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in Fructidor, the Directory insolently dismissed Lord Malmesbury, he having declined on the part of his government to cede all its conquests to France.*

The treaty between France and Austria, although the preliminaries had been signed at Leoben, was still in jeopardy from the same cause and the same men. The Directors did not want peace, they refused what had been promised at Leoben, some indemnity to Austria for the loss of Lombardy. Bonaparte was for giving them Venice and the line of the Adige; this Carnot approved, but his successors peremptorily opposed it. Bonaparte, however, was not prepared to continue the war to suit their interests or caprice. He declined to run a-muck against Europe, and dethrone all its powers in order to replace them with rickety republics, scarcely able to support themselves, much less to give efficient aid to the French in a prolonged struggle. The Directory counted on the revolutionised and regenerated Italians, and proposed to reduce Germany to the same state. Bonaparte refused to embark in such a crusade. The essay he had already made of a Cisalpine republic sufficed him as an experiment of which he already perceived the difficulty and danger. The accumulated wealth of the North Italian cities had been despoiled and spent by Bonaparte in the maintenance and equipment of his armies, and in sending succours to those on the Rhine, and subsidies to the Directory. To follow this up by severe taxation would indispose the Italians and convert the peninsula from a friendly into a hostile country. He therefore persuaded the Directory to leave the kingdoms of Sardinia and Naples, Rome and Tuscany, as they were, and to make peace with Austria on the terms which he had indicated at Leoben. To do this was no easy task, for not only did the Directory,

* Malmesbury Diaries, vol. iii.

† Bonaparte's Letter to Talleyrand of Oct. 7.

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elated by its triumph in Fructidor, throw obstacles in the way, but Austria also raised impediments. Its plenipotentiary Cobentzel assumed a tone as if Austria was still in a position to dispute Italy with the French. "If you persist in raising such obstacles," exclaimed Bonaparte, sweeping from its stand a magnificent cabaret, that had been given him by the Empress Catherine, to break in fragments on the floor, "I will shatter your empire as easily and as surely as I have done this porcelain." The Austrians felt the threat to be serious. Whilst Bonaparte, in despite of the fanfaronnade, saw, in the winter snow already covering the mountains, the difficulty of resuming any advance upon Vienna in such a season.* Such being the disposition on both sides, the treaty of Campo Formio was signed on the night of the 17th of October, 1797. Austria ceded its Belgian provinces and waived any objection to France pushing its frontier to the Rhine. It was in consequence to take possession of Mayence. In exchange for Lombardy, which the Emperor also ceded, he was to obtain Venice with Istria, Dalmatia, and the territories to the Adige. The territory south of that river, with Mantua, was to be united to the Milanese and the Roman Legations in order to form the Cisalpine republic. The Ionian Islands were ceded to France, the Austrian Brisgau to the Duke of Modena as indemnity for his Italian dominions. The remaining details and arrangements of the treaty of Campo Formio were to be discussed and completed by plenipotentiaries at Rastadt. One of the minor conditions of the treaty, and not the least honourable to Bonaparte and the Directory, was the liberation of General Lafayette from the prison of Olmutz.

Bonaparte reached Paris in the month of December. In a public reception prepared for him by the Directory, he presented to them the treaty of Campo Formio,

* Bourrienne, who denies the correctness of the story of the cabaret.

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which he had concluded against their express desire CHAP. but upon which they found it convenient to compliment him highly. Talleyrand, whom Madame de Staël had persuaded Barras to appoint to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, introduced the victorious general as one so totally given up to the love of retirement and the study of Ossian, that the difficulty would be to make him interest himself again in the affairs of the earth! If ever there was an epoch which might be called the grave of the representative system, it was that which succeeded to the tyrannical acts of Fructidor. Bonaparte, however, took the opportunity of pronouncing it to be the true era of representative government. It seemed as if M. de Talleyrand and General Bonaparte strove as to which of them should pronounce the most egregious falsehood.

