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Napoleon wished to partition Prussia, just as Alexander wished to annex a large part of Turkey; and the French Emperor waived his views of aggrandisement at the time, in consideration of similar restraint being shown by his ally and rival in the case of Turkey. But it was not in Napoleon's character to let Prussia escape until he had drained away her strength. An opportunity came which promised not only to give free play to these vampire-like methods, but also indefinitely to prolong the French occupation.

Marshal Kalckreuth, when negotiating the terms of the Convention of Königsberg (July 12), for the restitution by France of the Prussian lands that she had conquered on the east of the Elbe, was guilty of a strange inadvertence. He allowed the insertion of an article stipulating the restitution of these districts to the Prussian authorities when the contributions and exactions imposed by order of Napoleon should have been completely discharged; but he failed to secure the insertion of a clause specifying the maximum charge. This omission gave Napoleon the opportunity of subjecting towns and districts to exactions beyond their powers, and thereby indefinitely postponing the time of liberation. The Emperor's letters leave no doubt that he was personally responsible for this ingenious cruelty. On July 18, 1807, he wrote to General Clarke that he did not intend to evacuate Prussia until the money should be paid; he then estimated the amount due from Brandenburg at 80,000,000 francs. On July 22 he again wrote to Clarke respecting the sums due from Brandenburg and Silesia, which he reckoned at more than 120,000,000 francs. He added, " make the provinces pay all they can..... If we can raise this sum to 200,000,000 francs, so much the better." This was from a land whose revenue in 1805-6 was about 27,000,000 thalers (101,250,000 francs). With her domestic industries suffering from the French occupation, her foreign commerce ruined by the naval war with England consequent on the adoption of the Continental System, the mutilated Prussia of 1807 was utterly unable to meet the exactions now imposed. The same device at once sapped her strength and cut off all hope of future deliverance, except by a step that involved political annihilation, namely, inclusion in the Confederation of the Rhine; and there is every reason to believe that Napoleon had determined to drive her to this last step. Ultimately, in March, 1808, the sum claimed from Prussia was fixed at 112,000,000 francs; but the French intendant, Daru, placed all possible difficulties in the way of the acceptance of the sureties demanded for this sum. Even a personal appeal, which Prince William of Prussia made to Napoleon at Paris in the spring of the year 1808, failed to move him from his purpose. He finally replied that the evacuation of Prussia depended solely on the other political combinations which he had in view.

The instructions issued on November 12, 1807, to Caulaincourt, French ambassador designate at the Russian Court, reveal the advantages

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Napoleon and the Eastern Question

[1807 which Napoleon hoped to reap from his very lucrative occupation of Prussia. Seeing that the Tsar desired to keep Moldavia and Wallachia, the French Emperor directed Caulaincourt to offer no opposition to that plan, provided that France should gain a part of Prussia fully equal in population and resources to those States. If the Treaty of Tilsit were to be modified, the change must be equally to the advantage of both the contracting Powers. If, however, the Russian Government hinted at a partition of Turkey, with the acquisition of Bosnia and Albania by France, Caulaincourt was to repel any such suggestion. The fall of the Ottoman Empire was inevitable; but it was to the interest of France and Russia to postpone its fall to a time when they could most profitably share its "vast débris," and when a hostile Power could not seize "Egypt and the islands, the richest spoils." In any case the two contracting Powers must march at the same speed. Napoleon declared that he would not evacuate Prussia until Alexander avowed his intention of restoring Wallachia and Moldavia to the Sultan; or he would evacuate Prussia partially when arrangements referring to a new order of things had been agreed on between the two Powers. A secret convention might be signed, "interpreting" the Treaty of Tilsit, whereby the two Powers would retain the parts of Prussia and Turkey agreed on between them. Caulaincourt was also charged to hold out the prospect of a joint Franco-Russian expedition against India through Asia Minor and Persia a topic on which instructions had been forwarded to the French ambassador lately sent to Teheran. Russia must also be urged to invade the Swedish dominions on the side of Finland, while a FrancoDanish force was preparing to enter them from the west.

