other acts of oppreffion, had he poffelled the means of acting uniformly on his own principles. He might, indeed, have abftained from acting at all; but hampered as he was, by the directory, he could not unite a ftrict adherence to his principles with his views of ambition. He difplayed the utmoft folicitude in confolidating it, in fuch a manner, that no state, or sovereignty, in Italy, should exceed it in ftrength and importance. To this purpofe, the confederations formed between the cities of Bologna, Ferrara, Modena, and Reggio, and the provinces, comprised 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 reafon, 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 exercite of abfolute and arbitrary mafters.

In the mean time, events were taking place, that fully demonftrated a connivance, on the part of the French, at the endeavours of the court of Vienna, to feek an indemnification for its lofs of territories in thofe of the Venetians. It had been a current opinion, at the opening of the conferences for peace, that large portions of the Venetian territories, on the main land, would be made over to the emperor, as compenfations for what had been wrested from him in the

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 tharing in the fpoils of an unfortunate friend, whole calamitiés arofe, in a great measure, from an unfuccefsful 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 Auftria had long convinced thofe 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. Purfuant to the long-standing maxims of its conduct, the court of Vienna availed itfelf of the fecret permillion, either formerly obtained, or indirectly given by the agents of France, to make an irruption into the province of Titria, 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 ipirit had manifefted itfelf in the Venetian territories, which threatened to extend itfelf to the neighbouring countries. In order therefore to fecure himfelf from the pernicious confe quences which this might produce, the emperor had thought it neceffary to take poffeffion of that province,

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for the preservation 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 those 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 spoils of the Venetian republic.

It was not, however, till October, 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 flate that promifed a more expeditious progrefs, as the terms of pacification were mutually acceded to, and as the only caufes 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 course of these 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 poffeffion of the Venetian iflands 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 Cifalpine, to be an independent ftate. He ceded to it the fovereignty of the countries that had belonged to Auftria in Lombardy, and affented to it poffeffing the cities and terri tories of Bergamo, Brescia, and others, late in the dependence of Venice, together with the duchies 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,

Dalmatia, with all the Venetian islands in the Adriatic, lying to the north west of the Gulph of Lodrino, the city of Venice, with a large portion of the dominions of that republic, chiefly thofe lying between the Tyrol, the Lake of Guarda, and the Adriatic.

It was ftimulated, between the contracting parties, that no individual, in the countries occupied by the French or Auftrians, fhould be profecuted for his opinions or conduct during the war between them.

The duke of Modena was to receive, as an indemnification for the lofs of his duchy, the province of Brifgaw, in the proximity of the Rhine.

A congrefs fhould be held, at Raftadt, confifting of plenipotentiaries from France and the empire, for the negociating of a peace.

The ceremonial and etiquette between Austria and France thould remain as in times paft, and the Cifalpine republic fhould be placed on the fame footing, in this refpect, as the late republic of Venice.

The provifions of this treaty extended, as far as they were applicable, to the commonwealth of Batavia.

In order to ascertain the neutrality to be obferved, with regard to the belligerent powers, it was reciprocally agreed, that no afliftance or protection of any kind fhould be given to the enemies of either of the contracting parties, and that not more than fix of their fhips of war, at one time, fhould be permitted to enter the Auftrian or French harbours, during the prefent war.

Such were the principal articles of the treaty of Campo-Formio.

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The countries given to the houfe of Auftria, to counterbalance the acquifition of France, in the Netherlands, were allowed to be an equivalent beyond what it could have juftly expected, confidering the debilitated condition to which it had been brought, by the arms of the French republic, and the inveteracy expreffed upon all occafions against it by the court of Vienna and its adherents.

But there were other articles in this treaty, deemed of an unoftenfible nature, in the actual fituation of Europe, especially of the German empire, with the princes and ftates of which both France and Auftria feemed equally inclined to act with more freedom, than they were confcious would be justifiable, or approved of by thofe whom their defigns were to effect.

By this fecret convention the emperor engaged to confent, that the Rhine fhould, conformably to the defire of the republic, be the boundary between France and Germany, and to use his mediation for the procuring of the like confent, on the part of the states and princes of the empire. Were they to refufe their affent, he agreed to furnish no more than his bare contingent of troops, in cafe hoftilities refulted from this refufal. The French, in return, were to exert their influence in procuring the ceffion of Saltzburgh, with fome confiderable diftricts in Bavaria, to the emperor. For every acquifition made by France in the empire, it was ftipulated that he fhould receive an equivalent; and for every one that he made, France fhould receive another in like manner. The republic, in order to induce the affent of the king of Pruffia to thofe arrangements,

rangements, restored his dominions on the left bank of the Rhine, and allowed a territorial indemnification to be given to the stadtholder, 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 affent to the difpofitions made in Italy by the French, of the various Imperial fiefs in favour of the Ligurian and Cifalpine republics; and

promised 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 ter-, ritory, either in confequence of this convention, or of the pacification to be concluded. hereafter between France and the empire, fhould be proportionably indemnified in Germany.

CHAP.