READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

A HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE : A.D. 1453-1900

CHAPTER LVIII

THE DIRECTORY

WE now return to the affairs of France. The Parti Thermidorien, having effected the fall of Robespierre, assumed, after that event, the conduct of affairs; and, in a few days, sent upwards of eighty of Robespierre’s friends and accomplices to the guillotine. As these were, for the most part, members of the Commune, the influence of that body was completely destroyed. The Government was still conducted by the two Committees, but they were reorganized. Barère, Billaud Varennes, and Collot d'Herbois resigned, September 1st, 1794. Wholesale slaughter was arrested; though Lebon, David the painter, and a few other terrorists were executed. Numbers of prisoners were released; Robespierre’s law of the 22nd Prairial was abolished; trials were conducted with more moderation. The daily assemblies of the Sections were reduced to one in each decade; and the pay of forty sous a day to the indigent members who attended was stopped.

Matters were thus far tending to a counter-revolution. A party began to be formed among the middle and richer classes, which, from its being chiefly composed of young men, obtained the name of Les jeunes Gens, and later that of La jeunesse dorée (the gilded youth); or La jeunesse dorée de Fréron, from its being patronized by that demagogue. The Jeunesse dorée adopted a peculiar dress, called costume à la victime, consisting of a short grey coat with black collar, low shoes, enormous green cravats; the hair, hanging low at the front and sides, was tressed up behind; a short stick, loaded with lead, served at once as a weapon and a badge. The women also affected a peculiar costume called bonnets d'humanité and corsets à la justice. Some of them were Royalists; others only followed the impulse for restoring order. The fashionable salons began again to be frequented. Madame de Stael reappeared in the Parisian circles. Madame Recamier and Madame Tallien, two beautiful women, were the chief leaders of fashion.

The Jacobin Club, though deprived of its chief leaders, still showed signs of vitality. They and the Jeunesse dorée were at open war; and they frequently attacked one another in the streets with cries of Vive la Convention! Vive la Montagne! But on the evening of November 8th, 1794, the Jeunesse dorée, armed with sticks, stones, and other weapons, broke into the Hall of the Jacobins, and drove out the members; shortly after the club was put down by the Government. The counter-revolution now proceeded with rapid strides. On December 8th the seventy-three deputies, who had protested against the arrest of the Girondists, were readmitted into the Convention. Before the close of 1794 the decrees for the banishment of priests and nobles, and for putting English and Hanoverian prisoners to death, were reversed; divine worship was restored, the maximum assigned for the price of corn suppressed. The scarcity was so terrible that it became necessary to fix the daily consumption of bread of each inhabitant of Paris. The proscription of the higher class had aggravated the crisis by lessening the demand for labour. Specie was hoarded, while the value of assignats fell so rapidly that they became hardly negotiable.

On the report of a Committee of the Convention, Billaud Varennes, Collot d'Herbois, Barère, and Vadier were arrested, tried, and sentenced to transportation, April 1st, 1795. Carrier, the monster of Nantes, had been executed in December. Fouquier Tuville, the çi-devant Public Accuser, and fifteen judges of the Revolutionary Tribunal, were, after a trial of forty-one days, condemned and executed on the Place de Grève, May 7th. On the condemnation of Billaud Varennes and his associates an insurrection was attempted; but such was the altered state of public feeling, that the Convention, not the insurgents, caused the tocsin to be rung, to summon the well-disposed Sections to their aid. The successful attack on the Hotel de Ville on the 9th Thermidor had inspired the reactionary party with confidence, and they had, moreover, the advantage of military skill, their movements being directed by Pichegru and Barras. Collot d'Herbois, Billaud Varennes, and Barère were conducted to Rochefort for transportation. The escape of Barère was connived at, and he was permitted to live quietly in his department of the Hautes Pyrenees. Vadier also contrived to escape,

The ultra-democratic party was still further weakened by the arrest of nine of the most violent of the Crête, or remains of the Montagne (April 5th). Their last and most violent attempt at insurrection was made at the commencement of Prairial (May 20th, 21st, 1795). A mob from the Faubourgs St. Antoine and St. Marceau, taking for their watch­word, “Bread and the Constitution of 1793”, broke into the Convention, and levelled their muskets at the members. Feraud, a deputy, was shot, his head cut off, and brought into the Assembly on a pike. It was not till after many hours of uproar that the National Guards succeeded, about midnight, in clearing the hall at the point of the bayonet. On the following morning the attempt was renewed. Cannons were planted on the Place du Carrousel, and the most terrible scenes were apprehended. But after some parley the mob retired, on receiving an assurance that the Convention would provide a supply of corn, and that the organic laws of the Constitution of '93 should be presented for discussion. The Convention now proceeded to decree the arrest and trial of several members of the Montagne, including Panis and Sergent, for having signed the infamous circular of September 3rd, 1792. On the 23rd of May an army of 30,000 men, raised from the orderly Sections, under the command of Menou, marched upon the Faubourg St. Antoine, and compelled the inhabitants to surrender their cannon and small arms. Other doubtful Sections were treated in a similar manner; and all citizens were called upon to give up their pikes and other weapons, so that only the richer classes retained their arms. The Committee of Public Safety was retained, but with an altered constitution. The Convention was made the centre of government, with an executive of sixteen committees. The National Guard was reorganized on pretence of relieving indigent citizens from the duty of mounting guard. A camp was formed in the Tuileries gardens, and a strong garrison of troops of the line was introduced into Paris. A military commission condemned to death many of the rioters, including six members of the Convention. By death, transportation, imprisonment, or flight, the Montagne lost sixty-two of its adherents. The abolition of the Sections, and of the pay of those who attended the meetings, and the division of Paris into twelve arrondissements or municipalities, were severe blows to faction. The Revolutionary Tribunal was finally suppressed, May 31st, 1795.

