ors. that the Cisalpine Republic was in a state of frightful disorder, and having palliated the curtailment of its political liberties by the reduction of the House of Representatives to one half the number fixed by the Constitution, he goes on to say: "The officers of the army behaved as in a took possession of houses to which they conquered country. They ill-treated the inhawere not entitled, and which they devastated, making requisitions as in time of war, extorting money, and carrying off the funds of the city corporation. The commanders of fortresses particularly levied intolerable exactions. The Governor of Mantua, for instance, had to be paid for their extortions in proportion to their rank, leave to fish in the lake. The generals raised and went shares with the ariny contractors in the extravagant profits obtained by their connivance." bitterly said, caused him to miss his way The Directory sent a commisssioner to Milan, who took measures to repress military licentiousness, but he had hardly turned his back, when Marshal Brune undid his work. Brune was a practiced hand. He had just overturned the Swiss Republic, and let loose his harpies upon the poor Swiss exchequer. The brave Swiss defended their ancient liberties with an enthusiastic courage, which, shared by their women, rose into holiest heroism. Liberty was put down in the name of liberty. The French Constitution was spread like a winding - sheet over the country of William Tell. Switzerland's wealth was not in picture-galleries, or statuary, or libraries. It was great, however, of the kind, which neither moth nor rust doth corrupt. Pure manners, a glorious history, and love of freedom. Like all mountaineers, they were economical, and their strict town councilors could show a balance to meet current exigencies of the canton. M. Thiers is for having cried out so loud about their very angry with the parsimonious Swiss beggarly balances, but he admits the fact, that what he calls the most ordinary right of conquest was exercised, and the little bank of Berne was treated as if it had been a very bank of England. Brune, like Massena, was recalled. "Palaces, convents, rich collections were despoiled, nor were their contents sent to enrich the picture-galleries, museums, and libraries of Paris. No; they were sacrificed to Jew dealers for whatever they could bring. So revolting was the havoc committed, that a meeting was held by officers of the army, who, unable to restrain their indignation, and burning with shame, addressed a petition to the Directory, for the removal of their Commander-in-Chief. Massena was recalled, and civil commissioners were appointed to administer the financial affairs of the army-a plan which, as we shall see, led to serious consequences. Robbery was not confined to Rome. Lombardy, now the Cisalpine Republic, was suffering at the hands of her liberators, con-clared, but the result was to bring Geneverted into depredators." ral Championnet a victor to Naples, where he proclaimed the new Parthenopean When the court of Naples saw the Pope dethroned, it began to fear that its own turn would come next. War was de Hear M. Thiers again. Having told Republic. The King of Piedmont was next forced to abdicate, and all Italy was revolutionized, with the exception of Tuscany, which for the moment was spared. Let M. Thiers speak again: "Piedmont, now occupied, offered fresh prey to be devoured, and even the honesty of General Joubert, Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Italy, did not afford a guarantee against the avidity of the military staff and the contractors. Naples especially was submitted to pillage. There were in the Directory four honest men, who felt disgust at all these disorders-Rewbell, Larévelliere, Merlin, and Treilhard. Larével liere, acting with the greatest energy, caused a very wise proposition to be adopted, which was, the formation of Commissions in all countries depending on France, and occupied by our armies, charged with the civil and financial administration, and quite independent of the military staff." crime was the parent of all the disturbances with which Europe has been since afflicted. People fascinated by the more turbulent horrors of the French Revolution, seem to have forgotten that triple conspiracy of Austria, Russia, and Prussia, for the deliberate assassination of Poland, avenged with providential swiftness by the flood-breaks of French democracy carrying the tricolor into every capital of the Continent. Austrian appetite, excited by spoliation, became insatiable. We have seen with what little scruple she went shares with Bonaparte in the destruction of Venice, and now while affairs were dragging on at Radstadt, she was carrying on a second secret under-handed negotiation with the French Republic of a still more unprincipled character; for she was actually prepared to swallow the confiscated estates of the Church, and thus to sanction the dethronement of the Pope, provided