Germany from the Earliest Period Vol. 4
by
Wolfgang Menzel, Trans. Mrs. George Horrocks
Part 5 out of 8
corps prisoners, the 29th of August, 1813.[2]
At the same time, the 26th of August, a most glorious victory was
gained by Blucher in Silesia. After having drawn Macdonald across the
Katzbach and the foaming Neisse, he drove him, after a desperate and
bloody engagement, into those rivers, which were greatly swollen by
the incessant rains. The muskets of the soldiery had been rendered
unserviceable by the wet, and Blucher, drawing his sabre from beneath
his cloak, dashed forward exclaiming, "Forward!" Several thousand of
the French were drowned or fell by the bayonet, or beneath the heavy
blows dealt by the _Landwehr_ with the butt-end of their firelocks. It
was on this battlefield that the Silesians had formerly opposed the
Tartars, and the monastery of Wahlstatt, erected in memory of that
heroic day,[3] was still standing. Blucher was rewarded with the title
of Prince von der Wahlstatt, but his soldiers surnamed him Marshal
Vorwarts. On the decline of the floods, the banks of the rivers were
strewn with corpses sticking in horrid distortion out of the mud. A
part of the French fled for a couple of days in terrible disorder
along the right bank and were then taken prisoner together with their
general, Puthod.[4] The French lost one hundred and three guns,
eighteen thousand prisoners, and a still greater number in killed; the
loss on the side of the Prussians merely amounted to one thousand men.
Macdonald returned almost totally unattended to Dresden and brought
the melancholy intelligence to Napoleon, "Votre arme du Bobre n'existe
plus."
The crown prince of Sweden and Bulow had meanwhile pursued Oudinot's
retreating corps in the direction of the Elbe. Napoleon despatched Ney
against them, but he met with the fate of his predecessor, at
Dennewitz, on the 6th of September. The Prussians, on this occasion,
again triumphed, unaided by their confederates.[5] Bulow and
Tauenzien, with twenty thousand men, defeated the French army, seventy
thousand strong. The crown prince of Sweden not only remained to the
rear with the whole of his troops, but gave perfectly useless orders
to the advancing Prussian squadron under General Borstel, who, without
attending to them, hurried on to Bulow's assistance, and the French
were, notwithstanding their numerical superiority, completely driven
off the field, which the crown prince reached just in time to witness
the dispersion of his countrymen. The French lost eighteen thousand
men and eighty guns. The rout was complete. The rearguard, consisting
of the Wurtembergers under Franquemont, was again overtaken at the
head of the bridge at Zwettau, and, after a frightful carnage, driven
in wild confusion across the dam to Torgau. The Bavarians under
Raglowich, who, probably owing to secret orders, had remained, during
the battle, almost in a state of inactivity, withdrew in another
direction and escaped.[6] Davoust also again retired upon Hamburg, and
his rearguard under Pecheux was attacked by Wallmoden, on the 16th of
September, on the Gorde, and suffered a trifling loss. On the 29th of
September, eight thousand French were also defeated by Platow, the
Hetman of the Cossacks, at Zeitz: on the 30th, Czernitscheff
penetrated into Cassel and expelled Jerome. Thielemann, the Saxon
general, also infested the country to Napoleon's rear, intercepted his
convoys at Leipzig, and at Weissenfels took one thousand two hundred,
at Merseburg two thousand, French prisoners; he was, however, deprived
of his booty by a strong force under Lefebvre-Desnouettes, by whom he
was incessantly harassed until Platow's arrival with the Cossacks,
who, in conjunction with Thielemann, repulsed Lefebvre with great
slaughter at Altenburg. On this occasion, a Baden battalion, that had
been drawn up apart from the French, turned their fire upon their
unnatural confederates and aided in their dispersion.[7]
Napoleon's generals had been thrown back in every quarter, with
immense loss, upon Dresden, toward which the allies now advanced,
threatening to enclose it on every side. Napoleon manoeuvred until the
beginning of October with the view of executing a _coup de main_
against Schwarzenberg and Blucher; the allies were, however, on their
guard, and he was constantly reduced to the necessity of recalling his
troops, sent for that purpose into the field, to Dresden. The danger
in which he now stood of being completely surrounded and cut off from
the Rhine at length rendered retreat his sole alternative. Blucher had
already crossed the Elbe on the 5th of October, and, in conjunction
with the crown prince of Sweden, had approached the head of the main
body of the allied army under Schwarzenberg, which was advancing from
the Erzgebirge. On the 7th of October, Napoleon quitted Dresden,
leaving a garrison of thirty thousand French under St. Cyr, and
removed his headquarters to Duben, on the road leading from Leipzig to
Berlin, in the hope of drawing Blucher and the Swedes once more on the
right side of the Elbe, in which case he intended to turn unexpectedly
upon the Austrians; Blucher, however, eluded him, without quitting the
left bank. Napoleon's plan was to take advantage of the absence of
Blucher and of the Swedes from Berlin in order to hasten across the
defenceless country, for the purpose of inflicting punishment upon
Prussia, of raising Poland, etc. But his plan met with opposition in
his own military council. His ill success had caused those who had
hitherto followed his fortunes to waver. The king of Bavaria declared
against him on the 8th of October,[8] and the Bavarian army under
Wrede united with instead of opposing the Austrian army and was sent
to the Maine in order to cut off Napoleon's retreat. The news of this
defection speedily reached the French camp and caused the rest of the
troops of the Rhenish confederation to waver in their allegiance;
while the French, wearied with useless manoeuvres, beaten in every
quarter, opposed by an enemy greatly their superior in number and
glowing with revenge, despaired of the event and sighed for peace and
their quiet homes. All refused to march upon Berlin, nay, the very
idea of removing further from Paris almost produced a mutiny in the
camp.[9] Four days, from the 11th to the 14th of October, were passed
by Napoleon in a state of melancholy irresolution, when he appeared as
if suddenly inspired by the idea of there still being time to execute
a _coup de main_ upon the main body of the allied army under
Schwarzenberg before its junction with Blucher and the Swedes.
Schwarzenberg was slowly advancing from Bohemia and had already
allowed himself to be defeated before Dresden. Napoleon intended to
fall upon him on his arrival in the vicinity of Leipzig, but it was
already too late.--Blucher was at hand. On the 14th of October,[10]
the flower of the French cavalry, headed by the king of Naples,
encountered Blucher's and Wittgenstein's cavalry at Wachau, not far
from Leipzig. The contest was broken off, both sides being desirous of
husbanding their strength, but terminated to the disadvantage of the
French, notwithstanding their numerical superiority, besides proving
the vicinity of the Prussians. This was the most important cavalry
fight that took place during this war.
On the 16th of October, while Napoleon was merely awaiting the arrival
of Macdonald's corps, that had remained behind, before proceeding to
attack Schwarzenberg's Bohemian army, he was unexpectedly attacked on
the right bank of the Pleisse, at Liebert-wolkwitz, by the Austrians,
who were, however, compelled to retire before a superior force. The
French cavalry under Latour-Maubourg pressed so closely upon the
emperor of Russia and the king of Prussia that they merely owed their
escape to the gallantry of the Russian, Orlow Denisow, and to Latour's
fall. Napoleon had already ordered all the bells in Leipzig to be
rung, had sent the news of his victory to Paris, and seems to have
expected a complete triumph when joyfully exclaiming, "Le monde tourne
pour nous!" But his victory had been only partial, and he had been
unable to follow up his advantage, another division of the Austrian
army, under General Meerveldt, having simultaneously occupied him and
compelled him to cross the Pleisse at Dolnitz; and, although Meerveldt
had been in his turn repulsed with severe loss and been himself taken
prisoner, the diversion proved of service to the Austrians by keeping
Napoleon in check until the arrival of Bluecher, who threw himself upon
the division of the French army opposed to him at Moeckern by Marshal
Marmont. Napoleon, while thus occupied with the Austrians, was unable
to meet the attack of the Prussians with sufficient force. Marmont,
after a massacre of some hours' duration in and around Moeckern, was
compelled to retire with a loss of forty guns. The second Prussian
brigade lost, either in killed or wounded, all its officers except
one.
The battle had, on the 16th of October, raged around Leipzig; Napoleon
had triumphed over the Austrians, whom he had solely intended to
attack, but had, at the same time, been attacked and defeated by the
Prussians, and now found himself opposed and almost surrounded--one
road for retreat alone remaining open--by the whole allied force. He
instantly gave orders to General Bertrand to occupy Weissenfels during
the night, in order to secure his retreat through Thuringia; but,
during the following day, the 17th of October, neither seized that
opportunity in order to effect a retreat or to make a last and
energetic attack upon the allies, whose forces were not yet completely
concentrated, ere the circle had been fully drawn around him. The
Swedes, the Russians under Bennigsen, and a large Austrian division
under Colloredo, had not yet arrived. Napoleon might with advantage
have again attacked the defeated Austrians under Schwarzenberg or have
thrown himself with the whole of his forces upon Bluecher. He had still
an opportunity of making an orderly retreat without any great exposure
to danger. But he did neither. He remained motionless during the whole
day, which was also passed in tranquillity by the allies, who thus
gained time to receive fresh reinforcements. Napoleon's inactivity was
caused by his having sent his prisoner, General Meerveldt, to the
emperor of Austria, whom he still hoped to induce, by means of great
assurances, to secede from the coalition and to make peace. Not even a
reply was vouchsafed. On the very day, thus futilely lost by Napoleon,
the allied army was reintegrated by the arrival of the masses
commanded by the crown prince, by Bennigsen and Colloredo, and was
consequently raised to double the strength of that of France, which
now merely amounted to one hundred and fifty thousand men. On the
18th, a murderous conflict began on both sides. Napoleon long and
skilfully opposed the fierce onset of the allied troops, but was at
length driven off the field by their superior weight and persevering
efforts. The Austrians, stationed on the left wing of the allied army,
were opposed by Oudinot, Augereau, and Poniatowsky; the Prussians,
stationed on the right wing, by Marmont and Ney; the Russians and
Swedes in the centre, by Murat and Regnier. In the hottest of the
battle, two Saxon cavalry regiments went over to Bluecher, and General
Normann, when about to be charged at Taucha by the Prussian cavalry
under Billow, also deserted to him with two Wuertemberg cavalry
regiments, in order to avoid an unpleasant reminiscence of the
treacherous ill-treatment of Luetzow's corps. The whole of the Saxon
infantry, commanded by Regnier, shortly afterward went, with
thirty-eight guns, over to the Swedes, five hundred men and General
Zeschau alone remaining true to Napoleon. The Saxons stationed
themselves behind the lines of the allies, but their guns were
instantly turned upon the enemy.[11]
In the evening of this terrible day, the French were driven back close
upon the walls of Leipzig.[12] On the certainty of victory being
announced by Schwarzenberg to the three monarchs, who had watched the
progress of the battle, they knelt on the open field and returned
thanks to God. Napoleon, before nightfall, gave orders for full
retreat; but, on the morning of the 19th, recommenced the battle and
sacrificed some of his _corps d'armee_ in order to save the remainder.
He had, however, foolishly left but one bridge across the Elster open,
and the retreat was consequently retarded. Leipzig was stormed by the
Prussians, and, while the French rearguard was still battling on that
side of the bridge, Napoleon fled, and had no sooner crossed the
bridge than it was blown up with a tremendous explosion, owing to the
inadvertence of a subaltern, who is said to have fired the train too
hastily. The troops engaged on the opposite bank were irremediably
lost. Prince Poniatowsky plunged on horseback into the Elster in order
to swim across, but sank in the deep mud. The king of Saxony, who to
the last had remained true to Napoleon, was among the prisoners. The
loss during this battle, which raged for four days, and in which
almost every nation in Europe stood opposed to each other, was immense
on both sides. The total loss in dead was computed at eighty thousand.
The French lost, moreover, three hundred guns and a multitude of
prisoners; in the city of Leipzig alone twenty-three thousand sick,
without reckoning the innumerable wounded. Numbers of these
unfortunates lay bleeding and starving to death during the cold
October nights on the field of battle, it being found impossible to
erect a sufficient number of lazaretti for their accommodation.
Napoleon made a hasty and disorderly retreat with the remainder of his
troops, but was overtaken at Freiburg on the Unstrutt, where the
bridge broke, and a repetition of the disastrous passage of the
Beresina occurred. The fugitives collected into a dense mass, upon
which the Prussian artillery played with murderous effect. The French
lost forty of their guns. At Hanau, Wrede, Napoleon's former favorite,
after taking Wuerzburg, watched the movements of his ancient patron,
and, had he occupied the pass at Gelnhausen, might have annihilated
him. Napoleon, however, furiously charged his flank, and, on the 20th
of October, succeeded in forcing a passage and in sending seventy
thousand men across the Rhine. Wrede was dangerously wounded.[13] On
the 9th of November, the last French corps was defeated at Hochheim
and driven back upon Mayence.
