_Napoleon offers, and the Austrian Envoy accepts, a new
Treaty--The Emperor refuses it, unless England is
included--Negotiations with England--fail--Renewal of the
War--Armistice--Resumption of Hostilities--Battle of
Hohenlinden--Other Battles--The Austrians agree to a separate
Peace--Treaty of Luneville--Convention between France and the
United States--The Queen of Naples repairs to Petersburgh--Paul
receives her with cordiality, and applies in her behalf to
Buonaparte--His Envoy received at Paris with the utmost
distinction, and the Royal Family of Naples saved for the
present--Rome restored to the authority of the Pope--Napoleon
demands of the King of Spain to declare War against
Portugal--Olivenza and Almeida taken--Malta, after a Blockade of
Two Years, obliged to submit to the English._
Napoleon proceeded to manage with great skill and policy the popularity
which his success had gained for him. In war it was always his custom,
after he had struck some venturous and apparently decisive blow, to
offer such conditions as might induce the enemy to submit, and separate
his interest from that of his allies. Upon this system of policy he
offered the Count de St. Julien, an Austrian envoy, the conditions of a
treaty, having for its basis that of Campo Formio, which, after the loss
of Italy on the fatal field of Marengo, afforded terms much more
favourable than the Emperor of Germany was entitled to have expected
from the victors. The Austrian envoy accordingly took upon him to
subscribe these preliminaries; but they did not meet the approbation of
the Emperor, who placed his honour on observing accurately the
engagements which he had formed with England, and who refused to accede
to a treaty in which she was not included. It was added, however, that
Lord Minto, the British ambassador at Vienna, had intimated Britain's
willingness to be included in a treaty for general pacification.[569]
[Sidenote: NEGOTIATIONS WITH ENGLAND.]
[Sidenote: Aug. 24.]
This proposal occasioned a communication between France and Britain,
through Monsieur Otto, commissioner for the care of French prisoners.
The French envoy intimated that as a preliminary to Britain's entering
on the treaty, she must consent to an armistice by sea, and suspend the
advantages which she received from her naval superiority, in the same
manner as the first consul of France had dispensed with prosecuting his
victories by land. This demand would have withdrawn the blockade of the
British vessels from the French seaports, and allowed the sailing of
reinforcements to Egypt and Malta, which last important place was on the
point of surrendering to the English. The British ministers were also
sensible that there was, besides, a great difference between a truce
betwixt two land armies, stationed in presence of each other, and a
suspension of naval hostilities over the whole world; since in the one
case, on breaking off the treaty, hostilities can be almost instantly
resumed; on the other, the distance and uncertainty of communication may
prevent the war being recommenced for many months; by which chance of
delay, the French, as being inferior at sea, were sure to be the
gainers. The British statesmen, therefore, proposed some modifications,
to prevent the obvious inequality of such armistice. But it was replied
on the part of France, that though they would accept of such a modified
armistice, if Great Britain would enter into a separate treaty, yet the
chief consul would not consent to it if Austria was to be participant of
the negotiation.[570]
Here, therefore, the overtures of peace betwixt France and England were
shipwrecked, and the Austrian Emperor was reduced to the alternative of
renewing the war, or entering into a treaty without his allies. He
appears to have deemed himself obliged to prefer the more dangerous and
more honourable course.
This was a generous resolution on the part of Austria; but by no means
politic at the period, when their armies were defeated, their national
spirit depressed, and when the French armies had penetrated so far into
Germany. Even Pitt himself, upon whose declining health the misfortune
made a most unfavourable impression, had considered the defeat of
Marengo as a conclusion to the hopes of success against France for a
considerable period. "Fold up the map," he said, pointing to that of
Europe; "it need not be again opened for these twenty years."
Yet, unwilling to resign the contest, even while a spark of hope
remained, it was resolved upon in the British councils to encourage
Austria to farther prosecution of the war. Perhaps, in recommending such
a measure to her ally, at a period when she had sustained such great
losses, and was in the state of dejection to which they gave rise, Great
Britain too much resembled an eager and over-zealous second, who urges
his principal to continue a combat after his strength is exhausted.
