Napoleon In Italy

( Originally Published Early 1900's )

FROM A.D. 1796 To A.D. 1809

IN a letter to the French directory, Napoleon thus describes the political state of Italy during his first Italian campaign. The letter is dated December, 1796 :

"At present there are in Lombardy three parties ; one which allows itself to be guided by the French ; another which is anxious, and impatiently anxious, to obtain liberty; a third friendly to the Austrians and hostile to us. I support and encourage the first. The second I keep in check. The third I repress.

" The Cispadane provinces are likewise divided into three parties; the friends of their ancient governments; those who wish for a constitution, independent, but a little aristocratic; and the partisans of the French constitution, or of pure democracy. I repress the first, I support the second, and I moderate the third. I support, I say, the second because it is the party of the rich land-holders and the priests, whom it is essential to rally around the French cause. The last party is composed of young men, literary persons, and people who in France, and in all countries, change governments and love liberty, with no otter view than the mere thirst for revolution.

The pope had anathematized republican France, preached a crusade against her, and had suffered her ambassador to be assassinated in the streets of Rome. The English had seized Leghorn, the port of Tuscany; had taken possession of French property there, and had promised several thousand troops to aid the pope agains France. It was necessary that these menaces of war in the south should instantly be dispersed, for Austria was already gathering an overwhelming army in the north, to pour down upon the exhausted bands of Napoleon.

The young conqueror, at the head of but five thousand men, commenced his march. He entered Modena. The duke fled to the Austrian camp, with all the wealth he could carry with him. The people rallied around Napoleon, imploring him to aid them in establishing republican liberty. He assured them of his sympathy, but said that it was not his mission to revolutionize Europe, but simply to compel those who were unjustly waging war against France to consent to peace.

He entered the papal states. The people welcomed him in almost a delirium of joy. The universality with which the masses rallied around Napoleon, abjuring the papal authority, alarmed the pope. " Bonaparte," says Thiers, " omitted nothing to honor Italy, and to rouse her pride and her patriot. Ism. He was not a barbarous conqueror come to ravage, but a champion of liberty, come to rekindle the torch of genius in the ancient land of civilization."

Pressing forward, he entered Tuscany and drove out the English. The grand duke was friendly to France, and rejoicing in the expulsion of the British fleet, which had seized his port of Leghorn, hoping thus to compel him to join in the war against France, he gave Napoleon a magnificent reception in his palace at Florence. In twenty days all the powers of central Italy in sympathy with Austria, were compelled to abandon the alliance against the French republic.

But the pope, implacably hostile to popular liberty, was watching eagerly for an opportunity to renew the struggle An immense army was marching down the defiles of the Tyrol to assail Napoleon. The pope was secretly making arrangements to join them as soon as they should commence their impetuous assault. Napoleon, informed of these plots, sent the following energetic message to the pope by cardinal Mattel :

" The court of Rome desires war. It shall have war. But first I owe it to my country and to humanity to make a final effort to bring back the pope to reason. You are acquainted with the strength of the army which I command. To destroy the temporal power of the pope, I need but to will it. Go to Rome ; see his holiness ; enlighten him upon the subject of his true interests; rescue him from the intriguers by whom he is surrounded, who wish for his ruin and for that 'of the court of Rome. The French government permits me still to listen to words of peace. Every thing may be arranged. War, so cruel for nations, has terrible results for the vanquished. Save the pope from great calamities. You know how anxious I am to finish by peace, a struggle which war would terminate for me without glory as without danger."

We can not here enter into the details of Napoleon's first Italian campaign. After a series of victories, such as had *ever before been recorded, Austria, thoroughly humbled, was compelled to assent to peace on terms which modified the condition of the Italian states as follows :

A new and independent republic was formed in the heart of Italy, called the Cisalpine Republic. It was composed of a large number of petty states, called provinces, legations, ant duchies, such as Lombardy, Modena, Bologna, Ferrara, etc It contained sixteen thousand three hundred and thirty-seven square miles, being more than twice as large as the state of Massachusetts, and embraced a population of three and a half millions. Every man who had attained twenty-one years, excepting convicts and paupers, was entitled to the rights of citizenship. The government consisted of five directors, and a legislature consisting of two bodies, both elective, a senate, and a house of representatives. Milan was its central capital. The republic could not stand an hour against the machinations and armies of Austria and Spain, unless upheld by France. Napoleon promised the feeble state the support of his strong arm, and with that aid it felt indomitable.

