re. The
house of Brandenburg had consented to the humiliation of Francis in the
hope of succeeding, at the next election, to the imperial crown so long
worn by the princes of Austria; and now, not only was that
long-cherished hope for ever dispelled, but it appeared that Napoleon
had laid the foundation of a new system, under which the influence of
the house of Brandenburg must, in all probability, be overruled far more
effectually than it ever had been, of recent times, by the imperial
prerogative of Austria.

The only method of counteracting the consolidation of French power all
over Germany, seemed to be that of creating another confederacy in the
northern circles, capable of balancing the league of the Rhine. The
Elector of Saxony, however, perceived that Napoleon was not likely to
acquiesce in the realisation of this scheme; and his Minister at Berlin
continued to decline acceding to the Northern alliance. The Prince of
Hesse-Cassel took a similar view of the case; but acted with a degree of
vacillation worthy of the late conduct of Prussia herself, refusing on
the one hand to embrace the confederation proposed by the Cabinet of
Berlin, and yet declining, on the other, to form part of the Rhenish
league, to which effect Buonaparte had frequently and urgently invited
this elector. In the reluctance, however, of these princes, Prussia saw
nothing but the determination of Napoleon to suppress, in the beginning,
any such confederation of the Northern German States as had been
contemplated; and irritation and jealousy from day to day increased.

The relations of France and Prussia continued in this dubious state,
until the Cabinet of Berlin learned some particulars of a negotiation
between Napoleon and the English Government, which took place in the
summer of 1806.

Mr. Pitt, who despaired of opposing Buonaparte on the continent after
Marengo, did not long survive the disastrous intelligence of Austerlitz.
Worn out and broken by the endless anxieties of his situation, not even
the glorious tidings of Trafalgar could revive the sinking spirit of
this great minister. He died on the 23rd of January, 1806, and was
succeeded in the government by Mr. Fox, the same statesman who had,
throughout every variety of fortune, arraigned his conduct of the war as
imbecile and absurd, and who all along professed his belief that in the
original quarrel between Great Britain and revolutionised France, the
blame lay with his own countr