Thulleries; the fame fuite of apartments that had been occupied by the late unfortunate king and queen of France. The two exconfuls, Sieyes and Ducos, now fenators, and the two confuls, Cambaceres and Lebrun, were intrusted with the nomination of a majority of the fenate. Their choice in ge neral fell on men of unexceptionable characters. As foon as the fenate was filled up, it proceeded to the nomination of the tribunes and the legislative body. The council of ftate, chofen by the first conful, was generally allowed to unite great talents with the moft perfect integrity. VOL. XLII. [F] CHAP. CHA P. V. The Return of Buonaparte from Egypt, the leading Event in the Hiftory of 1800.--The vast and unbounded Power refied in him by the new Confiitution.-General Expectations and Prefages.-Able and prudent Condu& of Buonaparte.-The Juftice and Moderation of his Government.-His Solicitude to pacify and tranquillize France.-Means adopted for this Purpose. -Both of Perfuafion and Force.-War in the western Departments.— Årmiflice.—The War renewed.-Overtures from Buonaparte for Peace with England.-Rejected. W HETHER we contemplate the great affairs of nations in a political or military point of view, the return of Buouaparte to France, in the beginning of October, 1799, is the grand and leading event in the hiftory of 1800, and that which, more than any other, influenced the state and condition, not only of France, Italy, and Germany, but of every other country in Europe. Who could have believed that a fimple fub-lieutenant of artillery, a ftranger to France, by name and by birth, was defined to govern this great empire, and to give the law, in a manner, to all the continent, in defiance of reason, juftice, the hereditary rights of the legitimate princes of the realm, and the combined efforts of fo great a number of loyalifts in the interior of the kingdom, and all the great powers of Europe? There is not any one in the world who could have imagined the poflibility of an event fo extraordinary, Almoft forgotten by a nation, ever in motion, incapable of reft, and always taken up with objects prefent to their fenfes, and new to their imaginations, he was fuddenly exalted to an authority, at leaft as ample and abfolute as any of the French kings. He was invefted with the power of taxation," the power of the fword, the power of war and peace, the unlimited power of commanding the refources, and dif pofing of the lives and fortunes of every man in France. He was furnished with the means of creating an army, by converting every man, who was of age to bear arms, into a foldier, whether for the defence of his own country, or carrying war into the country of an enemy. He had no rival to thwart his meafures, no colleague to divide his powers, no council to controul his operations, no liberty of fpeaking or writing for the expreffion of public opinion, to check or influence his conduct and, to crown the whole, his power, refting apparently on the foundations of popu lar election and democratic fway. From fuch a man, invefted with fuch or feared. If his arrival at Frejus ftruck Europe with aftonifhment and railed a general expectation of fome approaching and important changes in affairs political and military, the prefage was confirmed and ratified by the proceedings at St. Cloud, and the fubfequent conftitution, formed fo fuddenly, as has been faid, by an union of philofophy with the bayonet. fuch power, much was to be hoped. It would have appeared aukward and mortifying to that ambitious hero, to have placed himfelf immediately at the head of an army, beaten, difcouraged, and ruined. He contented himfelf, for the prefent, with tranfmitting to them addreffès after addrefles, which ferved, at leaft, the purpose of calling him to their remembrance. But he entertained, at the fame time, more extenfive views. He knew how to appreciate and avail himfelt of the new enthufiafm in his favour: that enthusiasm of which every one knows the French nation is fo highly fufceptible. He conceived the brighteft hopes of perfonal glory, and a renovation of the weakened ftrength of the nation. In order to fucceed in these defigns, he deemed it fufficient to feize the reins of government, ready to drop of themfelves, from the feeble hands of its weak adminiftrators. He had the boldness to do fo, and they had not the courage to refift him. The glory of the French arms having fallen confiderably into the wane, while the conqueror of Italy had become an adventurer, with various fortune, but never without renown in Egypt, he now appeared, on his return, to be the only arbiter, who could change the courfe of affairs, and decide the deftinies of France. As in our refearches into the hiftory of ancient Gaul, before the Chriftian æra, we are guided folely by the commentaries of Julius Cæfar, and every where contemplate that renowned fcholar and foldier, as the principal figure in the various fcene; fo, in relating the war of 1800, one feems as if he were writing the memoirs, and following, throughout, the defigns, actions, and fortune of Buonaparte. Scarcely had that fortunate ufurper fet his foot on the land of France, when he perceived the ftaggering state of the interior of that kingdom, and learned the confequences of the defeats which the French had fuffered in Italy. They had been driven, by the Auftrians and Ruffians, from all the places which he himself had conquered. Of thefe defeats he could not arreft either the courfe or the progrefs. They were continued, as will by and by be related, to the end of 1799, and even fomewhat beyond it. Here it is natural to paufe and confider if his rivals in power had fucceeded in that anarchical and tumultuous refiftance, which they did oppofe to him, what the advantages would have been to France. From the fuccefs of Buonaparte, it is evident that the French nation had, by this time, become fenfible that they stood in need of a master. And, as they were not yet fufficiently enlightened, by experience, to perceive that a hereditary chief was the beft, as fuch a chief alone could prevent the evils of future changes, Buonaparte, being a ftranger, and deriving no family confequences from any relationship to crowned heads, was as good as any other. In the opinion, however, of [F 2] many many people, not only in France, but in other countries, the new dictatorship of Buonaparte was, in fact, a great fiep towards the refloration of the monarchy. Buo naparte, it was laid, would fave himfelf from many evils and cover his head with eternal glory, if he could accomplish that grand work in a manner confiftent with the internal tranquillity and general happinefs of France, and the peace and advantage of neighbouring nations.