The prince royal was met at Elsinor by several Swedish high digni taries, and the Archbishop of Upsal among the rest. He told that prelate that he had been in his youth instructed in the reformed religion, which was professed by many in his native Bdarn, that he had since conversed in Germany with Protestant clergymen on religious subjects, and that he now declared that he believed in the doctrine contained in the Confession of Augsburg, such as it was presented by the princes and states of Gerniany to the emperor Charles V. On the 20th of October he landed at Helsinborg, and be entered Stockholm on the 2nd of amidst the salutes of the artillery. On the 5th he attended the Assembly of the States, in which Charles XIII. presided. He addressed the king and the States in succession, declaring his intention to live entirely for the good of his adopted country. "Brought up in the camp," he thus concluded, " I have been familiar with war, and am acquainted with all its calamities ; no conquest can oonsole a country for the blood of its children shed in a foreign land. Peace is the only glorious object of a wise and enlightened government. It is not the extent of a country, but its laws, its commerce, its indus try, and above all its national spirit, that constitute its strength. Sweden has of late experienced great losses, but the honour of the Swedish name remains unscathed. We have still a land sufficient for our wants, and iron to defend ourselves." Two days after despatches came from Napoleon, demanding in the most imperious tone that Sweden should declare immediately war against Euglaud. Tho winter was setting in, precluding all hopes of assistance from Euglaud iu case of an attack by the French troops through Denmark. In this emer gency the king declared war against England ; but his situation was well understood by the British cabinet, and the result was a state of non-intercourse rather than hostilities. But Napoleon did -not stop here; he demanded a draft of Swedish sailors for the French fleet, a body of Swedish troops for the French army, the introduction of French custom-house officers at Gothenburg, and, lastly, the formation of a Northern Confederation, consisting of Sweden, Denmark, and the duchy of Warsaw, under the protection of France. All these demands were respectfully but firmly refused; but the prince royal became convinced, that with such a man as Napoleon, Sweden could not remain at peace and retain its independence as a nation. He wrote several letters to Napoleon, explaining the delicate and painful position in which he found himself. Sweden could not live without maritime trade. After three months, Napoleon answered by fresh demands of hostilities against Great Britain, and of a vigorous exclusion of all English or colonial goods. Meantime, French privateers in the Baltic and Northern seas seized the Swedish vessels, whilst the French authorities confiscated the Swedish ships iu the German ports, ar.1 marched their crews into France to serve iu Napoleon's dockyards. Napoleon treated Sweden as an enemy. The year 1811 was a dread ful period for Sweden, and the prince royal in particular, and his health was affected by his anxiety. At last a fresh act of violence of Napoleon put an end to all uncertainty. In January 1812, French troops invaded Swedish Pomerania and the island of Hagen ; arrested the pubic functionaries, who were sent to the prisons of Hamburg, sad replaced them by Frenchmen; disarmed two Swedish regiments, which had been surprised under the appearance of peace, and sent the men prisoners into France ; and sequestrated all public property and all Swedish vessels in the port of Stralsund. All Sweden was roused it the news. The prince royal wrote a strong remonstrance to Napo leon upon this wanton outrage against the rights of Sweden as a nation. Charles XIII. sent an envoy to St. Petersburg to conclude an alliance with the Emperor Alexander, which was signed on the 24th of March, and from that timo the prince royal, having renewed friendly relations with England, exerted himself to promote peace between Russia and England, and Russia and Turkey. All this was well known at Paris, while Napoleon was preparing his gigantic expedition against Russia. it was a very bold step for Sweden thus to throw the gauntlet at the Treat conqueror ; but the step was taken with the courage of despair, or Napoleon would not let any nation live independent. Those who lave talked of 138rnadotte's treason, as they call it, of his taking advantage of Bonaparte's ltassian disasters to give him an inglorious tilow, forget data and misrepresent circumstances. They have con founded the treaty of St. Petersburg in March, with the treaty of Abe is August 1812. Sweden had chosen her part, forced to it by Napo leon's outrsgeetu injustice, long before the breaking out of the war. After that war heel begun, and about the middle of August, the prince royal repaired to Abo in Finland to have an interview with the Emperor Alexander, who was delighted with his manner and con. venation. It was then agreed that Sweden should take an active pert in the war by larding an army In North Germany, which would be joined by a corps of Russians. At the same time it was stipulated that Norway should be detached from Denmark, • power closely and pertinaciously allied with the common enemy, Napoleon, and be :sneezed to the crown of Sweden in compensation for the loss of Finland. The secession of Great Britain to the treaty was solicited, and after • time obtained. This treaty was signed at Abo, 18th of August The prince royal having reviewed • body of 35,000 Russians, who were to be piloted immediately at his disposal, told Alexander, "They are very fine troops, and you can ill spare them just now; send them instead to Riga, to reinforce Wittgenstein, who has great diffi culty In defending himself against Macdonald and Victor. If the French succeed there they will march on St. Petersburg." "That is very handsome of yon," said Alexander; "but how will you obtain of Norway.' "If you succeed," said the prince, "you will
promise. If you succumb, Europe is enslaved ; all crowns will be withered by subjection to Napoleon. Better than go and till • field than reign under that condition." The troops were sent across the Gulf of Finland to Wittgenstein, just in time to save Riga and St.. Petersburg. The prince royal, after his return to Stockholm, kept up a familiar correspondence with Alexander during the whole of the memorable Russan campaign, gave him the best advice, and supported his spirits. After the French retreat from Moscow, the Swedish cabinet signified to the French oharg4 d'affairee at Stockholm that all diplomatic relations with France had ceased, and sent him his pass ports. This way resented in a note by Maret, Napoleon's secretary for foreign affairs, to which the prince royal replied by an eloquent letter addressed to Napoleon, in March 1813, which was afterwards printed and circulated throughout Oermany.
