This laft party was the more inveterate against him, as he was, the primary mover of the revolution which deftroyed their power; and though the republican party allowed him the merit of having oppofed at all times, with courage, the inroads made by the French directony on their independence, yet they accufed him of bearing his faculties lefs meekly than he ought, and of arrogance and obftinacy in the administration of government. The common preffure of calamity and danger had foftened this fpirit of oppofition for a while; but when that danger was removed, the legiflative body voted, that the directory was too much under the influence of paffion to govern wifely; that its plans were not adapted to the exigencies of the ftate; that it had loft the confidence of the nation, and that it was become neceffary to change the members. The directory, on the other hand, did not conceal their refentment against the majority of the legislative body, accufing them of thwarting every measure prepared for the amelioration of the ftate, and of wishing to ufurp every power-in fhort, of being devoted to the Auftro-oligarchical faction, and added, that it might be neceffary to adjourn the fittings of the legiflative councils, that the bufinefs of the government might proceed with lefs interruption. Thefe domeftic diffenfions were carried to fo great a height, that the legislative affemblies were become little eife than an arena for combatants, in which each party vented its furious paffions. The directory, who perceived the fatal confequences of this diforder, endeavoured to stop the torrent; but the different parties in the councils were too much heated to listen to conciliatory language. The com plaifance of the directory was conftrued into weakness; and, as a government which folicits indulgence is fure never to find it, the legifla. ture, inftead of giving it the fupport for which it prayed, was fecretly decided to overturn it. All refpect among the people for authoty, executive and legiflative, had now ceafed; and the oligarchical party, perceiving that the ruin of both in the public opinion was the only mode of regaining its own power, fomented to the utmost their divifions; and the directory was diffolved by a vote of the legiflative body, after a report from commiffions appointed to examine the conduct of its members. The oligarchical party was disembarraffed by this revolution of the most formidable of its opponents, in the perfon of La Harpe, who had struggled with the fame earneftnefs against the pretenfions of the old regencies, and the defpotic encroachments and influence of the French government. The charges of confpiracy against the liberties of the Helvetic republic, under pretence of furrendering it to France, were deemed too abfurd for investigation. The aufwers which he made contained fa clear a refutation of thofe charges, that the legislature ordered it to be printed, and diftributed throughout the republic; nor did any other proof of error attach to his conduct, except that of not having duly reflected, that, though called in a moment of diftrefs to the aid of his country, his firft ftep, after the danger was paft, fhould have been to divest himfelf of his power; fince, in general, none become fo obnoxious to a revolutionifed nation as thofe who are the caufe of its change. La Harpe retired from the feat of government, with his family, to Lausanne. The The Batavian government, meanwhile, was induftriously employed in repairing the loffes occafioned by the invafion of the English and Ruffians. The damage which had been fuftained in North Holland was confiderable; and the expences occafioned by the employment of fo large a number of French troops, in the fervice of the republic, had caufed a deficit of fifty millions of florins in the public treafury. It was propofed by the directory to cover this deficit by a tax of four per cent. on all revenues exceeding five hundred florins; and as the eftimated expences of the current year exceeded the receipt by fifty millions, another four per cent. was propofed. On the recall of Brune, Augereau was appointed to the command of the French troops in Holland; and, contrary to the general expectations entertained of this commander, he not only alleviated the weight of ufelefs expences for the maintenance of the army, and put a stop to the frauds which had hitherto been committed, but afforded in his own conduct an example of temperance and fimplicity which had feldom marked the behaviour of French generals, when beyond the frontier of their own country. The Batavian government, by a decree of the legislative body, likewife conferred on him the command of the troops, under certain reftriftions; of which the principal were, that his power fhould be confined to military operations, but that he fhould not mingle himfelf in the adminiftration of the army; fhould have no authority to fupprefs or break any officers; that he fhould interfere in no internal affairs; fhould not have the power of marching the army beyond the frontier; and fhould have no command at the Hague, When the news of the late change in the French government arrived at Genoa, certain members of the Ligurian republic (as we noted in the events of the last year) made their revolution alfo; but in a contrary fenfe. The exaggerated party had dethroned the modérés, while at Paris it was the latter who had expelled the jacobins. The reign of thefe new governors lafted till the arrival of Maffena, who, after receiving the complaints of the councils against the commiffion of government, and taking due infor mation of the means by which the commiffion had taken poffeffion of the fupreme authority, divefted