1793. govern ment ment of revolt. The power of the French republic, over all Italy, now deserted by the Austrians, was so extensive aud irresistible, as to render opposition, however just, totally inexpedient; and not only useless, but ruinous. The secular princes of Italy had faithfully adhered to the treaties which they had concluded with the French republic, and were paying the stiConduct of pulated contributions. The court of Rome alone was guilty of the papal the most unwise violation of its engagements. In order more effectually to inflame the minds of the people against the republicans, the pope and his priests, his only counsellors, had recourse to the stale artifices and despicable tricks known by the name of pious frauds. They pretended the intervention of heaven, and positively asserted the performance of miracles, in many of the churches, in vindication of the catholic faith and the papal supremacy, outraged and menaced by the conduct of the French. The streets were filled with processions of saints and images, who were to arrest the progress of the French general. He who was fit to have combatted a Scipio or a Cæsar, was to be overcome by friars; he whom the Austrian eagle could not withstand, was to yield to a Romish owl. This ridiculous mummery, however, had its effect; though eventu ally very pernicious to its contrivers. In the papal metropolis there is, as among all Italians, a considerable portion of sagacity; and among the higher ranks of the laity, no small share of literature; yet, those who could most easily detect and expose these impostures, would not find it safe to interfere in baulking their clerical promoters. On such occasions, there fore, gentlemen and liberal scholars, including some of the clergy themselves, carefully avoided attempts to counteract deception that was practised on credulity. At present the zeal of allattempts to classes and conditions was kindled the populace was impelled against Bo- to the utmost fury against all who did not readily believe the asserted miracles, or presumed to trust more to reason and their senses than to the infallibility of the church; manifested the most ardent eagerness to go to war against the republicans and infidels of France; and, like the mahometan bigots, they trusted to supernatural assistance in combating the enemy; a very great majority joined in preparations for war. The French envoy at Rome was active in endeavouring to convince the administration, that by perseverence in hostility they would expose themselves and their country to very great evils, which they might avoid merely by adhering to the terms of pacification: bat his admonitions and remonstrances were altogether unavailing. Bonaparte desirous of conciliating the affections of the Italians, French ge- ardently wished for a pacification with the head of the Romish neral m. kes church, a respectful treatment of whom, he was conscious, concilia ory overtures. would be highly gratifying to all the Roman catholic states and people. Resolved, therefore, to forbear coercive measures, he The pope excite war naparte. The h Otridge's Annual Register, 1797, REIGN OF GEORGE III. 909 wrote a letter to cardinal Mattei, prime minister to his holi CHAP. ness, requesting him to prevail on the pope to recommend pa cific negotiations, in order to prevent the march of the French armies into his territories, and to represent to him the inutility of arming his subjects against men who had overcome so many formidable enemies. To this letter no answer was made until after the battle of Arcola had finally crushed all hopes that the ube Austrians could save Italy from the French. The pope in- Reply of the structed his minister in his reply, to state to the general the anx-Pope. iety of his holiness to remedy the disorders which had so long distracted France, and to restore amity between France and the Roman see the French, elated with the success of their arms, had made requisitions incompatible with the dictates of his conscience, and subversive of all christian and moral principles; grieved at such intolerable demands, he had implored: the assistance of heaven to direct him how to act in so difficult a situation: doubtless he was inspired on this occasion by that holy spirit which had animated the primitive martyrs in the cause for which they suffered: having laboured in vain to bring the directory to a more equitable way of thinking, he thought k it necessary to resist them by open force: the death that awaited men in battle was the commencement of eternal life and happiness to the righteous, and everlasting misery to the wick ed: though infidels and pretended philosophers ridicule the idea of assistance from heaven, yet, if providence were pleased A to interpose, the French would contend in vain against the power of the Almighty: if the French were desirous of peace a the Roman see desired it still more, if attainable on conscientions and equitable terms. Such a letter, addressed to a victorious general at the head of a resistless army, that little regarded spiritual admonitions, was not likely to interrupt the republicant career, or change their resolution. The pope, meanwhile, persisted in preparing for war, and endeavoured to interest those powers, to whose