A tour through Holland

As I gazed upon these men, whose appearance was slovenly, I was lost in amazement, by reflecting that they were part of that military force which had made itself terrible to so large a portion of Europe, which in its first organization was composed of men, many of whom had never had a musket in their hands, and commanded by generals who had never witnessed a military manœuvre; many of the most shining of whom had undergone an immediate transition from the most peaceful, and even the most subordinate occupations in life, to conduct armies to the field of battle, to confront and rout some of the prime, veteran troops of nations, long renowned for their eminence and military character. Robespierre may be considered as having laid the foundation of all the military glory of France, and by the unexampled energy and prospective acuteness of his measures, to have accomplished a system by which France has achieved so many brilliant victories. No one but a tyrant, who to a sanguinary soul united profound penetration, could have accomplished what he did. He swept away in a deep and impetuous stream of blood the immediate branches of the royal family, the court, its valuable and its obnoxious appendages, and made a clear arena to act upon. In the name of Liberty he invoked those who were favourably disposed to her cause, and by terror he forced the reluctant to sustain the miseries and perils of a camp. Glory or the guillotine were eternally before the eyes of the republican commanders, who thus stimulated, never revolted at a profuse expenditure of life, nor considered any victory dearly obtained, so that it was obtained: the soldiers were all young men, amongst many of whom high ardour and a passion for heroic enterprize, characteristic of that season of life, prevailed, which soon spread with electric influence upon the more considerate, prudent, and even timid part of the body. Thus impelled, they pushed on, and soon felt their enthusiasm redouble, upon beholding the brilliant impression which they made upon troops inured to war and led by distinguished commanders, who receded before them, from a conviction that they could only hope to repel the attack by an assimilation of tactics and a lavish waste of blood, a consideration which frequently forced the followers of the old school to meditate when they ought to have acted.

It is a remark in frequent use, that the efficiency of an army may be measured by the skill of the general; but the French soldiers have expanded the observation, and have exhibited the wonderful spectacle of skilful soldiers fighting under, and frequently enlarging the views and combinations of able generals. The animal organization of Frenchmen befits them for soldiers; their supple muscular form and height seldom exceeding five feet five or six inches, admit of great activity of movement, and the support of great fatigue: their minds quick, volatile, inquisitive, and fertile in expedients, enable them to see the intentions of their commanding officers in a movement, which, to the soldiers of many other countries would only be known by results. The French commanders knew how to gratify that national cast of intellect so useful to their operations, by frequently imparting to a soldier of a company, for the purpose of wider communication, the principal movements in contemplation previous to their engaging. The vanity of a French soldier is also another most valuable quality in his composition: he takes the deepest interest in the execution of every order, because he thoroughly believes that he is acquainted with all its objects; and upon the achievement of a victory, there is scarcely a French drummer who would hesitate endeavouring to make his hearer believe, that the fortune of the day was owing to some judicious idea of his own: to this vanity the military bulletins which announce successes in all the pomp of language, or convert a disaster into a retrograde victory, are addressed; for a Frenchman, even more than an Englishman, almost always believes what he is told, and is ever the last to confess a defeat. It is a rule with the French officers to give their troops as little trouble as possible when not actually in service, and to keep them perpetually upon the alert when the campaign has commenced; by this measure their troops, contrary to a received opposite notion, are generally fresher than other troops; and as they are mostly composed of young men, are capable of marching more rapidly and longer than soldiers of mixed seasons of life. The French have another great advantage in their plan of combat, which resembles the mode of engaging at sea, practised so gloriously by the late immortal Nelson, that of beating against the centre of an enemy’s line until they penetrate it; this they have several times successfully effected, by that almost endless reinforcement which the arbitrary levies furnish, and which in a moment supply the vacancy made by the bullet and the bayonet. To prevent any ill consequences from the impetuous temerity which might attend the first attack, a considerable corps of reserve is always formed of the more experienced troops, who are able to support their comrades in the front, when too severely pressed, or of forcing them to rally, should they discover any disposition to fly. To their flying artillery, which are served by their best soldiers, wherever the ground will best admit, they are also eminently indebted for their success: yet, with all those advantages, striking and eminent as they are, and the negative assistance which she derived from the frequently imbecile conduct of the enemy, France would perhaps never have been crowned with the success which has marked her march, had not her population been enormous, and had not the stupendous idea of placing a great portion of that population, by the novelty of a conscription, at the disposal of her ruler, been developed by the mighty monster^[4] whose name I have before mentioned. If she had had twenty thousand men on the plains of Maida, she would have been spared the disgrace of seeing 7,000 of her chosen soldiers fly before 4,795 of the British arms under the gallant Stuart.

