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"ment of polite knowledge and the liberal "arts, and desirous to afford them the most 66 generous and honourable countenance and support. All men of genius,' said the "letter, all those who have obtained a distinguished rank in the republic of letters, are Frenchmen, in whatever country they "may have been born. The learned in Italy "esteemed themselves happy, if left unmolested by princes and priests: but henceforth opi"nions shall be free, and the inquisition, in"tolerance, and despotism, be no more. "invite,' he continued, the learned to assem

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ble, and propose their sentiments on the means necessary to be taken, and the as"sistance they may require, to give new life " and existence to the sciences and the fine "arts.'

“He addressed the university of Pavia in the same style, and took peculiar pains to impress "on the minds of the public, that the French "were solicitous to place the people of Italy 66 on the same footing with themselves, in "whatever related to the liberty of thinking; "and would feel more satisfaction in acquiring "their esteem and their approbation of the "proceedings of the French government, and "of the political maxims on which it acted,

than in the submission enforced by their

* victorious arms. The conquests obtained "over the human mind, being of far greater "importance to men who knew the difficulty

of obtaining them, and the utility which they produced, than victories won by the sword, and empire maintained through

terror.

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Language of this kind, which was incessantly in the mouth of the French general, "and of those in his confidence and intimacy, “did more in conciliating the people, who had "submitted to him, than the dread of his power ; "the clergy and the nobility excepted: to the very existence of which orders the French

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system was immediately inimical: the other classes beheld in the French a nation of warriors, who seemed to have taken up arms for "the purpose of reducing all other nations to a level of opinion and government with themselves, and to harbour no enmity but to hereditary sovereigns, and the adherents to implicit obedience in matters of church and

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state.

"To disseminate such a disposition in the "generality was the chief aim of the French

general, well knowing that, on such a ground, "he would be able to erect a more durable fabric of that republicanism he had in view, than on the military power he had esta

"blished; and which, without those concomi"tances that he held out to the natives, would "have been odious to them, and have pre"sented no other picture than that of conquest " and tyranny.

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"In this court that was paid by the French general to men of letters and genius, we con

template a policy not less solid than sublime. "The class too that would be flattered by this * address was more numerous by far than it "will be very easy to imagine; so great a por“tion of mankind being so highly satisfied with their own talents and accomplishments. "The professions of Buonaparte, however, but ill accorded with his actions. The whole "of his conduct indicated that his main design "was to establish the power and influence of "the French in Italy. At Milan he formed "the plan of a republic on the model of that of France, and to be under her protection, in the same manner as the victorious and ambitious Romans admitted the conquered "states to the alliances and friendship of the "Senate and people of Rome: thus endea"vouring to subvert the authority of the Em

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peror, and to erect that of France on its ruins,

by abolishing feudal rights, and giving the "great mass of the people à share and an in

terest in the new government." He fortified

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"Verona, notwithstanding the reclamations "of the Venetians, and placed general officers, "in whom he could confide, over the Tuscan troops, as well as over those of Piedmont and Milan. The intentions of the French were "still less concealed at Paris; where those "who bore sway, at the same time that they

professed a desire to fraternize with all na"tions, talked of nothing but the extension "of their arms, and of Paris becoming the "capital of Europe. They boasted of the ge

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nerous design of giving peace and tranquillity to all nations under the protection of the "French republic."

Thus he became strong with a small people, or with a force apparently inadequate to the extent of his views; and which might perhaps have been insufficient had the resistance to him been universal. But endeavouring to obtain a party amongst the people themselves, and making use of every artifice that his genius suggested to him, he entered peaceably upon the fattest places of the province.

And he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers: he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches. It is observed in the History of the Campaign in Germany and Italy in the year 1796, that the motives which determined the French go.

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vernment to push the war in Italy with more vigour than it had done the preceding years, were as follows: "To detach the King of Sar"dinia from the coalition-To carry the war "into the proper estates of the Emperor"To destroy his preponderance in Italy-To "shut up his ports against the English-and "above all to find in a rich and fertile country,

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money, subsistence, and resources of every "description." I have already mentioned the great contributions which had been exacted from the Pope, as the price of the armistice granted him. The Duke of Parma had also been called upon to pay as his contribution "2,000,000 of livres French money (84,0007.) "To furnish 1,200 draught horses with their harness, 400 dragoon horses with their harness, and 100 saddle horses, for the superior "officers of the army-To give up 20 paint

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ings, which were to be chosen by the generalin-chief, from among those in the duchy"To lodge in the magazines of the French at "Tortona, 10,000 quintals of wheat and 5,000 "of oats, and to furnish 2,000 oxen." The Duke of Modena had also been obliged to purchase an armistice of Buonaparte at a most excessive price, undertaking to pay to the French republic" 7,500,000 livres French. money (313,0007.)-To furnish 2,500,000 livres

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