had extricated themselves.
{1328}
The town was at length entered, and a frightful carnage ensued
in the streets, in the midst of which the illustrious Lavater
was barbarously shot by a French soldier: while Korsakoff,
after losing 8,000 killed and wounded, 5,000 prisoners, 100
pieces of cannon, and all his ammunition, stores, and military
chest, succeeded in reaching Schaffhausen. The attack of Soult
above the lake (September 25) was equally triumphant. The
gallant Hotze, who commanded in that quarter, was killed in
the first encounter; and the Austrians, giving way in
consternation, were driven over the Thur, and at length over
the Rhine, with the loss of 20 guns and 3,000 prisoners.
Suwarroff in the meantime was gallantly performing his part of
the plan. On the 23d of September, the French posts at Airolo
and St. Gothard were carried, after a desperate resistance, by
the Russian main force, while their flank was turned by
Rosenberg; and Lecourbe, hastily retreating, broke down the
Devil's Bridge to check the advance of the enemy. A scene of
useless butchery followed, the two parties firing on each
other from the opposite brinks of the impassable abyss; but
the flank of the French was at length turned, the bridge
repaired, and the Russians, pressing on in triumph, joined the
Austrian division of Auffenberg, at Wasen, and repulsed the
French beyond Altdorf. But this was the limit of the old
marshal's success. After effecting with severe loss the
passage of the tremendous defiles and ridges of the
Schachenthal, between Altdorf and Mutten, he found that Linken
and Jellachich, who were to have moved from Coire to
co-operate with him, had again retreated on learning the
disaster at Zurich; and Suwarroff found himself in the midst
of the enemy, with Massena on one side and Molitor on the
other. With the utmost difficulty the veteran conqueror was
prevailed upon, for the first time in his life, to order a
retreat; which had become indispensable, and the heads of his
columns were turned towards Glarus and the Grisons. But though
the attack of Massena on their rear in the Muttenthal was
repulsed with the loss of 2,000 men, their onward route was
barred at Naefels by Molitor, who defied all the efforts of
Prince Bagrathion to dislodge him; and in the midst of a heavy
fall of snow, which obliterated the mountain paths, the
Russian army wound its way (October 5) in single file over the
rugged and sterile peaks of the Alps of Glarus. Numbers
perished of cold, or fell over the precipices; but nothing
could overcome the unconquerable spirit of the soldiers:
without fire or stores, and compelled to bivouac on the snow,
they still struggled on through incredible hardships, till the
dreadful march terminated (October 10) at Ilantz. Such was the
famous, passage of the Alps by Suwarroff. Korsakoff in the
meanwhile (October 1-7) had maintained a desperate conflict
near Constance, till the return of the Archduke checked the
efforts of the French; and the Allies, abandoning the St.
Gothard, and all the other posts they still held in
Switzerland, concentrated their forces on the Rhine, which
became the boundary of the two armies. ... In Italy, after the
disastrous battle of Novi, the Directory had given the
leadership of the armies, both of Italy and Savoy, to the
gallant Championnet, but he could muster only 54,000 troops
and 6,000 raw conscripts to oppose Melas, who had succeeded
Suwarroff in the command, and who had 68,000, besides his
garrisons and detachments. The proposition of Championnet had
been to fall back, with his army still entire, to the other
side of the Alps: but his orders were positive to attempt the
relief of Coni, then besieged by the Austrians; and after a
desultory warfare for several weeks, he commenced a decisive
movement for that purpose at the end of October, with 35,000
men. But before the different French columns could effect a
junction, they were separately assailed by Melas: the
divisions of Grenier and Victor were overwhelmed at Genola
(November 4), and defeated with the loss of 7,000 men; and
though St. Cyr repulsed the Imperialists (November 10) on the
plateau of Novi, Coni was left to its fate, and surrendered
with all its garrison (December 4). An epidemic disorder broke
out in the French army, to which Championnet himself, and
numerous soldiers, fell victims: the troops giving way to
despair, abandoned their standards by hundreds and returned to
France; and it was with difficulty that the eloquent
exhortations of St. Cyr succeeded in keeping together a
sufficient number to defend the Bochetta pass, in front of
Genoa, the loss of which would have entailed destruction on
the whole army. The discomfited Republicans were driven back
on their own frontiers; and, excepting Genoa, the tricolor
flag was everywhere expelled from Italy. At the same time the
campaign on the Rhine was drawing to a close. The army of
Massena was not strong enough to follow up the brilliant
success at Zurich, and the jealousies of the Austrians and
Russians, who mutually laid on each other the blame of the
late disasters, prevented their acting cordially in concert
against him. Suwarroff at length, in a fit of exasperation,
drew off his troops to winter quarters in Bavaria, and took no
further share in the war; and a fruitless attempt in November
against Philipsburg, by Lecourbe, who had been transferred to
the command on the lower Rhine, closed the operations in that
quarter."
Epitome of Alison's History of Europe,
sections 245-251
(chapter 28, volume 7 of complete work).
Meantime, the French had been entirely expelled from southern
Italy. On the withdrawal of Macdonald, with most of his army,
from Naples, "Cardinal Ruffo, a soldier, churchman, and
politician, put himself at the head of a numerous body of
insurgents, and commenced war against such French troops as
had been left in the south and in the middle of Italy. This
movement was actively supported by the British fleet. Lord
Nelson recovered Naples; Rome surrendered to Commodore
Trowbridge. Thus the Parthenopean and Roman republics were
extinguished forever. The royal family returned to Naples, and
that fine city and country were once more a kingdom. Rome, the
capital of the world, was occupied by Neapolitan troops."
Sir W. Scott,
Life of Napoleon,
chapter 38.
ALSO IN:
L. M. P. de Laverne,
Life of Souvarof,
chapter 6.
H. Spalding,
Suvoroff.
P. Colletta,
History of the Kingdom of Naples,
book 4, chapter 2 and book 5,
chapters 1-2 (volume 1).
