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
[including the restoration to Holland of the Cape of Good Hope
and Dutch Guiana, and of Minorca and the citadel of Port Mahon
to Spain, while Turkey regained possession of Egypt],
acknowledged the Ionian Islands as a free republic, and
engaged to restore Malta within three months to its old
masters, the Knights of St. John."
_J. R. Green,
History of the English People,
book 9, chapter 5 (volume 4)._
ALSO IN:
_R. Southey,
Life of Nelson,
chapter 7 (volume 2)._
_J. Gifford,
Political Life of Pitt,
chapter 47 (volume 6)._
_C. Joyneville,
Life and Times of Alexander I.,
volume 1, chapter 4._
_A. Rambaud,
History of Russia,
volume 2, chapter 11-12._
_G. R. Gleig,
Life of General Sir R. Abercromby
(Eminent British Military Commanders, volume 3)._
{1336}
FRANCE: A. D. 1801-1803.
Domestic measures of Bonaparte.
His Legion of Honor.
His wretched educational scheme.
He is made First Consul for life.
His whittling away of the Constitution.
Revolutions instigated and dictated in the Dutch,
Swiss, and Cisalpine Republics.
Bonaparte president of the Italian Republic.
"The concordat was succeeded by the emigrants' recall, which
resolution was presented and passed April 26. The
irrevocability of the sale of national property was again
established, and amnesty granted to all emigrants but the
leaders of armed forces, and some few whose offences were
specially grave. The property of emigrants remaining unsold
was restored, excepting forests, which Bonaparte reserved to
be gradually returned as bribes to great families. ... Two
important projects were presented to the Tribunal and
Legislative Corps, the Legion of Honor, and free schools. The
Convention awarded prizes to the troops for special acts of
daring, and the First Consul increased and arranged the
distribution, but that was not enough: he wanted a vast system
of rewards, adapted to excite amour propre, repay service, and
give him a new and potent means of influencing civilians as
well as soldiers. He therefore conceived the idea of the
Legion of Honor, embracing all kinds of service and title to
public distinction. ... But this plan for forming an order of
chivalry was contested even by the Council of State as
offensive to that equality which its members were to defend
[under the oath prescribed to the Legion], and as a renewal of
aristocracy. It only passed the Tribunal and Legislative Corps
by a very small majority, and this after the removal of so
many of the opposition party. The institution of the Legion of
Honor was specious, and, despite the opposition it met within
its early days, suits a people who love distinction, despite
their passion for equality, provided it be not hereditary. As
for the educational scheme, it was wretched, doing absolutely
nothing for the primary schools. The state had no share in it.
The Commune was to provide the buildings when the pupils could
pay a teacher, thus forsaking the plans of the great
assemblies. The wisest statesmen desired to sustain in an
improved form the central schools founded by the Convention;
but Bonaparte meant to substitute barracks to educate young
men for his service. ... He diminished scientific study;
suppressed history and philosophy, which were incompatible
with despotism; and completed his system of secondary
instruction by creating 6,000 scholarships, to be used as
means of influence, like the ribbon of the Legion of Honor.
... All his measures succeeded, and yet he was not content: he
wanted to extend his power. ... Cambacérès ... , when the
Amiens treaty was presented to the Tribunal and Legislature,
... proposed, through the president of the former, that the
Senate should be invited to give the First Consul some token
of national gratitude (May 6, 1802). ... The Senate only voted
to prolong the First Consul's power for ten years (May 8),
with but one protesting voice, that of Lanjuinais, who
denounced the flagrant usurpation that threatened the
Republic. This was the last echo of the Gironde ringing
through the tame assemblies of the Consulate. Bonaparte was
very angry, having expected more; but Cambacérès' calmed him
and suggested a mode of evading the question, namely, to reply
that an extension of power could only be granted by the
people, and then to make the Council of State dictate the
formula to be submitted to the people, substituting a life
consulate for ten years. This was accordingly done. ... The
Council of State even added the First Consul's right to name
his successor. This he thought premature and likely to make
trouble, and therefore erased it. ... Registers were opened at
the record offices and mayoralties to receive votes, and there
were three million and a half votes in the affirmative; a few
thousand only daring to refuse, and many abstaining from
voting. La Fayette registered a 'no' ... and sent the First
Consul a noble letter. ... La Fayette then ceased the
relations he had hitherto maintained with the First Consul
since his return to France. ... The Senate counted the popular
vote on the proposal they did not make, and carried the result
to the Tuileries in a body, August 8, 1802; and the result was
proclaimed in the form of a Senatus-Consultum, in these terms:
'The French people name and the Senate proclaim Napoleon
Bonaparte First Consul for life.' This was the first official
use of the prenomen Napoleon, which was soon, in conformity
with royal custom, to be substituted for the family name of
Bonaparte. ... The next day various modifications of the
Constitution were offered to the Council of State. ... The
Senate were given the right to interpret and complete the
Constitution, to dissolve the Legislature and Tribunal, and,
what was even more, to break the judgment of tribunals, thus
subordinating justice to policy. But these extravagant
prerogatives could only be used at the request of the
government, The Senate was limited to 120 members, 40 of whom
the First Consul was to elect. The Tribunal was reduced to 50
members, and condemned to discuss with closed doors, divided
into sections. ... Despotism concentrated more and more.