the members of their fhort-lived dignity, and replaced them by other citizens. We fhall return to the affairs of Genoa when we come to relate the military operations in that republic, which form foremarkable an epocha in the history of the present war: and although this little corner of Italy was the only part in which the French had any command, we fhall take a flight review of the other ftates of this defolated country. It was generally concluded that the entrance of the coalefced army into Piedmont would be fignalifed by the recall of the king of Sardinia. Such were the views of the emperor of Ruffia; but the court of Vienna had no fuch intentions. The Piedmontefe, inftead of hailing the Auftrians as their deliverers, found that they had only changed mafters. Under the adminiftration of the French, if the independence of the people was enchained, fome fhadow, fome forms of liberty, were preferved; if they were occafionally plundered, there was fome ceremony ufed in the fpoliation; but the Auftrians, though they were methodical in the exactions, which were not excelfive, fince they did not amount amount to more than a million of livres per month, feized every occafion of making the people feel that their country was nothing but an Auftrian province, a territory lying at the mercy of the conqueror, and which was to remain under the military government of Germans, and folely for their benefit. This oppreffion, however, was not borne without murmurs; and such a spirit of difcontent difcovered itfelf, that the Austrians, fearful of the confequences, confented, at length, that the administrators named by the king of Sardinia, who had hitherto acted only as commiffaries under the controul of the imperial generals, fhould be his real reprefentatives, and exercife their functions in the name of his majefty. Neither the king nor his family were permitted to return to Turin; it was at Florence that this royal dependent on the favour of the allied courts waited his fate, which was once more to be decided by the chances of war. The Cisalpine republic had no monarchical privileges to plead, like the ftate of Piedmont. The authority of the imperial court was once more established, and both military and dictatorially adminiftered. The inquifition against the members of the late government was carried on with unrelenting severity; ftern revolt and fimple acquiefcence became alike the objects of imperial vengeance. It is true that executions were not very frequent, but the prifons were crowded with state delinquents; and those who were regarded as most attached to the principles of liberty, or who had occupied the most eminent pofts under the republican régime, were fent to expiate the crime of their political opinions at the galleys. It might have been imagined that motives of policy would have regulated in a different manner the conduct of the Auftrian cabinet with respect to thefe re-conquered countries; that, at least, the principles of diftribu tive juftice would have met with fome flight attention, fince experience might have taught it the uncertainty of any tenure gained by the fword; and that, although vengeance was the predominant paffion in the adminiftration of its government, yet fuch indifcriminate punifhments were neither corrective of the evil, nor fuited to infpire repentance. But if, in reflecting on the policy of this imperial conduct, it be confidered that thofe objects of its refentments were the citizens of a free ftate, whofe fovereignty and independence had been recognised by this court in formal treaties, every fentiment, as to the impolicy of the measure, finks under the confidera tion of the infamy and atrocity of the deed. The duchy of Tuscany was lefs expofed to the fury of thofe vindictive measures: its provifionary government, during the abfence of the grand duke, whofe refidence at Vienna gave the measure of his wisdom with refpect to the stability of Italian politics, fatisfied itself with either condemning to imprifonment, or banishing for ever from the Tuscan ftates, after confifcation of their property, fuch as had be come obnoxious by efpoufing republican principles. The republicof Lucca, and the states of the duke of Modena, the latter of which forms part of the Cisalpine government, were alike under the domi nion of Austrian generals, and treated alike as conquered countries. While the conclave were affembled at Venice, occupied in the choice of a fucceffor to fill the chair of St. Peter, vacant by the death of the unfortunate Pius the Sixth, Rome was was governed by a mixture of civil and military power. The administration was confided to a provifionary council, compofed of Roman nobles, attached to the interefts of the pontitical government. The patricians of the republican fyftem were purfued with great rigour; the eftates of fuch as had fled were confifcated; and among others which marked this period, were thofe of the duke of Bouneli, who had been conful and tribune of the Roman republic. Such as fell into the hands of the fupreme junto were confined in dun geons. The Neapolitan troops ftationed in the Roman territoty were active in their researches after the patriots; these expeditions were in general headed by general Bourcard; and the Roman populace were often regaled by public entries of captured. patriots, mounted on affes, who were in this ignominious manner conveyed to the prifons of the caftle of St. Angelo. Two of the late confuls of the Roman republic formed part of one of thefe proceffions. Whatever inconveniences the inhabitants of the Roman territory felt under the domination of the French, the régime under which they now lived led them to