T. J. Pettigrew,
Memoirs of Lord Nelson,
volume 1, chapters 8-9.
{1329}
FRANCE: A. D. 1799 (September-October).
Disastrous ending of the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland.
Capitulation of the Duke of York.
Dissolution of the Dutch East India Company.
"It is very obvious that the Duke of York was selected in an
unlucky hour to be the commander-in-chief of this
Anglo-Russian expedition, when we compare the time in which
Abercrombie was alone on the marshy promontory of the Helder
... with the subsequent period. On the 10th of September
Abercrombie successfully repulsed the attack of General Brune,
who had come for the purpose from Haarlem to Alkmar; on the
19th the Duke of York landed, and soon ruined everything. The
first division of the Russians had at length arrived on the
15th, under the command of General Herrmann, for whom it was
originally destined, although unhappily it afterwards came
into the hands of General Korsakoff. The duke therefore
thought he might venture on a general attack on the 19th. In
this attack Herrmann led the right wing, which was formed by
the Russians, and Abercrombie, with whom was the Prince of
Orange, the left, whilst the centre was left to the Duke of
York, the commander-in-chief. This decisive battle was fought
at Bergen, a place situated to the north of Alkmar. The
combined army was victorious on both wings; and Horn, on the
Zuyder Zee, was occupied; the Duke of York, who was only a
general for parades and reviews, merely indulged the centre
with a few manœuvres hither and thither. ... The Russians,
therefore, who were left alone in impassible marshes,
traversed by ditches, and unknown to their officers, lost many
men, and were at length surrounded, and even their general
taken prisoner. The duke concerned himself very little about
the Russians, and had long before prudently retired into his
trenches; and, as the Russians were lost, Abercrombie and the
Crown Prince were obliged to relinquish Horn." The incapacity
of the commander-in-chief held the army paralyzed during the
fortnight following, suffering from sickness and want, while
it would still have been practicable to push forward to South
Holland. "A series of bloody engagements took place from the
2nd till the 6th of October, and the object of the attack upon
the whole line of the French and Batavian army would have been
attained had Abercrombie alone commanded. The English and
Russians, who call this the battle of Alkmar, were
indisputably victorious in the engagements of the 2nd and 3rd
of October. They even drove the enemy before them to the
neighbourhood of Haarlem, after having taken possession of
Alkmar; but on the 6th, Brune, who owes his otherwise very
moderate military renown to this engagement alone, having
received a reinforcement of some thousands on the 4th and 5th,
renewed the battle. The fighting on this day took place at
Castricum, on a narrow strip of land between the sea and the
lake of Haarlem, a position favourable to the French. The
French report is, as usual, full of the boasts of a splendid
victory; the English, however, remained in possession of the
field, and did not retire to their trenches behind Alkmar and
to the marshes of Zyp till the 7th. ... In not more than eight
days afterwards, the want in the army and the anxiety of its
incapable commander-in-chief became so great, the number of
the sick increased so rapidly, and the fear of the
difficulties of embarkation in winter so grew and spread, that
the duke accepted the most shameful capitulation that had ever
been offered to an English general, except at Saratoga. This
capitulation, concluded on the 19th of October, was only
granted because the English, by destroying the dykes, had it
in their power to ruin the country."
F. C. Schlosser,
History of the Eighteenth Century,
volume 7, pages 149-151.
"For the failure in accomplishing the great objects of
emancipating Holland and restoring its legitimate ruler; for
the clamorous joy with which her enemies, foreign and
domestic, hailed the event; the government of Great Britain
had many consolations. ... The Dutch fleet, which, in the
hands of an enterprising enemy, might have been so injuriously
employed, was a capture of immense importance: if Holland was
ever to become a friend and ally, we had abundant means of
promoting her prosperity and re-establishing her greatness; if
an enemy, her means of injury and hopes of rivalship were
effectually suppressed. Her East-India Company, ... long the
rival of our own in power and prosperity, whose dividends in
some years had risen to the amount of 40 per cent., now
finally closed its career, making a paltry final payment in
part of the arrears of dividends for the present and three
preceding years."
J. Adolphus,
History of England: Reign of George III.,
chapter 109 (volume 7).
ALSO IN:
G. R. Gleig,
Life of General Sir R. Abercromby
(Eminent British Military Commanders, volume 3).
FRANCE: A. D. 1799 (November).
Return of Bonaparte from Egypt.
The first Napoleonic Coup d'État.
Revolution of the 18th Brumaire.
End of the First Republic.
Creation of the Consulate.
"When Bonaparte, by means of the bundle of papers which Sidney
Smith caused to find their way through the French lines,
learned the condition of affairs in Europe, there was but one
course consistent with his character for him to pursue. There
was nothing more to be done in Egypt; there was everything to
be done in France. If he were to lead his army back, even in
case he should, by some miracle, elude the eager eyes of Lord
Nelson, the act would be generally regarded as a confession of
disaster. If he were to remain with the army, he could, at
best, do nothing but pursue a purely defensive policy; and if
the army were to be overwhelmed, it was no part of Napoleonism
to be involved in the disaster. ... It would be far shrewder
to throw the responsibility of the future of Egypt on another,
and to transfer himself to the field that was fast ripening
for the coveted harvest. Of course Bonaparte, under such
circumstances, did not hesitate as to which course to pursue.
Robbing the army of such good officers as survived, he left it
in command of the only one who had dared to raise his voice in
opposition to the work of the 18th Fructidor ... the heroic
but indignant Kléber. Was there ever a more exquisite revenge?
... On the arrival of Bonaparte in Paris everything seemed
ready to his hand. ... The policy which, in the seizure of
Switzerland and the Papal States, he had taken pains to
inaugurate before his departure for Egypt had borne its
natural fruit. As never before in the history of Europe,
England, Holland, Russia, Austria, Naples, and even Turkey had
joined hands in a common cause, and as a natural consequence
the Directory had been defeated at every point. Nor was it
unnatural for the people to attribute all these disasters to
the inefficiency of the government. The Directory had really
fallen into general contempt, and at the new election on the
30th Prairial it had been practically overthrown.
