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"the Peninsula; and that those persons, who, "with well-founded faith, could see and un"derstand that the moral government of the "world is not less perfect nor less certain in its course, than that material order which science has demonstrated, perceived in this "dreadful visitation the work of righteous re"tribution. The bloody conquests of the Portuguese in India were yet unexpiated; the Spaniards had to atone for extirpated nations "in Cuba, and Hayti, and their other islands. "Vengeance had not been exacted for the enor"mities perpetrated in the Netherlands; nor "for that accursed tribunal which, during "more than two centuries, triumphed both in

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Spain and Portugal, to the ineffaceable and "eternal infamy of the Romish Church*." We may indeed look upon these enormities as the peculiar cause of that indignation, which seemed to fall more heavily upon them than upon any other of the Roman-catholic countries.

L

Early in 1809 the war broke out again with Austria; and Buonaparte, without relinquishing Spain, was successful, aided by the troops of the Confederation of the Rhine, in the battles of Taun, Abensburg, and Eckmuhl; and on

Edinburgh Annual Register for 1809, p. 536.

the 13th May, after the campaign had been opened only one month, he entered as a conqueror into Vienna. The advantages subsequently gained by the Austrians in the sanguinary battle of Aspern, were not sufficient to turn the tide of victory in their favour. They suffered a severe defeat in the battle of Wagram, and the war was terminated by a treaty, concluded at Vienna on the 14th of October, 1809; by which Austria made very large and important cessions of territory, but made one cession of far more importance to Buonaparte, and tending more than any other to consolidate and strengthen his power; for it was afterwards discovered to have been a secret condition of this peace, that the royal family of Austria should be united with the dynasty of Buonaparte, and that the Archduchess Maria Louisa should share with the adventurer Buonaparte, that throne which had been unoccupied by any one of royal birth since it became vacant by the murder of her aunt, Marie Antoinette. In the course of this year Buonaparte had also annexed Tuscany and the States of Rome to the French empire, and added to his other titles that of Mediator of Switzerland.

Early in the year 1810, his marriage with the Archduchess took place; a divorce having been previously pronounced between himself

and the Empress Josephine. In this year he also took military possession of Holland, and Louis finding that his brother would grant no terms to his oppressed and unfortunate subjects, released them from their oath of allegiance to himself, and Holland was definitively united to France. Part of the Tyrol also, which had before been given to the King of Bavaria, was this year annexed to Buonaparte's kingdom of Italy; and, lastly, the Hanse towns, as Hamburgh, Bremen, and Lubeck, were joined to the empire of France. Hanover also was this year given to Jerome, King of Westphalia.

In 1811 it is observed, "that there existed "not in appearance, through the wide range "of Napoleon's sway, the least opposition to "the measures of his government. The hu“miliated Court of Vienna was principally oc

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cupied," through this year, "in the restora"tion of its impaired finances. The rest of "Germany was in part annexed to France, and

the remainder in close league with it, or "under slavish dependence upon the French "Emperor." In this year "the general "usurper laid his grasp also upon the Duchy " of Oldenburgh," and the King of Prussia was compelled, after much reluctant delay, to join the Confederacy of the Rhine, and to place a considerable body of his troops un

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"der the orders of the French general who "commanded on the southern coast of the "Baltic."

In this year, on the other hand, Portugal was completely delivered from the yoke of the French, by the valour of the allied army under Lord Wellington; but the usurper Joseph was in possession of the capital of Spain; and the greater part of that country was in the power of his troops.

In the beginning of 1812, Buonaparte prepared to force the Court of Petersburgh to maintain more strictly that system which he had established, by which the merchandise of Great Britain was to be entirely excluded from all the ports of the Continent. In the month of January, as a preliminary measure, 20,000 French troops were sent to occupy Swedish Pomerania, and in the middle of June Napoleon joined on the other side of the Vistula the immense force that he had there assembled for the invasion of Russia. The Emperor of Austria had lately entered into a treaty with Buonaparte, by which he bound himself to assist him with 24,000 infantry, and 60 pieces of cannon. The King of Prussia also had been forced to form a treaty of alliance with him. "The confede"rate Princes of Germany had sent their tri

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"10,000 Spaniards and Portuguese had been pressed into the service, and not less than “400,000 men were ranged under the Despot's "standard*." We behold him at this time arrived at the height of glory, from which he was to be so suddenly cast down; and I here therefore close the consideration of that part of the text, he shall prosper, till the indignation "be accomplished."

The last words of the text under consideration, which we have not yet particularly adverted to, are the following: "He shall cause "them to rule over many, and he shall divide "the land for gain." It was the policy of Buonaparte, during the whole course of his successful career, to reward his generals and officers, and those who sided with him, by giving them a share of the spoil which they had as

sisted him to seize. the land, therefore, kept pace with his successes; and was consequently not completed till his power had reached to its utmost limits. We read in the annals of 1812, that when preparing for the invasion of Russia," he was in "the meantime not unmindful of that plan of "attaching his generals and soldiers by re"wards, at the cost of the vanquished, which

The act of his dividing

* Narrative of the Campaign in Russia, during the year 1812, by Sir Robert Ker Porter, p. 5.

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