The general impression left by Bonaparte upon almost all whom he came in contact with, was that of marked superiority. He was reserved indeed, and mistrustful of all men and all things, covering his thoughts with either silence or an evasive smile. What perhaps has most prepossessed the world against him, is the opinion then formed by Madame de Staël. She found him cold, without enthusiasm, and she concluded that he was actuated by the most unmixed selfishness. This was not a fair or a true conclusion. Bonaparte had been a witness from the first of every phase of the revolution. He had no doubt shared with others each successive delusion, and had seen the brilliant hopes of 1790 drowned in the convulsive era of anarchy and blood. He He perceived how abortive had been every attempt at liberty or representative government in France, and whilst De Staël, despite repeated disappointments, had still confidence to believe in both, Bonaparte turned his back upon such chimeras. Holding but too naturally these opinions, he still could not express them; and Madame De Staël condemned him as a Mephistopheles, because

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he could not hold to his young belief in the realisation
of that popular system of government to which she
still clung.
Enthusiasm he had no doubt, but it was
the enthusiasm of the soldier, to which he joined the
dissimulation, but nothing more than the prudent dis-
simulation, of the man of the world and the politician.*

The first thought of the Directory was to cut out work for their hero. A descent upon England was their chosen experiment, the more hazardous the better for their purpose. But it did not suit Napoleon. One of his reasons for putting an end to the war with Austria was, that his victories went to support and glorify the most corrupt and incapable of administrations. Closer communication with the members of the Directory merely increased Bonaparte's contempt for them. Although he had lent his aid in Fructidor, he disapproved of the barbarous and aimless severity inflicted on the most estimable men. But miserable as the Directory might be in policy and in persons, there was no possibility of overthrowing or superseding them for the moment. The soldiers of the army of Italy were far from being imperialist, and many of the generals were either royalist or republican, at all events not yet disposed to accept the supremacy of Bonaparte. If, however, the Directory were allowed to follow up the idea of revolutionising the world, and continuing to govern as the mere end of the revolution, repelling and proscribing the moderate and sensible men of revolutionary as well as of other tendency, their reign must end in discredit.

It was indeed soon evident that the Directory would not hold to the wise arrangements of their general with regard to southern and central Italy. Joseph Bonaparte had been sent thither as ambassador, with his brother's injunctions to respect the Pope and keep the peace.

One of his letters to Joseph (Mémoires de Joseph) contains a simple and truthful account of his

disillusion, the overthrow of his belief in a republic.

with him, insisting at the same time that his holiness should avoid too close a connexion with Austria, and should dismiss the Austrian general Provera. Instructions of quite a contrary nature came from the Directory, ordering Joseph to support the Roman republicans, and to insist on their chiefs being released from prison. They were so, and their first effort of course was to get up an insurrection to dethrone the Pope. They communicated it to the French ambassador, who tried to dissuade, scarcely to prevent, for the ambassadorial precincts gave them shelter. The insurrection soon showed itself, first at the Villa Medici, then around the French embassy. They hoisted the French. cockade, and cried, Vive la République Romaine.* The Papal troops charged them and drove them into the court of the Palace. The ambassador went with his suite to interfere and put a stop to the struggle. But whilst there, Duphot, a young French general betrothed to Madame Joseph, Bonaparte's sister, was shot. The ambassador, indignant, lost no time in quitting Rome, and General Berthier was ordered to march thither. His army entered Rome on the 10th of February. On the 15th the Roman Republic was proclaimed and the Pope sent off, first to Tuscany, and then to France. A contribution of 4,000,000 francs was levied chiefly on the princely families. But this was a mere commencement, for the agents of the Directory entered every palace that was not occupied by the proprietor, declared it belonging to an emigré, and applied the French law of confiscation and plunder. With most ill-judged selfishness these civic officers of rapine kept all the spoil to themselves, and gave no share to the military, not even applying the treasure to pay the arrears and meet the wants of the army. These were excessive. And the consequence was a complete revolt of the French army in Rome, not of the generals indeed but of officers as * Joseph to Talleyrand. Mémoires du roi Joseph, t. 1.

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