THE historical and political publications of the late year are superior, both in number and importance, to those in the corresponding chapter of our last volume Colonel Juhnes has published the first volume of a new translation of the Chronicles of Froissart, and we hope that so spirited an example may induce others of our men of rank and fortune to consecrate their leisure to similar undertakings. Mr. Laing has brought out a new and enlarged edition of his History of Scotland, and has esta blished himself as the future standard historian of the age and country, concerning which he treats. An elaborate, though not unexceptionable, History of Malta and its dependencies, has appeared from the pen of M. Boisgelin, one of the knights of the illustrious order who possessed the sovereignty of this island; and a smaller work on the same subject has been compiled by Mr. Wilkinson. To an anonymous author we are indebted for an interesting account of the destruction of the Venetian State by the French. The origin and progress of Free masonry, especially in Scotland, has been detailed by Mr. Laurie. The official documents of the splendid campaign which has esta blished the British supremacy in India, and shed a fresh lustre round the military reputation of our country, have been published by the authority of Marquis Wellesley; a nobleman who stands eminently conspicuous among the European governors of India, and who, like Wolsey, in plenitude of power, and more than regal pomp of office, is also the worthier rival of that prelate, as a patron of letters, by the foundation of the college at Calcutta. Sir W. Young's History, or rather reflections on the History, of Athens, though faulty in style, is commendable for the genuine love of temperate and practical liberty which it inculcates. Of the trea. tises relating to general and European politics, that entitled Bonaparte and the French People under his Consulate, merits distinguished praise. Lord Sheffield has published in defence of the navigation act, to which he unthinkingly attributes the maritime aggrandisement of Great Britain; while Mr. Cock and Mr. Jordan, on the other hand, have shewn the absolute neccssity of a relaxation of this statute, as far as the West Indian trade with America is concerned. The state of Ireland has given birth to several pamphlets, which we hope will convince the government that the first step towards conciliating the Irish nation, is the emancipation of the great majority of it from those disgraceful restrictions and disabilities under which it has so long groaned; and which have been, and must ever continue to be, as long as they are unrepealed, the fruitful source of disaffection and rebellion. The terror of invasion has subsided, and the good sense of the country has so far regained the ascendancy, that we hear no more of those unwarrantable modes of warfare which were subjects of discussion, and even approbation, in the first hurry of alarm, and before a competent force was provided to meet the enemy in the fair field of battle, in case they should set foot on our native shore. Instead of invoking the armed assistance of every one in the country able to wield a musket, instead of augmenting every description of the public force by every possible means, we now begin to be suffici ently familiarized with danger to discuss with some coolness the efficacy and comparative advantages of the several elements which compose our present military establishment. Colonel Wilson has questioned, in perhaps too depreciating a style the value of the volunteers, but the two replies which his work has called forth, are neither creditable to the writers nor respectful to their antagonist. Lord Han ilton has entered into an interesting and important discussion on the control of parlia ment over the royal prerogative in the choice of ministers; and the recent precautionary hostilities committed against Spain, have received a severe condemnation from one writer, and a justification from another. HISTORY. ART. I. An accurate Account of the Fall of the Republic of Venice, and of the Circumstances attending that Event; in which the French System of undermining and revolutionizing States is exposed, and the true Character of Bonaparte faithfully pourtrayed. Translated from the original Italian. 8vo. pp. 287. IN an introductory note to this interesting narrative, we are informed, that the original work was printed and ready for publication in Italy, when the victory of Marengo delivered up that unhappy country to the power of the first consul of France. Among the first acts of his tyranny was the suppression and seizure of the work, a translation of which is now before us. We cannot but regret, since the original was seized and suppressed by. Bonaparte, that the translator has not informed us by what means he became possessed of it, and as some sort of voucher for the truth of the facts related, that he did not also present the British public with the name of the author. As it is, however, so we must take it, knowing that many of the facts are faithfully recorded, and relying for the truth of others, upon very strong internal marks of credibility. The four first chapters give a hasty sketch of the history of Venice from the fourth century to the French revolution: the narrative of the interference of France in the affairs of this ancient republic commences with the fifth. The power of the Venetians, which at one time