The most complete naval action of this year happened off Camperdown. On the 11th of October Admiral Duncan, with sixteen sail of the line, attacked a Dutch fleet, commanded by Admiral De Winter, of eleven sail of the line and four fifty-six gun ships. The Dutch fought in a very different style from the Spaniards, ardently contending for the victory. Admiral De Winter, whose ship was attacked by Admiral Duncan’s, did not strike his flag before all his masts fell overboard, and half his crew were either killed or wounded; and when the battle terminated, almost every Dutch ship was found to be in a disabled state. Eight ships of the line, two fifty-six gun ships, and two frigates remained as trophies of victory to the English. This action excited great joy at home; and Duncan was elevated to the peerage, by the title of Viscount Duncan of Camperdown. In consideration of this and the other signal victories that had crowned our fleets, his majesty ordered a general thanksgiving throughout the kingdom, which took place on the 19th of December.
THE BLOCKADE OF CADIZ, ETC.
After the battle off Cape St. Vincent, Nelson was employed in the blockade of Cadiz, which he bombarded on the 23rd of June and 3rd of July. This bombardment, however, produced but little effect; and soon afterward, owing to an unfounded report that the viceroy of Mexico had arrived at Teneriffe with treasure ships, Nelson proceeded thither in search of them. He made an unfortunate attack on Santa Cruz in that island, which ended in the loss of his own right arm, and also of about two hundred men. Previous to this, the Spanish island of Trinidad capitulated to an expedition of six sail of the line, with troops on board, under the command of Sir Ralph Abercrombie and Admiral Harvey; but the same commanders were subsequently defeated in an attempt to take Porto Rico.
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.