To comprehend the present political state of those cities on the right and left banks of the Rhine, which I visited in my way to the south of Germany, it is necessary to lay before the reader the following memorable document, and letter of abdication, by which the Germanic empire is annihilated, and Bonaparte is raised to be imperial chief of a mighty feudatory confederation, in the organization of which new sovereign dignities have been conferred, and new dominions allotted, for securing his conquests in Germany.

Whereas, his Majesty the Emperor of the French, and their Majesties the Kings of Bavaria and Wirtemberg, their Electoral Highnesses the Arch-chancellor and the Elector of Baden, his Imperial Highness the Duke of Berg, and their Highnesses the Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt, the Princes of Nassau Weilburg and Nassau Usingen, of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Siegmaringen, Salm-Salm, and Salm-Kyrburg, Isenburg, Birstein, and Lichtenstein; the Duke of Ahremberg, and the Count of Leyen; being desirous to secure, through proper stipulations, the internal and external peace of southern Germany, which, as experience for a long period and recently has shown, can derive no kind of guarantee from the existing German constitution, have appointed to be their plenipotentiaries to this effect; namely, his Majesty the Emperor of the French, Charles Maurice Talleyrand, Prince of Benevento, minister of his foreign affairs; his Majesty, the King of Bavaria, his minister plenipotentiary, A. Von Cetto; his Majesty, the King of Wirtemberg, his state-minister the Count of Wintzingerode; the Elector Arch-chancellor, his ambassador extraordinary the count of Beust; the Elector of Baden, his cabinet minister the Baron of Reitzenstein; his Imperial Highness the Duke of Berg, Baron Von Schele; the Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt, his ambassador extraordinary Baron Von Pappenheim; the Princes of Nassau, Weilburg, and Usingen, Baron Von Gagern; the Princes of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Siegmaringen, Major Von Fischer; the Prince of Isenburg-Birtsein, his privy-counsellor M. Von Gretzen; the Duke of Ahremberg, and the Count of Leyen, Mr. Durand St. André, who have agreed upon the following articles:

Art. 1. The states of the contracting princes (enumerated as in the preamble) shall be for ever separated from the Germanic body, and united by a particular confederation, under the designation of “The confederated States of the Empire.”

2. All the laws of the empire, by which they have been hitherto bound, shall be in future null and without force, with the exception of the statutes relative to debts, determined in the recess of the deputation of 1803, and in the paragraph upon the navigation to be funded upon the shipping tolls, which statutes shall remain in full vigour and execution.

3. Each of the contracting princes renounces such of his titles as refer to his connexion with the German empire; and they will, on the 1st of August, declare their entire separation from it.

4. The Elector Arch-chancellor shall take the title of Prince Primate and Most Eminent Highness, which title shall convey no prerogative derogatory to the entire sovereignty which every one of the contracting princes shall enjoy.

5. The Elector of Baden, the Duke of Berg, and the Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt, shall take the titles of grand Dukes, and enjoy the rights, honours, and prerogatives belonging to the kingly dignity. Their rank and precedence shall be in the same order as mentioned in Article I. The chief of the houses of Nassau shall take the title of Duke, and the Count of Leyen that of Prince.

6. The affairs of the confederation shall be discussed in a congress of the union (Diète), whose place of sitting shall be in Francfort, and the congress shall be divided into two colleges, the kings and the princes.

