while admiration of the prodigies performed by our heroes excited, in all enlightened minds, only one with, that of being free and republican. The bold inhabitants of the mountains of Switzerland, the induftrious Batavians, and the obftinate Americans, broke the yokes which were impofed upon them. More fortunate, we have fpread the bleffings of independence over the nations which furround us. After fix years of war, which feemed to prefage that glorious fall which a people prepare for themselves who prefer difperfion and death to fhame and fervitude, we have not bargained with our enemies, we have not treated for our difputed independence, nor facrificed our dignity to our prefervation; but, in extending the bounds of our territory, and enlarging the limits of a nation which we have created, we difplay in our treaties the generofity of a powerful and magnanimous ally, and the pretenfions of a ftate which poffeffes acknowledged and venerated rights. The French republic does not, in her negotiations, affume the tone or the attitude of a ftate which has juft appeared on the theatre of the world; it exhibits at once the maturity of age and the vigour of youth; it refembles thofe celeftial bodies, which, though only difcovered yesterday, claim an antiquity equal to the planets, which man has, from time immemorial, been accustomed to behold in the firmament. Let us commence by inveftigating the general confequences which must refult from this treaty of peace with the Emperor, before we proceed to examine in detail its particular advantages. Permit me, citizens colleagues, to bring to your recollection the last remarkable event in the annals of the world, and which ftill has a fubfidiary influence in regulating the affairs of Europe. You will have forefeen that I allude to the famous treaty of Weftphalia. Religion, lending its illufions and its fanaticifm to the people of Germany, afforded to the priests and the princes the means of ambition. The multitude, intoxicated by the filtres which the church and the throne prepared for them, became the eafy inftruments of both; a long and cruel war, the pretext of which excited the prejudices of the people, and favoured the views of thofe who deceived them, extinguished itfelf in the blood of man, changed the centre of political gravity, and the balance of the power of Europe. The interests of princes affumed a religious afpect; the Proteftant intereft and the Catholic intereft became diplomatic expreffions, which a change of territorial limits rendered diftinet; and real humanity had then no profpect of fuccefs. The yoke remained fixed on the bended head of man. Fanaticifm, in lofing its power, left to its companion Ambition all the fplendour of pre-eminence. Religion returned to the obfcurity of the cloifters, and the interefts of princes were difplayed alone on the throne. France was engaged in the war which preceded this treaty; the acquired the

fovereignty of Metz, Toul, Verdun, and the two Alfaces. Such were the fruits of a war of thirty years. If we compare these indemnifications with thofe we have already obtained, and thofe which are now offered to us, and, in making this comparifon, eftimate the time which has elapfed during the war of freedom, you will be convinced, citizens colleagues, that under the an cient regimen we fhould have had to continue the war for two ages, to procure what the campaigns of liberty have conquered in fix years. But we ought not to lofe fight of the object which I have propofed to fubmit to your confideration. The refult of this thirty years war was another combination of powers, ftruggling unceasingly to obtain an equilibrium which continually fled from the grafp of the ambitious potentates of Europe. After the peace all things remained in that fituation, fo diftreffing for humanity, in which they ftood before the commencement of the war. Pretenfions which had changed into new hands, and which were brought forward under new names, were not the lefs haughty. The Proteftant party, as well as the Catholic party, was defirous of making conquefts; blood was ftill destined to flow for the aggrandizement of fome families; and if an accident' altered the topography of a ftate, the monarch changed with it his denomination and his party. The peace which fucceeds to the exploits of our armies-that general pacification which Europe is at laft about to enjoy, will imprint upon its population two diftinct and ineffaceable characters:-the republican interest on the one hand, and the monarchical intereft on the other, fpring at once from the terrible fhock which this quarter of the globe has experienced. Each has two objects-its prefervation and its preponderance. In watching anxiouifly over the maintenance of their power, and the duration of their existence, both muft feel the imminent danger of neighbourhood and rivalry. The men whom thefe interefts divide are linked to them by the fame ftrong affection that urges the individual to the prefervation of his life. Thus, before either republics or monarchies can think of their aggrandizement, they must have nothing to fear for their independence. Our revolution is extended over both hemifpheres; it fubmits cabinets to new combinations; and kings, who for fome time must be occupied with the care of defending their thrones, will undertake with lefs levity wars, the termination of which must neceffarily fhorten the period of their political existence. We may live in good neighbourhood with kings, but we can expect fidelity in our political connexions only from nations which are free. The peace of the 6th year muft, therefore, have a moft powerful influence on the deftiny of Europe; it totally fubverts its ancient policy, and changes the nature of all its former relations. Let us now examine what addition the treaty with the Emperor-King makes to our territorial, military,`