{1330}
Rewbell, who by his influence had stood at the head of
affairs, had been obliged to give way," and Sieyès had been
put in his place. "By the side of this fantastic statesman ...
Barras had been retained, probably for no other reason than
that he was sure to be found with the majority, while the
other members, Gohier, Moulins, and Roger-Ducos were men from
whose supposed mediocrity no very decided opposition could be
anticipated. Thus the popular party was not only revenged for
the outrages of Fructidor, but it had also made up the new
Directory of men who seemed likely to be nothing but clay in
the hands of Bonaparte. ... The manner in which the General
was received can have left no possible doubt remaining in his
mind as to the strength of his hold on the hearts of the
people. It must have been apparent to all that he needed but
to declare himself, in order to secure a well-nigh unanimous
support and following of the masses. But with the political
leaders the case, for obvious reasons, was far different. ...
His popularity was so overwhelming, that in his enmity the
leaders could anticipate nothing but annihilation, in his
friendship nothing but insignificance. ... The member of the
government who, at the time, wielded most influence, was
Sieyès, a man to whom personally the General had so
unconquerable an aversion, that Josephine was accustomed to
refer to him as her husband's béte noir. It was evident that
Sieyès was the most formidable obstacle to the General's
advance." As a first movement, Bonaparte endeavored to bring
about the removal of Sieyès from the Directory and his own
election to the place. Failing this, his party attempted the
immediate creation of a dictatorship. When that, too, was
found impracticable, Sieyès was persuaded to a reconciliation
and alliance with the ambitious soldier, and the two, at a
meeting, planned the proceedings "which led to that dark day
in French history known as the 18th Brumaire [November 9,
1799]. It remained only to get absolute control of the
military forces, a task at that time in no way difficult. The
officers who had returned with Bonaparte from Egypt were
impatient to follow wherever their master might lead. Moreau,
who, since the death of Hoche, was regarded as standing next
to Bonaparte in military ability, was not reluctant to cast in
his lot with the others, and Macdonald as well as Serurier
soon followed his example. Bernadotte alone would yield to
neither flattery nor intimidation. ... While Bonaparte was
thus marshalling his forces in the Rue de la Victoire, the way
was opening in the Councils. A commission of the Ancients,
made up of the leading conspirators, had worked all night
drawing up the proposed articles, in order that in the morning
the Council might have nothing to do but to vote them. The
meeting was called for seven o'clock, and care was taken not
to notify those members whose opposition there was reason to
fear. ... The articles were adopted without discussion. Those
present voted, first, to remove the sessions of the Councils
from Paris to Saint Cloud (a privilege which the constitution
conferred upon the Ancients alone), thus putting them at once
beyond the power of influencing the populace and of standing
in the way of Bonaparte. They then passed a decree giving to
Bonaparte the command of the military forces, at the same time
inviting him to come to the Assembly for the purpose of taking
the oath of allegiance to the Constitution." Bonaparte
appeared, accordingly, before the Council; but instead of
taking an oath of allegiance to the constitution, he made a
speech which he closed by declaring: "We want a Republic
founded on true liberty and national representation. We will
have it, I swear; I swear it in my own name and that of my
companions in arms." "Thus the mockery of the oath-taking in
the Council of Ancients was accomplished. The General had now
a more difficult part to perform in the Council of Five
Hundred. As the meeting of the Assembly was not to occur until
twelve o'clock of the following day, Bonaparte made use of the
intervening time in posting his forces and in disposing of the
Directory. ... There was one locality in the city where it was
probable aggressive force would be required. The Luxembourg
was the seat of the Directory, and the Directory must at all
hazards be crushed. ... Bonaparte knew well how to turn all
such ignominious service to account. In close imitation of
that policy which had left Kleber in Egypt, he placed the
Luxembourg in charge of the only man in the nation who could
now be regarded as his rival for popular favor. Moreau fell
into the snare, and by so doing lost a popularity which he was
never afterwards able to regain. Having thus placed his
military forces, Bonaparte turned his attention to the
Directors. The resignations of Sieyès and of Roger-Ducos he
already had upon his table. It remained only to procure the
others. Barras, without warning, was confronted by Talleyrand
and Bruix, who asked him without circumlocution to resign his
office," which he did, after slight hesitation. Gohier and
Moulins were addressed by Bonaparte in person, but firmly
resisted his importunities and his threats. They were then
made prisoners by Moreau. "The night of the 18th passed in
comparative tranquillity. The fact that there was no organized
resistance is accounted for by Lanfrey with a single mournful
statement, that 'nothing of the kind could be expected of a
nation that had been decapitated. All the men of rank in
France for the previous ten years, either by character or
genius or virtue, had been mown down, first by the scaffolds
and proscriptions, next by war.'" On the morrow, the 19th of
Brumaire (November 10) the sitting of the two councils began
at two o'clock. In the Council of Five Hundred the partisans
of Bonaparte were less numerous than in that of the Ancients,
and a powerful indignation at the doings of the previous day
began quickly to show itself. In the midst of a warm debate
upon the resignation of Barras, which had just been received,
"the door was opened, and Bonaparte, surrounded by his
grenadiers, entered the hall. A burst of indignation at once
arose. Every member sprang to his feet. 'What is this?' they
cried, 'swords here! armed men! Away! we will have no dictator
here.' Then some of the deputies, bolder than the others,
surrounded Bonaparte and overwhelmed him with invectives. 'You
are violating the sanctity of the laws; what are you doing,
rash man?' exclaimed Bigonnet. 'Is it for this that you have
conquered?' demanded Destrem, advancing towards him. Others
seized him by the collar of his coat, and, shaking him
violently, reproached him with treason. This reception, though
the General had come with the purpose of intimidating the
Assembly, fairly overwhelmed him.
