Nehemiah Adams - "Bertha and Her Baptism"

Thomas Henry Huxley - "This is Essay #3 from Science and Hebrew Tradition"

E. V. Lucas - "A Boswell of Baghdad"

Ellis Wynne - "The Sleeping Bard"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Germany from the Earliest Period Vol. 4

W >> Wolfgang Menzel, Trans. Mrs. George Horrocks >> Germany from the Earliest Period Vol. 4




[Footnote 18: This was Austria's natural policy. In the French
despatches, Schwarzenberg was charged with having allowed
Tschitschakow to escape in order to pursue the inconsiderable force
under Sacken.]

[Footnote 19: The following anecdote is related of the Hessians
commanded by Prince Emilius of Darmstadt. The prince had fallen asleep
in the snow, and four Hessian dragoons, in order to screen him from
the north wind, held their cloaks as a wall around him and were found
next morning in the same position--frozen to death. Dead bodies were
seen frozen into the most extraordinary positions, gnawing their own
hands, gnawing the torn corpses of their comrades. The dead were often
covered with snow, and the number of little heaps lying around alone
told that of the victims of a single night.]

[Footnote 20: Napoleon said, "There are two hundred millions lying in
the cellars of the Tuileries; how willingly would I give them to save
Ney!"]

[Footnote 21: He passed with extreme rapidity, incognito, through
Germany. In Dresden he had a short interview with the king of Saxony,
who, had he shut him up in Koenigstein, would have saved Europe a good
deal of trouble.--Napoleon no sooner reached Paris in safety than, in
his twenty-ninth bulletin, he, for the first time, acquainted the
astonished world, hitherto deceived by his false accounts of victory,
with the disastrous termination of the campaign. This bulletin was
also replete with falsehood and insolence. In his contempt of humanity
he even said, "Merely the cowards in the army were depressed in spirit
and dreamed of misfortune, the brave were ever cheerful." Thus wrote
the man who had both seen and caused all this immeasurable misery! The
bulletin concluded with, "His Imperial Majesty never enjoyed better
health."]

[Footnote 22: In the French despatches, General Huenerbein was accused
of not having pursued the Russians under General Lewis.]

[Footnote 23: The secret history of those days is still not
sufficiently brought to light. Bagnon speaks of fresh treaties between
Hardenberg and Napoleon, in which he is corroborated by Fain. These
two Frenchmen, the former of whom was a diplomatist, the other one of
Napoleon's private secretaries, admit that Prussia's object at that
time was to take advantage of Napoleon's embarrassment and to offer
him aid on certain important considerations. Prussian historians are
silent in this matter. In Von Rauschnik's biographical account of
Bluecher, the great internal schism at that time caused in Prussia by
the Hardenberg party and that of the _Tugendbund_ is merely slightly
hinted at; the former still managed diplomatic affairs, while York, a
member of the latter, had already acted on his own responsibility.
Shortly afterward affairs took a different aspect, as if Hardenberg's
diplomacy had merely been a mask, and he placed himself at the head of
the movement against France. In a memorial of 1811, given by Hormayr
in the Sketches from the War of Liberation, Hardenberg declared
decisively in favor of the alliance with Russia against France.]

[Footnote 24: Hans Louis David von York, a native of Pomerania, having
ventured, when a lieutenant in the Prussian service, indignantly to
blame the base conduct of one of his superiors in command, became
implicated in a duel, was confined in a fortress, abandoned his
country, entered the Dutch service, visited the Cape and Ceylon,
fought against the Mahrattas, was wounded, returned home and
re-entered the Prussian service in 1794.]



