1C8] ANNUAL REUISTEK, ISOO. 



CHAP. X. 



Both the allied Powers of Austria and Great Britain determined to 

 prosecute the War against France. — Circular Letters of the Arch- 

 duke Charles to the anterior Circles of Germany. — Military Prepa- 

 rations in Germant/ and France. — Proclamation by Buonaparte to 

 the French, requiring the Means of Carrying on the War. — Situation 

 of the French and Austrian Arms at and after the close of the Cam- 

 jjaign of 1799- — French Army of Reserve at Dijon. — The French 

 Army of the Rhine. — Its Position and Movements at the beginning 

 of the Cainpaign, 1800 — The Archduke Charles retires, and is 

 succeeded in the Command of the Army by General Kray. 



THE determination of the Bri- 

 tish ministry, on the subject of 

 peace or war Avith France, we have 

 already seen in the course of the 

 debates in parliament. They had no 

 objection to treat with any form of 

 government in France, that should 

 appear, from experience or the evi- 

 dence of facts, to be able and willing 

 to negociate, on the principles es- 

 tablished among European nations, 

 and to preserve and support the 

 usual relations of peace and amity; 

 but a peace, concluded with an 

 unstable government, must itself be 

 unstable. The peace, that did not 

 promise to be permanent, was good 

 for nothing. It was, farther, preg- 

 nant with disadvantage and danger. 

 But no secure andlasting peace could 

 co-exist, with a system of aggi-es- 

 sion, aggrandizement, and univer- 

 sal destruction: a system that had 

 been adopted and pursued in France 

 from the commencement of the re- 

 volution; and from which it did 

 not by any means appear, that the 

 new chief, the first consul, Buona- 

 parte, had at all departed. In 



such circumstances, the only means 

 of obtaining an honourable, secure, 

 and lasting peace, was, to prosecute 

 the war with vigour. — Such also 

 were the sentiments of the great ally 

 of Britain, the emperor of Germany. 

 Of the political situation of Aus- 

 tria, and the Germanic empire, in 

 relation to France, we may form a 

 tolerably just idea from the circular 

 letter of the archduke Charles, 

 dated at Donaueschingen, the fourth 

 of December, 1 799j to the anterior 

 circles of the empire, of which a 

 translation here follows: " It is 

 from the impulse of tlie most invin- 

 cible necessity, that I am induced 

 to speak to you of an object, and of 

 dispositions, from whence there may 

 arise the greatest detriments to the 

 common cause of Germany. I 

 perceive, with regret, that the late 

 events in France, through which 

 the supreme power has passed into 

 new hands, have revived the hope, 

 already so often deceived, of an 

 approaching pacification ; and that, 

 on the strength of this premature 

 supposition, an idea prevails that it 



