le, in concert with allies, on the continent of
Europe, as in the days of Marlborough, and even of Lord Granby, seems to
have vanished from the minds of English statesmen, except Castlereagh,
who always advocated concentrated action.

The succession of Portland and Canning to Grenville and Howick brought
no immediate change in our insular policy and the new government had
been in office for above three months before a British force at last
appeared in the Swedish island of Ruegen. It arrived too late, Danzig
surrendered in May, and on June 14 Napoleon obtained a decisive victory
over the Russian army and its Prussian contingent at Friedland. Russia
now gave a supreme example of that national selfishness, and contempt
for the rights of independent states which had dominated the counsels of
sovereigns ever since the first partition of Poland. Doubtless the tsar
might plead that Great Britain, too, had been wasting her strength in
selfish attempts to secure her mastery of the seas, and to open new
markets for her trade. He also deeply resented her recent failure to aid
him in the hour of his utmost need, while he still cherished the policy
of the "armed neutrality," and was eager to prosecute his designs
against Turkey. Dazzled and flattered by Napoleon, he welcomed overtures
for peace at the expense of Great Britain, and there is no doubt that
his imaginative nature indulged in the vision of a regenerated Europe,
divided between himself as emperor of the east and Napoleon as emperor
of the west. It is therefore far from surprising that he should have
held a private interview with Napoleon, on a raft in the Niemen, which
led to the treaty of Tilsit on July 7.

[Pageheading: _THE TREATY OF TILSIT._]

This treaty, in which the King of Prussia shared as a helpless partner,
contained both public and secret articles, but the distinction was not
very material, for the secret articles almost immediately became known
to Canning. The general effect of the whole agreement was the utter
humiliation of Prussia, the recognition by that country and Russia of
all Napoleon's acquisitions, and their combination with France against
the maritime claims and conquests of Great Britain. The western
provinces of Prussia were to be incorporated with other German
annexations to form the new kingdom of Westphalia; Prussian Poland was
to be converted into the duchy of Warsaw under the crown of Saxony, to
which a right of passage through Silesia wa