Bonaparte took back his refusal to choose his successor, and
now claimed that right. He also formed a civil list of six
millions. ... The Senate agreed to everything, and the
Senatus-Consultum was published August 5. ... The Republic was
now but a name; ... Early in 1808 things grew dark on the
English shore," and "the loss of San Domingo [to which
Bonaparte had sent an expedition at the beginning of 1801]
seemed inevitable [see HAYTI: A. D. 1682-1808]. While making
this expedition, doomed to so fatal an end, Bonaparte
continued his haughty policy on the European continent. By
article second of the Luneville treaty France and Austria
mutually guaranteed the independence of the Dutch, Swiss,
Cisalpine, and Ligurian republics, and their freedom in the
adoption of whatever form of government they saw fit to
choose.
{1337}
Bonaparte interpreted this article by substituting for
independence his own more or less direct rule in those
republics. ... During the negotiations preceding the Amiens
treaty he stirred up a revolution in Holland. That country had
a Directory and two Chambers, as in the French Constitution of
year III., and he wished to impose a new constitution on the
Chambers, putting them more into his power; they refused, and
he expelled them by means of the Directory, whom he had won
over to his side. The Dutch Directory, in this imitation of
November 9, was sustained by French troops, occupying Holland
under Augereau, now reconciled to Bonaparte (September, 1801).
The new Constitution was put to popular vote. A certain number
voted against it. The majority did not vote. Silence was taken
for consent, and the new Constitution was proclaimed October
17, 1801. ... The English government protested, but did not
resist. At the same time he [Bonaparte] imposed on the
Cisalpine republic, but without conflict or opposition, a
constitution even more anti-liberal than the French one of
year VIII.; the president who there replaced the First Consul
having supreme power. But who was to be that President? The
Cisalpines for an instant were simple enough to think that
they could choose an Italian: they decided on Count Melzi,
well known in the Milanese. They were soon undeceived, when
Bonaparte called Cisalpine delegates to Lyons in midwinter.
These delegates were landowners, scholars, and merchants, some
hundreds in number, and his agents explained to them that none
but Bonaparte 'was worthy to govern their republic or able to
maintain it.' They eagerly offered him the presidency, which
he accepted in lofty terms, and took Melzi for vice-president
(January 25, 1802). Italian patriots were consoled for this
subjection by the change of name from Cisalpine to Italian
Republic, which seemed to promise the unity of Italy.
Bonaparte threw out this hope, never meaning to gratify it.
... He acted as master in Switzerland as well as Italy and
Holland. Since Switzerland had ceased to be the scene of war,
she had been given over to agitation, fluctuating between
revolutionary democracy and the old aristocracy joined to the
retrograde democracy of the small Catholic cantons. Modern
democracy was at strife with itself. ... Bonaparte encouraged
the strife, that Switzerland might call him in as arbiter.
Suddenly, late in July, 1802, he withdrew his troops, which
had occupied Switzerland ever since 1798. Civil war broke out
at once; the smaller Catholic cantons and the aristocrats of
Berne and Zurich overthrew the government established at Berne
by the moderate democrats. The government retired to Lausanne,
and the country was thus divided. Bonaparte then announced
that he would not suffer a Swiss counter-revolution, and that
if the parties could not agree he must mediate between them.
He summoned the insurrectional powers of Berne to dissolve,
and invited all citizens who had held office in the central
Swiss government within three years, to meet at Paris and
confer with him, announcing that 30,000 men under General Ney
were ready to support his mediation. The democratic government
at Lausanne were willing to receive the French; the
aristocratic government at Berne, anxious to restore the
Austrians, appealed to European powers, who replied by
silence, England only protesting against French interference.
... Bonaparte responded to the English protest by so
extraordinary a letter that his charge d'Affaires at London
dared not communicate it verbatim. It said that, if England
succeeded in drawing the continental powers into her cause,
the result would be to force France to 'conquer Europe! Who
knows how long it would take the First-Consul to revive the
Empire of the West?' (October 23, 1802). ... There was slight
resistance to Ney's troops in Switzerland. All the politicians
of the new democracy and some of the aristocrats went to Paris
at the First Consul's summons. He did not treat their country
as he had Holland and Italy, but gave her, instead, a vain
show of institutions, a constitution imposing on the different
parties a specious compromise. ... Switzerland was dependent
on France in regard to general policy, and was bound to
furnish her with troops; but, at least, she administered her
own affairs (January, 1803)."
_H. Martin,
Popular History of France from the First Revolution,
volume 2, chapters 8-9._
ALSO IN:
_F. C. Schlosser,
History of the 18th Century,
volume 7, pages 286-302._
_Mrs. L. Hug and R. Stead,
Story of Switzerland,
chapters 30-31._
_C. Botta,
Italy during the Consulate and Empire of Napoleon,
chapter 3._