The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1806-02-11 00:00:00

t towerful slimy. Oa the seeesd day of the year, I ho ad.lreend h.sisself in the language of r-ace, im. menet-1y to tin Broish Sovereign. Through oho medi-ira of Lord .lelgrave, the S2cretary of State foe Foreign Alairs, George 111. returned an an sorer, which destroyed the nope of the restoration of tranluillity, and rejeftel the overtures of his antagonist, before he knew what were his inten tions, or the terms of rovinciliatiun. The war nne assuasad a fiercer charaftJr. Spain became involved in it, an.l new Trench fleets, which Na p“leos had built, left their oorts, and put to sea,. troteslested on the part of Britain. The prepara.' Cons at Boulogne were meanwhile augmented. While Napoleon fixed one eye on this point, he directed the other so the fair Italian Peninsula. fee •nty.tbree Depaties of the Italian Republic, who veer• assembled at Paris, carried to the Emperor N amid the acclamations of the French, t. „,1 the iron crown of the Lom')ards, bltt Cie t* . siden .tiai-m of the whole Pennsuta of I:3Ty. • Bonaparte was the first that ever enj , :yed est. new dignity : on the 17th of March it was 'mired on his head with the' Imperial Crown of France, and was declared to be hereditary in the malt line of his direct and legitimate descendants, either by marriage or adoption. From Faris, the se)ne of this extraordinary spectacle was removed so Mn,ae to which city Napoleon, surround-d by his go irds, mai attended by e brii:i.int retinue, ' peneeeJeJ by way of Lyons and Turin. It was rh•rs tint the Gernwan Empowers once-visited Italy. • 461131 of May was not Ins splendid than the id atiripat nber of the pres.rding year On that day, • • die Cementation of Napoleon, as Kin. • Italy. was perforated in the Cathedral of Milan ; on which oew Inlielk the Emperor himself, placing the Iron Cl4,wareabia head. exclaimed Wre to him who shall attempt to deprive me of it !" He had made a house provision. for his security than the Chhos of reviser ages. He nominated his step-son, Prince tiskime Dirmsbaraois, Viceroy of It-ly ; and, left behind s, large army, which he had himself mus. Ned in the plains of Marengo. Rot Wore Napoleon returned to ,he bench em pires be aogmented it with a Republic, the pos. Seaalell of which, had, for centuries, been coveted by Trance; a country ccataining ninety geographical spi c e, miles, a population of more thin fo ur hurdled tho and inhabitants , with fine harbours u ctuk *nd resources far the navy, and for commerce. Duren.), the last Doge of Genoa, at the head of **potation. n the si.:h of June, conveyed to the Emperor, e wi.h, that Liguria might he made an j , ismorral part\ of the French Empire. Napoleon cc soloed the ssitteneers offer t and, on the 30th of June, **paired to 4:eisoa, whete he ratified the union..... _ Thies- Iles-stined three new departments. At the same chilli, laic Duchies of Parma, Piacenza. and Guastalla, ere mo.tified after tie F r en c h m an . net, and were a zed to th e 23ils military division. Froin'Ttaly. il Emperor of th e F renc h h astene d to the coasts, whe 150,000 war r i ors were assem . Sled. On this gra d theatre he pa sse d t h e mont h si lrki. of Anguet , and ex cited the troops in the neigh. bourhond of Smiltigne. Evety thing seemed so denote that the important moment had now arrived Inv striking the decisive blow, and the demi-official Paris Journals already announced that the long expected tragedy was on the point of commencing. Napoleon, however, was at that moment sur prised by the speedy consequences of his conduct in Italy, and the extension of the limits of France. , The Cabinet of Berlin had foreseen them, and ex pressed its concern on the subject, stating, at the same time, that in consequirece of the late change. in Italy, and particularly the incorporation of the litzur I o nltepublic with France, the Russian Pleni-* .. n :i as y Novesikaoff, who had been dispatched to . .... negotiate a genera, peace, had received orders not to continue his Journey to France. This was soots followed by declarations on *the