Revolutionary Europe, 1789-1815

by H. Morse Stephens

After rousing national enthusiasm by appeals to patriotism and by the liberal provisions of the Additional Act, Napoleon organised his army, and in his favourite fashion decided to strike before any invasion of France took place. Of the three armies prepared for the invasion the one nearest within reach was that commanded by the Duke of Wellington. That General on leaving Vienna had been placed at the head of a miscellaneous force of English, Hanoverians, Dutch, and Belgians. He greatly regretted the absence of most of his veterans of the Peninsula who were still in America, and complained of the number of raw troops under his command. He agreed to act in harmony with the Prussians under Blücher, who brought his army into the Netherlands. Napoleon determined to strike before Wellington and Blücher had united. He crossed the frontier at the head of 130,000 men, and by his skilful and rapid movements practically surprised the allied generals. On the 16th of June 1815, he defeated Blücher at Ligny, while Ney with his left fought a drawn battle with the English advanced divisions at Quatre Bras. By these engagements the English and Prussian armies were separated. Napoleon then resolved to attack the English with the bulk of his army, and detached Marshal Grouchy to pursue the Prussians. Blücher, however, promised to come to Wellington’s assistance if the English were attacked, and Wellington relying on this promise took up his position at Waterloo. On the 18th of June the battle of Waterloo was fought. The English army held its position in spite of repeated and furious attacks, until Blücher came up on the French right. Unable to continue the struggle against two foes, the French army was obliged to give way, and after the repulse of the Guard, which might have covered his retreat, Napoleon recognised that he was completely routed. He fled to Paris, and on the 22d of June he abdicated in favour of his son, the King of Rome. He nominated an executive commission of government, and then went on board ship in the hope of escaping to America. In this project he failed, and on 15th July he surrendered to Captain Maitland on board H.M.S. Bellerophon. The army of Wellington and Blücher pursued the defeated foe, but the rout had been too complete for the French to make another stand. Cambrai the only place that attempted to resist was easily taken, and on the 3d of July Wellington and Blücher reoccupied Paris. Meanwhile the grand army of Schwartzenberg had also invaded France, and the country was once more in the possession of the allies.

Second Treaty of Paris. 20th Nov. 1815.

The terms of the second Treaty of Paris proved that the allied monarchs understood the difference between the opposition made by France to Europe in 1814 and 1815. In 1814 the Treaty of Paris which was then concluded was, if not particularly liberal to France, at least perfectly just. The allied monarchs and their ministers had appreciated the fact that in 1814 they were fighting Napoleon and not France. The campaign of 1815 had been of a different character. The French nation and not merely the French army had given proof of their attachment both to the Empire and to Napoleon’s person. It was therefore considered necessary, not only to impose harsher terms upon France, but to exact securities for the future. Several schemes were proposed, of which one was to detach Alsace, Lorraine, and French Flanders, if not the whole of Picardy, and to reduce the limits of France to what they were before the conquests of Louis XIV. This scheme, which was earnestly supported by Prussia, who hoped to get the lion’s share of the districts taken from France, was warmly opposed by Austria and England. The latter power was not to be bribed by the proposed extension of the frontier of its new creation, the Kingdom of the Netherlands. And the former objected entirely to any increase of the power of Prussia. Lord Castlereagh in his opposition to these extravagant suggestions of Prussia was supported by the Emperor Alexander and his minister, Nesselrode, and eventually it was agreed that France should be reduced to its exact limits of 1789. This meant that France lost all the cessions made to it in 1814, except Avignon and the Venaissin. Chambéry and the part of Savoy then granted to France were restored to the King of Sardinia; the districts in the neighbourhood of Geneva were also returned to that canton, and the fortress of Huningen on the borders of Switzerland was ordered to be dismantled; and the various rectifications of the frontier on the eastern and north-eastern borders were no longer sanctioned. A war contribution of 700,000,000 francs was laid upon France, in addition to which she was to maintain, at the cost of 250,000,000 francs a year, an army of 150,000 men in the possession of her chief frontier fortresses for a period of five years.

Napoleon sent to St. Helena.

