1800.

BOOK IV. clared, at the same time, that he was unalterably disposed to accept with pleasure any reaCHAP. VII. Sonable propositions and conditions of peace. The resolution of the emperor to put himself at the head of his army, was taken, no doubt, with a view to rouse the ancient courage of the Germans; and to give efficacy to proclamations, which he issued at the same time, for calling forth the force of the country in volunteer associations. But the emperor had no sooner joined the army, which was under the immediate and sole command of the Archduke John, than he made application to the French government for a prolongation of the armistice. The first consul, on conditions presently to be mentioned, agreed to this; declaring at the same time that the renewal of hostilities, or the improvement of a suspension of arms into a permanent peace, would wholly depend on the rejection or the ratification of the preliminaries concluded with Count St. Julien. The consul at the same time declared that he thought it his duty not to waste the remainder of the autumn in idle conferences, or to expose himself to endless diplomatic discussions, without securities for the sincerity of the enemy's intentions. The securities he demanded were Philipsburg, Ulm, and Ingolstadt, with their dependent forts. This condition, though it left the hereditary dominions of Austria, in a great measure, at the mercy of the enemy, being agreed to at Hohenlinden, a suspension of arms was concluded for fortyfive days, commencing from the 21st of September.

There was not, during this interval, any remission of military preparation on either side. Recruits were sent from the camp at Dijon to the French armies; and the Austrians were reinforced by battalions raised in all parts of the hereditary states. The French army of the Rhine, seconded on its left by the army of Augereau, and on its right by that of the Grisons, formed on the Mayne, as far as the entry into the Tyrole, a line ready to advance on the first signal. It was composed of twelve divisions, comprising at least 100,000 men, and was divided into four corps; of which, that under General Lecourbe, consisting of three divisions, occupied Upper Suabia, Upper Bavaria, and the entry to the Tyrole. That under the immediate orders of the commander-in-chief in person, consisting of three other divisions, occupied the two banks of the Iller as far as Landshut. That of General Grenier, consisting of three more divisions, held all the left banks of the Danube nearly to Passau, and the right bank of that river as far as the mouth of it at Almuck: and, lastly, that of General St. Susanne, composed of three other divisions, occupied the country between the Mayne and the Danube, from Bamberg as far as Aix-la-Chapelle-While

the French were thus formidable in front, there was nothing to be apprehended on either of their flanks. Italy was re-conquered. Switzerland was in their possession, the French moulding its government just as they pleased: and a Prussian army maintained the neutrality of the north of Germany.

The French, in the arrangements made with the Austrians for a suspension of arms, had acquiesced in the neutrality of Tuscany and, perhaps, if that suspension had been followed by a pacification, as proposed by the chief consul in the moment of victory, it would not have been violated. But when negociation for peace was found not to be successful, the French government became desirous of repossessing the duchy; and, on pretence of frequent outrages and depredations committed, as was alleged, in the adjoining districts, by Tuscan brigands, or robbers. It was thus that they thought proper, on the present occasion, to style an armed corps, which the inhabitants had formed for maintaining the internal order and tranquillity of the country. General Sommariva, in the end of September, was sent with only a small escort to disarm and disperse the national guard of the Tuscans. This requisition not being readily complied with, General Brune sent a detachment, under General Dupont, to take possession of the Tuscan territory. Dupont, on the 15th of October, entered Florence without opposition. Soon after this, Brigadier-general Clement persuaded the Austrian troops at Leghorn to surrender that town to him, on his assenting to a convention for the continuance of the Tuscan government, and the security of privileges and of property. This agreement was not scrupulously observed, though the British merchants were fortunate in preserving the greater part of their effects by means of the ships in the harbour. Strong parties were now sent out against the armed Tuscans at Arezzo and other places; and, as some resistance was made by the latter, they were not subdued and dispersed without bloodshed. About the same time, a heavy contribution was imposed on the small helpless state of Lucca.

