| The fatal battle of Austerlitz, as we have before observed, put an end
to the greatness of Austria, and virtually subverted the substance of the
Germanic Constitution; its form was not suffered long to remain. The Emperor
Napoleon having determined that that there should not exist on the continent,
any power that might be capable of opposing his designs, artfully contrived
to dismember the German Empire, dissolve the Germanic union, and induce
the Emperor to resign his office and dignity, which ever since the days
of Charles the Great or Charlemagne, had been preserved inviolate amidst
the revolutions of kingdoms and states, and the general convulsions of Europe. |
| In pursuance of these views, a new sort of union was formed among several
of the German Princes, under the name of the confederation of the Rhine.
The kings of Bavaria and Wirtemberg, the Arch-Chancellor, the Elector of
Baden, the Duke of Berg, the Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt, the Princes of
Nassau Weilbourg, and Nassau Usingen, of Hohenzollern, Hechingen, Siegmaringen,
Salm-Salm, Salm-Kyrburg, Isenburg, Birstein, and Lichtenstein, the Duke
of Aremberg, and the Count of Leyen, published at Ratisbon, a declaration
purporting, that as the Germanic Constitution then existing, could afford
no guarantee to the public tranquillity, the contracting parties had agreed,
that their states should be for ever separated from the Germanic body, and
united by a particular confederation, under the title of "The Confederate
States," of which the Emperor of the French was constituted the head and
protector. This treaty of confederation was projected and drawn up at Paris,
and ratified at Munich, on the 25th July, 1806: it consisted of forty articles
relative to the territories which each of the contracting powers were to
possess, and other important particulars. Every continental war in which
either France or any of the confederates should be engaged was to be common
to all; the contingent to be furnished by each of the members, was determined
in the following proportion; France 200,000 men, Bavaria 30,000, Wirtemberg
12,000, Baden 8,000, Berg 5,000, Darmstadt 4,000, Nassau and the other states
4,000. The king of Bavaria bound himself to fortify Augsburg and Lindau,
and to form and maintain in the first of these places, artillery establishments,
and in the latter a depot of small arms and ammunition sufficient for a
reserve: he also engaged to institute at Augsburg, a baking establishment
sufficient for the immediate supply of the armies in the event of a war.
The contingent of the allies was subdivided into four parts, and the assembly
was to decide how many of those should be called into action, in the event
of any foreign or neighbouring power creating alarm by its warlike preparations;
but the armament was to take place only on the summons of the Emperor of
the French, as the head and protector of the confederation. The city of
Frankfort was fixed on for the meeting of the general assembly of the confederates;
and the union was to admit of the accession of the other German princes
and states, whenever it should be consistent with the general interest. |
