Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading

by George Park Fisher

CHAPTER III. FROM THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE TO THE EMPIRE OF NAPOLEON (1794-1804).

FALL OF ROBESPIERRE (9TH THERMIDOR).—A reaction set in against the cruelties of Jacobinism. Men—even the judges of the murderous tribunal—grew weary of bloodshed. The authority of Robespierre began to wane, even with his colleagues. The assembly at length turned against him. On July 27 (the 9th Thermidor, according to the new calendar) he was arrested. He was released, but was again seized, and, with St. Just, Couthon, and most of the leaders of the commune, was guillotined.

Bare statistics, accompanied by no thrilling descriptions, convey a strong impression of the atrocities of the Reign of Terror. According to M. Taine, "there were guillotined at Paris, between April 16, 1793, and the 9th Thermidor, 2,625 persons. The same process went forward all over France. In Arras, 299 men and 93 women; in Orange, 331 persons; in Nantes, 1,971; in Lyons, 1,684 (avowedly, but a correspondent of Robespierre estimates the total at 6,000); in the fusillades (deaths by shooting) of Toulon, more than 1,000; in the noyades (drownings) of Nantes, nearly 5,000 perished. In the eight departments of the West, it is reckoned that nearly half a million perished." The deaths from want, under the Jacobin government, M. Taine thinks, much exceeded a million. "France was on the brink of a great famine on the Asiatic scale."

REACTION: CONTROL OF THE MODERATES.—The Reign of Terror was brought to an end. The moderates controlled the Convention. The prison doors were opened, and the multitude of suspects were set free. The revolutionary tribunal was broken down. The commune of Paris was so shaped as to strip it of its most dangerous powers. The Jacobin and other incendiary clubs were suppressed. Religion was declared to be free, and the churches were opened to their congregations. The Girondist deputies who survived were invited back to their seats in the Convention. The National Guards were filled up from the middle class,—the bourgeoisie. Little mercy was shown to the Jacobins anywhere. The reaction was seen in the altered character of society and of manners. Those who had acquired wealth in the late time by the changes of property came to the front. The old fondness for dress and gayety reappeared. Paris was again alive with balls and other festive entertainments. The salons were crowded with elegant youth of the higher class (the jeunesse dorée). The party of Terror were cowed; but in consequence of the rise in the cost of provisions, and of the distress caused by it, and by the sudden abrogation of tyrannical laws settling the price of food and wages, there were two fierce outbreakings of the mob of Paris (April 1, May 20, 1795). These were quelled, and the power of the Jacobins was finally crushed. The moderates had now to guard against the increasing strength and rising hopes of the royalists.

CONQUEST OF HOLLAND: PRUSSIA.—The armies of France were everywhere successful. Through the victories of Jourdan and Pichegru, Holland was conquered, and converted into the Batavian Republic, and Dutch Flanders surrendered to France. The Low Countries were now a dependency of the French Republic (1794-1795). Hoche, an excellent general, partly by conciliation, reduced the West—the theater of the La Vendée revolt—to submission. The English and emigrants landed in Quiberon, on the coast of Brittany, but were defeated. The coalition was broken up, first by the withdrawal of Prussia, which ceded (April 5, 1795), and, in a secret article, ceded permanently, its territories on the left bank of the Rhine to the French, for a compensation to be obtained from secularized German states,—that is, states in which the old ecclesiastical rule should be abolished. A few months later (July, 1795), Spain concluded peace, ceding St. Domingo to the Republic. The soldiers of France were fast becoming trained, and their confidence rose with their increasing success. This success was due largely to the weak generalship of the allies. The French were commonly hard masters in the conquered places. On the other hand, however, they effected a welcome abolition of old feudal inequalities and abuses.

CONSTITUTION OF 1995.—Meanwhile, there was disaffection, especially in the cities, with the rule by the Convention. In the cities there was distress, except in the moneyed class. There was a yearning for a strong and stable government. The Convention framed and submitted to the nation a new constitution, the third in the order of political fabrics of this sort. There were to be seven hundred and fifty legislators, divided into two bodies,—the Council of Elders, or the Ancients, of two hundred and fifty, and the Council of Five Hundred. The executive power was given to a Directory of five persons. Two-thirds of the councils for the first term were to be taken from the Convention. The constitution, thus conservative and anti-Jacobin in its character, was well received. But there was dissatisfaction in the reactionary parties; and a great insurrection of the royalist middle class in Paris (Oct. 5, 1795, the 13th Vendémaire) was promptly put down by the resolute action of Bonaparte, to whom had been given the command of the troops of the city. It was the royalist and the anti-republican parties which now threatened the government. But a new authority, the will of the army, was beginning plainly to disclose itself. The dread of Jacobinism still existed. What the people more and more craved was internal tranquillity and order.

