SUBURBS OF DRESDEN BURNT.
The field-mareschal count Daun appearing on the sixth day of November within sight of Dresden, at the head of sixty thousand men, encamped next day at Lockowitz, and on the eighth his advanced troops attacked the Prussian hussars and independent battalions, which were posted at Striessen and Gruenewiese. Count Schmettau, who commanded the garrison, amounting to ten thousand men, apprehensive that, in the course of skirmishing, the Austrian troops might enter the suburbs pell-mell, posted colonel Itzenplitz, with seven hundred men, in the redoubts that surrounded the suburbs, that in case of emergency they might support the irregulars; at the same time, as the houses that constituted the suburbs were generally so high as to overlook the ramparts and command the city, he prepared combustibles, and gave notice to the magistrates that they would be set on fire as soon as an Austrian should appear within the place. This must have been a dreadful declaration to the inhabitants of these suburbs, which compose one of the most elegant towns in Europe. In these houses, which were generally lofty and magnificent, the fashionable and wealthy class of people resided, and here a number of artists carried on a variety of curious manufactures. In vain the magistrates implored the mercy and forbearance of the Prussian governor, and represented, in the most submissive strain, that as they were unconcerned in the war, they hoped they should be exempted from the horrors of devastation. In vain the royal family, who remained at Dresden, conjured him to spare that last refuge of distressed royalty, and allow them at least a secure residence, since they were deprived of every other comfort. He continued inflexible, or rather determined to execute the orders of his master, which indeed he could not disobey with any regard to his own safety. On the ninth day of November, about noon, the Austrian vanguard attacked the advanced post of the garrison, repelled the hussars, drove the independent battalions into the suburbs, and forced three of the redoubts, while their cannon played upon the town. The governor, expecting a vigorous attack next day, recalled his troops within the city after they had set fire to the suburbs. At three in the morning the signal was made for this terrible conflagration, which in a little time reduced to ashes the beautiful suburbs of Pirna, which had so lately flourished as the seat of gaity, pleasure, and the ingenious arts. Every bosom warmed with benevolence must be affected at the recital of such calamities. It excites not only our compassion for the unhappy sufferers, but also our resentment against the perpetrators of such enormity. Next day mareschal Daun sent an officer to count Schmettau, with a message, expressing his surprise at the destruction of the suburbs in a royal residence, an act of inhumanity unheard of among christians. He desired to know if it was by the governor’s order this measure was taken; and assured him, that he should be responsible in his person for whatever outrages had been or might be committed against a place in which a royal family resided. Schmettau gave him to understand, that he had orders to defend the town to the last extremity, and that the preservation of what remained depended entirely on the conduct of his excellency; for, should he think proper to attack the place, he (the governor) would defend himself from house to house, and from street to street, and even make his last effort in the royal palace, rather than abandon the city. He excused the destruction of the suburbs as a necessary measure, authorized by the practice of war; but he would have found it a difficult task to reconcile this step to the laws of eternal justice, and far less to the dictates of common humanity. Indeed, if the scene had happened in an enemy’s country, or if no other step could have saved the lives and liberties of himself and his garrison, such a desperate remedy might have stood excused by the law of nature and of nations; but on this occasion he occupied a neutral city, over which he could exercise no other power and authority but that which he derived from illegal force and violence; nor was he at all reduced to the necessity of sacrificing the place to his own safety, inasmuch as he might have retired unmolested, by virtue of an honourable capitulation, which, however, he did not demand. Whether the peremptory order of a superior will, in foro conscientio, justify an officer who hath committed an illegal or inhuman action, is a question that an English reader will scarce leave to the determination of a German casuist with one hundred and fifty thousand armed men in his retinue. Be this as it will, Mr. Ponickau, the Saxon minister, immediately after this tragedy was acted, without waiting for his master’s orders, presented a memorial to the diet of the empire, complaining of it as an action reserved for the history of the war which the king of Prussia had kindled in Germany, to be transmitted to future ages. He affirmed that, in execution of Schmettau’s orders, the soldiers had dispersed themselves in the streets of the Pirna and Witchen suburbs, broke open the houses and shops, set fire to the combustibles, added fresh fuel, and then shut the doors; that the violence of the flames was kept up by red-hot balls fired into the houses, and along the streets; that the wretched inhabitants, who forsook their burning houses, were slain by the fire of the cannon and small arms; that those who