By these measures the counter-revolution was established at Paris, and it could not be doubtful that the provinces would follow. The reaction, conducted at first by moderate republicans, fell more and more into the hands of the reactionists and royalists. The emigrants and priests returned in great numbers, and many new journals were established in the counter-revolutionary interest. It was in the provinces, and especially in the South, that the reaction was most violent, and accompanied with murders and massacres which have obtained for it the name of the Terreur Blanche. These execrable deeds have afforded ultra-democratic writers arguments for justifying, or, at all events, extenuating, the Terreur Rouge. Bands of assassins were organized under the names of Compagnies de Jésus, or Jéhu, and Compagnies du Soleil, among the leaders of which were Isnard and other Girondists. The massacres perpetrated by the proconsuls were now retaliated at Lyons, Toulon, Marseilles, Tarascon, Nimes, and other places. At Lyons a system of assassination began soon after the 9th Thermidor. On May 5th, 1795, a wholesale massacre took place there; ninety-seven persons were put to death in the prisons; those who had escaped were hunted down like wild beasts, killed, and flung into the Rhone. At Tarascon the victims were precipitated from a high tower. Almost all the towns of the South had their September 2nd; yet the Convention remained passive spectators of these atrocities.

In 1794 the French had nominally thirteen armies on foot, forming a force of between 600,000 and 700,000 men, inured to discipline, and animated with the confidence of success. On the other hand, the disastrous issue of the campaign of 1793, and the mutual reproaches of the Duke of Brunswick and Wurmser, had sown dissension between the Austrians and Prussians. The Duke had resigned the command, January 24th, 1794, and had been succeeded by Marshal Mollendorf. Pitt made strenuous efforts to reanimate the Coalition, which, however, failed through the jealousy which Thugut, who then directed the affairs of Austria, entertained of Prussia. Personally, however, the King of Prussia was desirous of prosecuting the war; and by the Treaty of the Hague with England and Holland, April 19th, 1794, he agreed to furnish 62,400 men, on receiving immediately £300,000 sterling, £50,000 monthly during the war, £100,000 for the return of the troops, and £1,12s. monthly per man for their subsistence. The conquests made by his troops were to be assigned to the maritime Powers.

Campaign of 1794

At the opening of the campaign the allies were posted as follows: the English, Dutch, and Austrians, about 160,000 men, occupied a line extending from Ypres to Trèves. The Prussians, in considerably less numbers than were paid for, were posted on the Hundsrück on the left bank of the Rhine, between Trèves and Mainz. The army of the Empire, about 20,000 men, extended along the Rhine, between Basle and Heidelberg. Opposed to these, from Dunkirk to Maubeuge, was the French army of the North under Pichegru; to the east of that, between Givet and Sedan, the army of the Ardennes under Charbonnier; between the Moselle and the Saar, Jourdan with the army of the Moselle. Michaud, with the army of the Rhine, was opposed to the Prussians and Imperialists. Moreau served under Pichegru, Kléber under Charbonnier. The French generals were stimulated by the presence of the proconsuls St. Just, Lebas, Levasseur, and others. The Duke of York, who was at the head of about 40,000 British and Hanoverian troops, having refused to serve under Clairfait, the commander of the Austrian right, the Emperor was obliged to come in person and assume the nominal command. Accompanied by his brothers, Charles and Joseph, and his ministers, Thugut and Trautmannsdorf, he arrived at Brussels, April 9th, on pretext of being inaugurated Duke of Brabant.

Mack’s plan of the campaign was to take Landrecies and march with the Austrian left upon Paris by Guise and Laon, covering his right flank by inundations, his left, by an advance of the Prussians. Prince Coburg, in conjunction with the English, having driven the French, with tremendous loss, from their entrenched camp at Landrecies, April 17th, the siege of that place was formed by the Prince of Orange. With the view of saving it the French made an attack along the whole line, April 26th. At Cateau Cambrésis, or the redoubts of Troisville, they were defeated by the Duke of York, and driven back to Cambrai with the loss of thirty-seven guns. On the other hand, Jourdan was successful against Beaulieu at Arlon, and Pichegru in West Flanders against Clairfait. Menin was now threatened by Pichegru; Clairfait hastened to its aid, but was defeated at Moucron, April 29th, and Menin fell into the hands of the French. Ypres, the head-quarters of the allies, was now threatened, and the Duke of York was compelled to retreat to Tournai.

Mack still persisted in his plan of marching upon Paris, in which he was encouraged by the Emperor. But Thugut, and also what was called the Austrian party, that is, the statesmen who conceived that it would be better for the interests of Austria to relinquish the war against France, and even the defence of the Belgian Provinces, and to seek compensation on the side of Poland or Bavaria, were opposed to Mack’s undertaking. Coburg did not move; Mollendorf could not be persuaded to march towards the Sambre.

The allies had formed a plan to cut the French line by attacking their camp at Courtrai, thus separating their left wing from Lille and the French frontier, and compelling them to fight with the sea at their back. To assure their communications with Lille, Souham and Moreau marched upon Tourcoign, and defeated the allies (May 18th). The Duke of York saved himself only by the swiftness of his horse. After an interval of four days Pichegru made another attack at Pont-a-chin, where the Emperor commanded in person. The battle had lasted ten hours when the fortune of the day was retrieved by some troops detached by the Duke of York, and especially by the decisive charge of a brigade of British infantry.

