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CHAP. following day, expressing the deepest regret at the XXVI. disorders which had occurred, nothing would appease the exasperated ambassador, and on the 15th he left Vienna, under a numerous escort of cavalry, and took the road for Rastadt.1

1798.

1 Hard. v. 135, 493, 508.

ces opened

which lead

to no re

sult.

When matters were in this combustible state, a Conferen- spark only was required to light the conflagration. at Seltz, Conferences were opened at Seltz, in Germany, where, on the one hand, the Directory insisted on satisfaction for the insult offered to the ambassador of the Republic; and, on the other, the Emperor demanded an explanation of the conduct of France in subduing, without the shadow of a pretext, the Helvetic Confederacy, and extending its dominion through the Oct. 1798. whole of Italy. As the Austrians could obtain no satisfaction on these points, the Emperor drew more closely his bonds of intimacy with the court of St Petersburg, and the march of the Russian armies Jom, through Gallicia and Moravia was hastened, while the military preparations of the Austrian monarchy proceeded with redoubled activity.1

1 Th. x. 145, 146,

xi, 8, 9.

Lac. x. 341.

The negotiations at Rastadt for the settlement of Progress of the affairs of the Germanic empire proceeded slowly the nego towards an adjustment; but their importance disapRastadt. peared upon the commencement of the more weighty

tiations at

discussions involved in the Seltz conferences. The French insisted upon a variety of articles utterly inconsistent with the spirit of the treaty of Campo Formio or the independence of Germany. They first demanded all the islands of the Rhine, which were of very great importance in a military point of view; next, that they should be put in possession of Kehl and its territory opposite to Strasburg, and Cassel and its territory opposite to Mayence; then that a piece of ground, adequate to the formation of a tête

XXVI.

du-pont, should be ceded to them at the German end CHAP. of the bridge of Huningen; and, lastly, that the important fortress of Ehrenbreitzen should be demo- 1798. lished. The German deputation, on the other hand, insisted that the principle of separation should be that of thalweg; that is to say, of the division of the valley by the middle of its principal stream. As a consequence of this principle, they refused to cede Kehl, Cassel, or the tête-du-pont at Huningen, or to demolish the fortifications of Ehrenbreitzen, all of which lay on the German bank of the river. Subsequently, the French commissioners admitted the principle of the thalweg, consented to the demolition of Cassel and Kehl, and the Germans agreed to that of Ehrenbreitzen; but the Republicans insisted on the cession of the island of Petersaw, which would have given them the means of crossing opposite that important point. Matters were in this unsettled state Oct. 1798. when they were interrupted by the march of the Russian troops through Moravia. The French government upon that issued a note, in which they declared that they would consider the crossing of the Germanic frontier by that army as equivalent to a1 Jom. xi. declaration of war; and as their advance continued Th. x. 154, without interruption, the negotiations at Rastadt virtually came to an end."

27, 28.

157. Hard. vi. 371,

388.

measures

Seeing themselves seriously menaced with an armed resistance to their project for subjugating all the Financial adjoining states by means of exciting revolutions in of the Ditheir bosom, the Directory at length began to adopt rectory to measures to make head against the danger. The approachfinances of the Republic were in a most alarming lities.

state.

Notwithstanding the confiscation of twothirds of the national debt, it was discovered that there would be a deficit of 200,000,000 francs, or

meet the

XXVI.

1798.

CHAP. above L.8,000,000 sterling, in the returns of the year. New taxes, chiefly on doors and windows, were imposed, and a decree passed, authorizing national domains, to the value of 125,000,000 of francs, or L.5,000,000 sterling, to be taken from the public creditors, to whom they had been surrendered in liquidation of their claims, and the property of the whole Protestant clergy to be confiscated to the service of the state: thus putting, to support their revo1 Jom. xi. lutionary conquests, the last hand to their revolutionary confiscations.1

25, 26.

It remained to adopt some method for the augAdoption mentation of the army, which had been extremely of the law diminished by sickness and desertion since the peace scription of Campo Formio. The skeletons of the regiments legislature. and the non-commissioned officers remained; but the

of the con

by the

Sept. 28, 1798.

ranks exhibited large chasms, which the existing
state of the law provided no means of supplying.
The Convention, notwithstanding their energy, had
made no permanent provision for recruiting the
army, but had contented themselves with two levies,
one of 300,000, and one of 1,200,000 men, which,
with the voluntary supplies since furnished by the
patriotism or suffering of the people, had been found
adequate to the wants of the state. But now that
the revolutionary fervour had subsided, and a neces-
sity existed for finding a permanent supply of soldiers
to meet the wars into which the insatiable ambition
of the government had plunged the country, some
lasting resource became indispensable. To meet the
difficulty, General Jourdan proposed the law of the
CONSCRIPTION, which became one of the most import-
ant consequences of the Revolution. By this decree,
every
Frenchman from twenty to forty-five years of
age was declared amenable to military service. Those

XXVI.

x. 183, 184.

on this

liable to serve were divided into classes, according to the years of their birth, and the government were authorized to call out the youngest, second, or third 1798. class, according to the exigencies of the times. The conscription was to take place by lot, in the class from which it was directed to be taken. This law was immediately adopted; and the first levy of two hundred thousand men from France ordered to be immediately enforced, while eighteen thousand men1 Jom. xi. were required from the affiliated republic of Swit-23, 24. Th. zerland, and the like number from that of Holland.1 Thus, the justice of Heaven made the revolutionary passions of France the means of working out their Reflections own punishment. The atrocious aggression on Swit-event. zerland, the flames of Underwalden, the subjugation of Italy, were registered in the book of fate, and brought about a dreadful and lasting retribution. Not the bayonets of the Allies, not the defence of their country, occasioned this lasting scourge; the invasion of other states, the cries of injured innocence, first brought it into existence. They fixed upon its infatuated people that terrible law, which soon carried misery into every cottage, and bathed with tears every mother in France. Wide as had been the spread of the national sin, as wide was the lash of national punishment. By furnishing an almost inexhaustible supply of military population, it fanned the spirit of universal conquest, and precipitated its people into the bloody career of Napoleon. It produced that terrible contest which, after exhausting the resources, brought about the subjugation of that great kingdom, and wrung from its infuriated but not repentant inhabitants what they themselves have sav. iv. styled tears of blood." It is thus that Providence 382.

VOL. III.

Z Z

2

CHAP. vindicates its superintendence of the moral world; XXVI. that the guilty career of nations, equally as that of 1798. individuals, brings down upon itself a righteous punishment; and that we feel, amidst all the sins of rulers, or madness of the people, the truth of the sublime words of Scripture: "Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone."

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