BONAPARTE IN ITALY: TO THE PEACE OF CAMPO FORMIO.—The assignats became worthless. This bankruptcy had one benefit: it relieved the state of its debt, and brought coin into circulation. A triple attack was planned by Carnot against Austria. In Germany, Jourdan and Moreau were driven back by the Archduke Charles of Austria. But a splendid success attended the arms of Bonaparte in the attack on the Austrian power in Italy. He had been lately married to Josephine Beauharnais, the widow of a French general guillotined in 1794, the only woman to whom he appears ever to have been warmly attached. There were two children by her former marriage,—Eugène (1781-1824), and Hortense (1783-1837) who married Louis Bonaparte. Starting from Nice, and following the coast, Bonaparte defeated the Austrians and Piedmontese separately, and forced the latter to conclude a distinct peace, which ceded Savoy and Nice to France. He exemplified in this campaign the characteristics which in after-years contributed essentially to his success as a general. He struck the enemy before they could combine their forces. He did not, after the old method, wait to capture all the fortresses in his path, but by swift marches made his attacks at unexpected places and times. He defeated the Austrians after a brief struggle at the bridge of Lodi on the Adda, captured Milan, overran Lombardy as far as Mantua, and forced the Pope, and Parma, Modena, and Naples, to purchase peace by giving up their treasures of art. Thus began the custom of despoiling conquered capitals, and other subjugated cities, of works of art, which went to adorn and enrich Paris,—a new custom among civilized Christian nations. Wurmser, the veteran Austrian general, was defeated in a series of engagements; and, after him, another great Austrian army, under Alvinzi, was vanquished at Arcola (Nov. 14-17, 1796) and at Rivoli (Jan. 14, 1797). Bonaparte now crossed the Alps to meet the Archduke Charles, who had cleared Germany of its invaders. The French general, although his own situation was not free from peril, was able to dictate the terms of peace. In the treaty of Campo Formio (Oct. 17, 1797), Austria ceded the Belgian provinces to France, recognized the Cisalpine Republic to be established by Bonaparte in North Italy, and secretly consented to the cession of the German provinces on the left bank of the Rhine. In return, he gave Venice to Austria, in disregard of the principles of international law, and perfidiously as regards that republic, which had made its peace with him, and become a democracy dependent on France. In this treaty with Austria, there was another secret stipulation that Prussia should not be indemnified in Germany for her losses on the west of the Rhine. Thus Napoleon used the selfishness of the allies to divide them from one another. At Tolentino in February the Pope had ceded for the Cispadane Republic the Romagna, Bologna, and Ferrara. A young man of twenty-seven, Bonaparte had given proof of his astonishing military genius by a series of victories over large armies and experienced generals; and he had evinced equally his skill, as well as his lack of principle, in the field of diplomacy. He had won admiration from his enemies by his evident freedom from the revolutionary fanaticism, and his contempt for declamation about "the rights of man." Returning to Paris, he was received with acclamation, but thought it politic to avoid publicity, and to live quietly in his modest dwelling.

COUP D'ÉTAT: 18 FRUCTIDOR (Sept. 4, 1797).—During Bonaparte's absence, the royalist and reactionary faction had gained ground in the governing bodies. Pichegru was plotting on that side. These schemes had been baffled with the timely assistance of a detachment of troops sent to Paris by Bonaparte under Augereau. On Sept. 4 (the 18th Fructidor), the palace of the Tuileries, where the councils met, was surrounded. The reactionary deputies were arrested; Pichegru and his fellow-conspirators were banished. This coup d'état sealed the triumph of the republicans, but it was effected through the army.

THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION.—The Directory were conscious of weakness, and looked with alarm and distrust on the young general, who was fast becoming the idol of the people, as well as of the army. They wished him to attempt a descent on England. He preferred, in the room of this impracticable venture, to conduct an expedition to Egypt, with the design of getting control, if possible, of the Eastern Mediterranean, and of striking at the possessions of Great Britain in India. To this scheme the Directory, quite willing to have him at a distance, readily consented. Hiding his plans until all was ready, he sailed from Toulon (May 19, 1798) with a strong fleet and army; on his way captured Malta through treachery of the knights, and landed safely in Egypt. With him were some of the best of the French generals, and a large company of scientific men. He defeated the Mamelukes in a great battle fought within sight of the Pyramids. But at Aboukir, in the Battle of the Nile, the French fleet was destroyed by the English naval force under Nelson. The French army was thus cut off from the means of return. Bonaparte invaded Syria, but was prevented by the English fleet from getting a foothold on the coast. He had to raise the siege of Acre, and returned to Egypt, where he vanquished the Turks at Aboukir.

