was prejudicial to us; and yet the French government, faithful to its defire of preferving peace even with Naples, was willing to hope that there was yet a poffibility of repentance. This honourable illufion has been, however, diffipated by the Neapolitan government, which has brought its long train of perjuries to the height. dared to attack fuddenly the French It has army, and to accompany this aggreffion with the most infolent menaces. The republican energy, long confined, will now break forth with the ftrength of thunder; and this court, too long time fpared, which, imitating the illegal conduct of the British government, has dared to be guilty of breaking the laws of peace, without having the courage to declare war, will at length receive the reward of its demerits. But it is neceffary too, that thofe who have fhewn themselves its accomplices, fhould alfo fhare the fame fate. The Sardinian government has been the affociate of its perfidies, and a fimilar fate awaits it. Its guilt, as an accomplice with Naples, is manifeft from a thoufand circumstances; its fentiments, its language, and even its actions, in proportion to its means, have been the fame, and its artifice and hypocrify exactly refemble that of Naples. It would be difficult to account for its recent conduct towards France, if history did not, in all ages, make manifeft the cunning and verfatile politics of this court, conftantly occupied in fomenting war among its neighbours, in taking a part in all the wars of Italy, and in hamelessly deferting its allies, in conftantly joining that fide which appeared moft ftrong, in order to opprefs the weak, and in gratifying its revenge, its ambition, and in offering its fupport for fale, to whoever was inclined to purchafe it. caufe of complaint, who would beIndependently of every other lieve that the treaty which we deigned to conclude with the court of Turin, and which they ought to have confidered as a signal favour, ftates of the king of Sardinia. The has not yet been published in all the agents of the republic have in vain requested that this might be done; their refiftance has been invincible, and the most futile reafons have been affigned as a pretence for this delay, or rather for this refufal. In fact, they have never ceafed to make war in every way which their imbecility and their cowardice fuf fered them to put into execution. Our most cruel enemies, the emiconftantly met with a welcome re grants and refractory priests, have they have been fuffered to give free ception in his dominions: there vent to their hatred, and to the expreffions of their barbarous wishes against the republic. They have even been able to excite the people against the French, by the most atrocious calumnies. This is not all: from the moment in which peace was figned, the French, almost under the eyes of their ambaffadors, have been affaffinated in cold blood, and that chiefly by the regular troops. Thefe affaffinations have been committed almost daily, and the number of them is dreadful when the total amount fhall be known. Some of them have fallen by the ftiletto, fome have been mu→ tilated in the most dreadful manner. A volunteer, of the 68th demi-brigade, was buried alive, after having been barbaroufly wounded. Ife grave in which he had been buried. was feen coming alive out of the He was deftined to escape, in order to offer a proof of this dreadful cruelty. The agents of the French républic have expreffed, in the name of the republic, the most energetic indignation; but they have been ahable to prevent thefe crimes from going unnoticed or unpunished. Some banditti, enrolled under the name of Barbets, whose bulinefs it is to rob and pillage, but whofe amufement it is to kill republicans, far from being diffipated by public authority, appear to be encouraged by it. Their thefts on the Piedmontefe were forgiven, în confideration of their murder of the French. On this fubject a long negotiation was entered into, which was confidered by the Sardinian government as a public calamity, the object of which was not to obtain the fup. preffion of, but the mere promife to reprefs thefe banditti. On this condition the fupport of our arms was promised to them. But the Sardinian government was unwilling to obtain tranquillity at this price, and after all would not confent to iffue a law against ftilettos and concealed arms, so fearful were they that the French fhould by any means be fecure in their states; and during the courfe of the negotiation, and in spite of the formal promife to fufpend a proceeding in which the most furious paffions were manifefted, several Frenchmen who were implicated in an unhappy af fair were thot without pity. Befides these enrolled banditti, be fides judiciary banditti, the Due d'Aoft, a moniter, the brother of the king, and the heir to the throne, like another Old Man of the Mountain, never ceafed to keep under his or ders, and in his pay, a band of cut throats, to whom he issued orders to affaffinate fuch and fuch a Frenchman, and these orders were but too faithfully executed. It is in vain to suppose that all thefe crimes were not imputable to the Sardinian government, fince the whole of its conduct has proved that it was privy to every one of them. The principal places in Piedmont were occupied by French troops; for thofe no provisions were to be obtained. The friends of the republic were conftantly thrown into prifon, the Frenchmen