1797 scarcely a shadow of its former grandeur.-New states were now seen to rise on its ruins: and it will remain with posterity to judge of the relative merit of their forms of government; to determine on the sincerity of the French general, when he held out the lure of freedom to secure the inhabitants of the Italian states in his interests; whether the people themselves are reclaimable from the habits of depravity and indolence into which despotism and superstition have depressed them; and whether those sentiments of virtue and integrity can be revived among them which are essential to the enjoyment of liberty. We must now turn our attention to the councils and conduct of the court of Rome. When the French armies were making a rapid progress through Lombardy, and the papal states in that part of Italy had already fallen into the hands of the French general, Pius employed the chevalier Azara, the Spanish ambassador, as we have seen, to avert the vengeance of France by negotiating an armistice; and Buonaparte, that he might diminish the number of his enemies and conciliate the favour of other Roman catholic powers, and provide himself with resources for carrying on the war, readily consented to it.-After his holiness had condescended to make this sacrifice to safety, good policy as well as honour required that he should adhere to his engagements. But Pius, with that indecision in himself which generally proves fatal to statesmen in such tempestuous seasons, was, like the unfortunate Lewis the Sixteenth, cursed with counsellors who would rather sacrifice the public welfare, and risk the entire ruin of the state, than endanger that corrupt system of which they themselves make a part.-On the first transient gleam of prosperous fortune on the part of the Austrians, a change of councils immediately took place the chevalier Azara was vilified as a heretic and enemy of the church of Rome for his wise and honest counsels; and, by advice of the ministers to whom the affrighted pontiff had committed the reins of government, a body of troops was sent to retake Ferrara.* This * At this perilous crisis we find the chevalier Azara persevering in his wise counsels with the earnestness and freedom of a sincere friend. "It does not become me to obtrude my advice," says he in a letter to cardinal Busca, "while you have so many other advisers: yet, as a last token of "my friendship, I must inform you that a moment may save you at the expence of some sacrifices; "but, that moment once elapsed, your ruin will be complete. If a reliance on your own "strength, if your armaments, inspire you with confidence, consummatum est.-Assure the pope," said he in conclusion," that I am his friend, not his flatterer.”—Life of Pius the Sixth. 2. 294. Life of Pius the Sixth. 2. 267. 77. ..... This was followed by a series of ill-judged measures, all tending to increase the Pope's embarrassment. Encouraged by the protection which he hoped to derive from the house of Austria, and possessed with a presumptuous persuasion that he was under the peculiar guardianship of heaven,' he persisted in his warlike preparations even after the French arms were again become victorious. And, whilst he thus exposed himself to the resentment of the conqueror, he adopted such expedients for raising supplies as rendered his government more unpopular: he depreciated the coin; he called on the ecclesiastics and private persons to bring their plate to the mint; he made a new emission of cedole, or paper currency; and obliged all venders of provisions, at the close of each week, to carry to the bank dello spirito santo a part of the specie which they had taken, and accept cedole in exchange for it, and the farmers to sell their corn at a low price to the department of the annona, and, in payment, to receive cedole at par, which were then at fifty per cent discount." Incensed at a demand by the French directory that, as a preliminary to a definitive treaty, he should annul certain briefs which they asserted to be contrary to the rights of nations, and influenced by those counsellors who were his evil genii, he suspended the execution of the armistice, and dispatched a manifesto to the catholic courts, wherein, after explaining the state of the negotiation with France, he called on them to unite in defence of religion."-Unfortunately for the sovereign pontiff, his admonitions came at a time when policy rendered the catholic powers deaf to them. The kings of Sardinia, Spain, and Naples had been forced to accede to the terms of peace which were dictated to them by the proud conqueror. The Spanish premier, denominated the prince of peace, condemned without reserve the temporizing duplicity of the pope's conduct. The emperor alone, of all the sons of the church of Rome, was disposed to become its protector. Yet, so fully were the pontiff and his cabinet ministers bent on warlike councils, that, at the instant when all Europe resounded with the fame of Buonaparte's victories, the negotiations for peace, which the chevalier Azara had opened at Florence, were broken off, and an alliance was concluded with the Austrian court, by which the emperor engaged to send 10,000 men, to drive the French from the legations of Bologna and f Life of Pius the Sixth, 2, 296. Ann. Reg. 120 Idem. 264. 88. Idem. 86. go. 1797 1797 + and Ferrara. ‡ When the distracted state of his domestic affairs, the want of resources, the discontent which prevailed among his subjects, and the extreme debility of his government, should have led him to conciliate the amity of a triumphant conqueror by a consistent demeanour and a strict performance of his engagements, the infatuated pontiff prepared to arrest the career of an army which had borne down the most vigorous resistance of the Austrians and Sardinians, commanded by the most experienced generals of the age. The result soon proved the absurdity and rashness of this line of conduct.