side a rancour against the royalists, and a thirst of revenge that induced them to pry into all their actions, with a suspicion that fell upon the most innocent, and that sought for plots and machinations against the established order of things, in the commonest intercourse between those individuals, who were either known or suspected to incline to what was termed royalism.

This being the relative situation of the partizans of the commonwealth and the monarchy, it was natural that they should hold each other in abhorrence. Those of the republican party, who favoured moderate measures, and who, though true to their own side, were disposed to treat their antagonists with lenity, incurred, on many occasions, the imputation of being unsteady in their principles: and yet, the only cha: ge that could be brought against them was, that of endeavouring to mitigate the spirit of enmity that prompted men to unnecessary acts of severity, and to persuade them to rest contented with those precautions that deprived their adversaries of the means of executing their inimical intentions, without punishing them merely for entertaining sentiments contrary to their

own.

The nation was deeply involved in this conflict of repugnant ideas and interests, when new jealousies and apprehensions arose, to add fresh fuel to the flame of reciprocal animosity. On the twelfth of Pluviose, (January the thirty-first, 1797) the directory informed the council of five hundred, that a conspiracy had been carried on against the republic, by the emissaries of the late king's brother, styling himself king of France, and that four

of the principal conspirators had been arrested.

According to the report of the minister of police, there had been for a considerable time, persons in Paris, commissioned by that prince, to correspond with his partizans in all the departments, and to organize the plan of an insurrection. After preparing their own people, they next ventured to make application to some officers in the republican army, in hope of bringing them over to their party. Ramel, commander of the guards, attending the directory, was tampered with, as was also Malo, the commanding officer of a regiment of dragoons. They both feigned an approbation of the proposals made to them; but informed the minister of the police of the business in agitation. A place was appointed where he might over-hear the discourse between these officers and the royal commissioners. Thither he repaired, and they disclosed, in his hearing, the whole plan of the conspiracy, producing, at the same time, their powers, and the papers relating to it. They were immediately seized, by his orders. Their names were Duverne, Duprale, known also by the name of Dunant, and who acknowledged upon examination, that he had assumed several others; Laville Harnois, formerly belonging to the court of the late king; Brothier, who appeared, by papers found upon him, to be in the confidence of Lewis XVIII.; and a person called baron Poly. They were accused of having endeavoured to seduce the above-mentioned officers into a conspiracy against the republic, in which they were to be assisted by England. Had their design succeeded, and a counter revo

(E 21

lution

lution been effected in favour of Lewis, deeds of a most atrocious nature were to have ensued. That prince was, at his restoration, to have assumed the mask of clemency, and to have issued an act of oblivion; but this was to have been declared null and void by the parliament, after his power had been firmly settled, and the ancient courts of judicature re-established: other acts of perfidy were to have accompanied this one. The leading members of the present legislature were to have been taken into favour, and promoted: but condemned to punishment on the first opportunity, Other frauds and barbarities were mentioned, such as exposing La Fayette in an iron cage, and sentencing to the gallies the inferior actors in the revolution. If the strength of the royalists proved insufficient for their purposes, the jacobins and terrorists were to have been resorted to for aid, on plausible pretexts. Such were the principal charges against the four persons arrested. As their answers did not invalidate them, they were ordered, by the directory, to be tried before a military tribunal, as falling under the accusation of having levied forces to be employed against the

relating to France. He detailed, in the minutest manner, the multiplicity of intrigues carried on, at home and abroad, against the republic, specifying facts and persons with the most circumstantial accuracy. His object, by making these discoveries, was, he said, to frustrate the attempts of the enemies to the commonwealth, and to enable it the more readily to crush them, by being forewarned in time. The part that England acted in these transactions was very particularly described. According to his report, the British ministry was at the bottom of every design meditated against France, and spared no expence to forward their execution. Nothing, in short, was omitted, on the part of this ancient rival, to overturn its present, and to restore its former government. But notwithstanding the utility, which the royal cause expected to derive from England, the king, he said, meaning Lewis XVIII. and his council, had always been of opinion, that the services of England were perfidious, and tending to no other end than the ruin of France. This declaration made much noise at the time, and gave occasion to a variety of speculations.

The detection of this conspiracy coinciding with the period immedi ately preceding the annual change of one-third of the legislature, awakened the suspicions of governnient, and induced them to imagine that their opponents would exercise all their influence throughout the nation, to render the ensuing election of members, to replace those that vacated theirseats, unfavourable to the views of the present rulers. Herein they were not deceived. Every species of opposition, vio

lence

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 bring ing home, to the royal party, the charge of making every effort to fill the legislature with their partizans. In this paper, Lewis explicitly acknow edged, that he had agents in France, who were commissioned by hin. 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 grievances, conforinably 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 his 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 ethice, 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 vilify 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 justi fied. 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 [E3]

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 been 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 unuecessary 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 attachment 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. Bnt the former was rejected, as be ing an out-law, and incapable, as well as unworthy, of having a seat in the representation. In the di rectory, Latourneur went, by lot, out of office, and was replaced by the celebrated negociator Larthelemi, 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.

Both 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 proposal 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, siled 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.