Although the King of Spain had long shewn himself the willing instrument of Bonaparte, and the resources of that country were entirely at his disposal—although he had proved his devotion in such a dreadful manner to himself, by engaging in a war with Britain, that had nearly com pleted the ruin of his kingdom,—yet Bonaparte was not content. The ambition of placing his brothers and rela tions on the thrones of Europe had seized him ; and though Joseph Bonaparte was made king of Naples, yet he resol ved to remove him to Spain, and place Murat, who had married his sister, in his place. His designs on Spain had another object. While she remained under her imbecile government, though that government was sufficiently dis posed to act under his guidance, yet the resources of the kingdom were in such a dilapidated state, and there was so little energy either in its councils or people, that the co operation of Spain was of little benefit to the furtherance of his views, especially against Britain. The dethrone ment of the King of Spain, and the accession of Joseph Bonaparte, were therefore resolved upon. The means which he employed to persuade the King to resign his throne in favour of his son Ferdinand, and to entice Ferdi nand into France, and to surrender his claims to him,—the insurrection of the Spaniards,—their answered calls to Bri tain for assistance,—the battles that were fought between them and the French,—the retreat of Sir John Moore,— and the masterly operations, and brilliant victories of Lord Wellington, till the reduction of Ciudad Rodrigo on the 19th of January 1812, are fully detailed in the History of BRI TAIN. We shall therefore omit those parts of the history of France which relate to the operations of her army in the Peninsula, till we come to the events of that year ; and con fine ourselves, in the intermediate period, to the operations of Bonaparte in the other parts of Europe, and the internal transactions of France.
The same system of concealment and misrepresentation which Bonaparte had practised respecting all his reverses, he eNtended to the affairs of Spain. In 1803, when Joseph Bonaparte was obliged to leave Madrid, not a word was said of Spain in the Moniteur. But his reverses, and the enthusiasm as well as the extent of the opposition to him in the Peninsula, were well known in all parts of Europe; and, as might be expected, received with satisfaction and joy. Austria, who had reluctantly submitted to the last peace, had been for some time employed in bringing her finances into order, and in forming magazines on her fron tier. These circumstances did not fail to excite the suspi cion of Bonaparte ; and a long correspondence took place on the subject between the Austrian ambassador at Paris, and the French minister for foreign affairs ; but the Aus trians persevered in their military preparations, notwith standing the remonstrances, and even the threatening lan guage of the latter. Orders were therefore transmitted from Paris, to the members of the Confederation of the Rhine, to call out their respective quotas of troops, 80,000 of whom were taken into the pay of France, and sent into that country to replace those French troops whom it was found necessary to send into Spain.
Under the circumstances in which he was placed, it was of great importance for Bonaparte to secure the neutrality of the Emperor of Russia ; a conference, therefore, took place between them on the 27th of September, at Erfurth, in the former electorate of Mayence. The Emperor seems to have entered into the views of Bonaparte, and the latter in return agreed to evacuate the Prussian territories, as soon as the contributions, which he reduced to one third, were paid up. By this concession to the wishes of the Emperor of Russia, Bonaparte set at liberty a great number of his troops, who were instantly marched for the Peninsula. The
two sovereigns also agreed to propose peace to Britain, but, as we have already noticed in the history of that country, the proposal was rejected.
This year did not pass over, without new and additional proofs of the rapacious and unsatisfiable nature of Bona parte's ambition. The military posts of Kehl, Wesel, Cassel on the Rhine, and Flushing, were annexed to France on the east and north ; while on the side of Italy, Rome, Pal ma, Placentia, and Ancona, suffered a similar fate.
Though Austria had been long preparing for the re newal of hostilities with France, yet she did not issue a formal declaration of war till the 6th of April 1809. At this period she had an army consisting of nine corps, each corps consisting of 30,000 men : the first six were under the immediate orders of the Archduke Charles ; the seventh was under the Archduke. John in Poland. Besides these, there were two corps of reserve, one of 20,000 men commanded by Prince John of Lichtenstein ; the other of 10,000, under General Kinmayer ; and about 25,000 par tizans in the Tyrol, Carinthia, and on the confines of Bohemia. The French not inferior in respect to numbers, and they occupied the following positions ; a corps entirely of French at Ratisbon, under 'Marshal Da voust ; another under Massena at Ulm ; and a third under Oudinot at Augsburg : three divisions of Bavarians were posted at Munich, Landshut, and Strasburg: the. Saxons were encamped under the walls of Dresden ; and the Poles near Warsaw.
As soon as Bonaparte learnt that the Austrians had cross ed the Inn, he left Paris on the 13th of April ; on the 17th Le arrived at Donawert, where he fixed his head quarters; on the 19th, the different corps of the French began to unite. At Ingolstadt the plan of Bonaparte was unfolded ; which was to rnanceuvre on the Austrians, whose line was extended from Neustadt to Landshut ; to break the line, and come between the Archduke Charles and the corps commanded by his brother. In consequence of the suc ccsses of the French, particularly at Eckmuhl, the Arch duke was forced to cross the Danube at Ratisbon, in order to form a junction with General Bellegarde, who had been employed in keeping the French in check, on the frontier of Bohemia. The Archduke finding he could not defend Ratisbon, was obliged to continue his retreat ; and Bona parte, following the course of the Danube, advanced rapidly towards Vienna ; on the loth of May, he appeared before this city, which, after some show of resistance, he entered. In the mean time, the Archduke Charles, having learnt the fate of Vienna, moved down on the left bank of the Danube, for the purpose of watching the motions of the French ; and fixed his head quarters, on the 16th of May, at Ebersdorf. Bonaparte immediately formed the design of attacking him here, and for this purpose marched along the south bank of the river, till he reached the distance of about six miles from Vienna, at which place its breadth and rapidity are broken by two islands. At this point he resolved to cross it. As the French advanced the Arch duke retreated, and the right wing of the former was post ed near the village of Essling, while the left was support ed by the village of Aspern. Here, on the 2Ist and 22d, two dreadful and sanguinary battles were fought : the bat tle of the 21st was terminated only by the darkness of the night, at which time the French were driven from Aspern, but still retained Essling. On the morning of the 22d they regained Aspern ; but by repeated attacks, the Aus trians succeeded in driving them both from it and Essling. In the night between the 22d and 23d, they retreated from the left bank of the Danube, and took up a position on one of the islands.