CCLX. The Spring of 1813


The king of Prussia had suddenly abandoned Berlin, which was still in
the hands of the French, for Breslau, whence he declared war against
France. A conference also took place between him and the emperor
Alexander at Calisch, and, on the 28th of February, 1813, an offensive
and defensive alliance was concluded between them. The hour for
vengeance had at length arrived. The whole Prussian nation, eager to
throw off the hated yoke of the foreigner, to obliterate their
disgrace in 1806, to regain their ancient name, cheerfully hastened to
place their lives and property at the service of the impoverished
government. The whole of the able-bodied population was put under
arms. The standing army was increased: to each regiment were appended
troops of volunteers, _Joegers_, composed of young men belonging to
the higher classes, who furnished their own equipments: a numerous
_Landwehr_, a sort of militia, was, as in Austria, raised besides the
standing army, and measures were even taken to call out, in case of
necessity, the heads of families and elderly men remaining at home,
under the name of the _Landsturm_.[1] The enthusiastic people, besides
furnishing the customary supplies and paying the taxes, contributed to
the full extent of their means toward defraying the immense expense of
this general arming. Every heart throbbed high with pride and hope.
Who would not wish to have lived at such a period, when man's noblest
and highest energies were thus called forth! More loudly than even in
1809 in Austria was the German cause now discussed, the great name of
the German empire now invoked in Prussia, for in that name alone could
all the races of Germany be united against their hereditary foe. The
following celebrated proclamation, promising external and internal
liberty to Germany, was, with this view, published at Calisch, by
Prussia and Russia, on the 25th of March, 1813. It was signed by
Prince Kutusow and drawn up by Baron Rehdiger of Silesia.

"The victorious troops of Russia, together with those of his Majesty
the king of Prussia, having set foot on German soil, the emperor of
Russia and his Majesty the king of Prussia announce simultaneously the
return of liberty and independence to the princes and nations of
Germany. They come with the sole and sacred purpose of aiding them to
regain the hereditary and inalienable national rights of which they
have been deprived, to afford potent protection and to secure
durability to a newly-restored empire. This great object, free from
every interested motive and therefore alone worthy of their Majesties,
has solely induced the advance and solely guides the movements of
their armies.--These armies, led by generals under the eyes of both
monarchs, trust in an omnipotent, just God, and hope to free the whole
world and Germany irrevocably from the disgraceful yoke they have so
gloriously thrown off. They press forward animated by enthusiasm.
Their watchword is 'Honor and Liberty.' May every German, desirous of
proving himself worthy of the name, speedily and spiritedly join their
ranks. May every individual, whether prince, noble, or citizen, aid
the plans of liberation, formed by Russia and Prussia, with heart and
soul, with person and property, to the last drop of his blood!--The
expectation cherished by their Majesties of meeting with these
sentiments, this zeal, in every German heart, they deem warranted by
the spirit so clearly betokened by the victories gained by Russia over
the enslaver of the world.--They therefore demand faithful
cooperation, more especially from every German prince, and willingly
presuppose that none among them will be found, who, by being and
remaining apostate to the German cause, will prove himself deserving
of annihilation by the power of public opinion and of just arms. The
Rhenish alliance, that deceitful chain lately cast by the breeder of
universal discord around ruined Germany to the destruction of her
ancient name, can, as the effect of foreign tyranny and the tool of
foreign influence, be no longer tolerated. Their Majesties believe
that the declaration of the dissolution of this alliance being their
fixed intention will meet the long-harbored and universal desire with
difficulty retained within the sorrowing hearts of the people.--The
relation in which it is the intention of his Majesty, the emperor of
all the Russias, to stand toward Germany and toward her constitution
is, at the same time, here declared. From his desire to see the
influence of the foreigner destroyed, it can be no other than that of
placing a protecting hand on a work whose form is committed to the
free, unbiased will of the princes and people of Germany. The more
closely this work, in principle, features and outline, coincides with
the once distinct character of the German nation, the more surely will
united Germany retake her place with renovated and redoubled vigor
among the empires of Europe.--His Majesty and his ally, between whom
there reigns a perfect accordance in the sentiments and views hereby
explained, are at all times ready to exert their utmost power in
pursuance of their sacred aim, the liberation of Germany from a
foreign yoke.--May France, strong and beauteous in herself,
henceforward seek to consolidate her internal prosperity! No external
power will disturb her internal peace, no enemy will encroach upon her
rightful frontiers.--But may France also learn that the other powers
of Europe aspire to the attainment of durable repose for their
subjects, and will not lay down their arms until the independence of
every state in Europe shall have been firmly secured."