This was the dawn of a bright day for Italy. Napoleon having thus compelled Austria to sheathe the sword, and having established a republic, with free institutions, in the heart of Italy, based upon the principles of equal rights to all men, returned to Paris, laden with the gratitude and the blessings of those whom he had enfranchised. As he took leave of the grateful people, upon whom he had conferred the greatest of all earthly blessings, he thus addressed them :

" We have given you liberty. Take care to preserve it. To be worthy of your destiny make only discreet and moderate laws. Cause them to be executed with energy. Favor the diffusion of knowledge and respect religion. Compose your battalions, not of disreputable men but of citizens, imbued with the principles of the republic, and closely linked to its prosperity. You have, in general, need to impress your-selves with the feeling of your strength, and with the dignity which befits the free man. Divided and bowed down for ages by tyranny, you could not, of yourselves, have conquered your liberty. But in a few years, if you are left unmolested, no power on earth will be strong enough to wrest your liberty from you. Till then the great nation will protect you against the attack of your neighbors ; its political system will be united with yours."

Tb e establishment of the Cisalpine republic excited the hopes of the patriots all over Italy, and rendered them more restless under the corrupt despotisms which so long had op-pressed them. Napoleon wished to give the infant republic a more energetic organization, by increasing the power of the executive. And subsequent events proved the wisdom of Napoleon's judgment. But the French directory insisted that the French constitution should be the model. Napoleon was at that time a moderate republican, yet believing in the necessity of a very energetic government. He was well aware that the Cisalpine republic, surrounded by powerful aristocracies, implacably hostile, needed the most efficient organization possible, to enable it to repel those assaults it was sure to encounter.

A stable government is always the growth of time. Napoleon had hardly left Italy, ere the infant republic was distracted by internal dissensions. There was in Italy, as in France, a Jacobin party, zealous for more radical democracy. There was an aristocratic party who were eager to escape the Austrian sway, but who wished to take the power into their own hands. There was also an Austrian party, closely allied with the pope. These assailed each other vehemently. Still the moderate republicans were in the great majority, and the ship of state, though often bowing before the gale, sailed prosperously on. But France armed the fortresses of the young republic, and supplied her with twenty-five thousand men for defense. The Italians supported these troops, and entered into a treaty offensive and defensive with France. There were thus two infant republics united for mutual protection ; while all the powerful monarchies of Europe were in heart banded together for their destruction, and were watching only for an opportunity to strike them an annihilating blow.

In Genoa the aristocratic senate and the disfranchised people were bitterly hostile. The senate had expelled several members from their number, and banished many families from the republic, for the crime of sympathizing with the French republicans. The victories of Napoleon alarmed the aristocrats, and inspired the hopes of the people. The senate, while professing neutrality, had allowed a French frigate to be captured the guns of their forts, by an English man-of-war, and had thus ranged themselves in the ranks of the enemies of France. Conscious that Napoleon would pay them a visit to avenge these wrongs, as he returned to France, with his triumphant army, the Genoese government sent to France imploring peace. Generously the directory agreed to peace, upon condition that Genoa should be strictly neutral, pay an indemnity for the frigate which had been taken, recall those families, friendly to France, which had been banished, and reinstate those who had been expelled from the senate. Genoa was also to grant the republic a loan of five hundred thousand dollars.

As the march of the French army gave freedom to the expression of liberal opinions in Europe, the public mind in Genoa became more violently incensed against the aristocracy, The people met and drew up a petition to the oligarchy demanding reform in the government. The young men formed themselves into clubs and began to arm. The priests rallied for the nobles, and summoned all the powers of superstition, which the Catholic church could wield, to rouse the most ignorant portion of the populace against the advocates for reform. On the twenty-second of May, 1797, there was a bloody insurrection in the streets of Genoa. The nobles and the priests roused the populace to frenzy, and led them against the patriots. The patriots were beaten, and by the blind fury of the mob, were visited with every outrage. The French families in Genoa were seized and imprisoned. Napoleon Immediately interfered in their behalf. This so encouraged the patriots that they rallied anew, and in such strength as to gain the ascendency. A republican constitution was organized. The legislative body consisted of two chambers, elected by the people, and the executive was composed of twelve directors, or senators as they were called, chosen by the two legislative councils. This little republic, thus self-organized, took the name of the Ligurian republic.

