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is about to flow more than ever. The sixth campaign is announced under the most portentous auspices. Whatever may be the result, many thousands of gallant soldiers must still fall a sacrifice in the prosecution of hostilities. At some period we must come to an understanding, since time will bring all things to a conclusion, and extinguish the most inveterate resent

ments.

The executive directory of the French republic communicated to his imperial majesty their inclination to terminate a conflict which desolates the two countries. Their pacific overtures were defeated by the intervention of the British cabinet. Is there no hope, then, of accommodation? Is it essential to the interests or gratifying to the passions of a nation far removed from the theatre of war, that we should continue to murder each other? Are not you, who are so nearly allied to the throne, and who are above all the despicable passions which generally influence ministers and governments, ambitious to merit the appellations of "the benefactor of the human race," and, "the saviour of the German empire!" Do not imagine, my dear general, that I wish to insinuate that you cannot possibly save your country by force of arms; but on the supposition that the chances of war were even to become favourable, Germany will not suffer less on that account, With respect to myself, gallant ge. neral, if the overture which I have now the honour to make to you, could be the means of sparing the life of a single man, I should think myself prouder of the civic crown to which my interference would entitle me, than of the melancholy

glory which would result from the most brilliant military exploits. I beg of you to believe me to be, general in chief, with sentiments of the most profound respect and esteem, &c. &c.

BUONAPARTE.

The prince returned a polite answer, the substance of which was, that he neither conceived it his part to enter into any discussion on the principles upon which the war was carried on, nor was he furnished by the emperor with any powers to conclude a treaty of peace.

The last effort of the Austrians was an endeavour to excite the peasantry of the Tyrol to arise in a mass to expel the invaders; and it was so far successful, that the divisions of general Laudon and baron Kerpen were strengthened by some fresh and undisciplined, but seasonable, levies. The French columns, under the command of Joubert, were weak, and had suffered considerably by disease and the frequent combits in which they had been engaged. In the beginning of April, therefore, the fortune of war in that quarter began to change. On the 4th, the French were driven from Botzen by general Laudon, with some loss, and on the following day from Brixen, where the two Austrian columns under Laudon and Kerpen effected a junction.

Undismayed by these losses, Buonaparte continued to advance. General Massena, with the advanced guard, attacked the Austrians on the 2d of April, in the defiles between Freisach and Neumark; af. ter a most bloody engagement, the latter were completely routed, leav ing the field of battle covered with dead, and about 600 prisonersand the following morning the

French

French entered Neumark. On the 4th, the head-quarters of the French general were at Scheifling, and the advanced guard reached to Huntsmark, where the Austrians were again defeated with the loss of 900 men, in killed, wounded, and pri

soners.

While such was the state of affairs in Italy, new scenes of horror and carnage were preparing on the Rhine. The command of the army of the Sambre and Meuse had been entrusted to general Hoche, a young and spirited officer, who, our readers will remember, had distinguished himself not only in Flanders, but by his successful and happy termination of the civil war in La Vendée: general Moreau was continued as commander of the army of the Rhine and the Moselle. In the beginning of April, general Hoche gave notice of the conclusion of the armistice, and soon after passed the Rhine by the bridge of Neuwied. After an ineffectual attempt on the part of the Austrian general Kray to procure a renewal of the armistice, a smart action commenced on the 18th of April, in which the French were victorious, and the Austrians lost, according to the report of general Heche, 4,000 prisoners.

The French pursued the enemy, and dislodged them from Ukareth and Altenkirchen, while a division, under general Ney, proceeded with the greatest rapidity to Dierdorf. He found the Austrians there 6,000 strong, but he drove them from their position, with the loss of 1,000 men, in killed, wounded, and pri

soners.

General Moreau at the same time crossed the Rhine, and some slight engagements took place between the outposts; but the further pro

secution of hostilities was happily prevented by an event, the particu lars of which we have now to relate.

