partisans in the army; for I am thoroughly persuaded, that it is through the army alone that one can reasonably hope to gain the change so much desired." How vain these hopes were, is sufficiently characterized by the striking unanimity that prevails every where, now that the danger is discovered with which France was menaced.-But the attempt to commit a crime, the bare idea of which is an outrage to humanity, and the execution of which would not only have been a national calamity, but, I may add, a calamity for all Europe, demands not only a reparation for the past, but a guarantee for the future. A solitary scattered banditti, a prey to want, without harmony, and without support, is always weaker than the laws which are to punish it, or the police which ought to intimidate it. But if they have the power of uniting, if they could correspond with each other, and the brigands of other countries, if in a profession the most honourable of all, in as much as the tranquillity of empires and the honour of sovereigns depend thereon, there should be found men authorized to make use of all the power their station affords, to practise vice, corruption, infamy, and villainy, and to raise from out of the refuse of human nature an army of assassins, rebels, and forgers, under the command of the most immoral and most ambitious of all governments; there would be no security in Europe for the existence of any state, for public morality, nor even for the continuance of the principles of civilization. It is not my duty to discuss the means you may possess to secure Europe, by guaranteeing her against such dangers, I con

tent myself with informing and proving to you, that there exists at Munich an Englishman, called Drake, invested with a diplomatic character, who, profiting of this guise and of the vicinity of that place, directs dark and criminal efforts to the heart of the republic; who recruits for agents of corruption and rebellion; who resides beyond the environs of the town, that his agents may have access to him without shame, and depart with out being exposed; and who directs and pays men in France, charged by him with paving the way to an overthrow of the government.

This new species of crime, escaping. from its nature, the ordinary means of suppression, which the laws put in my power, I must con fine myself to the unmasking it to you, and pointing out to you, at the same time, the sources, circumstances, and consequences. Health and respect.

Regnier.

Second Report of the Grand Judge, respecting the Plots of the Person named Drake, Minister from England at Munich, and of the Person named Spencer Smith, Minister from England at Stutgard, against France and the Person of the First Consul: dated Paris, April 11th, 1804, and signed Regnier.

Citizen First Consul,

My conjectures are verified; Mr. Drake is not the only agent of England, whose political mission is merely the plausible mask of a hidden ministry of seduction and insurrection. I have the honour to place before your eyes, papers, which prove that Mr. Spencer Smith,

diplomatic

diplomatic agent of England in the states of Wurtemburgh, after the example of Mr. Drake, has occupied himself since his arrival at his place of residence, only in prostituting his public character, his influence, and the gold of his government, to that infamous ministry. Mr. Spencer Smith has suffered a discovery of the secret part which formed the real object of his diplomatic mission. I present to the first consul an enigmatical letter, which this minister has written to M. Lelievre de Saint Remi, one of his agents in Holland; this agent, spy, emigrant, and who has received his pardon, was already known to the police; but before I had any of the parts of his correspondence with Mr. Spencer Smith, I knew, by other reports, that when he was about to obtain his amnesty, which he procured in Pluviose, year 11, he quitted Séez, his place of birth, in Nivôse, the same year, in order to go to Cambray; and that on the 2nd of last Frimaire he had gone to Holland, there to serve under the name of Pruneau, and to follow there the double direction of a Frenchman and a spy, named Le Clerc, whom the British ministry supported at Abbeville, and that of an accredited spy, named Spencer Smith; whom, for the purpose of covering his designs, that same ministry had invested with a diplomatic character. I further knew, by papers equally numerous, and not less instructive, seized on the spy at Abbeville, that Mr. Spencer Smith, before he quitted London, had entered into such intimate connexions with a general committee of Espionage, established by the above administration, and the direction of which was entrusted

to the Abbé Ratel, that he had demanded and obtained of that committee a confidential secretary named Pericaud, who was to follow the secret correspondence, and to receive and communicate all the necessary documents to the agents in Holland, the spies on the coast, and the conspirators in Paris. The letters to Lelievre, the credit for 2000 louis d'ors given on the house of Osy at Rotterdam, the cypher, the enigmatical. letter, are of the hand. writing of this Pericaud; and thus it will be seen that Mr. Spencer Smith is gone to his residence with all the exterior of a diplomatic minister from England; that is to say, with sympathetic inks, watch-words to communicate with

all the spies, bills of exchange to reward their services, and a confidential intermediate agent, to follow up their proceedings and to direct them, without committing himself.- -It is necessary to recur once more to Mr. Drake. The two reports which I lay before you, citizen first consul, will give you an account of a mission to that mi nister, by citizen Rosey, captain and adjutant-major of the 9th regiment of the line, in garrison at Strasburgh, whom Mr. Drake was very willing to employ as agent of a pretended general, who was to stir up four departments, to draw around him the French army, to overthrow your government, to instal in its stead a democratic directory, and, finally, to put this phantom of power and all France at the discretion of the English govern ment.-I should hesitate to present to you these monstrous absurdities, if I had not to lay before you an original letter from Mr. Drake, backed by considerable sums of