The efforts of the French were chiefly directed to the capture of Charleroi, the key of the allied position. After several repulses they succeeded in establishing themselves beyond the Sambre, and laid siege to that town. In a council of war held at Tournai, May 24th, in which the opinions of Thugut and Coburg prevailed, the Duke of York alone dissenting, the campaign was represented as lost, through the French having established themselves in West Flanders; it was, therefore, proposed to evacuate the Netherlands, and to obtain a share of Poland, where the insurrection of Kosciuszko was now in progress. In compliance with these views, the Emperor quitted Belgium for Vienna, June 9th. The fate of the Belgic provinces was now determined; and the military movements of the commander-in-chief had henceforth no other object than to bring about their abandonment. Coburg wasted his time in marches and counter-marches between the Lys and the Sambre, and left Clairfait to fight without reinforcements, although there were 30,000 Austrians unemployed at Tournai. The fruits of this conduct soon became apparent. Ypres surrendered to the army of Pichegru, June 17th. The allies were thus outflanked on the side of Flanders, and the road to Ostend opened to the French. On the other side, Jourdan again effected a passage of the Sambre, and came with all his forces to cover the siege of Charleroi, which was taken June 25th. Coburg attacked Jourdan at Fleurus, June 26th. The Austrians, who had rather the advantage in numbers, are thought to have been purposely defeated. Coburg broke off the contest, and retired with some captured guns, in excellent order, on learning the fall of Charleroi. He still occupied a strong position between Nivelles and Brame-le-Comte, yet he dissembled not his intention of abandoning Belgium. The Prince of Orange and Marquis Cornwallis represented to him, in vain, that such a movement would insure the conquest of Holland by the French: he declared that it was impossible to resist the armies of the Convention; that his communications with the Rhine were threatened; that he must shelter himself behind the Meuse. The Duke of York plainly told him that the British nation considered themselves betrayed and sold, and the Archduke Charles concurred in that opinion. Even the Austrian officers spoke without reserve of Coburg’s incapacity. Summoning Clairfait to join him, and thus leaving the English and Dutch to take care of themselves, he retreated by Tirlemont upon Liége, and crossed the Meuse at Maastricht. Jourdan, who was pursuing him, received instructions from the French Government to halt upon that river, till the four towns captured by the allies should be recovered; a sort of armistice ensued; and negotiations were entered into, which, however, had no result. The English Government, alarmed by the retreat of the Austrians, dispatched Earl Spencer and Mr. Thomas Grenville to Vienna, to sound the intentions of the Emperor, to offer a subsidy, and to procure the dismissal of Prince Coburg, who was justly regarded as having chiefly caused the failure of the campaign. The English envoys, accompanied by M. Fagel, greffier of the States-General, visited on their way the quarters of Prince Coburg, at Fauron-le-Comte. They found him preparing to abandon Maastricht, and retreat beyond the Rhine; and it was only with difficulty that they persuaded him to remain. Arrived at Vienna, Earl Spencer succeeded in obtaining the recall of Prince Coburg, who resigned the command-in-chief of the Austrian army to General Clairfait, August 28th. Although it is believed that one motive for the retreat of the Austrians was to alarm the English Cabinet, and draw from it subsidies in turn, yet as Lord Spencer’s offer of three millions was only conditional, the Cabinet of Vienna declined the immediate resumption of hostilities. But it consented that 25,000 Austrians, under General Alvinzi, should pass into the Anglo-Batavian service and pay, and should assist the Duke of York’s army in the defence of Holland.

After the retreat of Prince Coburg most of the Belgian towns one after another, into the hands of the French. Pichegru took Mechlin, July 15th, and compelled the English and Dutch to retreat on Antwerp and Breda. He had been instructed by the Committee of Public Safety to occupy West Flanders, and get possession of some place favourable for a descent upon England, a project which was still contemplated. Scherer was directed to reduce Landrecies, Le Quesnoy, Valenciennes, and Condé, which still remained in the hands of the allies. The four towns before named were captured in July and August. Towards the end of the latter month, Moreau, with a division of the army of the North, took Nieuport and Sluys.

The Prussians proved as treacherous allies as the Austrians, and from baser motives; they condescended to accept the pay, but neglected to perform the duties, of mercenaries. Lord Malmesbury, who had negotiated the treaty with Prussia, naturally concluded that England would have the disposal of the men for whom she paid. Haugwitz, the Prussian Minister, had left him under that impression; insomuch that Colonel Manstein lamented, in a letter to Haugwitz, that he had granted the men without stipulating that they should be employed on the Rhine. In vain the English and Dutch ambassadors endeavored to persuade Mollendorf to march towards the Sambre, in other words, to assist those whose pay he was receiving; the Marshal had formed his own idea of the campaign, and refused to abandon his position for fear of exposing Mainz. When Malmesbury went, on the 20th of June, to the Prussian head-quarters to persuade Mollendorf to move, there were only about 40,000 men under the colours, instead of the 62,400 stipulated; and these without the necessary stores and ammunition. Mollendorf, in excuse for not moving, first pleaded that the English subsidy had not arrived, which, however, had been dispatched from London May 25th, and then decidedly declared that his troops were indispensable on the Rhine. The Prussians, however, did not long retain even the position which they had chosen. The French generals Michaud and Moreau drove them from the mountains, and captured Kaiserslautem, Neustadt, and Spires. In the middle of September Frederick William II notified to the Court of Vienna that he wanted troops in Poland, and must withdraw those on the Rhine. As, after what had passed, the English subsidy due in October naturally did not arrive, Mollendorf was recalled, and 20,000 of his troops, under Hohenlohe, were directed to march into Poland; thus betraying the real object of the Prussian breach of faith. Mollendorf crossed the Rhine October 20th and 21st; the Austrians had crossed it two or three weeks before. Jourdan had resumed the offensive against Clairfait in the middle of September, and compelled him to retreat upon the Roer. But he was driven from his position on that river, at Aldenhoven, near Jülich, October 2nd, and effected his passage over the Rhine on the 5th, at Bonn, Cologne, and Dusseldorf. After the retreat of the allies the French entered Cologne October 6th, Coblenz 23rd. Kléber, after an attempt to take Mainz by a coup de main, found it necessary to begin a regular siege. The Prussians left the defence of Mainz to the Austrians. At the end of the year this town alone, on the left bank of the Rhine, remained in the hands of the Coalition, though the Austrians still held Luxembourg.

The French arms were equally successful on the side of Holland. Pichegru having taken Bois-le-Duc, October 9th, the Duke of York found himself compelled to retreat beyond the Waal. Venloo fell October 27th, Maastricht, November 4th, and the capture of Nimeguen on the 9th opened to the French the road into Holland. The Duke of York resigned the command to General Walmoden, December 2nd, and returned into England. His departure showed that the English Government had abandoned all hope of saving Holland. It had, indeed, consented that the States-General should propose terms of accommodation to the French; and two Dutch envoys had been despatcher to Paris to offer to the Committee of Public Safety the recognition by their Government of the French Republic, and the payment of 200,000,000 florins within a year. But the Committee, suspecting that these offers were made only with the view of gaining time, paid no attention to them. The French were repulsed in the first attempt to cross the Waal by General Duncan with 8,000 English; but a severe frost enabled them to pass over on the ice, January 11th, 1795. Nothing but a victory could now save Holland. But Walmoden, instead of concentrating his troops for the purpose of giving battle, retreated over the Yssel, and so into Westphalia, and over the Ems to Bremen, whence the troops were carried to England by sea. During this long and difficult march in the depth of a most rigorous winter, without tents, and exposed to all sorts of hardships and privations, the English displayed unflinching courage and perseverance. General Alvinzi, who held the Rhine between Emmerich and Arnheim, having retired upon Wesel, Pichegru had only to advance. On entering Holland he called upon the patriots to rise, and his occupation of the Dutch towns was immediately followed by a revolution. The Prince of Orange, the hereditary Stadholder, embarked for England January 19th, on which day Pichegru’s advanced columns entered Amsterdam. Next day the Dutch fleet, frozen up in the Texel, was captured by the French hussars! Before the end of January the reduction of Holland had been completed, and a provincial government established at the Hague.

THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC

The States-General, assembled February 24th, 1795, having received, through French influence, a new infusion of the patriot party, pronounced the abolition of the Stadholderate, proclaimed the sovereignty of the people and the establishment of the Batavian Republic. A Treaty of Peace with France followed, May 16th, and an offensive alliance against all enemies whatsoever till the end of the war, and against England for ever. The sea and land forces to be provided by the Dutch were to serve under French commanders. Thus the new Republic became a mere dependency of France. Dutch Flanders, the district on the left bank of the Hondt, Maastricht, Venloo, were retained by the French as a just indemnity for the expenses of the war, on which account the Dutch were also to pay 100,000,000 florins; but they were to receive, at the general peace, an equivalent for the ceded territories. By secret articles the Dutch were to lend the French seven ships of war, and to support a French army of 25,000 men. Over and above the requisitions of the treaty they were also called upon to reclothe the French troops and to furnish them with provisions. In short, though the Dutch patriots had fraternized with the French, and received them with open arms, they were treated little better than a conquered people.

Secret negotiations had been for some time going on between France and Prussia for a peace. Haugwitz had confidentially informed the Committee of Public Safety that a revolution in Holland, and the abolition of the Stadholderate, would form no bar to a treaty. Frederick William II was satisfied with his acquisitions in Poland, to which the English and Dutch subsidies had helped him; but, perhaps, not the least influential among his motives was the refusal of the Maritime Powers any longer to subsidize him for doing nothing. The French, on their side, were not unwilling to dissipate the Coalition by means of separate treaties, and after some indirect overtures through the Ministers of the two Powers in Switzerland, conferences were opened at Basle, in January, 1795. The Prussian provinces on the left bank of the Rhine formed the chief difficulty of the negotiations. The French asserted their ancient pretensions to have that river for a boundary; while Frederick William, whose armies were still intact, could not consent to that sacrifice. The difficulty was obviated by adjourning, till a general pacification, the fate of those provinces. But such an arrangement implied that Prussia was then to obtain an equivalent for them out of conquests to be made by France; or, in other words, that she was to indemnify herself at the expense of neighboring German Powers; and such an indemnification is said to have been stipulated in secret articles. The Peace of Basle, between the French Republic and King of Prussia, was signed April 5th, 1795. The French troops were allowed to continue the occupation of the Rhenish Provinces on the left bank. France agreed to accept the mediation of Prussia for Princes of the Empire. The more important secret articles, besides that already mentioned, were, that Prussia should engage in no hostile enterprise against Holland, or any other country occupied by French troops; while the French agreed not to push their enterprises in Germany beyond a certain line of demarcation, including the Circles of Westphalia, Higher and Lower Saxony, Franconia, and that part of the two Circles of the Rhine situate on the right bank of the Main. This line was established by a subsequent treaty dated May 17th, by which France agreed to respect the neutrality of the districts specified, on condition that they should recall their contingents from the Imperial army, and furnish no more troops to Powers at war with France. This offer of mediation on the part of Prussia was an ambitious plan to acquire an undue influence in the Empire, and an unconstitutional breach of the German Confederation. Thus the King of Prussia, originally the most ardent promoter of the Coalition, was one of the first to desert it. By signing the Peace of Basle he sacrificed Holland; pusillanimously resigned, by the cession of the Rhenish provinces, the position of a leading Power; facilitated the invasion of the Empire by the French, and thus prepared the ruin of the ancient German constitution; struck a blow at his own reputation and the renown of the Prussian arms; and laid the founda­tion of that system which, ten years later, proved fatal to his own dominions.

SPANISH CAMPAIGN

The occupation of the left bank of the Rhine, the conquest 0f the Austrian Netherlands, the establishment of the Batavian Republic as a humble ally of France, the detachment of Prussia from the Coalition, were among the most important consequences of the campaign of 1794, which had begun under such disheartening prospects for France. The operations of the French armies in other quarters during that year were also ultimately attended with success, though with less important results. At first the French were beaten back both in the Eastern and Western Pyrenees, and compelled to retreat to Perpignan on one side, and Bayonne on the other. But in the East, Dugommier at length turned the tide of war; retook Bellegarde in September, the last position held by the Spaniards in France, and by the battle of the Montagne Noire, which lasted from November 17th to the 20th, opened the way into Catalonia. At the beginning of this battle Dugommier was killed. Figueras surrendered November 24th, through the influence of the French democratic propaganda. On the West, Moncey captured St. Sebastian and Fuentarabia in August, and was preparing to attack Pamplona, when terrible storms, which rendered it impossible to transport the sick and provisions, compelled him to retreat on the Bidasoa, and closed the campaign in that quarter.

