prolaimed, when infurrections broke out in feveral cantons, and particularly in the fmaller ones, in which the French had not been able to eftablish their dominion to firmly as thofe which lie nearer France. This ftate of things, however, did not difcourage the French from propofing to the Helvetic directory, to declare war against the emperor: but the councils, fubjected as they were to the will of the directory, and the bayonets of Maffena, could not be induced to accede to their propofal. They confented however to a decree for arming all the unmarried men, without diftinction, from the age of twenty to that of forty-five, and of all the married men under thirty. The punishment of death was enacted against all who fhould refufe to enrol them, felves, or who fhould oppofe the measures of government either by actions or words. The national troops, which were at the difpofal of the directory, were employed for the execution of thefe laws. A vaft number of perfons were arreft ́ed in the principal towns, and that of Berne was put in a state of fiege. Such was the ftate of things when the archduke announced his intention of entering Switzerland, and followed up his declaration by reducing the town of Schaffhaufen, and forcing the French, in those parts, to retire entirely to the left bank of the Rhine, as above related. The Auftrians, the day after that on which the town of Schaffhaufen fell into their hands, drove the French from the fmall town of Peterfhaufen, fituated oppofite, and, On the narroweft part of the lake of Conftance. Some entrenchments were forced by general Piffack, while a flotilla of gun-boats, fitted out at Bregents, and commanded by colonel Williams, * aided his attack by their fire. Peterfhaufen being taken, the French were fummoned to evacuate Conftance, their refufal was followed by a cannonade, which had no other effect than to injure the town, and to fink part of the boat which the French had collected on the left bank of the lake. The Austrians having, about the fame time, got poffefiion of the pofts of Stein, and of Eglifau, the Rhine, from Bregentz to Bafle, became the line of divifion between the two armies. Thele events, with fome fkirmishes, in Suabia, and on the banks of the Neckar and the Maine, where the inhabitants, to the number of fome thoufands, took up arms against the French, about the middle of April, were the only military occurrences which took place in that month, between that of the archduke and thofe of the French in Germany, and Switzerland. This inactivity on both fides, occafioned much fpeculation, and various conjec tures. Jourdan, having loft the command of the army of the Danube, Maflena was appointed, firft, ad interim, and then finally, to the chief command of that army, which Colonel Williams, a native of England, and at firft employed in the naval fervice of his country, entered into that of Auftria, at the beginning of this war. He was charged with fetting up all the flotillas, either on the Rhine, or the lakes of Conftance and Garda. This able and active officer is at the head of the new imperial marine, in the Adriatic gulph. It may here be proper to take notice of fome events, which, in the hiftory of that ridiculous and fatal conucil, the (port of France, and the difgrace of Germany, may be confidered as a kind of epifodes. united with thofe of obfervation, miflioner announced officially, to the and of Switzerland, formed altoge-congrefs, that he had orders to quit ther but one, under the name of the it, to revoke all the conceffions army of the Danube. Thus inveft- which he had made, but with the ed with the full power of gene- referve, that they thould not be ralifimo over all the French forces, valid till ratified by the emperor, from the frontiers of the Tyrol and and to declare that matters fhould Italy to the palatinate, Maffena thenceforth be confidered as being repaired, early in April, to the re- in the fame state in which they were organization and the movements of before the opening of the congrefs. that great machine. He left about This declaration, which was foon 3000 men at Manheim, placed two followed by the departure of the divifions in front of Kehl, forced imperial commiffion, and of the the left bank of the river, from greateft part of the deputies of the Strafburg to Bafle, with fome light empire, notwithstanding the efforts troops, and marched two other of the French plenipotentiaries to divifions into Switzerland to in- continue the conferences with the crease his force there, and to replace deputies of the empire, gave a morfome troops which he had fent into tal blow to the congrefs at Rastadt. Italy by the St. Gothard. On the twelfth of April he fixed his headquarters at Bafle, as the central point of that long line which he had to defend. A new campaign, if we may call it fo, now opened on the whole theatre of the war. Maffena had then, from Manheim to the fource of the, Adige, about 100,000 men; and the archduke, on the fame, but a lefs regular line, above 110,000. It was from this time that the war affumed a more decided character, and that all the hopes, which the French directory and fome princes of Germany had founded on the congrefs of Raftadt, vanished. The victories of the archduke had confirmed the deputation of the empire in their refolu'tion to refer to the diet of Ratisbon, for an answer to the categorical