part of Austria, rcl.stive to the fate of (lenesa, and ether measures ; and these gave o:casion to a farther alive di e le- MilAtie correspondence. Scarcely bad the French Minister at Ratistion declared, that any step against the Gertran Ernpiie, and especially ayainst B a y w i s, would he considered by Napoleon as a declarallost of war, arb-o an Austrian army as.. sealahlest at Welt. on the nth of September crossed the lass, Inkier the command of Central Mick, ad mated into Bavaria, and continued its rr.nrch thentigh Mankh WWI other places, to the Lech and en Swiskia, in order to remove the theatre of war frems the Austrian hereditary dominions. Fate d.-ere-of eche, wise. A little month trans ported the forroidable French array from the shares at the rcean to the T".ine. Napoleon, who, ate. g.,ged in she e:pediti ot of invasion, b a d nut ex . peled sash A 'pee is , appeal to 01-ms, took a solemn lesive Willi. :reach `senate, on the `23d of Septem ber, s•-t••+,, t'te C.l;osst i r ag day fur Strasburg, to join the ire „, v ,,,,,,, h a , x ,: l e aokmented by the most AC— tivc exertions to •:to(*.t/G4. mess, and coodusac.l it to Vicilna and to 11::lau. Th;, continental weir. commenced whl►out coy previous declarations. or solemn manifestoes, re -I•eved Great Britain. though irs corrinnance was but short, from a situation highly perilous. By the• war which had broken oat with Spain, at the , ginningmf the year. it had been rendered sun more critical. Neptune seemed himself to have deserted the cause of Britain, and to favour the operations of the fleets of France. In vain Admiral Coehrane pursued the squadron under Rear-Admiral hlissi es►i, that had escaped from Rochefort, and re turned in safety, after pillaging the English islands •of Dominica, Montstrrat, and St. Kitts, and hay. ing d:,ne considerable injury to the West India mid... The Toulon fleet likewise escaped from tle ir confinement, released the Spani-h fleet, block aeie.l in Cadiz, and jiining it, sailed to the Vs'est Indies, where the English had not expefted such a force. Lard Nelson was meanwhile seeking his opponents on the coasts of Egypt, and in the Si. cilian seas. The Admirals Villeneuve and Gra negleCted to take advantage of the weakness of the English. Fortune must be caught land, unless we seize the favourable moment, she escapes for ever. That moment vras past for the combined French and Spanish fleet. when Nelson. whose ar dour. disappointftent seemed only to increase, traced them out, and appeared at Barbadoes They instantly quitted tee West Indian seas, having there merely taken pc/session of the Diamond Rock, near Martinique. Fortunate it was for them. I that they were not overtaken by Nelsun; and that an indecisive engagement, in which the interim squadron of Sir Robert Calder to , k from them two ships, i tureen Corunna and Ferrol, did not pre vent their return into the ports of Spain. As little as the English made the French feel their superiority by sea, so little were they capable of effeeling against the rocks of Boulogne, and the batteries which proteded the armament, destined for the invasion. The ingeniuus means of destruc tion wets found to be inadequate to the end for which they were contrived, and the force collated on the coast, opposite to England, was increased to a magnitude so tremendous, that the execution of the grand undertaking for the annihilation of Eng land, seemed to be near at hand. This external danger was attended with domestic divisions in the British Government. Several of its members sup ported the public charge, by which the Opposition elicited the expulsion of Lord Melville, the First Lord of the Adnairahy, from the Royal Councils. A partial change of Administration was even ren dered necessary. While the British Senate was thus the theatre of party animosity, the Colossus of English East India was shaken by the restless Hol kar, and other Mahratta Princes. The shores of t►e Ganges exhibited many melancholy traits, as a counterpart to the history of the establishment of . the Spanish Colonies in Mex i co and Peru. Superior power maintained its