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emigrants had been fuffered to return. The places of their meeting were even pointed out. But why did not the police do its duty: why were thofe connivances and parti. alities to fome individuals tolerated, the traffic in which was publicly reported? It belonged to the council to require from the directory an acconni of thofe abuses.

He then adverted to the affaifinations and partial judgements of the tribunals, complained of by the directory. True it was, he acknowledged, that blood had flowed in feveral departments. But there were laws against affaflination, and it was the bafinefs of the directory to enforce them. If partiality had been exercised in the tribunals, the laws were allo competent to its punishment, and the directory ought to denounce the guilty. Complaints, therefore, were nugatory, as it was in the power of the government to remove them. Nor was the protection claimed, for the purchafers of national property, leis fecured to them, by the conftitution, than to all other proprietors: and it was the duty of the executive, to watch over the fafety of every part of the community.

The council, he faid, had been informed of journals breathing mur. der, and the return of royalty. He would not deny that numbers of them were full of faction and fedition. But the legiflature was evidently folicitous for the fuppreffion of those licentious proceedings, and a law was in preparation for that purpose.

Nor would he deny the deficiencies in the public revenue, and that want of order and economy had thrown the finances into diforder. But had the armies any rea

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fon to reproach the legislative body? Had not their payment and fupport been attended to, in preference to every other expence? Had then, he said, the forced loans, the affignats and mandats, the national estates at home, the contributions abroad, been found infufficient? Rather let it be acknowledged, were his words, "that the public refources have been exhausted, by being diftributed through too many hands, and imprudently confided to unikilful or fufpicious management."

Peace alone, he afferted, could extricate France from its embarralments. How criminal, therefore, muft thofe be, who ftrove to place it at a diftance. But the legifla ture had evinced every difpofition to accelerate it. Future hiftorians would examine whether tranfactions in Italy had not contributed to retard it. But could France, in juftice, blame its generals, for giving liberty to millions of men? and when these had been put in poffeffion of their liberty, ought France to refuse them its friendship and alliance?

Still, however, he contended, the legiflature fhould not be filent upon these transactions. The directory had certainly exceeded its conftitutional powers. If war was to be waged against the Italian fiates, who, without the affent of the legislative power, had the right of declaring it? Who, without its approbation, could frame treaties of commerce, of fubfidies, or of alliance with those states? The governments, eftablished in Italy, muft remain unftable, and the liberty of the people would have no fixed fupport, without the formal concur rence of the legislature.

It had been furmifed, he obferved, that the directory would be accufed, and the legislative body attacked. When juft reafons exifted for accufations, that body had a right to prefer them, and would do it without hefitation or fear. But who would dare to make an attack on the legislative body? the recollection of what had befallen thofe who had ventured to do it was a fufficient warning to others.

He then exhorted all perfons in place and authority, cordially to unite for the prefervation of the ftate. He admonished the directors and the members of the legiflature, to be upon their guard against the exaggerations of a party that fought to heighten their animofities, and to involve them in feuds that would inevitably hurry them to a common destruction.

Thibaudeau finally obferved, that the committee appointed to examine the directorial meflage had purpofely avoided to infift on the bitternefs of its ftyle, and its exaggerated reprefentations of facts as legiflators ought not to be guided by refentment and paflion. He concluded, by expreffing his hope, that the common enemies of the republic would not be able to difunite its friends, and would in vain meditate its ruin. It was, he faid, deeply rooted: it had ripened in the midft of ftorms, and would laft to future generations. The new dangers that threatened it, would serve once more to difplay its ftrength, and the indiffoluble texture of its conftitution.

He clofed this elaborate report, by prefenting the plan of two refolutions: the firft declared that all confpiracies or crimes, against the conftitution, the legislative body, and

the directory, came under the jurifdiction of the criminal tribunal of the place where the legiflature fat: that all perfons accufed, thould be denounced at the office of the public accufer: but that they should have the power of appealing from that tribunal, and, in this cafe, they fhould be carried before a court, pointed out by the tribunal of caffation. The fecond refolution declared every aflembly of foldiers, for the purpofe of deliberating, in other circumftances than thofe determined by the law, a crime. That any communication, under the title of addrefs, from one armed body to another, or to the civil authorities, should be punished as a feditious act.

By the first of these refolutions, the councils intended to guard against any undue affumption of authority in the directory. The plan propofed, by Thibaudeau, appeared fo fair and impartial, by placing all parties on the fame level, that thofe with whom he acted made no doubt but the public would give them credit for its equitableness, and prove the more inclined, on that account, to countenance and fupport them, in cafe of need. They justly fufpected inimical defigns on the part of the directory, and thoughit it, therefore, advisable to fecure the favourable opinion and good-will of the people at large.

But the fecond of those refolutions, however it might be proper in itlelf, was judged, by many of their well-wishers, unfeasonable in the prefent conjuncture. It tended evidently to difpleafe the military, alreadily fufficiently indifpofed. In this refpect, the policy of the directors was better calculated to infure the attachment of the army,

which, in the prefent conteft, would certainly prove the moft powerful of all adherents, and muft finally decide the difpute in favour of thofe whom it befriended.

