prifoners adds a darker fhade to the picture, and must excite the indignation of every civilized country. From the commencement of the war, dur prifoners were infulted. In despite of those proper regulations agreed to by all nations, they placed indifcriminately in the fame prifon officers and privates-a circumftance productive of unpleasant confequences, and injurious to difcipline. When objections were made to this abufe, the agents of the court replied with a Sardonic fmile, "You are republicans, you wish for equality, and you must therefore be treated equally." They were fearful, however, of reprisals, and foon after accepted the parole of our officers. Their hatred, however, ftill manifefts itfelf with respect to our privateers; and certainly not without reafon; for if the national marine has hitherto been in a ftate of nullity, the auxiliary marine of our cruifers has inflicted some fatal blows on the British commerce. That government has, in confequence, made a diftinction between the officers commanding in national veffels and those of privatcers. The latter have ftill the melancholy privilege of being moft ill treated, and are confined in the fame dungeons with their failors. We might make a volume of the acts of cruelty which have been inflicted on our fellow-citizens, in the unhealthy prifons in which they are crowded. Some are confined in old hips, others in ill-conftructed huts, where they are expofed to damp and cold: even straw is refufed to them, and they are compelled to lie in mire and ordure. They are called by the most infulting appellations, and, on their appearance before a licentious populace, dirt is flung in their faces. They are beaten, and even ihot, on the smallest pretext. Thefe facts are proved; they are stated in a great number of papers referred to your committee. Judge of them by that I am about to read, and which is not of the most afflicting tenor. There are fome of them, the reading of which you could not poffibly endure. [The reporter then proceeded to read a long letter from the owners of privateers, captains and officers, at Nantz, containing a detail of thofe enormities to which in his fpeech he had alluded. Amongst other inftances, this letter mentioned, that an English foldier, for his amusement, had fired at a French prifoner, and fhot him dead: an English commiflary was fent for, but inftantly retired, after coolly faying, "It is only a Frenchman !"-Again, that a female who had lain in, was fuffered to remain for fortyeight hours, without being able to procure a glass of water!"Vengeance!" cries the reporter, "vengeance against this cruel government!" The members immediately arofe, waved their hats, hats, and in concert with the galleries, repeated the cry of "Vengeance!"] Riou then moved the following refolutions: That the Executive Directory fhall inftantly take the neceffary measures, to infure the provifionment, maintenance, and confolation in their illnefs, of the French citizens, now prifoners in England. That they are authorized, for this purpose, to take the neceffary fums from the moft difpofable part of thofe funds which are affigned to unforcfeen expenfes; and, if this refource fhould not be fufficient, to make it up from the amount of the patriotic donations. The Batavian Constituent Affembly to the Batavian People. THE day has arrived, when, for the fecond time, your liberty was to be defended, when the independence of this republic was to be protected against the violent attacks of fedition, when, at length, the explosion of a plan as baleful as artfully contrived, was to be prevented by the vigorous meafures employed by your faithful reprefentatives for the fafety of the country; measures, without which, you would groan under heavier chains than you had ever carried; meafures commanded by imperious neceffity; meafures which we have been compelied to adopt by the criminal conduct of those men, who, though enemies to the fundamental principles of our laft revolution, have conftantly combined to hold in their hands the reins of government. It was time to fill up this abyfs, dug between the conftituted government, and the fhapeless federalism of fome people united in appearance, but each regarding only his own particular intereft. Our country has often felt the baleful effects of fuch an order of things: it is owing to it, that you never know your own proper ftrength: it is to it that England is indebted for the means of forming among you internal divifions: it is it that has chained down, nay, that has even extinguished a courage otherwife fo intrepid, and that patriotic fpirit fo frequently manifefted. It is owing to it, in fine, that each page of our annals is filled with baleful events; and it is this which would bring us back infenfibly to the deteftable government of the Stadtholder, and which would make us to regret thofe chains which we have broken, with the affiftance of our faithful allies, and at the price of the greateft facrifices. It was time to remove all obllacles, and to organize every thing neceffary for the attainment of a fixed order of things. It was time to put an end to that state of confufion and uncertainty, which for three years has ftopt up the fources of our happiness, and conducted us to the brink of the precipice which we have just this moment efcaped. It was time to direct our attention to a danger, which the patience and indulgence of the French people fo long endured, whofe attachment is not cooled, notwithstanding the intrigues employed by a wicked faction to alienate them from us. It was time to render illufive all the attacks upon your liberty, attacks which were every day renewed. It was time to render useless the plans of those who, with a view of self-aggrandizement, have endeavoured to fupport the federal regime, and to render the revolution, fo falutary in its principles, not only illufory for you, but even pernicious in its effects. It was time that the oath, which was made for the fafety of the country-an oath, which many pronounced with a falfe heart-an oath lately renewed in your prefence, fhould be realized by your true friends. For thofe, then, who have no object but the general good, and to point out to the country the means of repairing the evils which cunning and treafon have caufed; for thofe, then, there is no other line of conduct to adopt, but to deprive thofe wicked beings of the means of injuring you again. The plan of establishing the reign of fome patrician families upon the ruins of the government of the Stadtholder, by attempting to opprefs the real friends of their country, of extinguifhing their courage, and depriving them of ftrength to oppofe tyranny; the plan of fubjecting you to the insupportable yoke of an elective ariftocracy, under the name of a popular government by representation, and making you embrace a thameful flavery, by giving you nothing but the fhadow of liberty-this wicked plan, fo clearly expreffed in the form of the conftitution which you have just rejected, was never loft fight of; on the contrary, it became more and more dear to all its