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'Crisis', ‘decline’ and 'fall' of the Serenissima: remembering Venice as... 559

which deprived the accused of every protection before the tribunals, – which
acknowledged no other limit to the right of punishing by the dagger, by poison,
or by the axe of the executioner, than that of the terror of the its rulers; – a
government such as this became execrated by its subjects. It stained with the
most odious tyranny the very name of republic 63 .

Sismondi’s calumny was designed to justify Bonaparte’s over-
throw of the Venetian Republic. This was done best by painting it
in the darkest of hues. Of all the governments of Europe faced with
the threat from republican France, the Venetian government was
«the most opposite in principle», but it nevertheless refused to enter
a coalition against France because of costs that would have «dimin-
ished the spoils of provinces which the patricians divided amongst
themselves». On the one hand, «sacrifice of the public to private
interests» prevented any effective military response; on the other
hand, it was Austrian violation of Venetian neutrality that obliged
Bonaparte to cross into the Republic’s territory, where the French
were welcomed by the population of the Terraferma, immediately
won over by revolutionary values so that «the republic was at last
made to understand how much it was detested by all those who had
the least elevation of soul or cultivation of mind» . Sismondi ex-
64
plained away the widespread popular resistance to the French in-
vasion by attributing it purely to «the lowest class [...] completely
under the influence of priests, comprehending only what exists,
fearing all change, and still deeply excited by the name of St.
Mark» . The Austrians «refused all assistance» to Venice, permit-
65
ting the French to overthrow the Republic, and eventually after the
Treaty of Pressburg to annex all its territories:

It was thus that the invasion of the French, at the end of the eighteenth
century, restored to Italy all the advantages of which her invasion at the end
of the fifteenth century had deprived her. […] When Napoleon Bonaparte was
appointed to command the army in Italy […] he began to effect the regenera-
tion which gave to the Italian nation more liberty than it had lost 66 .

How does Sismondi’s unsympathetic treatment of Venice’s de-
cline compare with that of two men who actually served Napoleon?
I shall turn first to Eugène Labaume (1783-1849). Labaume was an
experienced soldier and military engineer, when, in the service

63 Ibidem, pp. 360-61.
64 Ibidem.
65 Ibidem, pp. 361.
66 Ibidem, pp. 363.

Mediterranea – ricerche storiche – Anno XIX – Dicembre 2022
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)