Austria, a great and powerful nation, if left to repose, would have in
time recruited her strength, and constituted once again a balance
against the power of France on the continent; but if urged to farther
exertions in the hour of her extremity, she was likely to sustain such
additional losses, as might render her comparatively insignificant for
a number of years. Such at least is the conclusion which we, who have
the advantage of considering the measure with reference to its
consequences, are now enabled to form. At the emergency, things were
viewed in a different light. The victories of Suwarrow and of the
Archduke Charles were remembered, as well as the recent defeats
sustained by France in the year 1799, which had greatly tarnished the
fame of her arms. The character of Buonaparte was not yet sufficiently
estimated. His failure before Acre had made an impression in England,
which was not erased by the victory of Marengo; the extreme prudence
which usually tempered his most venturous undertakings was not yet
generally known; and the belief and hope were received, that one who
ventured on such new and daring manœuvres as Napoleon employed, was
likely to behold them miscarry at length, and thus to fall as rapidly as
he had risen.
Influenced by such motives, it was determined in the British cabinet to
encourage the Emperor, by a loan of two millions, to place himself and
his brother, the Archduke John, in command of the principal army, raise
the whole national force of his mighty empire, and at the head of the
numerous forces which he could summon into the field, either command a
more equal peace, or try the fortunes of the most desperate war.
The money was paid, and the Emperor joined the army; but the
negotiations for peace were not broken off. On the contrary, they were
carried on much on the terms which Saint Julien had subscribed to, with
this additional and discreditable circumstance, that the first consul,
as a pledge of the Austrian sincerity, required that the three fortified
towns of Ingoldstadt, Ulm, and Philipstadt, should be placed temporarily
in the hands of the French; a condition to which the Austrians were
compelled to submit. But the only advantage purchased by this surrender,
which greatly exposed the hereditary dominions of Austria, was an
armistice of forty-five days, at the end of which hostilities were again
renewed.[571]
In the action of Haag, the Archduke John, whose credit in the army
almost rivalled that of his brother Charles, obtained considerable
advantages;[572] and, encouraged by them, he ventured on the 3d of
December, 1800, two days afterwards, a great and decisive encounter with
Moreau. This was the occasion on which that general gained over the
Austrians the bloody and most important victory of Hohenlinden,--an
achievement which did much to keep his reputation for military talents
abreast with that of the first consul himself. Moreau pursued his
victory, and obtained possession of Salzburg. At the same time Augereau,
at the head of the Gallo-Batavian army, pressed forward into Bohemia;
and Macdonald, passing from the country of the Grisons into the
Valteline, forced a division of his army across the Mincio, and
communicated with Massena and the French army in Italy. The Austrian
affairs seemed utterly desperate. The Archduke Charles was again placed
at the head of her forces, but they were so totally discouraged, that a
retreat on all points was the only measure which could be executed.
[Sidenote: ARMISTICE.]
Another and a final cessation of arms was now the only resource of the
Austrians; and, in order to obtain it, the Emperor was compelled to
agree to make a peace separate from his allies. Britain, in
consideration of the extremity to which her ally was reduced,
voluntarily relieved him from the engagement by which he was restrained
from doing so without her participation. An armistice shortly afterwards
took place, and the Austrians being now sufficiently humbled, it was
speedily followed by a peace. Joseph Buonaparte, for this purpose, met
with the Austrian minister, Count Cobentzel, at Luneville, where the
negotiations were carried on.
