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defence, struck: the frigates then made sail from the British squadron, and the signal for a general chase was immediately made by the admiral. After a running fight of five hours, three of the frigates were captured in the course of the day, and three others afterwards became prizes. Thus the whole squadron, two frigates excepted, fell into the hands of the British; and the hopes of the French, as well as of the malcontents in Ireland, were thus completely defeated.

Among the prisoners taken in the Hoche was the famous and unfortunate Theobald Wolfe Tone, so long considered as the most active and able negotiator among the Irish fugitives at Paris, and as the great adviser of most of the measures pursued by his rebellious Countrymen. He was brought to Dublin, and tried by a court-martial there; and in a most manly defence attempted neither to deny nor excuse his offence. The plea on which he rested was that of being a denisen of France, and an officer in the service of the republic. When he found that this plea did not avail, he requested that he might die like a soldier, and not as a felon; and be shot, according to military usage, rather than hanged. The court, however, did not accede to his request, and the unhappy delinquent cut his throat in the prison. The wound was at first supposed not to be mortal; but, after languishing a short time, it terminated his existence. On the morning after he had made an attempt upon his life, Mr. Curran exerted his great talents in moving the King's-bench for a habeas corpus, upon this ground" That court-martials had no jurisdiction over subjects

not in military service, while the court of King's bench was sitting." allowed by the court, and the writ The plea was, after a full hearing, was ordered to be made out immediately; but on the arrival of the messenger at the prison, the unhappy, man was found not in a condition to be moved with safety. The writ, however, was obeyed by the military, and the execution, morning, was suspended. which was to have taken place that

The rebellion itself did not long survive Mr. Tone, who, we have already seen, might be considered formidable society which gave it as the original projector of that, birth. The few companies of rebels who lurked in the woods and mountains, dispirited totally by the ill-success of their allies, and dreading the approach of winter, successively laid down their arms. The last of their chieftains, who surrendered to government, was Holt, a man of mean origin, but of great spirit and prise.

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In the mountainous parts of Wicklow, he maintained, notwithstanding the failure of his con→ federates, a desultory warfare till after the defeat of the French under Humbert. It is believed that he at last made terms with government; but the utmost he could obtain was to save his life by relinquishing his native sail for ever.

to be tolerably correct, upwards of By a calculation, which appears 30,000 persons are supposed to have lost their lives in this deplorable contest, independent of those who were wounded, and of those who were transported or sent on board the fleet. Whatever might have been the occasional or even unjustifiable severities exercised upon suspected individuals, we must, in candour, acquit the Irish go

vernment of the charge which has, we think, rashly been brought against them," of having goaded the people into rebellion." The rebellion was evidently the result of a deep conspiracy laid by a few ambitious and disaffected persons, who insidiously wrought upon the passions and prejudices of the lower orders of catholics to promote their own destructive designs. There is much reason to believe that the eyes of the people are now open to the mischiels into which they had been seduced; and it only remains for government to sway the sceptre of authority with temperance, and properly to bend conciliation with a firm and not timid conduct. The path of peace and prosperity, we now think, is laid open to both parties; and, we trust, they will keep it. As a sovereign remedy for similar disorders, a legislative union of the two kingdoms has been recommended. We own ourselves partial to a unity of government; and we can see that the plan might ultimately be attended with some advantages; but those advantages are certainly remote, and they cannot be worth the risk of the smallest disturbance or discontent among the people. With respect to the immediate object, we cannot discover in what way a legislative union can be a means of preventing the revival of the scenes which we have now heen reviewing. It cannot remove the prejudices of the catholics; it cannot enlighten the people, or relieve them from their burdens. It may indeed, on the contrary, for the moment, tend to increase one of the principal

grievances of which the Irish at present complain,--the expenditure of Irish property at a distance from the country, where that property is acquired. We think, in fine, that there are other measures which would be much more effectual than this in promoting the peace, tranquillity, and welfare of Ireland. If it were possible to promote, by any means, the transfer of capital to the Irish coast, and to excite in the people the spirit of commerce and manufactures; if some commercial concessions could be made by the opulence of Britain to the poverty of Ireland; if schools could be established for the promotion at once of knowledge and industry; if the gentry of Ireland could be persuaded to embody themselves in a patriotic union for the protection and the aid of the poor; if they could follow the example of a society in this kingdom, whose generous ef forts in the cause of humanity are above our praise, "the society for bettering the condition of the poor;" and if they could reduce to practice some of the judicious speculations of that society, we are persuaded they would effect more towards reconciling the minds of the people to order and subjection than any experiment on the constitution and the government. We have had enough of innovation; and, however salutary the plan, we are persuade, that in the present temper and condition of the Irish people, "this is not," to use the language of the British minister on another occasion, "this is not the time for reform."