Nor was the appeal vain. It found an echo in every German heart, and
such plain demonstrations of the state of the popular feeling on this
side the Rhine were made that Davoust sent serious warning to
Napoleon, who contemptuously replied, "Pah! Germans never can become
Spaniards!" With his customary rapidity, he levied in France a fresh
army three hundred thousand strong, with which he so completely awed
the Rhenish confederation as to compel it once more to take the field
with thousands of Germans against their brother Germans. The troops,
however, reluctantly obeyed, and even the traitors were but lukewarm,
for they doubted of success. Mecklenburg alone sided with Prussia.
Austria remained neutral.

A Russian corps under General Tettenborn had preceded the rest of the
troops and reached the coasts of the Baltic. As early as the 24th of
March, 1813, it appeared in Hamburg and expelled the French
authorities from the city. The heavily oppressed people of Hamburg,[2]
whose commerce had been totally annihilated by the continental system,
gave way to the utmost demonstrations of delight, received their
deliverers with open arms, revived their ancient rights, and
immediately raised a Hanseatic corps, destined to take the field
against Napoleon. Dornberg, the ancient foe to France, with another
flying squadron took the French division under Morand prisoner, and
the Prussian, Major Hellwig (the same who, in 1806, liberated the
garrison of Erfurt), dispersed, with merely one hundred and twenty
hussars, a Bavarian regiment one thousand three hundred strong and
captured five pieces of artillery. In January, the peasantry of the
upper country had already revolted against the conscription,[3] and,
in February, patriotic proclamations had been disseminated throughout
Westphalia under the signature of the Baron von Stein. In this month,
also, Captain Maas and two other patriots, who had attempted to raise
a rebellion, were executed. As the army advanced, Stein was nominated
chief of the provisional government of the still unconquered provinces
of Western Germany.