In the November of this ever memorable year, 1813, Germany, as far as
the Rhine, was completely freed from the French.[14] Above a hundred
thousand French troops, still shut up in the fortresses and cut off
from all communication with France, gradually surrendered. In October,
the allies took Bremen; in November, Stettin, Zamosk, Modlin, and
those two important points, Dresden and Dantzig. In Dresden, Gouvion
St. Cyr capitulated to Count Klenau, who granted him free egress on
condition of the delivery of the whole of the army stores. St. Cyr,
however, infringed the terms of capitulation by destroying several of
the guns and sinking the gunpowder in the Elbe; consequently, on the
non-recognition of the capitulation by the generalissimo,
Schwarzenberg, he found himself without means of defence and was
compelled to surrender at discretion with a garrison thirty-five
thousand strong. Rapp, the Alsatian, commanded in Dantzig. This city
had already fearfully suffered from the commercial interdiction, from
the exactions and the scandalous license of its French protectors,
whom the ravages of famine and pestilence finally compelled to
yield.[15] Lubeck and Torgau fell in December; the typhus, which had
never ceased to accompany the armies, raged there in the crowded
hospitals, carrying off thousands, and greater numbers fell victims to
this pestilential disease than to the war, not only among the troops,
but in every part of the country through which they passed.
Wittenberg, whose inhabitants had been shamefully abused by the French
under Lapoype, Custrin, Glogau, Wesel, Erfurt, fell in the beginning
of 1814; Magdeburg and Bremen, after the conclusion of the war.
The Rhenish confederation was dissolved, each of the princes securing
his hereditary possessions by a timely secession. The kings of
Westphalia and Saxony, Dalberg, grand-duke of Frankfort, and the
princes of Isenburg and von der Leyen, who had too heavily sinned
against Germany, were alone excluded from pardon. The king of Saxony
was at first carried prisoner to Berlin, and afterward, under the
protection of Austria, to Prague. Denmark also concluded peace at Kiel
and ceded Norway to Sweden, upon which the Swedes, _quasi re bene
gesta_, returned home.[16]
[Footnote 1: This general belonged to a German family long naturalized
in Russia.]
[Footnote 2: He was led through Silesia, which he had once so
shamefully plundered, and, although no physical punishment was
inflicted upon him, he was often compelled to hear the voice of public
opinion, and was exposed to the view of the people to whom he had once
said, "Nothing shall be left to you except your eyes, that you may be
able to weep over your wretchedness."--_Manso's History of Prussia._]
[Footnote 3: An ancient battle-axe of serpentine stone was found on
the site fixed upon for the erection of a fresh monument in honor of
the present victory.--_Allgemenie Zeitung, 1817._]
[Footnote 4: This piece of good fortune befell Langeron, the Russian
general, who belonged to the diplomatic party at that time attempting
to spare the forces of Russia, Austria, and Sweden at the expense of
Prussia, and, at the same time, to deprive Prussia of her well-won
laurels. Langeron had not obeyed Blucher's orders, had remained behind
on his own responsibility, and the scattered French troops fell into
his hands.]
[Footnote 5: The proud armies of Russia and Sweden (forty-six
battalions, forty squadrons, and one hundred and fifty guns) followed
to the rear of the Prussians without firing a shot and remained
inactive spectators of the action.--_Plotho._]
[Footnote 6: In order to avoid being carried along by the fugitive
French, they fired upon them whenever their confused masses came too
close upon them.--_Boelderndorf._]
[Footnote 7: Vide Wagner's Chronicle of Altenburg.]
[Footnote 8: Maximilian Joseph declared in an open manifesto; Bavaria
was compelled to furnish thirty-eight thousand men for the Russian
campaign, and, on her expressing a hope that such an immense sacrifice
would not be requested, France instantly declared the princes of the
Rhenish confederation her vassals, who were commanded "under
punishment of felony" unconditionally to obey each of Napoleon's
demands. The allies would, on the contrary, have acceded to all the
desires of Bavaria and have guaranteed that kingdom. Even the Austrian
troops, that stood opposed to Bavaria, were placed under Wrede's
command.--Raglowich received permission from Napoleon, before the
battle of Leipzig, to return to Bavaria; but his corps was retained in
the vicinity of Leipzig without taking part in the action, and
retired, in the general confusion, under the command of General
Maillot, upon Torgau, whence it returned home.--_Bolderndorf._ In the
Tyrol, the brave mountaineers were on the eve of revolt. As early as
September, Speckbacher, sick and wasted from his wounds, but endued
with all his former fire and energy, reappeared in the Tyrol, where he
was commissioned by Austria to organize a revolt. An unexpected
reconciliation, however, taking place between Bavaria and Austria,
counter orders arrived, and Speckbacher furiously dashed his bullet-
worn hat to the ground.--_Brockhaus, 1814._ The restoration of the
Tyrol to Austria being delayed, a multitude of Tyrolese forced their
way into Innsbruck and deposed the Bavarian authorities; their leader,
Kluibenspedel, was, however, persuaded by Austria to submit.
Speckbacher was, in 1816, raised by the emperor Francis to the rank of
major; he died in 1820, and was buried at Hall by the south wall of
the parish church. His son, Andre, who grew up a fine, handsome man,
died in 1835, at Jenbach (not Zenbach, as Mercy has it in his attacks
upon the Tyrol), in the Tyrol, where he was employed as superintendent
of the mines. Mercy's Travels and his account of Speckbacher in the
Milan Revista Buropea, 1838, are replete with falsehood.]
[Footnote 9: According to Fain and Coulaincourt.]
[Footnote 10: On the evening of the 14th of October (the anniversary
of the battle of Jena), a hurricane raged in the neighborhood of
Leipzig, where the French lay, carried away roofs and uprooted trees,
while, during the whole night, the rain fell in violent floods.]
[Footnote 11: Not so the Badeners and Hessians. The Baden corps was
captured almost to a man; among others, Prince Emilius of Darmstadt.
Baden had been governed, since the death of the popular grandduke,
Charles Frederick, in 1811, by his grandson, Charles.--Franquemont,
with the Wuertemberg infantry, eight to nine thousand strong, acted
independently of Normann's cavalry. But one thousand of their number
remained after the battle of Leipzig, and, without going over to the
allies, returned to Wuertemberg. Normann was punished by his
sovereign.]
[Footnote 12: The city was in a state of utter confusion. "The noise
caused by the passage of the cavalry, carriages, etc., by the cries of
the fugitives through the streets, exceeded that of the most terrific
storm. The earth shook, the windows clattered with the thunder of
artillery," etc.--_The Terrors of Leipzig, 1813._]
[Footnote 13: The king of Wuertemberg, who had fifteen hundred men
close at hand, did not send them to the aid of the Bavarians, nor did
he go over to the allies until the 2d of November.]
[Footnote 14: In November, one hundred and forty thousand French
prisoners and seven hundred and ninety-one guns were in the hands of
the allies.]
[Footnote 15: Dantzig had formerly sixty thousand inhabitants, the
population was now reduced to thirteen thousand. Numbers died of
hunger, Rapp having merely stored the magazines for his troops.
Fifteen thousand of the French garrison died, and yet fourteen
generals, upward of a thousand officers, and about as many
comptrollers belonging to the grand army, who had taken refuge in that
city, were, on the capitulation of the fortress, made prisoners of
war.]
[Footnote 16: The injustice thus favored by the first peace was loudly
complained of.--_Manso._]
CCLXII. Napoleon's Fall
Napoleon was no sooner driven across the Rhine, than the defection of
the whole of the Rhenish confederation, of Holland, Switzerland, and
Italy ensued. The whole of the confederated German princes followed
the example of Bavaria and united their troops with those of the
allies. Jerome had fled; the kingdom of Westphalia had ceased to
exist, and the exiled princes of Hesse, Brunswick, and Oldenburg
returned to their respective territories. The Rhenish provinces were
instantly occupied by Prussian troops and placed under the patriotic
administration of Justus Gruner, who was joined by Goerres of Coblentz,
whose Rhenish Mercury so powerfully influenced public opinion that
Napoleon termed him the fifth great European power.[1] The Dutch
revolted and took the few French still remaining in the country
prisoner. Hogendorp was placed at the head of a provisional government
in the name of William of Orange.[2] The Prussians under Bulow entered
the country and were received with great acclamation. The whole of the
Dutch fortresses surrendered, the French garrisons flying
panic-stricken.
The Swiss remained faithful to Napoleon until the arrival of
Schwarzenberg with the allied army on their frontiers.[3] Napoleon
would gladly have beheld the Swiss sacrifice themselves for him for
the purpose of keeping the allies in check, but Reinhard of Zurich,
who was at that time _Landammnann_, prudently resolved not to
persevere in the demand for neutrality, to lay aside every
manifestation of opposition, and to permit, it being impossible to
prevent, the entrance of the troops into the country, by which he,
moreover, ingratiated himself with the allies. The majority of his
countrymen thanked Heaven for their deliverance from French
oppression, and if, in their ancient spirit of egotism, they neglected
to aid the great popular movement throughout Germany, they, at all
events, sympathized in the general hatred toward France.[4] The
ancient aristocrats now naturally reappeared and attempted to
re-establish the oligarchical governments of the foregoing century. A
Count Senfft von Pilsach, a pretended Austrian envoy, who was speedily
disavowed, assumed the authority at Berne with so much assurance as to
succeed in deposing the existing government and reinstating the
ancient oligarchy. In Zurich, the constitution was also revised and
the citizens reassumed their authority over the peasantry. The whole
of Switzerland was in a state of ferment. Ancient claims of the most
varied description were asserted. The people of the Grisons took up
arms and invaded the Valtelline in order to retake their ancient
possession. Pancratius, abbot of St. Gall, demanded the restoration of
his princely abbey.--Italy, also, deserted Napoleon. Murat, king of
Naples, in order not to lose his crown, joined the allies. Eugene
Beauharnais, viceroy of Italy, alone remained true to his imperial
stepfather and gallantly opposed the Austrians under Hiller, who,
nevertheless, rapidly reduced the whole of Upper Italy to submission.
The allies, when on the point of entering the French territory,
solemnly declared that their enmity was directed not against the
French nation, but solely against Napoleon. By this generosity they
hoped at once to prove the beneficence of their intentions to every
nation of Europe and to prejudice the French, more particularly,
against their tyrant; but that people, notwithstanding their immense
misfortunes, still remained true to Napoleon nor hesitated to
sacrifice themselves for the man who had raised them to the highest
rank among the nations of the earth, and thousands flocked anew
beneath the imperial eagle for the defence of their native soil.
The allies invaded France simultaneously on four sides, Bulow from
Holland, Blucher, on New Year's eve, 1814, from Coblentz, and the main
body of the allied army under Schwarzenberg, which was also
accompanied by the allied sovereigns. A fourth army, consisting of
English and Spaniards, had already crossed the Pyrenees and marched up
the country. The great wars in Russia and Germany having compelled
Napoleon to draw off a considerable number of his forces from Spain,
Soult had been consequently unable to keep the field against
Wellington, whose army had been gradually increased. King Joseph fled
from Madrid. The French hazarded a last engagement at Vittoria, in
June, 1813, but suffered a terrible defeat. One of the two Nassau
regiments under Colonel Kruse and the Frankfort battalion deserted
with their arms and baggage to the English. The other Nassau regiment
and that of Baden were disarmed by the French and dragged in chains to
France in reward for their long and severe service.[5] The Hanoverians
in Wellington's army (the German Legion), particularly the corps of
Victor von Alten (Charles's brother), brilliantly distinguished
themselves at Vittoria and again at Bayonne, but were forgotten in the
despatches, an omission that was loudly complained of by their
general, Hinuber. Other divisions of Hanoverians, up to this period
stationed in Sicily, had been sent to garrison Leghorn and
Genoa.[6]--The crown prince of Sweden followed the Prussian northern
army, but merely went as far as Liege, whence he turned back in order
to devote his whole attention to the conquest of Norway.
In the midst of the contest a fresh congress was assembled at
Chatillon, for the purpose of devising measures for the conclusion of
the war without further bloodshed. The whole of ancient France was
offered to Napoleon on condition of his restraining his ambition
within her limits and of keeping peace, but he refused to cede a foot
of land, and resolved to lose all or nothing. This congress was in so
far disadvantageous on account of the rapid movements of the armies
being checked by its fluctuating diplomacy. Schwarzenberg, for
instance, pursued a system of procrastination, separated his _corps
d'armee_ at long intervals, advanced with extreme slowness, or
remained entirely stationary. Napoleon took advantage of this
dilatoriness on the part of his opponents to make an unexpected attack
on Blucher's corps at Brienne on the 29th of January, in which Blucher
narrowly escaped being made prisoner. The flames of the city, in which
Napoleon had received his first military lessons, facilitated
Blucher's retreat. Napoleon, however, neglecting to pursue him on the
30th of January, Blucher, reinforced by the crown prince of Wurtemberg
and by Wrede, attacked him at La Rothiere with such superior forces as
to put him completely to the rout. The French left seventy-three guns
sticking in the mud. Schwarzenberg, nevertheless, instead of pursuing
the retreating enemy with the whole of his forces, again delayed his
advance and divided the troops. Blucher, who had meanwhile rapidly
pushed forward upon Paris, was again unexpectedly attacked by the main
body of the French army, and the whole of his corps were, as they
separately advanced, repulsed with considerable loss, the Russians
under Olsufief at Champeaubert, those under Sacken at Montmirail, the
Prussians under York at Chateau-Thierry, and, finally, Blucher himself
at Beaux-champ, between the 10th and 14th of February. With
characteristic rapidity, Napoleon instantly fell upon the scattered
corps of the allied army and inflicted a severe punishment upon
Schwarzenberg, for the folly of his system. He successively repulsed
the Russians under Pahlen at Mormant, Wrede at Villeneuve le Comte,
the crown prince of Wurtemberg, who offered the most obstinate
resistance, at Montereau, on the 17th and 18th of February.[7]
Augereau had meantime, with an army levied in the south of France,
driven the Austrians, under Bubna, into Switzerland; and, although the
decisive moment had arrived, and Schwarzenberg had simply to form a
junction with Blucher in order to bring an overwhelming force against
Napoleon, the allied sovereigns and Schwarzenberg resolved, in a
council of war held at Troyes, upon a general retreat.
