1 refumed their activity; public credit, by degrees, recovered; confidence and fecurity began to fpring up in every heart; and this is the moment which has been chofen to rekindle your animofities, to propagate fuperftition, to re-organife the power of fanaticifm, to fow doubts and alarms in every breaft by opening new avenues for the return of the emigrants, to hake the guarantee of public contracts, to give the fignal of civil war, and to retard, by the hopes with which foreign nations were inspired, the so much withed conclufion of peace with our external foes, honourable and folid, worthy of the triumph of the French people and of their generofity. No, you will not lofe the fruits of your long facrifices; you will rife indignantly againft thofe bafe emigrants, the authors of all our calamities, of all our agitations, of all our fufferings. You will arm yourselves to stop their defigns, and to defend against their attacks your perfons, your property, and your rights. But beware of agitations. Do not difgrace the most glorious of caufes by the exceffes of an anarchy juftly abhorred, Refpect property. Let not an illdirected patriotic impulfe throw you into a fatal confufion. Obey no voice but that of the avowed chiefs appointed by the government. Rely upon the vigilance of your magiftrates, and upon the exertions of your legiflators, who have remained faithful to the cause of the people. Patriotifm will refume all its energy, the constitution all its force, the nation all its glory, and every citizen will enjoy in their fullest extent, liberty, happiness, and tranquillity." On the affembling of the council of five hundred, a meflage was difpatched to the directory, requiring them to inform the council of the reafons for fhutting up the hall where the council ufually affembled; a committee of five was appointed to confider of the meafures neceflary for the public fecurity; and the council declared its fitting permanent. In the council of ancients a fimilar proceeding was adopted. The following is the meffage of the directory to the council of an cients, and is dated on the day in which the event took place. Citizens reprefentatives, The executive directory haftens to communicate to you the meafures it has been forced to take, for the fafety of the country, and the maintenance of the conftitution. With this view, it tranfmits to you all the papers it has collected, as well as thofe it published before you were affembled. If it had withheld itself from action one day more, the republic would have been delivered up to its enemies. The halls themfelves in which you meet were the points of union of the confpirators; it was from thence that they yesterday emitted their cards and certificates for the delivery of arms; it was from thence that they correfponded with their accomplices laft night: and, finally, it is there, or in the environs, that they ftill endeavour to make fe ditious and clandeftine affemblages, which the police is now employed in difperfing. It would have been to cominit the public fecurity, and that of the faithful reprefentatives, to have allowed them to be confounded with the other enemies of the country. You fee, citizens reprefentatives, that the conduct of the directory was marked out by the inftant neceffity of being be forehand with thefe confpirators, who who were deftroying the government, who wished to deprive the French of the fruit of their triumphs, and to make this magnanimous nation bow at the feet of the kings it has fubdued. In affairs of ftate, extreme measures can be eftimated by circumftances alone: you will form a judgment of thofe which have determined the executive directory, and which have produced the happiest confequences. The 18th Fructidor (September 4) wilf be a celebrated day in the annals of France; it is the more memorable, because it enables you to fix for ever the deftinies of the repub. lic. Lay hold of this occafion, citizens reprefentatives; convert it into a great epoch; re-animate patriotifm; revive public fpirit; and haften to close up the abyfs in which the friends of kings had flattered themselves they would bury even the remembrance of our liberty. P. S. The executive directory will tranfmit to you without delay other papers, from which it refults that Imbert Colomes, one of the new third of the council of five hundred, was the principal agent of the foi-difant Louis XVIII. at Lyons. The meffage to the council of five hundred was eviden ly intended as a preface to certain motions which were to be made in