ABSTRACT
To the South-West of Germany Napoleon was a benefactor rather than an oppressor, the protector of Bavarian and Franconian against the Hapsburg and the Hohenzollern, the author of manifold ameliorations in the social and material circumstances of the mass of the population. Saxony resembled the states of the South-West, inasmuch as it also had an old dynasty which Napoleon had bound to his cause by favours and concessions instead of deposing it: it differed from them, however, in being but little affected by the reforming movement which was making itself so strongly felt elsewhere. Prussia in like manner had to decide between the desirable and the possible, between defying her oppressor by throwing in her lot with Russia, and submitting to Napoleon's requirements. Alone, Prussia could do nothing: for the Russians to advance beyond the Niemen would only invite a repetition of 1807.