Blucher, upon this, magnanimously resolved to obviate at all hazards
the disastrous consequences of the retreat of the allied army, and, in
defiance of all commands, pushed forward alone.[8] This movement, far
from being rash, was coolly calculated, Blucher being sufficiently
reinforced on the Marne by Winzingerode and Bulow, by whose aid he, on
the 9th March, defeated the emperor Napoleon at Laon. The victory was
still undecided at fall of night. Napoleon allowed his troops to rest,
but Blucher remained under arms and sent York to surprise him during
the night. The French were completely dispersed and lost forty-six
guns. Napoleon, after this miserable defeat, again tried his fortune
against Schwarzenberg (who, put to shame by Blucher's brilliant
success, had again halted), and, on the 20th of March, maintained his
position at Arcis sur Aube, although the crown prince of Wurtemberg
gallantly led his troops five times to the assault. Neither side was
victorious.
Napoleon now resorted to a bold _ruse de guerre_. The peasantry, more
particularly in Lorraine, exasperated by the devastation unavoidable
during war time, and by the vengeance here and there taken by the
foreign soldiery, had risen to the rear of the allied army.
Unfortunately, no one had dreamed of treating the German Alsatians and
Lothringians as brother Germans. They were treated as French. Long
unaccustomed to invasion and to the calamities incidental to war, they
made a spirited but ineffectual resistance to the rapine of the
soldiery. Whole villages were burned down. The peasantry gathered into
troops and massacred the foreign soldiery when not in sufficient
numbers to keep them in check. Napoleon confidently expected that his
diminished armies would be supported by a general rising _en masse_,
and that Augereau, who was at that time guarding Lyons, would form a
junction with him; and, in this expectation, threw himself to the rear
of the allied forces and took up a position at Troyes with a view of
cutting them off, perhaps of surrounding them by means of the general
rising, or, at all events, of drawing them back to the Rhine. But, on
the self-same day, the 19th of March, Lyons had fallen and Augereau
had retreated southward. The people did not rise _en masse_, and the
allies took advantage of Napoleon's absence to form a grand junction,
and, with flying banners, to march unopposed upon Paris, convinced
that the possession of the capital of the French empire must
inevitably bring the war to a favorable conclusion. In Paris, there
were numerous individuals who already regarded Napoleon's fall as _un
fait accompli_, and who, ambitious of influencing the future prospects
of France, were ready to offer their services to the victors. Both
parties speedily came to an understanding. The _corps d'armee_ under
Marshals Mortier and Marmont, which were encountered midway, were
repulsed, and that under Generals Pacthod and Amey captured, together
with seventy pieces of artillery, at La Fere Ohampenoise. On the 29th
of March, the dark columns of the allied army defiled within sight of
Paris. On the 30th, they met with a spirited resistance on the heights
of Belleville and Montmartre; but the city, in order to escape
bombardment, capitulated during the night, and, on the 31st, the
allied sovereigns made a peaceful entry. The empress, accompanied by
the king of Rome, by Joseph, ex-king of Spain, and by innumerable
wagons, laden with the spoil of Europe, had already fled to the south
of France.
Napoleon, completely deceived by Winzingerode and Tettenborn, who had
remained behind with merely a weak rearguard, first learned the
advance of the main body upon Paris when too late to overtake it.
After almost annihilating his weak opponents at St. Dizier, he reached
Fontainebleau, where he learned the capitulation of Paris, and, giving
way to the whole fury of his Corsican temperament, offered to yield
the city for two days to the license of his soldiery would they but
follow him to the assault. But his own marshals, even his hero, Ney,
deserted him, and, on the 10th of April, he was compelled to resign
the imperial crown of France and to withdraw to the island of Elba on
the coast of Italy, which was placed beneath his sovereignty and
assigned to him as a residence. The kingdom of France was
re-established on its former footing; and, on the 4th of May, Louis
XVIII. entered Paris and mounted the throne of his ancestors.
Davoust was the last to offer resistance. The Russians under Bennigsen
besieged him in Hamburg, and, on his final surrender, treated him with
the greatest moderation.[9]
On the 30th of May, 1814, peace was concluded at Paris.[10] France was
reduced to her limits as in 1792, and consequently retained the
provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, of which she had, at an earlier
period, deprived Germany. Not a farthing was paid by way of
compensation for the ravages suffered by Germany, nay, the French
prisoners of war were, on their release, maintained on their way home
at the expense of the German population. None of the _chefs-d'oeuvres_
of which Europe had been plundered were restored, with the sole
exception of the group of horses, taken by Napoleon from the
Brandenburg gate at Berlin. The allied troops instantly evacuated the
country. France was allowed to regulate her internal affairs without
the interference of any of the foreign powers, while paragraphs
concerning the internal economy of Germany were not only admitted into
the treaty of Paris, and France was on that account not only called
upon to guarantee and to participate in the internal affairs of
Germany, but also afterward sent to the great Congress of Vienna an
ambassador destined to play an important part in the definitive
settlement of the affairs of Europe, and, more particularly, of those
of Germany.
The patriots, of whom the governments had made use both before and
after the war, unable to comprehend that the result of such immense
exertions and of such a complete triumph should be to bring greater
profit and glory to France than to Germany, and that their patriotism
was, on the conclusion of the war, to be renounced, were loud in their
complaints.[11] But the revival of the German empire, with which the
individual interests of so many princely houses were plainly
incompatible, was far from entering into the plans of the allied
powers. An attempt made by any one among the princes to place himself
at the head of the whole of Germany would have been frustrated by the
rest. The policy of the foreign allies was moreover antipathetic to
such a scheme. England opposed and sought to hinder unity in Germany,
not only for the sake of retaining possession of Hanover and of
exercising an influence over the disunited German princes similar to
that exercised by her over the princes of India, but more particularly
for that of ruling the commerce of Germany. Russia reverted to her
Erfurt policy. Her interests, like those of France, led her to promote
disunion among the German powers, whose weakness, the result of want
of combination, placed them at the mercy of France, and left Poland,
Sweden, and the East open to the ambition of Russia. A close alliance
was in consequence instantly formed between the emperor Alexander and
Louis XVIII., the former negotiating, as the first condition of peace,
the continuance of Lorraine and Alsace beneath the sovereignty of
France.
Austria assented on condition of Italy being placed exclusively
beneath her control. Austria united too many and too diverse nations
beneath her sceptre to be able to pursue a policy pre-eminently
German, and found it more convenient to round off her territories by
the annexation of Upper Italy than by that of distant Lorraine, at all
times a possession difficult to maintain. Prussia was too closely
connected with Russia, and Hardenberg, unlike Blucher at the head of
the Prussian army, was powerless at the head of Prussian diplomacy.
The lesser states also exercised no influence upon Germany as a whole,
and were merely intent upon preserving their individual integrity or
upon gaining some petty advantage. The Germans, some few discontented
patriots alone excepted, were more than ever devoted to their ancient
princes, both to those who had retained their station and to those who
returned to their respective territories on the fall of Napoleon; and
the victorious soldiery, adorned with ribbons, medals, and orders (the
Prussians, for instance, with the iron cross), evinced the same
unreserved attachment to their prince and zeal for his individual
interest. This complication of circumstances can alone explain the
fact of Germany, although triumphant, having made greater concessions
to France by the treaty of Paris than, when humbled, by that of
Westphalia.
[Footnote 1: His principal thesis consisted of "We are not Prussians,
Westphalians, Saxons, etc., but Germans."]
[Footnote 2: This prince took the title not of stadtholder, but of
king, to which he had no claim, but in which he was supported by
England and Russia, who unwillingly beheld Prussia aggrandized by the
possession of Holland.]
[Footnote 3: Even in the May of 1813, an ode given in No. 270 of the
Allgemeine Zeitung, appeared in Switzerland, in which it was said,
"The brave warriors of Switzerland hasten to reap fresh laurels. With
their heroic blood have they dyed the distant shores of barbarous
Haiti, the waters of the Ister and Tagus, etc. The deserts of Sarmatia
have witnessed the martial glories of the Helvetic legion."]
[Footnote 4: Shortly before this, a report had been spread of the
nomination of Marshal Berthier, prince of Neufchatel, as perpetual
Landammann of Switzerland.--_Muralt's Reinhard_.]
[Footnote 5: Out of two thousand six hundred and fifty-four Badeners
but five hundred and six returned from Spain.]
[Footnote 6: Beamisch, History of the Legion.]
[Footnote 7: Several regiments sacrificed themselves in order to cover
the retreat of the rest. Napoleon ordered a twelve-pounder to be
loaded and twice directed the gun with his own hand upon the crown
prince.--_Campaigns of the Wuerterribergers._]
[Footnote 8: Bluecher's conduct simply proceeded from his impatience to
obtain by force of arms the most honorable terms of peace for Prussia,
while the other allied powers, who were far more indulgently disposed
toward France and who began to view the victories gained by Prussia
with an apprehension which was further strengthened by the increasing
popularity of that power throughout Germany, were more inclined to
diplomatize than to fight. Bluecher was well aware of these reasons for
diplomacy and more than once cut the negotiations short with his
sabre. A well-known diplomatist attempting on one occasion to prove to
him that Napoleon must, even without the war being continued, "descend
from his throne," a league having been formed within France herself
for the restoration of the Bourbons--he answered him to his face, "The
rascality of the French is no revenge for us. It is we who must pull
him down--we. You will no doubt do wonders in your wisdom!--Patience!
You will be led as usual by the nose, and will still go on fawning and
diplomatizing until we have the nation again upon us, and the storm
bursts over our heads." He went so far as to set the diplomatists
actually at defiance. On being, to Napoleon's extreme delight, ordered
to retreat, he treated the order with contempt and instantly
advanced.--_Rauschnick's Life of Bluecher_. "This second disjunction on
Bluecher's part," observes Clausewitz, the Prussian general, the best
commentator on this war, "was of infinite consequence, for it checked
and gave a fresh turn to the whole course of political affairs."]
[Footnote 9: Goerres said in the Rhenish Mercury, "It is easy to see
how all are inclined to conceal beneath the wide mantle of love the
horrors there perpetrated. The Germans have from time immemorial been
subjected to this sort of treatment, because ever ready to forgive and
forget the past." Davoust was arrested merely for form's sake and then
honorably released. He was allowed to retain the booty he had seized.
The citizens of Hamburg vainly implored the re-establishment of their
bank.]
[Footnote 10: Bluecher took no part in these affairs. "I have," said he
to the diplomatists, "done my duty, now do yours! You will be
responsible both to God and man should your work be done in vain and
have to be done over again. I have nothing further to do with the
business!"--Experience had, however, taught him not to expect much
good from "quill-drivers."]
[Footnote 11: The Rhenish Mercury more than all. It was opposed by the
Messenger of the Tyrol, which declared that the victory was gained,
not by the "people," as they were termed, but by the princes and their
armies.--_July, 1814_.]
CCLXIII. The Congress of Vienna--Napoleon's Return and End
From Paris the sovereigns of Prussia[1] and Russia and the victorious
field-marshals proceeded, in June, to London, where they, Blucher most
particularly, were received with every demonstration of delight and
respect by the English, their oldest and most faithful allies.[2]
Toward autumn, a great European congress, to which the settlement of
every point in dispute and the restoration of order throughout Europe
were to be committed, was convoked at Vienna. At this congress, which,
in the November of 1814, was opened at Vienna, the emperors of Austria
and Russia, the kings of Prussia, Denmark, Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and
the greater part of the petty princes of Germany, were present in
person; the other powers were represented by ambassadors
extraordinary. The greatest statesmen of that period were here
assembled; among others, Metternich, the Austrian minister, Hardenberg
and Humboldt, the Prussian ministers, Castlereagh, the English
plenipotentiary, Nesselrode, the Russian envoy, Talleyrand and
Dalberg, Gagern, Bernstorff, and Wrede, the ambassadors of France,
Holland, Denmark, and Bavaria, etc. The negotiations were of the
utmost importance, for, although one of the most difficult points, the
new regulation of affairs in France, was already settled, many
extremely difficult questions still remained to be solved. Talleyrand,
who had served under every government, under the republic, under the
usurper, Napoleon; who had retaken office under the Bourbons and the
Jesuits who had returned in their train, and who, on this occasion,
was the representative of the criminal and humbled French nation,
ventured, nevertheless, to offer his perfidious advice to the victors,
and, with diabolical art, to sow the seed of discord among them. This
conduct was the more striking on account of its glaring incongruity
with the proclamation of Calisch, which expressly declared that the
internal affairs of Germany were wholly and solely to be arranged by
the princes and nations of Germany, without foreign, and naturally,
least of all, without French interference.[3] Talleyrand's first
object was to suppress the popular spirit of liberty throughout
Germany, and to rouse against it the jealous apprehensions of the
princes. He therefore said, "You wish for constitutions; guard against
them. In France, desire for a constitution produced a revolution, and
the same will happen to you." He it was who gave to the congress that
catchword, legitimacy. The object of the past struggle was not the
restoration of the liberties of the people but that of the ancient
legitimate dynasties and their absolute sovereignty. The war had been
directed, not against Napoleon, but against the Revolution, against
the usurpation of the people. By means of this legitimacy the king of
Saxony was to be re-established on his throne, and Prussia was on no
account to be permitted to incorporate Saxony with her dominions.
