General History for Colleges and High Schools Part 63

THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE (July, 1794).--By such terrorism did Robespierre and his creatures rule France for a little more than three months. The awful suspense and dread drove many into insanity and to suicide. The strain was too great for human nature to bear. A reaction came. The successes of the armies of the republic, and the establishment of the authority of the Convention throughout the departments, caused the people to look upon the ma.s.sacres that were daily taking place as unnecessary and cruel. They began to turn with horror and pity from the scenes of the guillotine.

The first blow at the power of the dictator was struck in the Convention.

A member dared to denounce him, upon the floor of the a.s.sembly, as a tyrant. The spell was broken. He was arrested and sent to the guillotine, with a large number of his confederates. The people greeted the fall of the tyrant's head with demonstrations of unbounded joy. The delirium was over. "France had awakened from the ghastly dream of the Reign of Terror (July 28, 1794)."

THE REACTION.--The reaction which had swept away Robespierre and his a.s.sociates continued after their ruin. The clubs of the Jacobins were closed, and that infamous society which had rallied and directed the hideous rabbles of the great cities was broken up. The deputies that had been driven from their seats in the Convention were invited to resume their places and the Christian worship was reestablished.

NAPOLEON DEFENDS THE CONVENTION (Oct. 5, 1795).--These and other measures of the Convention did not fail of arousing the bitter opposition of the scattered forces of the Terrorists, as they were called; and on the 5th of October, 1795, a mob of 40,000 men advanced to the attack of the Tuileries, where the Convention was sitting. As the mob came on they were met by a storm of grape shot, which sent them flying back in wild disorder. The man who trained the guns was a young artillery officer, a native of the island of Corsica,--Napoleon Bonaparte. The Revolution had at last brought forth a man of genius capable of controlling and directing its tremendous energies. 5. THE DIRECTORY (Oct. 27, 1795-Nov. 9, 1799).

THE REPUBLIC BECOMES AGGRESSIVE.--A few weeks after the defence of the Convention by Napoleon, that body declaring its labors ended, closed its sessions, and immediately afterwards the Councils and the Board of Directors provided for by the new const.i.tution [Footnote: There were to be two legislative bodies,--the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of the Ancients, the latter embracing two hundred and fifty persons, of whom no one could be under fifty years of age. The executive power was vested in a board of five persons, which was called the Directory.] that had been framed by the Convention, a.s.sumed control of affairs.

Under the Directory the republic, which up to this time had been acting mainly on the defensive, entered upon an aggressive policy. The Revolution, having accomplished its work in France, having there destroyed royal despotism and abolished cla.s.s privilege, now set itself about fulfilling its early promise of giving liberty to all peoples (see p.

658). In a word, the revolutionists became propagandists. France now exhibits what her historians call her social, her communicative genius.

"Easily seduced herself," as Lamartine says, "she easily seduces others."

She would make all Europe like unto herself. Herself a republic, she would make all nations republics.

Had not the minds of the people in all the neighboring countries been prepared to welcome the new order of things, the Revolution could never have spread itself as widely as it did. But everywhere irrepressible longings for social and political equality and freedom, born of long oppression, were stirring the souls of men. The French armies were everywhere welcomed as deliverers. Thus was France enabled to surround herself with a girdle of commonwealths. She conquered Europe not by her armies, but by her ideas. "An invasion of armies," says Victor Hugo, "can be resisted: an invasion of ideas cannot be resisted."

The republics established were, indeed, short-lived; for the times were not yet ripe for the complete triumph of democratic ideas. But a great gain for freedom was made. The reestablished monarchies never dared to make themselves as despotic as those which the Revolution had overturned.

THE PLANS OF THE DIRECTORY.--Austria and England were the only formidable powers that still persisted in their hostility to the republic. The Directors resolved to strike a decisive blow at the first of these implacable foes. To carry out their designs, two large armies, numbering about 70,000 each, were mustered upon the middle Rhine, and intrusted to the command of the two young and energetic generals Moreau and Jourdan, who were to make a direct invasion of Germany. A third army, numbering about 36,000 men, was a.s.sembled in the neighborhood of Nice, in South- eastern France, and placed in the hands of Napoleon, to whom was a.s.signed the work of driving the Austrians out of Italy.

NAPOLEON'S ITALIAN CAMPAIGN (1796-1797).--Straightway upon receiving his command, Napoleon, now in his twenty-seventh year, animated by visions of military glory to be gathered on the fields of Italy, hastened to join his army at Nice. He found the discontented soldiers almost without food or clothes. He at once aroused all their latent enthusiasm by one of those short, stirring addresses for which he afterwards became so famous. Then before the mountain roads were yet free from snow, he set his army in motion, and forced the pa.s.sage of the low Genoese, or Maritime Alps. The Carthaginian had been surpa.s.sed. "Hannibal," exclaimed Napoleon, "crossed the Alps; as for us, we have turned them." Now followed a most astonishing series of French victories over the Austrians and their allies. As a result of the campaign a considerable part of Northern Italy was formed into a commonwealth under the name of the Cisalpine Republic. Genoa was also transformed into the Ligurian Republic.