On the side of Piedmont, the French, after some reverses, succeeded in making themselves masters of Mont Cenis and the passes of the Maritime Alps, thus holding the keys of Italy; but the Government, content with this success, ventured not at present to undertake the invasion of that country. The King of Sardinia had signed the Treaty of Valenziana with Austria, May 23rd, 1794, by which the Emperor agreed to support the Piedmontese with an additional body of troops under the command of General de Vins. Victor Amadeus remained true to this engagement, although the French Government, in conformity with their policy of breaking up the Coalition by separate peaces, endeavored to detach him from the Austrian alliance, by offering to guarantee his dominions if he would declare himself neuter, and allow the French a passage; or, if he would make common cause with France, the possession of the Milanese, and the exchange of the Island of Sardinia for territories more conveniently situated. With the Grand Duke of Tuscany they were more successful. Alarmed at their occupation of the Alps this Prince sent Count Carletti to Paris to negotiate a peace. On February 9th, 1795, a treaty was signed by which the Grand Duke revoked his adhesion to the Coalition; and the neutrality of Tuscany was placed on the same footing as previously to October 8th, 1793. Thus Ferdinand was the first to desert the Emperor, his brother. The example of Tuscany was followed by the Regent of Sweden, who dispatched the Baron de Stael to Paris in the name of his nephew, to assure the Convention of his Sovereign’s friendship for the French Republic. But these advances were without result, the French having neglected to subsidize the Swedes, and thus enable them to maintain a fleet which should make their neutrality respected by England.

But although the arms and the policy of France were thus successful on the Continent, she could not boast of the same good fortune where matters depended on maritime operations. Hence her loss of Corsica. An insurrection, fomented by General Paoli, had broken out in that island early in 1793; the Corsicans, except in the towns of Bastia, San Fiorenzo, and Calvi, which were garrisoned by the French, refused to acknowledge the National Convention, withdrew their Deputies from that Assembly, established a new Government, named Paoli Generalissimo. The war which broke out between France and England was favourable to the Corsican revolution. With the aid of the English fleet, which now rode triumphant in the Mediterranean, the three towns held by the French were successively reduced in the course of 1794; Calvi, the last which held out, surrendered August 4th. It was in these operations that Nelson first distinguished himself; at Calvi he lost an eye. A General Assembly convoked at Corte, after the fall of Bastia, and presided over by Paoli, voted the annexation of Corsica to Great Britain, June 19th, and drew up a constitution modelled on that of England. The year 1794 was also marked by Lord Howe’s memorable victory over the French fleet under Villaret Joyeuse off Ushant, June 1st, and by several English conquests in the West Indies. Admiral Sir John Jervis captured Martinique in March, St. Lucie and Guadaloupe and its dependent isles in April; but the last-named conquest was not long retained. The reduction of St. Domingo, begun in the previous year, was also effected by Admiral Ford and General White.

Negotiation in 1795

In Europe France hardly sustained in the following year the brilliant position achieved by the campaign of 1794. All parties seemed desirous of repose, and the strife was not renewed on the German frontier till towards the approach of autumn. The inactivity of the French armies was occasioned as well by the distress, almost the disorganization, in which they were plunged, as by the crisis in the Revolutionary Government. Hence negotiations occupied the year 1795; but these also turned to the advantage of the French. The Emperor, naturally alarmed and irritated by the defection of Prussia, hesitated as to what course he should pursue. At the same time he notified to several Courts his inclination to make peace with France, but not without the concurrence of his allies, especially England and the German Empire. The English Cabinet, however, was for continuing the war; with which view it entered into some fresh treaties with Austria. By the treaty concluded May 4th they undertook to guarantee a loan of 4,600,000l., to be raised by the Emperor in England, on condition of his maintaining on foot, for the campaign of that year, an army of 200,000 men, with which English commissioners were to be present. This treaty was followed by a defensive alliance concluded between Austria and Great Britain, May 29th. By a separate article the Empress of Russia was to be invited to form with the two contracting Powers a triple alliance, in order to maintain the future peace of Europe; which alliance was eventually concluded at St. Petersburg, September 28th. The Russian treaty has not been published; but it is known that Catharine engaged to furnish either 80,000 men or a certain sum of money, and that subsidies were actually paid to the Emperor. A defensive alliance had been previously concluded, February 18th, between Great Britain and Russia; in consequence of which a Russian fleet joined that of England in the summer, and, in conjunction with Admiral Duncan, cruised off the coasts of Holland till the autumn of 1796.

The Diet of Ratisbon, by a conclusum of July 3rd, expressed its desire that the Emperor should take steps for a pacification with France, and that the mediation of the King of Prussia should be employed for that purpose. Although this last condition was very disagreeable to Francis, yet he ratified the conclusum of the Diet. He took, however, no active steps in the matter, but left it in the hands of the King of Prussia, who had accepted the office of mediator. Baron Hardenberg was accordingly again dispatched to Basle; but the French Government refused to enter into negotiations. Another attempt to negotiate a peace through the mediation of Denmark proved equally unsuccessful. The Committee of Public Safety would neither agree to a Congress at Augsburg, nor to a suspension of arms, as proposed in Count Bernstorff’s note of August 18th. It plainly appeared that the Committee wished not to make a peace with the Empire, a confederate body, but to detach the principal members of it, and thus entirely to isolate Austria. In this object they partially succeeded. The Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, who had been one of the most active of the German Princes against the common enemy, made a separate treaty with France at Basle, August 28th, and agreed to renounce his treaty of subsidies with England. After the resumption of hostilities in September, and the passage of the Rhine by the French, the Elector Palatine, to save his town of Mannheim, entered into a secret convention of neutrality with Pichegru. The Duke of Wurttemberg also obtained a suspension of arms from the French commanders, but the Convention refused to ratify it. The French Government, however, assented, during the negotiations at Basle, to a proposal of the Emperor’s for the exchange of Madame, daughter of Louis XVI, who was still immured in the Temple, against Camus, and the other Conventional arrested by Dumouriez, and two or three other persons, including Drouet, the noted postmaster of St. Menehould, who had fallen into the hands of the Austrians. The matter was, however, delayed because the Court of Vienna refused to recognize the French Republic by signing a convention with it, and the arrangement was eventually carried out through the intervention of the Danish Government. The exchange was effected at Rhiechen, near Basle, December 26th.

The death of her brother the young Prince in the Temple, June 8^th, age 0f ten, is supposed to have been accelerated, if not occasioned, by ill-treatment and want of air and exercise. It facilitated another triumph of French diplomacy, a peace with Charles IV of Spain. Negotiations for this purpose had been entered into towards the end of 1794; but they had hitherto been fruitless because the Spanish monarch made it a point of honor to demand not only the liberation of Louis XVII, but also his installation as King in the bordering provinces of Spain. It is doubtful whether the conclusion of the treaty was hastened by the success of the French arms. This had not, indeed, been very marked on the side of Catalonia, where, though several battles had been fought, the only signal triumph of the French was the capture of Rosas. But in the western Pyrenees Moncey had gained a series of victories in June and July between Deva and Pamplona. The French entered Vittoria July 18th. Madrid trembled for its safety, when it was relieved by the tidings that a peace had been concluded.

