his difpofitions to receive them at the true point of attack, and, after an obftinate conflict, repelled them with confiderable lofs. A few days after, (8th Brumaire) the right wing of the army made a general movement, and, after defeating various, divifions of the imperial army, gain, ed poffeffion of feveral poits in the Palatinate, amongst which were thofe of Bingen and Keyferflautern, and eftablithed their communication across the country with the frontiers of France, where the Auftrians had penetrated, after driving the army of the Sambre and Meufe out of Germany.

who, if they fucceeded either in taking Verona or in forcing the pofts on the lake of Guarda, would probably attain their object, and deprive him of the fruits of all his former victories. He, therefore, with equal ability and fpirit, refolved to prevent the junction of the two Auftrian armies, by an attack on general Alvinzi; for which purpofe he led the divifions under the generals Angereau and Massena along the Adige, which he paffed in the night of the 4th of November, by means of a bridge of boats, at the village of Ronco, hoping to reach Villa Nuova in the morning, and attack the Auftrians (whofe head-quarters were at Caldero) on their flanks and in their rear, and feize on their artillery and baggage, General Alvinzi, however, who had received intimation of the motions of the French, ftrengthened his pofition, by throwing Croatian and Hungarian regiments into the village of Arcole, through which the French muft neceffarily pafs in order to execute the plan they had projected. This village, which was ftrongly fituated between morasses and canals, held the republican army in check during the whole day. In vain were the French troops rallied by their commanders, and led again to the charge. Four generals, who threw themselves on the bridge leading to the village, were fucceffi ely difabled by wounds more or lefs dangerous. Angereau, feizing a standard, ran and planted it at the end of the bridge; and Buonaparte, after calling on the foldiers to remember the bridge of Lodi, infpired a momentary emotion which induced him to attempt another affault, in which he loft two more of his generals, and was himself in danger of perifling.

In the mean while the emperor had affembled a fourth army to effectuate the release of general Wurmfer, who was now fhut up with his troops in Mantua. General Alvinzi had encamped on the Piava, and was advancing towards Vicenza, while Davidovich, with the divifion under his command, defcended from the Tyrol along the Adige towards Verona, which was the head-quarters of the French army. Alvinzi, having paff ed the Piava, met the French on the Brenta, where an action took place which obliged him to repafs the river; but the left of the French army under general Vaubois, which was oppofed to the Auftrian divifions in the Tyrol, being defeated, Buonaparte was compelled to retreat to Verona, and defend the paffages of the Adige. The Auftrian generals having now made themselves masters of all the country beyond this river, were concentrating their forces to attempt the attack of the French at Verona; and, by forcing the pofts between the Adige and the lake of Guarda, to raise the blockade of Mantua. Buonaparte faw the danger of awaiting the attack of the Auftrians,

Having early perceived the ex

treme

treme difficulty of taking this poft in front, he had fent round a divifion by a march of feveral miles to attack the village in the rear. The general who was fent on this expedition reached it at night, and took poffeffion of it with the fmall garrifon which the Auftrians had left to defend it, as they had withdrawn their troops to prepare for a general attack, and had removed the artillery and baggage, which was one of the primary objects of Buonaparte's expedition. The action began at day-break on the 6th of November, through the whole line. The divifion of the French army on the right drove back the left wing of the Auftrians, and purfued it to the head-quarters at Caldero. The centre of the Auftrians, after a long and obftinate conflict, was compelled to retreat before the centre of the French; but the attack made on their left, which Buonaparte endeavoured to turn, was ineffectual, as it was flanked by a morafs and ditches. During the night Buonaparte threw bridges across; and the next day, the 17th of November, the two armies renewed the combat. The Auftrians attacked the centre of the French army with great vigour, and drove it back with confiderable lofs, and were on the point of turning the right wing, when a body of troops which Buonaparte had drawn off from the left, and placed in ambufcade, fell on the flank and rear of the Auftrians, and made a dreadful flaughter. The left of the Auftrian army ftill held its ground, being formidable both in numbers, and alfo from its pofition. Buonaparte then finding it impoffible to attack or diflodge it by force, had recourfe to a ftratagem, which fucceeded. He fent round a fall party of horfe to

make the circuit of the morafs, and fall on the Auftrians, founding at the fame time a number of trumpets, to deceive the enemy as to their numbers. The arrival of a larger body of French troops, which had also been early fent by a longer circuit to fall on their rear, threw them into complete diforder. The Auftrians filed on all fides, and the night only put an end to the purfuit.

