exift. The cause of these proceedings on the part of the defenders of the country, is to be attributed to the general alarm and inquietude, which, for fome months past, having taken poffeffion of all perfons, have fucceeded the profound tranquillity that reigned, and the gene. ral confidence that every where prevailed. It is to be attributed to the defalcationin the revenue, which leaves all parts of the administration in the moft deplorable fituation, and deprives often of their pay and their fubfiftence, the men who, for years paft, have fed their blood and facrificed their health to serve the republic. It is to be attributed to the perfecution and affaffination of the purchasers of national property, of the public functionaries, of the defenders of the country; in fhort, of all those who have dared to fhow themselves the friends of the republic. It is to be attributed to the want of firmnefs and vigour in the punishment of criminals, and to the partiality of the public tribunals. It is to be attributed to the infolence of the emigrants and the refractory priests, who, recalled, and openly favoured, appear every where, keep alive the flame of difcord, and infpire a contempt for the laws. It is to be afcribed to the multitude of journals with which the armies, like the interior, are inundated-journals which threaten death to the fupporters of liberty, which vilify all the republican inftitutions, which openly and fhamefully defire the return of royalty, and all the oppreffive and vexatious inftitutions, which equally torment and humiliate the merchant, the artifan, and the labourer, and even the rich proprietor who is untitled. It is to be found in the intereft, always ill-diffembled, and frequently openly manifefted, which the enemies of their country take in the glory and the profperity of the English government and the Auftrian court; while they endeavour, on the contrary, to diminith the true renown of our warriors, and fpeak with an ill-disguised contempt of the high destiny held out to France, and of the eminent de. gree of glory and of happiness which he was about to reach. It is owing to the blame which has been thrown upon the moft glorious and ufeful confequences of the victories of our defenders to the plan, openly declared, of calumniating and ruining the reputation of our republican generals, and particularly thofe who, to the glory of the moft brilliant triumphs and the moft skillful campaigns, have added, the one in the wett of France, the other in Italy, the immortal honour of a political conduct, which will procure to their philofophy and hu manity as much praife as has already been bestowed on their military genius. Finally, the caufe is to be found in the defpair to which all true citizens, and particularly the defenders of their country, are reduced, in feeing, at the moment of its conclufion, and after they had purchased it with fo much blood and fo many fufferings, the definitive peace, folicited by the chiefs of the vanquished coalition, placed at a diftance-that peace which a government, the friend of humanity, feeks ftill with the greateft exactnefs to conclude-But all at once, re-animating their hopes, and reckoning upon the diffolution of the republican government, in conféquence of the exhausted state of our finances, upon the death or the exile of our braveft generals, and on the difperfion and deftruction of our armies, these fame coalefced powers have exhibited as much tardiness tardiness in the progrefs of their negotiations as they at firft teftified ardour to terminate them. Such, citizens reprefentatives, are the caufes which have agitated the minds of the foldiers of the republic, and induced them to exprefs their fears and their refolutions. The executive directory repeats, that they fhall do what they ought to do, in recommending to the troops to avoid all irregular proceedings which are contrary to that difcipline which is the foul of ar mies, and oppofite to the laws which are the fupport of the ftate; but they owe to you, in the mean time, a frank and faithful declara tion of their fentiments. The government still confidently hopes to fave France from the diffolution to which it is precipitately hurriedto extinguish the torches of civil war which are lighted up with fury-and to protect perfons and property from the danger of a new revolution. This refolution the directory will purfue with perfeverance and with courage, and will not be turned afide by any fears, or by any influence. They will not, however, confent to infpire a falfe fecurity, either in their fellow-citizens of the interior, or in those who defend the country without. They fhould confider themfelves guilty of treafon towards their country if they concealed the atrocious attempts that are unremittingly made to lead us into all the horrors of a fecond revolution, by overthrowing the prefent government either by treafon or by force. CARNOT, Prefident. A new committee was appointed to confider of the meffage of the directory. It confifted of feven members, all of the oppofition par tv, viz. Thibadeau, Vaublanc, Simeon, Paftoret, Boiffy d'Anglas, Emery, and Jourdan des bouches de Rhine.