[1797-1798 A.D.]

He had often directed his eyes to Egypt, as the intermediary station France ought to hold between Europe and Asia, in order to monopolise the commerce of the Levant, and possibly that of India. This idea had riveted itself in his imagination and now almost wholly engrossed him. Dim visions of some vast future floated in his fancy. To plunge into those countries of early enlightenment and glory, where Alexander and Mohammed had overthrown and founded empires, to make his name famous in their regions, and have it wafted back to France resounding with the echoes of Asia, formed the phantasmagoria of a delicious reverie.

FRANCE AND HER JUNIOR REPUBLICS

Whilst the republic was thus concentrating all its resources for an attack on England, it had still important interests to arrange on the continent. Its political province was in truth sufficiently ample. It had to treat at Rastatt with the empire, that is to say with the whole extant feudal system, and it had to tutor in their new career three republics, its offspring, to wit, the Batavian, Cisalpine, and Ligurian republics.

The territories occupied by France and the new republics intermingled with those of still feudal Europe, in a manner dangerous to the continuance of peace between the two rival systems. Switzerland, wholly feudal though republican, was enclosed between France, Savoy, now a French province, and the Cisalpine. Piedmont, with which France had contracted an alliance, was enveloped by France, Savoy, the Cisalpine, and the Ligurian. The Cisalpine and the Ligurian republics, again, encompassed the duchies of Parma and Tuscany, and approached near enough to communicate their own excitement to Rome, and even Naples. The Directory, however, had taken the precaution to enjoin upon its agents the strictest reserve, and prohibited them to hold out hopes to the democrats. The intentions of the Directory on the point were sincere and prudent. It desired, doubtless, the progress of

the Revolution; but was no longer impelled to accelerate it by arms. True, all the Italian states were more or less agitated. Arrests were numerous in every city, but the French ministers interposed only by occasional reclamations in favour of individuals unjustly persecuted. In Piedmont, where wholesale incarcerations took place, the intercession of France was often tendered with success. In Tuscany much greater moderation was observed. At Naples a large class of men existed who had embraced the new opinions, against the increase of which a court, equally destitute of morality and sense, strove madly with fetters and punishments. The French ambassador, Trouvé, was loaded with insults. Frenchmen, too, had been assassinated. Even when Bonaparte was in Italy, he had found it difficult to restrain the fury of the court of Naples, and now that the terror of his presence was removed, we may judge of what it was capable. The French government had forces sufficient severely to chastise its offences; but to avoid disturbing the general peace, it instructed Trouvé to observe the utmost forbearance, restrict himself to representations, and endeavour to reclaim it to the dictates of reason.

THE POPE DEPOSED (FEBRUARY, 1798)

The government, however, tottering nearest to its ruin was the papal. Not that it took no pains to defend itself, for it likewise made multitudinous arrests; but an aged pontiff with his spirit quenched, and a few feeble

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incompetent cardinals, could with difficulty struggle against the evils of the times. Already, at the instigation of the Cisalpines, the march of Ancona had revolted and formed itself into a republic. Thence the democrats preached rebellion throughout the whole Roman state. The French artists studying at Rome encouraged them by exhortations; but Joseph Bonaparte laboured to restrain them.

They assembled on the 28th of December to commence a revolt. Dispersed by the papal dragoons they sought refuge within the jurisdiction of the French ambassador, under the porticoes of the Corsini palace which he inhabited. Joseph hastened to the scene accompanied by some French officers and General Duphot, a distinguished young soldier of the army of Italy. He attempted to interpose between the papal troops and the insurgents in the hope of preventing a massacre. But the papal soldiery, paying no respect to the ambassador, fired and killed

at his side the unfortunate Duphot. Joseph Bonaparte immediately demanded his passports. They were given to him, and he forthwith took his departure for Tuscany.

Great indignation was manifested in the Cisalpine Republic and by all the Italian patriots against the holy see. The army of Italy demanded with loud shouts to be led against Rome.

Disregarding caution and the inconveniences of a hostile determination, revolutionary zeal prevailed, and the Directory ordered Berthier, who commanded in Italy, to march upon Rome. On the 10th of February, 1798, Berthier arrived in sight of the ancient capital of the world, which the French army had not yet visited. The pope shut himself in the Vatican, and Berthier, introduced by the gate of the People, was escorted to the Capitol, like some old Roman triumpher. The democrats, at the summit of their wishes, assembled in the Campo Vaccino, where the vestiges of the ancient Forum are perceptible, and, surrounded by a stupid populace, ready to applaud any novelty, proclaimed the Roman Republic. The pontiff, treated with all the attentions due to his age and office, was abstracted from the Vatican during the night and conducted into Tuscany, where he found an asylum in a convent. The people of Rome seemed to regret but indifferently the loss of this ruler, who had nevertheless reigned over them upwards of twenty years.