F 2

and

and commercial refources. In the first place, we unite, by pofitive agreement, to our ancient territory, the Auftrian Low Countries, with all their dependencies. The extent, the fertility, and population of this conceffion, are too well known to require my expatiating on the importance of that addition of territory, force, and commercial productions. Our line of defence on the fide of the German empire is reduced to one half; and a triple row of fortified places, without mentioning their natural defence, would add to our fecurity, if the courage of our fellow-citizens were not fuperior to the advantages of art and of nature. This line of defence, reduced, as I have juft faid, to one half its former extent, is flanked at the one extremity by the Swifs, our conftant and pacific allies; and on the other by the Batavian republic, which the intereft of its inhabitants attaches to our political exiftence. We fhall acquire citizens whom nature has attached to every fpecies of industry by the attraction of profit, the near profpect of which would put the most indolent in motion, and which are now become still more attractive by the free navigation of the Scheldt. The port of Oftend extends the line of countervallation that the perfidy of the English government forces us to trace oppofite to its territory. In Italy, the chain of islands which border the coafts of Lower Albania, of the Livadia and the Morca, offer to our navy nurseries of feamen, and to our manufactures a market and articles of exchange. Thefe precious colonics promife to us the free navigation of the Mediterranean and the Adriatic fea, the entrance to which we already poffefs. They affure to us the Levant trade, and will act, in respect to our commerce in general, as an exact balance-maker, who will eftablish the equilibrium of competition that English cupidity has deftroyed. But when I prefent to you the picture of our new acquifitions on the coafts of that Greece, to which the immortal names of thofe heroes for whom the was indebted to the Genius of Liberty even at this day give luftre, it is neceffary that I fhould fhow you the map of that new republic which its fate has attached to that of the French republic, and the ftate of the Emperor's new poffeffions on the borders of the Gulf of Venice. The Cifalpine republic comprehends what was formerly called Auftrian Lombardy, the territories of Bergamo and Cremona, the town and fortress of Mantua, with its territory, Pefchiara, part of the ci-devant Venetian ftates, the territory of Modena, the principality of Maffa and Carrara, and the three legations of Bologna, of Ferrara, and Romagna. The line of demarkation which feparates this republic from the Emperor's dominions, appears to have been traced in the front of the camp of an army preparing to march against the enemy. The frontier of the Cifalpines is a true parallel. On the fide of the Adriatic fea, nearly thirty leagues,

of

of coaft furnish the navy of this new state with fuch means of defence as will be fufficient for this ally of France, against the only enemy by which it can be attacked. If we confider, in a

