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ritime truce as an equivalent for the evident disadvantages of that of Germany He dispatched, however, a courier to Paris, to inform his government; during which interval Mr. Grenville was named minister plenipotentiary to Luneville. The answer of the French government confirmed that which M. Otto had already given; observing also, that the intervention ef England rendered the question of peace so complicated, that it was impossible to prolong the armistice on the continent, unless his Britannic majesty rendered it common to the three powers; with the menace, that if this armistice was not concluded, hostilities would recommence in Germany.

The result of this negotiation was unfavourable to peace. The demands of the French government respecting a maritime armistice were found inadmissible, and the English ministers declared officially to M. Otto, that all further discussion on that point was become superfluous. The rupture of this negotiation was followed by that of the continental armistice which had given time only to the belligerent powers to recruit their shattered forces in order to renew the contest. During the armistice the French government had made it a condition, that, till the definitive peace, the republican troops should take the Inn for the line of demarcation, and extend their cantonments as far as Lintz. But the absolute refusal of the British cabinet to treat on the conditions prescribed by Bonaparte-namely, the maritime armistice-made a rupture unavoidable, unless a definitive treaty was framed on the basis of the preliminaries assented to by count St. Julien at Paris. To this decision the cabinet of the Tuilleries ad

hered, after the declaration made by count Cobentzel that he could neither conclude nor negotiate" definitive peace, but in concert with the British ministry, who he hoped might be prevailed on to send a plenipotentiary to Luneville.

The French government had not flattered itself that the British court would yield to its demand respecting a naval armistice; but if a temporary cessation of hostilities was favourable to the emperor, it was no less so to the French armies, whose victories, though splen did, had not been purchased with out considerable loss, though less from the military tactics and conservatory dispositions of Moreau than it would have been under any other French general. The French army was now about to attempt a great and no less perilous expedi→ tion; and it was necessary, in order to make an effective winter campaign, of which the hereditary do minions were the prize, to take such measures as should ensure success.

The deficiencies in Moreau's army were entirely made up by the successive arrivals of detach ments of conscripts: the corps under St. Suzanne, on the Lower Rhine, which had hitherto consisted of 7 or 8000 men, was augmented to 30,000, and marched in order to form the left wing of the grand army now detached from the division under Augereau; another army, under the name of that of the Grisons, had been formed, consisting of from 25 to 30,000 men, and which was extended from the chain of communication between the army of the Rhine and that of Italy; while Augereau had completed his division on the Maine, by the arrival of fresh troops from Holland, and conscripts from the Belgic departments.

The

The winter campaign opened on the 24th November, by an attack on Augereau's division, who, sallying, drove back the assailants, and, passing the Maine, took possession by capitulation of Aschaffenburg. -Finding every probability of peace had vanished, Moreau hastened back to Munich, where were assembled the generals Dessoles, Eblé, Richepanse, and Laborie; and where, after issuing a proclamation to his army, he prepared again to enter the field While Moreau was maturing his plan of operations, the Austrian army had prevented him by a daring attack on his left wing by Klenau, which seemed to have put the French in their turn on the defensive. Prompted by this success, with a confidence equal to their imprudence, the imperial army was led to abandon their strong positions on the Inn, where they might have made a long, if not an effectual, resistance, and march into the plain. This march was the completion of Moreau's plan; which was to get them dislodged from the position they had taken, and which could not have been effected but with a great effusion of blood.. The Austrians following up their success, marched upon the army of the French, stationed near the village of Hohenlinden. Moreau, who waited for them in the positions he had taken, met the attack as if he had intended only to keep himself on the defensive; and this hesitation in the French general was construed by the Austrians into an indisposition to come to a decisive action. This error, however, was not of long duration. While the Austrians, confident of victory, assured at least of compelling the French to abandon the field, were endeavouring to force Moreau to

some determinate purpose, they were astonished to find a French division in their rear, led on by Richepanse and Decaen. It was for this moment of surprise and confusion that Moreau waited ;— this moment of hesitation in the Austrian army was the signal of his attack: the French generals Grenier and Ney poured down their divisions on the Austrian lines, and met half-way those of Richepanse and Decaen These last divisions, having innumerable obstacles to encounter, had performed prodigies of valour. Richepanse, cut off from the rest of his division, without looking behind him, had marched with five or six battalions directly into the midst of the Austrians. The imperial army, surprised, broken, overwhelmed, and panic-struck, endeavoured to retreat; but ingulfed in defiles and woods, and surrounded by enemies, no mode of rallying or escape presented itself. In the space of a league and a half the carnage was horrible; the centre of the Austrian army had disappeared or perished.

