The events which helped the disgraced officer of August 1795 to impose his will on France in November 1799 now claim our attention.
Since the death of Mirabeau no one had appeared who could strike the happy mean and enforce his will on the extremes on either side.
It was not the good fortune of Johnston to acquire the prestige which so much assisted Lee and Jackson, nor indeed did he possess the power of enforcing his will on others in the same degree, but his methods were exact, his strategy calm and balanced, and, if he showed himself less daring than his comrades, he was unsurpassed in steadiness.
He succeeded in imposing his will on the nobles and communes in the patrimony of St Peter, and, as guardian of Henry VI.'s son Frederick, was for some time able to conduct the government of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, but in his claims on the rest of Italy the failure of the temporal power was manifest.
Vienna itself, where on the 14th of March the establishment of a National Guard was authorized by the emperor, was ruled by a committee of students and citizens, who arrogated to themselves a voice in imperial affairs, and imposed their will on the distracted ministry.