she could, at the expense of her German allies, obtain a slice of poor Italy. This was conservative and religious Austria! The proposal was rejected, the Congress of Radstadt broken up, and war declared. Then there occurred a most base transaction. The Austrian Government suspected that some secret dealings had been going on between her quondam German friends and the French Plenipotentiaries, and orders were given to have their carriages stopped on the road by a troop of dragoons, and their papers seized for examination. The soldiers went, it is to be hoped, beyond the letter of their instructions, when they murdered men whose persons have ever been held sacred by all nations. This barbarous violation of public law excited a terrible sensation. Hostilities at once commenced. And the Minister of War was instructed to see this arrangement carried into effect. Five years before, a general who would have murmured at an order of the committee of public safety, would have been summoned before the revolutionary tribunal, and sent from thence to the guillotine. But the reign of government by terror was past, that of military license was begun. When the Commissioners of the Directory presented themselves at Naples, General Championnet, accustomed to play the dictator, ordered them to quit within twenty-four hours. The Directory boldly deprived him of his command. General Joubert making common cause with his offended comrade, sent home his resignation. His post was offered to Bernadotte, afterwards King of Sweden. He, too, disdaining interference by civilians, rejected the offer-such proceedings were not lost on Austria. The humiliating treaty of Campo Formio still remained open. A The theater of conflict was immense. congress was sitting at Radstadt, for the The French Republic had to cover Holsettlement of indemnities claimed by the land, which an English fleet was watching German States, in lieu of the different to relieve; it had to guard the line of portions of territory they were called on the Rhine, Switzerland, and Italy. With to abandon, in order to give effect to that Italy is our chief concern, yet shall we be part of the Campo Formio treaty which obliged to keep in view operations elseceded to France the boundary of the where. Owing to the differences that Rhine. In point of fact, the German had arisen between the Directory and powers were in ill-humor with Austria, their generals in Italy, some difficulty was by whom they conceived themselves be- found with regard to the command of the trayed, and that astute power was looking army. True it was that a great man was for support in another direction. She was at the service of the Directory-the upnegotiating a treaty with Russia, with right, the single-minded, single-hearted which semi-barbarous power she was al- Moreau. It is the curse of corrupt times ready allied in an iniquitous partnership that the rare uncontaminated few who for the partition of Poland. That terrible have preserved their integrity, are re The day following the fatal battle of pelled, as if their presence was a rebuke | even to the utter destruction of the army. and an offense. The Director Barras, reeling to the Council-table from the obscene orgies of the Luxembourg, was in no fit state to meet the calm reason and encounter the devoted bearing of a man like Moreau, whose genius-and it was of the noblest order was equaled by a regard for the public service, that excluded every thought of self-interest, even of glory. As if to mortify the first general of the Republic since Bonaparte was away, he was offered a division, and he modestly accepted that subordinate position. The chief command was given to the Minister-of-War, General Scherer, who went out loaded with unpopularity in the army under his command, because to the execution of his decrees was at tributed the resignation of their favorite commanders. He was, nevertheless, a distinguished soldier, but broken down by age and infirmities. The first encounter took place on the Rhine, which the French crossed under Jourdan; were beaten the twenty-second March at Ostrach, and again, three days afterwards, were overthrown completely at Stochach. The Austrians had at their head a great and noble general, the Archduke Charles, one who, had he been left to the inspirations of his own genius, would have saved the empire from disaster. Not unlike the heroic Moreau, in regard to singleness of purpose and soundness of capacity, his services to a Government unable to appreciate his worth were secured by his birth and rank, but they were marred by the inept interference of a pedantic council seated at Vienna. It is admitted by Thiers, that had not the Archduke been restrained by order of the Aulic Council, he might have followed up his advantages, The Austrians were posted in the strong city of Verona, which was covered by an intrenched camp at Pastrengo, between the town and the lake of La Garda. We must recollect that Verona