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to Spain, and Tuscany became a French province, ruled
by a sister of Napoleon. There remained the pope, who
was not contented with Napoleon, and consequently
could not be expected to be a zealous prohibitionist of
British trade. The pope had gone to Paris to crown
the Emperor, in the hopes of recovering the Legations,
and mitigating some of the ecclesiastical regulations most
distasteful to Rome. The pontiff gained nothing by
his condescendence. And he retaliated by refusing to
consecrate the new bishops, and by other acts indicative
of discontent. The requisitions of the French Emperor were
by no means couched in gentle language. He told the
holy father that he himself was the modern Charlemagne,
and that the pope, like another Adrian, would be nothing
but through his generosity. Though not an arrogant
pontiff, Pius the Seventh refused to accept any such
comparison or position, to dismiss from Rome the Eng-
lish or Russian envoys, or declare himself at war with
those powers. Napoleon in consequence occupied An-
cona, and threatened to destroy the pope's temporal
power altogether. From Milan, at the commencement
of 1808, he despatched General Miollis to occupy Rome
with a body of troops and garrison the castle of St.
Angelo. The pope first made passive resistance.
his palace was entered, his guards disarmed and dis-
banded, his prime minister arrested and carried off. In
June 1809 Rome, like the rest of Italy, was declared
annexed to France. Pius replied by a bull of excom-
munication. Upon this Pius the Seventh was arrested
in his palace, summoned to abdicate his temporal sove-
reignty, and on his refusing was hurried off by French
officers to Tuscany. Eliza Bonaparte, who governed it,
not liking so embarrassing a guest, despatched him to
France, and he reached Grenoble, ere Napoleon was
aware of the effects of his own orders. Subsequently
Pius was removed to Savona, and thence to Fontaine-
bleau. The later project of Napoleon was to make

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Paris the residence of the head of the Church, whose spiritual authority he thought to curtail but did not dare to abrogate. The events which took place in Spain and Russia, however, encouraged the pontiff in his resistance. Nor was it till 1814 that he was released from captivity.

Whilst Napoleon was meditating his enterprise upon Spain, his relations with the Russian government ceased to be marked with the usual cordiality. Alexander was pressed by his brother emperor to complete his design upon Finland, but for the moment to evacuate the Danubian principalities. But the Czar's ambition was much more incited by Turkish than by Swedish spoils, and his disappointment was great at being told to recoil from the Danube. Napoleon saw the necessity of at least flattering this Russian hobby, if he wished to preserve the alliance; and this was indispensable to him whilst engaged in his designs upon Spain. On the 22nd of February, 1808, Napoleon wrote to Alexander to propose nothing less than an expedition to India. An army of 50,000 French and Russians despatched thither, would frighten England out of her wits, as soon as it reached the Euphrates. Napoleon declared he had troops just sufficient in Dalmatia. By the first of May our troops, he wrote, may be in Asia, as well as yours at Stockholm! A boy could not be more delighted with his first gun and sword, than Alexander was at the visionary scheme. He did not pause to think how many of the 50,000 men were to reach the Euphrates, or how many of those who got thus far, would muster on the Indus. The plan of marching across Turkey, implied the previous subjugation of that power, no light task for 50,000 men, and, moreover, a partition of its territory beforehand, between France and Russia, a matter of equal difficulty. The letter, however, answered its purpose, which was to keep Russia contented and quiet, until the monarchs met, which they did in September at Erfurt.

If there be a country in the world which it would be wise policy to leave uninterfered with, it is Spain. Poor, obstinate, bigoted, shut up in a remote corner of Europe, and unmoved by the current or progressive ideas of the day, Spain has every quality that should deter a conqueror, with little calculated to attract one. The mad scheme of subduing all the coasts of Europe, in order to banish English commerce from them, is scarcely sufficient reason. It merely compelled those populations living by the sea to try to exist, that is, suffer and starve, without it. Such were the effects of Napoleon's enforced exclusion of English, which then implied all, trade or navigation upon Holland and the Baltic provinces, Russia included, as well as those of the Mediterranean, Italy suffering as much as Holland. In striving to strike at England the French ruler really dealt blows upon himself. For he created enmity and disaffection towards his government and its tyranny in the breasts of the entire maritime population of the Continent, and by consequence in those of their rulers.