In Naples the republican party was crushed by chains, and buried in dungeons. The papal government in Rome was equally malignant, but not equally powerful. The pope, an infirm old man, and the aged cardinals, had not sufficient vigor to silence the complaints of the people. The little territory of Ancona, incited by the example of the Cisalpine and Ligurian republics, revolted, and established the Anconitan republic. Alone, it could hardly resist the papal army even for a day; but it hoped for the assistance of its sister republics. The papal government had become so corrupt and imbecile, that even the grandees of Rome inveighed against the rule of ignorant and incapable monks. The papal states were, however, the most benighted portion of all Italy ; and the number of intelligent people was so small that Joseph Bonaparte, then the French minister in Rome, the brother of Napoleon, did every thing in his power to dissuade them from a decisive movement. He urged upon them that they would only ruin themselves and compromise France, to no purpose; that France could not undertake to support them, but that they must be left to their own resources. Napoleon at this time was anxious to conciliate monarchical Europe, by not exciting the oppressed of other governments to revolt.

The republicans in Rome, regardless of this advice, at. tempted an insurrection. The pope's dragoons dispersed them with slaughter. Some of the fugitives sought refuge under the piazza of the Corsini palace, where Joseph Bonaparte resided. Joseph, with several French officers, hastened to place themselves between the insurgents and the troops, to prevent any further massacre. But the papal troops, regard. less of the sacredness of the ambassador's person, and of the sacredness of his palace, protected by the French flag, fired and killed General Duphot, at Joseph's side. This young officer was soon to have been married to a daughter of Joseph Bonaparte.

This outrage summoned many others of the foreign ambassadors to the residence of the French embassy. Joseph Bonaparte waited fourteen hours without sending notice of the event to France, that the papal government might have opportunity to make explanations. Receiving none, he demanded his passports. This was in December, 1797. The directory in Paris were exceedingly reluctant to array against themselves the papal government ; for the Catholic religion was even then one of the mightiest powers in Europe, and the pope could rouse all the religious fury of the fanatical populace against France. After long deliberation it was decided to demand an apology. On the tenth of February, 1798, General Berthier, at the head of a sufficient French army, entered the gates of Rome. It was in vain for the pope to attempt any resistance. The republicans received Berthier with boundless exultation, and conducted him, with the pageantry of an old Roman triumph, to the capitol. In a tumultuous gathering, an ignorant and frantic mass of people gathered near the remains of the old Roman forum, and adopted, with shouts which rent the skies, an act declaring that the Roman people resumed its sovereignty, and constituted itself a republic.

The pope was alone, abandoned and helpless, in the Vatican. Messengers were sent demanding his abdication of the temporal sovereignty; but declaring that there was no intention of meddling with his spiritual authority. He persistently refused to abdicate. At night he was taken by the French, though scrupulously treated with the respect due to his station and his age, and was conveyed from the Vatican into Tuscany, where he was imprisoned in a convent. From thence he was conveyed to France, where he died, at Valence, in August, 1799.

There was thus a fourth republic established in Italy, called the Roman Republic. All Europe was alarmed; for all Europe was in danger of being thus revolutionized step by step. Naples was almost frantic with rage in seeing the principles of the French revolution advance thus, even to her very doors. Austria and Spain were roused vehemently. And the applause with which the English people greeted these republics, and their clamor for parliamentary reform, so thoroughly alarmed the English government, that they adopted the secret resolve that, at every hazard, the republic must be put down in France, and the Bourbons restored to their despotic throne. It was manifest to the least discerning, that these increasing and growing republics were but the fruit which the French revolution was bearing.

