Proclamation of Napoleon.—March into Austria.—Letter to the Archduke Charles.—Preliminaries of Peace.—Union of Parties against the Directory.—Triumph of the Directory.—Agency of Napoleon.—Severe Measures of the Directory.—Indignation of Napoleon.—Dictatorship of the Directory.—Dismay of the Royalists.—Treaty of Campo Formio.—Napoleon's Address to the Cispadane Republic.—Remarks of Napoleon.—Plan for the Invasion of India.—Expedition to Egypt.—New Coalition.—Rastadt.
It was now the month of March, 1797, and Napoleon, having driven the Austrians out of Italy, issued the following proclamation, an unexaggerated statement of facts which amazed and appalled hostile Europe:
"Soldiers! the capture of Mantua has put an end to the war of Italy. You have been victorious in fourteen pitched battles and seventy actions. You have taken 100,000 prisoners, 500 field-pieces, 2000 heavy cannon, and four pontoon trains. The contributions laid on the countries you have conquered have fed, maintained, and paid the army; besides which, you have sent thirty millions ($6,000,000) to the Minister of Finance for the use of the public treasury. You have enriched the Museum of Paris with three hundred master-pieces of ancient and modern Italy, which it had required thirty centuries to produce. You have conquered for the Republic the finest countries in Europe. The kings of Sardinia and Naples, the Pope, and the Duke of Parma are separated from the coalition. You have expelled the English from Leghorn, Genoa, and Corsica. Still higher destinies await you. You will prove yourselves worthy of them. Of all the foes who combined to stifle our Republic in its birth the emperor alone remains."
On the 16th of March the little army of Bonaparte crossed the Tagliamento to march upon Vienna, there to compel Austria to cease the iniquitous war which now for six years had desolated Europe. Battle after battle ensued, and the Austrians met the French only to be vanquished. On the 31st of March Napoleon wrote to the Archduke Charles, who was brother of the emperor and commander-in-chief of the Austrian forces, as follows:
"General-in-Chief: brave soldiers make war and desire peace. Has not this war lasted six years? Have we not slain men enough and inflicted calamities enough on suffering humanity? It cries out on all sides. Europe, which had taken up arms against the French Republic, has laid them down. Your nation alone is left, and yet blood is about to be spilled more abundantly than ever.
"The Executive Directory of the French Republic communicated to his majesty the emperor its desire to put an end to the war which afflicts both nations. The intervention of the Court of London has opposed this wish. Is there, then, no hope of arrangement? And must we continue to slaughter one another for the interests and the passions of a nation which knows nothing of the calamities of war? You, general, who are by birth so near to the throne, and above all the petty passions which so frequently actuate ministers and governments, are you determined to merit the title of benefactor of the whole human race and the real savior of Germany?
"Imagine not, general, that I mean by this that it is not possible to save her by the force of arms. But, even supposing that the chances of war turn in your favor, Germany will not, on that account, be the less ravaged. As for me, general, if the overture which I have the honor to make to you can save the life of a single man, I shall be prouder of the civic crown which I shall feel that I have deserved than of the melancholy glory which can result from military successes."[464]
The archduke replied that he was commanded to prosecute the war, and had no authority to enter into conference upon terms of peace.[465] The war was now prosecuted with renewed vigor, as the French drove the Austrians through the defiles of the Tyrol, and entered the plains of Germany. But a few days passed ere Napoleon arrived within sight of the steeples of Vienna. The capital was in consternation; the people demanded peace; the archduke urged it, declaring himself quite unable to protect the city. The Austrian court now implored the clemency of the conqueror, and sent commissioners to Napoleon, at his head-quarters at Leoben, with full powers to settle the basis of peace. The preliminaries were signed at Leoben on the 18th of April, which put a stop to the effusion of blood.
By the election in May of one third of the two legislative bodies, the counter-revolutionists had obtained a majority in both chambers. This exceedingly elated the Royalists. The two Councils now commenced a furious war against the Republican Directory, seeking to overthrow it, and to re-establish, not the old Bourbon despotism, but the constitutional monarchy of 1791. There were now four parties in the field. The old Bourbon party, the friends of constitutional monarchy, the Republicans, and the Jacobins. Three of these parties united against the Directory, each hoping, in the overthrow of the Directors, to establish its own principles. One of the Directors was to leave. The Royalists succeeded in placing Barthélemy, a counter-revolutionist, in his place. The conflict which now arose was whether the Republican Directory should be abolished or maintained. A stern conflict was evidently rising. The Directory headed one party, the two Councils the other. In accordance with the disastrous temper of the times, both parties began to count bayonets instead of votes, that the question might be settled on a field of blood. The emigrants and the priests returned in great numbers, forged passports being transmitted to them from Paris.
The Councils had a legislative guard of fifteen hundred men, and hoped to avail itself of the National Guard, not then fully reorganized. They also placed great reliance on Pichegru, who was treasonably plotting the restoration of the Bourbons. The Constitution did not allow any of the standing army to approach within thirty-six miles of Paris. In defiance of this provision, the Directory, under pretense of sending a fresh expedition to Ireland, assembled twelve thousand veteran troops under the walls of the metropolis. General Bonaparte, aware of the peril of the Directory, and of the danger of the restoration of royalty, had sent the intrepid Augereau to Paris to assist the Directory in any emergency. The Directory was the established government of the nation, and, imbecile as it was, its overthrow by violence at that time could only lead to anarchy and blood.[466]