to a legal diftance, attributing their approach to the inadvertence of the commiffiary at war, or fome other mistake.

This anfwer did not remove the fufpicions or fears of the council. It appointed a committee to examine the meffage of the directory. This committee reported, that no answer had been given to the principal part of the council's meffage, demanding who had given orders for the marching of thofe troops. On this report, another meffage was voted to the directory, requiring an explicit anfwer.

To this requifition, the directory replied by acknowledging, that they had given the order to march, but not the line of marching. It stated the distance from Paris, to the place where the troops had arrived, to be thirteen leagues, instead of seven, as at firft afferted.

This reply did not appear fatisfactory. Pichegru reprefented it as evafive. Had the deftination of the troops been for Breft, as pretended, their line of march fhould have been to the north, and not to the fouth, of Paris. The fpeech of Willot, on this fubject, unfolded a variety of alarming particulars. The troops themselves did not fcruple, he faid, to avow against whom they were marching. It was, by their own confeffion, against the councils, whom they had been taught to look upon as the enemies of their country, and striving to diffolve its prefent government. Delahaie, another member of the oppofition, spoke no lefs explicitly, on this occafion. He reprefented the march of the troops, as the effect of a confpiracy against the legiflature, of which the certainty could not be doubted. Troops, he faid, were within a days

march of Paris, and, as it had been furmifed, by one in power, a thousand men were to attack the council of five hundred, as many more that of the ancients, and the patriots would perform the rest.

These transactions took place between the twentieth and the laft of July. On the fourth of Auguft, information was brought to the councils, of the various circumftances attending the movements of the troops deftined for Paris. They confifted of about twenty-feven thoufand men, drawn from the army of the Sambre and Meufe, instead of nine thoufand, as had been reported. They were to encamp in the neighbourhood of the capital. Every effort was used to feduce the officers and foldiers, and to inflame them against the legislative body. Numbers of them had reforted clandeftinely to Paris, and fome hun-. dreds of diforderly people had been provided with arms and ammunition, to join them. The armies, in violation of all discipline and fubor dination to the laws, deliberated and correfponded with each other. They made decrees, and issued proclamations, without any attempt to reftrain them by the conftituted authorities.

On receiving this intelligence, the council refolved to demand of the directory the documents it had promifed, relating to the march of the troops, requiring an answer in three days, and infifting, at the fame time, on knowing what measures had been taken to put a stop to the violation of that article of the conftitution, which prohibited the ar mies from entering into deliberations.

During thefe critical agitations, the heads of the military had either

affumed, or been invested with, extraordinary powers. General Hoche, commander-in-chief of the army of the Sambre and Meufe, had iffued orders and precepts to the commiffioners, appointed to receive the public levies of money in thofe diftricts, that thewed the high authority by which he acted. The pay-mafier of the army had called upon them for the remittance of the fums accruing from taxes: but the, general firictly forbad them to obey his requifition; that money being neceflary to defray the charges of a numerous body of troops, to be detached from his army on a particular fervice. This officer, who was a rigid republican, had, from the beginning of the conteft between the councils and the directory, been confidered by these as a man peculiarly deferving of their confidence in a bufinefs, wherein the fafety of the prefent government required the moft fpirited exertions. He had, in confequence, like the feveral officers in whom the circumftances of the times had compelled the directory to place high trufis, acted with great latitude of authority in the pofts which he occupied, though, to his honour, it was fully acknowledged, that he behaved with the stricteft fidelity to his principles and employers.

He had transfufed those principles fo effectually into the officers and foldiers under his command, that they feemed actuated entirely by his own mind. They prefented an addrefs to the directory, which, for matter and manner, was held the completeft that had been framed by any divifion of the army.

In imitation, they faid, of the precedents fet before them, by the

other divifions of the army, they deemed themfelves bound, as fellow-citizens and foldiers, to unite their complaints with those of every Frenchman that valued the liberty of his country, and revered the conftitution that protected it. Deeply interested in its prefervation, against the infiduous measures of its pretended friends, they had come to a determination to exprefs their readiness to march into the heart of the republic, if fummoned, by its real friends, to their assistance.

They had patiently endured, they faid, a variety of fufferings in the fervice of their country, in hope of rendering it, by their labours and courage, victorious and triumphant over all its enemies, and of laying a juft foundation for a claim to thofe rewards that had been held out to them. Relying, therefore, on the equity of the patriotic members of both councils, they fupplicated them to take their demands into confideration, and requested the directors, as the firft magiftrates of the republic, to urge the propriety, and the neceffity of doing juftice to its faithful defenders.

In the mean time, it was with the deepest grief, they beheld the machinations carried on in the bosom of the republic, by men who, though well known to be its enemies, were tamely fuffered to aflume the character of its friends; and, under that perfidious mafk, to labour fecretly for its deftruction. But did they imagine, that those brave Frenchmen who had taken up arms, in the defence of their liberty, and had, in that noble caufe, overcome, in the field, the veteran troops of the moft powerful defpots, and vanquifhed two-thirds of the military of

Europe,

1

Europe, would permit them to fucceed in their treasonable proceed ings.

