an end, and they were treated with excefive feverity. Determined, however, not to yield, they applied to Buonaparte for his protection, against their antagonifts. This was readily granted, and the French having taken poffeffion of the city, the enemies to the ariftocracy could no longer, with fafety, be oppofed. It was intimated to the Genoefe nobles, that, after the expulfion of the Auftrians from Italy, and the fubmiflion of all the principal powers in that country to the dictates of France, it were the height of temerity in them, to continue a refiftance to the general will of their fellow-citizens. They yielded prudently in time, and agreed to the eftablishment of a commonwealth, on the principle of a perfect equality of rank and privileges among all the claffes of fociety. The French fyftem of legiflation took place in every refpect; and the territory of Genoa was diftributed into commanes and municipalities, in imitation of France. The difcretion of Buonaparte, upon this occafion, was remarkable in two material He provided for the fecurity of all perfons, by an act of amnefty; and for the maintenance of religion, by leaving it to the protection of the laws inftituted for its fupport. It was happy, however, for Genoa, that it was fituated at a diftance from the domains of Auftria. Had this republic, like Venice, been feated in the neighbourhood of that ambitious power, it might alfo have partaken of a fimilar deftiny. It had offended in the fame manner, though not to the fame extent, and might have been facrificed, with as little fcruple, to the conveniency of reciprocal arrangements.

inftances.

In the courfe of the negociations for peace, which were ftudiously prolonged on the part of Auftria, and far from accelerated on that of France, both parties feemed to have forgotten their animofity, and to concur in the means of fettling their conteft, at the expence of others. Exchanges of territory were propofed, and acceded to, with that remorfelefs indifference, which characterizes defpotic princes, trans ferring to each other their fubjects, like cattle, without confulting any other title to act in this manner than the incapacity of the helpless people thus treated, to vindicate the rights of human nature, and to refift fuch arbitrary ufage.

It was in virtue of fuch principles that a ceffion of part of the Venetian territories was mentioned in the very outlet of the treaty, for which Venice was to be indemnified out of the Pope's dominions, newly republicanized. Here at once was a total dereliction of thofe maxims, on which the French chiefly founded the fuperiority of their fyftem: a fcrupulous regard for the dignity of man, and a reference to his will and confent, in whatever he was concerned. The partition alluded to did not indeed take place, as Venice was doomed to far worse treatment: but the principle, to the fhame of the French, was clearly admitted.

The French commander was too jealous of his own character to undergo the reproach, of fuffering the noble republic he had found ed to be deftroyed at its very birth; and it is not to be doubted, whether we contemplate the precedent or fubfequent conduct of Buonaparte, that he would not have fuffered this, no more than certain

other

other acts of oppreffion, had he poffelled the means of acting uniformly on his own principles. He might, indeed, have abstained from acting at all: but hampered as he was, by the directory, he could not unite a firict adherence to his principles with his views of ambition. He difplayed the utmost folicitude in confolidating it, in fuch a manner, that no ftate, or fovereignty, in Italy, hould exceed it in ftrength and importance. To this purpole, the confederations formed between the cities of Bologna, Ferrara, Modena, and Reggio, and the provinces, comprifed under the name of Lombardy, were converted into a fingle republic. The different arrangements that were made, to render their incorporation firm and durable, were due to the fagacity and laborious exertions of Buonaparte, who fpared no pains to afford every realon, to the people of thefe countries, to prefer their prefent to their former condition; and to be convinced, that they had made an advantageous change in their circumftances, by affuming the government into their own hands, inftead of leaving it to the uncontroled exercile of abfolute and arbitrary

mafters.

Netherlands and Italy. Conformably to the general expectation, it was not long before thefe furmifes received ample confirmation. The range of coaft, along the province of Dalmatia, had, ever fince the downfal of Venice, excited a new fpecies of ambition in the councils of Auftria; that of increafing its naval ftrength, and fucceeding to Venice in the dominion of the Adriatic. The idea of fharing in the fpoils of an unfortunate friend, whole calamities arofe, in a greatmeafure, from an unfuccessful exercife of its good will, was odious to all thofe who did not think that politicians had a right to exclude moral juftice from their tranfactions. But the policy of the house of Aufs tria had long convinced those that attended to it, how feeble a bar all fentiments of this nature would prove, as in truth they had always proved, whenever fortune laid before it opportunities of aggrandizement. Pursuant to the long-ftanding maxims of its conduct, the court of Vienna availed itself of the fecret permillion, either formerly obtained, or indirectly given by the agents of France, to make an irruption into the province of Iftria, a dependency of Vienna, and reduce it to its own fubjection. This happened in the month of June. The reafons fet forth in the proclamation, that accompanied the entrance of the Auftrian troops into that province, were, that a revolutionary fpirit had manifefted itfelf in the Venetian territories, which threatened to extend itfelf to the neighbouring coun tries. In order therefore to fecure himfelf from the pernicious confequences which this might produce, the emperor had thought it neceflary to take poffeffion of that province,

