by bribing the members of the congress, Talleyrand in
particular, to render himself an exception. The French minister was
bribed not by gold alone; a considerable number of ladies gained great
notoriety by their liaison with the insolent republican, from whom
they received nothing, the object for which they sued being sold by
him sometimes even two or three times. Momus, a satirical production
of this period, relates numerous instances of crime and folly that are
perfectly incredible. The avarice manifested by the French throughout
the whole of the negotiations was only surpassed by the brutality of
their language and behavior. Roberjot, Bonnier, and Jean de Bry, the
dregs of the French nation, treated the whole of the German empire on
this occasion _en canaille_, and, while picking the pockets of the
Germans, were studiously coarse and brutal; still the trifling
opposition they encountered, and the total want of spirit in the
representatives of the great German empire, whom it must, in fact,
have struck them as ridiculous to see thus humbled at their feet,
forms an ample excuse for their demeanor.
Gustavus Adolphus IV., who mounted the throne of Sweden in 1796,
distinguished himself at that time among the Estates of the empire,
when Duke of Pomerania and Prince of Rugen, by his solemn protest
against the depredations committed by France, and by his summons to
every member of the German empire to take the field against their
common foe. Hesse-Cassel was also remarkable for the warlike demeanor
and decidedly anti-Gallic feeling of her population; and Wurtemberg,
for being the first of the German states that gave the example of
making concessions more in accordance with the spirit of the times. By
the abolition of ancient abuses alone could the princes meet the
threats used on every occasion by the French at Rastadt to
revolutionize the people unless their demands were fully complied
with. In Wurtemberg, the duke, Charles, had been succeeded, A.D. 1793,
by his brother, Louis Eugene, who banished license from his court,
but, a foe to enlightenment, closed the Charles college, placed monks
around his person, was extremely bigoted, and a zealous but impotent
friend to France. He expired, A.D. 1795, and was succeeded by the
third brother, Frederick Eugene, who had been during his youth a canon
at Salzburg, but afterward became a general in the Prussian service,
married a princess of Brandenburg, and educated his children in the
Protestant faith in order to assimilate the religion of the reigning
family with that of the people. His mild government terminated in
1797. Frederick, his talented son and successor, mainly frustrated the
projected establishment of a Swabian republic, which was strongly
supported by the French, by his treatment of the provincial Estates,
the modification of the rights of chase, etc., on which occasion he
took the following oath: "I repeat the solemn vow, ever to hold the
constitution of this country sacred and to make the weal of my
subjects the aim of my life." He nevertheless appears, by the
magnificent fetes, masquerades, and pastoral festivals given by him,
as if in a time of the deepest peace, at Hohenheim, to have trusted
more to his connection with England, by his marriage with the princess
royal, Matilda,[10] with Russia, and with Austria (the emperor Paul,
Catherine's successor, having married the princess Maria of
Wurtemberg, and the emperor Francis II., her sister Elisabeth), than
to the constitution, which he afterward annihilated.
The weakness displayed by the empire and the increasing disunion
between Austria and Prussia encouraged the French to further
insolence. Not satisfied with garrisoning every fortification on the
left bank of the Rhine, they boldly attacked, starved to submission,
and razed to the ground, during peace time, the once impregnable
fortress of Ehrenbreitstein, on the right bank of the Rhine, opposite
Coblentz.[11] Not content with laying the Netherlands and Holland
completely waste, they compelled the Hanse towns to grant them a loan
of eighteen million livres. Lubeck refused, but Hamburg and Bremen,
more nearly threatened and hopeless of aid from Prussia, were
constrained to satisfy the demands of the French brigands. In the
Netherlands, the German faction once more rose in open insurrection;
in 1798, the young men, infuriated by the conscription and by their
enrolment into French regiments, flew to arms, and torrents of blood
were shed in the struggle, in which they were unaided by their German
brethren, before they were again reduced to submission. The English
also landed at Ostend, but for the sole purpose of destroying the
sluices of the canal at Bruges.
The French divided the beautiful Rhenish provinces, yielded to them
almost without a blow by Germany, into four departments: First, Roer,
capital Aix-la-Chapelle; besides Cologne and Cleves. Secondly,
Donnersberg, capital Mayence; besides Spires and Zweibrucken. Thirdly,
Saar, capital Treves. Fourthly, Rhine and Moselle, capital Coblentz;
besides Bonn. Each department was subdivided into cantons, each canton
into communes. The department was governed by a perfect, the canton by
a sub-prefect, the commune by a mayor. All distinction of rank,
nobility, and all feudal rights were abolished. Each individual was a
citizen, free and equal. All ecclesiastical establishments were
abandoned to plunder, the churches alone excepted, they being still
granted as places of worship to believers, notwithstanding the
contempt and ridicule into which the clergy had fallen. The
monasteries were closed. The peasantry, more particularly in Treves,
nevertheless, still manifested great attachment to Popery. Guilds and
corporations were also abolished. The introduction of the ancient
German oral law formerly in use throughout the empire, the institution
of trial by jury, which, to the disgrace of Germany, the Rhenish
princes, after the lapse of a thousand years, learned from their
Gallic foe, was a great and signal benefit.