Prussia appealed to her services toward Germany, to her enormous
sacrifices, to the support given to her by public opinion; but the
power of public opinion was itself questioned. The seeds of discord
quickly sprang up, and, on the 3d of January, 1815, a secret league
against Prussia was already formed for the purpose of again humbling
the state that had sacrificed all for the honor of Germany, of
frustrating her schemes of aggrandizement, and of quenching the
patriotic spirit of German idealists and enthusiasts.[4]
The want of unanimity amid the members of the congress had at the same
time a bad effect upon the ancient Rhenish confederated states. In
Nassau, the _Landwehr_ was, on its return home after the campaign,
received with marks of dissatisfaction. In Baden and Hesse, many of
the officers belonging to the army openly espoused Napoleon's cause.
In Baden, the volunteer corps was deprived of its horses and sent home
on foot.[5] In Wurtemberg, King Frederick refused to allow the foreign
troops and convoys a passage along the highroad through Cannstadt and
Ludwigsburg, and forbade the attendance of civil surgeons upon the
wounded belonging to the allied army. In Wurtemberg and Bavaria, the
Rhenish Mercury was suppressed on account of its patriotic and German
tendency. At Stuttgard, the festival in commemoration of the battle of
Leipzig was disallowed; and in Frankfort on the Maine, the editor of a
French journal ventured, unreprimanded, to turn this festival into
ridicule.
Switzerland was in a high state of ferment. The people of the Grisons,
who had taken possession of the Valtelline, and the people of Uri, who
had seized the Livinenthal, had been respectively driven out of those
territories by the Austrians. The Valais, Geneva, Neufchatel, and
Pruntrut were, on the other hand, desirous of joining the
confederation. The democratic peasantry were almost everywhere at war
with the aristocratic burghers. Berne revived her claim upon Vaud and
Aargau, which armed in self-defence.[6] Reinhard of Zurich, the Swiss
_Landammann_, went, meanwhile, at the head of an embassy to Vienna,
for the purpose of settling in the congress the future destinies of
Switzerland by means of the intervention of the great powers.
Talleyrand, with unparalleled impudence, also interfered in this
affair, threatened to refuse his recognition to every measure passed
without his concurrence, and compelled the Swiss to entreat him to
honor the deliberations with his presence. On Austria's demanding a
right of conscription in the Grisons alone, France having enjoyed that
right throughout the whole of Switzerland at an earlier period,
Talleyrand advised the Swiss to make a most violent opposition against
an attempt that placed their independence at stake. "Cry out," he
exclaimed, "cry out, as loud as you can!"[7]
The disputes in the congress raised Napoleon's hopes. In France, his
party was still powerful, almost the whole of the population being
blindly devoted to him, and an extensive conspiracy for his
restoration to the imperial throne was secretly set on foot. Several
thousands of his veteran soldiery had been released from foreign
durance; the whole of the military stores, the spoil of Europe, still
remained in the possession of France; the fortresses were solely
garrisoned with French troops; Elba was close at hand, and the emperor
was guarded with criminal negligence. Heavy, indeed, is the
responsibility of those who, by thus neglecting their charge, once
more let loose this scourge upon the earth![8] Napoleon quitted his
island, and, on the 1st of March, 1815, again set foot on the coast of
France. He was merely accompanied by one thousand five hundred men,
but the whole of the troops sent against him by Louis XVIII. ranged
themselves beneath his eagle. He passed, as if in triumph, through his
former empire. The whole nation received him with acclamations of
delight. Not a single Frenchman shed a drop of blood for the Bourbon,
who fled hastily to Ghent; and, on the 20th of March, Napoleon entered
Paris unopposed. His brother-in-law, Murat, at the same time revolted
at Naples and advanced into Upper Italy against the Austrians. But all
the rest of Napoleon's ancient allies, persuaded that he must again
fall, either remained tranquil or formed a close alliance with the
combined powers. The Swiss, in particular, showed excessive zeal on
this occasion, and took up arms against France, in the hope of
rendering the allied sovereigns favorable to their new constitution,
The Swiss regiments, which had passed from Napoleon's service to that
of Louis XVIII., also remained unmoved by Napoleon's blandishments,
were deprived of their arms and returned separately to Switzerland.
The allied sovereigns were still assembled at Vienna, and at once
allowed every dispute to drop in order to form a fresh and closer
coalition. They declared Napoleon an outlaw, a robber, proscribed by
all Europe, and bound themselves to bring a force more than a million
strong into the field against him. All Napoleon's cunning attempts to
bribe and set them at variance were treated with scorn, and the
combined powers speedily came to an understanding on the points
hitherto so strongly contested. Saxony was partitioned between her
ancient sovereign and Prussia, and a revolt that broke out in Liege
among the Saxon troops, who were by command of Prussia to be divided
before they had been released from their oath of allegiance to their
king, is easily explained by the hurry and pressure of the times,
which caused all minor considerations to be forgotten.[9] Napoleon
exclusively occupied the mind of every diplomatist, and all agreed in
the necessity, at all hazards, of his utter annihilation. The lion,
thus driven at bay, turned upon his pursuers for a last and desperate
struggle. The French were still faithful to Napoleon, who, with a view
of reinspiring them with the enthusiastic spirit that had rendered
them invincible in the first days of the republic, again called forth
the old republicans, nominated them to the highest appointments,
re-established several republican institutions, and, on the 1st of
June, presented to his dazzled subjects the magnificent spectacle of a
field of May, as in the times of Charlemagne and in the commencement
of the Revolution, and then led a numerous and spirited army to the
Dutch frontiers against the enemy.
Here stood a Prussian army under Blucher, and an Anglo-German one
under Wellington, comprehending the Dutch under the Prince of Orange,
the Brunswickers under their duke, the recruited Hanoverian Legion
under Wallmoden. These _corps d'armee_ most imminently threatened
Paris. The main body of the allied army, under Schwarzenberg, then
advancing from the south, was still distant. Napoleon consequently
directed his first attack against the two former. His army had gained
immensely in strength and spirit by the return of his veteran troops
from foreign imprisonment. Wellington, ignorant at what point Napoleon
might cross the frontier, had followed the old and ill-judged plan of
dividing his forces; an incredible error, the allies having simply to
unite their forces and to take up a firm position in order to draw
Napoleon to any given spot. Wellington, moreover, never imagined that
Napoleon was so near at hand, and was amusing himself at a ball at
Brussels, when Blucher, who was stationed in and around Namur, was
attacked on the 14th of June, 1815.[10] Napoleon afterward observed in
his memoirs that he had attacked Blucher first because he well knew
that Blucher would not be supported by the over-prudent and
egotistical English commander, but that Wellington, had he been first
attacked, would have received every aid from his high-spirited and
faithful ally. Wellington, after being repeatedly urged by Blucher,
collected his scattered corps, but neither completely nor with
sufficient rapidity; and on Blucher's announcement of Napoleon's
arrival, exerted himself on the following morning so far as to make a
_reconnaissance_. The duke of Brunswick, with impatience equalling
that of Blucher, was the only one who had quitted the ball during the
night and had hurried forward against the enemy. Napoleon, owing to
Wellington's negligence, gained time to throw himself between him and
Blucher and to prevent their junction; for he knew the spirit of his
opponents. He consequently opposed merely a small division of his army
under Ney to the English and turned with the whole of his main body
against the Prussians. The veteran Blucher perceived his
intentions[11] and in consequence urgently demanded aid from the Duke
of Wellington, who promised to send him a reinforcement of twenty
thousand men by four o'clock on the 16th. But this aid never arrived,
Wellington, although Ney was too weak to obstruct the movement, making
no attempt to perform his promise. Wellington retired with superior
forces before Ney at Quatre Bras, and allowed the gallant and
unfortunate Duke William of Brunswick to fall a futile sacrifice.
Blucher meanwhile yielded to the overwhelming force brought against
him by Napoleon at Ligny, also on the 16th of June. Vainly did the
Prussians rush to the attack beneath the murderous fire of the French,
vainly did Blucher in person head the assault and for five hours
continue the combat hand to hand in the village of Ligny. Numbers
prevailed, and Wellington sent no relief. The infantry being at length
driven back, Blucher led the cavalry once more to the charge, but was
repulsed and fell senseless beneath his horse, which was shot dead.
His adjutant, Count Nostitz, alone remained at his side. The French
cavalry passed close by without perceiving them, twilight and a misty
rain having begun to fall. The Prussians fortunately missed their
leader, repulsed the French cavalry, which again galloped past him as
he lay on the ground, and he was at length drawn from beneath his
horse. He still lived, but only to behold the complete defeat of his
army.
Blucher, although a veteran of seventy-three, and wounded and
shattered by his fall, was not for a moment discouraged.[12] Ever
vigilant, he assembled his scattered troops with wonderful rapidity,
inspirited them by his cheerful words, and had the generosity to
promise aid, by the afternoon of the 18th of June, to Wellington, who
was now in his turn attacked by the main body of the French under
Napoleon. What Wellington on the 16th, with a fresh army, could not
perform, Blucher now effected with troops dejected by defeat, and put
the English leader to the deepest shame by--keeping his word.[13] He
consequently fell back upon Wavre in order to remain as close as
possible in Wellington's vicinity, and also sent orders to Bulow's
corps, that was then on the advance, to join the English army, while
Napoleon, in the idea that Blucher was falling back upon the Meuse,
sent Grouchy in pursuit with a body of thirty-five thousand men.[14]
Napoleon, far from imagining that the Prussians, after having been, as
he supposed, completely annihilated or panic-stricken by Grouchy,
could aid the British, wasted the precious moments, and, instead of
hastily attacking Wellington, spent the whole of the morning of the
18th in uselessly parading his troops, possibly with a view of
intimidating his opponents and of inducing them to retreat without
hazarding an engagement. His well-dressed lines glittered in the
sunbeams; the infantry raised their tschakos on their bayonet points,
the cavalry their helmets on their sabres, and gave a general cheer
for their emperor. The English, however, preserved an undaunted
aspect. At length, about midday, Napoleon gave orders for the attack,
and, furiously charging the British left wing, drove it from the
village of Hougumont. He then sent orders to Ney to charge the British
centre. At that moment a dark spot was seen in the direction of St.
Lambert. Was it Grouchy? A reconnoitring party was despatched and
returned with the news of its being the Prussians under Bulow. The
attack upon the British centre was consequently remanded, and Ney was
despatched with a considerable portion of his troops against Bulow.
Wellington now ventured to charge the enemy with his right wing, but
was repulsed and lost the farm of La Haye Sainte, which commanded his
position on this side as Hougumont did on his right. His centre,
however, remained unattacked, the French exerting their utmost
strength to keep Bulow's gallant troops back at the village of
Planchenoit, where the battle raged with the greatest fury, and a
dreadful conflict of some hours' duration ensued hand to hand. But
about five o'clock, the left wing of the British being completely
thrown into confusion by a fresh attack on the enemy's side, the whole
of the French cavalry, twelve thousand strong, made a furious charge
upon the British centre, bore down all before them, and took a great
number of guns. The Prince of Orange was wounded. The road to Brussels
was already thronged with the fugitive English troops, and Wellington,
scarcely able to keep his weakened lines together,[15] was apparently
on the brink of destruction, when the thunder of artillery was
suddenly heard in the direction of Wavre. "It is Grouchy!" joyfully
exclaimed Napoleon, who had repeatedly sent orders to that general to
push forward with all possible speed. But it was not Grouchy, it was
Blucher.
The faithful troops of the veteran marshal (the old Silesian army)
were completely worn out by the battle, by their retreat in the heavy
rain over deep roads, and by the want of food. The distance from
Wavre, whence they had been driven, to Waterloo, where Wellington was
then in action, was not great, but was rendered arduous owing to these
circumstances. The men sometimes fell down from extreme weariness, and
the guns stuck fast in the deep mud. But Blucher was everywhere
present, and notwithstanding his bodily pain ever cheered his men
forward, with "indescribable pathos," saying to his disheartened
soldiers, "My children, we must advance; I have promised it, do not
cause me to break my word!" While still distant from the scene of
action, he ordered the guns to be fired in order to keep up the
courage of the English, and at length, between six and seven in the
evening, the first Prussian corps in advance, that of Ziethen, fell
furiously upon the enemy: "Bravo!" cried Blucher, "I know you, my
Silesians; to-day we shall see the backs of these French rascals!"