ground, but the manner in which it was exercised, produced a living convic tion, that the vast fabric must, some time or other, fall to pieces. from its own weight. The flames of war were kindled on the Continent —their light illuminated the gloomy kingdom of England. That power secured anew the posses sion of the commanding trident, sealed with the blood of her greatest naval Hero, by the most bril liant victory ever recorded in the annals of naval warfare. By Nelson it was gained off Cape Tra falgar, over the superior fleet of France and Spain, led on by Fate from the harbour of Cadiz, to meet the Angel of Death, who had so long pursued them. Never had the world witnessed such a sea fight as that fought on the 21st of Oftober, nff the coast of Spain. It far surpassed the memorable engagement in the West Indies, on the 12th of April, 1782 ; it WAS infinitely more bloody and more decisive. Out of 33 French and Spanish ►hips of the line, eight were cartied into English ports, including those taken by Sir R. Strachan ; sixteen were destroyed ; six were cartieJ as wrecks into Cadiz, and three only remained fit for setvice out of this formidable fleet, with which 20,0 , 4 seamen and Lend forces were at the same time lost, in killed ■nd prisoners. This victory, dearly purchased, indeed, by the death of the glorious Nelson, destroyed, for a long pe riod, the hopeful bud of the French naval power, which again began to /upend. under the auspices of Nit; okon. England was the sonl of the continental war. P:tt's active policy had effected a coalition, after long exertions, and the formation of the must jit cious plans. English gold sat the allies in motina on every site. Nap Aeon, with his army, which had been destined for the invasion, now hastened to meet Austria, whose army, amounting to oo more than So,ooo men, had advanced into Soabia, with a view to 1114111t.1i1l its ground them till it sliottld he reinforced by the arrival of its Russian allies. The French armies, resembling the migra tion of nations , frustrated this plan : 1 ,o,uoo men, under the immediate dire tion of the French Em peror, crossed the Rhine ; the Ernie: from lizilland au.l I-Tanorer hastenod to *pia them, and tliwe German FRince., memhers rif the fir.t col:e g e ut the Fmpire, unites' themselves to thy power of France This must admirably condone. mass over whelme." the G.trmart army of Hi: lrc:;.•crial Majesty it .i..r the Archduke FerJinar.J aiiJ Geiteral pack; And its misfortune. were completed by the non-ar rival of the Russians, anJ the forcible poss.ge of A powerful Fredch and Bavarian army through the neutral Prussian ttrritory of the Principolity of .'in spac'i, which could not possiuly eater into the sphere of military c ticuiation.. Tt.is rer.Jers it perfelly intelligible how the eleven d4ys, from the 7.11 to tin I;th ot o.!lobef.: could prove decisive of the fats of the Austriae army, though it had not eaperiewced any capital di.avter. The General-in-Chief, the Archduke Ferdinand, saved only a small part of it, by retreat ing to Bohemia ; the rest cf the troops composing this gallant army, being cut off from Bavaria and the hereditary states, was obliged to capitultte. On the very day on which the Combined Fleet was annihilated off Cape Trafalgar, 23,000 men, with whom General Mack had suffered himself to be surrounded, laid down their arms before the gars of Ulm. The French stated the total number of Austrian prisoners at 60,000 mcn, amang wl.orn were 25 Generals. In fire, it was not tens of thou sands that led to the many great events by which the year 1505 will b.! eternized. History was con verted into Romance. The concluding Jays of this wonderful year brougl t to maturity events still more important. The disaster of the Imperial arms at 1./Im, opened Napoleon the way to the metropolis of the German Emperor. With his viltorious force, before which the corps of Kienmayer, joined by the tiro Russian army, slowly retreated, he crossed the Inn, and penetrated into the heart of Amtria. On the 13th of November, Vienna first beheld the hu.tile ban ners. Having taken possession of