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The preamble to this series consisted of various considerations, such as "the constant pursuit of the plan laid down in the instructions of the conspirators, Brothier, Duverne des Presles, and the other agents of the pretender, disseminated throughout the republic; whereby the primary and electoral assemblies had been directed and seduced in their choice; that, excepting in a few instances, where the energy of the republicans had neutralised their attempts, the late elections had not only filled the departmental administrations, but also the late third of the legislature, with emigrants, with rebel-leaders, and confirmed royalists; that the constitution was attacked by a part of those who were expressly called to defend it, and against which no precautions had been taken; that it was impossible to defend it, without recourse to extraordinary measures; and that, to crush the exist ing conspiracy, and prevent the general effusion of blood, it was the duty of the council to examine the attempts brought against the constitution from the month of Praireal preceding, and to take such further measures as should secure the liberty and happiness of the people from further danger."

In consequence of these considerations, the council (if such in its present state it ought to be called) decreed, amongst other articles, that the operations of the primary assemblies, communal and electoral, of forty-nine departments*, were unlawful and void; that the persons named to public employments by the

primary, communal, or electoral assemblies of these departments, including the members of the legis lative body, should forthwith cease their functions; that the directory should be empowered to fill up the vacancies in the tribunal; that those dispositions of the exclusive law of the third Brumaire, which had been repealed in favour of the relations of emigrants, should be revoked, and the law re-established against them till four years after the peace; and that, during this space, they should not be permitted to vote in the primary assemblies, nor to be named electors.

Thus, in the first instance, the representatives of the people were outraged by an armed force, in direct violation of the constitution; and in the second, the people themselves were robbed of their rights and privileges by an act of tyranny, as gross and as illegal as any thing which was exclaimed against in the former government. Whatever be the political sentiments of any man, who reads this account, we must pronounce him no friend to liberty, who sanctions or approves so direct a violation of every thing which ought to be sacred in the eyes of those who profess themselves the votaries of freedom. From this moment posterity will date the decline and fall of the French republic; since the men, who thus insulted every sound and virtuous principle, proved themselves afterwards as incapable in the exercise of power as they were daring in assuming it.

The 13th article contains the

These departments were l'Aiu, l'Ardèche, l'’Árviège, l'Aube, l'Aveyron, Bouches du Rhône, Calvados, Charente, Cher, Côtes d'Or, Côtes du Nord, Dordogne, l'Eure, Eare et Loire, Gironde, Herault, Ille et Vilaine, Indre et Loire, Loire, Haute Loire, Loire Inférieure, Loiret, Manche, Marne, Mayenne, Mont Blanc, Morbihan, Moselle, les Deux Nethes, Nord, Oise, Orne, Pas de Calais, Puy de Dôme, Bas Rhin, Haut Rhin, Rhône, Haute Saone, Saone et Loire, Sarthe, Seine Inférieure, Seine et Marne Seine et Oise, Somme, Tarn, Var, Vaucluse, Yonne.

names

names of those who were to be transported, to the number of sixtyfive; of whom fifty-three were members of the two councils; and the two directors, Barthelemy and Carnot; the place of their exile was to be determined by the directory, and their property to be sequestered til authentic proof was received of their arrival at the place of banishment. It was further enacted, that the emigrants who had entered the republic to solicit their erasure from the list, and who were not definitively struck off, should leave the republic in a limited time; that those who were detained in prison, and who had forfeited their lives, should be banished; that the law lately made to recall the banished priests was repealed; that the directory was invested with the power of sending away, by decrees individually no

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tified, such priests as disturbed the public peace; and that the oath to be taken in future should be that of hatred to royalty and anarchy, and of attachment to the republic and the present constitution. Punishments were likewise decreed against any of the constituted authorities which should not punctually execute the laws in this respect. Various new regulations were made in the administration of justice. The remainder of the family of Bourbon were expelled, and their estates confiscated; the directory being charged to designate the place of their banishment, and allow them a revenue out of their estates. To evince the further regard for liberty in these despicable tyrants, the newspapers and other periodical publications were placed under the inspection of the police for the term of a year. The law

* DU CONSEIL DES CINQ-CENTS,

Duplantier
Duprat

Gibert Desmolières

Henry Larivière

Imbert Colomés

Camille Jordan

Jourdan (André Joseph,

Bouches du Rhône)

Lemarch and Gomicourt

Borne

Bourdon (de l'Oise)

Cadroi

Gau

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Delahaye (de la Seine In

fer.