In May the prince royal landed at Stralsund with about 25,000 Swedes, and advanced towards the Elbe. Soon after, an armistice haring been concluded between the Russians and the French, the prince royal had an interview with the Emperor Alexander and the King of Prussia at Trachenberg in Silesia. He laid before them a plan of operations for the various allied armies during the ensuing campaign, pointing to Leipzig as their ultimate place of meeting. When hostilities began again, the prince royal, at the head of the army called 'of the North,' which consisted of Swedes, Russians, and Prussians, protected Berlin against the advance of the French under Oudinot, whom ho repulsed at Gross Beeren ; and be afterwards defeated Ney at Deane wits, 6th of September, which saved Berlin a second time, and drove the French upon the left bank of the Elbe. Napoleon began his retreat from Dresden upon Leipzig, whither the movements of the allies were converging, and there he sustained his signal defeat, which decided the evacuation of Germany by the French. The prince royal contri buted greatly to the success of that battle on the 18th of October, and the following day he forced his way into the town, where ho met in the greet square the Emperor Alexander and the King of Prussia, according to the agreement of Trachenberg.
Leaving to others the pursuit of the French to the Rhine, the prince royal turned towards the north to attack Durant and his allies the Dana on the Lower Elbe. Ile defeated the Danes., who demanded an armistice, and then blockaded Davoust in Hamburg. On the 14th of January 1S14 a treaty we, concluded at Kid between Denmark and Sweden, by which the former power gave up Norway to the crown of Sweden, and joined the coalition. The prince royal then hastened to the Rhine, and fixed his head-quarters at Cologne and afterwards at Liege, whence he urged the Emperor Alexander to make peace with France, having the Rhine, the Alps, and the Pyrenees for its boundaries. lie wrote in the same strain to the Swedish minister at the Congress of Manion, and he also eddied Napoleon, through an indirect channel, to make passe, or he would lose his crown. Ile himself would take no part In the campaign In France in 1814. Ile always strongly opposed the idea of any dismemberment of France, or of forcing any particular dynasty upon the French. "Let Germany and Holland be free," he "and let the French choose their own government." And the Emperor Alexander coincided with him; but Napoleon, by rejecting all proposals, hurried on his own fall. The prinoe royal's paramount duties however were towards his adopted country, Sweden, which expected • compensation for all her past sufferings and her present elertions for the common cause. Ile went to Paris, incognito, to confer with Alexander on the subject of Norway, as Denmark licensed little inclined to fulfil the treaty of Kiel. The emperor, faithful to his word, obtained tba sanction of all the allies, and placed at the disposal of the prince royal his troops in North Germany. The prince then set off for Brussels, where he collected his Swedish troops, and marched them back to the shores of the Baltic.
Christian Frederic, prince of Denmark, had hoisted in Norway the II % of independence. The Norwegians, ho said, were freed from their allegiance to the crown of Denmark, but they were not bound by the conditions of the treaty of Kiel. He assembled s sort of diet at Fiawold, which framed a liberal constitution, and elected Christian for their king, who soon after dissolved the assembly. The King of Denmark sent commissaries to summon Christian to fulfil the treaty of Kid, but little attention was paid to this formality. Fonr commis. tracers of England, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, came to remonstrate In favour of the same treaty, but obtained only evasive answers. A Swedish army and fleet were then put in motion against Christian. King Charles XIII. and the prince royal commanded In person. After some trifling actions on the frontier the Swedes entered Norway ; an armistice was concluded; and the Storthing, or general assembly of Norway, being convoked, required Christian to renounce the authority with which he had been intrusted by the nation. Christian abdicated, and returned to Copenhagen. The Storthing then entered into com munication with the Swedish commissioners, and after some deliberation elected unanimously Charles XIIL of Sweden to baking of the kingdom of Norway, and Carl Johan as prince royal. The king and prince, on their pert, swore to the constitution of Norway as voted by the Storthmg. The prince royal entered Christiania in the midst of acclamations, and received the oath of allegiance of the deputies to Charles XIII. In November 1814. The Scaudinavian peninsula was now united under one sceptre, and ' No more Dovre ' was the common word of union, meaning that the natural boundary of the Dovrefeld, or mountains between the, two countries, was no longer a political barrier.