REVERSES OF FRANCE IN ITALY.—Here Bonaparte received information which determined him to leave the army under the command of Kléber, and himself to return to France. The European powers had once more taken up arms. Among the causes of the renewal of the war were the formation by the French of the Roman Republic out of the dominion of the Pope, the establishment of the Helvetian Republic in Switzerland, and the change of Genoa by its own act into the Ligurian Republic. Prussia, since 1795, from selfish motives had cooperated with France, and stood aloof from the new—the second—coalition. Paul I., emperor of Russia, was active against the French Republic, and Pitt was its indefatigable enemy. The Czar had been made Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, and made much of this empty dignity. The victory of Nelson at Aboukir cemented the union of the hostile powers, with whom the Sultan was now joined. The management of the French armies by the government at Paris was unskillful. Naples, to be sure, was overcome, and transformed into the Parthenopæan Republic. The king of Sardinia was driven out of Piedmont. But Jourdan was defeated by the Archduke Charles, and retreated across the Rhine. The Austrians and the Russian army under Suvoroff, a veteran officer, were victorious south of the Alps (June, 1799); Moreau and Macdonald were defeated at Trebbia. The French were defeated again at Novi (Aug. 15), and lost almost all Italy. The king of Naples came back, and thousands of republicans there were cruelly put to death,—a proscription in which Nelson had a part. It was the victory of Masséna, over the Russians at Zurich, that saved France itself from invasion.

OVERTHROW OF THE DIRECTORY: 18TH BRUMAIRE.—These reverses added to the unpopularity of the Directory. The discontent of the Jacobins with their government had given rise to strong measures of repression. On the other hand, the wealthy class were disgusted at the renewal of the war. A rising was threatened in La Vendee. The feeling was widely diffused, that there was need of a strong man at the helm to save the ship of state from another terrible shipwreck. At this juncture Napoleon appeared in Paris, and was greeted with enthusiasm. Sieyès and one other director, with a majority of the Ancients, agreed to another coup d'état which should make Bonaparte the first magistrate. The garrison of Paris was ready to lend its aid. The resistance of the Council of five Hundred at St. Cloud was baffled by Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, their president, and by the use of military force. Thus there was accomplished the revolution of the 18th Brumaire (Nov. 9, 1799).

THE CONSULATE.—In the provisional government set up by the remnant of the council, Napoleon only gradually assumed the chief rôle. He was later enabled to take and to hold supreme power, because of the mutual fear of royalists and republicans, their common dread of Jacobinism, and a prevailing conviction that safety must be sought in the sway of an individual, representing neither extreme, and strong enough to hold all in check. Yet the event evinced the supremacy now gained by the military power. Napoleon immediately made excellent financial reforms, and repealed or softened the laws against the "emigrants" and the priests. By such mild and conservative measures, the prosperity of France began to be renewed. The constitution of the year VIII., as planned by Sieyès and modified by Bonaparte, kept up the semblance, without much of the reality, of democracy. The checks on the power of the First Consul were more nominal than real. The mass of the people had power only to vote for lists of citizens, out of whom all the higher officers were to be selected by successive steps. All legislation was initiated by the Council of State; the Tribunate of a hundred members could discuss proposals made thus, but could not act; the Legislative Chamber of three hundred could vote, but not discuss; and the Senate of eighty was chosen for life, with little to do. This constitution of 1799, in opposition to the communal system of 1789 and 1791, established a centralized administration which destroyed local liberty and self-government. France no longer represented in other countries the cause of liberty. In this character its armies had been hailed in Italy, where a yearning for national unity was awakened. Equality, not liberty, was all that the cause of France now represented.

Napoleon could not have expected that his overtures of peace would be accepted by Austria. The rough, impolitic response made by England, helped him by rousing resentment in France.

MARENGO: PEACE OF LUNGVILLE.—If Sieyès and others expected that Napoleon would merely direct military operations from Paris, they were soon undeceived. Masséna was at the head of the army in Italy, and found it most difficult to hold Genoa against the Austrians. Moreau was at the head of the army in Germany. Apart from other reasons for taking the field in person, it would not have been safe for the new ruler of France to allow himself to be eclipsed in military fame by Moreau. Napoleon, as usual veiling his purpose, gradually collected a large army, and between May 16 and 19, 1800, led his troops, and dragged his cannon, over the Great St. Bernard Pass into Italy, threw himself in the rear of Melas, the Austrian general, and entered Milan. He appears, however, to have used less than his usual caution, probably from fear that Melas might escape; so that he was attacked at Marengo (June 14), by that general, at a moment when the French forces were not sufficiently concentrated. What threatened to be a disastrous defeat for the French, however, was turned into a signal victory by the timely arrival of Desaix; and the name of Marengo rang through Europe. In December, Moreau won the great victory of Hohenlinden over the Archduke John. In February, 1801, the peace of Lunéville was concluded. France kept its "natural boundaries," Belgium and the west of the Rhine. The Italian republics, except Rome and Naples, were restored. Tuscany was to be given to a prince of Spain, a country now dependent on France. The German princes who lost territory were to be indemnified by "secularizing" German ecclesiastical states, and vied with one another in imploring favors of the conqueror.