-Buonaparte having discovered the pope's determination to warlike councils by an intercepted letter from cardinal Busca, the pope's secretary, to his nuncio at Vienna,' availed himself of it as a plea for hostilities with the see of Rome, as soon as he was relieved from the war in the north by his victories over Alvinzi. When he had published a manifesto, grounding his justification on the pontiff's breach of his engagements, and his endeavours to stimulate other powers to support him in his warlike councils, general Victor, by his orders, attacked the papal army, intrenched behind the Senio, and obtained an easy victory over these new-raised troops; 500 of them being slain and 1000 taken prisoners, with fourteen pieces of artillery." The French forces overrunning the Romagna and the duchy of Urbino without resistance, the court of Rome was filled with consternation; cardinal Mattei, archbishop of Faenza was employed to negotiate a peace; and, by his intervention a treaty was concluded, the chief articles of which were these: that the pope should pay the treasurers of the French army 30,000,000 livres: that he should furnish 1600 horses fully caparisoned: that he should renounce all claim to the territories of Avignon and the Venaissin, the possession of which should be transferred to the French republic: moreover that he should transfer to it his rights in the legations of Bologna, Ferrara, and Romagna. It was also agreed that a commercial intercourse should be opened between the subjects of his holiness and the French republic, the benefit of which should extend to the Dutch states." Thus did Pius avert the evils which threatened him from his foreign. enemy by the sacrifice of a great part of his dominions: and, to complete his humiliation, cardinal Busca, his most active counsellor, was dismissed, to convince the French government of his change of councils.-The catholic king then dared to be seen on terms of amity with the holy father; and the chevalier Azara returned to Rome.+ But the pope's distresses were not yet surmounted: and he was destined, in his papacy, to exhibit a mournful example of a state beset by a powerful enemy, who seemed to suffer its existence only to lengthen out its misery, and at the same time languishing under all the internal diseases arising from temporal and spiritual tyranny. Destitute of the resources derived from agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, he was obliged to have recourse to expedients which rendered his government unpopular to enable him to perform his pecuniary engagements with France. A further emission was made of cedole: his subjects were required to bring the remainder of their plate to the treasury: and the ecclesiastics were called on for the loan of a sixth part of their property at an interest of three per cent. These were measures which, however expedient, could not be cent.—These adopted without exciting general dissatisfaction: for the expediency of enormous taxes and strong financial measures is not often admitted by those who are distressed by them. And the consequence was, that, while the unhappy pontiff was overwhelmed with grief and chagrin from a reflection on the public measures which he had been driven to consent to, and was meditating an escape from his dominions, to liberate himself from a foreign oppressor, the cup of affliction was embittered by domestic discontent. The eyes of his subjects were now opened to the defects of his government: and they were prepared to fly to ills which they knew not of, rather than endure any longer those under which they had so long groaned, Censures were freely uttered against his government. Songs and pasquinades were employed to render it odious. So prevalent was the spirit of disloyalty that it was daily expected to break out in rebellion. And the coercive means adopted to repress it served to increase the national ferment. The effects of these alarming phenomena in the papal states not being immediately produced, we may, in the mean-time, attend to the occurrences of the war in the north of Italy. + In April. The 1797 VOL. IV. Life of Pius. 2. 319. Idem. 307. 16. 1797 The battles which had taken place at the opening of the present year had proved fatal to the fourth army which the court of Vienna had sent into this country. But men being yet found in the Austrian states, and subsidies still remitted from England, a fifth army was raised, and the command of it was given to the archduke Charles, who had acquired great honour by his conduct in the late campaign.-This young prince bringing with him a strong reinforcement of troops from Germany, took a position behind the Piava river, to guard the entrance to the Austrian dominions. The French general, who had watched their motions, being reinforced with a body of veterans under Kellerman, advanced towards them, and effected a passage of that river with his army in three divisions, commanded by Massena, Serrurier, and Guieux. -The Austrians, then, retiring behind the Tagliamento, there determined to make a stand.—The passage of a river in the face of a strong army intrenched on its banks was a bold attempt: but the self-confidence of the French troops was carried to such a height by uninterrupted success, that difficulties and dangers only served to stimulate their ardour.-The Austrians were drawn out in excellent order, and they fought with the firmness of German veterans: but the several divisions of the French army, having crossed the river, made their attacks with such fury, and their artillery, in which they were superior to the Austrians, was so admirably served, that they were driven from their ground after a hard-fought battle, and retired for protection to the mountainous tracts of Carinthia. All the country on the north of the Adriatic was overrun by the French armies; and Palmanova, Gradisca, Goritz, and Trieste successively fell into their hands. || The Austrians made repeated efforts to stop the progress of the forces under Massena and Guieux, which were sent to harass them in their retreat: but these only afforded their antagonists an opportunity to earn new honours. The division commanded by Joubert, which Buonaparte had dispatched to recover the country of Tyrol, was equally successful. Battles were fought in rapid succession at Lavis, Tramin, and Clausen; † and victory uniformly attended the French arms. Whilst another division under Bernadotte had penetrated into Carniola and gained possession of Laubach, the In March. In March. + In March. Idem. 322 to 32. |