1797.] END OF THE NEGOTIATIONS AT LISLE-THE "ANTI-JACOBIN." 345 New plenipotentiaries were sent by the Directory to Lisle. They required that Great Britain should surrender all the conquests she had made, not only the colonies taken from France but from her allies, without any equivalent; intimating that if this peremptory condition was not acceded to, lord Malmesbury must depart in twenty-four hours. When Malmesbury said that he had no powers which would enable him to accede to such a proposal, he was insolently answered, "then go and fetch them." The embassy quitted Lille on the 18th of September. Truly did Canning write to a friend, "It was not any question of terms, of giving up this, or retaining that. It was a settled. determination to get rid of the chance of peace on the part of the three scoundrelly Directors, that put an end to the negotiation." *

During these conferences no one was more sanguine than Canning. In his position of Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs he laboured incessantly, in concert with Pitt and Malmesbury, to neutralize the opposition made by some members of the Cabinet to a pacific policy. His disappointment was proportionately bitter. He started the "Anti-Jacobin," the first number of which appeared on the 20th of November, 1797. William Gifford and John Hookham Frere were his principal coadjutors. It came, with new armoury, to fight the battle which Burke had fought for seven years. A pacification with France appearing hopeless, it came to denounce the principles and the policy of her government with a determined hatred. To make the literary eulogists of French triumphs odious, and the sentimental declaimers against social wrongs ridiculous, was to be accomplished by witty personalities rather than by impassioned eloquence. Amidst much that is scurrilous and much that is dull, the "Anti-Jacobin" sent forth brilliant satire; not in the vain endeavour to " cut blocks with a razor," but to pierce through the sensitive skins of the poetical enthusiasts who still clung to their first hopes of a regenerated world that should arise out of the darkness of the French revolution. The somewhat profane parody of the Benedicite, with which this remarkable publication was wound up after seven months' existence, is a sort of catalogue of the public instructors that Canning and his friends had gibbeted either in fear or in contempt. It was awkward when the more illustrious of their victims became converts to Anti-Jacobinism, and had long to endure the reproach of being apostates from the cause of freedom. They were all huddled together, the men of genius and the hack journalists; those whose names have lived and those who are forgotten-in one common invocation to join in the praise of "the Sovereign Priest" amongst "the Anointed Five" of the Directory-" Lépaux, whom Atheists worship":"Couriers and Stars,"-"Morning Chronicle and Morning Post,"-" five wandering Bards" led by " Coleridge and Southey "-" Priestley and Wakefield" -“Thelwall, and ye that lecture as ye go"-" each Jacobin, or fool, or knave "

"All creeping creatures, venomous and low,

Paine, Williams, Godwin, Holcroft, praise Lépaux."

Malmesbury's "Diaries and Correspondence," vol. iii. p. 570. + "Anti-Jacobin," vol. ii. p. 635.

VOL. VII.

A A

Preliminaries of Leoben-Transfer of Venice to Austria--Peace of Campo Formio-Victory of Admiral Duncan off Camperdown-Bonaparte arrives in Paris-Is appointed to the command of the Army of England-Preparations for invasion-The scheme postponed-An expedition to Egypt prepared at Toulon-Nelson appointed to command a squadron in the Mediterranean-The expedition sails-Malta seized-Bonaparte lands at AlexandriaNelson had returned to Naples-Alexandria taken by assault-Battle of the PyramidsThe French at Cairo-Nelson returns to Alexandria-The Battle of the Nile-Rejoicings in England, and new hopes-An income-tax first imposed-Volunteers-Ireland.

ENGLAND has to bear many unjust reproaches when her children are not "kind and natural." Byron reproaches his country with the humiliation of

Venice:

"Thy lot

Is shameful to the nations,-most of all,
Albion, to thee."

Albion in 1814 left Venice to the tender mercies of Austria; but it was the French Republic that in 1797 betrayed the sister Republic into the hands of of the Emperor, as the bribe to the preliminaries of Leoben and the peace Campo Formio. The history of nations exhibits no example of greater baseness than this act of Bonaparte-for it was bis sole act, contrary to the

1797.]

TRANSFER OF VENICE TO AUSTRIA.

