The offers of peace which Bonaparte held out to Bri tain, he extended to her allies; but by them also they were rejected. Flattered by the deluding promises of success in Italy, the Emperor of Germany was induced to continue the war; but Bonaparte resuming, in that quarter, the command in person, victory, as before, waited on his standard; and the fatal battle of Marengo, in Italy, decided tire campaign. An armistice was pro posed by the def. ed Austrians, and granted, on condi tion of Genoa, Milan. Tortona, Alcssandria, Ccva Savonc, Urbino, and other important places, being delivered into the hands of tin. French. Moreau had led another army of France aero.s the Rhine, deleatcd the Austri ans at Blenheim, and penetrated to the Danube, when the extension of the armistice to Germany made him pause in his career of victory.
The English maritime forces, during this year, made a &scent on the coast of Bretagne, and destroyed the forts of Quibcrun. The Dutch settlements of Gorce and Curacua were also added to our conquests. Two unsuccessful attempts were made upon tile Spanish coast. The first by a force under General Pultency, which debarked front a squadron of Sir J. B. Warren, at Ferrol, but which retired, after a slight skirmish with the enemy, the place being found to be too strong for assault. A still larger armament, under Lord Keith and General Abercromby, appeared before Cadiz ; but the plague, which raged in the garrison, and the tem pestuous weather on the coast, induced them to retire. They proceeded to the Mediterranean, and happily succeeded in wresting Malta from the hands of the French.
The first continental armistice expired in September, when Austria, unable to renew the combat so soon, dearly purchased the prolongation of the German truce, by surrendering the three fortresses of Ulm, Philips burg, and Ingolstadt. lIostilities being renewed, at the close of the second armistice, a few partial successes attended the Imperial arms in Franconia; but the con lest was speedily and disasterously closed by the battle of Hohenlinden, and by the contemporary victories of General Brune in Italy. At the same time, Macdonald being in possession of the Tyrol, could either turn to strengthen the Italian army, or to join Moreau, who advanced within seventeen leagues of Vienna. Com pelled by these disastrous circumstances, the Emperor signed a peace with France, by which he ceded the Belgic provinces, all his territories on the left banks of the Rhine, and all the rights he possessed in Italy over those parts which were now comprehended under the Cisalpine and Ligurian republics.
To increase the gloom of our affairs, the insane and capricious Emperor Paul commenced a dispute with Great Britain, on pretence of her maritime encroach mcnts; and, without warning, laid an embargo on alt.
the British shipping in his ports. This embargo he re voked; but again imposed it, in consequence of a new quarrel respecting Malta, the Russian monarch having assumed the title of Grand Master of the Knights of that island. Sweden and Denmark speedily acceded to a convention against us, in support of what they styled the maritime rights of neutral nations.
Such was the state of public affairs at the close of 1800 ; a period also memorable for the severest scarci ty that had been experienced in the country since the famine at the close of the 17th century ; while the ports of the Elbe, the Weser, and of the Baltic were shut against our commerce, and prohibited from relieving us with grain.
Amidst these discouraging circumstances, parliament assembled on the 22d of January, 1801. The great re cent events, the union with Ireland, and the hostile con vention of the northern courts, furnished matter suffi ciently interesting for the royal address, and for the debates of both houses. In the House of Commons, Mr Grey still continued to declare his unfavourable opinion of the boasted measure of the union. With regard to the northern confederation against us, though he could not acquit the Emperor of Russia of violent and unjusti fiable conduct, he begged to draw a distinction between the case of that potentate and of the other powers in dis pute with us. He expressed his doubts of the justice, as well as the importance of our claims on the neutrals, and of our high pretensions to the right of search. Such claims had been wisely suspended in the year 1780, when the country was in a much less danger ous situation than at present, without any evil conse quences having resulted. Mr Pitt, in reply, defended the practice of searching neutrals, which it might now be in umbent upon us to vindicate by force of arms, on the plea of right, as well as of expediency. The prin, ciplt on which we were now acting, had been univer sally admiLted, and acted upon as the law of nations, except in cases where it had been restrained and modi fied by treaties between particular states. Those very exceptions were proofs what the law of nations would be, if absolute and unrestrained by such particular trea ties. And with regard to the particular treaties between ourselves and the present hostile confederates, they in culcated the right of search in strict and precise terms. On the ground of expediency, he asked, whether, by de sisting from search, we ought to allow the navy of our ancient enemy to be supplied and recruited, blockaded ports to be relieved, the treasures of America to be brought in neutrals from South America to Spain, and the stores of the Baltic to Brest or Toulon.