was an object of apprehension, as its wealth was of envy, not merely to the neighbouring states of Italy, but even to the states of Europe; both of them dedeclined in consequence of the formidable league of Cambray: that confederacy, it is true, which was formed for the avowed purpose of prostrating the strength, and destroying the splendour of this prospe rous republic, like most others, was dissolved by the rivalry and mutual jealousy of the powers which composed it. Flushed with success extraordinary and unexpected, they quarrelled about the partition of the spoils. The Venetians marked the growing discord and took advantage of it; they reassumed their wonted spirit and recovered a portion of their lost territory. Still, however, they recovered but a portion of it; their reve nues were exhausted, their spirits were depressed, and their commerce declined after the discovery of a passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, The Portuguese succeeded then in the monopoly of this important traffic, and Venice, within less than the space of half a century, was reduced from a principal to a secondary state in Europe. The Venetians were roused to the display of their ancient valour by the invasion of sultan Ibrahim; but the Ottoman arms succeeded, and Candia, after a war of five and twenty years, surrendered to the Turks. During the war of the Spanish succession the Venetians maintained a rigid neutrality: they were afterwards attacked again by the Turks and lost the Morea. From this period they have been comparatively inactive and unno. ticed, and rather than embroil themselves in war, have systematically adopted a neutral part in the politics of Europe. In conformity with this system, when the potentates of Europe coalesced to oppose the revolutionary torrent which, flowing from France, threatened to lay waste their respective territories, Venice resisted the various solicitations which were made to her for joining the confederacy. The senate even suffered her ambassador, Aloys Pisani, to be insulted with impunity. When the French had possession of Nice and Savoy, there was certainly the strongest ground for apprehension that the Venetian territory would become the theatre of war. "The French had already manifested a design of invading Piedmont, and afterwards Austrian Lombardy; and as the Venetian provinces bordered on these, and a part lay between them and other dominions of the house of Austria, namely the dutchy of Mantua, it was evident that the imperial troops coming from Germany to defend them, must pass through the territory of Venice in their march, and that if the French intended to prevent the arrival of these reinforcements, they would come to meet them on that territory, which being then destitute of military or natural defence would have been exposed to the incursions of both parties." Pesaro, at this time Savio del Consiglio in settimana, or president for the week, who had uniformly opposed every coalition with the foreign powers against France, now convened a consulta de' Savj, or assembly of the wise; and, alarmed for the safety of the republic, exhorted them in an eloquent speech to provide their forts and cities on Terra Firma with the ne cessary means of defence against the approaching invasion of Italy by foreign troops. This measure was reject ed, and on the 28th of Feb. 1792, the senate communicated by circulars to the maritime officers at the sea-port towns, and to their ministers at foreign courts, the almost unanimous resolution to preserve an unarmed neutrality. The apparent inaction of the French during two years completed the fatal delusion: the Venetians, seemed to believe that all further thoughts of the projected conquest were abandoned, and consequently that any military preparations on their part would be useless. "In the midst of this general lethargy however, Pesaro did not sleep. Although he had been unable to induce the republic to arm, he did not cease to watch over her safety, but conceived, and caused to be executed, an unobserved mission to Basil, of the resi dent elect for London, that he might in spect from so near a point, the dispositions, the views, the military movements, of the belligerent armies, and communicate an exserable precaution taken by the Venetians to act account of them. This was the only mipreserve their country from the humiliations and disgrace to which it was destined. They believed it possible to save it by officious obsequiousness, by fraternal embraces, by respectful remonstrances. A weak effeminate neutrality, founded on the good faith of the the state was protected. No troops were French nation, was the only barrier by which levied, no ships fitted for sea, no ammunition prepared. The frontiers and cities were opet or accoutrements, no artillery or fire-armis, on all sides, the fortified towns ungarrisoned; not even a single banner, erected upon their walls, showed to what state they belonged. In a dilemma common to every soldly constituted government, the Venetians threw the care of defending their territory upon what chanced to guard their frontiers; and perever powers, owing to local circumstances, mitted them to fight, unassisted, the cause of the whole human race, and of themselves. This nation seemed to have resolved to p propriate to herself the advantages of peace, even should it involve the ruin of the whole habitable world?” (the reasons here adduced at least for their The