596 Chapter XXV
the same, as a center of public debate for the warmest patriots of Lombardy, and
for many others from all over the Po valley, with visitors from Rome and Naples.
The French at first tried to rule through a Military Agency, composed of three
Frenchmen, re- inforced by a civilian commissioner sent from Paris, named Pin-
sot, whose task was to supervise the levy of requisitions upon the country. Pinsot,
reflecting the opinion then prevailing in Paris, had no desire to create a republic
in Lombardy, which he expected to be returned to Austria at the peace table, and
hence was unconcerned to build future friendly relations. His aim was to use the
resources of Milan as quickly as possible to support the French army and govern-
ment in its struggle against Austria and the counter- revolution; and he therefore
attempted to tap the most mobile and available forms of wealth, which belonged
to the professional and business men of the city. Some of these men, however,
were the leaders of the democratic or radical party, which as an urban group
preferred to have the burden borne by the landowners and rural people, whom
Pinsot wished to spare lest they rebel, and by rebelling interfere with the move-
ments of French troops. Bonaparte in this instance supported the Italian demo-
crats against Pinsot.^14
The first weeks of the occupation therefore saw a conflict at Milan which was to
characterize all Italy in the next three years. On one side stood the French govern-
ment and its civilian commissioner, supported by the more moderate of the Ital-
ians, who were often owners of rural estates. On the other side stood the more
vehement Italians, city men who demanded an independent republic, or even
talked of a unified republic of all Italy; they made no effort to conciliate the rural
population, but had the sympathy of many French generals. The latter party won
out; Pinsot was recalled; and by the end of 1796 the Directory gave up the whole
principle of attaching civilian commissioners to the army. The military increasingly
prevailed over the civilian authority, in the formation of French foreign policy as in
other respects. The Directory, pressed by the generals, and so weakened by the re-
vival of royalist sentiment in France that it could hardly do without the firm re-
publicanism of the Army of Italy, came to accept, at least half- heartedly, the estab-
lishment of revolutionary republics south of the Alps.
At Milan the recall of Pinsot marked the triumph of the more advanced Italian
democrats. The Military Agency was replaced by a General Administration of
Lombardy, composed of Italians. This body worked actively for a Lombard repub-
lic and an all- Italian revolution. It sponsored the famous essay contest, which
Gioia won, on “Which form of free government is best suited to Italy?” It orga-
nized a Lombard Legion, so that within a few months an Italian army (then called
Cisalpine) was in the field along with the French. It was in this Lombard Legion
that the Italian tricolor—red, white, and green—first appeared. The Italian tricolor
and the Polish national anthem of later times (as already explained) were thus
generated simultaneously in the Po valley in 1796.
14 The best account of the disputes centering on Pinsot is in Godechot, Commissaires, I, 371–88.
Most Italian historians see it as typical of the struggle in Italy of town against country, but Candeloro,
Storia, I, 211, preferring a class analysis, believes that the Directory and Pinsot, being “moderates,”
wished to spare the rich and throw the burden on “a greater number of citizens.” These “citizens” (cit-
tadini or city men), forming the radical party, did include, however, “rich” merchants and financiers.