Liberty, equality, and justice were, at that period, in all other
respects, mere fictions. The most arbitrary rule in reality existed,
and the new provinces were systematically drained by taxes of every
description, as, for instance, register, stamp, patent, window, door,
and land taxes: there was also a tax upon furniture and upon luxuries
of every sort; a poll-tax, a percentage on the whole assessment, etc.;
besides extortion, confiscation, and forced sales. And woe to the new
citizen of the great French republic if he failed in paying more
servile homage to its officers, from the prefect down to the lowest
underling, than had ever been exacted by the princes![12] Such was the
liberty bestowed by republican France! Thus were her promises
fulfilled! The German Illuminati were fearfully undeceived,
particularly on perceiving how completely their hopes of universally
revolutionizing Germany were frustrated by the treaty of Basel. The
French, who had proclaimed liberty to all the nations of the earth,
now offered it for sale. The French character was in every respect the
same as during the reign of Louis XIV. The only principle to which
they remained ever faithful was that of robbery.--Switzerland was now,
in her turn, attacked, and vengeance thus overtook every province that
had severed itself from the empire, and every part of the once
magnificent empire of Germany was miserably punished for its want of
unity.
[Footnote 1: Clausewitz demands, with great justice, why the Austrians
so greatly divided their forces on this occasion for the sake of
saving Italy, as they had only to follow up their successes vigorously
on the Rhine in order to gain, in that quarter, far more than they
could lose on the Po.]
[Footnote 2: At Absom, in the valley of the Inn, a peasant girl had,
at that time, discovered a figure of the Virgin in one of the panes of
glass in her chamber window. This appearance being deemed miraculous
by the simple peasantry, the authorities of the place investigated the
matter, had the glass cleaned and scraped, etc., and at length
pronounced the indelible figure to be simply the outline of an old
colored painting. The peasantry, however, excited by the appearance of
the infidel French, persisted in giving credence to the miracle and
set up the piece of glass in a church, which was afterward annually
visited by thousands of pilgrims. In 1407, the celebrated pilgrimage
to Waldrast, in the Tyrol, had been founded in a similar manner by the
discovery of a portrait of the Virgin which had been grown up in a
tree, by two shepherd lads.]
[Footnote 3: Cobenzl was a favorite of Kaunitz and a thorough
courtier. At an earlier period, when ambassador at Petersburg, he
wrote French comedies, which were performed at the Hermitage in the
presence of the empress Catherine. The arrival of an unpleasant
despatch being ever followed by the production of some amusing piece
as an antidote to care, the empress jestingly observed, "that he was
no doubt keeping his best piece until the news arrived of the French
being in Vienna." He expired in the February of 1809, a year pregnant
with fate for Austria.]
[Footnote 4: He indignantly refused the stipend offered to him on this
occasion and protested against the injustice of his condemnation.]
[Footnote 5: Bavaria regarded these forced concessions as a bad reward
for her fidelity to Austria. Napoleon appears to have calculated upon
relighting by this means the flames of discord, whence he well knew
how to draw an advantage, between Bavaria and Austria.]
[Footnote 6: "Thus the emperor also now abandoned the empire by merely
bargaining with the enemy to quit his territories, and leaving the
wretched provinces of the empire a prey to war and pillage. And if the
assurances of friendship, of confidence, and of affection between
Austria and Venice are but recalled to mind, the contrast was indeed
laughable when the emperor was pleased to allow that loyal city to be
ceded to him. The best friend was in this case the cloth from which
the emperor cut himself an equivalent."--_Huergelmer_.]
[Footnote 7: A curious private memoir of Talleyrand says: "J'ai la
certitude que Berlin est le lieu, ou le traite du 26 Vendemiaire (the
reconciliation of Austria with France at Campo Formio), aura jette le
plus d'etonnement, d'embarras et de orainte." He then explains that,
now that the Netherlands no longer belong to Austria, and that Austria
and France no longer come into collision, both powers would be
transformed from natural foes into natural friends and would have an
equal interest in weakening Prussia. Should Russia stir, the Poles
could be roused to insurrection, etc.]
[Footnote 8: "Exactly at this period, when the empire's common foe was
plundering the Franconian circle, when deeds of blood and horror, when
misery and want had reached a fearful height, the troops of the
Elector of Brandenburg overran the cities and villages. The
inhabitants were constrained to take the oath of fealty, the public
officers, who refused, were dragged away captive, etc. Ellingen,
Stopfenheim, Absperg, Eschenbach, Nueremberg, Postbaur, Virnsperg,
Oettingen, Dinkelspuehl, Ritzenhausen, Gelchsheim, were scenes of
brutal outrage."--_The History of the Usurpation of Brandenburg, A.D.
1797_, with the original Documents, published by the Teutonic Order.]
[Footnote 9: His secret memoirs, even at that period, designate Baden,
Wuertemberg, and Darmstadt as states securely within the grasp of
France.]
[Footnote 10: He fled on Moreau's invasion to England, where he formed
this alliance. There was at one time a project of creating him elector
of Hanover and of partitioning Wuertemberg between Bavaria and Baden.]
[Footnote 11: The commandant, Faber, defended the place for fourteen
months with a garrison of 2,000 men. During the siege, the
badly-disciplined French soldiery secretly sold provisions at an
exorbitant price to the starving garrison.]
[Footnote 12: Klebe gave an extremely detailed account of the French
government: "It is, for instance, well known that a pastry cook was
nominated lord high warden of the forest! over a whole department, and
a jeweller was raised to the same office in another.--The documents
proving the cheating and underselling carried on by Pioc, the lord
high warden of the forests, and by his assistant, Gauthier, in all the
forests in the department of the Rhine and Moselle, are detailed at
full length in 'Ruebezahl,' a sort of monthly magazine. It is
astonishing to see with what boundless impudence these people have
robbed the country.--Still greater rascalities were carried on on the
right bank of the Rhine. Gauthier robbed from Coblentz down to the
Prussian frontiers." These allegations are confirmed by Goerres in a
pamphlet, "Results of my Mission to Paris," in which he says, "The
Directory had treated the four departments like so many Paschalics,
which it abandoned to its Janissaries and colonized with its
favorites. Every petition sent by the inhabitants was thrown aside
with revolting contempt; everything was done that could most deeply
wound their feelings in regard to themselves or to their country."
