than enemies and rivals attempting by diplomatic means the arrangement of differences which had for years been deluging Europe with blood. Whatever flatteries could be suggested by the consummate genius and mature experience of Napoleon, were lavished, and produced their natural effects, on the mind of a young autocrat, of great ambition, and as great vanity. The intercourse of the emperors assumed by degrees the appearance of a brotherlike intimacy. They spent their mornings in reviewing each other's troops, or in unattended rides; their evenings seemed to be devoted to the pleasures of the table, the spectacle, music, dancing, and gallantry. Meantime, the terms of a future alliance were in effect discussed and settled, much more rapidly than could have been expected from any of the usual apparatus of diplomatic negotiation.

The unfortunate king of Prussia was invited to appear at Tilsit; but, complying with this invitation, was admitted to no share of the intimacy of Napoleon. The conqueror studiously, and on every occasion, marked the difference between his sentiments respecting this prince and the young and powerful sovereign, for whose sake alone any shadow of royalty was to be conceded to the fallen house of Brandenburg. The beautiful and fascinating queen also arrived at Tilsit; but she was treated even more coldly and harshly than her husband. Involuntarily tears rushed from her eyes as she submitted to the contemptuous civilities of Napoleon. His behaviour to this admirable person rekindled with new fervour the wrath and hatred of every Prussian bosom; and her death, following soon afterward, and universally attributed to the cruel laceration which all her feelings as a woman and a queen had undergone, was treasured as a last injury, demanding, at whatever hazard, a terrible expiation.

The treaty of Tilsit, to which, as the document

itself bore testimony, the king of Prussia was admitted as a party solely by reason of Napoleon's "esteem for the emperor of Russia," was ratified on the 7th July. Napoleon restored, by this act, to Frederick William, ancient Prussia and the French conquests in Upper Saxony-the king agreeing to adopt "the continental system," in other words, to be henceforth the vassal of the conqueror. The Polish provinces of Prussia were erected into a separate principality, styled "the grand dutchy of Warsaw," and bestowed on the elector of Saxony; with the exception, however, of some territories assigned to Russia, and of Dantzic, which was declared a free city, to be garrisoned by French troops until the ratification of a maritime peace.

The

Prussian dominions in Lower Saxony and on the Rhine, with Hanover, Hesse Cassel, and various other small states, formed a new kingdom of Westphalia, of which Jerome Buonaparte, Napoleon's youngest brother, was recognised as king; Jerome having at length made his peace with his brother by repudiating his wife, an American lady of the name of Patterson, and consenting to a new alliance, more consonant with the views of the emperor, with a daughter of the king of Wirtemberg. The elector of Saxony was recognised as another king of Napoleon's creation; Joseph Buonaparte as king of Naples; and Louis, of Holland. Finally, Russia accepted the mediation of France for a peace with Turkey, and France that of Russia for a peace with England.

Such were the public articles of the peace of Tilsit: but it contained secret articles besides; and of these the English government were, ere long, fortunate enough to ascertain the import.

The British cabinet had undergone a complete change in March, 1807-the management of affairs passing from the friends and heirs of Mr. Fox into the hands of Mr. Perceval and other statesmen of

the school of Pitt. The unhappy conduct of the war had rendered the preceding government eminently unpopular; and the measures of the new one assumed from the beginning a character of greater energy. But the orders which had been given must be fulfilled; and the councils of 1806 bequeathed a fatal legacy in the disastrous expeditions of 1807. Lord Granville Leveson Gower* (the minister at St. Petersburg) was ere this time prepared to offer to the czar such subsidies as he had in vain expected when preparing for the campaign of Poland; but it was too late to retrieve the error of the preceding cabinet; and the English ambassador, being unable to break off the negotiations at Tilsit, was compelled to bestow all his efforts on penetrating the secrets of the compact wherein they ended.

The result of his exertions was the complete assurance of the government of St. James's, that the emperor of Russia had adopted the alliance of Napoleon to an extent far beyond what appeared on the face of the treaty of the 7th July; that he had agreed not only to lay English commerce, in case his mediation for a peace should fail, under the same ban with that of the decrees of Berlin, but to place himself at the head of a general confederation of the northern maritime powers against the naval supremacy of England; in other words, resign his own fleets, with those of Denmark, to the service of Napoleon. In requital of this obligation the French emperor unquestionably agreed to permit the czar to conquer Finland from Sweden-thereby adding immeasurably to the security of St. Petersburg. On the other hand, it is almost as impossible to doubt that Alexander pledged himself not to interfere with those ambitious designs as to the Spanish peninsula, which Napoleon was ere long to develope, and which were destined ultimately to work his ruin.

Now viscount Granville.

In a word, there seems to be little doubt that Napoleon broached at Tilsit the dazzling scheme of dividing the European world virtually between the two great monarchs of France and Russia; and that the czar, provided he were willing to look on, while his imperial brother of the west subjected Spain, Portugal, and England to his yoke, was induced to count on equal forbearance, whatever schemes he might venture on for his own aggrandizement, at the expense of the smaller states of the north of Europe, and, above all, of the Ottoman porte.

Napoleon, having left strong garrisons in the maritime cities of Poland and Northern Germany, returned to Paris in August, and was received by the senate and other public bodies with all the triumph and excess of adulation. The Swedish king abandoned Pomerania immediately on hearing of the treaty of Tilsit. In effect, the authority of the emperor appeared now to be consolidated over the whole continent of Europe. He had reached indeed the pinnacle of his power and pride:-henceforth he was to descend; urged downwards, step by step, by the reckless audacity of ambition and the gathering weight of guilt.

CHAPTER XXII.

British Expedition to Copenhagen-Coalition of France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, against English Commerce-Internal Affairs of France-The Administration of Napoleon-His Council of State -Court-Code-Public Works Manufactures-Taxes--Military Organization-The Conscription.

THE English government, being satisfied that the naval force of Denmark was about to be employed for the purposes of Napoleon, determined to anticipate him, while it was yet time, and to send into the Baltic such a fleet as should at once convince the court of Copenhagen that resistance must be vain, and so bring about the surrender of the vessels of war (to be retained by England, not in property, but in pledge, until the conclusion of a general peace), without any loss of life or compromise of honour. Twenty-seven sail of the line, carrying a considerable body of troops under the orders of Sir Arthur Wellesley (a name already illustrious in the annals of the Anglo-Indian empire), appeared before the capital of Denmark in the middle of August, and found the government wholly unprepared for defence. The high spirit of the crown prince, however, revolted against yielding to a demand which imperious necessity alone could have rendered justifiable on the part of England: nor, unfortunately, were these scruples overcome until the Danish troops had suffered severely in an action against the British general, and the capital itself had been bombarded during three days, in which many public buildings, churches, and libraries perished, and the private population sustained heavy loss both of life and property. The Danish fleet being at length surrendered, the English armament withdrew with