Nevertheless, negotiations continued. The emperor proposed to George III. to restore Hanover, but recently assigned to Prussia, and to cede to him, at the same time, the Hanseatic cities. He had just taken possession of the kingdom of Naples, and placed his brother Joseph upon the throne. He intended to join to it, Sicily, still in the hands of the Bourbons, and under the protection of the English. The Russian envoy, M. d'Oubril, who had arrived at Paris, complicated the negotiations. The long deferred hope of Fox began to fail. "The first wish of my heart," said he to the House of Commons, "is peace; but such a peace only as shall preserve our connections and influence on the continent, and not abate one jot of the national honor. That peace only, and no other." The pretensions of Napoleon were of a contrary nature. The treaty concluded by M. d'Oubril, at Paris, was not confirmed by the Emperor Alexander. Almost at the same moment, Prussia, offended by the arrogance and premeditated insults of Napoleon, officially declared war; too late, however, to be of any effectual service to England. On the 13th of October, 1806, the battle of Jena delivered that kingdom into the hands of the Conqueror, who devastated it. Napoleon entered Berlin in triumph. It was there that he signed his decree of a continental blockade, interdicting throughout the whole extent of his dominions the importation of English merchandise. The French armies were everywhere charged to enforce this decree. They began by the seizure of all English commodities in the port of Hamburg. Some months before, the invaders had arbitrarily arrested, at Nuremburg, a bookseller named Palm, accused of having written a libel against the emperor and king. Judged and condemned by a court-martial, the unfortunate man was shot on the 26th of August, 1806. {418}