ians at
Montenotte, and compelled the Sardinian king to abandon the coalition.
He crossed the Po, forced the passage of the Adda at Lodi, and occupied
Milan on May 14. The Austrians fell back behind the Mincio, and
garrisoned the strong fortress of Mantua. Bonaparte levied contributions
on the Dukes of Parma and Modena, forced the papal states to submission,
occupied Leghorn, which was thus closed against our ships, and reduced
the Grand Duke of Tuscany to obedience. In June Ferdinand of Naples and
the pope made armistices with France. The Austrian power in Italy
depended on the possession of Mantua. Wurmser forced Bonaparte to raise
the siege, and the Austrians though defeated at Lonato and Castiglione,
regarrisoned the place. A second attempt by Wurmser to relieve it was
defeated in August, and he was shut into Mantua. If Hotham had destroyed
the French fleet in the Mediterranean, Bonaparte would not have carried
everything before him in the Italian states south of the Po. As it was,
his success had an unfortunate effect on England's naval war.

[Sidenote: _FLEET LEAVES THE MEDITERRANEAN._]

After 1795 the French made no more attempts to cope with an English
fleet. They employed their navy only in military expeditions and in the
destruction of British commerce.[265] The watch upon their ports was
slackly kept and ships constantly left them. Much damage was done to
England's trade, specially by privateers; her navy was largely employed
in convoy duty, and actions between small squadrons and single ships
were frequent. In this year a French squadron cruelly ravaged the coast
of Newfoundland, another captured part of a West India convoy, and a
third made some prizes in the Levant. Warfare of this kind, though
troublesome to England, could not affect her maritime supremacy. That
was impaired by the results of Bonaparte's campaign in Italy. In
December, 1795, the command in the Mediterranean was taken by Sir John
Jervis, a fine seaman and a strict disciplinarian, who soon brought the
fleet to a high state of efficiency. He kept a strict watch on Toulon,
and employed Nelson in intercepting the French communications by sea. By
the end of June the ports of Tuscany, Naples, and the papal dominions
were shut against his ships; Corsica was restless, and the fleet was in
danger of being left without a base. In July Nelson, who was then
blockading Leghorn, occupied Elba in order to gain a harbour and
establish a place of stores a