Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1895-06-22

shouting Would she have smiled il the
firing had ceased with tho forty ninth
gun? That would have meant a dough-
ter.
In May of 1910 it could be said Of
Napoleon that he had had his way. In
few instances his prodigious dreams
had dissipated into naught; but only in
few. His great scheme Of planting
French civilization in Northeastern
Africa and of carrying thence the tri.
'-clor to Damascus, Aleppo and Bagdad,
had failed. His project of making Con-
stantinople the outpost Of France in the
East mad vanished like q chimera. His
hope Of boating England ON the sea end.
ed with Trafalgar. But for all the rest,
what was left unfulfilIed to the Dream
er and Iconoclast? Out of the mulberry
patch in Ajaccio he had risen to the
supreme seat Of power in the mos:
splendid capital Of the world. And he
was not yet forty
As for war. that had sunk into NUT
teriug and growing on the horizon.
During the year no great battle was
fought in Europe. Napoleon had tho
land; and the sea was England's. In the
Spanish peninsula. the English and
French armies advanced or recedod by
strategic movements. In that country,
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 q short distance
from Lisbon; there he lay at bay.
The reign of King Joseph was estab-
lished In the greater part Of Spain. At
one timo the British arm hardly reach
ed out forty miles from Lisbon. On
July 9th and 2Sth, Wellington (for he
was now Lord Wellington) won the
bloody battle of Talavera. Solut was
not ablo to Withstand him; but Napo-
leon sent more than $50, 900 men across
the 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 tho
field. During the whole year 1910 the
| nearest approach to battle was that of
Busaco, where on the 9th of September
the 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 10th
of January. 1912, did Ciudad Rodrigo
yield to Wellington. On tho 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had he been replaced by the Emperor.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 1918, 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 a navy for France.
Just after Wagram there was a stormy
interview between the brothers at Paris.
| Tho Emperor, not trusting Louis, sent
French troops to occupy Amsterdam.
Matters went to such pitch that on
the LIST of July, 1910, Louis was obliged
to abdicate The. Emperor's threat to
annex Holland to France was carried
out; and tho eS-king retired into Aus
tria.
Napoleon's system of ruling by subor.
dinate kings did not work we'll. In such
q system there were more wills than
one; and there must be but One. The
One more and more declared himself.
The absorption of Holland was followed,
in December of 1910, with the annexa.
tion of the Hanse towns and the whole
northern coast of Germany. If, OH New
Years Day, 1911, tho status in Cue
could have been Acknowledgements il
was ready to be by all the Powers ex
copt Great Britain - the dream Of
Charlemagne II. for European Empire
might be regarded as fulfilled.
From the Pyrenees to the Baltic and
eastward to the limits Of the Continent
there was nominal peace; but on all seas
the war-heets and merchant ships Of
England terrorized and tempted the na
tons The need Of Europe for the prod
ucts Of Great Britain was an argument
that tantalized all harbors from Riga t.
Sevastopol. Europe was hungry fol
goods, and the Continental blockade for
babe it. In 1901 the anti-Frenct
party in st. Petersburg was reinforced
by the commercial classes demanding
intercourse with England. Tho Gar
though he had ratified the treaty o.
Schonbrunn, looked with ever-increas
ing jealousy OH the unappeased ambition
Of his friend Bonaparte. He saw tn,
! Duchy Of Warsaw growing ON his Dor
!; ders. He saw Oldenbnrg, q fief Of tn,
Romanoffs, annexed to the French Em
pire. He saw the wellnigh successful at
} tempt to construct Northern Confed
Grafton out of Warsaw, Denmark ant
Sweden. He. saw sixteen nations con
J tributing their quotas to tho Crane
Army of France. He saw in his owl
arbors the secret violation Of existin!
; agreements, and blinked the offense
From that day the prodigious final strug
gle of France and Russia was inevita
BILE. Alexander concluded treaty will
the Sultan. and planted an army Of 80.
900 men on his western borders
The crisis came by the act of Sweden
, The childless Charles Kill had takel
for his heir that Charles John Berna
I -