Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-06-22

J General Wellesley had struggled hard to uphold the fortunes of Ferdinand VII. In 1909 the allies had suffered great hardships and reverses. Wellesley had to get himself behind the line of the Torres Vedras, only a short distance from Lisbon; there he lay at bay.
 The reign of King Joseph was estab- lished i'll the greater part of Spain. At one time the British arm hardly reach ed out forty miles from Lisbon. On July 27th and 2Sth, Wellington (for he was now Lord Wellington) won the bloody battle of Talavera. Solut was not able to withstand him; but Napo- leon sent more than $50. 900 men across tho Pyrenees, and the British with their allies were obliged to find safety again behind the Torres Vedras. Massena with his six hundred guns could not dislodge or drive his enemy further. He could not tempt Wellington into the field. During the whole year lS10 the nearest approach to battle was that of Busaco. where on the 27th of September tho French suffered an unimportant re- verse. Not until the 9th of May, 1911, were the British able in the open field to capture Almeida; not until the 18th of January, 1Si2, did Ciudad Rodrigo yield to Wellington. On the 9th of April he captured Badajoz.
 Twice already Joseph Bonaparte had been driven from the throne; and twice had he been replaced by the Emperor. His third flight from his precarious Kingdom did not occur till 1913, when he left Cadiz never to return.
 In 1909 Louis was urged by Napoleon to suppress the British sympathies of his subjects. cut off intercourse with England, and build navy for France. Just after Wagram there was a stormy interview between the brothers at Paris. The Emperor, not trusting Louis, sent French troops to occupy Amsterdam. Matters went to such pitch that on the Ist of July, 1S1O, Louis was obliged to abdicate, The Emperor's threat to annex Holland to France was carried out; and the ex-king retired into Aus tria.
 Napoleon s system of ruling by subor- dinate kings did not work we'll In such a system there were more wills than one; and there must be but One. The One more and moro declared himself The absorption of Holland was followed, ill December of 1910, with the annexa. tiOn of tho Hanse towns and the whole northern coast of Germany. If, on New Years Day, 1911. the status In quo could have been acknowledged-a it was ready to be by all the Powers ex- copt Great Britain - the dream of Charlema2ne II. for European Empire might be regarded as fulfilled.
 From tho Pyrenecs to the Baltic and eastward to the limits of the Continent thcrc was nominal peace; but on all seas tho war-tl2ctS and merchant ships of England trrrorized and tempted the na- tionS, The need of Europe for tho prod ucts of Great Britain was an argument that tantalizal all harbors from Riga to Sevastopol. Europe was hungry for goods, and the Continental blockade for hado it. In 1Sl0-ll the anti French party i'll St. Petersburg was reinforced by the commercial classes demanding intercourse with England. The Czar, though ho had ratified the treaty of SChonhrunn. looked with ever-increas- ing jealousy on the unappeased ambition uf his friend Bonaparte He saw the Durhy of Warsaw growing on his bor dcrS. He saw Oldenburg. a lief of the R1mano!fs, annexed to tho French Em- piro. H. saw tho wclluigh successful at tempt to construct Northern Confed- eration out of Warsaw, Denmark and Sweden. He saw sixteen nations con trituting their quotas to the Grand Army of France. He saw in his own harhUrS the secret violation of existing agreements. and bliuked the offenSe. From that day tho prodigious final strug- glo of Franco and Russia was inevita- ble. Alexander concluded treaty with the Sultan, and planted an army of 90, GOO men on his western borders.
 The crisis came by tho act of Sweden. The childless Charles XIII. had taken for his heir that Charles John Berna- dotto whom we saw at Austerlitz. Mar shal of Franco and Prince of Pontecorvo, he became, in 1910, crown prince of Sweden and Norway. Like Louis Bona parto ill Holland. he was lukewarm in supporting tho Continental blockade; for the Swedes were in need of British goods. The pennon of St. George began to be seen in the harborS of Pomerania Bernadotto would not eHpcl the ships of England, and in rcprisal the Swedish vessels were seized in the ports of Ger many. Marshal Davout, sent into Pom- erania to enforce tho blockade, enforced it; and Bernadotto appealed to the Car for aid. Alexander heard the call, and answered aye! The gage of tremendous iattle was thrown down by the Musco- Fite, and accepted by the Corsican.
 JOHN CLARK RlDPATH