enveloped in a thick fog; and before Lecourbe, who led the attack, was aware of his danger, his corps was charged by a large body of Imperial horse, and routed with a loss of two thousand men. The affairs of the Archduke were, however, in too desperate a condition to be relieved by this partial success, and he retreated in the night, leaving Salsburg to its fate. Decaen took possession of it in the morning, and, for the first time, the Republican standards waved on the picturesque towers of that romantic city.

The same day, Richepanse continued the pursuit, and on the 16th he overtook the Austrian rear at Herdorf, where he routed them with the loss of a thousand prisoners. For the next two days, he kept up a running fight, at the end of which the Austrians reached Schwanstadt, and endeavored to make a stand against their inveterate pursuers. Still, all was in vain. Nothing could resist the impetuosity of the French troops, and the Imperialists, again defeated with great loss, continued their flight. Affairs were in this disastrous state, when the Archduke Charles, to whom the nation unanimously appealed as the only means of saving the monarchy, arrived, and took command of the army. But when he reviewed the troops as they crossed the Traun, his experienced eye told him that little was to be hoped from their exertions: they were but a confused mass of infantry, cavalry and artillery: their discipline was lost; the men neither grouped around their standards nor listened to the voice of their officers; dejection and despair were painted in every countenance. The Archduke, perceiving that resistance was hopeless, reluctantly dispatched a messenger to Moreau, soliciting an armistice; which, after some hesitation on the part of the French general, was signed on the 25th of December.

Before these events were brought to a conclusion in Germany, Macdonald was ordered to march his army of fifteen thousand men across the Alps, into the Italian Tyrol, by the passage of the Splugen. He arrived with his advanced guard at the village of that name, on the evening of the 26th of November, accompanied by a company of sappers, and the sledges containing his artillery. In the morning of the 27th, he commenced the ascent. The country guides placed poles along the route; the laborers followed and removed the snow, and the dragoons came next, to trample down the road with their horses' feet. In this manner, a detachment had, with great fatigue, nearly reached the summit; when the wind suddenly rose, an avalanche slid down the mountain, crossed the path and swept away thirty dragoons from the head of the column, into the abyss below, where they were dashed to pieces between the ice and the rocks. General Laboissiere, who led the van, was a little in advance of the dragoons; he therefore escaped the avalanche, and proceeded in safety to the hospice above: but the remainder of the column, thunderstruck by such a catastrophe, returned to Splugen. The wind continued to blow with great violence for the three succeeding days, and detached so many avalanches, that the road was entirely blocked up; and the guides declared that no efforts could render it passable in less than two weeks. Macdon- · ald, however, was not to be daunted by such obstacles. Independently of his anxiety to fulfil his designated part in the campaign, necessity required him to proceed; for the unwonted accumulation of men and horses in these Alpine regions, promised soon to consume the whole substance of the country, and expose the troops to destruction from famine. He

consequently, made the best arrangements within his control, to reopen the passage. Four strong oxen were first sent along the route, led by experienced guides: these were followed by forty robust peasants, who cleared or beat down the snow; two companies of sappers came next and improved the path; and behind them rode the dragoons. A convoy of artillery, a hundred beasts of burden, and a strong rear-guard closed the march. Many men and horses were overwhelmed by the snow, and not a few perished from cold; but at length, the hospice was gained, the descent on the other side achieved, and the advanced guard of the army reached the sunny fields of Campo Dolcino, at the southern base of the mountain. On the 5th of December, Macdonald commenced the passage with the remainder of his army; and on the 7th, he reached Chiavenna Iwith his whole force.

But the difficulties of this enterprising commander did not terminate here for his subsequent orders required him to penetrate into the valley of the Adige, by the route of Mont Tonal, on the summit of which ridge, after encountering all the perils of the ascent, he found his road barred by a corps of Austrian troops, posted behind a triple line of intrenchments. He advanced against this new obstacle with great intrepidity, and forced two of the lines; but the third resisted every effort, and he was compelled to retrace his steps down the mountain. He now made a circuit to reach his destination in the Tyrol; which, after a series of hardships, he at length accomplished on the 6th of January. All the operations in this quarter, however, were brought to an end by an armistice, agreed upon between the armies, at Treviso, on the 16th of the same month. By the conditions of this armistice, the Austrians were to surrender Peschiera, Verona, Legnago, Ancona and Ferrara; but they retained Mantua, the chief object of the campaign. Napoleon was so irritated at these terms, that he never again intrusted an important command to Brune, by whom they were conceded.

