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were none of the exiles who, fince the eighteenth of Fructidor, had claimed either their eftates or their liberty. That it was a grofs act of injuftice; as those who had returned from tranfportation were not more culpable than they had been before the eighteenth of Fructidor. Far ther, that it was unreafonable that men fhould be punifhed twice for the fame crime; both by tranfportation and by fequeftration of their fortunes. The meafure propofed, he obferved, was impolitic. Repeated strokes of vengeance tended to loofen confidence in governments. Never, even under the revolutionary tyranny, had perfons, efcaping from prifon, been forced to undergo the puniflament of death. Both Barrere and Drouet had efcaped from prifon before receiving judge

ment.

No one ever dreamt of put ting their names on the lift of emigrants, as was propofed to be done with the returned exiles, who fhould not prefent themfelves for receiving their deftined punishment. Maillant finally conjured the council to abftain from the exercife of a rigour that was not neceffary, and that might fubject them to the imputation of perfecution-which never made profelytes.

At the demand of Perrin the bill was read a fecond time and paffed into a law, with only feven or eight diffentient voices.

The attacks that were made on the proceedings of Fructidor either endeared them more than ever to the French legiflature, or induced a fufpicion that it might be neceffary to vindicate them from reproach, by outward and permanent marks of approbation. A monument, in remembrance of the hapPy events of the eighteenth of Vol. XLI.

Fructidor, ann. 5, was erected in the hall of the council of five hundred; and a law was paffed," for celebrating the anniverary, of that day as a feftival.

By a decree, paffed on the ele venth of November, former laws against priests were enforced; and it was farther enacted, that, if the did not, within a month after the date of the decree, prefent themselves to the central adminiftration of the department where they fojourned, they fhould be judged and punished as emigrants, if found on the territory of the republic. If they had been banished by the eighteenth of Fructidor, or fhould be banished by any fubfequent law, two months were allowed to them for making their appearance. Infirm priefis and all who had paffed their. fixtieth year were exempted from deportation, but to be confined together in a habitation to be deftined, in each department, for the purpose, and on no account to be permitted to go at large in their refpective communes or municipalities.

Thofe who were without the means of fupport were to be maintained at the expenfe of the republic. Perfons, giving an alylum, in their houles, to priests returned from deportation, were to be punifhed by confifcation of the houfe that had offered the afylum, if it were the property of the perfon who lent it for that purpole; or, if only a tenant, by a pecuniary fine equal to its value. They were, befides, to undergo not lefs than fix months, and not more than two years imprisonment.

Meanwhile, military commiffioners, appointed after the revolution of Fructidor, in the different departments, were employed in ar[1]

refting,

refting, condemning, and executing, lurking priefts and emigrants, and other perfons convicted, or there is too much reafon to believe, as was loudly afferted, only fufpect ed of the new crime of royalifm. The commiffioners for Paris,being accufed, by the common exaggerations of fame, of great feverity, exculpated themselves by the publication of a lift of no more than twenty perfons, in all, that had been tried, in the space of ten months; whereof twelve only were condemned to death, five acquitted, one fent to the directory, one to the central department, and one banished. That even twelve perfons fhould have fuffered death, in Paris, for a dutiful attachment to the church and the king, was matter of deep and just concern. But what was a more dreadful engine of tyranny and oppreffion, in the hands of the

directory, than even the laws against emigrants and ecclefiaftics, was that which was paffed for inquiring into all the attacks that had been made against perfons and property, public and private, from motives of enmity to the public and its friends. This opened fo wide a door for the gratification of revenge or avarice. that there was fcarcely any perfon of note who might not be haraffed by charges of this kind; which, if they fhould not be fubftantiated or followed by punishment, might yet prove extremely vexatious and troublefome. Exemptions from fuch fuits were frequently purchased by bribes to the agents of government, in all its various departments. On a furvey of the internal government of France, at this time, we are ftruck, on every fubject, with a spirit of profufion, plunder, profligacy, venality, and corruption.

СНАР.

CHAP. VII.

Univaralty
MICHIGAN

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Covetoufness and Rapacity of the Directors of France, difplayed in their foreign Tranfactions.-Treaty between the Directory and Portugal.-Not ratified by the Court of Lijbon.—Geneva becomes a Department of France. -Conduct of the French towards different Nations.-Their continued Menaces against England.-Calumnies.—And malicious Accufations.Thefe refuted, and retorted by the Publication of General Hoche's Infiructions to Colonel Tate, for currying on a War, in England, of Plunder and Deftruction.Reflections thereon.-Parties in France.-Policy of the Directory.-Boaftings, and vain-glorious Predictions. Objervations on Colonies, and the most proper Places for their Establishment.—Message from the Directory, to the Council of Five Hundred, relating to the Toulon Expedition.Apologies for invading Egypt without a previous Declaration of War.-Joy and Exultation at the Landing of the French in Egypt.And confident Predictions of great Glory, to be from thence derived, to the French Nation.—And Benefits to all the World.—Intelligence received in France of the Naval Victory of Aboukir.—Effects of this on the French Nation This Victory vilified by the French.-New Requifitions of Men and Money. The Light in which the Directory appeared, throughout France, before the News from Aboukir.-Covetousness and Rapacity of the Directory.Manner in which they made their Fortune. The DeAruction of the French Fleet, at Aboukir, a new Support, and a new Source of Power, to the Directory. -The Manner in which the Government of France received the Declaration of War by the Turks.—A French Ambafjador fent to Conflantinople.-French Anfeer to the Manifefto of the Porte.-Refutation of this, by intercepted Letters of Buonaparte's.-Submiffiveness of the French Legislative Councils to the Directory, and Indifference about the Conftitution.: The jame Requifitions of Men and Money, that were made in France, enforced in the conquered States.—Infurrection. in Belgium.-Its Rapidity and Extent. Subdued.

