idea first flashed across his mind that he might become a great actor in the world's drama.

On the 15th of May he made a triumphant entrance into Milan, where the French had many converts and partisans. That city soon became the rallying-point of conspirators and desperate emigrants from other parts of Italy. They formed patriotic clubs, made speeches, wrote extravagant poems, and published newspapers, in which they lauded the French and Napoleon to the skies. Neither his interest, nor his duty to the revolutionary Government which employed him, could induce the fortunate young general altogether to conceal his want of sympathy with these people, or his aversion to democracy; but, while he assumed a distant and supercilious demeanour towards them, many of his officers and soldiers fraternized with the Italian republicans, who were constantly telling them how easy it would be to revolutionize the entire Peninsula, and overset every old government in it. Certainly," says an Italian writer, "the Italian Government of that period were not perfect, but they were at least supportable by force of habit; and before this invasion they were every day improving and being reformed, as well by the rulers as by the people. And who will maintain that a lawless military dominion was better than these old governments? There were some who said, and still say, that out of evil good was to come. But I am well aware that men do not wait patiently for an uncertain result; and, assuredly, the patience of that generation was severely tried!"* But several of these Italian states might be said to be exceedingly well governed when, this tempest of foreign war burst over them.

The Milanese, a naturally fertile country, which had belonged for ages to the house of Austria, was rich and thriving-rich even in intellectual wealth, to a degree which it has not since attainedand the Austrian administration, in the recent reigns of Maria Theresa and Joseph II., had effected many useful reforms, with an enlightened policy and truly liberal spirit. Tuscany was, perhaps, the best administered, the most contented, and the happiest country

*Carlo Botta.

to be found on the continent of Europe; and here, too, governmental reforms, and reforms in the laws, had long been and were still in progress. The kingdom of Naples, though somewhat backward in civilization, had made immense strides in the right direction since the accession of Charles III. in 1734, and the changes introduced by the Marquis of Tannuci, originally a jurisconsult and professor at Pisa. And here also there was an amount of learning, ingenuity, and genius, which those regions have not possessed since that storm overtook them.

Immense and almost incessant pains have been taken to show what some parts of Italy gained by the French Revolution, the invasion of the Republicans, and the established regal dominion of Napoleon. But few or none have paused to speculate on what might have been the condition of Italy if she had been left to herself to pursue her own paths of reform and political reorganization.

Even the zealots of Milan-or such of them as were not gainers in the scramble for power and plunder--soon found out the true signification of French fraternity. The governing powers at Paris, without money and without credit, had adopted the resolution that war must support war-la guerre doit nourrir la guerre—that is to say, the countries overrun by French armies were to feed, clothe, lodge, and pay the troops, and also to remit large contributions to France. This was the basis of all the instructions given by the Five Kings at the Luxembourg to Bonaparte and to all their generals. For much of the mischief that was done Napoleon was scarcely accountable.

Piedmont had been pitilessly plundered, in a regular manner, by the commissaries of the army and the commissioners of the Directory, and in an irregular manner by the soldiery and camp followers, among whom there were now many Italians, refugees from other states, men of desperate fortunes, and of no honour or morality. As a good part of Lombardy seemed to receive the Republicans as friends and deliverers, Bonaparte endeavoured to stop the irregular plunder here, but the regular plunder which he ordered himself was enormous. He imposed, at once, a contribution of 20,000,000 of francs, which fell chiefly on the nobility and clergy; he autho

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rized his commissaries to seize whatsoever provisions, stores, waggons, horses, &c., the army might want, merely giving cheques (which, for the most part, were never paid at all), to be paid out of the contributions. The horses and carriages of the nobility were seized, because they belonged to aristocrats; a great deal of property which belonged to the late Viceroy and the Austrian Government, and a great deal which did not belong to them, was sequestrated as public property; and, to finish the accursed climax, the Monte di Pietà was broken open by express orders from Bonaparte and his countryman, Saliceti, and all the property in it that was worth sending was sent to Genoa to be converted into money for the benefit of the Directory. In passing through Piacenza, Bonaparte and Saliceti (that most rapacious and terrible of commissioners) had already treated the Monte di Pietà there in the same manner; and it afterwards became a rule to plunder all these charitable institutions.

