1796.] BONAPARTE CHIEF OF THE ARMY OF ITALY. 325 Pitt. That policy is always to be judged of as being intended for a crisis; and, whatever may be thought of its merits, there can be no doubt that, on the one hand, the proselyting dexterity which characterized the prevailing spirit of the French Revolution, and, on the other, the general agitation, or disquietude, of the popular mind in our own country, concurred to form at that period, a moral crisis of a very peculiar nature."* We have no more right to assume that Pitt was resolved upon establishing a despotism, than that Fox desired to witness the overthrow of the monarchy. In the year 1796 the military operations in Germany and Italy were carried on upon a scale which had not been witnessed since the days of Marlborough. The French Directory had resolved to attack the forces of the emperor upon two points at one and the same time. The command of the army of the Sambre and the Meuse was given to Jourdan; the command of the army of the Rhine and Moselle was given to Moreau. At the end of November, 1795, the army of Italy had obtained some successes under Schérer, but his defeat of the Austrians had not been followed up in a manner to satisfy the Directory. During the winter, the pale, thin, reserved Corsican who had cannonaded the Sections into submission, remained in Paris, raised out of his poverty into what was then termed good society by the democrats who had grown luxurious, but which society, Burke, in one of his fiercest moods, describes as "a set of abandoned wretches, squandering in insolent riot the spoils of their bleeding country." In the saloons of Barras and of Madame Tallien, Bonaparte met Josephine Beauharnois, the widow of the viscount Beauharnois, who had taken the side of the revolutionists, but was guillotined in the days of terror. The young general was married to Josephine in March. But his duties as chief of the army of Paris, and his devotion to an amiable and attractive woman, did not divert his thoughts from objects of high import. He had devised a plan for the invasion of Italy, which he submitted to Carnot, then one of the Directory. To obtain a permanent footing beyond the Alps; to hold the small Italian provinces in sovereignty or in subjection; perhaps to conquer the whole territory, and to make one subject people in that land of antique glory; this was the traditional policy of France, and any scheme for its realization was now peculiarly acceptable to the French Government. Bonaparte was appointed chief of the army in Italy; and on the 27th of March he entered upon his command at Nice. Before we proceed to relate the events of this campaign, we must very briefly notice the territorial divisions of Italy at the period when the French Republic was established in 1792, and its political condition at the beginning of 1796. The kingdom of Sardinia-consisting of Savoy, Nice, Piedmont, and the island of Sardinia-was under Victor Amadeus III. This prince had joined the Coalition against France, and Savoy and Nice, lying convenient to the revolutionists, were very soon seized. But he continued to resist, although little able to struggle against his dangerous neighbour. The republic of Genoa was neutral; but an Anti-Gallican party had given offence to the Directory, and the Genoese oligarchy were not likely to be treated. with kindness. The Grand Duchy of Tuscany, under Ferdinand III., had * "Quarterly Review," vol. iv. p. 230. 326 TERRITORIAL DIVISIONS OF ITALY. [1796. recognized the French Republic at an early period. The small republic of Lucca was independent of Tuscany. The States of the Church, under Pope Pius VI., were so wretchedly administered-the people were so servile and degraded that the anathemas of the sovereign pontiff against the Revolution were not likely [to divert the French armies from plundering Rome, and devastating the provinces. The Kingdom of Naples, including Sicily, was under Ferdinand IV., a weak Bourbon prince, married to the sister of Marie Antoinette. The Duchy of Modena was governed by Ercole Renaldo, a descendant of the house of Este. The Duchy of Parma was ruled by a Spanish prince, Don Ferdinand. The two Duchies of Milan and Mantua, forming Lombardy, were under the emperor of Germany, Francis II. The Republic of Venice had declared against France in 1793; but had subsequently adopted a neutral policy, and had compelled the head of the French Bourbon family to quit Verona. Such were the various Italian States to which the French armies carried their promises and their threats—whose people they harassed with confiscations, and deluded with the prospect of Italian unity and freedom. The French army was posted on the Riviera, west of Genoa. It numbered about 40,000 men, who were in a very wretched condition, badly clothed, without pay. Bonaparte brought them a little money; but he also brought something more efficient even than money-the principle that war should support war, and that whatever was wanting should be supplied by the people with whom they came to fraternize. He had able generals and an active staff— Massena, Augereau, Serurier, Berthier. Opposed to the French were the Austrian general Beaulieu, with 30,000 men, and the Austro-Sardinian force of 22,000 men, under Colli. Bonaparte was received by the army with little enthusiasm, but the French troops soon recognized a general to their mind-"You are ill-fed and almost naked; the government owes you much, but can do nothing for you. I will lead you into the most fertile plains of the world-to grand towns and wealthy provinces, where you will find glory and riches."