There were two conditions of the treaty, which were peculiarly galling
to the Emperor. Buonaparte peremptorily exacted the cession of Tuscany,
the hereditary dominions of the brother of Francis, which were to be
given up to a prince of the House of Parma, while the archduke was to
obtain an indemnity in Germany. The French Consul demanded, with no less
pertinacity, that Francis (though not empowered to do so by the Germanic
constitution) should confirm the peace, as well in his capacity of
Emperor of Germany, as in that of sovereign of his own hereditary
dominions. This demand, from which Buonaparte would on no account
depart, involved a point of great difficulty and delicacy. One of the
principal clauses of the treaty included the cession of the whole
territories on the left bank of the Rhine to the French Republic;
thereby depriving not only Austria, but Prussia, and various other
princes of the German empire, of their possessions in the districts,
which were now made over to France. It was provided that the princes who
should suffer such deprivations, were to be remunerated by indemnities,
as they were termed, to be allotted to them at the expense of the
Germanic body in general. Now, the Emperor had no power to authorise the
alienation of these fiefs of the empire, without consent of the Diet,
and this was strongly urged by his envoy.
Buonaparte was, however, determined to make peace on no other terms than
those of the Emperor's giving away what was not his to bestow. Francis
was compelled to submit, and, as the necessity of the case pleaded its
apology, the act of the Emperor was afterwards ratified by the Diet.
Except in these mortifying claims, the submission to which plainly
intimated the want of power to resist compulsion, the treaty of
Luneville[573] was not much more advantageous to France than that of
Campo Formio; and the moderation of the first consul indicated at once
his desire of peace upon the continent, and considerable respect for the
bravery and strength of Austria, though enfeebled by such losses as
those of Marengo and Hohenlinden.
We have already noticed the disputes betwixt France and America, and the
scandalous turn of the negotiations, by which the French Directory
attempted to bully or wheedle the United States out of a sum of money,
which, in part at least, was to be dedicated to their own private use.
Since that time the aggressions committed by the French on the American
navy had been so numerous, that the two republics seemed about to go to
war, and the United States actually issued letters of marque for making
reprisals on the French. New communications and negotiations, however,
were opened, which Buonaparte studied to bring to maturity. His brother
Joseph acted as negotiator, and on the 30th of September, 1800, a
convention[574] was entered into, to subsist for the space of eight
years, agreeing on certain modifications of the right of search,
declaring that commerce should be free between the countries, and that
the captures on either side, excepting such as were contraband, and
destined for an enemy's harbour, should be mutually restored. Thus
Buonaparte established peace between France and the United States, and
prevented the latter, in all probability, from throwing themselves into
a closer union with Britain, to which their common descent, with the
similarity of manners, language, and laws, overcoming the recollection
of recent hostilities, might have otherwise strongly inclined them.
[Sidenote: NAPLES.]
Still more important results were derived by Napoleon, from the address
and political sagacity, with which, in accommodating matters with the
court of Naples, he contrived to form what finally became a strong and
predominating interest in the councils, and even the affections of a
monarch, whose amity was, of all others, the most important to his
plans. The prince alluded to was the Emperor of Russia, who had been,
during the preceding year, the most formidable and successful enemy
encountered by France since her Revolution. A short resumption of facts
is necessary, to understand the circumstances in which the negotiation
with Naples originated.
When Buonaparte departed for Egypt, all Italy, excepting Tuscany, and
the dominions assigned to Austria by the treaty of Campo Formio, was in
the hands of the French; while Naples was governed by the ephemeral
Parthenopean republic, and the city of the Popes by that which assumed
the superb title of Roman. These authorities, however, were only
nominal; the French generals exercised the real authority in both
countries. Suddenly, and as if by magic, this whole state of affairs was
changed by the military talents of Suwarrow. The Austrians and Russians
gained great successes in the north of Italy, and General Macdonald
found himself obliged to evacuate Naples, and to concentrate the
principal resistance of the French in Lombardy and Piedmont. 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 for ever.[575] 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, generally supposed the most indifferent of modern
times.
