resolute and hardy race of men, but extremely attached to the family of Austria of whom they had for centuries continued the faithful and affectionate subjects. Buonaparte did not, however, despair to make an impression upon them in his favour, through the medium of those addresses, of which he had experienced the efficacy on other occasions. On the fourteenth of June he published a manifesto, wherein he informed them, that he intended to march through their country, in order to force the emperor to come into terms of peace with the French, who desired a termination of the war, not only for themselves, but for the benefit of all Europe, so long harassed and desolated through the ambition of the Imperial family; for which alone the people of its dominions were involved in the horrors of war, as well as the people of France. The French, he told them, bore no hatred to the inhabitants of Germany, but solely to their ambitious sovereigns, and felt the sincerest sentiments of good will and fraternity for their oppressed subjects. He invited them, therefore, in the name of the French, to receive their army with hospitality and abstain from all hostilities; promising the strictest honour and punctuality, in all dealings and transactions with them, but admonishing them, at the same time, that if compelled to have recourse to their arms, the French would, however unwillingly, prove as ter. rible to them, as they had unvaria. bly done to all their other enemies. But while he was preparing to follow up this manifesto, by marching his army into the Tyrol, he was called away by the indispensible necessity of providing for the security of his conquests; menaced by a variety of unfavourable circumstances, against which vigorous exertions were required without delay. The distance at which the forces of the French were at this time, from several districts, known by the name of Imperial Fiefs, and situated on the borders of Piedmont, Genoa, and Tuscany, had emboldened the people there, who were in the interest of the emperor, to act a very hostile part against the French; they attacked their convoys, intercepted the communication with Buonaparte's army, and killed his couriers. Such were the complaints and repre sentations of the French. In order to put a stop to those proceedings, which were secretly countenanced by those numerous enemies of the French, who did not dare to avow themselves, Buonaparte was obliged to dispatch large detachments from the main body of his forces, to repress them. This was the very end proposed by those insurrections, but the celerity with which he acted, quickly effected their suppression: the insurgents were compelled to submit, and deliver up their arms and hostages for their obedience. Heavy fines were imposed upon them, and ordinances issued ; a refusal to comply with which, was made punishable with military execution. The motive that led to this severity, was the determination to proceed, without the danger of being recalled by new commotions, in the plan of extending, through the most distant parts of Italy, an unresisting subjugation to the dictates of France. Rome and Naples were the two states against which Buonaparte was intending to act. The enmity of both to the French was undeniable. t undeniable. The inability of the Pope to resist them was an additional motive to invade his territories. Ferrara, Bologna, and Urbino, all cities of importance, were taken possession of, and Rome itself was threatened. The partisans of the French in Italy, and elsewhere, expressed open satisfaction at their conduct towards the Roman see. The disreputable means by which it had risen to power, and acquired the territories composing its sovereignty, were not forgotten. The arrogance of its pretensions, and the daily diminution of the reverence and veneration which it formerly commanded, jointly induced people to view its humiliation with pleasure. Conscious of these sentiments in the generality, Buonaparte felt the less scruple in the severity of his transactions with the court of Rome, with which it seems he had determined to keep no measures; commissioned doubtless by the government of France to act in this rigorous manner. Terrified at this invasion of his dominions, and totally unable to resist it, the pope was reduced to the necessity of suing for an armistice, which was granted to him, on conditions similar to those on which the dukes of Parma and Modena had obtained it: to which was added, the surrender of the cities of Bologna, Ferrara, and the citadel of Ancona, with the territories of the two former, and a larger proportion of pictures and statues, and some hundreds of the most curious manuscripts from the Vatican library. The pope, with a resignation more becoming the head of the church, than so many of the ambitious and daring actions of his predecessors, yielded to ne cessity with the best grace in the world. He discharged his subjects from molesting, and even from reviling the French. He exhorted them to use them well, and even to pray for them. In former ages, the popes were wont most bitterly to curse even their own spiritual sons, when they shewed any degree of a refractory spirit. The piety of the church, smothered by wealth and power, appeared to be revived with persecution. The Christians seemed to return to the principles of "loving their enemies, blessing those that cursed them, doing good to those