The French authority and power throughout Italy was at this time so great, that the munici pality of Cesenatico, a sea-port on the Adriatic coast, presumed to arrest an English officer, who carried dispatches to them from the British admiral in the Mediterranean. The municipality ap peared not to have any other motive for this deed than the usual propensity of paltry and overawed states to pay court to the prevailing power by marks of zealous servility. Lord Keith deter mined to take severe vengeance for this breach of the law of nations; and Captain Ricket carried his orders into prompt execution. A proclamation was issued, lamenting that the innocent

should suffer with and for the guilty, but stating at the same time the necessity of sanctioning and supporting a law so indispensably necessary in all the intercourses of peace or war, and which the magistrates of Cesenatico had so unnecessarily and wantonly violated. A short time after the publication of this, all the vessels within the Mole were sunk or burned. The two piers were consumed, and the harbour was rendered useless. It is not easy, amidst so many complicated views and shifting scenes, to account for the restoration of Rome, with the greater part of the Roman territories, to the pope. The conclave for the election of a successor to Pius VI. was held under the auspices of the emperor at Venice. It was generally supposed that, in this step, the court of Vienna had it in contemplation to stipulate for some cessions on the part of the Romish see to the house of Austria, in Italy. The ecclesiastic honored with the pontificate was Cardinal di Chiaramonte, a man of good sense, and mild and unassuming manners. As it was customary for the new pontiff to assume the name of the pope who had promoted him to the dignity of cardinal, Chiaramonte took that of Pius VII. The emperor, on his election, presented him with a sum of money, as an earnest of his regard and protection; but did not at first restore any part of the papal dominions. It is not impossible, that after the battle of Maringo, when he became apprehensive of the loss of his power and influence in Italy, he resolved to have the credit of delivering up to the pope the greater part of the ecclesiastical estate, rather than that it should fall into either the possession or disposal of other hands. The court of Vienna, it was said, had been for some time suspicious of an understanding between the King of Naples and the Russians. The king, it was suspected, was to accommodate the court of St. Petersburgh with the long object of its ambition, some sea-port in the Mediterranean, and to be indemnified by a portion of the ecclesiastical territories. Be all this as it may, the Austrians having delivered up to his holiness the greater part of the ecclesiastical state, Pius VII. took possession of the see of Rome, and began to exercise the functions of sovereignty, with great dignity and moderation.

Moreau, who had returned to his native country in order to be married, soon after repaired to his head-quarters in Germany.

The Austrian armies advanced to the frontiers, and occupied a chain of posts in front of the hostile army, bending their main force to strengthen their line, from the frontier of Austria to the Gulph of Venice. An army of 30,000 men was stationed in Bohemia, under the command of the Archduke Charles, who still granted his assistance. The right banks of the Mayne were occupied by the Austrians in great force.

And an army, under the command of General BOOK IV. Klenau, in the Upper Palatinate, was opposed

1800.

to the French division under General St. Su- CHAP. VII. sanne, whose head-quarters were at Mayence. The positions and first movements of the invading army seemed to indicate an intention of carrying the great weight of the war into Bohemia. But the grand plan of Moreau's operations was not fully or certainly developed; this winter campaign being speedily cut short, by decisive advantages obtained over the Austrians. The French troops, under Augereau, drove those of Mayence from Aschaffenberg, on the 24th of November, and marched through Franconia towards Bohemia, to communicate with the left of the division under General Moreau.

On the 29th, General Moreau recommenced hostilities, near the Inn, and carried the Austrian works at Wassenberg. He was less successful in a battle on the 1st of December, near Haag, where he was vigorously attacked by the Archduke John, at the head of three columns. The Austrians were repeatedly driven back, but at last prevailed. The French were forced to retreat with great slaughter. On the same day, an attack was made by the French on an Austrian post at Rosenheim, but were repulsed after a hot engagement. In this action, the Prince of Condé's corps acquired great reputation by their firmness and cool courage. The Prince of Condé's son and the Duke of Angouleme were particularly distinguished.

