in a great measure, was due the triumph of the late convention over those who opposed the re-election of twothirds of that body, on the establishment of the present constitution. To oust a man of his character from the directory, would certainly have proved a leading step to the execution of the designs entertained by the opposition: but the only method, whereby to effect such an attempt, was to prove him of years insufficient for so high a promotion, Every kind of exertion was employed for the purpose of ascertaining the reality of this dis qualification: but they all failed, and he remained in the possession of

his seat.

These feuds between the councils and the directory, were viewed with much disapprobation by the moderate part of both. That of the ancients, which had, since its institution, been remarkable for interposing its weight, either in obviating or suppressing differences, acted, on this occasion, with its usual impartiality and discretion. It negatived the motions that had been carried, for abolishing several of the powers hitherto exercised by the directory, and suspended its assent to some decrees that appeared too favourable to the nonjuring clergy. But the die was cast, and all endeavours at reconciliation were lost in the inveteracy, now daily increasing between the contending parties.

There were in the opposition scveral individuals of noted courage. The most conspicuous of these were Pichegru and Willot, who, being both military men, were, conformably to the spirit of their profession, earnest in promoting active measures. To these two were entrusted the charge of new-modelling the

national guard. This numerous body of men had, by the constitution, been placed under the immediate management of the directory, which had the appointment of all the offi cers. The alteration proposed by Pichegru and Willot was, that in each department a select number of reputable persons, elected for that purpose, should make out a list, to which the nomination of officers by the directory should be confined. This scheme was much applauded, as neither depriving that body of the elective privilege, vested in it, nor giving them too much power in its exercise. The proposal, therefore, was readily accepted, and passed, on a motion, in the affirmative,

The directory, on the other hand, acting with the expedition of men conscious of being beforehand with their adversaries, pursued, with equal secrecy and vigour, the mea sures it had adopted against the opposition. The arrival of a body of troops, within seven leagues of Pa ris, was announced in that city, on the twentieth of July, to the great surprize and anxiety of the council of five hundred, who could not mistake the cause of their approach to the capital so much nearer than the laws permitted. Ten years im prisonment was the sentence incurred by the directory, for bringing-a military force within such a distance of any place where the legislature held its meetings. Convinced that such an infraction of the constitution could not have taken place without the orders, either positive or implied, of the directory, the council instantly laid a formal com plaint of it before that body.. But the answer was, that the moment the directors were apprised of it, they ordered the troops to remove

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to a legal distance, attributing their approach to the inadvertence of the commissary at war, or some other mistake.

This answer did not remove the suspicions or fears of the council. It appointed a committee to examine the message of the directory. This committee reported, that no answer had been given to the prinipal part of the council's message, demanding who had given orders for the marching of those troops. On this report, another message was voted to the directory, requiring an explicit answer.

To this requisition, the directory replied by acknowledging, that they had given the order to march, but not the line of marching. It stated the distance from Paris, to the place where the troops had arrived, to be thirteen leagues, instead of seven, as at first asserted.

This reply did not appear satisfactory, Pichegru represented it as evasive. Had the destination of the troops been for Brest, as pretended, their line of march should have been to the north, and not to the south of Paris. The speech of Willot, on this subject, unfolded a variety of alarming particulars. The troops themselves did not scruple, he said, to avow against whom they were marching. It was, by their own confession, against the councils, whom they had been taught to look upon as the enemies of their country, and striving to dissolve its present government. Delahaie, another member of the opposition, spoke no less explicitly, on this occasion. He represented the march of the troops, as the effect of a conspiracy against the legislature, of which the certainty could not be doubled. Troops, he said, were within a day's VOL. XXXIX.

marchi of Paris, and, as it had been surmised, by one in power, a thou sand men were to attack the council of five hundred, as many more that of the ancients, and the patriots would perform the rest.

These transactions took place between the twentieth and the last of July. On the fourth of August, information was brought to the councils, of the various circumstances attending the movements of the troops destined for Paris. They consisted of about twenty-seven thousand men, drawn from the army of the Sambre and Meuse, instead of nine thousand, as had been reported. They were to encamp in the neighbourhood of the capital. Every effort was used to seduce the officers and soldiers, and to enflame them against the legislative body. Numbers of them had resorted clandestinely to Paris, and some hundreds of disorderly people had been provided with arms and ammuni tion, to join them. The armies, in violation of all discipline and subordination to the laws, deliberated and corresponded with each other. They made decrees, and issued proclamations, without any attempt to restrain them by the constituted authorities.

On receiving this intelligence, the council resolved to demand of the directory the documents it had promised, relating to the march of the troops, requiring an answer in three days, and insisting, at the same time, on knowing what measures had been taken to put a stop to the violation of that article of the con stitution, which prohibited the armies from entering into deliberations.