that hated them, and praying for those who despitefully used and. persecuted them." Had the pope. with the Romish clergy been sincere in such professions of humility and benevolence, and credit been given to such professions, the church might have sprung, like a phoenix, from its own ashes, and the tide of affairs been turned but without inquiring too minutely into the piety of the pope, we must commend his prudence, in advising the Romans to give up a part of their wealth, rather than the whole. His holiness was a more prudent man than the Roman knight Nonius, who was put to death by Tiberius, for refusing to part with a very exquisite and precious piece of sculpture. All persons imprisoned for their opi nions were now to be set at liberty; the ports of the ecclesiastical state to be open to the French, and shut to their enemies, and a free passage allowed to the French troops through the papal territories. This armistice was signed on the twenty-third of June: but the directory, though willing to negociate a peace with the pontiff, refused to receive the ministers he had sent to Paris for that purpose, on account of their being ecclesiastics, a profession of which they had declared to admit no members in the quality of negociators. A suspension of arms had already been concluded with the king of Naples, on terms of more equality. The multiplicity of operations, undertaken by the French, did not permit them to exert the like severity with a prince who was so much more able to oppose them. In the mean time, the resolution taken by the directory, to exclude the English from an access to any port to which it could barr their entrance, prompted them to direct their general to seize on the port of Leghorn, on pretence of the flag of France having been insulted there, and the French merchants ill-treated, in violation of the rights of neutrality. On the twenty-eight of June, a detachment of Buonaparte's army took possession of this place. The English merchants, however, being apprised of his intentions, had sufficient time to remove their property on board their ships in the harbour, and very little was seized by the French. The seizure of Leghorn was accompanied by the reduction of the castle of Milan: this celebrated fortress, surrendered to them on the last day of June. The garrison, consisting of more than two thousand men, convinced of the impossibility of making any effectual resistance, yielded themselves prisoners of war. One hundred and fifty pieces of cannon, with an immense quantity of ammunition and stores, taken here by the French. were During these various transactions, while Buonaparte was occupied in extending through Italy the empire of the French, and the terror of his arms, he was equally careful to impress the Italians with favourable opinions of his inclination to promote their general welfare, and equally of bis respect for learning and literary men. This, he knew, would exhibit an advantageous contrast of the respective dispositions of the French and the Austrians, in matters of this nature. The neglect and indifference of these latter, for the polite arts and sciences, and their professors had long been well known, and it was a part of Buonaparte's policy, by displaying his partiality to characters of this description, to conciliate their esteem, and secure their prepossession in his favour. To this intent he had taken with him, to Italy, several eminent literati from France. They were the companions of his private hours, and were looked upon as a credit to his expedition: with them he consulted in what manner he could make if redound to the benefit of letters and philosophical knowledge. The cultivators of learning in Italy, to whom he was represented in this advantageous light, could not fail to conceive amicable ideas of him, and he was particularly solicitous to improve them. An oppor. tunity offered, on the reduction of Milan, where he requested an interview with the celebrated astro nomer Oriane, in order to testify his respect, and that of the French nation, for his extraodinary merit. In a letter, written to him on this occasion, and addressed, through him, to all the Italian literati, Buo naparte exerted his persuasive talents. to convince him and them of the predeliction with which the rulers of France regarded all individuals of his character, and how zealous they they were in the protection and encouragement of polite knowledge and the liberal arts, and desirous to afford them the most generous and honourable countenance and support. All men of genius," said the letter, "all those who have obtained a distinguished rank in the republic of letters, are Frenchmen, in whatever country they may have been born. The learned in Italy, esteemed themselves happy, if left unmolested by princes and priests: but henceforth, opinions shall be free, and the inquisition, intolerance, and despotism be no more. I invite," he continued, "the learned to assemble, and propose their sentiments on the means necessary to be taken, and the assistance they may require, to give new life and existence to the sciences and the fine arts." He addressed the university of Pavia in the same style, and took peculiar pains to impress on the minds of the public, that the French were solicitous to place the people of Italy on the same footing with themselves, in whatever related to the liberty of thinking, and would feel more satisfaction