CHAP. VIII.

France. Preparations for the Campaign of 1796. Revolt of the Chiefs of the Vendée. Proclamation of Stoflct. Death of the rebel Chiefs, and final Submiffion of the infurgent Departments. Opening of the Campaign in Italy.. Command of the Army given to Buonaparte. Attack of the combined Armies. Victory of the French at the Battle of Monte Notte. Battle of Millefimo. Brave Defence of the Piedmontefe General Rovera. Defeat of the Auftrians with the Lofs of ten thousand Men. Surprize and Repulse of the French at Dego by Marshal Beaulieu. Ceva taken by the French. Retreat of Count Colli across the Stura towards Turin. Defeat of the Piedmontefe Army at Cherafco. Sufpenfion of Arms demanded by the King of Sardinia. Peace concluded between the French Republic and his Sardinian Majefty at Paris. Conditions of the Treaty. Reflections on the Treaty. Obfervations on the Mode of conducting the War. Evacuation of Piedmont by Marshal Beaulieu. Poffeffion of the Piedmontefe Fortreffes by the French. Prepa rations made by Beaulieu to prevent the Paffage of the Po at Valenza. Paf fage of the Po by the French at Placentia. Defeat of the Auftrians at Fombio. Repulfe of the Auftrians at Codogno. Death of General Laharpe. Armiftice folicited by the Dukes of Parma and Modena. Defeat of the Auftrians at the Bridge of Lodi. Conquest of Lombardy. Causes of the Difcontents between the French Republic and the United States of America. General Washington's intercepted Letter to Mr. Morris. Reprefentations made to the French Directory to prevent an immediate Rupture. Rife and Progress of the Difcontents in Holland. Negotiations of the discontented Party with the French Government. Affembly of the Dutch Convention. State of Parties. Declaration of War against England. Propofitions made at Bafle by the English Ambasador for opening a Negotiation with France. Remonftrances of the French Directory with the Canton of Bafle. Envoy Extraordinary fent from Bafle to Paris. Appointment of a Minifler of the Police. Troubles in the South of France. Infurrection in the Department of the Nievre. Proclamation of the Directory. Jacobin Societies frut up. Severe Laws enacted against them. Revolt of the Legion of the Police. Confpiracy of Babeuf. Troubles occafioned by the refractory Clergy. Laws refpecting the Divifion of the Efates of Emigrants.

WHILE

THILE the contending powers on the Rhine were collecting their forces to open the campaign of 1796 as foon as the time limited for the armistice should expire, and the French army in Italy, which poffeffed only a few pofts on the shores of the Mediterranean, between Nice and Gehoa, was recruiting its fhattered forces to attempt once more the conqueft of Piedmont, the civil war in the western departments of

France drew near to a clofe. This war had proved more hoftile to the establishment of the republic than the combinations of all its foreign enemies. The fertile country of the Vendée, where nature had poured forth its riches in fuch profufion, but which the horrors of this terrible conflict had fo long covered with ruin and defolation, had enjoyed but for a moment the perfpective of happier days. The chiefs of the royalifts, who had

made

of the coaft from Nice to Genoa; but the paffage into Italy was blockaded by the Auftrian and Sardinian armies, who had apparently taken the most effective meafures to prevent the further progrefs of the enemy. The army of

Italy having received confiderable reinforcements, was entrusted to the command of general Buonaparte, a young officer, of whofe military kill no mention had been hitherto made during the courfe of the revolution *.

The

The following account of Buonaparte has appeared in a respectable periodical publication, and there is reafon to believe it authentic.

"This extraordinary man, born in the town of Ajaccio, in Corfica, in 1767, is the fon of Charles Buonaparte, and Lætitia Raniolini. His father, who was alfo a native of Ajaccio, was bred to the civil law, at Rome, and took part with the celebrated Paoli, in the ever-memorable ftruggle made by a handful of brave iflanders, against the tyrannical efforts of Louis XV. and the Machiavelian fchemes of his minifter, Choifeul.

"I am affured, by a near relation of the family, that he not only laid afide the gown upon this occafion, but actually carried a mutket as a private centinel.

"On the conqueft of the inland, he wished to retire with the gallant chieftain who had fo nobly fruggled for its independence; but he was prevented by his uncle, a canon, who exercifed a parental authority over him.

"In 1775, a deputation from the three eftates was fent to wait on the king of France; and, on this occañon, Charles Buonaparte was selected to reprefent the nobles. He was foon after promoted to the office of procuratore reale of Ajaccio, where his ancestors, fuppofed to have been originally from Tufcany, had been fettled nearly two hundred years. "The family of the elder Buonaparte was numerous, for he had feven children; four fons, and three daughters. It was his good fortune, however, to be cherished by the French; and both he and his family lived in the greatest intimacy with M. de Marbauf, the governor, who received a revenue of 60,000 livres a year, on condition of doing nothing! An intendant was paid nearly as much; and a fwarm of hungry leeches, engendered in the corruption of the court of Verfailles, at one and the fame time fucked the blood of the Corficans, and drained the treasure of the mother country; in fhort, like the conquefts of more recent times, the fubjugation of that inland feems to have been achieved for no other purpose than to gratify avarice, and fatiate rapacity.