adherents; and the only difference between it and the attempts hitherto made for the fame purpose, is an increase of artifice and violence. It was referved for the French republicans to fecond the projects of true republicans, to extricate you a fecond time from the gulf into which they would have plunged you. We had no alternative between the laft political crifis and the profpect of feeing liberty for ever enchained; and what patriot could hesitate a moment in his choice? Yes, Batavians, we are feen in the cruel neceffity of putting in a state of arreft feveral members of your reprefentative affembly, and of removing others from the government, not with a view to injure them, or profecute them for their conduct, for we are too well convinced of the baneful confequences of a reign of terror; but to prevent them from undermining the foundations of our laft political revolution, and, by destroying all obftacles, to direct your attention to a regular order of things, for the purpose of destroying defpotism, and shutting out all access to anarchy; a measure which will cement the fafety of the Batavian republic, and render it as ufeful to its allies, as formidable formidable to its enemies. Do we offer you an exaggerated picture of the state of things? Have we recourfe to calumny to infpire you with hatred towards honeft men? Or, do we render homage to truth? The attacks upon civil liberty, are they not manifeft? Are not the protection and favour fhown to the House of Orange well known? Was it not enough to be a patriot, to be defpifed and rejected? Have they neglected any means of destroying public fpirit? And has not the organization of the troops of the land been a long time the fource of complaints? Have they not endeavoured in your reprefentative affemblies to defend the committee of union? Have not feveral of your governors fhamefully combated the lenity of the republic?—the fole means of rendering us happy at home, and powerful abroad. Have they not retarded by every poffible means the formation of the national guard, that bulwark of liberty, as formidable to defpots as falutary to the happiness of the people? Is not commerce with our natural enemy tolerated? What do we fay? Is it not protected, in defpite of the laws? Is it not fuffered, in various places, to employ the armed force, to ftifle the voice of the citizens, and to maintain with vigour an infolent defpotifm? Have they not employed the treafures of the nation, thofe treafures amaffed at the price of your Iweat and your blood, to corrupt every thing, to make you accept, at the point of the bayonet, a conftitution which you have rejected with indignation? Have they not, in every respect, given vile egotists an affurance of impunity? Have they not permitted a few individuals to enrich themfelves with the fruits of your labours, which you emptied in coffers no fooner filled than exhausted? Are not these nourished by the blood and tears of the orphan and the widow? Have they not rafhly, without any neceffity, and even against the intention of the French government, expofed the national navy, the weak remains of our former grandeur, to deftruction? Have we not recenly remarked the deteftable efforts put in practice, to deprive us of the means of re-eftablishing our maritime force? and if the government had not been changed, would not the plan have effectually fucceeded? Has not the public credit been shaken by meafures as impolitic as perfidious? Have we not feen the different provinces openly oppofe the will of the national reprefentatives? and are not the latter torn to pieces by the fpirit of party? Are they not rendered contemptible by the want of energy? and have they not, by half meafures, broken the ties of adminiftration? Ah! while all this paffes under your eyes, and the lofs of the republic becomes inevitable by the continuation of these horrors, the national spirit will never awake from its lethargic fleep. Will you not all arm to combat the enemies of your happiness, and to crush them, if they obftinately perfift in their defigns? The defcendants of thofe heroes, who, without any other means than courage, courage, exterminated the whole Spanish power, fhall they be intimidated by the vain measures of a band of tyrannical egotists? fhall they infamoufly hide themfelves, when preparations are making to give a mortal ftab to liberty? And we, reprefentatives, obferving thefe odious enterprifes, how can we be juftified before you, before our children, if we were to remain longer unmoved? Should we not be worthy of being compared to thofe defpicable beings, who feek to raise their power on your ruin, and whom, by our vigorous measures, we have at length deftroyed? Will not our memory ever flourish in the annals of tine? No, no, Batavians; we will fwear upon the altar of liberty, upon which the people of the Low Countries have already made offerings, while others ftill continue flaves; we will fwear by our general intereft, by the profperity of our children, by the happiness of pofterity, that we will never fuffer either defpotifin or anarchy. We will all fwear to fnatch the country from its state of oppreffion, and to fpare no facrifice to fucceed. We will prove, by our conduct, that we cherifh civil liberty as much as we abhor licentioufnefs. Range yourselves around the general adminiftration, to fupport it in every measure which may be judged neceffary to attain this grand object: thus we shall foon obtain a good conftitution, founded upon the eternal principles of nature, fufceptible of no change, and on which alone fhall be built our political happiness. Thus we will filence calumny, and make our adverfaries blufh; thus we will evidently prove to the greateft, the most courageous of all people, that it was not in vain they fuccoured us, in order to eafe us of the yoke by which we were curbed. We will prove that Batavia is worthy a fraternal alliance with this nation. Thus will Europe again know us the worthy defcendants of those Batavians who defended liberty, when the whole universe bent the knee to the power of domineering Rome. Soon will it acknowledge, in the prefent generation, the fame people who formerly fhook the throne of Philip; the fame people who, by their courage and valour, fo extended their poffeffions in other parts of the globe, that the fun, in its regular courfe, always fhone upon Batavia, in the one or the other hemifphere; a people who combated the most formidable powers in the world; who forced the commerce of the whole univerfe to unite in its ftates; who held in their hands the political balance, and bore their sceptre on the ocean. Batavians, it is to this degree of greatness that we must return, by means of a good and wife conftitution. But never shall we return to it, if the order of things, or rather that systematic diforder which for two years enfnared us, continues to exift. The monster federalism, little different from the hydra of the ancients, can only be conquered by an effort, which fhall deftroy, at one blow, all its heads. This great blow is about to VOL. VII. L be |