had belonged to the Venetians, and Bonaparte, when he wrung from Austria her disgraceful acceptance of Venice and Verona, little calculated upon that power's ability to make the best of a bad bargain. Venice became, in Austria's hands, an impregnable magazine of war-stores. The French directed their first attack against the intrenched camp of Pastrengo, which yielded to their daring impetuosity, pushed their advantages up to the walls of Verona, but there ceased their success. Within six weeks the marvelous superstructure of Bonaparte was overthrown. It had risen as if by enchantment-a dazzling work— and had not the materials been tempered with fraud and falsehood, might have stood a monument of marvelous genius. When the architect was away, whose eye might have detected the frailness of evil elements, and whose hand could have repaired threatened damage, decay made rapid progress. Corruption undermined the work, and it fell to pieces at the first serious shock. The Austrian General Kray swept from Verona to the bridge of Lodi with a rapidity which surpassed, although not with a glory that equaled, the advance of Bonaparte, and with rival promptitude and force the Archduke Charles, victorious to the Rhone, cut with his sword the Articles of the Treaty of Campo Formio, which had made that river the boundary of France. (CONCLUDED IN Next number.) UNDER the walls of Damietta the armies | we are tempted to place another and of Western Christendom were once more seemingly different mode of argumentamarshaled, resolved to break the Moham- tion. A sway continued for twelve cenmedan power in its great stronghold. turies, and over one hundred and eighty Already had they, by dint of ingenuity millions of men, "made by God as well and bravery, possessed themselves of its as we"-such is the basis on which one strong citadel, and were now preparing of the ablest of our contemporaries has to lay siege to the city itself, when amidst mainly rested the claims of Mohammed them appeared another combatant, carry- to be ranked with the prophets. As if ing weapons very different from theirs. the appeal to heaven could be determined The novel ascetism, the simple faith, and according to such outward successes or burning zeal of Francis of Assisi had the truth and reality of a cause depended evoked throughout Europe the wail of on the number of its adherents or the pepenitence, and even threatened to depop-riod of its continuance. ulate whole cities by swelling the ranks of his Order. Accompanied by twelve of these "brethren," he now arrived in the camp of the Crusaders. If he despaired of the success of arms wielded by a host so turbulent and unspiritual, his confidence in the reality of his own mission was all the more strong. Leaving the ranks of the Christians, the Saint presented himself before the Sultan of Cairo; and, when arguments failed to convince the unbeliever, offered to prove the truth of the Gospel by undergoing the ordeal of fire. Melic-Kamel dismissed the enthusiast; eventually this crusade, as those which preceded and followed it, led to no lasting result; and to this day has the sway and the creed of Mohammed not only continued, but spread and extended. Unaccountable as to some the proposed argumentation of St. Francis may appear, it was but an application of a principle very commonly entertained-that of determining the reality of a cause by outward results; perhaps not quite so irrationally as is sometimes done, since in this ease the issue was cast directly upon the Great Arbiter Himself. By the side of this Apostle of Medievalism, and his appeal to Heaven through palpable results, * Ishmael; or, a Natural History of Islamism, and its Relation to Christianity. By the Rev. Dr. J. MUEHLEISEN ARNOLD, formerly Church Missionary in Asia and Africa. London: Rivingtons. 1859. Yet, under another aspect, such "popularity" is a sign, full of importance to the thoughtful on-looker. Not that whatever is, and for a time continues and prospers, deserves to be or is genuine and real, but that it has proved itself akin to some of the deepest feelings and sympathies of our nature. That a religion issuing from the deserts of Arabia - from among an untutored and nomadic race-should well nigh have made the conquest of the world; that in the brief space of eighty years it extended its sway over more countries and nations than were ever subject to Imperial Rome; that not only Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, India, and Africa, should have received the Korân, but within this incredibly short period the claims of the false prophet were owned "from the walls of China to the pillars of Hercules, and from the Caspian to the Niger;" that Islamism swept away the Greek Empire, and seated itself not only on the "Holy Places" of the Christians, but in the capital of Constantine; that it overran Spain, Italy, Hungary, and for centuries constituted the dreaded danger of Germany; that it rolled back the