demand of the French deputies, in confequence of the march of the Ruffians into Germany. On the feventh of April, the imperial com On the thirteenth of April, 1796, the mafs of the people of Vienna had voluntarily taken up arms to defend their city, and the palace and perfon of their monarch, against the attack of the French army, then fupposed to be on its march towards Vienna. This mark of loyalty and attachment was recorded among the public acts of government, and orders were given, by the emperor, that its anniverary fhould be celebrated with ceremonies of civil pomp and religious folemnity. On the evening of that day, 1798, and during the ferment of thofe fentiments among the people, the three-coloured flag was difplayed, for the first time, in triumph, on the balcony of general Bernadotte's,* the The conduct of Bernadotte, as well as that of his fuite, was marked by an uncommon degree of infolence, from the day of their arrival in Vienna. Bernado te imitated the the French ambaffador's hotel.The populace demanded, with loud and repeated cries, that it fhould be taken down. The flag was torn to pieces, and the standard, to which it was attached, burnt. The refentment of the people, once éxcited to action could not fiop here. They burft open the gates of the hotel, threatening to facrifice the ambaffador and all his fuite to their vengeance. Every thing they found on the ground floor of the hotel, they demolished, laying hold of two of the ambaflador's carriages they dragged them, the one to a neighbouring fquare, the other to the court of the palace, and broke them to pieces. While they were thus employed, a confiderable detachment of military arrived, and availing themfelves of the abfence of the mob, who had gone to attend the public facrifice of the carriages, occupied the entrances into the ftreet in which the ambaffador's houfe is fituated, and prevented their return. At the fame time, the baron Dagelman was difpatched to Bernadotte, by the minifter baron Thugut, to exprefs the concern with which the Auftrian government had learnt what had happened. Next morning, he difpatched one of his fecretaries with a letter to the emperor, requiring as conditions of his continuing at Vienna-ft. The difmifial of the minifter Thugut. 2. The punifh ment of the mayor of Vienna. 3. The establishment of a privileged quarter in the city of Vienna, for the French miffion, and its compa triots. 4. That the emperor fhould repair, at his own expenfe, the flag, and flag-staff, and the picture of the French arms. Thefe demands being peremptorily refused, Bernadotte quitted Vienna.. For the oftenfible purpose of explanation, and preventing any difagreeable confequences that might arife from this popular explosion, though it was evidently not chargeable on the court of Vienna; a secret conference was opened at Seltz, on the Rhine, oppofite Raftadt, between the count Cobentzel, on the part of his imperial majefty, and Francis Neufchateau, on that of the directory. The count declared that, although his imperial majefty was ready to grant ample fatisfaction for what had happened in regard to Bernadotte, yet, from a due regard to the fentiments of the people of Vienna, it was neceffary to conduct this business without precipitation, and without noife. The interefts of both countries, he laid, feemed to require that the conferences at Seftz fhould be chiefly devoted to the fettlement of fome more material points, which called for a definitive arrangement. Neufchateau having acquiefced in this propofition, count Cobentzel went a ftep farther, and propofed that, as the congrefs of Raftadt was a mere farce, acted on the part of the empire under the imperial cabinet and ecclefiaftical courts, the nego ciation for peace fhould be carried on entirely, and brought to an iffue at Seltz, at the clofe of which it the conduct of Jofeph Buonaparte, at Rome, by demanding that the quarter of the city where he refided fhould be free, and that all Frenchmen, refiding in Vienna, should be amenable to him only for their conduct. He was in the habit of converfing with the Auftrian private foldiers and non-commiffioned officers, and remarking to them that it was only under a republican government that a man could rife from the ranks, as he had done, to be a general officer, and an ambaffador. would would be eafy to force Pruffia and the empire to fubmit to what had been agreed on between Auftria and France. By command of the directory, Neufchateau rejected the latter propofition, but entered into the difcuffion of other propofals, the first of which was, "that, as the ceffion of Bavaria, ftipulated in the fecret articles of Campo Formio, feemed to meet with great obstaclès, even in regard to the guarantee promifed by the directory, Auftria would, for the prefent, defift from this ceffion, on the condition that fuch parts of the borders of Bavaria, and the upper Palatinate, as were neceffary for the conveniency and fafety of the Auftrian frontiers, be' ceded to Auftria, together with Saltzburg, Paffau, and Betchtoldfgaden, and all the poffeffions, without exception, formerly belonging to the Venetian republic." This being also rejected, the count offered a fecond propofition, wherein "he demanded, once more, the ceffion of the remainder of the ancient Venetian dominions, together with the three Roman legations, and the duchy and fortress