tinues to govern it as in time of war. To the Maltese now remains only the right of presenting remonstrances against their military governors, to the Colonial Department, which, by the regulations of the English ministry, are remitted to the governors for explanation. Such are the annals of almost all countries which depend on the protection of the strongest; and such are the claims of the several pretenders to the possession of Malta, which remained definitively annexed to England by virtue of the same incontestable rights of victory and cunning, which had given the temporary possession of it to the French. The Romans, ambitious of deriving their descent from Æneas, forbade the Grecian States to molest the Acarnanians, because they were the only tribe that had not sent troops to Troy. This argument, though more far-fetched than that which the new diplomacy made use of to entitle the King of Naples to Malta, did not appear so ridiculous, because the Romans, by alleging it, strictly adhered to their principle of the Lex socialis, and gave a great proof of their power in the protection of a little state against a whole nation. But the English, in occupying Gozzo, and there planting the standard of a prince who had no claim upon it, amused mankind with a profession of generosity; availed themselves of the warlike stores with which Naples supplied them, and of the geographical position of the island, and by that act involved a neutral state, and an undecided Sovereign, in an ill-timed war against his own policy. Ere Bonaparte's name was known even in France, the projects of invasion avowed by the National Convention, determined the English cabinet to annihilate, by diplomatic expedients, the law of nations, which the French destroyed at the same time by the open violence of the sword. All the British Ambassadors, in the name of their government, intimated, That in such a war no nation had the right to remain neutral." It is likewise one of the new regulations of the law of nations, which gives the semblance of justice to the occupation of a country in the name of another power, and to its subsequent appropriation. Acton at the same time sent General Naselli with some troops on board Portuguese and British vessels at Leghorn, to join the forces of the Grand Duke of Tuscany at the first breaking out of the new war. The prudence of this prince had, till then, supplied the want of an army. Lord Hervey, British minister at Florence in 1793, beset the Grand Duke, during many hours, in his palace, until he compelled him to send away the Minister of France, whose name was La Flotte. Mr. Drake attempted at the same time the like violence on the Doge of Genoa, and Sir Charles Worsley on the Senate of Venice: but Worsley's threats having 66 been defeated by the Inquisitors of state, the British cabinet, according to diplomatic science, disavowed the misdemeanour of its envoy. A Tuscan gentleman, whose name was Carletti, called this science a knavery; and Mr. W. Wyndham, Lord Hervey's successor, fought a duel with Carletti for the honour of the British nation, which neither knows nor approves any thing of diplomacy. The Grand Duke renewed peace with France at the expense of a part of his treasury. Bonaparte soon after entered the Tuscan territory, and wishing an enemy less behind him, while he proceeded to make a retaliation on Rome for the murder of Basseville, the French envoy, kept his troops in strict discipline, and solicited a passage from the Grand Duke, for whom the Directory proposed at the same time to the Austrian plenipotentiaries, the addition of the Papal state, and the title of King of Rome*. Towards the end of 1798, this prince entered into the new coalition, and recruited soldiers in secret; but persisted in not committing his people, till Austria and Russia should have commenced hostilities. Admiral Nelson, however, insisted on the Neapolitan general capturing the French and Genoese ships in Leghorn. Naselli answered, "That his king was not as yet at war with France."- What!" said Nelson, has not your king received, as a conquest made by himself, the republican flag taken at Gozzo? Is not his own flag flying there, and at Malta, not only with his permission, but by his orders?"