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CHAP. VIII.

Retrospect of Continental Affairs during the preceding Year. State of the belligerent Powers on the Rhine on the Opening of the Year 1797. Siege and Capitulation of the Fort opposite Huningue. State of the Austrian and French Armies in Italy. New and extraordinary Levies of Austrian Troops. March of the Papal Troops to the Aid of General Wurmser. Supposed Hostility of the Venetian Government. The French take Possession of Bergamo. Preparations made by Buonaparte. Attack of the Austrians under Alvinzi, and Repulse of the French to the Adige. Position of Buonaparte. Battle of Rivoli. Success of the Austrians. Perilous Situation of Buonaparte, and of the left Wing of the French. Defeat of the right Wing of the Austrians. Battle of Porto Legnano. Defeat of the right Wing of the French. Provera's Progress towards Mantua. Rout of the right Wing of the Austrian Army. Attack of Provera on the Forts before Mantua. Sortie of the Garrison under General Wurmser. Defeat and Surrender of the left Wing of the Austrian Army under Procera. Destruction of the fifth Austrian Army in Italy by the French. Situation of Affairs in the French Republic. State of the Finances-Of Parties-Factions. Supposed Royalist Plot. Plan of the Conspiracy. Arrest of the Conspirators. Trial and Conviction of the Chiefs before a Military Commission. Effects of the Lenity of the Commission on the different Parties. Mysterious Conduct and Policy of the Directory. Confession of the Chiefs of the Conspiracy. Pursuit of the Remains of the Austrian Army, by the French, into the Venetian Territory. Surrender of Mantua. Preparations for the Invasion of the States of the Holy See. Intercepted Correspondence of the Papal Ministry. Manifeste and Proclamation of Buonaparte. Reflections on the Proclamation. Defeat of the Papal Troops. Surrender of various Cities. The miraculous Image of Loretto. Progress of the French Army towards Rome. Pope's Letter to Buonaparte with offers of Peace. Conditions of the Peace. Buonaparte's Letter to the Pope. Negotiation between the French General and the Republic of St. Marino.

IN

N our last volume we promised a more ample and accurate detail of certain transactions of the French in Italy, than from the documents before us we were able at that time to lay before our readers. On a review of the whole campaign we find the military move ments of the French so much connected with the civil changes which they affected, and we find the official reports, from which our narrative last year was chiefly compiled, so defective, that we determined to lay before the public such a view of

the whole of these events, as, from the sources from which it is drawn, we can venture to pronounce at once correct and authentic.

The close of the year 1796 had been unfavourable to the arms of the French republic. The fort of Kehl, the only post which they held on the Upper Rhine, except the redoubt opposite Huningue, had fallen into the hands of the Imperialists: and the winds of heaven had visited their fleets in the expedition to the coasts of Ireland, so roughly, that all projects of fu•

ture

ture invasion were deferred to an indefinite period. Notwithstand ing these defeats, the campaign, on the whole, had been highly prosperous, as the conquests in Italy had more than counterbalanced the success of the allied armies in the north. The glory which the archduke had acquired in repelling the invaders of Germany was diminished by the length of resistance made at Kehl, whilst Moreau had added greatly to his military reputation by the skill with which he had effected his retreat. The redoubt opposite to Huningue, which had been, for some time, besieged by the Austrians, had, since the capitulation of Kehl, become useless, as the whole of Suabia, and the country on the right of the Upper Rhine was in possession of the Imperialists.