Ziethen filled up the space still intervening between Wellington and
Bulow. Exactly at that moment, Napoleon had sent his old guard forward
in four massive squares in order to make a last attempt to break the
British lines, when Ziethen fell upon their flank and dealt fearful
havoc among their close masses with his artillery. Bulow's troops,
inspirited by this success, now pressed gallantly forward and finally
regained the long-contested village of Planchenoit from the enemy. The
whole of the Prussian army, advancing at the double and with drums
beating, had already driven back the right wing of the French, when
the English, regaining courage, advanced, Napoleon was surrounded on
two sides, and the whole of his troops, the old guard under General
Cambronne alone excepted, were totally dispersed and fled in complete
disorder. The old guard, surrounded by Bulow's cavalry, nobly replied,
when challenged to surrender, "La garde ne se rend pas"; and in a few
minutes the veteran conquerors of Europe fell beneath the righteous
and avenging blows of their antagonists. At the farm of La Belle
Alliance, Blucher offered his hand to Wellington. "I will sleep
to-night in Bonaparte's last night's quarters," said Wellington. "And
I will drive him out of his present ones!" replied Blucher. The
Prussians, fired by enthusiasm, forgot the fatigue they had for four
days endured, and, favored by a moonlight night, so zealously pursued
the French that an immense number of prisoners and a vast amount of
booty fell into their hands and Napoleon narrowly escaped being taken
prisoner. At Genappe, where the bridge was blocked by fugitives, the
pursuit was so close that he was compelled to abandon his carriage
leaving his sword and hat behind him. Blucher, who reached the spot a
moment afterward, took possession of the booty, sent Napoleon's hat,
sword, and star to the king of Prussia, retained his cloak, telescope,
and carriage for his own use, and gave up everything else, including a
quantity of the most valuable jewelry, gold, and money, to his brave
soldiery. The whole of the army stores, two hundred and forty guns,
and an innumerable quantity of arms thrown away by the fugitives, fell
into his hands.
The Prussian general, Thielemann, who, with a few troops, had remained
behind at Wavre in order, at great hazard, to deceive Grouchy into the
belief that he was still opposed by Blucher's entire force, acted a
lesser, but equally honorable part on this great day. He fulfilled his
commission with great skill, and so completely deceived Grouchy as to
hinder his making a single attempt to throw himself in the way of the
Prussians on the Paris road.
Blucher pushed forward without a moment's delay, and, on the 29th of
June, stood before Paris. Napoleon had, meanwhile, a second time
abdicated, and had fled from Paris in the hope of escaping across the
seas. Davoust, the ancient instrument of his tyranny, who commanded in
Paris, attempting to make terms of capitulation with Blucher, was
sharply answered, "You want to make a defence? Take care what you do.
You well know what license the irritated soldiery will take if your
city must be taken by storm. Do you wish to add the sack of Paris to
that of Hamburg, already loading your conscience?"[16] Paris
surrendered after a severe engagement at Issy, and Muffling, the
Prussian general, was placed in command of the city, July the 7th,
1815. It was on the occasion of a grand banquet given by Wellington
shortly after the occupation of Paris by the allied troops that
Blucher gave the celebrated toast, "May the pens of diplomatists not
again spoil all that the swords of our gallant armies have so nobly
won!"
Schwarzenberg had in the interim also penetrated into France, and the
crown prince of Wurtemberg had defeated General Rapp at Strasburg and
had surrounded that fortress. The Swiss, under General Bachmann, who
had, although fully equipped for the field, hitherto prudently watched
the turn of events, invaded France immediately after the battle of
Waterloo, pillaged Burgundy, besieged and took the fortress of
Huningen, which, with the permission of the allies, they justly razed
to the ground, the insolent French having thence fired upon the
bridges of Basel which lay close in its vicinity. A fresh Austrian
army under Frimont advanced from Italy as far as Lyons. On the 17th of
July, Napoleon surrendered himself in the bay of Rochefort to the
English, whose ships prevented his escape; he moreover preferred
falling into their hands than into those of the Prussians. The whole
of France submitted to the triumphant allies, and Louis XVIII. was
reinstated on his throne. Murat had also been simultaneously defeated
at Tolentino in Italy by the Austrians under Bianchi, and Ferdinand
IV. had been restored to the throne of Naples. Murat fled to Corsica,
but his retreat to France was prevented by the success of the allies,
and in his despair he, with native rashness, yielded to the advice of
secret intriguants and returned to Italy with a design of raising a
popular insurrection, but was seized on landing and shot on the 13th
of October.[17]
Blucher was greatly inclined to give full vent to his justly roused
rage against Paris. The bridge of Jena, one of the numerous bridges
across the Seine, the principal object of his displeasure, was,
curiously enough, saved from destruction (he had already attempted to
blow it up) by the arrival of the king of Prussia.[18] His proposal to
punish France by partitioning the country and thus placing it on a par
with Germany, was far more practical in its tendency.
This honest veteran had in fact a deeper insight into affairs than the
most wary diplomatists.[19] In 1815, the same persons, as in 1814, met
in Paris, and similar interests were agitated. Foreign jealousy again
effected the conclusion of this peace at the expense of Germany and in
favor of France. Blucher's influence at first reigned supreme. The
king of Prussia, who, together with the emperors of Russia and
Austria, revisited Paris, took Stein and Gruner into his council. The
crown prince of Wurtemberg also zealously exerted himself in favor of
the reunion of Lorraine and Alsace with Germany.[20] But Russia and
England beholding the reintegration of Germany with displeasure,
Austria,[21] and finally Prussia, against whose patriots all were in
league, yielded.[22] The future destinies of Europe were settled on
the side of England by Wellington and Castlereagh; on that of Russia
by Prince John Razumowsky, Nesselrode, and Capo d'Istria; on that of
Austria by Metternich and Wessenberg; on that of Prussia by Hardenberg
and William von Humboldt. The German patriots were excluded from the
discussion,[23] and a result extremely unfavorable to Germany
naturally followed:[24] Alsace and Lorraine remained annexed to
France. By the second treaty of Paris, which was definitively
concluded on the 20th of November, 1815, France was merely compelled
to give up the fortresses of Philippeville, Marienburg, Sarlouis, and
Landau, to demolish Huningen, and to allow eighteen other fortresses
on the German frontier to be occupied by the allies until the new
government had taken firm footing in France. Until then, one hundred
and fifty thousand of the allied troops were also to remain within the
French territory and to be maintained at the expense of the people.
France was, moreover, condemned to pay seven hundred millions of
francs toward the expenses of the war and to restore the _chef
d'oeuvres_ of which she had deprived every capital in Europe. The
sword of Frederick the Great was not refound: Marshal Serrurier
declared that he had burned it.[25] On the other hand, however, almost
all the famous old German manuscripts, which had formerly been carried
from Heidelberg to Rome, and thence by Napoleon to Paris, were sent
back to Heidelberg. One of the most valuable, the Manessian Code of
the Swabian Minnesingers, was left in Paris, where it had been
concealed. Blucher expired, in 1819, on his estate in Silesia.[26]
The French were now sufficiently humbled to remain in tranquillity,
and designedly displayed such submission that the allied sovereigns
resolved, at a congress held at Aix-la-Chapelle, in the autumn of
1818, to withdraw their troops. Napoleon was, with the concurrence of
the assembled powers, taken to the island of St. Helena, where,
surrounded by the dreary ocean, several hundred miles from any
inhabited spot, and guarded with petty severity by the English, he was
at length deprived of every means of disturbing the peace of Europe.
Inactivity and the unhealthiness of the climate speedily dissolved the
earthly abode of this giant spirit. He expired on the 5th of May,
1821. His consort, Maria Louisa, was created Duchess of Parma; and his
son lived, under the title of Duke of Reichstadt, with his imperial
grandfather at Vienna, until his death in 1832. Napoleon's stepson,
Eugene Beauharnais, the former viceroy of Italy, the son-in-law to the
king of Bavaria, received the newly-created mediatized principality of
Eichstadt, which was dependent upon Bavaria, and the title of Duke of
Leuchtenberg. Jerome, the former king of Westphalia, became Count de
Montfort;[27] Louis, ex-king of Holland, Count de St. Leu.
[Footnote 1: From London, Frederick William went to Switzerland and
took possession of his ancient hereditary territory, Waelsch-Neuenburg
or Neufchatel, visited the beautiful Bernese Oberland, and then
returned to Berlin, where, on the 7th of August, he passed in triumph
through the Brandenburg gate, which was again adorned with the car of
victory and the fine group of horses, and rode through the lime trees
to an altar, around which the clergy belonging to every religious sect
were assembled. Here public thanks were given and the whole of the
citizens present fell upon their knees.--_Allgemeine Zeitung, 262_. On
the 17th of September, the preparation of a new liturgy was announced
in a ministerial proclamation, "by which the solemnity of the church
service was to be increased, the present one being too little
calculated to excite or strike the imagination."]
[Footnote 2: Oxford conferred a doctor's degree upon Bluecher, who,
upon receiving this strange honor, said, "Make Gneisenau apothecary,
for he it was who prepared my pills." On his first reception at
Carlton House, the populace pushed their way through the guards and
doors as far as the apartments of the prince-regent, who, taking his
gray-headed guest by the hand, presented him to them, and publicly
hung his portrait set in brilliants around his neck. On his passing
through the streets, the horses were taken from his carriage, and he
was drawn in triumph by the shouting crowd. One fete succeeded
another. During the great races at Ascot, the crowd breaking through
the barriers and insisting upon Bluecher's showing himself, the
prince-regent came forward, and, politely telling them that he had not
yet arrived, led forward the emperor Alexander, who was loudly
cheered, but Bluecher's arrival was greeted with thunders of applause
far surpassing those bestowed upon the sovereigns, a circumstance that
was afterward blamed by the English papers. In the Freemasons' Lodge,
Bluecher was received by numbers of ladies, on each of whom he bestowed
a salute. At Portsmouth, he drank to the health of the English in the
presence of an immense concourse of people assembled beneath his
windows.--The general rejoicing was solely clouded by the domestic
circumstances of the royal family, by the insanity of the aged and
blind king and by the disunion reigning between the prince-regent and
his thoughtless consort, Caroline of Brunswick.--Although the whole of
the allied sovereigns, some of whom were unable to speak English,
understood German, French was adopted as the medium of conversation.--
_Allgemeine Zeitung, 174._]
[Footnote 3: "There are moments in the life of nations on which the
whole of their future destiny depends. The children are destined to
expiate their fathers' errors with their blood. Germany has everything
to fear from the foreigner, and yet she cannot arrange her own affairs
without calling the foreigner to her aid.--Who, in the congress,
chiefly oppose every well-laid plan? Who, with the dagger's point pick
out and reopen all our wounds, and rub them with salt and poison? Who
promote confusion, provoke, insinuate, and attempt to creep into every
committee, to interfere in every discussion? who but those sent
thither by France?"--_The Rhenish Mercury._]
[Footnote 4: Fate willed that Stein should not be called upon to act
with firmness, but Hardenberg to make concessions. Stein disappeared
from the theatre of events and was degraded to a lower sphere.
Hardenberg was created prince.]
[Footnote 5: Napoleon had such good friends among the Rhenish
confederated princes that Augustus, duke of Gotha, for instance, even
after the second occupation of Paris, on the return of his troops in
the November of 1815, prohibited any demonstrations of triumph and
even deprived the _Landwehr_ of their uniforms, so that the poor
fellows had to return in their shirt-sleeves to their native villages
during the hard winter.--_Jacob's Campaigns._]
[Footnote 6: An attack upon Berne had already been concerted. Colonel
Baer marched with the people of Aargau in the night time upon Aarburg,
but his confederates failing to make their appearance, he caused the
nearest Bernese governor to be alarmed and hastily retraced his steps.
The Bernese instantly sent an armed force to the frontier, where,
finding all tranquil, the charge of aggression was thrown upon their
shoulders.]
[Footnote 7: Vide Muralt's Life of Reinhard.]
[Footnote 8: Bluecher was at Berlin at the moment when the news of
Napoleon's escape arrived. He instantly roused the English ambassador
from his sleep by shouting in his ear, "Have the English a fleet in
the Mediterranean?"]
[Footnote 9: The blame was entirely upon the Prussian side. The
Saxons, as good soldiers, naturally revolted at the idea that they
would at once be faithless to their oath and mutinied. General
Mueffling was insulted for having spoken of "Saxon hounds." Bluecher
even was compelled secretly to take his departure. The Saxon troops
were, however, reduced to obedience by superior numbers of Prussians,
and their colors were burned. The whole corps was about to be
decimated, when Colonel Romer came forward and demanded that the
sentence of death should be first executed on him. Milder measures
were in consequence reverted to, and a few of the men were condemned
to death by drawing lots. Kanitz, the drummer, a youth of sixteen,
however, threw away the dice, exclaiming, "It is I who beat the
summons for revolt, and I will be the first to die." He and six others
were shot. Borstel, the Prussian general, the hero of Dennewitz, who
had steadily refused to burn the Saxon colors, was compelled to quit
the service.]