the council, and to certain meafures to be adopted against the confpira tors. Citizens reprefentatives, "The 18th Fructidor (Sept. 4) is deftined to be the falvation both of the republic and of yourselves. The people expect this. You witneffed yesterday their tranquillity and their joy. This day is the 19th Fructidor (Sept. 5), and the people afk of you where the repub1797. lic is, and what you have done for its confolidation? The eye of the country, citizens reprefentatives, looks towards you. The moment is decifive; if you allow it to pass by, if you hefitate on the measures which are to be taken, if you put off your decifion for a moment, all will be loft, both you and the republic. The confpirators have been upon the watch. Your filence has given them courage and audacity; they are intriguing afresh, and are misleading public opinion by infamous libels. The journalifts of Blackenbourg and London continue to diffeminate their poifon. The confpirators do not attempt to conceal the fact, that their plot extends to the legiflative body itfelf. They already fpeak of punifhing the republicans for the commencement of the triumph they think they have obtained. Is it poffible to hefitate ftill as to the mcafure of purging the foil of the very few known and avowed chiefs of thefe royalift confpirators, who wait for the convenient opportunity to deftroy the republic, and to devour you yourfelves? You are at the brink of the volcano; it is about to fwallow you up; you may clofe it; and can you hefitate? To-morrow it will be too late. The leaft hesitation is the death of the republic. You will be told of principles, formalities will be reforted to, excufes will be invented: delays will be called for, time will be gained, and the conftitution will be affinated, under pretext of keeping within its limits. This commiferation, implored in favour of certain men, to what will it lead you! to see these very men take out of your hands the thread of their criminal confpiracies, and collect in your bofom the horrible firebrands of civil war, to fet fire to T the 290 the country. What a mifcon- if you wait an inftant, the fafety of France must be despaired of; the conftitution will ceafe to be in force; and the patriots may be told, that the hour of royalty is proclaimed throughout the republic. But if, as the executive directory is fully perfuaded, this terrible idea afflicts and ftrikes you, appreciate the value of the moment and embrace it ; be the deliverers of your country, and lay the eternal foundations of its happinefs and glory. L. M. Revelliere- ing the fituation in which the re- The council of five hundred, con- pointed pointed for its defence, and against whom it had taken no precaution, it would be impoffible to maintain it without recurring to extraordinary meafures-Confidering, in a word, that in order to extinguifh the exifting confpiracy, to prevent a civil war, and the general effufion of blood, which would have been the inevitable confequence of it, nothing can be more urgent than to repair the wounds inflicted on the conftitution fince the ift Prairial laft, and to take the neceffary measures to prevent the liberty, the repofe, and happinefs of the people, from being in future expofed to danger The council, after declaring urgency, adopts the following refolutions : The adminiftrators, judges, grand jury, &c. appointed by this affembly, fhall enter upon the exercife of their respective functions. III. The elections for the department of Lot are in the fame manner judged valid, contrary to a former decifion, and the citizens chofen; Lachiere, for the elders, and Poncet and Debrel, for the five hundred, fhall take their feats. IV. The individuals appointed to public functions by the primary, communal, or electoral affemblies, without exception of thofe appoint ed to the legislative body, by the departments above mentioned, fhall, on the publication of this law, ceafe to exercife all their functions, under the penalties contained in the 6th article of the 5th title of the penal code. V. The executive directory is required to fill up the vacancies in the tribunals in virtue of the preceding articles, as well as those which fhall become vacant by refignation or otherwife, before the election in the month of Germinal, 6th year. I. The operations of the primary, communal, and electoral affemblies in the departments of Ain, l'Ardoche, l'Arriege, l'Aube, l'Aveynon, Bouches du Rhone, Calvados, Charante, Cher, Cote d'Or, Cotes du Nord, Dordogne, l'Eure, PEure and