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knows how to conquer and to pardon."

An address of this nature could not have been published in the Diary of Porto, if it had not been conformable to Soult's own views, and probably to the expectations which Buonaparte had encouraged him to form. On another occasion, when he gave audience to a second deputation from Braga, and to the civil, religious, and military authorities of Porto, the obsequious traitors requested he would permit them, till the supreme intentions of the Emperor should be ascertained, to swear fidelity to his most worthy representative, who had so many claims to the love, respect, and gratitude of the Portugueze. Soult expatiated, as usual, in his reply, on the numerous blessings which were about to be showered upon Portugal under a French master. "As to what concerns myself," he added, "I feel myself obliged by the frank expressions which you have used relative to my person, but it does not depend upon me to answer them."

This "worthy representative" of Ali Buonaparte, proceeded, as his master had done before him in Egypt, to show his attachment to the religion of the people whom he came to govern. There is a famous crucifix, known by the name of Nosso Senhor de Bouças, in the little town of Matosinhos, which is situated upon the coast about a league from Porto. According to tradition it is the oldest image in Portugal, being the work of Nicodemus, and though the workman neither attempted to repre

sent muscle nor vein, it is affirmed that there cannot be a more perfect and excellent crucifix. Antiquarians discovered another merit in it, for there has been a controversy concerning the number of nails used in the crucifixion, and in this, four are represented, agreeing with the opinion of St Gregory of Tours, and the revelation made to the Swedish St Bridget. The sea cast it up, and its miraculous virtue was soon attested by innumerable proofs. One of the arms was wanting. When it was found, the best sculptors were employed to supply this deficiency, but in vain ; in spite of all their cunning, not one of them could produce an arm which would fit the place for which it was designed. One day a poor but pious woman, as she was gathering shellfish upon the beach and drift-wood for fuel, picked up a wooden arm there, which she, supposing that it had belonged to some ordinary and profane image, laid upon the fire. The reader will be at no loss to imagine, that it sprung out of the flames, that the neighbours collected at the vociferations of the woman,-that the priests were ready to carry it in procession to the church of N. Senhor, and that the moment it was applied to the stump to which it belonged, a miraculous junction was effected. Our Lord of Bouças became from that time one of the most famous idols in all Portugal; and on the day of his festival five and twenty thousand persons have sometimes been assembled at his church, coming there in pilgrimage from all parts.

The matter is of more importance than may perhaps be immediately perceived by a protestant. For more than three of these nails are shown as relics in different churches, and, therefore, if only three, according to the prevailing opinion, were used, the fourth must be spurious, and thus, as all cannot be genuine, a doubt is east upon the authenticity of each.

To this idol Marshal Soult thought proper to offer his devotions. He and his staff visited the church, and prostrating themselves before the altar, paid, says his journal, that tribute of respect and reverence which religion requires of those who are animated with the true spirit of Christianity. "There cannot," continued the hypocritical traitor who recorded this piece of mummery," there cannot be a more affecting and interesting spectacle, than to see a great man humbling himself in the presence of the King of kings and Sovereign Disposer of empires:-all the inhabitants of Matosinhos who were present at this religious solemnity, were wrapt in extasy!" The French marshaltestified his great concern at hearing that the plate and jewels and ornaments of the church had been carried off, and he promised the rector, that he would offer two large silver candlesticks himself to Nosso Senhor, and dedicate a silver lamp to him, and assign funds to keep it burning night and day, and, moreover, that he would double the stipend of the rector and the sacristan. "Let this fact," said his penman, "be contrasted with what we have been told respecting the irreligion of the French troops and their leaders! It is time to open our eyes, and to acknowledge the hand of Providence in the events which have befallen us. How fortunate are we that Heaven has destined us to be governed by a hero who possesses a heart disposed to be deep ly and warmly impressed with all the majesty of our holy religion, and who aspires only to make it shine forth with new and never-fading splendour! Let the calumniators be confounded, and the timid be tran

quil; our hopes ought to be re-animated now that they have obtained a support, which, resting on religion, and lifting its head above the storms, promises them entire realization."

