Part 12 (1/2)

That corruption, seduction, and ues and bayonets which convinced the Ligurian Govern subjects of Bonaparte, I have not the least doubt; but that the Doge, Girolahella, Roggieri, Taddei, Balby, and Langlade sold the independence of their country for ten h it has been positively asserted, I can hardly believe; and, indeed, money was as little necessary as resistance would have been unavailing, all the forts and strong positions being in the occupation of our troops A general officer present when the Doge of Genoa, at the head of the Ligurian deputation, offered Bonaparte their hoe, assuredvoice and with tears in his eyes, and that indignation was read on the countenance of every hts as citizens, and to vilify their sentiments as patriots

When Salicetti, with his secretary, Milhaud, had arranged this honourable affair, they set out from Genoa to announce to Bonaparte, at Milan, their success Not above a league froe was stopped, their persons stripped, and their papers and effects seized by a gang, called in the country the gang of PATRIOTIC ROBBERS, coood Genoese family, proscribed by France, and the men under him are all above the common class of people They never commit any murders, nor do they rob any but Frenchmen, or Italians known to be adherents of the French party Their spoils they distribute a those of their countrymen who, like themselves, have suffered from the revolutions in Italy within these last nine years They usually send the amount destined to relieve these persons to the curates of the several parishes, signifying in what manner it is to be e the low and the poor, and, though frequently pursued by our gendarmes, they have hitherto always escaped The papers captured by them on this occasion from Salicetti are said to be of a ht on Bonaparte's future views of Italy The original act of consent of the Ligurian Government to the incorporation with France was also in this number It is reported that they were deposited with the Austrian Minister at Genoa, who found means to forward them to his Court; and it is supposed that their contents did not a little to hasten the present , known under the appellation of the PATRIOTIC AVENGERS, also desolates the Ligurian Republic They never rob, but always murder those whom they consider as enemies of their country Many of our officers, and even our sentries on duty, have been wounded or killed by them; and, after dark, therefore, no Frenchman dares walk out unattended Their chief is supposed to be a ci-devant Abbe, Sagati, considered a political as well as a religious fanatic In consequence of the deeds of these patriotic avengers, Bonaparte's first act, as a Sovereign of Liguria, was the establish, under pain of death, every person fro arms who could not shoritten permission of our commissary of police Robbers and assassins are, unfortunately, coes; but those of the above description are only the production and progeny of revolutionary and troubleso the laws, on supplying their inefficacy and counteracting their partiality

LETTER xxxVI

PARIS, Septeht of n in Europe, and were he to put theh for a light sums of Spain, of Naples, of Prussia, of Portugal, and of Etruria have adht-companion, as well as the Electors of Bavaria, Hesse, and Baden, and the Pope of Rorand officers of HIS Legion of Honour, the highest rank of his newly instituted Ins have been honoured by hirand star and broad riband of the Order of His Iron Crown of the Kingdom of Italy

Before Napoleon's departure for Milan last spring, Talleyrand intin diploreeable to the E of Italy In the preceding suiven by him for a diplomatic trip to Aix-la-Chapelle, and all Their Excellencies set a-packing instantly; but so since discovered that it was indecent for their representatives to be crowding the suite of an insolently and proudly travelling usurper, under different pretences declined the honour of an invitation and journey to Italy It would, besides, have been pleasant enough to have witnessed the Ans had not acknowledged Bonaparte's right to his assuuring at the soleurated him as such Of this inconsistency and impropriety Talleyrand ell aware; but audacity on one side, and endurance and subarded these considerations before, that he saw no indelicacy or iratification to see at his levee, and in his wife's drawing-rooal, and Bavaria, who laid at the Imperial and royal feet the Order decorations of their own Princes, to the nor little entertainreat edification of his dutiful subjects on the other side of the Alps

The expenses of Bonaparte's journey to Milan, and his coronation there (including also those of his attendants from France), amounted to no less a sum than fifteen millions of livres--of which one hundred and fifty thousand livres--was laid out in fireworks, double that sum in decorations of the Royal Palace and the cathedral, and three rand officers, deputations, etc The poor also shared his bounty; medals to the value of fifty thousand livres--were thrown out aiven by Madame Napoleon to the hospitals and orphan-houses These last have a kind of hereditary or fan; their parents were the victirandeur

