A.D. 1798.

THE FRENCH IN EGYPT.

681

After com

power, had conceived a deadly hatred of this country. pelling the Austrians to the peace of Campo Formio he had returned to Paris, where he was enthusiastically received; the Directory called him to their councils, and consulted him on every occasion. An army, called the army of England, was marched toward the Channel; a proclamation was issued in which it was difficult to say whether the abuse of England or the vaunting laudation of France were the most silly and extravagant; and a loan of about four millions sterling was proposed to be raised on the security of the contemplated conquests, but the money-lenders did not seem inclined to advance their cash upon it. The threatened invasion was in a great degree intended to conceal an expedition which Bonaparte was now meditating against Egypt.

§ 14. The English, in turn, were not backward in offensive operations, which, however, did not prove very successful. In May, 1798, Havre was ineffectually bombarded by Sir Richard Strahan, and in the same month an expedition under Sir Home Popham was undertaken against Ostend. General Coote landed with 1000 men, and destroyed the basin, gates, and sluices of the Bruges canal, in order to interrupt the navigation between France and Flanders. But the surf did not permit him to return to the ships, and on the following morning they were surrounded by several columns of the enemy drawn from the adjacent garrisons, and, being outnumbered, were obliged to surrender.

At the same period Bonaparte sailed from Toulon with 13 ships of the line and transports, conveying 20,000 men, on his Egyptian expedition, accompanied by some generals of renown and a body of savans. It was undertaken from a mere desire of spoliation and aggrandizement, for the French had not a shadow of a grievance to allege against the Porte. On the way, Malta, then governed by the Grand Master and Knights, was surprised and seized with as little pretense. At the beginning of July the French landed between 3000 and 4000 men at Marabou, near Alexandria, and captured the latter city after a slight resistance, as well as Aboukir and Rosetta, which gave them the command of one of the mouths of the Nile. The French committed an indiscriminate massacre of men, women, and children, which lasted four hours; and Bonaparte issued a blasphemous proclamation, in which he declared that the French were Mussulmans, and took credit for driving out the Christian Knights of Malta. He then crossed the desert, fought the battles of Chebreisse and the Pyramids, and seized Cairo, the capital of Egypt.

Meanwhile Nelson had been vainly looking out for the French fleet, and it was not till August 1st that he discovered their transports in the harbor of Alexandria. Their men-of-war were an

chored in the Bay of Aboukir, as close as possible to the shore. Nevertheless, Nelson determined to get inside of them with some of his vessels, a manœuvre for which they were not prepared; and, though the Culloden grounded in the attempt, Nelson persevered. Thus a great part of the enemy's fleet was placed between two fires. The battle began at 6 in the evening. By 8 o'clock four of the French van had struck, but the combat still raged in the centre. Between 9 and 10 o'clock, L'Orient, the French admiral's ship, having caught fire, blew up with a terrible explosion, which was followed by a deep silence of several minutes. The battle was then renewed, and continued through the night, with only an hour's pause. Separate engagements occurred throughout the following day, and at noon Rear Admiral Villeneuve escaped with four ships. On the following morning the only French ships remaining uncaptured or undestroyed were the Timoléon and the Tonnant, when the latter surrendered, and the former was set on fire and abandoned by the crew. Such was the battle of the Nile. From the heights of Rosetta the French beheld with consternation and dismay the destruction of their fleet, which deprived them of the means of returning to their country. Soon afterward the islands of Goza and Minorca fell into the hands of the English.

The news of Nelson's victory was received with the sincerest demonstrations of joy not only at home, but through a great part of Europe. He was created Baron Nelson of the Nile and of Burnham Thorpe in Norfolk; the thanks of both houses of Parliament were voted to him, and an annuity of £2000. He also received some magnificent presents from the Grand Seignor, the Emperor of Russia, and the King of Sardinia. His return to the Bay of Naples animated the king to undertake an expedition against Rome, which was recovered from the French. At the same time Nelson landed 6000 men and captured Leghorn. These enterprises, however, were rash and ill-considered. In a few days the French retook Rome and marched upon Naples itself, when the king took refuge on board Nelson's ship and proceeded to Sicily, which for some time became his home. Naples, deserted by the sovereign and the greater part of the nobility, was heroically defended by the lower classes and the lazzaroni; but, as they had no artillery, they were forced to succumb, and the French established the Parthenopeian Republic.

In consequence of the battle of the Nile an alliance was formed between England, Russia, and the Porte, and early in 1799 hostilities were recommenced between Austria and France. The Congress of Rastadt, which had been some time sitting with the view of arranging a general pacification, was dissolved, and the

A.D. 1799.

SIEGE OF ACRE.

683

French, being defeated by the Archduke Charles at the battle of Stockach, were obliged to recross the Rhine. At the same time the Russians under Suwarrow, advancing into Italy, recovered with extraordinary rapidity all the conquests made by Bonaparte with the exception of Genoa. Suwarrow then invaded Switzerland, but all his successes were compromised by the want of cordial cooperation between him and the Austrians.

§ 15. After the alliance between England and Russia, a joint expedition was agreed upon for the recovery of Holland, which was to be undertaken with 30,000 British troops under Sir Ralph Abercrombie and 17,000 Russians (1799). The first division of the British, under Sir James Pulteney, General Moore, and General Coote, effected a landing, and after two severe encounters took the towns of the Helder and Huysduinen. About the same time the Dutch fleet of 13 ships of war, together with some Indiamen and transports, surrendered by capitulation to Admiral Mitchell. About the middle of September, by the arrival of some Russian divisions, and of the Duke of York with three British brigades, the allied army amounted to 33,000 men, of which the duke was commander-in-chief. Several actions took place, attended with varying success and considerable losses on both sides. At length the duke, sensible of the advancing season, and finding that his army was reduced by 10,000 men, retired to a fortified position at the Zype, which he might have maintained by inundating the country; but, as such an operation would have destroyed an immense amount of property, and occasioned great misery to the Dutch, he preferred a capitulation, by which it was agreed that he should restore the Helder in the same state as before its capture, together with 8000 Dutch and French prisoners, and that the allied army should re-embark without molestation before the end of November. Thus ended an expedition which, though unfortunate, can hardly be called disgraceful. As a sort of compensation, the Dutch colony of Surinam was conquered this

summer.

