Under this fpecious pretence of lenity, therefore, he propofed the plan of a decree; according to which, ift. A great number of the late elections in the month of Floreal, with others to the judicial tribunals, were declared either valid or invalid, as fuited the purpose of the Directory. 2dly. About fixty members of the two councils, and twelve other persons, had, without any trial or even examination, the fentence of deportation passed upon them, to such place as the Directory fhould determine. Amongst these were the two directors, Carnot and Barthélemi; the ex-minifter Cochon; the generals Pichegru, Willot, Ramel, and Miranda; with Boiffy d'Anglas, Bourdon de l'Oife, Dumolard, Paftoret, Vaublanc, and many other perfons of eminence, whose attachment to the cause of liberty and the republic there appeared no just ground to doubt. 3dly. All individuals whose names are inscribed upon the list of emigrants, and not definitively erased, shall quit the territories of the republic in fifteen days. 4th. Every fociety profefling principles hoftile to the conftitution of the third year fhall be fhut up.---All which paffed both councils with the greatest unanimity.

On the 20th Fructidor, general Jourdan, who had made in good time his peace with the Directory, moved for the nomination of proper persons to fucceed the directors Carnot and Barthélemi. Out of the feveral lifts prefented to them, the council of elders chofe François de Neufchâteau, and Merlin, minifter of the home department. Thus was the authority of the Directory established at the expense only of law, juftice, equity, and the conftitution; and there s reafon to believe that they regarded the victory as cheaply gained.

After a fhort interval the directors laid before the councils and the public the justificatory proofs, fuch as they were, of the confpiracy; which they claimed the merit of extinguishing by their patriotic vigilance, when on the eve of a most horrible explofion. The documents in question

have been branded as forgeries of the Directory; but if they scrupled not to forge, they would certainly have invented what was more to their purpose. By far the most remarkable of these was a paper, the genuinenefs of which was attefted by the generals Buonaparte and Berthier, purporting to be minutes of a converfation held by M. d'Entragues, an agent of Louis XVIII. at Venice, with the count Montgaillard, an emigrant of diftinction, relative to the designs, at all times carrying on with more or lefs activity, for the effecting a counter-revolution. In this paper it is afferted, that Montgaillard finding Pichegru difpofed to liften to propofitions, the count, in the name of Louis XVHI. and the prince of Condé, offered him the rank of mareschal of France, the red ribband, the government of Alface, &c. &c.; requiring of him, in return, to join his army to that of the prince of Condé, and, delivering up the fortress of Huningue, to march forthwith to Paris. With this propofal Pichegru refufed to comply, ftating, "that unwilling to make the third volume to La Fayette and Dumouriez, he would do nothing rafhly."--He affirmed, nevertheless, "that his means were great and fure; that they had their roots not only in his army, but at Paris, in the convention, in the departments, in the armies of the generals his colleagues, who thought, like himself, that the prefent fyftem muft finish; that France could not exist as a republic; that there must be a king; and that king Louis XVIII." The plan which he propofed, after putting the ftrong places on the frontier in the hands of his most confidential officers, was, on a day concerted," to proclaim the king, to hoift the white ftandard, and to unite his army with those of Wurmfter and Condé; and then to commence his march to Paris." This propofal was declined by the prince of Condé, probably because general Wurmfer had no authority thus to rifk his army; but, according to the author of the Minutes, because the prince, equally ftupid and proud, thought him

felf

felf fure of effecting the counter-revolution another way, and would not share the glory of it with the Auftrian general.

Many other papers were produced, which had been tranfmitted by general Moreau to the Directory, containing ftrong corroborative evidence, that a plot of a very extensive nature was going forward, in which many perfons of great eminence were involved, and general Pichegru very deeply and it was now apparent why that celebrated officer was removed from his command, in the height of his fucceffes. The cloud of mystery, nevertheless, which originally hung over this whole tranfaction, time has not difpelled :---The object of the Directory was to confound, and not to discriminate; and, under the pretext and cover of an horrible plot, partly real, partly pretended, fupported by proofs not adequate to the legal crimination perhaps of any individual, but sufficient to agitate and terrify the public mind, to implicate all their enemies, Jacobins, royalists, and patriots, in one common ruin. Thus were the two councils purged of difaffection and difloyalty; and, being now at leisure to confider farther the nature and extent of the danger so recently and happily furmounted, they declared " that one of the measures of the late confpirators was to deprive the executive power of the moral and conftitutional means of carrying on its functions; to arraign every part of its conduct, and, by degrees, deprive it of each of its prerogatives, and thus bring it to its diffolution." To guard against the return of a peril fo dreadful-exclufive of various other legislative regulations, by one of which the operations of the primary affemblies in no less than forty-nine departments were declared null and void-they fubjected the care of the liberty of the prefs, for the term of one year, to the inspection of the police; and the liberty of fpeech in the council was confined to the privilege, ftill generoufly left them, of applauding the wifdom and activity of the executive government.

