the rich
countries once forming the State of Venice. Finally, Napoleon gave
Cleves with Berg, purchased of Bavaria, to Joachim Murat, the husband of
his sister, Caroline Annunciade, upon the same conditions as those upon
which he had given Naples and Holland to his two brothers.

WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND PRUSSIA, ETC.

This year Prussia awoke from her fatal blindness. That country resolved
upon war with France; and England and Sweden became reconciled with her
king, while Russia promised him powerful aid. It was in October that
a mutual declaration of war took place, and hostilities commenced
immediately. A Prussian army, 120,000 strong, was assembled round
Erfurt; but though it was composed of valiant soldiers, it was ill
commanded, and, therefore, unfit to meet such a master of war as
Napoleon. Two battles were fought at Jena and Auerstadt, by which the
Prussian power was overthrown; more than 50,000 men were slain. These
battles were followed by the capture of Erfurt, Span-dau, Potsdam,
Berlin, Luben, Stettin, Kuestrin, Hameln, Nienburg, and Magdeburg; and
by victories over Prince Hohenlohe, near Prenzlow; and over the reserve
army of Brucher, towards the lower Elbe. Within six weeks after the
battle of Jena, all the country, from the Rhine to the other side of
the Oder, with a population of nine millions, fell into the hands of
Napoleon. The French troops occupied Brunswick and Hesse Cassel, the
Hanseatic cities, and finally Mecklenburg and Oldenburg. North Germany
groaned under the scourge of the victor; and South Germany paid him
homage, and gave him troops and gold. The houses of Brunswick and Hesse
Cassel ceased to reign; the electors were dispossessed. The King of
Prussia sought refuge with his Russian ally: his sudden fall was an
object of terror and grief. With Prussia, the grand bulwark of
Russia fell; Napoleon entertained, indeed, a project of raising up an
independent throne on the very frontiers of the northern power. The
injured Poles were summoned to insurrection, and an auxiliary army was
formed in Prussia-Poland. Hopes of success in this enterprise were well
founded, because at this time war broke out, through the intrigues of
the French ruler, between Russia and the Porte. Operations followed
on the Danube, which caused a powerful diversion of the Russian force,
which might otherwise have extended a more efficient aid to the Prussian
monarch.

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.

The new session o