rather a rout than a battle; although the loss of the Austrians was not very considerable.

Buonaparte was now on the point of entering the difficult passes of the Alps. On the 18th his troops arrived at Gradisca, (scaling mountains heretofore deemed inaccessible to a military force,) which they captured, together with 2000 prisoners, the flower of the Austrian army, ten pieces of ordnance, and eight standards. On the 21st of the same month

(March) they found at Goritz considerable magazines, and on the 23d another division of their army took possession of Trieste. In the mean time a column of the Austrian army, which had separated itself from the main body, was pursued by the French, overtaken, surrounded, and captured; and another column, which had proceeded from Clagenfurth, was encountered, and beaten at Tarvis. This action was fought on the summit of that lofty chain of the Alps which is the common frontier to the Friuli, Carniola, and Dalmatia. The snow upon the height on which the battle took place was upwards of three feet deep. The result of these different engagements was the capture of 5000 men, 4 generals, 30 pieces of ordnance, and the baggage of the Austrian army.

While the centre and right wing of the Republican forces were thus driving the enemy before them in the direction of Carinthia and Hungary; the left wing, which had been charged with the subjugation of the Tyrol, fulfilled their mission to the entire satisfaction of their commander. Ascending the dangerous defiles of the Tyrol, the troops stationed on the river Lavis were surrounded and made prisoners with a loss to the Archduke of 6000 men. The remainder of the detachment cut off from Botzen, wandered as fugitives among the mountains. Advancing to Claufen, the French were strongly opposed by an Austrian division. The battle was long and obstinately contested. It was decided by the Republican light infantry, who climbed rocks nearly perpendicular, which enabled them to turn the position of the enemy. At Botzen and other places, considerable magazines were found, and the Austrian hospitals fell into the hands of Buonaparte.

On the 28th the centre and right wings of the French army were encamped at Villach, on the river Drave, and having cleared all the passes of the Alps on the 29th, took possession of Clagenfurth on the 1st of April, and entered Laubach, the capital of Carniola.

Bernadotte's division and a corps was detached by Buonaparte, to open a communication with the left wing, under Joubert, at Brixen, who, on 28th of March, had made himself master of the almost impregnable position of Inspruck. Since the commencement of this campaign, Prince Charles had been with heavy loss entirely driven from the Venetian territories; from the higher and lower Carniola, Carinthia, the district of Trieste, and the whole of the Tyrol. Pursuing their victorious march towards Vienna, several spirited actions took place between the advanced guard of the French and the rear of the Austrian army. At the defile of Neumarck, a desperate action was fought between the Austrian battalion, which had taken Kehl the preceding year, and the grenadiers of General Massena's division: this was a battle between the elite of both armies; but after a glorious and protracted struggle, the star of the Archduke was again eclipsed, and the Austrians gave way. In the vicinity of Hundsmarck, where the French again triumphed, they ate the bread, and drank the brandy on the field of battle, which had been prepared for their enemies. From this period, the beginning of April, the Austrians attempted no further serious resistance, but fell back with the greatest rapidity on the mountains which rise within sight of Vienna.

Such was the moment judiciously selected by Buonaparte, whose troops occupied Kintenfield, Murau and Judenberg to attempt a negociation for peace with the Austrian general.

In no instance in the course of his eventful career did Buonaparte shew more practical good sense than in making this overture. Notwithstanding the rupture of this negociation, the Archduke sent an aide-de-camp to request a suspension of hostilities for four hours, which Buonaparte refused to grant. The situation of the Austrian government now became very

critical. One more signal defeat, and Vienna would be the prize of the conquerer! All the hopes entertained from the talents and popularity of the Archduke Charles had vanished. In this dilemma, two Austrian noblemen waited upon Buonaparte, and discussed with him the conditions of a suspension of arms for ten days, which was accordingly concluded. By this convention Buonaparte established his communication with Italy, and placed the right and left wings of his army, before which the centre was considerably advanced, in a state of security.

