cers, after he was made marshal, were | dred millions in the vaults of the descanting on their descent, and the Tuileries: I would willingly give them rich appointments which they enjoyed all to save Marshal Ney," [ante, Chap. from their families, he said, "Gentle- LXXIII. § 75]; he only expressed a men, I was less fortunate than you; I got sentiment which long experience of nothing from my family, and I esteem- his vast services had suggested, and ed myself rich at Metz when I had two which the unexampled heroism with loaves of bread on the table." When which he had headed the rear-guard he was made marshal, a splendid party during the whole of that calamitous rewere assembled at his hotel, among treat had amply confirmed. It was when whom were the chief dignitaries of the danger was greatest, and safety seemed empire. Amidst them all he made his hopeless, that his courage was most conway to an old captain, who stood be- spicuous and his coolness most valuhind the crowd at a respectful distance. able; and if these qualities could have "Do you recollect, captain," said he, insured success, Napoleon would have "the time when you said to me, when found victory in the last attack, headI gave in my report, Go on, Ney, I ed by this heroic marshal, at Waterloo. am satisfied with you; you will make your way?"" Perfectly," replied his old commander; one does not easily forget having commanded a marshal of France." His father, who tenderly loved him, lived to see his highest elevation, and was never informed of his tragic fate; the weeds of his family alone informed him in 1815 that some mournful event had taken place; he never again pronounced his name, and died twelve years after, at the age of a hundred, without ever having been informed of his end. 66 65. Nevertheless, Ney was far from being either a general of the first order, or a man of character capable of withstanding the severest trials. "He was the bravest of men," said Napoleon; "there terminate all his faculties." Notwithstanding his great experience, he never was able to comprehend, in complicated cases, the true spirit of his instructions; and was indebted for many of his most important successes to the admirable sagacity with which his chief of the staff, General Jomini, divined the Emperor's projects, and put his chief on the right course for their execution. It was the able counsels of this accomplished general that enabled Ney to complete the invest ment of Mack at Ulm, and his prompt succour which extricated him from im 64. The distinctive characteristic of Ney was his perfect calmness and selfpossession in the midst of danger, and the invincible energy with which he pursued his object, notwithstanding the most formidable obstacles by which he was opposed. Showers of grape-pending ruin at Jena.* The diverging shot, the onset of cuirassiers, even the terrible charge of the English bayo nets, were alike unable to shake his resolution, or disturb his steady gaze. When one of his officers asked him, if on such occasions he never felt fear "I never had time," was his simple reply. This extraordinary self-possession in danger, accompanied as it was in his case with the practised eye which discerns the exact moment of attack, and measures with accuracy the probable resistance that may be anticipated, rendered him an invaluable auxiliary to a commander-in-chief. When Napoleon, after his glorious march across the Dnieper, near Krasnoi, in 1812, said, "I have three hun directions which he gave to his corps had well-nigh proved fatal to the French army in the mud of Pultusk;† and a clearer perception of the vital importance of the movement with which he was intrusted, might have re-estab lished the throne of Napoleon on the field of Bautzen. In separate command he seldom achieved anything worthy of his reputation; and, when placed under any other general than the Emperor, his unseasonable jealousy and overbearing temper were often attended with the most injurious results.§ *Ante, chap. xl. § 60, and xliii. § 45. + Ibid., chap. xliv. § 29. Ibid., chap. lxxv. § 72. § Ibid., chap. lxiii. § 88. 66. But these errors, serious as they | vigour and decision requisite to form a were, affected his intellectual powers great commander, he was not without only; his subsequent vacillation on a merit of a subordinate kind, and pospolitical crisis, and unpardonable viola- sessed some qualities of incalculable tion of his fidelity at Fontainebleau, value to the Emperor. His mind was and of his oath during the Hundred the essence of order itself. Unwearied Days, have imprinted a darker stain on in application, methodical in habit, inhis memory, and prove that if his defatigable in exertion, he was conphysical courage was above, his moral stantly ready to reduce into the proper firmness was below the ordinary aver- form the slightest hints of the Emage of human beings. Yet, even