much partiality to one fide, ftill the preponderance of number would have refted with the popular choice. But the very reverfe happened. Out of five directors, four were of the ruling faction. These were Reubel, • Latourneur Delamanche, Barras, Syeyes, and Lareveillere Lepaux. Reubel was a man of ftrong, though not fining parts, born in the province of Alfatia, where he exercifed the profeffion of the law, and early diftinguished himself, by pleading the caufe of the lower againft the upper claffes, and braving minifterial power under the old royal government. He had been employed in fome arduous and intricate affairs by the oppofition to the court, and had always conducted himfelf with an inflexible determination never to abandon that party. He now reaped the reward of his attachment to it: no man was more confided in by the republicans. He was one from principle, and his very man ners difplayed an auftere finiplicity that highly recommended him to them. Latourneur Delamanche was originally an officer in the army; his abilities were moderate; but he was of a fteady and refolute difpofition; firmly and decidedly a republican, but averfe to feverity, and an avowed enemy to the violent measures purfued by the jacobins and terrorists. Barras was one of the moft fingular characters that have figured in the revolution. De fcended from a very ancient and noble family in Provence, and heir to the title of viscount, he entered young into the army; like most young noblemen, during the monarchy. Through a series of adventures that rendered him peculiarly remarkable, he rofe into notice, and became at last a decided partifan of

the revolutionifts. His invincibe courage extricated him more than once from very difficult and dangerous fituations. This qualification recommended him to the convention upon three trying occafions: on the 27th of July, 1794, when Robefpierre was overthrown; on the 20th of May, this year, when the infurgents of the fuburb of St. Antoine were fupprefled; and on the 5th of October, when the Parifians were fubdued. His courage and conduct on each of thefe emergercies were greatly ferviceable to the convention, and they now thought it prudent to place a man in the directory, in whofe attachment and intrepidity they could confide, and who, though not poffeffed of fplen did parts, knew how to command attention, and make himself feared, if not refpected. Syeyes is a name better known, perhaps, than that of any man in France, fince the breaking out of the revolution. Bred a clergyman, he made a diftinguifhed figure in that profeffion, and would probably have rifen to the firft ecclefiaftical dignities, had not the church been overturned as well as the ftate. He stood forth an able champion against the feizure of the clergy's revenues. He was, however, more confpicuous by the part he acted in favour of the revolution. From his ideas proceeded the famous declaration of the rights of man, and many other ftrong measures of the conftituent affembly. His opinions on government have always carried much influence; yet he has often been fufpected of indecifion on thefe matters. The dexterity with which he had weathered all the ftorms of the revolution, wherein fo many able men have been wrecked, fubjected him to the fufpicion of

had been elected to a feat in the convention entirely from the excellence of his character; and had acted invariably from principle. During the tyranny of Robefpierre, he was profcribed with the adherents of the Gironde party, to which he remained firmly attached; and his life was perpetually in danger. He would have declined the honour profferred him; and he accepted it merely in compliance with the earneft folicitations of the worthieft men in the minority.

There was a man who did not view thefe individuals fo highly promoted without fecret indignation; and who thought himself greatly neglected by his party, in not feating him in the directory. This was the famous Tallien, who had acted to confpicuous a part ever fince the abolition of monarchy, and had fignalized his courage in effecting the downfal of Robefpierre, at a time when few men had the boldnefs perfonally to encounter him. He was, in fact, at the head of the ruling party; but he had a number of fecret enemies, who did not with to fee him fo much exalted. His abilities and his spirit were unqueftionable, but though he had fo materially contributed to deftroy Robefpierre, he had acted with him, and was fuppofed to have abetted his conduct, till he was compelled to accelerate his deftruction to fave himfelf. He was in high favour with the terrorifts, notwithftanding that he had endeavoured to ingratiate himself with the moderates; but he was always fufpected by them; and be verified their fufpicions by joining with their adverfaries against the unhappy Parifians, on the fifth of October, in fupport of the decree for a re-elec