But though the centre was destroyed, the right and left wings were yet sufficiently strong to keep the victory in suspense. The combat had lasted eight hours; and, after the affair seemed to have been completely decided, the French had to sustain several vigorous attacks from bodies of reserve which had not yet been brought into action. The defeat of the centre drew on eventually that of the wings. The French remained masters of the field, with eighty pieces of cannon, 200 caissons, 10,000 prisoners, and a considerable number of officers, among whom were three generals. This battle was called the battle of Hohenlinden.

This victory was decisive of the campaign

campaign in favour of the French; but in order to prevail on the imperial cabinet to offer again or accept terms of peace, it was necessary to follow up with vigour this important conquest. Moreau, without losing time, or suffering the retreating army to muster its scattered forces, or recover from its surprise, marched directly upon the Inn, which he crossed (9th December) at Neupesen, between Rosenheim and Kuftein. The Austrians, who were in a state to make but little resistance, retreated to Stephenkirch. The dispositions of attack made by Lecourbe led them to make a further retreat behind the Salze; and the French, without much opposition, entered Salzburg. Continuing the pursuit, the French came up with the remains of the imperial army successively at Neumark, Vonaklapluch, and Lambach; at each of which passes engagements took place, which ended always in the further destruction of the Austrian army and in the taking of cannon and considerable numbers of prisoners, among whom was the prince of Lichtenstein and his staff.

The battle of Hohenlinden, and the passage of the Inn, had thrown not only the court of Vienna, but the capital also, into the greatest confusion; and in proportion to the presumption of the former, was how its terror and dread of seeing the French soon at the gates. One resource was still left, since that or arms had proved fruitless; and of that the imperial cabinet was sufficiently prudent at this crisis to take advantage. Prince Charles, who had been dismissed from the command of the army at the opening of the campaign, and who retreated into honourable exile, as governor of Rohemia, because he

had freely declared his opinion respecting the events of the war, which the result had justified, was once more resorted to, as the saviour of his country. The court had flattered itself that his presence and efforts would once again establish an equilibrium of force with the French, and conceived hopes that its military affairs were yet retrievable. This charm was now dissolved; the prince, though adored by the army, found that this prestige was departed; and the soldier of every rank hailed his return, not as the hero who was to lead them to victory, but only as the herald of peace. The archduke, with whatever hopes he might have flattered himself at the moment of his recall, saw, on his arrival at the army, how utterly those hopes were destitute of foundatio. Before he decided, however, on making a submission, which, from the circumstances of the French army and his own, he presumed must be almost unconditional, he resolved on making a last attempt. The attempt was unsuccessful, the Austrians met with a most severe defeat, and, after losing 7 or 8000 men, withdrew in disorder behind the Ens. This new event at length convinced the imperial cabinet of the truth of what the archduke had re-iterated in his correspondence from the time of his recall, that there was no safety for the Austrian monarchy but in peace at any rate, and on any conditions; since in the space of twenty days the army had lost seventy leagues of ground, 25,000 prisoners, 15,000 killed or wounded, 140 pieces of cannon, immense magazines of every.de scription, while the enemy was in a position to dictate orders to the capital.

During former campaigns, Mo

reau

reau had been considered in the light rather of a prudent than an enterprising general. He had at different periods exhibited great proofs of his skill in preserving from destruction retreating or routed armies, and had deservedly acquired the reputation and title of the French Fabius. The events of this campaign had exhibited him under a new form that of an ardent and daring chief, who nevertheless by the most profound combination and extensive foresight made fortune a faithful auxiliary. To any other person than Moreau, the position he held at the moment of signing this last armistice would have appeared tremendous. He had plunged himself and his army into the very heart of Austria, leaving behind him, on his right, the Tyrol filled with troops, which amounted to 30,000 men, on his left the divisions of Klenau, Simb sohen, and Riskenfield, besides the legion of Bohemia, forming more than 50,000. He was now a hundred leagues advanced before the armies of Italy, and the Lower Rhine under Augereau. Of the movements of the former he was yet uncertain; and the Gallo-Batavian army, from the opposition it met with, and the many desperate and bloody engagements which took place, had great difficulty to keep its positions in the neighbourhood of Forckheim and Nuremberg. It was in this situation glorious indeed, but attended with no common danger-that Moreau accepted (27th December) the armistice that was offered, on condition that peace should without any further delay follow this third cessation of hostilities.