In May, 1798, Napoleon had sailed for Egypt. England organized a new coalition for the restoration of the Bourbons. Austria, Russia, Turkey, and Naples were active powers in this coalition. Prussia and Spain were in cordial sympathy, and were prepared to join the allies so soon as the march of events might make it safe to do so. One of the first objects to be accomplished in assailing France, was to trample down these confederate Italian republics, and restore the old despot-isms. Without any declaration of war, Naples commenced operations by sending an army to drive the French from the papal states. With an army of sixty thousand men, and aided by the fleet of Lord Nelson, the Neapolitans took possession of Rome. The French slowly retired, that they might have time to rally their forces; and then falling upon the Neapolitans, routed them in several battles with great slaughter, drove them out of Rome, to the great joy of the Roman people, and pursued the fugitive army into the kingdom of Naples. The populace of Naples now rose madly, like barbarians as they were, against the detested government, and the king, in dismay, seizing the most valuable movable treasures of hi crown, fled on board Lord Nelson's squadron, and was conveyed to the island of Sicily. The kingdom was plunged into a state of indescribable anarchy. The French took possession of the city of Naples and of the whole kingdom. The lazzaroui were disarmed, order was restored, and the kingdom was organized into a republic, called the Parthenopian republic.

The court of Turin, the capital of Sardinia, was hostile to France. But in Piedmont, as in every other state in Italy, there was a strong republican party. The French, assailed by all the monarchies of Europe, and not deeming it safe to leave a hostile government in possession of her communications with the Alps, compelled the king of Sardinia to abdicate the sovereignty of Piedmont, and retire to the island of Sardinia as his only realm. Thus, all of continental Italy passed under French influence; though all these freed states were nominally independent excepting Piedmont. It was thought not expedient to organize that province into a republic, but it was declared to be, until the conclusion of the war, under the provisional administration of France. This event took place in December, 1798.

Such remained the state of affairs in Italy in the spring of 1799, when the Austrians and Russians, with an army more than one hundred thousand strong, invaded the plains of Lombardy.

In the course of many and sanguinary battles, the French were entirely overpowered and driven out of Italy. The republics, with their free constitutions, were venomously destroyed, and the old despotisms reestablished. All the friends of republicanism who had not succeeded in escaping to France were massacred with most revolting cruelty, or sent by sentence of court martial to the dungeon or the scaffold. No tongue can tell the enormities perpetrated by the partisans of of the king and the court in Naples. Lord Nelson brought back from Sicily in the British fleet, the king and queen of Naples, and took an active part in these most horrible scenes of cruelty and blood. The stain, thus left upon his memory, can never be effaced. The details of the carnage are too revolting for recital. Four thousand persons had capitulated. Nelson declared the capitulation null.

" Unfortunately," says Alison, " the English admiral, who had fallen under the fascinating influence of Lady Hamilton (who shared in all the feelings of the court), was too much inclined to adopt the same principles. He instantly declared the capitulation null, as not having obtained the king's authority ; and entering the harbor, at the head of his fleet, made all those who had issued from the castles, in virtue of the capitulation, prisoners, and had them chained two and two on board his own fleet. The king, who could not endure the sight of the punishments which were preparing, returned to Sicily, and left the administration of justice in the hands of the queen and Lady Hamilton. Numbers were immediately condemned and executed. The vengeance of the populace supplied what was wanting in the celerity of the criminal tribunals ; neither age, nor sex, nor rank was spared. Women as well as men ; youths of sixteen and gray headed men of seventy, were alike led out to the scaffold."

Nothing can more conclusively show, than the above, the bitterness of the passions engendered by this strife between aristocratic privilege and popular rights. France was terror-stricken. The directory had sunk into utter contempt. The army in Italy was nearly annihilated, and the remnants of the battalions, bleeding and starving, were seeking shelter upon the cliffs and among the defiles of the Alps. Armies amounting to three hundred thousand men were assailing France on the Rhinish frontier. Nearly all Europe was in arms against the republic. The English navy had swept French commerce from every sea, had wrested from France all her colonies, and was bombarding every French port which could be brought within range of her guns. France was threatened with immediate invasion, both on the side of the Alps and of the Rhine. The impotence of the directory was as manifest in the internal, as in the external administration of the government. Anarchy reigned throughout France. The treasury was hopelessly bankrupt. The soldiers, ragged and starving, were abandoning their colors, and retiring in despair to their homes. The republic was on the eve of utter and remediless ruin.