[Footnote 10: For a refutation of Menzel's absurdly perverted relation
of these great events, the reader is referred not only to the Duke of
Wellington's despatches and to Colonel Siborne's well-established
account of the battles of Ligny, Wavre, Quatre Bras, and Waterloo, but
also to those of his countrymen, Muffling, the Prussian general, and
Wagner.--_Trans._]
[Footnote 11: Shortly before the battle, Bourmont, the French general,
set up the white cockade (the symbol of Bourbon) and deserted to
Blucher, who merely said, "It is all one what symbol the fellows set
up, rascals are ever rascals!"]
[Footnote 12: The surgeon, when about to rub him with some liquid, was
asked by him what it was, and being told that it was spirits, "Ah,"
said he, "the thing is of no use externally!" and snatching the glass
from the hand of his attendant, he drank it off.]
[Footnote 13: Against all expectation to aid an ally who on the
previous day had against all expectation been unable to give him aid,
evinced at once magnanimity, sense, and good feeling.--_Clausewitz_.]
[Footnote 14: A Prussian battery, that on its way from Namur turned
back on receiving news of this disaster and was taken by the French,
is said to have chiefly led to the commission of this immense blunder
by Napoleon.]
[Footnote 15: The Hanoverian legion again covered itself with glory by
the steadiness with which it opposed the enemy. It lost three thousand
five hundred men, the Dutch eight thousand; the German troops
consequently lost collectively as many as the English, whose loss was
computed at eleven or twelve thousand men. The Prussians, whose loss
at Ligny and Waterloo exceeded that of their allies, behaved with even
greater gallantry.]
[Footnote 16: The French were extremely affronted on account of this
communication being made in German instead of French, and even at the
present day German historians are generally struck with deeper
astonishment at this sample of Bluecher's bold spirit than at any
other.]
[Footnote 17: Ney, "the bravest of the brave," who dishonored his
bravery by the basest treachery, met with an equally melancholy fate.
Immediately after having, for instance, kissed the gouty fingers of
Louis XVIII. and boasting that he would imprison Napoleon within an
iron cage, he went over to the latter. He was sentenced to death and
shot, after vainly imploring the allied monarchs and personally
petitioning Wellington for mercy.--Alexander Berthier, prince of
Neufchatel, Napoleon's chief confidant, had, even before the outbreak
of war, thrown himself out of a window in a fit of hypochondriasis and
been killed.]
[Footnote 18: Talleyrand begged Count von der Goltz to use his
influence for its preservation with Bluecher, who replied to his
entreaties, "I will blow up the bridge, and should very much like to
have Talleyrand sitting upon it at the time!" An attempt to blow it up
was actually made, but failed.]
[Footnote 19: Many of whom were in fact wilfully blind. Hardenberg, by
whom the noble-spirited Stein was so ill replaced, and who, with all
possible decency, ever succeeded in losing in the cabinet the
advantages gained by Bluecher in the field, the diplomatic bird of ill
omen by whom the peace of Basel had formerly been concluded, was thus
addressed by Bluecher: "I should like you gentlemen of the quill to be
for once in a way exposed to a smart platoon fire, just to teach you
what perils we soldiers have to run in order to repair the blunders
you so thoughtlessly commit." An instructive commentary upon these
events is to be met with in Stein's letters to Gagern. The light in
which Stein viewed the Saxons may be gathered from the following
passages in his letters: "My desire for the aggrandizement of Prussia
proceeded not from a blind partiality to that state, but from the
conviction that Germany is weakened by a system of partition ruinous
alike to her national learning and national feelings."--"It is not for
Prussia but for Germany that I desire a closer, a firmer internal
combination, a wish that will accompany me to the grave: the division
of our national strength may be gratifying to others, it never can be
so to me." This truly German policy mainly distinguished Stein from
Hardenberg, who, thoroughly Prussian in his ideas, was incapable of
perceiving that Prussia's best-understood policy ever will be to
identify herself with Germany.]
[Footnote 20: Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 285.]
[Footnote 21: It was proposed that Lorraine and Alsace should be
bestowed upon the Archduke Charles, who at that period wedded the
Princess Henrietta of Nassau. The proposition, however, quickly fell
to the ground.]
[Footnote 22: Even in July, their organ, Goerres's Rhenish Mercury, was
placed beneath the censor. In August, it was said that the men,
desirous of giving a constitution to Prussia, had fallen into
disgrace.--Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 249. In September, Schmalz, in
Berlin, unveiled the presumed revolutionary intrigues of the
_Tugendbund_ and declared "the unity of Germany is something to which
the spirit of every nation in Germany has ever been antipathetic." He
received a Prussian and a Wurtemberg order, besides an extremely
gracious autograph letter from the king of Prussia, although his base
calumnies against the friends of his country were thrown back upon him
by the historians Niebuhr and Runs, who were then in a high position,
by Schleiermacher, the theologian, and by others. The nobility also
began to stir, attempted to regain their ancient privileges in
Prussia, and intrigued against the men who, during the time of need,
had made concessions to the citizens.--Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 276.]
[Footnote 23: The Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 349, laughs at the report of
their having withdrawn from the discussion, and says that they were no
longer invited to take part in it.]
[Footnote 24: On the loud complaints of the Rhenish Mercury, of the
gazettes of Bremen and Hanau, and even of the Allgemeine Zeitung, the
Austrian Observer, edited by Gentz, declared that "to demand a better
peace would be to demand the ruin of France."--Allgemeine Zeitung,
Nos. 345, 365. On Goerres's repeated demand for the reannexation of
Alsace and Lorraine, of which Germany had been so unwarrantably
deprived, the Austrian Observer declared in the beginning of 1816,
"who would believe that Goerres would lend his pen to such miserable
arguments. Alsace and Lorraine are guaranteed to France. To demand
their restoration would be contrary to every notion of honor and
justice." In this manner was Germany a second time robbed of these
provinces. Washington Paine denominated Strasburg, "a melancholy
sentry, of which unwary Germany has allowed herself to be deprived,
and which now, accoutred in an incongruous uniform, does duty against
his own country."]
[Footnote 25: The Invalids had in the same spirit cast the triumphal
monument of the field of Rossbach into the Seine, in order to prevent
its restoration. The alarum formerly belonging to Frederick the Great
was also missing. Napoleon had it on his person during his flight and
made use of it at St. Helena, where it struck his death-hour.]
[Footnote 26: He was descended from a noble race, which at a very
early period enjoyed high repute in Mecklenburg and Pomerania. In
1271, an Ulric von Bluecher was bishop of Batzeburg. A legend relates
that, during a time of dearth, an empty barn was, on his petitioning
Heaven, instantly filled with corn. In 1356, Wipertus von Bluecher also
became bishop of Ratzeburg, and, on the pope's refusal to confirm him
in his diocese on account of his youth, his hair turned gray in one
night. Vide Kluewer's Description of Mecklenburg, 1728.]
[Footnote 27: His wife, Catherine of Wuertemberg, was in 1814, attacked
during her flight, on her way through France and robbed of her
jewels.--_Allgemeine Zettung, No. 130._]
* * * * *
PART XXIII
THE LATEST TIMES
CCLXIV. The German Confederation
Thus terminated the terrible storms that, not without benefit, had
convulsed Europe. Every description of political crime had been
fearfully avenged and presumption had been chastised by the unerring
hand of Providence. At that solemn period, the sovereigns of Russia,
Austria, and Prussia concluded a treaty by which they bound themselves
to follow, not the ruinous policy they had hitherto pursued, but the
undoubted will of the King of kings, and, as the viceroys of God upon
the earth, to maintain peace, to uphold virtue and justice. This Holy
Alliance was concluded on the 26th of September, 1815. All the
European powers took part in it; England, who excused herself, the
pope, and the sultan, whose accession was not demanded, alone
excepted.
The new partition of Europe, nevertheless, retained almost all the
unnatural conditions introduced by the more ancient and godless policy
of Louis XIV. and of Catherine II. Germany, Poland, and Italy remained
partitioned among rulers partly foreign. Everywhere were countries
exchanged or freshly partitioned and rendered subject to foreign rule.
England retained possession of Hanover, which was elevated into a
German kingdom, of the Ionian islands, and of Malta in the
Mediterranean. Russia received the grandduchy of Warsaw, which was
raised to a kingdom of Poland, but was not united with Lithuania,
Volhynia, Podolia, and the Ukraine, the ancient provinces of Poland
standing beneath the sovereignty of Russia, and Finland, for which
Sweden received in exchange Norway, of which Denmark was forcibly
dispossessed. Holland was annexed to the old Austrian Netherlands and
elevated to a kingdom under William of Orange.[1] Switzerland remained
a confederation of twenty-two cantons,[2] externally independent and
neutral, internally somewhat aristocratic in tendency, the ancient
oligarchy everywhere regaining their power. The Jesuits were
reinstated by the pope. In Spain, Portugal, and Naples, the form of
government prior to the Revolution was reestablished by the ancient
sovereigns on their restoration to their thrones.
Alsace and Lorraine, Switzerland and the new kingdom of the
Netherlands, the provinces of Luxemburg excepted, were no longer
regarded as forming part of Germany. Austria received Milan and Venice
under the title of a Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, the Illyrian provinces
also as a kingdom, Venetian Dalmatia, the Tyrol,[3] Vorarlberg,
Salzburg, the Inn, and Hausruckviertel, and the part of Galicia ceded
by her at an earlier period. The grandduchy of Tuscany and the duchies
of Modena, Parma, and Placentia were, moreover, restored to the
collateral branches of the house of Habsburg.[4]--Prussia received
half of Saxony, the grand-duchy of Posen, Swedish-Pomerania,[5] a
great portion of Westphalia, and almost the whole of the Lower Rhine
from Mayence as far as Aix-la-Chapelle.[6] Since this period Prussia
is that one which, among all the states of Germany, possesses the
greatest number of German subjects, Austria, although more
considerable in extent, containing a population of which by far the
greater proportion is not German. Bavaria, in exchange for the
provinces again ceded by her to Austria, received the province of
Wurzburg together with Aschaffenburg and the Upper Rhenish Pfalz under
the title of Rhenish-Bavaria. Hanover received East Friesland, which
had hitherto been dependent upon Prussia. Out of this important
province, which opened the North Sea to Prussia, was Hardenberg
cajoled by the wily English. The electorates of Hesse, Brunswick, and
Oldenburg were restored. Everything else was allowed to subsist as at
the time of the Rhenish confederation. All the petty princes and
counts, then mediatized, continued to be so.
The ancient empire, instead of being re-established, was, on the 8th
of June, 1815, replaced by a German confederation, composed of the
thirty-nine German states that had escaped the general ruin; Austria,
Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, Wurtemberg, Baden, electoral Hesse,
Darmstadt, Denmark on account of Holstein,[7] the Netherlands on
account of Luxemburg, Brunswick, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Nassau,
Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Gotha (where the reigning dynasty became extinct,
and the duchy was partitioned among the other Saxon houses of the
Ernestine line), Saxe-Coburg, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Hildburghausen,
Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Holstein-Oldenburg, Anhalt-Dessau, Anhalt-
Bernburg, Anhalt-Kothen, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, Schwarzburg-
Rudolstadt, Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Lichtenstein, Hohenzollern-
Sigmaringen, Waldeck, Reuss the elder, and Reuss the younger
branch,[8] Schaumburg-Lippe, Lippe-Detmold, Hesse-Homburg: finally,
the free towns, Lubeck, Frankfort on the Maine, Bremen, and
Hamburg.[9] At Frankfort on the Maine a permanent diet, consisting of
plenipotentiaries from the thirty-nine states, was to hold its
session. The votes were, however, so regulated that the eleven states
of first rank alone held a full vote, the secondary states merely
holding a half or a fourth part of a vote, as, for instance, all the
Saxon duchies collectively, one vote; Brunswick and Nassau, one; the
two Mecklenburgs, one; Oldenburg, Anhalt, and Schwarzburg, one; the
petty princes of Hohenzollern, Lichtenstein, Reuss, Lippe, and
Waldeck, one; all the free towns, one; forming altogether in the diet
seventeen votes. In constitutional questions relating to regulations
of the confederation the _plenum_ was to be allowed, that is, the six
states of the highest rank were to have each four votes, the next five
states each three, Brunswick, Schwerin, and Nassau, each two, and all
the remaining princes without distinction, each one vote.[10]--Austria
held the permanent presidency. In all resolutions relating to the
fundamental laws, the organic regulations of the confederation, the
_jura singulorum_ and matters of religion, unanimity was required. All
the members of the confederation bound themselves neither to enter
into war nor into any foreign alliance against the confederation or
any of its members. The thirteenth article declared, "Each of the
confederated states will grant a constitution to the people." The
sixteenth placed all Christian sects throughout the German
confederation on an equality. The eighteenth granted freedom of
settlement within the limits of the confederation, and promised
"uniformity of regulation concerning the liberty of the press." The
fortresses of Luxemburg, Mayence, and Landau were declared the common
property of the confederation and occupied in common by their troops.