in acquiring their esteem and their approbation of the proceedings of the French government, and of the political maxims on which it acted, than in the submission enforced by their victorious arms. The conquests obtained over the human mind, being of far greater importance to inen who knew the difficulty of obtaining them, and the utility which they produced, than victories won by the sword, and empire maintained through terror. Language of this kind, which was incessantly in the mouth of the French general, and of those in his confidence and intimacy, did more in conciliating the people, who had submitted to him, than the dread of his power; the clergy and the nobility excepted: to the very existence of which orders the French system was immediately inimical: the other classes beheld in the French a nation of warriors, who seemed to have taken up arms for the purpose of reducing all other nations to a level of opinion and government with themselves, and to harbour no enmity but to hereditary sovereigns, and the adherents to implicit obedience in matters of church and state. To disseminate such a disposition in the generality was the chief aim of the French general, well knowing that, on such a ground, he would be able to erect a more durable fabrie of that republicanism he had in view, than on the military power he had establised, and which, without those concomitances that he held out to the natives, would have been odious to them, and have presented no other picture than that of conquest and tyranny. In this court, that was paid by the French general to men of letters and genius, we contemplate a policy, not less solid than sublime. It is from the opinions and spirit of the truly learned and inteligent, that public spirit in all nations sooner or later derives its complexion with their origin. The class too that would be flattered by this address was more numerous by far, than it will be very easy to imagine: so great a portion of mankind being so highly satisfied with their own talents and accomplishments. The professions of Buonaparte, however, but ill accorded with his actions. The whole of his conduct indicated. [II 4] that that his main design was to establish the power and influence of the French in Italy. At Milan he formed the plan of a republic on the model of that of France, and to be under her protection, in the same manner as the victorious and ambitious Romans admitted the conquered states to the alliances and frendship of the senate and people of Rome: thus endeavouring to subvert the authority of the emperor, and to erect that of France on its ruins, by abolishing feudal rights, and giving the great mass of the people a share and an interest in the new government. He fortified Verona, notwithstanding the reclamations of the Venetians; and placed general officers, in whom he could confide, over the Tuscan troops, as well as over those of Piedmont and Milan. The intentions of the French were still less concealed at Paris; where those who bore sway, at the same time that they professed a desire to fraternize with all nations, talking of nothing but the extension of their arms, and of Paris becoming the capital of Europe. They boasted of the generous design of giving peace and tranquillity to all nations under the protection of the French republic. In the mean time, Buonaparte was preparing to meet the new general appointed to take the command of the Imperial forces that were marching to the protection of the Tyrol. The situation of the French at this period was extremely critical: they had subdued an extensive range of country; to preserve which they had been obliged to detach considerable numbers from their main body. The remains of Beaulieu's army, and the reinforcements arriving with marshal Wurmser, com posed a much more formidable strength than that under Buonaparte. But the confidence he placed in the valour of his men, and that which they reposed in his superior genius and skill, seemed, in the opinion of the public, to stand him in the stead of numbers. The passes into the Tyrol were guarded by works extending from the Lake of Garda to the river Adige. Here the Imperial commander, newly arrived, posted himself: but the French generals Massena, and Joubert, at the head of a select body, broke into his lines, by turning his right and left they seized his baggage and standing camp, and forced him to retreat with the utmost precipitation. This happened towards the close of June. The first engagement, between Wurmser and the French, would probably have been followed with worse consequences to him, had not an insurrection taken place in a city of the ecclesiastical state, which obstructed for a while their intended operations. The inhabitants of the city and district of Lugo, incited by the complaints of their clergy, and others who bore heavily the French yoke, took up arms, as they expressed themselves, in defence of their saints, and their lawful sovereign, the pope. A small detachment was sent to quell them, but they forced it to retire, after killing some men, the heads of two of whom, according to the French accounts, they ex posed at the town house of Lugo. The French general, who was sent with a sufficient force to reduce them, employed admonitions and threats to that purpose: but they set him at defiance, and made a desperate resistance: upwards of a thousand of them were killed and wounded, |