Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/647

BONAPARTE IN EGYPT.] FRANCE 611 the advantageous terms offered them by Pitt at Lille, and were eager for war ; they proposed to remodel all Europe on democratic lines, and rejoiced to have a hand in the overthrow of the papal government, which was replaced by a Roman republic (February 1798), and in April of a Hel vetic republic which replaced the old aristocratic govern ment of Bern. By the former France defied the oldest in stitution in the world; by the latter she destroyed the ancient neutrality of Switzerland, a step which afterwards turned to her own loss. War with England was now the chief affair for France ; she made preparations on the western coasts, and set a considerable fleet afloat. The state of Ireland, which was thoroughly hostile to England, invited the Directory in one direction ; the appeal of Tippoo Sahib in Mysore was heard at the same moment. Should they listen to either ] Should they not rather strike at the heart of the enemy by an in vasion of England? Bonaparte, who was now at Paris, standing aloof from parties, advising the Directory, living tranquilly with his wife Josephine, interested in his new membership of the Institute, was destined to answer this question for them. Afraid of dropping out of sight, anxious to strike the imagination of France by some singular and distant success, attracted by that love of wide combinations which characterized him, Bonaparte now proposed to the Directory to conquer Egypt. The conquest itself would be easy, for the Ottoman power was all but gone. Egypt would be a splendid colony for France, assuring her on the one hand of the Mediterranean, and on the other hand rendering the trade and mastery of England precari ous, if it did not at once prove fatal to it. The thought had been presented to Louis XIV. by Descartes, and ap proved by Colbert. Choiseul had not rejected it in his day. "We can destroy England in Egypt," was Bonaparte s belief. On the other hand the Directory, after much doubt, adopted the project, partly because of its dimensions and startling boldness, partly because the Five could thereby, for a time cartainly, probably for ever, be delivered from the terrible young general whose ambition was clear to them, and whom they feared. And so, in spite of all whisperings of pru- denca, and in spite of the threatening state of Europe, and the precarious condition of their power at home, the Direc tory sanctioned Bonaparte s plan, and furnished him with a fine fleet and army for the purpose. That able negotiator Talleyrand set out for Constantinople charged to endeavour to satisfy the Ottoman Porte as to the objects of the ex pedition. Bonaparte sailed from Toulon (19th May 1798) for Malta, which, by good will of some of the knights and the idleness and decadence of the Order of St John, he took at once ; thence to Alexandria, having escaped the English fleet under Nelson. He landed, and sent Kleber forward to capture Alexandria; then leaving him to garrison that ity, he marched on Cairo, threw off the gallant attacks of he Mamelukes on the way, showed to his soldiers the forty centuries looking down on them from the Pyra- ids," defeated Mourad Bey, who endeavoured to defend airo, and entered that city in triumph. The whole of gypt was thus subdued with one blow ; and Bonaparte vas already, with his wonted energy, making plans for the permanent occupation and government of the country, was ng out with his savants to explore the wealth and onders of the land, was writing home bulletins of glory, hen there spread through the camp the news of the battle f the Nile, and one great disaster ruined all. Brueys, fter receiving orders either to enter the port of Alexandria r to withdraw to Corfu, had lingered near Aboukir, and Vas there caught by Nelson. The battle had lasted all the ight of August 1 ; by the morning the English fleet was wch shattered, but it had destroyed its enemy, with the exception of four ships which escaped to Malta. It was the 1798. ruin of the French navy ; and how should the victorious army at Cairo ever get reinforcements or escape from Egypt ? Was the fate of St Louis in store for these new crusaders, who, unlike him, affected Mahometan ways and customs, and issued proclamations which the pious Mussul man might have thought written by a true believer ? The Ottoman Porte, far from being appeased by French Second explanations (indeed Talleyrand, shrewd man, saw that it coalition was hopeless, and never went to Constantinople), declared Zr am war on France, and allied itself with England and Russia, it was the beginning of the new politics of the Mahometans in Europe, the beginning of the end for them. A second coalition was at once organized against France. Russia, under Paul I., entered warmly into it, and constituted her self the special patron and protector of the emigrant royal ists ; the court of Vienna made its preparations to shake off the yoke of Campo Formio ; the five republics round about had learnt already that republicanism under French patronage was very like servitude, the French having an unhappy knack of always alienating those they patronize as liberators, and seemed weary of seeing their finest works of art sent to Paris, as if to the world s centre. They were already listening to the court of Naples which hotly urged on war. France, on the other hand, was very unfit to fight. She had lost all control of the Mediterranean; the army was weaker in itself, and much weaker by the absence of Bonaparte in Egypt ; finance was still amiss, with a terrible deficit ; the Directory inspired little confidence. The only ally of France was Spain, and her navy had been destroyed the year before off Cape St Vincent by Admiral Jervis. The Directory raised money as it could, and passed the The con- great law of the " conscription," by which every Frenchman scription. was compelled to be a soldier from the age of twenty to twenty-five, and ordered an immediate levy of 200,000 men. War began at once in Italy ; before the end of the year the whole peninsula from Piedmont to Sicily was at the feet of France. The Directory, having destroyed the neutrality of Swit- Opera- zerland, thought it now necessary to occupy that country, in tions i Q order to protect the frontiers of France on that side ; they war> also spread their forces along their whole line, from Brune who commanded in Holland, to Macdonald who was at Naples. The army of Massena formed the centre of the whole ; he was instructed to enter Switzerland, seize the central Alps and the Vorarlberg and Tyrol, and thence to threaten Venice. It was an entirely new combination in European warfare, thanks to the new Helvetic Republic. Massena pushed forward into Tyrol, but was arrested there by the ill-success of his colleagues in Bavaria, and in Italy on the Po. Jourdan had been twice defeated by the arch duke Charles on the Danube, while Scherer, in Italy, after some successes, had been obliged to fall back after a disas trous campaign. The Helvetic strategy had proved a failure, and Massdna had to abandon his enterprise. The news of French reverses reaching Rastadt, where France was still trying to intimidate the feeble princes of the empire, the French envoys were told to leave the town, and were murdered on the road by Austrian hussars. The news of this barbarous insult to the sacrosanct persons of a nation s envoys roused immense excitement in France, and entirely did away the depression which had crept over the country. The ranks of the army^filled with amazing speed. The Helvetic plan of advance was abandoned ; Massdna had com mand of his old army and that of the Rhine, with his centre from the Lake of Constance to Basel ; Macdonald was withdrawn from Naples ; the army of Italy was com manded by Moreau, whom the Directory had restored to favour after eighteen months of inaction, consequent on his ambiguous dealings with Pichegru.