Though the answer of prince Charles did not augur the most fa vourably for peace, yet the overture of Buonaparte was not without ef fect. A very short time after the prince had dispatched his letter, he sent an aide-de-camp to the French general to request a suspension of arms for four hours-but this proposal Buonaparte declined, under the apprehension that the only ob ject of the archduke was to gain a day, and effect a junction with ge neral Spork, who was advancing with a fresh reinforcement. A cor respondence, however, was imme diately commenced between the two generals, which ended at first in an armistice, and finally in adjusting preliminaries of peace be tween the court of Vienna and the French republic, which were signed on the 18th of April by Buonaparte in the name of the French republic, and by the Neapolitan minister on the part of the emperor. Among other articles, the preliminaries contained a direct cession of the Nethe lands to France, with the duchy of Luxemburg, &c. the indepen dence of the new Italian republics, and the navigation of the Rhine. By a secret article, it is believed, the French undertook to indemnify the emperor by a part of the Venetian territory, and by the seculari zation of some of the ecclesiastical states in Germany.

A general view of the successes of the war was printed about this period, and distributed among the members of the two councils at Paris.-From this statement it appear ed, that from the 8th of Septe". ber 1793, to the 19th of February, 1797, the republic had gained 261 victo

ries, including 31 pitched battles; killed 152,600 men of the enemy; taken 197,784 prisoners; 238 strong places; 319 forts, camps, or redoubts: 7,963 pieces of cannon; 186,762 guns; 4,388,150 pounds of powder; 207 standards; 5,486 horses, &c. &c. &c.

The transactions which follow have never as yet been satisfactorily explained. In whatever point of view they are considered, they, however, redound but little to the credit of the French government. They were the commencement of a system of aggression against neutral but unprotected states, which has since been carried to an abominable excess, and by which the government has been disgraced, and the well-earned laurels of Buonaparte nearly blasted.

That the pretended republican government of Venice was no other than an execrable tyranny, vested in the hands of certain powerful families, and supported by a complex and mysterious organization of the executive power, is a fact very generally acknowledged. -That the government of Venice might view with a jealous and a timid eye the rapid advances of the French, may be easily supposed.

That they would have rejoiced in the expulsion of the French from Italy, is equally probable. Yet these are not motives sufficient to justify the violent measures of the French; the seizure of territories, the dissolution of the political existence of a neutral independent state.

The charge which was brought by the French general against the Venetian government was, that while the French army was engaged in the defiles of Stiria, the government of Venice embraced the opportunity to arm 40,000 peasants, uniting them with ten regi

ments of Sclavonians, to cut off the main body from the places which were occupied by the rear. That, throughout the whole of the Terra Firma, a persecution was instituted against all those persons by whom the French had been favourably received. That in the squares, coffee-houses, and other public places in Venice, the French had been insulted. In fine, that assassinations of Frenchmen had been committed with impunity in different parts; that, at Castiglione de Mori, the French soldiers were first disarmed, and then murdered; on the great roads from Cassino to Verona, more than 200 were put to death; and on the second festival at Easter, the ringing of the bell was the signal for assassinating all the French in Verona, without excepting even the sick and wounded in the hospitals.

To this serious and revolting charge, the advocates for Venice reply, by instancing the wanton seizure of a part of their territory, the quartering of troops on some of the principal towns, under pretence that these places were necessary to the operations of the French army against the imperialists. They admit that fresh levies were made in the Venetian territories; but these they allege were necessary to their own security, placed among contending armies, and surrounded with conspirators. That some intemperate acts were committed, they pretend not to deny ; but so far from countenancing these, the government wished on the contrary to institute a severe inquiry, and punish the aggressors.

