s an easy prey. For these future gains he was to close his ports
to England and see his commerce, his navy, and his seaboard suffer. It
is not surprising that before leaving Tilsit he remarked to Frederick
William that "the most onerous condition imposed by Napoleon was
common to Russia and Prussia."[155]

This refers to the compulsion put upon them to join Napoleon's
Continental System. In the treaty signed with Prussia on July 9th,
Napoleon not only wrested away half her lands, but required the
immediate closing of all her ports to British vessels. We may also
note here that, by the extraordinary negligence of the Prussian
negotiator, Marshal Kalckreuth, the subsequent convention as to the
evacuation of Prussia by the French troops left open a loophole for
its indefinite occupation. Each province or district was to be
evacuated when the French requisitions had been satisfied.[156] The
exaction of impossible sums would therefore enable the conquerors,
quite legally, to keep their locust swarms in that miserable land. And
that was the policy pursued for sixteen months.

Why this refinement of cruelty to his former ally? Why not have
annexed Prussia outright? Probably there were two reasons against
annexation: first, that his army could live on her in a way that would
not be possible with his own subjects or allies; second, that the army
of occupation would serve as a guarantee both for Russia's good faith
and for the absolute exclusion of British goods from Prussia.[157]
This had long been his aim. He now attained it, but only by war that
bequeathed a legacy of war, and a peace that was no peace.

Napoleon's behaviour at Tilsit has generally been regarded, at least
in England, as prompted by an insane lust of power; and the treaty has
been judged as if its aim was the domination of the Continent. But
another explanation, though less sweeping and attractive, seems more
consonant with the facts of the case.

He hoped that, before so mighty a confederacy as was framed at Tilsit,
England would bend the knee, give up not only her maritime claims but
her colonial conquests, and humbly take rank with Powers that had
lived their day. The conqueror who had thrice crumpled up the Hapsburg
States, and shattered Prussia in a day, might well believe that the
men of Downing Street, expert only in missing opportunities and
exasperating their friends, would not dare to defy the forces of
united Europe, but would bow before his prow