網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

which had long been their chief depot, and take refuge in Trent. In order to cover this city, the Auftrians had rallied at the pafs of Calliano, and had taken pofitions which appeared impregnable. The. addrefs and courage of the divifion under general Maffena furmounted this obftacle; and after a long and obftinate conflict, in which the French made fix thousand prifoners, and took twenty pieces of cannon, this general victoriously entered the city of Trent, while general Wurmfer, drawing off the remainder of his forces to the right towards. Baffano, affembled the greater part of them in the valley of Brenta.

By this manœuvre, the Auftrian commander hoped to have engaged Buonaparte to have continued his march into the Tyrol, which appeared to be his object, and to which there was no longer any oppofition; while by rapid marches. he was enabled, from the pofition he had taken, to fall into the rear, of the French army, and by cutting it off from the divifion left to form the blockade of Mantua, had hoped, with the affiftance of the garrifon, to defeat this divifion, and prevent the retreat of the French general.

Buonaparte, however, inftead of continuing his march from Trent into the Tyrol, aware of the defign of Wurmfer, turned fhort to the right, and followed him closely to the valley of Brenta. Purfuing his march along the river of this name, he defeated the Auftrians (8th September) fucceffively at Primo nalo, at Covolo, at Cifmone, and

laftly at Baffano, where Wyrmfer had established his head quarters. Perceiving limfelf then vigorously purfued, Wurmfer had no alternative but to retreat towards Trieste, by which he muft have abandoned Mantua to its fate, or make good his march to that place, and reinforce the garrifon with the wrecks of his army. This latter plan feemed to him the most practicable; he accordingly prefented himfelf before Verona, where he attempted to pafs the Adige: but general Kilmaine, whom Buonaparte had left in that city, oppofed his progrefs; and he was therefore compelled to fek a paf fage at Porto Legnano, which he fortunately effected. It was Buonaparte's intention to have prevent-. ed him from penetrating to Mantua, and he had taken measures to furround him and compel him to furrender; but Wurmfer's marches. were fo rapid that this plan could not be put in execution. He met with refiftance in his march, at Cerea, Caitellano, and Due Caftelli; but as he had to contend with inferior forces, he fucceeded in making good his way to Mantua, where` the French attacking and obtain. ing, after great flaughter, the posts of Favorito and St. George in the fuburbs of the city, and not having artillery to form a fiege, turned the whole into a blockade. In this attack it is computed that the imperialists loft twenty thoufand men; and this was the third army which had been deftroyed in the courfe of this campaign, in attempting to reduce Lombardy once more under the Austrian yoke.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

CHAP. XI.

Troubles in the South of France. Babeuf and his Accomplices ordered to be nied by the high National Court. Drouet efcapes from Prifon. Attack of the Facobins on the Camp of Grenelle. Trial of the Infurgents by a Military Commion. Caufes of the Disorders in various Departments of the Republic. General Amney propofed. Difcuffion on the Law of 3d Eru maire. Amendent of that Law. State of Geneva. State of the Church and the Clergy in France. State of the Church in Holland. State of Literature in France. Report of the Directory refecting the I.ands of the Mauritius. State of St. Domingo. Hiftory of the Revolt in Grenada. Reduction of St. Lucia, of St. Vincents. The Marcon war in Jamaica.

M

TARSEILLES, which had been fo often during the revolution the feat of political difcord, prefented (on the nineteenth of July) fcenes of diforder which threatened the fubverfion of government, and the renewal of the reign of terror.

The period when the citizens affembled for the annual choice of their magiftrates, was that chofen by the jacobins to raise this fedition. Marfeilles at once refembied a city taken by ftorm, and delivered over to the pillage of a ferocious foldiery. Bands of affaffins' ran through the streets, with their necks and arms bare, armed with fabres, ftilettos, and clubs, exclaiming, "Long live the mountain! long live the conftitution of 1793!" and having divided th mfelves into different bands, they took poffeffion of the halls where the fections affembled, overthrew the urns which contained the ballots of the citizens, drove the prefidents and fecretaries of the affemblies from their places, and killed those who made reuit ance. The commiffary of the directory at Marfeilles excufed those acts to the government as quarrels between the royalifts and republicans; but the council of five hun

dred inftituted an inquiry into the facts, and expofed the perfidy of the agent of government, and hav ing annulled the elections, ordered the directory to fill up the vacan cies provifionally until proper mea fures fhould be taken for the fecu rity and tranquillity of the city.