On the 9th of April Buonaparte addressed a manifesto to the doge of Venice, complaining of the hos tile disposition which that government had always manifested to

wards

wards the French, and demanding instant satisfaction for the recent injuries. The senate replied immediately to the French commander, that they had ever wished to maintain a good understanding with the French republic; and assured him further, that they would take the most efficacious measures to discover and arrest the authors of the assassinations committed on individuals of the French army. On the 1st of May Buonaparte issued a second proclamation, in which he entered more particularly into the detail of the enormities which had been committed, and seemed to intimate that the punishment of the assassins would not be sufficient to satisfy the vengeance of the French. Under these circumstances, a negotiation was commenced; commissaries were dispatched to wait on the conqueror of Italy at Milan; and, about the 15th of May, a treaty was concluded-the terms of which were the cession of the whole of the Terra Firma to the French, a part to be restored when the system of Italy should be established; the fort of Venice to be occupied by French troops; the state of Venice to pay 80 millions of livres; and lastly, the government of Venice to be changed.

The last article was almost immediately put in execution. The senate and council of ten were abolished; and the three state inquisitors put under arrest. A provisional administration was appointed; and a municipality of 50 members was chosen, under the presidency of six commissaries appointed by the French general.

Admitting all the charges to be just, which were brought against the Venetian government, this appears to have been a sufficient, punishment for all their delinquencies

the sequel is truly disgraceful to the French government and nation; but experience has shown that re publics, not less than monarchies, are more frequently conducted on principles of policy than of justice. The Venetian territory was filled with French troops, and the only article of the treaty they took care to fulfil, was the levying of the contributions. In a word, on the final adjustment of the definitive treaty with the emperor, which, af ter much delay, was concluded at Udina, on the 17th of October, it was found that Venice was to be the sacrifice to peace, and the whole of the territories of that ancient and renowned state were ceded by a republic (which professedly was in arms for the cause of liberty) to the despotic yoke of Austria.

In censuring such proceedings as these, we flatter ourselves our readers will not consider us as inconsistent-the friend of liberty looks to no party as the guide of his opinions

"Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri."

When the nascent liberties of France were attacked by a combination of despotic powers on the continent, we deprecated what we esteemed a most unjustifiable aggres sion, an interference not warranted by the law of nations, or by the principles of justice-when France in her turn becomes an oppressor, the voice of truth and justice will proclaim her infamy, and will cen sure the inconsistency, the wickedness of her rulers.

The republic of Genoa felt at the same tinie the predominant influ ence of the French; and its government, which was one of those mild aristocracies where the great are content with having all the po

litical

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litical power, without oppressing their fellow-citizens, was changed for the fashionable form of a representative government. Whether the change will ultimately prove for the happiness of the people or not, time only will determine; all that can at present be said upon the subject is, that the part which the French acted in the business was wholly unjustifiable.

In the beginning of May a formidable insurrection took place in that city, excited by a club of propagandists, who commonly assembled at the house of an apothecary.

The insurgents invested Philip Doria with the authority of chief, and the government, which had but little dependence on its feeble force, appeared to totter. The lesser council, in this extremity, prevailed upon the workmen employed in the port, to unite themselves with the soldiery; a desperate engagement ensued, in which victory declared itself on the side of government; of the insurgents many were killed, among whom was their leader Doria, and several persons who were recognized to be French. The conquering party did not

make a proper use of their victory, but proceeded immediately to plunder the houses of the patriots, as they were called, and committed other outrages. In the mean time the vanquished party dispatched couriers to general Buonaparte to solicit his assistance; and under the plea of restoring peace, a column of French troops entered Genoa; the consequence was the removal of all the constituted authorities, and the adoption of the democratic form of government, under the protection of France, and under the title of the Ligurian republic.

In our next volume a more ample detail of these transactions, both in Venice and Genoa, will be presented to our readers; and the secret history of the revolutions there will be explained. At present the transactions are too recent to be fully laid open to the public. In what we submit to our readers, we wisi to be both authentic and impartial; and every man who writes or studies history, must know the difficulty, the impossibility, we might say, of collecting sound information from the common

sources.

CHAP.

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