7. The members of the league must be independent of every foreign power. They cannot, in any wise, enter into any other service, but that of the states of the confederation, and its allies. Those who have been hitherto in the service of a foreign power, and choose to adhere to it, shall abdicate their principality in favour of one of their children.

8. Should any of the said princes be disposed to alienate the whole or any part of his sovereignty, he can only do it in favour of the confederates.

9. All disputes, which may arise among the members of the league, shall be settled in the assembly at Francfort.

10. In this the Prince Primate shall preside, and when it shall happen, that the two colleges have to deliberate upon any subject, he shall then preside in the college of Kings, and the Duke of Nassau in that of the Princes.

11. The time, when the congress of the league, or either of the colleges, shall have particularly to assemble, the manner of the convocation, the subjects upon which they may have to deliberate, the manner of forming their conclusions, and putting them in execution, shall be determined in a fundamental statute, which the Prince Primate shall give in proposition, within a month after the notification presented at Ratisbon. This statute shall be approved of by the confederated states; this statute shall also regulate the respective rank of the members of the college of princes.

12. The Emperor shall be proclaimed protector of the confederation. On the demise of the Primate, he shall, in such quality, as often name the successor.

13. His Majesty the King of Bavaria cedes to the King of Wirtemberg, the Lordship of Wisensteig, and renounces the rights which he might have upon Weiblingen, on account of Burgan.

14. His Majesty the King of Wirtemberg makes over to the Grand Duke of Berg, the country of Bondorff, Brenlingen, and Villingen, the part of the territory of the latter city which lies on the right bank of the Brigoetz, and the city of Tuttlingen, with the manor of the same name belonging to it, on the right bank of the Danube.

15. The grand Duke of Baden cedes to the King of Wirtemberg, the city and territory of Biebrach, with their dependencies.

16. The Duke of Nassau cedes to the grand Duke of Berg, the city of Deutz and its territory.

17. His Majesty the King of Bavaria shall unite to his states the city and territory of Nuremberg, and the Teutonic comitials of Rohr and Waldstetten.

18. His Majesty the King of Wirtemberg shall receive the Lordship of Wisensteig, the city and territory of Biebrach, with their dependencies, the cities of Waldsee and Schettingen, the comitial lands of Karpfenburg, Lancheim, and Alchausen, with the exceptions of the Lordship of Hohenfeld, and the abbey of Weiblingen.

19. The grand Duke of Baden shall receive the Lordship of Bonndorff, the cities of Vrenlingen, Villingen, and Tuttlingen, the parts of their territories which are given to him in Article 14; and along with these the comitials of Bolken and Freyburg.

20. The grand Duke of Berg shall receive the city and territory of Deutz, the city and manor of Koningswinter, and the manor of Wistich, as ceded by the Duke of Nassau.

21. The grand Duke of Darmstadt shall unite to his states the burgraviat of Freidberg, taking to himself the sovereignty only during the lifetime of the present possessor, and the whole at his death.

22. The prince Primate shall take possession of the city of Francfort on the Maine, and its territory, as his sovereign property.

23. The Prince of Hohenzollern Seigmaringen shall receive as his sovereign property the lordships of Aschberg and Hohenfels, depending on the comitial of Alchausen, the convents of Klosterwald and Haltzthal, and the sovereignty over the imperial equestrian estates that lie in his dominions, and in the territory to the north of the Danube, wherever his sovereignty extends; namely, the lordships of Gamerdingen and Hottingen.

24. The members of the confederation shall exercise all the rights of sovereignty henceforward as follow:

His Majesty the King of Bavaria, over the principality of Schwartzenberg, the county of Castell, the lordships of Speinfeld and Wissenheid, the dependencies of the principality of Hohenlohe, which are included in the margraviate of Anspach, and the territory of Rothenburg, namely, the great manors of Schillings furstand Kirchberg, the county of Sternstein, the principality of Oettingen, the possessions of the Prince of La Tour to the north of the principality of Neuberg, the county of Edelstetten, the possessions of the Prince and of the Count of Fugger, the burgraviat of Winteriedden; lastly, the lordships of Buxheim and Tannhansein, and over the entire of the highway from Memmingen to Lindau.