geometrical point of view, the new poffeffions of the Emperor, we might perhaps be led to imagine, that, after an uninterrupted series of defeats, this monarch has reafon to be fatisfied; but, citizens, colleagues, an extent of territory, without cultivation, without inhabitants, or at least very thinly peopled, and without manufactures, ought not to be put in comparifon with even a far inferior furface, where fertility of foil, population, industry, and military strength, are found united. The acquifition of population, in a moral and political point of view, equally engages our attention. If the Emperor be in poffeffion of the inhabitants of Iftria and Dalmatia; if he can drag them trembling to battle; the French republic, more happy, can oppofe to him republicans who were formerly his fubjects. The geographical pofition of the Cifalpine republic, and its invariable interefts, leave it no choice as to its allies and its enemies. It appeared, then, neceflary to give the Emperor a few foldiers, when we placed on his frontiers a brave and restless rival. The naval establishment of the house of Auftria in the Gulf of Venice ought not to alarm the friends of our commerce; for if thefe maritime poffeffions enable the court of Vienna to elevate itself to the rank of thofe powers who divide the empire of the feas, it will foon become the enemy of those who revolt all by the most infolent ambition. But ought we to dread her as a rival? Facts reply to the queftion. England, producing lefs raw materials, with an inferior number of hands, paying higher wages than workmen receive in France, has acquired a fuperiority over us which liberty alone can deftroy. If England, with all her difadvantages, furpaffed us when we wore the yoke, fhall we fear, now we are free, the rivalry of the fubjects of kings? Commerce. cannot flourish without liberty. Human induftry always droops under the head of defpotism. Our imaginary rivals, ftill without colonies, weighed down by the existence of the fiscal government of a master, can never, then, enter into a ftruggle with us. Perfectly at eafe with refpect to any injury to be received by the progrefs of Austrian induftry, and the rapid and menacing creation of a military marine, we conceive that the compenfations accorded to the Emperor and King cannot in any degree affect, I will not fay the tranquillity of the French republic and its allies, but the unfolding of thofe refources, of that force, and of that induftry, to which the Genius' of Liberty will give birth. Citizens colleagues, we have prefented to you the principal provisions of the treaty which is fubmitted to your approbation. You will be of opinion, no doubt, with your committee, that independently of the circumftances and of the wishes of our confti

tuents,

tuents, the republic ought to be fatisfied. Intereft, dignity, cha+ racters all are folemnly confecrated in this treaty-immenfe poffeflions joined to our territories-conquefts over which humanity rejoices. The magnanimity which characterizes the French people fhows itself in the limits which have been marked out for the Cifalpine republic, if the declaration required from the Emperor that he acknowledges the Batavian republic, and in the compenfations which it was determined he fhould make to the Duke of Modena. We fhall not proceed to the particular examination of each article, because, in ftating to you the principal objects of the treaty, we have combined and analyfed thofe parts which are intimately connected, and which cannot be feparately difcuffed. With refpect to fuch articles as are detached from the whole, we conceived that we ought likewife to avoid the fatigue of giving them in detail. Thofe, indeed, which are really feparate, are, for the most part, mere forms of ceremony, which you may have remarked in the preceding treaties fubmitted to your approbation, and which the cabinets of Europe hold in veneration. In refpect to thofe articles which may appear infulated in the treaty, though connected with the fecret conditions, as we are ignorant of their precife relation to thofe conditions, we thought it would be wholly ufelefs to enter into long and difficult fpeculations which might probably lead us aftray, and which, at beft, could furnish us with only hypothetical conjectures. The Directory have already given too many proofs of their folicitude for every thing that can be dear to us as reprefentatives and as citizens, to withhold from them that confidence which the fuccefs of their negotiations requires they fhould enjoy. The Directory, so scandaloufly accused of being averfe to peace, have now shown to France and the whole world whether they, or their calumniators, have prolonged the horrors of war. We will confefs, citizens colleagues, that, on the firft view, one of the articles of the treaty had alarmed your committee. It is Article IX. by which it is ftipulated, that the fequeftration put upon the effects of the inhabitants and proprietors of the ceded countries, on account of the war which is now about to terminate, will be entirely taken off. But, after maturely weighing and deliberating upon thefe difpofitions, which are common to all the treaties of peace which you have approved, your committee are convinced that they can have no relation to the emigrants. In reality, an emigrant being civilly dead, and his effects being not merely fe queftrated, but by the fole act of his emigration confifcated and efcheated to the republic, he cannot be included in the number either of inhabitants or proprietors. Befides, that article mentions only the individuals whofe effects have been fequeftrated on account of the war. This reafon, which muft hate principally applied only to foreigners poffeffed of property in the ceded terri

torics,