The Treaty of Basle, between France and Spain, was signed July 22nd, 1795. France restored all her Spanish conquests, and Spain ceded her portion of St. Domingo, at that time no very desirable possession. The Court of Madrid also proclaimed its recognition not only of the French but also of the Batavian Republic, and engaged to employ all its influence to detach Portugal from the English alliance. This treaty, by which the Spanish House of Bourbon recognized the Power which had overthrown its eldest branch, was hailed with joy at Madrid. Emmanuel Godoy, Duke of Alcudia, under whose auspices it had been effected, was loaded with presents, and received the title of “Prince of the Peace”.

But while the French Government was thus freeing itself of its foreign enemies, it was threatened with new dangers from within. The cruelties exercised by the Republicans in La Vendée excited a fresh insurrection there in 1794. Charette and Stofflet had been assisted by the Marquis de Puisaye and other gentlemen of Brittany. Bands of Chouans, composed of adventurers and smugglers, continued to exist in the Calvados and the Morbihan; and Puisaye applied to England to aid the insurrection with some troops, and with arms and ammunition. A small expedition was accordingly prepared in England in the spring of 1795, which was joined by French emigrants and released prisoners, to the number of about 3,000 men. This little band, with arms and equipments for a considerable army, was landed by Admiral Bridport, after defeating a French squadron, on the peninsula of Quiberon, June 27th. On the appearance of the English fleet, Charette and Stofflet had flown to arms; 1,500 Chouans joined the invaders. Fort Penthièvre was seized; but General Hoche and the Republican army, after a blockade of three weeks, surprised and captured the fort on the night of July 20th. Some of the garrison succeeded in reaching the English fleet, but, the night being stormy, a far greater number perished in the attempt; the remainder surrendered, on the condition, that their lives should be spared. There seems to have been a verbal convention to that effect between Hoche and Sombreuil, one of the leaders of the expedition, which, however, was not ratified by the representatives of the people. Tallien incited the Convention not to spare the prisoners. All who had emigrated, including De Sombreuil and the Bishop of Dol, were shot at Vannes; the rest were spared. Charette retaliated by causing some hundreds of Republicans who were in his power to be massacred.

In spite of the disastrous issue of this expedition another was attempted a few months later, under the conduct of the Comte d'Artois. Several thousand English troops and French emigrants were landed at the Isle Dieu, a few leagues from the coast of La Vendée, October 2nd. The prince, however, hesitated to throw himself into that district, and the weather having become stormy, the expedition returned after a few weeks to England. Hoche now directed his arms against Charette. That leader and Stofflet were soon after captured and shot, and the remains of the insurrection dissipated.

The Comte d'Artois’s hesitation to land in La Vendée is thought to have been connected with the failure of an insurrection at Paris, 13th Vendémiaire (October 5th), caused by an important revolution. The progress of the reactionary movement having produced a wish for the abolition of the Constitution of 1793, a Committee was appointed to draw up a fresh one. The new scheme was characterized by the rejection of the ultra-democratic principles which had marked that of 1793. To the Declaration of Rights was appended a Declaration of Duties, in the eighth article of which it was declared that social order depends on the maintenance of property. The two degrees of election, or the primary and electoral assemblies, were re-established: a residence of at least a year was required as a qualification for the former, and moderate conditions of property for the latter. Thus the middle class recovered its political importance. The legislative power was vested in two chambers; a lower one of 500 members, called the Council of Five Hundred, and an upper one of 250 members, called the Council of the Ancients. The Five Hundred, whose members must have attained the age of thirty years, alone possessed the right of proposing laws; while the Ancients, consisting of men past the age of forty, and either married or widowers, had only the privilege of a veto. The Ancients were elected from the same class as the Five Hundred; and thus the distinction between the two chambers, besides the qualification of marriage, namely, the difference of ten years in the period of eligibility, was not very great, as old men were not excluded from the Five Hundred. By this arrangement, however, measures were at least submitted to more mature deliberation, and the danger of being carried away by sudden impulses, to which popular assemblies, and especially those of France, are liable, was obviated. The Ancients, except in urgent cases, were not to decide till a bill had been read three times, with an interval of at least five days between each reading. A third part of each Council was to be replaced every year by new members.

The executive power was entirely separated from the legislative, and instead of being vested in committees of the National Assemblies, was entrusted to a Directory, consisting of five persons, to whom a guard was assigned, a civil list, and a residence in the Luxembourg. The Directors were to be selected by the Ancients from a list of ten persons presented by the Five Hundred. Each Director in turn was to preside over the Directory for a space of three months; and one Director was to be replaced every year by a fresh election. Thus the Royal prerogative, as established by the Constitution of 1791, was now divided between the Ancients, who had the veto, and the Directory, which had the executive power. The Directors were to appoint six ministers, to conduct negotiations, manage the finances, the army, etc., and they were to be responsible for the acts of their Ministers and Generals. This Government was humorously compared with a chariot with six horses, whose reins were held by five coachmen, while 750 superintendents administered the whip. However, amid the shock of passions and opinions, and the mistrust and suspicions of the Republican leaders, it was perhaps as good a Government as the situation allowed.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