Napoleon, apprised of these calamities, left Egypt, and landed in France on the ninth of October, 1799. Proceeding immediately to Paris, by a bloodless revolution he overthrew the directory, and established the consular government. He then appealed to England and Austria for peace. Contemptuously both powers rejected his proposal. He was told that France could never hope for peace until she abolished her free institutions and reëstablished the throne of the Bourbon.

Napoleon, sending Moreau, with the flower of the French troops, to repel the invaders on the Rhine, collected such an army as he could, of sixty-five thousand men, for the recovery of Italy. Suddenly concentrating them at Dijon, he led them across the Alpine pass of the Great St. Bernard, met the Austrians, vastly outnumbering him, upon the field of Marengo, and, in one of the fiercest battles ever fought, gained one of the most decisive victories ever won. He had just appealed to Austria, in vain, for peace. Upon the field of his victory, surrounded by the gory corpses of the slain, he wrote again, in the following terms:

" Sire ! It is on the field of battle, amidst the sufferings of a multitude of wounded, and surrounded by fifteen thousand corpses, that I beseech your majesty to listen to the voice of humanity, and not to suffer two brave nations to cut each other's throats for interests not their own. It is my part to press this upon your majesty, being upon the very theater of war. Your majesty's heart can not feel it so keenly as does mine."

The appeal was long and earnest. It could be met but by one answer, and that was, " The stability of European thrones demands that, cost what it may, republicanism in Europe, under whatever form, must be put down." It was manifest, hence, that there could be no peace but in the entire overthrow of Napoleon, or in his becoming so strong as to render attack hopeless. After the battle of Marengo, the remnants of the Austrian battalions were entirely at the mercy of the conqueror. He, however, allowed them to retire unmolested, they promising to abandon Italy. In triumph Napoleon entered Milan, where he was received with indescribable rejoicings by the liberated inhabitants. Though the Austrians refused to accede to peace, and continued the war upon the Rhine, one decisive battle had driven them from Italy. Napoleon, having thus protected his Alpine frontier from invasion, reorganized the Cisalpine and Ligurian republics, and returned to Paris.

Pope Pius VII. now occupied the pontifical chair. Again the allied army, having recruited its forces among the mountains of the Tyrol, invaded Italy by the valley of the Mincie. Ferdinand IV. of Naples, conscious of the execrations of his people, and that they would immediately rise against him if the Austrians were expelled from Italy, with almost superhuman exertions raised an army of eighty thousand men, and, marching through the papal states, entered Tuscany, rallying every-where the partisans of the aristocracy beneath his banners. They were attacked, overwhelmed, and driven back like sheep before the patriots. Murat was then sent, by Napoleon, at the head of twenty-eight thousand men, to chastise the infamous court of Naples, and bring it to terms. The queen of Naples, terror-stricken, in mid-winter, undertook a journey to St. Petersburg, to implore the Czar of Russia to intercede with Napoleon in their behalf. He did so. The first consul, anxious to secure the friendship of the eccentric, yet powerful sovereign of Russia, granted all his wishes. Paul had recently, in disgust, abandoned the alliance against France, and was manifesting decided sympathies for Napoleon.

France and Russia soon united in the continental system so called, which was simply an effort to exclude all English goods from the continent of Europe, and to refuse to have any commercial transaction with the English whatever, until the court of St. James would consent to make peace with re. publican France. The Bourbons of Naples were permitted to remain on the throne, they agreeing that all the ports of Naples and Sicily should be closed against English merchandise. But for the intercession of Russia, Napoleon would have driven the infamous Ferdinand IV., and his equally infamous wife, from Italy, and would have established a government of - liberal principles in the kingdom of Naples. At the request of Paul he pardoned them, and left them on the throne which their despotism and crimes disgraced.

