Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

XLII.

much to the westward, himself at Novi, and some of CHAP. his forces, scant as they were, down in the Riviera by the sea coast. Macdonald in the mean time descended from the Apennines into the plains of Piacenza, and approached the Po, placing the three streams of the Nura, the Trebbia and the Tidone between him and Moreau, Suwarrow having mustered his army behind these very streams. Could Moreau and Macdonald have communicated they might have attacked simultaneously from east and west, but they were unable to do so; and Macdonald with about 50,000 men fought a three days' battle on the Trebbia with Suwarrow on the 17th, 18th, and 19th of June, in which the French were completely worsted. Macdonald lost some 15,000 men and retired to Genoa, leaving Moreau to make some similar movement. Italy was lost.*

A new government, be it the produce of a constitution or of violence, or both, as was the Directory, could not survive such disaster and disgrace. It had gagged the press, decimated the assemblies, shut up the clubs, and terrorised society. But the administration of the Directory was so weak and so corrupt; its policy such an accumulation of blunders as of tyranny that every voice and every look condemned it. It had provoked the war gratuitously, for all European nations had been inclined to peace. The armies had not been recruited, and were in men and horses far inferior in number to the accounts furnished, and the pay demanded.† Then the armies were scattered at a time when expected onslaught from the enemy peremptorily required their concentration. The Directory had disgusted or dismissed every commander of talent, and entrusted to generals of no ability critical positions and superior command. The finances were in no better state, the revenue being totally inade

Clausewitz, Jomini, St. Cyr, Archduke Charles.
Report of Genissieux.

CHAP.

XLII.

quate to meet an expenditure of 800,000,000 francs. And
when the government proposed to add to the burdens of
poor and rich, throwing upon the former a new salt tax,
and extorting from the latter a forced loan, both classes
murmured. Lucien Bonaparte opposed and defeated
the salt tax. The conduct of affairs by the Directory
had been in fact so bad, so miserable, that no one, not
even those members of the Assembly who had been
forced into it by the Directory itself, would act as its
supporters or confess themselves its partisans. This
manifest and open want of adhesion, rendered the di-
rectors powerless to operate another coup d'état to
falsify the elections of 1799. Public opinion was allowed
to predominate and the public choice to prevail, unre-
sisted and undisturbed. The consequence was that the
new Third was composed of ardent liberals and revolu-
tionists, for amidst the military reverses and dangers
which menaced, the electors looked to revolutionary
energy to save them.*

The spirit which animated not only the lately elected
Third but the majority of the Assembly, began to show
itself in motions hostile to the government.
The Cinq

Cents addressed an injurious message to the government,
complaining that it had not been informed or consulted
respecting the dangers which threatened the republic.
This was followed by an Address to the French People,
which accused the Directory of rapine and dilapidation.
Within a short space of time the most scandalous fortunes
had been made by contractors and jobbers, the aim of
the acquirers being to spend and display rather than
hoard or conceal. The Revolution had spoiled and
slain the aristocracy of birth; that of wealth now sprung
up as proud and as influential, but far more immoral.
Nor was this disguised even from the people. The
dress of the fashionable female imitating the nudity and

*Thibaudeau, Gohier, Moniteur.

looseness of those habits which the Roman matron wore when in the seclusion of her palace, was seen not merely in the Directorial saloons, but in the public theatres. There vice no longer affected decorum.