infulted, and even their drefs turned into derifion; the emigrants were encouraged in their audacity; thofe public officers who were most diftinguifhed for their hatred towards the French, chiefly promoted; the Barbets protected, even openly by their firft magiftrates; poniards forged and diftributed to a vast number: in fhort, the most dreadful plots against the French were planned and ready to be carried into execution. From an interrogatory exhibited to one of the chiefs of the Barbets, it appears that a per fon who was employed in the cuf tom-house at Turin, and who was commiffioned to pay these banditti, had received from the Sardinian government orders to distribute among the chiefs of them boxes of poifon, to be thrown into the wells which lay nearest to the French camp. It is evident that there exifts the most intimate connection between the conduct of such a government as this and that of the court of Na ples, in their hoftility to the French republic; this connection, maintained and fupported by fo many crimes, would alone be fufficient to implicate the court of Turin in the guilt of the other: but a stronger proof is added, in the circumstance of of the preparations for war being increafed at Turin, in proportion as thofe at Naples were multiplied. The militia in the former place were called forth, and thirty thou. fand stand of arms were delivered to them. The Piedmontefe troops marched towards Loana and Oneilla at the fame moment in which the Neapolitan army attacked the French troops on the territory of the Roman republic, in which fix thoufand Neapolitans difembarked at Leghorn, and in which a new difembarkation was threatened on the coast of Liguria. It was in the fame moment that the order to march on the first fignal was given; that Turin was filled with troops; that 1500 poniards were diftributed; that the citadel was nearly be fieged; that the heights which command it were furnished with an extraordinary number of cannon; and that the Sardinian government dared to require the evacuation of the citadel and the diminution of our troops in Piedmont. In this fituation of affairs it was impoffible for the French government to separate two courts obvioufly fo hoftilely united against the French republic. But the directory declares folemnly to Europe, that, whatever may be the refult of this war, no ambitious views fhall intermeddle in the purity of the motives which have induced them to take up arms, and they declare to all governments, guiltlefs of the perfidy of the Neapolitans, that the treaties which bind them fhall never have been more faithfully obferved in times paft, than they fhall be in times to come. (Signed) Manifefte of the Sublime Porte, communicated to our efteemed Friend, the Minifter Plenipotentiary of the Court of Great Britain, at Conftantinople, the 11th of September, 1798. It is notorious, that the peace and good harmony which, fince time immemorial, have existed be tween the Sublime Porte and the court of France, have never been interrupted by enmity and mifunderftanding; but that, on the contrary, until this period, the Sublime Porte has made it her uniform and conftant study, fcrupulously to maintain the treaties, to fulfil the duties of amity with care, and upon every occafion to give proofs of her fincerity and friendship. At the time when the revolution first broke out in France, fix years ago, when most of the powers in Europe confederated against that country, the Sublime Porte, although a witness to the improper proceedings of those who held the reins of government by ufurpation, chofe rather, in obfervance of her antient amity with the French nation, to remain neutral: and though fhe had been feveral times invited by the allied courts to join with them, and to break with France; although the troubles of that country had become more and more violent at that particular period, when an army had reached near Paris; whilft foon after the fortresses of Valenciennes, Condé, and Quef noy, the keys of France, on the northern fide, were taken by the Auftrian arms; Toulon, the only arfenal of the French in the Mediterrancan, had fallen into the hands of the English,, with the fhips of war which were in it; and, by an increafed party of royalifts in their LA REVEILLERE LEPAUX. provinces, the fituation of the go vernment vernment had become more criti-, cal, and perplexity and diftrefs prevailed on every fide; yet the Sublime Porte, notwithstanding that it depended only upon herself to join with the other powers, neverthelefs, giving way to her known principles of justice, did no ways confent to deviate from the line of a neutral conduct. On the contrary, confidering that, if under the circumftances of a ftrong famine, by which France, blocked up by fea and land was af, flicted, the Sublime Porte had alfo broken off her connection, their diftreffed fituation would have been fuch as to throw the inhabitants in 19 total defolation and defpair; the abftained from that meafure; and fhe hereby alks, whether it be not a fact, that the liberality which the has hewn to them, from time to time, has brought complaints against her from other powers? The extenfive advantages which the French have reaped from the Subline Porte's remaining neutral, during the courfe of the war, become clear and evident by a moment's glance at the events of the war, and the public tranfactions during that period. Whilft, there fore, in confideration