evils in the gloomieft colours, we, in any way, contribute to their alleviation. I wish to God that all the upper claffes of life would difplay the fame fober fortitude that has characterized the lower orders of the community. They have real and ferious evils to ftruggle with and to endure. There are thofe who are obliged to talk their imaginations for fubjects of complaint, which, if they would confefs the honest truth, never broke in on one moment of their repose, or robbed them of one moment of their enjoy ments. Yet, not contented with giving vent to their own mock lamentations, they are angry that thofe who really fuffered fhould fhew any degree of patience under their fufferings, and fhould not be ready to break out into infurrection against that government which was exerting its utmost endeavours for their relief."The important queflion of

the principle of the northern confederacy, the great and leading queftion in the counfels and conduct of nations at this time, was agitated in this feflion, on feveral occafions, again and again. It was difcuffed with fo much precifion, perfpicuity, folidity,and good fenfe, by Mr.Grant, on the motion for an amendment to the addrefs, that we have judged it proper to give more room to his reafoning, than it is permitted by our limits to give to moft speeches in parliament, becaufe it will prevent the neceffity of our entering again into the fubfequent debates on that fubject. On a divifion of the house, the amendment was rejected by 245 against 63. The original motion for an addrefs was carried without a divifion, and having been carried through the ufual ftages of bills and refolutions, was prefented to his majefty on the 4th of February,

CHAP.

HAT event which, to the eye

prominent at this time, in the fhifting fcene of European politics and war, and which, of all that pafled without the British empire, was noticed firft in his majetty's speech from the throne, we should now proceed to relate, if it were not neceffary, in the firft place, to conclude our narrative of the great affairs of 1500, in the fouth of Europe: by which the formation and the progrefs of the northern confederacy against the maritime claims of Britain were fo much influenced.

In order to improve the advantage gained by the great victory at Hoherlinden, on the 3d of December, 1800, general Moreau, keeping his face towards the capital of the Auftrian dominions, puthed on with the greatest rapidity to Saltzburgh: by the occupancy of which poft, he would double in the Tyrol, cut off from the main army of the imperialus in Germany the corps employ

ed in the valley of the Inn, from

Kofteen, as as

menace the direct roads from Vienna to Italy, and, with the co-operation of the army under general Brune, if it should be victorious, of which no doubt was entertained, on the Adige and the Mincio, drive the Austrians into Hungary. In his route to Saltzburgh it was neceflary to pals two rivers; which enabled the retreating Auftrians to retard his march, and, in fome degree, to weaken his force, by a vigorous refiftance. Thele were the Inn and the Salza. The Inn, rifing in the country of the Grifons, and paffing through Tyrol and Bavaria, falls into the Danube near Paffaw. The bed of this river is deep, its current rapid, and its right bank, from the Alps to its junction with the Danube, fortified by a chain of rocks. It was confidered by the marthal Turenne as one of the strongest military barriers in Europe. The Salza, though neither fo large nor quite fo rapid as

the

the Inn, is yet a river of confiderable magnitude. Saltzburgh is fituated on its right bank, about 140 miles weft by fouth-weft of Vienna. The French paffed both thefe rivers in different places. Obftacles which, to military skill, would have appeared to be almoft infurmountable, were overcome, without any obftinate refiftance, on the part of the panicftruck Auftrians, by troops as confident of fuccefs as they were accuftomed to conquer. The Inn was crofied, December 9, at Nieupeurein, between Rofenheim and Kuffftein, at Wafferburg, and at Muhldorf: the Salza between Saltzburgh and Lauffen. On the intermediate ground between Lauffen and Saltzburgh, the greateft part of the Auftrian army, on the 12th of December, was concentrated. A divifion under general Lecourbe was ordered to advance on the right bank of the Saal, and another under general Decaen by Lauffen, while a corps of referve, under the generals Richepanfe and Grouchy, was ready to fupport either Lecourbe or Decaen, as fhould be neceflary. On the 13th of December, general Lecourbe paffed the Saal, without much refiftance, and made himself mafter of the village of Waal. General Decaen, having arrived in the neighbourhood of Lauffen, found the bridge there broken down, and the enemy defending the heights which command it. Three chaf feurs threw themfelves into the Salza, in fpite of the extreme cold, and fwam over for fome boats on the oppofite fide, while fome more advanced, keeping up a fire of mufquetry, along the ruins of the bridge. About 80 men, having paffed the river in the boats that had been collected, were fufficient to repulfe

3

a party of Auftrians on the right bank, and to make 200 prifoners; fuch is the aftonifhing influence of a feries of fucceffes, over a series of defeats! The commander-in-chief ordered general Grenier to advance with his two divifions to Lauffen, and the fame orders were given to generals Grouchy and Kichepanfe. He ordered the pontoons to be carried to the fame point, and a new bridge to be thrown over, while that which had been broken down by the enemy fhould be repaired. Thefe operations took place in the night. Five hundred men passed over to the right bank of the river; and general Lecourbe who commanded them was continuing his route, when, in the morning of the 14th, the Auftrians appeared in great force, with an intention to oppofe it. General Lecourbe, fenfible of his great inferiority in numbers, fell back, and contented himfelf with defending the road, and maintaining poffeffion of the village of Waal. A harp action took place: but Lecourbe maintained his pofition till two o'clock; when general Decaen, who had pafled the river with his whole divifion, began to advance, keeping up a terrible fire of artillery on all that oppofed him. This movement, which operated as a diverfion in favour of general Lecourbe, likewife favoured the paffage of the divifion under Richepanfe, which now began to form on the right bank. In the night between the 14th and 15th, the Auftrians effected their retreat with precipitation, and the French entered Saltzburgh at eight o'clock in the morhing. On the fame day general Richepanfe, with the left divifion of the French army purfued the imperalifts along the road to Lintz, and

entered

entered Newmark, the laft poft in Bavaria, on the frontier of the hereditary fiates of the emperor. The archduke John, whofe headquarters were by this time removed to Braunau, on the lower Inn, was, by this manœuvre, cut off from all communication with the Auftrian commander, general Mollitor, in the Tyrol, who had a force about 25,000 for g, but who had no communication except with general Bellegarde. The Tyrol was now threatened on the north fide by a divifion of the French army under Lecourbe, on the weft by another under Mollitor, and on the fouth-weft by Macdonal 1.

