People

Had theparty of Stein been Post Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 21:00:59 +0000
Its territory lay directlybetween the French Empire and Russia; its fortresses were in the hands ofNapoleon, its resources were certain to be seized by one or other of thehostile armies. Neutrality was impossible, however much desired by Prussiaitself; and the only question to be decided by the Government was whetherPrussia should enter the war as the ally of France or of Russia. Had theparty of Stein been in power, Prussia would have taken arms againstNapoleon at every risk.

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The machinery ofGovernment was reconstructed Post Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 21:11:01 +0000
Stein, however, was in exile his friends, thoughstrong in the army, were not masters of the Government; the foreign policyof the country was directed by a statesman who trusted more to time andprudent management than to desperate resolves. Hardenberg had been recalledto office in 1810, and permitted to resume the great measures of civilreform which had been broken off two years before. The machinery ofGovernment was reconstructed upon principles that had been laid down byStein; agrarian reform was carried still farther by the abolition ofpeasant's service, and the partition of peasant's land between the occupantand his lord; an experiment, though a very ill-managed one, was made in theforms of constitutional Government by the convocation of three successiveassemblies of the Notables.

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A true patriot at heart Post Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 21:24:31 +0000
On the part of the privileged orders Hardenbergencountered the most bitter opposition; his own love of absolute powerprevented him from winning popular confidence by any real approach towardsa Representative System. Nor was the foreign policy of the Minister of acharacter to excite enthusiasm. A true patriot at heart, he seemed at timesto be destitute of patriotism, when he was in fact only destitute of thepower to reveal his real motives.

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While the Prussian envoy Post Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 21:36:58 +0000
Convinced that Prussia could not remain neutral in the coming war, andbelieving some relief from its present burdens to be absolutely necessary,Hardenberg determined in the first instance to offer Prussia's support toNapoleon, demanding in return for it a reduction of the payments still dueto France, and the removal of the limits imposed upon the Prussian army.[169] The offer of the Prussian alliance reached Napoleon in the spring of1811: he maintained an obstinate silence. While the Prussian envoy at Parisvainly waited for an audience, masses of troops advanced from the Rhinetowards the Prussian frontier, and the French garrisons on the Oder wereraised far beyond their stipulated strength.

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It was not long before Post Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 21:51:55 +0000
In July the envoy returnedfrom Paris, announcing that Napoleon declined even to enter upon adiscussion of the terms proposed by Hardenberg. King Frederick Williamnow wrote to the Czar, proposing an alliance between Prussia and Russia.It was not long before the report of Hardenberg's military preparationsreached Paris.

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Hardenberg, expecting favourable news from St Post Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 22:03:13 +0000
Napoleon announced that if they were not immediatelysuspended he should order Davoust to march on Berlin; and he presented acounter-proposition for a Prussian alliance, which was in fact one ofunqualified submission. The Government had to decide between accepting atreaty which placed Prussia among Napoleon's vassals, or certain war.Hardenberg, expecting favourable news from St Petersburg, pronounced infavour of war; but the Czar, though anxious for the support of Prussia,had determined on a defensive plan of operations, and declared that hecould send no troops beyond the Russian frontier.

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[170] (Feb 24th, 1812 Post Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 22:22:32 +0000
Prussia was thus left to face Napoleon alone. Hardenberg shrank from theresponsibility of proclaiming a war for life or death, and a treaty wassigned which added the people of Frederick the Great to that ingloriouscrowd which fought at Napoleon's orders against whatever remained ofindependence and nationality in Europe. [170] (Feb 24th, 1812.

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Hardenberg himself might make a merit Post Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 22:39:49 +0000
) Prussiaundertook to supply Napoleon with 20,000 men for the impending campaign,and to raise no levies and to give no orders to its troops withoutNapoleon's consent. Such was the bitter termination of all those patriotichopes and efforts which had carried Prussia through its darkest days.Hardenberg himself might make a merit of bending before the storm, and ofpreserving for Prussia the means of striking when the time should come; butthe simpler instincts of the patriotic party felt his submission to be thevery surrender of national existence.

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The alliance which Napoleon pressed upon Post Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 22:50:28 +0000
Stein in his exile denounced theMinister with unsparing bitterness. Scharnhorst resigned his post; many ofthe best officers in the Prussian army quitted the service of KingFrederick William in order to join the Russians in the last struggle forEuropean liberty.The alliance which Napoleon pressed upon Austria was not of the samehumiliating character as that which Prussia was forced to accept.

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The family-relations of thetwo Emperors Post Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 23:07:21 +0000
BothMetternich and the Emperor Francis would have preferred to remain neutral,for the country was suffering from a fearful State-bankruptcy, and theGovernment had been compelled to reduce its paper money, in which all debtsand salaries were payable, to a fifth of its nominal value. Napoleon,however, insisted on Austria's co-operation. The family-relations of thetwo Emperors pointed to a close alliance, and the reward which Napoleonheld out to Austria, the restoration of the Illyrian provinces, was one ofthe utmost value.

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