HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



155 



naparte may be considered as the 

 absolute sovereign of that fine coun- 

 try, with the exception of the Nea- 

 politan dominions ; for the sovereign- 

 ty of the Pope, in the present cir- 

 cumstances, must be considered 

 merely nominal, and the defeat of 

 the allied fortes in Moravia, leaves 

 little doubt of V^enice and its slates 

 being lo^t to Austria for ever. 



When the emperor of Franre 

 beca:i<e fully av,arc of the storm 

 ■which impended over his head, from 

 the fresh coalition formed againU 

 him, in order to meet its rage with 

 greater advantages to himself, he 

 concluded a treaty of neutra- 

 lity Tvith the king of Naples, in the 

 month of September, by which 

 means he was enabled to with- 

 draw the French troops, stationed in 

 that country, and join them to his 

 armies in the north of Italy, des- 

 tinvd to act under general Massena 

 against the archduke Charles; a 

 measure to him of the utmost im- 

 poriance, and which subsequently 

 insured him the superiority he ac- 

 quired in that quarter. At this 

 period the strength of the Russian 

 and English force, in the Mediter. 

 ranean, could not be less than fif- 

 teen thousand men with many 

 good officers, well provided, and 

 entirely fit for action. This 

 •trcngfh thrown into the scale of 

 Austria, in Italy, might hare mate- 

 rially altered the fate of the cam- 

 paign ; and indeed, it appears to us 

 that the obvious policy would have 

 been, to have sailed with it up the 

 Adriatic, and landed the allied 

 troops in the Venetian territories, 

 whence they could easily hare 

 formed a junction with prince 

 Charles, and have enabled him to 

 Kiccour general Mack, without such 

 a diminution of his own force, 3S 



Vol. XLVII. 



would give the advantage of supe- 

 riority of numbers to general Mas- 

 sena. It was, however, decided 

 otherwise, and about the middle of 

 November the united English and 

 Russian army was landed in the 

 kingdom of Naples, where, there 

 being no enemy to oppose them, 

 they lay inactive the remainder of 

 the campaign, without being, in 

 the slightest degree, serviceable to 

 the common cause, and exposing, 

 in all probability ■« one of the old- 

 est and most faithful of the allies 

 of these respective powers, the king 

 of Naples, to the subsequent Iosk 

 of his continental dominions. 



It is true, that, upon the arrival 

 of this force, that monarch pub- 

 lished a long manifesto, in which 

 he stated his fidelity tit the prin- 

 ciples of neutrality agreed upon 

 between his government and that 

 of France, and his utter inability 

 to resist the occupation of his coun- 

 try by the allied army ; — but the 

 French minister at the court of 

 Naples gave not the slightest credit 

 to these assertions, but quitted that 

 city in a 'tate of the highest resent- 

 ment at the conduct of the king, 

 whom he did not scruple to charge 

 vith having acted with equal du- 

 plicity and treachery, and whom 

 he threatened with the whole 

 weight of his master's vengeance at 

 a favourable opportunity. As that 

 season will unfortunately present 

 itself but too soon, there can be 

 little reason to doubt of the per- 

 formance of a promise made under 

 such circumstances. The misfor- 

 tunes of Austria will be visited on 

 the king of the Two Sicilie-s, and tha 

 commencement of the next year will, 

 most probably, witness the crown 

 of Naples wrested from its present 

 pos.sessor, aud incorporated with 



P Bonaparte's 