in peror. The precision, order, and rethat melancholy catastrophe, the re- gularity which he displayed in the disflecting observer will discover the charge of these important duties could grounds for individual forgiveness not be surpassed. Night and day he and general condemnation. He will was alike ready to commence the work contrast the weakness, under worldly of redaction; no amount of writing temptation, of the brightest characters could fatigue, no rapidity of travelling of the Revolution, with the glorious disarrange, no pressure of despatches fidelity, under severer trials, of La Ven- perplex him. "This," said Napoleon, dée, Saragossa, Moscow, and the Tyrol; "was the great merit of Berthier; and and gladly embrace the belief, that if it was of inestimable importance to the white plume of Murat was sullied me. No other could possibly have by defection, and the glorious fore- replaced him." The constant habit head of Ney stained by treason, we are of associating with the Emperor, with to ascribe those grievous blots to the whom during a campaign he dined vices of the age in which they lived, and travelled in the carriage every rather than to their own individual day, necessarily gave him a considerweakness. And he will probably rest able degree of influence, and the prein the conclusion, that the utmost tension of his manner indicated that efforts of worldly greatness fall short he assumed more than he possessed. of the constancy in misfortune which "That was quite natural," said Naporeligion inspires, or the superiority leon; "nothing is so imperious as weakto temptation which virtue can be- ness which feels itself supported by stow. strength. Look at women." Like almost all the creatures of his bounty, he deserted the Emperor in the hour of his distress, and made his peace with the Bourbons at Fontainebleau. But he did not survive long to enjoy the fruits of his defection, having perished in an ignoble manner by a fall from a window, two years afterwards, in the streets of Bamberg. 67. Inferior to both these characters in the dazzling qualities of a hero, BERTHIER was nevertheless too important a person in the military and civil administration of Napoleon to be passed over without special notice. He was so constantly the companion of the Emperor, and all the orders from headquarters emanated so uniformly from his pen, that it was at one period imagined that his abilities had contributed not a little to the Imperial triumphs. But this impression, which never existed among those who knew them both personally, was entirely dispelled by the incapacity evinced by the major-general on occasion of the commencement of the campaign of 1809 in Germany, which brought the empire to within a hair's- breadth of destruction, [ante, Chap. LVI. § 25]. Nevertheless, though totally destitute of the 68. Such were the leading officers who, in his later years, were grouped around the standard of Napoleon, and the principal instruments for carrying into execution his mighty designs. Shining as were their abilities, daring their courage, extensive their experience, they yet fell immeasurably short of the capacious mind of their chief; and were wholly incapable of those vast designs, and extensive combinations, which in him seemed the destined achievements of original genius. They were admirable lieutenants, per- mental superiority, even in a single fect seconds in command, but they had individual, on the destiny of nations; nothing great in their characters. They and an illustration of the obvious had not the stamp of genius on their truth, that, for the accomplishment of minds; they were not, like him, born its fixed designs, whether of progress to be the rulers of empires: another or retribution to mankind, Providence proof among the many which history not unfrequently makes use of the affords of the unbounded influence of agency of individual greatness. the glorious fabric of the Grand Alliance. To 1. GREAT were the efforts made by the English cabinet to turn to the best account the unhoped-for flood of good 2. The decided step taken by Prusfortune which set in during the first sia in seceding from the French almonths of 1813. It was hard to say liance, and uniting her fate to that of whether the alacrity of the nation in Russia by the treaty of Kalisch, at once submitting, in the twentieth year of and without any formal convention rethe war, to fresh burdens; or the established amicable relations between boundless generosity with which sup- the cabinet of Berlin and that of Lonplies of every sort were sent to the in- don. Long before any diplomatic con. surgent nations of Germany; or the ef- nection had been resumed between forts made to strengthen the victorious them, immense supplies of arms, ammuarmy of Wellington in Spain; or the nition, and warlike stores of every dediplomatic activity which hushed