troops (April 1798),, to this odious contest, against the combined army of the democratic cantons, which was compofed of the hardy defcendants of those brave patriots who had in antient times refifted, with fuch glorious fuccefs, the tyranny of the house of Auftria. Taking a very strong pofition amid their native mountains near the lake of Zug, under the command of general Paravicini, a man not destitute of experience or talents, they awaited without fear the attack of the French, who were much fuperior to them in numbers. After engaging with great fury and equal advantage for fome time, Paravicini ordered a feigned retreat, and drew the French with great skill into an ambush which he had dextrously planted behind a morafs; and being thus unexpectedly taken both in flank and rear, they made a precipitate retreat, with the lofs of feveral thousand men.

In the other engagements which took place in this rough and rugged country, the French could obtain no laurels ; and being perhaps a little reluctant to pursue to extremity a war of this nature, a negotiation was fet on foot, in which the united cantons obtained the following very honourable terms-1ft. That no French troops should enter their territory. 2d. That no contributions should be levied upon them. 3d. That, in accepting the new constitution, they would reserve to themselves the arrangement of their interior administration.

It is nevertheless grievous to relate, that Underwalden obftinately refusing to ratify this agreement, rejecting peremptorily the amicable overtures repeatedly made,—and as if they felt themelves contaminated by the correfpondence, at length returning the letters fent them without breaking the feal,— the French at the latter end of the fummer marched a fecond army into that canton: and the men of Underwalden affembling their entire force, aided by divers corps of volunteers from the neighbouring diftricts, one unconquerable fpirit animating the whole, a moft memorable battle was fought on the 8th and 9th of September, on the shores of

the

the lake of Lucerne, near the town of Standtz, in which prodigies of valor were performed by these genuine fons of freedom. On the firit of these days no impreffion could be made by the French; and upon the fecond the battle was renewed with redoubled fury. On one fide were skill, difcipline, and far fuperior numbers; upon the other, the enthusiasm of religion, and the inextinguishable ardor of patriotism. In courage, neither could boast the superiority— every individual was an hero. For a time the bayonet of the foldier seemed a feeble weapon compared with the maffy club of the mountaineer; and the artillery of the French was almost filenced by the vaft fragments of rock rolled down from the apparently-inacceffible heights above them. Women and children rushed undaunted upon the invaders. No advance was made but over the bodies of the flain; and the day closed before the battle was decided. At length, deftroyed rather than defeated, the fhattered remains of the Swifs army, under covert of the increafing darkness, took refuge in the town of Standtz, which was carried by ftorm, and in a moment converted into a scene of carnage and defolation. The beautiful valley of Standtz, feated at the base of lofty mountains on whose summits winter holds eternal reign, was laid entirely wafte, the houses of the inhabitants burnt, the churches demolished, and all who were found in arms exterminated without mercy,

The monstrous contraft between the principles and practices of the French appears in no inftance perhaps fo ftriking as in this, where, with the name of freedom on their lips, they imbrued their facrilegious hands in the blood of those who had for ages inhabited thefe hallowed and fequeftered haunts, where LIBERTY, banished from kingdoms and empires, had been received with ruftic and paftoral honors, thenceforth making this fimple but fublime temple of Nature her chofen and favorite abode.

To pursue the progrefs of French rapacity and tyranny, as exercised by the profligate inftruments of the French directors, Mengaud and Rapinat, would be foreign to the pur

pofe

pose of this history: it must suffice to mention, that the new constitution, upon the French model, was at length adopted by all the Helvetic States-Lucerne being fixed upon as the feat of government; and that a treaty of alliance, offenfive and defensive, was fubfequently concluded between the Gallic and Helvetic republics, nominally at least, on terms of equality and reciprocal advantage.

It is proper to add, that, in the courfe of thefe tranfactions, the city of Geneva, which had been within the space of a few years the scene of a fucceffion of revolutions, was at length united, probably for ever, to the French republicbeing formed into the capital of a department, under the name of the department of the Lake of Leman.

