REVOLUTION OF FRANCE

REVOLUTION OF FRANCE. We formerly presented to our readers a concise statement of the commencement and progress of this extraordinary event (See REVOLUTION, Encycl.). The singularity of its nature, and the important place which it must hereafter occupy in the moral and political history of mankind,

require that we should now resume and continue the detail of its wide-wasting career. We left the subject towards the commencement of the year 1795, at the close of that wonderful campaign, during which the armies of the Republic had exerted themselves with such unparalleled success in every direction. On the one side they had crossed the Pyrenees, and shaken the Spanish monarchy to its centre; while on the other they had driven the united forces of Austria, Prussia, and Britain, from the walls of Landrecies, across the Rhine, at all points from Hageneau to the sea, and had finally closed their efforts by the conquest of Holland. At that period, though a prolongation of hostilities was threatened, we scarcely expected that Europe was so soon to witness, or we to record, a succession of military enterprises of a still more romantic and extraordinary nature, the scene of which was even to extend into barbarous countries, where the opinions and the quarrels of the European nations had hitherto remained unknown.

The campaign of 1794, however, was not immediately followed by any important military exertions. The British troops were recalled home, Prussia had been gradually withdrawing from the coalition, and the Austrian armies remained upon the defensive. Neither was the French government in a situation which could enable it to renew its enterprises with vigour, or to give much trouble to the allies. The Convention still existed; but it was no longer that terrible assembly which, under Robespierre and his associates, had, in the short period of fifteen months, reduced two thirds of France under its dominion, and sent forth armies which the combined strength of the rest of Europe seemed unable to resist. While its authority remained almost concentrated in one man, and while the fear of foreign invasion, and the new born enthusiasm for freedom, induced the people to submit to every measure of government, however oppressive or arbitrary, the power of the Convention, and the number of its armies, were unbounded. The dreadful price, however, which they had paid for liberty, and the facility with which they saw it might be lost, had now diminished the political zeal of all classes of citizens. The removal of the foreign armies had dispelled the dread of invasion, and the death of Robespierre, by dissolving the unity of its efforts, and suffering it to fall into contending factions, had greatly weakened the authority of the Convention, and diminished its efficiency as a government.

The fall of Robespierre had been accomplished by two separate conspiracies. At the head of one of these were, Barrere, Billaud Varennes, and Collot d'Herbois, who had been members of the Committee of public safety. The other conspiracy consisted of members of the Convention who did not belong to the committees, and had no immediate share in the administration. Among these, Tallien, Bourdon de l'Oise, and Lecointre of Versailles, were conspicuous. After the destruction of their mutual tyrant, a contest for power took place between these parties. The popularity of Robespierre had once been so considerable, and all men had submitted so tamely to his dominion, that both parties accounted it necessary, in their speeches and writings, to justify to the nation the share they had taken in accomplishing his ruin. It was easy to be eloquent upon such a topic; but its discussion naturally operated to the discredit of the members of the committee, and of the

the more violent Jacobins, who had been the immediate instruments for carrying into effect his sanguinary measures. They nevertheless retained possession, for some time, of a considerable portion of power. The current of public opinion, however, ran so strongly against them, and the restoration to their seats in the Convention of the seventy-one imprisoned members of the Girondist party, added so much to the strength of their antagonists, that they gradually lost their influence, and were threatened to be brought to trial for their conduct.

As early as August 1794, Lecointre of Versailles had denounced the members of the old committee of safety; but his accusation at that time produced little effect. Towards the end of that year, however, their approaching fall became evident. On the 26th of December the Convention ordered, on the motion of Clauzel, that the committees should immediately report upon the conduct of the representatives denounced by Lecointre and all of France. Accordingly, on the following day, Merlin of Douay reported, in the name of the committees, that there was no cause for inquiry into the conduct of Voulant, Amar, and David; but that there was room for examining the conduct of Barrere, Billaud Varennes, Collot d'Herbois, and Vadier.

In consequence of this report, a committee of twenty-one members was appointed to make the enquiry. On the 2d of March this year (1795), Saladin presented the report of the commission; in which these four deputies were accused of having participated, as members of the governing committee, in the tyranny and atrocious measures of Robespierre. Their trial commenced before the Convention on the 22d of March; but previous to that period, Vadier had made his escape. The others remained, and rested their defence upon this ground, that although members of the committee of safety, they had no power to resist Robespierre, and that they were not more culpable in having acquiesced in his tyranny than the other members of the Convention, who had all been empowered for the time by the knowledge that instant destruction awaited every man who should dare to oppose his measures. Except in the case of the cruelties committed by Collot d'Herbois at Lyons, this defence was probably by no means destitute of foundation. It had much weight with the nation at large; in whose eyes it tended, not to exculpate the three persons now accused, but to criminate and degrade the character of the whole Convention.

Carnot, Lindet, Cambon, Dulieu, and the other members of what was now called the Jacobin party, defended their leaders with considerable ability, and with much vehemence. Nor was the party less active without doors than within the hall of the Convention. For some time they had drawn their friends to the capital from all quarters of the country; and in the morning sitting of the 1st of April, they commenced their operations by an open insurrection. An immense multitude having assembled in the suburbs, proceeded to the hall of the Convention. A real or fictitious scarcity existed at the time. Taking advantage of this circumstance, they pretended they were going to petition for bread; and this pretence drew numbers along with them who had no share in their designs.

Boissy d'Anglas, a conspicuous member of the moderate party, was addressing the Convention upon the means of removing the present scarcity when the in-

furgents arrived, drove the sentinels from their posts, and suddenly filled the hall. They tumultuously demanded "Bread, and the Constitution." The Jacobin party supported the insurgents; and one of the multitude, in a vehement harangue, exclaimed, "We are men of the 14th of July, of the 17th of August, and of the 31st of May." He demanded, that the Convention should charge its late measures, that the people should no longer be the victims of mercantile rapacity, and that the accused patriots should not be sacrificed to the passions of their antagonists. The Convention ordered the tocsin to be rung, and the people of Paris to be called to arms. General Pichegru was in Paris at the time; and, upon the motion of Barras, he was appointed to the command of the military force.

The citizens of Paris, who remembered with horror the domination of Robespierre and his adherents, and now saw themselves menaced with its return, instantly called each other to arms, and assembled, by six in the evening, for the protection of the Convention, to the amount of 20,000 men. Till that time the assembly had remained under no small disquietude, surrounded by the insurgents, and listening to the addresses of their orators, and the speeches of the Jacobin minority in their favour. The majority was now rescued from this state of constraint; and, on the motion of Dumont, without proceeding farther in the trial, it was decreed that Barrere, Collot d'Herbois, and Billaud Varennes, should immediately be transported to Guiana.

During the following day the insurgents were completely subdued; and the majority of the Convention, taking advantage of their victory, decreed the arrest and confinement, in the castle of Ham in Picardy, of several of the most obnoxious of their antagonists. Among these were Leonard Bourdon, Dulieu, Charles, Choudieu, Ruamps, Foulquier, Huguet, Bayle, Le Coindre, Cambon, Thuriot, Maignet, Heurtz, Grassous, and Levasseur. By departing from the punishment of death, and adopting that of banishment on this occasion, the Convention expected to diminish the ferocity of the contending factions in the state, by rendering the result of a political defeat less fatal than formerly. The design was good; but in attempting to accomplish it, they established the pernicious precedent of inflicting punishment without a trial, which could scarcely fail to prove highly dangerous, if not ultimately fatal, to all their prospects of a free and just government.

The Convention now followed up its victory with the popular measure of preparing for its own dissolution, by endeavouring to frame a fixed constitution for the Republic. The constitution which had been decreed in 1793, under the auspices of Robespierre, was considered as impracticable, and a committee was appointed to report upon the measures which ought now to be adopted. It consisted of Sieyes, Cambacérès, Merlin of Douay, Thibaudeau, Mathieu, Le Sage of Eure and Loire, and Latouche. On the 19th of April, Cambacérès reported, that it was the opinion of this committee that a commission should be appointed to frame an entirely new constitution. The Convention accordingly appointed the following persons to this important office, Le Sage, Louvet, Boissy d'Anglas, Creuze, Latouche, Bercier, Daunou, Baudin, Durand, Maulane, Languiniss, La Reveillere-Lepaux, and Thibaudeau. All other citizens of every description were

at the same time invited to communicate projects upon the subject, and the committee was required to order the best conceived of these to be printed.

The Convention farther gratified the feelings of the great majority of the nation, by bringing to trial Fouquier Jenville the president, and fifteen judges and jurors of the late revolutionary tribunal. They were convicted on the 8th of May, and executed on the following day, amidst the execrations of a multitude of spectators.

In the mean time, though defeated on the 1st and 2d of April, the Jacobins by no means considered themselves as subdued. On the contrary, they were preparing a new and more extensive insurrection, which should not, like the former, be confined to the capital. They fixed upon the 20th of May as the day of revolt. Thuriot, and Robespierre's financier Cambon, had found means to escape from the castle of Ham in Picardy, and to come to Paris. They concealed themselves in the suburb St Antoine, and from thence gave counsel to their party, and urged them to action. The scarcity of bread had increased, and advantage was again taken of this circumstance. For some days the walls were covered in various places of Paris with printed accusations against the Convention of withholding bread from the people, and attempts were made to excite the troops in the city to join the disaffected party. On the evening of the 19th, a paper was openly distributed in the different sections, explaining the object of the approaching insurrection. It declared insurrection to be the most sacred duty of the people, and called upon the citizens of Paris to proceed in a mass to the Convention, to demand from it bread and the establishment of Robespierre's constitution, together with a new election of national representatives.