Another three millions of livres was expended for the march of troops from France to form pleasure camps in Italy, and fourand support of these enca the officers and s, watches, snuff-boxes, portraits set with diamonds, stars, and other trinkets, as evidences of His Majesty's satisfaction with their behaviour, presence, and performances

These troops were under the coeneral often mentioned in thethe latter part of the American war, he served under General Rochambeau as a common soldier, and obtained in 1783, after the peace, his discharge He then turned a pedlar, in which situation the Revolution found hihter of a tailor, who brought him a fortune of two thousand livres--fro her to shi+ft for herself as she can, in a ses, where her husband was born in 1763

Jourdan was aanized in his native tohich procured him rapid promotion in the National Guards, of whom, in 1792, he was already a colonel His known love of liberty and equality induced the Committee of Public Safety, in 1793, to appoint him to the chief command of the armies of Ardennes and of the North, instead of Lamarche and Houchard On the 17th of October the saed the united forces of Austria, Prussia, and Gere The jealous Republican Governru his successor, which was the origin of that ennity hich Jourdan pursued this unfortunate general, even to his grave He never forgave Pichegru the acceptance of a co his life; and when he should have avenged his disgrace on the real causes of it, he chose to resent it on him who, like himself, was merely an instrument, or a slave, in the hands and under the whip of a tyrannical power

After the imprisonment of General Hoche, in March, 1794, Jourdan succeeded him as chief of the army of the Moselle In June he joined, with thirty thousanda new one, under the name of the arained a co, who tried to raise the siege of Charleroy This battle, which was fought near Trasegnies, is, nevertheless, commonly called the battle of Fleurus After Charleroy had surrendered on the 25th, Jourdan and his arru, who had drawn the plan of that brilliant ca to retard his progress, and at last intrigued so well that the army of the Sambre and the Meuse was separated from that of the North

With the for confederates, and, after driving them from different stands and positions, he repulsed theed to pass Here ended his successes this year, successes that were not obtained without great loss on our side

Jourdan began the cans of 1795 and 1796 with equal brilliancy, and ended the into Germany with troops as numerous as well-disciplined, he was defeated at the end of them by Archduke Charles, and retreated alith such precipitation, and in such confusion, that it looked ht of a disorderly rabble than the retreat of regular troops; and had not Moreau, in 1796, kept the eneain have seen France; for the inhabitants of Franconia rose on these marauders, and cut them to pieces, wherever they could surprise or waylay them

In 1797, as a member of the Council of Five Hundred, he headed the Jacobin faction against the ru was a chief; and he had the cowardly vengeance of base rivalry to pride hi procured the transportation of that patriotic general to Cayenne In 1799, he again assumed the command of the army of Alsace and of Switzerland; but he crossed the Rhine and penetrated into Suabia only to be again routed by the Archduke Charles, and to repass this river in disorder Under the necessity of resigning as a general-in-chief, he returned to the Council of Five Hundred, more violent than ever, and provoked there the ainst his fellow citizens

Previous to the revolution effected by Bonaparte in November of that year, he had entered with Garreau and Santerre into a conspiracy, the object of which was to restore the Reign of Terror, and to prevent which Bonaparte said he es which placed him at the head of Government The words were even printed in the papers of that period, which Bonaparte on the 10th of November addressed to the then deputy of Mayenne, Prevost: ”If the plot entered into by Jourdan and others, and of which they have not blushed to propose to me the execution, had not been defeated, they would have surrounded the place of your sitting, and to crush all future opposition, ordered a number of deputies to be uinary despotisn of Terror” But whether such was Jourdan's project, or whether it was iven out to be such by the consular faction, to extenuate their own usurpation, he certainly had connected hiuilty and contemptible of the former terrorists, and drew upon himself by such conduct the hatred and bla been suspended on his account

General Jourdan was a those terrorists whom the Consular Government condemned to transportation; but after several intervieith Bonaparte he was not only pardoned, but made a Counsellor of State of the eneral of Pied himself entrusted with the command in Italy This place he has preserved until last n it to Massena, hoht hiene de Beauharnais, put him under arrest and ordered him back hither, where he is daily expected If Massena's report to Bonaparte be true, the ar as orderly and numerous as Jourdan's assertions would have induced us to believe But this accusation of a rival must be listened to with caution; because, should Massena meet with repulse, he will no doubt y; and should he be victorious, hold it out as a claim for more honour and praise

