RECONSTRUCTION OF FRENCH SOCIETY. 361 The passes of the St. Gothard and Mount Cenis were effected Ch.28 by the wings of the army. A. D. of Ma rengo. The first action took place at Montebello, and ended in favor 1801. of the French. This was soon followed by a decisive and brilliant victory at Marengo, on the 14th of June, 1800, one Battle of the most obstinately contested during the war, and attended with greater results than perhaps any battle that had yet occurred in modern warfare. Moreau also gained a great victory over the Austrians at Hohenlinden; and Macdonald performed great exploits amid the mountains of the Italian Tyrol. The treaty of Luneville, made February 9, 1801, followed by the Peace of Amiens, which was signed in March, 1802, fully recognized the victorious career of Bonaparte, by ceding to France the possession of Belgium, and the whole left bank of the Rhine. Lombardy was erected into an independent State; Venice was restored to Austria; and the independence of the Batavian, Helvetic, Cisalpine, and Ligurian Republics was guaranteed. This peace excited unbounded joy at Paris, and was the first considerable pause in the continental strife. Napoleon now returned to his capital to reconstruct French Return society, which was entirely disorganized. This he proposed of Napoleon to accomplish by restoring the institutions of religion, law, to Paris. commerce, and education. He did not attempt to give constitutional freedom. One night, going to the theatre, he narrowly escaped death by the explosion of an "infernal machine." He attributed this attempt to the Jacobins, and forthwith transported one hundred and thirty of them. He was determined to break up that obnoxious party, and the design against his life furnished the pretence. Shortly after, he instituted the Legion of Honor, an order of merit which was designed to substitute personal for hereditary honours. The scheme was violently opposed, but was eventually carried His pothrough the Council of State; and this institution, which pulaat length numbered two thousand persons, civil and military, became both popular and useful. rity. 362 Ch. 28 A. D. ration COMPILATION OF THE CODE NAPOLEON. He next restored the external institutions of religion, and ten archbishops and fifty bishops again administered the affairs 1802. of the Gallican Church. The restoration of the Sunday, with its customary observances, was hailed by the peasantry with Resto- undisguised delight, and was a pleasing sight to the nations of of reli- Europe. He then contemplated the complete restoration of gion. all the unalienated national property to the original proprietors, but was forced to abandon this design. A general amnesty was also proclaimed to the emigrants, in consequence of which one hundred thousand people returned, not indeed to enjoy their possessions, but to recover a part of them, and to breathe the air of their native land. At last, he resolved to make himself First Consul for life, and so seat his family on a monarchical throne. He was again opposed by the Council of State; but he appealed to the people, and three million three hundred and sixty-eight thousand, out of three million five hundred and fifty-seven thousand electors, voted for his elevation. The "Code Napoléon" then occupied his attention, indisputably the noblest monument of his reign. All classes and parties have praised the wisdom of this great compilation, which produced more salutary changes in France than had been effected by all the early revolutionists. Amid these undertakings of the Consul, the internal prosperity of the country was constantly increasing, and education, art, and science received an immense impulse. Everything seemed to smile upon Bonaparte, and all parties appeared reconciled to the great power which he so ably exercised. Code Napoléon. Some of his generals, however, who were attached to republican principles, viewed with ill-suppressed jealousy the rapid strides he was making to imperial power. Moreau, the victor at Hohenlinden, was at the head of these; and, in conjunction with Fouché, who had been turned out of his office Repub- on account of the immense power which it gave him, formed a lican conspiracy of Republicans and Royalists to overturn the consular throne. Fouché revealed the plot to Bonaparte, who restored him to power, and Generals Moreau and Pichegru, conspi racy. GREAT EUROPEAN COALITION. 363 the Duke d'Enghien, and other illustrious persons, were ar- Ch.28 rested. The Duke himself was innocent of the conspiracy, A. D. but was sacrificed to the jealousy of Bonaparte, who wished 1803 to remove from the eyes of the people the only member of the to Bourbon family he feared. This murder, which took place 1805. on the 20th of March, 1804, was one of the most cruel and unjustifiable acts which Bonaparte ever committed. "It of the was worse than a crime," said Talleyrand; "it was a blunder." Duke İt again lighted the flames of continental war, and from it may ghien. be dated the commencement of that train of events which ultimately hurled Napoleon from the imperial throne. On the 18th of May following, Napoleon was declared Emperor of the French, and an overwhelming majority of electoral votes confirmed him in his usurpation of the throne of Hugh Capet. His first step, as emperor, was the creation of eighteen marshals, all memorable in the annals of military glory-Berthier, Murat, Moncey, Jourdan, Masséna, Augereau, Bernadotte, Soult, Brune, Lannes, Mortier, Ney, Davoust, Bessières, Kellermann, Lefebvre, Pérignon, and