an end, and they were treated with 
excessive severity. Determined, 
“however, not to yield, they applied 
“to Buonaparte for his protection, 
against their antagonists. “This was 
‘seadily granted, and the French 
‘having taken possession of the city, 
the enemies to the aristocracy could 
‘no longer, with safety, be opposed. 
It was intimated to the Genoese 
nobles, that, after the expuision of 
the Austrians from Italy, and the 
submission of all the principal pow- 
‘ers in that country to the dictates 
of France, it wete the height of 
‘temerity in them,’ to continue a re- 
sistance to the general will of their 
“fellow-citizens. They yielded pru- 
dently in time, and agreed to the 
establishment of a commonwealth, 
_ ‘on the principle of a perfect equali- 
~ ty of rank and privileges among all 
the classes of society. The F rench 
system of legislation tool place in 
every respect ; and the territory of 
1 Genoa was ‘distributed into. com. 
_ Munes and municipalities, in imi- 
_ tation of France. The discretion 
~ of Buonaparte, upon this occasion, 
“was remarkable in two material 
“instances. He provided for the 
“security of all persons, by an act of 
amnesty ; and for the maintenance 
is religion, by leaving tt to the 
‘protection’ of the Jaws instituted 
or its support. 
ae for Genoa, that it waa 
Situated at a distance from the do- 
‘mains of Austria. Had this republic, 
* ‘like Venice, been seated in the neigh- 
“bourhood of that ambitious ree 
At might also have partaken of 
i similar destiny: It had offended in 
i the same manner, thou‘zh not to the 
' “same extent, and might have been 
b. crificed, with as little scruple, to 
€ conveniency of ae ie ar= 
_ “yangements, 
_— > 
: aveneupaa =~ 
ot 
= 
ii 
ESPORY OF EUROPE. 
It was happy - 
[43 
In the course of the negotiations 
for peace, which were’ studiously 
‘prolonged on the part of Austria, 
and far from accelerated on that of 
France, both parties seemed to have 
forgotten their animosity, and to 
concur in the means of settling their 
contest, at the expence of others. 
Exchanges of territory were pro- 
posed, and acceded to, with that 
remorseless indifference, which cha- 
racterises despotic princes, transe 
ferringe to each other their subjects, 
hike cattle; without consulting any 
other title to act in this manner than 
the incapacity of the helpless people 
thus treated, to vindicate the rights 
of human nature, and to resist such 
arbitrary usage. 
It was in virtue of such principles 
that a cession of part of the Vene- 
tian territories was mentioned in 
the very outset of the treaty, for 
which Venice was to be indemnified 
out of the pope’s dominions, newly 
republicanized. Here at once was 
a ‘total dereliction of those maxims, 
on which the French chiefly founded 
“the superiority of their system: 2 
scrupulous regard for the dignity of 
man, and 4 referencé to his ‘will 
and consent, in’ whatever he was 
concerned. The partition alluded 
to did not indeed take place, as 
Venice was docmed to. far worse 
treatment : but the principle, to the 
shame of the French, was clearly 
adinitted. 
The’French commander was too 
jealous° of his own character ‘to 
undergo the reproach, of suffering 
the noble republic he had found- 
ed to be destroyed at its very 
birth ; and it .is not to’be doubted, 
whether we contemplate the prece- 
dent or subsequent conduct‘of Buo- 
naparte, ‘that he would «not ‘have 
suffered this, no more than: certain 
ether 