General Morean determined, nevertheless, to defend it to the last extremity, having judged that, by detaining the Austrian army on the Upper Rhine, he should prevent them from descending to force the French from the posts they held on the right side of the lower Rhine, down to Dusseldorf; as well as contribute to weaken their strength, in which he had so eminently succeeded by his resistance at Kebl. The fort around which the Austrians were now assembling their forces consisted of works hastily thrown up after the passage of the French across the river at Huningue, when Moreau penetrated into Germany, and was called the head of the bridge, though no bridge existed. It had originally been a regular fortification, constructed by the celebrated Vauban, but as these works had been levelled at every successive peace, the head of the bridge presented no other

appearance, previous to the last
passage of the French, than scat-
tered heaps of ruins, along which
the cattle fed.

An island that lay a few yards below Huningue, and which served as a communication with the works on the opposite side, was also fortified. These two works contained about three thousand men. The Austrians, after having cannonaded it for a considerable time, opened their trenches to reduce it in the regular forms. The French, by their frequent, sallies, had considerably retarded their advances, and had even pushed their success so far in one sally as to drive the enemy back to their most distant batteries, filling up part of the third parallel which they had opened, spiking numbers of their cannon, and bringing away others, with the prisoners which they had made. What rendered the attack and defence of this place so remarkable is, that there is scarcely an instance in history where so great an expence in military stores, and so large a waste of life has been made for an object apparently so trifling. The Austrians having received considerable reinforcements, and having transported the greater part of their heavy artillery and mortars from Kehl, had constructed new batteries so near the works, that the French, having neither the means of securing themselves from the bombs, nor of making the enemy, from the great superiority of their numbers, and their artillery, desist from the enterprise, agreed, on the 5th of February, to a capitulation, by which they left the assailants in possession of the works, almost reduced to ruins, after withdrawing every thing from thence, even to the fascines and palisades. The Imperialists

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Imperialists afterwards reduced this place to its primitive state by levelling all that remained.

The affairs of the Austrians were less fortunate on the side of Italy. After the defeat of general Wurm ser, and his retreat to Mantua, every nerve was strained to repair the immense losses which had been sustained during the former part of the campaign, and general Alvinzi found himself, in a short time, at the head of a body of forces far superior to those of the republic. The general had formed a comprehensive plan of attack from the mountains of the Tyrol to the Brenta, but frustrated in his designs by the activity of Buonaparte; he was defeated, as we have already related, in various previous combats, from the 8thtothe12th of December, and was totally routed on the 15th, 16th, and 17th of December, at the ⚫ famous battle of Arcole.

The emperor, however, far from being discouraged, had made the greatest efforts to raise this new army; he had stripped the whole of his frontiers; the youth of Vienna had formed themselves into regiments of volunteers, and no exertions were spared to retrieve the tarnished glory of the Austrian arms, relieve Mantua, and drive the French from Italy. This new levy of 40,000 warriors, of no vulgar or ordinary character, advancing with new and formidable trains of artillery, and with no common rapidity in their movements, were animated with high hopes that the purpose for which they were assembled would be accomplished.

The court of Rome, so far as its power extended, contributed also its aid. The forces which the pope collected were not, indeed, formidable, either for military fame

or numbers; but such as they were, his holiness put them in march towards Romagna, to watch the states of Reggio, Ferrara, Bologna, and Modena, which had declared themselves independent; and also to favour the escape of general Wurmser into the Ferrarese, or into the pope's territories from Mantua, in case he should not be relieved, which was discovered by his intercepted correspondence.

The government of Venice had preserved, or affected a strict neutrality between the belligerent powers, though their adversaries assert that the assistance given to the Imperial troops, according to the report of the French generals, was neither trifling, nor concealed. The province of Bergamo, they say, had shown the greatest hostility. In the city of Bergamo, an anti-gallican committee had been formed, the cause of the Austrians was openly countenanced, and many of the French had been assassinated. Whether these charges were true or false, the French found it convenient (and that has ever been sufficient excuse for their rapacity) to seise on the citadel, which not only silenced the Bergamese committees, but served to keep up the communication between the rivers of the Adda and the Adige. Buonaparte, informed of the rapidity with which the armies of the emperor and the pope were collecting, pressed the arrival of the reinforcements which his government had promised him, and made the necessary dispositions to withstand the shock. In the mean time he drew from every division in his army a small number of troops, which he formed into a moving column at Bologna, and to which, from the variety of its motions, and its presence in different quarters,

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