-On the 22d of August, the report of the committee was brought up, and as the directory had entered into the detail of the fubjects of general complaint, the reporter, Thibadeau, was alfo copious in his reply. He began by calling the attention of the council to the present ftate of the nation; and contrafted it with the fituation it was lately in when the republic advanced towards peace, when confidence revived, and the conftitution began to be confolidated. To recover thofe defirable advantages, he confidered it as neceffary to encourage good citizens to reprefs the bad, and to let the voice of justice, reafon, and impartiality, be heard from the tribune of the council of five hundred. He next adverted to the late fubjects of alarm, and, while he admitted that the directory had the inconteftable right of changing the minifters, he maintained that of the legiflative body to require information refpecting the violation of the conftitutional limits. The caufe of that violation, faid he, which we fhall not now inquire into, will one day be known. General Richepaufe avows the giving of the order, but denies his knowledge of the law. This excufe would not ferve him before a tribunal; but from what we have heard of his moral character, we believe he had no ill intention. The reporter then proceeded to the addresses of the army of Italy, and contended, that the fentiments of liberty they breathed belonged to the generous defenders of the state; the reft to factious men, defirous of wounding the bofom of their country. He particularly noticed the affertion, that a fyftem of royalifm was puriued in the council. Does the rebel who penned it, faid he, exift?-Does he exist, and are you free?-Is the govern. ment afleep, that it fuffers him to enjoy impunity? The directory inform you, that they have put a stop to these addreffes, and written to the commander in chief, deploring the circumftances that led to the violation of the conftitution.-Your committee consider it their duty to declare openly, that the answer of the directory appears to them unworthy of its power, and the rank in which the constitution has placed them. Thibadeau next pointed out the dangers to be feared from the fpirit of faction which had been introduced into the camps; he called upon the different branches of the government to watch over the fa cred depofit of the conftitution: he did not think it necessary to anfwer the charges brought against the council, but afked who favoured the emigrants? who prevented their punishment? and what was the meaning of those erasements, which, according to public report, were made a trade of? He then adverted to the affaffinations that had been committed, and asked why the laws against affaffins had not been enforced? As to the journals which breathed only murder, and the return of royalty, he faid that a law was preparing to reprefs their audacity. The want of economy, and the neglect of the finances he admitted; and recommended to the legislature to direct its principal attention to that important object. Hiftory, continued he, will examine whether the late events in Italy have not retarded the conclufion of peace; but can France blame her generals for giving li berty to millions of men? And can the refuse those millions her friendship and alliance? But upon thefe events, your committee cannot be filent. The directory has exceeded its powers.-Who had the right of declaring war against the Italian ftates without your confent? Who could make treaties of commerce and fubfidy without your approbation? After declaring that the legifla tive body could not fear the attack of a few brigands, and exhorting the different members of govern ment to concord and unanimity, the reporter added the following words: "In examining this meffage of the directory, its exaggerations, and the bitterness of its ftyle, we have avoided giving new aliment to the factious. Legiflators ought not to be guided by paflion. In vain our common enemies meditate the ruin of the republic. It is deeply rooted; it has ripened in the midst of ftorms, and it belongs not alone to the prefent generation. The new dangers which threaten it, ferve only to difplay its strength once more. Each power fhall return to its proper limits; and if some men have wifhed to overstep them, they fhall be recalled, and confined to their proper station. Thibadeau concluded by prefenting the plan of two refolutions. The first 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 fits; that all perfons accufed thould be denounced at the office of the 1 public accufer: but that they fhould 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 declared every affemblage of foldiers, for the purpose of deliberating in other circumflances than thofe determined by the law, a crime; that any communication under the title of addreffes from one armed body to another, or to the civil authorities, fhould be punished as a feditious act; and determined the punishments to be inflicted upon the promoters of fuch affemblies, and the subscribers of addreffes, according to the nature of the cafe. Though the directory appeared in all these instances to act in concert, and though the meffage came under the fignature of Carnot, yet it was weil understood that the directory were divided among themfelves. Reubel and Barras were decided in their oppofition to the council of five hundred-Carnotand Barthelemi (who probably conceived that in a contest between the iegitlative and executive powers, the former muft in the end carry the greatest weight with the people) were fecretly attached to the majority of the councils. La Reveillere, it is faid, wavered for fome time, but at length was gained completely