They had, indeed, advanced a confiderable way in the accomplish ment of their defigns. They were on the point of fubverting the commonwealth, and re-establishing monarchy. To this intent, the conftitution was reviled, and its afferters vilified throughout the interior, by thofe fwarms of traitors, whose unlawful return to their country was basely and perfidiously connived at, under the pretence of lenity, by thofe falfe reprefentatives of the people, who had, through fraudulent practices, obtained feats in the legiflature, in order the more fecurely to betray their constituents.

While peaceable citizens, at home, were thus infulted and terrified, the armies abroad were configned to neglect and the want of all neceffaries: it being a part of the fyftem purfued, by thofe treacherous legiflators, to let them imperceptibly moulder away. Their pay was withheld, they were denied clothing, and they were compelled, by hunger, to extort the means of existence from the inhabitants of the countries where they were quartered; however difgraceful this might be to their character, as it was certainly highly repugnant to their feelings. Nor were the hofpitals attended to. Their fick and wounded brethern were fuffered to die for want of due care. Was this the remuneration for their toils and hardfhips? Could they place any dependence, after fuch treatment, on the magnificent promises made to the armies, when the period of their labours fhould arrive? Would the thousand millions, to be fet apart for the defenders of the republic, be forth

coming at the restoration of peace, as the legislature had folemnly pledged itself they fhould, previoufly to all other confiderations? But what inducement had they to expect any fuch recompenfe from men who hated the republic, and employed all their thoughts in devifing the means to deftroy it? Objects, far different from the fecurity of freedom, took up the attention of the councils. That love of liberty, which characterized the former affemblies of the republic, was totally extinguifhed. The conftitution and the rights of the people had loft their importance, and were now fucceeded by difcuffions unworthy the notice of men, whofe time ought to be dedicated to fubjects of public utility. Inftead of attending to the exigencies and preffures of the state, to the exhaufted condition of the finances, to the infurrections fucceffively breaking out, to the machinations of foreign agents, endeavouring every where to miflead the public mind, they were bufied in matters of fuperftition. More than twenty fittings of the council of five hundreds had been devoted to the hearing of reports on emigrants, on priefis, and on bells. Was fuch bigotry to be endured? Was it in contemplation to re-cftablish the mafs, and other religious abfurdities, and to impofe anew upon ignorance and credulity? Thofe who inculcated a reverence for fuch things were known, at the fame, to be the moft irreconcileable enemies to civil freedom; yet they had been recalled, by an express decree, and permitted to preach their per- · nicious doctrines.

They bitterly complained of the difrefpect with which they had been occafionally treated, and of the ab

áll the affertions contained in this addrefs. It was received by their enemies with applaufe, as expreffing bold truths, which no other defcription of men would have dared to mention. Though implicit belief might not be paid to the whole of its contents, by that part of the public which did not haftily give countenance to reports of the day, yet the multitude was fo prepoffeffed in favour of the addreffers, that their affeverations, and opinions, quickly obtained a decided popularity.

In the mean time, the directory feeling itfelf fuperior to all apprehenfions, refolved to make the oppofition fenfible how little govern ment was intimidated by the obftacles thrown in its way, and determined to profecute its own meafures in defiance of the difapprobation, and implied menaces, of the council of five hundred. With this view they began by anfwering that moffage of the council, which had peremptorily required an explanation, refpecting the march of thofe troops that had arrived in the vicinity of the capital. In this anfwer a circumftantial detail was given of the whole tranfaction, by which it appeared that the commanding officer, who had traced the line of march, to be obferved by thofe troops, had declared himfelf totally ignorant of the law that prohibited any armed force coming within twelve leagues of Paris. This anfwer alfo denied the truth of the information received by the council, that arms had been put into the hands of five hundred ruffians, at Chartres, for the purpofe of committing violence upon the two council of the legislature. In anfwer to the complaint of the

council, that the military had entered into deliberations, which they were expreffly forbidden to do by the conftitution, the directory infinuated, that the fenfe and meaning of the expreffion to deliberate, had not been fo accurately defined, as to be clearly applicable to the addreffes prefented to the executive government by the armies. In thefe addrefles, as well as in those to their brethern in arms, they had done no more than exprefs the wishes they had formed, and the fentiments that animated them.

After premifing thefe particulars, the directory informed the council, that they thought it a duty to gó back to the caufes that had produced thole addreffes, and to point them out to the council for their ferious confideration. The caufes from which they proceeded were the general alarm and inquietude that had for fome months past taken poffeffion of the public, and banished that tranquillity and confidence which had before so diffusively prevailed. They were caufed by the defalcation in the revenue, through which all parts of the adminiftration fuffered fo deplorably, and the armies were deprived of their pay and fubfiftence. They were caufed by the perfecution and affaffination of the purchafers of national property, of the public functionaries, of the defenders of the country, of all who dared to fhew themfelves the friends of the republic. They were caufed by the want of firmnefs and vigour in the punishment of criminals, and the partiality of the public tribunals. They were caufed by the infolence of the emigrants and the refractory priests, who, recalled and openly favoured, appeared boldly every where, kept