The first Russian army, seventeen thousand strong, under Wittgenstein,
pushed forward to Magdeburg, and, at Mokern, repulsed forty thousand
French, who were advancing upon Berlin. The Prussians, under their
veteran general, Blucher, entered Saxony and garrisoned Dresden, on
the 27th of March, 1813; an arch of the fine bridge across the Elbe
having been uselessly blown up by the French. Blucher, whose gallantry
in the former wars had gained for him the general esteem, and whose
kind and generous disposition had won the affection of the soldiery,
was nominated generalissimo of the Prussian forces, but subordinate in
command to Wittgenstein, who replaced Kutusow[4] as generalissimo of
the united forces of Russia and Prussia. The emperor of Russia and the
king of Prussia accompanied the army and were received with loud
acclamations by the people of Dresden and Leipzig. The allied army was
merely seventy thousand strong, and Blucher had not formed a junction
with Wittgenstein when Napoleon invaded the country by Erfurt and
Merseburg at the head of one hundred and sixty thousand men. Ney
attacked, with forty thousand men, the Russian vanguard under
Winzingerode, which, after gallantly defending a defile near
Weissenfels, made an orderly retreat before forces far their superior
in number. The French, on this occasion, lost Marshal Bessieres.
Napoleon, incredulous of attack, marched in long columns upon Leipzig,
and Wittgenstein, falling upon his right flank, committed great havoc
among the forty thousand men under Ney, which he had first of all
encountered, at Gross-Gorschen. This place was alternately lost and
regained owing to his ill-judged plan of attack by single brigades,
instead of breaking Napoleon's lines by charging them at once with the
whole of his forces. The young Prussian volunteers here measured their
strength in a murderous conflict, hand to hand, with the young French
conscripts, and excited by their martial spirit the astonishment of
the veterans. Wittgenstein's delay and Blucher's too late arrival on
the field[5] gave Napoleon time to wheel his long lines round and to
encircle the allied forces, which immediately retired. On the eve of
the bloody engagement of the 2d of May, the allied cavalry attempted a
general attack in the dark, which was also unsuccessful on account of
the superiority of the enemy's forces. The allies had, nevertheless,
captured some cannons, the French, none. The most painful loss was
that of the noble Scharnhorst, who was mortally wounded. Bulow had, on
the same day, stormed Halle with a Prussian corps, but was now
compelled to resolve upon a retreat, which was conducted in the most
orderly manner by the allies. At Koldiz, the Prussian rearguard
repulsed the French van in a bloody engagement on the 5th of May. The
allies marched through Dresden[6] and took up a firm position in and
about Bautzen, after being joined by a reinforcement of eighty
thousand Bavarians. Napoleon was also reinforced by a number of
French, Bavarian, Wurtemberg, and Saxon troops,[7] and despatched
Lauriston and Ney toward Berlin; but the former encountering the
Russians under Barclay de Tolly at Konigswartha, and the latter the
Prussians under York at Weissig, both were constrained to retreat.
Napoleon attacked the position at Bautzen from the 19th to the 21st of
May, but was gloriously repulsed by the Prussians under Kleist, while
Bluecher, who was in danger of being completely surrounded, undauntedly
defended himself on three sides. The allies lost not a cannon, not a
single prisoner, although again compelled to retire before the
superior forces of the enemy. The French had suffered an immense loss;
eighteen thousand of their wounded were sent to Dresden. Napoleon's
favorite, Marshal Duroc, and General Kirchner, a native of Alsace,
were killed, close to his side, by a cannon ball. The allied troops,
forced to retire after an obstinate encounter, neither fled nor
dispersed, but withdrew in close column and repelling each successive
attack.[8] The French avant-garde under Maison was, when in close
pursuit of the allied force, almost entirely cut to pieces by the
Prussian cavalry, which unexpectedly fell upon it at Heinau. The main
body of the Russo-Prussian army, on entering Silesia, took a slanting
direction toward the Riesengebirge and retired behind the fortress of
Schweidnitz. In this strong position they were at once partially
secure from attack, and, by their vicinity to the Bohemian frontier,
enabled to keep up a communication, and, if necessary, to form a
junction with the Austrian forces. The whole of the lowlands of
Silesia lay open to the French, who entered Breslau on the 1st of
June.[9] Berlin was also merely covered by a comparatively weak army
under General Bulow,[10] who, notwithstanding the check given by him
to Marshal Oudinot in the battles of Hoyerswerda and Luckau, was not
in sufficient force to offer assistance to the main body of the French
in case Napoleon chose to pass through Berlin on his way to Poland.
Napoleon, however, did not as yet venture to make use of his
advantage. By the seizure of Prussia and Poland, both of which lay
open to him, the main body of the allied army and the Austrians, who
had not yet declared themselves, would have been left to the rear of
his right flank and could easily have cut off his retreat. His troops,
principally young conscripts, were moreover worn out with fatigue, nor
had the whole of his reinforcements arrived. To his rear was a
multitude of bold partisans, Tettenborn, the Hanseatic legion,
Czernitscheff, who, at Halberstadt, captured General Ochs together
with the whole of the Westphalian corps and fourteen pieces of
artillery, Colomb, the Herculean captain of horse, who took a convoy
and twenty-four guns at Zwickau, and the Black Prussian squadron under
Lutzow. Napoleon consequently remained stationary, and, with a view of
completing his preparations and of awaiting the decision of Austria,
demanded an armistice, to which the allies, whose force was still
incomplete and to whom the decision of Austria was of equal
importance, gladly assented.