The same doubts which still continue of Jourdan's political opinions reard to his military capacity But the unanimous declaration of those who have served under his orders as a general must silence both his blind admirers and unjust slanderers They all allow him some military ability; he combines and prepares in the Cabinet a plan of defence and attack, with ence, but he does not possess the quick coup d'oeil, and that proly, an error on the field of battle If, on the day of action, some accident, or some manoeuvre, occurs, which has not been foreseen by hienius does not enable him to alter instantly his dispositions, or to remedy errors, misfortunes, or improvidences This kind of talent, and this kind of absence of talent, explain equally the causes of his advantages, as well as the origin of his frequent disasters nobody denies hienerals, he has never been careful of the lives of the troops under him I have heard an officer of superior talents and rank assert, in the presence of Carnot, that the number of wounded and killed under Jourdan, when victorious, frequently surpassed the number of enemies he had defeated I fear it is too true that we are as much, if not more, indebted for our successes to the superior number as to the superior valour of our troops

Jourdan is, with regard to fortune, one of our poorest republican generals who have headed arns, collected ht millions of livres--a mere trifle compared to the fifty millions of Massena, the sixty millions of Le Clerc, the forty ereau; not to mention the hundred ambler and a debauchee, fond of cards, dice, and women; and that in Italy, except two hours in twenty-four allotted to business, he passed the re-tables, or in the boudoirs of his seraglio--I say seraglio, because he kept, in the extensive house joining his palace as governor and commander, ten women-three French, three Italians, two Gerirls He supported them all in style; but they were his slaves, and he was their sultan, whose official mutes (his aides-de-camp) both watched them, and, if necessary, chastised them

LETTER xxxVII

PARIS, September, 1805

MY LORD:--I can truly defy the world to produce a corps of such a heterogeneous composition as our Conservative Senate, when I except the ion of Honour Some of our Senators have been tailors, apothecaries, merchants, chemists, quacks, physicians, barbers, bankers, soldiers, druenerals, savans, friars, Ambassadors, counsellors, or presidents of Parliament, admirals, barristers, Bishops, sailors, attorneys, authors, Barons, spies, painters, professors, Ministers, sans-culottes, atheists, stoneicides, and a long et cetera Any person reading through the official list of the members of the Senate, and who is acquainted with their former situations in life, norant of them, let him but inquire, with the list in his hand, in any of our fashi+onable or political circles; he willto reratify his curiosity There are not many of them whom it is possible to elevate, but those are still rade Their past lives, vices, errors, or crimes, have settled their characters and reputation; and they must live and die in 'statu quo', either as fools or as knaves, and perhaps as both

I do not mean to say that they are all criainst lawful authority and obedience to usurped tyranny are not to be considered as crimes; but there are few indeed who can lay their hands on their bosoe, Berthollet, Chaptal, Laplace, Francois de Neuf-Chateau, Tronchet, Monge, Lacepede, and Bougainville, are certainly men of talents; but others, as a Porcher, Resnier, Vial, Baciocchi, Beviere, Beauharnais, De Luynea (a ci-devant duke, known under the naure a those half-idiots and half-imbeciles who are, as it were, interes, Cabanis, Garron Coulon, Lecouteul, Canteleu, Lenoin Laroche, Volney, Gregoire, Elas, Fouche, and Roederer foricides, others assassins and plunderers, but all intriguers whoseof the Revolution They are all reat presumption As to their ion and loyalty They betrayed their King, and had denied their God already in 1789

After these coain have neither talents to boast of nor crimes of which they have to be ashaenius, none to consistency, and their honesty equals their capacity They joined our political revolution as they ious procession It was at that time a fashi+on; and they applauded our revolutionary innovations as they would have done the introduction of a new opera, of a new tragedy, of a new comedy, or of a new farce To this fraternity appertain a ci-devant Comte de Stult-Tracy, Dubois--Dubay, Kellerman, Lambrechts, Leeaux, Bertheleier, Abrial, De Belloy, Delannoy, Aboville, and St Martin La Motte