CONFEDERATION of the Rhine, the name of a well-known league entered into by several German princes in 1805, by which they separated themselves from the empire, and formed a new political association, under the protection of France. This league was an immediate consequence of the reverses of Austria in the campaign of

1805, and was the first great and avowed measure of Bonaparte to assume the control of the German empire. After remaining in force somewhat more than seven years, it fell, along with its prime mover; but is still deserving of historical notice for its effects, both in giving for a time a co-operating power to France, and in serving as an introduction to subsequent changes in the organization of the Germanic body.

The treaty in question was signed at Paris on 12th July

1806, and ratified at Munich on the 25th of the same month. It consisted of forty articles, and was subscribed by the following powers:
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Most of the subscribing princes assumed, on this occa-< sion, titles different from those which they had borne when members of the empire. It was stipulated that they should renounce most of the laws and all the peculiar titles of the empire; that their common interests should be discussed in a diet to be assembled at Frankfort on the Maine, and to be divided into the colleges of kings and princes, with the Prince Primate as president of the former, and the Duke of Nassau of the latter; that the members of the confederation should be unconnected with any power except France, between which and the confederation an intimate compact was formed, and the emperor of which was declared hereditary protector of the alliance, with the right of nominating the future prince primates. It was further stipulated, that the confederated princes should exercise the rights of sovereignty over the territories newly incorporated by this act with their dominions, leaving private property, however, undisturbed; and that, in the event of any neighbouring power making preparations for war, the contracting parties should arm to the extent of the above-mentioned contingents. Finally, it was provided that other German princes and states should be allowed to accede to the confederation, and the league was accordingly strengthened by the Grand Duke of Würzburg (on 3d October 1806), with a contingent of 2000 men; by the king of Saxony (on 11th December

1806) with 20,000 men; by the king of Westphalia (in

1807) , with 25,000; and in the course of that and the following year, by the Saxon princes, the Dukes of Mecklenburg, and, in short, by all the lesser princes of the west and north of Germany.

Immediately after the communication of the treaty of confederation to the German diet in August 1806, the Emperor Francis made a formal abdication of the title of Emperor of Germany; the ancient constitution of which, long in a state of decline, now became completely dissolved. Bonaparte had soon occasion to put his new auxiliaries to the test, the war with Prussia breaking out in the course of a couple of months after the formation of the alliance. The victory of Jena, and its unparalleled results, rivetted the yoke around the neck of his new vassals, and supplied him with recruits to go through the short but sanguinary campaign of 1807 in Poland. Unfortunately, the confederation afforded him a numerous and efficient body of auxiliaries at a very interesting period, we mean in April 1809, when Austria, encouraged by the resistance of Spain, ventured, alone and unassisted, to take the field in the assertion of her independence. But the battle of Wagram put an end to her hopes, and rendered Bonaparte the uncontrolled arbiter of Germany; a station which, in all probability, he would have continued to hold for life, had he not wasted, in the deserts of Russia, the finest army that Europe ever saw. This loss was most acutely felt by the states of the confederation, particularly by Bavaria, its first and principal member.

It was in the beginning of December 1812 that the great mortality took place among the Bavarians, after they were brought up from Wilna, in the vain hope of affording protection to the wreck of the French flying across the Berezina. The general melancholy occasioned by the death of so many of their brave countrymen, and a conviction of the insatiable ambition of Bonaparte, raised among the states of the confederation a spirit of national independence, and paved the way to that alliance which it was soon in the power of Austria and Prussia to offer to their German neighbours. Hence the easy entry of the allies into Saxony in April 1813, and the memorable defection of the Saxons in the battle of Leipsic on the 18th of October; and hence, also, the conclusion of a treaty between Austria and Bavaria in the month last mentioned, [7:7:211]the eager march of the Bavarians to Hanau to intercept the retreating French, and the obstinate though unavailing conflict which took place in the neighbourhood of that city.

The Confederation of the Rhine, already virtually dissolved, became finally annulled in 1814, and was replaced at the Congress of Vienna by an association on a larger scale under the name of the Germanic Confederation. Of this new and comprehensive body a more particular account will be found under the head of Germany.