he year 1800,
amounted to one hundred and sixty-eight thousand men, exclusive of
eighty thousand militia, while one hundred and twenty thousand seamen
and marines were voted. The ships in commission were no less than five
hundred, including one hundred and twenty-four of the line. The
charter of the Bank of England was renewed, and the union with Ireland
effected. The various German states made still greater exertions, and
agreed to raise a contingent force of three hundred thousand men. They
were greatly assisted in this measure by subsidies from Great Britain.
Austria, alone, had in the field at this time a force of two hundred
thousand men, half of whom belonged to the army of Italy under Melas.

[Sidenote: Immense Military Preparations.]

To make head against the united forces of England and Austria, with a
defeated army, an exhausted treasury, and a disunited people, was the
difficult task of Bonaparte. His first object was to improve the
finances; his second, to tranquillize La Vendee; his third, to detach
Russia from the allies; his fourth, to raise armies equal to the
crisis; and all these measures he rapidly accomplished. One hundred
and twenty thousand men were raised by conscription, without any
exemption from either rank or fortune, and two hundred and fifty
thousand men were ready to commence hostilities. The first consul
suppressed the liberty of the press, fixed his residence in the
Tuileries, and established the usages and ceremonial of a court. He
revoked the sentence of banishment on illustrious individuals,
established a secret police, and constructed the gallery of the
Louvre.

Hostilities commenced in Germany, and General Moreau was successful
over General Kray at the battles of Engen, Moeskirch, and Biberach.
General Massena fought with great courage in the Maritime Alps, but
was obliged to retreat before superior forces, and shut himself up in
Genoa, which endured a dreadful siege, but was finally compelled to
surrender. The victor, Melas, then set out to meet Bonaparte himself,
who was invading Italy, and had just effected his wonderful passage
over the Alps by the Great St. Bernard, one of the most wonderful
feats in the annals of war; for his artillery and baggage had to be
transported over one of the highest and most difficult passes of the
Alps. The passes of the St. Gothard and Mount Cenis were also effected
by the wings of the army. The first action was at Montebello, which
ended in fav