TREATY OF COMPO FORMIO (1797).--While Napoleon had been gaining his surprising victories in Italy, Moreau and Jourdan had been meeting with severe reverses in Germany, their invading columns having been forced back upon the Rhine by the Archduke Charles. Napoleon, having effected the work a.s.signed to the army of Italy, now climbed the Eastern Alps, and led his soldiers down upon the plains of Austria. The near approach of the French to Vienna induced the emperor, Francis II., to listen to proposals of peace. An armistice was agreed upon, and a few months afterwards the important treaty of Campo Formio was arranged. By the terms of this treaty Austria ceded her Belgian provinces to the French Republic, surrendered important provinces on the west side of the Rhine, and acknowledged the Cisalpine Republic.

With the treaty arranged, Napoleon set out for Paris, where a triumph and ovation such as Europe had not seen since the days of the old Roman conquerors, awaited him.

NAPOLEON'S CAMPAIGN IN EGYPT (1798-1799).--The Directors had received Napoleon with apparent enthusiasm and affection; but at this very moment they were disquieted by fears lest the conqueror's ambition might lead him to play the part of a second Caesar. They resolved to engage the young commander in an enterprise which would take him out of France. This undertaking was an attack upon England, which they were then meditating.

Bonaparte opposed the plan of a direct descent upon the island as impracticable, declaring that England should be attacked through her Eastern possessions. He presented a scheme very characteristic of his bold, imaginative genius. This was nothing less than the conquest and colonization of Egypt, by which means France would be able to control the trade of the East, and cut England off from her East India possessions.

The Directors a.s.sented to the plan, and with feelings of relief saw Napoleon embark from the port of Toulon to carry out the enterprise.

Escaping the vigilance of the British fleet that was patrolling the Mediterranean, Napoleon landed in Egypt July 1, 1798. Within sight of the Pyramids, the French army was checked in its march upon Cairo by a determined stand of the renowned Mameluke cavalry. Napoleon animated the spirits of his men for the inevitable fight by one of his happiest speeches. One of the sentences is memorable: "Soldiers," he exclaimed, pointing to the Pyramids, "forty centuries are looking down upon you." The terrific struggle that followed is known in history as the "Battle of the Pyramids." Napoleon gained a victory that opened the way for his advance.

The French now entered Cairo in triumph, and all Lower Egypt fell into their hands.

Napoleon had barely made his entrance into Cairo, before the startling intelligence was borne to him that his fleet had been destroyed in the bay of Aboukir, at the mouth of the Nile, by the English admiral Nelson (Aug.

1, 1798).

In the spring of 1799, Napoleon led his army into Syria, the Porte having joined a new coalition against France. He captured Gaza and Jaffa, and finally invested Acre. The Turks were a.s.sisted in the defence of this place by the distinguished English admiral, Sir Sidney Smith. [Footnote: The besieged were further a.s.sisted by a Turkish army outside. With these the French fought the noted Battle of Mount Tabor, in which they gained a complete victory.] All of Napoleon's attempts to carry the place by storm were defeated by the skill and bravery of the English commander. "That man Sidney," said Napoleon afterwards, "made me miss my destiny." Doubtless Napoleon's vision of conquests in the East embraced Persia and India. With the ports of Syria secured, he would have imitated Alexander, and led his soldiers to the foot of the Himalayas.

Bitterly disappointed, Napoleon abandoned the siege of Acre, and led his army back into Egypt. There his worn and thinned ranks were attacked near Aboukir by a fresh Turkish army, but the genius of Napoleon turned threatened defeat into a brilliant victory. The enthusiastic Kleber, one of Napoleon's lieutenants, clasping his general in his arms, exclaimed, "Sire, your greatness is like that of the universe."

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TIBERINE, HELVETIC, AND PARTHENOPaeAN REPUBLICS.--We must turn now to view affairs in Europe. The year 1798 was a favorable one for the republican cause represented by the Revolution. During that year and the opening month of the following one, the French set up three new republics. First, they incited an insurrection at Rome, made a prisoner of the Pope, and proclaimed the Roman, or Tiberine, Republic. Then they invaded the Swiss cantons and united them into a commonwealth under the name of the Helvetic Republic. A little later the French troops drove the king of Naples out of his kingdom, and transformed that state into the Parthenopaean Republic. Thus were three new republics added to the commonwealths which the Revolution had already created.

