86]: , 
the various exploits they had per- 
formed in the two foregoing years, 
the patience with which they had 
boroe not only the hardships of the 
field, but the pressures of want, and 
the privation of every convenience 
and comfort, and the invincible for- 
titude with which they had persisted, 
amidst all these difficulties, to dis- 
charge the duties of brave soldiers. 
Tr exhoried them to persevere as 
they had done; fresh toils and viéto- 
yies were expeéted from them by 
their country, before its enemies 
would consent to reasonable terms 
of ‘peace. It held out the most 
flatiering hopes of success ; and that 
they were at the eve of terminating 
their patriotic labours, the issue of 
which would procure safety to their 
country, and glory to themselves ; 
who then would return to its bosom, 
to enjoy the love and gratitude so 
justly due to them from their fellow- 
citizens, and so nobly earned by 
their services. — 
This address was sent to all the 
military bodies of the republic, and 
read to them with great solemnity. 
Tt was received with much respett 
and satisfaétion. ‘The officers and 
soldiers formally reriewed their as- 
surances of fidelity to the republic, 
and their readiness to lay down their 
lives in its defeice. 
The objeét which the direftory 
had now chiefly in contemplation 
was to Carry the war into Staly. 
The Austrians were prepared ‘o 
pass the Rhine in vreat foree; the 
attachment of the Belgians ‘to their 
French conqueiors might waver; 
the fate of another campaign was 
uncertain; much was to be lost, no- 
thing gained, in the Ne herlands, by 
an appeal to arms, on a questiun, 
which, if the authority of the re- 
public should be confirmed by the 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1796. 
lapse of evena few years, they might 
consider as already decided. In this 
situation of affairs they determined 
to divert the energy and attention 
of the emperor from his Belgian 
territories, where his authority had 
been so often disputed, to his Italian 
dominions, where his will was a 
law, and from whence he drew still 
greater supplies. While they cut’ 
off thé emperor’s resources in Italy, 
they would add to their own. They 
did not doubt of reaping immense 
benefit from the possession of that 
country, the inhabitants of which 
were known generally to have little . 
aff étion for their presses sovereigns. 
The people of the duchies of Milan, 
Parma, and Modena, were peculi- 
arly disaffeéted,and, the nobility and 
clergy excepted, seemed rather to 
desire, than to dread, a change of 
masters, The commonality, in the 
tepublics of Venice and Genoa, 
professed no attachment to their 
rulers. In Tuscany, and the papal 
dominions, there were numbers of 
discontented ; and in the kingdom 
of Naples the number was still 
grealer. i ee 
Among these multitudes there 
were some — individuals’ resolute 
enough to declare their dissatisfac- 
tion at their respeétive govern 
ments, notwithstanding the pere 
sonal dangers to which they ex- 
posed themselves by so daring a 
conduét. But what was more, some 
had the courage to entertain @ pri- 
vate correspondence with France, 
and explicitly to solicit some of 
the principal persons in the ree 
public to invade Italy, where, they 
assured them, they would find more 
friends than foes among the natives, 
and meet with no opposition but > 
from the Austrians, and their few 
adherents, among the possessors of 
places 