"The secret history of the government of the country between the Rhine
and the Moselle," sums up as follows: "All cheated, all thieved, all
robbed. The cheating, thieving, and robbing were perfectly terrible,
and not one of the cheats, thieves, or robbers seemed to have an idea
that this country formed, by the decree of union, a part of France." A
naive confession! The French, at all events, acted as if conscious
that the land was not theirs. The Rhenish Jews, who, as early as the
times of Louis XIV., had aided the French in plundering Germany, again
acted as their bloodhounds, and, by accepting bills in exchange for
their real or supposed loans, at double the amount, on wealthy
proprietors, speedily placed themselves in possession of the finest
estates. Vide Reichardt's Letters from Paris.]
CCLI. The Pillage of Switzerland
Peace had reigned throughout Switzerland since the battle of
Villmergen, A.D. 1712, which had given to Zurich and Berne the
ascendency in the confederation. The popular discontent caused by the
increasing despotism of the aristocracy had merely displayed itself in
petty conspiracies, as, for instance, that of Henzi, in 1749, and in
partial insurrections. In all the cantons, even in those in which the
democratic spirit was most prevalent, the chief authority had been
seized by the wealthier and more ancient families. All the offices
were in their hands, the higher posts in the Swiss regiments raised
for the service of France were monopolized by the younger sons of the
more powerful families, who introduced the social vices of France into
their own country, where they formed a strange medley in conjunction
with the pedantry of the ancient oligarchical form of government. In
the great canton of Berne, the council of two hundred, which had
unlimited sway, was solely composed of seventy-six reigning families.
In Zurich, the one thousand nine hundred townsmen had unlimited power
over the country. For one hundred and fifty years no citizen had been
enrolled among them, and no son of a peasant had been allowed to study
for, or been nominated to, any office, even to that of preacher. In
Solothurn, but one-half of the eight hundred townsmen were able to
carry on the government. Lucerne was governed by a council of one
hundred, so completely monopolized by the more powerful families that
boys of twenty succeeded their fathers as councillors. Basel was
governed by a council of two hundred and eighty, which was entirely
formed out of seventy wealthy mercantile families. Seventy-one
families had usurped the authority at Freiburg: similar oligarchical
government prevailed at St. Gall and Schaffhausen. The _Junker_, in
the latter place, rendered themselves especially ridiculous by the
innumerable offices and chambers in which they transacted their
useless and prolix affairs. In all these aristocratic cantons, the
peasantry were cruelly harassed, oppressed, and, in some parts, kept
in servitude, by the provincial governors. The wealthy provincial
governments were monopolized by the great aristocratic families.[1]
Even in the pure democracies, the provincial communes were governed by
powerful peasant families, as, for instance, in Glarus, and the
tyranny exercised by these peasants over the territory beneath their
sway far exceeded that of the aristocratic burgesses in their
provincial governments. The Italian valleys groaned beneath the yoke
of the original cantons, particularly under that of Uri,[2] the seven
provincial governments in Unterwallis under that of Oberwallis, the
countship of Werdenberg under that of the Glarner, the Valtelline
under that of the Grisons.[3] The princely abbot of St. Gall was
unlimited sovereign over his territory. Separate monasteries, for
instance, Engelberg, had feudal sway over their vassals.
Enlightenment and liberal opinions spread also gradually over
Switzerland, and twenty years after Henzi's melancholy death, a
disposition was again shown to oppose the tyranny of the oligarchies.
In 1792, Lavater and Fuszli were banished Zurich for venturing to
complain of the arbitrary conduct of one of the provincial
governors;[4] in 1779, a curate named Waser, a man of talent and a foe
to the aristocracy, was beheaded on a false charge of falsifying the
archives;[5] in 1794, the oppressed peasantry of Lucerne revolted
against the aristocracy; in the same year, the peasantry in Schwyz,
roused by the insolence of the French recruiting officers, revolted,
and, in the public provincial assembly, enforced the recall of all the
people of Schwyz in the French service, besides imposing a heavy fine
upon General Reding on his return. In 1781, a revolt of the Freiburg
peasantry, occasioned by the tyranny of the aristocracy, was quelled
with the aid of Berne; in 1784, Suter, the noble-spirited _Landammann_
of Appenzell, fell a sacrifice to envy. His mental and moral
superiority to the rest of his countrymen inspired his rival, Geiger,
with the most deadly hatred, and he persecuted him with the utmost
rancor. He was accused of being a freethinker; documents and protocols
were falsified; the stupid populace was excited against him, and,
after having been exposed on the pillory, publicly whipped, and
tortured on the rack, he was beheaded, and all intercession on his
behalf was prohibited under pain of death. Solothurn, on the other
hand, was freed from feudal servitude in 1785. The popular feeling at
that time prevalent throughout Switzerland was, however, of far
greater import than these petty events. The oligarchies had everywhere
suppressed public opinion; the long peace had slackened the martial
ardor of the people; the ridiculous affectation of ancient heroic
language brought into vogue by John Muller rendered the contrast yet
more striking, and, on the outburst of the French Revolution, the
tyrannized Swiss peasantry naturally threw themselves into the arms of
the French, the aristocracy into those of the Austrians.
