CHAPTER XXVII
THE REPUBLICS AT ROME AND NAPLES
Before going further in the discussion allow me to support my opinion against
yours on the affairs of Italy. What you call the force of things, this general tendency
towards a republican order, which you think we are unduly opposing in that coun-
try—does it exist there really? We have proof to the contrary on every side. At
Milan and Rome liberty has struck feeble roots.... If at Naples, and especially at
Turin, there is a party that calls for the Revolution, it is unfortunately only too true
that a more numerous party is working to restore tyranny in the Republics already
formed.... But even suppose that all Italy were free and united under a single gov-
ernment, do you think we should have nothing to fear from a nation still swayed by
prejudice and exasperated against us...? I persist in believing so. We would have
much to gain at the moment if we could get a guarantee of the status quo in Italy.
—TALLEYRAND TO SIEYÈS, PARIS, OCTOBER 1798
Peace prevailed on the Continent from the signing of the treaty of Campo Formio
in October 1797 to the attack on Rome by the King of Naples in November 1798,
which proved to be the opening episode in the War of the Second Coalition, and
hence of the grand climax or confrontation in 1799 between the Old Regime and
the New Republican Order.
But the peace was no more than a semi- peace. On the one hand, neither France
nor Austria could accept the terms of Campo Formio with any finality. Each looked
for bastions against the other in Switzerland and Italy. On the other hand, France
with its Dutch ally remained at war with Great Britain. While British diplomacy
worked to bring Continental armies back into the field against France, the French
first threatened to invade England and support revolution in Ireland (while carrying
on the “half- war” against American trade with Britain), then redirected their fleet
and army into the expedition to Egypt, from which it was hoped that Bonaparte
could counteract the growth of British power in the Indian Ocean, where both
French and Dutch interests were at stake. The Egyptian campaign transferred the