ferious nature. This was an af fembly of thofe members of the legiflature that had lately been of the convention. The defign of this meeting was previously to agree what measure to propofe, and in what manner to carry them rough the two houfes, or councils, as they were denominated. This meeting now became the recopticle of all the difcontented and diappointed members of the legiflative body; and being compofed of the most numerous part of the legislature, occafioned much perplexity to the directory, which, they plainly perceived, was inclined to moderate measures, and more defirous to pleate the public than to gratify any party. The chief agents and conductors of this meeting were exactly those who had governed the late convention. The heads of the moderate party, and the pew-elected third, never appeared in this meeting, which they juftly looked upon as an affemblage of factious men, who met together to concert how to perpetuate the principles of their party, and enforce the practice of them. As the publications daily coming out were not favourable to them, and manifefted a decided predilection for the moderate party and the new third, this meeting came to a refolution to curtail the liberty of the prefs, by means that fhould place it under their own direction. But here a divifion took place in the meeting itselt. This liberty was to clearly the great bulwark of all other liberty, that when the motion to fhackle it was brought forward, not only the moderates and the new third ftrenuoufly oppofed it, but when the votes were collected, a majority of the whole

legiflature was found to concur with them.

This was a matter of no small furprize to the faction, that had hitherto fo conftantly carried every queftion it had thought proper to propofe; but it was a fubject of the highest fatisfaction to the public at large. It fhewed that the fpirit of terrorifmn was evaporating even among its former abettors, and that upon queftions of effential importance, a majority for just and reasonable measures might be expected. What rendered this matter the more remarkable, the reftriction was propofed by two public writers, Chenier and Louvet, both, the first especially, men of abilities. Private rancour, however, against perfons who had taken up the pen in oppofition to them, was well known to have prompted them, and it was chiefly for that reafon their propofal met with a negative.

This precedent, in the mean time, opened an agreeable profpect to the nation. The dread of the terrorifts began to abate, and people flattered themselves, that, between the directory and the moderates, an union of fentiments would be formed, of fufficient weight to counterpoife that odious faction, and to prevent its regaining that afcendancy of which it appeared fo defirous, doubtlefs, in the general opinion, for the very worft purpofes. But the faction itself, looking upon this difcomfi-. ture as of little importance, and affecting only a couple of individuals, for whom they entertained but a final regard, perfifted boldly in its endeavours to domineer over their opponents in the legiflative body, and to fruftrate the

fpirited

to refift their tyranny. Confcious that thefe opponents were viewed by the nation as its only true reprefentatives, and themfelves as intruders, they laboured to afperfe them as falfe to the republican cause, and elected for that reafon by its enemies; but the injurious epithets they bestowed upon the moderate party, being prooflefs, fell to the ground, while the charge of defpotism and ufurpation were retorted upon them with undeniable propriety.

Nor were the moderates deficient in counteracting their enemies by the fame methods that were ufed by thefe to effect their purpofes. The crowds that reforted to the galleries, confifted ufually of thofe claffes remarkable for their ferocity and violence. They were naturally the partizans of the terrorifts, and feldom failed to fupport them by clamours and vociferations levelled at their opposers. The directory, confulting its own dignity, and ftrongly abetted as well as applauded by the moderate party, deprived their antagonists of thefe long-tried and Launch auxiliaries, by reducing the galleries for the admiffion of spectators to a space not containing more than three hundred.

Experience allo foon proved the utility of dividing the legislature into feperate and independent bodies. The upper houfe, or council of elders, confifting of two hundred and fifty members, foon conceived ideas of their importance, that led them to act with a referve and deliberation fuitable to the fuperiority affigned to them. The lower houfe, or council of five hundred, entertained fo juft a fenfe of their difcretion, that at the very outfet, as

not daring to trust them with a fair and reasonable choice of perfons for the directory; and, being determined to have that option themfelves, they contrived, by a remarkable artifice, to confine them to the choice of five out of fix. The method of electing the directory, as preferibed by the conftitution, was that each member of the lower houfe fhould give in the names of fifty perfons; out of the numbes thus named, those fifty who had, on fcrutiny, moft voters, were notified by a written lift to the council of ancients; who, out of these fifty, nominated, by election, the five directors. The majority in the lower house, influenced by their rulers, gave in the names of fix persons whom thefe were defirous to promote, adding to them forty-four other names of perfons fo infignificant and obfcure, that the council of ancients could not ftoop to pay them attention, and were in fact reftrained to the choice of fix; but this artifice, mean as it was, evinced the opinion of the council of five hundred, and that they confidered the council of ancients as too regardful of their own confequence to follow inconfiderately the impulfe of the lower houfe, and to become obfequioufly the paffive inftruments of any party.

This was farther confirmed by the rejection of a decree, paffed in the council of five hundred, by which the parents of emigrants were, during the life of thefe, to divide their property with the nation. The injuftice and inhumanity of this decree ftruck fo forcibly the houfe of elders, that they refused their affent, to the great fatisfaction nct only of the perfons interested,

but

fions of refpect or deference, on account of family or of opulence, than this promifcuous mixture of youth of all deferiptions, fubjected to regulations and treatment common to all, and carefully taught to value nothing in each other, but perfonal worth and talents.