On this celebrated armistice, concluded on the 4th of June, 1813, at
the village of Pleisswitz, the fate of Europe was to depend. To the
side that could raise the most powerful force, that on which Austria
ranged herself, numerical superiority insured success. Napoleon's
power was still terrible; fresh victory had obliterated the disgrace
of his flight from Russia; he stood once more an invincible leader on
German soil. The French were animated by success and blindly devoted
to their emperor. Italy and Denmark were prostrate at his feet. The
Rhenish confederation was also faithful to his standard. Councillor
Crome published at Giessen, in obedience to Napoleon's mandate and
with the knowledge of the government at Darmstadt, a pamphlet entitled
"Germany's Crisis and Salvation," in which he declared that Germany
was saved by the fresh victories of Napoleon, and promised mountains
of gold to the Germans if they remained true to him.[11] Crome was at
that time graciously thanked in autograph letters by the sovereigns of
Bavaria and Wurtemberg. Lutzow's volunteer corps was, during the
armistice, surprised at Kitzen by a superior corps of Wurtembergers
under Normann and cut to pieces. Germans at that period opposed
Germans without any feeling for their common fatherland.[12] The king
of Saxony, who had already repaired to Prague under the protection of
Austria, also returned thence, was received at Dresden with extreme
magnificence by Napoleon, and, in fresh token of amity, ceded the
fortress of Torgau to the French.[13] These occurrences caused the
Saxon minister, Senfft von Pilsach, and the Saxon general, Thielmann,
who had already devoted themselves to the German cause, to resign
office. The Polish army under Prince Poniatowsky (vassal to the king
of Saxony, who was also grandduke of Warsaw) received permission (it
had at an earlier period fallen back upon Schwarzenberg) to march,
unarmed, through the Austrian territory to Dresden, in order to join
the main body of the French under Napoleon. The declaration of the
emperor of Austria in favor of his son-in-law, who, moreover, was
lavish of his promises, and, among other things, offered to restore
Silesia, was, consequently, at the opening of the armistice, deemed
certain.

The armistice was, meanwhile, still more beneficial to the allies. The
Russians had time to concentrate their scattered troops, the Prussians
completed the equipment of their numerous _Landwehren_, and the Swedes
also took the field. Bernadotte landed on the 18th of May in
Pomerania, and advanced with his troops into Brandenburg for the
purpose, in conjunction with Bulow, of covering Berlin. A German
auxiliary corps, in the pay of England, was also formed, under
Wallmoden, on the Baltic. The defence of Hamburg was extremely easy;
but the base intrigues of foreigners, who, as during the time of the
thirty years' war, paid themselves for their aid by the seizure of
German provinces and towns, delivered that splendid city into the
hands of the French. Bernadotte had sold himself to Russia for the
price of Norway, which Denmark refused to cede unless Hamburg and
Lubeck were given in exchange. This agreement had already been made by
Prince Dolgorucki in the name of the emperor Alexander, and Tettenborn
yielded Hamburg to the Danes, who marched in under pretext of
protecting the city and were received with delight by the unsuspecting
citizens. The non-advance of the Swedes proceeded from the same cause.
The increase of the Danish marine by means of the Hanse towns,
however, proved displeasing to England; the whole of the commerce was
broken up, and the Danes, hastily resolving to maintain faith with
Napoleon, delivered luckless Hamburg to the French, who instantly took
a most terrible revenge. Davoust, as he himself boasted, merely sent
twelve German patriots to execution,[14] but expelled twenty-five
thousand of the inhabitants from the city, while he pulled down their
houses and converted them into fortifications, at which the principal
citizens were compelled to work in person. Dissatisfied, moreover,
with a contribution of eighteen millions, he robbed the great Hamburg
bank, treading underfoot every private and national right, all, as he,
miserable slave as he was,[15] declared, in obedience to the mandate
of his lord.