Not a word of restoring the spoils of the church had been said by Marshal Soult,-his promise of the lamp and the funds for the oil, and the increase of salaries, was confirmed by a decree in which he dedicated the lamp, assigned a revenue of sixteen milreas for its support, and doubled the incomes. As far as the decree went he performed his promise-and no farther. His situation, indeed, was becoming too perilous to allow him time for the farce of superstition. While on one hand the success of the Galicians alarmed him,-on the other he learnt that the English, instead of evacuating Lisbon, were expecting a fresh army there; and that General Beresford was already arrived, with the title of field-marshal conferred upon him by the Prince of Brazil, to take the command of the Portugueze army, and reorganize it. He had experienced the courage and the patriotism of the Portugueze, and knew that discipline was all they wanted to make them as formidable in the field as their forefathers. From the center of Spain, notwithstanding the victories at Ciudad Real and Medellin, he could expect little assistance, so rapidly had the Spaniards re-formed their armies, and from France itself no reinforcements were to be looked for, for Buonaparte was even obliged to withdraw troops from the peninsu la, that he might be enabled to withstand the Austrians, who had now taken advantage of the murderous contest in Spain, once more to make a stand against the tyrant of Europe.

CHAP. XXIV.

Changes in Germany since the Treaty of Campo Formio. Preparation for War on the part of Austria. Commencement of Hostilities, and repeated Defeats of the Austrians. Buonaparte appears before Vienna.

By the treaty of Campo Formio the Emperor of Germany ceded the Austrian Netherlands, the Brisgaw, Lombardy, and those other Italian possessions which France had formed into one of its ephemeral states, then called the Cisalpine Republic; he consented to receive Venice in return, and to divide the Venetian territories with France;-a transaction for which it is difficult to say whether most infamy attached to the iniquitous power which, without provocation or pretext, attacked and destroyed that ancient state, or to the sovereign who sanctioned and guaranteed the villainous usurpation, by consenting to share the spoils. By the secret articles of the same treaty the emperor ceded to France all the imperial territories beyond the Rhine, with the towns and fortresses of Mentz, Ehrenbreitstein, Philipsburg, Manheim, Kunigstein, Ulm, and Ingolstadt; and for the house of Austria, the Frickthal, with all the territory which it possessed on the left bank of the Rhine. For these heavy sacrifices he was to receive the archbishoprick of Saltzburg and part of Bavaria,-possessions which, like those of the Venetian republic, honour and the law of nations, if either had been regard.

ed, would have forbidden him to accept. Into this treaty Austria had been frightened by Buonaparte, just at the time when it had the fairest opportunity of retrieving its disasters. Into that of Luneville it was beaten by Moreau. This differed little from the former, except that the emperor submitted to see his brother deprived of Tuscany. Tuscany was the only part of Italy which had flourished under a mild and equitable government, and thus the attachment and the loyalty of its inhabitants were signed away.

During the four years of peace which ensued, Buonaparte, who had now established a military despotism in France, pursued his plans of aggression and aggrandizement in Germany. For more than a century past, it had been usual, in the many wars which took place between Austria and France, that the circles situated along the Rhine should confederate for their mutual defence. This policy was turned against the house of Austria, and Francis II. could no longer conceal from himself that the Holy Empire,-the Empire, as by a prouder and exclusive title it claimed to be called, that venerable and mighty body, of which the complicated confusion had hitherto, so it was boasted, been

divinely preserved,-was on the point of dissolution. He felt that it was impossible to prevent this, and, in order that Vienna might still remain an imperial court, he had recourse to the expedient of creating himself Emperor of Austria. The hereditary dominions of that house, if he could preserve them, with what had been added by the infamous partition of Poland, and the no less unprincipled annexation of the Venetian states, were of such extent and importance, that Austria would still remain among the first-rate powers. There was pride in this measure; but it was not of an ennobling nature, not such as would have been displayed by Maria Theresa. A third war followed. Prussia, pursuing that vile policy of which she was soon to receive the righteous reward, stood neutral; Baden, Wirtemberg, and Bavaria joined with France. Sixty thousand Austrians, commanded by a coward and a traitor, laid down their arms at Ulm. They themselves cannot be excused for submitting to such a capitulation. As soon as Mack's intentions were declared, the second in command ought to have discharged his duty to his prince and his country, by putting him to death, and then bidding defiance to the enemy. The conqueror marched to Vienna, which made no resistance. Francis witnessed the battle of Austerlitz himself, and, dismayed at the defeat, sent the next morning to solicit peace. He purchased it by the cession of the Venetian states to Buonaparte, and by ceding part of his own lawful territories to the traitorous German powers, whom he was compelled to pay for serving against him. The Tyrol and Voralberg, in particular, were ceded to Bavaria, and the humbled Austrian acknowledged the electors of

that country and of Wirtemberg as kings, which it had pleased the Corsican to make them.