Meanwhile the situation of the French in Egypt had become very critical. The army was seized with alarm and dejection; many committed suicide; but Bonaparte retained his presence of mind. Having dispatched Desaix against the Mamelukes in Upper Egypt, he himself undertook an expedition into Palestine against Djezzar Pasha. El Arish, Gaza, Jaffa, yielded to his arms; at which last he massacred in cold blood between 3000 and 4000 prisoners. But at St. John d'Acre, the key of Syria, he was met by Sir Sydney Smith, to whom the sultan had intrusted his fleet. Sir Sydney destroyed the flotilla that was conveying the French battering-train; nevertheless, they continued the siege with

field-pieces. After a siege of two months, and several assaults, Bonaparte was compelled to retreat, though he had resorted to the treacherous action of ordering an assault after sending in a flag of truce. Having returned to Egypt toward the end of August, he went on board a French man-of-war in the night, accompanied by some of his best generals, leaving letters by which he delegated the command of the army to Ménou and Kléber. By hugging the African coast, he escaped the English cruisers and arrived safely at Fréjus. Notwithstanding his ill success, his popularity had, if possible, increased in Paris. Toward the end of the year, the Assembly of Five Hundred having been dissolved, Bonaparte, Siéyès, and Ducos became consuls.

§ 16. A measure was now in agitation in England for consolidating the power and integrity of the empire by a union with Ireland. That country had been for some years in a very disturbed state. The examples of America and France had inspired many with the idea of establishing an independent republic; and in 1791 was formed the society of United Irishmen, consisting mostly of Protestants, whose principles would have led to that result. Its projector was a barrister named Theobald Wolfe Tone, who, having become secretary of the committee for managing the affairs of the Irish Roman Catholics, effected an alliance between the two parties. The ramifications of this society extended throughout Ireland. Tone having been detected in a treasonable correspondence with the French, was obliged to fly to America, whence he soon afterward passed over to France, and employed himself in forwarding the projected invasions already mentioned in 1796 and 1797. Notwithstanding the frustration of these expeditions, the Irish malcontents did not abandon their plan of an insurrection. One of their principal leaders was Lord Edward Fitzgerald, a brother of the Duke of Leinster; and he was seconded by Arthur O'Connor, Napper Tandy, Thomas Addis Emmet, Oliver Bond, and others. But the conspiracy was divulged by one Thomas Reynolds, and some of the principal conspirators were arrested, March 12, 1798, at a meeting which they held in Bond's house. Lord Fitzgerald happened not to be present, but he was discovered and seized about two months afterward. He made a desperate resistance, wounding two of the officers sent to apprehend him, one of whom died of his injuries. But he himself was shot with a bullet in the shoulder, the effects of which proved fatal. After this discovery martial law was proclaimed in Ireland, and many acts of violence and cruelty took place on both sides. Numerous engagements occurred in various quarters, in which the rebels were almost invariably defeated, except in Wexford, where they were in greatest force, and where they sometimes made head against the

A.D. 1800.

UNION OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND.

685

king's troops. At Vinegar Hill, near the town of Wexford, was their principal camp or station; and here they were defeated (June 21) by General Lake, the commander-in-chief. Lord Cornwallis, the new viceroy, who arrived shortly afterward, succeeded in reducing the country to comparative tranquillity.

The union of England and Ireland had been many years discussed as a speculative question, and these disturbances forced it upon the serious attention of the government. The king, in his speech on opening the Parliament (Jan. 22, 1800), alluded to the subject, and a few days afterward Pitt brought forward a series of resolutions, which were carried after considerable debate. A bill embodying these resolutions passed both houses in the following May. The main provisions were, that 100 Irish members should be added to the English House of Commons, and 32 Irish peers to the House of Lords-four spiritual and 28 temporalwhose seats were to be held for life. The measure also passed both houses of the Irish Parliament, and it was agreed that the Union should commence on Jan. 1, 1801. We shall here anticipate what occurred on that day. A council was held consisting of the most eminent dignitaries of Church and state, including the royal princes, etc., by which proclamations were issued for making the necessary changes in the king's title, the national arms, and the Liturgy. The only thing worth noting on this occasion is, that the title of "King of France" was dropped and the fleurs de lys expunged from the royal arms; a pretension that for some centuries had been a vainglorious one, and which had proved inconvenient in recent negotiations with France.

§ 17. When Pitt brought forward this measure, he publicly renounced the opinions which he had formerly held on the subject of Parliamentary reform. The chief reasons which he assigned for his change of views were the altered state of circumstances produced by the French Revolution, and the fact that England had ridden safely through the revolutionary storm.

During the debates on the Union the Irish Catholics had remained almost entirely neutral, and what little feeling they displayed was in its favor. This is attributable to their hatred of the Orangemen, the warmest opponents of a union, as well as to the expectation that their demands would be more favorably considered in a united Parliament than by a separate Irish Legislature; and, indeed, Pitt, who was not adverse to their claims, had held out to them some hopes to that effect.

On May 15th this year the king was shot at in his box at Drury Lane Theatre. The assassin, being apprehended, was found to be a lunatic named James Hatfield, and the attempt was not in any way connected with politics. But the deficient harvest this