The Archduke John, encouraged by these successes, on the 3d of December assaulted the French post at Hohenlinden, memorable for the last convention, and rendered still more memorable by the battle of this day. The archduke had no sooner begun his march than there fell a heavy shower of snow and sleet, by which his army was so much retarded, that only the central column had arrived at the place of destination at a time when all the divisions ought to have been ready for action. A division of the French, conducted by Richepanse, pierced between the left wing of the Austrians and the centre, reached the great road behind the centre, and assaulted the left flank and rear of that column, at a mcment when it had formed in front, and commenced an attack. The Austrians, with their usual courage and bravery, sustained the conflict or several hours: but their centre being repelled by the impetuosity of the French, great disorder ensued. Their left wing was also defeated: and the battle seemed to be completely decided in favor of the French, when a vigorous attempt was made, by the right wing, to turn the tide of victory.

General Grenier sustained this unexpected charge with firmness; and, being well supported, threw his adversaries into the utmost confusion.

army.

According to the account of the battle of Hohenlinden, given by General Moreau, the French took 80 pieces of cannon, 200 caissons, 10,000 prisoners, and a great number of officers, among whom were three generals. The general did not state the loss of the French to be more than 1000 in killed, wounded, and missing. But, according to the Austrian accounts, and on which all the world placed more dependence, the report of Moreau exceeded the truth by at least one half. The victorious republicans, after a long and unremitted pursuit of the flying Austrians, took possession of the city of Saltzburgh.

In the mean time, the three other French armies, the Gallo-Batavian, and that of Italy, were not idle. On the day distinguished by the battle of Hohenlinden, General Augereau gained an important advantage near Banberg. General Macdonald, defying the obstacles of an Alpine winter, passed from the country of the Grisons into the Valtelline, drove the enemy before him, and opened a communication with the army of Italy. A division of his army, after a series of actions with the Austrians, crossed the Mincio on the 26th of December. Vienna was struck with

terror. The Archduke repaired to the camp, to animate the troops to fresh exertion: but this prince, on a comparative view of his own with the enemy's strength, proposed an armistice, which was readily agreed to, and concluded, at Steyer, on the 25th of December, though the French, breaking their faith, had dismantled the three towns which had been delivered to them merely as pledges. The emperor consented to the surrender of many other posts, relying on the promisc of restitution; and he was constrained, by a succession of heavy losses, to declare his readiness to detach himself from his allies, and recede from his former determination to agree to no other than a general peace. The British court, duly sensible of the alarming situation in which they themselves had so much contributed to involve him, released him from his engagements.

On a general retrospect of this combined campaign, in Italy and Germany, we find that it was art, contrivance, and stratagem, that decided the contest in favor of the French. The conditions by which the emperor procured an armistice of only forty-five days, were hard; it having been agreed, in a convention signed at Steyer, that the Tyrole should be wholly evacuated, and the fortresses of Brunau and Wartzbourg delivered up to the French. The most lively alarm was excited in Vienna, till the arrival of the Archduke Charles, at ten o'clock in the morning of Dec. 27, with the news of his having concluded. an armistice with General Moreau.

THE ministers of Europe were, at this period, busily treating with the agents of the first consul for peace; and Great Britain, who had disdainfully rejected the advances of Bonaparte, when he first arrived at power, now condescended to join in those negociations. Early in the month of August, Lord Minto, in a note to Baron Thugut, after expressing the satisfaction felt by the king his master at the conduct of his imperial majesty, declared the entire concurrence of his Britannic majesty in the negociations which might take place for a general pacification, and his readiness to send plenipotentiaries to treat for peace, in concert with those of his imperial and royal majesty, as soon as the intentions of the French

government to enter into a negociation with his Britannic majesty should be known to him.

Baron Thugut, in a dispatch, dated August the 11th, to M. Talleyrand, informed that minister that the King of Great Britain, the ally of his imperial majesty, was ready on his part to concur in the negociations for re-establishing general tranquillity, after which, suffering Europe had long sighed in vain; and it only remained therefore, he said, to agree upon the place at which the plenipotentiaries should meet-proposing the

city of Luneville.

In consequence of this communication, Mr. Otto, commissary of the French republic (resident in England), a man of great discretion

and address, transmitted by order of his government a note to Lord Grenville, dated August 24, demanding further explanations respecting the proposition communicated by the court of London to that of Vienna; observing, at the same time, the impossibility that, at the moment when Austria and England take a common share in the negociations, France should find herself under a suspension of arms with Austria, and a continuation of hostilities with England. He proposed, on the part of the first consul, a general armistice between the fleets and armies of France and England, analogous to those which had taken place in Italy and Germany; and declared that he had received from his government the powers necessary for negociation and concluding this general armistice.