* On the 12th of April, Bonaparte attacked the Austrian centre, consisting of 10,000 men under D'Argenteau, and routing them at Montenotte, cut off the communication between Beaulieu and Colli. He defeated in succession these two generals. The king of Sardinia was terrified, and demanded an armistice; which the French general agreed to conclude upon being put in possession of the fortresses of Coni, Ceva, and Tortona, the keys of Piedmont. The court of Turin also sent ambassadors to Paris to negociate a peace, which was signed on the 15th of May upon the humiliating conditions of resigning to France eight frontier fortresses till a general peace, and confirming to France the possession of Savoy and Nice in perpetuity. General Beaulieu now gave up Piedmont as lost; crossed the Po; and applied himself to the defence of the Austrian possessions in Lombardy. The French followed him; and compelled his army to retire to the Adda. On the 9th of May, the French were before Lodi. The famous passage of the bridge was accomplished by a rapid and daring movement, which set at nought the twenty pieces of cannon by which it was defended. Beaulieu retreated beyond the Mincio; and the French entered Milan on the 15th of *Thiers, "Revolution," livre xxxiii. 1796.] BONAPARTE'S FIRST ITALIAN CAMPAIGN. 327 May. There was now a little spare time to gather some of the spoils of five weeks' fighting. The eulogistic historian, Thiers, tells us that the exactions of Bonaparte were indispensable. He levied a contribution of twenty million francs on the Milanese. He granted an armistice to the duke of Modena upon the payment of ten millions. Salicette, the commissioner of the Directory, and their politic general, robbed the Monte di Pietà of Milan of the valuables deposited there as pledges for money lent. These measures were very grievous to the tender heart of Bonaparte, "for they retarded the march of public spirit," says M. Thiers. He sent millions to the Directory, much of which was intercepted in its way into the public coffers. He had always ample means for corrupting those in the employ of the Italian governments. It is only justice to say that a very small share of the Italian spoils went into Bonaparte's own pocket. The exactions of the French led to resistance amongst the oppressed people of Milan and of Pavia. In Pavia there was a serious revolt, and some of the French were killed. Bonaparte hurried there with a sufficient force; broke down the gates with cannon; and gave the city up to pillage-" for three hours," says M. Thiers; for twenty-four hours, say more reliable authorities. "There were only a thousand men," writes the candid historian," and this small number could cause no serious disasters in a town so considerable as Pavia." No doubt these thousand brigands did their spiriting gently-the very Claude Duvals of robbers. Ladies would gladly yield their jewels to the polite strangers; and would accept their caresses as a signal honour. Bonaparte, after the sack of Pavia, sent his cavalry into the neighbouring country, who sabred a large number of the revolted peasantry. A novel species of contribution was now insisted upon, as the French armies marched from city to city, and dictated the terms upon which their forbearance might be purchased. It was not sufficient that the duke of Parma should obtain an armistice by large money payments and supplies of horses and stores, but he must give twenty of his choicest paintings to be sent to Paris. The duke of Modena had to purchase a temporary respite of the seizure of his dominions, by contributing not only millions of livres, but treasures of art which no money could buy. Bonaparte thus early saw his way to flatter the national vanity of the French, by gathering for the Parisians those works of genius which lost half their interest when taken away from the lands which had produced them, and from the people who inherited them. Send me artists and scholars, wrote Bonaparte to the Directory, to assist me in choosing from the galleries, museums, libraries, and churches of Italy, the best paintings, sculptures, and manuscripts for our Musée of the Louvre. The Austrian general, Beaulieu, having arranged for the defence of Mantua, retreated into the mountains of the Tyrol. His army had temporarily occupied the Venetian town of Peschiera; which occupation was an excuse for Bonaparte seizing the place upon its being abandoned by Beaulieu; and subsequently for demanding admittance to the Venetian city of Verona, thus treating Venice as a hostile power. He then turned his arms against the Pope, who was terrified into an armistice, which was bought by money contributions, and by precious works of art and rare manuscripts. Tuscany was at peace with the French. But the warehouses of Leghorn were full of English merchandize, and thither Bonaparte rapidly marched, seized 328 BONAPARTE'S FIRST ITALIAN CAMPAIGN. [1796. all the goods belonging to "the enemies of the republic" who had fled to their ships; and levied a contribution of five millions of francs upon the native merchants as the permission for them to keep the other property which had been entrusted to them by English and Portuguese houses. In these odious transactions Bonaparte was the instrument of the Directory; and he sometimes remonstrated against the impolicy of their violence and rapacity, but never against the iniquity. The Austrian government superseded Beaulieu, and sent a gallant veteran, Wurmser, to take the chief command of a new army in Italy. With the old traditional strategical mistake of dividing their forces, whilst the young French general invariably concentrated all his power for attack or defence, the Austrians moved towards Mantua in two separate divisions. Bonaparte attacked and routed the army under general Quasdanowich, and the army under general Wurmser. But the Austrians were not yet disposed to give up the great struggle. The French main army under Bonaparte was weakened by the necessity of maintaining