Lemerer

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Noailles

André (de la Lozere) Mac-Curtain

Pavie

Pastoret

Pichegru

Polissart

Praire Montaud

Quatremère Quincy

Saladin

Simeon

Vauvilliers

Vienot Vaublanc

Villaret Joyeuse

Barbé Marbois
Dumas

Ferrant Vaillant

DU CONSEIL DES ANCIENS.

Willot.

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against popular societies was re- that the knell of the republic has pealed, as well as those respecting tolled." This message was immethe organisation of the national diately sent by the five hundred to guard, and the prohibition which the ancients, and the propositions had been laid on the direcory of passed into a law without further suspending the civil authority, or opposition. putting a commune in a state of siege.

Supposing the assertions of the directory to have been (what they were not) proved, still, if they had had any regard to that justice which was upon their lips, but not in their conduct, surely some greater

These propositions being sent to the council of the ancients, a discussion ensued respecting certain clauses, and chiefly on that article which contained the list of persons discrimination ought to have been designated by the five hundred to made in the fate of those who were banishment. The directory per- marked out as objects of puceiving this hesitation, sent à mes- nishment. Had the council of sage, or more properly, in the pre- elders not been degraded to the sent state of things, an order to the lowest pitch, more proof would council of five hundred, represent- have been required than the mere ing the danger of delay, and ex- list of names, which the council of horting them to imitate the con- five hundred sent up, to convince duct which they had observed; to them that Tronçon-Ducoudray, let no metaphysical discussion re- Simeon, and Portalis, were implispecting principles interrupt the cated in the same crimes with Brospeedy course of national justice; thier, Duverne des Presles, and that being placed in the most sin- Lavilleheurnois, the avowed agents gular of positions, they could not of Louis; or that Barthelemy the apply the ordinary rules of the con- director, and Cochon the ex-mistitution, unless they wished to de- nister of police, ought to share the liver up the republic to its ene- punishment of Rovere and Mimies. "If the friends of kings randa; the one the chief actor in find friends amongst you, if slaves the murders of Avignon, and the can meet protectors, if you delay other an indefatigable but impruan instant, despair of the salvation dent instrument in the conspiraof France, shut up the book of the cies of every party. constitution, and tell the patriots

CHAP. XII.

Messages of the Directory on the Mode of raising Supplies, and on the Filling up the Vacancies in the Directory. Banishment of the Journalists. Nomination to the Directory. Disorders in the South. Recall of the French Negotiators at Lisle. Mission of others. Departure of Lord Malmesbury. Absurd Account of Lord Malmesbury's Mission published in the Official Papers of the French Government. Reflections on the forged Letter. Final Close of the Negotiation between the French Republic and England. Negotiation with the Emperor for definitive Treaty. Supposed Causes of the Delay in the Negotiations during the Summer. Treaty of Peace concluded at Campo-Formio. Principal Conditions of the Treaty. Pacification with the Empire---referred to a Congress. Surrender of Venice to the

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Emperor.

