Book Description

Excerpt from History of the Consulate and the Empire of France Under Napoleon, Vol. 2 of 12 The emperor, inflamed as he was against England, was, never theless, a dangerous ally; misunderstandings might at any moment be revived, even with him. Moreover, that which only appeared as a symptom of insanity on the part of the Emperor Paul, was a remarkable instance of the progress of Russian ambition during three-quarters of a century. In fact, it was but eighty years before that Peter the Great, attracting, for the first time, the attention of all Europe, limited the Sphere of his policy to the north of that continent, by contending against Charles XII., in order to carry the election of a king for Poland. Forty years afterwards, Russia, extending already her ambition towards Germany, entered into a contest against Frederick, in conjunction with Austria and France, in order to prevent the consolidation of the Prussian power. Some years afterwards, in 1772, she partitioned Poland. In 1778, she advanced a step farther, and participated, equally with France, in the regulation of German affairs, interposing her mediation between Prussia and Austria, who were ready to come to blows about the succes sion of Bavaria, and had the signal honour of guaranteeing the German constitution at Teschen. In short, before the cycle of the century was complete, in I 799, she marched Russians into Italy, not to settle a question of territory, but a moral ques tion - to preserve, she said, the balance of power in Europe, and social order, which was menaced by the French Revolution. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.