However splendid the victories, and formidable the progress of Buonaparte, the armistice was to him almost as necessary as to the Archduke. He had advanced into the centre of the Emperor's dominions, with an army invincible in its spirit, and perfect in its discipline; accustomed to conquer, and idolatrously attached to its general, but greatly diminished by incessant encounters; with an immense tract of hostile country to preserve in subjection; destitute of magazines, and depending for reinforcements and military supplies, scantily gleaned from Italy, already swept of its materiel by the contributions so rigorously levied; above all, cut off by its advanced position from any direct communication with the Republic, and 600 miles distant from the Upper and Lower Rhine. In such circumstances, if the progress of the French army had been arrested, it must have been exposed to the risk of immediate fantine, if the Italian peasantry would have risen in a mass, and cut off its retreat. On the other hand, the Archduke was in the centre of his resources; the gallant population of Hungary would have crowded to his ranks: in his rear was the strong line of the Styrian mountains; and beyond that line an immense tract of the Austrian dominions, abounding in fortresses, highly populous, and exuberantly rich in natural productions.

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The clear view taken by Buonaparte of the complicated embarrassments of his situation; and the dread felt by the Austrian government, of the unknown and irreparable evils which might be inflicted on the empire by the further

progress of its arms, soon brought both parties to an amicable understanding. By the terms of the preliminary treaty, Austria resigned all claim to the Netherlands, which were thenceforward incorporated with France; and to the Milanese, which, with Ferrara, Modena, Romagna, and Bologna, composed a new state, styled a Republic, and organized upon the French model, the ancient Republic of Venice, which for twelve centuries had engaged, by the wisdom and policy of its measures, the admiration of Europe; had been on more than one occasion the bulwark of Christendom against the Turks; and the emporium, during the middle ages, of the entire commerce of the Levant. The administration of this venerable and illustrious state fell under the displeasure of Buonaparte, who alledged, that it had encouraged the assassination of the French; that it had assumed a hostile attitude, levied troops, collected military stores, and formed a conspiracy to cut off all intercourse between the French army then advancing to Vienna and Lombardy.

The logic of a conqueror, whose sword was as terrible as his conscience was now proved to be elastic, prevailed. A desperate opposition was, however, offered by the Venetian peasantry at Verona; but the conquest of Venice was only a pastime to the vanquisher of the Archduke Charles. Carnage glutted her vulture-beak while hovering round the French army. In a short time, the forms of the ancient Republic, which were completely oligarchical, were abolished, and a nerveless skeleton of a free state substituted in its stead; when the whole Venetian territory was added by Buonaparte to Austria, as an indemnification for her losses, and greedily accepted by that power. The annals of the world do not afford a darker instance of deliberate perfidy and cruelty than was exemplified in the conduct of these traffickers in the spoils of an independent and unoffending country.

A revolution was effected at Genoa; and that state, the very name of which recalls so many moving and glorious recollections, was demoralized, selon les régles de France.

At this moment Buonaparte was actually the monarch of Italy, and might then, with some appearance of ultimate suc

cess in his usurpation, have assumed the diadem. His irresistible power was shown by crumbling into dust the greater part of the ancient administration of Lombardy, and forming out of the crude materials, unsightly phantoms of republics. His independence of the Directory alarmed them; particularly as they had now more than ever occasion for his services. A dispute had arisen between the Council of Five Hundred and the Directory, which soon proceeded to extremities. In defiance of all law, and in mockery of all justice, the Directorial troops, under Augerau, entered the hall of the Council, arrested Pichegreu, the president, General Willot, and sixty other members, who, without the decent hypocrisy of a trial, were transported to the sultry and poisonous regions of Cayenne; two members of the Directory were likewise proscribed; but one of them (Carnot) escaped. That portion of the press which had espoused the cause of the Council of Five Hundred, experienced the wrath of the three victorious directors: fortytwo journals were suppressed, and all the persons concerned in their publication transported.

From that moment the French Republic was no more; and the Directorial authority resembled the last Roman triumvirate. Little, however, did the guilty and imbecile directors imagine, that they were only the pioneers of Buonaparte. On the return of the general to Paris, he was received with the most enthusiastic applause. All ranks and parties in the state vied with each other in extolling him. His own demeanour was extremely cautious and prudent. He affected to live retired; to avoid all occasion of exhibiting himself to the people, or lending the aid of his powerful talents to the support of any particular party. In domestic and social life, his manners were decent and regular. By adhering to this wise system, he acquired an ascendency which no general of the Republic had yet attained.

In consequence of the rupture of the two negociations for peace attempted by the British Government, an immense army was assembled on the northern coasts of France, to which the pompous denomination of the army of England was given, and the supreme command confirmed to