The five Directors at the Luxembourg were incessantly calling on the general for money-money-more money; and Bonaparte himself says that, besides clothing and feeding and abundantly paying his army, he remitted to them 50,000,000 of francs during his first Italian campaign. The petty principalities, into which so much of the beautiful country was so unhappily divided, had never made war, but they were all obliged to purchase what was called a peace, at prices which might have saved Italy from this invasion, if they had been collectively poured into the treasury of the keeper of the keys of the Alps, the King of Sardinia. Thus the Duke of Parma was made to pay 1,500,000 francs to furnish clothing for the army, and to surrender twenty of his best pictures. The Duke of Modena was made to pay 6,000,000 francs in cash, 2,000,000 more in provisions, cattle, horses, &c., and to deliver up fifteen of his choice paintings; and, as he could not feed the voracity of the republicans fast enough, they took his whole duchy from him a few months later. Until the Emperor should send another army, there was absolutely nothing in Italy to offer any valid resistance to these insatiable plunderers.

In these and other similar discreditable transactions, which be

came of common occurrence in every part of Italy occupied by the French for the next three years, the military commanders, commissaries, and other agents, were assisted by many Italians, who had embraced their part in order to glean in such a harvest. They pointed out where valuable objects were to be found, and they went to find them out and deliver them into the hands of the French. It is remarked by a French writer, in the Supplement to the "Biographie Universelle," that the acknowledgments given for the valuables taken away from churches and other public establishments are signed by Italians, and that not a French name appears on them. Many of these, however, belong to a later period, after Bonaparte had left Italy. A collection of these original documents, or procès-verbaux, as the French style them, has been made by a French gentleman, M. Villenave; they are all dated the year vi. (1797-8), and entitled, “In the name of the French Republic,” bearing the legend of "Liberty and Equality." Some of them are remarkable for the miscellaneous nature of the plunder. One procèsverbal states the delivery of a golden chalice weighing six and a half pounds, nine other chalices, seven silver lamps, sixteen silver candlesticks, eight flower-vases, censers, statues, basins, saucers, coffeespoons, trays, hand-bells, &c., all of silver. Another mentions a sack containing several packets of silver utensils of the province of Perugia, without specifying either the objects or the weight. These acknowledgments are signed by men calling themselves agents of finance, and are countersigned by the superiors of the churches thus plundered. Under General Bonaparte things were done with more regularity; but still many irregularities and violences were committed which he did not know or could not prevent, as he himself acknowledged.

The spoliation of the Monte di Pietà, and the violences perpetrated in the country, gave rise to popular insurrections in various parts of Lombardy. The inhabitants of Beinasco, a large village between Milan and Pavia, rose in arms and killed several French, and partisans of the French whom the people stigmatized as Jacobins. The insurrection spread rapidly in that quarter, the bells rang to alarm, and a multitude of country people ran to Pavia,

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!

where they were joined by the lower orders in that city,—for it must be observed that in Italy it was the peasantry and the working classes in general that were most inimical to the French.

On the 23rd of May, Pavia, a large city with about 30,000 inhabi tants, was in open revolt. The French soldiers that were in the town shut themselves up in the castle; those who were found about the streets were seized and ill used; some were killed; the rest had their lives saved by the interference of the municipal magistrates, who protected them at the risk of their own. General Haguin, who happened to pass at the time on his way to head-quarters, was assailed by a frantic mob and wounded, but was saved by the magistrates, and concealed in the town house. In all this tumult the country people were the chief actors. Bonaparte was at Lodi, on the point of following up Beaulieu, when the news of the insurrection in his rear reached him. He hastened back to Milan, and induced the Archbishop Visconti to proceed to Pavia in order to persuade the people to lay down their arms. Meantime he sent Lannes with a strong column against Beinasco, which was stormed and set on fire. All people taken with arms in their hands were put to death. Bonaparte himself advanced against Pavia. The archbishop, who preceded him, harangued the multitude from the balcony of the town house, explaning to them their danger, their inability to resist the French regular troops; and exhorted them to lay down their arms and disperse quietly. But the ignorant and deluded people would not listen to his advice, and some even cried out that the archbishop was become a Jacobin. Meantime the French arrived, and broke open one of the gates by means of cannon. The cavalry rushed into the streets and sabred all they met. Most of the country people ran out at the other gates, and the citizens returned to their houses. An order of Bonaparte required the inhabitants to give up their arms of every discription immediately, which was obeyed. Then came a second order, by which the city of Pavia was given up to pillage for twenty-four hours. During the rest of that day, the 25th of May, and the whole of the following night, the soldiers rioted in plunder, violence, and debauch, in the houses of the unfortunate Pavese. Murder, however, was not added