THE REACTION: NAPOLEON OVERTHROWS THE DIRECTORY (18th and 19th Brumaire).

--Most of this work was quickly undone. Encouraged by the victory of Nelson over the French fleet in the battle of the Nile, the leading states of Europe had formed a new coalition against the French Republic. Early in 1779 the war began, and was waged in almost every part of Europe at the same time. The campaign was on the whole extremely disastrous to the French. They were driven out of Italy, and were barely able to keep the allies off the soil of France. The Tiberine and the Parthenopaean Republics were abolished.

The reverses suffered by the French armies caused the Directory to fall into great disfavor. They were charged with having through jealousy exiled Napoleon, the only man who could save the Republic. Confusion and division prevailed everywhere. The royalists had become so strong and bold that there was danger lest they should gain control of the government. On the other hand, the threats of the Jacobins began to create apprehensions of another Reign of Terror.

News of the desperate state of affairs at home reached Napoleon just after his victory in Egypt, following his return from Syria. He instantly formed a bold resolve. Confiding the command of the army in Egypt to Kleber, he set sail for France, disclosing his designs in the significant words, "The reign of the lawyers is over."

Napoleon was welcomed in France with the wildest enthusiasm. A great majority of the people felt instinctively that the emergency demanded a dictator. Some of the Directors joined with Napoleon in a plot to overthrow the government. Meeting with opposition in the Council of Five Hundred, Napoleon with a body of grenadiers drove the deputies from their chamber (Nov. 9, 1799).

The French Revolution had at last brought forth its Cromwell. Napoleon was master of France. The first French Republic was at an end, and what is distinctively called the French Revolution was over. Now commences the history of the Consulate and the First Empire,--the story of that surprising career, the sun of which rose so brightly at Austerlitz and set forever at Waterloo.

CHAPTER LIX.

THE CONSULATE AND THE FIRST EMPIRE: FRANCE SINCE THE SECOND RESTORATION.

1. THE CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE (1799-1815).

THE VEILED MILITARY DESPOTISM.--After the overthrow of the Directorial government, a new const.i.tution--the fourth since the year 1789--was prepared, and having been submitted to the approval of the people, was heartily indorsed. This new instrument vested the executive power in three consuls, elected for a term of ten years, the first of whom really exercised all the authority of the Board. Napoleon, of course, became the First Consul.

The other functions of the government were carried on by a Council of State, a Tribunate, a Legislature, and a Senate. But the members of all these bodies were appointed either directly or indirectly by the consuls, so that the entire government was actually in their hands, or, rather, in the hands of the First Consul. France was still called a republic, but it was such a republic as Rome was under Julius Caesar or Augustus. The republican names and forms merely veiled a government as absolute and personal as that of Louis XIV.,--in a word, a military despotism.

WARS OF THE FIRST CONSUL.--Neither Austria nor England would acknowledge the government of the First Consul as legitimate. In their view he was simply an upstart, a fortunate usurper. The throne of France belonged, by virtue of divine right, to the House of Bourbon.

Napoleon mustered his soldiers. His plan was to deal Austria, his worst continental enemy, a double blow. A large army was collected on the Rhine, for an invasion of Germany. This was intrusted to Moreau. Another, intended to operate against the Austrians in Italy, was gathered at the foot of the Alps. Napoleon himself a.s.sumed command of this latter force.

In the spring of the year 1800 Napoleon made his memorable pa.s.sage of the Alps, and astonished the Austrian generals by suddenly appearing, with an army of 40,000 men, on the plains of Italy. Upon the renowned field of Marengo the Austrian army, which outnumbered that of the French three to one, was completely overwhelmed, and Italy lay for a second time at the feet of Napoleon (June 14, 1800).

But at the moment Italy was regained, Egypt was lost. On the very day of the battle of Marengo, Kleber, whom Napoleon had left in charge of the army in Egypt, was a.s.sa.s.sinated by a Turkish fanatic, and shortly afterwards the entire French force was obliged to surrender to the English.

The French reverses in Egypt, however, were soon made up by fresh victories in Europe. A few months after the battle of Marengo, Moreau gained a decisive victory over the Austrians at Hohenlinden, which opened the way to Vienna. The Emperor Francis II. was now constrained to sign a treaty of peace at Luneville, in which he allowed the Rhine to be made the eastern frontier of France (February, 1801). The emperor also recognized the Cisalpine, Ligurian, Helvetian, and Batavian republics. The following year England was also glad to sign a peace at Amiens (March, 1802).