tide of eight crusades; that while to this day Christianity travels so slowly, and almost imperceptibly, it should have continued to add entire tribes to its professors; these are some of the facts which make Mohammedanism a unique phenomenon in history. To explain them, we need not have recourse to either of the extreme theories of vindicating the prophetic mission of Mohammed and the superiority of the Korân, or of supposing the author of Islam to have " commenced his work under the immediate control of Satanic agency." Subordinate to that divine arrangement of Providence in which, by a kind of moral elasticity, judgments rebound on nations and countries as well as on individuals, and all that is unreal or untrue is consumed, there were causes at work, and Islamism evoked feelings and powers which in our view sufficiently account even for its unparalleled spread and its continued existence. What these were will best appear from a brief review of the life of Mohammed, of the leading characteristics of his doctrine, and of the history of its extension. in great part done its work of destruction. The Western Empire existed no longer; the Eastern was falling into manifest and irremediable decay; Persia was torn by internal conflicts; the nations of Europe, to whom the future of history was intrusted, were only awakening to political, intellectual, and spiritual life. The religious direction of the East was naturally committed to the Byzantine Church. In its deep degradation, its rancorous controversialism, and hollow, lifeless formalities, the other Oriental Christian communities were also involved; yet, shortly before the appearance of Mohammed, it seemed as if Arabia would adopt the religion of Jesus. From an early period it had possessed many bishoprics, and the number of native Christians and converts was Abul Kasem Mohammed was born swelled by continual accessions from perabout the year 571, in a country, among a secuted, fugitive sectarians, who in these people, and at a period which equally de- solitudes found a safe retreat. About serve our notice. The poverty of the land forty years before the birth of Mohamand the roving habits of the people proved med, when the Jewish kingdom of Yemen the bulwark of national independence. gave place to a Christian monarchy, a Neither the armies of Egypt, of Persia, church was built in Sana which in splenand of Abyssinia, nor even the indomita- dor is said to have greatly supassed even ble legions of Rome, could convert the the far-famed Kaaba. A more interesting stern wildnesses and the lonely deserts of and hopeful indication, about the same Arabia into "a province." The petty time, was the conference of four of the and hostile races which peopled the Pen- leading Koreishites on the subject of reinsula have been generally ranged into ligion, which resulted in the rejection of Beduins, or wandering tribes, and Hadesi, the idolatry of their tribe, and the resolve or stationary inhabitants, who settled to quit their country in search of the anchiefly in Yemen. Divided into a multi-cestral pure religion of Abraham. Of tude of separate states-if such they may be called-they followed various religions. The kingdom of Yemen was sometimes ruled by Christian, but chiefly by Jewish princes. Mecca was from A.D. 464 held by the Koreishites, a Pagan family; while the ancient creed of the people seems to have degenerated, from a primitive, perhaps traditional, Monotheism to the worship of the heavenly bodies, and the service of the three hundred and sixty deities which tenanted the Kaaba, or great national sanctuary of the Arabs at Mecca. From this family of priest-kings, the Koreishites -rulers of the holy city, Mecca, and guardians of the Kaaba, with its black stone, descended from heaven-sprang the prophet of Islam. His grandfather, Abd-el-Motalleb, had in 570 saved both the town and the temple from Christian conquest by an Abyssinian host. At the time of which we write, the whirlwind that swept over the ancient world, of which Rome had so long been the capital, had these inquirers, three embraced Christianity; the fourth continued to pray for light in the Kaaba. In his wanderings he heard of Mohammed, whom he was prepared to hail as the native prophet, but was murdered before again reaching Mecca. Passing over the legends with which Arab fancy or superstition has adorned the history of their prophet, we collect the leading events of his life. Mohammed was early deprived of his parents. His father, Abdallah, left him an infant, only two months old; his mother, Amena, died when he was six years of age. Thence the child successively passed to the care of his grandfather, and of his uncle, Abu Talib, in whose company he undertook, in his ninth or twelfth year, a mercantile journey. On this first expedition, how many new objects must have opened on the deeply thoughtful and highly imaginative child! The caravan was hospitably entertained by a Christian monk -- by |