General Macdonald, commanderin-chief of the French army of the Grifons, at the head of a column, had pafled the Rhetian Alps, by the defiles of the Splugen, and through Clavenna, in the firft weeks of December, in order to fupport the lett wing of the Italian army, which was under the command of general Brure. The difficulties and dangers of cro Ting the mountains would have interrupted the paffage at different times, had it not been for the intre pid perfeverance of the general. He led in perfon the pioneers to tracts of the road, near the fummit of the Splugen, which were filled up and totally defaced by the drifted fnow. He himself fet the example of working to open a path, on the 5th of December, about two leagues from the village of Splugen, which was effected. This foremoft party had not advanced far when the path was again covered, and his grenadiers finking in the fnow, began to

believe that it was impoffible to proceed farther; for even all the poles that had been fet up for marks were covered with fnow, and fnow was fill falling. But the general, at the head of the pioneers, founded himfelf the road, and, animating all who were near him by his voice and example, conducted the troops through all the dangers of the Splugen, and, at laft, on the 11th of December, gained the valley of the Adda, in the Valtelline, which opened a communication with general Brune. He was, at the fame time, mafler of both banks of the upper Inn, and of the upper Engadine;* and thus communications were established among all these divifions.

In the mean time, the Gallo-Batavian army, under Augereau, whofe right wing was to protect and cooperate with the left of Moreau's, gained fome important advantages over the Auftrians in Franconia. On the rupture of the armiftice, the baron d'Albini, who commanded the troops of Mayence, ftationed at Afchaffenburg, attacked, November 23, the Batavian infantry, which guarded the head of the bridge of Afchaffenburg; but, after three vigorous affaults, were driven back into the town. The Gallo-Batavian army, quitting its cantonments on the Nidda, the lower Main, and the Tebre, marched on to Wurtzburg and Swinfurth, where the imperialifts had a corps of three or four thousand men. The town of Wurtzburg was invefted by the Batavian divifion, under heutenantgeneral Dumonceau, on the 28th. General Dumonceau, with a part

of

of the divifion, was left to carry on the fiege of the citadel. Augereau, having received intelligence from general Moreau, that the Auftrians had aflembled, to the number of 12 or 13,000, before Bamberg, at Burg-Eberach, came to a determination, with two divilions of his army, to give them battle, and drive them beyond the Rednitz. They occupied, befides the village, the two firft heights that command BurgEberach. They were driven from the village and the first height, but made a refolute ftand on the fecond. After the moft obftinate refiftance, they were forced alfo to yield this; but they retreated in good order. General Duhefme, on the 3d of December, took poffeffion of Bamberg. The main army took a poft behind the Rednitz, to cover the fiege of the citadel of Wurtzburg. General Barbou was ordered to march different parties towards Nuremberg. Augereau, informed of the fuccefs of the army of the Rhine, withdraw ing his right wing from the Redritz, took poffeffion of Furchem and Nuremberg, with an intention to wait there for farther advices from Moreau. The Gallo-Batavian army, ftationed partly before Wurtzburg, and partly at Nuremberg and Furchem, had, on its left, d'Albini with 2000 men, in front the corps of Simbichen, 12,000 ftrong, and, in the fame direction, a body of 15,000, under Klenau, pofted towards Newmarck, and in Ratifbon. It was the object of the Auftrians to cut off the communication between Augereau and Moreau, and, if poffible, to turn the left of Moreau's army. From the 3d to the 17th, nothing paffed but kirmishing between outpofis; but, on the 18th, a bloody battle was fought between Nurem

berg and Lauff. It lafted from nine o'clock in the morning till the clofe of the day. General Klenau headed an attack on the left of the Gallo-Batavians, commanded by general Barbou, and general Simbschen an attack on the left, under the orders of general Duhelme. The engagement was as fierce on both fides, as it was long continued. The aflailants were forced to fall back ; but the lofs on both fides was fuppofed to be nearly equal. A hundred waggons were loaded with dead and wounded Auftrians.

Its

In this fituation of affairs, the Auftrian army of the Danube moved from Braunau, and, on the 16th of December took an advantageous potition behind the Traun. head-quarters were established at Strafwalden, from whence they were transferred, on the 17th, to Skwanftadt, where the chief command of the army was taken by the archduke Charles, with full powers, which he had been long refufed That prince immediately ordered defenfive difpofitions; but, before he could finish them, the centre of the French army of the Rhine arrived at the Traun infive divifions, commanded feverally by Legrand, Grandjeau, Richepanfe, and Grouchy. A bloody engagement took place on the 18th, between the two armies, and foon became general. Ricnepanfe, with the advanced guard, attacked the rear of the imperialifts, in a frong potition near Valbruk, and defeated them. The lofs of the Auftrians, in killed and wounded, was computed to be from 3 to 500; and 1000 were taken prifoners, 600 of which number was cavalry, with general Lopez their commander. The Auftrians, on the 19th, interrupted their retreat, and endea