Emperor. Despair of the Venetian Patriots. Portugal. Treaty of Peace negotiated by Portugal with France during the Summer---dissolved. Imprisonment of the Portuguese Embassador. Ambiguity of the Conduct of the Spanish Court. Disaffection and Inefficacy of the Allies of the French Republic. Affairs of Holland. Treaty of Alliance, offensive and defensive, with the King of Sardinia, Reflections on Clauses in the late Treaties. Proclamations of the Directory against the English Government. Review made by the French Government of the Conduct of the Neutral Powers during the War. Of Switzerland. Dec. ee of the Directory demanding the Expulsion of the English Embassador to the Helvetic Confederacy. Departure of the English Embassador. Object of his Mission at Berne said to be discovered in Pichegru's Correspondence. Deputies from the Senate of Berne to Paris ordered to leave the Republic. Deputies from the United States of America. Reflections on the Conduct of the American Government. Contemptuous Sentiments of the French Government towards the new President of the United States. Probable Failure of the pending Negotiation. Vote of Supplies for the ensuing Year. Report on further restraining Laws respecting the former Nobles. Propositions of the Committee---rejected with Indignation. State of the Church. Meeting of a National Ecclesiastical Council. Retrospect of Ecclesiastical Affairs during the lust Year. Theophilanthropism. Report on the present State of the Catholic Religion in France---In Corsica---In the French West-India Islands. Religious State of the freed Negrocs---Negro General, Toussaint l'Ouverture ---In the French Colonies in South America---In the Mauritius---In the East Indies--In the Levant---At Constantinople. Sentiments of the Fathers of the Gallican Church, with respect to the Papal See. Support of the Papal See by Protestant Establishments. Probable Causes of this Support. The Sects in Germany. Dispositions of some Lutherans to enter the Bosom of the Catholic Church. State of Popery in other Parts of the World. Reflections of the Bishop of Blois on the approaching Regeneration of Mankind. Proceedings of the Council. Plan and Conditions of the religious Pacification. Reflections on the Articles enjoined by the Council. Civil State of the Colonies in the West Indies. Views of the French Government on the Colonisation of the Coast of Africa. Meeting of the Congress at Radstadt. Affairs of the Cisalpine Republic. Letters of Buonaparte to the Cisalpine and Ligurian Republics. Departure of Buonaparte from Italy. Opening of the Cisalpine Legislature. Reflections on the State of Italy. Provisional Formation of Ancona into a Republic. Journey of Buonaparte throughSwitzerland and Radstadt to Paris. Sketch of his Victories. Presentation of the Ratification of the Treaty by the Emperor of the Directory.

THE directory, after having, with from their own profligacy, prodi

the aid of the councils, thus gality, and mismanagement. The disposed of its enemies, sent a ines- evil which required the speediest sage to solicit the legislature to re- remedy was the state of finance. medy the evils which they pre- The specific remedies which the tended had taken place during the directory proposed were the imtime of the ascendency of the po- mediate regulation and provision pular party in the government; for the expences of the ensuing but which, in reality, had resulted year; an augmentation of taxes on

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collateral

collateral successions; farming the post, and suppressing franking; reestablishing the national lottery; erecting turnpikes; a further duty on stamps; a duty on paper; but chiefly the mobilisation of the national debt; reducing the real stock to one-third; payable in money, and the other two-thirds in bons, to be taken in payment for national lands.

Leaving these propositions to the reflection of the councils, the directory sent another message to engage them to fill up the vacancies which existed in their department by the exclusion of Carnot and Barthelemy. During their deliberation in the choice of individuals, the councils employed themselves in scrutinising the political morality of a class of citizens, whose influence in spreading the principles of the counter-revolution had been active and extensive. These were the editors of newspapers. Sixty-seven of these journalists were presented by the commission, instituted for that purpose, as worthy of the animadversion of the legislature. Of these, two were, on the plea of intention, excused; twenty-three were referred to the committee for further examination; and the remainder were or

dered to be banished from the republic to whatever place should be pointed out by the directory, under nearly the same regulations as the late members of the councils. As a further measure to secure the power of the usurpers, the exclusion of ex-nobles from places of public trust and employment was proposed; but the measure being judged more revolutionary than the circumstances of the time required, the motion was sent to a commission, to undergo mature consideration, and to discover if the project were useful.

The vacant places in the directory were filled up by Merlin, the minister of justice, and Francis de Neufchateau, the minister for homeaffairs. The former occupied the place of Barthelemy, who was elected for the space of five years; the other replaced Carnot, whose office, according to the constitution, was to be detcrmined by lot. The places of the new directors in the ministry were filled up by two citizens but little known; one of whom was Letourneur, ex-commissary of the directory at Nantes, who was named minister for homeaffairs; and the other by Lambrechts, the cominissary at Brussels, who was appointed minister of justice. The vacancies made in the councils by banishment, and the exclusion of the greater number of the newly elected third, were left open to the elections which, according to the constitution, were to take place in the ensuing month of Germinal,

The southern departments of the republic partook of the convulsion of Paris at the same period, but in an opposite manner. Lyons and Montauban had long been marked for their affection to royalty, or perhaps for their opposition to tyranny under the name of republi

canism. The success of the antidirectorial party, in the councils, had invigorated their hopes; and it was asserted that serious preparations had been made for the restoration of the ancient order of things: preparations that were probably directed by individuals of that party, but with which there is no evidence that the majority of the proscribed members were even acquainted.

One of the first operations of the new directory was the recall of the French commissaries, Letourneur, Maret, and Pelet-Pleville, from

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