emigrants had been suffered to return. The places of their meeting were even pointed out. But why did not the police do its duty: why were those connivances and partialities to some individuals tolerated, the traffic in which was publicly reported? It belonged to the council to require from the directory an account of those abuses. He then adverted to the assassie nations and partial judgments of the tribunals, complained of by the directory. True it was, he acknowledged, that blood had flowed in several departments. But there were laws against assassination, and i:(was the business of the directory to en force them. If partiality had been exercised in the tribunals, the laws were also 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 purchasers of national property, less secured to them, by the constitution, than to all other proprietors and it was the duty of the executive, to watch over the safety of every part of the community. The council, he said, had been informed of journals breathing murder, and the return of royalty. He would not deny that numbers of them were full of faction and sedition. But the legislature was evidently solicitous for the suppression of those licentious proceedings, and a law was in preparation for that purpose. Nor would he deny the deficiciences in the public revenue, and that want of order and economy had thrown the finances into disorder. But had the army any rea ments, Peace alone, he asserted, could extricate France from its embarrassHow criminal, therefore, must those be, who strove to place it at a distance. But the legisla ture had evinced every disposition to accelerate it. Future historians would examine whether transactions in Italy had not contributed to retard it. But could France, in justice, blame its generals,. for giving liberty to millions of men? and when these had been put in possession of their liberty, ought France to refuse them its friendship and alliance? Still, however, he contended, the legislature should not be silent upon these transactions. The directory had certainly exceeded its constitutional powers. If war was to be waged against the Italian states, who, without the assent of the legislative power, had the right of declaring it? Who, without its approbation, could frame treaties of commerce, of subsidies, or of alliance with those states? The governments, established in Italy, must remain unstable, and the liberty of the people would have no fixed support, without the formal concur rence of the legislature. It It had been surmised, he observed, that the directory would be accused, and the legislative body attacked. When just reasons existed for accusations, that body had a right to prefer them, and would do it without hesitation or fear. But who would dare to make an attack en the legislative body? the recollection of what had befallen those who had ventured to do it was a sufficient warning to others. He then exhorted all persons in place and authority, cordially to unite for the preservation of the state. He admonished the directors and the members of the legislature, to be upon their guard against the exaggerations of a party that sought to heighten their animosities, and to involve them in feuds that would inevitably hurry them to a common destruction. Thibaudeau finally observed, that the committee appointed to examine the directorial message had purposely avoided to insist on the bitterness of its style, and its exaggerated representations of facts, as legislators ought not to be guided by resentment and passion. He concluded, by expressing his hope, that the common enemies of the republic would not be able to disunite its friends, and would in vain meditate its ruin. It was, he said, deeply rooted; it had ripened in the midst of storms, and would last to future The new dangers generations. that threatened it, would serve once more to display its strength, and the indissoluble texture of its constitution. He closed this elaborate report, by presenting the plan of two resolu tions: the first declared that all conspiracies or crimes, against the constitution, the legislative body, and the directory, came under the jurisdiction of the criminal tribunal of the place where the legislature sat: that all persons accused, should be denounced at the office of the public accuser: but that they should have the power of appealing from that tribunal, and in this case, they should be carried before a court, pointed out by the tribunal of cassation. The second resolution declared every assembly of soldiers, for the purpose of deliberating, in other circumstances than those determined by the law, a crime. That any communication, under the title of address, from one armed body to another, or to the civil authorities, should be punished as a seditious act. By the first of these resolutions,. the councils intended to guard against any undue assumption of authority in the directory. The plan proposed, by Thibaudeau, appeared so fair and impartial, by placing all parties on the same level, that those 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 support them, in case of need. They justly snspected inimical designs on the part of the directory, and thought it, therefore, advisable to secure the favourable opinion and good-will of the people at large. But the second of those resolutions, however it might be proper in itself, was judged, by many of their well-wishers, unseasonable in the present conjuncture. It tended evidently to displease the military, already sufficiently indisposed. In this respect, the policy of the dis rectors was better calculated to insure the attachment of the army, which, in the present contest, would certainly prove the most powerful of all adherents, and must finally decide the dispute in favour of those whom it befriended. Nor was it the military alone to whom the directory looked for aid. Those formidable bodies of men, that had acted so effectual and decisive a part throughout the various scenes of the revolution, still subsisted, and retained all those principles that had been so industriously instilled into them, by the agents of the republican party, of which they still continued to form the principal strength in the metropolis. These were the inhabitants of the suburbs of Paris, consisting chiefly of the laborious tradespeople, and hardworking classes of all denominations. As they were determined foes to monarchy, it was with indignation they heard that the legislative body was suspected of inclining to its reestablishment; and they resolved to oppose it with all their might. They presented an address to the directory, assuring them, that they were ready to stand by the friends of the republic, as they had always done, whenever it appeared in danger. CHAP. CHAP. VI. Arrestation of national Representatives.