His Majesty the King of Wirtemberg, over the possessions of the Prince and Count of Truchess Waldberg, the counties of Baindt Egloff Guttenzell, Hechbach, Ysuy, Koenigsek Aullendorff, Ochenhausen, Roth, Schussenried, and Weissenau, the lordships of Mietingen and Sunningen, New Ravensburg, Thanheim, Warthausen, and Weingarten, with the exception of the lordship of Haguenau, the possessions of the Prince of Thurn, with the exception of those not mentioned above; the lordship of Strasburg, and the manor of Ostraiz, the lordships of Gundelfingen and Neussen, the parts of the country of Limburg Gaildorf, which his Majesty does not possess, all the unalienated possessions of the princes of Hohenlohe, and over a part of the manor formerly belonging to Mentz, Krautheim, on the left bank of the Jaxt.

The Grand Duke of Baden over the principality of Furstenberg, with the exception of the lordships of Gundelfingen and Neussen; also over Trochtelfingen, Jungenau, and part of the manor of Moeskirch, which lies on the left bank of the Danube, over the lordship of Hagenau, county of Thuengen, landgraviate of Klettgau, manors of Neidenau and Billigheim, principality of Leiningen, the possessions of Lowenstein Wertheim, upon the left bank of the Maine (with the exceptions of the country of Lowenstein), and the lordships of Hailack, Bonnberg, and Habitzheim; and lastly, over the possessions of the Princes of Salm-Reiser-scheid Krantheim, to the north of the Jaxt.

The grand Duke of Berg over the lordships of Lymburg-Styrum, Brugg, Hardenberg, Gimborn, and Neustadt, Wildenberg; the counties of Homburg, Bentheim, Steinfurt, and Horstmarn, the possessions of the Duke of Looz; the counties of Siegen, Dillenburg (the manors of Werheim and Burgach excepted) over Stadamar, the lordships Westerburgh, Schadeck, and Beilstein, and the properly so called, part of Runkel, on the right bank of the Lahn. In order to establish a communication between Cleves and the above-named possessions, the grand Duke shall have a free passage through the states of the Prince of Salm. His Highness the grand Duke of Darmstadt over the lordships of Brenberg, Haibach, the manor of Habizheim, county of Erbach, lordship of Illenstadt, a part of the county of Kodigsheim, which is possessed by the Prince of Stolberg Gedern; over the possessions of the Baron of Riedefel, that are included in, or lie contiguous to his estates, namely, the jurisdictions of Lauserbach, Stockhausen, Mort, and Truenstern, the possessions of the Princes and Counts of Solms, in Weterrau, exclusive of the manors of Hohen Solms, Braunsels, and Grietenstein; lastly, the counties of Wittgenstein, and Berleberg, and the manor of Hessen-Homburg, which is in possession of the line of that name.

His most serene Eminence the Prince Primate, over the possessions of the Princes and Counts of Lowenstein Wertheim, on the right bank of the Maine, and over the county of Rheneck.

Nassau Usingen, and Nassau Weilburg, over the manors of Diersdorf, Alteneveid Neursburgh, and the part of the county of Bassenburg, which belongs to the Prince of Wied-Runkel, over the counties of Neuweid, and Holzappel, the lordship of Schomburg, the county of Deiz and its dependencies; over that part of the village of Metzselden, which appertains to the Prince of Nassau Fulda, the manors of Werhem and Balbach, that part of the lordship of Runkel, situate on the left bank of the Lahn, over the knightdoms of Kransburg; and lastly over the manors of Solms, Braunsels, Hohen Solms, and Griesenstein.

The Prince of Hohenzollern-Siegmaringen, over Trochtelfingen, Jungenan, Strasburg, Manor Ostrach, and the part of the lordship of Moeskirch which lies on the left bank of the Danube.

