The wrecks of the Prussian army were meanwhile pursued to their last points of retreat, by the French. Prince Hohenlohe, who had retreated on the Oder with nearly fifty thousand men, was forced to maintain continual combats with his active antagonists; and at length. found himself, on the 28th of October, on the heights of Prentzlow, without provisions, forage, or ammunition, and vigorously pressed by Murat. He had no resource but to capitulate. Nearly twenty thousand Prussians laid down their arms on this day; not without many signs of pride and passion at their humiliation. The rest of their army, composing the rear-guard, still held the field, under the command of Blucher, whose name was destined to be heard under far different fortunes at a future day. He no sooner received information of the

surrender of Prince Hohenlohe, than he made a rapid retreat in the direction of Strelitz, and effected a junction with the dukes of Weimar and Brunswick-Oels, who still held ten thousand men together. With them he passed the Elbe at Lauenburg, having formed the plan of reinforcing the Prussian garrisons in Lower Saxony; but the skill of the combined movements of Soult, Murat, and Bernadotte counteracted this last desperate effort, and Blucher was forced to throw himself into Lubeck. The place was assaulted by the French, and entered at two points on the 6th of November, but throughout the day and night he maintained a desperate conflict in the streets of the town. Early on the morning of the 7th, finding resistance useless, Blucher and the Prince of Brunswick-Oels, presented themselves before their conquerors at the head of ten Prussian generals, five hundred and

eighteen officers, and twenty thousand men, and treated for a capitu lation. They were forced to surrender prisoners of war. The Prussian army was thus all but annihilated; one corps alone remained in Silesia, where it was held in check by Jerome Bonaparte. At the same time, Louis Bonaparte, the new King of Holland, had conquered with equal ease, Westphalia, Embden, East Friesland, and great part of Hanover.

The sudden destruction of an army hitherto renowned for courage and discipline, was not so extraordinary as the overwhelming panic which seemed to spread throughout every fortified place in Prussia. Strong cities, which had been sufficient to detain enemies before their walls for months, now surrendered, one after another, at the first summons. Stettin capitulated with a garrison of six thousand men, and a hundred and sixty pieces of cannon, to General Lasalle at the head of a few squadrons. Custrin opened its gates to Davoust, with scarcely a show of resistance; and, to crown the whole, the important fortress of Magdeburg, with twenty thousand men, eight hundred pieces of cannon, and immense magazines, surrendered to Marshal Ney on the 8th of November. The governors of these places were naturally accused of treachery. The students of the university insulted the commandant of Magdeburg for his pusillanimity, while the French soldiers sympathising in their indignation afforded him very little protection; and the commandant of Hamelen very narrowly escaped being torn to pieces by his garrison when he surrendered. No evidence, however, of bribery is on record. The strong mental influence of loss of hope from repeated ill-fortune, seems the only cause ascertainable of events apparently so strange.

PRUSSIA ATTEMPTS TO TREAT FOR PEACE, BUT FAILS-BERLIN DECREE-THE RUSSIANS IN POLAND FRENCH ARMY CROSSES THE VISTULA-BATTLE OF PULTUSK-FRENCH GO INTO WINTER QUARTERS-NAPOLEON AT WARSAW-BATTLE OF EYLAU-NAPOLEON OFFERS PEACE, BUT IS REFUSED-BATTLE OF FRIEDLAND-ARMISTICE-TREATY OF TILSITTRETURN TO PARIS.

THE King of Prussia, finding himself stripped of the greater part of his dominions, and seeing much reason to fear the loss of all the rest, sent the Marquis Lucchesini to open a negociation with the Emperor of France, in the hope of ending his disasters by a peace. The result of the treaty of Presburg had, however, rather disgusted Napoleon with generosity towards sovereigns, and rendered him averse to making any concessions which should not be dearly bought; or concluding a peace on

any terms but such as would render its infraction difficult, if not impossible. Talleyrand arrived at Berlin while the question was in agitation, and conducted the diplomatic business on the part of France.

