Note 211 — JOURNAL OF ELIZABETH LADY HOLLAND (continued 3)

With the battle of Austerlitz, late in 1805, ended all hope of a successful European coalition against Napoleon. The wavering counsels of the Prussian Cabinet were decided once and for all by the action of their envoy, Haugwitz, who concluded a treaty with Napoleon upon receipt of news of the battle. The Austrians had to take the best terms they could obtain, and by the Treaty of Presburg, in December, retired from the struggle bereft of their fairest provinces. Napoleon, who had given the kingdom of Naples to his brother, Joseph, now turned to make peace with England. He found Fox, the new Foreign Minister, less pliant than he had hoped. The restitution of Hanover, which had been handed over to Prussia a few months before, was insisted upon, as well as the maintenance in Sicily of Ferdinand. To the former demand Napoleon agreed, and seemed inclined to accede to the latter request, until he found that the Russian envoy, d’Oubril, was prepared to throw over England, and sign a separate treaty. He then changed his tone and demanded the cession of Sicily to Joseph; but by so doing lost the opportunity for peace with both countries, for the Czar repudiated the preliminaries signed by d’Oubril, and Fox recalled his envoy from Paris. The failure of these negotiations put an end for the moment to Napoleon’s designs on Portugal. A large portion of the French army never actually reached Bayonne, but was elsewhere employed against the Prussians. Lord St. Vincent remained with his fleet at Lisbon until it was evident that the danger of an invasion of Portugal was past; and a large force of troops, under Lord Rosslyn, who had been assembled at Plymouth to await eventualities, was at the same time disbanded.