During these critical agitations, the heads of the military had either [F] assumed,

assumed, or been invested with, extraordinary powers. General Hoche, commander-in-chief of the army of the Sambre and Meuse, had issued orders and precepts to the commissioners, appointed to receive the public levies of money in those districts, that shewed the high authority by which he acted. The pay-master of the army had called upon them for the remittance of the sums accruing from taxes: but the general strictly forbad them to obey his requisition; that money being necessary to defray the charges of a numerous body of troops, to be detached from his army on a particular service. This officer, who was a rigid republican, had, from the beginning of the contest between the councils and the directory, been considered by these as a man peculiarly deserving of their confidence in a business, wherein the safety of the present government required the most spirited exertions. He had, in consequence, like the several officers in whom the circumstances of the times had compelled the directory to place high trusts, acted with great latitude of authority in the posts which he occupied, though, to his honour, it was fully acknowledged, that he behaved with the strictest fidelity to his principles and employers.

He had transfused those principles so effectually into the officers and soldiers under his command, that they seemed actuated entirely by his own mind. They presented an address to the directory, which, for matter and manner, was held the completest that had been framed by any division of the army.

In imitation, they said, of the precedents set before them, by the

other divisions of the army, they deemed themselves bound, as fellow-citizens and soldiers, to unite their complaints with those of every Frenchman that valued the liberty of his country, and revered the constitution that protected it. Deeply interested in its preservation, against the insidious measures of its pretended friends, they had come to a determination to express their readiness to march into the heart of the republic, if summoned, by its real friends, to their assistance.

They had patiently endured, they said, a variety of sufferings in the service of their country, in hope of rendering it, by their labours and courage, victorious and triumphant over all its enemies, and of laying a just foundation for a claim to those rewards that had been held out to them. Relying, therefore, on the equity of the patriotic members of both councils, they supplicated them to take their demands into consideration, and requested the directors, as the first magistrates of the republic, to urge the propriety, and the necessity of doing justice to its faithful defenders.

In the mean time, it was with the deepest grief, they beheld the machinations carried on in the bosom of the republic, by men who, though well known to be its enemies, were tamely suffered to assume the character of its friends; and, under that perfidious mask, to labour secretly for its destruction. But did they imagine, that those brave French men who had taken up arms, in the defence of their liberty, and had, in that noble cause, overcome, in the field, the veteran troops of the most powerful depots, and vanquished two-thirds of the military of

Europe,

Europe, would permit them to suc ceed in their treasonable proceed ings?

They had, indeed, advanced a considerable way in the accomplish ment of their designs. They were on the point of subverting the commonwealth, and re-establishing monarchy. To this intent the constitution was reviled, and its assertors vilified throughout the interior, by those swarms of traitors, whose unlawful return to their country was basely and perfidiously connived at, under the pretence of lenity, by those false representatives of the people, who had, through fraudulent practices, obtained seats in the legislature, in order the more securely to betray their constituents.

While peaceable citizens, at home, were thus insulted and terrified, the armies abroad were consigned to neglect, and the want of all necessaries: it being a part of the system pursued, by those treacherous legislators, to let them imperceptibly moulder away. Their pay was withheld, they were denied clothing, and they were compelled, by hunger, to extort the means of existence from the inhabitants of the countries where they were quartered; however disgraceful this might be to their character, as it was certainly highly regugnant to their feelings. Nor were the hospitals attended to. Their sick and wounded brethren were suffered to die for want of due care. Was this the remuneration for their toils and hardships? Could they place any dependance, after such treatment, on the magnificent promises made to the armies, when the period of their labours should arrive? Would the thousand millions, to be set apart for the defenders of the republic, be forth

coming at the restoration of peace, as the legislature had solemnly pledged itself they should, previously to all other considerations? But what inducement had they to expect any such recompense from men who hated the republic, and employed all their thoughts in devising the means to destroy it? Objects, far different from the security of freedom, took up the attention of the councils. That love of liberty, which characterized the former assemblies of the republic, was totally extinguished. The constitution and the rights of the people had lost their importance, and were now succeeded by discussions unworthy the notice of men, whose time ought to be dedicated to subjects of public utility. Instead of attending to the exigencies and pressures of the state, to the exhausted condition of the finances, to the insurrections successively breaking out, to the machinations of foreign agents, endea vouring every where to mislead the public mind, they were busied in matters of superstition. More than twenty sittings of the council of five hundred had been devoted to the hearing of reports on emigrants, on priests, and on bells. Was such bigotry to be endured? Was it in con templation to re-establish the mass, and other religious absurdities, and to impose anew upon ignorance and credulity? Those who inculcated a reverence for such things were known, at the same time, to be the most irreconcileable enemies to civil freedom; yet they had been recalled, by an express decree, and per mitted to preach their pernicious doctrines.

They bitterly complained of the disrespect with which they had been occasionally treated, and of the ab[F 2] horrence