The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1806-08-14 00:00:00

POLITICAL PICTURE OF EUROPE,
DURING THE THREE FINTRsi MONTHS OF THE
PREs'E YEAR.
If policy ever manifested itself unmindful of ite
own, and intent en the general interest. it was un-
doubtedly at the moment when Russia wok up arms ;
not for the purpose of invasion, partition, and con-
quest ; not to execute gigantic pla:is or schemes of
private advantage—with dignified resolution. she
demanded justice for all ; the evacuation of Hano-
ver, the independence of the Republics of Swit-
Berland and Holland, the restoration of the
King of Sardinia, the security of Naples, the ces-
lion of the Island of Elba, the balance of power
amoag the European States. The Emperor Alex.
adder had no desire to obtain as extension of ter-
ritory. more sulsjeete, or snore treasures ; but the
love of his people, the esteem of Europe, the respeek
of his enemies.
The English Government has not offended the
pewees of the Continent by publishing the Treaties
**deluded with them ; it aged only in obedience to
the British Constitution, as those powers must have
known, before they contralted with it. k certainly
compromised certain individuals, who, as circum.
• *tames obliged them to adopt a different conduet•
wnold rather that less had been said concerning thei
• real principles But so far from being an affroo,.
this disclosure is rather the most complettsand bril-
liant justification of the Courts of Petersburgh,
Stockholm, and Vieona.
•' • If Russia was placed by her disinterestedness, as
by her situation, at the head of a coalition which the
British Cabinet was unable to direft at such a dis-
tance. Austria bad likewise a principal part to aft,
• In consequence of her points of comas with Franc*,
and a remnant of that political preponderance, long
attributed to her cabinet. As she furnished more sot-
,: diem, so she likewise resolved to furnish more ideas,
and to substitute her own plans, instead of use rem-
' • .4 of ether powers. She 'ought -to have won
over Bavaria, to have kept on the defensive, till the
arrival of the Raesiins ; to have supported the Ger-
man army, with corps forming a connetlon with
• that of Italy I to have taken greater advantage of
"be powerful diversion made in the North ; to have
*voided, above all things, being too hasty ; to have '
attempted to gain the confidence of the German
C.elfederacy ; to encourage, instead of deterring.
Flussia ; to have sacrificed small objets to great;
sot to have adhered infhotibly to a system of
poli-
tics of 60 years standing ; lastly, to have conceal-
,
traced her forces. and not have chosen a General
equally unfortunate and incapable as confident in
the cabinet. as irresolute in the field.
History would have ju sly accused the Cabinet of
St. Petersburgh of having taken a most perverse
view of the subjeft, had it only accounted it pos-
sible for the Austrian Mo tarchy to be annihilated
in a few days. It might be supposed, that Austria
could be depended upon, for at least one or two
campaigns. And yet, the coalition had not cal-
eseated merely on this power ; the wisest measures
were adopted ; 115,000 Russians Irastened to Mo-
ravia, and a junction was to have been formed
behind the inn, which should secure the possibility
of every where commencing offensive operations.
At the same time that it was anticipated, that, after
this junction, so powerful a foe would not be corn•
polled to retreat without difficulty, it had beta
justly calculated, that the diversion of the army,
eollefted in Hanover, would at least compel it to
make a retrograde movement. Swabia, Bavaria,
and Franconia, became the theatre of the war ; all
the armies of the coalition, excepting the Italian,
crowding like rays to one centre,united and swelled
to a prodigious farce. And if, by an event that
could not be foreseen, France overthrew a system
of eleven years, by one shock, and on one day,
through the violation of the neutrality of Prussia,
still, this coalition, judged from its misfortunes, not
Atom its plans. was one of the grandest combina-
tions that politics could have possibly produced.
To keep up the conneftion between the armies,
sr. the troops turned towards Switzerland, that vast
fortress with which nature has covered the only
weak side that France presents to her enemies ; and
the zeal with which the Austrians executed this
plan, whi:h the coalition had not prrjeeted, was
s • one of the causes that led to so many misfortunes.
All Europe clamours against General Mack;
friends and enemies, all combine to condemn him.
He is not, however, deserving of censure on ac-
count of a plan which the polities of the Cabinet of
Y:enna rendered necessary ; but because, in its
execution, lie wanted that Spat tan energy, whi:h
fr. prepared an honourable grave for Leonidas, at
Thermopyle ; where three hundred heroes never
once thought of laying down their arms, before three
hundred thousand warriors. With such an excel-
lent army as the Austrian, he might, and ought to
have taken, the positions of Guntaburg and Wer-
tingen, and to have endeavoured to clefen.! :hem;
but then he ought to have made thorn the 'Cher-
mopyles of his country ; to have fortified himseif in
Ulm, to hale shut himself up in that city, bad cir-