se- scription, had been forwarded from the parate interests, and reconciled jarring Thames to the mouth of the Elbe, pretensions, in the conclusion of the from whence they were disseminated alliances with cabinets, were most through the whole Prussian dominions. worthy of admiration. Lofty and [ante, Chap. LXXV. § 12, note]. commanding, indeed, was the position accelerate the conclusion of a regular of Great Britain, in thus finding the treaty, Sir Charles Stewart, now the continental states, after so long a Marquis of Londonderry, was sent by contest, ranging themselves around her the British government to the north standard, and the jealousies of rival of Germany early in April, and argovernments merged in the common rived in Berlin on the 22d of that sense of the necessity, at all hazards, month. Finding the King of Prussia of throwing off the tyranny which at Dresden, he instantly pushed on previously she alone had uniformly to that city; and there the terms and successfully opposed. But many of the Alliance were at once agreed serious obstacles were to be overcome upon. They were-that England, in before this consummation could be addition to the vast stores of arms and effected; and diplomatic difficulties of no ordinary kind awaited the statesman whose perseverance at length smoothed them all away, and cemented, out of such discordant materials, military implements which she was furnishing with such profusion to all the allied powers, should advance two millions sterling to sustain the operations of the Prince-Royal of Sweden in the north of Germany, and a like sum | nual subsidy of £1,333,334, by monthto enable Russia and Prussia to keep ly portions, in return for which he was up the great armaments which they to maintain one hundred and sixty had on foot in the centre of Saxony; thousand men in the field, independent besides five hundred thousand pounds of the garrisons of strong places. In with which the British government addition to this, England took upon charged itself as the cost of the Rus- herself the maintenance of the Russian sian fleet. In return for these liberal fleet, which, with its crews, had been advances, Russia agreed to maintain in the harbours of Great Britain ever two hundred, and Prussia one hundred since the convention of Cintra in 1808, thousand men in the field, exclusive [ante, Chap. LIV. § 75], a burden estiof garrisons; and on this basis matters mated at £500,000 yearly. As these remained till the conclusion of the ar- subsidies, great as they were, appeared mistice of Pleswitz. to be inadequate to the daily increasing cost of the enormous armaments which the Allies had on foot, or in preparation; and as, in particular, they were likely to be rendered unavailing by the want of specie, which was everywhere most severely felt, it was stipulated that an issue of paper, to the extent of five millions sterling, should take place in the Prussian states, gua 3. No sooner, however, were the allied sovereigns delivered, by that armistice, from the pressure of impending hostilities, than they turned their attention to drawing closer their diplomatic relations with Great Britain; and as both Sir Charles Stewart and Earl Cathcart, the English ambassador at the court of St Petersburg, were at the allied headquarters, a treaty of al-ranteed by the three powers. Of this liance, offensive and defensive, was soon concluded. By this treaty, signed at Reichenbach on 14th June, the foundation was laid of the Grand Alliance which effected the deliverance of Europe. It was stipulated that England should pay to Prussia, for the six remaining months of the year, a subsidy of £666,666, in consideration of which the latter power was to keep in the field an army of eighty thousand men. Two separate and important articles were inserted in the secret treaty. By the first of these, the British government engaged "to contribute its efforts to the aggrandisement of Prussia, if the success of the allied arms would admit of it, in such geographical and statistical proportions as should at least restore it to the situation in which it stood prior to 1806;" while by the second, the King of Prussia agreed to cede to the Electorate of Hanover a part of his possessions in Lower Saxony 5. A supplementary treaty was signand Westphalia, to the extent of three ed between Great Britain and Russia hundred thousand souls, including, in at Peterswalde, on 6th July, for the particular, the bishopric of Hildesheim. regulation of the German legion in the 4. By another and relative treaty, service of the Czar. It was stipulated signed the day after, between Russia that the expense of this legion, which and Great Britain, it was stipulated was to be raised to ten thousand men, that Great Britain should pay to its should be undertaken by the British Emperor, till 1st January 1814, an an-government, and that, in return, it