THE NORTHERN ALLIANCE: THE PEACE OF AMIENS.—England now stood alone against France. Her navies were supreme, and had captured most of the Dutch as well as French colonies. The French army in Egypt had been driven to capitulate on the condition that it should be transported in English vessels to France. Russia, Sweden, and Denmark made (1800) a defensive alliance of armed neutrality on the sea, to maintain the right of neutrals to trade with belligerents, and the doctrine that the neutral ship protects its freight (not being munitions of war) against seizure. England succeeded in ruining this alliance. Pitt now retired from office. He had accomplished the legislative union of England and Ireland, by which the separate Irish Parliament had ceased to exist (1800). But he had encouraged the Irish Catholics to expect that they would be delivered from the restrictions which excluded them from the House of Commons and from many other offices. When the king refused to consent to the fulfillment of these expectations, Pitt resigned (1801). Addington became prime minister. England was tired of the war. Peace was concluded at Amiens (March, 1802). France was to retain all her conquests on the Continent. England surrendered to France and her allies all conquests except Trinidad and Ceylon. Malta was to be given back by England to the Knights of Malta. A third great civil triumph of Napoleon, added to Luneville and Amiens, was the Concordat with the Pope.

REFORMS OF NAPOLEON.—Napoleon now was free to give his attention to internal reforms in France. He called into his counsels the ablest men in all departments of knowledge. In the reconstruction of political and social order, his own clear perceptions and energy were everywhere seen. He brought back from the old institutions whatever was good and valuable which the tempest of revolution had swept away. He reformed the judicial system. He caused to be framed the famous Code which bears his name, and which still forms the basis of law in several European countries. He reduced the power of the communes, and centralized the administration of government by the system of prefects and sub-prefects. Through the Concordat, he renewed the connection of the Catholic Church of France with Rome, reserving, however, to the executive the nomination of archbishops and bishops, whom the government was to support, and guarding, in the spirit of the Gallican theory, the supremacy of the civil authority. Full toleration was secured for non-Catholics. Napoleon personally participated in the religious ceremonies which attended the formal restoration of the old system of worship where "the Goddess of Reason" had been enthroned during the Terror. The ultimate effect of the Concordat was to build up the ultramontane, or papal, theory and sway within the church of France. Education was organized by the establishment of the university, the comprehensive name for the entire educational system of the country. All branches of technical instruction were carefully fostered. The devotees of science were encouraged with an enlightened sympathy and liberal aid. A better organization and discipline were brought into the army.

CHARACTER OF THE CHANGES.—The changes made by Napoleon, while they secured the equality of all Frenchmen before the law, did nothing to rescue civil liberty, such as the republicans had aimed to secure. They were all in the direction of monarchy. Distinctions, like the Legion of Honor, were invented; titles were instituted; a new aristocracy, made up of relics of the old noblesse and of fresh recruits, was created; Napoleon was declared to be consul for life, and the mechanism of the government was converted into a practical dictatorship. Unsparing in his treatment of Jacobins, he aimed still to moderate the passions of party. His activity was seen in an excellent system of public works, such as canals and noble highways, in new towns, and in magnificent buildings which he erected in Paris. At the same time, he went as far as it was safe to go in bringing in monarchical manners and luxuries. He himself adopted a regal way of living. He had no faith in democracy, and spoke with unaffected scorn of "ideology," or the theoretical statesmanship which based itself on ideas of "human rights" in the matter of exercising government. The press was placed under stringent police regulation. Napoleon's family began to contend, with "Corsican shamelessness," for high honors. A feud soon came to exist between them and the Beauharnais,—the family of Josephine. Was the principle of heredity to come back?

RENEWED WAR WITH ENGLAND.—In 1803 the war was renewed with England. That Napoleon was resolved to dictate in European affairs, as he was practical dictator in the French Republic, was plain. He controlled the republics dependent on France. He annexed Piedmont. He made the Spanish Bourbons do his bidding. He intervened in Germany; among other things, offending Austria by enlarging the bounds of Prussia. He exercised over the minor German states the influence of which Austria had been robbed. He complained of the strictures of the English press, and of the asylum granted in England to conspirators against his rule. He was angry that Malta was not given up, which England refused to do on account of an aggrandizement of France not consistent with the Peace of Amiens. There were provocations on both sides, and war was inevitable.

PLAN OF INVADING ENGLAND.—Napoleon seized Hanover. He talked of making a descent on England. He gathered a vast army near Boulogne, and constructed an immense flotilla for the transportation of it across the Channel. His design was to decoy away the British fleet, and then to concentrate enough ships of his own in the Channel to protect the passage of his forces.