Unfortunately, excesses, not against persons but against property, sullied the entry of the French into the ancient metropolis of the world. There was no longer at the head of the army that stern and inflexible chief, who, less from virtue than an abhorrence of disorder, had so severely punished

[1797-1798 A.D.] plunderers. Bonaparte alone could have bridled cupidity in a country so stocked with riches. Berthier had departed for Paris, and Masséna succeeded him. This general, to whom France owes everlasting gratitude for saving it at Zurich from inevitable ruin, was accused of having set the first example. It was one at all events that found numerous imitators. Palaces, convents, superb collections were mercilessly rifled. Jews, in the train of the army, purchased for insignificant sums magnificent objects recklessly abandoned to them by the depredators. The waste was as revolting as the pillage itself. The soldiers and subalterns were in the most horrible destitution; and they naturally felt indignant at the spectacle of their leaders indecently gorging themselves with spoil and tarnishing the glory of the French name, without any relief or advantage to the army. The Directory recalled him and despatched to Rome a commission, composed of four upright and enlightened individuals, to organise the new republic.

SWITZERLAND REORGANISED (1797-1798 A.D.)

It might seem that Switzerland, the ancient land of liberty, famed for its primitive and pastoral manners, had nothing to learn from France and could have no cause for change. On the contrary, feudalism, which is simply a military hierarchy, prevailed with regard to those republics, and there were communities dependent on other communities, as a vassal on his suzerain, and groaning beneath a yoke of iron. In all the several governments, aristocracy had gradually engrossed the whole of the powers. In every part of Europe Swiss might be found forcibly banished from their country, or seeking in voluntary exile protection from aristocratic outrage. Furthermore, the thirteen cantons, disunited and not seldom opposed to each other, no longer possessed any force, and were quite incapable of defending their independence. Switzerland therefore was nothing now but a romantic recollection and a picturesque region; politically, she presented but one unbroken chain of petty and humiliating tyrannies.

Thus, we may conceive the effect likely to be produced within it by the example of the French Revolution. At Zurich, Bâle, and Geneva, especially, great excitement has been manifested. In the latter city indeed sanguinary tumults had occurred. Although feeling it incumbent to propitiate Germany, Piedmont, Parma, Tuscany, and Naples, the Directory recognised no necessity for the same deference towards Switzerland, and was moreover greatly tempted to promote the establishment of an analogous government in a country justly deemed the military key of Europe. Here also, as in the instance of Rome, the Directory was drawn from its prescribed policy by an irresistible seduction. To replace the Alps in friendly hands constituted a motive equally persuasive with that which incited to the demolition of the papacy.

Consequently, on the 28th of December, 1797, the Directory proclaimed that it took the Vaudois under the protection of France. This sufficed as a signal of insurrection to the Vaudois. The bailiffs of Bern, whose oppression had been long execrated, were expelled, though without ill-treatment; trees of liberty were everywhere reared, and in a few days Vaud constituted itself into the Lemanic Republic. The Directory hastened to recognise it, and authorised General Ménard to occupy it, signifying to the canton of Bern that its independence was guaranteed by France.

In the interim the Bernese aristocrats had collected an army. Brune, who was intrusted with the French command, held some conferences at Payerne, but they proved fruitless, and on the 2nd of March the French troops

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moved forward. General Schawembourg, with the division brought from the Rhine, occupied Soleure. Brune, with the Italian division, seized on Fribourg. General d'Erlach, who commanded the Bernese troops, retired. The Bernese troops believed themselves betrayed, and murdered their officers. Nevertheless there remained with Erlach some of those battalions, distinguished in all the armies of Europe for their discipline and bravery, and a certain number of determined peasants. On the 5th of March, Brune on the Fribourg road, and Schawembourg on that of Soleure, simultaneously attacked the positions of the Swiss army. The Swiss found themselves obliged to retreat, and fell back in disorder on Bern. The French encountered in front of the city a multitude of infatuated and desperate mountaineers. Even women and old men rushed headlong on their bayonets. The soldiers were reluctantly compelled to exterminate these pitiable zealots who sacrificed their lives so uselessly. Bern was eventually entered. The denizens of the Swiss mountains sustained their ancient reputation for valour, but exhibited all the blind and irrational ferocity of an Andalusian horde. They perpetrated a fresh massacre of officers, and assassinated the unfortunate Erlach.

The capture of Bern decided the submission of all the great Swiss cantons. Brune, called, as had befallen so many French generals, to be the founder of a republic, proposed to incorporate the French part of Switzerland, the Lake of Geneva, Vaud, a portion of the canton of Bern, and Valais, into a single republic to be called the Rhodanic. But the Swiss patriots had desired a revolution chiefly in the hope of obtaining two principal advantages: the abolition of all jurisdictions of one people over another, and national unity. They longed to witness the extirpation of all domestic tyrannies, and to mould the whole into a general commonwealth by the institution of a central government. They prevailed that a single republic, the Helvetic, only should be carved out of the various subdivisions of Switzerland.