for

for the prefervation of tranquillity. He alleged, at the fame time, the ancient rights of his family to Venetian Iftria, as formerly making part of the kingdom of Hungary. Several provinces, in the dependency of Venice, having withdrawn themfelves from it, he conceived this to be a fit opportunity to affert thofe rights. This proclamation was dated the twenty-firft of June. By this time, the conditions of the peace in agitation were well understood, by the French and Auftrian negociators: more than two months had been confumed in adjufting them, and enough had tranfpired to inform the public, that both parties concurred in dividing, between them, the fpoils of the Venetian republic.

It was not, however, till Óctober, that a definitive conclufion of this treaty took place. Buonaparte had now completed the fettlement of every point, relating to the new founded republic, and to that of Genoa, now denominated Liguria, conformably to the difpofition prevailing among the revolutionifts, of reviving the ancient names of countries and nations. He returned to Udina, where he found the conferences not yet terminated, notwithftanding that he had left them, on his departure, in a state that promifed a more expeditious progrefs, as the terms of pacification were mutually acceded to, and as the only causes of farther delay, were the endeavours of the Imperial court to procure the addition of fome favourable claufes, he determined that no farther prolongation fhould be allowed for fuch purpofes. He fignified to the plenipotentiaries of that court, that a fpeedy termination of matters was neceffary, and would no longer be

deferred. They knew the decifivenefs of his temper, and complied in confequence with his requifition. The treaty of peace between France and Auftria was accordingly figned, on the feventeenth of October, 1797, at Campo-Formio, a village in the vicinity of Udina, by Buonaparte, for the French republic, and by the marquis De Gallo, count Cobentzel, count Demeerfredt, and baron Dagelman, the Imperial plenipotentiaries. They were men of abilities, and had certainly exerted them in the courfe of thefe negociations, as appeared by the advantages they obtained for Auftria, notwithstanding the state of depreffion to which it had been reduced.

By this celebrated treaty, the emperor ceded, in full fovereignty, to the French republic the whole of the Auftrian Netherlands, and confented to their remaining in pofïeffion of the Venetian islands of Corfu, Zante, Caphalonia, and of all their other ifles in the Adriatic, together with their fettlements in Albania, fituated to the fouth east of the Gulph of Lodrino. He acknowledged the republic newly conftituted under the name of Cifal pine, to be an independent state. He ceded to it the fovereignty of the countries that had belonged to Auftria in Lombardy, and affented to it poffefling the cities and territories of Bergamo, Brescia, and others, late in the dependence of Venice, together with the duchics of Mantua and Modena, the principalities of Maffa and Carrara, and the cities and territories of Bologna, Ferrara, and Romagna, lately belonging to the pope.

The ceffions of the French republic to the emperor were Iftria,

Dal

rangements, restored his dominions on the left bank of the Rhine, and allowed a territorial indemnification to be given to the ftadtholder, provided it were not in the neighbourhood of the Batavian republic. To this the emperor alfo confented, on condition it were not in the vicinity of his own dominions: carefully ftipulating, at the fame time, that Pruffia fhould make no new acquifition. He gave his formal alent to the difpofitions made in Italy by the French, of the various Imperial fiefs in favour of the Ligurian and Cifalpine republics; and

promifed to concur, jointly with France, in foliciting the diet of the empire to give up its feudal fovereignty over thofe diftricts. He farther agreed to act in concert with the republic, in order to obtain the confent of the empire, that the three ecclefiaftical electors, and the other princes of the empire, who fuffered any lofs of territory, either in confequence of this convention, or of the pacification to be concluded hereafter between France and the empire, fhould be proportionably indeinnified in Germany.

CHAP.