S the rulers in France, from

nation, fo, in their external rela

As were

lowest municipal officer, every where, and on moft occafions, difplayed a spirit of factious combina tion, a profligate contempt of laws, as well as of material juftice, profufion, and plunder, in the management of the internal affairs of the

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e have eady, in our laft volume, feen their attempts to levy a confibution from the American ftates Abe the fame time, they attempted to play the fame game, though not more fuccefsfully, with Portugal. The Portuguefe miniftry, intimidated by the uninterrupted fuccefles of the French, and dreading an invafion from Spain, now become their ally, and through which a French army was to march against Portugal, had fent an ambaffador to Paris, with offers to relinquith the coalition. A treaty of peace had, accordingly, been concluded with Portugal, towards the end of 1797, by the directory, on the condition of their receiving a fum for their own pockets, befides a large pecuniary contribution for the public fervice of France. This treaty was to be ratified in two months. But, in that interval, the court of Lisbon, hefitating about this meafure, and being averfe to forfake England, its ancient and faithful ally, the directory, as foon as that space was expired, without the arrival of a ratification, annulled the treaty, and difmiffed don d'Aranjo, the Portuguefe ambafiador. As he delayed his departure, in hope of reviving the negociation, and obtaining more favourable terms, he was arrefted, and imprifoned in the Temple, though it was well known that he had been impofed upon, and made to believe that the directory was willing to liften to his propofals. As he had not plotted againft the ftate, this was certainly against the laws of nations, and was confidered, as fuch, in all Europe. D'Aranjo was duped by a harper, who had defrauded him of immenfe, fums, by perfuading him that they had been

paid, to certain members of the directory, for the purpofe of procuring more favourable terms of peace for his government.

The fame defigns that the directory laboured to accomplish in America and Portugal, in the end of 1797 and the beginning of 1798, they purfued, throughout the whole of this laft-mentioned year, in Germany; as we fhall have occafion to relate, in the next chapter. There were no earthly bounds to their rapacity and ambition. If a small or weak ftate lay contiguous to France, they fnapped it up, and either incorporated it with the French republic, always taking care to avail themselves, in their perfonal or private capacities, of the acceffions that were made by fuch incorporations to the refources of the republic; or, if fuch a state did not lie conveniently for being incorporated, as one or more departments of France, they drew it into the vortex of the republic by affimilation, and, as they called it, affiliation. If a ftate, kingdom, or empire, was placed beyond their immediate controul, by political power, or remoteness of fituation, they attempted to fpring revolu tionary mines, by various intrigues, and proper lodgements of the combuftibles of liberty and equality.

To the fmall flate of Geneva, that had long enjoyed its political independence, by the precarious tenure of fuffrance on the part of its powerful neighbours, affurances had been given, by the agents of the French republic, and alfo by the convention, that no attempt fhould be made against it: and the arbitrary difpofitions, announced by the executive government, in the fummer of 1796, had been checked

by

bya fpirit apparently more generous and equitable in the legislative authorities. But the proje&, though feemingly abandoned, was deferred only to a more favourable conjuncture; and fuch a conjuncture was prefented, in the invafion of Switzerland. The intercourfe which had taken place between France and Geneva, from the date of the conqueft of Savoy, had given a confiderable afcendancy to French principles of government. Though the mafs of the Genevefe remained attached to the ideas of territorial independence, a confiderable number of them began to look with indifference on the form by which they held their liberties, whether as part of the fovereign people of Geneva, or as a portion of the fovereign and more powerful people of the French republic. The agents of the French government had foftered this fraternizing fpirit, and made confiderable progrefs in profelytifm, by reprefenting the benefits which would accrue from a more intimate alliance between the two nations. "Geneva, relieved from a cumbrous and ftormy, independence, would become, as the capital of a province or department, the moft flourishing place of the frontiers. Its inhabitants would find more eafy outlets for the produce of their induftry. As a portion of a powerful flate, their city would have nothing to fear, hereafter, from the ambition of neigh bouring states; nor be placed under the difagreeable neceflity of afking affiftance from encroaching allies.

They would lofe nothing of their former liberty, but, on the contrary, enjoy a greater portion of it, in peace and tranquillity. From the moment of their union with France, the various parties, which often diftracted their little ftate, would ceafe. And, as Geneva had of late been the theatre of contending paffions, of difcord, hatred, and perfecution, fo it would fill continue to be, till the acrid but chimerical independence, for which it contended,* fhould be diluted in the wide-fpreading ocean of French freedom."

Whatever influence thefe repréfentations might have had, the partifans of its territorial independence were not lefs animated in reje&ing the proffered fraternity. They af ferted, that "The interefts of both republics, as well as the morality of both nations, were in uniforma oppofition to this meafure. The republican fimplicity and feverity, manifefted by the Genevefe, for ages, ought to be refpected, by a nation which had confecrated the great principle of the fovereignty of the people. Geneva, in a ftate of independence, was an open and never-failing fource, to France, of both wealth and knowledge. Every clafs, whether merchants, manufac turers, artifts, or men of letters, had at all times made the French nation the depofitory of their information and their commerce. the other hand, Geneva, becoming a frontier town, fortified and garrifoned, fubjected to requifitions, and befieged two or three times

On

The prefent emperor of Ruffia, Paul, paffed fome time in Geneva, in the turbolent year of 1789, in his way to Turin, where he ftaid for fix months. Being asked, hy the English minifter, at the court of his Sardinian majefty, what he thought of the prefent difputes in Geneva, Paul, then archduke of Ruffia, replied, that " They fuggefted the idea of a ftorm in a bottle."

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