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, who, with the assistance of insurrectionary
forces[576] among the inhabitants, and a body of Austrians, was to clear
Tuscany of the French. 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. Damas retreated into the
territories of the Church, which were still occupied by the Neapolitan
forces. The consequence of these events was easily foreseen. The
Neapolitan troops, so soon as the French could find leisure to look
towards them, must be either destroyed entirely, or driven back upon
Naples, and that city must be again forsaken by the royal family, happy
if they were once more able to make their escape to Sicily, as on the
former occasion.[577]
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.
We have not hitherto mentioned, except cursorily, the powerful prince
whose mediation she implored. The son and successor of the celebrated
Catherine, far from possessing the prudence and political sagacity of
his mother, seemed rather to display the heady passions and imperfect
judgment of his unfortunate father. He was capricious in the choice of
his objects, pursuing for the time, with uncommon and irregular zeal and
pertinacity, projects which he afterwards discarded and abandoned,
swelling trifles of dress or behaviour into matters of importance, and
neglecting, on the other hand, what was of real consequence;--governed,
in short, rather by imagination than by his reasoning qualities, and
sometimes affording room to believe that he actually laboured under a
partial aberration of mind. Such characters are often to be met with in
private society, the restraints of which keep them within such limits,
that they pass through life without attracting much notice, unless when
creating a little mirth, or giving rise to some passing wonder. But an
absolute prince, possessed of such a disposition, is like a giddy person
placed on the verge of a precipice, which would try the soundest head,
and must overpower a weak one.
The Emperor had first distinguished himself by an energetic defence of
the rights of sovereigns, and a hatred of whatever belonged to or was
connected with the French Revolution, from a political maxim to the
shape of a coat or a hat. The brother of Louis XVI., and inheritor of
his rights, found a refuge in the Russian dominions; and Paul, fond, as
most princes are, of military glory, promised himself that of restoring
the Bourbon dynasty by force of arms.
[Sidenote: SUWARROW.]
The train of victories acquired by Suwarrow was well calculated to
foster these original partialities of the Emperor; and, accordingly,
while success continued to wait on his banners, he loaded his general
with marks of his regard, elevated him to the rank of a prince, and
conferred on him the title of Italiansky, or Italicus.
The very first and only misfortune which befell Suwarrow, seems to have
ruined him in the opinion of his capricious master. The defeat of
Korsakow by Massena, near Zurich, had involved Suwarrow in great
momentary danger as he advanced into Switzerland, reckoning on the
support of that general, whose disaster left his right uncovered. Now,
although Suwarrow saved his army on this occasion by a retreat, which
required equal talent to that which achieved his numerous victories, yet
the bare fact of his having received a check was sufficient to ruin him
with his haughty sovereign. Paul was yet more offended with the conduct
of the Austrians. The Archduke Charles having left Switzerland to
descend into Germany, had given occasion and opportunity for Massena to
cross the Limmat and surprise Korsakow; and this, notwithstanding every
explanation and apology, rankled in the mind of the Czar.[578] He
recalled his armies from the frontiers of Germany, and treated his
veteran and victorious general with such marks of neglect and
displeasure, that the old man's heart sunk under them.
In the meanwhile, Paul gathered up farther subjects of complaint against
the Austrian government, and complained of their having neglected to
provide for some Russian prisoners,[579] under a capitulation which they
made in behalf of their own, at the surrender of Ancona to the French.
The Austrians could not afford to lose so powerful and efficient an ally
in the day of their adversity. They endeavoured to explain, that the
movement of the Archduke Charles was inevitably necessary, in
consequence of an invasion of the Austrian territory--they laid the
blame of the omission of the Russians in the capitulation upon the
commandant Frœlich, and offered to place him under arrest. The
Emperor of Austria even proposed, in despite of the natural pride which
is proper to his distinguished house, to place Suwarrow at the head of
the Austrian armies,--a proffer, which, if it had been accepted, might
have given rise to an extraordinary struggle betwixt the experience,
determination, and warlike skill of the veteran Scythian, and the
formidable talents of Buonaparte, and which perhaps contained the only
chance which Europe possessed at the time, of opposing to the latter a
rival worthy of himself; for Suwarrow had never yet been conquered, and
possessed an irresistible influence over the minds of his soldiers.