Loire, Gironde, Heraulte, Illie and Villane, Indre and VI. The nominations made by Loire, Loire, Haute Loire, Loire the directory, in virtue of the preInterieure, Loiret, Manche, Marne, ceding article, fhall, in every reMayenne, Mont-Blanc, Morbihan, fpect, have the fame effect, and the Mozelle, les Deux-Nethes, Nord, fame duration, as if they had been Oife, Orne, Pas de Calais, Puy-de-made by the primary and electoral dome, Lower Rhine, Upper Rhine, affemblies. Rhone, Haute Saore, Saone and Loire, Sarthe, Seine, Lower Seine, Seine and Marne, Seine and Oife, Somme, Tarn, Var, Vauclufe, Yonne, are declared nuil and illegal. II. Thofe of the electoral aflembly of the department of Gers are delared legal and valid. In confequence, citizen Dufuan is admitted into the council of elders; and citizens Carriere, Lacarriere, and Sauran, into the council of five hundred. VII. The law of the 1ft Prairial laft, which, in contravention of the 78th article of the conftitutional act, admits into the legiflative body, the citizens Job Ayme, Merfan, Terrand Vaillant, Garr, and Poliffart, is repealed. VIII. The first article of the law of 8th Meflidor laft, bearing in contempt of the fame article of the conftitutional act, the recal of the ft, d, 3d, 4th, 5th, and 6th articles of the law of 3d Brumaire, T 2 4th 4th year, relative to the relations of emigrants, is likewife repealed. IX. The ift, 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, and 6th articles of the, faid law of the 3d Brumaire, 4th year, are reeftablifhed, and fhall remain in vigour till four years fubfequent to the proclamation of a general peace. X. No perfon, the relation or connection of an emigrant, within the degrees prefcribed by the fecond article of the faid law, fhall be admitted for the fame fpace to vote in the primary affemblies, and cannot be appointed elector if he is not comprehended in one of the exceptions fpecified by the 4th article of the fame law. XI. No man can be admitted to vote in the primary and electoral affemblies, till he has previously taken, in prefence of the affembly of which he is member, and depofited in the hands of the prefident, the individual oath of hatred to royalty and to anarchy, of fidelity and attachment to the republic and conftitution of the 3d year. XII. The 2d article of the law of the 9th Meffiador laft is repealed, in fo far as it concerns the chiefs of the rebels of La Vendée, and the Chouans, to whom of confequence no provifion of the article of the prefent law remains common. Thofe are deemed chiefs of the rebels of La Vendée, and of the Chouans, who are pointed out as fuch by the law of the 5th July, 1792. XIII. The individuals after named, viz. Aubry, Job Ayme, Bayard, Blain, of the mouths of the Rhone; Boiffy d'Angles, Borne, Bourdon of Oife, Cadroi, Concherry, Delahaye of the Lower Seine, Delarue, Doumere, Dumolard, Deplantier, Duprat, Gilbert Defmo lieres, Henry Lariviere, Imbert Colomes, Camille Jordan, Jourdan of the mouths of the Rhone, Gau Lacarriere, Le Marchand Gomme. court, Lemerer, Merzan, Madier, Millard, Noailles, Andre of La Lozere, Mac Curtain, Pavie, Pastoret, Pichegru, Poliffart, Praire, Montaud, Quatremere of Quincy, Saladin, Simeon, Vauvilliers, Vienot, Vaublanc, Villaret Joyeufe, Willot, all members of the council of five hundred; Barbe Varbois, Domans, Dumas, Ferrant Vaillant, Laffont, Ladebut, Lamaut, Muraire, Murinais, Paralis, Portalis, Rovere, Tronçon Ducoudray, all members of the council of elders; Carnot, Barthelemi, directors; Brotier, exabbé; Laville-heurnois, ex-magiftrate; Duveme-de-Prefte, called Dunan; Cochon, ex-minister of police; Doffonville, ex-clerk in the police; Miranda, Morgan, ex-generals; Suard, journals, Mailhe, ex-conventional: Ramel, commandant of the guard of the legislative body, fhall, without delay, be tranfported to the place which the directory fhall determine. Their property fhall be fequeftrated after the publication of the present law; and they fhall not be allowed to interfere with it till after an authentic return of their arrival at the place of their tranfportation. XIV. The executive directory is authorised to procure for them provifionally out of their effects the means of fupplying their most urgént wants. XV. All the individuals inscribed upon the lift of emigrants, and not definitively erafed, thall be obliged to quit the territory of the republic, that is to fay, from Paris, and every other commune, of which the population is twenty thousand inhabitants, and upwards, in 24 hours after |