though it will never buy it. But no more of that.-I persist in my demand, and peace is concluded. Long live the Republic-Long live the Emperor.'

The result of this splendid campaign was totally different from the sanguine expectations of the coalesced powers, and had the conduct of the French been consistent with their professions, and worthy of the cause in which they were engaged, they would have encountered fewer difficulties, and found friends among the people, who could regard them only as enemies; they set out from their own country expressly to resist and to punish a dishonest, base, and wicked coalition against their new-born liberty, and to give liberty to those who groaned under the yoke of their enemies. In the freshness of their onset, they resembled the rising sun, which gives life, light, and warmth to all nature, after dispersing the gloomy damps and shades of night; but, in their progress, they became like the devouring fire of a volcano, which lays waste all around it-which destroys the fair face of nature, and transforms into a desert what was once the seat of beauty, comfort, and fertility; yet such is the unhappy condition of mortality, that no good can be purchased without the expence of much attendant evil. The establishment of christianity cost many thousand lives, and much comfort to those who survived. Protestanism occasioned the thirty years war in Germany, and was not fully established in England till after innumerable calamities, caused by the horrid violence of Henry VIII. and his daughter Mary, of infamous memory. All great changes of opinion, whether for the better or the worse, have been attended with infinite bloodshed; for men cannot be content to reason when their passions are concerned. From the example of former commotions, it may be hoped that the French revolution, which has hitherto caused such extensive misery, will, in the end, be productive of happiness; and that in all those countries where it has overturned both the good and the evil of old establishments, new ones may arise, in which the former may be selected, and the

latter never recalled; and that in countries which have resisted the torrent of its arms or its principles, the wisdom of their rulers may, by moderate reform and accommodation to the temper of the times, prevent the perilous remedy of revolutionary violence: but, if we believe Corneille, much evil must be suffered before any great good can be procured.

'C'est un ordre de dieux qui jamais ne se rompt

De nous vendre tres cher les faveurs qu'ils nous font.'

Among the many greater cruelties and oppressions of the French, the two following anecdotes may serve to shew the tendency of human nature to the abuse of power.

The famous singer Marchesi, who resided at Milan, near which place he had some property, was invited by Madame Bonaparte to dinner, when he was, no doubt, expected to entertain the company with his charming voice: being a great aristocrat, he refused the invitation; it was repeated, and he refused again; the General sent his commands for him to attend; he persisted in refusing, and soon after received an order to quit Milan in ten hours. After he had set out, he received another message, ordering him to retire to his country house, about thirty miles from Milan, for six months; he remained there for that time, under a guard of six soldiers, whom he was obliged to maintain at his own expence.

General Bion, who commanded at Treviso, being informed that an emigrant, who was in that town, had had the insolence to fall in love with a young girl whom he had a passion for himself, wrote to the mayor to send all the emigrants out of the place in ten hours: the mayor returned for answer, that he would take the advice of the senate, but that he neither would, nor could do it of himself alone. Upon this the General wrote to him in the following terms :

• Learn to respect the rights of a victorious army; for, if within six hours, there is an emigrant left in the town, he shall be shot immediately.'

They all instantly quitted the place, and took refuge at Venice.

Men taken from the lowest situations in life, under a despotic government, and suddenly elevated to power and authority, it is not to be supposed, could have very correct notions of justice and injustice; and, having been slaves themselves, it is natural to suppose they would become tyrants in their turn. It is not, therefore, to be wondered that these men were guilty of every species of injustice and cruelty: such being the inevitable consequence of all violent revolutions, ought to convince every moderate and honest person, that gradual reform is the only means by which the condition of man can be improved without his happiness being endangered.

During the campaigns in Italy Bonaparte always carried with him a small travelling library, which consisted of Cæsar's Commentaries, Xenophon, Polybius with Folard's notes, and the Campaigns of Montecuculi: he had also many maps, charts, and drafts, taken from the royal library at Paris; but his favourite study was Ossian's Poems, a book well suited to his fierce, unsocial spirit,

CHAP. XIII.

BONAPARTE'S CONDUCT TO VENICE-THE VENETIANS ATTACK HIS TROOPS-HIS ARMY MARCHES AGAINST THEM -ENTERS VENICE-ERECTS A NEW GOVERNMENT-ENDEAVOURS TO CONCILIATE THE ITALIAN CLERGY-HIS ATTENTION TO THE REVOLUTION OF GENOA-ATTACKS THE GREEK ISLES-CARE HE EVINCED FOR HIS FAMILY --HIS ILLNESS.

THE conduct of Bonaparte to the government of Venice has been generally reprobated as an unprovoked aggression, and a wanton exercise of power. It is not to be doubted that he was ready to lay hold of every occasion which offered, to give him an excuse for invading so rich a territory, for the French armies being wholly maintained by plunder, excited in their generals a strong inclination to invade every country whose riches seemed to invite an attack, and to reward the labour of the conquest. The government of Venice had, however, given Bonaparte sufficient provocation to punish their treachery; and if he is to be blamed, it is not for having invaded them, but for having given up the people to the Emperor in the treaty of Campo Formio, after having promised them liberty and complete independence: for this cession he is said to have received 2,000,000 of florins, which, perhaps, formed a part of the 40,000,000 of livres which he is reported to have gained by the campaign in Italy.

While the French troops were rapidly advancing towards Vienna, they received some slight checks from the Austrian army, but these were sufficient to excite a hope in the government of Venice, that by attacking them in the rear they might be cut off from the army in Italy, and compelled to surrender; such a hope was publicly expressed in France, in

Italy, and in England, by every one attached to the royalist party and, in furtherance of this hope, the Venetians not only themselves rose upon the French at Verona, and murdered many thousands in cold blood, but excited the peasants in the Tyrol to avenge the cause of their country. General Balland was surprised, with the whole garrison of Verona, and reduced to the greatest extremities; the garrison of Chiusa also, which consisted only of eighty men, capitulated to the Venetians. General Kilmaine being informed of the distress and cruelties which the French had suffered at Verona, collected all the troops that could be spared from the different cities of Milan, Mantua, and Bologna, and came to their relief; and, on the 14th of April, compelled the Venetians to disperse. Bonaparte having, by the most prudent and vigorous measures, forced the Austrians to an armistice, at a time when they were ignorant of this diversion in their favour, was now at liberty to punish the treacherous Venetians; the very day after he wrote his celebrated letter to the Archduke, he wrote another to the Senate of Venice, stating all the grievances he had against them, and promising to them to make atonement for their conduct, and accept the alternative which he offered in three laconic words- War or Peace.' The cowardly Senate, who had probably heard of his renewed success, for their letter was written on the 15th of April, and the armistice was signed on the seventh, returned a submissive answer: they did not deny the insurrection of the people, but pretended that they took every pains to repress it immediately, and promised to find out and deliver up to Bonaparte all those who had insulted or murdered any of the French troops; but they positively disavowed a proclamation attributed to them, and signed the 22d of March, 1797; in which ⚫ the people were publicly excited to rebellion. Soon after this they sent two deputies to Gratz to enter into further explanations with the conqueror of Italy, and avoid, if possible, a rupture with the French: he received them very coolly, and demanded that all the citizens of Venice should be disarmed,