The oppressed peasantry revolted as early as 1790 against the ruling
cities, the vassal against the aristocrat, in Schaffhausen, on account
of the tithes; in Lower Valais, on account of the tyranny of one of
the provincial governors. These petty outbreaks and an attempt made by
Laharpe to render the Vaud independent of Berne[6] were suppressed,
A.D. 1791. The people remained, nevertheless, in a high state of
fermentation. The new French republic at first quarrelled with the
ancient confederation for having, unmindful of their origin, descended
to servility. The Swiss guard had, on the 16th of August, 1792,
courageously defended the palace of the unfortunate French king and
been cut to pieces by the Parisian mob. At a later period, the
Austrians had seized the ambassadors of the French republic,
Semonville and Maret, in the Valtelline, in the territory of the
Grisons. The Swiss patriots, as they were called, however, gradually
fomented an insurrection against the aristocrats and called the French
to their aid. In 1793, the vassals of the bishop of Basel at Pruntrut
had already planted trees of liberty and placed the bishopric, under
the name of a Rauracian republic, under the protection of France,
chiefly at the instigation of Gobel, who was, in reward, appointed
bishop of Paris, and whose nephew, Rengger, shortly afterward became a
member of the revolutionary government in Berne. In Geneva, during the
preceding year, the French faction had gained the upper hand. The
fickleness of the war kept the rest of the patriots in a state of
suspense, but, on the seizure of the left bank of the Rhine by the
French, the movements in Switzerland assumed a more serious character.
The abbot, Beda, of St. Gall, 1795, pacified his subjects by
concessions, which his successor, Pancras, refusing to recognize, he
was, in consequence, expelled. The unrelenting aristocracy of Zurich,
upon this, took the field against the restless peasantry, surrounded
the patriots in Staefa, threw the venerable Bodmer and a number of his
adherents into prison, and inflicted upon them heavy fines or severe
corporeal chastisement.
The campaign of 1796 had fully disclosed to Bonaparte the advantage of
occupying Switzerland with his troops, whose passage to Italy or
Germany would be thereby facilitated, while the line of communication
would be secured, and the danger to which he and Moreau had been
exposed through want of co-operation would at once be remedied. He
first of all took advantage of the dissensions in the Grisons to
deprive that republic of the beautiful Valtelline,[7] and, even at
that time, demanded permission from the people of Valais to build the
road across the Simplon, which he was, however, only able to execute
at a later period. On his return to Paris from the Italian expedition,
he passed through Basel,[8] where he was met by Talleyrand. Peter
Ochs, the chief master of the corporation, was, on this occasion, as
he himself relates in his History of Basel, won over, as the
acknowledged chief of the patriots, to revolutionize Switzerland and
to enter into a close alliance with France. The base characters, at
that time the tools of the French Directory, merely acceded to the
political plans of Bonaparte and Talleyrand in the hope of reaping a
rich harvest by the plunder of the federal cantons, and the Swiss
expedition was, consequently, determined upon. The people of Valais,
whose state of oppression served as a pretext for interference,
revolted, under Laharpe, against Berne, 1798, and demanded the
intervention of the French republic, as heir to the dukes of Savoy, on
the strength of an ancient treaty, which had, for that purpose, been
raked up from the ashes of the past. Nothing could exceed the
miserable conduct of the diet at that conjuncture. After having
already conceded to France her demand for the expulsion of the
emigrants and having exposed its weakness by this open violation of
the rights of hospitality, it discussed the number of troops to be
furnished by each of the cantons, when the enemy was already in this
country. Even the once haughty Bernese, who had set an army, thirty
thousand strong, on foot, withdrew, under General Wysz, from Valais to
their metropolis, where they awaited the attack of the enemy. There
was neither plan[9] nor order; the patriots rose in every quarter and
struck terror into the aristocrats, most of whom were now rather
inclined to yield and impeded by their indecision the measures of the
more spirited party. In Basel, Ochs deposed the oligarchy; in Zurich,
the government was induced, by intimidation, to restore Bodmer and his
fellow-prisoners to liberty. In Freiburg, Lucerne, Schaffhausen, and
St. Gall the oligarchies resigned their authority; Constance asserted
its independence.
Within Berne itself, tranquillity was with difficulty preserved by
Steiger, the venerable mayor, a man of extreme firmness of character.
A French force under Brune had already overrun Vaud, which, under
pretext of being delivered from oppression, was laid under a heavy
contribution; the ancient charnel-house at Murten was also destroyed,
because the French had formerly been beaten on this spot by the
Germans. But few of the Swiss marched to the aid of Berne; two hundred
of the people of Uri, arrayed in the armor of their ancestors, some of
the peasantry of Glarus, St. Gall, and Freiburg.[10] A second French
force under Schauenburg entered Switzerland by Basel, defeated the
small troops of Bernese sent to oppose it at Dornach and Langnau, and
took Solothurn, where it liberated one hundred and eighty self-styled
patriots imprisoned in that place. The patriots, at this conjuncture,
also rose in open insurrection in Berne, threw everything into
confusion, deposed the old council, formed a provisional government,
and checked all the preparations for defence. The brave peasantry,
basely betrayed by the cities, were roused to fury. Colonels Ryhiner,
Stettler, Crusy, and Goumores were murdered by them upon mere
suspicion (their innocence was afterward proved), and boldly following
their leader, Grafenried, against the French, they defeated and
repulsed the whole of Brune's army and captured eighteen guns at the
bridge of Neuenegg. But a smaller Bernese corps, which, under Steiger,
the mayor, opposed the army of Schauenburg in the _Grauen Holz_, was
routed after a bloody struggle, and, before Erlach, the newly-
nominated generalissimo, could hurry back to Berne with the victors of
Neuenegg, the patriots, who had long been in the pay of France, threw
wide the gates to Schauenburg. All was now lost. Erlach fled to Thun,
in order to place himself at the head of the people of the Oberland,
who descended in thick masses from the mountains; but, on his
addressing the brave Senn peasantry in French, according to the
malpractice of the Bernese, they mistook him for a French spy and
struck him dead in his carriage. The loss of Berne greatly dispirited
them and they desisted from further and futile opposition. Steiger
escaped. Hotze, a gallant Austrian general, who, mindful of his Swiss
origin, had attempted to place himself at the head of his countrymen,
was compelled to retrace his steps. In Berne, the French meanwhile
pillaged the treasures of the republic.[11] Besides the treasury and
the arsenal, estimated at twenty-nine million livres, they levied a
contribution of sixteen million. Bruno planted a tree of liberty, and
Frisching, the president of the provisional government, had the folly
to say, "Here it stands! may it bear good fruit! Amen!"
