Note 22 — MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, EXILE, AND CONVERSATIONS, OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON. (continued 7)

While Lord Lauderdale was in Paris, and negotiating with the Emperor’s plenipotentiaries, Prussia took up arms and assumed a hostile attitude. Lord Lauderdale seemed to disapprove of this conduct, and to consider the contest very unequal. Being informed that Napoleon intended to march at the head of the army, he enquired whether the Emperor would consent to defer his departure, and to enter into arrangements with Prussia, if England would accept the basis of the negotiations, that is to say, the uti possidetis on both sides, including Hanover. The discussion was maintained on the subject of Hanover, which England wished to recover independently of this basis. By the reply of the Cabinet of St. James’s, Lord Lauderdale was recalled. The Emperor set out, and the battle of Jena took place: Fox was then dead.

We were, at this period, eye-witnesses to the regret and repugnance which Napoleon evinced at the necessity of going to war with Prussia. He was disposed to leave Hanover in the possession of that power, and to recognise a Confederation of the North of Germany. He felt that Prussia, having never been beaten or humbled by France, and her power being still unimpaired, she could have no interests hostile to his; but that, if once she were subdued, she must be destroyed.