WZ 
governed by a proud and unbending aris- 
tocracy, who had excited disaffection 
among the Vaudois by the invasion of 
these franchises which they had enjoyed 
from time immemorial. ‘The Vaudois 
demanded their ancient privileges; 
Berne irritated them by her refusal: 
violence produced violence; France fo- 
mented the discord, assumed the right 
of mediation by virtue of ancierm treaties, 
and declared by the mouth of Mengaud, 
her chargé d’affaires with the Helpetic 
body, that she would render Berne re- 
sponsible for the life and safety of cer- 
tain persons, whom the government had 
imprisoned for the freedom with which 
they had pleaded the cause of liberty and 
equality. Berne, in order to ward off 
the immediate blow, now found it neces- 
sary to adopt conciliatory measures*to- 
wards the Vaudois, and accordingly 
sent two deputies of the diet, Wiss of 
. Zurich, and Reding of Schwitz, to the 
Pays de Vaud, with instructions to re- 
store order, even at the expence of the 
greatest sacrifices, provided however . 
that they were asked in a legal and pro- 
er manner. The haughty spirit of an 
individual, who is the object of extrava- 
gant and repeated encomium by Mr. 
Adolphus, the avoyerSteiguer,who was 
at the head of the Bernese government, 
frustrated this salutary measure: the 
deputies arrived at Lausanne, the capital 
of the Pays de Vaud, and were on the 
very point of executing their commission 
with success, when Berne, on which the 
salvation of Switzerland depended, learning 
that there were still in the Pays de Vaud 
many communities which remained 
faithful to its government, resolved to 
make use of them in conquering the 
country. To perseverance in this fatal, 
and we do not hesitate to call it, this 
treacherous measure, she was urged by 
the unyielding Steiguer, who suffered 
his hatred to the new organization of 
France to get the better of that political 
prudence, for which he had before been 
so justly celebrated. Insurrection en- 
creased, and general Menard entered the 
Pays de Vaud on the 25th of January 
1798,-at the head of his column. The 
haughty governors of Berne now trem- 
bled, and from their fears were extorted 
concessions at. which their pride had 
evolted: but it was too late; at length, 
reduced to despair, Berne invoked the 
succour of allits allies, but they were 
too busied in their own concerns, and 
the cantons of Zurich and Schwitz alone 
HISTORY, POLITICS, AND STATISTICS. 
sent each a battalion, the latter of which 
was commanded by the great patriot 
Aloys, Reding ; who, in he course of 
the strug¢le, became,the soul of the 
allied army, but whose name Mr. Adol- 
phus has not thought worthy of being 
admitted into his pages. 
As the history comes nearer to the 
present time, we have scarcely any thing 
before us but scenes of battle: From 
the campaigns of Italy the reader is 
carried to those of Germany, of Hol- 
land, and of Egypt; and the wretched 
relief which alone is in the power of the 
historian to offer him, is a view of the 
divisions in the directory, and of the al- 
ternate ascendancy of different factions 
in Paris. These divisions, however, 
which kept the Parisians in such con- 
stant personal alarm, are in a moment 
hushed by the bold and dexterous reyo- 
lution at St. Cloud; and certainly no- 
thing refutes the slander of the caprici- 
ousness of fortune more decisively, than 
her constancy towards Bonaparte on 
this occasion: that a general should have 
basely abandoned his army in distress, 
without orders from his government: 
that he should return to his country, and 
not merely escape punishment for his 
defection, but be raised to the supre- 
macy of power, was a most extraordinary 
and incalculable circumstance. ‘The 
history of this revolution, and the faci- 
lities which were offered for its accom- 
plishment by the state of the nation, at 
this critical time, are explained with 
perspicuity and spirit. 
Bonaparte had not been long seated 
on his consular throne, before he quitted 
the metropolis, in order by his presence 
to give the campaign in Italy a decisive 
and favourable issue. On this oceasion 
it was, that he performed an achieve- 
ment which rivals, if it does not eclipse 
the famed exploit of Hannibal: with his 
army of reserve, encumbered with heavy 
artillery, he crossed the Great St. Ber- 
nard. 
The battle of Marengo, the success of 
which Mr. Adolphus has justly attri- 
buted to the unfortunate DVessaix, de- 
cided the campaign. Within a few 
months a congress was held at Lune- 
ville, where preliminary articles of peace 
were arranged, which were afterwards 
definitively ratified by the Imperial 
diet. 
France now foreseeing that England 
would soon be her only active enemy, 
endeavoured to countervail the ascend- 