Further bloodshed was prevented by the intervention of the patriots.
The whole of Switzerland, Schwyz, Upper Valais, and Unterwalden alone
excepted, submitted, and, on the 12th of April, the federal diet at
Aarau established, in the stead of the ancient federative and
oligarchical government, a single and indivisible Helvetian republic,
in a strictly democratic form, with five directors, on the French
model. Four new cantons, Aargau, Leman (Vaud), the Bernese Oberland,
and Constance, were annexed to the ancient ones. Schwyz, Uri,
Unterwalden, and Zug were, on the other hand, to form but one canton.
Rapinat, a bold bad man, Rewbel's brother-in-law, who was at that time
absolute in Switzerland, seized everything that had escaped the
pillage of the soldiery in Berne and Zurich, sacked Solothurn,
Lucerne, Freiburg, etc., and hunted out the hidden treasures of the
confederation, which he sent to France. The protestations of the
directors, Bay and Pfyffer, were unheeded; Rapinat deposed them by
virtue of a French warrant and nominated Ochs and Dolder in their
stead. The patriotic feelings of the Swiss revolted at this tyranny;
Schwyz rose in open insurrection; the peasantry, headed by Aloys
Reding, seized and garrisoned Lucerne and called the whole country to
arms against the French invader. The peasantry of the free cantons
also marched against Aarau, but were defeated by Schauenburg at
Haecklingen; two hundred of their number fell, among others a priest
bearing the colors. Schauenburg then attacked the people of Schwyz at
Richtenschwyl, where, after a desperate combat that lasted a whole
day, he at length compelled them to give way. They, nevertheless,
speedily rallied, and two engagements of equal obstinacy took place on
the Schindeleggy and on the mountain of Etzel. The flight of Herzog,
the pastor of Einsiedeln, was the sole cause of the discomfiture of
the Swiss. Reding, however, reassembling his forces at the Red Tower,
in the vicinity of the old battlefield of Morgarten, the French,
unable to withstand their fury, were repulsed with immense loss. They
also suffered a second defeat at Arth, at the foot of the Rigi. The
Swiss, on their part, on numbering their forces after the battle,
found their strength so terribly reduced that, although victors, they
were unable to continue the contest, and voluntarily recognized the
Helvetian republic. The rich monastery of Einsiedeln was plundered and
burned; the miraculous picture of the Virgin was, however, preserved.
Upper Valais also submitted, after Sion and the whole of the valley
had been plundered and laid waste. The peasantry defended themselves
here for several weeks at the precipice of the Dala. Unterwalden
offered the most obstinate resistance. The peasantry of this canton
were headed by Luessi. The French invaded the country simultaneously on
different sides, by water, across the lake of the four cantons, and
across the Bruenig from the Haslithal; in the Kernwald they were
victorious over the masses of peasantry, but a body of three or four
thousand French, which had penetrated further down the vale, was
picked off by the peasantry concealed in the woods and behind the
rocks. A rifleman, stationed upon a projecting rock, shot more than a
hundred of the enemy one after another, his wife and children,
meanwhile, loading his guns. Both of the French corps coalesced at
Stanz, but met with such obstinate resistance from the old men, women
and girls left there, that, after butchering four hundred of them,
they set the place in flames.[12] The sturdy mountaineers, although
numerically weak, proved themselves worthy of their ancient fame.--The
four _Waldstaette_ were thrown into one canton, Waldstaetten; Glarus and
Toggenburg into another, Linth; Appenzell and St. Gall into that of
Saentis. The old Italian prefectures, with the exception of the
Valtelline, were formed into two cantons, Lugano and Bellinzona
(afterward the canton of Tessin). The canton of Vaud also finally
acceded to this arrangement, but was shortly afterward, as well as the
former bishopric of Basel, Pruntrut,[13] and the city and republic of
Genoa, incorporated with France.