Savj, influenced by their fears. conduct are all resolvable into pusillanimity) were inflexibly determined to make ing progress of the French. They were no active opposition against the desolat repeatedly apprised of the ambitious president, and ambassadors from Naples, jects of the new republic by ministers refrom Paris, from Rome, from Turin. from Basil, and even from Madrid. The Savj del consiglio however, exercising a fatal authority, suppressed all these communications. They were not obliged to impart to the senate the contents of them, existence of such necessity, in the present except in case of urgent necessity, and the crisis, they thought proper to deny! In the year 1794, the French advanced into Piedmont and the Genoese territory The senate now took the alarm, and, triots, endeavoured, notwithstanding the roused by Pesaro and some other panity of the republic, by decreeing that opposition of the Savj, to support the digthe artillery should be placed in a state of preparation, the fortresses repaired, and the troops got ready for action. • Roco Sanferino. The Savi, however, were too successful in their endeavours to weaken the national force, the expence of which they thought would be more than the state could endure. Although they failed in posing the proposition of Pesaro, set, they retarded its execution, and rendered ineffectual the military prepations. The revolution of Italy was now hand, and the disposition of France towards Venice was every day becoming more and more apparent. In the year 1794 a refuge had been granted to Louis XVIII who took up his residence at Verona, and experienced every attention and respect which could privately be paid him. The senate received a dispatch rum its resident minister at Basil, statthat France loudly complained of ths suspicious hospitality, and was surFrised at the "want of reciprocity shown not sending a minister to Paris in exchange for the new envoy of the Pouvoir Edif. He concluded by asserting that was the fixed resolution of the republiears to invade Italy with powerful arLes, to attack her by sea with the Tousquadron, and to revolutionize the whole country." In consequence of this intelligence the Venetian ambassador, Aloys Querini, was sent to Paris: to the honour of the j, however, they were so sensible of the inhumanity of sending away the unfortunate prince, that they determined to continue to him the asylum which he gad hitherto received. The executive Erectory, however, haughty and inflexiMe, in a tone of insolent authority, demanded his expulsion from the Venetian territories. The weakness of the Venetian senate was displayed by concession. "The government of Venice was already in a state of languor, which was the almost cer 4n presage of approaching dissolution. No ager were the expences of the state sup ed, no longer was there any energy of 1ch in the enervated senate, no longer any thing said in direct terms; every thing was merely hinted by insinuation; ne but inefficient propositions were ap¡oved; nor were wisdom or courage listened is in the councils. Even factions vanished; fctions, which in a republic are the vital ark of existence and of national vigour. The factions at Venice were those of players, fingers, and of dancers. In every class rminacy bad succeeded to those sentiments of seblimity, which maintain the majesty of mpires. Amidst so much corruption how mold the country be saved? It is not at Capua, that governments learn the arduous art of supporting or of acquiring greatness. The corruption had extended to Terra Firma, There the glory of weaving a fashionable coat was preferred to that of saving the crifice to the general good, yet lavished restate. There men murmured at every sawards on every one who could invent a new want, a new pleasure, or revive the exeitability which excessive enjoyment had blunted and exhausted. Perfumed tables, gilded carriages, splendid equipages, music, dancing, gardens, gambling, theatres, and debauchery, were the only objects which excited any interest, and these excited it to furor." Bonaparte entered the Venetian states in May 1796; and so completely had the people been deceived, that they blessed the government for having preserved inviolate its friendship with the French republic. Notwithstanding the military insubordination and personal wretchedness of the troops; notwithstanding the nakedness of many, and the disorder among all, they were hailed as philanthropists, and as the disinterested deliverers of an oppressed people. The general in chief immediately proclaimed his determination that private property should be protected, religion honoured, and that the necessary provisions of his army should be paid for in ready money. The delusion, alas, soon passed away! It was at Peschiara that Bonaparte reproached the senate with not having garrisoned the place with 2000 men in order to prevent its occupation either by the Austrians or the French, the former having for a moment occupied it in their retreat; it was then that he loaded the Venetians with invectives, and deli berated whether he should set fire to Ve. rona, and even condemn Venice itself to the same fate! The inhabitants of Verona, at the rumour of this hellish project, took to flight the invader took possession of the city, and treated it as a master and a conqueror. "Were their exorbitant requisitions not instantly complied with, they made a constant traffic of terror,and threatened military