Salm Kyrberg, over the lordship of Gehmen.

Isenburg-Burstein, over the possessions of the Counts of Isenburg, Budingen, Wechtersbach, and Mehrholz, without any pretensions on the part of the branch in the present possession being urged against him.

Ahremberg, over the county of Dulmen.

25. The members of the confederation shall take the sovereignty of the imperial knightdoms included within their boundaries. Such of the lands as are between the states of two of the confederates, shall be with respect to the sovereignty, partitioned as exactly as possible between them, that no misunderstanding with respect to the sovereignty may arise.

26. The rights of sovereignty consist in exercising the legislation, superior jurisdiction, administration of justice, military conscription, or recruiting, and levying taxes.

27. The present reigning Princes or Counts, shall enjoy as patrimonial or private property all the domains they at present occupy, as well as all the rights of manor and entail, that do not essentially appertain to the sovereignty; namely, the right of superior and inferior administration of justice, in common and criminal cases, tenths, patronage, and other rights, with the revenues therefrom accruing. Their domains and chattels, as far as relates to the taxes, shall be annexed to the Prince of that house under whose sovereignty they come; or if no Prince of the house be in possession of immoveable property, in that case they shall be put upon an equality with the domains of Princes of the most privileged class. These domains cannot be sold or given to any Prince out of the confederation, without being first offered to the Prince under whose sovereignty they are placed.

28. In penal cases, the now reigning Princes and Counts, and their heirs, shall preserve their present privileges of trial. They shall be tried by their peers. Their fortune shall not in any event be confiscated, but the revenues may, during the life time of the criminal, be sequestrated.

29. The confederate states shall contribute to the payment of the debts of their circle, as well for their old as their new possessions. The debts of the circle of Suabia, shall be put to the account of the Kings of Bavaria and Wirtemberg, the grand Duke of Baden, the Princes of Hohenzollern, Hechingen, and Siegmaringen, the Prince of Lichtenstein, and Prince of Leyen, in proportion to their respective possessions in Suabia.

30. The proper debts of a Prince or Count who falls under the sovereignty of another state, shall be defrayed by the said state conjointly with the new reigning Prince, in the proportion of the revenues which that state shall require, and of the part which by the present treaty is allotted to attach to the attributes of the present sovereigns.

31. The present reigning Princes or Counts may determine the place of their residence where they will. Where they reside in the dominions of a member or ally of the confederation, or in any of the possessions which they hold out of the territory of the confederation, they may draw their rents or capitals without paying any tax whatever upon them.

32. Those persons who hold places in the administration of the countries, which hereby come under the sovereignty of the confederates, and who shall not be retained by the new sovereign, shall receive a pension according to the situation they have held.

33. The numbers of military or religious orders who shall lose their incomes, or whose common property shall be secularised, shall receive during life a yearly stipend proportioned to their former income, their dignity, and their age, and which shall be secured upon the goods of the revenues of which they were in the enjoyment.

34. The confederates renounce reciprocally, for themselves and their posterity, all claims which they might have upon the possessions of other members of the confederation, the eventual right of succession alone excepted, and this only in the event of the family having died out, which now is in possession of the territories and objects to which such a right might be advanced.

35. Between the Emperor of the French and the Confederated States, federatively and individually, there shall be an alliance, by virtue of which, every continental war in which one or either parties shall be engaged, shall be common to all.

36. In the event of any foreign or neighbouring power making preparations for war, the contracting parties, in order to prevent surprise, shall, upon the requisition of the minister of one of them at the assembly of the league at Francfort, arm also. And as the contingent of the allies is subdivided into four parts, the assembly shall decide how many of those shall be called into activity. The armament, however, shall only take place upon the summons of the Emperor, to each of the contracting parties.

37. His Majesty the King of Bavaria, binds himself to fortify Augsburg and Lindau; in the first of these places to form and maintain artillery establishments, and in the second to keep a quantity of muskets and ammunition, sufficient for a reserve, as well as a baking establishment at Augsburg, sufficient to supply the armies without delay, in the event of war.