A Captain George, commissary for the exchange of prisoners, and therefore a gentleman personally known to Mr. Otto, was directed to confer with him, agreeably to a minute of instructions with which he was furnished. With regard to the naval armistice, Captain George was directed to say, "that an armistice, as applying to naval operations, had at no period ever been agreed on between Great Britain and France during the course of their negociations for peace, or until the preliminaries had been actually signed; that it could, therefore, be considered as a step necessary to negociation; and that, from the disputes to which its execution must unavoidably be expected to give rise, it might probably tend rather to obstruct than to facilitate the success of those endeavours which the two parties might employ for the restoration of peace; that the circumstances of a naval war are obviously not such as to admit of equal arrangements as are easily established with regard to military operations, when suspended by such an agreement; that it appeared, therefore, at all events, premature to enter even into the discussion of the question.

Captain George was in return informed by Mr. Otto (August 28), that he had every reason to think that the continuation of the German armistice would depend upon the conclusion of the English armistice, the advantages of the latter being considered by France as an equivalent for the very obvious disadvantages of the German one. Mr. Otto further declared himself instructed to require an answer to the proposal for a general armistice, before the 3d of September; which made him conclude that hostilities might again commence about that time, should the proposed armistice be positively refused on the part of his majesty. From this declaration, the great importance attached to the naval armistice, by the government of France, plainly appeared. It was made the indispensable condition of prolonging the German armistice, and of admitting England to a joint

1800.

negociation with Austria. It remained with the BOOK IV. English court to determine, whether it was least disadvantageous to her interests to admit the claim CHAP. VIII of France, or, rejecting it, to withdraw her own to the joint negociation. To endeavour, by arquing the case, to obtain the advantage, and to avoid the disadvantage, led unavoidably to that sort of altercation, from which nothing but ill-humour and loss of time could possibly result.

On the 29th an official note was addressed by Lord Grenville to Mr. Otto, similar to the instructions of Captain George; to which Mr. Otto replied, on the following day, "that he was directed to submit to the British government the projet for a maritime truce; but the ministers of his majesty having judged that it would be PREMATURE to enter even into the DISCUSSION of this object, it is his duty to respect the motives which appear to them to militate against such a nego

ciation."

The 3d of September having passed over, Mr. Otto transmitted another note to Lord Grenville, in which he stated, by express order from his government, "that preliminaries of peace had been concluded and signed between his imperial majesty and the French republic; and that the intervention of Lord Minto, who demanded that England should be admitted to take part in the negociations, prevented their ratification by his imperial majesty. That the suspension of arms, which had taken place solely in the hope of a speedy peace between the emperor and the republic, ought to cease, and will in fact cease, on the 24th Fructidor (11th Sept.), since France had sacrificed to that hope alone the immense advantages which victory had secured to her; that, in fine, the intervention of England_rendered the question of peace so complicated, that it was impossible for the French government to prolong further the armistice upon the continent, unless his Britannic majesty would consent to render it common to the three powers." And Mr. Otto further informed Lord Grenville, that the besieged or blockaded places which it was proposed to assimilate to those of Germany, were Malta and the maritime towns of Egypt.

Lord Grenville wrote on the same day a letter to Mr. Nepean, secretary to the admiralty, importing," that, the French government having, as it appeared, determined to make the continuance of the armistice between Austria and France, and the commencement of the negociations for peace, dependent on the conclusion of an armistice with this country, it was judged proper that he should see Mr. Otto, and inquire of him, whether he was furnished with a project of a treaty of naval truce, and what were the conditions of it." Hereupon Mr. Otto avowed to Mr. Nepean, that he was deterred from presenting the projet which he had

BOOK IV. been in possession of by his lordship's declaration "that it was altogether premature to enter into the DISCUSSION of the question!"

CHAP. VIII.

1800.