execu tion. Was force opposed to their injustice, they protested, that they would revenge in blood, the blood of their comrades in arms. Was any the slightest resistance exerted against their unlimited despotism, they cried aloud, that they would declare war against the republic. Were they refused the occupation of a post, they threatened to destroy every thing with fire and sword. By means of these menaces, the French army violated with impunity the Venetian territory, and inflicted the heaviest grievances on its citi zens, while the latter in vain implored the protection of their government, whose authority and whose laws were violated by force and enervated by terror. If the French army ruined a Venetian citizen, Bonaparte tranpled on him whom he found thus fallen." Atrocity succeeded to atrocity; rape, robbery, and murder stalked abroad with impunity; and every pos sible, every conceivable outrage was perpetrated upon the inglorious and wretched Venetians: with a refinement in cruelty, which could only have been conceived in the bosom of a fiend, these outrages were committed too with a view of exciting the populace to outrage, whence a pretext might have been afforded to the French for breaking with the government, declaring war against them, and revolutionizing the whole country. Our historian, at least, has in these pages represented Bonaparte as being constantly studious to foment among the inhabitants of the provinces an unrestrainable spirit of enmity against the French; this abhorrence being destined at some future day to serve both as the means and justification of his projects! The final overthrow of the republic now became imminent. Bonaparte had suffered it to escape him that it was his intention to take possession of Venice, of Brescia, of Bergamo, and of Crema, and that "as he had clipped the wings of the imperial eagle, he would compel the (Venetian) lion to lift his paws from the earth, and leave them but little on the ocean." The government seemed determined on a most vigorous resistance whenever the French should dare to attack the shores to the Venetians her alliance, but the inquisition of state, in concert with the Savj, thought proper not to communicate this proposal to the senate! The Venetian ambassador at Paris, also admonished his government that the states were to be thrown into the scale of compensations, and that already, in a negotiation for peace, they had been offered to the House of Austria. But this dispatch, also, we are assured by our author, was suppressed. Is it possible that an autho rity of suppressing documents of state, an authority pregnant with incalculable mischief, and from which mischief alone, and unmingled with advantage, can proceed-is it possible that such authority can be delegated to any constituent por tion of any government? It is scarcely credible. While the Venetian empire was thus threatened from without, a formidable faction of her own citizens was preparing to overturn the republic at Milan : the province of Bergamo rose against these recreant Italians, who, assisted by the French, were but too successful. The French had taken possession of the castle of Bergamo in 1796, planted cannon on its walls, and constructed military works round it: the complaints of the senate at this occupation were treated by the directory with contempt. On the 12th of March 1797, the revolution at Bergamo broke forth: cannon were pointed against the palace of the government, guaris were doubled at the gates, and every moment threatened to produce some viclent explosion. French officers went from house to house, and under pain of death compl led the inhabitants to subscribe a national decia of the Lagunes: and every possible mea. sure was adopted for defending the capital: it had been the policy of the French to exhaust the treasury by rapa-ration in favour of liberty. In short, the cious requisitions, and its present means were insufficient for the emergency. Things were in this state when a general peace was in agitation on the continent. "At the end of August 1796, four dispatches all on the same subject, arrived together, from the proveditor extraordinary, Battegia, and from the Venetian ambassadors at the courts of France, Madrid, and Constantinople. They all stated a proposal, by Bonaparte to the former, and by the principal ministers of the abovementioned courts to the three latter, of an alliance between France, Spain, the Ottonian Porte, and the Venetians, and urging it as the palladium on which the existence of the state depended." The senate, with a degree of magnanimity which their former conduct had not given reason to expect from them, spurned at the proffer.ed junction. Russia offered Venetian governor, leaving all his property, was compelled to quit the city. and resign his palace into the hands a the French. The noble spirit of the inhabitants of the vallies, who, unsolicite3. precipitated themselves under the wal of their city resolved to plant again the national standard on the bodies of their invaders-that noble spirit was unavail. ingly exerted. Brescia, Crema, Salò, Laugier, and Verona, all in rapid succession, were over whelmed by the irruption of this revolu tionary volcano. The same scene ‹ : desolation, ruin, and wretchedness w every where presented. We turn fret the picture with mingled emotions horror, pity, and indignation. reflections, however, force themselv upon the mind which may not be altog |