As the French troops were now disengaged from all other enemies in Italy, Napoleon directed a corps to advance on Naples, with the avowed intention of dismembering that kingdom. And this he would readily have accomplished, but for the heroic exertions of the Neapolitan queen, who, immediately after the battle of Marengo, anticipating such an invasion, set off alone from Palermo, and made a journey to St. Petersburg, where she implored the intervention of the Russian Emperor. Paul, whose chivalrous character was highly flattered by this adventurous step on the part of the queen, espoused her cause, and dispatched a special messenger to treat with Napoleon in her behalf. It may be presumed that, desirous as Napoleon was of maintaining a good understanding with Russia, this mediation was entirely successful; and the First Consul, abandoning his hostile purposes, concluded a treaty with Naples, on the 9th of February.

By this compact, known as the treaty of Foligno, it was provided that the Neapolitan troops should evacuate the Roman States, and that all the ports of Naples and Sicily should be closed against English and Turkish vessels of merchandise, as well as war, and remain shut until the conclusion of a general peace; that port Longone in the island of Elba, Piombino in Tuscany, and a small territory on the sea-coast of that duchy, should be ceded to France; and that in case of a menaced attack on the Neapolitan dominions, from the troops of Turkey or England, a French corps, equal in strengh to one that the Emperor of Russia might send,

should be placed at the disposal of the King of Naples. Under the words of this last condition, was veiled the most important article of the treaty; for, being speedily carried into effect, it revealed the intention of Napoleon to take military possession of the whole peninsula. On the 1st of April, before either any requisition had been made by the King of Naples or any danger menaced his dominions, a corps of twelve thousand men, under the command of General Soult, set out from the French lines and took possession of the fortresses of Tarentum, Otranto, Brindisi, and all the harbors in the extremity of Calabria. The object of this obtrusive occupation was to facilitate the establishment of a communication with the army of Egypt.

As a consequence of the armistice granted to the Archduke Charles in Germany, and that agreed upon with Brune at Treviso, negotiations for peace were entered into between Austria and France, which ended on the 9th of February, in the treaty of Luneville. The conditions of this treaty did not materially differ from those of the treaty of Campo Formio, or from those offered by Napoleon before the opening of the campaign: a remarkable fact, when it is considered how great an addition the victories of Marengo and Hohenlinden had since made to the preponderance of the French arms.

CHAPTER XIX.

FROM THE PEACE OF LUNEVILLE TO THE DISSOLUTION OF THE NORTHERN MARITIME CONFEDERACY.

THE various alternations of war, peace and neutrality that were now occurring between the different powers of Europe, led naturally to much discussion and controversy on the subject of maritime law, and the rights of merchant ships trading from neutral to belligerent countries. Under a strict construction of the law of nations, and without at all violating the provisions of that code, numerous seizures and confiscations had been made by the British government, which revived the jealousies of the other European states, at the almost unlimited power of the English navy. In December, 1799, an altercation took place in the Straits of Gibraltar between some British frigates and a Danish ship, in which the Dane refused to submit to a search of the vessels under his convoy: but eventually, the government, of Denmark formally disavowed the conduct of their captain, and the amicable relations remained unchanged. But the next collision of a similar character, led to more serious results. On the 25th of July, 1800, the commander of the Danish frigate Freya refused to allow his ships to be searched, but offered to show certificates to the British officer, specifying the nature of the cargoes under his charge: and he intimated, that if a boat were sent to make search it would be fired upon. On receiving this reply, the British captain laid his vessel alongside the Dane; and, as the latter persisted, he discharged a few broadsides at the Freya, took possession of her and the ships under her convoy, and carried them into the Downs.

At the same time, the English cabinet had learned that hostile negotiations were in progress between the Northern courts relative to neutral rights; and deeming it probable that these would end in a declaration of hostile intentions, they wisely resolved to anticipate an attack. For this purpose, Lord Whitworth was sent on a special message to Copenhagen ; and, to give greater weight to his arguments, a squadron of nine sail of the line, four bombs and five frigates was dispatched to the Sound, under the command of Admiral Dickson. The Admiral found four line-ofbattle ships moored across the strait from Cronenberg Castle to the Swedish shore; but the English fleet passed without the commission of any act of hostility on either side, and came to anchor off Copenhagen. The Danes were employed in strengthening their fortifications; batteries were erected on advantageous points near the coast, and three floating bulwarks were stationed at the mouth of the harbor; but their preparations were incomplete, and the strength of the British squadron precluded the hope of a successful resistance. An accommodation was therefore entered into, the principal conditions of which were, that the frigate and merchant vessels carried into the Downs, should be repaired at the expense of the British government, and the question of right of search adjourned to London, for further consideration. In the mean time, Danish trading ships were to sail with convoy only in the Mediterranean, where it was necessary to guard against the Barbary cruisers, and their other vessels were to be liable, as before, to search.