HIS WORKS OF PEACE: THE CODE NAPOLEON.--Having wrung from both England and Austria an acknowledgment of his government, Napoleon was now free to devote his amazing energies to the reform and improvement of the internal affairs of France. So at this time were begun by him those great works of various character which were continued through all the fifteen years of his supremacy. His great military road over the Alps by the Simplon Pa.s.s, surpa.s.ses in bold engineering the most difficult of the Roman roads, while many of his architectural works are the pride of France at the present day.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CENTRAL EUROPE 1801]

Taking up the work of the Revolution, he caused the laws of France to be revised and harmonized, producing the celebrated _Code Napoleon_, a work that is not unworthy of comparison with the _Corpus Juris Civilis_ of the Emperor Justinian. The influence of this Code upon the development of Liberalism in Western Europe is simply incalculable. It secured the work of the Revolution. It swept away the unequal, iniquitous, oppressive customs, regulations, decrees, and laws that were an inheritance from the feudal ages. It recognized the equality in the eye of the law of n.o.ble and peasant. "It is to-day the frame-work of law in France, Holland, Belgium, Western Germany, Switzerland, and Italy." Had Napoleon done nothing else save to give this Code to Europe, he would have conferred an inestimable benefit upon mankind.

NAPOLEON MADE CONSUL FOR LIFE (1802).--As a reward for his vast services to France, and also in order that his magnificent schemes of reform and improvement might be pursued without fear of interruption, Napoleon was now, by a vote of the people, made Consul for Life, with the right to name his successor (August, 1802). Thus he moved a step nearer the coveted dignity of the Imperial t.i.tle.

NAPOLEON PROCLAIMED EMPEROR (1804).--A conspiracy against the life of the First Consul, and the increased activity of his enemies, caused the French people to resolve to increase his power, and secure his safety and the stability of his government, by placing him upon a throne. A decree conferring upon him the t.i.tle of Emperor having been submitted to the people for approval was ratified by an almost unanimous vote, less than three thousand persons opposing the measure.

SURROUNDING REPUBLICS CHANGED INTO KINGDOMS.--Thus was the First French Republic metamorphosed into an unveiled empire. We may be sure that the cl.u.s.ter of republics which during the Revolution sprang up around the great original, will speedily undergo a like transformation; for Napoleon was right when he said that a revolution in France is sure to be followed by a revolution throughout Europe. As France, a republic, would make all states republics, so France, a monarchy, would make all nations monarchies. Within five years from the time that the government of France a.s.sumed an imperial form, all the surrounding republics raised up by the revolutionary ideas and armies of France, had been transformed into monarchies dependent upon France, or had become a component part of the French Empire. [Footnote: The Cisalpine, or Italian Republic, was changed into a kingdom, and Napoleon, crowning himself at Milan with the iron crown of the Lombards, a.s.sumed the government of the state with the t.i.tle of King of Italy (May 26, 1805). The Ligurian Republic, embracing Genoa and a portion of Sardinia, was made a part of France, while the Batavian Republic was changed into the Kingdom of Holland, and given by Napoleon to his brother Louis (June, 1806).] Thus was the political work of the Revolution undone. Political _liberty_ was taken away; the people were not yet ready for self-government. Social _Equality_ was left.

THE WARS OF NAPOLEON.--It will not be supposed that the powers of Europe were looking quietly on while France was thus metamorphosing herself and all the neighboring countries. The colossal power which the soldier of fortune was building up, was a menace to all Europe. The empire was more dreaded than the republic, because it was a military despotism, and as such, an instrument of irresistible power in the hands of a man of such genius and resources as Napoleon. Coalition after coalition, always headed by England,--who had sworn a Punic hatred to the Napoleonic empire,--was formed by the monarchies of Europe against the "usurper," with the object of pressing France back within her original boundaries and setting up again the subverted throne of the Bourbons.

From the coronation of Napoleon in 1804 until his final downfall in 1815, the tremendous struggle went on almost without intermission. It was the war of the giants. Europe was shaken from end to end by such armies as the world had not seen since the days of Xerxes. Napoleon, whose hands were upheld by a score of distinguished marshals, performed the miracles of genius. His brilliant achievements still dazzle, while they amaze, the world.

To relate in detail the campaigns of Napoleon from Austerlitz to Waterloo would require the s.p.a.ce of volumes. We shall simply indicate in a few brief paragraphs the successive steps by which he mounted to the highest pitch of power and fame, and then trace rapidly the decline and fall of his astonishing fortunes.

AUSTERLITZ (1805): END OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE (1806).--The year following his coronation, Napoleon made a gigantic effort to break the coalition which England, Russia, Austria, and Sweden had formed against him. He ma.s.sed an immense army at Boulogne, on the Channel, preparatory to an invasion of England; but the failure of his fleet to carry out its part of the plan, and intelligence of the approach of the Austrians and Russians towards the Rhenish frontier, caused him suddenly to transfer his troops to the opposite side of France.