On the morning of the 20th, the tocsin was rung, and drums beat to arms in the suburb St Antoine, which had always been the quarter of the city in which the Jacobins possessed the greatest strength. Upon this alarm the Convention assembled; but although the intended insurrection was no secret, and though the committee of public and general safety now made a report, in which they confessed their previous knowledge of it, yet it does not appear that any vigorous measures of precaution had been taken; for it was only at the instant when the insurgents were actually approaching, that General Hoche was appointed to command the armed force, and was sent forth to assemble the military and the citizens for the defence of the Convention. In the mean time, the multitude surrounded the hall. They soon overpowered the guards, and burst into the midst of the assembly. In all the turbulent days of the revolution, the women of Paris have never failed to act a conspicuous part. On this occasion they greatly augmented the crowd by their numbers, and the tumult by their cries of "Bread, and the constitution of 1793," which was the rallying exclamation of the party. After some fruitless efforts to restore tranquillity, Vernier the president, an old man, resigned the chair to Boissy D'Anglas, who remained in it with much firmness during the day. The whole strength of the insurgents had not arrived at once; for the first party that approached, although they forced their way into the hall, were soon repulsed by the aid of a few soldiers and citizens, who came to the assistance of the Convention. A short interval of tranquillity was thus

obtained; but the attack was speedily renewed with double fury by armed men, who subdued all opposition, and entered the hall with cockades, on which was written the inscription, "Bread, and the constitution of 1793." While things were in this state, a citizen of the party of the Convention rashly tore off the hat of one of the insurgents, and was immediately assaulted with swords by the multitude. He fled towards the president's chair, and was killed at the side of it by a musket shot. Ferand, one of the members, having attempted to rescue him, was also attacked. He escaped into one of the passages, where he was also killed, and his head was brought into the Convention upon a pike. The greater number of the members now gradually departed, and left the hall in possession of the insurgents, who acted with some regularity, and proposed a variety of laws favourable to their party, which were instantly decreed. Duroy, Duquesnoy, Bombotte, and Goujon, were the members who stood most openly forward on this occasion, and appeared as chiefs of the insurrection. But their triumph only lasted a few hours. Towards the evening a large body of citizens joined the military, and marched to the aid of the Convention. Having overcome the insurgents, they entered the hall in great force, and restored the powers of the majority. The decrees that had been forced upon them were repealed as speedily as they had been enacted, and the deputies who had proposed or supported them were arrested.

The citizens of Paris, and even the members of the Convention, appear now to have fancied their victory complete; for they adopted no adequate measures to prevent a new disturbance. But the Jacobins did not so easily give up their own cause. On the following day they once more assembled in the suburbs, and in the afternoon they returned to the attack. They took possession of the Carrousel without opposition, and pointed some pieces of cannon against the hall of the Convention. This assembly was now unprotected, and attempted not to subdue, but to flatter, the insurgents. A deputation of the members was sent forth to fraternize with them, and to carry forth two decrees passed at that instant, which ordained that bread should abound, and that Robespierre's constitution of 1793 should immediately be put in force. The insurgents, in return, sent a deputation to the Convention, to express their satisfaction with the decrees, to demand the release of the imprisoned patriots, and the punishment of those who preferred money to assignats. The Convention pretended to agree to all their demands, and the president was ordered to give to the deputation the fraternal embrace.

The 22d, which was the third day of the insurrection, appears to have been passed by both parties in a strange degree of inaction. The Convention proceeded in its ordinary business; and the Jacobins, at their head quarters in the suburb St Antoine, were occupied in consultations and preparations for new movements. But on the following day the citizens assembled at their sections, and hastened from thence to the Tuilleries to defend the Convention. Considerable bodies of the military were also collected, and the assembly at last resolved to act upon the offensive. A decree was passed, declaring, that if the suburb St Antoine did not instantly surrender its arms and cannon, together with the

the murder of Ferand, it should be considered as in a state of rebellion. The conventional generals were at the same time ordered to reduce it by force. The insurgents now found themselves unequal to the contest, and were compelled to surrender without conditions by the inhabitants of the suburb, who dreaded the destruction of their property by military operations. Several soldiers being found among the prisoners, were put to death; and six members of the Convention were tried and condemned on this occasion by a military commission. Three of these perished by self-slaughter, and three were executed. The majority of the Convention, elated by their victory, ordered back Collot d'Herbois, Billaud Varennes, and Barrere to take their trial; but the two former had failed before the arrival of the courier. Barrere only remained, and he was brought back and imprisoned.

In the mean time, the Jacobins in the south were not less active than their brethren at Paris. On the 20th of May they formed a vigorous insurrection at Toulon. They seized the gates, and mounted them with cannon; they liberated such of their associates as had been imprisoned, and detained the fleet, which was about to sail. Having begun their operations in this successful manner, they marched from Toulon towards Marseilles. Their force amounted to three thousand men and twelve pieces of cannon. They were encountered on their way, however, and defeated by Generals Charton and Pactod. Three hundred of them were carried prisoners to Marseilles, and Toulon was speedily retaken.

The party of the Mountain, as it had been called, or of the violent Jacobins, who wished to revive the reign of terror and the measures of Robespierre, was now reduced very low both in the Convention and out of it. Those who adhered to it were even in many places, and more especially in the south, exposed to very violent persecution. Associations were formed, called Companies of Jesus and of the Sun, for the purpose of avenging the crimes committed by them during the period of their power. At Lyons several of them were massacred in prison; and many of them in all places perished by assassination. On considering the merciless character of the government of Robespierre and his associates, and the persecution which was suffered under it, not merely by the nobles and the rich, but by every man who was distinguished by integrity, talents, or literature, it may appear surprising that it should have obtained admirers, or that any number of individuals should have been found willing to hazard their lives to procure its restoration. Accordingly, from the period of the fall of its leader, the party had gradually been forsaken by its adherents; and the more closely its conduct was considered, it lost ground the more rapidly in the estimation of the public. After the unsuccessful insurrections of the 20th of May, it was treated with the utmost contempt, and its unpopularity was extreme. Still, however, a party remained. It was small, indeed, but its members compensated the inferiority of their numbers by superior enterprise and activity. They consisted of outrageous republicans, whose heated imaginations beheld royalty and aristocracy in every proposal for sober and regular government. In the conduct of Robespierre, they remembered only the energy of his measures, by which France was enabled to triumph over

the combined efforts of the kings of Europe; and overlooked the atrocities by which he had brought disgrace upon their cause, and rendered his party odious to their own countrymen, as well as to the neighbouring nations. Amidst this universal odium, however, the Jacobins did not despair of rising once more into power; and it is not a little singular, that we must date the revival of their strength from the period of the unsuccessful insurrections which we have just recorded, and which seemed to have extinguished their hopes for ever.

The unpopularity under which the Jacobins laboured soon began to affect the Convention itself. The tame submission of that body to the government of Robespierre was now remembered. It was recollected, that the majority of its members had been the instruments of his power, and had applauded, or at least acquiesced in, his crimes. As the pris was now free, and the reins of government unsteadily held, their conduct was represented to the public in the most odious colours. A celebrated song, Le Reveil du Peuple, became extremely popular, as the means of marking dislike both to the Convention and to the Jacobins; and their conduct was canvassed with the utmost bitterness in a great variety of publications, but more especially in a journal that at this time attracted much notice, and which was conducted by Freron, who had himself been a Jacobin, but had now abandoned his party.

In this state of things, the majority of the Convention speedily began to repent of their late victory over the Jacobins. In the first efforts of their zeal, they had taken measures for the immediate formation and establishment of a settled constitution to supersede their own authority; but they now regretted their rashness, when they perceived, from the temper the nation was in, that the men, the most avowedly hostile to their character and measures, would without doubt be elected as their successors. They, and their friends, had risen to great distinction and wealth under the revolutionary government; and they now began to dread, not only the loss of power, but also a severe investigation of their conduct. These considerations soon produced their natural effects. The decrees for forming, and putting in force the constitution could not decently be recalled; but the majority of the Convention set about devising means for rendering them of little importance, so far as they themselves were concerned.

On the 23d of June, Boilly D'Anglas presented the report of the committee that had been appointed to prepare the plan of a constitution. It began, like the former constitutions, with a declaration of the rights of man; and in addition to this, consisted of fourteen chapters, upon the following subjects:—The extent of the territorial possessions of the Republic, the political state of citizens, the primary assemblies, the electoral assemblies, the legislature, the executive power, the municipal bodies, the judicial authority, the public forces, public instruction, the finances, foreign treaties, the mode of revising the constitution, and, lastly, an enactment, that no rank or superiority should exist among citizens, excepting what might arise from the exercise of public functions.

The primary assemblies were to possess the right of electing the members of the electoral assemblies, and also the justices of the peace. The electoral assemblies were to nominate the judges and the legislators of the state.

French state. The legislature was divided into two assemblies; the one of which consisted of 250 members, and was called the Council of the Ancients, as none but married men and widowers above 30 years of age could be members of it. The other assembly or council consisted of 500 members, and possessed the exclusive privilege of proposing the laws; the Council of Ancients being only intitled to reject or approve, without power to alter the decrees presented to it. To this rule there was one exception, which was afterwards employed as the means of overturning the whole fabric of the constitution; the Council of the Ancients might decree the removal of the legislature from its ordinary place of sitting. To this decree the approbation of the Council of Five Hundred was not necessary; and when once enacted, it could not be reconsidered even by the Council of Ancients itself. One-third of the members of the two Councils was to be elected annually. A member might be once re-elected, but he could not be elected a third time till an interval of two years had elapsed.

