lence alone excepted, was made, by the royal party, in favour of their friends. Nor were the republicans less earnest in opposing their adversaries, in the same manner. Reciprocal accusations of bribery, and every unfair method of carrying elections, were laid to the charge of both parties, and they criminated each other with all the virulence and animosity of men, who were eagerly seeking for means to effect their mutual destruction.

A paper, published about this time, in the name of Lewis, afforded an opportunity to the directory, not only of insisting on the reality of the recent conspiracy, but of bringing home, to the royal party, the charge of making every effort to fill the legislature with their partizans. In this paper, Lewis explicitly acknowledged, that he had agents in France, who were commissioned by him to urge every motive to induce the people to renounce their allegiance to the republican government, which he represented as a state of anarchy and of despotism, and to retore the ancient monarchy, which alone could put an end to the cala mities that had afflicted France ever since it had wanted a king. After making solemn promises to rectify all abuses, and to redress all gricvances, conformably to the wish and will of the nation, he directed his agents to employ themselves particularly in procuring the choice of the public, in the approaching renewal of its representatives, to fall upon bis own adherents. In order to obtain this end, they were to hold out rewards, proportioned to the services performed, to the military of every rank, and to every person in office, whom they could persuade

to embrace their cause, and to come into their measures.

This address of Lewis to the French, which was dated the tenth of March, 1797, was accompanied by the resolute exertions of his party, throughout France. Government was openly attacked, both in speech and writing. Every argument was used to asperse and vi lify its members: every report and anecdote was circulated, that could disparage their character and bring them into contempt. The cause of the emigrants was boldly pleaded, and their conduct justified. The republic itself was represented as unstable and fluctuating, and the probability of its continuance denied.

But a subject of still greater alarm to government, was, that a considerable number of the public functionaries refused to take the oath of hatred to royalty. Though this refusal was grounded on their compliance with this injunction upon their entering into office, yet, their denial to comply with it, at the present juncture, could not fail to subject them to suspicions of enmity to government.

The directory, against which the attacks of opposition were chiefly levelled, resolved, on this emergency, to apply to the legislature, for its aid, in compelling the refractory to submit to a regulation, which all the friends to the republic judged indispensibly requisite to enable government to distinguish between its adherents and opponents. With this view, a message was sent by the directory to the council of five hundred, complaining of the disrespectful and audacious writings published against the constitution

[E 3]

and

and government, as well as of the refusal of persons in office to take the oaths required of them, and requesting, that a law should pass to oblige them to comply with this requisition.

This message was delivered to the council, on the fifteenth of March, and the passing of it was warmly solicited by the friends of the directory, as peculiarly necessary at the present season. The fact was, that in many parts of France, those who had een appointed electors of the members of the two councils, that composed the legislative body, were secretly royalists, and, of course, disinclined to take the oaths administered to them by the republicans, as a test of their fidelity to the present constitution. It was particularly against these, the law now proposed was aimed. But it was strongly opposed by several of the most conspicuous members of the council, who rejected it as unsecessary and injurious to the character of the electors, whose loyalty to their country it represented as doubtful. They were answered, that testimonies of attachment to the state ought always to accompany official appointments, and that no one, who did not harbour sinister designs, would be averse to give so easy a proof of his patriotism. After violent altercations, it was decreed, at last, that every elector, previously to his entering upon his functions, should formally promise attaci ment and fidelity to the republic, and to the constitution of the third year, and pledge himself to defend them to the utmost of his abilities.

The enacting of this decree was considered, by the republican party,

as no little advantage gained over the royalists, who had, for some time, been remarkably successful in encreasing their strength. This, indeed, was evident, by the returns made of new members to the legis➡ lature. Among these was the prince of Conti, and some of the ancient noblesse. Several others were elected, whose principles were remarkably moderate, and by some thought inclining to royalism.