This treaty was, under the circumstances, a triumph to Great Britain; and it would have led to no disastrous consequences, but for the interference of the Emperor of Russia. The Northern Autocrat had been greatly irritated at the ill-success of the expedition to Holland; he was further exasperated at the refusal of the British government to include Russian prisoners with English, in the exchange with the French; and finally, the taking possession by England of Malta-which fortress Paul, as Grandmaster of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, felt bound to restore to that celebrated order, while at the same time he knew that England would not relinquish it-excited him to open hostility and outrage. He instantly ordered an embargo on all British ships in the Russian harbors; and thereby detained nearly three hundred vessels with valuable cargoes, until the frost had set in and rendered the Baltic impassable. Nor was this all. The crews of these vessels, with Asiatic barbarity, and in defiance of the usages of civilized states, were marched off into prisons in the interior, some of them a thousand miles from the coast; and all the English property on shore was put under sequestration. When these orders were promulged, several British ships at Narva weighed anchor, and escaped the embargo: this so enraged the Autocrat, that he commanded the remaining vessels in the harbor to be burned, and published a declaration that the embargo should not be removed until Malta was given up to Russia.

The moment that Russia thus made common cause with the other Northern powers, Prussia and France threw their influence into the scale, and brought about a general maritime confederacy, hostile to Great Britain, which was signed by Russia, Sweden and Denmark, on the 16th of December, 1800. By this treaty, the contracting parties proclaimed that free ships made free goods; that the flag covered the merchandise; and that a port is to be considered under blockade, only when such a force

is stationed at its mouth as renders an entrance dangerous. They further declared, that the certificate of a captain of a convoy that no contraband goods were under his charge, should relieve his vessels from search; and that if any of the parties to this convention should be dealt with otherwise than in conformity to its enactments, the other parties would make common cause with the party aggrieved, and aid in its defence.

As it was manifest, that if this new code of maritime law were recognized, all the victories of the British navy would be fruitless-since France, by means of neutral vessels, could regain her whole commerce, import all the materials for the construction of a navy, and educate a body of sailors to man her ships of war, when so constructed-Mr. Pitt resolved on such measures of reprisal, as would show the Northern powers the qualities of the nation they had thought fit to provoke. On the 14th of January, 1801, the British government issued an order for a general embargo on all vessels belonging to any of the confederated powers; and letters of marque were granted for the capture of the numerous vessels belonging to those states. The House of Commons sustained Mr. Pitt's measures by a vote of two hundred and forty-five to sixty-three, and the result was, that nearly one half the merchant ships at sea, belonging to the Northern powers, found their way into the harbors of Great Britain.

The union of Ireland with England, from which such important results were anticipated, proved a source of weakness to the British Empire at this important crisis. By a series of concessions, which commenced soon after the coronation of George III. and continued through his reign, the Irish Catholics had been placed nearly on a level with their Protestant fellow-subjects, and they were at length excluded only from sitting in Parliament, and from holding about thirty of the principal offices in the state. When, however, Mr. Pitt carried through the great measure of Union, he gave the Catholics reason to expect, that a removal of all disabilities would follow: not, indeed, as matter of right, but of grace and favor. When the time arrived, he found himself unable to redeem his tacit pledge. It was ascertained, that the removal of the Catholic disabilities involved many fundamental questions in the Constitution: in particular, the Bill of Rights, the Test and Corporation Acts; and, in general, the stability of the whole Protestant Church establishment. It was, besides, discovered, when the measure was brought forward in the cabinet, that the king entertained scruples of conscience on the subject, in consequence of his oath at the coronation, "to maintain the Protestant religion established by law." Under these circumstances, Mr. Pitt stated that he had no alternative, but to resign his office. the 10th of February, it was announced in Parliament, that the cabinet ministers held the seals only until their successors were appointed; and soon after, Mr. Pitt, Lord Grenville, Earl Spenser, Mr. Dundas and Mr. Windham resigned, and were succeeded by Mr. Addington, then Speaker of the House of Commons, as First Lord of the Treasury, Lord Hawkesbury, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, and a new ministry taken entirely from the Tory party.

On

It has long been the practice of the administrations of Great Britain, not to resign on the question which directly occasions their retirement, but to select some minor point, which is held forth to the world as the real ground of the change: and this custom is attended with the great advantage, of not implicating the crown or the government in a collision with either