Mr. REDHEAD YORKE'S WEEKLY POLITICAL REVIEW.

Vol. II. N°2.

Saturday, January 10, 1807.

Price 10d.

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17 HISTORICAL.

Retrospect of the Affairs of Europe in 1806.

The conclusion of the treaty of peace between Austria and France, put an end to that noble confederacy, which had been framed by the matchless wisdom of Mr. Pitt, for the purpose of restoring the liberties and independence of Europe. Even after the pusillanimous capitulation of the Austrian general at Ulm, the public cause might have been sustained with effect, had the king of Prussia united his forces to those of the confederated powers. All the grounds of former jealousies between the houses of Brandenburgh and Austria had ceased to operate, from the moment that a third power, ignorant of its language, customs, and laws, had penetrated into the heart of the empire, and threatened the Germanic constitution itself with dissolution. Prussia was not insensible of the common danger: but, instead of pursuing those measures, which her proper interest and duty prescribed to her, she plunged into the vortex of French diplomacy; in the shadowy and delusive hope, that what the public would lose by the humiliation of her ancient rival, would be counterbalanced by her acquisitions in the midst of the general delapidation, and by the aggrandizement and consequent preponderance which she would thenceforward maintain in the empire. Under the impression of this misguided and fallacious policy, the king of Prussia, with a well-appointed army, which was in every respect ca pable of deciding the contest, hovered on the frontiers of Franconia, like a bird of prey, waiting to devour the spoils of the respective combatants. At one time, Prussia seemed disposed to abandon the greedy system of neutrality, which had formed the distinguishing feature of her councils since the year 1794. If it were possible to suppose that our sovereign could have offered Hanover in fee to the king of Prussia, as the condition of his co-operation, there is little doubt that the Prussian army would have acted with the allies. It is impossible, at this time, to say with confidence, what would have been the effect of such an offer upon the general system of Europe; but there can be no hesitation in stating, that an offer so splendid would have been considered throughout the world, as the most generous and sincere pledge which the sovereign of the British empire could have given, of his thorough comprehension of the dangers of the continent, and of his inflexible determination, supported by the patriotism of his people, to spare no sacrifices, not even the hereditary and personal appen lage of his dignities, in the prosecution of the great cause which so deeply involved the interests of Europe. A sacrifice made under such circumstances. would not have revolted the minds of the British people. For, recol lecting the blood which they had spilt, and the millions of treasure which they had expended, for the preservation of that electorate; and comparing these facts with their inability to wrest it from the hands by which it had been usurped, they would have regarded the cession of Hanover, not as a forfeiture of honour on their part, but as a signal instance of magnanimity on the part of their sovereign; which, so far from diminishing the stability or lustre of his throne, would cause it to take roct in the centre of their soil, and its ramifications to be irradiated with additional glory throughout every part, not only of the British empire, but of the civilized world. It would, indeed, have been a sacrifice, or rather a cession and not a sacrifice, to public good; for how could that have been esteemed a sacrifice, which would have endeared still more (if it be possible) the sovereign to the British people, and which would have been repaid by them with interest an hundred fold? However ungrateful these truths may sound in some ears, I feel it my duty as a subject, who cannot be exceeded in devotion to THE KING, and as a Briton, to avow my decided opinion, that the most proximate cause of the evils we deplore, is to be found in the non-cession of Hanover. I do not want to be told that the absolute cession was ever solicited-if it had been, that circumstance alone should have determined

perfectly right

its retention. But, a gratuitous cession would, I repeat, have averted the calamities of Europe; and it would, at the same time, have been an handsome preliminary to the augmentation of the income granted by parliament to the younger branches of the royal family, and which was cheerfully, and readily acquiesced, in by a bur thened, but loyal people.

It was obvious, from the uniform-tone of the Prussian cabinet, that the accession of a Prussian army could never be obtained upon public principles; and that the only means which remained to ensure the active co-operation of that power, was by territorial aggrandizement. For twelve years the king of Prussia had played the part of a French postillion; and the only answer ever made by his cabinet to the representations of the legitimate monarchs of Europe, was, in the language of the postillion mounting his horse, combien à payer. He would have driven to the devil for a few acres of ground, at an earlier stage of the business; and it was only when he discovered that his frauds had revolted the minds of the German nation, and had been over-reached by his more dextrous ally, the ruler of France, that he felt himself ashamed of his conduct, and, with the fervour of a true penitent, confessed all his sins, embarked in a single crusade against his heretic friend, and waged war against this mighty Saracen, with the chivalrous spirit of a crusader.

