Cassell's History of England, Vol. 5 (of 8): From the Peninsular War to the Death of Sir Robert PeelAnonymous
History
Cassell's History of England, Vol. 5 (of 8): From the Peninsular War to the Death of Sir Robert Peel
Anonymous
Great Britain -- History
Austria also furnished thirty thousand men, under Prince Schwarzenberg,
but with secret orders to do no more than just keep up appearances, as
Alexander had done during the campaign of Wagram. It was of the utmost
consequence that Turkey should have been conciliated by Napoleon.
Russia had long been ravaging the outlying provinces of that empire,
and nothing could have been more plain than the policy of engaging
Turkey against Russia at this crisis, to divide the latter's attention
by menacing its eastern boundaries. But Buonaparte ever since the
Treaty of Tilsit had been neglecting the Turks, to allow his ally,
Alexander, to make his aggressions on them, and now he altered his
plan too late. When he made overtures, so late as March of this year,
not only to put them in possession of Moldavia and Wallachia, but
to recover the Crimea for the Turks, on condition that they should
invade Russia from the east with a hundred thousand men, his offer
was rejected, the Porte having already been persuaded by the British
to make peace with Russia at Bucharest. Thus France, entering on this
great enterprise, left Spain and Sweden in open hostility, and carried
with her Austria and Prussia as very dubious allies. At the same time
the news arrived of the fall of Ciudad Rodrigo, in Spain, and, with
this, the certainty that Great Britain would do all in her power to
arouse and support the enemies of Napoleon in every quarter.
Under the influence of this persuasion, Buonaparte suddenly made
overtures of peace to Great Britain, though, on the conditions which
he proposed, they were certain to be rejected. The Duke of Bassano
wrote to Lord Castlereagh, offering to secure the independence of Spain
under the present reigning dynasty; that Portugal should continue
under the rule of the House of Braganza, and Naples under Murat. Lord
Castlereagh replied that if by the present reigning dynasty of Spain
was meant King Joseph, there could be no treaty, and there the matter
ended; for even Fouché says that Napoleon's Ministers were ashamed of
so clumsy a proposal of ignorance and bad faith. Failing with Great
Britain, Buonaparte turned to Russia herself, intimating a desire for
peace, but not finding it in his heart to offer any terms likely to be
accepted. In fact, he was now so demented by the ambition which meant
soon to destroy him, that he fancied that a mere mention of peace was
enough to win over any of his enemies in face of his vast armies.
Including the forces of his German and Italian subsidiaries, he had
on foot one million one hundred and eighty-seven thousand men. Of
these, he led four hundred and seventy thousand men into Russia. Italy,
Naples, Austria, Prussia, Würtemberg, Baden, Saxony, Westphalia, and
other Confederates of the Rhine furnished each from twenty thousand to
sixty thousand men. To swell up his French portion, he had called out
two conscriptions, each of a hundred thousand men, in one year, and
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