that m.rtropolis, the French pursued the retreating Russians to the left bank of the Danube, the bridges across which they found uninjured, into Moravia, which um:- peaedly drew upon itself the eyes of the world. The battle of Attsyrlits, on the 23 of De cember, the greatest is modern history, infinitely more bloody than that of Marengo, was immedi ately succeeded by a truce between the Emperors of France and Austria, and the opening of Le gociations for peace. The R , lssian army, whose loss had been supplied by fresh reinforcements of troops, began to withdrac ; and the magnanimous Alexander returned, in conwq , nee of the tines pelted pac:fication, to his own dominions. In two months, Napoleon terminated this tremendous war. Scarcely was the arrnistize announced, when the Archduke Charles made his appearance in the vici nity of the Imperial metropolis. With a view to its deliverance, this Pri; ce, the pride of the German aa:ion, had condud/ed his unconquered army out of Italy, after reptilslog, at the battle of Caldiero, thelerench Marshal, Mossena, the darling of vilfory, who endeavoured to prevent his retreat. This great Sobieski of the present age, arrived suffic'ently early for his military fame; but too late for the well are of the Austrian Monarchy, when most valuable parts and fairest provinces, together with the residence of the Cwsars, remained, sd u t ter%m, under the domination of Franco, in conse quence of the suspension of arms concluded in Moravia. The hope which put a period to the ca tastrophe of :633, could not be cherished on this occasion. In this helpless situation, that relief from oppression, for which millions of faithful subjelts implored their Emperor, could be expelled only from negotiation. The declining year gratified this wish before its close, and extinguished the flames which itself had kindled. On the 7th of Oanber, the curtain of this great tragedy was drawn up at Neuhurg, and at Presburg it fell, on the 27th of December. A war reductive of results sn important, that continued only eleven weeks and three days, Was unexampled in history. The peace tigned at Ptesburg, it is true, delivered the Austrian cap tal from the pre,- sure of foreign arms ; but this negative advantage, which was realized in the first v.seks of the new year, was dearly purchased by the loss of provinces that were the bulwarks of the m nirchy, and by sa crifices for which no adequate compensation could be expelled. Italy had been the principal obje.ft of there t om_ prehensive plans. The war, which was to have overthrown its newly-formed political constituti , :n, only served, br its issue, so contrary to its in' •ntin to btreagthen still more the dominion of Fiance, be fore so firmly established. The month of Decem- . her completed the measures of May and June, con. firmed the Italian kingdom, the iron crown cf the new dynasty, the political dissolution of the Repub lic of Genoa, the cnnwnsion of the Republic of Lucas into a fiq of the French Empire, and a principality for the descendants of Nap ikon's the Pritraill of Pi'•rohino, and the subjeaion Parma and iNatterwl, to th, Laws and f France. Pius VII. returned perfectly satitfitd t.e :4 Paris to R•,me. An la:pending tempest gathe?c, not tindearrvcd!y, over !tiptoe, where the k:nr XAV. A faveltarable reception to an Elglisla and Ros ids army. AIM(' his codntry hyd been evAeusted by 1, 4 French. and dcc.l.red neutr4l. After Italy, the übjea to wl:irh the at, tension of the rittlitt3n had hem direded, sea. land, where the Fe:4i..nary, B..hintaselionninck, %% at placed in the month ..f May, at the head of the New Cmosiitution. I.s F . CC:iir seemed enda - gered, as HAlland wa. tr.r a morn...nt des , itiite of troops.-.. OF this pint - lure, Engtand did not avail herself, u the was mot sure of foreign avisrance. It was nu 0;1 a euhsiderehle time afterwards that the Hann. verian Legion was sent with British troops to Hr nover, when the country, :is tar as Hameln, was cupied by Fore;gn forces, and the navi e ;atiots nf Elbe was opened by the removed of the French. Spain mml:fled, at tLe cuto:lusion of the yeat, the loss of her goodly Abet, commanded by tlr%. •ina, in cnns4-qu-nee of the war in which sl.e eat involved with England. She had formed a projed for taking Gibraltar ; bat, instead of laying siege to tLat to.tress, her ptincipal havens were kept closely blockaded. 