However, the peace of Presburgh placed the house of Austria in a state of sequestration; and bequeathed to the remaining powers of the continent an ample field for contest, in the division of the Germanic empire. The Russian army returned home after its co-operation was no longer required; the Prussians broke up from Franconia; Buonaparte was left undisputed master of the field, and, as might have been foreseen, dictator of the states of Germany. But, though Austria had fulfilled, to the utmost extent of her power, all the stipulations contained in the treaty of Presburgh; yet the French camps were planted along her western frontier line in an hostile attitude. The pretext was, that Catarro was not evacuated: and, on the same pretext, Brannau was retained by the French. When the seeds of a furious and general war had thus begun to spring up, and were visible to every one who did not contemplate the interest of Europe, except with a jaundiced cyc; the baleful politics of Mr. Fox acquired an unfortunate ascendancy in the British cabinet. A negociation for peace was rashly entered upon, if not eagerly courted. The blessings of peace were harbingered in political pamphlets, and re-echoed by infatuated partizans. Peace was greeted by the friends and admirers of Mr. Fox,. but the island

-trembled at the hideous name, and sigh’d

From all her caves, and back resounded Death!

In despight, however, of the general terror, the infatuated admirer of France prosecuted his pernicious purposes and, in his zeal for accomplishing the object of his most mistaken policy, he overlooked the principles of, manly-pride and dignity, which ought never to bo separated from the character and correspondence of a British statesman. Thus, while discord was sent from heaven, to restora, by its operations, the reign of Astræa, our minister was engaged in extinguishing the allowed flame, by whose glimmering light along the rest of the world were capable of tracing the path that led.to liberty and preservation. « Russia, in the depths of her recesses of ice and snow, was silently preparing the dreadful materials that were for ever to decide the question of.continental independence. Austrin; severely-wounded, but hot exanimate, was occupied in the reparation of her sufferings; and under the auspicious administration of the future deliverer of Germany, the adored hero of her armies, replenished those battalions, which treachery, ignorance, or cowardice, had reduced, France, bloated with success, insolent-in victory, and mercenary'in -her protections, now threw aside the mask of peace, beneath which her aspiring ambition of universal empire had been faintly concealed; and, with a presumptuous hand, not less daring than politie for herself,-tore asunder the consecrated charter, which, since the, celebrated peace, of Westphalia, had formed, and cemented the basis of Germanic independence. The contederation of the Ritine was the early

See the king of Prussia's manifesto, in which he conqully avows, that he has been a dupe, a cheat, a thief, and a fool

progeny of French conquest. From the moment of its annunciation, Prussia began to be alarmed; and now, for the first time, the deluded monarch of that country perceived that he had been for years the greatest enemy to himself and to Europe. Previous to this transaction; he had taken possession of Hanover, as a conquest, in the strict sense of the feodal-terin; and had thereby, together with other circumstances connected with its pecupation, such as the exclusion of British comme.co from his ports, &c. gayelved inimself in a war with Great Britain. Hanover was the sole cause. That war was not parked by any peculiar features; but the audication of the imperial throne by the emperor of Austria; the subsequent confederation of the Rhinesthe numberless innovations in the Germanic constitution; and the avowed declaration of the French government, that Prussia possessed Hanover only as a tenant at will, induced the cabinet of Berlin to determme, at length, to make an appeal to arms,

The public spirit of the Prussian people was sublimed by the grandeur of the contest;, it was cherished by the influence of a mid government, and indignant at the .consciousness of past degradation. Their king took the field, and viewed from tis tent one of the finest armies of Europe. He took a position to cover Saxony. He forsook the admonitions of that experience, which the repeated victories of France had inculcated; and, in the loss of a battle, he lost a kingdom; but events have since shewn, that if he had lost his hononr in the moment of prosperity, he has most nobly redeemed and preserved it in the day of adversity.

