•76 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1794. 



country, began to entertain serious 

 fears that they might acquire 

 such a degree of power there, as 

 <in divers pretences, to refuse re- 

 linquishing it. Plausible motives 

 would easily be assigned for their 

 keeping possession of what they had 

 cbtained ; and while they continued 

 superior in tlie field, their rea- 

 sons would remain uncontro- 

 verted. 



Italy, in the opinion of the 

 soundest politicians, was a theatre 

 whereon the French would act a 

 more remarkable part than in any 

 other country in Europe, The 

 Itahans, dividvd into sundry states 

 and principalities, none of which 

 were intrinsically very formidable, 

 had ever cherished a jealousy of 

 each other ; which rendered them 

 altogether of little consideration in 

 the scale of European politics. 

 Their counuy was perpetually ex- 

 posed to the invasion of those po- 

 tentates who thought proper to 

 form pretensions to parts of it, and 

 in the sanguinary disputes occa- 

 sioned by those pretensions, none 

 were exempt from experiencing 

 eventually the horrors of war. 

 Often had tlie wisest heads ni that 

 countiy, which certainly produces 

 as wise heads as any, endeavoured 

 bv arguments, and by the intluence 

 their high stations gave them, some 

 of them being no less than Sove- 

 reigns, to form such an union of 

 force among the Italian princes 

 and states, as might enable them 

 to expel foreigners from thtir 

 ronntrv. The propriety of this ad- 

 vice was incontrovertible ; and it 

 might have been followed, to the 

 •benefit of all concerned, had the 

 least patriotism existed an^ong those 

 who ought chietly to 1 ave taken 

 "the lead, in promoting so national 



a measure. Italy being therefore 

 the property, partly of Sovereigns 

 who have no natural relation to it, 

 and of others who consider their 

 possession as precarious, and the 

 rulers of states assuming the nam* 

 of commonwealths being usually at 

 variance with the people under 

 them, it follows of course, that 

 national attachments and recipro- 

 cal confidence between the go- 

 vernors and the governed, arc 

 unknown in this country. The 

 only exception is found in Pied- 

 mont ; the inhabitants of which 

 are in general very well aft'ected 

 to the princes of the House of Sa- 

 voy, their native Sovereigns for 

 many centuries. 



Matters being thus circum- 

 stanced, it was the firm persua- 

 sion of persons of political know- 

 ledge and discernment, at the close 

 of the year 1704, that Italy would 

 be that country wherein the con- 

 sequences of the French revolu- 

 tion would finally be felt in their 

 fullest extent, unless the alliance 

 between Sardinia and Austria 

 should be more prosperous than 

 it had hitherto proved; which, how- 

 ever, from past events, did not 

 seem probable : an aUeration of 

 circumstances in favour of both 

 these sovereigns, depended not 

 only on the success of their arms in 

 Ilaly,bul also on the better fortune 

 of those of the whole confederacy. 



The termination of this cam- 

 paign left the affairs of Europe in 

 the most astonishing condition they , 

 had ever experienced since that 

 political system had been formed, ,^ 

 which had kept them so long in 

 equipoise, and happily prevented 

 any natiiui from exceeding those 

 limits of power and consequence > 

 which iiiusthive necessari!) endan- 

 gered 