of the uni form acts of condefcenfion thus obferved towards them by the Sublime Porte, they, on the fide, ought alfo to have been fieady in preferving peace; yet, thofe among them, who found the means of affuming to themfelves the reins of government by favour of the revoTution, began to devife various pretences, and, under an illufive idea of liberty a liberty fo called in word, but which in reality knows no other laws but the fubversion of every established government (after the example of France), the abo lifhment of all religions, the deftruction of every country, the plunder of property, and the diffolution of all human fociety-to oc. cupy themselves in nothing but in misleading and impofing upon the ignorant amongit the people, pretending to reduce mankind to the state of the brute creation; and this, to favour their own private interefts, and render the government permanent in their own hands. Actuated by fuch principles, they made it their maxim to ftir up and corrupt, indifcriminately, the fubjects of every power, whether diftant or near, either in peace or at war, and to excite them to revolt against their natural fovereigns and government. Whilft, on one hand, their minifter at Conftantinople, pursuant to that fyftem of duplicity and deceit which is their cuftom every where, made profeffions of friendfhip for the Ottoman empire, endeavouring to make the Sublime Porte the dupe of their infidious projects, and to forward their ob. ject of exciting her against other friendly powers; the commanders and generals of their army in Italy, upon the other hand, were engaged in the heinous attempt of perverting the fubjects of his majesty the Grand Signior, by fending agents (perfons notorious for their intri guing practices) inte Anatolia, Mo. rea, and the islands of the Archipelago, and by fpreading manifef toes of the most infidious tenor, among which the one addreffed by Buonaparte to the people of Macrio, with feveral others diftributed by the fame, are fufficiently known to the public. Upon the Sublime Porte's complaining to the directory of this conduct of their commanders and generals, generals, their answer was-that all proceedings on the part of their of ficers, contrary to friendship, were not with the confent of the directory; that the fame fhould be prevented, and their officers warned against it; the with of the French government being to ftrengthen more and more the antient friendfhip fubfifting with the Sublime Porte. In confequence of this anfwer, delivered officially on their part, it was expected that the faid generals would have left off their feditious purfuits. But nevertheless, no change appearing in their conduct, and their perfeverance in fuch infi. dious practices being greater than ever, it became obvious that the anfwers of the directory were only fictitious and deceitful; that the intriguing attempts of their agents could not but be dictated by the inftructions which were gived them; and confequently, that any further complaint would be of no avail whatever. Notwithstanding thefe tranfactions, however, the Sublime Porte, in the hopes of the directory alter ing its fyftem of conduct, and laying afide the fenfelefs pursuit of withing to overturn the universe; in expectation of feeing things in France, from the haraffed fituation of that country, at length take a different turn, by the people refufing to bear any longer those intolerable evils and difafters which have been brought upon them, from the perfonal views of a few upftart individuals, fince the commencement of the revolution; and with the view of preventing fecret enmity from producing an open rupture, did not alter her courfe, but prefered keeping filence. In the beginning of the war with the other powers, the French go vernment had declared, that their intention was not to acquire new territory, but, on the contrary, to reftore every fuch conqueft as might have been made by their arms during the contest: contrary to which, they not only have kept poffeffion of various extenfive pro-. vinces, fnatched by them from the belligerent powers; but not content with this, profiting by the changes which had prevailed among the allied courts through their intrigues, have put off the mafk entirely, and, developing their fecret views, without reafon or juftice have fallen upon feveral free and independent republics and ftates who had held themfelves neutral, like the Sublime Porte, invading their territories when leaft provided with the means of defence, and fubjecting them to their will by open force and hoftility. Thus, no one being left to controul them, they tore the veil of all decorum at once; and, unmindful of the obligations of treaties, and to convince the world that friendfhip and enmity are the fame thing in their eyes, contrary to the rights of nations, and in violation of the ties fubfifting between the two courts, they came, in a manner altogether unprecedented, like a fet of pirates, and made a fudden invafion in Egypt, the moft precious among the provinces of the Ottoman Porte; of which they took forcible poffeffion at a time when they had experienced nothing from this court but demonftrations of friendship. Upon the firft furmife of the French project to invade that province, Ruffin, their chargé d'affaires at this refidence, was invited to a conference, where he was queftioned officially about this bufinefs: he first declared he had no intelli gence |