HOW ENGLAND SAVED EUROPE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9865, 6 August 1914, Page 2

HOW ENGLAND SAVED EUROPE.

JUST ONE HUNDRED Y£*Ri AGI9. The following story of the life of Naoo leon Bounaparte gives a vivid account of nk wonderful career and final downfall ai Waterloo:— During the Revolution he joined the army acting against the; Marseillais, whc had declared against the National Convex tion. He commanded the artillery at the siege of Toulon (1793), and was promoted general of brigade! In 1795, as seopnd 11 command undek Barras, he did good ser vice in repelling the attack of the Section; of Paris. In February, 1796, the Direo tory appointed General Bonaparte to th* command of the Army of Italy. On 9th March he Josephine, widow of General Vicomte de Beauharnais, and lefi two days later for Italy, where his grea'. military genius flashed forth in full bril liancy. He found the French Army aboui 36,000 strong, distributed between Nice and Savona, and opposing 20,000 Piedmontesf and 38,000 Austrians. Bonaparte attacked the centre of the allied line, defeated the Austrians on April 12, the Piedmontes< next day, and the Austrians on the 14th and his victory at Mondovi forced Sardinia to sue for peace. At the bridge of Lodi May 11, he completely defeated the Aus trians, and entered Milan on the 15th Heavy contributions were exacted; workc of art were despatched to France whole sale. Insurrections at Pavia and in thr Milanese were ruthlessly put down. . He next broke through the Austrian centre and occupied the line of the Adige, taking Ver ona and Legnago from the neutral republic of Venice. Austria made attempts to re ] cover Lombardy, and the contest was severe during the summer and autumn cf 1796 At first Napoleon's position was critical but at length the Austrians were defeatec at Areola, Rivoli, and Mantua. In poli tical matters Napoleon was acting less a* a servant of the French Directory than ae an independent ruler. When his positioi in Italy was secured he advanced on Vi enna, and reaohed Leoben in April, 1797 Then Austria sued for peace. But negotiations dragged on, as Austria thought t revolution was impending in Franoe; . bul Augerau, sent by Napoleon, aided th< Directory to carry out the coup d'etat o: the 18th Fructidor; and Austria signed the treaty of Campo-Formio, October 17, 1797 By this France obtained Belgium, thf lonian Islands, and Lombardy, and Aus tria engaged to try to get the left bani of the Rhine for France, whilst Austria goi Istria, Dalmatia, and Venetia. The Directory thought they could only keep Napoleon quiet by employing him, and gave him command of the so-called Army of England. But he employed hi» new resources for an expedition to Egypt which sailed in May, 1798, captured Malta, and, escaping the British Fleet, arrived ai Alexandria on June 30. Napoleon twic* defeated the Mamelukes, and entered Cair< on July 24, but his position was endangered by the destruction of the French Fleet or August 1 by Nelson at the battle of tht Nile. He thought, however, that ht might create a revolution in Syria, by th< aid of which he might overthrow the Turk ish power and march back to Europ< through Asia Minor and Constantinople He accordingly entered Syria ary, 1799, with 12,000 men, but failing facapture St. Jean d'Acre, defended by th< British Squadron under Sir Sydney Smith, he was obliged to return to Egypt. The expedition to Syria was disgraced by the massacre of 2500 prisoners at Jaffa. He defeated a Turkish army which had land ed at Aboukir, but learning of French re verses, he embarked for France on Aug ust 22. He found the wars mismanaged. Italy almost lost, and the Government ir very bad odour. Sieyes, one of the Directors, was meditating a coup d'etat wher Bonaparte arrived; they coalesced, and the Revolution of 18th Brumaire followed (Nov ember 9, 1799), when Sieyes, Roger Duoos, and Bonaparte drew up a new constitution Under it the executive was vested in three Consuls, Bonaparte, Cambaceres, and Le brun, of whom Bonaparte was nominated First Consul for ten years. A proclama tion was issued promising religious tolera tion, and decided military aotion was tak en; and all was quiefr by the end of Feb ruary, 