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arguments and reasonings are built on maxims of policy, and those of religion appear in a collateral light, and chiefly as of an engine of state.

From this letter, which was dated the seventh of January, 1797, Buonaparte deduced, however, the propriety of proceeding immediately to action against the pope, lest the Austrian ministry should adop the plan suggested in that letter, and send such powerful succours, over the Adriatic to Ancona, as might enable the pope to make a vigorous resistance.

But it was not only among the French that the Roman see had enemies. In Rome itself they were numerous. Republican principles bad silently, but effectually, been propagated there, and through other parts of the ecclesiastical state, and multitudes were impatiently waiting the opportunity of throwing off their subjection to the pope, and of erecting a commonwealth. Encouragements, tending to this end, were studiously held out to the people of that capital, and of the Roman domains, by the French em'ssaries scattered among them. Thus the court of Rome had to guard against enemies no less hostile to it than the French themselves, and, in some respects, more dangerous, as they were domestic, and would oppose all conciliation with France, as miitating directly against their own designs.

In addition to these there were many among those who continued obedient to the papal authority, and were averse to a change of government, who scrupled not, openly, to disapprove the tardiness in coming to a pacification with the French; whomit were, in their opi

nion, absurd to oppose in the debilitated state of the papal power, and from whom friendly conditions might be obtained, if they were applied to with frankness and candour, and if the intrigues hitherto carried on with their enemies were unfeignedly laid aside.

Those who favoured this party, which wasthe most numerous, filled Rome with pasquinades and satires on the conduct of administration, which they represented as contrary to the true interests of the Roma see, and tending to its inevitable rain. The present pope being the sixth of the name of Pius, they applied to him what had formerly been said of Alexander the sixth, which was, that every sovereign of Rome, who had borne the name of Sextus, had constantly occasionedite ruin. Remonstrances of the inutility and peril of encountering such formidable enemies as the French, with undisciplined troops and inexperienced officers, were anxiously laid before the Roman government, by its most prudent wehwishers, and enforced by the ministers of those powers that were desirous of its preservation. But whether it confided in a change of for tune, in favour of its Austrian ally, or that it hoped, by assuming an ap◄ pearance of resolution, and being seconded by a poweral body of auxiliaries, the French might be induced to grant better terms, it obSunately persisted in the determination to try the chance of war, rather than submit to the hard conditions prescribed by the French.

Buonaparte, who had hitherto entertained an expectation, that the terror of the French arms might at last operate a submission in the court

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of Rome, now finally resolved to employ hostile measures. He or dered Cacanlt, the envoy of the republic at Rome, to quit that city, and issued a manifesto against the pope, wherein he charged him with the breach of the armistice that had taken place in the month of June preceding; notwithstanding which he had still persevered in acting an hostile part to France, by exciting against it the hatred of his own people, and of all over whom he possessed influence, by arming bis subjects, with a professed design to commit hostilities, by negociating with the court of Vienna, and putting his troops under the command of Austrian officers and generals, and lastly by refusing the negociation for peace, proposed by the minister of the republic at Rome.

This manifesto was accompanied by a proclamation to the people inhabiting the papal dominions. They were informed that the French, in entering the territories of the pope, would faithfully protect religion and property, and maintain the public peace. They were warned to abstain from all acts of enmity, which would certainly draw down upon them vengeance and all the horrors of war. Every town and village that sounded the tocsin, on the approach of the French, was threatened with instant destruction. Every district, where a Frenchman was assassinated, should be declared hostile, and subjected to heavy contributions. The clergy and conventuals, who demeaned themselves peaceably, would enjoy the benefits of their present situations; but, if they acted otherwise, military law would be executed upon then, and they would be treated with more severity than others. Both of

these declarations were published on the third of February, the day after the surrender of Mantua, and had been delayed till this event, purposely to make the greater impression.

A division of the French army, commanded by general Victor, had entered the papal territories on the first. A body of the pope's troops, consisting of four thousand foot, and about a thousand horse, awaited his approach on advantageous ground. The Senio, a river that runs between Imola and Faenza, was in the front of the camp, which was strongly intrenched. Early in the morning of the second of February, the French advanced towards a bridge opposite to the centre of their front. It was the only one remaining, as the ene my had broken down all the others, in order to have only this one to defend. But the dryness of the season had rendered that river fordable in several places, at which large detachments of the French crossed over it, and came upon their rear, while their front was vigorously attacked by the legion of Lombardy, consisting of northern Italians, whose antipathy to the southern is remarkable. They had requested to be put upon this service; and, though it was the first time they were in action, they acquitted themselves with great valour. They broke the line of the papal army, and carried the batteries opposed to them, at the point of the bayonet. Pressed in this manner, both in front and rear, the pope's troops, after a defence by no means contemptible, for men so unused to tactics, were completely routed. Five hundred were slain and wounded, and about a thousand made prisoners, and fourteen pieces of cannon taken. The

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loss of the French did not exceed one hundred.

