384 FRANCE. 



pies, and the inferior princes of Italy, to conclude such treaties as the 

 French thought proper to dictate. The victors likewise founded a 

 new republic in Italy, at first called the Cispadane, but afterwards the 

 Cisalpine republic, to which they annexed such parts of the papal ter- 

 ritory as they judged convenient. 



After the taking of Mantua, the victorious Bonaparte penetrated 

 into the Tyrol, and directed his course towards the Imperial capital. 

 The archduke Charles was opposed to him, but was unable to check 

 his progress. The republican armies had at length advanced so near 

 to Vienna, that the utmost alarm and confusion prevailed in that city. 

 The bank suspended its payments ; and the emperor was preparing 

 to forsake his capital, and re*iove to Olmutz. In this critical situa- 

 tion of his affairs, his imperial majesty opened anegociation with Bo- 

 naparte ; a short armistice was agreed to ; and the preliminaries of 

 peace between the emperor and king of Hungary, and the French 

 republic, were signed atLeoben, in the month of April, 1797. 



In the mean time, a tumult having taken place at Venice, in which 

 a number of the French soldiers were murdered in the hospitals of 

 that city, the French armies, on their return, abolished the ancient 

 government of Venice, planted the tree of liberty in St. Mark's 

 Place, established a municipality, and proposed to annex the city and 

 territory to the new Cisalpine republic. But the conclusion of the 

 definitive treaty of peace with the emperor being protracted on ac- 

 count of the French refusing to restore Mantua, as it is alledged it 

 was stipulated they should in the pi*eliminaries, they at length agreed 

 to cede to him the city and a part of the territory of Venice, in com- 

 pensation for Mantua. 



The definitive treaty of peace between France and the emperor 

 was signed at Campo Formio, on the 17th of October, 1797. By this 

 treaty the emperor ceded to France the whole of the Netherlands, 

 and all his former territory in Italy. He received in return the city 

 of Venice, Istra, and Dalmatia, and the Venetian Islands in the Adri- 

 atic : the French were to possess the other Venetian islands. 



While the negociations which terminated in this treaty was carry- 

 ing on 5 the disputes of two contending parties were producing a new 

 revolution in France. On the 5th of March, the two councils drew 

 the lots, which deprived one third of their members of their seats in 

 the legislature, and the new deputies elected in their room took their 

 seats on the 20th of the same month. It soon appeared that the anti- 

 directorial party had received a considerable accession of strength. 

 The conduct of the directory was very freely canvassed ; retrench- 

 ment of expense in both civil and military offices was proposed ; the 

 laws relative to polygamy were ordered to be revised ; and the seve- 

 rity of those against priests and emigrants was greatly relaxed. The 

 proceedings of the directory, with respect to the Venetian, Genoese, 

 and Helvetic republics, were severely censured, and it was evident 

 that an open rupture between the directory and the councils was ine- 

 vitable. Unfortunately for the party in opposition to the directory, 

 the armies took part with the latter. The army of Italy transmitted 

 to the directory a most violent address relative to these disputes, and 

 its example was followed by the other armies of the republic. The 

 opposition party were slow and irresolute in the measures they took 

 for their defence : they probably relied with too much confidence on 

 their supposed strength, as they had a decisive majority in the coun- 

 cil of five hundred, and two out of the five directors, Carnot and Bar- 