These were the most important conditions of peace contained in the second Treaty of Paris, which was signed on 20th of November 1815. But what France felt more bitterly than pecuniary contributions, or even the loss of territory, was the decision of the allied powers that the numerous pictures and works of art, which had been accumulated in Paris during the wars of the Revolution and the Empire, should be returned to their former owners. The Prussians were not satisfied with this, they wished to punish Paris more severely. Blücher was only prevented by the intervention of Lord Castlereagh and the Duke of Wellington from exacting a contribution of a 110,000,000 francs from the inhabitants of Paris alone. The Prussians even made preparations to blow up the Bridge of Jena, whose name perpetuated their greatest military humiliation, and were only prevented from their purpose by the expressed determination of Louis XVIII. to stand upon the bridge and be blown up with it if they persisted, and Blücher had to be satisfied with the alteration of the name of the bridge from the Bridge of Jena to the Bridge of the Military School. The question of the disposition of the person of Napoleon was one of some difficulty. He reached Torbay on board the Bellerophon on the 24th of July 1815, and the English Ministers did not know what to do with their illustrious prisoner. They dared not trust him in any part of Europe or America from which he could repeat his expedition from Elba. Blücher loudly declared that he ought to be shot at Vincennes like the Duc d’Enghien, but the English Government thought it would be sufficient to confine him on an isolated island. For this purpose they borrowed the island of Saint Helena from the East India Company, and on the 8th of August, Napoleon set sail for his place of exile on board H.M.S. Northumberland.

The Holy Alliance. Sept. 1815

A month after the departure of Napoleon for St. Helena, the Emperor Alexander, the Emperor Francis, and King Frederick William signed the treaty which is known as the Holy Alliance. By this treaty it was declared that the Christian religion was the sole base of government, and the contracting monarchs promised to aid each other on all occasions like brothers, and to recommend to their peoples the exercise of the duties of the Christian religion. Lord Castlereagh declined on behalf of the Prince Regent to join the Holy Alliance, but on the 28th of November 1815, after the signature of the Peace of Paris, he agreed to an alliance that should include all the four powers, of which the aims were to keep from the throne of France either Napoleon or any relation of his, to combine together for the security of their separate states, and the general tranquillity of Europe, and to hold at fixed dates congresses for the settlement of disputed questions.

The Second Restoration of Louis XVIII. July 1815.

The second restoration of Louis XVIII. differed from the first as the second Treaty of Paris differed from its predecessor. After the events of the Hundred Days, the Bourbon King could no more delude himself with the idea that he was welcome to the people of France. He owed his seat upon the throne only to the absence of Napoleon and the presence of the allied armies in France, and he prepared on this occasion to punish those who had deserted him. He refused to grant an amnesty, and on the 24th of July 1815, he proscribed fifty-seven of the leading men in France, of whom nineteen were ordered to be tried by court-martial, and thirty-eight were banished. The most illustrious of the victims who perished under this proscription was Marshal Ney, who was shot at Paris on the 7th of December, after being condemned to death by the Chamber of Peers. This procedure was rendered necessary because it would have been difficult to find a court-martial to condemn the bravest of the French marshals. Marshal Moncey, who was nominated to preside over such a court-martial, refused in an eloquent letter which caused him to be sent to prison for three months. Far worse than these executions was the result of the outbreak of brigandage in the south of France. Under the pretext of being Royalists, the Companies of Jehu, which had ravaged the south of France in the days of the Thermidorians and of the Directory, again set to work. Political, religious, and personal passions excited to massacre. Pillage and murder were rife throughout the south of France, and among the victims who were slain in this White Terror of 1815 were Marshal Brune, and Generals Ramel and Lagarde. Special courts were formed by a law voted on the 12th of December 1815, to punish political offences. These provost’s courts were as severe and almost as unjust as the revolutionary tribunals in the provinces during the Reign of Terror, and many hundreds of executions took place. Finally, in January 1816, what was ironically called a Law of Amnesty was passed. This law, from the list of its exceptions, was practically a gigantic proscription. Among others, all surviving members of the Convention who had voted for the death of Louis XVI. were exiled if they had in any way accepted the authority of Napoleon during the Hundred Days, which most of them had done. Under this Law of Amnesty most of the great statesmen who had been concerned in the government of France since 1793 were driven into exile. Conspicuous among them were Carnot, Merlin of Douai, Sieyès, Cambacérès, and David, the greatest painter of his time.

Government of the Second Restoration.