CHAP. made prisoners of war. X. About the same time Miranda dispossessed the Imperialists from Ruremonde, and took 1792. possession of that city; while, on the other side, Dumourier, after dislodging them from their position, covering Aix-la-Chapelle, made himself master also of that important city, the ancient capital of Charlemagne. 52. puts his winter quarters. Dumourier now projected an irruption into the Dutch Dumourier territory, and the siege of Maestricht, one of the principal army into frontier fortresses belonging to that republic. But the Executive Council, justly apprehensive of engaging at once in a war with the United Provinces and Great Britain, which was bound by treaty to support them, commanded him to desist from the enterprise; and his force being now much weakened by sickness, want, fatigue, and the desertion of above ten thousand men, who had left their colours during the military license which followed the conquest of Belgium, and the loss of six thousand horses by the severity of the weather, he resolved to put his troops into winter quarters. His army, accordingly, was distributed in cantonments, in a line from Namur, by Aix-la1 Jom. ii. Chapelle, to Ruremonde. The Government urged him to continue his offensive operations, and to drive the ImTh. iii. 267. perialists beyond the Rhine; but the exhausted state of 1793, 69. his soldiers rendered any further movements impracticable; 230, 233. and, yielding to his urgent representations, they at length consented to their enjoying some weeks of repose.1 Dec. 12. 250, 258, 259, 260. Ann. Reg. Dum. iii. 53. the Conven ments. Nov. 19. Flanders was not long of reaping the bitter fruits of Decree of republican conquest. On the 19th November the Contion against vention, inflamed by the victory of Jemappes, published all govern the famous Resolution, in which they declared, "that they would grant fraternity and succour to every people who were disposed to recover their liberty; and that they charged their generals to give aid to all such people, and to defend all citizens who had been, or might be, disquieted in the cause of freedom." This decree, which was equivalent to a declaration of war against every established government, was ordered to be translated, and СНАР. X. 1792. Dec. 15. published in all languages. And it was followed up on 15th December by another decree, calculated in an especial manner to injure the subjects of the conquered provinces. By this celebrated manifesto, as already mentioned, the Republic proclaimed, in all the countries which it conquered, "the sovereignty of the people, the suppression of all the constituted authorities, of tithes, and all subsisting taxes and imposts, of all feudal and territorial rights, of all the privileges of nobility, and exclusive privileges of every description. It announced to all their subjects liberty, fraternity, and equality; invited them to form themselves forthwith into primary assemblies, to elect an administration and provisional government, and declared that it would treat as enemies all persons who, refusing these benefits, or renouncing them, should show any dis- ii. 264, 265. position to preserve, recall, or treat with their prince, or any of the privileged castes." 1 * 1 Hist. Parl. xxi. 351, 352. Jom. Pièces Just. No. 8, 9. changes in into Bel gium. This last decree excited as violent indignation in 54. Belgium as the first had awakened alarm through all Violent Europe. The Flemings were by no means disposed to troduced abandon their ancient chiefs; and the feudal feelings, and religious impressions, which existed in great force in that country, were revolted at the sudden severing of all the ties which had hitherto been held most sacred. The dearest interests, the strongest attachments of nature were violated, when the whole ancient aristocracy of the land was uprooted, and a foundation laid for the formation of a new set of governors, elected by the universal suffrage of the inhabitants. Property of every kind, institutions of whatever duration, were threatened by so violent a shock to the fabric of society. Religion itself seemed to be menaced with destruction when tithes were extinguished, all ecclesiastical communities destroyed, and their property placed at the disposal of these new democratic assemblies. These feelings, natural on so extreme a change in any country, were in a peculiar manner roused in Flanders, in *See ante, Chap. 1x. § 117, for the text of these decrees. X. 1792. CHAP. consequence of the powerful influence of the clergy over its inhabitants, and the vast number of established interests and great properties which were threatened by the sweeping changes of the French Convention. Nor was the exasperation diminished by the speeches of the orators who introduced the measure-Cambon, who moved the 265, Th. resolution, having spoken of the Low Countries as a conquered province; and Brissot, who seconded it, warned 201, 206. the Belgians to adopt it, under pain of being "put to the ban of French philosophy."1 1 Jom. ii. iii. 268. Bert. de Moll. x. 55. Immediately after issuing the decree, Flanders was Dreadfulop- inundated by a host of revolutionary agents, who, with the French liberty, patriotism, and protection in their mouths, had ists in Flan- nothing but violence, confiscation, and bloodshed in their pression of Revolution ders. measures. Forced requisitions of men, horses, and provisions, enormous contributions levied by military execution, compulsory payment in the