Warned by the example of the Constituent Assembly, who, by handing over their Constitution to an entirely new legislature, soon saw it utterly destroyed, the moderate party in the Convention, led by Daunou, called the Parti conventionnel, which desired neither the triumph of the Royalists nor of the ultra-Democrats, carried a Decree, 13th Fructidor (August 30th), that two-thirds of each of the new Chambers should be elected from among the members of the Convention. The new Constitution, as well as this decree, was submitted to the approval of the Primary Assemblies throughout France, and the acceptance of both by large majorities was proclaimed in the Assembly, 1st Vendémiaire (September 23rd, 1795). But this was an artifice. The Constitution had indeed been accepted, and the Conventional party pretended that the decree of 13th Fructidor formed part of it, although a great majority of the assemblies had declared themselves against it. Hence the insurrection of 13th Vendémiaire. It was principally the work of the Royalists, and of the higher and middle classes. The emigrants and priests had now returned to Paris in great numbers; the Faubourg St. Germain had begun to recover its former gaiety; the Ghouan uniform was the fashionable costume. On the other hand, the populace having not only been disarmed, but finding itself deceived in its hopes, and had sunk into a state of the profoundest apathy about political affairs. Among the leaders of the insurrection were the old Duke of Nivernais, the Generals Miranda and Servan, Laharpe, Quatremere de Quincy, and other distinguished persons. Petitions were got up against the decree of 13th Fructidor; thirty-two of the forty-eight Sections joined the movement, and the Convention soon discovered that an appeal to force was contemplated. The Convention could rely upon the regular army. Troops were moved up to Paris, and the command of them was given to Barras, the General of 9th Thermidor. Barras demanded, as his second, Napoleon Bonaparte, who having returned from the army of Italy, was now in Paris, and apparently in very distressed circumstances. The sketch of a plan for an Italian campaign, which he afterwards executed himself, had procured him the post of chief of the Bureau Topographigue. Scarcely, however, had he obtained this appointment when the Committee of Public Safety struck his name out of the list of Generals on active service, for having refused to command a brigade of artillery in the war of La Vendée. In this turn of his fortunes Bonaparte had entertained the idea of proceeding to Constantinople and entering the Sultan’s service, when he was diverted from it by the events of 13th Vendémiaire.

Bonaparte acted with promptitude and decision, and by means of his artillery overthrew the insurgents, who numbered about 30,000 men. The Convention used its victory with moderation. Of the military leaders of the insurgents Lafond alone was executed. On the motion of Barras, Bonaparte was named second in command of the Army of the Interior, Barras himself retaining the command-in-chief.

The Convention now proceeded to form the two new Chambers and the Directory. As the electors had not returned two-thirds of its members to the new Chambers, those who had been elected formed themselves into an Electoral Assembly to supply the deficiency. The late Royalist insurrection influenced the choice of Directors, who were selected from among the members of the late Convention, and, indeed, the majority of them had been regicides. They were La Réveillère-Lepaux, Sieyès, Rewbel, Letourneur, and Barras. Sieyès, however, declined to serve, and was replaced by Carnot. Of these men none had particularly distinguished himself except Carnot, who, in the popular phrase, had “organized victory” by his military projects and reforms. Barras, a gentleman of Provence, had been a representative of the people at the siege and massacre of Toulon. Menaced on that account by Robespierre, he had taken part against him on the 9th Thermidor, and had subsequently joined the reactionary party Réveillère-Lepaux, a gentleman of Anjou, had voted in the Convention against the death of the King, and had been proscribed as a Girondist. Rewbel had been procureur fiscal in Alsace, and had served with Merlin at Mainz as representative of the people; but was accused of not having done his duty, and suspected of having received Prussian gold. Of Letourneur little or nothing was known. Rewbel, of an imperious character, took the lead in the Directory, assumed the Departments of Foreign Affairs, Finance, and Justice. Barras, ignorant and idle, though capable of acting with decision on an emergency, had the direction of the police. Réveillère-Lepaux, a visionary belonging to a sect called Theophilanthropes, and of a mild and moderate character, presided over education, science, art, manufactures, etc. Carnot had the war office, and Letourneur the administration of the navy and colonies.

The Convention held its last sitting 4th Brumaire, an IV (October 26th, 1795), when it passed a general amnesty, with only a few exceptions, changed the name of the Place de la Révolution to that of Place de la Concorde, and declared its session terminated. It had lasted rather more than three years.

What was now the condition of France after six years of revolution, and the reign of virtue enforced by terror? The work of a Republican, a member of the Convention and of the Council of Five Hundred, will convey some idea of it. There was not a sou in the treasury. Assignats were almost valueless; the quantity absolutely necessary for the service of the following day was printed over night. Public credit was annihilated; there was no regular system of revenue, not a tax whose produce was worth carrying to account. Yet in this state of things it was necessary to feed the capital gratis, to supply the great towns and the army of the interior. Each inhabitant of Paris of the poorest sort received only two ounces of bread a day or a handful of rice, and even this wretched supply was often wanting. Meat, oil, sugar, and other necessaries could scarcely be procured. The state of the provinces was not better. The conveyance of a load of corn from one village to another could often be effected only by an exchange of musket-shots. The forests were exposed to pillage. The armies were without clothes or bread. All the main roads, canals, bridges, and other public works were in a deplorable state of dilapidation. The moral state of France was as bad as the physical. There was no longer any public education; the recent convulsions had produced a shameless cynicism. Bands of brigands, called chauffeurs, had been organized, who scoured the country in all directions, committing the most horrible excesses. Thus the French nation, by attempting to carry into practice the theories of Rousseau, had almost attained the beau ideal of that philosopher’s anti­social state, and become dissolved into its primitive and barbaric elements. Indeed, a French historian of the Revolution observes with much naiveté, “This epoch—that of the Directory—beheld the termination of the movement towards freedom, and the commencement of that towards civilization”. The first dream of the French, he proceeds to observe, had been liberty and a Constitutional Monarchy; the next, equality, fraternity, and a Republic: but at the commencement of the Directory, people no longer believed in anything; all had been lost in the great strife of parties, the virtue of the middle classes, as well as that of the populace. The revival of civilization was marked by the balls and feasts, which again became the order of the day.

As the year 1795 drew to a close the aspect of her foreign affairs was hardly more encouraging for France than that her domestic state. Her fleets were nearly destroyed; Corsica was in the hands of the English; Prussia, Spain, and Tuscany had, indeed, been detached from the Coalition, but a large part of Europe still remained arrayed against her; Switzerland, though neutral, was the centre of plots against the Republic; Holland, by reason of the anarchy which reigned there, was rather an encumbrance than a help. The Dutch colonies of Demerara, Berbice, and Essequibo, in the West Indies, those of Ceylon, Malacca, Cochin, and other of their settlements in the East Indies, as well as the Cape of Good Hope, fell into the hands of the English. The French had, indeed, recovered the islands of St. Lucie and St. Vincent, which they were destined to lose again the following year. In the interior, the troops were deserting in bands, with their arms and baggage. There was no concert or unity of views either in the Legislative Chamber or in the Directory. The French arms had been successful in Italy, but the war on the Rhine had terminated in disaster.