These great generals, however, were not destined ever to decide the fate
of the world by their meeting.
Suwarrow, a Russian in all his feelings, broke his heart, and died under
the unmerited displeasure of his Emperor, whom he had served with so
much fidelity.[580] If the memory of his unfortunate sovereign were to
be judged of according to ordinary rules, his conduct towards his
distinguished subject would have left on it an indelible stigma. As it
is, the event must pass as another proof, that the Emperor Paul was not
amenable, from the construction of his understanding and temperament,
to the ordinary rules of censure.
Meanwhile, the proposals of Austria were in vain. The Czar was not to be
brought back to his former sentiments. He was like a spoiled child, who,
tired of his favourite toy, seems bent to break asunder and destroy what
was lately the dearest object of his affection.
When such a character as Paul changes his opinion of his friends, he
generally runs into the opposite extreme, and alters also his thoughts
of his enemies. Like his father, and others whose imagination is
indifferently regulated, the Czar had need of some one of whom to make
his idol. The extravagant admiration which the Emperor Peter felt for
Frederick of Prussia, could not well be entertained for any one now
alive, unless it were the first consul of France; and on him, therefore,
Paul was now disposed to turn his eyes with a mixture of wonder, and of
a wish to imitate what he wondered at.[581] This extravagance of
admiration is a passion natural to some minds, (never strong ones,) and
may be compared to that tendency which others have to be in love all
their lives, in defiance of advancing age and other obstacles.
When Paul was beginning to entertain this humour, the arrival of the
Queen of Sicily at his court gave him a graceful and even dignified
opportunity to approach towards a connexion with Napoleon Buonaparte.
His pride, too, must have been gratified by seeing the daughter of the
renowned Maria Theresa, the sister of the Emperor of Austria, at his
court of St. Petersburgh, soliciting from the Czar of Russia the
protection which her brother was totally unable to afford her; and a
successful interference in her behalf would be a kind of insult to the
misfortunes of that brother, against whom, as we have noticed, Paul
nourished resentful feelings. He therefore resolved to open a
communication with France, in behalf of the royal family of Naples.
Lewinshoff, grand huntsman of Russia, was despatched to make the
overtures of mediation. He was received with the utmost distinction at
Paris, and Buonaparte made an instant and graceful concession to the
request of the Emperor Paul. The first consul agreed to suspend his
military operations against Naples, and to leave the royal family in
possession of their sovereignty; reserving to himself, however, the
right of dictating the terms under which he was to grant them such an
amnesty.
[Sidenote: NAPLES.]
It was time that some effectual interposition should take place in
defence of the King of Naples, who, though he had around him a nation
individually brave and enthusiastic, was so ill-served, that his regular
army was in the worst and most imperfect state of discipline. Murat, to
whom Buonaparte had committed the task of executing his vengeance on
Naples, had already crossed the Alps, and placed himself at the head of
an army of ten thousand chosen men; a force then judged sufficient not
only to drive the Neapolitan general Damas out of the Ecclesiastical
States, but to pursue him as far as Naples, and occupy that beautiful
capital of a prince, whose regular army consisted of more than thirty
thousand soldiers, and whose irregular forces might have been increased
to any number by the mountaineers of Calabria, who form excellent light
troops, and by the numerous Lazzaroni of Naples, who had displayed their
valour against Championet, upon the first invasion of the French. But
the zeal of a nation avails little when the spirit of the government
bears no proportion to it. The government of Naples dreaded the approach
of Murat as that of the Angel of Death; and they received the news that
Lewinshoff had joined the French general at Florence, as a condemned
criminal might have heard the news of a reprieve. The Russian envoy was
received with distinguished honours at Florence. Murat appeared at the
theatre with Lewinshoff, where the Italians, who had so lately seen the
Russian and French banners placed in bloody opposition to each other,
now beheld them formally united in presence of these dignitaries; in
sign, it was said, that the two nations were combined for the peace of
the world, and general benefit of humanity.[582] Untimely augury! How
often after that period did these standards meet in the bloodiest fields
history ever recorded; and what a long and desperate struggle was yet in
reserve ere the general peace so boldly predicted was at length
restored!