38. The contingent of each is determined as follows:

39. The contracting parties will admit of the accession of other German princes and states in all cases where the union with the confederation may be found consistent with the general interest.

40. The ratification of the present treaty shall be exchanged between the contracting parties, on the 25th of July at Munich.

Done at Paris, July 12, 1806.

Since the peace of Presburgh all our attention and all our care have been employed to fulfil with scrupulous fidelity all the engagements contracted by that treaty, to preserve to our subjects the happiness of peace, to consolidate every where the amicable relations happily re-established, waiting to discover whether the changes caused by the peace would permit us to perform our important duties, as chief of the Germanic empire, conformably to the capitulation of election.

The consequences, however, which ensued from some articles of the treaty of Presburgh, immediately after its publication, which still exist, and those events generally known, which have since taken place in the Germanic empire, have convinced us that it will be impossible, under these circumstances, to continue the obligations contracted by the capitulation of election; and even if in reflecting on these political relations it were possible to imagine a change of affairs, the convention of the twelfth of July, signed at Paris, and ratified by the contracting parties, relative to an entire separation of several considerable states of the empire, and their peculiar confederation, has entirely destroyed every such hope.

Being thus convinced of the impossibility of being any longer enabled to fulfil the duties of our imperial functions, we owe it to our principles and our duty, to renounce a crown which was only valuable in our eyes whilst we were able to enjoy the confidence of the electors, princes, and other states of our Germanic empire, and to perform the duties which were imposed upon us. We declare, therefore, by these presents, that we, considering as dissolved the ties which have hitherto attached us to the states of the Germanic empire; that we, considering as extinguished by the confederation of the states of the Rhine, the charge in chief of the empire; and that we, considering ourselves thus acquitted of all our duties towards the Germanic empire, do resign the imperial crown and the imperial government. We absolve, at the same time, the electors, princes, and states, and all that belong to the empire, particularly the members of the supreme tribunal, and other magistrates of the empire, from those duties by which they were united to us as the legal chief of the empire, according to the constitution.

We also absolve all our German provinces and states of the empire from their reciprocal duties toward the German empire; and we desire, in incorporating them with our Austrian states as Emperor of Austria, and in preserving them in those amicable relations subsisting with the neighbouring powers and states, that they should attain that height of prosperity and happiness which is the end of all our desires, and the object of our dearest wishes.

Done at our residence, under our imperial seal,

Vienna, the 6th of August, 1806. FRANCIS.

We, Francis Second, &c. In abdicating the imperial government of the empire, we, considering it as the last effort of our care, and as an absolute duty, do express thus publicly a desire equally reasonably and just, that the persons who have hitherto been employed in the administration of justice, and in diplomatic and other affairs, for the good of the whole empire, and for the service of the chief of the empire, should be suitably provided for:

The care which all the states of the empire took of those persons who lost their places by the affair of the indemnity in 1803, induces us to hope that the same sentiments of justice will be extended to those individuals who have hitherto been employed in the general service, who have been chosen in all parts of the Germanic empire, and many of whom have quitted other profitable places, looking forward to an honourable subsistence for life, and which should not be wanting to them on account of their fidelity, and the integrity and capacity with which they have executed their functions:

We have, therefore, taken the resolution of preserving to those of our imperial servants, who have hitherto drawn their salaries from our chamber, the same appointments, reserving to ourselves to place them in employments in the service of our hereditary states; and we hope, with so much the more confidence, that the electors, princes, and states will provide for the imperial chamber of justice of the empire, and the chancellerie of the chamber of justice, by charging themselves voluntarily with this expense, as it will be trifling in amount, and will diminish every year.

As to the chancellerie of the aulic council of the empire, the funds destined for its support will be employed to provide for the wants of those individuals who have hitherto drawn from thence their salaries; this will serve them until other measures may be taken.

Done in our capital and residence of Vienna, under our imperial seal, the 6th of August, 1806.