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Executive Directory. The executive power was intrusted to five persons of forty years of age at least, to be styled the Executive Directory. Its members were elected by the two Councils; the Council of Five Hundred electing ten times the number of candidates that might be necessary to fill up the vacancies, and the Council of Two Hundred and Fifty nominating the directors from this list of candidates. One member of the Directory was to go out annually; so that the whole might be changed every five years. The Executive Directory had no vote in the enactment of laws; but it superintended their execution, regulated the coining of money, and disposed of the armed force. Foreign treaties made by it were not binding till ratified by the legislative body, nor could it make war without the authority of a decree of the two assemblies. The public functionaries were to receive salaries, and to appear dressed in an appropriated habit.

Each article of this constitution was separately discussed; and on the 23d of August the whole was declared to be complete, and ordained to be transmitted to the primary assemblies for their approbation. Previous to this resolution, however (that is, on the 22d of the same month), the majority of the Convention had brought forward the grand measure by which they meant to provide for their own safety, and the safety of their friends and adherents, against the change which the public opinion had undergone concerning them. They decreed, that at the approaching general election, the electoral bodies should be bound to choose two-thirds of the new legislature from among the members of the present convention; and they afterwards decreed, that, in default of the election of two-thirds of the Convention, the Convention should fill up the vacancies themselves.

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The Convention felters the freedom of election. These decrees were transmitted, along with the Constitution, to the primary assemblies, to be accepted or rejected by them. Many of the primary assemblies understood, that they could not accept of the constitution without accepting along with it the law for the re-election of the two-thirds. The point had, in all probability, been purposely left under a certain degree of ambiguity; and as the people were now weary of this Convention, they acquiesced in any condition that gave

them the prospect of one day getting quit of it. But at Paris, and in the neighbouring departments, where the subject was more accurately investigated, the public disapprobation of the Convention displayed itself with great vehemence.

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There was indeed something extremely awkward in the decree about the re-election of two thirds of the Convention. That body might, if necessary, have continued its own existence for some time longer, or it might have dismissed one-third of its number by ballot or otherwise, and allowed a new election only to that extent; but a compulsory election was an absurdity so new, and so obvious, that it gave their antagonists every advantage against them. Accordingly, at the meetings of the sections of Paris, the laws for the re-election were rejected with contempt, and their absurdity demonstrated with much acrimony. In consequence of the debates which took place at these meetings, the minds of men were gradually inflamed, and it became obvious that a political convulsion approached. On the one side, the Convention took care to publish daily the approbation of the decrees, along with the constitution, by the majority of the primary assemblies, by most of which the two had been confounded and accepted in the gross. Its committees also called in the aid of the troops of the line for its protection. On the other hand, the language of the sections became every day more violent. The whole Convention was represented as a band of tyrants and of murderers, the associates of all the cruelty of Robespierre and the Mountain party. It was even proposed to bring to trial every individual member of the assembly before a new revolutionary tribunal, and to punish him according to his demerits.

For some time much anxiety prevailed on both sides. Numerous deputation were repeatedly sent from the sections to the Convention to remonstrate against the obnoxious decrees. But the eagerness with which these remonstrances were made, served only to convince more strongly the members of the Convention of the danger to themselves as individuals which would attend a relinquishment of their power, and confirmed the resolution they had taken to retain it. The deputies of the sections having obtained inspection of the records of the convention, ascertained, that the national majority, if rightly numbered, had rejected the decrees; as every assembly that voted in opposition to them was only numbered as one vote, however numerous its members might be; which enabled the primary assemblies of remote districts to outvote the more populous sections of Paris and other great towns. Whereas it was said, that if the individual voters were counted, it would be found that the decrees were disapproved of by a considerable majority. All this was disregarded by the Convention, and the sections prepared to decide the dispute by arms. The first step taken by them, however, was ill-concerted. A notion was propagated, that as soon as the primary assemblies or sections had chosen the electors who were to choose the members of the new legislature, the national sovereignty became vested in these electors, and that they had a right to assume the government in their various districts. Accordingly, about two of the electors of Paris assembled in the hall of the French theatre in the suburb St. Germain, previous to the day of meeting appointed by the Convention. Having chosen

De Nivernois (formerly the Duke de Nivernois) their president, they began their debates. The Convention was alarmed, and instantly sent a body of the military to dismiss the meeting as illegal. This was easily accomplished, as the citizens had not been unanimous with regard to it, and no measures were taken for its protection.

Notwithstanding this first advantage on the side of the Convention, the sections regarded its power with contempt, and imagined themselves secure of ultimate success. In every political contest that had hitherto occurred since the commencement of the revolution, the immense population of the capital had given a decisive superiority to the faction whose side it espoused. The citizens also regarded with indifference the armed force with which the Convention had surrounded itself, from a notion, which they fondly entertained, that the military would in no case be brought to act against the people. It would appear that the Convention itself entertained some jealousy upon this head, and did not account itself entirely safe under the protection of the soldiers. On this occasion, therefore, it had recourse to a new ally, and besought the aid of those very Jacobins whom it had almost crushed on the 24th of May. The members of the Convention were odious to the sections of Paris, on account of their participation in the revolutionary crimes and measures of Robespierre; but this very circumstance endeared them to the Jacobins, whose character it was to imagine that they had never enough of war abroad or of revolution at home. It was easy therefore to bring about a reconciliation between the Convention and these men. Several hundreds of them were dismissed from the prisons, where they had been confined since the two last insurrections, and they were now put in requisition to defend the legislative body.

When the sections of Paris beheld the Convention surrounded by those Jacobins who had been the unrelenting agents of the government of Robespierre, and who were now denominated terrorists and men of blood, their ardour for action became unbounded. They assembled in arms at their different sections on the 12th Vendémiaire (October 4th); but they do not seem to have acted with much concert, or upon any well digested plan of operations. The general design of their leaders was to seize the members of the Convention, and imprison them in the church of the Quatre Nations till they could be brought to trial. As this would occasion a vacancy or interregnum in the government, it was resolved that all affairs should be conducted by committees of the sections, till a new legislature could be elected. General Miranda, a Spaniard, a native of the Carracas in South America, who had served in the republican armies, was to be appointed to the chief command of the armed force after the overthrow of the Convention. This man, in his eagerness for preferment, had alternately courted all parties, and he now seems to have joined the Parisians upon the supposition of their being the strongest. As he entertained some doubts of their success, however, he adopted the crooked and timid policy of avoiding the storm by retiring from the city till the combat should be finished, resolving to return immediately on its conclusion to share the rewards and the triumph of victory.

The Convention, in the mean time, resolved to strike

the first blow. For this purpose they sent General Menou to the section of Le Pelletier to disperse the citizens, whose greatest force was assembled there. But this officer, disliking the service which he was employed to perform, instead of proceeding to action, began to negotiate with the leaders of the sections, and spent the evening of this day in fruitless conferences. The sections on their side appointed General Danican, who had distinguished himself in the war against the Royalists in La Vendée, to act as their military leader. It would appear, however, that this officer, from the moment that he assumed the command, began to despair of the cause of the sections. He found them totally destitute of cannon, whereas the Convention was surrounded by regular troops and a numerous artillery. This inequality in point of weapons appears to have been considered by him as a sufficient reason for avoiding an engagement. Occupied in visiting and arranging the different posts, he was unacquainted with the disaffection of the conventional generals. He therefore thought he had done much when he had prevented bloodshed for another day, and thus the favourable moment for attack was lost. Whether the sections would have been successful had they been instantly led to battle on this important occasion, cannot now be known. Though the superior officers of the Convention were unfaithful, yet the subalterns and the troops in general might have stood firm, confirmed as they were by the persuasion of their Jacobin auxiliaries. Even in this case, however, the fate of a battle might have at least been doubtful. The battalions of Paris were very numerous, their contempt of danger was great, and their ardour unbounded. The mere possession of cannon might not in a contest against such men have afforded security to the Convention. But the first moments of popular enthusiasm were suffered to pass away, and that distrust and dissension, which delay never fails to introduce among great and irregular assemblages of men, soon began to render the conduct of the sections undecided and weak.

The conventional committees, during the night of the 12th Vendémiaire (October 4th), dismissed Generals Menou, Rasset, and some others, from their stations, and gave the command of the troops to Barras. He immediately collected around him a variety of able officers, among whom we find the names of Generals Brune and Bonaparte. With their assistance he began to provide for a most vigorous defence. Troops with cannon were stationed in all the avenues leading to the Tuilleries. In case any of these posts should be forced, masked batteries were planted in more retired situations. Nor was this all; measures were taken for conveying the public magazines of provisions and military stores to St. Cloud, whether the Convention prepared to retreat if they should suffer a defeat at Paris.

On the 13th Vendémiaire (October 5th) from which the insurrection was afterwards named, both parties remained for many hours upon the defensive. At last, about three o'clock in the afternoon, General Danican made advances to an accommodation by a letter to the committee of public safety; in which he stated, that the only cause on account of which the citizens had taken arms was the dread of a massacre being intended by the armed terrorists who surrounded the Convention, and that if these men were removed, tranquillity would immediately be re-established. A civil message was re-

turned; but the Jacobin party in the Convention, being now more confident of victory, and wishing to strengthen themselves by the defeat and punishment of their antagonists, it was resolved that the dispute should be decided by arms. It is not correctly known how the contest commenced, but the armed Jacobins are most generally understood to have begun the attack. The citizens on the southern side of the river attempted to reach the Convention by the Quay de Voltaire, but were speedily repulsed by the conventional cannon; but on the northern side of the river, near the Convention, the combat was extremely obstinate. The cannon were repeatedly seized by the citizens, and repeatedly retaken by the troops and the armed Jacobins. It was not till after a contest of four hours that the factions were repulsed and driven to the post of St. Roch. This post was also taken after great slaughter, and the factions were driven to their head quarters at the section of Le Pelletier. After a short interval they were pursued thither by the troops of the Convention, who by midnight were masters of the whole city.