Three persons took their seats as representatives on this occasion, who had each made a conspicuous figure in the republic. The one was Barrere, famous for his many speeches in the convention, during the time of Roberspierre, and for having presided at the trial of the unfortunate Lewis. The others were general Jourdan, the first who turned the tide of fortune in favour of France, in the campaign of 1793, by the victory of Dunkirk; and general Pichegru, no less noted for his successes in Flanders and Holland, the ensuing year. Both the latter were admitted to their seats with every token of approbation and respect, But the former was rejected, as being an out-law, and incapable, as well as unworthy, of having a seat in the representation. In the directory, Latourneur went, by lot, out of office, and was replaced by the celebrated negociator Barthele mi, whose talents and personal character had long rendered him the favourite of the public, which expressed universal satisfaction at his promotion to that dignity.

This partial renovation of the executive and legislative bodies was accompanied with a general expectation, that it would be followed by

material

material changes in the management of public affairs. The power of the directory was, by numbers, deemed too great for the administrators of the concerns of a commonwealth, and a limitation of it was judged necessary, before custom and length of time should give it a right of prescription. The council of five hundred had hitherto acted, in a remarkable degree, by the impulse of the directory. The necessity of preserving union between the different branches of a constitution, newly established, and thereby securing it respect, pointed out the propriety of such a conduct. But the lapse of a considerable space of time, filled up with continual triumphs, having conferred strength, and the prospect of stability, upon the new system, its favourers, as well as criticisers, began to examine its flaws with the more severity, that the sooner these were remedied, the less of difficulty would occur in that necessary business.

Bo the councils now contained a large proportion of members determined to retain as much authority as they might be able to secure to their respective shares. They vigilantly waited an opportunity of enforcing, by actual exertion, their claim to some of those branches of power, that had been solely exercised by the directory, and either acquiesced in, or formally lodged in them by the councils.

The sessions of the new legislature commenced towards the close of May. In the beginning of June, the situation of the French islands, in the West Indies, was brought before the council of five hundred, The recall of Santhonax, the French commissioner, in St, Domingo, was moved, and carried:

but general Jourdan, apprehending that if this measure was not supported by a sufficient force, that commissioner might resist the orders of the legislature, and, sooner than submit, give up the island to the English, proposed, that a competent body of troops should be sent to enforce the decree of the council. This propo❤ sal was approved of, and passed accordingly, to the great mortification of the directory, to whom the settlement of that affair had been committed, by the late council.

The public was not displeased at this assumption of authority, by the council. Profusions of an unsufferable nature were imputed to the managers of the home departments, of which the expences, in the opinion of the committee appointed for their examination, ought to be redu◄ ced from seventeen to little more than six millions. The directory was accused of conniving at these excesses, if not of expressly authorising them to indulge their vanity, and a contemptible fondness for improper magnificence. The various palaces, inhabited by the late king, and the different branches of the royal family, occasioned an expenditure that ill accorded with the pretences of economy, so frequently in the mouth of the supporters of government. A far greater number of surveyors, architects, and workmen, were employed to keep them in order and repair, than were wanted for the purposes to which they were allotted. Several of those manufactories, stiled royal, were still preserved on their former footing, without necessity. The expences arising from the printing of public papers, and the remunerations given to the writers in them, on the side of government, were no less exces[E4]

sive.

equally made by the republicans and the royalists. The former reproached the people in office for affecting a needless pomp in their execution, and for converting to their private emolument, the sums entrusted to their hands for public uses. The latter expressed their indignation, that persons of low degree, and that had risen to power and affluence by the depression and ruin of their superiors, should riot ostentatiously in their spoils, and that after destroying monarchy, as too costly a system, and impoverishing the many for the enriching of the few, they should, in the midst of pretences to frugality, live in sumptuousness and luxury, and rival the state and splendour of kings.

In the council of five hundred, now consisting of numbers highly dissatisfied with the conduct of government, and resolved to expose it to the public, without pal'iation, the severest invectives too piace against the superfluous multitudes of commissaries, andother attendants on the army, and of individuals employed in the official departments. It was surmised that they were maintained as retainers to those who appointed them, whose private interest and service they were thus ford to promote on all occasions. It was also insinuated, that in a matter of the highest importance to the benefit of the revenue, the sale of public lands, frauds and collusions had taken place to the deep detriment of the revenue, notwithstanding the clamorous wants of every branch of the national expenditure.