This peace was signed at Presburg in December 1805;-at Presburg, where Maria Theresa, in the midst of her distresses, rode up the Royal Mount, and in the old Hungarian form, and the old Hungarian spirit, brandishing the sword of St Stephen, defied the four corners of the world. In the July of the following year the Confederation of the Rhine was form ed, under the protection of the Emperor of France. The German powers who thus formally renounced the laws and titles of the empire were the new ly-created Kings of Bavaria and Wir temberg, the Archbishop of Ratis bon, as Prince Primate, the Grand Dukes, as they were now denomina. ted, of Baden, Berg, Hesse-Darmstadt, Nassau-Weilbourg, and NassauUsingen; the Princes of Hohenzol lern-Hechingen and Seigmaringen, Salm-Salm, Salm-Kyrburg, Isenburg Birstein and Lichtenstein, the Duke of Ahremberg, and the Prince of Leyn. They contracted, federatively and individually, an alliance with the Emperor of France, by virtue of which every continental war in which either was engaged was to be common to all. The contingent of the confederates was determined at 200,000 men for France, 30,000 for Bava ria, Wirtemberg 12,000, Baden 8000, Berg 5000; the others 4000 each. This was in fact rendering these Ger man states so many feuds of France. The German empire was thus virtu ally destroyed; and a few days after the articles of the confederacy had been ratified, Francis II. formally abdicated the empire, which he no longer held, remaining, however, an emperor still, by virtue of his own cre ation, and, no doubt, congratulating

himself upon the foresight which had thus secured him from any loss of rank.

It was now expected that a similar confederation would be formed, under the protection of Prussia, on the north of the Mayne. The hopes of some such aggrandizement, perhaps of erecting an empire in the north of Germany, had long been the mainspring of Prussian policy; with this view Frederick had insolently seized on Hanover, and complacently beheld the distress and humiliation of Austria and of the German people. His old hereditary enmity was now gratified the empire had been wrested from the house of Hapsburg, and he came forward to contest it with France. The prize deserved a struggle; but Prussia had for fourteen years pursued the system of what certain English politicians call husbanding her resources, and the necessary effects of that system were now demonstrated. An army, of which the far greater part had never seen service, and the rest had forgotten it, was brought into the field, against men who for fourteen years had known scarcely any intermission of war. The wreck was complete. The veteran General Blucher made a retreat which his great master might have approved. The Duke of Brunswick received his mortal wound; he died in a good cause, but his death could neither remedy the consequences nor efface the shame of that execrable manifesto, which maddened the people of Paris, and led the way to the worst horrors of the revolution. It would aggravate the sufferings of old Frederick in that purgatory, to which the most charitable faith must consign him, if he beheld the battle of Jena and the events which followed. His successor, indeed, was not beaten intoim

VOL. II. PART I

mediate submission; but Buonaparte proceeded to Berlin, and fortresses, which might have held out months and years, were surrendered, by cowardice or by corruption, without resistance. The czar, in conjunction with his unfortunate ally, still however bravely continued the war: two battles were fought of which the event was doubtful, and Austria or England might have delivered Europe. But England pursued the husbanding system, and Austria looked on while the house of Brandenburg was destroyed, with as much satisfaction as that house had felt in witnessing the humiliation of Austria. A third battle took place, which would not have been more decisive than the former, if Buonaparte had not subdued the weak mind of Alexander. A treaty was the consequence, which is one of the most scandalous instances of political perfidy; the czar had sworn friendship upon the tomb of Frederick the Great to his ally the King of Prussia, and by this treaty he consented to receive part of the territories of that ally, from Buonaparte, as the price of entering into an alliance with France! Other territories, of which Prussia and the weaker states were despoiled, were now formed into the kingdom of Westphalia, for Jerome Buonaparte; Saxony was made a kingdom for having deserted Prussia; and the Confederation of the Rhine, by the accession of new members, was extended to the banks of the Elbe.

In all the states which were newly erected, or newly modelled by these arrangements, the conscription was introduced. This curse is an invention of Prussian tyranny; but its universal extension over the continent is the work of France,-acountry which has propagated its moral and political, as well as physical evils, wherever its

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