The National Register.
London, England, 1813-09-19 00:00:00

SPS

'roat overtures Siit,ving from so pure a motive should be decidedV
rejertt cou:d not certainly !.e fore .ceat. But the manner in which
wt re teceived, and still more the striking contrast botween
the olcotiments entertained by Austria and the whole conduct of
the Etoperor Nap, loon, to the period of these unmccessful endea-
vs na Inv peace, axon alt trovcd the best hopes that were enter.
1.1 dead of end( arouring by a m'.+ rate language to improve
at 1-ast our tiew of the totmc, and to I,,i4en the general des-
votlet:cy, it ‘‘:is en every Occasicn solemnly declared, belbre the
:aithor. ties in reaeee, that the Emperor wool'! hear of no
propotiou fot peace that should vi late the integrity of the French
ei»pir,, in the l'reneli sense ut the word, or that should make ;aiy
to the .irbitrarily it:curia), ate() provinces.
At the eventual C011114101E% with which this self-
cry !led boondary (1:41 not even appear to have any relation, were
splien of, at_onti time meoacirg itufignation, at another with bitter
contempt ; as it' it leo! not been possible to declare in !elms slit-
fic•tan:y d:stioet, au, ru,,,iwilm 4)r cle Napioom, not to
wake to the repose (!t* UP' tri))lit teen one single nominal sacrifice.
'These hostile demanstiations were attended with thi- particular
mortilicatini to Austria, that they placed even the invitations to
j'eace this Cabinet, with flit knowled;:e and apparent cot:-
sent of FroliCC, Mad(' to a.ther Coorts, in a false and hi•.llly disad-
vantageous light. Thu Si'Vel CigllS !Mite(' ar.-alist Fraoce, ino.ead
of any answer to Austria's propositions for Neeociation, anal filet
Dili''' of !aedi.ition, laid In lore her the wi!die th(''otations of the
French ilioperor. And when it) ti•e month or Match, I:is !.I:(esty
sent a Minister to Londoo, to invite Lu:dand to share in a ezo-
ciation tor pt-art', 800 Ministry la " that they would
no: heiieve Austria still entertain, d any how's of pear'', .111411 the
rur Naiolvon :tad in the mean time expressed st)t!inients
wli'eh could only Itial to the pet oetnation of war ;" a deelaration
Wil6 the more painful to his Alaje.-;y', the more it was ju-t
a! d ,roll f.!ititded.

Aitol I:1. liti\t (AI r, did not, upon this account, CC 'C to impress
in inole fmrible roll distinct terms, the ilert...:•Hy of pi‘ave, Limn
tile o•hiti of the Emperor of France; directed in ail her measures
liy principle, that, as all order and balance of pow( r in Forope
had been tics fro% ed by the boendless Sill clibitity el France, no real
pi tce er a• to be expect: d, unless that supetiotily were diniiiiished
llis 11Taie,tY in the mean time adoptvil evt•ry necessary
ereng Igen ;old concentrate his armies: sensible that Anslria flutist
lie pale.: for will' it her mediation were not to be entilely titi-
availine. He. Impel ial Nlajesty had morcmer been in;;;;; ,htee per.
II ;.t the of an immediate slutl.e in t!,e \rat.,
wtoidd t o low:et he escluded from his caleulaticns. '11:e actual'
state of dupes could not be continued ; of this the Emperor was
con% inced : this conviction IViIA the mainspring of his actions, anti
vas natitrall) strengthened by the failure of any attt mitt to procure
a pei,ce. 'Die result w:is apparent. fl one means or the ot.':cr,
t by negoriatinti or by tOrce of arms, a new state of things must
be cliceteti.

''it.puror Napoleon was not only aware of the Austrian pre-
parations t, r at. but even acknowledged them as necessary, and
just find thein in more than •ne instance. He had -ittfteient reason
to In.lie‘e,ll:at kis Majesty the Emperor, at so decisive a period for
the We of the whole world, would lay aside all personal and mo-
mentary feciirers, %eonld alone constslt the lasting wdfare of Ans.
trig, and of the countrie.: by which she is surrounded, and would re-
solve ur,tltita but what this great motive shottlil impo,e as a ditty
Upon Linn T; .e. Austrian Cabinet had never t xpiessed itself in
terms that woahi wattant any other constrne:iou; mud yet the
Fr( itch (NI not only acknowledge that the Austrian mediat;on cou!d
only be an Antall mediation, but declared, upon more than on; oc-
casion, that Austria, under cxistint: circumstances, ought no long* r
to-confine In rscif to act a condary part, but should appear in
forre upon the stage, and decide as a great and indeptaulent Paws
Whatever the Fretult Government could either hope or fear from
Austria, this acknowledgment was of itselt a 'nevi, us justification
of the whole int ruled and hitherto adopted measures of his Imperial
Majesty.
Thu, tar were circumstances developed when the Emperor Napo
Icon left park ora,r to make head against the progroN of the
aliied armies Even tilt it enemies have done homage to the valour
of the Russian and Prussian troops in the sanguinary actions of the
month of NI ay Tlett, however. the result of this first period of
the campaign w..s not more favourable to them, was owing partly
to the gyve numerical superiority of the Preach force, and to the
of their leader, and
wide!, the Sovc-
. They acted under the
in which they were en.