* The grand obstacle to fuch a defign is, the diftribution of the land of the church, and of the nobles, among fo immenfe a number of new proprietors. Yet not a few were of opinion, that, in cafe of a general reflux in the political fentiments of the French nation, the thing might be found practicable, by means of what remains unfold, and in the hands of government, of royal, or, as they are now called, national domains, and compromifes with the prefent proprietors or incumbents. But while many of the loyalifts flattered themselves that there was, yet to be another revolution, and that Buonaparte, influenced by public opinion and fpirit, was going to imitate the conduct of general Monk, it appeared, from letters of congratulation from the departments, that the French, in general, were pleafed with the change that had taken place in the government, which appeared to have affumed a kind of confiftency. Having long been ill governed, they were glad to fee a change from which they could hope, at least, that their alfairs would be conducted with vigour and ability. Meanwhile the public funds kept rifing, and every thing was quiet at Paris, and in the departments, except in thofe of the Weft, where Cornet, who had been. a member of the council of the ancients, with another deputy, was fent to pacify the loyalifts, as above mentioned. Five and twenty members of the legislative body were fent as deputies, or military prefects, to five-and-twenty new military divifions of the country, called prefectures. The force of the royalifts, or Chouans, in Britanny and Normandy, November, 1799, amounted to fixty thoufand. They threatened the town of Quimper, of which they were at one period in poffeffion. Several garrifons were difpofed by government on the coafts of Flanders and Picardy, for obftructing their progrefs. The army of loyalifts, in Normandy, under the command of the count de Frotté, was confiderable. A part of this army, called the divi The following note is taken from the converfation of an intelligent and moderate, though, perhaps, on the prefent point, too fanguine a loyalist. "If I had acquired what Buonaparte has acquired, I would give none of it up; and the only means, perhaps, of confolidating and eternizing his glory would be, after fettling the affairs of France in the best manner poffible, to call to the throne the duke of Angouleme, or the duke of Anguien. Having done this, I would not accept any fecondary station: no, not even a fovereignty. As a fimple compenfation, I would accept only a fum of money, fufficient to form an independent establishment in fome free and neutral country, fuch as the United States of America. I would thus be affured of living tranquil and happily all the reft of my days, and that no catastrophe would either bereave me of felicity, or fully my fame. In fact, it would be neceifary to unite the examples of SoIon, Lycurgus, and Belifarius, in order to form a juft comparison with fuch a conduct on the part of Buonaparte.", them. fon of Evreux, at Pacy, near E- of the loyalifts, and even to join vreux, flopped the difpatches for government, from Breft; and, on the feventeenth of November, Mr. Ingaut, of St. Maure, a chevalier of St. Louis, and commandant of the divifion at Evreux, had publifhed a proclamation in the name of king Louis XVIII. inviting the loyal French to rally around the standards of their defenders against the new ufurpers of the monarchy, adding thefe words: "Whether thefe ambitious men affume the title of directors or of confuls, or fubfiitute, in room of the old inftitutions, a new code, be allured that you will have only one tyrant instead of another. Remember our oath, never to fheath our fwords till we have deftroyed the enemies of our auguft fovereign." The other chiefs of the loyalifts of Normandy and Britanny published like proclamations. By letters from the department of La Manche, (the channel,) bearing date the twenty-fourth of November, that a body of loyalifts, who had been defeated at La Foxe, where they had loft two thousand men, had rallied in the foreft of St. Lever, and that general count de Buais, with his divifion, had not quitted the cantons which border on the Orne and the Maus; and, on the Ville and Villaine, Fronca, with his divifion, had overrun all Britanny, and feemed to direct their march to Avranches, in the neighbourhood of which place were spread detach, ments of one, two, and three hundred men, who levied contributions, arms, and provifions. It was believed that the Ruffian troops, who had come to pass the winter in the ifles of Jerfey and Guernley, were deftined to favour the movements Towards the end of November, 1799, Buonaparte and all the members of the new government expreffed a defire of peace, not only with the royalift armies in France, but even a great number of the emigrants. On the twenty-ninth of December, the duke of Liancourt, whofe name had been ftruck off from the lift of emigrants, September, 1797, was appointed fuperintendant of the police; and the minifter of police wrote letters to the commiffioners of the armies of the North, cenfuring the harth and inhuman behaviour of the men who had conducted, from Calais to Ham, the unfortunate emigrants who had been driven aground on the coast of France; the dukes of Choifeul, Vibraye, and Montmorency, and twenty-leven others. This fpirit of moderation, on the part of the new chief of France, did not yet reft on fure foundations. His authority, newly established by revolutionifts, was not fufficient for the exercife of all that humanity and juftice, which it was equally his intereft and difpofition to difplay; ftill lefs had he the power of restoring their poffeffions to the emigrants. Unhappily a great number of thefe, as well as of priefts, fondly trufting in the first appearances of moderation, returned, but were repelled from France; fubjected to additional inconveniences and miferies. An armiftice was agreed to on the twenty-third of November, between general Hedoville and the counts de Chatillon, Bourmont, and Autichamp, the principal leaders, of the infurgents in the western departments. [F3] On |