CAMPAIGN IN ITALY.
It has been seen that the Russian troops had plucked the laurels which the French had gained in Italy from their brows. Thus situated the French government sent Massena across the Alps, together with generals Soult, Oudinot, and Brune, to refix the national banners on the banks of the Po. Their efforts were vain; Massena was finally driven by the Austrians within the ramparts of Genoa. Assisted by a British squadron the Austrians formed the siege of Genoa; and Massena had in a little time no other alternative but to force his way through the enemy or to surrender. In this emergency Soult attempted to open the blockade, and leading on his division he attacked their fortified post of Monte Creto, and penetrated into the enemy’s camp. But his career was checked. Recovering from their surprise, the Austrians met the French with firmness, and they were put to flight. Massena was obliged to capitulate, and Genoa was evacuated. But here the success of the allied armies was checked. Giving the command of the Rhine to Moreau, Napoleon assumed the direction of the army of Italy. A battle was fought in the plain of Marengo, which annihilated the fruit of all the Austrian victories in the preceding campaign, and put Italy again under the power of France. Melas saw himself forced, by the hopelessness of his position, to the proposal of an armistice as the only means of deliverance; and it was granted upon these conditions:—that the Austrians should retreat beyond the Mincio; and that Genoa, Tortona, Alessandria, Turin, Arona, Coni, Ceva, Savona, Milan, and several other-cities, with all Piedmont and Liguria, and nearly all Cis-alpinia should be given up to the French government. The star of Napoleon shone more brilliant than ever; and leaving the Italian army under Massena, he returned to Paris to reap the fruit of his conquest.
In the meantime the Austrians had been likewise defeated in Germany. On the 25th of April Moreau crossed the Rhine upon six points; and in several battles at Enger, Stockach, and Moesskirch, defeated Field-marshal Kray, who was now at the head of the Austrian troops. Kray was compelled to retreat before him; and Moreau finally occupied a large part of Bavaria as well as Munich. Lecourbe also drove the Austrians from the Grisons and entered the Tyrol; while on the left another army of French and Batavians were preparing to penetrate into Franconia and Bohemia. The court of Vienna now sued for an armistice, which was granted; and on the 28th of July preliminaries of peace, on the basis of that of Campo Formio, were signed at Paris. The world now expected peace. The emperor, however, having received his subsidy from England, and concluded a new treaty with that power, again unsheathed his sword. He declared the truce at an end; and both sides prepared again for the strife. The emperor putting himself at the head of his army, endeavoured to rouse the whole force of Germany; but the north was kept inactive by the neutrality of Prussia, and other princes were overawed by the invaders. Another armistice was purchased by him for the short space of forty-five days, by the delivery of Philipsburg, Ulm, and Ingoldstadt; and when this period expired, late as the season was, both parties took the field. The contest was soon decided. On the 2nd of December a battle was fought at Hohenlinden, between the rivers Iser and Inn, in which the Austrians, under Archduke John, were utterly defeated. Moreau advancing occupied Saltzburg; and the road to Vienna was not only open to his army, but also to the armies of Brune and Macdonald. In this emergency the Emperor Francis was compelled to sue for a separate peace, and the British government obliged to release him from the terms of his alliance. A treaty was signed in the ensuing February, which ratified all the conditions of the treaty of Campo Formio, and included several new articles of an humiliating nature to the house of Austria. Tuscany was taken away from the Grand Duke Ferdinand and bestowed upon Louis, son of the Duke of Parma; and the emperor again acknowledged the independence of the Cisalpine and Ligurian republics, renouncing all right or pretension to any of those Italian territories, A new and extended frontier also was drawn for the Cisalpines, the line of the Adige being taken from where that river issues from the Tyrol down to its mouth on the Adriatic. Piedmont was for the present left to the King of Sardinia; and shortly after this monarch, through the mediation of the Czar Paul, obtained a peace, agreeing on his part to close his ports against the English, withdraw some troops sent into the Roman states, and to give up the principality of Piombino, with some other detached territories on the Tuscan coast. Through the same mediation Italy was treated by Napoleon with leniency; and Pope Pius VII., recently elected to the Pontificate, was allowed to retain the reins of government.