The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte. Vol. 4 (of 4) — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte. Vol. 4 (of 4)
John Stuart Mill · en
The immediate effects of Leipsic were the full display of that
national spirit which had been refined, if not created, in the fires
of Napoleon's imperious career. An Austrian army under Hiller drove
Eugene over the Adige. The Italians, not unsusceptible to the power in
the air, felt their humiliation, and, turning on their imperial King
in bitter hate, determined, under the influence of feelings most
powerfully expressed by Alfieri, that they would emulate northern
Europe. But though they had for years been subject to the new
influences, enjoying the equal administration of the Code Napoleon,
and freed from the interference of petty local tyrants, they were
neither united nor enlightened in sufficient degree. After an outburst
of hatred to France, they were crushed by their old despots, and the
land relapsed into the direst confusion. The Confederation of the
Rhine was, however, resolved into its elements: the Mecklenburgs
reasserted their independence; King Jerome fled to France; Wuertemberg,
Hesse-Darmstadt, and Baden followed Bavaria's example; Cassel,
Brunswick, Hanover, and Oldenburg were craftily restored to their
former rulers before Stein's bureau could establish an administration.
Holland recalled the Prince of Orange, Spain rose to support
Wellington, and Soult was not merely driven over the Pyrenees--he was
defeated on French soil, and shut up in Bayonne.
Even the three monarchs, as they sedately moved across Germany with
their exhausted and battered armies, were aware of nationality as a
controlling force in the future. In a direct movement on Paris they
could, as Ney said, "have marked out their days in advance," but they
halted at Frankfort for a parley. There were several reasons why they
should pause. They had seen France rise in her might; they did not
care to assist at the spectacle again. Moreover, the coalition had
accomplished its task and earned its pay; not a Frenchman, except real
or virtual prisoners, was left east of the Rhine. From that point the
interests of the three monarchs were divergent. As Gentz, the Austrian
statesman, said, "The war for the emancipation of states bids fair to
become one for the emancipation of the people." Alexander, Frederick
William, and Francis were each and all anxious for the future of
absolutism, but otherwise there was mutual distrust. Austria was
suspicious of Prussia, and desired immediate peace. In the restoration
of Holland under English auspices, Russia saw the perpetuation of
British maritime and commercial supremacy, to the disadvantage of her
Oriental aspirations, and the old Russian party demanded peace. On the
other hand, Alexander wished to avenge Napoleon's march to Moscow by
an advance to Paris; and though Frederick William distrusted what he
called the Czar's Jacobinism, his own soldiers, thirsting for further
revenge, also desired to prosecute the war; even the most enlightened
Prussian statesmen believed that nothing short of a complete cataclysm