1800. Napoleon now made overtures for peace to .England and Austria, posing as the friend of peace; but he inwardly rejoiced when they rejected hi? overtures. Napoleon collected secretly aii army of reserve near the Swiss frontier. He went to Geneva on May 9, and assuming oommand of this army, crossed the St. Bernard, reached the plains 'of Italy and occupied Milan. On June 14 the Austrians attacked the French at Marengo and were completely defeated; next day they signed a convention giving up almost all North Italy. Napoleon returned to Paris with the glories of this campaign; but peace did not follow till Moreau had won [ Hohenlinden, December 3, 1800. Then followed the treaty of Luneville with Ger many in February, 1801, the concordat with Rome in July, and the treaty of Amiens with England in March, 1802. Napoleon then devoted himself to the reconstruction of the civil institutions of France—the restored church, the judicial system, the codes, the system of local fovernment, the university, the Bank of 'ranoe, and the Legion of Honour. After the peace of Amiens, Napoleon was elected First Consul for life. His desire to humble England led to the rupture of the peaoe of Amiens in 1803 by aggressions in Holland and elsewhere. He made vast preparations for the invasion of England, at the same time seizing Hanover. He rid himself of Moreau, his most dangerous rival, by accusing him of conspiring with the Royalists, into whom ho then struck terror by the execution of the Due d'Enghien. He assumed the title of Emperor,

May 18, 1804. His aggressive demeanour alarmed Europe, and in 1805 he found hmuelfat war with Russia and Austria', at trwl ae with England. Forced by Englaml#" naval supremacy : to. abandon the?; <rf invasion, he suddenly, in August, 180 \ *«d his armies through Hanover, and reached the Danube in rear of the Austrian under Mack at Ulm. The surprise was complete; |Aack surrendered on October 19, and Napoleon entered Vienna on November 13. On December 2he inflicted a disastrous defeat on the Russians and Austrian! at Austerlitz. This caused the break-up of the ooalition; the Holy Roman Empire came to an end; the Confederation of the Rhine was formed under French protection. Napoleon then entered into negotiations for peaoe with Russia and England, endeavouring to conciliate them at the expense of Prussia. Prussia, mortally offended, mobilised her army in August, 1806; but Napoleon crushed her at Jena and Auerstadt on October 14. Russia intervening, an indecisive battle at Eylau was followed by a French victory at Friedland, June 14, 1807: and by the peace of Tilsit Prussia lost half her territory. Napoleon was now the arbiter of Europe. He sought to cripple England by the Continental System—the States under his influence engaging to close their ports to English ships. He also tried to combine; all j;he European navies against her; butj Bngland took the initiative and seized the j Danish Fleet. He sent an army under Junot to Portugal, and another under Murat to Spain, which took Madrid. He then placed his brother Joseph on the. throne. But a formidable insurrection broke out, while a British army, under Wellesley, Landed in Portugal, defeated Junot at Viraeiro, and forced him to sign the Convention of Cintra, evacuating Portugal. So Began the Peninsular War. In Germany also a spirit of revolt was rising, and, this brought on the war of 1809 against Austria. Napoleon drove the Austrians out of Ratisbon, and entered Vienna May 13, and won the battle of Wagram on July 5 and 6. Although resistance was kept up for a time in Tyrol by the patriot Hofer, by the treaty of Schonbrunn (October 20, 1809) Napoleon obtained a heavy money indemnity and considerable accession of territory in Carniola, Carinthia, Croatia, and Galicia. In December Napoleon, desirous of an heir, divorced Josephine, who was childless, and married April 1, 1810,, the Archduchess Maria Louisa of Austria. A son was born on March 20, 1811. Still bent on the humiliation England, Napoleon increased the stringency of the Con-, tinental System, and he annexed Holland) and Westphalia. The Ciar refused to I adopt this policy; and Napoleon invadedt Russia with 600,000 French, Germans, and; Italians. He crossed the Niemen on Junei 24, reaohing Vilna on the 28th. The Rus- j sians met him at Borodino on September! 