endeavoured to save their persons and effects were pushed down and destroyed by the bayonets of the Prussian soldiers posted in the streets for that purpose: he enumerated particular instances of inhuman barbarity, and declared that a great number of people perished, either amidst the flames, or under the ruins of the houses. The destruction of two hundred and fifty elegant houses, and the total ruin of the inhabitants, were circumstances in themselves so deplorable, as to need no aggravation; but the account of the Saxon minister was shamefully exaggerated, and all the particular instances of cruelty false in every circumstance. Baron Plotho, the minister of Brandenburgh, did not fail to answer every article of the Saxon memorial, and refute the particulars therein alleged, in a fair detail, authenticated by certificates under the hands of the magistrates, judges, and principal inhabitants of Dresden. The most extraordinary part of this defence or vindication was the conclusion, in which the baron solemnly assured the diet, that the king of Prussia, from his great love to mankind, always felt the greatest emotion of soul, and the most exquisite concern, at the effusion of blood, the devastation of cities and countries, and the horrors of war, by which so many thousand fellow-creatures were overwhelmed; and that if his sincere and honest inclination to procure peace to Germany, his dear country, had met with the least regard, the present war, attended with such bloodshed and desolation, would have been prevented and avoided. He, therefore, declared that those who excited the present troubles, who, instead of extinguishing, threw oil upon the flames, must answer to God for the seas of blood that had been and would be shed, for the devastation of so many countries, and the entire ruin of so many innocent individuals. Such declarations cost nothing to those hardened politicians, who, feeling no internal check, are determined to sacrifice every consideration to the motives of rapacity and ambition. It would be happy, however, for mankind, were princes taught to believe that there is really an omnipotent and all-judging power, that will exact a severe account of their conduct, and punish them for their guilt, with out any respect to their persons; that pillaging a whole people is more cruel than robbing a single person; and that the massacre of thousands is, at least, as criminal as a private murder.
THE PRUSSIANS RAISE THE SIEGE OF NEISS, AND RELIEVE DRESDEN.
While count Daun was employed in making a fruitless attempt upon the capital of Saxony, the king of Prussia proceeded in his march to Neiss, which was completely invested on the third day of October. The operations of the siege were carried on with great vigour by the Austrian general De Harsche, and the place was as vigorously defended by the Prussian governor, Theskau, till the first day of November, when the Prussian monarch approached, and obliged the besiegers to abandon their enterprise. M. de Harsche having raised the siege, the king detached general Pouquet with a body of troops across the river Neiss, and immediately the blockade of Cosel was likewise abandoned. De Harsche retired to Bohemia, and De Ville hovered about Jagernsdorf. The fortress of Neiss was no sooner relieved, than the king of Prussia began his march on his return to Saxony, where his immediate presence was required. At the same time, the two bodies under the generals Dohna and Wedel penetrated by different routes into that country. The former had been left at Custrin, to watch the motions of the Russians, who had by this time retreated to the Vistula, and even crossed that river at Thorn; and the other had, during the campaign, observed the Swedes, who had now entirely evacuated the Prussian territories, so that Wedel was at liberty to co-operate with the king in Saxony. He accordingly marched to Torgau, the siege of which had been undertaken by the Austrian general Haddick, who was repulsed by Wedel, and even pursued to the neighbourhood of Eulenbourg. Wedel, being afterwards joined by Dohna, drove him from thence with considerable loss, and then raised the siege of Leipsic. Meanwhile, the king prosecuted his march towards the capital of Saxony, driving before him the body of Austrian troops under Laudohn, who retreated to Zittau. On the tenth day of November count Daun retired from Dresden, and with the army of the empire fell back towards Bohemia; and on the twentieth the king arrived in that city, where he approved of the governor’s conduct. The Russian general foreseeing that he should not be able to maintain his ground during the winter in Poinerania, unless he could secure some sea-port on the Baltic, by which he might be supplied with provisions, detached general Palmbach, with fifteen thousand men, to besiege the town of Colberg, an inconsiderable place, very meanly fortified. It was accordingly invested on the third day of October; but the besiegers were either so ill provided with proper implements, or so little acquainted with operations of this nature, that the garrison, though feeble, maintained the place against all their attacks for six-and-twenty days; at the expiration of which they abandoned their enterprise, and cruelly ravaged the open country in their retreat. Thus, by the activity and valour of the Prussian monarch, his generals and officers, six sieges were raised almost at the same period, namely, those of Colberg, Neiss, Cosel, Torgau, Leipsic, and Dresden.
INHABITANTS OF SAXONY OPPRESSED.