"On the death of his friend Charles Buonaparte, M. de Marbeuf continued to patronize his family, and placed his fecond fon Napoleone, the fubject of thefe memoirs, at the Ecole Militaire, or Military Academy. The advantages refulting from this feminary, which has produced more great men than any other in Europe, were not loft on young Buonaparte; he there applied himfelf, with equal affiduity and addrefs, to mathematics, and ftudied the art of war as a regular fcience. Born in the midt of a republican firuggle in his native land, it was his good fortune to burst into manhood at the moment when the country of his choice fhook off the chains with which the had been manacled for centuries. There was alfo fomething in his manners and habits that announced him equal to the fituation for which he feems to have been deftined: instead of imitating the frivolity of the age, his mind was continually occupied by ufeful ftudies; and from the Lives of Plutarch, a volume of which he always carried in his pocket, he learned, at an early age, to copy the manners, and emulate the actions, of antiquity.

With this difpofition, it is but little wonder that he should have dedicated his life to the profeffion of arms. We accordingly find him, while yet a boy, prefenting himself as a candidate for a commiffion in the artillery; and his fuccefs equalled the expectations of his friends, for he was the twelfth on the lift, out of the thirty-fix who proved victorious in the contest. In confequence of this event, he became a lieutenant in the French army, and ferved as fuch, during two or three years, in the regiment of La Fers.

"In 1790, general Paoli repaired to France, where he was honoured with a civic crown, and there embraced the fon of his old friend, who had ferved under him at St. Fiorenze, in 1768. They met again foon after, in Corfica, where Buonaparte, now a captain, was clcced licutenant-colonel of a corps of Cerfican national guards in activity.

"On the fecond expedition fitted out against Sardinia, he embarked with his countrymen, and landed in the little island of Madalena, which he took poffeflion of ip the name of

the

The first action of the prefent campaign took place near Savona, on the shores of the Mediterranean, near which the French general occupied a poft called Voltri, fix leagues diftant from Genoa. Here he was attacked by the troops un

der general Beaulieu, and driven. back to his lines near Savona. Prefuming on their fuccefs, the Auftrian troops advanced, in hopes of cutting off the retreat of the divifion which they had repulfed : but Buonaparte, who had foreseen

this

the French republic; but, finding the troops that had been got together for this expedition neither poffeffed organization nor difcipline, he returned to the port of Ajaccio, whence he had fet out.

"In the mean time, a scheme was formed for the annexation of Corfiea to the crown of England; and the cabinet, in an evil hour, acceded to a propofition which, while it diminished the wealth, has contributed but little either to the honour or advantage of this country.

"Buonaparte had a difficult part to act on this occafion; he was perfonally attached to Pafquale Paoli; he refented the treatment he experienced during the reign of the ter rorists, and had actually drawn up, with his own hand, the remonftrance tranfinitted by the municipality of Ajaccio against the decree declaring the general an enemy to the commonwealth. Indeed, he was fuppofed to be fo intimately connected with him, that a warrant was actually iffued by Lacombe de St. Michel, and the two other commiffioners of the convention, to arrest young Buonaparte. Notwithstanding this, he was determined to remain faithful to his engagements; and learning that the English fleet in the Mediterranean had failed for the purpose of feizing his native ifland, he embarked, along with his family, for the continent, and fettled within eighteen leagues of Toulon.

"That town, the fecond fea-port in France, was at this moment in the poffeffion of the English, having been just feized upon by admiral lord Hood, who had fubftituted the Britith croís in the place of the three-coloured flag. The military talents of the young Corfican were well known to Salicetti, who introduced him to Barras, now one of the directory, to whom he afforded indubitable proof of the fincerity of his profeffions, at a period when fufpicion was juttified by the moft ferious and frequent defections. He was accordingly advanced from the rank of chef de brigade, to that of general of artillery, and directed, under general Dugommier, the attacks of the various redoubts that furrounded and firengthened this important port, in which Collot d'Herbois foon after declared "that he had found the galley-flaves alone faithful to the republic!" It is almoft needlefs to add, that the energy of the French troops, added to the feientific arrangements of the engineers, overcame the zeal and refiftance of the motley garrifon, and restored the key of the Mediterranean to France.

"It may be neceffary, however, to remark, that Buonaparte, in 1793, took an active part against general Paoli and the English; for, in the course of that year, he appeared with a' fmall armament before Ajaccio, the town and citadel of which he fummoned in the name of the republic; but he met with a formidable enemy in his own coufin, the brave captain Mafferia, who commanded a corps of Corficans during the fiege of Gibraltar, and had learned the management of red-hot thot under lord Heathfield.

