BONAI'ARTF, XAPOLF.nX I. 



BOXAPARTE. NAPOLEON I. 



appointed by Bonaparte, repealed the odious system, for which he 

 substituted 25 per cent additional upon all contributions direct or 

 indirect. Confidence being thus restored, the merchants and bankers 

 of Pari< supplied a loan of twelve millions, the taxes were paid with- 

 out difficulty, the sales of national domains were resumed, and money 

 was no longer wanting for the expenses of the state. Cambaceres 

 continued to be minister of justice. The tyrannical law of hostages, 

 by which nearly 200,000 Frenchmen were placed out of the pale of 

 the law because they happened to be relatives of emigrants or of 

 Vendeani, and were made answerable for the offences of the latter, 

 was repealed. About 20,000 priests who had been banished or 

 imprisoned were allowed to return, or were set at liberty on taking 

 the oath of fidelity to the established government All persons 

 arrested on mere suspicion, or for their opinions, were set free. 

 " Opinions," said Bonaparte, " are not amenable to the law ; the right of 

 the sovereign extends only to the exaction of obedience to the laws." 



The subordinate situations under government were filled with men 

 from all parties, chosen for their fitness. " We are creating a new era,' 

 said Bonaparte; "of the past we must remember only the good, and 

 forget the evil. Times, habits of business and experience, have formed 

 many able men and modified many characters." Agreeably to this 

 principle, Foucb<S was retained as minister of police, lierthier was 

 made minister at war instead of Dubois Cranc<5, the minister of the 

 Directory, who could give no returns of the different corps, and who 

 answered all questions by saying " We neither pay, nor victual, nor 

 clothe the army ; it subsists and clothes itself by requisitions on the 

 inhabitants. " 



The churches which had been closed by the Convention were re- 

 opened, and Christian worxhip was allowed to be performed all over 

 France. The Sabbath was again recognised as a day of rest, the law 

 of the Decades was repealed, and the computation by weeks resumed. 

 The festival of the 21st January, being the anniversary of the death 

 of Louis XVI., was discontinued. The oath of hatred to royalty was 

 suppressed as useless, now that the republic was firmly established 

 and acknowledged by all, and as being an obstacle to the good under- 

 standing between France and the other powers. At the same time the 

 sentence of transportation passed on the 19th Brumaire, on fifty-nine 

 members of the former Council of Five Hundred, was changed into 

 their remaining at a distance from Paris, under the surveillance of 

 the police. 



France was still at war with Austria, England, and the Porte. 

 Bonaparte sent Duroc on a mission to Berlin, by which he confirmed 

 Prussia in its neutrality. The Emperor Paul of Russia had with- 

 drawn from the confederation after the battle of Zurich, September 

 25th, 1799, in which Massena gained a victory over the Russian army. 

 Bonaparte now wrote a letU-r to the King of England, expressing a 

 wish for peace between the two nations. Lord Orenville, secretary of 

 state for foreign aflaira, returned an evasive answer, expressing doubts 

 to the stability of the present government of France, an uncertainty 

 which would effect the security of the negocintions ; " but disclaiming 

 at the same time any claim to prescribe to France what shall be the 

 form of her government, or in whose hands she shall vest the autho- 

 rity necessary for conducting the affairs of a great and powerful 

 nation. His Majesty looks only to the security of his own dominions 

 and those of his allies, and to the general safety of Europe. When- 

 ever be shall judge that such security can in any manner be attained, 

 His Msjcsty will eagerly embrace the opportunity to concert with bis 

 allies the means of immediate snd general pacification." This cor- 

 respondence was the subject of animated debates in the British 

 parliament (' Parliamentary Register for the year 1800.') 



Bonaparte had made the overture in compliance with the general 

 wish for |cr, but be lays himself that he was not sorry it was 

 rejecUd, aud " that the answer from London filled htm with secret 

 satisfaction, as war was necessary to maintain energy and union in 

 the sUte, which was ill organised, as well as his own influence over 

 the imaginations of the people." (Montholon, ' Memoirs of Napoleon,' 

 ToU i. note on Pitt's policy.) Bonaparte at the name time succeeded 

 in putting an md to the civil war in La Vendee; he entered into 

 negociatious with the principal Yendean chiefs, offering a complete 

 amnesty for the past, and at the same time he sent troops to La Von- 

 d*s to put down sny further resistance. The royalist party had gained 

 considerable strength ; owing to the weak and immoral policy of the 

 Directory, many officers of the republic, both civil and military, bad 

 catered into correspondence with it, because, as they confessed to 

 Bonaparte, they preferred anything to anarchy and the return of the 

 rngn of Urror. But the temperate and yet firm policy of the first 

 consul effected a great alteration in public opinion. The Vendeans 

 themselves were affected by it The principal of them, Cbatillon, 

 D Auticbamp, the Abbu Dernier, Bourmont, and others, made their 

 peace with the government by the treaty of Montlucon in January 

 1800. Georges capitulated to General Bruue, snd the Vendean war 

 was at an end. 



Bonaparte now turned all Lin attention to the war against Austria. 