The levy of eighteen thousand men (the Helvetlers, Galloschwyzers or
eighteen batzmen) for the service of the Helvetian republic occasioned
fresh disturbances in the beginning of 1799. The opposition was so
great that the recruits were carried in chains to Berne. The Bernese
Oberland, the peasantry of Basel, Solothurn, Toggenburg, Appenzell,
and Glarus rose in open insurrection, but were again reduced to
submission by the military. The spirit of the mountaineers was,
however, less easily tamed. In April, 1799, the people of Schwyz took
four hundred French prisoners; those of Uri, under their leader,
Vincenz Schmid, stormed and burned Altorf, the seat of the French and
their adherents; those of Valais, under the youthful Count Courten,
drove the French from their valleys, and those of the Grisons
surprised and cut to pieces a French squadron at Dissentis. General
Soult took the field with a strong force against them in May and
reduced them one after the other, but with great loss on his side, to
submission. Twelve hundred French fell in Valais, which was completely
laid waste by fire and sword; in Uri, stones and rocks were hurled
upon them by the infuriated peasantry as they defiled through the
narrow gorges; Schmid was, however, taken and shot; Schwyz was also
reduced to obedience; in the Grisons, upward of a thousand French fell
in a bloody engagement at Coire, and the magnificent monastery of
Dissentis was, in revenge, burned to the ground. The beautiful
Bergland was reduced to an indescribable state of misery. The villages
lay in ashes; the people, who had escaped the general massacre, fell
victims to famine. In this extremity, Zschokke, at that time Helvetic
governor of the Waldstatte, proposed the complete expulsion of the
ancient inhabitants and the settlement of French colonists in the
fatherland of William Tell.[14]
The imperial free town of Muhlhausen in the Suntgau, the ancient ally
of Switzerland, fell, like her, into the hands of the French. Unable
to preserve her independence, she committed a singular political
suicide. The whole of the town property was divided among the
citizens. A girl, attired in the ancient Swiss costume, delivered the
town keys to the French commissioner; the city banner and arms were
buried with great solemnity.[15]
The French had also shown as little lenity in their treatment of
Italy. Rome was entered and garrisoned with French troops; the
handsome and now venerable puppet, Pope Pius VI., was seized, robbed,
and personally maltreated (his ring was even torn from his hand), and
dragged a prisoner to France, where he expired in the August of 1799.
[Footnote 1: "The peasant, when summoned into the presence of a
governor, lord of the council, head of a guild, or preacher, stood
there, not as a free Swiss, but as a criminal trembling before his
judge."--_Lehmann on the imaginary Freedom of the Swiss. 1799._]
[Footnote 2: "The important office of provincial secretary was, in
this manner, hereditary in the family of the Beroldingen of
Uri."--_Lehmann_.]
[Footnote 3: "In the Grisons, the constitution was extremely
complicated. The lordships of Meyenfeld and Aspermont were, for
instance, subject to the three confederated cantons and under the
control of the provincial governors nominated by them; they were at
the same time members of the whole free state, and, as such, had a
right of lordship over the subject provinces, over which, they, in
their turn, appointed a governor."--_Meyer von Knonau's Geography._]
[Footnote 4: The best information concerning the authority held by the
provincial governors, who enjoyed almost unlimited sway over their
districts, is to be met with in the excellent biography of Solomon
Landolt, the provincial governor of Zurich, by David Hesz. Landolt was
the model of an able but extremely tyrannical governor (he ruled over
Greisensee and Eglisau) and gained great note by his salomonic
judgments and by his quaint humor. He founded the Swiss rifle clubs
and introduced that national weapon into modern warfare. He was also a
painter and had the whim, notwithstanding the constant triumph of the
French, ever to represent them in his pictures as the vanquished
party.]
[Footnote 5: Hirzel wrote at that time, in his "Glimpses into the
History of the Confederation," that Captain Henzl had been deprived of
his head because he was the only man in the country who had one.
Zimmerman says in his "National Pride," "A foreign philosopher visited
Switzerland for the purpose of settling in a country where thought was
free; he remained ten days at Zurich and then went to--Portugal." In
1774, the clocks at Basel, which, since the siege of Rudolph of
Habsburg, had remained one hour behindhand, were, after immense
opposition, regulated like those in the rest of the world. Two
factions sprang up on this occasion, that of the Spieszburghers or
Lalleburghers (the ancient one), and that of the Francemen or
new-modellers (the modern one).]
[Footnote 6: Laharpe was at the same time a demagogue in the Vaud and
tutor to the emperor Alexander at Petersburg.]
[Footnote 7: Valtelline with Chiavenna and Bormio (Cleves and Worms)
were ill-treated by the people of the Grisons. Offices and justice
were regularly jobbed and sold to the highest bidder. The people of
Valtelline hastily entered into alliance with France, while the
oppressed peasantry in the Grisons rebelled against the ruling family
of Salis, which had long been in the pay of the French kings, and had,
since the revolution, sided with Austria. John Mueller appeared at
Basel as Thugut's agent for the purpose of inciting the confederation
against France.--_Ochs's History of Basel._]
[Footnote 8: While here, he gave Fesch, the pastry-cook, whose
brother, a Swiss lieutenant, was the second husband of Bonaparte's
maternal grandmother, a very friendly reception. The offspring of this
second marriage was the future Cardinal Fesch, Letitia's half-brother
and Napoleon's uncle, whom Napoleon attempted to create primate of
Germany and to raise to the pontifical throne.]
[Footnote 9: Some of the cantons imagined that France merely aspired
to the possession of Valais, and, jealous of the prosperity and power
of Berne, willingly permitted her to suffer this humiliation.-_Meyer
von Knonau_].
[Footnote 10: Two Bernese, condemned to work in the trenches at
Yferten, on being liberated by the French, returned voluntarily to
Berne, in order to aid in the defense of the city. A rare trait, in
those times, of ancient Swiss fidelity.]
[Footnote 11: A good deal of it was spent by Bonaparte during his
expedition into Egypt, and, even at the present day, the Bernese bear
is to be seen on coins still in circulation on the banks of the
Nile.--_Meyer von Knonau._]
[Footnote 12: The venerable Pestalozzi assembled the orphans and
founded his celebrated model academy at Stanz. Seventy-nine women and
girls were found among the slain. A story is told of a girl who, being
attacked, in a lonely house, by two Frenchmen, knocked their heads
together with such force that they dropped down dead.]
[Footnote 13: Not far from Pruntrut is the hill of Terri, said to have
been formerly occupied by one of Caesar's camps. The French named it
_Mont Terrible_ and created a _department du Mont Terrible_. Vide
Meyer von Knonau's Geography.]