regret their emancipation. The only amelioration they could hope of their prefent circumstances was by the inftallment of a new pontiff but this was at beft but a change of evils; it was a paffage from a régime they abhorred to a government they despifed-an alleviation of mifery without any hope of pofitive good. But whatever tyranny was exercifed in the north of Italy, whatever vengeance was let loofe on thofe whom caprice or principle might have led to the adoption of other forms of government than those under which, previous to the invafion of the French, the inhabitants of thofe now devoted countries had been accustomed to live, they were light and trivial compared to the unexampled horrors which deluged the territory of Naples. The violation of the treaties entered into with the members of the late republican government of that country is now become a part of history: and were not the details of thefe tranfactions (of which we gave but à very flight sketch in our narrative of the events of the last year) authenticated by the moft incontrovertible teftimony, we fhould be led to refufe our belief to the commiffion of deeds, the bare recital of which muft ftrike every mind with dismay and horror. The vengeance of the court of Sicily remained yet unfatiated with its multitudes of victims. After fix months of carnage, in which had fallen on the fcaffold, or perifhed at the gallows, whatever Naples contained most distinguished for talent, or moft illuftrious for birth, the bloody axe, the dungeon, or exile, continued the dreadful inftruments of its impolitic vengeance. Scarcely a family in Naples but had to lament the lofs of fome relation. Fidelity to the royal caufe in parents, effential services rendered to the court, was no exemption from the calamity of feeing their children maffacred before their eyes. Here a whole pofterity was fwept away; there whole families; and thote of the highest clafs became extinct. Although, fince the revolution of the eighteenth of Brumaire, the circumftances of the French republic had been confiderably ameliorated, thofe of its newly-acquired poffeffions in Egypt became deplorable, and even hopeless. The diffenfions which had arifen in Syria between the grand vizier, who commanded the Ottoman army, and Dgezzar, the pacha of Afia, as far as Mount Caucafus, the vanguard of which numerous army took its pofitions, towards the end of autumn, at Jaffa. It was at this epocha that a correfpondence was opened between fir Sidney Smith, ftyling himself minifter plenipotentiary of his Britannic majesty near the Ottoman Porte, and gene pacha of St. John d'Acte, had fuf. pended for a time the fate of the French army. Dgezzar, who would have funk an eafy prey before the impetuofity of the French army, under Bonaparte, but for the valour of fir Sidney Smith, relieved from all apprehenfions, turned his arms against his deliverers; and the grand vizier, whofe miffion was the cap-ral Kleber. In anfwer to the letture or extermination of the French army in Egypt, was compelled for a while to employ his forces in oppofing the hoftilities of this rebellious and ungrateful fubject. Bonaparte, notwithstanding the brilliant victories which fignalifed his return from Syria, felt, on leaving Egypt, that this country was no longer tenable; fince the deftruction of his fleet, and the abfolute nullity of the French marine, did not permit him to hope that any fuccours could be sent in time to reinforce an army whofe fucceffes were too dearly purchased to permit them to be of long duration. He had left inftructions with Kleber to continue the negotiations he had himself begun with the Ottoman court. Thefe negotiations Kleber had continued, lefs with the hope of any fuccefs that might refult from them, than that of inducing the grand vizier to relax in his preparations, and delay the moment of attack, when fome favourable chances might occur, and render his fituation, if he remained in Egypt, lefs painful, or his retreat more honourable. The grand vizier was not deluded by thefe appearances; but, while he feemed to liften to terms of accommodation, was active in forming his establishments, and procuring the means of tranfporting his army, which was then eftimated at fixty thousand men. He was joined at the fame time by other pachas, who brought forces from the interior ters written by Bonaparte (17th of Auguft) to the grand vizier, and by Kleber (17th of September), fir Sidney Smith informed the French general, in a letter of the date of the 26th of October, that Great Britain was not auxiliary, as had been intimated, but a principal power in the question, of which thefe letters treated. He explained to him the nature of the strict alliance which exifted between the British court and the Ottoman Porte; from which he inferred, that the Ottoman court would never fail to act in concert with the power he had the honour of reprefenting; that the offers made of leaving the French army a free paffage in evacuating Egypt, though it might be granted by the Porte, yet could not be put into execution without the confent of the English. He affured the French general, that no other motive prompted him to accede to the project of evacuating Egypt, but the guarantee given by the English to preferve the integrity of the Ottoman empire, fince the late events in India had placed the English poffeffions in that country out of the reach of all attack or inconvenience, even were Egypt to remain unmolested in the hands of the French. He moreover obferved, that humanity alone dictated the offer which was then renewed, although the policy and the prefent fituation of Europe would warrant its being retracted; but the |