PEACEMAKERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11986, 7 June 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

PEACE MAKERS.

' » PICTURESQUE ENDINGS OF GREAI WARS. It usually happens that the preliminaries ( ~ lj of peace are arranged in a setting whicH" appeals to one's imagination. Perhaps the most unusual <<cene for a peace conference was that which witnessed the meeting ot the Emperors Alexander and Napoleon in 1807, when the Treaty of Tilsit was signed, The preliminaries of this peace were set- a| tied on a raft moored in the River Memel or Niemen, and from that day the little town of Tilsit, whose inhabitants witnessed the meeting from the banks of the river, became famous. It was a crowning day for Napoleon, for it gave him thrones for his brothers, and a day of sorrow for Prussia, for that kingdom in the Treaty of Tilsit drained the very dregs of the cup of humili- ;.'}■. ation which Napoleon had presented to itMany nations have sustained humiliations . J on the water; but this is the only instance in which three brothers have found throne* there. On the quaint raft where Alexander and Napoleon met were constructed two equally quaint little huts, where the xaoaarchs could consult out of sight of the sol- -' 1 diers and townsmen lining the banks. There were more soldiers than private persons, ; perhaps. Tilsit, with its little population of eight or ten thousand, would not 100- 5 too trustfully upon Napoleon or his war- , riors, and probably preferred to keep a sal* distance from his "frowns. But if Prussia bv the treaty on the raft reached the nadir, of humiliation. Napoleott himself had but eight years to live before the tables were turned, and he who ha<J ; imposed peace was vainly suing for terms.. i „A scene as picturesque in its main ele- t |-'-, ments as the signing of the treaty on M raft was that which witnessed the famous ; ,v Treaty of Minister, , ending the so-called bu years' war, when the Dutch Republic WW t , . solemnly recognised by Europe, and 0P»?j ; surrendered everything for which she a w so long fought.. ■■■..' . >■" , - S3 warn