I have abstained from giving any narrative of the events that have occurred upon the continent, because, the usual channels of information through which we were enabled to compare, and finally to discriminate between, the respective accounts of the hostile parties, were interrupted, if not wholly closed. The only authentic documents which have reached this country relative to the operations of the different divisions of the broken armies of Prussia, are, the reports of prince Hohenloe and of general Blucher. But these reports, though highly interesting, are confined exclusively to the movements of the corps which those able generals commanded, after the signal defeat which the grand. Prussian army sustained at Auerstadt. In consequence of this lamentable deficiency of intelligence, the French have hitherto remained as completely masters of the press of Europe, as they appear to be of the fields of battie. Having had occasion frequently to detect and to expose the falsehoods and misrepresentations contained in the official bulletins of the French armies; prudence suggested the propriety of delaying, as long as po-sible, the historical detail of their transactions, until the arrival of some communication, in an official form, from the' opposite quarter: But, as there is no prospect of such a communication being made to the public, while the French spread their victorious banners as far as the banks of the Vistula, we must endeavour to supply the chasm, by taking their bulletins as the substratum of our history, and relate in a summary yet perspicuous manner, the fortunes of the war from its commencement to the present time...

In a former number of the first volume of this Review, the relative position of the combatants was amply, and, as events have since proved, correcly explained. From the complexion of their circumstances, at that period, it was inferred, that, though the Prussians might be worsted in the first engagement, yet, from the strength of the positions which they could occupy in their rear; from the uncommonly ardent patriotism displayed by all classes of men; and from the collective strength of their auxiliaries, the fortune of war might be kept suspended until the arrival of the Russian forces. At first sight, this opinion may appear to have been too sanguine. But, by attending to all the circumstances on which it was originally formed, I trust, it will carry its own conviction with it. When I promulgated my opinion, I naturally reckoned upon the accuracy of his Prussian majesty's declaration, wherein it is stated, that Princes, the honour of the German name, who can confide in his gratitude and honour, and who, fighting by his side, are not dubious of victory, have joined their banners with his." From this positive statement, it was reasonable to conclude, that the great secondary princes of Germany,

* See the manifesto of the king of Prussia in our first volume.

who had ever been considered as acting under the immediate influence of the cabinet of Berlin, were prepared to take the field in support of the Prussian cause. fact, however, was otherwise: for, with the exception of the elector of Saxony, The not one of them joined his forces to those of the king of Prussia. The elector of Hesse, with the consent of the king of Prussia and Buonaparte, remained neutral: the duke of Brunswick also entered into a similar stipulation, which was acquiesced in by Prussia, but disregarded by the French ruler. Instead, therefore, of a pow erful auxiliary army constituting the right wing of the Prussians, and presenting a formidable barrier to the irruptions of the enemy, the Prussian army was left wholly without support in that quarter: from which circumstance, it was obviously the duty of the Prussians, after they had neglected to avail themselves of the many opportunities in their power of annihilating the French divisions as they advanced successively, to have acted on the defensive; because the inevitable consequence of their defeat, in a general action, would be, the complete exposure of the electorate of Brandenburgh to the mercy of the invader. Hence, when I asserted that every thing seemed favourable to the Prussians, I grounded my opinion on the assurance of an effective co-operation, which, we now. discover, they never received. But even this assurance was not the only foundation of that inference; for it was repeatedly and distinctly urged, in many of the preceding numbers, that the fortune of the campaign would materially depend upon the acknowledged prudence of the Prussian generals, derived from the frequent opportunities they had of ruminating over the French mode of warfare; whence they might have learnt, that the most certain method of defeating the French was not by fighting with them after their own manner, but by eluding their attacks. Little indeed was it to have been expected, that veterans trained in the school of Frederick the Great, and grown hoary in battles and war, would have suffered themselves to be influenced by the headstrong and blind impetuosity of younger and less experienced men. Little was it to have been expected, that generals, nursed in the cradle of adversity, and who had passed the greater part of their lives in camps, amidst all the vicissitudes of fortune attendant on war, should have shewn themselves so ignorant of their profession, or so regardless of its rules, as to risk the fate of a kingdom upon the doubtful issue of a single battle, without having made the least provision against defeat, without having formed any connected plan of operations, and without having placed the strong holds in their rear in a condition to check the progress of the conqueror, and to cover their own retreat. The result of this infatuation was, that immediately after the fatal battle of Auerstadt, the Prussian army, which the day before was the pride of Germany, and the hope of the civilized world; was scattered and dispersed, like a gay, numerous, and triumphant fleet, overtaken by the tempest, but scattered and dispersed to meet no more. That ascendancy of military reputation; that empire, formerly in compact, and without mutual relation, which cost, in the space of seven years, more battles and sieges to cement than had been fought during the war of forty years, were levelled with the dust by a policy, ever wavering, but always selfish; tardy in the support of the public, but precipitate in the furtherance of its own interests; cool and calculating before war, but rash and inconsiderate in conducting it, after it had commenced. The pomp of the strength of Prussia has ceased. As Englishmen, we must bewail the catastrophe of Prussia, because it has augmented the military glory, and swelled the pride of the conqueror; but, as men who reflect dispassionately on the effects of retributive justice, we cannot do otherwise than consider the disasters of Prussia as signal instances wherein Providence hath dispensed its unerring judgment on fraud, perfidy, and covetousness. It is not, therefore, the king of Prussia, whose fallen condition excites our commiseration, but desolated Europe, which, through his misfortunes, bleeds at every pore. If it be urged, that this interposition of Providence in the chastisement of a legitimate sovereign seems to arraign the superintending wisdom of the governor of the universe, while the victorious disturber of the peace of nations is suffered to pursue, uninterrupted, his course of triumphant iniquity, I answer, "FEAR YE NOT, STAND STILL, AND SEE THE SALVATION OF THE LORD:" the hour of final retribution is not yet come; the punishment, "in measure," of him through whose vicious tergiversation, the enemy of God and