The project consisted of seven articles, in substance as follows:-1. Suspension of hostilities. -2. Free navigation--3. Vessels captured after a fixed period to be restored.-4. Malta, Alexandria, and Belleisle, to be assimilated to Ulm, Philipsburg, and Ingoldstadt; and all neutral or French vessels to enter with provisions freely.5. The British squadrons which blockaded Brest, Cadiz, Toulon, and Flushing, to withdraw from the coasts.-6. Armistice to be regularly notified -7. Spain and Holland to be included.

On the 7th of September, Lord Grenville returned an answer. "The spirit of the note last received from Mr. Otto," said his Lordship, "is unhappily but little consonant with those appearances of a conciliatory disposition, which had before been manifested. If it be really practicable, in the present moment, to restore permanent tranquillity to Europe, this object must be effected by very different means than those of such a controversy as that paper is calculated to excite." The English minister then proceeded to state, the abstract principle on which an armistice ought to be founded, and employed great pains to expose the inequality of the conditions proposed by France, and their incongruity, with the abstract principle laid down by him. "To a proposal," said this statesman, so manifestly repugnant to justice and equality, and so injurious, not only to his majesty's interests, but also to those of his allies, it could not be expected that any motive should induce the king to accede." He then informed Mr. Otto, that he had transmitted to him a counterprojet,"containing regulations more nearly corresponding with that principle of equality on which alone his majesty could consent to treat. Even those articles were, in many important points, very short of what his majesty might justly demand from a reference to the general principle

66

above stated."

66

The chief, and indeed only essential, points of difference between the projet and the counter-projet, consisted in the more rigid restrictions proposed, and no doubt very properly, by the English government, respecting Malta and the ports of Egypt, and insisting that nothing should be admitted by sea which could give additional means of defence, and provisions only for fourteen days, in proportion to the consumption. And, in regard to the ports of France, that none of the ships of war should, during the armistice, be removed to any other station.

The letter and counter-projet of Lord Grenville having been transmitted by Mr. Otto to Paris, he was authorised, on the 16th of September, to return an answer to the same; in which

he informed the English minister, that, the papers in question having been laid before the first consul, he observed that the armistice proposed by England did not offer any advantage to the French republic, and consequently could not compensate for the serious inconveniences which would result to it, from the continuance of the continental armistice. Hence it followed, that the counter-projet could be admitted only as the basis of a particular arrangement between France and England. But, the effect of the proposed maritime truce_being intended to serve as a compensation to the French republic, for the continental truce, the former ought to afford to it advantages equal to the conveniences which it expressed from the latter. Mr. Otto, therefore, stated that he had received directions to make two proposals, of which his Britannic majesty might choose that which should appear to him more consonant to the interest of his dominions, or to his continental relations. The first was, "that the projet for an armistice be drawn up, and admitted, in terms analogous to those which bad been proposed to the ministry of his Britannic majesty, but relative only to a separate negociation between the two powers." And, secondly," that his Britannic majesty should continue to make common cause with the emperor, but that in this case he should consent that the maritime truce might offer to the French republic, advantages equal to those secured to the house of Austria by the continental truce.-The first consul had already made, to the love of peace, a sufficiently great sacrifice. If he should continue to derive no benefit from the successes of the war, it would no longer be moderation, but weakness. It would no longer be the means of arriving at the conclusion of peace, but that of perpetuating the war. Perhaps, in the judgment of statesmen, the French government might have already too long delayed to avail itself of the contingency which was favorable to it; but it only did so upon the positive assurances which had been given to it, of a speedy and separate peace."

To this statement of the nature of the alternative offered by France, Lord Grenville, on the 20th of September, returned an answer, importing, "that his majesty still looked to a naval armistice, on suitable conditions, as to a SACRIFICE which he might be induced to make, in order to prevent the renewal of hostilities on the continent, and thereby to facilitate those joint negociations for general peace, which might perhaps be accelerated by such an arrangement, although they were by no means necessarily dependent on it. But, when it was required that the extent of the sacrifice which his majesty was to make, should be regulated neither by any fair standard of equality, nor by the ordinary rules which govern such transactions; when without any reference to the