3<>2 FRANCE. 



his sincere desire of peace. The campaign recommenced on the 

 24th of November, and in the beginning of December the Austrians 

 were defeated by Moreau in the decisive battle of Hohenhnden, in 

 which the French took 10,000 prisoners, with 80 pieces of cannon : 

 the archduke Charles was likewise defeated, with the loss of 8000 

 men ; and the emperor was convinced that he had no resource but in a 

 peace. 



Another armistice was therefore concluded on the 27th of Decem- 

 ber, and negotiations for peace were opened at Luneville, and carried 

 on with such dispatch, that the preliminary treaty was signed on the 

 3d of February, 1801, by count Cobentzel and Joseph Bonaparte, and 

 soon after ratified by the emperor. By this treaty, the cession of the 

 Belgic provinces to France, as stipulated by the treaty of Campo 

 Formio, was ratified in a more formal manner ; and the whole of the 

 country on the left side of the Rhine, the cession of which had been 

 assented to at the congress of Rastadt, was likewise given up to 

 France. The boundaries of the Cisalpine, now called the Italian 

 republic, were enlarged, and the dukes of Tuscany and Modena were 

 compelled to renounce their territories, and accept such indemnities 

 as should be provided for them in Germany. 



Of the conclusion of the peace of Amiens between France and 

 England, and the causes of its rupture, a concise account has already 

 been given in our history of England. 



As soon as the preliminaries of the latter peace were signed, and 

 the cessation of hostilities with England had left the seas open to 

 the French marine, Bonaparte fitted out a great expedition for St. 

 Domingo, to restore, as he said, the French West India colonies to 

 tranquillity and order. On board the fleet and the transports which 

 accompanied it, an army of 25,000 men, the flower of the French 

 soldiery, and completely equipped, was embarked. The famous 

 negro chief, Toussaint l'Ouverture, who was at the head of a for- 

 midable body of negroes, was successively defeated, and at length 

 concluded a capitulation with the French generals ; who afterwards 

 seized him, pretending they had discovered that he was engaged 

 in a plot against them, and sent him to France, where he soon end- 

 ed his days in the dungeon in which he was confined. The recom- 

 mencement of the war with Great Britain having deprived the first 

 consul of the means of sending any reinforcements to his troops in 

 St. Domingo, the French, after suffering still more from the climate 

 than from the enemy, have been at length entirely driven out of the 

 island. 



The unbounded ambition of Bonaparte now began to display itself 

 in its true colours. He had assumed the title of president of the 

 Italian republic, with, in reality, the same unlimited authority which 

 he exercised in France ; and not contented with holding the title and 

 power of first consul, according to the constitution he had introduced, 

 he procured himself to be appointed consul for life, with the power 

 of nominating his successor. These new assumptions were, how- 

 ever, only steps to the throne to which he aspired. 



In the beginning of the year 1804, a conspiracy was formed against 

 him, in which the late general Pichegru and Georges, formerly a 

 leader of the insurgents in La Vandee, were engaged. They had 

 endeavoured to induce general Moreau, who lived in retirement, and 

 had never condescended servilely to flatter Bonaparte, to join them ; 

 but this he seems to have refused, probably disapproving some part 