The winter campaign had but just opened in Italy, when this third armistice took place. In the interval between the second and third

(18th October), the French, under the pretext that the rising in mass of the Tuscans under the orders of general Sommariva was an infrac tion of the private convention made at Castiglione, after summoning this general to disperse this irregu lar army, had entered Florence and Leghorn. The insurgents had withdrawn to Arezzo. which, after a most obstinate resistance, was taken by assault; and the whole body except three hundred who took refuge in the citadel, and capitulated, were put to the sword. The Austrians some time after took possession again of Arezzo, and threatened Florence; but the rupture of the armistice announced by the army of the Rhine obliged them to concentre their forces, to await more serious operations. The Mincio was the line which divided the two armies: and as the invasion of the Venetian territory was the object of the French, the Austrians had made extraordinary efforts for the defence of this river. After a valorous attack (28th December), and no less obstinate resistance, this passage was effected at Menzabano, but with an incredible loss of men on each side; — the French made 8000 prisoners. The army under Brune, aided by the army of the Grisons, which, after painful marches across the mountains, had descended into Italy, continued its march, crossed the Adige with the same loss of men on each side, and took post at Vicenza (8th January). Continuing their pursuit, the French crossed the Brenta, and found the Austrian army re-inforced, and drawn up in the plains of Salvaroza, where both sides prepared for a decisive engagement, which was to determine the fate of the Venetian territory. It was in this position that the armistice which had taken place in

Ger

Germany prevented the further and useless effusion of blood in Italy.

A convention for the cessation of hostilities was agreed on at Treviso (16th January) between the generals Bellegarde and Brune, by which the Austrians, retiring

behind the Tagliamento, ceded to the French the fortified places they had left behind them untaken, including Mantua, which was given up by the subsequent convention at Luneville.

CHAP. X.

Internal Regulations in the French Republic. Numbers and Powers of Jus tices of the Peace abridged. Proposal for the Erection of special Tribunals. Plot for the Murder of the chief Consul. Infernal Machine. Punishment of two Persons asserted to be concerned in that Plot. Arbitrary Proceedings of the French Government. Plot attributed first to the Jacobins, and then to the Royalists. Some of the latter executed. Law passed for esta blishing special Tribunals. Negotiation at Luneville. Terms of the Treaty. Peace with the Elector of Bavaria. Secret History of the Confederacy of the Northern Powers against Great Britain. Terms of the Quadruple Alliance. Affairs of Naples. Proceedings of the French Legislature. Discussions on various Laws proposed by the Government, subversive of the Trial by Jury. Law for regulating the Election of Representatives.

WE

E leave the negotiations for peace which were now seriously opened at Luneville, to turn back, and cast a rapid glance on the internal affairs of the republic. The meeting of the legislative body had taken place agreeably to the constitution on the first day of Frimaire. Amidst a variety of other objects, two had particularly engaged its attentionthat of the reduction of the number and the powers of justices of the peace, and a proposition which was made for the creation of special tribunals throughout the republic. The number of justices of the peace in France were 6000, and the government had reduced this number to 3000. Their jurisdiction comprehended a space of five square leagues, and a population of 5000 souls; it was proposed

to extend the jurisdiction of each to ten square leagues, including a population on the average of 10,000 inhabitants. With respect to their power, they were to remain clothed with all which had hitherto been granted them as conciliators; that is, no civil cause could be brought before the courts till the parties had submitted their pretensions to the justice of peace, who either settled the matter in dispute, or, in default of such arrangement, certified to the civil tribunal of his district that such matter had regularly come before him; without which formality no action whatever could be brought forward. This attribute the law proposed still to leave to this officer, taking from him every thing that respected criminal affairs, of which he had hitherto the initiative, and

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