This insurrection was ascribed by the victorious party to the exertions of the Royalists. It is no doubt true, that by this time Royalty was become less unpopular even among the rabble of France than the extreme of Republicanism, as it had appeared in the conduct of the Mountain party. It is also probable, that the Royalists mingled in a contest that had the overthrow of the present Convention for its object; but the insurgents in general seem neither to have avowed nor entertained any farther view than the disarming of the Jacobins, and the obtaining an immediate election of new representatives. The failure of the attempt had the effect of placing the Mountain party once more at the head of the state. This party at first thought of adjourning the new constitution, and of renewing all the terrors of the revolutionary government. This project, however, was opposed in the Convention with so much vehemence and ability by Thibaudeau, that it was renounced. Indeed it was become unnecessary to the safety or ascendancy of the men who proposed it, as the decrees for the re-election of two-thirds of the Convention enabled them to retain the full possession of their power. A few members of the moderate party, such as Boissy D'Anglas, Languinais, and Le Sage, were elected by almost every place in France, though they could only sit for one place. Hence the Convention itself had the re-election of nearly two-thirds of its own members; and the Mountain party, which now commanded the majority, was thus enabled to fill the new legislature with its own leaders.

On the 27th of October the Convention terminated its sittings, and was succeeded by the new legislature as appointed by the Constitution. By its last decrees, a general amnesty was granted for all revolutionary crimes and proceedings. From this amnesty, however, were excepted the emigrants, the transported priests, and all persons concerned in the last insurrection; so that in fact it was merely a pardon granted by the Mountain party to its own friends for all the excesses they had committed. The members of the Convention, who had been imprisoned in the castle of Ham since the Jacobin insurrection in May, were now set at liberty. The members of the revolutionary committees, and other agents of Robespierre in Paris and the departments,

were all dismissed from their prisons, and advanced to the most important offices under the new government.

As soon as the new legislature had divided itself into two councils, it proceeded to the election of an Executive Directory. Here the genius of the French nation for intrigue instantly displayed itself. The Council of Five Hundred was bound to present to the Council of Two Hundred and Fifty a list of ten times the number of candidates necessary for the office. It fulfilled this duty in the following manner. The majority of the Council of Five Hundred made out a list, consisting of the five following persons, upon whom they wished the election ultimately to fall: Sieyes, Barras, Rewbell, La Reveillere Lepaux, and Letourneur de la Manche. To complete the list, they added the names of 45 obscure persons, country justices, farmers, and even peasants. Thus there was nothing left to the Council of Ancients but the mere form of an election; and from the want of other qualified candidates, they were under the necessity of nominating to the office of directors the five persons at the head of the list presented by the Council of Five Hundred. The crafty Sieyes, however, who had been the adviser of all parties, but the ostensible agent of none, did not yet think fit to venture upon the possession of power. He had disapproved of the constitution which was now put in force, and had even framed one of his own in opposition to it, which, however, was rejected by the Convention. The most remarkable circumstance in his plan of government was a national jury, upon which he proposed to confer the power of dismissing from their offices, without a cause being assigned, any of the public functionaries whom they might account dangerous to the state. Sieyes having refused to accept the office of director, Carnot was elected in his stead. But on this occasion the Council of Ancients was treated with a little, and but a little, more decency than formerly; as the name of Cambaceres, a man of considerable eminence, appeared along with that of Carnot in the list of candidates voted by the Council of Five Hundred.

The republican government that was now attempted to be established promised little tranquillity to the nation. This great misfortune attended it, that the chief offices in the state were intrusted to men who were disliked by the people. The members of the Executive Directory, with the exception of Reveillere Lepaux, had always belonged to the Mountain or most violent Jacobin party. As they now owed their power to that party, they employed its members in almost every official department. The government was therefore necessarily unpopular. Things might have been gradually altered, indeed, by successive elections, which would in time bring other men into power: But, by the forms of the constitution, the executive power was more permanent than the legislative body, without possessing any influence over it. Hence it was to be feared that a contest for power might speedily occur between a directory nominated by the Jacobin party and the new legislators appointed by the people, in which the Constitution might suffer shipwreck; an event which actually occurred.

While the possession of power continued to fluctuate in the manner we have already stated, between the Moderate and the Jacobin or Mountain parties, the armies of the state were suffered to languish; but upon the

credit of its former military success, the Republic was treated with respect by some of the neighbouring powers. On the 17th of April, a treaty of peace with Prussia, which had been negotiated by the committees through the medium of Barthelemy the French resident at Basse, was presented to the Convention for ratification. By this treaty, it was stipulated, that the French troops should immediately evacuate the Prussian territory on the right bank of the Rhine, but should retain the territory belonging to that power on the left bank till a general peace. Prisoners of war were to be mutually restored, and the commerce of the two countries was to be placed on its ancient footing. Measures were also to be taken to remove the theatre of war from the north of Germany by treaties between France and those princes for whom the king of Prussia might interpose.

During the same month of April, the French Republic was acknowledged by the king of Sweden; and Baron Stael his ambassador was received at Paris with great solemnity. In the month of May a second treaty with Prussia was concluded. It chiefly regarded the line of neutrality. It is worthy of remark, that these treaties contained secret articles which were to be revealed only to a select committee. By authorising this mode of procedure, the Convention sufficiently demonstrated its resolution, that no form of popular government to be adopted in France should stand in the way of the national aggrandisement. The Swiss cantons now followed the example of Sweden, and acknowledged the French Republic. A treaty of peace with Spain was also concluded at Basse on the 22d of July. France, on this occasion, relinquished all the conquests she had made in the territory of that country, and restored the ancient frontier. She received in return all the Spanish part of the island of St Domingo. The Dutch Republic was included in this treaty; and France agreed to accept of the king of Spain's mediation in favour of Portugal and the Italian princes.

On the 9th of June, the Dauphin, son of the unfortunate Louis XVI. died in the prison of the Temple, where he had been confined, along with his sister, since the executions of his father, mother, and aunt. His death, which was probably produced by diseases arising from long confinement, if not by more unjustifiable means, excited in the French nation such a degree of interest in favour of his family, that the Convention found it necessary to liberate his sister from imprisonment. The committee of public safety proposed to the Emperor to exchange this princess for the members of the Convention whom Dumourier had delivered up to Austria, along with two ambassadors, Senonville and Maret, who had been seized on their way to Turkey. This proposal was accepted, and the exchange took place at Basse in Switzerland.

On the side of Britain the war maintained its former character. The British retained their superiority by sea, and were unfortunate in their efforts on the continent. On the 14th of March the British fleet in the Mediterranean, under Admiral Hotham, engaged the French fleet, and took two sail of the line, the Ca-Ira and the Censeur; but as the French fleet, four days before the engagement, had captured the Berwick, a British ship of the line, when detached from the fleet, and as the Illustrious, another British ship of the line,

was so severely injured in the action that she ran ashore and was lost at Avenza, the substantial loss on both sides was nearly equal. On the 23d of June another British fleet under Lord Bridport attacked the French off Port L'Orient, and took three ships of the line, the rest of the fleet escaping into that port.

This evident superiority of the British fleet in every contest, induced the government to take advantage of the command which it had of the sea, to give assistance to the French Royalists in the western departments. These Royalists, hitherto unassisted by foreign powers, had, by repeated defeats, been reduced very low. The Convention had at last offered them a treaty, which was accepted and signed at Nantes on the 3d of March, on the one side by deputies from the Convention, and on the other by Charette, Sapineau, and other chiefs of the insurgents of La Vendée, and by Cormartin, as representing the party called Chouans or Night Owls. Stofflet, another chief, held out for some weeks longer; but at last, on the 20th of April, he too was under the necessity of submitting by treaty to the Republic.

In a short time, however, the hopes of the Royalists were revived by the countenance of the British government, and these treaties were ill observed. In the beginning of June the British expedition was ready to sail for the French coast. The troops to be employed consisted of emigrants in the pay of Great Britain, and many of them had been prisoners of war, who now agreed to join the royal cause. The command during the voyage, and the selection of the place of landing, were intrusted to the Count D'Hervilly. The command on shore was given to Puisaye, who had been employed under the Girondists in the military service of the Republic, but had now become a royalist. The Count de Sombreuil was afterwards sent to join them with a small reinforcement.

On the 25th of June the expedition arrived in the Bay of Quiberon, and on the 27th 2500 emigrants made good their landing, after dispersing a small party of republican troops. The emigrant army soon after distributed itself into cantonments along the shore, and gave arms to the inhabitants of the country, who appeared to receive them with joy. It was soon found, however, that the Chouans, though well qualified for a desultory warfare, could not be of much use to regular troops. They had little subordination. They were easily dispersed, and never fought unless every advantage was on their side. When it was found that their unsteady aid could not be depended on, a resolution was taken to withdraw the emigrant army within the peninsula of Quiberon. The fort of that name was taken on the 3d of July. Its garrison consisted of five or six hundred men, and it was now occupied by the emigrants. A republican army, in the mean time, under General Hoche, advanced, and attacked all the posts that had been left without the peninsula. These were speedily taken. The emigrants and Chouans escaped into the boats of the British fleet, or fled under the cannon of the fort of Quiberon. The republicans then began to construct formidable works on the heights of St Barbe, at the entrance of the peninsula. To prevent their operations, a sally was made from the fort on the 7th of July; but without success. On the 15th, another sally was attempted in greater force. The

French whole troops in the peninsula amounted to about 12,000, including Chouans. Out of these a detachment of 5000 was sent to attack the heights of St. Barbe. The republicans were entrenched in three camps. The two first of these were easily taken, and the detachment pressed eagerly forward to attack the third. But here a masked battery opened upon them with grape shot. A dreadful carnage ensued; and very few of the detachment could have escaped, had not the fire of the British ships soon compelled the republicans to desist from the pursuit.

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Its failure.

