Yet war was not to break out for more than a year.  This delay was due to several causes.  Austria could not be moved from her posture of timid neutrality.  In fact, Francis II. and Cobenzl saw in Napoleon’s need of a recognition of his new imperial title a means of assuring a corresponding change of title for the Hapsburg Dominions.  Francis had long been weary of the hollow dignity of Elective Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.  The faded pageantry of Ratisbone and Frankfurt was all that remained of the glories of the realm of Charlemagne:  the medley of States which owned him as elected lord cared not for the decrees of this ghostly realm; and Goethe might well place in the mouth of his jovial toper, in the cellar scene of “Faust,” the words: 

                    “Dankt Gott mit jedem Morgen
  Dass Ihr nicht braucht fuer’s Roem’sche Reich zu sorgen!”

In that bargaining and burglarious age, was it not better to build a more lasting habitation than this venerable ruin?  Would not the hereditary dominions form a more lasting shelter from the storm?  Such were doubtless the thoughts that prompted the assumption of the title of Hereditary Emperor of Austria (August 11th, 1804).  The letter-patent, in which this change was announced, cited as parallels “the example of the Imperial Court of Russia in the last century and of the new sovereign of France.”  Both references gave umbrage to Alexander, who saw no parallel between the assumption of the title of Emperor by Peter the Great and the game of follow-the-leader played by Francis to Napoleon.[5]

Prussian complaisance to the French Emperor was at this time to be expected.  Frederick William III. reigned over 10,000,000 subjects; he could marshal 248,000 of the best trained troops in Europe, and his revenue was more fruitful than that of the great Frederick.  Yet the effective power of Prussia had sadly waned; for her policy was now marked by an enervating indecision.  In the autumn of 1804, however, the Prussian King was for a time spurred into action by the news that Sir George Rumbold, British envoy at Hamburg, had been seized on the night of October 24th, by French troops, and carried off to Paris.  This aggression upon the Circle of Lower Saxony, of which Frederick William was Director, aroused lively indignation at Berlin; and the King at once wrote to Napoleon a request for the envoy’s liberation as a proof of his “friendship and high consideration ...a seal on the past and a pledge for the future.”

To this appeal Napoleon returned a soothing answer that Sir George would at once be released, though England was ever violating the rights of neutrals, and her agents were conspiring against his life.  The Emperor, in fact, saw that he had taken a false step, which might throw Prussia into the arms of England and Russia.  For this latter Power had already (May, 1804) offered her armed help to the Court of Berlin in case the French should violate any other