6; Napoleon won the battle; but the vic-j tory was almost fruitless. He entered Moscow September 14. Fire broke out the next night, and raged fiercely till the 20th, great part of the city being burned. When, after delays and hesitations, he retired I from Moscow (October 18) an early winter! upset his calculations, and the miseries of that terrible retreat followed. He reached: the Beresina with but 12,000 men, was ; joined there by Oudinofc and Victor withj 18,000, and succeeded in crossing the river; i on Deoember 6 the miserable remnant of' the Grand Army returned to Vilna, While j Napoleon hastened back to Paris to raise 1 aew levies, the Czar determined to carry j Dhe war into Germany. The Prussian oon-. tingent of the Grand Army came over to the Russians, and in January, 1813, the ( Landwehr was oalled out. Saxony also ( joined Russia, but Austria and the middle States still clung to Napoleon. He left Paris on April 15, 1813, moved on Leipzig, and won the battle of Lutzen on May 2. j He then followed the allies, beat them at j Bautzen, May B0 and 21. and foroed th{yn to retire into Selisia. Austria then asked j for concessions; had Napoleon granted? them, he might have checkmated the €oal« j ition of Prussia and Russia, He had! 400,000 men on the Elbe, but his position was weakened by Austria's accession to i the coalition, and the allies had nearly, >OO,OOO men in three armies. Napoleon inflicted a crushing defeat on the Austrians before Dresden on August 27, but at Kulip j lost Vandamme with 20,000 men. Towards the end of September the allies gathered, towards Leipzig. There between the 14th j and 19th October Napoleon was crushed,' and led «, back the remnapt of his army j aoross the Rhine. The invasion of Franoei followed; Napoleon attacked Blucher and; won four battles in four days at Champau-1 bert, Montmirail, Chateau-Thierry, and j Vauchamps (February, 1814). The battles J of ,Craonne and Laon followed. On Maroh i 30 'the allies attacked Paris, and the , marshals offered to capitulate, Napoleon' fell back to Fontainebjeau; but his position j was desperate, and Wellington had now) led his army across the Pyrenees intoj France- Napoleon at first abdicated in, favour of his son, but unconditionally on April 14, 1814. He was given the sovereignty of Elba, and the Bourbons in the person of Louis' XVIII. were restored to the throne ofi France. But their return WRB unpopular; it unsettled the position of publio menj and the title to estates. The army was! disgusted at the appointment to commands | of emigres who had fought against France, and the church began to cause alarm to j the holders of national property. Tb©; ooalition, too, broke up. Napoleon ac- j oordingly landed on the French coast Maroh 1, 181§, On the 20th he entered! Paris, having been joined by the army, j Europe had declared war against him, but l only a mixed force under Wellington in j Belgium and a Prussian army under Blu-i cher in the Rhine provinces were in the" field. Napoleon's idea was to strike sud- J denly at their point of juncture before they j could concentrate, drive them apart, and j then defeat eaoh separately. On June 15 j Napoleon occupied Charleroi, and on the j 16th defeated Blucher at Ligny. But not j till next day did he send Grouchy to fol-| low the Prussians in the supposed direction j of their retreat towards Liege, whilst he I turned towards Wellington. The wasted j hours had enabled the Prussians to disap- j pear, and he did not know that Bluober was moving on Wavre in order to reunite with Wellington, who had retired to Mont St. Jean, So on the 18th, when Napoleon attacked the Duke, unknown to him the bulk of the Prussian army was hastening up on his right flank while Grouchy was fruitlessly engaged with the Prussian rear, guard only. This ledto the crowning defeat of Waterloo. Napoleon fed to Paris, abdicated on June 89,; and surrendered to Captain Maltland of the Bellerophon at Rochefort on 15th July. He was banished by the British Government to St. Helena, arriving October 15, 181§, and died therq j of oanoer of the stomaeh, May Sth, 1821.