/ 
23) ANNUAL 
the day.. The Imperial troops were 
wholly routed, and fifteen hundred 
RE 
GISTER, 1797. 
from all the imposts they were used 
to pay tothe emperor. 
captured, besides the slain. They». ‘This proclamation, as well as the 
fled in disorder from Clausen to 
Brixen, closely pursued by the 
French, who took possession of this 
important place, which the enemy 
abandoned with precipitation. In 
these several actions, particularly of 
Tramin, general Dumas, at the head 
of the Trench cavalry, did signal 
services. Here he first broke the 
enemy, and took six hundred pri- 
soners, which led the way to their 
entire defeat. 
' The victories obtained by Buo- 
naparte’s generals, or those wherein 
he presided in person, had now 
brought him to the borders of Ca- 
rinthia. Desirous of reconciling the 
inhabitants of this province to the 
entrance of the French, and no less 
in order to avail himself of the op- 
portunity to direct an address, 
through them, to all the people 
of Germany, he issued a proclama- 
tion, wherein he disclaimed all 
purposes.of conquest over the em- 
pire. The sole aim of the French 
government, he said, was to termi- 
nate this calamitous war ; but the 
Imperial court had refused to attend 
to the proposals of peace offered to 
it, Corrupted by the gold of Eng- 
land, the emperor’s ministers be- 
trayed both him and his subjects, 
and rendered them the tools of that 
power. He was conscious, he said, 
that the war was contrary to the 
sense of both his German and Hun- 
garian subjects. He, therefore, in- 
vited them to enter into terms of 
amity. He required no contribu- 
tions: all he asked of them was, 
inat they would furnish provisions 
to his army, for which they should 
_ be indemnified, by being discharged 
a 
many others, issued occasionally by 
the French commander, made little. 
impression upon those to whom they 
were addressed. But they served 
as manifestos to the politic world, 
and, in the opinion of many, justi-- 
fied the French in their endeavours 
to force their enemies to accede to. 
a peace, which, had these been vic~ 
torious, they would have dictated 
to the French, as peremptorily, at 
least, as thsse did to them. 
The close of March was ap=« 
proaching. Since the tenth the 
Austrians had not only been expel- 
led from their posts, in the territory” 
of Venice, but had lost the most con-, 
siderable of those upon their own 
frontiers. The province of Carni- 
ola was nearly in the possession of 
the French, who had entered Ca-. 
rinthia and encamped on the south- ' 
ern side of the Drave, at some 
distance from Clagenfurth, the capi- 
tal of this province. General Mas-, 
sena’s division pushed forward, on 
the twenty-ninth, towards that city. 
The main body of the Austrians 
were drawn up before it, to receive 
him; but after a slight resistance, 
and the loss of some hundreds killed 
and taken, it retired with all speed, 
and the archduke abandoned that 
place, which, being his head-quar-~ 
ters, the loss of it cast a damp on’ 
the whole Imperial army. The 
French now crossed the Drave, and 
advanced beyond it to Freisach, 
apost of importance. While their | 
central division was thus gaining 
ground, the left, under Joubert, was 
making no less progress in the Ty- 
rol. He had been reinforced by a 
body of cavalry, commanded by ge 
nerak 