The respect paid by the first consul to the wishes of Paul, saved for
the present the royal family of Naples; but Murat, nevertheless, made
them experience a full portion of the bitter cup which the vanquished
are generally doomed to swallow. General Damas[583] 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 re-installed the officers of the Pope in what had been
long termed the patrimony of St Peter.[584] This unexpected turn of
circumstances originated in high policy on the part of Buonaparte.[585]
We certainly do Napoleon no injustice in supposing, that personally he
had little or no influential sense of religion. Some obscure yet rooted
doctrines of fatality, seem, so far as we can judge, to have formed the
extent of his metaphysical creed. We can scarce term him even a deist;
and he was an absolute stranger to every modification of Christian
belief and worship. But he saw and valued the use of a national religion
as an engine of state policy. In Egypt, he was desirous of being thought
an envoy of Heaven; and though uncircumcised, drinking wine and eating
pork, still claimed to be accounted a follower of the law of the
Prophet. He had pathetically expostulated with the Turks on their
hostility towards him. The French, he said, had ceased to be followers
of Jesus; and now that they were almost, if not altogether, Moslemah,
would the true believers make war on those who had overthrown the cross,
dethroned the Pope, and extirpated the order of Malta, the sworn
persecutors of the Moslem faith? On his return to France, all this was
to be forgotten, or only remembered as a trick played upon the infidels.
He was, as we have said, aware of the necessity of a national faith to
support the civil government; and as, while in Egypt, he affected to
have destroyed the Catholic religion in honour of that of Mahomed, so,
returned to Europe, he was now desirous to become the restorer of the
temporal territories of the Pope, in order to obtain such a settlement
of church affairs in France, as might procure for his own government the
countenance of the Sovereign Pontiff, and for himself an admission into
the pale of Christian princes. This restitution was in some measure
consistent with his policy in 1798, when he had spared the temporalities
of the Holy See. Totally indifferent as Napoleon was to religion in his
personal capacity, his whole conduct shows his sense of its importance
to the existence of a settled and peaceful state of society.
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 eighteen thousand men was to be
quartered in Calabria, less for the purpose of enforcing the conditions
of peace, than to save France the expense of supporting the troops, and
to have them stationed where they might be embarked for Egypt at the
shortest notice. 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, who, considering how often he
had braved Napoleon, had great reason to thank the Emperor of Russia for
his effectual mediation in his favour.[586]
[Sidenote: ROME--PEACE WITH PORTUGAL.]
These various measures respecting foreign relations, the treaty of
Luneville, the acquisition of the good-will of the Emperor Paul, the
restoration of Rome to the Pope's authority, and the mildness of the
penalty inflicted on the King of Naples, seemed all to spring from a
sound and moderate system, the object of which was rather the
consolidation of Napoleon's government, than any wish to extend its
influence or its conquests. His plans, in after times, often exhibited a
mixture of the greatest good sense and prudence, with rash and splenetic
explosions of an over-eager ambition, or a temper irritated by
opposition; but it is to be remembered that Buonaparte was not yet so
firm in the authority which he had but just acquired, as to encourage
any display of the infirmities of his mind and temper.
His behaviour towards Portugal was, however, of a character deviating
from the moderation he had in general displayed. Portugal, the ancient
and faithful ally of England, was on that account the especial object of
the first consul's displeasure. He, therefore, demanded of the King of
Spain, who, since the peace between the countries, had been the
submissive vassal of France, to declare war on the Prince Regent of
Portugal, although the husband of his daughter. War accordingly was
declared, in obedience to the mandate of the first consul, and the
Spanish armies, together with an auxiliary army of French under Leclerc,
entered Portugal, took Olivenza and Almeida, and compelled the prince
regent, 6th of June, 1801, to sign a treaty, engaging to shut his ports
against the English, and surrendering to Spain, Olivenza, and other
places on the frontier of the Guadiana. Buonaparte was highly
discontented with this treaty, to which he would not accede; and he
refused, at the same time, to withdraw from Spain the army of Leclerc.