predecessors in former times, the will of a pontiff served for a law. But now, both circumstances and sentiments were totally changed even the court of Spain, hereto fore the chief prop of papal domination, sent an answer, recommending to the pope the demission of all temporal power, and the confinement of future proceedings to the exercise of the heavenly virtues. lebih novog v ful veli dove live Insry view of yunus tud bur eovisaned! The Spanish minister, denominated the prince of peace, replied to the pope's nuncio soliciting the interference of Spain, to the following effect: "That the conduct of the court of Rome respecting the French, was teinporizing and insincere; and that those who were intrusted with the administration of its political concerns, liad, by their imprudence and erroneous management, brought them into so critical a situation, that it seemed adviseable for the preservation of the personal safety of the pope, that he should resign his temporal possessions, in or CHAP. 1796. Pub Bonaparte, finding no prospect of overawing his holiness to submission, resolved to recommence actual hostilities. lishing a manifesto, he charged the pontiff with a breach of the Bonaparte convention; and turned against the papal effeminate Romans, invades the genius, courage, and conduct, which the disciplined heroism of Roman ter- republican Rome, under her most consummate generals, would ritories, have found arduous difficulty in resisting. Bonaparte was too artful, wantonly to shock the religious prejudices of a country which he wished to govern: having entered the Roman territories, he issued a proclamation, assuring the inhabitants that he would protect religion as well as property, and maintain the public peace he warned them to abstain from all acts of enmity, which would certainly draw down upon them vengeance and all the horrors of war: every town and village that sounded the tocsin on the approach of the French, was threatened with instant destruction: and it was denounced that every district where a Frenchman was assassinated, should be declared hostile, and subjected to heavy contributions. The papal army having ventured to encounter the republicans, was completely and compels defeated. Bonaparte compelled the pontiff to sue for peace,' to the pontiff cede part of his territories, and to pay a sum that would amount to thirty millions of French livres, on account of the last rupture, besides fulfilling the conditions of the armistice in the preceding summer. to sue for peace. Amount of the French acquisitions in Italy in this cam paign. Thus, in one campaign, Bonaparte overcame four successive armies of the bravest and best disciplined troops, much more numerous than his own, commanded by skilful and able generals: extended the territories of the French republic from the gulf of Genoa to the Adriatic Sea, from the Alps to the Tiber, and her commanding influence over all Italy, where his versatile dexterity seemed to secure what his military abilities had ac quired. Those who estimate conquerors merely by their war like achievements, without considering either the justness of the cause, or the wisdom of the pursuit, must regard Bonaparte with high honour. He undoubtedly displayed all that combination of intellectual and active powers which rendered Alaric, Geoseric, and Attila, with their respective Goths, Vandals, and Huns, irresistibly successful in subjugation and plunder, But in one instrument of iniquitous acquisition, the Corsican surpas sed the northern invaders: they simply employed force, whereas he used artifice and deceit, as well as violence and rapine. But exceeding Attila, or any of his co-operators, in craft and versatility, he resembled them in sentiment. With all the in der to secure the rights of the church, and to prove his disinterestedness, and the fervour of his piety, by an example that would prove so edifying to all the chr tian world."-See Otridge's Annual Register, for 1797, p. 12. I This peace was not concluded till February 1757; but being part of a series of military and political conduct belonging to 1796, to preserve the unity of action unbroken, I have included it in the narrative of the present year. trepidity, resolution, and courage of a valiant combatant, he was totally deficient in elevation of mind, and bore no resemblance to the grandeur of a Roman, much less the Macedonian conqueror. Besides, Bonaparte found auxiliaries to which the lofty soul of an Alexander would have disdained to resort : he successfully employed money, as well as arms, in promoting his victories. In this his most difficult campaign, Bonaparte proved himself an able, energetic, and dexterous adventurer; but in no instance manifested either the magnanimous heró, or the wise statesman. re CHAP, LVIII. 