[Footnote 14: In his "Political Remarks touching the Canton of
Waldstatten," dated the 23d of June, 1799, he says: "Let us imitate
the political maxims of the conquerors of old, who drove the
inhabitants most inimical to them into foreign countries and
established colonies, composed of families of their own kin, in the
heart of the conquered provinces." His proposal remaining unseconded,
he sought to obliterate the bad impression it had made, by publishing
a proclamation, calling upon the charitably inclined to raise a
subscription for the unfortunate inhabitants of the Waldstatte.]
[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 ambassador, was torn down and
burned. The infamous assassination of the French ambassadors 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
ambassadors 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 assassination of the French
ambassadors at Rastadt, on the bare supposition of their having in
their possession documents 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 ambassador. 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
anticipate the designs of the Austrian cabinet. Auffenberg was
defeated by Massena 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, Massena was defeated at
Zurich, and the steep passes of Mont St. Gothard were occupied by
Haddik. Massena 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 Cassano
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 Massena 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 passes
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. Massena, 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 passage. 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 bloody 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, dashing 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 impassable 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.
Massena 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 Massena 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 Massena 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 constitution upon France and
placed himself, under the title of First Consul, at the head of the
republic.
In the following year, 1800, Bonaparte made preparations for a fresh
campaign against Austria, under circumstances similar to those of the
first. But this time he was more rapid in his movements and performed
more astonishing feats. Suddenly crossing the St. Bernard, he fell
upon the Austrian flank. Genoa, garrisoned by Massena, 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,
principally 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
ambassador, 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 ineptitude 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 constitution 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
citizenship. "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 cashiered 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 institutions 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 (Cassel and Darmstadt); and Nassau, all
the lands in the vicinity formerly belonging to the bishopric of
Mayence, to imperial free towns and petty lordships. 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, Eichstaedt, and Passau. 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 principality of Orange-Fulda.[14] The
electoral dignity was at the same time bestowed upon the Archduke
Ferdinand, the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, the duke of Wurtemberg, and
the Margrave of Baden.
Submission, although painful, produced no opposition. The power of the
imperial free cities had long passed 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 mass 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 superstition, 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 institutions 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 Massena 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 skirmishing 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 Waldstaetten,
Linth, and Saentis), Valais (instead of Leman), Aargau, Constance,
Grisons, Tessin (instead of Lugano and Bellinzona). The Bernese
Oberland again fell to Berne. The ambassador, 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 document 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 noble 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 Schloezer,
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 institutions, 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 mass 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
Anspach,[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 pass, 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 Massena 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 bloody 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
friendship 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, Anspach, 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 assassination of the ambassadors at
Rastadt, the loss of Wasserburg, 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 gratitude, gave them on
the present occasion an ample share in the booty. Bavaria was erected
into a kingdom,[12] and received, from Prussia, Anspach and Baireuth;
from Austria, the whole of the Tyrol, Vorarlberg and Lindau, the
Margraviate of Burgau, the dioceses of Passau, Eichstaedt, Trent, and
Brixen, besides several petty lordships. Wurtemberg was raised to a
monarchy and enriched with the bordering Austrian lordships in Swabia.
Baden was rewarded with the Breisgau, the Ortenau, Constance, and the
title 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 lustre. The petty republics and the provinces dependent upon
the French empire were erected into kingdoms and principalities 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 vassals 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
title 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 assembly was to sit at
Frankfort, and Dalberg, the former elector of Mayence, now grandduke
of Frankfort, was nominated by Napoleon, under the title 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 Nassau, two of
Hohenzollern, two of Salm, besides those of Aremberg, Isenburg,
Lichtenstein and Leyen. Every trace of the ancient free constitution
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 nobly refusing to give up the author of a
patriotic work published by him, directed against the rule of France,
and entitled, "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._]
[Footnote 3: Gustavus Adolphus IV. of Sweden, who had wedded a
princess of Baden, was at Carlsruhe at the very moment that the Duc
d'Enghien was seized as it were before his eyes. This circumstance and
the ridicule heaped upon him by Napoleon, who mockingly termed him the
Quixote of the North, roused his bitter hatred.]
[Footnote 4: Bulow wrote in his remarkable criticism upon this war:
"The hot coalition party--that of the ladies--of the empress and the
queen of Naples--removed Prince Charles from the army and called Mack
from oblivion to daylight; Mack, whose name in the books of the
prophets in the Hebrew tongue signifies defeat."]
[Footnote 5: Napoleon gained almost all his victories either by
skilfully separating his opponents and defeating them singly with
forces vastly superior in number, or by creeping round the
concentrated forces of the enemy and placing them between two fires.]
[Footnote 6: Ney was, for this action, created Duke of Elchingen.]
[Footnote 7: Klein, the French general, also a German, allowed himself
to be kept in conversation by Prince, afterward field-marshal
Schwarzenberg, who had been sent to negotiate terms with him, until
the Austrians had reached a place of safety.--_Prokesch.
Schwarzeriberg's Memorabilia._]
[Footnote 8: "Prussia made use of the offers made by England (and
Russia) to stipulate terms with France exactly subversive of the
object of the negotiations of England (and Russia)."--_The Manifest of
England against Prussia. Attgemeine Zeitung, No. 132._]
[Footnote 9: On the 4th of December, Napoleon met the emperor Francis
in the open street in the village of Nahedlowitz. That the impression
made by the former upon the latter was far from favorable is proved by
the emperor's observation, "Now that I have seen him, I shall never be
able to endure him!" On the 5th of December, the Bavarians under Wrede
were signally defeated at Iglau by the Archduke Ferdinand.]