On the 29th September, he condescended to grant Portugal peace under
some additional terms,[587] which were not in themselves of much
consequence, although the overbearing and peremptory conduct which he
exhibited towards the Peninsular powers, was a sign of the dictatorial
spirit which he was prepared to assume in the affairs of Europe.
The same disposition was manifested in the mode by which Buonaparte was
pleased to show his sense of the King of Spain's complaisance. He chose
for that purpose to create a kingdom and a king--a king, too, of the
house of Bourbon. An infant of Spain obtained the throne of Tuscany,
under the name of Etruria, rent from the house of Austria.[588] Madame
de Staël terms this the commencement of the great masquerade of Europe;
but it was more properly the second act. The stage, during the first,
was occupied by a quadrille of republics, who were now to be replaced by
an anti-mask of kings. This display of power pleased the national
vanity, and an uproar of applause ensued, while the audience at the
theatre applied to Buonaparte the well-known line--
"J'ai fait des rois, madame, et n'ai pas voulu l'être."
While all the continent appeared thus willing to submit to one so ready
to avail himself of their subjection, Britain alone remained at war;
without allies, without, it might seem, a direct object; yet on the
grand and unalterable principle, that no partial distress should induce
her to submit to the system of degradation, which seemed preparing for
all nations under the yoke of France, and which had placed France
herself, with all her affected zeal for liberty, under the government of
an arbitrary ruler. On every point the English squadrons annihilated the
commerce of France, crippled her revenues, blockaded her ports, and
prevented those combinations which would have crowned the total conquest
of Europe, could the master, as he might now be called, of the land,
have enjoyed, at the same time, the facilities which can only be
afforded in communication by sea.
It was in vain that Buonaparte, who, besides his natural hardiness of
perseverance, connected a part of his own glory with the preservation of
Egypt, endeavoured by various means to send supplies to that distant
province. His convoys were driven back into harbour by the English
fleets; and he directed against his admirals, who could not achieve
impossibilities, the unavailing resentment natural to one who was so
little accustomed to disappointment.
The chance of relieving Egypt was rendered yet more precarious by the
loss of Malta, which, after a distressing blockade of two years, was
obliged to submit to the English arms on the 5th of September, 1800. The
English were thus in possession of a strong, and almost impregnable
citadel, in the midst of the Mediterranean, with an excellent harbour,
and every thing required for a naval station of the first importance;
above all, they had obtained the very spot which Buonaparte had fixed
upon for maintaining the communication with Egypt, which was now in
greater danger than ever.
The capture of Malta was, however, by its consequences, favourable to
Napoleon's views in one important respect. The Emperor Paul imagined he
had rights upon that island, in consequence of his having declared
himself Grand Master of the Order of Saint John; and although, by his
deserting the coalition, and abandoning the common cause, he had lost
all right to expect that Great Britain should surrender to him an
important acquisition made by her own arms, yet, with his usual
intemperate indulgence of passion, he conceived himself deeply injured
by its being withheld,[589] and nourished from that time an implacable
resentment against England and her government, the effects of which are
afterwards to be traced.
FOOTNOTES:
[569] "Count St Julien arrived at Paris on the 21st July, 1800, with a
letter from the Emperor of Germany to the first consul, containing these
expressions: 'You will give credit to what Count Saint Julien will say
to you on my behalf, and I will ratify all his acts.' The first consul
directed M. de Talleyrand to negotiate with the Austrian
plenipotentiary, and the preliminaries were drawn up and signed in a few
days."--GOURGAUD, tom. ii., p. 2. See also Thibaudeau, tom. vi., p. 384;
Jomini, tom. xiv., p. 9.