sum two-thirds were to be at the disposal of Russia, and one-third at that of Prussia. The ultimate liquidation of the notes, which were payable to bearer, was fixed for the 1st July 1815, or six months after the conclusion of a definitive treaty of peace, and undertaken in the proportion of three-sixths by England, two-sixths by Russia, and one-sixth by Prussia. And although the treaty, by its letter, was to continue only during the year 1813, yet the high contracting parties, both in this and the Prussian treaty, agreed to concert anew on the aid they were to afford each other in the event of the war being prolonged beyond that period; and, in particular, "reciprocally engaged not to negotiate separately with their common enemies, nor to sign any peace, truce, or convention whatsoever, otherwise than with mutual consent." should be placed at their disposal, and officered according to their recommendation. The estimated annual expense of each man was taken at £10, 158. overhead, including pay and provisionsa curious and valuable fact, as indicating the wide difference between the cost of military armaments on the Continent and in this country, where the charges per head are at least three times as great. bold but withal wise and necessary step, at the critical moment when it was most required, and when all human efforts but for it must have been unavailing, the successful issue of the war and overthrow of Napoleon are mainly to be ascribed. The difference was immense between this limited issue of paper, suited to the exigencies of the moment, and no more, and the boundless profusion of French assignats, which destroyed property of every description, and in the end ruined the very credit it was intended to support. A memorable instance of the wonderful power of national credit on human transactions, and of the marvellous effect of a paper circulation when based on right principles, and resting on a solid basis. It affords a proof also of the inexhaustible resources of a country which was thus able, at the close of a war of twenty years' duration, not only to furnish subsidies of vast amount to the con circulation of their own dominions, and cause its notes of hand to pass like gold through vast empires, which, extending from the Elbe to the Wall of China, but a few months before had been arrayed in inveterate hostility against it. 6. So excessive did the want of specie become in Germany, in the autumnal months of this year, from the enormous demands of the multitudes of armed men who were assembled within a narrow space on its surface, that England was again obliged to interpose its inexhaustible public credit to supply the deficiency. By a supplementary convention, signed at London on the 30th September, the government of Great Britain engaged to propose to parliament a measure whereby bills of credit in favour of the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prus-tinental states, but to guarantee the sia should be issued by the English exchequer, to the extent of two million five hundred thousand pounds, or fifteen million Prussian crowns (thalers); one million to be put monthly into circulation, and payable in specie a month after the ratification of a general peace, at offices in such towns in the north of Germany as the British government, in concert with the courts of St Petersburg and Berlin, should point out. An option was given to the holders, instead of receiving payment in specie at that period, to fund them in a stock bearing six per cent interest. A similar treaty was, on the same day, signed with Prussia, which power obtained one-third of the proposed sum; the other two-thirds being at the disposal of Russia. These stipulations were immediately carried into effect by the British government; the issue took place, and had the effect of instantly providing the requisite supply of circulating medium in Germany and Russia, which passed at par with specie through all the north of Europe. To the supply of money obtained, and the extension of credit effected by this 7. With Sweden, also, a treaty, already alluded to, had been concluded at an earlier period, which in the end was attended with the most important consequences to the deliverance of Europe. By this treaty, signed at Stockholm on the 3d March 1813, it was provided that the King of Sweden should employ a body of thirty thousand men, to act in concert with the Russian troops in such operations as should be agreed on in the north of Germany; in consideration of which the British government agreed to pay yearly the sum of one million pounds, by monthly instalments. Great Britain engaged to cede the island of Guadaloupe in the West Indies to Sweden, and Sweden promised to give the British subjects the right of entrepot in the three harbours of Goteborg, Carls hamm, and Stralsund. Finally, the British government acceded to the con |