It now became obvious that the expedition must ultimately fail. Desertion became extremely common among the emigrants. Those men in particular who had been prisoners of war, and received their liberty on condition of joining the expedition, seized every opportunity of going over to their countrymen; and a correspondence seems even to have been established between the republicans and the discontented troops in the fort of Quiberon. On the evening of the 20th of July, the weather was extremely tempestuous, which produced a fatal security in the emigrant army. Suspicious patroles were remarked; but as they repeated the watchword for the night, they were allowed to pass. The republican troops were conducted in silence along an unguarded quarter of the shore, till they were enabled to surprise one of the posts of the garrison, where they found the artillery men fast asleep. Their matches were seized, and the lanthorn intended to give the alarm to the British fleet was extinguished. The fort was speedily in confusion. Some regiments threw away their arms, and went over to the republicans; others even massacred their own officers. A considerable number, however, maintained a violent conflict for some time before they surrendered. Puisaye escaped on board the fleet. The Count de Sombreuil was taken; and this accomplished young man was soon after put to death, along with the other emigrant officers and all the Chouans that were found in the fort. The bishop of Dol was also put to death, with his clergy who accompanied him; but many of the private soldiers of the emigrant army made their peace with the republicans, by pretending they had been compelled to engage in the expedition.

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Successes of the French in Germany.

The British fleet, with transports and troops, still hovered upon the French coast, and made an unsuccessful attempt upon the island of Noirmontier. In consequence of the season of the year, however, it returned home in December, after evacuating a small island called L'Isle Dieu, which the troops had for some time occupied.

On the side of Germany the fortresses of Luxembourg surrendered on the 7th of June, after having been in a state of blockade since the preceding campaign. The French were now in possession of the whole left bank of the Rhine excepting the city of Mentz, which they attacked in vain, because the Austrians could at all times throw succours into it from Fort Cassel on the opposite bank of the river. Finding the capture of Mentz impossible in these circumstances, the French resolved to cross the Rhine, to invest the city on all sides. The enterprise, however, was delayed for some time, till the result of the British expedition to Quiberon should appear. In the month of August, General Jourdan forced the passage of the Rhine at Dusseldorf,

at the head of what was called the army of the Sambre and Meuse. After driving before him three Austrian posts upon the Lahn, he crossed the Mein, and completely invested Mentz and Cassel. Pichegru, in the mean time, crossed the river, with the army of the Rhine and Moselle, near Manheim, of which city he immediately took possession. But the French generals soon found their forces inadequate to the undertaking in which they were engaged. A considerable detachment of Pichegru's army, after driving the Austrians under General Wurmsier from a post of some importance, began to plunder, and went into confusion. The Austrians being informed of this circumstance, returned to the charge, and defeated the French. General Clairfait also, having violated the line of neutrality, came upon the rear of Jourdan's army, and took a considerable part of his artillery. Both the French generals now retreated. Jourdan was rapidly pursued by Clairfait till he returned to Dusseldorf, where he maintained his ground. Pichegru recrossed the Rhine near Mannheim, leaving a garrison of 8000 men in that city. The Austrians advanced in all directions. Mannheim was taken after a vigorous siege. The French were driven from the neighbourhood of Mentz. The Palatinate became the theatre of war, and the Austrians seized the country called the Hunsruck, south of the Rhine as far as Landau and Treves. After various engagements, in which little more ground was lost or won, the two parties entered into an armistice for three months.

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Treaties with Germany.

On the 28th of August a treaty of peace was concluded between the French Republic and the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, on condition that he should lend no more troops to Great Britain for the prosecution of the war. It is not a little singular, that peace was concluded with the Elector of Hanover, at this period upon similar terms. The Duke of Wirtemberg, and some other princes of the empire, also began to treat; but the negotiations were broken off in consequence of the reverse of fortune now experienced by the French.

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The Directory.

The Directory, however, resolved to continue the war with vigour, and vast preparations for the approaching campaign were made during the winter. The Mountain party being once more possessed of power, its members exerted themselves with their usual energy. Such, however, was the turbulent character of these men, that they could not long submit peaceably to any government, and soon became weary of that Directory whom they themselves had established. They held clubs in all quarters, and were continually disturbing the public tranquillity. For some time the government supported them. The Parisians, after the 5th October, no longer dared to avow openly their dislike to the Jacobins; but they were understood to express this sentiment by wearing green silk cravats, and by applauding with much vehemence at the public spectacles the air called Le Revival du Peuple. The Directory now prohibited, by an edict, as tokens of royalism, the wearing of green cravats, or the performing at any of the theatres the air now mentioned, though the sentiments it contained were entirely republican. The Directory also ordered in its stead, that the Marcellais hymn, and other popular songs, should be performed every evening at all the theatres. The Parisians showed their disapprobation of the Directory by maintaining a profound silence during the performance of these songs.

French Revolution, 1799.

songs, which had never failed till that period to excite bursts of applause. The Directory soon became ashamed of this ridiculous contest, and in a few weeks recalled their edict. Indeed they found it impossible to give countenance for any long period to the restless and innovating spirit of the Jacobins, who continually wished and attempted to return to revolutionary, that is, to violent measures against their antagonists. In the south, in particular, the present supremacy of the Jacobins produced very pernicious effects. Freron, who had deserted them after the death of Robespierre, and became one of their most violent adversaries, thought fit to return to their party before the 5th October, and was sent to Toulon with full powers of administration. Here he dismissed the municipality that had been elected by the people, restored the Jacobin clubs, and proceeded to imprison all suspected persons as in the days of Robespierre. These measures produced a violent reaction on the part of the enemies of the Jacobins. Assassinations became frequent, and many persons began to leave the country. The Directory was alarmed by the many complaints against the Jacobins or terrorists that came from all quarters, and resolved to aim at popularity by deserting a set of men who could not be prevailed upon to act with moderation. Freron was recalled from Toulon, and more manageable men were sought out to replace the more violent Jacobins, who were in general dismissed from the service of government.

250 features kept against the Jacobins.

The Directory proceeded farther, and acknowledged, by a public resolution, that its confidence had been abused. The minister of police was ordered to remove from Paris the members of former revolutionary tribunals, and others who now acted as leaders of the Jacobins, or anarchists as they were called. A body of troops, amounting to 10,000 men, called the legion of police, that had acted against the Parisians on the 5th October, and was now devoted to the Jacobins, was ordered by the Directory, with the authority of the legislature, to join the armies on the frontiers. These men refused to obey the order; but they were reduced to submission by some troops that had been brought to the neighbourhood to provide against such an event. The more violent Jacobins were enraged, but not intimidated, by these measures, and began to organize a plot for the overthrow of the Directory and of the majority of the councils, who had now deserted them. They were not prepared for action, however, before the month of May, and by that time their designs were discovered and counteracted. On the 12th of that month the guards were increased, and bodies of cavalry stationed around the Luxembourg and the Thuilleries. The Directory at the same time informed the Council of Five Hundred, by a message, that a dreadful conspiracy was prepared to burst forth on the following morning. At the sound of the morning bell, which is every day rung, the conspirators were to proceed in small parties of three or four men to the houses of such persons as they had marked out for destruction. After assassinating those persons, the whole parties were to unite, and to act against the Directory, whose guard they apprehended they could easily overpower. The conspirators had appointed a new Directory and a new legislature, to consist of the most violent of their own party. Among the leaders of this conspiracy, who were

now arrested by order of the Directory, was Drouet, the postmaster of Varennes, whom we formerly mentioned as having arrested the unfortunate Louis XVI. when attempting to escape to the frontiers. Along with him were Babeuf, Antonelle, Pelletier, Gaudet, Julien, General Rossignol, Germain, D'Arthe, Laignelot, and Amar, who had been a member of the committee of general safety along with Robespierre. Vadier and Robert Lindet were also engaged in the conspiracy, but they made their escape. Drouet also escaped by the connivance of the Directory, as was generally understood; but the rest of the conspirators were removed for trial to the high national court at Vendôme, where they were condemned. At the period of their removal thither, a new attempt was made by their party for their rescue. About 600 men entered the camp at Grenelle near Paris, and endeavoured to prevail with the soldiers to join them in an insurrection. This attempt was altogether unsuccessful. A few of the insurgents were killed, and the rest fled.

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These defeats of the Jacobins, and the discredit under which they were again brought, encouraged the moderate party in the two legislative councils to attempt to repeal the last decrees of the Convention, which had at once granted them an amnesty, and confirmed all the laws which, by confiscating the property of emigrants, excluded their relations from the succession. The dissection lasted many days; but the result was, that the law with regard to emigrants remained on the former footing; and the only point which the moderate party were yet able to carry was a modification of the decree to this extent, that those terrorists were declared incapable of holding public offices who owed their safety to the amnesty.

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The state of the finances now began to occupy the Discredited French government in a very serious manner. During the government of Robespierre, while the credit of the assignats was preserved by the influence of terror, or by the sale of the church lands, and the property of emigrants, little attention was bestowed upon this subject. When money was wanted, more assignats were fabricated; and as few or no taxes were demanded from the people, no enquiry was made about the public expenditure. But when the boundless extravagance of the agents of government had loaded the circulation with assignats till they became of little or no value, it became a very difficult question how the public service was hereafter to be supported. A new paper currency, called rescripts, was first adopted. These were orders on the treasury for cash, payable at certain periods. But their credit soon passed away, as the treasury had no means of fulfilling its engagements. The Directory complained very bitterly, in a message to the Councils, of its distresses, and of the want of funds to carry on the approaching campaign. In consequence of this message, a law was passed, on the 23th of March, authorizing the sale of the remainder of the national domains for the price that had been fixed upon them at an early period of the revolution, amounting to about twenty-two years purchase. A new paper currency, called mandats, was to be received in payment. But the credit of government was now gone. The mandates instantly lost in all private transactions one-fourth of their value, and they soon fell still lower. This, however, produced a great demand for national property,

property, which was thus about to be sold far below its value. To prevent this effect, the legislature broke its engagements, and decreed, that one-fourth of every purchase should be paid, not in mandates, but in cash. This decree put a stop both to the sale of national property and to the circulation of mandates.