347

instructions of the Directory. By a treaty with the democratic party in Venice, made on the 16th of May, the French had abolished the ancient oligarchical government; had filled the city with troops; had exacted contributions in money, in ships, and in works of art. They carried off the famous horses of St. Mark, to be placed on the triumphal arch of the Tuileries. These were common proceedings. Bonaparte during the summer was negotiating with the cabinet of Vienna for exchanges of territories and for transfers of populations, in a spirit quite as despotic as that of the absolute governments which had partitioned Poland. He bad stirred up the revolutionary party in the Venetian States to insurrection, on the assurance that he would establish a democratic Republic. The Doge, and the Council of Ten, and the Senate had fallen, to give place to an executive body chosen by the suffrages of the people. Venice, after these changes, believed that the Republic, as newly modelled, was under the protection of France, whose mission was to bestow liberty upon the nations. On the 26th of May, Bonaparte wrote to the municipality of the city," In every circumstance I shall do what lies in my power to give you proof of my desire to consolidate your liberties, and to see unhappy Italy at length assume the place to which it is entitled in the theatre of the world, free and independent of all strangers." Six weeks before this declaration he had agreed in the secret preliminaries of Leoben to cede Venice to the Emperor. After the Eighteenth Fructidor, Bonaparte was instructed by the Directory not to cede Venice to the Emperor; and Bonaparte returned for answer that if that was their resolve, peace was impracticable. He was determined that a peace should be made; and he gave very sufficient reasons for making it at any sacrifice of principle. The reasons were such as he repeated to the secretary of the French legation at Venice, after the peace had been concluded. "Never has France adopted the maxim of making war for the sake of other nations: I should like to see the principle of philosophy or morality which should command us to sacrifice forty thousand Frenchmen." He wished that the declaimers who raved about the establishment of republics everywhere," would make a winter campaign." The Austrian Plenipotentiary, Cobentzel, with three assistant negotiators,according to a story which is in agreement with Bonaparte's melo-dramatic propensities, were terrified, by a display of well-timed passion, into the terms proposed by the French. On the 16th of October a final conference took place at Udine. The four Austrian negotiators sat on one side of a long table; Bonaparte sat alone on the other side. They had agreed that France should have Flanders and the line of the Rhine; the islands of Corfu, Zante and Cephalonia, and the Venetian districts of Albania: that the Emperor should have Dalmatia, Istria, and the other Venetian territory as far as the Adige and the Po, with the city of Venice. Lombardy was to form part of the Cisalpine Republic, which Bonaparte had organized: and which was also to include the duchy of Reggio and other small Italian States. The great point in dispute was whether Mantua should belong to this Republic or to the Emperor. Cobentzel maintained, that as the Emperor had consented to give up Mayence, he ought to retain Mantua; and in a lengthened argument he hinted that a negotiator was forgetful of his duty when he sought to sacrifice the repose of his country to his military ambition. A costly tea service, presented to Cobentzel by the Empress Catharine, was upon a stand near Bonaparte. He took the tray in his hands, saying, "If to keep Mantua is

--

348

CAMPO FORMIO-ADMIRAL DUNCAN'S VICTORY.

[1797.

your ultimatum, war is declared; but mind you, in three months I will break your monarchy in pieces, as I now break this porcelain," dashing the service upon the floor. He was a great actor, and needed not the future lessons of Talma.* The peace of Campo Formio was concluded the next day. Amongst the reasons for peace with Austria which the conqueror of Italy assigned to the Directory was this,-" The war with England will open to us a new field for active operations more vast and splendid." On the day when the signature of the treaty of Campo Formio was known at Paris, the Directory created an army to be called "The army of England," and appointed Bonaparte to its command. In a Proclamation signed by Lépaux it was announced that "the army of England is about to dictate peace in London, and there, republicans, you shall find your auxiliaries. Conducted by the hero who has so long led you in the path of victory, you will be followed by the applause of every just and virtuous mind." Parliamentary reformers; artizans reduced to wretchedness by the war; Irish bearing the chain of a court fed by their blood-these, according to the Directory, were to fraternize with the hero of Italy. He had given the world a noble evidence of his aspirations for the liberty and happiness of revolutionized States, when he delivered Venice, bound hand and foot, to be trodden upon by Austria.