{1331}
Eye-witnesses declare that he turned pale, and fell fainting
into the arms of his soldiers, who drew him out of the hall."
His brother Lucien, who was President of the Council, showed
better nerve. By refusing to put motions that were made to
vote, and finally by resigning his office and quitting the
chair, he threw the Council into confusion. Then, appearing to
the troops outside, who supposed him to be still President of
the Council, he harangued them and summoned them to clear the
chamber. "The grenadiers poured into the hall. A last cry of
'Vive la République' was raised, and a moment later the hall
was empty. Thus the crime of the conspirators was consummated,
and the First French Republic was at an end. After this action
it remained only to put into the hands of Bonaparte the
semblance of regular authority. ... A phantom of the Council
of Five Hundred--Cornet, one of them, says 30 members--met in
the evening and voted the measures which had been previously
agreed upon by the conspirators. Bonaparte, Sieyès, and
Roger-Ducos were appointed provisional consuls; 57 members of
the Council who had been most prominent in their opposition
were excluded from their seats; a list of proscriptions was
prepared; two commissioners chosen from the assemblies were
appointed to assist the consuls in their work of organization;
and, finally, ... they adjourned the legislative body until
the 20th of February."
C. K. Adams,
Democracy and Monarchy in France,
chapter 4.
ALSO IN:
P. Lanfrey,
History of Napoleon I.
A. Thiers,
History of the French Revolution
(American edition), volume 4, pages 407-430.
M. de Bourrienne,
Private Memoirs of Napoleon,
volume l, chapter 24-27.
Count Miot de Melito,
Memoirs,
chapter 9.
FRANCE: A. D. 1799 (November-December).
The constitution of the consulate.
Bonaparte as First Consul.
"During the three months which followed the 18th Brumaire,
approbation and expectation were general. A provisional
government had been appointed, composed of three consuls,
Bonaparte, Siéyes, and Roger-Ducos, with two legislative
commissioners, entrusted to prepare the constitution and a
definitive order of things. The consuls and the two
commissioners were installed on the 21st Brumaire. This
provisional government abolished the law respecting hostages
and compulsory loans; it permitted the return of the priests
proscribed since the 18th Fructidor; it released from prison
and sent out of the republic the emigrants who had been
ship-wrecked on the coast of Calais, and who for four years
were captives in France, and were exposed to the heavy
punishment of the emigrant army. All these measures were very
favourably received. But public opinion revolted at a
proscription put in force against the extreme republicans.
Thirty-six of them were sentenced to transportation to Guiana,
and twenty-one were put under serveillance in the department
of Charante-Inférieure, merely by a decree of the consuls on
the report of Fouché, minister of police. The public viewed
unfavourably all who attacked the government, but at the same
time it exclaimed against an act so arbitrary and unjust. The
consuls, accordingly, recoiled before their own act; they
first commuted transportation into surveillance, and soon
withdrew surveillance itself. It was not long before a rupture
broke out between the authors of the 18th Brumaire. During
their provisional authority it did not create much noise,
because it took place in the legislative commissions. The new
constitution was the cause of it. Siéyes and Bonaparte could
not agree on this subject: the former wished to institute
France, the latter to govern it as a master. ... Bonaparte
took part in the deliberations of the constituent committee,
with his instinct of power, he seized upon everything in the
ideas of Siéyes which was calculated to serve his projects,
and caused the rest to be rejected. ... On the 24th of
December, 1799 (Nivose, year VIII.), forty-five days after the
18th Brumaire, was published the constitution of the year
VIII.; it was composed of the wrecks of that of Siéyes, now
become a constitution of servitude."
F. A. Mignet,
History of the French Revolution,
chapter 14.
"The new constitution was still republic in name and
appearance, but monarchical in fact, the latter concealed, by
the government being committed, not to the hand of one
individual, but of three. The three persons so fixed upon were
denominated consuls, and appointed for ten years;--one of
them, however, was really ruler, although he only obtained the
modest name of First Consul. The rights which Bonaparte caused
to be given to himself made all the rest nothing more than
mere deception. The First Consul was to invite the others
merely to consultation on affairs of state, whilst he himself,
either immediately or through the senate, was to appoint to
all places of trust and authority, to decide absolutely upon
questions of peace or war, and to be assisted by a council of
state. ... In order to cover and conceal the power of the
First Consul, especially in reference to the appointment of
persons to offices of trust and authority, a senate was
created, which neither belonged to the people nor to the
government, but immediately from the very beginning was an
assembly of courtiers and placemen, and at a later period
became the mere tool of every kind of despotism, by rendering
it easy to dispense with the legislative body. The senate
consisted of eighty members, a part of whom were to be
immediately nominated from the lists of notability, and the
senate to fill up its own body from persons submitted to them
by the First Consul, the tribunate, and the legislative body.
Each senator was to have a salary of 25,000 f.; their meetings
were not public, and their business very small. From the
national lists the senate was also to select consuls,
legislators, tribunes, and judges of the Court of Cassation.
Large lists were first presented to the communes, on which,
according to Roederer, there stood some 500,000 names, out of
which the communes selected 50,000 for the departmental lists,
from which again 5,000 were to be chosen for the national
list. From these 5,000 names, selected from the departmental
list, or from what was termed the national list, the senate
was afterwards to elect the members of the legislature and the
high officers of government. The legislature was to consist of
two chambers, the tribunate and the legislative body--the
former composed of 100, and the latter of 300 members. The
chambers had no power of taking the initiative, that is, they
were obliged to wait till bills were submitted to them, and
could of themselves originate nothing: they were, however,
permitted to express wishes of all kinds to the government.
Each bill (projet de loi) was introduced into the tribunate by
three members of the council of state, and there defended by
them, because the tribunate alone had the right of discussion,
whilst the mere power of saying Yea or Nay was conferred upon
the members of the legislative body.