Austria, at first, instead of aiding the allies, allowed the Poles[16]
to range themselves beneath the standard of Napoleon, whom she
overwhelmed with protestations of friendship, which served to mask her
real intentions, and meanwhile gave her time to arm herself to the
teeth and to make the allies sensible of the fact of their utter
impotency against Napoleon unless aided by her. The interests of
Austria favored her alliance with France, but Napoleon, instead of
confidence, inspired mistrust. Austria, notwithstanding the marriage
between him and Maria Louisa, was, as had been shown at the congress
of Dresden, merely treated as a tributary to France, and Napoleon's
ambition offered no guarantee to the ancient imperial dynasty. There
was no security that the provinces bestowed in momentary reward for
her alliance must not, on the first occasion, be restored. Nor was
public opinion entirely without weight.[17] Napoleon's star was on the
wane, whole nations stood like to a dark and ominous cloud threatening
on the horizon, and Count Metternich prudently chose rather to attempt
to guide the storm ere it burst than trust to a falling star. Austria
had, as early as the 27th of June, 1813, signed a treaty, at
Reichenbach in Silesia, with Russia and Prussia, by which she bound
herself to declare war against France, in case Napoleon had not,
before the 20th of July, accepted the terms of peace about to be
proposed to him. Already had the sovereigns and generals of Russia and
Prussia sketched, during a conference held with the crown prince of
Sweden, the 11th July, at Trachenberg, the plan for the approaching
campaign, and, with the permission of Austria, assigned to her the
part she was to take as one of the allies against Napoleon, when
Metternich again visited Dresden in person for the purpose of
repeating his assurances of amity, for the armistice had but just
commenced, to Napoleon. The French emperor had an indistinct idea of
the transactions then passing, and bluntly said to the Count, "As you
wish to mediate, you are no longer on my side." He hoped partly to win
Austria over by redoubling his promises, partly to terrify her by the
dread of the future ascendency of Russia, but, perceiving how
Metternich evaded him by his artful diplomacy, he suddenly asked him,
"Well, Metternich, how much has England given you in order to engage
you to play this part toward me?" This trait of insolence toward an
antagonist of whose superiority he felt conscious, and of the most
deadly hatred masked by contempt, was peculiarly characteristic of the
Corsican, who, besides the qualities of the lion, fully possessed
those of the cat. Napoleon let his hat drop in order to see whether
Metternich would raise it. He did not, and war was resolved upon. A
pretended congress for the conclusion of peace was again arranged by
both sides; by Napoleon, in order to elude the reproach cast upon him
of an insurmountable and eternal desire for war, and by the allies, in
order to prove to the whole world their desire for peace. Each side
was, however, fully aware that the palm of peace was alone to be found
on the other side of the battle-field. Napoleon was generous in his
concessions, but delayed granting full powers to his envoy, an
opportune circumstance for the allies, who were by this means able to
charge him with the whole blame of procrastination. Napoleon, in all
his concessions, merely included Russia and Austria to the exclusion
of Prussia.[18] But neither Russia nor Austria trusted to his
promises, and the negotiations were broken off on the termination of
the armistice, when Napoleon sent full powers to his plenipotentiary.
Now, was it said, it is too late. The art with which Metternich passed
from the alliance with Napoleon to neutrality, to mediation, and
finally to the coalition against him, will, in every age, be
acknowledged a master-piece of diplomacy. Austria, while coalescing
with Russia and Prussia, in a certain degree assumed a rank
conventionally superior to both. The whole of the allied armies was
placed under the command of an Austrian general, Prince von
Schwarzenberg, and if the proclamation published at Calisch had merely
summoned the people of Germany to assert their independence, the
manifesto of Count Metternich spoke already in the tone of the future
regulator of the affairs of Europe.[19] Austria declared herself on
the 12th of August, 1813, two days after the termination of the
armistice.

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