The committee of finances, in particular, animadverted with great freedom on their administration. Through the neglect and indolence

debts and arrears, they said, had been accumulated to the amount of six hundred millions, a sum exceeding the annual income by thirty millions. The negligence or ignorance of some of the ministers, had been extreme. Provisions had been purchased by one of them, for the use of the navy, at nearly thrice their cost in the common markets, and almost as much had been paid for naval stores.

Various mismanagements of the heaviest nature. in pecuniary and other matters, were, at the same time, laid to the charge of the directory. Whether for the support of the army, or the arrangements preparatory for peace, their demands for money were, it was said, equally exorbitant. For the latter of these objects, they required no less than one hundred millions. Nor was their arrogance inferior to their profusion. They presumptuously demanded copies of the speeches relating to them, that had been made in the councils. What was this but invading the freedom of debate? Their conduct ought, therefore, it was asserted, to be rigorously scrutinized, and no greater authority allowed them than the constitution had decreed. The more effectually to restrain them within their own limits, they should be debarred henceforth from the management of the national finances: and those laws that had empowered them to dispose of the public money, on various occasions and pretences, ought forthwith to be repealed.

These strictures on the directory, and the bold measures proposed in consequenceofthem, proceededfrom Gilbert Desmoulieres, a man deeply conversant in pecuniary calculations,

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and in the revenues and resources of France, and of a disposition not to be intimidated by frowns and me naces, while conscious that he stood upon the strong ground of truth and facts. He was resolutely supported throughout the animated discussions, upon these divers subjects, that took up the attention of the councils, from the commencement of June, to the twentieth. The impression made on the public, by the severe animadversions on the directory, was highly to their discredit. But they were not dismayed by this appearance of hostility to them, and prepared to meet their enemies with weapons not less offensive than those that were employed against them.

Their adversaries, in the mean while, elated with success, determined to follow it up with farther censures of the directorial body. On the twentieth of June, Pastoret, a leading member of the opposition, made a violent attack on their con duct, respecting the United States of North America. These were represented as having displayed an equivocal approbation of the proceedings of the republican party, and to have acted uniformly as the staunch friends to the revolution. It was therefore the highest degree of imprudence in government, to afford them cause of complaint. Nothing short of manifest and avowed en mity, on the part of the Americans, could authorise the harsh measures adopted against them, and enforced by the directory with so much severity. This charge was followed by a motion to inquire into the conduct of the directory upon this occasion. The powers assumed by that body were explicitly termed unconstitutional, and transgressive of the authority lodged in them by the laws.

A charge of a more henious na ture, and involving them in a much more extensive contest, was the privilege they had arrogated, of examining the epistolary correspondence of private individuals, by breaking open letters. This was declared a scandalous violation of liberty, and evidently repugnant to the fundamental principles of the constitution. In this declaration the council was seconded by the voice of the public, over which the assumption of such a privilege held a rod of perpetual terror. It was particularly odious to the French, who, of all people, delight in a frank and unrestrained communication of sentiments upon all subjects, and are prone to give an unbounded loose to that sarcastic humour of wit and gaiety that accompanies their investigation of both public and pri vate affairs.

The disposition to criticise the proceedings of government, that now characterized the two councils, especially that of the juniors, led them to inquire into the mili tary transactions abroad, with more strictness than was thought necessary, even by many of their friends. The victories, obtained by their commanders and armies, were, to the generality of Frenchmen, a sufficient motive for approving the toreign politics of the directory. The glory resulting from these to the na tion silenced all doubts of their propriety.

But there were numbers, both in the councils and the public at large, that did not look upon the success of the French arms, as any reason for approving the measures of those who directed them. Though warlike atchievements might render the French formidable, they would also