To have got rid of the whole of the Directory would then have been a just and a popular measure, but to effect this without open and military revolution, it was necessary to make use of at least one of that body, as a support for the lever which was to displace the others. For this part they chose Barras, the worst and most corrupt of the lot, but the most pliant. Barras promised to get rid of the other four. It was the turn of one to go out, the lot fell or was made to fall upon Rewbell, unpopular from his connection or relationship with Rapinat, the plunderer of Switzerland. Many were for filling his place with a military man of eminence. This the civilians deprecated, and Boulay de la Meurthe, the foremost man of the majority, recommended Siéyès who had been his ally in the endeavour to ostracise the noblesse, and who was considered to have achieved a diplomatic success in securing the neutrality of Prussia and preventing its king from joining the coalition. Siéyès, who so often during his long career had refused to take place and associate with those in power, now considered his time come. What were his aims? According to some, he admitted the restoration of the monarchy as inevitable, not a prince of the Bourbons, but of a foreign prince of gallantry and genius, like the Archduke Charles, who might espouse the daughter of Louis the Sixteenth. He could not have entertained such a scheme, except in the contingency of the French being completely beaten. He told Gohier that the government of which they had both just become members was an ice-field about to break up, out of which, however, it would not be difficult to save one's self.

*

* Letter of Louis the Eighteenth to St. Priest.

CHAP.

XLII.

CHAP.
XLII.

At all events Siéyès co-operated with Barras for the removal of the remaining directors, and for renewing the government in accord with the majority of the Assemblies. To this Treilhard, La Réveillère and Merlin offered a stubborn resistance. The assemblies assailed them all the month of May with messages and representations. They took advantage of an informality in his election to cancel the rights of Treilhard to be a director. He had been elected within the period required to elapse since his previous hold of a seat in the legislature. Gohier, a lawyer and a nullity, was chosen in his place. The majority of the Assembly pressed the more the resignation of La Réveillère and Merlin. Boulay accused them of plotting to mutilate the Assembly. In order to prevent it, a Commission of Eleven was formed, and the Cinq Cents declared themselves en permanence, until they received an answer from the directors to their complaints. These were

addressed solely to Merlin and La Réveillère. The former especially was accused of keeping the army at Paris to be employed against the Assembly, instead of sending it to combat the enemy. There was no alternative for the two obnoxious directors save resignation or impeachment. After much obstinacy and many struggles they consented to withdraw. They were replaced by Roger Ducos and General Moulins, Siéyès being answerable for the former, Barras for the latter. New ministers were at the same time appointed. Talleyrand was superseded by Reinhard, a native of Wurtemburg, Cambacérès became minister of justice. Robert Lindet took the finances. The most important appointment was that of Bernadotte to be war minister; and, after a time, of Fouché to be minister of police.

The party which had struggled to establish the direct influence of the Assembly in political conduct was thus

* Debates, Gohier, Thibaudeau, Thiers.

**

XLII.

triumphant in what was called the Revolution of the CHAP. 30th Prairial. To restore superiority to the army, and as introductory to it, vigour to finance and administration, was the paramount aim. The spectre of Bonaparte suddenly rising up from the other side of the Mediterranean, was present to the minds of both Assembly and directors. To conjure the apparition could only be done by success. The Directory or at least Barras looked to Joubert to redeem the late reverses in Italy. He was at once appointed to the command. Unfortunately for the new Directors and their party, Joubert resembled Bonaparte merely by his youth and his courage. Had the latter been at this time appointed to defend Italy against the victorious Suwarrow, he would have shown activity as well as a fixed and able plan of campaign. His whole soul would have been in his task. But Joubert with all his zeal, chose the moment to marry, and to spend his honeymoon in Paris. When he did reach Italy with less than 50,000 men, Suwarrow had reduced the fortresses of Alexandria and Mantua and was able to bring 60,000 men into the field against him. Joubert was recommended to stand on the defensive in the Apennines. But he had come to fight a battle; and fortune favoured him at first, for, whilst with his whole army in position on the semicircle of heights around Novi, he was attacked by Suwarrow, before that impetuous general had all his force under his hand. Melas who commanded his left wing, was not able to take part in the action till the afternoon. Hence the French having but to defend their centre and right, succeeded fully in doing so, and in repelling the Russians in all their attacks either to gain a footing on the heights, or to penetrate behind them. Joubert perhaps might have taken advantage of the superiority thus left him, had he not fallen early in action, whilst mingling amongst

* Moreau's words to Bonaparte, preserved by Gohier.

« AnteriorContinuar »