Recourse was next had to taxation; but this was attended with much difficulty. By the war, and the violent government of Robespierre, the French commerce had been in a great measure ruined. Industrious men, who possessed any capital, had therefore turned their attention to the cultivation of land. Many circumstances led to this. By the emigration of the nobles, and the confiscation of the church lands, the farmers were left with no landlord but the government; which, being supported by assignats, paid little attention to any other source of revenue. Hence they paid no rent, and speedily rose into opulence. The revolutionary government, which kept the inhabitants of the towns under dreadful bondage, was scarcely felt by the inhabitants of the country, who thus enjoyed the advantage of exciting no suspicion in the rulers, and of paying neither rent nor taxes. The law which declared assignats to be a legal tender of payment, was a great source of profit to the cultivators of the soil. They contrived to sell the produce of their farms only to such as offered them ready specie; while, at the same time, they paid their rents, where the landlord had not emigrated, in assignats, which they obtained at a trifling price. Hence it usually happened, that while the tenant enjoyed affluence, his miserable landlord was reduced to the necessity of selling his moveables to buy a portion of the grain that grew upon his own estate, or was tempted to sell the estate itself, at an under-value, to obtain the means of emigration. By these and other circumstances, the whole industry of the French nation came to be directed towards agriculture. Their country was accordingly well cultivated; but as the riches of agricultural nations are not easily subjected to taxation, the French Directory now found it impossible to carry on the schemes of ambition and of conquest, which they had already formed, without relying for resources upon the plunder of the neighbouring states, which speedily rendered their armies odious in all those quarters of Europe to which they penetrated.

Amidst their preparations for the approaching campaign, the Directory attempted to increase their own reputation at home, by establishing what is called the National Institute; which is a society of men of letters, under the protection of the government*. Into this body were collected the most celebrated literary characters in the nation that had escaped the fury of the Mountain Party. Among these were La Place, Lalande, Fourcroy, Bertholet, Volney, Dolomieu, and others, well known throughout Europe. The first public meeting of the Institute was held, with great splendour, on the 4th of April, in the hall of the Louvre, called the Hall of Antiques. The ambassadors of Spain, Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, America, Tuscany, Genoa, and Geneva, were present. The members of the Directory attended in their robes, and their president made a speech of installation, declaring the determination of the executive power to protect and encourage literature and the arts. Dufaulx, the president of the Institute, replied, in a speech in which he declared the resolution

of the members to labour to give lustre to the republican government by their talents and productions. Fifteen hundred spectators applauded the speeches with enthusiasm, and vainly imagined that all the evils of the revolution were terminated, and that their country was now entering upon a career of unexampled glory and prosperity.

At this period the British government made an approach towards a negotiation with France. On the 8th of March Mr Wickham, the minister plenipotentiary to the Swiss Cantons, transmitted to Barthelémy, ambassador from the French Republic to the Helvetic body, a note containing three questions. Whether France would be disposed to send ministers to a congress to negotiate peace with his Britannic Majesty and his allies? Whether France would be disposed to communicate the general grounds on which she would be willing to conclude peace, that his Majesty and his allies might consider them in concert? and, lastly, Whether France would desire to communicate any other mode of accomplishing a peace? The note concluded with a promise to transmit to the British court whatever answer should be returned; but declared, that Mr Wickham was not authorised to enter into any discussion upon these subjects.

On the 26th of the same month Barthelémy returned an answer in name of the French Directory. This answer began by complaining of infidelity in the proposal made by the British court, seeing its ambassador was not authorised to negotiate, and that a congress was proposed, which must render negotiation endless. It proceeded to state the ardent desire of the Directory for peace; but asserted, that it could listen to no proposal for giving up any territory that had been declared by the constitutional act to form a part of the Republic (alluding to the Austrian Netherlands); declaring, however, that other countries occupied by the French armies, and political or commercial interests, might become the subject of negotiation. Upon these points the Directory declared its readiness to receive reasonable proposals.

To this answer no reply was sent; but the British court published a note, of which copies were presented to the foreign ministers residing at London; and in it the spirit of the Directors' answer was complained of, and also the refusal even to negotiate about the retention of foreign territory, under pretence of an internal regulation. It was added, with truth, that while such dispositions were persisted in, nothing was left but to prosecute a war equally just and necessary; but that, when more pacific sentiments should be manifested, his Majesty would be ready to concur with his allies in taking measures for establishing a just, honourable, and permanent peace.

The French Directory had succeeded, during the winter, in reducing the western departments into subjection. The emigrant expedition from England had induced the royalists once more to try the fortune of war; but, after various defeats, their leaders, Charette and Stofflet, were taken, and put to death on the 29th of March, and the insurgents were suppressed in all quarters. The French government being thus left without an enemy at home, was enabled to make great efforts on the frontiers. The military force of the Republic was divided into three armies. On the Lower Rhine, the army of the Sambre and Meuse was chiefly stationed about Dussel-

each Dusseldorf and Coblenz, and was commanded by Jourdan. Moreau commanded the army of the Rhine and Moselle, in the room of General Pichegru, who had been dismissed from his command. This army was stationed on the Upper Rhine, and from Landau to Treves. The third and last army was stationed on the coast of Italy, from Nice towards Genoa, and now received Bonaparte as its commander. The name and the actions of this man must hereafter fill so large a space in the detail of this eventful period, that it is necessary to pay some attention to his personal history.

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A Corsican gentleman, a lawyer by profession, but who had appeared in arms under the celebrated Paoli in defence of the independence of his native island, was the father of Napolone Bonaparte. Napolone was born at Ajaccio in 1767; and by the interest of M. de Marbois, the French governor of the island, he was placed for his education at the celebrated military academy of France (Ecole Militaire), which has produced so many accomplished men. At a very early period of life he presented himself as candidate for a commission in the artillery, and was successful, being the 12th on the list out of 36 victorious candidates. In consequence of this event he served two or three years in the French army as a lieutenant in the regiment of La Fere. Bonaparte having risen to the rank of captain of artillery, returned to Corsica after the revolution, and was there elected lieutenant-colonel of a corps of Corsican national guards. Here he formed a connection, which had nearly proved fatal to him, with General Paoli, the friend of his father. He resented the treatment which Paoli received from Robespierre's government, and entered so far into his interests as to write the remonstrance, which was transmitted by the municipality to the Convention, against the decree which declared the general an enemy to the Republic. In consequence of this, a warrant was at one time issued for his arrest by the commissioners of the Convention. He made his peace, however, on this occasion; and resolved to adhere to the interests of France, in opposition to Great Britain, which at this period formed the design of taking possession of Corsica. He embarked with the other members of his family for France, and arrived there at the time when Lord Hood was in possession of Toulon. Salicetti, a deputy from Corsica to the Convention, introduced him to Barras, who was now superintending the siege of Toulon. Here Bonaparte was advanced to the rank of general of artillery; and, under Dugommier, directed the attack of the various fortified posts around the city. He was afterwards employed for a short time against the royalists in the west of France; and we have already mentioned, that he was at the capital, and assisted Barras in the contest between the Convention and the Parisians on the 5th October. Hence he was regarded with dislike by the moderate party, and represented as an unprincipled adventurer, brought forward to support the terrorist faction. He had many enemies, therefore, at the commencement of his career, and his character was treated with much freedom. The scandal of the times went so far as to assert, that he owed his present preferment, not so much to any talents he had yet had an opportunity to display, as to his marriage with Madame Beaucharnois, a beautiful French woman whom Barras had taken under his protection.

The French army of Italy amounted at this time to 56,000 men. Bonaparte at his arrival found it ill equipped, and the troops mutinous for want of pay and necessaries. He addressed them, however, in the true style of military enterprise, "If we are to be vanquished, we have already too much; and if we conquer, we shall want nothing;" and ordered them to prepare for immediate action. His opponents, however, anticipated him in the attack. The Austrians employed in the defence of Italy, under General Beaulieu, are said to have more than equalled the French in numbers. To these were united the King of Sardinia's army, under Count Colli, of 60,000 regular troops, besides the militia of the country, which was now embodied, and a small body of Neapolitan cavalry, amounting to about 2500 men. General Beaulieu began the campaign, on the 9th of April, by attacking a post called Voltri, which the French possessed, within six leagues of Genoa. They defended themselves till the evening, and then retreated to Savona. Next morning Beaulieu, at the head of 15,000 men, pressing upon the centre of the French army, was completely successful till one o'clock afternoon, when he reached a redoubt at Montenotte, which was the last of their entrenchments. This redoubt contained 1500 French. Their commander, Rampon, prevailed with them, in a moment of enthusiasm, to swear that they would not surrender; and the consequence was, that they arrested the progress of Beaulieu for the remainder of the day. During the night, Bonaparte stationed his right wing under La Harpe, a Swiss exile, in the rear of the redoubt of Montenotte, which still held out, while he himself, with Massena, Berthier, and Salicetti, advanced by Altara, to take the Austrians on their flank and rear. Beaulieu, in the mean time, had received powerful reinforcements, and on the morning of the 11th renewed the attack on the French under La Harpe; but Massena soon advancing upon the flank of the Austrians and Sardinians, they gave way on all sides. Two of their generals, Roccavina and Argentau, were wounded. They lost 2500 prisoners, and were pursued beyond Cairo, of which the French took possession on the following day.

