THE PEACE OF TILSIT.
A peace was concluded between France and Russia on the 7th of July. The conditions of this peace were various. The King of Prussia was restored to about one half of his dominions as far as the Elbe, but all the Prussian fortresses and sea-port towns were to remain in the hands of the French until England should be compelled to sign a treaty of peace. All the Polish provinces which Frederic William had acquired in the partition of 1772 were disunited from his kingdom, and erected into a separate territory, to be called the Duchy of Warsaw, and were placed under the rule of the King of Saxony, who was to be allowed an open road through the Prussian province of Silesia. The circle of Cotbuss, also, was taken from Prussia and annexed to Saxony, and Dantzic was to be under the control of both kingdoms, only until a general peace it was to be garrisoned by the French. As a matter of course, the czar was not called upon to make any sacrifice. On the contrary, he was gratified with the cession of a part of Prussian-Poland, which materially strengthened his own frontier. France allowed Russia also to take Finland from Sweden; and Russia on her part engaged to close her ports against British ships, and to place herself at the head of a new northern coalition. Both Russia and Prussia acknowledged the thrones which Napoleon had erected, and recognised the confederation of the Rhine, and every other league which he had formed. Nay, they even sanctioned future spoliation and wrong. They recognised a throne which Buonaparte was about to erect for his brother Jerome—the throne of Westphalia. It was declared that this kingdom should consist of the provinces ceded by the King of Prussia, on the left bank of the Elbe, and of other states at present in the possession of his majesty, the Emperor Napoleon. In return for this courtesy, it was agreed that the relatives or connexions of Alexander, namely, the Dukes of Saxe Cobourg, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, should be restored to their states, but only upon conditions that their sea-ports should be garrisoned by French soldiers till a treaty of peace should be signed between France and England. By the treaty of Tilsit, Russia agreed to make peace with the Porte, and to abandon Moldavia and Wallachia. Russia, likewise, ceded the Ionian Isles to France, and promised the evacuation of Cattaro, which as well as Ragusa was united with the kingdom of Italy. Although Russia promised to make peace with the Porte, a scheme was concocted for the future dismemberment of the empire, and for the distribution of its spoils to Russia, France, and Austria. Plots were also devised against Sweden and Spain, although the latter country had recently sacrificed its whole navy in Napoleon’s cause, and whose army was still engaged for him in the north. The treaty of Tilsit was, in fact, nothing less than a league, avowed or secret, to enchain the world; most of the European countries were already enslaved, and those that were not were threatened. Even England was menaced; but England was still destined to be the avenger of humiliated thrones.