The divifion under general Davidovich was more fuccessful, having attacked and again defeated geperal Vaubois, who commanded the pafs between the Adige and the lake of Guarda. Buonaparte, therefore, leaving his cavalry in purfuit of Alvinzi's army, haffened with reinforcements to Vaubois ; and keeping in check the Austrians who were advanced within a fhort distance of Mantua, he fucceeded, after a conteft of fome days, in driving them back with confiderable lofs into the mountains of the Tyrol.

The battle of Arcole was peculiarly fatal to the French generals, by whofe diftinguifhed efforts of bravery, victory was taken out of the hands of Fortune. Buonaparte, efcaping himself with difficulty, lof both his aids-du-camp, who were killed by his fide. The lofs of the Auftrians in this battle was fo confiderable, that Alvinzi was compelled to retire behind the Brenta with the remainder of his forces, to await the arrival of another army, and leave Mantua once more to its fate.

It was fuppofed that on the iffue of this battle the fortune of Mantua depended; but it appears that general Wurmfer had taken fufficient advantage of the relief he had laft experienced, to provifion his garrifen, and enable him to defend the

town

town far beyond the calculation of the French general, who in his official letters fpoke with fome confidence of its immediate surrender. When Buonaparte entered Lombardy, Mantua, which had been the only object of conteft for eight months, and on which the fate of Italy depended, was altogether deftitute of the means of fuftaining an attack, having a feeble garrifon unprovided with ftores or provifions, and would probably, after the battle of Lodi, have surrendered at the first fummons. Had the French general, instead of marching to Milan which was at all times acceffible, and making a promenade into the ecclefiaftical state, which he might have done at his leifure, feized on this important poft, he might have made himself master of Italy, and finished an early campaign. It muft, however, be remembered, that, before this place, four imperial armies have melted away in the fhort fpace of a few months; that thefe armies being recruited from thofe on the Rhine, from which large detachments were made, the latter were fo weakened, that the French were enabled to levy contributions in the heart of Germany; and, though the invaders were eventually repulfed, they fucceeded in diffolving the confederacy of the German princes, and in diminishing the number of the enemies of the French republic.

Amidst these victories, the affairs of finance ftill continued to be the principal object of the anxiety of the French government. The minister of this department had fent a circular letter through the republic, to invite the bankers and principal merchants to a general affembly, to deliberate and advise reSpecting the laws and regulations

neceffary for the revival of credit, and the re establishment of commerce. The directory, on the 10th of December, communicated by a meffage to the council their wants in a more preffing manner, urging them, as they had done before, to come to the immediate relief of the government, which, in all its different administrations, from the ar mies to the moft menial offices, was in a ftate of decay bordering on deftruction. The remedy for thefe evils, according to the meffage, lay in procuring the confent of the legislature to invest the directory with power to take poffeffion of the laft part of the pay ments for the fale of the national domains, which, as has been obferved, was ordered to be paid in money; and which amounted to eighty mil lions. It was imagined, that, by drawing a very diftreffing picture of the fituation of the republic, the council would be fufficiently alarmed to yield to the requifition. The meffage was read in a fecret committee, and was deemed unworthy of attention. The directory, refenting the indignity offered to their requifition, publifhed the fol lowing day to the world, in their Gazette, this meffage, which they had confided to the fecrecy of the council as unfit for the public ear. This conduct was the subject of animadverfion, and was confidered as tending to fow the feeds of divifion between the legiflative and executive powers, and to bring odium on the council, under the pretence of their refusing the neceflary fupplies.

The prefident of the commiffion of finances, M. Camus, as the directory had revealed the meffage, thought it expedient to ftare the motive of the rejection, by obferving that the alarming and defperate

ftate

ftate of the republic exifted only in the meffage; that a feverer conomy would restore the equilibrium of receipt and expenditure, and that the errors contained in the statement were equalled only by the imprudence of the directory in making them public.