Serrurier. To these military heroes it is impossible here further to allude. Murder d'En coali tion. Early in the year 1805, the three great European Powers, Greac England, Austria, and Russia, entered into a coalition to reduce France to its ancient limits, and to humble the despot who had usurped its throne. Enormous preparations were made by all the belligerent States, and four hundred thousand men were furnished by the allies for active service; a force not, however, much larger than Napoleon had raised to prosecute his scheme of universal dominion. sion of Among other designs, he now really meditated the invasion Invaof England, and assembled for that purpose one of the most Engsplendid armies which had been collected since the days of the land. Roman legions. It amounted to one hundred and fourteen thousand men, four hundred and thirty-two pieces of cannon, and fourteen thousand six hundred and fifty-four horses. Ample transports were provided to convey this immense army to the shores of England. This great design was defeated by 364 BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR. Ch. 28 the vigilance and number of the British ships which defended the coasts, those "wooden walls" which have so often pre 1805. served England from dreaded danger. A. D. Frustrated in the attempt to invade Great Britain, Napoleon War on instantly conceived the plan of the campaign of Austerlitz, nube. and without delay gave orders for the march of his different the Da Battle of Tra falgar. Death of Nel son. armies to the banks of the Danube. The army on the shores of the Channel, the forces in Holland, and the troops in Hanover, were formed into seven corps, under the command of as many marshals, comprising altogether one hundred and ninety thousand men, while the troops of his allies in Italy and Germany amounted to nearly seventy thousand more. Eighty thousand new conscripts were also raised, and all of these were designed for the approaching conflict with the Austrians. But before the different armies could meet in Germany, Nelson had gained the great and ever-memorable victory of Trafalgar, by which the naval power of France and Spain was so crippled and weakened, that England remained, during the continuance of the war, sovereign mistress of the ocean. Nothing could exceed the transports of exultation which pervaded the British empire on the news of this great naval victory, which was gained on the 23rd of October, 1805. All that national gratitude could prompt was done in honor of Nelson. The remains of the fallen victor were buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, and over them a magnificent monument was erected. His brother, who inherited his title, was made an earl, with a grant of six thousand pounds a year, and an estate worth one hundred thousand pounds. Admiral Collingwood, the second in command, was raised to the peerage, with a grant of two thousand pounds yearly. Countless and weeping multitudes followed the departed hero to the grave; and memory has ever since been consecrated in the hearts of his countrymen, who regard him, and with justice, as the greatest naval commander which any nation or age has produced. his The forces of Napoleon were now marshalled on the plains of Germany, and the Austrians, under the Archduke Charles, HUMILIATION OF AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA. A. D. of Aus 365 began to act on the defensive. Napoleon advanced rapidly on Ch. 28 Vienna, seized the bridge which led from it to the northern provinces of the empire, passed through the city, and estab- 1806. lished his head-quarters at Schoenbrunn. On the 1st of December was fought the celebrated battle of Austerlitz, the Battle most glorious of all Napoleon's battles, and the one in which terlitz. his military genius shone with the greatest lustre. It decided the campaign. Negotiations with Austria, dictated by the irresistible power of the French Emperor, were concluded at Presburg on the 27th December, by which that ancient State was completely humbled. The dethronement of the King of Naples followed, and the power of Napoleon was consolidated on the continent of Europe. of Pitt. The defeat of Austerlitz was a great blow to the Allied Powers. The health and spirits of Mr. Pitt sank under the Death disastrous intelligence; a devouring fever seized his brain, and delirium quenched the fire of his genius. He died on the 23rd of January, 1806, at the age of forty-seven, with the exclamation on his lips, "Alas, my country!" He was buried with great pomp in Westminster Abbey, actually dying in debt, after having had the control, for so many years, of the Treasury of England. Mr. Fox did not long survive his illustrious rival, but departed from the scene of conflict and of glory on the 13th of September following. The humiliation of Prussia succeeded to that of Austria. The battle of Jena, fought on the 14th of October, prostrated, Battle in a single day, the strength of the Prussian Monarchy, and of Jena did what the united armies of Austria, Russia, and France could not accomplish by the Seven Years' War. Napoleon followed up his victories by bold and decisive measures; invested Magdeburg, which was soon abandoned; entered Berlin in triumph; and levied enormous contributions on the kingdom, to the amount of one hundred and fifty-nine millions of francs. In less than seven weeks, three hundred and fifty standards, four thousand pieces of cannon, and eighty thousand prisoners, were taken; while only fifteen thousand men, |