{1332}
The tribunate, having accepted the bill, sent three of its
members, accompanied by the members from the council of state,
to defend the measure in the assembly of the legislative body.
Every year one-fifth of the members of the legislative body
was to retire from office, being, however, always re-eligible
as long as their names remained on the national list. The
sittings of the legislative body alone were public, because
they were only permitted to be silent listeners to the
addresses of the tribunes or councillors of state, and to
assent to, or dissent from, the proposed law. Not above 100
persons were, however, allowed to be present as auditors; the
sittings were not allowed to continue longer than four months;
both chambers, however, might be summoned to an extraordinary
sitting. ... When the constitution was ready to be brought
into operation, Sieyes terminated merely as he had begun, and
Bonaparte saw with pleasure that he showed himself both
contemptible and venal. He became a dumb senator, with a
yearly income of 25,000 f.; and obtained 800,000 f. from the
directorial treasury, whilst Roger Ducos was obliged to go
away contented with a douceur of 120,000 f.; and, last of all,
Sieyes condescended to accept from Bonaparte a present of the
national domain of Crosne, which he afterwards exchanged for
another estate. For colleagues in his new dignity Bonaparte
selected very able and skilful men, but wholly destitute of
all nobility of mind, and to whom it never once occurred to
offer him any opposition; these were Cambacérès and Lebrun.
The former, a celebrated lawyer, although formerly a vehement
Jacobin, impatiently waited till Bonaparte brought forth again
all the old plunder; and then, covered with orders, he
strutted up and down the Palais Royal like a peacock, and
exhibited himself as a show. Lebrun, who was afterwards
created a duke, at a later period distinguished himself by
being the first to revive the use of hair powder; in fact, he
was completely a child and partisan of the olden times,
although for a time he had played the part of a Girondist. ...
As early as the 25th and 26th of December the First Consul took
up his abode in the Tuileries. There the name of citizen
altogether disappeared, for the consul's wife caused herself
again to be addressed as Madame. Everything which concerned
the government now began to assume full activity, and the
adjourned legislative councils were summoned for the 1st of
January, in order that they might be dissolved."
F. C. Schlosser,
History of the Eighteenth Century,
volume 7, pages 189-192.
ALSO IN:
P. Lanfrey,
History of Napoleon I.,
volume 1, chapters 13-14.
A. Thiers,
History of the Consulate and Empire,
books 1-2 (volume 1).
H. C. Lockwood,
Constitutional History of France,
chapter 2 and appendix 4.
FRANCE: A. D. 1800.
Convention with the United States.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1800.
FRANCE: A. D. 1800 (January-June).
Affairs in Egypt.
The repudiated Treaty of El Arish.
Kléber's victory at Heliopolis.
His assassination.
"Affairs in Egypt had been on the whole unfavourable to the
French, since that army had lost the presence of the
commander-in-chief. Kléber, on whom the command devolved, was
discontented both at the unceremonious and sudden manner in
which the duty had been imposed upon him, and with the
scarcity of means left to support his defence. Perceiving
himself threatened by a large Turkish force, which was
collecting for the purpose of avenging the defeat of the
vizier at Aboukir, he became desirous of giving up a
settlement which he despaired of maintaining. He signed
accordingly a convention with the Turkish plenipotentiaries,
and Sir Sidney Smith on the part of the British [at El Arish,
January 28, 1800], by which it was provided that the French
should evacuate Egypt, and that Kléber and his army should be
transported to France in safety, without being molested by the
British fleet. When the British government received advice of
this convention they refused to ratify it, on the ground that
Sir Sidney Smith had exceeded his powers in entering into it.
The Earl of Elgin having been sent out as plenipotentiary to
the Porte, it was asserted that Sir Sidney's ministerial
powers were superseded by his appointment. ... The truth was
that the arrival of Kléber and his army in the south of
France, at the very moment when the successes of Suwarrow gave
strong hopes of making some impression on her frontier, might
have had a most material effect upon the events of the war.
... The treaty of El Arish was in consequence broken off.
Kléber, disappointed of this mode of extricating himself, had
recourse to arms. The Vizier Jousseff Pacha, having crossed
the Desert and entered Egypt, received a bloody and decisive
defeat from the French general, near the ruins of the ancient
city of Heliopolis, on the 20th of March, 1800 [following
which Kléber crushed with great slaughter a revolt that had
broken out in Cairo]. The measures which Kléber adopted after
this victory were well calculated to maintain the possession
of the country, and reconcile the inhabitants to the French
government. ... While busied in these measures, he was cut
short by the blow of an assassin. A fanatic Turk, called
Soliman Haleby, a native of Aleppo, imagined he was inspired
by Heaven to slay the enemy of the Prophet and the Grand
Seignior. He concealed himself in a cistern, and springing out
on Kléber when there was only one man in company with him,
stabbed him dead [June 14]. ... The Baron Menou, on whom the
command now devolved, was an inferior person to Kléber. ...
Menou altered for the worse several of the regulations of
Kléber, and, carrying into literal execution what Buonaparte
had only written and spoken of, he became an actual
Mahommedan."
Sir W. Scott,
Life of Napoleon Buonaparte,
chapter 40.
ALSO IN:
A. Thiers,
History of the Consulate and Empire,
book 5 (volume 1).
{1333}
FRANCE: A. D. 1800-1801 (May-February).
Bonaparte's second Italian campaign.
The crossing of the Alps.
The Battle of Marengo.
Moreau in Germany.
Hohenlinden.
Austrian siege of Genoa.
"Preparations for the new campaign in spring were completed.