On the 13th at day-break, the defiles of Mulecimo were forced by the French General Augereau; and, by a sudden movement, General Provera, a knight of the order of Maria Theresa, at the head of 1500 Austrian grenadiers, was surrounded; a circumstance which proved not a little embarrassing to the French army. For this resolute officer, instead of surrendering, instantly withdrew to a ruined castle on the top of the mountain, and there entrenched himself. Augereau brought up his artillery, and spent many hours in attempting to dislodge him. At last he divided his troops into four columns, and endeavoured to carry Provera's entrenchments by storm. The French lost two generals, Banel and Quenin, and Joubert was wounded in this attempt, which proved unsuccessful. Provera passed the night in the midst of the French army, which had been prevented by his obstinate resistance from coming to battle. On the 14th the hostile armies faced each other, but a division of the French troops was still occupied in blockading General Provera. The Austrians attempted to force the centre of the French, but without success. Massena, in the mean time, turned the left flank of their left wing near the village.

French village of Dego; while La Harpe, with his division in ^{Revolution, 1796.} three close columns, turned the right flank of the same wing. One column kept in awe the centre of the Austrians, a second attacked the flank of their left wing, while the third column gained its rear. Thus was the left wing of the combined army completely surrounded and thrown into confusion. Eight thousand men were, on this occasion, taken prisoners, and General Provera at last also surrendered.

These victories were not gained over a timid or an inactive adversary. On the morning after his fatal defeat at Millesimo, Beaulieu made one of those spirited efforts which often retrieve and alter the fortune of war. At the head of 7000 chosen Austrian troops he attacked, at day-break, the village of Dego, where the French reposed in security after their success. He took the village; but the French having rallied under General Massena, spent the greater part of the day in attempting to retake it. They were thrice repulsed, and one of their generals, Causse, was killed. Towards evening, however, Bonaparte in person having brought up reinforcements, the post was retaken, and the Austrians retired with the loss of 1400 made prisoners.

Bonaparte had now thrown himself between the Austrian and Sardinian armies. By the possession of the strong post of Dego, his right was secured against the efforts of Beaulieu, while he was enabled to act with the mass of his force against the Piedmontese troops. His enterprises in this quarter were facilitated by the exertions of Augereau, who had opened a communication with the valley of the Tanaro, where Serrurier's division was approaching the town of Ceva, near which the Piedmontese had an entrenched camp defended by 8000 men.

On the 16th Augereau attacked the redoubts which covered this camp, and took most of them; which induced the Piedmontese to evacuate it during the night, and on the 17th Ceva was entered by Serrurier. Count Colli now retreated to cover Turin; making choice, however, of the strongest posts, and fighting in them all. He was able, on the 20th, to repulse Serrurier; but on the 22d Bonaparte, still pressing on the Piedmontese general, defeated him near Mondovi, and entered that place. The retreating army next endeavoured to make a stand, with its head quarters at Fossano, and its wings at Coni and Cherasco. On the 25th Massena advanced against Cherasco, which was speedily evacuated. Fossano surrendered to Serrurier, and Alba to Augereau.

Previous to these last movements, however, Count Colli, on the 23d of April, had written to Bonaparte, requesting an armistice, to allow the King of Sardinia an opportunity of negotiating a peace. The French army was now within 26 miles of Turin; and that prince saw himself suddenly reduced to the necessity of standing a siege in his capital, or of accepting such terms as the conqueror might think fit to impose. Bonaparte granted an armistice, on condition that the three fortresses of Coni, Ceva, and Tortona, should be delivered up to him, with their artillery and magazines, and that he should be allowed to cross the Po at Valentia. The armistice was signed on the 29th, and it was followed by a formal treaty with the French Republic, which was concluded at Paris on the 17th of May. The conditions imposed by this treaty upon

the King of Sardinia were humiliating and severe. He gave up to France for ever the duchy of Savoy, and the counties of Nice, Jenda, and Bietneil. He gave an amnesty to all his subjects that were prosecuted for political opinions. He agreed that the French troops should have free access to Italy through his territory; and, in addition to the fortresses surrendered by the armistice, he gave up those of Exiles, Susa, Brunette, Aspicette, Chateau Dauphin, and Alexandria, to be possessed by the French during the war; and they were authorized to levy military contributions in the territory occupied by them. He agreed to erect no fortresses on the side of France, to demolish the fortresses of Brunette and Susa, and to disavow his disrespectful conduct towards the last French ambassador.

In the mean time the French army advanced towards the Po. Beaulieu was deceived by the article in the armistice; which stipulated, that the French should be allowed to cross that river at Valentia, and made all his preparations for resistance in that quarter. Bonaparte laboured, by several evolutions, to confirm this error; and while the Austrian general waited for him near Valentia, in various well fortified positions, he advanced hastily into Lombardy, and had proceeded sixty miles down the river to Placentia, where he arrived on the 7th of May, before the direction of his march was discovered. He immediately seized whatever boats or other craft he could find, and effected his passage without difficulty, there being only a small party of Austrian cavalry accidentally on the opposite bank, and they fled at his approach. Beaulieu in the meanwhile had sent, when too late, a body of 6000 infantry and 2000 cavalry, to prevent if possible the French from passing the river; but Bonaparte, now on the same side of the river with themselves, met and defeated them on the 8th at the village of Fombio. Another body of 5000 Imperialists, advancing to the assistance of those at Fombio, was met at Codogno, and repulsed by General La Harpe; but this officer was killed on the occasion.

On the 9th Bonaparte granted an armistice to the Duke of Parma, on condition of his paying a contribution of 2,000,000 of French money, and delivering 10,000 quintals of wheat, 5,000 quintals of oats, and 2,000 oxen, for the use of the army. This prince also agreed to deliver up 20 of his best paintings, to be chosen by the French. This last stipulation was no sooner known in France, than many men of letters and artists remonstrated against it as both impolitic and useless. They contended, that it would render the French Republic odious to all Italy, without producing any advantage to compensate this evil, as the progress of the arts could not be promoted by removing their best productions from the scenes in which they originated. But the Directory was too much occupied by views of national aggrandisement to listen to considerations of this kind, and similar stipulations were ordered to be inserted in every future treaty; by which means the most valuable curiosities of Italy were gradually transferred to the French capital.

Beaulieu, now driven from the Po, crossed the Adda at Lodi, Pizzighione, and Cremona. He left some troops, however, to defend the approaches to Lodi. The advanced guard of the French attacked them on the 10th, and drove them into the town; which was entered in such close pursuit, that the Imperialists, on ka-

French Revolution, 1790. 64 Victory at Lodi.

ving it, had not leisure to break down the bridge over the Adda. At the other end of the bridge the Imperial army was drawn up, and thirty pieces of cannon defended the passage. The French generals, after a consultation, agreed that it could not be forced. But Bonaparte having demanded of his grenadiers if they were willing to make the attempt, they applauded the proposal, and he formed them into a close column. Taking advantage of a cloud of smoke which issued from the hostile artillery, they rushed along the bridge, which was about 100 yards in length, and were at the middle of it before they were discovered. Here a general discharge from the Austrians destroyed 700 men. The French column hesitated, and the carnage became terrible; but Massena, Berthier, Dallemagne, Cervoni, Lafinets, Dupat, and other officers, flying to the head of the column, urged on the soldiers, and pressing forward, broke into the ranks of the Imperial army, which immediately gave way, and fled in all directions. This exploit has been much celebrated. The intrepidity of the troops by whom it was accomplished is unquestionable; but how far the leader who urged them to such an enterprise is entitled to approbation may well be doubted. He had passed the Po with scarcely the loss of a man. The Adda is a very inferior stream, which has fords both above and below the town of Lodi. The river was actually crossed at one of these by Augereau with the cavalry, during the attack upon the bridge. With the delay of one day therefore the passage might have been effected without difficulty by the whole army, and there was no adequate motive to justify the lavish expenditure of blood which was here made; for the French army no longer pressed forward in pursuit of Beauclerc, but, after the surrender of Pizzighione and Cremona on the 12th, returned upon Pavia and Milan on its left (a). These places opened their gates without resistance, though the citadel of Milan held out for a short time.

It would seem that, in the original plan of Bonaparte's campaign, the utmost expected from his efforts was to gain such an ascendancy in Italy as might induce the princes and states of that country to desert the coalition against France, which all of them assisted with money and provisions, if not with troops. To accomplish this object, though he sent Massena in pursuit of Beauclerc as far as Verona, yet he himself now turned aside into Modena and the territories of the Pope. He took Ferrara, Bologna, and Urbino; and at last granted an armistice to his holiness and the Duke of Modena, on the usual conditions of large contributions of money, paintings, and curiosities. From the Pope he farther exacted the cession of the legations of Bologna and Ferrara, and possession of the citadel of Ancona. His march into the Roman territory so alarmed the Neapolitan cabinet, that it now solicited peace; and Bonaparte granted an armistice, without attempting to add to it the humiliating conditions to which the other Italian states were subjected. From the territories of the Pope, Bonaparte hastily advanced with a body of troops to Leghorn, in the neutral state of Tuscany, under pretence of driving out the English, whose

property there he confiscated. By these measures the task assigned to Bonaparte was completed by the time the campaign upon the Rhine was begun. Mantua was still indeed in the hands of the Imperialists, but it was blockaded, and all Italy was now submissive to France. French Revolution, 1796. 266 Successes of the French in Germany.