A fourth fortress was to have been raised on the Upper Rhine with
twenty millions of the French contribution money. It has not yet been
erected.
This was the new constitution given to Germany. According to the
treaty of Paris it could not be otherwise modelled, and it is
explained by the foreign influence that then prevailed. The diet
assembled at Frankfort on the Maine, and was opened by Count
Buol-Schauenstein with a solemn address, which excited no enthusiasm.
An orator in the American assembly at that time observed, "The
non-development of the seed contained in Germany appears to be the
common aim of a resolute policy."
All now united for the complete suppression of the German patriotic
party. In the former Rhenish confederated states, it had been treated
with open contempt[11] ever since Gentz had given the signal for
persecution in Austria. Prussia, however, also drove all those who had
most faithfully served her in her hour of need from her bosom. Stein
was compelled to withdraw to Kappenberg, his country estate. Gruner
was removed from office and sent as ambassador to Switzerland, where
he died. The Rhenish Mercury, that had performed such great services
to Prussia, was prohibited, and Gorres was threatened with the house
of correction.[12] All other papers of a patriotic tendency were also
suppressed. In Jena, Oken and Luden, in Weimar, Wieland the younger,
alone ventured for some time to give utterance to their liberal
opinions, which were finally also reduced to silence.
Patriotic enthusiasm was, however, not so speedily suppressed amid the
youthful students in the academies and universities. Jahn's gymnastic
schools (_Turnschulen_), the members of which were distinguished by
the German costume, a short black frock coat, a black cap, linen
trousers, a bare neck with turned-over shirt-collar, extended far and
wide and were in close connection with the _Burschenschaften_ of the
universities. The prescribed object of these _Turnschulen_ was the
promotion of Christian, moral, German manners, the universal
fraternization of all German students, the complete eradication of the
provincialism and license inherent in the various associations formed
at the universities. They wore Jahn's German costume and always acted
publicly, until their suppression, when the remaining members formed
secret associations. On the 18th of October, 1817, the students of
Jena, Halle, and Leipzig, and those of some of the more distant
universities, assembled in order to solemnize the jubilee on the three
hundredth anniversary of the Reformation, on the Wartburg, where, in
imitation of Luther, they committed a number of servile works,
inimical to the German cause, to the flames, as Goerres at that time
said, "filled with anger that the same reformation required of the
church by Luther should be sanctioned, but at the same time refused,
by the state." The black, red, and yellow tricolor was hoisted for the
first time on this occasion. These were in reality the ancient colors
of the empire and were regarded as such by the patriotic students, but
were purposely looked upon by the French and their adherents in
Germany as an imitation of the tricolored flag of the French republic.
The festival solemnized on the Wartburg was speedily succeeded by
others. The _Turner_, more particularly at Berlin and Breslau,
rendered themselves conspicuous not only by their dress but by their
insolence, boys even of the tenderest years putting themselves forward
as reformers of the government and of society, and singing the most
bloodthirsty songs of liberty. The Prussian government interfered, and
the gymnastic exercises, so well suited to the subjects of a warlike
state, were once more prohibited.
At the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, Stourdza, the Russian councillor
of state, a Wallachian by birth, presented a memorial in which the
spirit of the German universities was described as revolutionary. The
_Burschenschaft_ of Jena sent him a challenge. Kotzebue, the Russian
councillor of state and celebrated dramatist, at length published a
weekly paper in which he turned every indication of German patriotism
to ridicule, and exercised his wit upon the individual eccentricities
of the students affecting the old German costume, of precocious boys
and doting professors. The rage of the galled universities rose to a
still higher pitch on the discovery, made and incontestably proved by
Luden, that Kotzebue sent secret bulletins, filled with invective and
suspicion, to St. Petersburg. To execrate Kotzebue had become so
habitual at the universities that a young man, Sand from Wunsiedel, a
theological student of Jena, noted for piety and industry, took the
fanatical resolution to free, or at least to wipe off a blot from his
country, by the assassination of an enemy whose importance he, in the
delusion of hatred, vastly overrated; and he accordingly went, in
1819, to Mannheim, plunged his dagger into Kotzebue's heart, and then
attempted his own life, but only succeeded in inflicting a slight
wound. He was beheaded in the ensuing year. Loning, the apothecary,
probably excited by Sand's example, also attempted the life of the
president of Nassau, Ibell, who, however, seized him, and he committed
suicide in prison. These events occasioned a congress at Carlsbad in
1819, which took the state of Germany into deliberation, placed each
of the universities under the supervision of a government officer,
suppressed the _Burschenschaft_, prohibited their colors, and fixed a
central board of scrutiny at Mayence,[13] which acted on the
presupposition of the existence of a secret and general conspiracy for
the purposes of assassination and revolution, and of Sand's having
acted not from personal fanaticism and religious aberration, but as
the agent of some unknown superiors in some new and mysterious
tribunal. This inquisition was carried on for years and a crowd of
students peopled the prisons; conspiracies perilous to the state were,
however, nowhere discovered, but simply a great deal of ideal
enthusiasm. The elder men in the universities, who, either in their
capacity as tutors or authors, had fed the enthusiasm of the youthful
students, were also removed from their situations. Jahn was arrested,
Arndt was suspended at Bonn and Fries at Jena; Gorres, who had
perseveringly published the most violent pamphlets, was compelled to
take refuge in Switzerland, which also offered an asylum to Dewette,
the Berlin professor of theology, who had been deprived of his chair
on account of a letter addressed by him to Sand's mother. Oken, the
great naturalist, who refused to give up "Isis," a periodical
publication, also withdrew to Switzerland. Numbers of the younger
professors went to America.[14] The solemnization of the October
festival was also prohibited, and the triumphal monument on the field
of Leipzig was demolished.
[Footnote 1: William V., the expelled hereditary stadtholder, died in
obscurity at Brunswick in 1806. His son, William, had, in 1802,
received Fulda in compensation, but afterward served Prussia, was, in
1806, taken prisoner with Moellendorf at Erfurt and afterward set at
liberty, served again, in 1809, under Austria, and then retired to
England, whence he returned on the expulsion of the French to receive
a crown, which he accepted with a good deal of assurance, complaining,
at the same time, of the loss of his former possession, Fulda, a
circumstance strongly commented upon by Stein in his letters to
Gagern. William, in return for his elevation to a throne by the arms
of Germany, closed the mouths of the Rhine against her.]
[Footnote 2: Zurich, Berne, Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Glarus,
Zug, Freiburg, Solothurn, Basel, Schaffhausen, Appenzell, St. Gall,
the Grisons, Aargau, Constance, Tessin, the Vaud, Valais, Neuenburg
(Neufchatel), Geneva. The nineteen cantons of 1805 remained _in statu
quo_, only those of Valais, Neufchatel, and Geneva were confederated
with them, and Pruntrut with the ancient bishopric of Basel were
restored to Berne.]
[Footnote 3: The deed of possession of the 26th June, 1814, runs as
follows: "Not by an arbitrary, despotic encroachment upon the order of
things, but by the hands of the Providence that blessed the arms of
your emperor and of the allied princes and by a holy alliance are you
restored to the house of Austria."]
[Footnote 4: Tuscany fell to Ferdinand, the former grandduke of
Wurzburg; Modena to Francis, son of the deceased duke, Ferdinand;
Parms and Placantia to Maria Louisa, the wife and widow of Napoleon.]
[Footnote 5: Not long before, in the treaty of Kiel, there had been
question of bestowing Swedish-Pomerania upon Denmark; to this Prussia
refused to accede and Denmark agreed to take 2,600,000 dollars in
compensation. Prussia was also compelled to pay 3,500,500 dollars to
Sweden.]
[Footnote 6: Rehfues, the director of the circle, a Wurtemberg
Protestant, published a circular at Bonn, in which he promised full
religious security to the Catholic inhabitants, whom he reminded of
Prussia's having been "the last supporter of the order of
Jesus."--_Allgemeine Zeitung of 1814, No. 234._]
[Footnote 7: Holstein alone, not Schleswig, was enumerated as
belonging to the German confederation, although both duchies were long
ago closely united by the _nexus socialis_, more particularly in the
representation at the diet.]
[Footnote 8: The Reusses, formerly imperial governors of Plauen,
diverged into so many branches that, as early as 1664, they agreed to
distinguish themselves by numbers, which at first amounted to thirty,
but at a later period to a hundred, afterward recommencing at number
one. The family took the name of Reuss from the Russian wife of its
founder, in the beginning of the fourteenth century.]
[Footnote 9: Hamburg had vainly petitioned for the restitution of her
bank, of which she had been deprived by Davoust. She received merely a
small portion of the general war tax levied upon France.]
[Footnote 10: Austria and Prussia contain forty-two million
inhabitants; the rest of Germany merely twelve million; the power of
the two former stands consequently in proportion to that of the rest
of Germany as forty-two to twelve or seven to two, while their votes
in the diet stood not contrariwise, as two to seven, but as two to
seventeen in the plenary assembly, and as two to fifteen in the lesser
one.]
[Footnote 11: Aretin, who, at the time of the Rhenish confederation,
insolently mocked and had denounced every indication of German
patriotism, ventured to say in his "Alemannia," in the beginning of
1817, "'The patriotic colors,' 'the voice of the people,'
'nationality,' 'the extirpation of foreign influence,' are words now
forgotten, magic sounds that have lost their power."]
[Footnote 12: By Sack, the government commissary, who even confiscated
the Rhenish Mercury, an earlier and unprohibited paper, and arrested
the printer, against which Goerres violently protested in a letter
addressed to Sack. Goerres made a triumphant defence before the
tribunal at Treves, and observed, "Strange that the most violent enemy
to France should seek the protection of French courts!"]
[Footnote 13: The names of these inquisitors were Schwarz, Grano,
Hoermann, Bar, Pfister, Preusschen, Moussel.]
[Footnote 14: Charles Follen, brother to the poet Louis Adolphus
Follen, private teacher of law at Jena, a young man of great spirit
and talent, who at that period exercised great influence over the
youth of Germany, was wrecked, in 1840, in a steamer in North America
and drowned.]
CCLXV. The New Constitutions
Germany had, notwithstanding her triumph, regained neither her ancient
unity nor her former power, but still continued to be merely a
confederation of states, bound together by no firm tie and regarded
with contempt by their more powerful neighbors. The German
confederation did not even include the whole of the provinces whose
population was distinguished as German by the use of the German
language. Several of the provinces of Germany were still beneath a
foreign sceptre; Switzerland and the Netherlands had declared
themselves distinct from the rest of Germany, which, hitherto
submissive to France, was in danger of falling beneath the influence
of Russia, who ceaselessly sought to entangle her by diplomatic wiles.
There were still, however, men existing in Germany who hoped to
compensate the loss of the external power of their country by the
internal freedom that had been so lavishly promised to the people on
the general summons to the field. The proclamation of Calisch and the
German federative act guaranteed the grant of constitutions. The
former Rhenish confederated princes, nevertheless, alone found it to
their interest to carry this promise into effect, and, in a manner,
formed a second alliance with France by their imitation of the newly
introduced French code and by the establishment, in their own
territories, of two chambers, one of peers, the other of deputies,
similar to those of France; measures by which, at that period of
popular excitement, they also regained the popularity deservedly lost
by them at an earlier period throughout the rest of Germany, the more
so, the less the inclination manifested by Austria and Prussia to
grant the promised constitutions. Enslaved Illuminatism characterizes
this new zeal in favor of internal liberty and constitutional
governments, to denote which the novel term of Liberalism was borrowed
from France. Liberty was ever on the tongues--of the most devoted
servants of the state. The ancient church and the nobility were
attacked with incredible mettle--in order to suit the purposes of
ministerial caprice. Prussia and Austria were loudly blamed for not
keeping pace with the times--with the intent of favorably contrasting
the ancient policy of the Rhenish confederation. None, at that period,
surpassed the ministers belonging to the old school of Illuminatism
and Napoleonism in liberalism, but no sooner did the deputies of the
people attempt to realize their liberal ideas than they started back
in dismay.
The first example of this kind was given by Frederick Augustus, duke
of Nassau, as early as the September of 1814. Ibell, the president,
who reigned with unlimited power over Nassau, drew up a constitution
which has been termed a model of "despotism under a constitutional
form." The whole of the property of the state still continuing to be
the private property of the duke, and his right arbitrarily to
increase the number of members belonging to the first chamber, and by
their votes to annul every resolution passed by the second chamber,
rendered the whole constitution illusory. Trombetta, one of the
deputies, voluntarily renounced his seat, an example that was followed
by several others.--The second constitution granted was that bestowed
upon the Netherlands in 1815, by King William, who established such an
unequal representation in the chambers between the Belgians and Dutch
as to create great dissatisfaction among the former, who, in revenge,
again affected the French party. This was succeeded, in 1816, by the
petty constitutions of Waldeck, Weimar, and Frankfort on the Maine.--
Maximilian, king of Bavaria, seemed, in 1817, to announce another
system by the dismissal of his minister, Montgelas, and, in 1818,
bestowed a new constitution upon Bavaria; but the old abuses in the
administration remained uneradicated; a civil and military state
unproportioned to the revenue, the petty despotism of government
officers and heavy imposts, still weighed upon the people, and the
constitution itself was quickly proved illusory, the veto of the first
chamber annulling the first resolution passed by the second chamber.