-Nelson, at last, by frightening Naselli, contrived to lay an embargo on the ships; and Mr. Wyndham obtained by threats the sequestration, and the public sale of the corn loaded for Genoa. Even with the Greeks and the Romans, who paid no regard to neutrality, and, as far as I know, with the barbarous nations of every age, it has been a constant rule, to compel the weaker powers to join one of the fighting parties. The conqueror sometimes gave his allies a small share of the conquest, and oftener kept them in perpetual subjection. But to threaten and draw a neutral state into a war only for the sake of forbidding the means of offence or defence to the enemy, and to expose the weaker to ruin, without affording them any actual protection, is a kind of political contrivance, which may be attempted again by modern statesmen, and perfectly justified by their lawyers and divines, but which will not last long, because it has already drawn the all-powerful odium of mankind upon the assertors of such an addition to the code of the law "Modifiez le premier projet en substituant aux états de Milan, partie des états du Pape, la Romagne, la Marche d' Ancône, le duché d'Urbin, transférer le Grand-Duc de Toscane à Rome, lui donner le surplus des états du Pape, lui réserver le Siennois, consentir à le nommer Roi de Rome." INSTRUCTIONS du ministre des relations extérieures au général Clark, envoyé extraordinaire de la republique Francaise à Vienne. -December 5, 1796. of nations. The French, at that time, courted the friendship of the Grand Duke, in order to avail themselves of the communication by sea with Marseilles, and not to have the Tuscan people to fight with in their passage from the south to the north of Italy. As soon as the English, not content with capturing French privateers and Genoese merchants on the open sea, dictated piratical laws in Tuscan harbours, the French, to secure to themselves the chains of the Apennines, occupied Tuscany, which they also pillaged. 66 Meantime the French Directory, from whom the Court of Naples had already asked the whole of the Papal states,* imperiously proposed to give up Benevento, and demanded in return a large sum of money. The British Ambassador, dreading Ferdinand's indecision, aggravated the insult, and the alarm, and persuaded him the rather as he was himself terrified. The King signed a manifesto, worded with so much apparent consternation and rashness, and such vain attempts at subterfuge, as to inspire the French with boldness, and give them the advantage of argument. He declared, that, notwithstanding his grounds for resentment against France on account of her occupation of his Island of Malta, he wished, nevertheless, to preserve peace and amity with the French government; that he was the friend of Pius VI., and a son of the church; that he believed it his duty for the good of religion, to go to Rome, and restore its dominions to the legitimate sovereign; that he consequently invited all strangers who then occupied that territory, to withdraw themselves, because the King of Naples was the lover of peace and justice, and willingly made war upon no one."---The French legation demanded "that the lawful sovereign of Rome, should be more explicitly designated; for, that, if the Pope were meant, his state had already fallen under the right of conquest; if any other power were intended, it was for that power to make its own claim; and, if the King of Naples was meant, France had twice consented to treat with him, and to cede him a part, or even the whole, through the medium of negotiation." The Queen's fears and ambition were, at that time, irritated by Acton, who warned her that the marriage of an Austrian Archduke with a Russian princess, was made on condition of establishing a separate kingdom in Italy, under the protection of the two Emperors. Lady Hamilton had inspired the English admiral, whose victories gave him the right of counselling kings, with passions that blinded his understanding and made him a pernicious adviser. Hence, without the co-operation of *CORRESPONDENCE inedite Officielle et Confidentielle de Napoleon Bonaparte, vol. iv. the allied armies, offensive war, and conquest, were attempted with troops, into whom they had already infused the principle of terror, by promising them that they should not be called upon to fight, except for the defence of their homes, in case of invasion. When, therefore, they were ordered to pass the frontiers, they replied to their officers, "Did you not tell us that the king is not at war with the French ?" Nelson augured but ill of the soldiers, worse of their general, and worse still of the whole court, the counsellors of the king, and the king himself. "All ministers of kings and princes were, in his opinion, as great scoundrels as ever lived," and his best biographer adds, "Had the conduct of Austria been directed by any thing like a principle of honour, a more favourable opportunity could not have been desired, for restoring order and prosperity in Europe, than the misconduct of the French Directory at this time afforded; but Nelson saw selfishness and knavery wherever he looked and even the pleasure of seeing a cause prosper, in which he was so zealously engaged, was poisoned by his sense of the rascality of those with whom he was compelled to act."