Notwithstanding the defpotic authority exercised by the directors fince the revolution of Fructidor, the election of the new third in the legislative affembly, during the spring of the present year, was very oppofite to their views and wishes. They fent, in confequence, a meffage to the Council of Five Hundred, complaining of the existence of an anarchical confpirary to make the primary and elective asfemblies the nurseries of future plots, and exprefling their hopes that the council would not permit men loaded with every crime to fit in the legislature.

An obfequious committee was immediately appointed to make a report upon this meffage, which was brought up on the 7th of May. It ftated the neceflity of excluding from the legislature the partizans of the two great factions which agitated the republic-the anarchifts, and the royalifts. And a decree was forthwith framed, annulling the elections of feveral departments in toto, befides thofe of very many individuals. The control of the prefs was alfo, with equal fervility, continued for another year.

About the fame period the negotiator Treilhard was chofen to fucceed Francis de Neufchâteau, who was the director deftined to vacate his lot.

The

The war department had been filled with equal incapacity and profligacy, fince the 18th of Fructidor, by general Scherer, a near relation of the director Rewbel; and every other department in the ftate exhibited a fimilar portrait of inability and rapacity:-fo that the directorial government became both odious and contemptible to all defcriptions of perfons throughout the nation; and the more the Directory multiplied their tyrannical precautions, the more they enhanced the number of their enemies, and the imminence of their danger.

Holland, which, by a wife and fingular policy adopted at the period of the conqueft of that country by France, and fince not materially violated, had been left in a very great measure to take care of its own concerns, now became the scene of fome revolutionary movements. "No proscription, no popular crime, had stained the tranquil fubversion of its antient government. It had only to bear the refidence and maintenance of 24,000 Frenchmen, whofe number was never effective, and whose conduct in general did not excite complaints."* A fufpicion had been, how, ever, for fome time, entertained in both countries that the zcal displayed by fome members of the Batavian convention for the antient modes of federative organization arose from a fecret predilection to the ftadtholderian government; and the naval defeat of Camperdown was afcribed by many to the treasonable difaffection of fome perfons high in station and influence. At the latter end of the year 1797, citizen Charles de la Croix was nominated ambassador to the republic of Holland, with a view to effect a revolutionary change which had been previously concerted with the Dutch general Daendals.

On the 22d of January, 1798, troops were pofted at the entrance of the hall of the affembly, the commanding officer

of

This is the remarkable and candid teftimony of a moft determined anti-revolutionist, M. MALLET DU PAN.Vide " British Mercury, September, 1799."

of which arrested fuch of the deputies as were on the prefcribed lift, to the number of twenty-one, together with the fix members of the commiffion for foreign affairs. The affembly, thus purged, affumed the appellation of " The Conftituent Affembly of the Batavian People," and elected a provifional Executive Directory. A general oath was imposed of unalterable hatred to ftadtholderianism, ariftocracy, federalifm, and anarchy: and Holland feemed funk into the ftate of a province abjectly dependent upon the will of De la Croix, the confidential agent of the French Directory. A conftitution formed on the bafis of the French was foon prepared, and with no difficulty accepted by the Dutch nation but the Conventional Affembly, on the 5th of May, thought proper to declare," that although they were virtually diffolved by the acceptance of the constitution, yet the dangers which still threatened the country had determined the members to agree that no renewal should take place that year, but that the prefent deputies fhould form themselves into a legiflative body, and continue their functions together with the present Directory."

This act of defpotism roused the phlegm of the Batavians into a very active and, probably, unexpected resistance. General Daendals, who had promoted the exclufion of the obnoxious members in January, now diftinguished himself by the decided part which he took in oppofition to the present measure, which was fupported by the whole influence of the French ambaffador and agent, Charles de la Croix.

The Dutch Directory having iffued orders for the arreft of the general, that officer made his escape, and, repairing to Paris, made fo good a defence of his conduct to the French Directory, that he was enabled, under the fanction of their approbation, to return to Holland, where he was received with acclamations of applaufe. In a fhort time a new scene of cabal and resistance opened: The ministers of the different ftate departments uniting with Daendals, and