During this time the friendship between Prussia and Franco was strengthened, and the intercourse between the two governments and between the king and the first consul Napoleon Bonaparte was very intimate. It was however evident that when Prussia claimed any thing from France, she seldom got it; but when France was the claimant, Prussia ale aya yielded. No sooner bad Bonaparte declared that tho residence of so many French emigrants in the Prussian dominions seemed to be dangerous to him, than Frederick William ordered them to leave his kingdom immediately, and this order was likewise extended to Louis XVIII., who was residing quietly at Warsaw, but was now compelled to take refuge in Russia. The legitimists in Europe now treated Frederick William as a traitor to the holy cause of kings. Their astonishment was still greater when, after Napoleon had crowned himself Emperor of France, in 1801, the King of Prussia was the first of the potentates of Europe to recognise him, and to accept and bear the Grand Cross of the recently founded order of the Legion of Honour, iu acknowledgment of which the king sent Napoleon the Grand Cross of the order of the Black Eagle. It seemed to to settled that the King of Prussia was to receive all northern Germany as the price of his neutrality and friendship, as soon as it could be occupied with safety. Napoleon used to speak of King Frederick William in terms of the highest esteem, but events soon showed that ho despised him.
In 1805 Napoleon's designs against England were frustrated through a new coalition headed by Great Britain, Austria, and Russia. From Boulogne, where the French army had been concentrated for the intended invasion of England, it advanced by rapid marches to the frontiers of Austria. Berlin was the centre of the most important negotiations; for the king's aid seemed to promise victory to the side to which he should incline; and a large party in Prussia, tired of the king's indecisive policy, declared that Prussia had been treated with contempt by Napoleon, and that it was now time to fight against the usurper. Frederick William however still professed friendship for Napoleon ; he assembled a strong army ou the frontier, of Austria, but whom that army was to oppose was known only to a few. The Emperor Alexander now demanded a free passage through Silesia for a Russian army, which was either to join the Austrians in Bohemia, or more probably to occupy Hanover, and having mot with a refusal, he repeated his demand in an imperious tone. The King of Prussia answered that hie generals lied received orders to treat any Russian who should set his foot on the Prussian soil as an enemy. There was little doubt that in this struggle also Frederick William would remain tither neuter, or wait till one of the belligerent parties should have been weakened by defeats, and thee join the victor and have his share in the spoliation of Austria and France. No sooner bad the war broken out than the violation of the Prussian dominions in Franconia, by Marshal Bernadotte, showed how little Napoleon cared for the Prussian king—or rather, how well he know that Frederick William was a man of incheitive character, who would not avenge an limit unless he could do it with impunity and profit. However, that insolent violation roused the war-party in Prussia; and Frederick Williams, *luaus influenced by circumstances, now followed the advice of his minister the Baron von liardenherg, and consented to an view with the Emperor Alexander, which led to the Convention of the 3rd of November 1E05; in consequence of which a Russian army was allowed to pass through Silesia, while, by a secret article of that Conventioo, Frederick William promised to join the coalition against Napoleon unless he withdrew from Germany before the 15th of December. Napoleon'. wrath at this unexpected news was inde
scribable; but being then lo the heart of Austria and on the eve of a battle, he concealed his vexation. Through his intrigues however he induced Frederick William to dismiss Von Hardenberg, and to appoint in his stead Count Ilangwitz, who at once hastened to the head-quarters of Napoleon in Moravia. A battle between the hostile armies was unavoidable; and the general opinion in Prussia was that Hangwitz was to present his master'e ultimatum to Napoleon, and either to compel him to make peace with Austria as the statue quo, or to have a now enemy in Prussia. One hundred and fifty thousand Prussians were on the Moravlau frontier, ready, as it seemed, to join the Amara-Russians, from whom they were separated only by a few days' march. No ultimatum was ,tendered to Napoleon. Haugwitz waited till the Auatro•ltussiau army was annihilated by Napoleon in the battle of Austerlitz (2nd of December, 1505), and the day after the battle impudently congratulated Napoleon in the word, " Dieu morel, noun evens vaincu I" "If I had lost," said Napoleon to his ministers, after llaugwitz had left " ho would have said the same to the Emperors of Austria and Russia." Only thirteen days after the battle of Austerlitz (15th of December 1805) a treaty was concluded at Vienna, through llaugeritz, between France and Prussia, which astonished all Europe, caused deep indig nation in England, and filled all Prussian patriots with shame and despair. Prussia ceded to Franco her dominions in Fmneouia, the violation of which bad caused so much indignation in Germany, and received as the reward of her duplicity the electorate of Hanover, though only de facto, and till a general peace to which Groat Britain should be a party should bo made. Hanover had been occupied by the French in 1S03, against the law of nations. In that year George III. renewed the war against Franco as King of Great Britain and Ireland, but not as Elector of Hanover ; and io order to establish that diatiuc tion, he sent a circular to the courts of Europa informing them that Hanover was out of the question, and was consequently a neutral territory. In this ease however, as in so many others, Napoleon disregarded international law ; and the consequence was, that Hanover was first occupied by the French, and afterwards by the Prussian,. According to the condition on which Prussia was put in possession of Ilauovcr, she could only hold it as a trustee for the Elector King George 1IL; but a second conveotioo, concluded at Paris ou the 15th of February 1806, showed that Frederick William intended to annex Hanover to his dominion; which he actually effected, declaring that he had received Hanover as a lawful conquest of Napoleon.