were abolished. Much good work was done by the Republicans
during their brief tenure of power, but it soon came to an end owing
to the course of events which favoured a reaction against France.
The directors of Paris, not content with overrunning and plundering
Switzerland, had outraged German sentiment in many ways.
Further, at the close of 1798 they virtually compelled the young
king of Sardinia, Charles Emmanuel IV., to abdicate at Turin.
He retired to the island of Sardinia, while the French despoiled
Piedmont, thereby adding fuel to the resentment rapidly growing
against them in every part of Europe.
The outcome of it all was the War of the Second Coalition,
in which Russia, Austria, Great Britain, Naples and some
secondary states of Germany took part. The incursion
of an Austro-Russian army, led by that strange but
magnetic being, Suvarov, decided the campaign in
Suvarov
in Italy.
northern Italy. The French, poorly handled by Schérer and
Sérurier, were everywhere beaten, especially at Magnano (April
5) and Cassano (April 27). Milan and Turin fell before the
allies, and Moreau, who took over the command, had much
difficulty in making his way to the Genoese coast-line. There
he awaited the arrival of Macdonald with the army of Naples.
That general, Championnet’s successor, had been compelled by
these reverses and by the threatening pressure of Nelson’s fleet
to evacuate Naples and central Italy. In many parts the
peasants and townsfolk, enraged by the licence of the French,
hung on his flank and rear. The republics set up by the French
at Naples, Rome and Milan collapsed as soon as the French
troops retired; and a reaction in favour of clerical and Austrian
influence set in with great violence. For the events which then
occurred at Naples, so compromising to the reputation of Nelson,
see Nelson and Naples. Sir William Hamilton was subsequently
recalled in a manner closely resembling a disgrace, and
his place was taken by Paget, who behaved with more dignity
and tact.
Meanwhile Macdonald, after struggling through central Italy, had defeated an Austrian force at Modena (June 12, 1799), but Suvarov was able by swift movements utterly to overthrow him at the Trebbia (June 17–19). The wreck of his force drifted away helplessly towards Genoa. A month later the ambitious young general, Joubert, who took over Moreau’s command and rallied part of Macdonald’s following, was utterly routed by the Austro-Russian army at Novi (August 15) with the loss of 12,000 men. Joubert perished in the battle. The growing friction between Austria and Russia led to the transference of Suvarov and his Russians to Switzerland, with results which were to be fatal to the allies in that quarter. But in Italy the Austrian successes continued. Melas defeated Championnet near Coni on the 4th of November; and a little later the French garrisons at Ancona and Coni surrendered. The tricolour, which floated triumphantly over all the strongholds of Italy early in the year, at its close waved only over Genoa, where Masséna prepared for a stubborn defence. Nice and Savoy also seemed at the mercy of the invaders. Everywhere the old order of things was restored. The death of the aged Pope Pius VI. at Valence (August 29, 1799) deprived the French of whatever advantage they had hoped to gain by dragging him into exile; on the 24th of March 1800 the conclave, assembled for greater security on the island of San Giorgio at Venice, elected a new pontiff, Pius VII.
Such was the position of affairs when Bonaparte returned
from Egypt and landed at Fréjus. The contrast presented by
his triumphs, whether real or imaginary, to the reverses
sustained by the armies of the French directory, was
fatal to that body and to popular institutions in France.
Campaign
of Marengo.
After the coup d’état of Brumaire (November 1799) he,
as First Consul, began to organize an expedition against the
Austrians (Russia having now retired from the coalition), in
northern Italy. The campaign culminating at Marengo was
the result. By that triumph (due to Desaix and Kellermann
rather than directly to him), Bonaparte consolidated his own
position in France and again laid Italy at his feet. The Austrian
general, Melas, signed an armistice whereby he was to retire
with his army beyond the river Mincio. Ten days earlier,
namely on the 4th of June, Masséna had been compelled by
hunger to capitulate at Genoa; but the success at Marengo,
followed up by that of Macdonald in north Italy, and Moreau
at Hohenlinden (December 2, 1800), brought the emperor
Treaty of Lunéville.
Francis to sue for peace which was finally concluded
at Lunéville on the 9th of February 1801. The
Cisalpine and Ligurian Republics (reconstituted soon
after Marengo) were recognized by Austria on condition that they
were independent of France. The rule of Pius VII. over the
Papal States was admitted; and Italian affairs were arranged
much as they were at Campo Formio: Modena and Tuscany
now reverted to French control, their former rulers being promised
compensation in Germany. Naples, easily worsted by the French,
under Miollis, left the British alliance, and made peace by the
treaty of Florence (March 1801), agreeing to withdraw her
troops from the Papal States, to cede Piombino and the Presidii
(in Tuscany) to France and to close her ports to British ships and
commerce. King Ferdinand also had to accept a French garrison
at Taranto, and other points in the south.
Other changes took place in that year, all of them in favour of France. By complex and secret bargaining with the court of Madrid, Bonaparte procured the cession to France of Louisiana, in North America, and Parma; while the duke of Parma (husband of an infanta of Spain) Napoleon’s reorganization of Italy. was promoted by him to the duchy of Tuscany, now renamed the kingdom of Etruria. Piedmont was declared to be a military division at the disposal of France (April 21, 1801); and on the 21st of September 1802, Bonaparte, then First Consul for life, issued a decree for its definitive incorporation in the French Republic. About that time, too, Elba fell into the hands of Napoleon. Piedmont was organized in six departments on the model of those of France, and a number of French veterans were settled by Napoleon in and near the fortress of Alessandria. Besides copying the Roman habit of planting military colonies, the First Consul imitated the old conquerors of the world by extending and completing the road-system of his outlying districts, especially at those important passes, the Mont Cenis and Simplon. He greatly improved the rough track over the Simplon Pass, so that, when finished in 1807, it was practicable for artillery. Milan was the terminus of the road, and the construction of the Foro Buonaparte and the completion of the cathedral added dignity to the Lombard capital. The Corniche road was improved; and public works in various parts of Piedmont, and the Cisalpine and Ligurian Republics attested the foresight and wisdom of the great organizer of industry and quickener of human energies. The universities of Pavia and Bologna were reopened and made great progress in this time of peace and growing prosperity. Somewhat later the Pavia canal was begun in order to connect Lake Como with the Adriatic for barge-traffic.
The personal nature of the tie binding Italy to France was illustrated by a curious incident of the winter of 1802–1803. Bonaparte, now First Consul for life, felt strong enough to impose his will on the Cisalpine Republic and to set at defiance one of the stipulations of the treaty of Lunéville. On the pretext of consolidating that republic, he invited 450 of its leading men to come to Lyons to a consulta. In reality he and his agents had already provided for the passing of proposals which were agreeable to him. The deputies having been dazzled by fêtes and reviews, Talleyrand and Marescalchi, ministers of foreign affairs at Paris and Milan, plied them with hints as to the course to be followed by the consulta; and, despite the rage of the more democratic of their number, everything corresponded to the wishes of the First Consul. It remained to find a chief. Very many were in favour of Count Melzi, a Lombard noble, who had been chief of the executive at Milan; but again Talleyrand and French agents set to work on behalf of their master, with the result that he was elected president for ten years. He accepted that office because, as he frankly informed the deputies, he had found no one who “for his services rendered to his country, his authority with the people and his separation from party