tion of two-thirds of the conven tion. His ambitious views were rendered manifeft by the part he openly took in favour of that commiffion of five, which was to fupercede the intended conftitution, and and to engrofs the whole government. Of that commiffion he had the addrefs to procure himself to be nominated a member; and he had alfo the audacity to load with invectives perfons of irreproachable character in the convention, and to infinuate, that without fuch a commiffion the country was not fafe. But his behaviour on this occafion had, it feems, exafperated both the parties. When the majority of the convention became, through dint of argument, con vinced of the fcandalous impropriety of that commiffion, Tallien loft at once almost all his influence; and, inftead of a place in the directory, faw himself excluded from the hope of obtaining any poft of importance. To this it may be added, that he was thought to have had a hand in the mallacres of September, 1792, and in thofe of La Vendée. All thefe confiderations operated fo much to his difadvantage, that, though he had been occafionally a ufeful agent to the republic; he had acquired no confidence nor efteem, and was viewed as a man governed by no other principles than thofe of the most iniquitous ambition.

There were others of his party no lefs afpiring than himself; but much the fame objections militated against them. It appeared, in truth, that the ruling party was inclined rather to eftablish its principles, than to inveft its chiefs with much authority. Their perfonal difpofitions were too much dreaded, and too well known, to command implicit

reliance

reliance on the self-denying principles they now fo carefully profeffed. For this reafon it was judged more confiftent with the public peace and fecurity, to fix them in fecondary employments, than to conftitute then the principal perfonages in the republic. Louvet, Legendre, Freron, Cambaceres, to mention no others, were individuals who anf wered exactly this defcription. Full of courage and parts, but no lefs of artifice and tergiverfation, they had on feveral occafions acted undauntedly and faithfully for the fervice of the ftate; but they had alfo exhibited fo much unfteadiness in their principles, and fuch variations in their conduct, that they had forfeited that confidence which can only be fecured by an unqueftionable ftability in both.

The members of the directory were inftalled in their high offices with great pomp. Guards and all the magnificence of royalty were annexed to them; and their appearance in public, and upon days of audience, was in a ftyle of grandeur, nothing differing from that of the fovereigns of Europe. To a great number of people this was very acceptable; it retraced the former fplendor of the monarchy, and encouraged thofe arts that conduce to the elegance of focial life. It alío proved an incentive to thofe ambitious fpirits, whofe chief motive for exerting their abilities is the profpect of rifing to fuch perfonal diftinctions as may point them out to the gaze of the multitude; and the number of these is much more confiderable in France than, apparently, in any other country of Europe. During the regal government, a prodigious proportion of the military had no other reward to

expect for their fervices than external decoration; and fuch was the temper of the French, that the highest value was fet upon them, and they were prefered to more substantial recompence. To preserve such a fpirit, appeared worthy of confideration to those who framed the new conftitution; but there were others who profefled an utter diflike to what they called the relics of royalty: they viewed them as incentives and temptations to restore it, and would willingly have banish ed all formalities from the exercise of government, and have stripped it of every appendage that was not indifpenfably requifite for the tranfaction of bufinefs. These were the rigid republicans, who were ge nerally men of auftere manners, foes to expenfive gayeties, and defirous to reduce both public and private life to the rules of the plainest fimplicity; through their influence, tifles had been abolished, and the forms of focial intercourfe divested of complimentary phrafes; no dif tinctions remained but thofe of pub lic functions, and even to thofe no epithets were added; the official appellation was deemed fufficient, and to covet more was reputed the mark of a vain and frivolous difpo fition. To these men the superb ceremonial that encompaffed the directory was extremely odious, and they laboured all in their power to depreciate it in the estimation of the public. The maxims they had fo zealoufly inculcated came now to their aid; having for years inveighed against the luxurious pomp of courts, they had taught the people to look upon it as the trappings of vanity, purchased at the expenfe of the community. In purfuance of thefe maxims, their pro