1796. Jourdain. In Germany also the French generals displayed distinguished Germany invaded by ability, and made very forcible exertions, though with less per- Jourdain manent success. Jourdain entered the empire by the Upper and MoRhine, while Moreau marched through Suabia. Charles of The Austria, brother to the emperor, a young prince of heroic cou- archduke rage and great military enterprise, at this time headed the Au- Charles. strian army. At the village of Ettingen, the gallant prince en- Successive countered the republican general on the 8th of July, and, after battles with a very bloody battle, was obliged to give way to the impetuous valour of the French. Moreau was now master of Suabia, Danger of was penetrating into Bavaria; Jourdain had entered Franco- the empire" nia, and from the confines of Boheinia to the mountains of Tyrol the advancing chain of the republican armies extended, menacing the invasion of Austria itself, and the capture of the Austrian capital. The duke of Wirtemberg, and the other princes of the empire who had still remained in alliance with their imperial head, were now obliged to sue for peace, and to receive it from the victorious republicans on such terms as they chose to grant. The emperor, thus deserted by his auxiliaries, was in dreadful consternation; but for the present the efforts of his gallant brother relieved him from his fears. On entering the empire, the French forces had found the commonalty in general favourable to principles and projects which they conceived would reduce their domineering tyrants; but the rapacity of their exactions," though in some degree necessary for the supply of the troops, yet oppressive and injurious to the forced in I am assured by gentlemen who resided at Vienna during a great part of the war, that it was generally thought there that many of the Austrian officers were bribed. n Their levies of money and other requisitions, excited universal alarm. The duke of Wirtemberg had been assessed four millions : the circle of Suabia, twelve millions, besides to furnish eight thousand horses, five thousand oxen, one hundred and fifty thousand quintals of corn, one hundred thousand sacks of oats, a proportionable quantity of hay, and one hundred thousand pair of shoes: eight milfions were demanded from the circle of Franconia, with a very large supply of horses: great sums were also required from the cities of Franckfort, Wurtzburg, Bamberg, and Nuremberg, together with an immense quantity of other articles, for the subsistence and clothing of the French troops.- See Otridge's Annual Register for 1796, p. 135. 1796. is warded off by the valour of the archduke, CHAP contributors, changed their attachment into hatred. After his LVIIL adverse conflict with Moreau, the archduke Charles had lost no time in recruiting, collecting, and rallying his forces. Jour dain's army was now advanced near Ratisbon: prince Charles, leaving a strong body to watch the motions of Moreau, repaired with his main army against Jourdain; being daily reenforced, he after several bloody, but partial conflicts, on the 28th of August, engaged Jourdain in a pitched battle, and com pelled him to retreat with considerable loss. The Austrians continued to molest him as he fell back towards the Rhine: Germany. Jourdain faced, and sometimes repulsed his pursuers, and at last arriving at the Rhine, repassed the river. who compels Jourdain to evacuate Progress tion of Moreau. Masterly and success fu' re in the face Moreau, deprived of the co-operation of Jourdain, was now and sitna exposed to the whole force of the German armies, and found it necessary to retreat. A superior host assailed his rear, and a large detachment harassed his front, while the peasants rose in every direction and intercepted his convoys: but Moreau repulsed his pursuers, defeated all the bodies that opposed his march; with masterly skill and rapid execution, changing his front according to the direction of the enemy, he by offensive operations secured his defence. Latour, a very able and enterprising general, commanded the pursuers, and notwithstanding reiterated defeats, still continued to harass the French rear. Moreau now advanced to the middle of Suabia, but still at a great distance from the Rhine, he perceived that he must again resist a general action, and unless he again defeated the Austrians who were nearest, they speedily would be joined by such numerous re-enforcements, that all resistance would be vain. On the 2d of October, a select body attacked the right. wing of the Austrian army posted between Biberach and the Danube: after routing this division, they advanced upon centre, which was at the same time vigorously assailed by the centre of Moreau's army. The contest lasted six hours, nd was extremely bloody on both sides: at length the Austrians gave way, and were so completely defeated, that they retired with the utmost expedition to a great distance from the field of battle. Their loss amounted to near five thousand men killed and taken, twenty pieces of cannon, several standards and a quantity of ammunition. Still, however, there was a strong army be tween Moreau and the Rhine. He proceeded with canoa and firmness through every impediment, and driving the Austrians before him, crossed the Danube. On the 9th, his army entered a defile called the Valley of Hell, from the frightful appearance of the rocks and mountains that hang over it on each side, and in many places are hardly the space of thirty feet asuuder. At the outlet of the valley, a powerful body of Austrians were stationed; behind was Latour, who having again collected a considerable army, pressed the French rear; and every inlet • Sce Otridge's Annual Register for 1796. p. 140. the |