[Footnote 10: "After the commission of such numerous mistakes, I must
nevertheless praise the minister, Von Haugwitz, for having, in the
first place, evaded a war unskilfully managed, and, in the second, for
having annexed Hanover to Prussia, although its possession, it must be
confessed, is somewhat precarious. Here, however, I hear it said that
the commission of a robbery at another's suggestion is, in the first
place, the deepest of degradations, and, in the second place,
unparalleled in history."--_Von Bulow, The Campaign of 1805._ It has
been asserted that Haugwitz had, prior to the battle of Austerlitz,
been instructed to declare war against Napoleon in case the
intervention of Prussia should be rejected by him. Still, had Haugwitz
overstepped instructions of such immense importance, he would not
immediately afterward, on the 12th of January, 1806, have received, as
was actually the case, fresh instructions, in proof that he had in no
degree abused the confidence of his sovereign. Haugwitz, by not
declaring war, husbanded the strength of Prussia and gained Hanover;
and, by so doing, he fulfilled his instructions, which were to gain
Hanover without making any sacrifice. His success gained for him the
applause of his sovereign, who intrusted him, on account of his skill
as a diplomatist, with the management of other negotiations. Prussia
at that time still pursued the system of the treaty of Basel, was
unwilling to break with France, and was simply bent upon selling her
neutrality to the best advantage. Instead, however, of being able to
prescribe terms to Napoleon, she was compelled to accede to his.
Napoleon said to Haugwitz, "Jamais on n'obtiendra de moi ce qui
pourrait blesser ma gloire." Haugwitz had been instructed through the
duke of Brunswick: "Pour le cas que vos soins pour retablir la paix
echouent, pour le cas ou l'apparition de la Prusse sur le theatre de
la guerre soit jugee inevitable, mettez tous vos soins pour conserver
a la Prusse l'epee dans le fourreau jusqu'au 22 Decembre, et s'il se
peut jusqu'a un terme plus recule encore."--_Extract from the Memoirs
of the Count von Haugwitz._]
[Footnote 11: He married a Mademoiselle von Geyer. His children had
merely the title of Counts von Hochberg, but came, in 1830, on the
extinction of the Agnati, to the government.]
[Footnote 12: On the 1st of January, 1806; the Bavarian state
newspaper announced it at New Year with the words, "Long live
Napoleon, the restorer of the kingdom of Bavaria!" Bavarian authors,
more particularly Pallhausen, attempted to prove that the Bavarians
had originally been a Gallic tribe under the Gallic kings. It was
considered a dishonor to belong to Germany.]
[Footnote 13: In 1797, the anonymous statesman, in the dedication "to
the congress of Rastadt," foretold the formation of the Rhenish
alliance as a necessary result of the treaty of Basel. "The electors
of Brandenburg, Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, and all the princes, who
defended themselves behind the line of demarcation against their
obligations to the empire, and tranquilly awaited the issue of the
contest between France and that part of the empire that had taken up
arms; all those princes to whom their private interests were dearer
than those of the empire, who, devoid of patriotism, formed a separate
party against Austria and Southern Germany, from which they severed
and isolated themselves, could, none of them, arrogate to themselves a
voice in the matter, if Southern Germany, abandoned by them, concluded
treaties for herself as her present and future interests demanded."]
[Footnote 14: "Oldenburg affords a glaring proof of the insecurity and
meanness characteristic of the Rhenish alliance. The relation even
with Bavaria was not always the purest, and I have sometimes caught a
near glimpse of the claws."--_Gagern's Share in Politics._]
[Footnote 15: No diet had, since 1770, been held in Wurtemberg, only
the committee had continued to treat secretly with the duke. In 1797,
Frederick convoked a fresh diet and swore to hold the constitution
sacred. Some modern elements appeared in this diet; the old opposition
was strengthened by men of the French school. Disputes, consequently,
ere long arose between it and the duke, a man of an extremely
arbitrary disposition. The Estates discovered little zeal for the war
with France, attempted to economize in the preparations, etc., while
the duke made great show of patriotism as a prince of the German
empire, nor gave the slightest symptom of his one day becoming an
enemy to his country, a member of the Rhenish alliance, and the most
zealous partisan of France. Moreau, however, no sooner crossed the
Rhine than the duke fled, abandoned his states, and afterward not only
refused to bear the smallest share of the contributions levied upon
the country by the French, but also seized the subsidies furnished by
England. The duke, shortly after this, quarrelling with his eldest
son, William, the Estates sided with the latter and supplied him with
funds, at the same time refusing to grant any of the sums demanded by
the duke, who, on his part, omitted the confirmation of the new
committee and ordered Grosz, the councillor, Stockmaier, the secretary
of the diet, and several others, besides Batz, the agent of the diet
at Vienna, to be placed under arrest, their papers to be seized, and a
sum of money to be raised from the church property, 1805. Not long
after this, rendered insolent by the protection of the great despot of
France, he utterly annihilated the ancient constitution of
Wurtemberg.]
CCLIV. Prussia's Declaration of War and Defeat
Prussia, by a timely declaration of war against France before the
battle of Austerlitz, might have turned the tide against Napoleon, and
earned for herself the glory and the gain, instead of being, by a
false policy, compelled, at a later period, to make that declaration
under circumstances of extreme disadvantage. Her maritime commerce
suffered extreme injury from the attacks of the English and Swedes.
War was unavoidable, either for or against France. The decision was
replete with difficulty. Prussia, by continuing to side with France,
was exposed to the attacks of England, Sweden, and probably Russia; it
was, moreover, to be feared that Napoleon, who had more in view the
diminution of the power of Prussia than that of Austria, might delay
his aid. During the late campaign, the Prussian territory had been
violated and the fortress of Wesel seized by Napoleon, who had also
promised the restoration of Hanover to England as a condition of
peace. He had invited Prussia to found, besides the Rhenish, a
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