of Mantua. The treaty of Bafle to be refcinded; and neither Praffia nor the houfe of Orange to receive any indemnification in Germany: on which condition, Auftria engaged alfo to relinquifh her claim of being indemnified by a part of the German territory." This being alfo declared to be in admiffible, a variety of other propofitions were made, in none of which, the ceffion to Auftria, of all the Venetian territories, and the duchy of Mantua, was forgotten. But after the negociations had been continued for fix months, Neufchateau was directed to confine 1 his negociation, to the fole point of fatisfaction, for the infult offered to Bernadotte, and to declare, that, as all the propofitions made on the part of the imperial court, tended. merely to aggrandize Auftria, at the expenfe of other powers, unlets count Cobentzel could and would agree to give the promised fatisfac tion, the conferences at Seltz should be broken off which, as the count declined all fatisfaction of any kind, they were accordingly. After the French minifters had notified, to the deputation of the empire, that they fhould depart in three days from Kaftadt, the baron d'Albini, one of the imperial minifters, wrote to the colonel Barbaczy, commanding the cordon of the Auftrian advanced pofts, demanding efcorts for the deputies of the empire, who were ready to depart, and fafe conduct for the French plenipotentiaries. The commander, in a note dated at Gernbach, the twenty-eighth of April, faid that, as it did not accord with military plans, to tolerate citizens of the French republic, in countries. poffeffed by the imperial and royal army, they fhould not take it ill if the circumftanees of the war, forced him to fignify to them to quit the territory of Gernbach and. the army in the fpace of twentyfour hours. At the fame moment, four hundred huffars, entered Radtadt, and took poffeffion of the pofts and gates of the town, with an order to fuffer no perfon to enter in, or go out. At night, in the evening of the twenty ninth, the French minifters were in their carriages: but on coming to the gate of the town, they were furprized to find the paffage refused them. But at length permiffion was ob tained tained to leave the town with two huffars for an escort. The gate being opened, the minifters began their route, but the two huflars remained in the town: it was then nine in the evening. At about five hundred paces from the gate, a troop of huffars on foot as well as on horfeback, burft out from a wood that kirted the road, and furrounded the firft carriage, in which was Jean Debrie with his wife and children. Thinking it was fome patrole to vifit his passport, he held it out at the window, mentioning his name and quality. He was immediately dragged out of his carriage, and fell, covered with blood from firokes of fabres, which he received on his arms, head, and fhoulders: but he was ftill able to crawl unobferved into the ditch, on the fide of the road. In the fecond carriage were Jean Debrie's fecretary and valet de chambre, who cried out that they were domeftics. They were ordered to alight, and received a few blows, but no other harm was done them. Their carriage was pillaged. In the third carriage was Bonnier alone. They afked in French if he was the minifter Bonnier? On his anfwering in the affirmative, a huffar opened the door of the carriage, took him by the collar, dragged him out of the carriage, and cut off his hand, head, and His carriage was likewife pillaged. The fourth carriage was Rofentiel, the feeretary of legation, who feeing, by the light of a flambeau, what was paffing, faved himfelf by jumping out of his carriage, and got clear off. In the fifth carriage was the minifter Robert Jott and his wife. The huflars had fome Struggle with this victim to get him armis. 3 out of the carriage; his wife hold-. ing him ftrongly locked in her arms. They murdered him in this pofition, cutting off the back part of his head with a fabre. The huffars now went off and the carriages, with the ladies and fervants, turned round and went to Raftadt; whither Rofenftiel alfo came about eleven the fame evening, and Jean Debrie, after paffing the night in the wood, the next morning. The Pruffian minifters wrote immediately a letter to Barbaczy, to demand an escort and fafeguard, more fure for what remained of the French legation. The commander expreffed his forrow for what had paffed. Jean Debrie, and the other French ministers, left Rafladt on the following day, under an Auftrian efcort, and a ftill ftronger efcort of the prince of Baden, accompanied by the Ligu rian minifter, who had followed them on the night of the 29th, but who, obferving what was paffing in front, escaped back to Raftadt, leaving his carriage, which was pillaged, like that of the French minifter's. Various were the conjectures refpecting the motives which could have urged this affaffination. However, the court of Vienna might have been inclined to overlook it, when committed, it is by no means credible that they could have been its inftigators. It appears to us, in general, to have fprung, like the infult to Bernadotte, from a popular and lively indignation, whether on the part of the Auftrians or French loyalifts, or both, at the arrogant pretenfions of a new and up start government, which had cemented its power, by the bloodroyal of Auftria, as well as of France, |