The attention paid by the directory to the public peace and welfare, and the lenity of its conduct upon all occafions, induced the multitudes, who adhered to the ancient forms of religion, to avail themselves of the liberty of opinions, and of worship, eftablished by the new conftitution: they now claimed and enjoyed whatever had been decreed in their favour; and, excepting the ecclefiaftical grandeur of their former ceremonials, nothing was wanting to fatisfy their reasonable expectations; but their zeal for the reftoration of the pontifical authority in France would not permit them to reft contented. The government had even, under the primary constitution and with a monarch at its head, diffolved the connection with the fee of Rome; but the bigotry of its votaries prompted them to form public aflemblies, with the profeffed defign of renewing it. But this proved too audacious an attempt to meet with the leaft countenance from government; the pope was jufily confidered as a decided enemy to the French republic, both in a fpiritual and political light: it had not only caft off all fubmiftion to his authority, in church-matters, but had alfo feized his dominions, and annexed them to France, notwithstanding the undifturbed poffeflion of them by numbers of his predeceffors, during many centuries. To re-eftablish a correfpondence with the court of

Rome, in thefe circumstances, was an attempt to inimical to the republic, that it was immediately pro-. hibited, and the fynods, that had been appointed by the Romif party for the accomplifliment of this purpofe, were frictly forbidden to aflemble. No refentment, however, was fhewn beyond this fimple prohibition; but as religious rancour has the fital tendency to render men irreconciliable, the firmne's exercifed, on this occafion, by the government, raised them numerous enemies, in the fuperftitions multitudes they had offended, by refufing to comply with demands evidently unfeafonable. The liberal minded beheld with grief the obftinancy of thofe unhappy prejudices, that peculiarly diftinguish the Romith perfuafion, and that render it fo inimical to every other sect of Chriftianity.

While thefe great alterations had been taking place in the internal government of France, a variety of tranfactions with foreign powers had happened, conducive to the end which French politics had princi pally in view. This was, to diminifh the number of their foreign enemies, in order to employ additional exertions against thofe that remained. Exclufively of the pacification with the two great powers of Spain and of Pruffia, other amicable treaties had been concluded. Early in the month of February, negotiations had been opened with the grand duke of Tufcany. The fuccelles of the French armies on the borders of Italy, during the preceding campaign, and their apprehended approximation to that prince's territories, had excited fo much alarm; and the naval preparations, making in the ports on the

Mediterranean, were fo contiguous to his own harbours, that, thinking it more advifeable to put himfelf out of danger than to encounter it, without any vifible motive of intereft, he determined to detach himself from the coalition, and to negotiate a peace with France: the terms were readily agreed to on both fides. The French adminiftration was glad of an opportunity to convince their people, that the war, in which they were engaged, was purely defenfive, and that they were ready to put an end to it, by embracing any reafonable offers on the part of their enemies. The grand duke was not a formidable one; but being the firft in the coalition that formally expreffed a defire to treat; to accept of his proffer, which was the only one that had been made, would be the first ftep towards breaking up the confederacy. The articles were few: the duke engaged, on his fide, to relinquish his alliance with the coalefced powers; and the French, on theirs, to a renewal of the peace and good understanding heretofore fubfilling between France and Tufcany; which was to remain on a footing of perfect neutrality.

Not long after the conclufion of this treaty, the miniftry of Sweden, in April following, refolved to delay no longer the recognition of the French republic: the intrigues of Ruffia had hitherto prevented it, but the prudence of the regent dictated the propriety of being on a cordial footing with a fate which, whether under a monarchical or a republican government, would always, from motives of intereft, prove a faithful ally to Sweden. Baron Stael was appointed, by the Swedish court, to VOL. XXXVII.

perform the ceremony of the acknowledgement: the addrefs to the convention, in that monarch's name, was conceived in terms of great friendship; but the enemies to the republic remarked, on this occafion, that Sweden had long before diftinguished itfelf by acknowledging and paying court to ufurpers: it had, in the laft century, paid the fame honour to Oliver Cromwell, the murderer of his fovereign, and the ufurper of his throne. But thefe in vectives fell to the ground, when it was recollected that neither France nor Spain, nor any of the European powers, had dared to act otherwife. This formal acknowledgement by a crowned head, though not of the firft importance, yet of confiderable weight, was highly acceptable to the French, as, together with the recognition on the part of Tufcany, it formed a fpecies of counterpoize to the refufals of other powers to acknowledge the republic; but the chief difficulties of this fort being at length removed, by the two treaties with Pruffia and Spain, other ftates became lefs unwilling to open negotiations. The cantons of Switzerland had been noticed, ever fince the commencement of the revolution, for their averfion to thofe who had effected and fupported it; they had explicitly efpouted the royal caufe, and adhered firmly to it; even after the dethronement of the king, the meeting of the convention, the abolition of the monarchy, and the crection of the republic, all thefe events, that followed each other fo rapidly, had not been able to alter their determinations: they ftill continued inimical to French maxims and politics, though they cautiously ab[K]

ftained