Although the jacobins were moft frequently guilty of thefe exceffes, the public tranquillity was often difturbed by the partifans of royalty, and by fanatics, who, under the title of Societies of the Sun, and of Jefus, retaliated with great fes verity, and often with cruelty, on the agents of terrorifo, by whom, in the days of revolutionary government, they had been feverely perfecuted. The rage of thefe dif ferent factions against each other had been fuppreffed or fomented. according to the political opinions of thofe who had been tent on miffion to examine into and remove thefe evils; but the pacification was in general of fhort duration. Thefe infurrections were confined chiefly to the fouth, where the paffions, perhaps, acquire energy from the influence of the climate. The general tranquillity of the ftate was little difturbed by thefe partial dif orders; and in this is difcovered

the

the advantage of great republics over thofe of fmall extent; fince in France infurrection may be excited, or rebellion may rage over a ftretch of country equal to the extent of many leffer governments, without producing any fenfible effect on the great mafs; the revolt at the extremity is crushed by the weight of power concentred in the feat of empire, and put in motion against it; while, in fmaller ftates, the whole is infurrection, and the parties torment and lacerate each other, till the diforder ends in complete anarchy or fervitude.

The jacobins, defeated at Marfeilles, where a kind of military government was now inftituted in order to preferve more effectually the public peace, made foon after another attempt for the fubverfion of the government at Paris itfelf, more violent and extravagant than that of Babeuf.

As a representative of the people had been engaged in that conTpiracy, the forms enjoined by the conftitution for his arraignment had retained him, as well as his accomplices, in Paris till the two councils had decreed his accufa tion. After Drouet had undergone the neceffary examinations, and had been ordered to take his trial, he found means to make his escape from the Abbey prifon where he was confined. This evasion was generally understood to have been an act of the jacobinical party in the government, who were fuppofed to be well acquainted with the progrefs of this confpiracy.

Little inquiry was made into the affair, fince it was generally agreed that the trial of a man who was fuppofed to have rendered fervice to the country by the arreft of the late king in his flight from Paris, and who was just returned from a long

imprisonment with the Auftrians, would bring fcandal on the republis.

Although the evafion of Drouet rendered the affembly of a national. court unneceffary, it was determined that the trial of his accomplices. fhould be carried on in the fame forms as if he was prefent. This confpiracy, which, for its extent and its views, may rank with any recorded in hiftory, became juftly an object of national attention. The examination of the papers of the confpirators, which formed a collection as curious as it was terrible, prefented fuch details and ramifi. cations of treafon, as deterred the government from making them im mediately public; nor was it till fome time had elapfed, and the publication became unavoidable, that the depth of this confpiracy was difcovered.

Though the fubverfion of the government was the ultimate end of the majority of the confpirators, the three parties who formed the general body were divided on the means by which it was to be effected. The firft of thefe parties was that over which Babeuf himfelf prefided, and whofe adherents were Antonelle, Pelletier, Germain, D'Arthe, &c. This divifion was for a general maffacre of all who held any authority, or who were guilty of being rich; and this divifion was the most powerful, the best conducted, and the best organized; but it did not appear to have the means, without a coalition of the different parties, for accomplishing its ends. The fecond divilion was compofed of ex-conventionals,-of thofe who had been members of the committees of public and general fafety, under the regimen of terror,-fuch as Vadier, Amar, Laignelot, Lindet, and others. These Ex-deputies, prefuming on their own

P 4 experience

experience in government, were averfe to fo wide a diffemination of power as would neceffarily follow, if the partifans of general maffacre were to gain the afcendency; and therefore they contended that the purposes of this revolution would be fully anfwered, if the government was put into the hands of those who had conducted the infurrections of Germinal and Prairial, in 1793, of those who had been fent prifoners to the fortrefs of Ham, and thofe deputies of the convention who had been rejected at the last election. Of this party Babeuf spoke with great contempt: and it is probable that they would have divided, had not a coalition been found indifpenfably neceffary to attain the common end. Drouet, it feems, was the point of contact between thefe difcordant parties, the compounder and antalgamizer of their crimes, the reconciler of their differences, and the propofer of the conditions of the treaty which confolidated their union.