[570] For copies of the papers relative to the commencement of
negotiations for peace with France, through the medium of M. Otto, see
Annual Register, vol. xlii., p. 209. See also Jomini, tom. xiv., p. 19;
and Gourgaud, tom. ii., p. 4.
[571] Gourgaud, tom. ii.; Thibaudeau, tom. vi., p. 386; Annual Register,
vol. xlii., p. 206.
[572] "The manœuvre of the Austrian army was a very fine one, and
this first success augured others of great importance; but the archduke
did not know how to profit by circumstances, but gave the French army
time to rally and recover from its first surprise. He paid dearly for
this error, which was the principal cause of the catastrophe of the
following day."--NAPOLEON, _Gourgaud_, tom. xiv., p. 32.
[573] For a copy of the Treaty, see Annual Register, vol. xliii., p.
270.
[574] For a copy of the Convention, see Annual Register, vol. xlii., p.
282.
[575] Botta, Storia d'Italia, tom. iii., p. 479.
[576] These were, at this period, easily raised in any part of Italy.
The exactions of the French had entirely alienated the affections of the
natives, who had long since seen through their pretexts of affording
them the benefit of a free government.--S.
[577] Gourgaud, tom. ii., p. 88; Jomini, tom. xiv., p. 215.
[578] "In 1800, Suwarrow returned to Russia with scarcely a fourth of
his army. The Emperor Paul complained bitterly of having lost the flower
of his troops, who had neither been seconded by the Austrians nor the
English. He reproached the Cabinet of Austria with having refused, after
the conquest of Piedmont, to replace the King of Sardinia on his throne,
and with being destitute of grand and generous ideas, and wholly
governed by calculation and interested motives. The first consul did
every thing in his power to cherish these seeds of discontent, and to
make them productive."--NAPOLEON, _Gourgaud_, tom. ii., p. 131.
[579] "I had hit upon the bent of Paul's character. I seized time by the
forelock; I collected the Russians; I clothed them, and sent them back
to him without any expense. From that instant that generous heart was
devoted to me."--NAPOLEON, _Las Cases_, tom. v., p. 174.
[580] Suwarrow died at Petersburgh, in May, 1800, of that accumulated
chagrin that proud and sullen resentment which is familiarly called a
broken heart; he expired in a small wooden house, under the displeasure
of his master, at a distance from his family, and abandoned by his
friends.--S.
[581] "Paul, attacked in so many different directions, gave way to his
enthusiastic temper, and attached himself to France with all the ardour
of his character. He despatched a letter to Napoleon, in which he said,
'Citizen first consul, I do not write to you to discuss the rights of
men or citizens; every country governs itself as it pleases. Wherever I
see at the head of a nation a man who knows how to rule and how to
fight, my heart is attracted towards him. I write to inform you of my
dissatisfaction with the English government, which violates every
article of the law of nations, and has no guide but base self-interest.
I wish to unite with you to put an end to the unjust proceedings of that
government.'"--GOURGAUD, tom. ii., p. 133.
[582] Botta, tom. iv., p. 87; Jomini, tom. xiv., p. 216.
[583] Count Roger Damas, on the restoration of the Bourbons, was
appointed first gentleman of the King's chamber, and Governor of the 9th
military division. He died in 1825.
[584] Jomini, tom. xiv., p. 220.
[585] "This conduct excited the gratitude of the Pontiff, who
immediately caused Cardinal Gonsalvi to write to General Murat, on the
31st of January, to express to him 'the lively regard which he felt for
the first consul;' on whom, said he, 'depends the tranquillity of
religion, as well as the happiness of Europe.'"--GOURGAUD, tom. ii., p.
92.
[586] Gourgaud, tom. ii., p. 93.
[587] See the Treaty, Annual Register, vol. xliii., p. 294.
[588] Botta, tom. iv., p. 83; Gourgaud, tom. ii., p. 94; Montgaillard,
tom. v., p. 430.