gold,

nation which the political and military projects of Mr. Drake inspire, is to do them too much honour; they are both ridiculous and absurd in an eminent degree; and I think it is a very appropriate punishment for him, to give up to the contempt and ridicule of the public the enterprises of this minister, still more credulous, more awkward, and more weak than wicked.-An English minister, such as Mr. Drake, cannot be punished by obloquy. This can only mortify men who feel the price of virtue, and know that of honour; but Mr. Drake is proud and vain. The profits of his secret missions must have made him wealthy and covetous. He will be punished, when he shall know, that the revolt of the four departments, the capture of Huningen, the seduction of the army, the liberation of Pichegru, Moreau, of Georges and his confederates; the existence of the diplomatic committee, in short, the talents, the credit, and projects of this demagogue general, by nature endowed with a sublime eloquence, an imposing figure, and who is quite disposed to effect, at his call, the overthrow of France, are chimeras with which the prefect of Strasburgh has liked to feed his simple credulity. He will be punished when he learns that all his bulletins which were sent to London by extraordinary messengers, communicated to every court, hawked about by the English ministers as far as Constantinople, and of which traces are found even in the discussions of parliament, were fabrications, and contained nothing either true or probable; that before they were transmitted to him, they had been communicated to the agents of the police of Paris, VOL. XLVI.

who blushed on reading them and could not recover from their sur prise on seeing, that fables, framed with so little care and trouble, could charm Mr. Drake, and serve as a basis for the operations and calculations of the cabinet--Mr. Drake will be punished when he shall know, that his bills, his gold, his correspondence, those of his colleagues, the spies at Rotterdam, Abbeville, Paris, and Munich, are the sport of men, who, by approaching him and his colleague at Stutgard, by watching their steps, and by studying their character, have learned and can ́teach Europe, that a ministry which renders itself despicable by the choice and by the conduct of its diplomatic agents, cannot inspire either fear or confidence in the governments of the continent; and that the insolence and corruption, which that ministry employ as weapons to intimidate or lead astray the councils of sovereigns, do now find a powerful antidote in the discovery of the meanness, the immorality, and stupidity of their diplomacy.— Concerning Mr. Spencer Smith, I have strong reasons to think that the operations entrusted to him are not confined to these plots; that he directs the events which are taking place in the canton of Zurich; and that the disturbances, by which that miserable district is again agitated, are owing to his gold and his intrigues.-Citizen first consul, perhaps I transgress the bounds of my function; but I must tell you, with that truth which you love to hear, France cannot suffer a hostile power to establish on neutral territory, accredited agents, whose principal mission is to carry discord to the bosom of the republic. You are at

Ss

the

the head of a nation great enough, strong, and brave enough, to obtain as your right an absolute neutrality. You have constantly commanded me not to suffer, that conspiracies be framed in any part of our immense territory, against any existing government; and already, during the short space of time elapsed since I have been entrusted with the administration of the police, have I repeatedly annnlled machinations which threatened the king of Naples and the holy see; I have pursued as far as Strasburgh the forgers of Vienna bank notes. All these facts have proved how sincere your wish is to secure established governments against every kind of propagandas and plots. Why should you not have the right to demand an entire reciprocity from the states of the Germanic empire? Why should Munich, Stutgard, Ettenheim, and Friburgh, have the right of remaining the centre of the conspiracies, which England never ceases to form against France and Helvetia?These objects deserve your utmost solicitude, citizen first consul, and I dare to tell you so, because this privilege belongs to the chief of justice, and the most serious attention in this respect forms part of your first duties.

It may

be objected, I know, that England. as a friendly power has a right to send ministers to the electors of Bavaria, Baden, and Wirtemburgh. But English diplomacy is composed of two sorts of agents, whom all the continent well know how to distinguish. Such ministers as Cornwallis and Warren, are never accredited but for honourable missions, to maintain a good understanding between nations, and to regulate the grand interests of po

licy or of commerce; whilst the Wickhams, the Drakes, and the Speucer Smiths, are known throughout Europe as the artificers of crimes, whose cowardice is protected by a sacred character. I will say more; the presence of these contemptible agents is very mortity. ing to the princes in friendship with France; and the courts of Munich and Stutgard cannot support, without disgust, Drake and Spencer Smith, whom numberless reasons render suspected of a very different mission from that which is announc ed by their official title. In consequence of the demand that you have made of them, the electors of Bavaria and Wirtemburgh have driven from their states the impure remains of the French who are euemies to their country, and whose hatred has survived the calamities of civil war, and the pardon which you have granted them. Let them equally drive away these artificers of conspiracy, whose mission has no other object but to reanimate the intestine dissentions of France, and to sow fresh discord on the continent.

Ought not our neighbours to suffer an equal alarm with ourselves at the return of political troubles, and of all those horrors of war which can be profitable only to that nation which is the enemy of every other! I demand in the most earnest manner;—and every duty I owe you, citizen first consul, impels me to make the request, that the cabinet may take such effectual measures, that the Wickhams, the Drakes, and the Spencer Smiths, may not be received by any power in friendship with France, whatever may be their title or character; men who preach up assassination, and foment domestic troubles; the

agents