1-1.. r neighbour, Purtuga served hrr neut•a!ity ' y citnsiderable sactiflc•s. Not so Denmark, iiich was indebted fry the cow viable continuance of her happy tranquillity, to the wisdom of Ler and hrr .r ye rocs. glee, call .1 i:.t • ,a;oa by the Cr• , an Prince, vio!a crillened in 11.,Istein a cr , u•i siahlaarmy, whi.h beheld the menacing cloud, quietly ••• s away. The irledit;on of vassalage, 'n the G man pro vinces, entwined a new wre ads loner; Pre.serick's head. Switzerland Telngl.lif'd neutral as well as Denmark, but not under 5u..11 farvurable circum stances, internally and externally. Oce great Eun-pean Re[ublic of States (Ger many), had vanished horn the ccnitet of ages. This remarkable prc donjon, so favourable to the pro gress of civilization, and the interests of humanity, was founded on the principle of the general balance of power, which the past year has so dreadfully de ranged. Fortunately, for Europe, Prussia still re mained pith undiminished strength. Frederick Wiliam was desirous of a general recce. This wish seemed to be near its completion, at the time of the mission of General Winzingerode, and M. Von Nevosiltzoff. The dawn of hope disaFessaressi; Prussia remained faithful to her system, till she be held har territory violated by the French and Bava rian army. liar armies, joined by the Hessians and Simons, advanced from their peaceful cantontnolus into the field i . Hrov:r was for a time *cc/spied:, Prussian tron,-.3. The Sovrei,tn of Russia, the lsro th:r of the vas quished Restiaa E , nperor, and a distingui.hed Member of the Cabinet of St. JAmes's, appeared at Bet lin. akuvria found nut that succour, which she had hoped speedily to receive. Lord Ilarrowby, who had at first flattered himself with a favourable prospeet, was unable to attain the ebk•Et cf l is mission. the conclusion of a subsidiary tteary ; bat Alex ander and Frederick Vs'illiam Limed an inti mate friendship, which was sealed at Potsdam, on the Sd of November. with diplomatic solemnity. Before the consequences of this alliaine, in consequence of which the Prussian armies as turned a menacing attitude, from Vesta, along !le frontiers of Prancoaia. as far as %Vest], bad time to manifest themselves, the events in Moravia hisd made a total revolution in the situation of .Hairs; the Minister of State, Count Haugwi - s, beiag dis patched to Vienne, soon returned Lam Nap Icon's Head-quarters, with a ratification of the hope a A Continental react. This peace gives a mortal blo•+v to the r•wenant of a thousan.l years, which board the Cer:r: in Ern pire together. The recess of 180: ma le ro corn. pensation for the great afts of peace ai.d alliance of 1848, whose provisions they abolished. 1• rather served to undermine the ancient fabric, wiich 4 war of two months now threatens with d ' , ratio& The German Empire, which V draire. in his Age d 1J -wig XIV. enominates the most powerful neigh. boor of France. is no more. For-ign troops, French. Russians, Swedes. Eng'isn, surround the hearths of Germans; the Diet has fallen int., a profo and lethargy. It is not from that 4 1 1.senoly, and from irs Emperor, that Germay now receives her laws $ the Imperial Clamber is prov,snr;!y dissolved t the decrees of the Auiic COMM.:, are not anemic.' to; in vain the voice of the guardian of the German Con. stitution, resounds like the song of the dyirg swag s in an age in which the harsh tones of iron alve arc heard; crowns are prepared by French hands for German Princes—crowns which hitherto were the lot oaly of unlimited sovereignty, not of powers subject to the Emperor and the empire ; the weaker members of the empire. that have not ye: been esval lowed up, now serve to aggrand'se their po••verful neighbours: other *enures, and other changes aro at:.anll the man falls, a shapeless ruin. i~. ~ 1 • ! 1 1 i 1 , , , I 1 i