over by his old colleagues Reubel and Barras. From this time the majo. rity of the directory appear to have afted without the concurrence of their colleagues; and they adopted measures that were full of energy and boldness, though affuredly contrary to justice and the conftitution. Augereau, a bold and active officer, had been fent from Italy by Buonaparte, under the pretext of conveying a meffage and fome ftands of colours to the directory; Several foldiers from the army of Italy, and that of the Sambre and Meufe, had alfo, it is faid, been introduced into Paris in difguife. Be this as it may, the force of the di rectory, we have good authority for faying, was but fmall; but it was well organifed, and the execution of their measures was confided to Augereau. The oppofition party were not without their preparations, but their meafures were tardy, and purfued with lefs energy than those of their opponents. At the mo ment when they were furprised by the foldiers of the directory, they were fitting in council, and debating on the steps that were to be taken for their own defence, and to crush their adverfaries. Thus at all events the conftitution was to be violated, but the most dangerous violation is when it proceeds from the executive power. On An addrefs from the Fauxbourg St. Antoine, which, during the courfe of the French revolution, has been remarkable for leading the way in all infurrectionary movements, confirmed the direc tory in the bold and violent meafure it was about to adopt. the morning of the 4th of September, therefore, at the early hour of 3 o'clock, the majority of the directory (for they no longer acted in concert) ordered the alarm guns to be fired, and the halls of the councils to be furrounded by a military force. General Augereau was charged with the execution of this daring measure. He repaired to their barracks, and addreffed the guard of the legislative body; he affured them that he came only to preferve the conftitution, and to fave the republic from a confpiracy of royalists. He was answered by the foldiers with fhouts of Vive la republique! they affured him, that he had only to command, and they were ready to obey; and inftantly degraded their former commandant Ramel from his office, by tearing off his epaulets. Thus re-inforced by the very men from whom refiftance was expected, Augereau entered the hall; where he found Rovere, Pichegru, Willot, Bourdon d Loife, and feveral others: he seifed Pichegru (as we have been informed) with his own hands, and ordered about eighteen others of the most confpicuous characters in the affembly to be arrested, among whom were Bourdon de L'Oife, general Willot, Boily d'Anglas, and Dumolard. The confpirators (as they were called) were committed to the Temple; the halls were shut up, and the members of both councils were fummoned to meet, the ancients at the School of Surgery, and the council of five hundred at the Odeon, formerly the theatre in the Fauxbourg St. Germain. The minority of the directory were implicated in the fate of their friends in the councils. Carnot took advantage of the tumult, and fled; Barthelemi calmly awaited the ftorm, and was put under arrest. The directory announced their victory to the public by a proclamation, in which they exhorted the citizens to peace and harmony; promifed that perfons and proper ty fhould be protected; and that every act of plunder or outrage fhould meet with exemplary punishinent. The proclamation was prefaced by a juftification of the events of the day. Royalty (fay they) has just threatened the conftitution by a new attack. After having, for a whole year, thaken by their dark mancuvres all the foundations of the republic, they thought that they were fufficiently powerful to confummate its deftruftion. They thought themfelves fufficiently protected to venture to aim its first attacks a. gainft the fupreme depofitaries of the executive authority. Arms were daily distributed to the confpirators; and all Paris knows, that one of the distributors was arrested with a great number of bonds, upon which he had already delivered a great number of firelocks. Cards ftamped legislative body, and marked with an R, were circulated, in order to ferve as rallying figns to the confpirators, charged with the office of maffacring the directory, and the deputies faithful to the caufe of the people. A great number of emigrants, affaffins of Lyons, and brigands of la Vendée, attracted hither by the intrigues of royalifm, and the tender intereft publicly lavished upon them, without fear attacked the pofts which furrounded the executive directory; but the vigilance of the government, and the chiefs of the armed force, fruftrated their criminal efforts. The executive directory is about to lay before the nation the authentic documents which it has collected concerning the manœuvres of the royalists. You will fhudder with horror, citizens, at the plots entered into against the fafety of every one of you, against your property, against your deareft rights, against your most facred poffeffions; and you may calculate the extent of the calamities from which in future you can alone be preferved by the maintenance of the conftitation, So many triumphs had already crowned the establishment of this conftitution; your generals, and your intrepid defenders, had fur, rounded it with their immortal trophies. At the fame of their vic tories, agriculture and commerce refumed |