The reply of the Directory had been
that their fundamental law forbade the consideration of such a point;
and when Malmesbury persisted in his offer, he was allowed forty-eight
hours to leave the country. The negotiation was a fiasco as far as
Austria was concerned, although useful in consolidating British
patriotism. Hoche, having been despatched to Ireland, found wind and
waves adverse, and then returned to replace Jourdan in command of one
of the Rhine armies, the latter having been displaced for his failures
in Germany and relegated to the career of politics. Bonaparte's
victories left his most conspicuous rival nothing to do and he
gracefully congratulated his Italian colleague on having forestalled
him. His sad and suspicious death in September had no influence on the
terms of Bonaparte's treaty, but emphasized the need of its
ratification.

The Directory, with an eye single to the consolidation of the
republic, cared little for Lombardy, and much for Belgium; for the
prestige of the government, even for its stability, Belgium with the
Rhine frontier must be secured. The Austrian minister cared little for
the distant provinces of the empire, and everything for a compact
territorial consolidation. The successes of 1796 had secured to France
treaties with Prussia, Bavaria, Wuertemberg, Baden, and the two circles
of Swabia and Franconia, whereby these powers consented to abandon
the control of all lands on the left bank of the Rhine hitherto
belonging to them or to the Germanic body. As a consequence the goal
of the Directory could be reached by Austria's consent, and Austria
appeared to be willing. The only question was, Would France restore
the Milanese? Carnot was emphatic in the expression of his opinion
that for the sake of peace with honor, a speedy, enduring peace, she
must, and his colleagues assented. Accordingly, Bonaparte was warned
that no expectations of emancipation must be awakened in the Italian
peoples. But such a warning was absurd. The directors, having been
able neither to support their general with adequate reinforcements,
nor to pay his troops, it had been only in the role of a liberator
that Bonaparte was successful in cajoling and conquering Italy, in
sustaining and arming his men, and in pouring treasures into Paris. It
was for this reason that, enormous and outrageous as was the ruin and
spoliation of a neutral state, he saw himself compelled to overthrow
Venice, and hold it as a substitut