material changes in the management of public affairs. The power of the directory was, by numbers, deemed too great for the adminiftrators of the concerns of a commonwealth, and a limitation of it was judged neceffary, before cuftom and length of time fhould give it a right of prefcription. The council of five hundred had hitherto acted, in a remarkable degree, by the im-, pulfe of the directory. The neceffity of preferving union between the different branches of a conftitution, newly established, and thereby fecuring it refpect, pointed out the propriety of fuch a conduct. But the lapfe of a confiderable space of time, filled up with continual triumphs, having conferred ftrength, and the profpect of ftability, upon the new fyftem, its favourers, as well as criticifers, began to examine its flaws with the more feverity, that the fooner these were remedied, the lefs of difficulty would occur in that neceffary bufinefs.

Both the councils now contained a large proportion of members determined to retain as much authority as they might be able to fecure to their refpective shares. They vigilantly waited an opportunity of enforcing, by actual exertion, their claim to fome of thofe branches of power, that had been folely exercifed by the directory, and either acquiefced in, or formally lodged in them by the councils.

The feffions of the new legiflature commenced towards the clofe of May. In the beginning of June, the fituation of the French iflands, in the Weft Indies, was brought before the council of five hundred. The recall of Santhonax, the French commiffioner, in St. Domingo, was moved, and carried but

general Jourdan, apprehending that if this meafure was not fupported by a fufficient force, that commiffioner might refift the orders of the legislature, and, fooner than fubmit, give up the island to the English, propofed, that a competent body of troops fhould be fent to enforce the decree of the council. This propofal was approved of, and paffed, accordingly, to the great mortification of the directory, to whom the fettlement of that affair had been committed, by the late council.

The public was not difpleafed at this affumption of authority, by the council. Profufions of an unfufferable 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 reduced from feventeen to little more than fix millions. The directory was accufed of conniving at these exceffes, if not of exprefsly authorifing 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, occafioned an expenditure that ill accorded with the pretences of economy, fo frequently in the mouth of the fupporters of government. A far greater number of furveyors, 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, ftiled royal, were still preferved on their former footing, without neceffity. The expences arifing from the printing of public papers, and the remunerations given to the writers in them, on the fide of government, were no lefs excef

five. Complaints of this kind were equally made by the republicans and the royalifts. The former reproached the people in office for affecting a needlefs pomp in their execution, and for converting to their private emolument, the fums entrusted to their hands for public ufes. The latter expreffed their indignation, that perfons of low degree, and that had rifen to power and affluence by the depreffion and ruin of their fuperiors, thould riot oftentatioufly in their fpoils, and that after deftroying monarchy, as too coftly a system, and impoverishing the many for the enriching of the few, they fhould, in the midft of pretences to frugality, live in fumptuoufnefs and luxury, and rival the ftate and fplendour of kings.

In the council of five hundred, now confifting of numbers highly diffatisfied with the conduct of government, and resolved to expose it to the public, without palliation, the fevereft invectives took place against the fuperfluous multitudes of commiffaries, and other attendants on the army, and of individuals employed in the official departments. It was furmifed that they were maintained as retainers to those who appointed them, whofe private intereft and fervice they were thus fond to promote on all occafions. It was alfo infinuated, that in a matter of the highest importance to the benefit of the revenue, the fale of public lands, frauds and collufions had taken place, to the deep detriment of the revenue, notwithstanding the clamorous wants of every branch of the national expenditure.

The committee of finances, in particular, animadverted with great freedom on their adminiftration. Through the neglect and indolence

of thofe who fuperintended them, debts and arrears, they faid, had been accumulated to the amount of fix hundred millions, a firm exceed ing the annual income by thirty millions. The negligence or igno rance of fome of the minifters, had been extreice. Provitions had been purchafed by one of them, for the ufe of the navy, at nearly thrice their coft in the common inarkets, and almost as much had been paid for naval ftores.

Various mifmanagements of the heavieft nature, in pecuniary and other matters, were, at the fame time, laid to the charge of the directory, Whether for the fupport of the army, or the arrangements preparatory for peace, their demands for money were, it was faid, equally exorbitant. For the latter of these objects, they required no lefs than one hundred millions. Nor was their arrogance inferior to their profufion. They prefumptuoufy demanded copies of the fpeeches re-lating to them, that had been made in the councils. What was this but invading the freedom of debate? Their conduct ought therefore, it was afferted, to be rigorously ferutinized, and no greater authority allowed them than the conftitution had decreed. The more effectually to reftrain them within their own limits, they fhould be debarred henceforth from the management ofthe national finances: and thofe laws that had empowered them to difpofe of the public money, on various occafionsand pretences, ought forthwith to be repealed.