On entering Bern, the French seized the exchequer of government, which is a usual proceeding and the least contested right in war. All the public property of a vanquished government belongs to the conqueror. In all these petty states, equally parsimonious and extortionate, there were long-hoarded treasures. Bern possessed a small coffer of its own, which has furnished to all the enemies of France a fruitful subject of calumny. It has been represented to contain thirty millions, whereas it held but eight. France is accused of having engaged in the war merely to seize this fund and apply the proceeds in the Egyptian expedition - as if she could have supposed the authorities of Bern would not have the sense to remove it; or as if it were probable she would make war and risk the consequences of such an invasion to gain eight millions.1 Such absurdities refute themselves. A contribution to defray the maintenance and pay of the troops was levied on the members of the old oligarchies of Bern, Fribourg, Soleure, and Zurich.

The winter of 1797-1798 was drawing rapidly to a close. Five months

[1 This is the estimate of Thiers.c Daguet, however, says: "Some historians calculate the sums taken from the treasury of Bern at 26,000,000 livres. Lanfrey estimates what was taken at Bern alone at 41,000,000 (16,000,000 in specie and ingots, 7,000,000 in arms and munitions, 18,000,000 in requisitions). The author of the Mémoires du Maréschal Ney k computes still higher than Lanfrey, namely at 46,000,000, the total of what was taken at Bern in money, wine, corn, and arms. Behold a lesson,' he says, for the instruction of those who may be tempted to introduce the foreigner into their native country.' As for Rapinat himself, the French commissioner, he set the total of what was taken from Switzerland at only 13,000,000." Dändliker puts the pillage of public money at over 17,000,000 francs, and Viesseux m sets it at over 80,000,000 francs.]

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only had elapsed since the Treaty of Campo-Formio, but the situation of Europe had greatly changed in the interval. The republican system had made gigantic strides; to the three republics previously founded by France, two others had been added, created within two months. Europe heard with a shudder the continual echo of the words: Batavian Republic, Helvetic Republic, Cisalpine Republic, Ligurian Republic, Roman Republic. Instead of three governments, France had now five to superintend-involving an additional complication of cares and further explanations for foreign powers. The Directory thus found itself impelled insensibly. There is nothing more insatiable than a system; it creeps onward almost alone, expanding and overcoming even in spite of its authors.

THE ELECTIONS OF 1798

Whilst so many external objects demanded its attention, the domestic subject of the elections likewise forced itself on the anxious notice of the Directory. Since the 18th Fructidor there remained in the councils only such deputies as the Directory had voluntarily left there, and upon whom it could rely. These were they who had either promoted or acquiesced in the coup d'état. But a new opposition was forming, composed no longer of royalists but of patriots. One of Bonaparte's brothers, Lucien, elected by Corsica to the Five Hundred, had planted himself in this constitutional opposition, not from any cause of personal pique, but that he imitated his brother, and assumed the office of censor of the government. It was the attitude which suited a family that aspired to take a position apart. Lucien was a man of ability, and endowed with an eminent talent for the tribune. He there produced considerable effect, recommended as he was by the glory of his brother. Joseph too, since his retreat from Rome, had returned to Paris, where he maintained a large establishment, and dispensed a generous hospitality to generals, deputies, and distinguished men. The two brothers, Joseph and Lucien, were thus in a capacity to effect many things, which propriety and his studied reserve prohibited to the general.c

THE EXPEDITION TO EGYPT

Meanwhile Napoleon had proposed his Egyptian schemes to the Directory, which had received them with enthusiasm. The expedition was instantly set on foot. Bonaparte reached Toulon on the morning of the 9th of May and immediately reviewed his new army recruited almost entirely from the invincible soldiers of the army of Italy. In a vigorous address he recalled to them the wretched state he had found them in when, two years before, he had put himself at their head, and also the measure of comfort they had enjoyed under his command. Then he pointed out the riches of Italy with which his subordinates had gorged themselves. Now he promised that each man on his return would possess means enough to buy eight acres of land. At this shameless appeal to their cupidity, the soldiers replied with the cry, "Long live the immortal republic!" repeated a thousand times, as if to guarantee that they were ready to fight again for an idea. This address, which is of incontestible authenticity, appeared in all the leading journals of the time. The Directory, disgusted with the general's plain speaking, ordered its suppression. The public papers published a more dignified address, one in which there was none of that incitement to greed, so artfully introduced to obliterate the moral tone and destroy the belief in generous impulses.