depreciated assignats of France, general spoliation of the churches, were among the first results of the democratic government. They gave Europe a specimen of the blessings of Republican government. The legions of fiscal agents and tax-gatherers who overspread the land, appeared actuated by no other motive but to wring the uttermost farthing out of the wretched inhabitants, and make their own fortunes out of a transsient possession of the conquered districts. At their head were Danton, Lacroix, and Carrier, republicans of the sternest cast and the most rapacious dispositions, who infused their own infernal energy into all the inferior agents, and gave to the inhabitants of Flanders a foretaste of the Reign of Terror. Five-and-thirty commissioners, really chosen by the Jacobin Club in Paris, though nominally by the Convention, supported these three master-spirits in the work of spoliation. They were sent to Flanders, nominally, to organise the march of freedom-really, to plunder the whole aristocratic party. Immediately on their arrival, they divided that unhappy country into districts, and each in his domain proceeded to the work of appropriation. The peasants were driven by strokes of X. 1792. the sabre, and at the point of the bayonet, to the primary CHAP. assemblies which had been designated by the Convention; while the churches, monasteries, and chateaus were plundered, the movables of every description sold, and the proceeds paid over to the French Commissioners. The estates of the clergy were everywhere put under sequestration, while valuable property of all descriptions, belonging to lay proprietors, was seized and sold; and the unhappy owners, under the odious title of aristocrats, were too often sent off, with their wives and children, to the fortresses of France, there to remain as hostages for further requisitions.1 1 Dum, iii. 278. Jom. ii. 265. 56. action in The inhabitants of Flanders, awakened by these terrible calamities from the dream of liberty, speedily became as Strong reardent for the restoration of their former government as consequence they had ever been for its overthrow. The provinces of in Flanders. Brabant and Flanders, which had made such efforts to throw off the yoke of Joseph II., having tasted the consequences of republican conquest, were not less strenuous in their endeavours to rescue themselves from their liberators. The most violent indignation everywhere broke forth against the French government, and among none more vehemently than those who had hailed their approach as deliverers. A deputation was sent to the Emperor, imploring him to come to their deliverance, promising the aid of thirty thousand men, and large advances of money,, Jom. ii. if assistance was afforded them.2 Such were the first 266. fruits of republican conquest in Europe; but they were not the last. The words of freedom are seductive to all; its evils are known only to the actual sufferers. Europe required to suffer universally under the evils under which Flanders groaned, before the ruinous delusion which had led to its subjugation was dispelled. While these great changes were passing in the north, events of minor importance, but still productive of important consequences, occurred on the southern and eastern frontier. The mountains of Savoy were the theatre of X. 1792. 57. War declared against Piedmont. Sept. 15. CHAP. less sanguinary struggles between the Republican troops and the Italian soldiers. The evident peril of the Piedmontese dominions, from their close proximity to the great centre of revolutionary action, had led, early in 1792, to measures of precaution on the part of the Sardinian government; and all the states of Italy, alarmed at the rapid progress of democratic principles, had made advances towards a league for mutual support. The excitement in Piedmont was so strong, and the contagion of liberal principles so violent, that nothing but war, it soon became evident, could save the kingdom from revolt. Matters were brought to a crisis in September 1792, by the rapid advance of the Imperialists through the Tyrol into the Milanese states. The French despatched an embassy to propose an alliance with the Piedmontese government, promising in that case to guarantee its dominions, repress the turbulence of its subjects, and cede to that power all the conquests made by their joint forces to the south of the Alps. But the peril of any conjunction with the Republican troops, to any established government, was so evident that the King of Sardinia rejected the proposals. The French envoy, in consequence, was not permitted to proceed farther than Alessandria; and the Convention, immediately on receiving intelligence of this decisive step, declared war against the Piedmontese monarch, and orders 1 Botta, i. were despatched to General Montesquiou to assail Savoy, where the Jacobin emissaries had already sown the seeds. of disaffection to the Italian dynasty.1 Sept. 15. 75,88. Jom. ii. 180. 58. enter Savoy. On the 21st of September the Republicans unexpectFrench edly entered that mountain territory, and, after a feeble Sept. 21. resistance, took possession of Chambery and Montmelian, and shortly after overran the whole valleys of the Alps, as far as the foot of Mont Cenis. The Sardinian forces, though nearly ten thousand strong, were so dispersed that it was impossible to unite them in sufficient numbers to oppose any resistance to the sudden attack of the Republicans-another proof, in addition to the many on record, |