ons to choose their form of government, since only by that right
did he wear the British crown; and he invited him not to apply to
other peoples a principle which would recall the Stuarts to the throne
of Great Britain.

Bonaparte's diplomatic game was completely won during the debates on
the King's speech at Westminster at the close of January, 1800. Lord
Grenville laboriously proved that peace was impossible with a nation
whose war was against all order, religion, and morality; and he cited
examples of French lawlessness from Holland and Switzerland to Malta
and Egypt. Pitt declared that the French Revolution was the severest
trial which Providence had ever yet inflicted on the nations of the
earth; and, claiming that there was no security in negotiating with
France, owing to her instability, he summed up his case in the
Ciceronian phrase: _Pacem nolo quia infida_. Ministers carried the day
by 260 votes to 64; but they ranged nearly the whole of France on the
side of the First Consul. No triumph in the field was worth more to
him than these Philippics, which seemed to challenge France to build
up a strong Government in order that the Court of St. James might find
some firm foundation for future negotiations.

Far more dextrous was the conduct of the Austrian diplomatists.
Affecting to believe in the sincerity of the First Consul's proposal
for peace, they so worded their note as to draw from him a reply that
he was prepared to discuss terms of peace on the basis of the Treaty
of Campo Formio.[138] As Austria had since then conquered the greater
part of Italy, Bonaparte's reply immediately revealed his
determination to reassert French supremacy in Italy and the Rhineland.
The action of the Courts of Vienna and London was not unlike that of
the sun and the wind in the proverbial saw. Viennese suavity induced
Bonaparte to take off his coat and show himself as he really was:
while the conscientious bluster of Grenville and Pitt made the First
Consul button up his coat, and pose as the buffeted peacemaker.

The allies had good grounds for confidence. Though Russia had
withdrawn from the Second Coalition yet the Austrians continued their
victorious advance in Italy. In April, 1800, they severed the French
forces near Savona, driving back Suchet's corps towards Nice, while
the other was gradually hemmed in behind the redoubts of Genoa. There
the Imperialist advance was stoutly stayed. Massena, ably seconded by
Oudinot and