SEPT. 19.

gaged, con!d not possibly be confined to themselves, that sooner or
later, %%f ether successfull or unfortunate, every state which still pre.
•erved a sh 'flow of independence nmst join their confederacy, eveiy
indrpwolent army mitt act with them. They, therelbre, did not
allow &tiller scope to the bravery of their troop:, than the moment
recrirtil, and pre,,erved a considerable part of their strength fir a
when, with mere extended meaw, the,- might look to the
attainment of greater objects. For the amc can-e, and with
a view to the dcvelopement of events, they consented to the
Arthisti e.

In the mean time the retreat of the Allies hail for the mornent
riven an apoearacce to the war, which daily became more interest-
hig to the imperor, from the impossthility, it it should succeed, of
his remaining an inactive spectator of it. The fate of the Prus.ial
Monarchy w:,:s a point which pertdiarly attracted the attention of
his Majesty, feeliog, as the Emperor did, that the iestoration of the
Pin-shin Monarchy was the t step towards that of the ‘‘lode
litiral srA4:lll- of Etirope, arid he vievietl the danger in which she
now stood, as equally affecting himself. Already, iu the month of
April, had the .Emperor Napoleon suggested to te:e Austrian Cabi-
net, that he considered the dissolotion of the Prussian I%loo:trek. a 3
a manna! eons' queeee of her detection trom Prance, zeal of the eon-
tinte.tion of the war, and th it it now on!y depended npoil Austria
to add the mo•t iiiportant and most Itairishing Of her provinces to
it• own sta(' ; a sage.estion whie:i showed distintstly lamogh, that
eo means ciail I properly be neelec:ed to save that Power. If
this Lzil•iit obit•lrt Cotil:1 not obtained by a just rare, it wac 1:e-
-c~ asst
VlO support Ittioia and ria...jet by a ',oval io.operati.Ja.
Filial this HaPiril view or opon which eva ii Franee could
hatger elect ive hl rself, Maje•ty continued his preparations
with unwearied activity. H:• grit in the early pat tof Jul), his
residence, and proceeded to the vicinity or the scene of action, in
order the more effectually to labour at the netociation for peace,
which still emititmcd to be the object of his most ardeet desires ;
and partly to he able the more ellectnally to conduct the prepara-
tions of wav, if no other choice should reit ain for A list! la.
A short time before the Emperor Napoleon 1e..1 declared, " that
Ile IN4I pr, 'osf d a Congtvos, to be la Id at Pragne, where Pleni-
potentiaries li:;111 Ranee, the United States of North America,
Manna, k, the King of Spain, and the ot!.er Allied Princes ou
hand, aim on the other, Plenipotentiaries of England, Russia,
Prussia, the Spanish Ins:on-gents, and the other Allies of this hostile
mass, should meet, and lay the ground xviiik of a peace." To what
this 011m:01011 Wis.S illtithlAisCil, ID whit mama I', in VI Lit tiip!otiiatic
thro%,ll wiinse organ it roidd have. been done, was perfectly
unktiowti to the Austrian Cabinet, %%hick on:y tVaS made ilepla ed
the circumstance through the medium of the pAlic print'.
How, too. such a project could be bronght to bear—how train the
ronthiaa!ion of such dissimular elements, without any generally ac-
kuowledged lob:cited, without Lily previously regulated plait,
a . gceiation tOr peace was to be set on foot, was so little to be
cioy,plekieted, that it was very all,wahle to consider the whole
propo-it!on rather as a play of the imagination, them as a serious
invitation to the adoption of a great political measure.
Pesfectly with all the obstacles to a generJ peace,
Austria had twig considered whether this distant and difficult object
was not rather to be attained ptogressively ; aunt, iu this opinion,
had expressed herself both to France, and to Russia and Prussia,
upon the sidject of a continental peace. Not that the Austrian
Gout had miscoticeived, even for a moment, the necessity and in:-
portauce ef an universal peace among all the great Powers of Eu-
rope, and vvithout which there was no hope of either safety or hap-
piness, or had imagined that the Continent could exist, if the sepa-
ration of England were not bleat iable considered as a most cleanly
evil ! The negociation which Austria proposed, after the alarmitig
declaration of France had nearly destroyed all the hopes of England
uniti..g her endeavour:tin the attempt to procure a general peace, was
an essential part of the great approaching negoeiation, for a general
and cif, Clive Congress for peace : it was intended as preparatory to
this, to draw up the preliminary articles of the futare Treaty, to
pave the way by a loag continental .Irmistice to a more extended
and duralltmegociation. Had the princip!e upon which Austria
advanced been other than this, neitner Russia nor Prnssia, bound
by the strongest ties to England,. would certainly ever have listened
to the proposals of the Austrian Cabinet. •

After the Russian n!,(1 Prussian Conits, animated by a roof!.
dence in his )13je,iy, highly flatterii;r., to the Einreror, had alrtudy
th.clared their (.011(1,1.4.mv in the piopoA,4l Congross tinder the_ me-
diation of it became necessary to obtain the f maul as,ent
of the ,Eaipcin Napoleon, and to determine upon what principles
the negociations for peace were to be carried on. For this purp9se
imperial Ma,je-41;,' resolvtd towards: the end of the mouth of Julio

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