690 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1805. 



upen this subject; his majesty, by 

 the official assurance communicated 

 in the name of the emperor Napo- 

 leon, was confirmed in his hopes that 

 the Italian republic would not be 

 united with France, and that no in- 

 novation should take place which 

 might prove injurious to its political 

 independence. — Europe will decide 

 -whether these promises have been 

 fulfilled. The emperor has not ceased 

 to demand their execution, as the 

 correspondence evinces, which took 

 place between the two governuienls, 

 and also the official and ostensible 

 propositions which were transmitted 

 to the ambassador Count Philip Co- 

 Lentzel ; and though the notes in 

 ■which the emperor Napoleon com- 

 municated his intentions as to the 

 establishment of a kingdom of Italy, 

 "were accompanied with threats and 

 military preparations ; though every 

 thing, at the very time, indicated 

 what events have since confirmed, 

 that the emperor of the French Mas 

 resolved to accomplish these innova- 

 tions by force, his majesty, never- 

 theless, did not remonstrate against 

 dispositions, which were announced 

 to him as nothing more than a pro- 

 visional arrangement. lie rested sa- 

 tisfied with refuting tJie charges 

 which furnished a pretext for those 

 menaces, and with expressing his 

 hope, that the principle of separation 

 and independence, which had been 

 consecrated by the treaty, should be 

 carried into complete execution by 

 the definitive arrangements, which 

 the emperor Napoleon left to de- 

 pend upon ulterior negotiations with 

 the courts of St. Petersburgh and 

 London, at the period of the re-es- 

 tablishment of peace. — These nego- 

 tiations were, in fact, the only hoi)e 

 which remained to bis majesty of 

 eucceedhig, by conciliatory means, 



in maintaining peace, and ultimate- 

 ly to restore repose to Europe,which, 

 from its northern to its southern ex- 

 tremity, laboured under alarms ex- 

 cited by enterprizes, which momen- 

 tarily increased, both in number 

 and magnitude. — His majesty the 

 emperor of the French had made a 

 pacific ovcrturi' to the kuig of En- 

 gland, in terms which pretended to 

 preclude the latter from the right of 

 taking any concern in the important 

 interests of the continent. This re- 

 siriction, combined with the relati- 

 ons existing between -the king of 

 England and the court of St. Peters- 

 burgh, induced his Britannic majesty 

 to have recourse to the mediation of 

 his majesty the emperor of Russia. 

 Notwithstanding the suspension of 

 all official relations with France, his 

 majesty did not hesitate to employ 

 his mediation, to dispatch an ambas- 

 sador for that purpose, and to make 

 application to the sovereign of 

 France to furnish him with pass- 

 ports. — The hopes, however, to 

 which these pacific stops gave birth, 

 speedily vanished. At the very mo- 

 ment when the requisite passports 

 Merc transmitted to the Russian ne- 

 gotiator, to enable him to proceed 

 on his journey to France, fresh at- 

 tacks were made on the political ex- 

 istence of other independent states 

 in Italy. From that instant the em- 

 peror Alexander conceived that his 

 character must have been compro- 

 mised as a mediator. On the other 

 hand, French armies Mere rapidly 

 assembled in Italy, M'ithout any re- 

 gard to the promises given, that no 

 military preparations should take 

 place in that country. An encamp, 

 ment of thirty thousand men in the 

 plain of Marengo, was speedily fol- 

 lowed by another encampment of for- 

 ty thousand on the frontiers of the 



Tyrol, 