There was something of bravado in the threat of the Directory to make an immediate descent upon England or upon Ireland; for their means of invasion had been signally crippled by the great victory over the Dutch fleet, on the 11th of October, off Camperdown. Admiral Duncan had been half a century in the navy when he fought this battle. He had sustained the deep mortification of having been deserted by the greater portion of his fleet, and left in his own ship, the Venerable, in company only with the Adamant, to keep up the blockade of the Texel. By making repeated signals, as if to a fleet in the offing, he deceived the Dutch as to the real amount of his force. When the mutiny was suppressed, ships gradually joined him. But at the beginning of October, the Venerable, and other vessels which had suffered from heavy gales, and were in want of stores, put into Yarmouth Roads, leaving the Dutch to be watched by a small squadron of observation. The fleet had been busied for several days in victualling and refitting, when early in the morning of the 9th a lugger appeared at the back of Yarmouth sands and gave the signal for an enemy. Before noon Duncan was at sea with eleven sail of the line. He directed his course straight across to his old station. He was joined by three ships; and on the 11th he got sight of the squadron of observation, with signals flying for an enemy to leeward. In less than an hour he came up with the enemy. The land between Egmont and Camperdown was about nine miles to leeward. Duncan took the bold resolve to pass through the Dutch line, and thus to place himself between the enemy and their own shores, to which they were fast approaching. Soon after noon every ship of the British fleet had broken the enemy's line and was hotly engaged. The coast was covered for miles with thousands of spectators. Duncan's ship, the Venerable, was engaged for three hours with the Vryheid, the flag-ship of admiral De Winter. The brave Dutchman did not strike till

*Bourienne, the secretary of Bonaparte, denies the truth of this story. Thiers gives it without any qualification.

1797.]

BONAPARTE ARRIVES IN PARIS.

349

all his masts had gone overboard and half his crew were killed or wounded. Admiral Onslow was engaged in a similar close fight with the Dutch viceadmiral, who did not yield till he was equally crippled. By four in the afternoon the victory was clearly decided. But during the fight the British squadron had drifted so near the land as to be only in five fathoms water. It required the greatest exertion to prevent the ships from getting into the shallows; and this necessity favoured the escape of some of the Dutchmen. Eight ships of the line, two of fifty-six guns, and two frigates, were captured. The carnage on both sides was very great. The Dutch fired at the hulls of our ships, instead of at the masts and rigging, which was the practice of the French and Spaniards; and this mode of assault involved a severe loss of our men. The prizes with difficulty reached the English shores, with tottering masts and hulls full of shot-holes. Duncan made sail to the Nore; where the presence of a triumphant fleet excited feelings in many official visitors very different from those with which the mutinous fleet of the previous June had been regarded. Mr. Addington, the Speaker, went on board the Venerable; conversed with De Winter and the other Dutch admiral who were prisoners; admired the noble stature and manly bearing of Duncan; and visited the wounded in their hammocks. "We hope, sir," said some of the brave fellows to the Speaker, we have now made atonement for our late offence."

66

The conqueror of Italy arrived in Paris on the 5th of December. He had a difficult part to play. He despised the Directory, who were jealous and afraid of him. His policy was to be quiet. To make a dash at supreme power was as yet too hazardous. He was received with all the magnificence of those theatrical displays which had been so attractive during the horrors of the Revolution, when on the 10th of December he presented the treaty of Campo Formio to the Directors at their palace of the Luxembourg. His demeanour was modest and unassuming. Barras extolled him beyond all the heroes of the antique world; and invited him to proceed upon a new career of glory-to hoist the tri-coloured flag on the Tower of London. Bonaparte accepted the command of the army of England. The Directory were in earnest in their hostility to the persevering enemy whose desire for peace they had rudely repelled. To an absolute government, as that of the French Republic then was in reality, no measure, however injurious to its own subjects, stands in the way of its political calculations. English merchandize could not be kept out of France, however severe were the penalties against its introduction. On the 4th of January, throughout the whole French territory, domiciliary visits were made for the purpose of seizing the woven fabrics and the hardware that English industry could produce cheaply, and which no custom-house vigilance could keep out. Bonaparte made a few rapid visits to the ports bordering the British channel; saw their arsenals and their gunboats; and appeared to take a great interest in the mighty preparations which the Directory believed would place England at their feet. Bonaparte took a more sober view of the difficulties of the enterprize. On his return from his journey to the coast, he said to Bourienne-“It would be too great a risk; I will not run it. I will not sport thus with the fate of France."

* "Life of Sidmouth," vol. i. p. 194.