divisions to blockade Mantua, to occupy Verona and Legnano, and to guard some of the passes of the Tyrol. Another Austrian army of sixty thousand men advanced in two divisions, one under general Alvinzy, the other under general Davidowich. On the 12th of November Bonaparte attacked Alvinzy at Caldiero; but he sustained very heavy loss, and was compelled to retire into Verona. He wrote a desponding letter to the Directory; but that mood was not of long duration. He was one of that order of minds who "out of the nettle, danger, can pluck the flower, safety." On the night of the 4th he marched in silence out of Verona, as if retreating. He moved rapidly by the right bank of the Adige, which he crossed at Ronco, where he had made a temporary bridge. He was now in a marshy tract, between the Adige and the Alpone; which river it was necessary to cross before he could reach Villanova, where the Austrian baggage and stores were stationed, in the rear of Alvinzy's army. One of the causeways of the morass led to the bridge of Arcole. Three times the passage of this bridge was obstinately contested on the 15th of November, Bonaparte himself leading his grenadiers in one of the desperate attempts to contend against the Austrian batteries. For three days this battle of Arcole, the most severe of the Italian war, went on. The third day concluded the terrible conflict, when Alvinzy retreated towards Vicenza. Bonaparte had prevented the junction of the two Austrian armies. The battle of Arcole made a profound impression upon Europe. It ought to have shown the continental powers where their safety lay. It should have taught them a lesson which they too often forgot in a long series of fruitless endeavours: "Matched against a competitor of such extraordinary activity, it was incumbent on them to lay aside the embarrassments of ancient forms and ancient prejudices; and to gird up the skirts of their luxurious and effeminate magnificence."* The combined operations upon the Rhine of the French generals, Jourdan and Moreau, were not favourable to the Republic. The archduke Charles encountered Jourdan when he had crossed the Rhine in June, and had advanced to Lahn. The French army was driven back, and recrossed the Rhine. Moreau carried his army over the Rhine at Strasbourg, Canning, in "Quarterly Review," vol. iv. p. 253. 1796.] AUSTRIAN SUCCESSES IN GERMANY. 329 and defeated the Austrian general Latour. The archduke fell back to the Danube. Jourdan, reassured by the operations of Moreau, again advanced towards Bohemia. The archduke fought a battle with Moreau; crossed the Danube; and drove back Jourdan in a series of well-concerted attacks. Moreau, separated by a long interval from Jourdan, and exposed to the assaults of the archduke on his front, and to those of Latour on his rear, ascended the Danube, and accomplished his retreat through the Black Forest. This celebrated movement saved his army from an imminent danger. After fighting several battles, Moreau finally reached Strasbourg. The wonderful success of Bonaparte in Italy is partly to be attributed to the contempt in which he held the orders of the Directory. The pian of the German campaign was laid down in Paris, and hence its failure. The successes of the Austrians in Germany appeared to the English government more important than the career of Bonaparte in Italy. Lord Grenville thought in September, that if Moreau were "dispatched, and that quickly, there will be time and means to make Bonaparte suffer severely for his late advanced move." Our situation, he considered, was very much improved. The moment was deemed favourable to open negotiations with the French Directory for peace; although some previous overtures had been contemptuously received. Lord Malmesbury was appointed as plenipotentiary on the part of his Britannic majesty, and he arrived in Paris on the 22nd of October. Burke held that any attempt to negotiate for "a Regicide Peace " was a disgrace and a humiliation for England. He wrote under the full influence of his own enthusiasm, and of the passions of the emigrants by whom he was surrounded. M. Thiers, half a century after 1796, when national prejudices ought to have been softened down by historical truth, adopts as insolent a tone in relating the progress of this negotiation as if the mantle of Barras had descended upon his shoulders. Pitt, he says, demanded passports for an envoy to be sent on the part of Great Britain. Pitt had no real wish for peace; he only wanted to satisfy public opinion; he knew that his terms would not be accepted; but to obtain sixty thousand militia, and fifteen thousand sailors, he would pretend that he had done all he could for peace—“ son possible pour traiter." Without the hope of obtaining peace, he made an advance towards the Directory. Thus M. Thiers repeats, in almost the same words, the mean insinuations with which the Directory announced to the Council of Five Hundred the proposal of Great Britain to negotiate. He adds, "this surprising step of the most implacable enemy of our republic was a glory for her. The English aristocracy was thus reduced to demand peace from the regicide republic."+ The historian of "the Revolution" has taken as little pains to look at the authentic relations of this episode of diplomacy, as he has taken to understand the family name of the negotiator chosen by Pitt, when he calls him "lord Malmesbury, autrefois sir Harry." + For nearly four years the condition of France, as exhibited in the appearance of the country, had been as little known to the English as Japan. Lord Malmesbury had his eyes open, and Mr. Talbot, a gentleman connected with * "Court and Cabinets of George III.," vol. iii. p. 351. VOL. VII. Thiers, livre xxxiv, Sir James Harris was raised to the peerage as Earl of Malmesbury. |