Moreau was made commander-in-chief of the army of the Rhine,
150,000 strong. The plan of the campaign was concerted between
the First Consul and Carnot, who had superseded Berthier as
Minister at War. The operations were conducted with the utmost
secrecy. Napoleon had determined to strike the decisive blow
against Austria in Italy, and to command there in person. By
an article in the Constitution the First Consul was forbidden
to take command of an army. To this interdiction he cheerfully
assented; but he evaded it, as soon as the occasion was ripe,
by giving the nominal command of the army of Italy to
Berthier. He began to collect troops at Dijon, which were, he
publicly announced, intended to advance upon Italy. They
consisted chiefly of conscripts and invalids, with a numerous
staff, and were called 'the army of reserve.' Meantime, while
caricatures of some ancient men with wooden legs and little
boys of twelve years old, entitled 'Bonaparte's Army of
Reserve,' were amusing the Austrian public, the real army of
Italy was formed in the heart of France, and was marching by
various roads towards Switzerland. ... The artillery was sent
piecemeal from different arsenals; the provisions necessary to
an army about to cross barren mountains were forwarded to
Geneva, embarked on the lake, and landed at Villeneuve, near
the entrance to the valley of the Simplon. The situation of
the French army in Italy had become critical. Massena had
thrown himself into Genoa with 12,000 men, and was enduring
all the rigours of a siege, pressed by 30,000 Austrians under
General Ott, seconded by the British fleet. Suchet, with the
remainder of the French army, about 10,000 strong, completely
cut off from communication with Massena, had concentrated his
forces on the Var, was maintaining an unequal contest with
Melas, the Austrian commander-in-chief, and strenuously
defending the French frontier. Napoleon's plan was to
transport his army across the Alps, plant himself in the rear
of the Austrians, intercept their communications, then
manœuvre so as to place his own army and that of Massena on
the Austrian right and left flanks respectively, cut off their
retreat, and finally give them battle at the decisive moment.
While all Europe imagined that the multifarious concerns of
the Government held the First Consul at Paris, he was
travelling at a rapid rate towards Geneva, accompanied only by
his secretary. He left Paris on the 6th of May, at two in the
morning, leaving Cambacérès to preside until his return, and
ordering Fouché to announce that he was about to review the
army at Dijon, and might possibly go as far as Geneva, but
would return in a fortnight. 'Should anything happen,' he
significantly added, 'I shall be back like a thunderbolt.' ...
On the 13th the First Consul reviewed the vanguard of his
army, commanded by General Lannes, at Lausanne. The whole army
consisted of nearly 70,000 men. Two columns, each of about
6,000 men, were put in motion, one under Tureau, the other
under Chabran, to take the routes of Mont Cenis and the Little
St. Bernard. A division consisting of 15,000 men, under
Moncey, detached from the army of the Rhine, was to march by
St. Gothard. Moreau kept the Austrian army of the Rhine, under
General Kray, on the defensive before Ulm [to which he had
forced his way in a series of important engagements, at Engen,
May 2, at Moeskirch, May 4, at Biberach, May 9, and at
Hochstadt, June 19], and held himself in readiness to cover
the operations of the First Consul in Italy. The main body of
the French army, in numbers about 40,000, nominally commanded
by Berthier, but in fact by the First Consul himself, marched
on the 15th from Lausanne to the village of St. Pierre, at the
foot of the Great St. Bernard, at which all trace of a
practicable road entirely ceased. General Marescot, the
engineer who had been sent forward from Geneva to reconnoitre,
reported the paths to be 'barely passable.' 'Set forward
immediately!' wrote Napoleon. Field forges were established at
St. Pierre to dismount the guns, the carriages and wheels were
slung on poles, and the ammunition-boxes carried by mules. A
number of trees were felled, then hollowed out, and the
pieces, being jammed into these rough cases, 100 soldiers were
attached to each and ordered to drag them up the steeps. ...
The whole army effected the passage of the Great St. Bernard
in three days."
R. H. Horne,
History of Napoleon Bonaparte,
chapter 18.
"From May 16 to May 19, the solitudes of the vast mountain
track echoed to the din and tumult of war, as the French
soldiery swept over its heights to reach the valley of the Po
and the plains of Lombardy. A hill fort, for a time, stopped
the daring invaders, but the obstacle was passed by an
ingenious stratagem; and before long Bonaparte, exulting in
hope, was marching from the verge of Piedmont on Milan, having
made a demonstration against Turin, in order to hide his real
purpose. By June 2 the whole French army, joined by the
reinforcement sent by Moreau, was in possession of the Lombard
capital, and threatened the line of its enemy's retreat, having
successfully accomplished the first part of the brilliant
design of its great leader. While Bonaparte was thus
descending from the Alps, the Austrian commander had been
pressing forward the siege of Genoa and his operations on the
Var. Masséna, however, stubbornly held out in Genoa; and
Suchet had defended the defiles of Provence with a weak force
with such marked skill that his adversary had made little
progress. When first informed of the terrible apparition of a
hostile army gathering upon his rear, Melas disbelieved what
he thought impossible; and when he could no longer discredit
what he heard, the movements by Mont Cenis and against Turin,
intended to perplex him, had made him hesitate. As soon,
however, as the real design of the First Consul was fully
revealed, the brave Austrian chief resolved to force his way
to the Adige at any cost; and, directing Ott to raise the
siege of Genoa, and leaving a subordinate to hold Suchet in
check, he began to draw his divided army together, in order to
make a desperate attack on the audacious foe upon his line of
retreat. Ott, however, delayed some days to receive the keys
of Genoa, which fell [June 4] after a defence memorable in the
annals of war; and, as the Austrian forces had been widely
scattered, it was June 12 [after a severe defeat at
Montebello, on the 9th, by Lannes] before 50,000 men were
assembled for an offensive movement round the well-known
fortresses of Alessandria. Meanwhile, the First Consul had
broken up from Milan; and, whether ill-informed of his enemy's
operations, or apprehensive that, after the fall of Genoa,
Melas would escape by a march southwards, he had advanced from
a strong position he had taken between the Ticino, the Adda,
and the Po, and had crossed the Scrivia into the plains of
Marengo, with forces disseminated far too widely. Melas boldly
seized the opportunity to escape from the weakened meshes of
the net thrown round him; and attacked Bonaparte on the
morning of June 14 with a vigor and energy which did him
honor.