Nor was it the military alone to whom the directory looked for aid. Thofe formidable bodies of men, that had acted fo effectual and decifive a part throughout the various fcenes of the revolution, ftill fubfifted, and retained all thofe principles that had been fo induftrioufly inftilled into them, by the agents of the republican party, of which they fill continued to form the principal ftrength in the metropolis. Thefe

were the inhabitants of the fuburbs of Paris, confifting chiefly of the laborious tradefpeople, and hardworking claffes of all denominations. As they were determined foes to monarchy, it was with indignation they heard that the legiflative body was fufpected of inclining to its reestablishment; and they refolved to oppofe it with all their might. They prefented an addrefs to the directory, affuring them, that they were ready to ftand by the friends of the republic, as they had always done, whenever it appeared in danger.

CHAP.

CHAP. VI.

Arrogation of national Reprefentatives.--Meffage from the Directory to the two Councils, on this Subject.—And Addrejs on the fame, to the People of France. Forty Refolutions, adapted to the prefent Junelure, propofed by a Committee of public Safety-Adopted by the Council, and paffed into Laws, -Tranfucions of the primary Communes and electoral Affemblies, in fifty Departments, declared illegal. Upwards of fixty Perfons, Members of the Directory and Councils, and others, fentenced to Transportation.-Address from the Council of Five Hundred to the Departments and the Armies.Imputing the most inequitous and atrocious Designs to the Royalifis.—Proclamation by the French Government, annoucing a fecond Expedition against Ireland. Singular Expedition of a Body of French Troops into Wales.-Thefe furrendered themselves, without Refiflance, Prifoners of War to a Force, raifed and headed, on the Emergency, by Lord Cawdor.-The Spanish Island of Trinidad taken by the English,

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ROM the day whereon Thibaudeau made his report to the councils, it was obvious to the public, that ftrong measures were in agitation on both fides. The legiflature was convinced, that the directory and its adherents intended fome deeds of violence. Buonaparte, whofe decifive character was well known, and who was clofely connected with the directory, had provided them with a man to execute their defigns, in whom both he and they could place confidence, ou account of his principles and abilities This was general Augereau, whom he difpatched to Paris, on plausible pretexts, but to the real intent of his being at hand for their purpofes.

Relying on the force they had taken previous care to hold in readi nels, and on the popularity which Augereau was known to poffefs

among the foldiery, as well as the people of Paris, dreading, at the fanie time, to be anticipated by the oppofition, the directors came to a determination to execute, without delay, the plan they had adopted, On the eighteenth of Fructidor, September the fourth, at three o'clock in the morning, an order was figned by Barras, Reubel, and Lareveillere, empowering general Augereau to arreft a specified number of the national reprefentatives. In the mean time, the alarm bells were rung in the different fections, the citizens informed, that a confpi racy was on the point of breaking out, and called upon to ftand by the government, which was in immediate danger from the royalifts. Augereau made ufe of the fame language in addreffing himself to the military guard of the councils, and they immediately placed themselves

under

under his command, in fpite of the remonftrances of Ramel, their prin-. cipal officer, whom they ignominoutly degraded. This proved a decifive blow, as the councils had not entertained any fufpicion they would have been thus deferted, Augereau found no difficulty in ex ecuting the refidue of his commifLon. He entered the affembly, at the head of his men, and arrefted, general Pichegru and Willot, with fixty other members, as guilty of treafon. They were imprifoned in the Temple, the doors of the hall were fhut, and the two councils directed to meet in other feparate places. Carnot and Barthelemi had received timely notice of what was paffing: the former had the good fortune to make his efcape; but the latter, whatever his motive was, remained, and fhared the fame treatment as the reft of his party. Having fo far fucceeded in their plan, the directory immediately difpatched a mellage to the two councils, informing them, that they had been conftrained to act in the manher they had done, in order to fave the country, and maintain the conftitution. It tranfmitted to them, at the fame time, all the documents relating to the prefent tranfaction: affuring them, that had they delayed it one day longer, the republic muft have been overthrown. The halls, wherein the councils met, were, they allerted, the points of re-union for the confpirators. It was from thence, that thefe had, on the preceeding day, iffued cards and certificates, for the delivery of arms to their partifans, and had, in the courfe of the night, carried on a correfpondence with their accomplices: and it was in the neighbourhood of thefe, that their adherents

were endeavouring clandeftinely to affemble. The conduct of the directory, it was afferted, had been dictated by the fiant neceflity of being beforehand with the confpirators. In affairs of fiate, extreme meafures could only be estimated by circumftances, and the councils would, from thofe that were laid before them, form a proper judgement of the motives that had determined the directory to adopt fuch meafures. The eighteenth Fructidor, they faid, would be a celebrated day in the annals of France. It would enable the faithful reprefentatives of the nation to fix, for ever, the deftinies of the republic. After warmly exhorting the councils to improve the prefent occafion, by re-animating the fpirit of patriotifm, they concluded by informing them, that Imbert Colomes, one of the new third of the council of five hundred, was, by authentic documents, to be tranfmitted to them, the principle agent of Lewis, ftyling himfelf the XVIII.

In the mean time, a proclamation had been iffued by the directory, by which, whoever fhould propote the refloration of royalty, the re-cftablifhment of the conflitution of 1793, or to place any of the family of Orleans upon the throne, was inftantly to be fot. Apprehenfive alfo that the partifans of the oppofition, who were numerous in the capital, might attempt to aflemble in force, they provifionally fufpended from their functions the adminiftrations of the department of the Seine, and of the twelve circles into which Paris had been divided, fufpecting many of them to be connected with the oppofition. They ordered, at the fame time, the editors and printers of thirty-two journals, the titles

of

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