"The conquest of Toulon contributed not a little to raise the credit of Buonaparte; and it proved equally advantageous to his friend Barras. That deputy had been alfo bred a military man, and was employed by his colleagues on all great emergencies. One of thefe foon occurred; this was the commotion among the fections of Paris, known by the name of the Infurrection of Vendemiaire. On this occafion, he took care to be furrounded by able men, among whom was general Buonaparte, whom he had invefted with the command of the artillery at the fiege of Toulon. It was to another Corfican, however, that' he confided the fuperintendance of the army: this was Gentili, who had just acquired a great reputation by his gallant defence of Baftia. On trial, however, it was immediately difcovered that the deafnefs of Gentili was an invincible obftacle to fuccefs, as he could neither hear nor attend to the multiplied and complicated reports of the aides de camp, who were continually bringing him meffages, or addreffing him relative to the fituation of the enemy. Luckily for the convention, Napoleone Buonaparte was, at this critical and decifive moment, appointed his fucceffor; and it is to the mafterly difpofitions made by' him that the triumph of the reprefentative body is to be principally afcribed. It is but

juftice

this retreat, had ftrengthened his pofts on the flanks of the Austrians, who were advancing, but who had been held in check by the forces which occupied the post of MonteNotte, lying between Voltri and Savona. The poffeffion of this post

was abfolutely neceffary to cutting off the retreat of the division of the French whom they had previously defeated; and as it appeared probable that the Auftrians would renew the attack with their whole force, Buonaparte sent a divifion under

juftice to add that the moderation difplayed on this occafion is perhaps unequalled in the history of the civil wars of modern times.

"A nobler field now opened for the exertions of Buonaparte; for he was foon after invested with the chief command of the French army in Italy, which, under his direction, prepared to open the campaign of 1796. In the fpring of that year, we find the Auftro-Sardinian army defeated within forty miles of Turin; 14,000 were either killed or taken prisoners on this occafion, and the cannon and camp equipage feized on by the victors. The army of Lombardy was alfo doomed to experience a nost humiliating defeat, although led on by a cautious veteran, Beaulieu, ip perfon: this was attributed folely to the skilful manuvres of the commander in chief, feconded by the active exertions of generals Laharpe, Maffena, and Servona. The Austrian general Provera was taken prisoner in a third engagement; in confequence of which, forty field-pieces, with the horfes, mules, and artillery waggons, &c. were captured by the French, 2500 of the allies killed, and 8000 made prifoners. In short, the battles of Millefimo, Dego, Mondovi, Monte Lerino, and MonteNotte, were decisive of the fate of Sardinia; for the aged and fuperftitious monarch then feated on the throne, found himself reduced to the humiliating fituation of relinquishing Savoy and Nice, and fubfcribing to fuch terms as were granted by a generous conqueror, who could have driven him from his throne, and obliged him to spend the short remainder of a wretched life in exile, and perhaps in poverty.

arms.

“The battle of Lodi, fought on the 21ft Floreal (May 10th) nearly completed the overthrow of the Austrian power in Italy, and added greatly to the reputation of the French On this occafion, a battalion of grenadiers bore down alt before them, and reached the bridge of Lodi, shouting "Long live the republic!" but the dreadful fire kept up by the enemy having stopped their progrefs, generals Berthier, Maffena, Cervoni, &c. rufned forward: even their prefence would have proved ineffectual, had it not been for the intrepidity of Buonaparte, who, fnatching a standard from the hand of a subaltern, like Cæfar on a fimilar occafion, placed himself in front, and, animating his foldiers by his actions and gesticulations (for his voice was drowned in the noife of the cannon and mufquetry), victory once more arranged herself under the Gallic banners.

"In confequence of this fignal defeat, or rather series of defeats, Beaulieu was obliged to yield the palm to a younger rival, for he felt himself reduced to the neceffity of retreating among the mountains of Tyrol; on which the French took poffeffion of the greater part of Lombardy, and acquired aftonishing refources, and immenfe magazines. "After croffing the Mincio, in the face of the Auftrians, the republican army entered Verona, which fo lately had afforded an asylum to one of the titular kings of France, and feized on Pavia. Here a new and more dreadful enemy attempted to ftop the progrefs of the conquerors. It was fuperftition, clothed in cowls and furplices, brandishing a poniard in one hand, and a crucifix in the other; but the speedy punifament of the priests and their adherents put an end to the infurrection, and thus faved Buonaparte and his army from a more imminent danger than they had as yet experienced, and from which no French army that has hitherto croffed the Alps has been exempt.

"At length, Mantua alone remained in poffeffion of the Auftrians, and this also was foon invefted by the victors, who, at the fame time, made inroads into the Tyrol, and, by the battle of Roveredo and the poffeffion of Trent, became mafters of the paffes that led to Vienna.

"In the mean thne the gallant Wurmfer determined to shut himself up, with the remainder of his difpirited troops, in Mantua; and the Auftrians made one more grand effort, by means of general Alvinzy, to rescue his befieged army, and regain their ancient preponderance in Italy. But the battle of Arcola completely difappointed their expectations; and the capture of Mantua at one and the fame time concluded the campaign, and their humiliation,