{1334}
The battle raged confusedly for several hours; but the French
had begun to give way and fly, when the arrival of an isolated
division on the field [that of Desaix, who had been sent
southward by Bonaparte, and who turned back, on his own
responsibility, when he heard the sounds of battle] and the
unexpected charge of a small body of horsemen, suddenly
changed defeat into a brilliant victory. The importance was
then seen of the commanding position of Bonaparte on the rear
of his foe; the Austrian army, its retreat cut off, was
obliged to come to terms after a single reverse; and within a
few days an armistice was signed by which Italy to the Mincio
was restored to the French, and the disasters of 1799 were
effaced. ... While Italy had been regained at one stroke, the
campaign in Germany had progressed slowly; and though Moreau
was largely superior in force, he had met more than one check
near Ulm, on the Danube. The stand, however, made ably by
Kray, could not lessen the effects of Marengo; and Austria,
after that terrible reverse, endeavored to negotiate with the
dreaded conqueror. Bonaparte, however, following out a purpose
which he had already made a maxim of policy, and resolved if
possible to divide the Coalition, refused to treat with
Austria jointly with England, except on conditions known to be
futile; and after a pause of a few weeks hostilities were
resumed with increased energy. By this time, however, the
French armies had acquired largely preponderating strength;
and while Brune advanced victoriously to the Adige--the First
Consul had returned to the seat of government--Moreau in
Bavaria marched on the rivers which, descending from the Alps
to the Danube, form one of the bulwarks of the Austrian
Monarchy. He was attacked incautiously by the Archduke
John--the Archduke Charles, who ought to have been in command,
was in temporary disgrace at the Court--and soon afterwards
[December 3] he won a great battle at Hohenlinden, between the
Iser and the Inn, the success of the French being complete and
decisive, though the conduct of their chief has not escaped
criticism. This last disaster proved overwhelming, and Austria
and the States of the Empire were forced to submit to the
terms of Bonaparte. After a brief delay peace was made at
Luneville in February 1801."
W. O'C. Morris,
The French Revolution and First Empire,
chapter 10.
ALSO IN:
C. Botta,
Italy during the Consulate and Empire of Napoleon,
chapters 1-2.
Baron Jomini,
Life of Napoleon,
chapter 6 (volume l).
C. Adams,
Great Campaigns in Europe
from 1796 to 1870, chapter 2.
Duke de Rovigo,
Memoirs,
volume 1, chapters 19-20.
FRANCE: A. D. 1800-1801 (June-February).
The King of Naples spared at the intercession of the Russian
Czar.
The Czar won away from the Coalition.
The Pope befriended.
"Replaced in his richest territories by the allies, the King
of Naples was bound by every tie to assist them in the
campaign of 1800. He accordingly sent an army into the march
of Ancona, under the command of Count Roger de Damas. ...
Undeterred by the battle of Marengo, the Count de Damas
marched against the French general Miollis, who commanded in
Tuscany, and sustained a defeat by him near Sienna. Retreat
became now necessary, the more especially as the armistice
which was entered into by General Melas deprived the
Neapolitans of any assistance from the Austrians, and rendered
their whole expedition utterly hopeless. They were not even
included by name in the armistice, and were thus left exposed
to the whole vengeance of the French. ... At this desperate
crisis, the Queen of the Two Sicilies took a resolution which
seemed almost as desperate, and could only have been adopted
by a woman of a bold and decisive character. She resolved,
notwithstanding the severity of the season, to repair in
person to the court of the Emperor Paul, and implore his
intercession with the First Consul, in behalf of her husband
and his territories." The Russian autocrat was more than ready
to accede to her request. Disgusted and enraged at the
discomfiture of Suwarrow in Switzerland, dissatisfied with the
conduct of Austria in that unfortunate campaign, and equally
dissatisfied with England in the joint invasion of the
Batavian republic, he made prompt preparations to quit the
coalition and to ally himself with the First Consul of France.
Bonaparte welcomed his overtures and gave them every
flattering encouragement, conceding instantly the grace which
he asked on behalf of the King and Queen of Naples. "The
respect paid by the First Consul to the wishes of Paul saved
for the present the royal family of Naples; but Murat [who
commanded the army sent to central and southern Italy],
nevertheless, made them experience a full portion of the
bitter cup which the vanquished are generally doomed to
swallow. General Damas was commanded in the haughtiest terms
to evacuate the Roman States, and not to presume to claim any
benefit from the armistice which had been extended to the
Austrians. At the same time, while the Neapolitans were thus
compelled hastily to evacuate the Roman territories, general
surprise was exhibited when, instead of marching to Rome, and
re-establishing the authority of the Roman Republic, Murat,
according to the orders which he had received from the First
Consul, carefully respected the territory of the Church, and
reinstalled the officers of the Pope in what had been long
termed the patrimony of St. Peter's. This unexpected turn of
circumstances originated in high policy on the part of
Buonaparte. ... Besides evacuating the Ecclesiastical States,
the Neapolitans were compelled by Murat to restore various
paintings, statues, and other objects of art, which they had,
in imitation of Buonaparte, taken forcibly from the
Romans,--so captivating is the influence of bad example. A
French army of about 18,000 men was to be quartered in
Calabria. ... The harbours of the Neapolitan dominions were of
course to be closed against the English. A cession of part of
the isle of Elba, and the relinquishment of all pretensions
upon Tuscany, summed up the sacrifices of the King of Naples
[stipulated in the treaty of Foligno, signed in February,
1801], who, considering how often he had braved Napoleon, had
great reason to thank the Emperor of Russia for his effectual
mediation."
Sir W. Scott,
Life of Napoleon,
chapter 38.
FRANCE: A. D. 1801 (February).
The Peace of Luneville.
The Rhine boundary confirmed.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1801-1803.
FRANCE: A. D. 1801 (March).