Both these parties, notwithstand ing their reciprocal hatred, joined their difcordant forces, and both were overlooked by the third party, of whom Babeuf fpoke with refpect, and whofe alliance he held in greater confideration than thofe with whom he was already leagued. Whoever in the government were the fubaltern agents, the director, Barras, appears to have been acquainted with the proceedings of the confpirators; and in a converfation which he held at the directorial palace with Germain, one of the most faithful adherents of Babeuf, it is faid he hinted at various revolutionary measures, fuch as pillaging the hops and warehoufes, as beft fitted to effect the end they had in view.

It does not appear that any of

the high authorities mingled more immediately in the plot, but only held themfelves in readiness to take advantage of the diforder. Among the papers of the confpirators were found lifts of thofe who, though not engaged in the conspiracy, enjoyed (according to their different talents, as pronounced patriots) the confi dence of the chiefs. Some were particularly marked out as steady men fit for revolutionary execution, which was followed by the long fcroll of thofe to be murdered; others were defignated for administrators, financiers, and other employments; fo that not only was the fuccefs of this new revolution enfured, but almost all the places under the fucceeding government filled up..

When Babeuf, with the other confpirators, was transferred to the city of Vendome, where the high national court was appointed to affemble, the fubaltern agents of the confpiracy, who were not difcovered or taken, in order to favour the efcape of their accomplices at the moment of their leaving prifon, attempted to excite an infurrection by firing petards, expofing white cockades, white colours, and other enfigns of royalty, fo as to make their own manoeuvres wear the ap pearance of a royalift confpiracy. This ridiculous. plot was inftantly difcovered, the agents having been detected in the very fact. The bad fuccefs of one plan did not difcourage the jacobins from undertaking others. On the contrary, finding that no inquiries were made to

difcover the authors of this attempt, they imagined them elves fufficiently ftrong to undertake an operation of a bolder and more descifive nature::

Since the attack of the fections of Paris on the 13th of Vendemiaire, various bodies of troops had

been

been conftantly ftationed in and near Paris, under the immediate direction of the government. Many of thefe foldiers, who had been employed, in conjunction with the jacobins, against the citizens who had armed themfelves on that fatal day, did not forget the fraternity which they had then vowed to each other, and of which the jacobins were careful to cherish the remembrance. The greater part of the regiment called the legion of police had been difbanded on account of their jacobin connections; but, as the friendship of the military was a point of effential importance, the leaders of the jacobin party did not fail to pay their court affiduoufly to their fucceffors.

The camp of Grenelle, a plain on the fouthern fide of the Seine, between Paris and the hills of Meudon, ftill contained numbers whom the jacobin leaders confidered as their firm adherents. Emboldened by the affurances of thofe foldiers whom they had gained over to their party, they formed the defperate enterprize of attacking the government with the alliftance of the cump.

Thefe defperadoes accordingly affembled at a tavern, to the num ber of five or fix hundred, at the village of Vaugirard; and though their intention of vifiting the camp was difcovered, and confequently the neceflary precautions taken both by the minifter of police and the general, they entered it at midnight, crying, "Long live the conftitution of 1793!-Down with the councils!-Down with the five tyrants! Having entered the camp, -they-invited the foldiers to fraternife, to get rid of their chiefs, and march under their banners to glory and empire. As the act of rebellion was now completed, the foldiers

did not delay to execute the punishment. The moft forward of the infurgents were immediately put to the fword, or fhot; and the remainder, not expecting to meet with fo hoftile a reception, fled in all directions. The greater part made their efcape: one hundred and thirty-two were taken prifoners, and were afterwards tried by a military commiffion. Of thefe the greater number were releafed the reft, having been for the most part members of revolutionary committees, were condemned to death, or banishment, according to their former refpective characters; as the crime of infurrection was clear and fpecific, of which all were equally guilty. This infurreétion differed from common infurrections, only by the apparent inadequacy of the means to the magni tude of the defign.

The project of these defperate and infatuated men was to put to death the majority of the directory, and the greater part of the two councils, including the feventythree deputies profcribed under the revolutionary regimen and the newly-elected third, the ftaff of Paris, and all the minifters, except Merin, the minifter of justice, who was understood by them to favour their revolutionary defigns.

At the head of this confpiracy were three ex-reprefentatives of the people, and three ex-generals, who were executed; and it is generally believed that Drouet himself was in the number of the infurgents. This defperate attempt had the falutary effect of awakening the executive power to greater vigilance against the remains of the jacobinical party, fince it became evident that their own exiftence was endangered by the culpable indulgence they had exercised towards

men

« 上一頁繼續 »