---Yet it seems that Austria differs only from other governments in her little skill of boasting with success of principles of honour. She is, however, the most skilful of all in the art of making others accomplices and instigators of her own usurpations. It will soon appear that the Austrians had already planned with the English, that Russia should look to no share whatever in the conquest of Italy; and they would not begin hostilities before the arrival of Suvaroff, nor open a campaign in the very beginning of winter. Still Nelson repeated to Ferdinand, "That he had his choice, either to advance, trusting to God for his blessing on a just cause, and be prepared to die sword in hand---or to remain quiet, and be kicked out of his kingdom---for that one of these things must happen."-The King obeyed, and both the predictions were eluded by the event. As soon as he proclaimed that, for the defence of his people, he would put himself at the head of his armies, forty thousand young men were in one day furnished by the different parts of the kingdom; and notwithstanding the general poverty, all the cities pressed forward to contribute money for the expedition. There was, moreover, a standing army of thirty thousand soldiers: and they formed a camp of sixty-eight thousand fighting men, under General Mack, who went on purpose from Vienna. This general was born in Franconia, and enrolled in the service of Austria, where, officers being then very ignorant, he was advanced for the sake of his literary acquirements, and commissioned as aide-de-camp of Prince * Extracts from Nelson's Letters. + SOUTHEY's Life of Nelson, chap. 6, an. 1799. Cobourg; and distinguished himself in the Netherlands chiefly by negotiating with Dumourier for his desertion. Being famous for his erudition in the tactics of ancient and modern warfare, he went to London to arrange with the English cabinet the next campaign, which ended with the defeat of the Austrians, at Fleurus. The German Emperor, before the battle, left the command of the army, and returned to Vienna, accompanied by Mack, who towards that epoch was seized with a sudden vertigo, and talked, during several months, like an idiot. When he recovered, he displayed his former acquaintance with the topography of all the fields of battle celebrated in history. The mathematical precision with which he drew out his plans for campaigns, obtained for him the high estimation of statesmen; and the rapidity of his marches, previous to the day of battle, astonished the enemy's generals. However, he has been constantly obliged to account for his tactics by printed apologies; for, whenever the troops, the ground, the enemy, or the season failed to accord with the plan which he had definitively forechosen, he preferred capitulation to fighting. He conducted the army and the King of Naples, as far as Rome. The Directory, acquainted with the renewal of the coalition, had given orders to its generals in Italy, not to divide their forces by making conquests. The approach of Mack, however, tempted General Championet, whose reputation for integrity had induced the French government to place him at Rome instead of the avaricious and insatiable Massena,* to propose an alteration of this plan. He demanded permission of General Joubert, his commander, to attack the Neapolitans; but received orders "not to do more than was necessary to frighten them." Joubert at the same time warned Championet that the Directory were about to set up the liberty of Italy and the honour of the French nation for sale, and "that if, by the unforeseen chance of war, he reached Naples, all his efforts were to be directed towards getting rid of the interference of French agents." Joubert was a republican in earnest; and was soon after recalled on account of a conspiracy he encouraged in Lombardy to deliver the Italians from the yoke of the French proconsuls.+-Mack having Je "Des évènements malheureux m'ont forcé de quitter Rome-que vais-je devénir, mon général? je l'ignore. J'ai recours à vos bontés : j'attends tout de vous. Un ambassade m'épargnerait le désagrément de rentrer en France de quelque tems. ne dois plus servir; je n'ai rien à me reprocher, il est vrai; mais l'opinion publique .... enfin je me jette dans vos bras, et n'entre pas dans d'autres details qui me nâvrent le cœur."-Massena's Letter to Bonaparte the day after his troops compelled him to fly from Rome, Feb. 26, 1798. + Joubert, on being sent at Bassano to change the local government, wrote to Bonaparte, then his commander-in-chief." J'ai tout laissé sur l'ancien pied; et les fonds publics sont intacts; il n'y a donc plus rien à faire, et ma manière d'agir en pareille circonstance est toujours de laisser les choses comme elles sont, parceque toute innovation qui n'a aucun but réel ne favorisse que les fripons. Je ne me mêlerai donc en |