Campaign of 1795

Owing to the negotiations at Basle, as well perhaps as to the distressed condition of the French armies, no military operations took place on the north-eastern frontier till September; except that Marshal Bender, despairing of being relieved, surrendered Luxembourg to the French, June 5th. The following was the position of the armies on the Rhine. Pichegru occupied the left bank of that river from Hüningen to Mannheim, while the Austrians under Wurmser were opposed to him on the other bank. Clairfait, who had the command-in-chief of the Austrian army and also of that of the Empire, was posted on the Rhine from Mannheim to Dusseldorf, with his centre at Mainz. Opposed to him was Jourdan with the army of the Sambre and Meuse. The Prussians, as an army of observation, occupied the line of demarcation already described. On September 6th two divisions of the army of the Sambre and Meuse crossed the Rhine at Duisburg and Neuss, when the Austrians retired behind the Lahn. On the 15th Jourdan crossed at Neuwied with his centre. Pichegru had appeared before Mannheim on the 14th, and on the 18th that town capitulated, when the Elector Palatine made the arrangement mentioned before. After the fall of Mannheim Clairfait retreated between the Main and Neckar; but Quasdanowich and Klenau having beaten the French at Handschuheim, September 24th, and thus restored the communications between Clairfait and Wurmser, Mannheim was blockaded, and the Austrians in their turn began to advance. Clairfait, crossing the Main at Aschaffenburg, defeated the French at Bergen, October 11th, pushed on beyond Wetzlar, driving away the Prussian pickets, and violating the neutral line, and was thus in a position to turn the left wing of the army of the Sambre and Meuse, which fled in disorder over the Rhine. Abandoning its pursuit Clairfait suddenly turned towards Mainz, which Jourdan had invested, and surrounded with enormous lines of circumvallation. The French, surprised by the unexpected attack of the main body of the Austrians, were driven from their lines, thrown into disorder, and so terribly cut up by Clairfait’s cavalry that this battle decided the campaign. Their baggage, ammunition, and whole park of artillery fell into the hands of the victor (October 29th). Clairfait’s success was aided by the treachery of Pichegru, who neglected, after the capture of Mannheim, to march, as instructed, with the greater part of his forces on the Main, to cut off Clairfait’s retreat and form a junction with Jourdan. He contented himself with sending 10,000 men to Heidelberg, who were soon completely beaten.

In consequence of these defeats the French held, on the right bank of the Rhine, only Mannheim and Dusseldorf; and Mannheim they were forced to surrender by capitulation to Wurmser (November 22nd). Yet, in spite of his successes, Clairfait concluded with the French an armistice, December 31st, for an indefinite period, and terminable at ten days’ notice. It seems probable that he acted on secret instructions from Thugut. Nevertheless, on his return to Vienna, he was called to a severe account by the Aulic Council of War, and dismissed from the command. The Archduke Charles, the Emperor’s brother, was appointed in his place. In Italy the French arms were more prosperous. The peace with Spain proved of great service to them in the Italian campaign. Scherer, with the army of the Eastern Pyrenees, proceeded into Italy, and inflicted a severe defeat on De Vins, the Austrian general, at Loano, on the Genoese Riviera, November 23rd and 24th. This battle, the only one deserving the name during four campaigns in Italy, cost the Austro-Sardinians 7,000 men killed, wounded, or prisoners, eighty guns and all their magazines, compelled them to retreat to their entrenched camp at Ceva, and by the occupation of Savona opened Piedmont to the French in the following year. The victory is chiefly ascribed to Massena.

The establishment of a new and apparently more firm and orderly Government in France had inspired the British Ministry with the hope that it might not be impossible to effect a peace. A bad harvest and other causes had produced a good deal of distress in England; discontent had manifested itself in sedition and riots, and cries for Bread and Peace. The King, in a message to Parliament, December, 1795, announced that the new order of things in France would enable him to enter into negotiations should the enemy be so disposed; and Mr. Wickham, the English Minister in Switzerland, was authorized to make some propositions, of an informal kind, to M. Barthelemy, the French ambassador there, in order to sound the intentions of the Directory. But the English advances were met with a contemptuous answer, and a flat refusal was given to restore any conquests which had been incorporated, like the Netherlands, with France, not, be it observed, by any regular treaty, but by a mere Decree of the French Legislature. Thus all negotiation was necessarily at an end. Some overtures made by Austria were also disregarded. Under these circumstances Pitt advanced the Austrians, in the course of 1796, on the responsibility of the Ministry, a subsidy of £1,200,000. In December the Parliament not only allowed this sum on the next budget, but also granted a further subsidy of £1,800,000. In fact, the Directory took no pains to conceal that they were desirous of war, as appeared from their official journal, the Rédacteur. There seemed to be little, either in the state of France or of the armies, to justify their confidence. But they were to give another proof of that vigour of action with which revolutionary governments are frequently accompanied. The Directors were indefatigable. They assembled every morning at eight o'clock, and after working till four or five, met again at eight in the evening, and prolonged their labours till late in the night. Their cares were crowned with success, and confidence to a certain extent was restored. After a month Paris could be left to find its own supplies; in half a year all France had wonderfully recovered from its state of prostration. The Revolution had not been attended with unmixed evil. The abolition of corporations, maîtrises, and other exclusive privileges, had stimulated private industry; the sales of landed property had elevated the peasant in the social scale. But as tranquillity returned at home the French Government began more and more to direct its views abroad. From this period the Revolution assumes a military character.

A propaganda, enforced at the cannon’s mouth, pretends to establish Republican reforms, while its real objects are the extension of French dominion by conquest, and the spoliation of the conquered. But under this system of treachery and ambition the French Republic itself at last yields to the general whom it had entrusted with the execution of its schemes.

CHAPTER LIX

THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGNS OF 1796 AND 1797