WAR ON THE CONTINENT.
At the commencement of this year, Alvinzi, the Austrian general, re-enforced with 50,000 troops, made great efforts to recover the fortune of the war. In this he was aided by the pope, who raised troops for his support. But again Alvinzi had the temerity to divide his forces; the principal division marching, under his own command, by the old route from the Tyrol, and the other taking a circuit down the Brenta, to relieve Mantua. In order to impede his progress Napoleon posted himself at Rivoli, on a lofty plain above the Adige, between that river and the Alpine Montebaldo. In this position he was attacked by Alvinzi; but the Austrian general was repulsed on all sides, and compelled to take refuge in flight. The other division of the Austrian army fought its way to the walls of Mantua, but Wurmser sought in vain to form a junction with it; and in February Mantua was captured by Napoleon. The conqueror’s vengeance next fell upon his holiness the pope. Not tarrying even to receive the sword of Wurmser, Napoleon headed his legions and marched towards Rome. Within eight days one half of the states of the church were conquered, and the pope had no hope but in submission. The conqueror granted him political existence, on condition that he should cede to the republic Wignon, Venaissin, and the legations of Bologna, Ferrara, and Romagna: he was compelled to pay, also, a contribution of thirty millions, and to give up more works of art.
The directory saw that another victory would place Austria at its feet; and in order to ensure this consummation, Bernadotte was dispatched with 30,000 men to re-enforce Napoleon, while Hoche was sent to supersede Pichegru, on the lower Rhine. Napoleon crossed the Alps early in March; and he was opposed by the Archduke Charles. But opposition was vain; for his legions were yet incomplete, and unable to withstand his victorious enemy. The French penetrated on the one side into Tyrol, and on the other over the Paive, towards the Carinthian passes. Victory followed victory; and the conquerors entered Klagenfurt and Laubach, and stood in Tyrol, at the foot of the Brenner mountains. The main army, driving the Austrians before them, finally marched into Leoben; and the archduke retreated as far as Styria. The enemy was now only thirty-six leagues from the Austrian capital; and the inhabitants were seized with terror and consternation. But here the victories of Napoleon were stopped for a season. Jealous of his success, or deterred by dissensions which raged in Paris, the directory stayed the progress of the armies of the Rhine, without whose co-operation it would have been imprudent in that of Italy to advance. Under these circumstances Napoleon sent to the archduke proposals of peace; and after some delay a preliminary treaty was signed at Leoben, on the 18th of April. By this treaty Austria ceded to the republic Belgium and the countries of Italy as far as the Oglio; for which she was to receive in return the Venetian territory from the Oglio to the Po and the Adriatic Sea, Venetian Istria, and Daimatia; and when general peace should be re-established, Mantua and Peschiera. “This peace,” says Rotteck, “concluded when the hour of great decision was approaching: more yet, its conditions, unexpectedly favourable to the vanquished, proved the mutual fear of those that made peace. For Austria, the fall of Vienna would have been a severe and humiliating blow. But could Buonaparte advance so far after he actually stood in danger of being surrounded, and, perhaps, annihilated by the swelling masses of the enemy? On the one side approached the Hungarian insurrection army, on the other and around, the Austrian land-storm. But in Venice a general revolt had broken out against the French, which the aristocratic government had excited out of hatred towards the democratic revolutionary system. In this situation a reverse might be ruinous to Buonaparte: he therefore concluded peace.”
The insurrection in Venice had not been commenced by the aristocracy, but by the democracy. It broke out in the towns of Brescia and Bergamo, and the senate, in its turn, raised the mountaineers and the anti-revolutionary peasants, who proceeded to every species of atrocity: their watchword being “Death to Frenchmen and Jacobins.” On Easter Monday more than four hundred Frenchmen are said to have been massacred at Verona. But the knell of Venice itself was rung. Napoleon having made peace at Leoben, brought his cannon to the edge of the lagoons, and the panic-stricken senate and cowardly doge, passed a decree to dissolve their ancient constitution, and to establish a species of democracy. Venice fell after a political existence of more than one thousand years. The aristocracy of Genoa, also, succumbed to the same storm; but they were permitted to retain an independent government, under the name of “the Ligurian republic.”
The definitive treaty between the Emperor of Austria and the French republic was signed on the 17th of October, at Campio Formio, near Udina. Its conditions were somewhat different from those of the first treaty: Austria, in recompense for the Netherlands, receiving the Venetian provinces to the Adige, and not to the Oglio; and Mantua being retained by the French. In return for these possessions, France obtained the Netherlands; the Greek islands belonging to Venice in the Adriatic; an acknowledgment of the Cisalpine republic; and an indemnification for the Duke of Modena in Brisgau. Some secret conditions were annexed to this treaty; and it was agreed that a congress should be held at Radstadt, for settling the peace of the empire.
By these victories France remained in possession of Savoy, Nice, Avignon, and Belgium. She was also mistress of Italy and Holland, and could reckon on the dependence of the German empire, owing to the cession of the left bank of the Rhine. The German empire, abandoned by Austria, likewise was at her mercy, and tremblingly expected its fate; while the government of the church and the kingdom of Naples were tottering to their very foundations. Spain, moreover, with all its resources, was wholly in the hands of the French. England now stood alone in the contest; and though she remained mistress of the ocean, it was deemed advisable to renew pacific negociations with France. Lord Malmesbury was again sent on this mission; and the city of Lisle was fixed on by the directory for a conference. But the directory were not inclined for peace; after continuing at Lisle until September, exchanging useless notes and receiving many insults, Lord Malmesbury was ordered to quit the place within four and twenty hours. It was demanded by the French negotiators that the Cape of Good Hope, and every island or settlement, French, Dutch, or Spanish, in the possession of Great Britain, should be given up without receiving any compensation. Such terms as these were incompatible with the nation’s interests and safety; whence the failure of this mission. Moreover, there was a belief existing in France that England was on the verge of ruin; and the directory fondly imagined that they would one day triumph over her as they had done over the nations on the Continent.