The variety of fortune which the king of Prussia experienced in the course of this campaign was very remarkable; but the spirit of his conduct, and the rapidity of his motions, were altogether without example. In the former campaign we were dazzled with the lustre of his victories; in this we admire his fortitude and skill in stemming the different torrents of adversity, and rising superior to his evil fortune. One can hardly without astonishment recollect, that in the course of a few months he invaded Moravia, invested Olmutz, and was obliged to relinquish that design, that he marched through an enemy’s country, in the face of a great army, which, though it harassed him in his retreat, could not, in a route of an hundred miles, obtain any advantage over him; that in spite of his disaster at Olmutz, and the difficulties of such a march, he penetrated into Bohemia, drove the enemy from Koningsgratz, executed another dangerous and fatiguing march to the Oder, defeated a great army of Russians, and returned by the way of Saxony, from whence he drove the Austrian and Imperial armies; that after his defeat at Hochkirchen, where he lost two of his best generals, and was obliged to leave his tents standing, he baffled the vigilance and superior number of the victorious army, rushed like a whirlwind to the relief of Silesia, invaded by an Austrian army, which he compelled to retire with precipitation from that province; that, with the same rapidity of motion, he wheeled about to Saxony, and once more rescued it from the hands of his adversaries; that in one campaign he made twice the circuit of his dominions, relieved them all in their turns, and kept all his possessions entire against the united efforts of numerous armies, conducted by generals of consummate skill and undaunted resolution. His character would have been still more complete, if his moderation had been equal to his courage; but in this particular we cannot applaud his conduct. Incensed by the persecuting spirit of his enemies, he wrecked his vengeance on those who had done him no injury; and the cruelties which the Russians had committed in his dominions were retaliated upon the unfortunate inhabitants of Saxony. In the latter end of September, the president of the Prussian military directory sent a letter to the magistrates of Leipsic, requiring them, in the king’s name, to pay a new contribution of six hundred thousand crowns, and to begin immediately with the payment of one-third part, on pain of military execution. In answer to this demand, the magistrates represented that the city having been exhausted by the enormous contributions already raised, was absolutely incapable of furnishing further supplies; that the trade was stagnated and ruined, and the inhabitants so impoverished, that they could no longer pay the ordinary taxes. This remonstrance made no impression. At five in the morning the Prussian soldiers assembled, and were posted in all the streets, squares, market-places, cemeteries, towers, and steeples; then the gates being shut, in order to exclude the populace of the suburbs from the city, the senators were brought into the town-hall, and accosted by general Hauss, who told them, the king his master would have money; and, if they refused to part with it, the city should be plundered. To this peremptory address they replied to this effect:—“We have no more money,—we have nothing left but life; and we recommend ourselves to the king’s mercy.” In consequence of this declaration, dispositions were made for giving up the city to be plundered. Cannon were planted in all the streets, the inhabitants were ordered to remain within doors, and every house resounded with dismal cries and lamentations. The dreaded pillage, however, was converted into a regular exaction. A party of soldiers, commanded by a subaltern, went from house to house, signifying to every burgher, that he should produce all his specie, on pain of immediate pillage and massacre; and every inhabitant delivered up his all without further hesitation. About six in the evening, the soldiers returned to their quarters; but the magistrates were detained in confinement, and all the citizens were overwhelmed with grief and consternation. Happy Britain, who knowest such grievances only by report! When the king of Prussia first entered Saxony, at the beginning of the war, he declared he had no design to make a conquest of that electorate, but only to keep it as a depositum for the security of his own dominions, until he could oblige his enemies to acquiesce in reasonable terms of peace; but upon his last arrival at Dresden he adopted a new resolution. In the beginning of December, the Prussian directory of war issued a decree to the deputies of the states of the electorate, demanding a certain quantity of flour and forage, according to the convention formerly settled; at the same time signifying, that though the king of Prussia had hitherto treated the electorate as a country taken under his special protection, the face of affairs was now changed in such a manner, that for the future he would consider it in no other light than that of a conquered country. The Russians had seized in Prussia all the estates and effects belonging to the king’s officers: a retaliation was now made upon the effects of the Saxon officers, who served in the Russian army. Seals were put on all the cabinets containing papers belonging to the privy-counsellors of his Polish majesty, and they themselves ordered to depart for Warsaw at a very short warning. Though the city had been impoverished by former exactions, and very lately subjected to military execution, the king of Prussia demanded fresh contributions, and even extorted them by dint of severities that shock humanity. He surrounded the exchange with soldiers, and confining the merchants to straw beds and naked apartments, obliged them to draw bills for very large sums on their foreign correspondents: a method of proceeding much more suitable to the despotism of a Persian sophi towards a conquered people who professed a different faith, than reconcileable to the character of a protestant prince towards a peaceable nation of brethren, with whom he was connected by the common ties of neighbourhood and religion. Even if they had acted as declared enemies, and been subdued with arms in their hands, the excesses of war on the side of the conqueror ought to have ceased with the hostilities of the conquered, who, by submitting to his sway, would have become his subjects, and in that capacity had a claim to his protection. To retaliate upon the Saxons, who had espoused no quarrel, the barbarities committed by the Russians, with whom he was actually at war; and to treat as a conquered province a neutral country, which his enemies had entered by violence, and been obliged to evacuate by force of arms, was a species of conduct founded on pretences which overturn all right, and confound all reason.