The ultimatum he sent to the King of Prussia required, in return for the restoration of his conquered dominions, that England should restore the colonies taken from France and its allies; that Russia should desist from assuming the protectorate of Wallachia and Moldavia; and that the rights of the Ottoman porte should be restored in their former plenitude. It was beyond the power of the King of Prussia to compel his two great allies to subscribe to these conditions; yet it is certain that, without making them parties to a peace, Napoleon would have only concluded this campaign to commence another in the following season. The Russians, ninety thousand strong, had advanced into Poland, ready to play over again for Prussia the same game which they had staked for Austria the year before. If their emperor evinced no anxiety to make some sacrifices to procure peace for his unfortunate ally, but determined on supporting his pretensions to his forfeited dominions by the sword, war was inevitable; and for this Napoleon actively prepared. An embassy from the French senate produced in him excessive irritation at this crisis, by recommending peace, while offering congratulations on the splendour of his victories. He replied, that "before they took such a step, they ought to have ascertained on what side the opposition to peace existed, and to have brought with them the means of causing that opposition to disappear." This reply was practically enforced by a demand for another conscription, which was eagerly complied with, as if to atone for the previous presumption. The King of Bavaria and the Elector of Hesse-Cassel were also called upon for their contingents. Troops were stationed in readiness to commence the siege of the few fortresses which yet belonged to Prussia; and every corps of the main army was maintained in a position which ensured its rapid advance into Poland, by the frontiers of Bohemia, at the moment required. The Emperor of Austria, readily seizing an opportunity for finding a pretext to break his treaty, should fortune turn against Napoleon, affected to perceive danger towards his dominions in these preparations, and entered a protest against them. Napoleon, in consequence, threw strong garrisons into the fortresses, and occupied the passes which cover Italy.

The resources of the conquered dominions of Prussia were at the same time brought into active operation. Prussia was divided into four departments; of which Berlin, Custrin, Stettin, and Magdeburg, were the chief towns. The ancient sub-divisions and institutions were retained, and the public officers and magistrates were not displaced; but they all took an oath of fidelity to the Emperor Napoleon. An administrator-general of finances and domains, and a receiver-general of taxes, were appointed to superintend the whole. Each department had an imperial commissioner; and each province, a French intendant.

The whole country was occupied and overawed by the French troops. Berlin, as a centrical point of operation was more completely reorganised than any other city. The magistrates there, were re-elected to the number of sixty, who were chosen by two thousand burgesses, and a national guard was formed. The regular collection of the revenue which soon extended over Hesse, Hanover, Brunswick, Mecklenburg, and the Hanse towns, was felt as a grievous burden by the people in time of war, but was less harassing and ruinous than arbitrary exactions conducted on no plan or order. The wants of the army were entirely supplied from this source. The magazines and stores, the clothing and hospital departments were put into the finest condition, and ready for service in a wonderfully short space of time. It was not long before the war which had impended became certain. The King of Prussia finally refused to treat, saying "It is no longer time; the matter does not now depend upon me: the Emperor of Russia has offered me support, and into his arms I have thrown myself."

It was at this moment, when the implacable hostility of the allied powers was palpably brought before him, that Napoleon published his famous decree, which aimed at entirely shutting the continent against England, and by crippling the commerce of the British isles, directing a deadly blow at their prosperity and power. No open act of reprisal towards England had been within the power of Napoleon, since the destruction of his fleet at Trafalgar; while the command of the seas gave England continual opportunity of harassing his subjects; and the wealth drained from the industrious population of England, and squandered with a lavish hand by its government, served to supply the means of perpetual war against him. The laws, moreover, of maritime war differ materially from military war. The progress of civilisation has not introduced into naval operations those restrictions on their permission to commit violence, which, fortunately for mankind, are now universally laid upon armies. To seize on private property, to make prisoners of unarmed and peaceable individuals, are practises recognised as legal and honourable in maritime war, but which come under the denomination of pillage and disorder in military operations. England, therefore, which held paramount command of the seas, and had the power of enforcing the law of blockade to any extent, began to assume the appearance of singly carrying on a system of barbarous aggression in contempt of all civilisation, defying control or retaliation.

This was

a state of things exasperating in the last degree to a man of Napoleon's imperious will. The following decree, issued in consequence, is dated "Berlin, November 21st, 1806.

"That it is a part of natural law to oppose one's enemy with the arms he employs, and to fight in the way he fights, when he disavows