Thefe ftrictures on the directory, an the bold meafures propofed in confequence of them, proceeded from Gilbert Defmoulieres, a man deeply converfant in pecuniary calculations,

and

and in the revenues and resources of France, and of a difpofition not to be intimidated by frowns and menaces, while confcious that he flood upon the ftrong ground of truth and facts. He was refolutely fupported throughout the animated difcuffions, upon these divers fubjects, that took up the attention of the councils, from the commencement of June, to the twentieth. The impreffion made on the public, by the fevere animadverfions on the directory, was highly to their difcredit. But they were not difmayed by this appearance of hoftility to them, and prepared to meet their enemies with weapons not lefs offenfive than thofe that were employed against them.

Their adverfaries, in the mean while, elated with fuccefs, determined to follow it up with farther cenfures of the directorial body. On the twentieth of June, Paftoret, a leading member of the oppofition, made a violent attack on their conduct, refpecting the United States of North America. These were reprefented as having difplayed an equivocal approbation of the proceedings of the republican party, and to have acted uniformly as the ftaunch friends to the revolution. It was therefore the highest degree of imprudence, in government, to afford them caufe of complaint. Nothing fhort of manifeft and avowed enmity, on the part of the Americans, could authorife the harfir measures adopted against them, and enforced by the directory with fo much feverity. This charge was followed by a motion to inquire into the conduct of the directory upon this occafion. The powers affumed by that body were explicitly termed uncon ftitutional, and tranfgreffive of the authority lodged in them by the laws,

A charge of a more heinous naa ture, and involving them in a much more extentive conteft, was the privilege they had arrogated, of examining the epiftolary correfpond ence of private individuals, by breaking open letters. This was de clared a feandalous violation of liberty, and evidently repugnant to the fundamental principles of the conftitution. In this declaration the council was feconded by the voice of the public, over which thế affumption of fuch a privilege held a rod of perpetual terror. It was particularly odious to the French, who, of all people, delight in a frank and unreftrained communication of fentiments upon all fubjects, and are prone to give an unbounded loose to that farcaftic humour of wit and gaiety that accompanies their investigation of both public and private affairs.

The difpofition to criticife the proceedings of government, that now characterized the two coun cils, efpecially that of the juniors, led them to inquire into the mili tary tranfactions abroad, with more ftrictnefs than was thought neceffary, even by many of their friends. The victories, obtained by their commanders and armies, were, to the generality of Frenchmen, a fuf ficient motive for approving the fo reign politics of the directory. The glory refulting from thefe to the na tion filenced all doubts of their propriety.

But there were numbers, both in the councils and the public at large, that did not look upon the fuccefs of the French arms, as any reafon for approving the measures of those who directed them. Though warlike atchievements might render the French formidable, they would alfo

expose them to the hatred of those princes and ftates at whose cost they were performed. France, under Lewis XIV. had defervedly incurred the odium of all Europe, on this very account. The victorious career of that monarch had lasted uninterruptedly many years: yet, notwithstanding the terror diffufed by his fucceffes, his neighbours gradually recovered from their fears, and finally brought him to the verge of ruin. In the fame manner, by perfifting obftinately in overrunning and fubjecting every country, not able at prefent to refift them, the French would indifpofe all their neighbours. Convinced of the neceffity of making it a common cause, these would filently, but firmly, frame an union of ftrength and intereft against France, which would certainly feel the effects of it foon or late, as that ambitious monarch had done. It was rafh to expect that fortune would never defert the standards of the republic. Prudence dictated the neceffity of mo, deration, if it meaned to fecure the advantages it had gained. But fubjugations and conquests must eventu ally prove its ruin, as they would require the strength of the nation to be continually on the fullest ftretch. This was a fituation it could not bear. Boundless exertions would, by degrees, deprive it of the means, not only of retaining the acquifitions it had made, but of preventing the reaction of the many enemies that would then be ready to avail themfelves of the diminution of its force. This would infallibly refult from an adherence fo the prefent fyftem of revolutionizing and giving laws to all its neighbours. France, in thefe per

nicious attempts, had been drained of its braveft men, and though the triumphs it had obtained in the field were fignal and extraordinary, yet the power thereby acquired refted on the moft precarious grounds, as on the leaft reverse of fortune, the difficulties they would have to encounter would become greater than before, and their means to overcome them neceffarily lefs. The external lofs of men, in the profecution of this deftructive war, waged in fo many countries, and with fo many powerful and refolute enemies, and the torrents of blood shed in the internal feuds and commotions that had diftracted the nation, had thinned its population in a degree that good policy forbad even to mention. These various confiderations demanded an immediate change of conduct in thofe who were at the head of the republic. Inftead of continuing and extending hoftilities, pacific measures ought to be adopted, and the utmost falici, tude prevail, to create no additional enemies, by interfering in the affairs of nations that were defirous of peace, and of fettling any dif ferences in a manner fatisfactory ta the intereft and dignity of the re public.

Such were the opinions of a strong and numerous party in France, at this time. In purfuance of a determination, formed to put a stop to the hoftile fpirit that actuated the executive government and its adherents, Dumoulard, one of the most vigorous fupporters of the oppofition, moved, on the twentythird of June, that a committee fhould be appointed, to investigate the proceedings, that had taken place in Italy, refpecting the two

republics