But Napoleon could not believe, but that the possession of the entire peninsula of Spain must give him some prize upon their vast colonial empires. Unfortunately, too, if Spain as a country did not tempt invasion, the character of its government and royal family did. It is difficult to account satisfactorily for the decay of all intellect and all energy in whatever race has had the misfortune to occupy the Spanish throne. The facility with which the people submit to despotism, the incense with which it worships the throne and suffocates its holders, as well as the ignorant and stupid bigotry of the priesthood, which thrive in such an atmosphere and monopolise power and respect, are not sufficient to explain the deperdition of every royal Spanish race. qualities to be remarked of the Spanish Bourbons at the commencement of the century were those observable of animals in their lair-imbecility, dissoluteness, ferocity,

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mutual hate, intellect never reaching higher than cunn-
ing, with a religion that was the fetichism of a savage
rather than the creed of the rational being. A paramour,
who had been the guardsman Godoy, and was created
Prince of the Peace, governed the Queen, who governed
the King.
All these detested the heir to the throne,
Ferdinand, who made ample returns of that sentiment.
Napoleon began by cajoling Godoy, and making him an
instrument to invade Portugal with the bait of an inde-
pendent sovereignty.

The Spaniards, as was natural, did not display any great devotion to French interests. And Napoleon resolved to send a French army under a French general, Junot, to the conquest of Lisbon. A treaty was drawn up and signed by the two courts, by which Portugal was to be partitioned. The Prince of the Peace was to have the northern portion as a monarchy for himself. The French were to keep Lisbon and the central provinces. The King of Etruria, a Spanish Bourbon, was to be monarch of the Algarves or south of Portugal, Napoleon, of course, taking Etruria. This was the understanding under which Junot led the expedition. The march of the French army across Spain soon aroused the suspicions of the court of the Escurial. But a sudden and dangerous illness of the King turned its attention to what seemed more pressing, the probable accession of Ferdinand. Godoy sought to avert this and laid plans for the purpose. Ferdinand, to escape them, appealed to Napoleon, and offered to marry a French princess, which his mother and her favourite discovering, Ferdinand was arrested. He was menaced with being put upon his trial, but, on his submission and betrayal of supposed accomplices, was set at liberty.

Napoleon, appealed to by both parties, answered or evaded answer by strengthening Junot's force, and precipitating his march. Yet it was little more than 25,000 men, at the head of which that general crossed

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the Pyrenees in mid October. Totally ignorant of Spain, CHAP. he considered it the fittest period for marching across a southern country. But the French soon found an inclement winter, and no supplies whatever. They managed, however, to approach Lisbon towards the end of November. And the French official journal having declared that the House of Braganza had forfeited the throne in consequence of its refusal to seize all English merchandise, the royal representatives of that house embarked themselves and their valuables and set sail for the Brazils, leaving Lisbon to the French general and his army.

Junot's easy victory and unopposed occupation of Lisbon did not prevent several French corps from passing the Pyrenees after him. Their presence on the Ebro alarmed the Spanish court, which intelligence from Paris augmented. Godoy and the Queen, therefore, seriously determined to imitate the court of Lisbon, fly to Cadiz, and embark for the colonies. It was not so easy for them to accomplish. The court, however, removed to Aranjuez, a palace south of Madrid, for the purpose. When, on the 16th of March, 1808, the people, suspecting the intended flight of the royal family, raised an insurrection to prevent it, plundered the residence of the favourite, and strove to discover in order to kill him. He escaped, but the King and Queen were not the less counselled to sign their abdication in favour of Ferdinand. Murat, commanding the French troops, took advantage of the disorder to occupy Madrid. And Ferdinand betaking himself thither, received, instead of his recognition, orders from the French general to proceed to Bayonne. It was strange, that so mistrustful a personage should have followed such advice. Stranger still, that the King and Queen, who had abdicated, adopted the same resolution. Like foolish birds, the entire royal family of Spain hurried off to Bayonne, to throw themselves into the arms of Napoleon. The Spanish people

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