Austria, vanquished on the Rhine, as well as in Italy, was at length again compelled to make peace. By the treaty of Luneville, in February, 1801, Lombardy was erected into an independent state, with the Adige for the boundary between it, and the Austrian dominions. Venice was left in the possession of Austria. Modena was annexed to the Cisalpine republic, and its eastern boundary was extended to the Adige. Austria acknowledged the independence of the Cisalpine and Ligurian republics, declaring that their inhabitants should have the power of choosing whatever form of government they preferred. Piedmont remained incorporated with France as one of the departments of the republic.

The grand duchy of Tuscany had been ceded to Spain. It was in May, 1801, erected into a monarchy, under the title of the kingdom of Etruria, and the duke of Parma, who had married the daughter of Charles IV. of Spain, was placed over it as king. It was an independent kingdom in close alliance with Spain. This measure was adopted as an act of conciliation to the Spanish Bourbons, and with the hope that it would disarm them of their enmity against France.

In the month of May, 1804, Napoleon was declared emperor of France. It was thought that the adoption of mom, archical forms might, in some degree, reconcile Europe to France, even while the principles of republican equality were maintained by the energies of the throne. It was also said that the experiment had proved that the people of France, with but little intellectual culture, unskilled in governing, and surrounded by hostile monarchies, who were incessantly assailing them, were unable to maintain republican forms. Most of the surrounding monarchies expressed their gratification. En-gland remained implacable. One of Napoleon's first acts, after his enthronement, was to write to the king of England in the following terms :

" Sire, my brother. Called to the throne by Providence, by the suffrages cf the senate, of the people, and of the army, my first desire is for peace. France and England, abusing their prosperity, may contend for ages. But do their respective governments fulfill their most sacred duties in causing so much blood to be vainly shed, without the hope of advantage or prospect of cessation? I do not conceive that it can be dishonorable in me to make the first advances. I believe it has been sufficiently proved to the world that I dread none of the chances of war, which indeed offer nothing which I can fear. Though peace is the wish of my heart, war has never been adverse to my glory. I conjure your majesty, then, not to refuse the happiness of giving peace to the world. Delay not that grateful satisfaction, that it may be a legacy for your children ; for never have arisen more favorable circumstances, nor a more propitious moment for calming every passion,' and displaying the best feelings of humanity and reason.

"That moment once lost, what term shall we set to a struggle which all my efforts have been unable to terminate. In the space of ten years your majesty has gained more, in wealth and territory, than the extent of Europe comprehends. Your people have attained the height of prosperity. What, then, has your majesty to hope from war? The world is sufficiently extensive for two nations, and reason might assist us to discover the means of conciliating all, were both parties animated by a spirit of reconcilement. At all events, I have discharged a sacred duty and one dear to my heart. Your majesty may rely upon the sincerity of the sentiments now expressed, and on my desire to afford your majesty every proof of that sincerity."

This appeal was like all the rest unavailing, and war still raged. The Cisalpine republic, influenced by the same considerations which had prevailed with the French republic, also judged it best to adopt monarchical forms ; and conscious of their entire inability to repel their foes, but by the aid of France, they sent a deputation to Paris to consult Napoleon upon the proposed alteration in their form of government, and to solicit him to accept the crown of the kingdom of Italy. In reply Napoleon said :

" The separation of the crowns of France and Italy, will be necessary hereafter, but highly dangerous at present, surrounded, as we are, by powerful enemies and inconstant friends. The people of Italy have always been dear to me. For the love I bear them, I consent to take the additional burden and responsibility which their confidence has led them to impose upon me, at least until the interests of Italy shall permit me to place the crown on a younger head. My successor, animated by my spirit, and intent upon completing the work of regeneration, already so auspiciously commenced, shall be one who will be ever ready to sacrifice his personal interests, and, if necessary, his life, in behalf of the nation over which he shall be called by Providence, the constitution of the country, and my approbation, to reign."

Upon this occasion Napoleon said to his secretary, Bourrienne :—" In eight days I shall set out to assume the iron crown of Charlemagne. That, however, is but a stepping-stone to greater things which I design for Italy, which must become a kingdom, comprising all the transalpine country from Venice to the maritime Alps. The union of Italy with France can be but transient. For the present it is necessary, in order to accustom the Italians to live under common laws. The people of Genoa Piedmont, Milan, Venice, Tuscany, Rome and Naples, cordially detest each other, and none of them could be induced to admit their inferiority. Rome, however, by her situation and historical associations, is the natural capital of Italy. To make it so in reality the power of the pope must be restricted to spiritual affairs. It would be impolite to attempt the accomplishment of this just now; but if circumstances are favorable, there may be less difficulty here after.