This engagement decided the fate of Rome: the victors proceeded immediately to Faenza, the inhabitants of which attempted to make a resistance: but the gates being burst open, by cannon, the French rushed in, and the city surrendered at discretion. Buonaparte prevented all plunder and bloodshed, and dismissed fifty of his most considerable prisoners, ordering them to repair to their countrymen, and represent to them the folly of exposing themselves to certain destruction, by a fruitless resistance. He next summoned before him all the priests and monks in the neighbourhood, and laid before them the necessity of yielding to superior force, and the iniquity of exciting the animosity of the people against the French, who did not come to destroy their religion, but to compel the court of Rome to make a peace with France upon reasonable terms. He required them, as ministers of the gospel, to desist from preaching war, and to attend solely to the duties of their profession, which was to infuse a pacific disposition into all men. He lastly warned them to beware of participating in popular insurrections, either by heading them personally, or by giving them countenance. These were acts of criminality for which he solemnly assured them they would find no mercy. These admonitions were, by the French commander, deemed the inore necessary, that several clergy men and friers had been present at the action of the second of February, on the Senio, where they greatly contributed, by their encouragements and exhortations, to the resistance and firm behaviour of the

papal troops, and where some of them had lost their lives.

After delivering this charge to the clergy of the places in his possession, he dispatched the chiefs of the monastic orders to those towns and districts, where they had most influence, in order to prevail upon them to remain quiet, on the solemn assurance of being left the full enjoyment of every civil and religious right; but, if refractory, on pain of being delivered up to pillage and the severest chastisement.

This charge, from a military monitor, was found more efficacious than the usual charges of bishops to the clergy. The promises and threats of Buonaparte produced the intended effect. This was to procure the submission of the subjects to the see of Rome, without effusion of blood. Being himself an Italian, he was peculiarly solicitous to obtain a character of humanity among his countrymen, and to appear, at the same time, the protector of their laws and religious establishments. He completely succeeded in both of these intentions: and though executing the orders of the directory, at the head of an army of Frenchmen, a people long odious to the Italians, he conducted himself with so much prudence and circumspection, as to command the respect and esteem of the latter, without losing any of the attachment and confidence of the former.

In the mean time, he proceeded without delay in the reduction of the papal dominions. A few days were sufficient to take possession of the provinces of Romagna, Urbino, and Ancona, the best countries remaining to the pope. The city of Ancona had made some prepara

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tions for defence. A corps of near two thousand men had been posted on the high grounds that command the access to this important place, towards the land; 'but the French general Victor, found means to surround them, and they surrendered without resistance.

The next place of consideration. that fell into the hands of the French, was Loretto, famous for the credulity and superstition exhibited there in modern ages. The treasure contained in the church, where the donations of princes and states and the rich offerings of personages of the first rank and opulence had been so long accumalating, had been partly removed by the Austrian general Colli, commander in chief of the papal forces. The French, however, found articles to the value of about a million of their money. But, to do them - justice, it was not plunder nor devastation they sought in conquering the pope's dominions for which indeed they could plead no pretence, as the inhabitants now submitted to them without opposition, and seemed, in many places, in tirely disposed to fraternize with French principles.

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After subduing the intermediate country, from Loretto to Macarale, Buonaparte fixed his quarters in this place on the twelfth of February. He was now within forty leagues of Rome, and it was evident that no obstacle could retard his march to that city. In order to terminate hostilities with all speed, he wrote a letter to cardinal Mattai, wherein, after reproaching the pope for his endeavours to injure the republic, he advised him to trust to the generosity of the French, and to have immediate recourse to a pacification.

He specified that five days would be allowed him to conclude a peace, for which purpose he would meet the persons commissioned to negociate it at a place which he appointed.

The situation of the pope, deprived of all hope of assistance from any quarter, and relinquished even by his own people, left him no other. expedient to save himself, and the Roman see, from absolute ruin, than to accept of such conditions as could be obtained from an exasperated enemy, conscious that he submitted through unavoidable necessity, and would possibly observe the terms he agreed to no longer than those who imposed them were able to enforce their observance, Yielding, however reluctantly, to circumstances, he wrote a letter tø Buonaparte, apprising him of his desire to treat, and requesting that y he would grant just and honourable conditions. Four persons were deputed to the French general, as the papal plenipotentiaries on this occasion. Cardinal Mattæi, and duke Braschi, the pope's nephew, were the principal.

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The conditions of this treaty were of the same tenour as those concluded by the French with other powers. The pope renounced his alliance with the coalition. agreed to disband the troops he had levied against the republic, and to shut his ports against the ships of war belonging to its enemies, and not to furnish them with supplies of any kind. All the rights and privileges enjoyed by France, in the papal dominions, previously to the revolution, were confirmed. He ceded to the French, in full sovereignty, the country of Avignon, and every place in France, formerly

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