man has been hitherto so unsuccessful, seems more consonant with all-seeing justice to inflict, as a memorable example to this and after ages, of the awful consequences of a systematic departure from the rules of probity and honour. The whirlwind has gone forth against Prussia, but vengeance may be yet in store against France. After other nations shall have felt the scourge for their vices, the reserved and collected thunder of heaven will intercept the career of the pupil of Destiny, and crush, in one tremendous visitation, that Babel of crimes which has been cemented by the blood and tears of a suffering world. Then will the veil, which has shrouded from human sight, the ordinations of Divine Justice, be partly removed, and in the measures of general punishment, we shall learn to acknowledge the severity of the means employed to make the common enemy of Europe a dreadful example to mankind.

Illi Justitiam confirmavere triumphi;

Præsentem docuere Deum! nunc secula discant

Indomitum nihil esse pio, tutumve nocenti.

At a moment, thus big with the fate of the civilized world, the British parliament was dissolved; and the opinion of the people resorted to, when, with the exception of a particular faction, there was no difference of sentiment among them.

PARLIAMENTARY.

On the 15th ult. the new parliament assembled, when the house of commons unanimously re-elected their former speaker, Mr. Abbott; and, on the 19th, the lords commissioners delivered the following speech in his majesty's name:

"My lords and gentlemen,-His majesty has commanded us to assure you, that in the difficult and arduous circumstances under which you are now assembled, it is a great satisfaction to him, to recur to the firmness and wisdom of his parliament, after so recent an opportunity of collecting the sense of his people.

"His majesty has ordered the papers which have been exchanged in the course of the late negotiation with France to be laid before

you.

"His majesty has employed every effort for the restoration of general tranquillity, on terms consistent with the interests and honour of his people, and with that invioLable good faith towards his allies by which the conduct of this country has always been distinguished.

"The ambition and injustice of the enemy disappointed these endeavours, and in the same moment kindled a fresh war in Europe; the progress of which has been attended with the most calamitous events.

"After witnessing the subversion of the antient constitution of Germany, and the subjugation of a large proportion of its most considerable states, Prussia found herself still more nearly threatened by that danger which she had vainly hoped to avert by so many sacrifices. She was, therefore, at length compelled to adopt the resolution of openly resisting this unremitted system of aggrandizement and conquest. But neither this determination, nor the succeeding measures, were previously concerted with his majesty; nor had any disposition been shewn to offer any adequate satisfaction for those aggressions which had placed the two countries in a state of mutual hostility.

"Yet in this situation his majesty did not hesitate to adopt, without delay, such measures as were best calculated to unite their councils and interests against the common enemy.

"The rapid course of the calamities which ensued, opposed insurmountable difficulties to the execution of this purpose.

"In the midst of these disastrous events, and under the most trying circumstances, the good faith of his majesty's allies has remained unshaken. The conduct of the king of Sweden has been distinguished by the most honourable firmness. Between his majesty and the emperor of Russia the happiest union subsists; it has been cemented by reciprocal proofs of good faith and confidence; and his majesty doubts not that you will participate in his anxiety to cultivate and confirm an alliance which affords the best remaining hope of safety for the continent of Europe. "Gentlemen of the house of commons,-His majesty looks with confidence to your assistance in those exertions which the honour and independence of your Bountry demand. The necessity of adding to the public burthens will be painful to