" Since it would be impossible at once to unite Italy into a single power, yielding obedience to uniform laws, I shall commence by making her French. All the petty, worthless states into which she is divided, will thus acquire a habit of living under the dominion of the same laws, and, when this habit is formed, and Iocal feuds and enmities become extinct, there will again be an Italy worthy of her olden renown. Twenty years are requisite, however, to accomplish this, and who can calculate with certainty upon the future ?"

Napoleon and Josephine crossed the Alps together, accompanied by the pope, Pius VII. On the twenty-sixth of May, 1805, the iron crown of Charlemagne was placed upon Napoleon's brow in the cathedral at Milan. The petty jealousies, which were so strong in Italy, rendered the Genoese averse to be incorporated with the new Italian kingdom. As the liliputian Ligurian republic could by no means stand alone, and as such a kingdom would be a mere burlesque, the Genoese petitioned to be annexed to France. The incorporation was completed in October, 1805. Eugene Beauharnais, son of the empress Josephine, by her former husband, was entrusted with the vice-royalty of the kingdom of Italy.

In a new coalition, combined Europe was soon again on the march to crush Napoleon. An immense Austrian army, under the archduke Charles, entered Italy. Napoleon, leaving his lieutenants to repel them, marched, in person, directly upon Vienna, and in the renowned campaign of Austerlitz, again chastised the allies into peace. By the treaty of Presburg which immediately ensued, December, 1805, the emperor Francis, of Austria, acknowledged the kingdom of Italy, and surrendered Venice to be united with it.

The perfidious court of Naples, deeming the destruction of Napoleon certain, when, in the wilds of Germany, more than a thousand miles from his capital, he was struggling against his banded foes, treacherously joined his enemies, and inviting me British fleet into their harbor, contributed fifty thousand troops to swell the ranks of the allies in assailing Napoleon in the rear. Just after the battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon received despatches informing him of this treachery. In the following proclamation to the army, he announced the crime of the court of Naples and their destined punishment :

" Soldiers ! For the last ten years I have done every thing in my power to save the king of Naples. He has done every thing to destroy himself. After the battles of Dego, Men dovi, and Lodi, he could oppose to me but a feeble resistance. I relied upon the word of this prince, and was generous to-ward him. When the second coalition was dissolved at Ma. rengo, the king of Naples, who had been the first to commence this unjust war, abandoned by his allies, remained single. handed and defenseless. He implored me. I pardoned him a second time. It is but a few months since you were at the gates of Naples. I had sufficiently powerful reasons for suspecting the treason in contemplation. I was still generous. I acknowledged the neutrality of Naples. I ordered you to evacuate the kingdom. For the third time the house of Naples was reestablished and saved. Shall we forgive a, fourth time ? Shall we rely a fourth time on a court without faith, honor, or reason ? No ! No ! The dynasty of Naples has ceased to reign. Its existence is incompatible with the honor of Europe and the repose of my crown."

In January, 1806, a French army, under Joseph Bonaparte, crossed the frontiers of the kingdom of Naples. The English immediately spread their sails and departed, taking with them the impotent king and his haughty wife. With hardly the shadow of resistance, the Neapolitans threw open all their gates to the French, the advocates of popular equality receiving them there, as every where else, with unbounded enthusiasm. Joseph Bonaparte was crowned king of th a Two Sicilies_ It is the undisputed testimony of both friend and foe, that the reign of Joseph Bonaparte in Naples was the happiest period the kingdom had ever known.

"The brief reign of Joseph," says the New York American, " was a succession of benefits to a people who had been long degraded by a most oppressive despotism. He founded civil and military schools, some of which yet exist—overthrew feudal privilege—suppressed the convents—opened new roads caused the lazzaroni of Naples to work and be paid—drained marshes, and every where animated with new life and hope a people long sunk in abject servitude."