Although the influence of the executive power with refpect to the public money was thus circumfcribed, it poffeffed an influence still more dangerous over the lives of a certain clafs of their fellow citizens, which the legislature thought fit alfo to controul. As, during the reign of terror, great numbers had found fafety only in flight, and efcaped into foreign countries, and others had only abandoned their places of usual refidence, and concealed themselves in various parts of the country, these fugitives had been of course ranked by their municipalities and departmental adminiftrations as emigrants, and placed on the lift; on which lift many were alfo infcribed by the revolutionary committees of their communes, whom they held at the moment in their dungeons, or whom they had fent to the fcaffold. Amongst other laws which were enacted after the overthrow of the jacobinical government to remedy the enormous abufes and evils which this regimen had introduced, were decrees permitting the re-entrance of those perfons into France who had fled fubfequent to the thirty-firft of May, 1793, the beginning of the reign of tyranny, and alfo regulations for the erafure from the lift of emigrants of all fuch whofe reclamations were found to be juft.

The latitude given by the law to appeals of this fort was fubject to a variety of abufes; a great number entered and took poffeffion of their eftates, who were not comprehend

ed in the law; who had emigrated before the period, but had found means of procuring from friendly or corrupted adminiftrations falfe certificates of refidence. In those parts of the country which were moft difaffected to government, these cases were very frequent; and many of the disorders of the fouth were faid to be committed by emigrants of this class. These appeals, agreeably to the regulation, were made to the directory: but as the tyranny had been univerfal, the appellants were fo numerous that the examination of the claims, according to the mode eftablished, would have been the labour of ages. Complaints had alfo been often made of the venality and partiality of those who were appointed to judge of thefe appeals: but no fteps were taken to remedy these abuses, till the judicial affaffination of M. de Cuffy, who had come to Paris to make his appeal, induced the legiflature to take into their own hands a power which, whether from careleffnefs or defign, had so immediate and dangerous an influence on the fortunes and lives of individuals. The execution of this gentleman, attended with circumftances which brought to remembrance the ferocious and expeditious modes of the revolutionary tribunal, caufed a general effervefcence against those who had been inftrumental in the commiffion of this act. The councils, paffing in filence over this event, the examination of which' might have produced difagreeable refults, contented themselves with taking the power and the means of doing further injustice out of the hands of the commiffioners of the directory, and appointed a committee of their own members to examine and pronounce on the future appeals.

The misunderstanding which had for a long time fubfifted between the French republic and the United States of America, difcovered itself at this period more openly by the refufal of the directory to receive as ambaffador to the French republic Mr. Pinckney, who had been fent to fucceed Mr. Monroe, the refident plenipotentiary. Mr. Adet, the French ambaffador to the United States, had notified nearly at the fame time (23d November) to the American government, that the directory had fufpended him alfo from his functions. He had previously communicated to the fecretary of state a memorial recapitulating the complaints of the French republic against the government of the United States, and had communicated the arret of the directory of the 14th *Meffidor, enjoining French fhips of war to obferve the fame conduct towards the vessels of neutral nations, as they had hitherto fuffered with impunity to be obferved by the English.

The directory juftified this proclamation by the fecret approbation given by the Americans to this violation of the law of neutrality on the part of the British, who had seized on neutral veffels, particularly thofe belonging to Americans, even in their very ports; and taken out of them whatever they found either of French persons or French property, without any refiftance being made on the part of the American government. From this memorial It appeared that the French ambaffador, in the beginning of the war, had made unheeded application and remonftrances on this fubject. The national convention had decreed, that, conformably to the ufage then eftablished by the English, British property found on board neutral veffels fhould become lawful prize,

but that American veffels were excepted from this general measure. The conduct of the English in seizing on all American provifionfhips had afterwards compelled them to refcind this exception, and decree conditionally that the seizure of English property on board neutral veffels fhould continue indifcriminately until the British government fhould definitively revoke the orders which it had given for this measure, and which were only fufpended by the embargo laid on by the congrefs on the 26th of March, 1794. The convention having received information that Mr. Jay was instructed to make remonftrances to the Britifh government refpecting these acts of hoftility, revoked the decree refpecting American fhips, hoping that this conduct would lead the United States to use every effort to induce the English to adopt the fame measure. But his remonftrances, if made, had no effect: the fame acts of hoftility were continued, and neutral veffels coming out or entering into French ports, were made prizes by the English.

Fürther reclamations were made, on the part of the French ambaffador, to the American government on the 29th of September, 1795, which were unheeded; a memorial prefented on the same subject, the 29th of March, 1796, was equally unnoticed. It appeared from thefe papers, that not only neutral vessels were feized, but failors were taken out of American veffels to serve on board British fhips, without any mark of difapprobation manifested on the part of the American government. Under these circumftanees, the government of France was compelled to have recourfe to the fame measures refpecting neutral veffels as the English government had adopted, and was permitted by the

neutral