To diminish, if possible, the efforts of the French on the side of Italy, the Imperialists thought it necessary to renew the contest in Germany. An intimation was therefore sent to General Jourdan, that the armistice would terminate and hostilities commence on the 31st of May. At this time General Wertheim opposed Jourdan; and the Archduke Charles commanded the army in the Elbe, which covered Mentz and Mannheim, and was stationed against Moreau on the Upper Rhine. The French began their operations with a very artful stratagem, intended to draw the whole Austrian force to the Lower Rhine, that Moreau might have an opportunity of suddenly penetrating into Swabia, and consequently of carrying the war towards the hereditary territories of Austria. For this purpose Moreau remained quiet, while Jourdan began to act vigorously. On the 31st of May his left wing, under Kleber, issued from the lines of Dusseldorf, on the right bank of the Rhine, and, advancing towards the Sieg, defeated the Imperialists. Thereafter they were driven successively from the strong positions of Uckermunde and Altenkirchen, and retreated across the Lahn. Jourdan, in the mean time, having advanced with his centre and right wing, forced the Austrian posts on the Nahe, crossed the Rhine, formed the blockade of the fortrefs of Ehrenbreitstein, and hastened forward as if about to form the blockade or siege of Mentz. By these movements the Archduke found himself in the hazardous situation of having Moreau in his front, while Jourdan, with a victorious army, commanded his rear. He therefore hastily crossed the river, leaving the fortresses of Mentz and Mannheim to keep Moreau in check. Having joined the retreating army, he encountered Jourdan's advanced guard, which he compelled to retire after an obstinate conflict. Jourdan did not hazard a general engagement, but withdrew to his former positions, the Archduke pressing hard upon him, till he raised the blockade of Ehrenbreitstein, and crossed the Rhine in its neighbourhood, till Kleber, on the 20th of June, entered the lines of Dusseldorf, from which he had set out.

These movements were foreseen. For the instant that the Archduke withdrew from the Palatinate to drive Jourdan down the Rhine, Moreau ascended rapidly towards Strasburg; so that these hostile armies seemed to be flying from each other with all possible speed. On the 24th of June, Moreau effected the passage of the river opposite to fort Kehl. This was an enterprise of considerable difficulty; for a sudden swell, by covering a part of the islands with which the river abounds, had prevented the Austrians from being taken by surprise, as was originally intended. The entrenchments on such islands as were occupied by troops were speedily carried by the bayonet, and 2600 French landed on the opposite shore, but without cavalry or artillery. Here they were exposed to the attacks of the Austrian

Austrian horse from the camp of Willstedt, and to the fire of the cannon of the fort. They maintained their ground, however, and even acted on the offensive, till the boats, which had been sent back, returned with a reinforcement. The whole redoubts and the fort were then instantly taken by storm, or with the assistance of such cannon as had been found in the first redoubts at which the French arrived, and the Imperialists fled towards Offenburg.

The departure of the Archduke to the Lower Rhine in pursuit of Jourdan, and the large detachments which had recently been sent towards Italy to oppose Bonaparte, now enabled Moreau to enter Swabia with a great superiority of force. The strong military positions, however, which the country affords, presented to him considerable difficulties. On the 26th of June he drove the Austrians from their camp of Willstedt; and on the 27th he advanced with his army, in three columns, against another camp of 15,000 men in front of Offenburg. General Wurmsler sent a strong reinforcement from Mannheim to the assistance of these troops; but having encountered two of the French columns on its way, the reinforcement was defeated, and the camp at Offenburg was evacuated during the night. The Austrians made an obstinate stand at Renchen, near Philippsburg, on the 29th, but were at last compelled to retire with the loss of 1200 men taken prisoners, and several pieces of cannon. On the 2d of July a division of the French army, under General Laroche, succeeded in seizing the mountain Knubis, which is the highest point of the ridge of mountains called the Black Forest. On the 3d, after an obstinate conflict, the Austrians were driven from the pass of Friedenthal; in consequence of which they lost all communication with the emigrant troops under the Prince of Condé, and other Imperial troops stationed on the Rhine towards Switzerland. On the 6th, the left wing of the French, under Desaix, encountered the Imperialists at Rastadt, where the Austrians, who had received some reinforcements from the Lower Rhine, made a very determined resistance; but were at last compelled to give way, and to retire to Ettingen.

The Archduke Charles now arrived in person with his army from the Lower Rhine, where he had left Wartenleben, but with inferior force, to oppose Jourdan. The French, under this general, had instantly resumed the offensive upon the departure of the Archduke. Kleber advanced from the lines of Duffeldorf, as formerly; while the centre and right wing crossed the Rhine near Coblenz. The posts of Ukareth and Altenkirchen were forced, and on the 9th of July the whole of Jourdan's army crossed the Lahn. On the 10th, Wartenleben was defeated near this river, after great slaughter on both sides, with the loss of 500 prisoners; and the French on the 12th entered Franckfort. The situation of the hostile armies was now become extremely important. The two Imperial armies were at no great distance from each other, and were placed in the centre between the armies of Moreau and Jourdan. Could the Archduke, who was commander in chief, have resisted one of these armies for a short time, at any strong position, by a detachment of his troops, while he precipitated himself with the mass of his force upon the other, it is probable that any farther invasion of Germany might have been prevented. But the activity of

the French generals, whose progress could nowhere be resisted by partial efforts, prevented the possibility of executing such a plan. He was therefore under the necessity of making his final exertion for the present safety of Germany against Moreau at Ettingen, on the 9th of July, without having formed any junction with Wartenleben. The battle was most obstinately fought. The French were four times repulsed in their attempts to force the heights of Rollenfolhe; and it was not till they had experienced a dreadful slaughter that they at last carried the field by the bayonet.

The loss of the battle of Ettingen compelled the two Imperial armies to retire eastward. After placing strong garrisons in Mentz, Mannheim, and Philippsburg, the Archduke retreated through Swabia towards Ulm, where his magazines were placed. At every strong position, however, he made an obstinate stand; thus endeavouring to render the progress of the French under Moreau as tardy as possible. Wartenleben, with the other Imperial army, retired through Franconia, resisting Jourdan in the same manner. Many bloody battles were fought, of which it is here unnecessary to give a minute description. It is sufficient to remark, that the French were long successful in them all. They gradually pressed forward till Moreau's army compelled the Archduke to cross the Neckar, and afterwards the Danube, leaving the whole circle of Swabia in the rear of the French. Wartenleben was in like manner driven through Aschaffenburg, Wurtzburg, Schweinfurt, and found it necessary to cross the Rednitz, on the 6th of August, at Bamberg, to avoid the pressure of Jourdan's army in his rear. This army continued to advance till its right wing, under Bernadotte, was posted at Neumarkt, with his advanced posts at Teining, while the body of the army had driven Wartenleben beyond the Nab, and had reached Amberg on the 22d of August.

Excepting a part of the mountains of Tyrol, three French armies, under Jourdan, Moreau, and Bonaparte, now occupied the whole country reaching from the frontiers of Bohemia to the Adriatic Sea. The alarm throughout Germany was extreme. The Duke of Wirtemberg obtained peace from the French on condition of paying 4,000,000 of French money. The circle of Swabia did the same, on engaging to pay 12,000,000 of livres, and to deliver 8,400 horses, 5,000 oxen, 100,000 quintals of wheat, 50,000 quintals of rye, 100,000 sacks of oats, 100,000 pairs of shoes, and a large quantity of hay. The Margrave of Baden obtained peace on similar terms. The elector of Bavaria and the circle of Franconia negotiated, and offered large payments; and even the diet of Ratisbon sent a deputation to treat with the French generals for neutrality. The King of Prussia now entered into a new treaty with the French; the conditions of which were concealed, but its nature appeared in the advantage which he took of the progress of their arms to take possession of certain territories in Germany, and particularly of the suburbs of Nuremberg, under pretence of some antiquated title. Spain also entered into a treaty offensive and defensive with France, which was afterwards followed up by a declaration of war against Britain.

The danger of the house of Austria was now very great; and had Bonaparte, instead of being detained in Italy, by events of which we shall immediately take notice,

French
Revolution,
1796.

vice, been able to cross the Tyrol by Innsbruck, and to reach the banks of the Danube, there is little doubt that the Emperor must have submitted to such conditions as the French thought fit to impose. Deserted in all quarters by the members of the coalition, he still, however, retained an ally in Great Britain, whose riches, liberally bestowed in the form of a loan, extricated him from the present difficulties. Having the command of abundance of money, he was enabled to send one army after another to oppose Bonaparte in Italy, while he recruited his armies in Germany by extensive levies, and by taking into his pay the troops of those states that made peace with France.

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the
Arch.

The Archduke, having received powerful reinforcements, resolved to make a stand, on the 11th of August, against Moreau at Umenheim. A severe battle was fought during seventeen hours, and one of the wings of the Austrian army, under General Riese, even succeeded in occupying four leagues of territory in the rear of the French army; but the Archduke having received intelligence, in the mean time, that Wartenleben could not maintain his ground against Jourdan, he thought it necessary to continue his retreat, and to adopt new measures. On the 17th of August he left General La Tour, with a part of his numerous army, to oppose Moreau, and having crossed the Danube at Neuburg and Ingolstadt, he marched to Wartenleben's assistance to fall upon Jourdan with united forces. On the 23d he attacked Bernadotte at Teining, and forced him to retire towards Nuremberg. The Archduke was thus upon the right of Jourdan, while Wartenleben was stationed on his front. The French general, finding his position dangerous, began to retreat on the 24th. From the state of the finances, the French armies, at the commencement of this campaign, had been extremely ill equipped and ill paid. Hence the two armies of Moreau and Jourdan plundered, without decency or mercy, every place into which they entered. In Jourdan's army, more especially, the want of discipline was extreme (A). Hence, when they began to retreat, loaded as they were with spoil, they suffered not less from the enraged inhabitants of the countries through which they passed, than from the military efforts of the hostile army. The Archduke having joined Wartenleben, was enabled to send off Nauendorf with reinforcements to La Tour, who opposed Moreau, and, in the mean time, he continued in person to pursue Jourdan towards Wurtzburg. Here the French made a stand, on the 3d of September, and a general engagement took place.