Such were the instructions issued to Caulaincourt. Though Alexander, on December 20, received that envoy with the graciousness due to his diplomatic position and to his own estimable qualities, he did not hide his chagrin at seeing the acquisition of the Danubian lands restricted by a condition which deeply touched his honour. At Potsdam and Bartenstein he had taken up the role of protector to Frederick William and Queen Louisa. Even at Tilsit he had saved for them the province of Silesia. How could he, the chivalrous admirer of the Prussian Queen, gain Turkish lands by a step which would entail the sacrifice, once again, of half her dominions? His pride revolted at so humiliating a bargain, every suggestion of which he waved aside. In point of fact, he had been prepared for such a proposal by the dispatches of Count Tolstoi, Russian ambassador at Paris, who on October 26 and November 22 wrote to warn the Russian Government that Napoleon was about to compass the entire ruin of Prussia by assigning Silesia to the duchy of Warsaw and the whole of Brandenburg to Jerome Bonaparte's kingdom of Westphalia. The latter statement was probably incorrect, though there are grounds for thinking that the Emperor had held out to his brother the prospect of reigning at Berlin.

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But, whether correct or not, Tolstoi's dispatches awakened in Alexander those suspicions of Napoleon which he had with difficulty suppressed even at Tilsit. A time of doubt and dexterous poising ensued on both sides. Napoleon, on finding that Alexander was at once firmer, more astute, and more ambitious than he had at first believed, sought to adjourn every important question to a time that would be more favourable for France. In a postscript which he added on January 18, 1808, to a dispatch for Caulaincourt, he informed him that the present state of things suited his (Napoleon's) wishes, and that the question of the partition of Turkey must be deferred.

A new situation, however, was brought about by the action of the British Government. George III, in his speech at the opening of Parliament on January 21, announced the firm resolution of the King and his trust in the support of the people during the present terrible struggle. The tone of the debates in the two Houses was equally determined. Napoleon replied by a Note in the Moniteur, on February 2, that peace would return some day, but only after events that would have deprived England of her distant possessions, "principale source de sa richesse." This hint as to an Oriental expedition served at the same time to threaten Great Britain with the direst losses and to hold out once more to the Tsar the visions conjured up at Tilsit. The certainty that the war would be fought out to the bitter end served to quicken the march of events both at Paris and St Petersburg. It even promised to bring Austria into the Franco-Russian coalition. Already that Power had settled the outstanding claim of France in the convention which Metternich, Austrian ambassador at the French Court, signed with Champagny at Fontainebleau on October 11, 1807. For the Habsburgs that compact was little else than a series of surrenders. The delimitation of the Austrian frontier on the south was wholly in favour of the kingdom of Italy, the line of the river Isonzo being adjudged as the boundary between the two States; Trieste was saved with difficulty. The Habsburgs gained no compensations; and Metternich suggestively remarked to Stadion that the sole advantage conferred by that compact was that it left no question open with Napoleon. The French, however, now evacuated Braunau on the Bavarian frontier; and friendliness seemed to be the order of the day in Franco-Austrian relations. Below the surface there lurked the old suspicion and fear of Napoleon, as is seen in Metternich's correspondence. Nevertheless Austria undertook to mediate with a view to peace between France and England; but, largely owing to the opposition of Canning, her offer was firmly declined. Accordingly, the Austrian ambassador, Count Starhenberg, left London on January 20, 1808; and Adair closed his mission to Vienna on March 1. On February 28, 1808, Austria adopted the Continental System.

Napoleon at once sought to complete the isolation of Great Britain by a scheme which would bring Austria wholly into his political system.