Recovery of Louisiana from Spain.
See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1798-1803.
FRANCE: A. D. 1801.
Expedition against the Blacks of Hayti.
See HAYTI: A. D. 1632-1803.
{1335}
FRANCE: A. D. 1801-1802.
The import of the Peace of Luneville.
Bonaparte's preparations for conflict with England.
The Northern Maritime League.
English bombardment of Copenhagen and
summary crushing of the League.
Murder of the Russian Czar.
English expedition to Egypt.
Surrender of the French army.
Peace of Amiens.
"The treaty of Luneville was of far greater import than the
treaties which had ended the struggle of the first coalition.
... The significance then of the Peace of Luneville lay in
this, not only that it was the close of the earlier
revolutionary struggle for supremacy in Europe, the
abandonment by France of her effort to 'liberate the peoples,'
to force new institutions on the nations about her by sheer
dint of arms; but that it marked the concentration of all her
energies on a struggle with Britain for the supremacy of the
world. For England herself the event which accompanied it, the
sudden withdrawal of William Pitt from office, which took
place in the very month of the treaty, was hardly less
significant. ... The bulk of the old Ministry returned in a
few days to office with Mr. Addington at their head, and his
administration received the support of the whole Tory party in
Parliament. ... It was with anxiety that England found itself
guided by men like these. ... The country stood utterly alone;
while the peace of Luneville secured France from all hostility
on the Continent. ... To strike at England's wealth had been
among the projects of the Directory: it was now the dream of
the First Consul. It was in vain for England to produce, if he
shut her out of every market. Her carrying-trade must be
annihilated if he closed every port against her ships. It was
this gigantic project of a 'Continental System' that revealed
itself as soon as Buonaparte became finally master of France.
From France itself and its dependencies in Holland and the
Netherlands English trade was already excluded. But Italy also
was shut against her after the Peace of Luneville [and the
Treaty of Foligno with the King of Naples], and Spain not only
closed her own ports but forced Portugal to break with her
English ally. In the Baltic, Buonaparte was more active than
even in the Mediterranean. In a treaty with America, which was
destined to bring this power also in the end into his great
attack, he had formally recognized the rights of neutral
vessels which England was hourly disputing. ... The only
powers which now possessed naval resources were the powers of
the North. ... Both the Scandinavian states resented the
severity with which Britain enforced that right of search
which had brought about their armed neutrality at the close of
the American war; while Denmark was besides an old ally of
France; and her sympathies were still believed to be French.
The First Consul therefore had little trouble in enlisting
them in a league of Neutrals, which was in effect a
declaration of war against England, and which Prussia as
before showed herself ready to join. Russia indeed seemed
harder to gain." But Paul, the Czar, afraid of the opposition
of England to his designs upon Turkey, dissatisfied with the
operations of the coalition, and flattered by Bonaparte, gave
himself up to the influence of the latter. "It was to check
the action of Britain in the East that the Czar now turned to
the French Consul, and seconded his efforts for the formation
of a naval confederacy in the North, while his minister,
Rostopchin, planned a division of the Turkish Empire in Europe
between Russia and her allies. ... A squabble over Malta,
which had been blockaded since its capture by Buonaparte, and
which surrendered at last [September, 1800] to a British
fleet, but whose possession the Czar claimed as his own on the
ground of an alleged election as Grand Master of the Order of
St. John, served as a pretext for a quarrel with England; and
at the close of· 1800 Paul openly prepared for hostilities.
... The Danes, who throughout the year had been struggling to
evade the British right of search, at once joined this neutral
league, and were followed by Sweden in their course. ... But
dexterous as the combination was, it was shattered at a blow.
On the 1st of April, 1801, a British fleet of 18 men-of-war
[under Sir Hyde Parker, with Nelson second in command] forced
the passage of the Belt; appeared before Copenhagen, and at
once attacked the city and its fleet. In spite of a brave
resistance from the Danish batteries and gunboats six Danish
ships were taken, and the Crown Prince was forced to conclude
an armistice which enabled the English ships to enter the
Baltic. ... But their work was really over. The seizure of
English goods and the declaration of war had bitterly
irritated the Russian nobles, whose sole outlet for the sale
of the produce of their vast estates was thus closed to them;
and on the 24th of March, nine days before the battle of
Copenhagen, Paul fell in a midnight attack by conspirators in
his own palace. With Paul fell the Confederacy of the North.
... At the very moment of the attack on Copenhagen, a stroke
as effective wrecked his projects in the East. ... In March,
1801, a force of 15,000 men under General Abercrombie anchored
in Aboukir Bay. Deserted as they were by Buonaparte, the
French had firmly maintained their hold on Egypt. ... But
their army was foolishly scattered, and Abercrombie was able
to force a landing five days after his arrival on the coast.
The French however rapidly concentrated; and on the 21st of
March their general attacked the English army on the ground it
had won, with a force equal to its own. The battle [known as
the battle of Alexandria] was a stubborn one, and Abercrombie
fell mortally wounded ere its close; but after six hours'
fighting the French drew off with heavy loss; and their
retreat was followed by the investment of Alexandria and
Cairo. ... At the close of June the capitulation of the 13,000
soldiers who remained closed the French rule over Egypt."
Threatening preparations for an invasion of England were kept
up, and gunboats and flatboats collected at Boulogne, which
Nelson attacked unsuccessfully in August, 1801. "The First
Consul opened negotiations for peace at the close of 1801. His
offers were at once met by the English Government. ... The
negotiations which went on through the winter between England
and the three allied Powers of France, Spain, and the Dutch,
brought about in March, 1802, the Peace of Amiens." The treaty
secured "a pledge on the part of France to withdraw its forces
from Southern Italy, and to leave to themselves the republics
it had set up along its border in Holland, Switzerland, and
Piedmont. In exchange for this pledge, England recognized the
French government, restored all the colonies which they had
lost, save Ceylon and Trinidad, to France and its allies