 He gave to Moreau the command of the army of the Rhine, and himself 

 assumed the direction of that of Italy. MasKna was shut up in Genoa, 

 and the Austrians under General Melas occupied Piedmont and the 

 territory as far as the French frontiers. Bonaparte made a 

 demonstration of arm mbling an army of reserve at Dijon in Burgundy, 



which was composed of a few thousand men, chiefly conscripts or old 

 invalids. The Austrians, lulled into security, continued their operations 

 against Genoa aud towards Nice, while Bouaparto secretly directed a 

 number of regiments from the interior of France to assemble in Switzer- 

 land on the bonks of the Lake of Geneva. He himself re]ired to 

 Lausanne on the 13tb of May, and marched, with about 36,000 men 

 and 40 pieces of cannon, up the Great St Bernard, which had till then 

 been considered impracticable for the passage of an army, and especially 

 for artillery. The cannons were dismounted, put into hollow trunks 

 of trees, and dragged by the soldiers; the carriages were taken to 

 pieces, and carried on mules. The French army descended to Aosta, 

 turned the fort of Bard, and found iUelf in the plains of Lombardy, 

 in the rear of Melas's Austrian army, which was south of the Po, and 

 intercepting its communications with the Austrian states. Bonaparte 

 entered Milan on the 2nd of June without meeting with any opposition, 

 and was there joined by other divisions which had passed by the Simplou 

 and the St Gothard. He now marched to meet Melas, who had hastily 

 assembled his army near Alessandria. Pas-ing the Po at Piacenza, he 

 drove back Melas's advanced guard at Castegtpo near Voghera, aud 

 took a position in the plain of Marengo, on the right bank of the river 

 Bormida, in front of Alessandria. On the 14th of June Melas crossed 

 the Bormida in three columns, aud attacked the French. The Austrians 

 carried the village of Marengo, and drove the French bock upon that 

 of Son Giuliano, which was attacked by a column of 5000 Hungarian 

 grenadiers. At four o'clock in the afternoon the battle seemed lost to 

 the French, who were retiring on all points and in considerable disorder, 

 when Desaix arriving with a fresh division attacked the advunciiig 

 column, while the younger Kellerman with a body of heavy horse 

 charged it in flank. The column was broken, and General Zach, the 

 Austrian second in command, and hU staff, were taken prisoners. Tliu 

 commander-in-chief, Melas, an old and gallant officer, exhausted with 

 fatigue, and thinking th battle won, had just left the field and returned 

 to Alessandria. The other French divisions now advanced in their 

 turn ; a panic spread among the Austrian", who, after fighting bard 

 all day, bad thought themselves sure of victory, and they fled in con- 

 fusion towards the Bormida, many being trampled down by their own 

 cavalry, which partook of the general disorder. The A ustrian official 

 report stated their loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners at 9069 men 

 and 1433 horses. The French stated their own loss at 4000 only, and 

 that of the Austrians at 1 2,000. But the loss of the French must have 

 been greater. Desaix was shot through the breast in the charge ; ha 

 fell from his horse, slid, telling those around him not to say anything 

 to his men, he expired. He and Kellerman turned the fate of the 

 battle. An armistice wag concluded on the 16th of June between the 

 two armies, by which Alelas was allowed to withdraw his troops to the 

 line of Mantua aud the Mincio, the French keeping Lombardy as far 

 as the river Oglio. Melas, on his side, gave up Piedmont anil tin- 

 Genoese territory, with all their fortresses, including Genoa and 

 Alessandria, to the French. 



Bonaparte having established provisional governments at Milan, 

 Turin, and Genoa, returned to Parif, wheie he arrived on the 3rd of 

 July, and was received with the greatest enthusiasm. The battle of 

 Marengo had wonderfully consolidated his power, and increased his 

 influence on the opinion of the French. Negociations for peace took 

 place between Austria and France ; Austria however refused to treat 

 without England, and Bonaparte demanded an armistice by sea as a 

 preliminary to the negociations with England. Malta and Egypt were 

 then on the point of surrendering to the English, and Bonaparte wished 

 to send reinforcements to those countries during the naval armistice. 

 This was refused by Englsnd, and hostilities were resumed by sea and 

 by laud. Moreau defeated the Austrians commanded by the Archduke 

 John in the great battle of Hohenlindcn, and advanced towards Vienna. 

 The French in Italy drove the Austriaus beyond the Adigo and tho 

 Brents. (For all this war of 1800 see ' Precis des Evcuemens Hilitaires,' 

 by Mathicu Dumas.) 



Austria was now obliged to moke a separate peace. The treaty of 

 Lunoville, 9th February 1S01, arranged by the two plenipotentiaries, 

 Count Cobentzel and Joseph Bonaparte, was mainly grounded on that 

 of Campoforrnio. Austria retained the Venetian territories, but 

 Tuscany was taken away from the grand-duke Ferdinand, and 

 bestowed upon Louis, ton of the Duke of Parma, who bad married 

 a princess of Spain. Through the mediation of the Emperor Paul of 

 Russia, with whom Bonaparte was now on very friendly terms, the 

 King of Naples also obtained peace. The new pope, Pius VII., was 

 likewise acknowledged by Bonaparte, and left in full possession of his 

 territories, except tho legations which had been annexed to the 

 Cisalpine republic. In tho course of the same year negociations were 

 begun with England, where Mr. Aldington had succeeded Mr. I'itt. na 

 prime minister. Egypt and Malta having HIM rendered to tho English, 

 the chief obstacles to peace were removed. The preliminariea of 

 peace were signed at Paris on the 10th of October 1801, and the 

 definitive treaty was signed at Amiens, 27th of March 1802. Tho 

 principal conditions were, that Malta should be restored to the Knights 

 of St John, and the forts be occupied by a Neapolitan garrison. The 

 independence of the Cisalpine, Batarian, Helvetic, and Ligurian 

 republics was guaranteed. Egypt was restored to the Emltaii, the 

 Cspe of Good Hope to Holland, and tho French West India Islands 

 to France. England retained the island of Ceylon. 