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[1808 He sketched the outlines of the new plan at an interview which he accorded on January 22, 1808, to Metternich. The Austrian ambassador, having presented a letter announcing the marriage of his master with the Grand Duchess Maria Ludovica d'Este it was his third marriageNapoleon began to dilate upon the fatal obstinacy of the British Cabinet, which, he said, had brought him reluctantly to the determination to ensure the peace of the world by a step that must bring ruin to England, namely, an Eastern expedition and the partition of the Ottoman Empire. That event would benefit Russia more than France, who needed only "Egypt and some colonies"; but Austria could not stand by and see the partition of Turkey among other Powers. The dictates of sound policy required her to unite very closely with France in order to share the spoils. Metternich received the offer very guardedly, and suggested that Francis II would almost certainly disapprove of so revolutionary a proposal, for his only desire was to maintain peace and the status quo. Napoleon, however, believed that he could force his hand, as Frederick II and Catharine II had forced that of Maria Theresa in the case of Poland. That he entered eagerly into the new scheme may be seen from two letters which he wrote to the Tsar and Caulaincourt on February 2. To his ambassador he stated that he would gladly see Alexander conquer Sweden and take even Stockholm itself, so as to make St Petersburg the geographical centre of his empire. He also instructed Caulaincourt not to press for the evacuation of the Danubian Principalities by Russia, it being understood that the French would not leave Prussia. Above all he was to hold out the plan of an Eastern expedition, in which from 20,000 to 25,000 Russians, from 8,000 to 10,000 Austrians, and from 35,000 to 40,000 French troops would march through Asia to India; "nothing is so easy as this operation." That enterprise, of course, implied a partition of the Turkish Empire; and, in order to arrange details, he (Napoleon) wished to have an interview with Alexander. If the Russian Emperor could come to Paris, it would cause him the greatest pleasure; if this were impossible, and he could come only halfway, Caulaincourt must take his compasses and find the middle distance. Such is the first emergence in Napoleon's correspondence of the plan which was to lead up to the Erfurt interview.

Napoleon expressed the same wishes, but more vaguely and grandiloquently, in a letter of the same date to Alexander; he laid no stress on the help that Austria might give, but stated that, in the space of a month after they had come to an agreement, the French and Russian troops could be on the Bosphorus; that by May 1 the combined armies would be campaigning in Asia, and the Russians might be in possession of Stockholm. This letter has its theatrical side; but there is ground for thinking that the final refusal of Great Britain to consider Austria's offer of mediation, together with the challenge conveyed by the King's speech to Parliament, now sufficed to overcome Napoleon's

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former reluctance to an immediate partition of Turkey, and induced him to press it on his ally with all the seductiveness that he had displayed at Tilsit. He saw in the enterprise an opportunity, similar to that which Frederick the Great and Catharine II had discerned in the partition of Poland, of composing the mutual jealousies of France, Russia, and Austria. It was true that France was not so well placed for the partition of Turkey as were Russia and Austria. But the defects of position might be made good by a vigorous policy, even during a time of war with Great Britain. Moreover it was clear that, if the Russians were deeply involved in the conquest of Finland and Sweden, they could scarcely have the upper hand in the partition of Turkey, especially if Napoleon secured the armed help of Austria in resisting their undue preponderance in the Balkan peninsula.

Swift as was the transition of the Emperor's plans, yet his correspondence during the months of February-May, 1808, yields proof that it was decisive. He now bent all his energies to the task of consolidating his power in the territories which dominated the Mediterranean, namely, Corfu, Sicily, and Spain. On February 7-8 he wrote several letters showing the importance that he attached to Corfu and the rock of Scylla. An attack by British cruisers on Corfu would be serious (so he wrote to King Joseph); and the loss of that island would be the most fatal blow to his plans. At the same time he warned his brother that the rock of Scylla, where the Bourbon garrison stoutly opposed every effort of Joseph's troops, was "the most important point in the world." It was the key to Sicily; and the capture of Sicily (so he wrote to Decrès) would change the face of the Mediterranean. At the same time he pressed on the occupation of Spain by the French; and his letters of May 16-19, when he believed that affair to be at an end, show that he valued Spain's possessions largely because her naval resources were now quite at his disposal "for the common cause.' He ordered Dupont to march straight to Cadiz in order to secure that arsenal for France. In all the ports of France and of her vassal States, from Amsterdam to Ancona, there reigned the greatest activity; and it is clear from Napoleon's letter of May 17 to Decrès that he wished to prepare for an expedition against India at the close of the year.

Alexander at first responded to the appeals and projects set forth in Napoleon's letter of February 2. On reading it he exclaimed fervently to Caulaincourt, "Voilà le grand homme...c'est le langage de Tilsit." He declared that he would gladly go to Paris, did not circumstances forbid such a step. At some place, about halfway, such as Weimar or Erfurt, he would gladly meet his ally so as to arrange the details of the new scheme. He, however, expressed a wish to have some preliminary understanding as to the partition of Turkey; and amidst the discussion of details the first raptures speedily vanished. It could not escape the notice of Alexander and Romanzoff that the gains of Russia in the south