Upon the dethronement of the Bourbons of Spain, Joseph Bonaparte was transferred to that throne, greatly to the regret of his Neapolitan subjects, and Murat, who had married Napoleon's sister Caroline, was declared king of Naples and Sicily. "He was received," says Alison, "with universal joy by the inconstant people, who seemed equally delighted with any sovereign sent to them by the great northern conqueror. His entry into Naples was as great a scene of triumph, felicitations, and enthusiasm, as that of Joseph had been."

Sir Hudson Lowe, who has gained unenviable notoriety for his inhumanity to his illustrious prisoner upon the island of St. Helena, was then with a British force holding the island of Capri. Murat fitted out an expedition and recaptured the island. The English garrison capitulated, and was sent to England.

Pius VII., the Roman pontiff, was exceedingly desirous for the restoration of his temporal power, that he might be recognized as a temporal prince, as well as the head of the church. He was ceaseless in his importunities with Napoleon to grant him territorial aggrandizement. But Napoleon was decisive and explicit in refusal. It was essentially the old quarrel of Investitures. Napoleon wrote to the pope :

" Your situation requires that you should pay me the same respect in temporal, which I do you in spiritual matters. You are sovereign of Rome, but I am its emperor."

Pius VII. replied, " Your majesty lays it down as a fundamental principle, that you are sovereign of Rome. The supreme pontiff recognizes no such authority, nor any power superior in temporal matters to his own."

The pope, claiming that he was an independent sovereign, claimed the right, powerless as he was, of throwing open his ports to the enemies of France. Napoleon, wishing earnestly to be on amicable terms with his holiness, proposed as the basis of an arrangement between the two governments : 1. That the ports of the papal states should be closed against English ships, when France and England were at war. 2. That when a hostile force had landed upon Italy, or were men-acing the coast, the papal fortresses, having no power in them-selves to resist the enemy, should be occupied by French troops. The pope peremptorily refused these terms. Napoleon wrote to Eugene the following letter, which he was requested to lay before the pope :

" So the pope persists in his refusal. He will open his eyes when it is too late. What would he have ? What does he mean to do ? Will he place my kingdoms under the spiritual interdict? Is he ignorant how much times are changed? Does he take me for a second Louis le Debonnaire, and does he believe that his excommunications will make the weapons fall from the hands of my soldiers ? What would he say if I were to separate from Catholicism the greater part of Europe? I should have better reason for doing so than Henry the VIII. had. Let the pope think well of it. Do not let him force me to propose, and to enforce in France and elsewhere, a worship more rational than that of which he is the chief. This would be less difficult than he thinks, in the present state of men's ideas, and when so many eyes have been opened, for half a century, to the iniquities and follies of his clergy."

It was one of the first principles of Napoleon that perfect freedom of conscience, in religions worsh should prevail it every state over which he had any control. But the pope declared that the toleration of dissenters and Jews was a sin against God, and a disgrace to any Christian state. The pope refused to recognize the new sovereignty in Naples, affirming that the kingdom of Naples was in feudal dependence upon the papal see; refused to introduce the code of Napoleon into his states; refused to enter into an alliance offensive and defensive with France; refused to allow the free public exercise of all forms of worship. Such was the nature of the conflict. As the pope held his power by the permission of Napoleon, the emperor demanded the pope's cooperation in repelling his foes, and in promoting the regeneration of Europe.

In May, 1809, Napoleon issued a decree, declaring, that as the pope refused an alliance with France, and that as the safety of France demanded that an unfriendly power should not be left in Italy, the papal states were annexed, a part to the kingdom of Italy, and a part to the empire of France. The pope, thus deprived of his temporal power, was granted an annuity from France of four hundred thousand dollars a year, for his personal expenses. "The city of Rome," said this decree, " so interesting from its recollections as the first seat of Christianity, is declared an imperial and free city."

The pope immediately issued a bull of excommunication against the emperor. Napoleon was at this time struggling against his foes at Wagram. Murat sent from Naples a battalion of troops, seized the pope, and conveyed him a prisoner first to Savona, and then to the palace of Fontainebleau, in France. Here the pontiff remained in gorgeous captivity until the downfall of Napoleon in 1814. At St. Helena, Napoleon, in the following words, dictated to Count Montholon his intentions in reference to Italy :