- Message from the Directory to the two Councils, on this Subject.-An Address on the same, to the People of France. Forty Resolutions, adapted to the present Juncture, proposed by a Committee of public Safety-Adopted by the Council, and passed into Laws.-Transactions of the primary Communes and electoral Assemblies, in fifty Departments, declared illegal.-Upwards of sixty Persons, Members of the Directory and Councils, and others, sentenced to Transportation. -Address from the Council of Five Hundred to the Departments and the Armies.-Imputing the most iniquitous and atrocious Designs to the Royalists.-Proclamation by the French Government, announcing a second Expedition against Ireland-Singular Expedition of a Body of French Troops into Wales.-These surrendered themselves, without Resistance, Prisoners of War to a Force, raised and headed, on the Emergency, by Lord Cawdor.-The Spanish Island of Trinidad taken by the English. FRO ROM the day whereon Thibaudeau made his report to the councils, it was obvious to the public, that strong measures were in agitation on both sides. The legis lature was convinced, that the directory and its adherents intended some deeds of violence. Buona parte, whose decisive character was well known, and who was closely connected with the directory, had provided them with a man to execute their designs, in whom both he and they could place confidence, on account of his principles and abilities. This was general Augereau, whom he dispatched to Paris, on plausible pretexts, but to the real intent of his being at hand for their purposes. Relying on the force they had taken previous care to hold in readiness, and on the popularity which Augereau was known to possess among the soldiery, as well as the people of Paris, dreading, at the same time, to be anticipated by the opposition, 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 signed by Barras, Reubel, and Lareveillere, empowering general Augereau to arrest a specified num‐ ber of the national representatives. In the mean time, the alarm bells were rung in the different sections, the citizens informed, that a conspiracy was on the point of breaking out, and called upon to stand by the government, which was in immedi ate danger from the royalists. Augereau made use of the same language in addressing himself to the military guard of the councils, and they immediately placed themselves under ander his command, in spite of the remonstrances of Ramel, their principal officer, whom they ignominiously degraded. This proved a decisive blow, as the councils had not entertained any suspicion they would have been thus deserted. Augereau found no difficulty in executing the residue of his commis sion. He entered the assembly, at the head of his men, and arrested general Pichegru and Willot, with sixty other members, as guilty of treason. They were imprisoned in the Temple, the doors of the hall were shut, and the two councils directed to meet in other separate places. Carnot and Barthelemi had received timely notice of what was passing the former had the good fortune to make his escape; but the latter, whatever his motive was, remained, and shared the same treatment as the rest of his party. Having so far succeeded in their plan, the directory immediately dispatched a message to the two councils, informing them, that they had been constrained to act in the manner they had done, in order to save the country, and maintain the constitution. It transmitted to them, at the same time, all the documents relating to the present transaction: assuring them, that had they delayed it one day longer, the republic must have been overthrown. The halls,, wherein the councils met, were, they asserted, the points of re-union for the conspirators. It was from thence, that these had, on the preceding day, issued cards and certificates, for the delivery of arms to their partisans, and had, in the course of the night, carried on a correspondence with their accomplices: and it was in the neighbour hood of these, that their adherents were endeavouring clandestinely to assemble. The conduct of the directory, it was asserted, had been dictated by the instant necessity of being beforehand with the conspirators. In affairs of state, extreme measures could only be estimated by circumstances, and the councils would, from those that were laid before them, form a proper judgement of the motives that had determined the directory to adopt such measures. The eighteenth Fructidor, they said, would be a celebra ted day in the annals of France. It would enable the faithful representatives of the nation to fix, for ever, the destinies of the republic. After warmly exhorting the councils to improve the present occasion, by re-animating the spirit of patriotism, they concluded by informing them, that Imbert Colomes, one of the new third of the council of five hun dred, was, by authentic documents, to be transmitted to them, the prin cipal agent of Lewis, styling himself the XVIII. In the mean time, a proclamation had been issued by the directory, by which, whoever should propose the restoration of royalty, the re-establishment of the constitution of 1793, or to place any of the family of Orleans upon the throne, was instantly to be shot. Apprehensive also that the partisans of the oppo sition, who were numerous in the capital, might attempt to assemble in force, they provisionally suspended from their functions the administrations of the department of the Seine, and of the twelve circles into which Paris had been divided, suspecting many of them to be connected with the opposition. They ordered, at the same time, the editors and printers of thirty-two journals, the titles of |