In the beginning of the month of June, lord Grenville had made, on the part of the king of Great Britain, a third effort to effect a pacification with France, by a direct application to M. de la Croix, declaring himself authorized to propofe, without delay, to enter, in fuch manner as fhall be judged most expedient, upon the difcuffion of the views and pretenfions of each party. A polite answer was immediately returned by M. de la Croix, expreffing the extreme fatisfaction with which the Directory would receive the overtures which should be made to it by the court of England; and Lifle was fixed upon as the place of meeting. On the 17th of June lord Grenville, in a well-written letter, ftated, "that the powers of the ambassador would be fo full as to include every cafe, and to conclude any articles or treaties conducive to the fpeedy establishment of peace, which," said his lordship, "is the fole object of his miffion-and informing the Directory that his majesty had made choice of the fame minister to represent him on this as on the former occafion."-M. de la Croix, in reply, fignified the confent of the Directory, that the negotiation fhould be opened with lord Malmesbury. Another choice would, however," said he, "have appeared to the Directory to augur more favorably for the fpeedy conclufion of peace." This was an early Atep towards the creating of a misunderstanding. That the Directory had reason to except against the re-appointment of lord Malmefbury, from the difingenuous manner in which he had executed his former commiflion, must be allowed; that the fecond nomination of a man fo politically obnoxious was highly impolitic, cannot be doubted; but no objection having been made by M. de la Croix, in his first letter to that nobleman, it would furely have argued more wisdom and temper in the French government to have waved this invidious obfervation altogether. Lord Grenville, in his accustomed cold, haughty, and repulfive manner, from which he had in his last dispatch happily deviated, replied

to

to M. de la Croix, " that lord Malmesbury will, without delay, proceed to Lifle, to enter into a negotiation with the French plenipotentiaries for the completion of a definitive treaty-the remark of the Directory, upon the choice which his majefty had thought fit to make of his plenipotentiary, being certainly of a nature not to require any anfwer."*

On the part of the Directory were nominated, as plenipotentiaries, the citizens Le Tourneur, late member of the Directorial Council, Pleville, and Maret, men of fenfe, moderation, and fagacity. The firft difpatch of lord Malmesbury to lord Grenville is dated July the 11th, in which he mentions" that he had, in a conference with the French commiffioners, on the 8th, given. in the projet precisely as he had received it from his lordship. This the commiffioners had tranfmitted to the Directory. But in the mean time, and till their answer arrived, M. le Tour

neur

"On the 30th of December, 1796," says the admirable writer so often quoted in this volume," Mr. Pitt informed the house of commons, that the king's ambaffador had been dismissed with every mark of ignominy and insult ; that a studied infult, refined and matured by the French Directory, had been offered to his Britannic majesty.' And then he asked, whether, after the king's minifter had been ordered, in the most insulting manner, to leave the territories of France; after our propofitions had been flighted, and our ambaffador infulted; were we, by fending couriers to Paris, to proftrate ourselves at the feet of a stubborn and fupercilious government, to do what they require, and to fubmit to whatever they may impofe? I hope there is not a hand in his majesty's councils which would fign the propofal; that there is not a heart in this house who would fanction the measure; and that there is not an individual in the British dominions who would act as the courier.'-Such language, whether true or not, may serve to inflame a popular affembly, but is not fafe or justifiable in a minister of state. How can he adhere to it without perpetual war? How can he retract it without everlasting infamy? The French made no apology. They offered no reparation. Yet, in less than fix months, when the minister himself had so degraded the office, that no gentleman ought to have accepted of it, the fame hand was found to fign, the fame heart to function, and the fame courier to carry the message exactly to the fame parties."

• Queftion Stated, pp. 11, 12.