Professor Behr of Wurzburg, upon this, energetically protested against
the first chamber, and, on the refusal of the second chamber to vote
for the maintenance of the army on so high a footing, unless the
soldiery were obliged to take the oath on the constitution, it was
speedily dissolved.--In Baden, the Grandduke Charles expired, in 1818,
after having caused a constitution to be drawn up, which Louis, his
uncle and successor, carried into effect. Louis having, however,
previously, and without the consent of the people, entered into a
stipulation with the nobility, to whom he had granted an edict
extremely favorable to their interests, Winter, the Heidelberg
bookseller, a member of the second chamber, demanded its abrogation.
The answer was, the dissolution of the chamber, personal inquisition
and intimidation, and the publication of an extremely severe edict of
censure, against which, in 1820, Professor von Rotteck of Freiburg,
supported by the poet Hebel and by the Freiherr von Wessenberg,
administrator of the bishopric of Constance, protested, but in
vain.--At the same time, that is, in 1818, Hildburghausen, and even
the petty principality of Lichtenstein, which merely contains two
square miles and a population amounting to five thousand souls, also
received a constitution, which not a little contributed to turn the
whole affair into ridicule.--To these succeeded, in 1819, the
constitutions of Hanover and Lippe-Detmold, the former as aristocratic
as possible, completely in the spirit of olden times, solely dictated
and carried into effect by the nobility and government officers. The
sittings of the chambers, consequently, continued to be held in
secret.--The dukes of Mecklenburg abolished feudal servitude, which
existed in no other part of Germany, in 1820.--In Darmstadt, the
constitution was granted by the good-natured, venerable Grandduke
Louis (whose attention was chiefly devoted to the opera), after the
impatient advocates, who had collected subscriptions in the Odenwald
to petitions praying for the speedy bestowal of the promised
constitution, had been arrested, and an insurrection that consequently
ensued among the peasantry had been quelled by force.--Petty
constitutions were, moreover, granted, in 1821, to Coburg, and, in
1829, to Meiningen. The Gotha-Altenburg branch of the ducal house of
Saxony became extinct in 1825 in the person of Frederick, the last
duke, the brother of Duke Augustus Emilius, a great patron of the arts
and sciences, deceased 1822. Gotha, consequently, lapsed to Coburg,
Altenburg to Hildburghausen, and Hildburghausen to Meiningen.
In Wurtemberg, the dissatisfaction produced by the ancient despotism
of the government was also to be speedily appeased by the grant of a
constitutional charter. The king, Frederick, convoked the Estates, to
whom he, on the 15th of March, 1815, solemnly delivered the newly
enacted constitution. But here, as elsewhere, was the government
inclined to grant a mere illusory boon. The Estates rejected the
constitution, without reference to its contents, simply owing to the
formal reason of its being bestowed by the prince and being
consequently binding on one side alone, instead of being a stipulation
between the prince and the people, and moreover because the ancient
constitution of Wurtemberg, which had been abrogated by force and in
direct opposition to the will of the Estates, was still in legal
force. The old Wurtemberg party alone could naturally take their
footing upon their ancient rights, but the new Wurtemberg party, the
mediatized princes of the empire, the counts and barons of the empire,
and the imperial free towns, nay, even the Agnati of the reigning
house,[1] all of whom had suffered more or less under Napoleon's iron
rule, ranged themselves on their side. The deputy, Zahn of Calw, drew
a masterly picture of the state of affairs at that period, in which he
pitilessly disclosed every reigning abuse. The king, thus vigorously
and unanimously opposed, was constrained to yield, and the most prolix
negotiations, in which the citizen deputies, headed by the advocate,
Weisshaar, were supported by the nobility against the government,
commenced.
The affair was, it may be designedly, dragged on _ad infinitum_ until
the death of the king in 1816, when his son and successor, William,
who had gained a high reputation as a military commander and had
rendered himself extremely popular, zealously began the work of
conciliation. He not only instantly abolished the abuses of the former
government, as, for instance, in the game law,[2] but, in 1817,
delivered a new constitution to the Estates. Article 337 was somewhat
artfully drawn up, but in every point the constitution was as liberal
as a constitutional charter could possibly be. But the Estates refused
to accept of liberty as a boon, and rejected this constitution on the
same formal grounds upon which they had rejected the preceding one.
The Estates were again upheld by a grateful public, and the few
deputies, more particularly Cotta and Griesinger, who had defended the
new constitution on account of its liberality and who regarded form as
immaterial, became the objects of public animadversion. The populace
broke the windows of the house inhabited by the liberal-minded
minister, von Wangenheim. The poet Uhland greatly distinguished
himself as a warm upholder of the ancient rights of the people.[3] The
king instantly dissolved the Estates, but at the same time declared
his intention to guarantee to the people, without a constitution, the
rights he had intended constitutionally to confer upon them; to
establish an equal system of taxation, and "to eradicate bureaucracy,
that curse upon the country." The good-will displayed on both sides
led to fresh negotiations, and a third constitution was at length
drawn up by a committee, composed partly of members of the government,
partly of members belonging to the Estates, and, in 1819, was taken
into deliberation and passed by the reassembled Estates. This
constitution, nevertheless, fell far below the mark to which it had
been raised by public expectation, partly on account of the retention,
owing to ancient prejudice, of the permanent committee and its
oligarchical influence, party on account of the too great and
permanent concessions made to the nobility in return for their
momentary aid,[4] partly on account of the extreme haste that marked
the concluding deliberations of the Estates, occasioned by their
partly unfounded dread of interference on the part of the congress
then assembled at Carlsbad.
In Wurtemberg, however, as elsewhere, the policy of the government was
deeply imbued with the general characteristics of the time.
Notwithstanding the constitution, notwithstanding the guarantee given
by the federative act, liberty of the press did not exist. List, the
deputy from Reutlingen, was, for having ventured to collect
subscriptions to petitions, brought before the criminal court,
expelled the chamber by his intimidated brother deputies, took refuge
in Switzerland, whence he returned to be imprisoned for some time in
the fortress of Asberg, and was finally permitted to emigrate to North
America, whence he returned at a later period, 1825, in the capacity
of consul. Liesching, the editor of the German Guardian, whose liberty
of speech was silenced by command of the German confederation, also
became an inmate of the fortress of Asberg.
In Hesse and Brunswick, all the old abuses practiced in the petty
courts in the eighteenth century were revived. William of Hesse-Cassel
returned, on the fall of Napoleon, to his domains. True to his
whimsical saying, "I have slept during the last seven years," he
insisted upon replacing everything in Hesse exactly on its former
footing. In one particular alone was his vanity inconsistent:
notwithstanding his hatred toward Napoleon, he retained the title of
Prince Elector, bestowed upon him by Napoleon's favor, although it had
lost all significance, there being no longer any emperor to elect.[5]
He turned the hand of time back seven years, degraded the councillors
raised to that dignity by Jerome to their former station as clerks,
captains to lieutenants, etc., all, in fact, to the station they had
formerly occupied, even reintroduced into the army the fashion of
wearing powder and queues, prohibited all those not bearing an
official title to be addressed as "Herr," and re-established the
socage dues abolished by Jerome. This attachment to old abuses was
associated with the most insatiable avarice. He reduced the government
bonds to one-third, retook possession of the lands sold during
Jerome's reign, without granting any compensation to the holders,
compelled the country to pay his son's debts to the amount of two
hundred thousand rix-dollars, lowered the amount of pay to such a
degree that a lieutenant received but five rix-dollars per mensem, and
offered to sell a new constitution to the Estates at the low price of
four million rix-dollars, which he afterward lowered to two millions
and a tax for ten years upon liquors. This shameful bargain being
rejected by the Estates, the constitution fell to the ground, and the
prince elector practiced the most unlimited despotism. Discontent was
stifled by imprisonment. Two officers, Huth and Rotsmann, who had got
up a petition in favor of their class, and the Herr von Gohr, who by
chance gave a private fete while the prince was suffering from a
sudden attack of illness, were among the victims. The purchasers of
the crown lands vainly appealed to the federative assembly for
redress, for the prince elector "refused the mediation of the
federative assembly until it had been authorized by an organic law
drawn up with the co-operation of the prince elector himself."--This
prince expired in 1821, and was succeeded by his son, William II., who
abolished the use of hair-powder and queues, but none of the existing
abuses, and demonstrated no inclination to grant a constitution. He
was, moreover, the slave of his mistress, Countess Reichenbach, and on
ill terms with his consort, a sister of the king of Prussia, and with
his son. Anonymous and threatening letters being addressed to this
prince with a view of inducing him to favor the designs of the writer,
he had recourse to the severest measures for the discovery of the
guilty party; numbers of persons were arrested, and travellers
instinctively avoided Cassel. It was at length discovered that Manger,
the head of the police, a court favorite, was the author of the
letters.
Similar abuses were revived by the house of Brunswick. It is unhappily
impossible to leave unmentioned the conduct of Caroline, princess of
Brunswick, consort to the Prince of Wales, afterward George IV., king
of England. Although this German princess had the good fortune to be
protected by the Whig party and by the people against the king and the
Tory ministry, she proved a disgrace to her supporters by the
scandalous familiarity in which she lived in Italy with her
chamberlain, the Italian, Pergami. The sympathy with which she was
treated at the time of the congress was designedly exaggerated by the
Whigs for the purpose of giving the greatest possible publicity to the
errors of the monarch. Caroline of Brunswick was declared innocent and
expired shortly after her trial, in 1821.
Charles, the hereditary duke of Brunswick, son to the duke who had so
gallantly fallen at Quatrebras, was under the guardianship of the king
of England. A constitution was bestowed in 1820 upon this petty
territory, which was governed by the minister, Von Schmidt-Phiseldek.
The youthful duke took the reins of government in his nineteenth year.
Of a rash and violent disposition and misled by evil associates, he
imagined that he had been too long restricted from assuming the
government, accused his well-deserving minister of having attempted to
prolong his minority, posted handbills for his apprehension as a
common delinquent, denied all his good offices, and subverted the
constitution. He was surrounded by base intriguers in the person of
Bosse, the councillor of state, formerly the servile tool of
Napoleon's despotism, of Frike, the Aulic councillor, "whose pliant
quill was equal to any task when injustice had to be glossed over," of
the adventurer, Klindworth, and of Bitter, the head of the chancery,
who conducted the financial speculations. Frike, in contempt of
justice, tore up the judgment passed by the court of justice in favor
of the venerable Herr von Sierstorff, whom he had accused of high
treason. Herr von Cramm, by whom Frike was, in the name of the
Estates, accused of this misdemeanor before the federative assembly,
was banished, a surgeon, who attended him, was put upon his defence,
and an accoucheur, named Grimm, who had basely refused to attend upon
Cramm's wife, was presented with a hundred dollars. Haeberlin, the
novelist, who had been justly condemned to twenty years' imprisonment
with hard labor for his civil misdemeanors, was, on the other hand,
liberated for publishing something in the duke's favor. Bitter
conducted himself with the most open profligacy, sold all the
demesnes, appropriated the sum destined for the redemption of the
public debt, and at the same time levied the heavy imposts with
unrelenting severity. The federative assembly passed judgment against
the duke solely in reference to his attacks upon the king of England.
[Footnote 1: The king bitterly reproached his brother Henry, to whom
he said, "You have accused me to my peasantry."--_Pfister History of
the Constitution of Wuertemberg._]
[Footnote 2: Pfister mentions in his History of the Constitution of
Wurtemberg that merely in the superior bailiwick of Heidenheim the
game duties amounted, in 1814, to twenty thousand florins, and five
thousand two hundred and ninety-three acres of taxed ground lay
uncultivated on account of the damage done by the game, and that in
March, 1815, one bailiwick was obliged to furnish twenty-one thousand
five hundred and eighty-four men and three thousand two hundred and
thirty-seven horses for a single hunt.]
[Footnote 3: Colonel von Massenbach, of the Prussian service, who has
so miserably described the battle of Jena and the surrender of
Prentzlow in which he acted so miserable a part, and who had in his
native Wuertemberg embraced the aristocratic party, was delivered by
the free town of Frankfort, within whose walls he resided, up to the
Prussian government, which he threatened to compromise by the
publication of some letters. He died within the fortress of Cuestrin.]
[Footnote 4: The mediatized princes and counts of the empire sat in
the first chamber, the barons of the empire in the second. The
prelates, once so powerful, lost, on the other hand, together with the
church property, in the possession of which they were not reinstated,
also most of their influence. Instead of the fourteen aristocratic and
independent prelates, six only were appointed by the monarch to seats
in the second chamber. Government officers were also eligible in this
chamber, which ere long fell entirely under their influence.]
[Footnote 5: He endeavored, but in vain, to persuade the allied powers
to bestow upon him the royal dignity.]
CCLXVI. The European Congress--The German Customs' Union
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